Directors

Graduate Students

Malayka Mottarella

Research Interests:

Complex skill learning
Language aptitude
Resting-state brain measures
Working memory

Malayka Mottarella (she/her) is a fifth-year Psychology Ph.D. candidate in the Cognition and Perception area supervised by Dr. Chantel Prat. Malayka received her B.A. in Psychology from Willamette University in 2017 and her M.S. in Psychology from UW in 2022. Her research is broadly focused on understanding individual differences in the neural underpinnings of complex skill performance and acquisition among healthy adults. Her current work uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how phonological language networks support comprehending computer code. To view her CV click here.

Holly Hake

Research Interests:

Computational psychiatry
Memory
Cognitive modeling

Holly is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Graduate Program in Neuroscience, specializing in computational psychiatry. She earned her BSc in Psychology and Religious Studies from the University of Colorado, where her research focused on MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. As a postbaccalaureate research fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, she mapped neural circuitry linked to anxiety and depression and actively contributed to destigmatizing mental illness and addiction within her community. Currently, Holly’s dissertation focuses on using computational models to track memory decline in patient populations and neurostimulation protocols as a potential therapeutic intervention. Outside of academia, Holly combines her love for neuroscience and film, merging visual storytelling with her scientific interests.

Faculty

Anaïs Capik

Research Coordinator

Research Interests:

Cognitive neuroscience
Memory
Dementia-related illnesses

Anaïs Capik (she/her) is a postbac fellow at the Cognition & Cortical Dynamics Laboratory, having earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Washington. Her research journey began at the LCD Laboratory at UW, where she explored the correlation between pupil dilation and short-term memory.

Currently, Anaïs spearheads a project investigating the impact of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on individuals afflicted with early-onset Alzheimer’s and dementia-related conditions. Additionally, she is actively engaged in a project in the CCDL laboratory, focusing on the assessment of memory quality in children and memory over the lifespan. This initiative is part of a broader project aimed at quantitatively measuring memory decline. Anaïs Capik’s academic path is marked by her diverse research interests in memory, cognition, and neuroscience.

In her spare time, Anaïs is typically on the top of random mountains. You can usually find her excitedly jumping up and down when she hears the word “ski” and she is happiest when hanging on a rock on a hard rock climb.

Honor Students

Siyu (Louisa) Chen

Psychology Undergraduate Student

Louisa is an undergraduate student at the University of Washington, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Informatics, Data Science, and Global Health. She has a particular interest in cognitive psychology and the intersection of psychology and technology. She is working on investigating the role of breaks in the frequency of mind wandering during sustained attention tasks in CCDL. Outside of research, she also enjoys Chinese calligraphy, playing the piano, photography, and cooking.

Siqi Mao

Psychology Undergraduate Student

Siqi is an undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and minoring in Informatics. She’s really captivated by the way our brains function, especially when it comes to mental disorders, and she’s looking to merge that with computer. Currently, she’s working on a research project at CCDL that explores the effects of mindfulness meditation on memory.