LAB MANAGER
Allison Chen allison.chen @ berkeley.edu
Allison is a Junior Specialist in the lab. She graduated with Honors from UC San Diego, where she received her B.S. degrees in Cognitive & Behavioral Neuroscience, Human Developmental Sciences, and a minor in Global Health. Her interests reside in understanding higher level cognitive function using neuroimaging and eye tracking. In the future, she hopes to explore these topics further in the aging population. Currently, she is assisting with the launch of new fMRI and behavioral projects in the lab to study the cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting relational reasoning.
Graduate students
Maggie Vashel maggie_vashel @ berkeley.edu
Maggie is a PhD student in Psychology, researching the function and whole-brain connectivity of the lateral aspect of the anterior prefrontal cortex (aLPFC). Maggie is interested in analogical reasoning, how the brain represents abstract concepts, learning, and computational modeling. She has a Master’s in psychology from San Francisco State University and a Bachelor’s in sociology from the University of Michigan. Maggie is coming to psychology as a career change after working as an analytics leader in healthcare.
Sahana Sridhar sahanasri @ berkeley.edu
Sahana is a PhD student in Psychology at UC Berkeley. Her primary advisor is Prof. Mahesh Srinivasan, and her secondary advisor is Prof. Bunge. She received her B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Linguistics from the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research interests include spatial skill development and language acquisition in young children, and she is excited to explore methods in neuroscience with the Building Blocks of Cognition lab! In her free time, Sahana likes to climb, drink large amounts of caffeine (preferably in the form of espresso, but she is not picky), and read.
POSTBACCALAUREATE STUDENTS
Qi Guo qguo7749 @ berkeley.edu
Qi is a postbac student in Psychology at UC Berkeley, working with Professor Bill Thompson and more recently in this lab. She is interested in the development of high-level cognition in young children and the brain mechanism behind the process. Leveraging fNIRS and behavioral approaches, she studies how children develop high-level relational thinking.
Undergrad RAs
Angela Ling
Angela is an undergraduate studying neuroscience and cognitive science. She is interested in childhood neurodevelopment and is currently working on the fNIRS projects. Outside the Bunge lab, she is also a member of the Ronda Lab at IGI and enjoys art, music, and cooking!
Shirley Nguyen
Shirley is an undergrad majoring in Psychology and Linguistics, assisting with the fMRI projects. She is interested in the intersection of cognition and language and how our mental processes shape and are shaped by the ways we communicate, think, and develop across the lifespan. Her research interests lie in cognitive neuroscience and developmental studies, particularly how language acquisition and cognitive control unfold in the brain. Outside the lab, she enjoys baking, hiking, and spending time with friends and family!
Katrina Wolters
Katrina is an undergraduate majoring in Cognitive Science and minoring in Linguistics. She is interested in learning about how cognitive and reasoning abilities develop, and how we can use tools like fMRI to examine and understand this process. She is also a research assistant and lab manager at the Whitney Lab for Perception and Action, where she studies visual perception.
Julia Dil
Julia is an undergraduate cognitive science student working on relational reasoning projects with fNIRS neuroimaging. She is interested in all things psychology and cognition related including child development and neuroplasticity. Outside the lab Julia enjoys reading, playing with her nephew, trying new recipes, and staying active.
Kabilan Vaikunthan
Kabilan is an undergraduate student majoring in Applied Math and Statistics. He is interested in the broad applications of statistics and computational modeling, especially in fields such as psychology. He is currently contributing to the relational luring project, where he applies statistical methods to analyze participant data.
Natalie Kwak nataliekwak @ berkeley.edu
Natalie is a first-year psychology major assisting with the RelDom project. She is interested in anything psychology and research related, especially the use of fMRI/MRI to study higher order cognitive processes. Outside of the Bunge Lab, she also works as a research assistant at the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic under Professor Harvey and enjoys cooking and spending time with friends!
Nick Zhang
Nick is an undergraduate student majoring in Cognitive Science and Philosophy. He is interested in studying the development of core knowledge systems through neuroimaging. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, he is now working on the numerical cognition project to understand how humans develop their number sense.
AFFILIATES
Anthony Dunn
Former full-time research assistant, now a graduate student at Dartmouth College with Prof. David Kraemer.
Suvi Haekkinen
Former postdoctoral fellow (co-mentored with Prof. Kevin Weiner), now a research scientist with Prof. David Feinberg at the Brain Imaging Center at UC Berkeley.