Lab Members

Devon Alperin is a member of the class of 2025 with a major in Biology and a minor in Psychological & Brain Sciences. She is interested in studying temporal order memory and event segmentation. She is also fascinated by collective memory, methods to enhance learning and memory, and neurodegenerative diseases. In her free time, Devon enjoys being outdoors, cooking, listening to music, and spending time with friends and family.

Ph.D. Psychology, University of Toronto (2024)

M.A., Psychology, University of Toronto (2019)

B.S. Psychology, University of California, Davis (2015)

Nichole received her B.S. in Psychology at the University of California, Davis where she worked with Dr. Arne Ekstrom studying spatial cognition. After graduating, she spent three years working as the lab manager/junior speciailist in Dr. Charan Ranganath’s Dynamic Memory Lab where she studied various aspects of episodic memory and collaborated on projects investigating temporal memory and schemas as well as cognitive maps and decision-making. She began graduate school in 2018 at the University of Toronto under co-supervision from Dr. Morgan Barense and Dr. Morris Moscovitch. She received her M.A. in 2019 and her Ph.D. in 2024. Her graduate work investigated hippocampal gradients of autocorrelation and how they are related to behavior and memory dysfunction. Now as a postdoctoral scholar, she aims to continue using her autocorrelation method to investigate how the brain processes complex, naturalistic events and to investigate how event boundaries structure our memory at retrieval. Outside of work Nichole spends her time doing yoga, playing volleyball, cooking elaborate meals, and exploring new bars and restaurants in St. Louis. She also occasionally convinces Adi to accompany her on random adventures to the car wash and to meet with strangers from Facebook marketplace.

Jeremy is a member of the class of 2026 with an intended major in Cognitive Neuroscience with a Spanish minor. He is interested in investigating the relationship between our actions during events and the strength of our memory associated with those events. Outside of work and study, Jeremy enjoys singing with his a capella group, going out to eat with friends, and running.

B.S. Cognitive Studies, Vanderbilt University (2022)

Yining is a first-year Ph.D student in the lab. She is interested in how people perceive fleeting moments in their lives and represent them in the brain, as well as how these processes change with age and experience. In her free time, Yining enjoys singing, reading, watching musicals, creating new recipes, and learning German and Japanese for fun.

Elizabeth Kulick is a member of the class of 2026 with a major in PNP: Cognitive Neuroscience and minors in Biology and Anthropology. She is interested in studying event segmentation, the relationship between age and memory, and neurodegenerative diseases. In her free time, Elizabeth enjoys powerlifting with the WashU club team, playing guitar, and crocheting..

Hengchang Lu is a member of the class of 2026 with a double major in Math and Computer Science & Economics. He is passionate about applying machine learning and artificial intelligence to model human cognitive processes, particularly in event segmentation. Hengchang works in the intersection of data science and human memory, working on projects that aim to simulate cognitive patterns with natural language processing techniques. Outside of academics and research, Hengchang plays as the starting goalkeeper for the WashU men’s soccer club.

M.S. Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham (2012)

B.S. Molecular Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham (2011)

Sarah is the lab manager for the Dynamic Cognition Lab. She is broadly interested in how memory declines with age. Sarah also manages the Complex Memory Lab. When not in one of her two labs, she can be found baking, cycling, hiking, catering to the whims of her two dogs, or trying her best not to kill her plants.

B.S. Computer Science, University of Science (2019)

Tan is a first-year graduate student. He is interested in combining computational, behavioral, and neural perspectives as a basis for analyzing and understanding event perception and memory. When he’s not in the lab, he likes to read and play sports.

Sofia Prenner is a member of the class of 2027 with an intended major of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Philosophy. She is broadly interested in the mechanisms of perception and memory. In her free time she loves baking, listening to music, and binge watching sitcoms.

Ph.D. Cognitive/Human Factors, Kansas State University (2021)

M.S. Experimental Psychology, Kansas State University (2019)

B.S. Psychology, Mississippi State University (2015)

Maverick is a postdoctoral scholar in the lab. He is interested in studying how we make sense of the world, how our understanding of the world influences what we attend to, perceive, and later remember, and how these processes change across the lifespan. Maverick enjoys watching documentaries, learning Python and R, fishing, drinking coffee, and eating good food.

Ph.D. Psychology (Integrative Neuroscience), University of Chicago (2024)

M.S., Biomedical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University (2019)

Hayoung is a cognitive neuroscientist and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience. Her work combines functional magnetic resonance imaging, naturalistic behavioral experiments, and computational modeling to understand the neural and computational mechanisms of higher-order cognition in humans. At WashU, Hayoung is working with Jeff and ShiNung toward modeling higher-order cognition and multiscale neural dynamics. Outside the lab, you can find Hayoung spending time in Forest Park and exploring St. Louis!

B.A. Economics and Psychology, Cornell University (2019)

Sophie is interested in using a combination of computational modeling, neuroimaging, and behavior experiments to better understand how people extract useful information in this noisy, ambiguous, and dynamic world.

In her free time, she like reading, watching more YouTube than she would like to admit, and engaging in online debates.

B.A. Psychology, University of Chicago (2023)

Lucy is a research technician in the lab, where she investigates event segmentation and memory, with a focus on the integration of behavioral and neural data using fMRI techniques. Her research interests lie in how the interplay between memory and event representations shape our unique conscious experiences. When she is not doing research, Lucy can be found taking long walks or tending to her pet fish.

Cameron is a member of the class of 2025 with an intended major in Biology. He is interested in the underlying mechanisms of human cognition and memory as well as event segmentation interventions. He plans to apply to medical school after graduation. In his free time, Cameron enjoys basketball, tennis, cooking, and spending time with family.

Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California, Davis (2021-2023)
Ph.D. Cognitive Psychology, Johns Hopkins University (2021)
M.A. Cognitive Psychology, Johns Hopkins University (2018)
M.S. Electrical & Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University (2016)
M.S. Physics, BITS-Pilani, India (2013)
B.E. Electronics & Communications Engineering, BITS-Pilani, India (2013)

If you are reading this after Nichole’s bio, this is the said Adi! If not, well, he’s still Adi anyway. Adi is interested in understanding how events are represented in the mind and the brain. During graduate school at Johns Hopkins where he trained as a vision scientist, Adi worked with Dr. Jon Flombaum on how we visually perceive and process time. After his PhD, he spent 2 years working with Dr. John Henderson at University of California, Davis, studying how people process spatiotemporal continuities when viewing naturalistic movies. During this time, he became interested in how we think about event representations. He now works with both Jeff and Zach to study this question. Adi loves to chat about event representations and all things cognition. If you happen to spot him at a conference, feel free to go say hi! Outside of work, Adi spends his time biking, walking, cooking, and thinking about how to buy his next guitar. He recently went to the Pacific Northwest for a short trip and is fully convinced that he now has a new personality and outlook towards life. Whatever makes him happy!

Anvita is a member of the class of 2025 with a major in Cognitive Neuroscience. She is interested in investigating how neurodegenerative diseases can affect biological and psychological mechanisms, and how event segmentation can serve to slow cognitive decline. Outside of academics, Anvita enjoys cooking, traveling and singing with her a cappella group.

Mya Wolfe is a member of the class of 2027 with a major in Psychological & Brain Sciences. She is interested in studying event segmentation in regards to age, memory, and neurodegenerative diseases. In her free time, she enjoys participating in WashU’s radio station (KWUR), discovering new music, traveling, and spending time with her friends.

B.A. Psychology, Northwestern University (2023)

B.A., Econometrics, Northwestern University (2023)

I am currently pursuing a Master of Social Work at the Brown School and graduated from Northwestern University with dual degrees in Psychology and Econometrics. Besides being a graduate student, I conduct weekly therapy sessions as a Mental Health Counselor intern, employing evidence-based interventions to effectively support clients facing a variety of mental health challenges. I am particularly interested in how research methodologies and findings can be leveraged to understand cognitive perception impairments related to various mental health disorders. My goal is to develop targeted interventions that address the unique needs of each patient population. In my free time, I enjoy playing golf and baking.

Andrew is a member of the class of 2025. He is double majoring in PNP: Cognitive Neuroscience and Computer Science-Math. Andrew is primarily interested in understanding how event cognition can be modeled computationally through artificial intelligence. In his free time, Andrew likes to play video games and exercise.