Alumni
See below for a list of BCS alumni. Click here to update your information.
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2024
Mia Anthony
Dissertation Title: Conceptual Framework for Cognitive Reserve Using a
Multidimensional Psychosomatic Approach
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University
Ashley Clark
Dissertation Title: Eye movement and eccentricity driven modulations of visual acuity and crowding across the central fovea
Current Position: Human Factors Scientist, Exponent
Emily Isenstein
Dissertation Title: A Multimodal Approach to Studying Visual-Somatosensory Integration in Autism
Current Position: Medical Student, University of Rochester
2023
Zach Burchill
Dissertation Title: Understanding the Nature of Maintained Information in Speech Processing and the Reliability of Standard Reading Time Analyses
Current Position: Data Scientist in Responsible AI, Meta
Zhen Chen
Dissertation Title: Flexible Neural Codes in Early Olfactory System at Multiple Timescales
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ying Lin
Dissertation Title: Perceptual Decision-Making: Building on the Classic and Embracing Novel paradigms with Age-Related Insights
Current Position: Scientist, Exponent, Inc.
Hayden Scott
Dissertation Title: Neural Tuning in High-Dimensional Stimulus Spaces
Current Position: Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Engineer, Foundry Digital
Brian Xu
Dissertation Title: Semantic Language Processing: Insight into Underlying Circuitry and Development using Neurophysiological and Neuroimaging Methods
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School
Zhetuo Zhao
Dissertation Title: Active Space-Time Encoding
Current Position: Human Vision Scientist, Magic Leap
2022
Joseph German
Dissertation Title: Explaining the Flexible Use of Conceptual Knowledge in Human Cognition and Runtime Learning
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego
Carol Jew
Dissertation Title: Exploring the Organization of Neural Object Representations Within the Visual Streams
Sabyasachi Shivkumar
Dissertation Title:Signatures of Suboptimality and Causal Inference in Perceptual Decisions
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Columbia University
Meng-Huan Wu
Dissertation Title: Knowledge in the Human Brain: Structured to Allow Easy Access for Subsequent Tasks
Current Position: Data Scientist, Microsoft
2021
Ankani Chattoraj
Dissertation Title: Models of Approximate Inference in Vision
Current Position: Data Science Engineer, Autonomous Vehicle Behavior Test
Shanna Coop
Dissertation Title: Neural Mechanisms of Presaccadic Attention and Foveal Prediction
Adam Danz
Dissertation Title: Predictive Steering Control and Neuronal Representation of Heading in Macaques
Current Position: Sr. Software Engineer, MathWorks
Annette French
Dissertation Title: Perceptual Processes Underlying Depth Judgement of Moving Object During Self-Motion
Current Position: Resident Physician, UNC Health
Janis Intoy
Dissertation Title: The Role of Eye Movement in High-Acuity Monocular and Binocular Vision
Current Position: AI and Data Consultant, Deloitte
2020
Christopher Bates
Dissertation Title: Efficient Data Compression in Human Perception
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
Wednesday Bushong
Dissertation Title: Maintenance of Subcategorical Information in Spoken Word Recognition
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Psychology at University of Hartford
Sunwoo Kwon
Dissertation Title: Understanding How Pre-Saccadic Attention Influences Predictive Oculomotor Behavior and the Underlying Neural Circuitry
Current Position: Human Factors Scientist, Exponent, Inc.
Richard Lange
Dissertation Title: Signatures of Approximate Bayesian Inference in Early Visual Perception
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Rochester Insitute of Technology
Nicole Peltier
Dissertation Title: Neural Basis of Object Motion Perception During Self-Motion
Current Position: Principal Data Scientist, TLR Ventures
Colleen Schneider
Dissertation Title: The post-stroke brain: A comprehensive, longitudinal assessment of vascular, neural, and perceptual changes
Current Position: Medical Scientist Training Program, University of Rochester Medical Center
Shirlene Wade
Dissertation Title: Situational Determinants of Curiosity: An experimental approach
Current Position: Data Scientist, Disney Streaming Services
2019
Frank Mollica
Dissertation Title: The Human Learning Machine: Rational Constructivist Models of Conceptual Development
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Melbourne
Matthew Overlan
Dissertation Title: Probabilistic Program Induction as a Model of Human Concept Learning
Current Position: Research Scientist, Google DeepMind
Elizabeth Shay
Dissertation Title: Neural Signatures of Compositionality in the Human Brain
Current Position: Senior Grants Development Consultant, Grants Office, LLC
Shaorong Yan
Dissertation Title: Predicting the Predicting Brain
Current Position: Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Spotify
2018
Quanjing Chen
Dissertation Title: The Representation of Tool in the Human Brain
Current Position: Software Engineer, Lucid Motors
Stephen Ferrigno
Dissertation Title: The Evolutionary and Developmental Origins of Human Thought
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Alyssa Ibarra
Dissertation Title: Understanding Reference Generation as a Goal-oriented and Dynamic Process
Current Position: Senior Information Analyst, University of Rochester
Alyssa Kersey
Dissertation Title: Developmental Continuity in the Neural Representations of Number
Current Position: Data Scientist, Enova International
Sarah Koopman
Dissertation Title: Phylogeny, Ecology, and Algorithms in the Origins of Numerical Cognition
Current Position: Research Fellow, University of St. Andrews
Linda Liu
Dissertation Title: Understanding Talkers: Adaptation, Generalization, and Causal Reasoning during Speech Perception
Current Position: Amazon Echo
Michael Melnick
Dissertation Title: Neural Efficiency and Processing: Understanding Visual Perceptual Processing using Transcranial Electrical Stimulation and fMRI in Cortically Blind Humans
Current Position: Lead Data Scientist, VERACIO
Amanda Pogue
Dissertation Title: Talker-specific adaptation and generalization of pragmatic expectations
Current Position: Data Scientist, ActionIQ
2017
Santiago Alonso-Diaz
Dissertation Title: Number Representation in Perceptual Decisions
Current Position: Research Professor, EGADE Business School
Keturah Bixby
Dissertation Title: Production Effects on Perception: How to Produce Sound Changes Auditory Perception
Goker Erdogan
Dissertation Title: Shape Perception as Bayesian Inference of Modality-Independent Part-Based 3D Object-Centered Shape Representations
Current Position: Research Scientist, DeepMind
Frank Garcea
Dissertation Title: The Organization of Manipulable Object Concepts in the Human Brain
Current Position: Research Assistant Professor, University of Rochester
Woon Ju Park
Dissertation Title: A Mechanistic Understanding of Atypical Visual Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dan Pontillo
Dissertation Title: Object Naming in Visual Search Tasks
Current Position: Computer Vision Engineer, Carmera
2016
Kaitlyn Bankieris
Dissertation Title: Is Synesthesia More Than Unusual Associations? Examining Cue Combination and Various Forms of Learning in Synesthetes
Current Position: Senior Data Scientist, Hackensack Meridian Health
Sarah Bibyk
Dissertation Title: A Rise by Any Other Name An Investigation of the Production and Comprehension of Rising (and Falling) Intonation in Posts
Current Position: NRC Research Associate, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Esteban Buz
Dissertation Title: Speaking with a (Slightly) New Voice: An Investigative Speech Changes, Communicative Goals, and Learning from Past Communicative Success
Current Position: Senior Data/Applied Scientist, SonderMind
David Kleinschmidt
Dissertation Title: Perception in a Variable Purpose Structured World: The Case of Speech Perception
Current Position: Research Scientist, Beacon Biosignals
Caleb Strait
Dissertation Title: Neural Mechanisms of Reward-Based Choice
Current Position: Senior Data Scientist, Medidata Solutions
2015
Tommy Blanchard
Dissertation Title: Value Computations and Representations
Current Position: Sr. Data Science Manager, Klaviyo
Cory Bonn
Dissertation Title: On Theories of Abstract, Quantitative Representation
Current Position: Data Scientist, Strong Analytics
Jennifer Merickel
Dissertation Title: Learning and Processing of Perceptual Confusability and the Mapping of Form to Meaning
Current Position: Health Science Administrator, National Institute on Aging
Ru-Yuan Zhang
Dissertation Title: Computational and Psychophysical Mechanisms of Brain Plasticity induced by Perceptual Learning
Current Position: Associate Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
2014
Meredith Brown
Dissertation Title: Interpreting Prosodic Variation in Context
Robert Emerson
Dissertation Title: Cognitive Neuroscience of Mathematics: Tuning up the Number System
Maryia Fedzechkina
Dissertation Title: Communicative Efficiency, Language Learning, and Language Universals
Whitney Gegg-Harrison
Dissertation Title: Knowledge and Naming in Interactive Conversation
Elisabeth Karuza
Dissertation Title: Learning Across Space, Time and Input Modality: Towards an Integrative, Domain-General Account of the Neural Substrates Underlying Visual and Auditory Statistical Learning
Ting Qian
Dissertation Title: Rational Perspectives on the Role of Stimulus Order in Human Cognition
Ilker Yildirim
Dissertation Title: From Perception to Conception: Learning Multisensory Representations
2013
Judith Degen
Dissertation Title: Alternatives in Pragmatic Reasoning
Kevin Dieter
Dissertation Title: Influences of Selected Attention during Binocular Rivalry
Alex Fine
Dissertation Title: Prediction, Error, and Adaptation During Online Sentence Comprehension
Davis Glasser
Dissertation Title: Adaptation, Modularity, and Mechanisms of Suppression in the Motion System
Laurel Issen
Dissertation Title: Using Optic Flow to Determine Direction of Heading: Patterns of Spatial Information Use in Visually-Intact Human Observers and Following Vision Loss
Celeste Kidd
Dissertation Title: Rational Approaches to Learning and Development
Hyung Goo Kim
Dissertation Title: Neural Basis of Depth Perception from Motion Parallax
Ashley McDermott
Dissertation Title: A Comparison of Two Video Game Genres as Cognitive Training Tools in Older Adults
Emin Orhan
Dissertation Title: Theoretical Investigations in Visual Short-Term Memory: Structured Probabilistic Representations, Model Mismatch and Neural Population Coding
David Ruskin
Dissertation Title: Cognitive Influences on the Evolution of New Languages
2012
Kristen Gorman
Dissertation Title: Investigating Interlocutors' Use of Common Ground During the Comprehension and Production of Referring Expressions
Elizabeth Hirshorn
Dissertation Title: Exploring Alternate Routes to Literacy in Profoundly Deaf Individuals
Jaewon Hwang
Dissertation Title: Face and Vocalization Processing in the Primate Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex
Christina Kim
Dissertation Title: Generating Alternatives: Interpreting Focus in Discourse
Starling, Sarah
Dissertation Title: Learning and Behavior in an Uncertain World: Probability Learning in Children and Adults
2011
Kathleen Carbary
Dissertation Title: Syntactic Priming, Message Formation, and Successful Communication in Unscripted Dialogue
Natalie Klein
Dissertation Title: Convention and Cognition: Weak Definite Noun Phrases
2010
Alison Austin
Dissertation Title: When children learn more than what they are taught: Regularization in child and adult learners
Neil Bardhan
Dissertation Title: Adults' self-directed learning of an artificial lexicon
Austin Frank
Dissertation Title: Integrating Linguistic, Motor, and Perceptual Information in Language Production
Renjie Li
Dissertation Title: The effects of action video game playing on low level vision
Patricia Reeder
Dissertation Title: Distributional cues to grammatical categorization: Acquiring categories in a miniature artificial grammar
2009
Vikranth Rao Bejjanki
Dissertation Title: Computing the Face of Uncertainty: From Neurons to Behavior
2008
Meghan Clayards
Dissertation Title: The ideal listener: Making optimal use of acoustic-phonetic cues for word recognition
Benjamin Faber
Dissertation Title: Learning hierarchies: acquiring hierarchical structure from miniature artificial languages
Christopher Shawn Green
Dissertation Title: The effects of action video game experience on perceptual decision making
Hal Greenwald
Dissertation Title: Getting a grip on 3-D surface orientation: Binocular vision, cue integration and computation
Jelena Jovancevic
Dissertation Title: Control of attention and gaze in complex environments
Mikhail Masharov
Dissertation Title: Reference resolution and discourse salience
Constantin Rothkopf
Dissertation Title: Modular models of task based visually guided behavior
2007
Ellen Campana
Dissertation Title: Natural versus standardized approaches to spoken system design: a comparison using the dual-task paradigm
Melchi Michel
Dissertation Title: Statistical mechanisms and constraints in perceptual learning: what can we learn?
Kathleen Pirog Revill
Dissertation Title: Examining the unspoken word recognition: semantic representation and integration
2006
William Owen Brimijoin
Dissertation Title: Auditory Receptive Fields and Responses to Frequency Modulation in Single Units in the Auditory Midbrain and Thalamus of the Bat
Volodymyr Ivanchenko
Dissertation Title: Cue-Dependent and Cue Invariant Mechanisms in Perception and Perceptual Learning
Jeong Woo Sohn
Dissertation Title: Action Value and Motor Sequence Representation in the Primate Medial Frontal Cortex
Rachel Sussman
Dissertation Title: Verb-Instrument Information During On-Line Processing
Elizabeth Wonnacott
Dissertation Title: Acquiring argument structure from the input distribution: A miniature language study
2005
Sarah Brown-Schmidt
Dissertation Title: Language Processing in Conversation
Sarah Creel
Dissertation Title: The Role of Talker Variation in Lexical Access
Jason Droll
Dissertation Title: How Tasks Demands and Prior Knowledge Control Eye Movements, Visual Attention and Use of Working Memory
2004
Bob McMurray
Dissertation Title: Within-category Variation is Used in Spoken Word Recognition: Temporal Integration at Two Time Scales
2003
Joseph E. Atkins
Dissertation Title: Experience-dependent Visual Cue Integration Based on Consistencies and Discrepancies Between Visual and Haptic Percepts
Mrim Boutla
Dissertation Title: Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying Capacity Limits in Working Memory: Insights from American Sign Language
Marie Coppola
Dissertation Title: The Emergence of Grammatical Categories in Home Sign: Evidence from Family-based Gesture Systems in Nicaragua
Sophie Deneve
Dissertation Title: Optimal Estimations and Computations with Population Codes by Interconnected Cortical Networks
Melissa Dominguez
Dissertation Title: Developing Vision
Julie Heinrich
Dissertation Title: Neural Correlates of the Sensitive Period for Avian Song Learning
Heidi Hofer
Dissertation Title: Implications of the Trichromatic Mosaic for Color Vision
Carla L. Hudson-Kam
Dissertation Title: Pidgins, Creoles, and Learners: How Children and Adults Contribute to the Formation of Creole Languages
Daniel S. Koo
Dissertation Title: On the Nature of Phonological Representations and Processing Strategies in Deaf Cuers of English
Luisa Scott
Dissertation Title: Mechanisms of Neural and Vocal Plasticity in the Adult Song Bird
Susan Thompson Pierce
Dissertation Title: The Role of Transitional Probability in the Induction of the Phrases of a Miniature Artificial Language
2002
Inge-Marie Eigsti
Dissertation Title: Word Learning and Memory Functions in Young Children with Autism
Ruskin H. Hunt
Dissertation Title: The Induction of Categories from Distributionally Defined Contexts: Evidence from a Serial Reaction Time Task
Keith Schneider
Dissertation Title: On Visual Prior Entry
2001
Craig G. Chambers
Dissertation Title: The Dynamic Construction of Referential Domains
Jeffry A. Coady
Dissertation Title: The Development of Sensitivity to Probabilistic Phonotactic Structure: Implications for Children's Lexical Representations
Joy E. Hanna
Dissertation Title: The Effects of Linguistic Form, Common Ground, and Perspective on Domains of Referential Interpretation
James S. Magnuson
Dissertation Title: The Microstructure of Spoken Word Recognition
Danielle S. Ross
Dissertation Title: Disentangling the Nature-Nurture Interaction in the Language Acquisition Process: Evidence from Deaf Children of Hearing Parents Exposed to Non-native Input
Bonnie Ward
Dissertation Title: Characterizing the Relationship between Brain Space and Avian Vocal Learning
1999
Ione Fine
Dissertation Title: Perceptual Learning for Discriminating Complex Gratings
Cornell W. Juliano
Dissertation Title: Frequency Effects on Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution during Sentence Processing
James R. Müller
Dissertation Title: Gain Controls and Pattern-selectivity in Striate Cortex (V1)
1998
David G. Bensinger
Dissertation Title: Visual Working Memory in the Context of Ongoing Natural Behaviors
Barbara Ann Etzel
Dissertation Title: Adult Female-specific Environment-related SI: Role of Reproductive Hormones During Different Periods of Development
Kirsten Noble
Dissertation Title: Motion and Form Perception following Lesions of Areas MT/MST and V4 in the Macaque Monkey
1997
Mark E. Basham
Dissertation Title: The Role of NMDA Receptors in Zebra Finch Song Learning
Andrea Li
Dissertation Title: Color and Brightness in Texture Segmentation
Seth David Pollak
Dissertation Title: Early Experience and Cognitive Processing of Emotional Cues in Maltreated Children
Jenny R. Saffran
Dissertation Title: Statistical Learning of Syntactic Structure: Mechanisms and Constraints
Kathleen Straub
Dissertation Title: The Production of Prosodic Cues and Their Role in the Comprehension of Syntactically Ambiguous Sentences
Rebecca Webb
Dissertation Title: Linguistic Features of Metaphoric Gestures
1996
G. Peter Bowen
Dissertation Title: Modification of the Acoustic Startle Reflex by Complex Sensory Prestimuli: The Roles of the Auditory and Visual Cortical Areas
Keith Karn
Dissertation Title: Human Perception, Cognition and Action
Gail Mauner
Dissertation Title: The Role of Implicit Arguments in Sentence Processing
Toben H. Mintz
Dissertation Title: The Roles of Linguistic Input and Innate Mechanisms in Children's Acquisition of Grammatical Categories
María Montserrat Sanz Yagüe
Dissertation Title: Telicity, Objects and the Mapping onto Predicate Types. A Cross-linguistic Study of the Role of Syntax in Processing
Jeff Pelz
Dissertation Title: Visual Representations in a Visuo-motor Task
Michael J. Spivey
Dissertation Title: Integration of Visual and Linguistic Information in Real-time and in Real-space
1995
Michael Burek
Dissertation Title: Regulation of Neuron Number during Sexual Differentiation of the Avian Brain
Leslie Cameron
Dissertation Title: Factors Determining the Latency of Saccadic Eye Movements
SuJean Choi
Dissertation Title: The Function of Noradrenergic Projections to the Hypothalamus is Altered During Adolescent Development in the Male Rat
Boris Goldowsky
Dissertation Title: Learning Structured Systems from Imperfect Information
Joel Lachter
Dissertation Title: Processing of Unattended Objects in Vision
Daniel Yen Lin
Dissertation Title: The Effects of Neonatal Exposure to Cocaine on Responsiveness to Rewarding Stimuli in Young Adult Rats
1994
Sandra M. Aamodt
Dissertation Title: Activation and Expression of the N-methyl-D-aspartate Receptor during the Sensitive Period for Avian Song Learning
Susan J. Galvin
Dissertation Title: The Spatial Grain of Motion Perception in Human Peripheral Vision
Kenneth Shenkman
Dissertation Title: Structure Sensitivity and Language Processing in Adult Learners of English
1993
S. Jandreau
Dissertation Title: Sentence Meaning and Discourse Meaning
Per Möller
Dissertation Title: Influence of Color on Motion Segmentation
Ann Skoczenski
Dissertation Title: The Development of Position Sensitivity in the Infant Visual System: Evoked Potentials, Motion and Blur
John Trueswell
Dissertation Title: The Use of Verb-Based Subcategorization and Thematic Role Information in Sentence Processing
1992
Julie E. Boland
Dissertation Title: The Use of Lexical Knowledge in Sentence Processing
Walter Murphy
Dissertation Title: Speech Recognition in Noise: Developmental Changes Four to Six Years of Age
Nobutoshi Sekiguchi
Dissertation Title: Contrast Sensitivity for Isoluminant Interference Fringes in Human Foveal Vision
1991
Roland Curt Burgess
Dissertation Title: Interaction of Semantic, Syntactic and Visual Factors in Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution
Robert Peterson
Dissertation Title: Lexical Activation and Phonological Competition in Form-related Priming
Renee Primus
Dissertation Title: The Importance of Pubertal-Related Events on the Development of Adaptive Behavioral Responses and Related Neural Systems
Farida Sohrabji
Dissertation Title: Neural Changes Associated with Sexual Differentiation and Early Learning
1990
Michael D'Zmura
Dissertation Title: Surface Color Psychophysics
Mark Fairchild
Dissertation Title: Chromatic Adaptation and Color Appearance
Ronald L. Gerrard
Dissertation Title: Auditory Masking in the Rat: Frequency Specificity, Shape Auditory Filter, and Effects of Noise-Induced Hearing Impairment