Meriel Doyle completed dual B.A. degrees in Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Chicago. As an undergraduate, she worked as a research assistant at the Motivation and Cognition Neuroscience Lab, where she studied the influence of motivation on intuitive physical judgments. She also worked at the Human Nature and Potentials Lab, where she studied awe experiences and self-transcendence in children. Broadly, Meriel is interested in how people make moral decisions, and is especially interested in how these decisions can be modeled for use in AI. In her free time, she enjoys running, rock climbing, and seeing live music.

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Debbie Yee received her B.S. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT in 2011, and earned her Ph.D. in Psychological & Brain Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis in 2019. She is interested in integrating computational, neuroimaging, and psychopharmacological approaches to investigate cognitive and neural mechanisms of motivational/affective processes and their interaction with cognitive control and decision-making across the human lifespan (e.g., healthy aging) and in mental disorders. In her spare time, she enjoys running half marathons, hiking, and both consuming and making interesting flavors of artisanal ice cream.
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Ivan Grahek completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, and received his PhD in psychology from Ghent University, Belgium. His research is focused on the relationship between motivation and cognitive control in healthy and depressed individuals. He combines behavioral, neural, and computational methods to investigate how components of motivation guide the decision-making process about the allocation of cognitive control.
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Amanda Arulpragasam received her B.S. in Neuroscience and B.A. in Linguistics from Duke University in 2012 and earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Emory University in 2021. She is interested in integrating neuroimaging, non-invasive brain stimulation, and computational approaches to better characterize and understand motivational and decision-making processes in mood/affective disorders. She is also interested in applying imaging and neuromodulation to improve and develop novel treatments for psychopathology. Outside of the lab, Amanda spends her time hiking, cooking, cocktail-shaking, and obsessing over how cute her cats and pup are.

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Hayley Brooks obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Colorado State University, Masters’s degree in Psychology at New York University, and PhD in Affective, Social and Cognitive Psychology at the University of Denver. Her research combines behavior, psychophysiology, neuroimaging and computational modeling to understand how people make decisions efficiently and effectively. Hayley loves being a mom, running, coffee, cooking and spending time with friends and family.

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Jason Leng got his BSc. in Optical Engineering at Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China), and his MASc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Queen’s University (Kingston, ON). He then worked on the Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression program with Dr. Sidney Kennedy, focusing on the dysfunction of reward system in depression and its association with antidepressant treatment outcome. In his free time, he likes reading science fiction and history books, cooking Chinese food, and playing board games.
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Mahalia Prater Fahey completed her BA in Cognitive Science at Pomona College (Claremont, CA). She comes to Brown from Harvard University where she recently worked as a research assistant on the Human Connectome Project in Development. She is broadly interested in the development of decision making strategies and the neural and environmental factors that shape these strategies. Outside of research Mahalia can be found cooking, at the beach, or Skyping with her dog in California.
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Yi-Hsin (Sheen) Su had his BSc. in Electrical Engineering and Physics (double-major) and his MSc. in Electronics Engineering at National Taiwan University (NTU). After working as an engineer for one and a half years, he decided to shift his career into understanding how human minds work with the ultimate goal to help those suffering from mental illness. His general research interest lies in computational psychiatry. Before coming to Brown, he worked at the Modeling and Informatics Lab with Dr. Tsung-Ren Huang at NTU, focusing on the nature of learning-rate bias in experience-based decision-making. In his free time, he likes baseball, scientific writing, and rock music. He has also been engaged in fighting stigma toward people with mental illness.

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Ziwei Cheng is set to begin her PhD studies in Fall 2023. Ziwei completed her BA in Psychology and Statistics at the University of Colorado Boulder. Before joining Brown, she worked at the Research on Affective Disorders and Development Lab and focused on neurocognitive markers for psychiatric health in adolescents and young adults. She is broadly interested in goal-directed behavior across motivational contexts and the translational utility of computational research.

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James Nesbit, class of 2024, is double concentrating in Psychology and Africana Studies. He is interested in learning about the nature of cognitive control and motivation within different communities. He is also curious about how varying social factors can manifest in mental decision-making outcomes. Outside of the lab, he likes to listen to podcasts, cook pasta, and catch up on reality television.

Aislinn Baxter, class of 2025, is double concentrating in cognitive science and international and public affairs. She is interested in decision making sciences, especially how to influence decisions, beliefs, and implicit biases. She enjoys iced coffee and sleeping for long periods of time.

Yihuan Dong is a senior majoring in Neuroscience and Psychology. She is interested in the interaction between cognitive control, affective processing, and long-term memory retrieval. She also has the particular interest in exploring the possible application of this interaction in real-life scenes, from the aspect of the possible ways that affective processing and long-term memory could facilitate cognitive control. Besides lab work, Yihuan enjoys traveling and cooking. She is also fascinated with Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

Rohan Kumaran, class of 2025, concentrating in Biophysics. He is interested in neural pathways, cognition, and neuromuscular mechanisms and their relations to biomechanics and pathology. Through exploring this interest, he hopes to make a contribution to the field of biotechnology in health delivery. In his free time, Rohan likes reading, practicing new languages, making music with his friends, going for a run, and engaging in mindfulness practices.

Ainsley Bonin is a senior majoring in Computational Psychology at Colby College (Waterville, ME). At Colby, she is a research assistant in the Huffman Spatial Cognition Laboratory where she studies spatial navigation. She is broadly interested in integrating computational, neuroimaging, and behavioral approaches to study episodic memory and decision-making. In her free time, she is a dancer and likes to cook!

Maya Hoffman, class of 2024, is concentrating in cognitive neuroscience. She is interested in how mental health disorders manifest in cognition. She is also interested in the role of ethics in decision making. Outside of the lab, Maya likes to run, spend time with friends, and play with her golden retriever, Rocky.

Maximilien Boucher, class of 2024, is concentrating in Behavioral Decision Sciences and pursuing a certificate in Data Fluency. His academic curiosity centers around the way people build their identities and beliefs through their social groups. Specifically, he's pretty interested in understanding what's driving all the political polarization these days – a topic he believes is becoming increasingly important in our divided world. In his free time, you'll often find Max exploring the beautiful outdoors of the Northeast or checking out the latest restaurant gems in the Providence area.

Meg Talikoff, class of 2025, is concentrating in psychology on the pre-clinical track. She is interested in the cognitive features of mood, anxiety and trauma-related disorders. Also, she is generally intrigued by positive or “happiness” psychology. Within both fields, she is excited to focus on decision-making processes. In her free time, she enjoys practicing yoga, playing music, watching bad TV and being with friends.

Tony El Nemer, class of 2026, is concentrating in Psychology and Computer Science. He is interested in behaviors and the mechanisms that drive them, specifically how these mechanisms may differ among populations. He hopes to use this knowledge to specifically impact low income and immigrant populations, giving them the resources they need. In his free time, Tony enjoys rock climbing, sloppily playing the guitar, reading, and hanging out with friends.