People

Emma is a member of the class of 2022 with majors in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology and Spanish. She is interested in how internal biases influence perception and processing of ongoing experience. She plans on attending graduate school after graduation. Outside of the lab, she enjoys long walks on the beach, reading, and the Internet.

Melissa is a member of the class of 2020 with a major in Cognitive Neuroscience and a minor in Art History. She is interested in how our brains process everyday information in order to guide future decisions and behavior. She plans to apply to medical school to eventually pursue a career as a pediatrician.

Shuhao is a member of the class of 2021 with majors in PNP & CompSci. They are interested in studying how different brain functions unify and construct modelings of mind/brain functions using mathematical and computational tools. After graduation, they plan to apply to graduate programs in some subarea of cognitive science.

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.

Priscilla is a member of the class of 2019. She is interested in how people remember events and how different factors can lead people to recall events differently. She plans to apply to either medical school or grad school post-undergrad. The end goal at present is to become a pediatrician, but she is keeping her options open.

Rachel Membreno is a member of the class of 2024 with a major in Psychology. She is interested in understanding the relationship between memory and aging. In her free, she enjoys learning how to play the piano and cooking.

Varun is a member of the class of 2019, with majors in PNP and Accounting. They are interested in computational psychology and how we may mimic neural activity and psychological responses using computer models. After WashU, Varun plans to take a year off to do research, volunteering, or both, before applying to medical school. They hope to specialize in psychiatry.

Meredith is a member of the class of 2023. Her major is Psychology-Neuroscience-Philosophy on the Cognitive Neuroscience track and she is minoring in Religious Studies and Global Health. Meredith is interested in how the brain segments events and what factors affect event segmentation. Her hobbies include reading, sailing, and trying to learn how to cook.

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.

Ceresa Munjak-Khoury is a member of the class of 2024 with a major in Cognitive Neuroscience and minors in Music and Anthropology. She is interested in studying the mechanisms by which we perceive and organize events from the world around us and how we can represent these computationally. In her free time she enjoys playing the French horn, volleyball, reading, and trying new coffee places.

Katie is a member of the class of 2019 and is majoring in Psychology, with minors in Linguistics and Anthropology. They are interested in cognition, the neurological processes behind why people do the things they do, and understanding what augments and inhibits memory creation and recall. Katie plans to enter a workplace where their interest in human behavior can be utilized to make other's lives better (ideally in a non-profit setting), and is still undecided about returning to school for an advanced degree later on.

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.

Vi is a member of the class of 2025 with intended majors in Cognitive Neuroscience and Computer Science. She is interested in exploring the underlying neural mechanisms of cognition and modeling these mechanisms computationally. Music is what keeps Vi moving through work and study, but during her free time, she likes motorbiking, experiencing new food, and talking away with her friends.

Audrey is a member of the class of 2021, studying in the Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology program. She's still exploring research interests, but hopes to eventually go to graduate school and spend her life trying to better the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Allie is a member of the class of 2023 with a major in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology and minors in Music and Anthropology. She is interested in how people process visual stimuli and how to effectively create graphs in a way that guides viewers to their proper conclusions. In the future, she plans to apply to the WUSTL Occupational Therapy master's program. When she's not in the lab, she enjoys riding horses, playing clarinet, reading science fiction, cuddling with her cat, and procrastinating on TikTok.

Joe is a member of the class of 2023 with double majors in Computer Science and Philosophy, Neuroscience & Psychology. He is interested in mental perception, information processing, and computational modeling of mind and behavior. He is also interested in Human-Computer Interaction and human factors in technology. In his free time, he loves traveling, cycling, music, and movies.

William Papper was a sophomore obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology and Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis during his time in the lab. He had previously worked as a data scientist at RetailMeNot and as an app developer at the MIT Media Lab. On the side, he ran a healthcare startup called MediMeld and was a part of IDEA Labs at the Washington University School of Medicine.

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.

B.A. Cognitive Science, Carleton College (2020)

Daniel is a research assistant in the lab. He is interested in investigating the effects of event segmentation on memory in younger and older adults. In a couple years, he plans to attend a graduate program in cognitive science or neuroscience. In his spare time, he plays keyboard & saxophone, rides his bike, and collects quarters.

Ph.D. Psychology, Specialization: Neuroscience
- Temple University, 2013

M.A. Psychology
- Marist College, 2007

B.A. Psychology
- Marist College, 2007

Lauren was a postdoctoral fellow in the lab. She spent time conducting studies examining the role of event perception on spatial navigation in younger and older adults, and explored approaches to improve event memory in those same populations. She has since accepted a tenure track position at SUNY Stony Brook.

Madeleine is a member of the class of 2019, with a major in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology & minors in Writing and Spanish. She is interested in the brain as it ages and the accompanying physiological and psychological changes, as well as specific dysfunction in neural circuits that induces disease and disorders. She is still determining whether to take a research or medical path post-graduation. She might combine the two and pursue an MD-PhD!

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!

Ashwin is a member of the class of 2024 with a double major in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Philosophy and History and a minor in Legal Studies. He is interested in the relationship between event segmentation and memory, specifically how memory is related to position within events. When not in the lab, he enjoys reading, listening to music, and thrifting.

Degrees:
Ph.D. in Psychological Science, University of Liege (Belgium) 2013

David is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab since 2017. He is working on studies examining memory for everyday activities.

Matt is a member of the class of 2020 with majors in Psychology and Political Science. He is interested in group conflict, the development of racial and political identities, and how these group identities influence moral judgements. He plans to apply to graduate programs in social psychology, with a specific focus in political psychology.

Zachary is a member of the class of 2023. His major is Psychological & Brain Sciences and he is minoring in Computer Science and Writing. Zach is interested in how the brain creates event models, particularly in the context of film perception. In his free time, Zach enjoys watching TV and film, exploring the St. Louis food scene, and cheering on his beloved Baltimore sports teams.

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.

Ph.D Washington University in St. Louis, 2007
M.A. Washington University in St. Louis, 2003
B.A. University of Utah, 1999

Khena was a graduate student in the Dynamic Cognition Lab. She studied attention, event perception, and memory.

Khena currently directs the Attention, Memory, and Perception lab at Cornell University.

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!

Shreyas is a member of the class of 2025 with intended majors in biology and computer science. He hopes to eventually study how the brain responds to musical stimuli. Outside of research, Shreyas's hobbies include street/funkstyle dance, especially popping and locking.

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.