Graduate Students
Emefa Akwayena
Graduate Student, Psychology
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I am interested in the underlying neural mechanisms and anatomical structures of patients with various neurological disorders. I plan to study brain mapping and neuroimaging techniques to gather detailed, personalized perspectives on structure and function.
Advisor: Brad Mahon
Raouf Belkhir
Graduate Student, Psychology
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I’m interested in spatial and temporal dynamics of language organization in the brain and intra-operative picture naming tasks in awake neurosurgical patients.
Advisor: Brad Mahon
Jenah Black
Graduate Student, Psychology
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
Jenah is a Ph.D. student working jointly with Drs. Lori Holt and Bonnie Nozari. She completed her M.S. in Psychology at Villanova University in 2021, working under Dr. Joe Toscano. Previously, she completed her B.A. in Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Iowa. Jenah is currently focused on examining how abstract knowledge about a discourse or an event influences low-level acoustic processing. When she’s not in the lab, you can usually find her indulging in her ferocious coffee habit, going on a power walk, or enjoying some quiet time with her two cats, Edmund and Sunny.
Advisor: Lori Holt & Bonnie Nozari
MJ Carter
Graduate Student, Cognitive Neuroscience
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
My research interests broadly encompass the cyclical nature of cognition, with an emphasis on conceptual knowledge. More specifically I am interested in (1) how experience shapes the content, structure, and representation of concept knowledge and (2) how these aspects of knowledge go on to impact other components of cognition—such as by directing attention, informing perception, and influencing behavior. I love to watch and discuss movies and shows, play board games with friends, and hang out at home with my cat.
Advisor: Brad Mahon
Katie Chase
Graduate Student, Cognitive Neuroscience
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
Katie is a Ph.D student in music cognition and cognitive neuroscience. She earned her Bachelor of Music in voice performance from Oberlin College Conservatory and her Masters in Business Administration with a focus on sustainability and process improvement from Bainbridge Graduate Institute (now part of Presidio Graduate School). Her research interests include spatial hearing and localization, proprioception and auditory cuing, and the neural correlates of learning new music, to name a few. Outside of research she enjoys time with her family, her dog, Nico, making music, walking, and baking.
Advisor: Barb Shinn-Cunningham & Abby Noyce
Ricky W.J. Choi
Graduate Student, Psychology
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I am interested in how humans come to learn and reason about cause-and-effect relationships that we encounter in everyday life, and what these causal representations look like throughout the developmental timeline.
Advisor: David Rakison
Maria Chroneos
Graduate Student, Psychology
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I am broadly interested in how brain networks organize across development to support cognitive behavior and perception. I am particularly interested in reorganization and plasticity in individuals with neurological disorders, injuries, and other disruptions to these processes, and I have a long-term goal of guiding clinical understanding, decision-making, and interventions through my research. I aim to integrate behavioral, neuroimaging, and neural recording methods to probe these questions. Within these interests, I am currently studying eye movements and visual processing in pediatric patients who have undergone cortical resection to treat epileptic seizures.
Advisor: Marlene Behrmann
Julia Conti
Graduate Student, Psychology
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
A conversation about surrealist art takes an immense amount of abstract thought, from recognizing how bizarre an elephant can look to the language that allows us to do so. But what do these processes have in common? I am interested in the underlying mechanism that allows for such cognition, how we attained it, and whether non-human species can do the same.
Advisor: Jessica Cantlon
Mady Davis-Troller
Graduate Student, Developmental
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I'm fascinated by cognitive development, particularly the complex interplay between attention, language, and memory. I am also passionate about translating these insights into practical applications through research-to-practice initiatives.
Advisor: Erik Thiessen
Abhishek Dedhe
Graduate Student, Cognitive Neuroscience
Certificate in Quantitative Methodology
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I am curious about the brain structures and algorithms involved in abstract thought, more specifically: mathematical cognition. I hope to use behavioural, cognitive neuroscience and computational methods to tackle these issues. More broadly speaking, I am interested in the intersection of the brain sciences, philosophy, and education.
Advisor: Jessica Cantlon
Kaylee Foor
Graduate Student, Social & Health
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
My research focuses broadly on the intersection of identity and health, with a particular emphasis on the LGBTQ+ community. More specifically, I am interested in exploring associations between social stressors and maladaptive coping behaviors, the role of identity in interpersonal interactions, family dynamics, and health-promoting behavior, and the reduction of bias, stereotyping, and prejudice.
Advisor: Mikey Trujillo
Eloise Gacetta
Graduate Student, Cognitive Neuroscience
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I am interested in understanding the neural circuitry patterns and development in dyscalculia, dyslexia, and other visuospatial processing disorders using fMRIs to be able to formulate specific interventions that maximize efficacy.
Advisor: Jessica Cantlon
Alana Hodson
Graduate Student, Cognitive Neuroscience
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
My research interests are in executive function, hearing loss, and speech comprehension. My area is cognitive science.
Advisor: Lori Holt & Barbara Shinn-Cunningham
Fiona Horner
Graduate Student, Psychology
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I am interested in the factors that impact one's ability to cope with stress and chronic illness. Specifically, my research focuses on how communal coping, positive affect, and meaning and purpose impact health outcomes and adjustment to chronic illness. I have related interests in understanding individual and cultural differences that determine how people respond to stress and disease.
Advisor: Vicki Helgeson
Letian Huang
Graduate Student, Social & Health
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I am broadly interested in how stressors related to discrimination and stigma may affect one’s biological and psychosocial development, and what protective factors may lead to improved coping abilities and resilience to negative health outcomes.
Advisor: Phoebe Lam
Emiliano Irena Hernandez
Graduate Student, Social & Health
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
My research interest focuses on how the mechanisms of stigma, prejudice, and discrimination can influence social behavior, decision-making, problem-solving, and intergroup relations in various social contexts and identities like poverty, gender, forced disappearances, LGBTQIA+ inclusion, political affiliation, or voting processes.
Advisor: Mikey Trujillo
Emily Keebler
Graduate Student, Psychology
- 455 Wing Baker Hall
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I am interested in the development of attention regulation and in applying this knowledge to educational domains. I work collaboratively to understand performance on a task developed to measure Selective Sustained Attention in young children, the TrackIt paradigm, and additionally use that paradigm to probe the interplay of sustained attention with other cognitive systems. For these projects, I consider children's accuracy, patterns of errors, and eye gaze. My interest in the study of sustained attention has highlighted several conceptual and measurement issues in this construct. I am working to analyze the designs, outcome measures, and patterns of performance of existing tasks of attention as these relate to the constructs of sustained attention and (separately) inhibition. I also serve as a Teaching Assistant for undergraduate psychology courses including Principles in Child Development and Research Methods in Developmental Psychology.
To complement my training in the psychology department, I am involved in two ongoing program assessments in Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. First, as a graduate assessment fellow on the Dietrich College Assessment Committee (Fall 2019, Spring 2020), I focused on program-level assessment of the college’s Statistical Thinking learning outcome. As well, I am collaborating with a staff member from the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation to lead program assessment of oral communication, a subset of the college's Communication learning outcome. These opportunities allow me to apply learning from my participation in the Program for Interdisciplinary Education Research and to leverage my previous teaching experience.
Jinhee Kim
Graduate Student, Social & Health
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I am interested in decoding how the brain processes continuous, natural speech, with a particular emphasis on the role of attention in modulating this process. Using behavioral experiments and neuroimaging, I explore the brain’s hierarchical and dynamic speech processing. My long-term goal is to apply these insights to the understanding and rehabilitation of hearing and speech-related disorders.
Advisors: Barb Shinn-Cunningham & Abby Noyce
Jialin Li
Graduate Student, Developmental & Cognitive
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I am interested in the cognitive mechanism and the neural mechanism that support the uniqueness of human intelligence. I plan to study the differences in reasoning between humans and non-human primates through behavioral experiments, neural imaging techniques, and computational modeling.
Advisors: Jessica Cantlon
Kimberly Nestor
Graduate Student, Cognitive Neuroscience
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
My research interests lie at the intersection between computational neuroscience and computational psychiatry. I am interested in structural and functional cognitive changes in the human brain in neurotypical and psychiatric populations. More specifically, I hope to construct predictive algorithms using a data driven approach based on neuroimaging to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders with an emphasis on psychotic disorders.
Advisor: Timothy Verstynen
Urszula Oszczapinska
Graduate Student, Cognitive Neuroscience
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
My research interests broadly encompass examining the interactions, and relationships between modalities. More specifically, I am curious about the role of attention in cross-modal relationships that include auditory perception, and real life implications (e.g., vehicle warning systems) such interplay holds.
Advisor: Laurie Heller
Sophia Robert
Graduate Student, Cognitive Neuroscience
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
How does our brain use visual information to perform complex tasks, like instantly recognizing objects, with high accuracy even in dynamic environments? And how does this impressive ability relate to how the human brain is functionally organized? In my research, I used behavioral, neuroimaging, and artificial intelligence methods to understand the neural and computational principles that drive the functional organization of visual cortex.
Advisors: Marlene Behrmann and Michael Tarr
Kushani Shah
Graduate Student, Psychology
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
My research interests include social factors that affect alcohol and tobacco addiction. In the future, I aim to empirically evaluate the social impact on the etiology and maintenance of substance use disorders through clinical research that can impact public policies, regulation of products, and prevention and treatment of problematic substance use behavior.
Advisor: Kasey Creswell
Claire Simmons
Graduate Student, Cognitive Neuroscience
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
My research broadly aims to contribute to our understanding of visual pathways and neuroplasticity, particularly in pediatric patients who have undergone surgery for drug-resistant epilepsy. I aim to investigate the relationships between said pathways using techniques such as electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging in patient populations and health controls.
Advisor: Marlene Behrmann
Megan Waller
Graduate Student, Psychology
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I'm studying the role of social interaction with caregivers in the development of communication and social cognition.
Advisor: Daniel Yurovsky
Yuxi Xie
Graduate Student, Psychology
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I’m particularly interested in understanding the effects of support-seeking, support-provision, and emotion regulation on personal and relational well-being. I also aim to develop psychosocial interventions that are designed to promote more positive support-seeking and support-provision behaviors in close relationships.
Advisor: Brooke Feeney
Hana Yabuki
Graduate Student, Cognitive Neuroscience
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
My research interests are motivated by use-inspired basic research. Specifically, how does our working memory - often studied with colorful squares and orientation lines - operate in everyday life? To explore and answer this question, I employ a mix of behavioral and neuroimaging techniques in my research program.
Advisor: Susanne Ferber
Asal Yunusova
Graduate Student, Psychology
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
Broadly, I am interested in mind-body interventions and protective biopsychosocial factors that aid in positive health outcomes in populations coping with chronic health conditions. More specifically, I am interested in the mind-gut connection and investigating interventions (i.e., mindfulness meditation) and factors (i.e., emotional validation) that can improve well-being in patients with gastrointestinal disorders.
Advisor: David Creswell
Yuchen Zhou
Graduate Student, Psychology
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
I am generally interested in using computational models (Bayesian statistics and machine learning methods) to study concept acquisition and inference in kids and adults.
Specifically, current research aims to explore the alignment of multi-modality conceptual systems.
Advisor: Daniel Yurovsky