People

tamir lab 2021-2022


 

Lab Director

Photo of PI Diana Tamir

Diana Tamir

Diana studies how people think about their own minds and the minds of other people. She uses a combination of behavioral, machine learning, and neuroimaging methods. She received her Sc.B. in cognitive neuroscience from Brown University, her Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University, and postdoctoral training at Stanford University before starting as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Princeton University in 2015.

CV


 

Lab Manager

Lab Manager Mia Kussman

Mia Kussman

Mia is interested in examining different features of close interpersonal relationships. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Haverford College. Outside of the lab, she may be found exploring the local restaurant scene, cooking, or devouring a new book.


 

Post Doctoral Scholars

Haran Sened

Haran Sened

Haran studies the ways people's emotions are communicated to and perceived by others. He focuses on studying long-term close relationships, as well as the relationships between therapists and clients, using experience sampling and emotion sensing. Haran received his B.A. in psychology from Bar-Ilan University, his M.A. in clinical psychology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and his Ph.D. in psychology from Bar-Ilan University.

image of post-doctoral researcher Laetitia Mwilambwe-Tshilobo

Laetitia Mwilambwe-Tshilobo

Laetitia studies brain network dynamics during naturalistic social interactions. Her background is in cognitive neuroscience. She completed her Ph.D. in neuroscience at McGill University, where she focused on combining neuroimaging and network neuroscience methods to investigate the neural correlates of loneliness. She received a B.A. in neuroscience from the College of Wooster, a M.Sc. in neuroscience from the University of Hartford, and a M.A. in developmental psychology from Cornell University.

 

Sebastian Speer, a post-doctoral researcher

Sebastian Speer

Sebastian currently studies how two brains predict each other during naturalistic social interaction. In his first postdoc at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience he studied how we learn to resolve moral conflicts using reinforcement learning models. He completed his PhD in Neuroeconomics at the Rotterdam School of Management and Erasmus Centre for Neuroeconomics. His PhD research focused on combining neuroimaging with machine learning methods and behavioral experiments to investigate the neuro-cognitive processes underlying (dis)honest decisions.


 

Graduate Students

Portrait of graduate student Abla

Abla Alaoui-Soce

Abla is a second year graduate student in the Psychology Department. She is interested in the interplay between stories and cognition, with a particular focus on the influence of narrative structure on the structure of thought and memory. She received a B.A. in psychology from Harvard University in 2015.

Image of graduate student Faustine Corbani

Faustine Corbani

Faustine is a first year graduate student in the Psychology Department. She is interested in studying the dynamics of affect and thought during naturalistic social interactions. She received a B.A in Psychology and a B.A in Philosophy from Brown University in 2020. 

Portrait of graduate student Kara Enz

Kara Enz

Kara is a fourth year graduate student in the Psychology Department. She is interested in the role of episodic simulation in decision making. She received her B.S. in Psychology and her B.A. in music from Lafayette College, and her M.A. in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire.

website

Portrait of  graduate student Mira

Mira Nencheva

Mira is interested in the dynamics of communication during infancy and early childhood. She is especially excited to explore the different time-scales at which caregiver cues, such as prosody and facial expressions, act- from sub-second moments in a single interaction, to the accumulating statistical information over longer periods of time. She received a B.S. in symbolic systems from Stanford University in 2016. Outside of the lab, Mira can be found on long morning walks, drinking large amounts of tea, or trying to find every single jazz concert in the area.

Portrait of graduate student Stats Atwood

Stats Atwood

Stats’ research explores the development, perceptions, and implications of gender diversity in adults and children using behavioral and self-report measures. Previously, they received a B.A. in psychology and a B.M. in violin from Oberlin College & Conservatory. Outside the lab, you might find them playing violin, exploring nature, or snacking voraciously.

website


 

Research Assistants

Trinh Nguyen

Sky Gwei

Lucy Huelskamp

Shirley Xue

Alumni

Allen Delgado: Research Assistant (2021-2023)

Elle Freire: Research Assistant (2021-2023)

Nhuquynh Nguyen: Research Assistant (2020-2023)

Tia Rozario: Research Assistant (2021-2023); Currently Student in Duke University School of Medicine's Master's in Biomedical Sciences Program.

Mel Hornyak: Research Assistant (2021-2023); Currently Student in New York University's Master's in Fine Arts Program.

Judith Mildner: Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Researcher (2015-2023); Currently Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin and Woebot Health in the Gillan Lab.

MJ Schneider: Lab Manager (2021-2023); Currently Social Psychology Ph.D. Student at the University of Washington in the Social Identity Lab.

Katie Ippolito: Lab Manager (2020-2022); Currently Student in the University of Pennsylvania Master's in Education Program.

Seo Young Yoo: Research Assistant (2019-2022); Currently Research Assistant in the Adolescent Development Lab at UCLA.

Maya Rabinowitz: Research Assistant (2019-2022); Currently Research Assistant at the RAND Corporation.

Raven Bluford: Research Assistant (2019-2022); Currently Medical Assistant at Spring Valley Internal Medicine.

Lily Tsoi: Postdoctoral Researcher (2019-2022); Currently Assistant Professor at Caldwell University.

Shannon Burns: Postdoctoral Researcher (2021-2022); Currently Assistant Professor at Pomona College.

Nathan Liang: Lab Manager (2021-2022); Currently Ph.D. Student in the Applied Moral Psychology Lab at Cornell University and Research Coordinator for the Applied Cooperation Initiative (ACI) at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Zidong Zhao: Graduate Student (2016-2021); Currently Postdoctoral Scholar at Yale University.

Elyssa Barrick: Research Specialist and Lab Manager (2018-2021); Currently Graduate Student in the Clinical Neuroscience Laboratory at Case Western Reserve University.

Jordan Rubin-McGregor: Research Specialist and Lab Manager (2019-2021); Currently Graduate Student in the Hunger Lab at Miami University of Ohio.

Samantha J. Grayson: Research Assistant (2018-2021); Currently Ph.D. Student in Management at Columbia Business School. 

Thea Zalabak: Research Assistant (2019-2021); Currently Lab Manager in the Control and Decision Making Lab at Washington University in St. Louis.

Aaron Kurosu: Graduate Student (2014-2020); Currently Experience Researcher at Adobe.

Nickolas Jones: Postdoctoral Researcher (2018-2020); Currently an Instructor in the Department of Psychological Science at UC Irvine and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing.

Mark Thornton: Postdoctoral Researcher (2018-2020); Currently Assistant Professor & PI of the Social Computation Representation and Prediction Laboratory at Dartmouth College.

Mihir Gandhi: Research Specialist and Lab Manager (2019-2020); Currently Software Developer in the private sector.

Milena Rmus: Research Specialist and Lab Manager (2018-2019); Currently Graduate Student at the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at UC Berkeley.

Adam Lerner: Graduate Student (2015-2018); Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow in the Center of Bioethics at NYU.

Dominic Burkart: Research Specialist and Lab Manager (2017-2018); Currently Software Engineer at Datadog.

Miriam Weaverdyck: Research Specialist and Lab Manager (2015-2017); Currently Graduate Student at the Computational Social Neuroscience Lab at UCLA.

Meghan Meyer: Postdoctoral Researcher (2015-2017); Currently Assistant Professor & PI of the Columbia Social Neuroscience Lab.

Jordan Gunn: Research Assistant (2017); Currently Graduate Student in the Vanderbilt Computational Memory Lab.

Rachel Lisner: Research Assistant (2016); Currently Custom Insights Manager at The New York Times.

Meng Du: Research Assistant (2016); Currently Graduate Student at the Computational Social Neuroscience Lab at UCLA.

Ceylan Özdem: Visiting Graduate Student (2016); Currently Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Social & Media Neuroscience Lab at Michigan State University.


 

Lab Pets

pet cat Willow

Willow Enz

Willow is a biologist whose primary research interests are grass and insects. When she is not in the field conducting experiments, she enjoys aggressively cuddling and grooming her mom and her sister Sunny.

pet dog sunny

Sunny Enz

Sunny is a clinical psychologist studying anxiety using POV methods. She has found that treats, sniffs, and pets are the most effective interventions. As the original lab lab, Sunny gets first dibs on the couch.

pet dog Momo

Morrison Mildner

Morrison (MoMo) graduated from ACCT Philly in 2020 with a degree in Big Puppy Energy. He currently uses qualitative mouth-based methods to study how to be a Very Good Boy and how to convince other dogs to play. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his favorite humans and training them to give him attention and more bigger treats.

pet cats bug and tiger

Bug and Tiger Tamir

Bug's research interests include cuddles and sleeping.

Tiger is an expert in string on a stick and hiding in the sock drawer.

Mouse the cat

Mouse Atwood

Despite her innocent appearance, Mouse is a parkour expert and acrobat-in-training who is currently working to perfect her 3-foot leap-flip-twist combo. When not training, she enjoys chasing string toys, window sitting, and snoozing in cute pawsitions.

 

black border collie

Athena Alaoui-Soce

Athena is a sweet and fun loving pup. Her favorite activities include herding and singing when she sees her favorite humans. 

Image of a long-haired standard dachshund wearing red reading glasses.

Harry Kussman

Harry is a mischievous dachshund hailing from Newton, Massachusetts. His hobbies include hogging the couch, opening the fridge door, barking at rabbits, and hunting down snacks.