People

Craig Abbey Researcher		Vision and Image Understanding Lab
Nicole Alea Albada Associate Teaching Professor
Beyzanur Arican Dinc Graduate Student	Beyza's research focuses on how we can develop and maintain healthy relationships and how our social ties can enhance our well-being through interpersonal emotion regulation.	Social Psychology
Greg Ashby Distinguished Professor Emeritus	Professor Ashby is interested in the basic cognitive and neural mechanisms that mediate human learning. His approach combines experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and mathematical modeling.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience Dynamical Neuroscience
Viktoriya Babenko Graduate Student	Viktoriya's research investigates how female sex hormones alter the response of the sympathetic nervous system, task performance, brain network function, and both gray and white matter brain structure.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Cora Baron Graduate Student	Cora is primarily interested in how emotions, social identity, and culture influence people's close relationships. She is especially curious about individual differences in support-seeking and caregiving behavior in romantic relationships.	Social Psychology
Stephen Baumgart Research Associate
Alisa Bedrov Graduate Student	Alisa's research focuses on the interpersonal consequences of keeping and sharing secrets, specifically in regard to closeness, trust, and social utility.	Social Psychology
Selin Bekir Graduate Student		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Dylan Benkley Graduate Student	Dylan is interested in understanding humans' evolved mechanisms for cooperation as well as the evolved social functions of emotions.	Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology
Michael Beyeler Assistant Professor		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience Computer Science Department, Dynamical Neuroscience
Jim Blascovich Distinguished Professor Emeritus/Research Professor		Social Psychology
Tom Bullock Postdoctoral Researcher		Attention Lab
Stevie Bullock Research Participation Pool Coordinator	Oversees Research Participation Pool for researchers use. Oversees front office, distributes mails, manages copy account codes and provides back up to Financial Area. Manages Letters of Recommendation Service.
Ryan Alejandro Cabrera Graduate Student	Ryan is primarily interested in animal models of drug addiction to inform addiction etiology and treatment. More specifically, his research examines the influence of AMPA and NMDA-types of glutamate receptors in stimulant drug (methamphetamine, cocaine) addiction and incubation of craving.	Neuroscience and Behavior
Fernando Cano Graduate Student	Fernando's research focuses on examining the neurobiological mechanisms that underpin the incubation of drug craving. He uses operant-conditiong paradigms and conducts immunoblot studies to investigate potential sex differences in 1) cue-elicted responding tasks and 2) the biomolecular correlates during this incubation of drug craving phenomenon. Fernando graduated with a B.S in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine in 2018. He graduated with a M.S in Biology from the California State University of Los Angeles in 2020.	Neuroscience and Behavior
Tikal Catena Graduate Student		Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology
Carly Chak Graduate Student	Carly is broadly interested in attentional priority within working memory. Using electroencephalography (EEG), her current research explores how different components of attentional capture modulate the contents of working memory over time. She is also interested in understanding how working memory representations might be further modulated when these different components compete for attentional priority.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Joaquin-Emiliano Chavez Senior Undergraduate Advisor	Manages Undergraduate Advising. Provides administrative assistance for pre-major and full major courses. Edits and reviews student schedules. Presents at informational workshops and participates in campus tabling events.
José Chavira Graduate Student	José is interested in the neural mechanisms underpinning learning, memory, and decision-making.	Neuroscience and Behavior
Amber Xuqian Chen Graduate Student	Amber studies how individuals' biases and social behaviors might emerge into a collective phenomenon through the lens of morality, utilizing the combination of neuroimaging and big data analytics.	Social Psychology
Nancy Collins Professor		Social Psychology
Daniel Conroy-Beam Associate Professor	Dan uses an evolutionary perspective to examine human mating psychology. He combines computer simulations with studies of real couples to help understand the nature of mate preferences, mate choice, and romantic relationships.	Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology
Leda Cosmides Distinguished Professor		Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology
Ashley J. Coventry Graduate Student	Ashley's research examines human relationships and mate preferences using an evolutionary psychological framework. She is primarily focused on examining these preferences in LGBTQ+ and consensually non-monogamous populations.	Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology
Lee Qianqian Cui Graduate Student	Broadly, Lee is interested in the dynamics of perceiving others in various social contexts, and how biased attitudes and evaluations can impact, and be impacted by, this process. She's also interested in how AI techniques can perceive this process and to what extent they are biased to certain social groups when perceiving humans.	Social Psychology
Cynthia Delgado Graduate Student		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Elsie Dominguez Undergraduate Advisor	Manages Undergraduate Advising. Provides administrative assistance for pre-major and full major courses. Edits and reviews student schedules. Presents at informational workshops and participates in campus tabling events.
Neil Dundon Postdoctoral Researcher
Courtney Durdle Graduate Student		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Miguel Eckstein Distinguished Professor		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
James Elliott Assistant Project Scientist		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Nicole Emmons Graduate Student	Nicole's research employs electrical-based aptamer sensors to enable highly temporally resolved measurements of drug distribution within physiological compartments, including the subcutaneous space and the brain.	Neuroscience and Behavior
Aaron Ettenberg Distinguished Professor Emeritus	Behavioral, pharmacological and physiological manipulations are combined in attempts to understand the nature of the brain mechanisms subserving the reinforcing effects of food, water, sex and psychoactive drugs.	Neuroscience and Behavior
Sierra Feasel Graduate Student		Social Psychology
Guillem Fernández Villà Graduate Student	Guillem is interested in how acculturation processes occur at societal and individual levels, and how they can be facilitated in a way that supports people's wellbeing.	Social Psychology
John Foley Professor Emeritus/Research Professor		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Alan Fridlund Associate Professor
Shelly Gable Professor and Chair		Social Psychology
Anusha Garg Graduate Student		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Jordan Garrett Graduate Student		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Michael Gazzaniga Distinguished Professor		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Benjamin Gelbart Graduate Student		Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology
Tamsin German Professor		Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology
W. Connor Gibbs Graduate Student	Connor's research is broadly about transitions and change. His work includes research on veterans transition to civilian employment and cultural implications for changes in personal control.	Social Psychology
Barry Giesbrecht Professor	1) To understand the neural mechanisms of cognitive priority control in attention and working memory. 2) To understand the impact of global physiological states on cognition. 3) To use brain activity to decode cognitive states and augment performance.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience Dynamical Neuroscience
Hayley Giffin Graduate Student	Hayley's main research interest is the impact of culture on social relationships and decision making, especially between individuals with different cultural identities. She is also interested in sustainability, well-being, and group dynamics.	Social Psychology
Michael Goard Associate Professor		Neuroscience and Behavior
Juan Gonzalez Junior Specialist		Social Psychology
Diego Gonzalez Graduate Student		Neuroscience and Behavior
Scott Grafton Distinguished Professor	Dr. Grafton supports an interdisciplinary research program at the interface of learning theory, the organization of skilled action, network science, and multimodal brain imaging.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Caitlin Gregory Junior Specialist		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Christine Griffin Business Officer	Oversees and manages all departmental functions. Provides direction and support to faculty and staff regarding space, budget, equipment, lab renovation student affairs, curriculum plans, facilities management, and special projects.
Madeleine Gross Graduate Student		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Hannah Grotzinger Graduate Student	Hannah's research uses dense-sampling and neuroimaging methods to study the impact of endogenous sex hormone fluctuations on brain function.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Goirik Gupta Graduate Student		Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology
Justin Haiman Graduate Student	Justin's research examines the stochastic processes that guide serotonergic axon growth. He uses primary neuronal cultures and other advanced experimental techniques to accomplish his work.	Neuroscience and Behavior
John Hajda Associate Director, Sage Center for the Study of the Mind	Coordinates Sage Center Lecture Series. Oversees the Junior Research Fellowship post-doctoral program. Promotes the public image of the Sage Center. Works in with the Chair and faculty of the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Dynamical Neuroscience to promote the program and find and apply for funding sources.
David Hamilton Distinguished Professor Emeritus / Research Professor		Social Psychology
Nicole Han Graduate Student	Nicole's research focuses on human and machine visual intelligence in tasks such as face recognition, gaze perception, and gaze-following. She's also interested in applying AI models to support human performance in relevant visual tasks.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Paige Harris Graduate Student		Social Psychology
Amelia Haruka Harrison Graduate Student	Amelia is interested in understanding the neural and cognitive mechanisms associated with manipulation of visual attention by studying behavior in tandem with functional brain data.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Carol He Graduate Student	Carol's research is primarily about spatial navigation in immersive virtual reality and in real world. Leveraging statistical modeling, she highlights individual differences (sex, age, etc.) in using VR and GPS to do different spatial tasks.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Mary Hegarty Distinguished Professor		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Kallie Hill Financial Coordinator	Manages departmental financial affairs including departmental budget and extra mural funds. Processes payroll for departmental personnel. Administers Contracts and Grants including proposal preparation.
Melissa Hingorani Graduate Student		Neuroscience and Behavior
Kevin Honeywell Graduate Student		Neuroscience and Behavior
Jocelyn Huerta Graduate Student		Social Psychology
Laura Huerta Sanchez Graduate Student		Neuroscience and Behavior
Bailey Immel Graduate Student		Social Psychology
Joe Jablonski Development Engineer	Manages departmental machine shop. Fabricates and repairs equipment. Oversees shipping and receiving and departmental key assignments. Manages departmental equipment inventory.
Emily Jacobs Associate Professor	Dr. Jacobs' research pairs endocrinology and brain imaging techniques to determine the impact of sex steroid hormones on brain morphology and function.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience Neuroscience Research Institute
Jerry Jacobs Research Professor, Distinguished Professor Emeritus	The biological basis of mammalian (especially, primate) color vision and its evolution.	Neuroscience and Behavior
Skirmantas Janusonis Associate Professor	Dr. Janusonis studies serotonergic and other stochastic axon systems, with a focus on comparative neurobiology and computational neuroscience.	Neuroscience and Behavior
Leo Jimenez Chavez Graduate Student		Neuroscience and Behavior
Byron Johnson Graduate Student		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Sana Karimi Undergraduate Advisor	Manages Undergraduate Advising. Provides administrative assistance for pre-major and full major courses. Edits and reviews student schedules. Presents at informational workshops and participates in campus tabling events.
Srijita Karmakar Graduate Student		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Madhuri Kashyap Graduate Student		Social Psychology
Ron Keiflin Assistant Professor	Our lab studies the neurobehavioral basis of associative learning and decision-making (adaptive and maladaptive). We use sophisticated behavioral tasks in rodents, in combination with modern tools to monitor and manipulate neural activity.	Neuroscience and Behavior
Heejung Kim Professor	Heejung Kim investigates cultural influences on psychological processes, and their implications for important real life outcomes, such as health, education, immigration, and policy support.	Social Psychology
Tod Kippin Professor and Vice Chair		Neuroscience and Behavior
Devi Klein Graduate Student		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Stan Klein Professor
Lexie Kunz Graduate Student	Lexie's interest is in spatial cognition, with an emphasis on how technological developments (like GPS and virtual environments) may influence the acquisition and maintenance of spatial ability and navigation. She is also interested in understanding how various individual differences play a mediating role in the development of effective spatial strategies.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Regina Lapate Assistant Professor	Dr. Lapate investigates the mechanisms and neural circuitry underlying emotional processing, awareness, and emotion regulation. Her multi-modal approach includes recordings of peripheral physiology, brain imaging, and non-invasive brain stimulation.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience Social Psychology
Alyssa Lawson Graduate Student	Alyssa is a PhD candidate in The Mayer Lab for Research on Learning and Instruction. She is interested in understanding what helps and hinders learning, as well as individual differences that influence learning.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Evan Layher Postdoctoral Researcher		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Suyi Leong Graduate Student	Suyi is primarily interested in how culture influence people's likelihood of engaging in behaviors that compromise self-interest but benefit a collective (e.g., engaging in pro-environmental actions)	Social Psychology
Sara Leslie Graduate Student	Sara's research examines confidence and metacognition in the context of decision-making and memory, investigating their cognitive and neural bases and the interplay of confidence with choice.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Yanming (Alison) Li Graduate Student	Alison’s research focuses how internal information (e.g., goal or memory) influences the encoding of visual information, and the subjective, involuntary nature of conscious perception.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Mengsi Li Graduate Student	Mengsi is interested in the neural underpinnings of emotion and emotional memory in complex real-world episodes. Her current research focuses on the interactions of emotion and temporal coding (time perception and temporal memory) and their implications for emotional wellbeing.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Luna Li Graduate Student	Luna is interested in reasoning and decision-making under uncertainty.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Zoe Liberman Associate Professor	Zoe Liberman studies infants and children to learn about the origins and developmental trajectory of humans' understanding of the social world. Her research is at the intersection of developmental and social psychology.	Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology Social Psychology
Jack Loomis Professor Emeritus		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Katherine Lowe Graduate Advisor	Coordinates recruitment, admissions and orientation for incoming graduate students. Responsible for all aspects of employment of graduate students. Provides advising to graduate students. Maintains graduate databases.
Loy Lytle Professor Emeritus		Neuroscience and Behavior
Ava (Qingting) Ma de Sousa Graduate Student	Broadly, Ava's work examines social identity, intergroup relations, and emotion using social psychological, neuroscientific and computational methods.	Social Psychology
Diane Mackie Distinguished Professor Emeritus	Research in the Social Evaluations and Emotions lab focuses on the evaluations, emotions, attitudes, and norms that arise from social group membership and underpin a wide range of phenomena in intergroup relations and social influence.	Social Psychology
Parsa Madinei Graduate Student		Neuroscience and Behavior
Brenda Major Distinguished Professor Emeritus	Impact of perceived ethnic, gender, and weight-based stigma and discrimination on psychological stress, health behaviors, and interpersonal relationships. Resilience. Impact of diversity, diversity policies, and anti-bias norms on intergroup relations.	Social Psychology
Amedee Martella Postdoctoral Researcher		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Richard Mayer Distinguished Professor	educational psychology, cognitive psychology, multimedia learning, online learning, computer-based instruction, learning with games and virtual reality, learning strategies and study skills, science and mathematics education, animated pedagogical agents	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Kasie Mays Graduate Student		Neuroscience and Behavior
Christopher McFerron Student Affairs Manager	Manages Undergraduate and Graduate Affairs Offices. Provides advising to students, prepares schedule of courses for academic year including summer session. Prepares TA assignments.
Hossein Mehrzadfar Graduate Student	Hossein’s research focuses on understanding the similarities and differences between humans and Deep Learning models in scene understanding and visual attention.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Mario Mendoza MRI Research Technologist	Manages the operation and maintenance of the ultra high-field MRI scanner at the UCSB Brain Imaging Center. Coordinates research procedures for investigators, oversees all imaging protocols including troubleshooting and planning and initiates new techniques as prescribed by the Director. Provides scanner operator and safety training for graduate students, post-docs, faculty and staff.
Michael Miller Professor		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Anne Milner Graduate Student	Anne's research focuses on how stimuli that are associated with reward can rapidly capture attention and are prioritized in visual attention.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Alissa Mrazek Research Associate
Michael Mrazek Research Associate
Mitch Munns Graduate Student	Mitch's research involves the connection between spatial thinking and learning abstract information, such as representing a complex lecture with a diagram.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Elle Murata Graduate Student	Elle’s research probes the neuromodulatory impact of sex steroid hormones on brain morphology, connectivity, and cognition.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Shravan Murlidaran Graduate Student		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Josh Ortega Graduate Student	Josh’s research explores the psychology of art and dreams, and how these domains can contribute to a richer understanding of creativity.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Diego Padilla Garcia Graduate Student		Social Psychology
Viki Papadakis Graduate Student		Social Psychology
Sophie Peterson Graduate Student	Sophie's research investigates the neural mechanisms involved in context-dependent reward prediction and decision making.	Neuroscience and Behavior
Laura Pritschet Graduate Student	Laura’s research investigates how sex steroid hormones (e.g., estrogen, progesterone) shape human brain structure, function, and cognition via brain imaging techniques.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Liz Quinn-Jensen Graduate Student		Social Psychology
Kyle Ratner Assistant Professor	Kyle Ratner investigates face processing in an intergroup context and the consequences of social perception for mental and physical health. His research uses theories and methods from social psychology and cognitive neuroscience (e.g., fMRI, EEG).	Social Psychology
Ben Reese Research Professor, Professor Emeritus		Neuroscience and Behavior Neuroscience Research Institute
Nils Karl Reimer Assistant Professor		Social Psychology
Russ Revlin Research Professor, Associate Professor Emeritus		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
James Roney Professor		Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology
Kiana Sabugo Brain Imaging Center Administrative Assistant	Manages scheduling, billing, and safety training.
Rammy Salem Graduate Student		Social Psychology
Tyler Santander Postdoctoral Researcher
Jonathan Schooler Distinguished Professor		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience The Center for Mindfulness and Human Potential
Samantha Scudder Research Associate
Oya Serbest Graduate Student	Oya is primarily interested in how multilingual environments shape children's understanding of social groups and the roots of stereotyping based on religious ideologies.	Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology
David Sherman Professor		Social Psychology
Kevin Sit Graduate Student		Neuroscience and Behavior
Henri Skinner Graduate Student	Henri's research focuses on sustained attention by investigating the oscillatory electroencephalography (EEG) activity associated with attentional lapses and the vigilance decrement.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Ikuko Smith Assistant Professor		Neuroscience and Behavior
Shreya Sodhi Graduate Student	Shreya's research examines how children reason about and use various social categories. Currently, her work focuses on how children conceptualize national identity and immigration.	Social Psychology
Carlos Sosa Colindres Graduate Student		Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology
Thomas Sprague Assistant Professor	My work uses computational methods applied to noninvasive human neuroimaging (fMRI; EEG) to understand how neural processing of visual information changes across manipulations of attention, working memory, and eye movements.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Joanne Stasiak Graduate Student	Joanne’s research employs psychophysiological methods to examine the processes underlying awareness of emotional responding with the goal of identifying the various cues individuals use to form perceptions of and understand their complex affective experiences.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Karen Szumlinski Professor	Dr. Szumlinski’s major research interest concerns the biochemical mechanisms underlying the changes in brain and behavior produced by chronic exposure to drugs of abuse.	Neuroscience and Behavior
Caitlin Taylor Postdoctoral Fellow	As a postdoctoral fellow in the Jacobs Lab, Caitlin uses MRI to investigate the effects of oral contraceptive use on the brain, as well to study the effects of sex hormones on the hippocampus.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Daniel Thayer Graduate Student		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Rodney Tompkins Junior Specialist		Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology
Miriam Urie Graduate Student	Miriam is interested in optimal ways to build and maintain transferable, long-term knowledge in the minds of learners.
Katy Walter Graduate Student		Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology
Jingyi Wang Postdoctoral Researcher		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Kayla Wang Graduate Student	Kayla is primarily interested in exploring the efficacy of EAB (Electrochemical Aptamer-Based) sensors for neuropharmacology in rodents, in the hopes of getting a better understanding of addiction models and underlying circuitry.	Neuroscience and Behavior
Pamela Wilks Academic Personnel Manager	Oversees faculty personnel cases including merits and promotions and appointments. Manages faculty recruitment, Kronos Timecards and Payroll. Hires new visiting researchers and other visitors.
Vanessa Woods Associate Teaching Professor	Vanessa Woods looks at factors that affect traditionally underrepresented groups success in educational settings, which includes studying pedagogical practices that create equity in large college classes.
Vinnie Wu Graduate Student		Social Psychology
Delancey Wu Graduate Student	Delancey's research examines how close relationship processes, such as perceived responsiveness and social support, are moderated by different cultural values, and how cultural orientation impacts our perceptions and well-being in relationships.	Social Psychology
Chuyi Yang Graduate Student	Chuyi is broadly interested in how children conceptualize and understand their many social relationships. More specifically, Chuyi is interested in how children conceptualize nuanced friendships and how these conceptualizations influence prosocial and antisocial behavior.	Social Psychology
Asa Young Graduate Student	Asa's research focuses are in the mapping of neural oscillations, their variability, and relationship to other oscillations across scales as relevant to phenomenological experience.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Shuying Yu Graduate Student	Shuying's research investigates the role of sex steroid hormones on the neural circuitry that supports spatial navigation in midlife women and men.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Hongbo Yu Assistant Professor	Dr. Yu combines behavioral experiments, neuroscience and computational modeling to understand the relationship between emotion (e.g., guilt, gratitude) and morality and their neural representations.	Social Psychology
Lu Zang Graduate Student	Lu’s research examines how future time perspective, as an individual difference and cultural orientation, is mediated by construal level in shaping human relations, and well-being outcomes.	Social Psychology
Fangzheng Zhao Graduate Student	Fangzheng's research investigates the effectiveness of various designs, such as emotional designs and virtual instructors, on students' learning experiences and performance. She also explores the individual difference and most effective generative strategies in multimedia learning.	Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Shane Zheng Desktop Support	Provides desktop and user support for the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences.
Weimin Zhou Postdoctoral Researcher		Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience