Zoya joined the lab in Fall 2022 and is currently working towards her degree in Biopsychology. Her past experience working with preschool children at a Montessori School and previous psychology coursework is what inspired her to join the lab and learn more about developmental psychology and cognitive control. In the future, she hopes to attend graduate school to get her PhD in Human Computer Interactions and start a career in UX research or Marketing UX. In her free time, Zoya enjoys cooking new recipes, playing musical instruments, and spending lots of time with her family and friends.

Varun joined the lab in Fall 2022 as a cognitive science major with a computational emphasis. He is interested in learning how to bring technical skills to the field of psychology, and is excited to work with experiments and data using programming languages like R and Python. In the past, Varun has worked with elementary school aged children as a tutor, and is passionate about finding ways to effectively support their education. In the future, Varun plans on continuing to pursue research, and hopes to attend graduate school to further study cognitive science and related disciplines. In his free time, he likes to travel and compete in video game tournaments, listen to Taylor Swift, and spend time with his dog.

I am intrigued by Executive Functions of the brain, particularly our thoughts and decision making aspects; I’m fascinated by its ability to make decisions within milliseconds without us realizing it. I’ve worked with the homeless community and have deep empathy for our homeless United States Military Veterans, they inspired me to pursue my education and work in the field of mental health. I aspire to go to grad school and further my studies in Clinical Psychology in hopes of having a career in Mental Health. My ultimate self-care is hiking in remote locations and ending up near water whether it be an ocean or a river. My favorite places to hike are in Kauai, Maui, Lake Tahoe, Auburn, and Pacifica. I love California's heat and especially love it when it gets humid after rains. I delight in spicy Thai and Indian cuisines.

Sam joined the lab in Spring 2022 and is currently pursuing a degree in cognitive science. She is particularly interested in the cognitive development of learning & language, as well as personality and social psychology. In the (near) future, she plans to get her doctorate in psychology, with the hopes of working in therapy settings, academic settings, and possibly in research. Beyond the lab and coursework, Sam enjoys watching movies with her roommate, learning new things, and practicing yoga!

Negar joined the lab in the spring, of 2022. Negar is pursuing her BS and aiming to attend medical school afterward. She is excited to specialize in pediatrics. She is interested in how parenting and parent's behavior can affect and have an influence on children’s executive function and cognitive control. Also, she worked with people who suffered from dementia, and is interested in the relationship between neurological aspects of these patient’s brains with their long-term and short-term memories and executive functions. In her free time, she like to write and read poems and explore different coffee shops.

Jenny joined the lab in the Spring of 2022 after she graduated from UC Davis with a B.A. in Psychology in 2021. She is interested in studying how sociocultural factors influence bilingual language acquisition and production, especially for underrepresented bilingual groups. She raises questions like: how does culture shape the language-learning process and cognition in different-script bilinguals? In her free time, she likes to hip-hop dance, swim, and brew coffee.

Sreya joined the lab in Spring 2022 and is a 2nd year Cognitive science student at UC Davis. She is interested in the intersection of Neuroscience and Computational modeling and hopes to gain a better understanding of the topic through hands-on research and other experiences. She also enjoys working with children, and spends her free time tutoring elementary school children on fundamental math and reading skills or waitressing at a local Thai restaurant.

Aditi joined the lab in Spring 2022 and is currently a second year undergraduate student double majoring in Computational Cognitive Science and Communications at UC Davis. In the past, Aditi has worked with neurodiverse children to improve their social and academic skills and hopes to connect what she has learned there to what the lab is currently researching. More specifically she hopes to gain a better understanding of executive functions to apply it to designing more intuitive products for people. In the future, she hopes to pursue a career in UX / Product Design or Product Marketing, possibly a combination of both. With this she hopes to design products that are more accessible and usable to people with a broad range of neurological capabilities. When she’s not at school, Aditi enjoys spending her time reading at coffee shops downtown, working out with her roommate, and cooking new dishes.

Maire is a Human Development major and Psychology minor at UC Davis and joined the lab in the Winter quarter of 2022. She is very interested in the neuroscience of differences in executive function and contextual influences on cognition. After graduation, she hopes to continue participating in research around influences on mental health. She spends her free time with friends, listening to podcasts, and going on road trips.

Niki joined the lab in Winter 2022 and is pursuing a degree in Cognitive Science with a Computational emphasis. She is also apart of the ASPIRE program. Niki is interested in the effects of socioeconomic disparities on children’s cognitive development and finding strategies to reduce such effects. In the future, she hopes to attend medical school to pursue a career as a physician. She hopes to provide care for the underserved and uninsured communities to increase health care accessibility. In her free time, she enjoys reading Persian poems, training her dog, and swimming.