Hilde Huizenga's research explores formal models of human behaviour and the underlying brain activity. These formal, mathematical models provide new insights into how people make decisions and direct their behaviour, and into how these capabilities change with age. Huizenga builds these formal models and applies them to experimental data. In teaching, her focus lies primarily on the application of these formal models. Applications are also being stimulated through the development of user-friendly web applications and the initiation of projects combining PhD research with clinical practice.

Huizenga has worked at the UvA since 2002, where she was appointed as associate professor in 2003. She has received many grants for her research, including a postgraduate fellowship from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), a 'focus area' (Aandachtsgebied) grant and both a Vidi and a Vici grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Huizenga has published articles with a mathematical focus in various journals, including IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering and NeuroImage, and with a substantive focus in Developmental Science, Biological Psychiatry and others.