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