I lead and contribute to research and policy projects across academic cognitive science, evidence-based policy, and research translation.
Academic research
My academic work has focused on human cognition and decision-making, particularly in the context of health, mental health, cognitive development, ageing, and disability. My research has examined the cognitive mechanisms underpinning how people plan for the future, make trade-offs between short-term and long-term outcomes, and respond to interventions that support foresight and decision-making. I have also investigated how these processes vary in conditions such as anxiety disorders, substance dependence, and dementia.
Applied research
Alongside my academic research, I am interested in how insights from psychology and cognitive science can be translated into real-world health impact by informing more effective programs, products, and policy. I have led and contributed to applied projects with government and NGO partners, focused on using research evidence to inform practical solutions in public health and service delivery. This work has included projects on disability support, reablement in aged care, digital health innovation, gambling harm, healthy food environments, supermarket regulation, and mental health treatment access.
Publications
While much of my applied work is not publicly available, a selection of my academic publications can be found below, with links to full-text PDFs where available.
You can also view a full list of my publications on Google Scholar.
I have been lucky enough to work with many excellent collaborators on these topics, including those listed below alongside associated publications.
Book chapters
Cognition, foresight, and decision-making
Bulley, A., & Schacter, D.L. (2023). Episodic future thinking, memory, and decision-making: From theory to application. In Memory in Science for Society: There Is Nothing As Practical As a Good Theory. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Tuen, YJ., Bulley, A., Palombo, D.J., & O’Connor, B.B. (2022). Social value at a distance: Higher identification with all of humanity is associated with reduced social discounting. Cognition.
Bulley, A., & Schacter, DL. (2020). Deliberating trade-offs with the future. Nature Human Behaviour.
Bulley, A., Redshaw, J., & Suddendorf, T. (2020). The future-directed functions of the imagination: From prediction to metaforesight. In The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination.
Redshaw, J., Bulley, A., & Suddendorf, T. (2019). Commentary on Hoerl & McCormack: Thinking about thinking about time. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
Suddendorf, T; Bulley, A., & Miloyan, B. (2018). Prospection and Natural Selection. Current opinion in behavioral sciences.
Redshaw, J., & Bulley, A. (2018). Future Thinking in Animals: Capacities and Limits. In G. Oettingen, T. Sevincer, & P.M. Gollwitzer (Ed.), The Psychology of Thinking about the Future. Guilford Press, New York.
Bulley, A. (2018). The History and Future of Human Prospection. Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture.
Ageing and dementia
Bulley, A. & Schacter, D.L. (2021). Risks, real and imagined.
Nature Aging.
Liu, L., Bulley, A. & Irish, M. (2021). Subjective Time in Dementia: A Critical Review. Brain Sciences.
Bulley, A., & Irish, M. (2018). The Functions of Prospection: Variations in Health and Disease. Frontiers in Psychology.
Miloyan, B., & Bulley, A. (2016). Worry in Later Life. Springer Encyclopedia of Geropsychology.
Mental health and anxiety disorders
Miloyan, B., Bulley, A., & Suddendorf, T. (2018) Anxiety: Here and Beyond. Emotion Review.
Miloyan, B., Bulley, A., Brilot, B., & Suddendorf, T. (2017). The association of Social Anxiety Disorder, Alcohol Use Disorder and reproduction: Results from four nationally representative samples of adults in the USA. PLOS ONE.
Bulley, A., Henry, J., & Suddendorf, T. (2017). Thinking about threats: Memory and prospection in human threat management. Consciousness and Cognition.
Miloyan, B., Bulley, A., Bandeen-Roche, K., Eaton, W.W., & Gonçalves-Bradley, D. (2016). Anxiety disorders and all-cause mortality: systematic review and meta-analysis. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.
Bulley, A., Miloyan, B., Brilot, B., Gullo, M.J., & Suddendorf, T. (2016). An Evolutionary Perspective on the Co-Occurrence of Social Anxiety Disorder and Alcohol Use Disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders.
Miloyan, B*., Bulley, A*., Suddendorf, T. (2016). Episodic Foresight and Anxiety: Proximate and Ultimate Perspectives. British Journal of Clinical Psychology. *These authors contributed equally
Miloyan, B., Bulley, A., Pachana, N. A., & Byrne, G. J. (2014). Social phobia symptoms across the adult lifespan. Journal of Affective Disorders.
Addictive behaviours, intertemporal choice, and risk perception
Soutschek, A., Bulley, A., & Wittekind, C.E. (2022). Metacognitive deficits are associated with lower sensitivity to preference reversals in nicotine dependence. Scientific Reports.
Bulley, A., Lempert, K.M., Conwell, C., Irish, M., & Schacter, D.L., (2022). Intertemporal choice reflects value comparison rather than self-control: insights from confidence judgements. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.
Bulley, A. & Schacter, D.L. (2021). Increasing resolution in the mechanisms of resolve. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
Bulley, A., Miloyan, B., Pepper, G.V. Gullo, M. J., Henry, J.D., & Suddendorf, T. (2019). Cuing both positive and negative episodic foresight reduces delay discounting but does not affect risk taking. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Bulley, A., & Pepper, G.V. (2017). Cross-country relationships between life expectancy, intertemporal choice and age at first birth. Evolution and Human Behavior.
Bulley, A., Pepper, G., & Suddendorf, T. (2017). Commentary on Van Lange et al.: Using foresight to prioritise the present. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
Bulley, A., & Gullo, M.J. (2017). The influence of episodic foresight on delay discounting and demand for alcohol. Addictive behaviours.
Bulley, A., Henry, J.D., & Suddendorf, T. (2016). Prospection and the present moment: The role of episodic foresight in intertemporal choices between immediate and delayed rewards. Review of General Psychology.
Cognitive development
Dicken, L., Suddendorf, T., Bulley, A., Irish, M., & Redshaw, J. (2025). Children’s emerging ability to balance internal and external cognitive resources. Child Development.
Armitage, K.L., Suddendorf, T., Bulley, A., Bastos, A.P.M., Taylor, A.H., & Redshaw, J. (2023). Creativity and Flexibility in Young Children’s Use of External Cognitive Strategies. Developmental Psychology.
Suddendorf, T., Kirkland, K., Bulley, A., Redshaw, J., & Langley, M.C. (2020). It’s in the bag: mobile containers in human evolution and child development. Evolutionary Human Sciences.
Armitage, K.L., Bulley, A., and Redshaw, J. (2020). Developmental origins of cognitive offloading. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Bulley, A., Mccarthy, T., Gilbert, S.J., Suddendorf, T., and Redshaw, J. (2020). Children Devise and Selectively Use Tools to Offload Cognition. Current Biology.
Vandersee, J., Redshaw, J., Bulley, A., & Gilbert, S. (2018). Development of children’s use of external reminders for hard-to-remember intentions. Child Development.
Gautam, S., Bulley, A., Von Hippel, B. & Suddendorf, T. (2017). Affective forecasting bias in preschool children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
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