Graduate training provided by the department equips students for research and teaching careers in the range of
disciplines that constitute the Brain & Cognitive Sciences. We see this in the topics of the PhDs
awarded to students working with our faculty, and in the appointments these graduates hold subsequently.
2012
Elizabeth Hirshorn
Dissertation Title: Exploring Alternate Routes to Literacy in Profoundly Deaf Individuals
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pittsburgh
Jaewon Hwang
Dissertation Title: Face and Vocalization Processing in the Primate Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University
2011
Kathleen Carbary
Dissertation Title: Syntactic Priming, Message Formation, and Successful Communication in Unscripted Dialogue
Current Position: Psychology Instructor, Columbia Basin College
Natalie Klein
Dissertation Title: Convention and Cognition: Weak Definite Noun Phrases
Current Position: Human Subjects Protection Scientist (CTR), Brooke Army Medical Center
2010
Austin Frank
Dissertation Title: Integrating Linguistic, Motor, and Perceptual Information in Language Production
Current Position: Research Scientist at Amazon.com
Alison Austin
Dissertation Title: When children learn more than what they are taught: Regularization in child and adult learners
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Connecticut
Neil Bardhan
Dissertation Title: Adults' self-directed learning of an artificial lexicon
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute
Renjie Li
Dissertation Title: The effects of action video game playing on low level vision
Current Position: Data Analyst, Blizzard Entertainment
Patricia Reeder
Dissertation Title: Distributional cues to grammatical categorization: Acquiring categories in a miniature artificial grammar
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Rochester
2009
Vikranth Rao Bejjanki
Dissertation Title: Computing the Face of Uncertainty: From Neurons to Behavior
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Rochester
2008
Meghan Clayards
Dissertation Title: The ideal listener: Making optimal use of acoustic-phonetic cues for word recognition
Current Position: Assistant Professor, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University
Benjamin Faber
Dissertation Title: Learning hierarchies: acquiring hierarchical structure from miniature artificial languages
Current Position: Assistant Professor, College of St. Benedict and St. John's University
Christopher Shawn Green
Dissertation Title: The effects of action video game experience on perceptual decision making
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Hal Greenwald
Dissertation Title: Getting a grip on 3-D surface orientation: Binocular vision, cue integration and computation
Current Position: Senior Artificial Intelligence Engineer, MITRE
Jelena Jovancevic
Dissertation Title: Control of attention and gaze in complex environments
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Geriatric, University of Pittsburgh
Mikhail Masharov
Dissertation Title: Reference resolution and discourse salience
Current Position: Research Assistant, University of Dundee
Constantin Rothkopf
Dissertation Title: Modual models of task based visually guided behavior
Current Position: Lecturer Goethe University
2007
Ellen Campana
Dissertation Title: Natural versus standardized approaches to spoken system design: a comparison using the dual-task paradigm
Current Position: NLP Researcher at Apixio
Melchi Michel
Dissertation Title: Statistical mechanisms and constraints in perceptual learning: what can we learn?
Current Position: Rutgers University
Kathleen Pirog Revill
Dissertation Title: Examining the unspoken word recognition: semantic representation and integration
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Georgia Institute of Technology
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
Current Position: Career Development Fellow, Medical Research Council's Institute for Hearing Research, Glasgow, Scotland
Volodymyr Ivanchenko
Dissertation Title: Cue-Dependent and Cue Invariant Mechanisms in Perception and Perceptual Learning
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute
Jeong Woo Sohn
Dissertation Title: Action Value and Motor Sequence Representation in the Primate Medial Frontal Cortex
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh
Rachel Sussman
Dissertation Title: Verb-Instrument Information During On-Line Processing
Current Position: Online Editor, Fidelity Web Design
Elizabeth Wonnacott
Dissertation Title: Acquiring argument structure from the input distribution: A miniature language study
Current Position: Assistant Professor, The University of Warwick
2005
Sarah Brown-Schmidt
Dissertation Title: Language Processing in Conversation
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Sarah Creel
Dissertation Title: The Role of Talker Variation in Lexical Access
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of California, San Diego
Jason Droll
Dissertation Title: How Tasks Demands and Prior Knowledge Control Eye Movements, Visual Attention and Use of Working
Memory
Current Position: Senior Human Factors Scientist, Transportation Group
2004
Bob McMurray
Dissertation Title: Within-category Variation is Used in Spoken Word Recognition: Temporal Integration at Two Time
Scales
Current Position: Associate Professor, University of Iowa
2003
Joseph E. Atkins
Dissertation Title: Experience-dependent Visual Cue Integration Based on Consistencies and Disrepancies Between Visual and
Haptic Percepts
Current Position: Research Scientist, Colby College
Mrim Boutla
Dissertation Title: Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying Capacity Limits in Working Memory: Insights from American Sign
Language
Current Position: Co-Founder and Managing Partner, More Than Money Careers, LLC
Marie Coppola
Dissertation Title: The Emergence of Grammatical Categories in Home Sign: Evidence from Family-based Gesture Systems in
Nicaragua
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Connecticut
Sophie Deneve
Dissertation Title: Optimal Estimations and Computations with Population Codes by Interconnected Cortical Networks
Current Position: Faculty Member, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France
Melissa Dominguez
Dissertation Title: Developing Vision
Current Position: Research Associate, McMaster University
Julie Heinrich
Dissertation Title: Neural Correlates of the Sensitive Period for Avian Song Learning
Current Position: Research Associate, University of Notre Dame
Heidi Hofer
Dissertation Title: Implications of the Trichromatic Mosaic for Color Vision
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Houston College of Optometry
Carla L. Hudson-Kam
Dissertation Title: Pidgins, Creoles, and Learners: How Children and Adults Contribute to the Formation of Creole
Languages
Current Position: Associate Professor, University of British Columbia
Daniel S. Koo
Dissertation Title: On the Nature of Phonological Representations and Processing Strategies in Deaf Cuers of English
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Georgetown University
Luisa Scott
Dissertation Title: Mechanisms of Neural and Vocal Plasticity in the Adult Song Bird
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas, Austin
Susan P. Thompson
Dissertation Title: The Role of Transitional Probability in the Induction of the Phrases of a Miniature Artificial
Language
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Monroe Community College
2002
Inge-Marie Eigsti
Dissertation Title: Word Learning and Memory Functions in Young Children with Autism
Current Position: Associate Professor, University of Connecticut
Ruskin H. Hunt
Dissertation Title: The Induction of Categories from Distributionally Defined Contexts: Evidence from a Serial Reaction
Time Task
Current Position: Research Associate, Cognitive Development & Neuroimaging LabUniversity of Minnesota
Keith Schneider
Dissertation Title: On Visual Prior Entry
Current Position: Associate Professor, York University
2001
Craig G. Chambers
Dissertation Title: The Dynamic Construction of Referential Domains
Current Position: Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga
Jeffry A. Coady
Dissertation Title: The Development of Sensitivity to Probabilistic Phonotactic Structure: Implications for Children's
Lexical Representations
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Boston University
Joy E. Hanna
Dissertation Title: The Effects of Linguistic Form, Common Ground, and Perspective on Domains of Referential
Interpretation
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Oberlin College
James S. Magnuson
Dissertation Title: The Microstructure of Spoken Word Recognition
Current Position: Associate Professor, University of Connecticut
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
Current Position: Senior Service Fellow/Health Scientist, Centers for Disease Control
Bonnie Ward
Dissertation Title: Characterizing the Relationship between Brain Space and Avian Vocal Learning
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford
1999
Ione Fine
Dissertation Title: Perceptual Learning for Discriminating Complex Gratings
Current Position: Associate Professor, University of Washington
Cornell W. Juliano
Dissertation Title: Frequency Effects on Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution during Sentence Processing
Current Position: Industrial Design Specialist, Xerox Corporation
James R. Müller
Dissertation Title: Gain Controls and Pattern-selectivity in Striate Cortex (V1)
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University
1998
David G. Bensinger
Dissertation Title: Visual Working Memory in the Context of Ongoing Natural Behaviors
Current Position: Information Technology Consultant, Self-employed
Barbara Ann Etzel
Dissertation Title: Adult Female-specific Environment-related SI: Role of Reproductive Hormones During Different Periods of
Development
Current Position: Associate Professor, Finger Lakes Community College
Kirsten K. Rudolph Noble
Dissertation Title: Motion and Form Perception following Lesions of Areas MT/MST and V4 in the Macaque Monkey
Current Position: Research Scientist, Visionics Corp.
1997
Mark E. Basham
Dissertation Title: The Role of NMDA Receptors in Zebra Finch Song Learning
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Regis University
Andrea Li
Dissertation Title: Color and Brightness in Texture Segmentation
Current Position: Associate Professor, Psychology, Queens College City University of New York
Seth David Pollak
Dissertation Title: Early Experience and Cognitive Processing of Emotional Cues in Maltreated Children
Professor of Psychology, College of Letters and Science,
Current Position: Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Jenny R. Saffran
Dissertation Title: Statistical Learning of Syntactic Structure: Mechanisms and Constraints
Professor of Psychology, College of Letters and Science,
Current Position: Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Kathleen Straub
Dissertation Title: The Production of Prosodic Cues and Their Role in the Comprehension of Syntactically Ambiguous
Sentences
Current Position: Chief Scientist, Human Factors International
Rebecca Webb
Dissertation Title: Linguistic Features of Metaphoric Gestures
Current Position: Visiting Instructor, University of Rochester
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
Current Position: Professor, The Wayland Baptist University
Keith Karn
Dissertation Title: Human Perception, Cognition and Action
Current Position: Adjunct Assistant Professor, Center for Visual Science
Gail Mauner
Dissertation Title: The Role of Implicit Arguments in Sentence Processing
Current Position: Associate Professor, State University of New York, Buffalo
Toben H. Mintz
Dissertation Title: The Roles of Linguistic Input and Innate Mechanisms in Children's Acquisition of Grammatical
Categories
Current Position: Associate Professor, University of Southern California
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
Current Position: Associate Professor, Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, Kobe, Japan
Jeff Pelz
Dissertation Title: Visual Representations in a Visuo-motor Task
Current Position: Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology
Michael J. Spivey
Dissertation Title: Integration of Visual and Linguistic Information in Real-time and in Real-space
Current Position: Professor, University of California, Merced
1995
Michael Burek
Dissertation Title: Regulation of Neuron Number during Sexual Differentiation of the Avian Brain
Current Position: Merck Pharmaceuticals
Leslie Cameron
Dissertation Title: Factors Determining the Latency of Saccadic Eye Movements
Current Position: Associate Professor, Carthage College
SuJean Choi
Dissertation Title: The Function of Noradrenergic Projections to the Hypothalamus is Altered During Adolescent Development
in the Male Rat
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh
Boris Goldowsky
Dissertation Title: Learning Structured Systems from Imperfect Information
Current Position: Director of Engineering and Development, Information Please
Joel Lachter
Dissertation Title: Processing of Unattended Objects in Vision
Current Position: National Research Council Fellow, NASA Ames Research Center
Daniel Yen Lin
Dissertation Title: The Effects of Neonatal Exposure to Cocaine on Responsiveness to Rewarding Stimuli in Young Adult
Rats
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, The Scripps Research Institute
1994
Sandra M. Aamodt
Dissertation Title: Activation and Expression of the N-methyl-D-aspartate Receptor during the Sensitive Period for Avian
Song Learning
Current Position: Freelance Science Writer
Susan J. Galvin
Dissertation Title: The Spatial Grain of Motion Perception in Human Peripheral Vision
Current Position: Lecturer, University of Otago, New Zealand
Kenneth Shenkman
Dissertation Title: Structure Sensitivity and Language Processing in Adult Learners of English
Current Position: Vice President and Director, Genesis Technology Group, Inc.
1993
S. Jandreau
Dissertation Title: Sentence Meaning and Discourse Meaning
Current Position: Senior Technologist, Language Technologies, Inc.
Per Möller
Dissertation Title: Influence of Color on Motion Segmentation
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Ann Skoczenski
Dissertation Title: The Development of Position Sensitivity in the Infant Visual System: Evoked Potentials, Motion and
Blur
Current Position: Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts Medical School
John Trueswell
Dissertation Title: The Use of Verb-Based Subcategorization and Thematic Role Information in Sentence Processing
Current Position: Professor, University of Pennsylvania
1992
Julie E. Boland
Dissertation Title: The Use of Lexical Knowledge in Sentence Processing
Current Position: Professor, University of Michigan
Walter Murphy
Dissertation Title: Speech Recognition in Noise: Developmental Changes Four to Six Years of Age
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University
Nobutoshi Sekiguchi
Dissertation Title: Contrast Sensitivity for Isoluminant Interference Fringes in Human Foveal Vision
Current Position: Deputy Director of Research and Development, PLUS Vision Corp.
1991
Roland Curt Burgess
Dissertation Title: Interaction of Semantic, Syntactic and Visual Factors in Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution
Current Position: Professor, University of California, Riverside
Robert Peterson
Dissertation Title: Lexical Activation and Phonological Competition in Form-related Priming
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Indiana University
Renee Primus
Dissertation Title: The Importance of Pubertal-Related Events on the Development of Adaptive Behavioral Responses and
Related Neural Systems
Current Position: Department Director, Neurogen Corporation
Farida Sohrabji
Dissertation Title: Neural Changes Associated with Sexual Differentiation and Early Learning
Current Position: Associate Professor, Texas A&M University Health Science Center
1990
Michael D'Zmura
Dissertation Title: Surface Color Psychophysics
Current Position: Professor & Chair, Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine
Mark Fairchild
Dissertation Title: Chromatic Adaptation and Color Appearance
Current Position: Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology
Ronald L. Gerrard
Dissertation Title: Auditory Masking in the Rat: Frequency Specificity, Auditory Filter Shape, and Effects of Noise-Induced
Hearing Impairment
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
top