Graduate Students

Merve joined the lab in Fall 2021 after earning her master's degree in Cognitive Psychology from Middle East Technical University in Turkey. Her research mainly focuses on learning and transfer of attentional control settings. She investigates how people learn the associations between experienced conflict and implemented control settings, and how they transfer these control settings to novel situations. Additionally, she explores reward-based modulations of cognitive control, the dynamics of proactive and reactive control in aging, and how attentional control is adjusted at both item and category levels. She also investigates the influence of expectations—both global and local—on the modulation of control.

Merve's CV

Chris joined the lab in the Fall of 2023 after obtaining a master’s in Psychological Science from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he completed his thesis on the intersection of prospective memory and mindfulness and worked as a Visiting Lecturer in Psychology. With a curiosity for understanding how individuals manage their attention, prioritize tasks, and execute intentions, Chris’ research interests center around the complexities of cognitive control and prospective memory processes and their impact on everyday life. He is currently interested in investigating the capacity to which individuals can strategically and willfully bias their attention in efforts to heighten their control. Beyond the realm of academia, Chris finds joy in a variety of personal pursuits, including running, cooking, disc golf, and spending cherished moments with his wife, Molly.

Maddie joined the lab in the Fall of 2023 after graduating from Claremont McKenna College in 2021 and working for two years in a cognitive neuroscience lab at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she investigated age-related differences in how individuals represent categories and how they use that knowledge to generalize to novel situations. Her overarching research focus is on how memory and other related cognitive processes change (or stay the same) with age. She is especially interested in investigating the cognitive control mechanisms that support prospective memory, understanding how these mechanisms change with age, and developing strategies to mitigate the effects.