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For a list of Graduate theses, view the Department's Graduate Thesis Archives (PDF).

Name: Shawn Achor
Email: shawn.achor@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Social
Advisor: David Harder, Ph.D.
Background: BA from Harvard in English and Religion, MA from Harvard Divinity School in Ethics. Grew up in Waco, Texas.
Current Research: How social support and mental constructs affect happiness and performance.

Name: Patricia Allen
Email: patricia.allen@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Nutrition and Behavior
Advisor: Robin Kanarek, Ph.D.
Background: I graduated from Trinity College in 2005 with a B.S. in Psychology.  I then worked for two years as a Research Assistant II in the psychiatry department (substance abuse division) of Yale University Medical School before coming to Tufts.
Current Research: Examining relationships between nutrition and neural/physiological bases of mood and behavior

Name: Evan Apfelbaum
Email: evan.apfelbaum@tufts.edu
Website: http://www.tufts.edu/~eapfel01
Area of Study: Social
Advisor: Sam Sommers, Ph.D.
Background: I graduated from Union College in 2002 with a B.S. in Psychology and Music (ID)
Current Research: A unique social climate has emerged in contemporary society wherein considerations relevant to diversity and intergroup relations have become both increasingly familiar and contentious.  I examine how individuals negotiate such environments and the extent to which their efforts affect performance, perception, cognition, and behavior.  My research investigates the strategies individuals use to navigate intergroup contact, including why, and under what conditions, efforts to facilitate positive outcomes become ironically counterproductive.  My work also examines when such strategies emerge developmentally and what situational factors are most likely to shape their practice.  I investigate such issues at both intra- and interpersonal levels of analysis, integrating domains of social, cognitive, and developmental psychology.  Across multiple programs of study, I utilize a broad array of methodological approaches, ranging from social interaction paradigms and field work in elementary schools to remote infrared eye-tracking and computer-based assessments of cognitive efficiency.  Above all, my research is unified by the pursuit of theoretically innovative science that carries practically important implications for real-world outcomes.

Name: Laura Babbitt
Email: laura.babbitt@tufts.edu
Area of Study:
Advisor: Sam Sommers, Ph.D.

Name: Reyyan Bilge
Email: ayse.bilge@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Cognitive
Advisor: Holly Taylor, Ph.D.



 

Name: Jeffrey Birk
Email: jeffrey.birk@tufts.edu
Website: http://www.tufts.edu/~hurry01/ebbl/index.html
Area of Study: Affective Neuroscience
Advisor:  Heather Urry, Ph.D.
Background: After graduating from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor's degree in psychology and music composition, I worked at Harvard as project manager for the Twins Study of Language Development and lab manager for the Affective Neuroscience Laboratory.
Current Research: I am currently studying the effects of temporary moods on attentional networks with a particular interest in how the valence of emotional states affects the networks of alerting, orienting, and executive control.
Future Plans: The interactions between emotional and attentional systems have important implications for the serious cognitive effects of mood disorders such as depression and anxiety, and I hope that the research will ultimately have beneficial real-world applications with respect to emotion regulation and the enhancement of well-being.

Name: Trevor Blackford
Email: Trevor.Blackford@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Psycholinguistics, Cognitive Neuroscience
Advisor: Gina Kuperberg, M.D., Ph.D.
Background: B.A. Linguistics and Psychology University of Colorado at Boulder.
Current Research: Using ERPs to understand the neural correlates of language comprehension and production.
Future Plans: Do interesting and useful research, get published, repeat.

Name: Kathleen Rives Bogart
Email: kathleen.bogart@tufts.edu
Website: http://kathleenrbogart.googlepages.com
Area of Study: Social Psychology
Advisors: Linda Tickle-Degnen and Nalini Ambady, Ph.D.
Background: After receiving my B.S. in Psychology and English at Louisiana State University, I worked as a case manager for people with disabilities in my hometown of Baton Rouge during hurricane Katrina. Just before coming to Tufts, I earned my M.A. in Social Psychology at San Francisco State University, where I completed my thesis study entitled, Facial Expression Recognition, Social Competence, and Adjustment in People with Moebius Syndrome.
Current Research: My research focuses on the psychological and social effects of facial paralysis and facial movement disorders. Currently, I'm working on a study designed to identify how facial movement disorders like Moebius syndrome affect social interaction. An additional goal of this research is to identify effective verbal and nonverbal communication strategies that people with these disorders use.
Future Plans: I hope to hang out in academia for as long as I can as a researcher and professor. There has been very little research on the psychology of facial paralysis, and I hope to develop the literature on and build support for people with facial paralysis and facial movement disorders.

Name: Bailey Bonura
Email: Bailey.Bonura@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Cognitive
Advisor: Ayanna Thomas and Holly Taylor
Background: Bailey received her B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in early 2008. Throughout her undergrad, as well as the six months following graduation, she was a research assistant in UCSB's Spatial Thinking Laboratory where she researched topics including the effects of individual differences in spatial ability on a person's ability to mentally or manually rotate complex virtual objects. She was also a research assistant in the Laboratory for Attention Brain and Behavior at UCSB where she investigated the neural correlates involved in attentional control using EEG/ERPs.
Current Research: Her current research interests include investigating the interaction between perspective and organization in younger and older adults' learning of spatial layouts.
Future Plans: Eat. Sleep. Research

Name: Krysta Chauncey
Email: krysta.chauncey@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Cognitive neuroscience
Advisor: Phil Holcomb, Ph.D.
Background: I graduated from Duke University in linguistics, neuroscience, and German in 2002, and then worked on an ERP project on speech/gesture information integration with Peter Hagoort at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and the F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging in Nijmegen, Holland.
Current Research: I am working on lexical access in bilinguals, using tools of masked priming and event-related potentials.  I am also currently starting research on brain-computer interaction using functional near-infrared spectroscopy as well as ERPs.
Future Plans: I'm switching gears and hedging my bets a bit by starting a new collaboration in brain-computer interaction with the Human-Computer Interaction Lab in the CS department, and still trying to stay active in the more academic world of cognitive neuroscience.

Name: Neil Cohn 
Email: neil.cohn@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Cognition, Linguistics: syntax, semantics, event structure
Advisor: Ray Jackendoff, Ph.D. (primary); Phil Holcomb, Ph.D.; Gina Kuperberg, M.D., Ph.D.
Background: I graduated with honors from UC Berkeley in '02 with a BA in Asian Studies (concentrations: Japan, Buddhism) and an MA in Social Science (concentrations: Linguistics/Psychology) from the University of Chicago in '05.
Current Research: I study the cognition behind the "comic book medium," specifically, looking at the question "how does the mind/brain create meaning out of sequences of images?" My answer so far: it uses a "grammar" in similar ways to how sequential words create meaning. (My website: www.emaki.net)
Future Plans: Can't I just live in the present for now?

Name: Jennifer A. DiCorcia
Email: Jennifer.DiCorcia@tufts.edu
Area: Developmental/Affective Neuroscience
Advisor: Heather L. Urry, Ph.D.
Background: I graduated from Rutgers College with a B.A. in Psychology and Cognitive Science.  I received my masters from Tufts in 2004. 
Current Research:  I am finishing up my dissertation under the direction of Heather Urry.  We are investigating the relationship between emotion regulation and individuals differences (e.g., temperament styles) in young children.  I am also finishing a few projects looking at the psychophysiological correlates of emotion discrimination in infancy. 
Future Plans:  Right now my plan is to finish!

Name: Amanda DiFiore
Email: difiore@volpe.dot.gov
Area of Study: Cognitive
Advisor: Richard Chechile, Ph.D.
Background: EEG measures of cognition/human factors
Current Research: EEG research on the AHA phenomenon
Future Plans: Human factors research on air traffic control and other modes of transportation.

Name: Stacey Dubois
Email: stacey.dubois@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Cognitive
Advisor: Ayanna K. Thomas, Ph.D.
Background: I attended Colby College as an undergrad, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Creative Writing. I worked as a research assistant for Dr. Thomas during my sophomore and junior years at Colby, and my experiences in her Cognitive Aging and Memory Lab were what motivated me to pursue my graduate studies here at Tufts.
Area of Study: My research interests revolve around memory processes, focusing specifically on metamemory (feeling of knowing, judgments of learning) and the relationship between subjective experience and memory accuracy. I'm also interested in memory deficits associated with cognitive aging.
Future Plans: In the future, I hope to contribute to the world of academia both as a professor of psychology and a productive researcher.

Name: Kristin Dukes
Email: Kristin.Dukes@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Social
Advisor: Keith Maddox, Ph.D.
Background: B.A. in Psychology, Rice University 2005
Current Research: My current research deals with controllable and uncontrollable features of stereotype activation.
Future Plans: Continuing research in this area, earning my Ph.D., and entering academia.

Name: Jon Freeman
Email: Jon.Freeman@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Social perception and cognition
Advisor: Nalini Ambady, Ph.D.
Background: I graduated from New York University in 2007 where I studied Psychology, Social & Cultural Analysis, and Neural Science, and worked with Liz Phelps, Kerri Johnson (now at UCLA), and Diane Ruble.
Current Research: temporal dynamics in real-time person construal, cognitive and neural processes underlying social perception and social judgment, including snap judgments and first impressions
Future Plans: Being a lifer in academia and research.

Name: Alexandra Geyer
Email: alexandra.geyer@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Cognitive Neuroscience
Advisor: Phil Holcomb, Ph.D.



 

Name: Carl Hagmann
Email: Carl.Hagmann@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Animal Learning and Cognition
Advisor: Robert Cook, Ph.D.
Background: I studied higher order reasoning processes in capuchin monkeys at my alma mater, Franklin & Marshall College, and decided to go straight into the world of avian cognition at Tufts.
Current Research: Auditory and Visual Discrimination in pigeons
Future Plans: I hope to study music, the mind, and its role in evolution - but I'm open to anything.

Name: Katie Handwerger
Email: Kathryn.Handwerger@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Experimental Psychopathology
Advisor: Lisa Shin, Ph.D.
Background: I graduated from Connecticut College in 2003 with a B.A. in Neuroscience/Psychobiology. I then worked for a year at Brown University Medical School. During that time I worked on two studies examining the effects of both maternal depression and prenatal smoking on child and and adolescent stress reactivity.
Current Research: I am currently interested in the neurobiology and etiology of psychopathology.  My current research focuses on examining the neural correlates of emotional memory in posttraumatic stress disorder using fMRI, and determining whether certain genetic polymorphisms mediate the connection between emotion and memory. I am also  interested in central regulation of the HPA response as it relates to psychopathology and mood.

Name: Nicole Jurdak
Email: nicole.jurdak@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Nutrition and Behavior
Advisor: Robin Kanarek, Ph.D.
Background: Graduated from University of Southern Maine with a B.A. in Psychology
Current Research: Obesity and pre-diabetes research.

 

Name: Yael Klein
Email: Yael.Klein@tufts.edu





 

Name: Angie Koban
Email: angie.koban@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Cognitive, Avian Cognition
Advisor: Robert Cook, Ph.D.
Background: I graduated with a B.S. in Animal Bioscience from The Pennsylvania State University in 2001 and then worked as a research intern at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium for a year before coming to Tufts.
Current Research: Currently working on many experiments examining both the visual and mental capabilities of avians. Specifically my research focuses on Avian Motor Perception and Categorization.
Future Plans: Attain my Ph.D. and continue to do research that makes me happy. (o:

Name: Janelle LaMarche
Email: Janelle.LaMarche@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Cognitive Neuroscience, Language
Advisor: Phil Holcomb
Background: I received my BA from Northeastern University in 2006, where I majored in Linguistics and Psychology. I also worked in the Speech Perception Lab at Northeastern for two years after graduation, where I assisted in research investigating spoken language processing.
Current Research: I am interested in the representation and processing of language, particularly at the lexical and sublexical levels. My current research will examine the neural correlates of the early stages of visual word recognition. I would also like to examine cross-modal language interactions, as well as the integration of form and meaning across a variety of lexical relationships.

Name:

Name: Lisa Lucia
Email: lisa.lucia@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Cognitive Neuroscience
Advisor: Haline Schendan, Ph.D.
Background: I went to Bates College and majored in Psychology, minored in Spanish.  After graduating, I happily came back to Boston to work at Harvard Medical School's Brain Imaging Lab at the Brockton VA Hospital for 3 years before applying to graduate programs.
Current Research: Visual Object Cognition, Memory for Visual Objects, Mental Rotation, Category Learning and Training.
Future Plans: I plan to enjoy my journey through graduate school and hopefully have a long vita full of exciting research!

Name: Steve Maher
Email: Stephen.Maher@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Cognitive Neuroscience
Advisor: Haline E. Schendan, Ph.D.

Name: Sara McKenzie-Quirk
Email: sara.mckenzie@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Biological
Advisor: Klaus Miczek, Ph.D.
Background: B.A. from Colorado College, major in Anthropology, 1995. M.A. from University of Texas Austin, Curriculum and Instruction, 1998. Summer Research Assistant, Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, 1994. Primate Behaviorist, LABS of Virginia, 1999.
Current Research: 5-HT1A agonists and self-administration of ethanol by rats and squirrel monkeys; self-administration of ethanol in socially housed squirrel monkeys, effects of isolation; and effects of ethanol and social rank on aggression in squirrel monkeys.

Name: Marshall G. Miller
Email: mmille07@tufts.edu
Website: N/A
Area of Study: Nutrition and Behavior
Advisor: Robin Kanarek
Background: I graduated from Appalachian State University in '03 with a BS in psychology then from Towson University in '08 with an MA in psychology. I spent the intervening years contracting for the Air Force Institute for Operation Health and as an Intramural Research Training Award fellow in the Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology at the NIA/NIH.
Current Research: My current research deals with the effects of nutritional variables on cognition and behavior.
Future Plans: I hope to find gainful employment in a well-funded research institution.

Name: Matthew Murphy
Email: Matthew_S.Murphy@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Cognitive Animal Behavior
Advisor: Robert Cook, Ph.D.
Background: I graduated Southampton College of Long Island University in 2005 with dual B.S. degrees in Marine Vertebrate Zoology and Interdisciplinary Psychology/Biology. I focused my studies in marine mammal behavior, particularly cetaceans. I interned at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in the malacology department, the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium with the science research department, and at Brookhaven National Labs working on a NASA-funded project on the long-term effects of low-dose radiation on auditory cognition in rats.
Current Research: Utilization of spatial frequencies in processing natural pictures in pigeons, investigation of an attention-based hypothesis in rule-based discrimination in pigeons, utilization of absolute and relational information in audtitory sequences in pigeons, and processing of same/different auditory sequences in pigeons.
Future Plans: Investigation of higher-order cognitive capabilities in animals (particularly cetaceans), focused on an experimental and in-depth approach to self-recognition. Other possible cognitive capabilities include tool-use, higher-order communicative abilities including syntax-use in dolphins, and imitation. I plan to eventually teach as a professor and continue my research in a dolphin cognition lab, which I very well may have to establish myself if they keep closing down on me.

Name: Reid Offringa
Email: reid.offringa@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Experimental Psychopathology
Advisor: Lisa Shin, Ph.D.
Background: I graduated with a B.S. in Neuroscience from Trinity College in 2006, and even though my senior thesis was cellular, my anthropocentrism made it feel like research in humans. I then spent less than a year working in the Brigham and Women's sleep lab where I helped people not sleep, before jumping over to Tufts.
Current Research: I am currently working with Lisa Shin on PTSD related experiments.
Future Plans: To teach, and find practical applications for my research. I also hope to work some philosophy of mind into my research - so, the opposite of practical.

Name: Philipp Optiz
Email: philipp.opitz@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Affective Neuroscience
Advisor: Heather Urry, Ph.D.
Background: graduated from Boston University with a BA in psychology, where I conducted research in the Vision Sciences Lab
Current Research: Differences in the ways younger and older adults process emotion
Future Plans: To do everything humanly possible to contribute, ever so slightly, to our understanding of the human mind and brain.

Name: Kristin Pauker
Email: Kristin.Pauker@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Social
Advisor: Nalini Ambady, Ph.D.
Background: I received an A.B. in Psychology from Dartmouth College in 2002. Prior to coming to Tufts, I worked in several developmental labs and have been combining my background in developmental research and eye-tracking with my passion for issues in Social Psychology.
Current Research: My central research interests are 1) the environmental, motivational, and social factors that influence racial categorization and identity 2) the development of racial category knowledge in children, including acquisition of stereotypes, knowledge of social norms, and the consequences of adhering to a colorblind norm 3) person perception at the boundaries of categories, including categorization of and memory for racially ambiguous individuals.

Name: Martin Paczynski
Email: martin.paczynski@tufts.edu

Name: Nick Rule
Email: nicholas.rule@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Social
Advisor: Nalini Ambady, Ph.D.
Background: B.A. Dartmouth College, 2004
Current Research: Nonverbal Behavior

 

Name: Lara Sloboda
Email: lara.sloboda@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Cognition
Advisor: Richard Chechile, Ph.D.
Background: Scripps College, class of 2001. I then worked for the University of California, Irvine as a neuropsychological tester. I did cognitive assesments of people over the age of 90 for a study run through UCI's Institute of Brain Aging and Dementia.
Current Research: Mathematical models of memory retention.
Future Plans: To work in an academic environment as a professor and researcher.

Name: Negin Toosi
Email: negin.toosi@tufts.edu
Website: www.tufts.edu/~ntoosi01
Area of Study: Social
Advisor: Nalini Ambady, Ph.D.
Background: I attended Stanford University as an undergraduate, majoring in international relations and psychology. After graduation in 2003, I moved to Chicago to work at the Baha'i National Center for the next two years, before coming to Boston to attend Tufts.
Current Research: I'm interested in examining, crossing, and blurring the lines that are typically drawn between different social groups. An obvious example of this is my interest in multi-racial identity development. Other interests include the intersections of gender and racial groups and the nature of privilege, guilt, and responsibility.
Future Plans: Racial prejudice is the most vital and challenging issue facing America. While it may not be completely eradicated in my lifetime, I plan to contribute my brains, beauty, and incredible super-human brawn* to the process of creating a just society.

Name: Agatha Trindade
Email: agatha.trindade@tufts.edu
Area of Study:
Advisor: Klaus Miczek, Ph.D.

Name: Qi Wang
Email: qi.wang@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Cognitive
Advisor: Holly Taylor, Ph.D.
Background: I graduated with a B.A. in psychology from Zhejiang University in 2005 and a Master degree in cognitive psychology from Southwest University in 2008, China.
Current Research: Spatial Cognition
Future Plans: To make maps cognize and remember easily; to be happy and enjoy my life!

Name: Jasmine J. Yap
Email:  jasmine.yap@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Behavioral Pharmacology
Advisor: Klaus Miczek, Ph.D.
Background: I graduated from Loyola College with a B.A. in psychology in 1999, and was a research fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH, from 1999-2001. At NIH I studied the neurobiology of relapse, particularly the effects of stress on reinstatement of heroin and cocaine seeking in rats.
Current Research: I study the cellular and behavioral consequences of social defeat stress in rats and mice by looking at immediate early gene expression in select brain regions, changes in intracellular signaling, altered cell proliferation and neurogenesis, locomotor behavior following acute administration of a psychostimulant (i.e., cross-sensitization), and intravenous self-administration of cocaine.
Future Plans: To finish the program and graduate.

Name: Cherry Yum
Email: yen.yum@tufts.edu
Area of Study: Cognitive
Advisor: Phil Holcomb, Ph.D.
Background: I went to Haverford College and majored in psychology and linguistics
Current Research: Bilingual word processing with English and Chinese
Future Plans: I don't usually think past next week
 

Recent Graduates

Tad Brunye, Ph.D., 2007
Sue Butler, Ph.D., 2003
Gemma Casadesus, Ph.D., 2003
Sarah Rose Cavanagh, Ph.D., 2007
Jessica Chamberland, Ph.D., 2007
Amy Brugger Clement, Ph.D., 2003
Herbert Evans Covington, III, Ph.D., 2006
R. Todd Coy, Ph.D., 2004
Tali Ditman, Ph.D., 2007
Heidi Dobish, Ph.D., 2004
Sara Park Faccidomo, Ph.D., 2006
Eric Fish, Ph.D., 2003
Stephanie Gray, Ph.D., 2003
Marcy Goldsmith, Ph.D., 2004
Terri S. Krangel, Ph.D., 2004
Leslie Adams Lariviere, Ph.D., 2005
Gina Melnik, Ph.D., 2007
Jason Sidman, Ph.D., 2006
Tatiana Sitnikova, Ph.D., 2003
Yvonne Wakeford, Ph.D., 2006
Rinah Yamamoto, Ph.D., 2005