While the majority of our graduate students have backgrounds in psychology, many majored in anthropology, biology, education, english, history, linguistics, mathematics, philosophy, and sociology as undergraduates. The graduate students come from all parts of the United States as well as many foreign countries. Those completing a doctoral degree usually take from five to six years. The titles of some of the dissertations completed give an idea of some of the research created in the programs.

Barakzai, Anam "Which Side Are You On? How Friends Balance Competing Obligations of Alliances and Morality" 2019.
User Experience Researcher, RingCentral

Cardenas-Iniguez, Carlos "A critical examination of the impact of social stratification and the environment on brain development and mental health" 2019.
Teaching Fellow in the Social Sciences, University of Chicago

Faig, Kelly "The Psychophysiology of Social Behavior: A Focus on the Behavioral Immune System" 2019.
Postdoc, Duke University

Foster, Josh "Alpha-band oscillations track spatial priority in the human brain" 2019.
Postdoc, Boston University

Gijssels, Tom "Action language understanding reflects bodily and social experience" 2019.

Kardan, Omid "Scale-free brain activity as a measure of cognitive effort and learning potential" 2019.
Postdoc, University of Chicago

Layden, Elliot "Functional Connectivity Signatures of Interhemispheric Coordination and Vocal Learning in the Zebra Finch Brain" 2019.
Data Scientist, Data Discovery, and Decision Science (D3) Department at Allstate

Schaeffer, MarjorieUnderstanding How Key Socializers' Attitudes Influence Children's Math Performance; 2019.
Assistant Professor, St. Mary's College

Mangelsdorf, Heather "Using Parasympathetic Activity to Gain Insights into Gesture and Learning" 2018.
Visiting Assistant Professor, North Central College, Naperville, IL

Berkowitz, Talia "The influence of parent math anxiety on children's early math input and knowledge" 2018.
Postdoc, University of Chicago

Bregent, Jessica "The Intuitive Jurisprudence of Punishment" 2018.
Jerome Hall Postdoctoral fellow, Indiana University Law School

Chen, Yung-Tsen "Effect of Aging Stereotype Activation on Older Adults' Memory and Neural Activity" 2018.
Teaching Fellow in the Social Sciences, University of Chicago

Adam, Kirsten "Characterizing the limits of visual working memory" 2018.
Postdoc, University of California, San Diego

Brookshire, Geoffrey "Temporal predictions in perception and language comprehension" 2018.
Postdoc with Ole Jensen, University of Birmingham, UK

Dimitroff, Stephanie "Physiological responses to the distress of others" 2018.
Postdoc with Jens Pruessner, University of Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg,Germany

Doss, Manoj "The Effects of Recreational Drugs on Emotional Episodic Memory" 2018.
Postdoc with Frederick Barrett and Roland Griffiths, Johns Hopkins University

Hu, Peter "Solving Problems With Insightful Thinking" 2018.

Researcher at the FAA

Pitt, Benjamin "Metaphorical mappings of time and number: How cultural experience shapes cognitive universals" 2018.
Postdoc, University of California (Berkeley)

Smith, Karen "Individual Differences in Young Children’s Responses to Stress: The Role of Perception" 2018.
Postdoc with Seth Pollak, University of Wisconsin

Sutterer, David "Tracking feature-specific memory representations with oscillatory brain activity" 2018.
Postdoc, Vanderbilt University

Yap, Defu "Hidden iconicity in gesture, sign and spoken language" 2018.

Research Fellow, NTU Nanyang Technical University, Singapore

Henry, Andrea "The Role of Math Anxiety and Situational Anxiety in Math Performance" 2017.
User Experience Specialist, Centralis

Gibson, Dominic "Gesture’s Role in Bridging Symbolic and Nonsymbolic Representations of Number" 2017.
Teaching Fellow in the Social Sciences, University of Chicago

Gyurovski, Ivo "Predictors and Implications of Personal Finance Management" 2017.
Visiting Assistant Professor, Hamden-Sydney College

Hayakawa, Sayuri "Why using a foreign language changes our choices" 2017.
Postdoc with Viorica Marian, Northwestern University

Sattizahn, Jason "Error-Related Brain Activity, Anxiety, and Cognitive Performance" 2017.
Research and Development, Sony PlayStation

Chang, Hye Sang "The role of anticipation in the relation between math anxiety and math performance" 2017.
Postdoc with Vinod Menon, Stanford University

Rosen, Rebecca "What's in a voice? Effects of dialect perception on activation of crime stereotypes" 2017.
Research Analyst, Zubi Advertising Systems

Yoder, Keith "The Neuroscience of Justice Sensitivity" 2017.
Postdoc with Jean Decety, University of Chicago

Cable, Erin Circadian influences on the functional regulation of the reproductive and immune systems of Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus); 2016.
Adviser, Northwestern University

Congdon, Eliza Learning mathematics through action and gesture: Children’s prior knowledge matters; 2016.
Visiting Assistant Professor, Williams College

Filippi, Courtney From action to abstraction: The development of early social cognition; 2016.
Postdoc with Danny Pine, NICHD

Gray, Stephen Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Episodic Memory Retrieval; 2016.
Consumer Insights Analyst, Facebook

Klos, Serena Operation and Interaction of the Descending Control and Ascending Sensory Pathways in Audition; 2016.

Kotabe, Hiroki Disorder, Naturalness, and Their Influence on Aesthetics and Behavior; 2016.
Postdoc with Marc Berman, University of Chicago

Li, Tianyi The Impacts of Interracial Contact on Face Perception and Social Cognition; 2016.

Liberman, Zoe The origins of social categorization: Infants' inferences about social relationships and shared social attributes ; 2016.
Assistant Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara

Necka,Elizabeth Intrasexual Vigilance in Women: Social, Cognitive, and Neuroendocrine Mechanisms; 2016.
Postdoc with Lauren Atlas, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at the National Institute of Health

Novack, Miriam Perceiving Movement as Representational Across the Lifespan; 2016.
Postdoc with Steven Franconeri, Northwestern University

Wang, Wei Grouping in resolving chromatic interocular-switch rivalry; 2016.
Intern working on applied human vision projects, Samsung

Schroeder, Juliana "A Self-Other Motivational Asymmetry: People Overlook Others' High Level Needs Compared to Their Own" 2015.
Assistant Professor, Berkeley Haas Management in Organizations

De Jesus, Jasmine "Food as a cultural input: Children's differential consumption, evaluations, and beliefs about others' food choices" 2015.
Postdoc with Julie Lumeng, Susan Gelman, and Henry Wellman, University of Michigan

Fan, Samantha "The social benefits and consequences of early multilingual exposure" 2015.
MAPSS Johnson Lecturer, University of Chicago

Garvin, Laura "Children's Ability to Learn and Reason About Preferences" 2015.
Researcher, Customer Experience Index, Forrester Research

Howard, Lauren "The Development of Memory in the Context of Human Actions" 2015. 
Assistant Professor, Franklin and Marshall College

Van Hedger, Kathryne "Time Perception: Interoception and Psychophysiological Effects" 2015.
Postdoc with Harriet De Witt, University of Chicago

Van Hedger, Stephen "Individual differences in the formation and maintenance of absolute pitch categories" 2015.
Postdoc with Marc Berman and Howard Nusbaum, University of Chicago

Wynn, Ashley "Easier Said than Done: Exploring Majority Group Members’ Resistance to Multiculturalism" 2015.
User Researcher II, PROS

Flaherty, Molly "The Emergence of Argument Structure in Nicaraguan Sign Language" 2014.
Postoc with Susan Goldin-Meadow and Daniel Casasanto, University of Chicago

Majka, Elizabeth "Interpersonal Synchrony: A Tool for Regulating Core Social Needs?" 2014.
Visiting Faculty at the College of Elmhurst

Park, DaEun "Motivational Frameworks among Children in Early Elementary School" 2014.
Postdoc with Angela Duckworth, University of Pennsylvania

Frederick, Donald "Olfactory System Dynamics: The Role of Tasks and Oscillations" 2014.
Co-Founder of a Biotech Start-up

Brooks, Neon "Movements for Doing, Thinking, and Speaking: The Relationship Between Motor Experience and Gesture in Novice Mental Abacus Users" 2014.
Postdoc with Liz Spelke, Harvard Univeristy 

Zhou, Haotian "More than a Blood Pump: A Psychological Investigation of Folk Conception of the Heart" 2014.
Postdoc with Nick Epley, University of Chicago Booth School of Buisiness 

Applebaum, Lauren "Encouraging analogical reasoning during STEM learning: The role of cues to comparison" 2014.
Postdoc with Marcia Linn, University of California (Berkeley) 

Brawn, Timothy "Sleep-dependent memory consolidation in starlings" 2014.
Postdoc with Daniel Margoliash, University of Chicago 

Kontra, Carly "Leveraging Somatic Experience for Learning" 2014.

Allen, Elizabeth "Role for working memory in resolving perceptual ambiguity" 2013.
Lead User Experience Researcher, Prosper

Bradley, Sean "Interactions Between Food Intake and Biological Rhythms in Siberian Hamsters (Phodopus sungorus)" 2013.
Postoc with Timothy J. Bartness at Georgia State University

Goyle, Arina "The crossed-categorization approach to reducing racial prejudice: An investigation of the mechanism and methodological limitations of a novel mixed-race paradigm" 2013.
SSRS, Social Sciences Research Firm

Light, Alysson "Regulating the Uncertain Self: Consequences of Self-Uncertainty for Goal Pursuit in the Face of Temptations" 2013.
Postdoc with Grainne Fitzsimons, Duke University

Shockley, Elizabeth "The Case for Existence Biases" 2013.
Postdoc at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln)

Porges, Eric "Individual Differences in Peripheral and Central Physiological Responses to Observed Violence" 2013.
Post-doctoral fellow in the Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory, University of Florida

Cervantes, Sasha "Information Processing Style and Memory Accuracy: The Roles of Activation and Monitoring" 2013.
Assistant Professor, Governor's State University

Kampf-Lassin, August "Molecular Mechanisms of Seasonal Timekeeping" 2013.

Dautel, Jocelyn "Children's Reasoning About Language as a Social Category" 2013.
Lecturer, Queen's University, Belfast, Ireland

Mulqueeny, Kevin "Imagine Me and You: The Impact of Imagination and Physical Motion on Reading Speed for Concrete Transfer Sentences in First, Second, and Third Person Perspectives" 2013.
Education Research Scientist at Reasoning Mind

Ramirez, Gerardo " The Cognitive Mechanism Underlying the Math Anxiety-Performance Relationship in Early Elementary School" 2013.
Assistant Professor, UCLA

VanderMeer, James "On the Contrary: Reciprocity and Reflection in Conflict Escalation" 2013.
Insight Strategy Group

Beaudoin-Ryan, Leanne "What children's hands tell us about right and wrong: The role of gesture in non-spatial concept acquisition" 2012.
Researcher/Consultant at the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute

Hunsicker, Margaret "Nominal Constituent Development in Nicaraguan Homesign" 2012.
Director of Research and Evaluation, Horizons for Homeless Children

Khetarpal, Naveen "Conceptual structure and semantic variation for spatial relations" 2012.
Postdoc with Susan C. Levine, University of Chicago

Baltazar, Nicole "Social Influences on Children's Emotion Perception" 2012.
Research Analyst at Slover Linett Strategies

Ben-Ami Bartal, Inbal "Helping a cagemate in need: a rodent model of empathically motivated pro-social behavior" 2012.
Miller Research Fellow, University of California- Berkeley

Gunderson, Elizabeth "Individual differences in early number knowledge: variation in the learner and the learning environment" 2012.
Assistant Professor, Temple University

Bloomfield, Tiffany "Recursive Vocal Pattern Learning and Generalization in Starlings" 2012.
Software Test Engineer, Epic Systems

Echols, Stephanie "Racially biased attention to pain predicts group differences in empathic concern and helping behavior" 2012.

Heald, Shannon "Tuning the targets of speech production: Effects of articulatory and perceptual experience on speech production" 2012.
Postoc with Howard Nusbaum, University of Chicago

Lyons, Ian "A sense of order: How ordinality shapes the relations between symbolic numbers, basic quantity, representation, and mathematics" 2012.
Postdoc with Daniel Ansari, Western Ontario University.

Mattarella-Micke, Andrew "The Role of Approximate Number in Adult Arithmetic" 2012.
Postdoc with Bruce McCandliss, Vanderbilt University

Sim, Jessica "Good Groups, Good Members, Good Selves: Exploring How Individuals Harness the Utility of Groups" 2012.
Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Skelly, Laurie "The Brain Basis of Emotion Perception and Empathy in Criminal Psychopathy" 2012.
Data scientist at Datascope Analytics, LLC

Kang, Para "Binding the Features of Continuously Changing Visual Stimulus" 2012.
Postdoc with Dingcai Cao, University of Illinois at Chicago

Wong, Jessica "Ageist Stereotype Threat Effects on Memory and Metacognition in Older Adults" 2012.
Quantitative Analyst at Insight Strategy Group