Lab Director

Postdoctoral Fellows

Yang Teoh | Contact, CV, Web

Yang received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Toronto. In his doctoral research, he used computational models of decision-making to better understand the cognitive and affective mechanisms that explain how people make complex social decisions (e.g., altruism, cooperation, emotion expression). He is extending this computational approach to mechanisms of social learning during his Postdoc, investigating how people incorporate feedback from others and adapt to uncertain and changing social environments. In his spare time, Yang can often be found with his dog at parks, by lakes, and on the couch.

Alex Walker | CV, Contact, Web

Alex received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Waterloo. During his PhD, he studied the polarizing nature of partisan language, revealing how partisan linguistic choice can amplify partisan animosities and strengthen political disagreements. As a postdoctoral fellow, he is interested in using a multi-method approach to investigate how psychological processes interact with contextual influences to deepen political divides. Ultimately, through his work, he hopes to contribute to a science-based understanding of how to combat the social ills associated with rising political polarization. Outside of the lab, he enjoys going on long runs and exploring new places with his wife and daughter.

Graduate Students

Yi-Fei (Jerry) Hu | CV

Jerry obtained a B.S. in Psychology from East China Normal University in Shanghai, China. During his undergraduate, he studied social perception using virtual reality techniques. Now, he is interested in studying how people learn the social networks and use them to guide behaviors. Outside the lab, he, a sneaker head, loves to build Lego models and play basketball.

Alice Xia | CV

Alice received a B.A. in Political Science from UC Irvine and an M.A. in Cognitive Science from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She then worked as a Research Specialist for Sharon Thompson-Schill and Anna Jenkins at the University of Pennsylvania. She uses behavioral and computational methods to examine how people construct cognitive maps of social networks.

Daantje de Bruin | CV

Daantje received a B.Sc. in Psychobiology and an M.Res. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Amsterdam. After working as a research specialist in the lab for 2 years, she is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science. She is interested in how prior beliefs or experiences shape psychological processing and in the neural mechanisms underlying individual differences in social decision making. She is also interested in how neuroscientific findings can be used in daily life to improve the productivity of social interactions and policies. In her free time, she enjoys exploring new restaurants, binging Netflix series or catching up with her friends.

Jiajin (Molina) Zhang | Web

Molina earned a B.S. in Neuroscience and a B.A. in Anthropology from Emory University, where she studied how empathy supports adult caregiving among dementia caregivers. She then joined Dr. Dean Mobbs' lab at Caltech as a Research Assistant, where she studied safety perception under threat. She is broadly interested in using neuroimaging, behavioral paradigm, and computational modeling to study human social decision-making under uncertainty. Outside the lab, she enjoys playing with her cats, exploring new restaurants, skiing, and indulging in a good book.

Mingzhe (MZ) Zhang | CV

Mingzhe (MZ) received his B.S. in Psychology from East China Normal University and his M.S. in Psychology from Beijing Normal University. His previous research focused on using behavioral and neuroimaging methods to explore the neural foundations of social knowledge (e.g. social relationships), and how people use this knowledge to navigate the social world. Now, he is interested in combining neuroscientific techniques with computational approaches to investigate how people understand the social world and how this knowledge guides their perception and behavior.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Mia Nguyen

Mia is a sophomore from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam concentrating in Computer Science–Economics and Behavioral Decision Sciences. She is interested in the intersection of behavioral economics and technology, with a focus on decision-making models and data-driven solutions for financial services. Outside the lab, Mia is involved in Women in Business, Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, and also works as an Economics tutor. In her free time, Mia enjoys updating her bookstagram, competing with Brown’s table tennis team, and learning new figures in ballroom dance!

Crystal Wu

Crystal is a sophomore from Southern California concentrating in Applied Math-Economics and Behavioral Decision Sciences. She is interested in the intersection of marketing, behavioral economics, and business strategy, with a focus on consumer decision-making and brand development. Outside the lab, Crystal is involved in Class Coordinating Board, GRC, and Women in Business.  In her free time, Crystal enjoys exploring new cities, photo booths with friends, and consuming aesthetic cafe drinks!

Jianle Guo

Jianle obtained a B.S. in Psychology from UC Irvine, graduating as an Honors Program Scholar. During his undergraduate studies, he investigated how memory capacity and learning conditions shape inference and generalization, using computational models such as autoencoders to compare human and neural network representations. He is broadly interested in how people learn structured knowledge and use it to guide decisions. Outside of research, he enjoys bouldering, snowboarding, and exploring good food.

Kiele Morgan

Kiele is a Junior from New York City, concentrating in Neuroscience. She is generally interested in how our biology underpins our social world; how our neural tendencies can be used to explain larger social phenomena, such as gender divides, political polarization and culture formation. Outside of the lab, Kiele is a captain for the Brown Women's Club Soccer team, and an active member of Brown's Outdoor Leadership Training program. In her free time, she can be found hiking in the White Mountains, restaurant hopping around Providence, or lounging in a hammock on the main green.

COLLABORATORS

ALUMNI

Graduate Students

Samantha Reisman - Sam is now a grad student in the Mind & Morality Lab at Brown.

Jae-Young Son - Jae is a postdoc the Favila Lab at Brown.
Amrita Lamba - Amrita is a Simons Postdoctoral Fellow in the Saxe Lab and the Nock Lab at MIT & Harvard.

Joseph Heffner - Joey is a postdoc in the Rutledge Lab at Yale.

Lotte Warns (Master’s Student) - Lotte is a Junior Insight Analyst at Validators.

William (Willy) Lee (Master’s Student) - Willy is a Government and Public Services Business Analyst at Deloitte LLP.

POSTdoctoral fellows

Marc-Lluis Vives - Marc is currently an Assistant Professor at Leiden University.

Jeroen van Baar - Jeroen is currently a researcher at Trimbos: Netherlands Institute of Mental Health & Addiction.

visiting students & postdocs

Jasmin Richter (Visiting Postdoc)

Hugo Snijders (Visiting Grad Student) - PhD Candidate at Radboud University.

Qian Cui (Visiting Postdoc) - Qian Cui is at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Daniel Toribio-Florez (Visiting Master’s Student) - Daniel is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute.

LAB MANAGERS

AvA (Mengxin) Ran

Isabella Aslarus (Lab Manager / Research Assistant) - Izzy is a graduate student in the Stanford Social

Neuroscience Laboratory at Stanford.

Armin Maddah

Evelyn Morris (Lab Manager) - Evie is a Program Associate in the Crime and Education Labs at the UChicago Urban Labs.

Logan Bickel (Lab Manager) - Logan is currently a Quantitative UX Research Associate at Google.

UNDERGRAD RESEARCH ASSISTANTS

Kayleigh Danowski

Sofía Vaca Narvaja

Samantha Shulman

Maya Mazumder

Elizabeth Duchan

Eric Ingram

Grace Deng

Tina Tan

Danai Benopoulou

Haoxue Fan

Nina Zhao

Yutong Liu
Ameyo Attila
Tali Sorets
Zach Woessner

Nancy Nkoudou

Margo Hu

Qianhui Ni

Deng Pan

Evan Dong

Mehak Malhotra

Amelia Michaels