Cher Yang – 5th Year

Cher Yang is a first-year graduate student at the University of Washington, under Dr. Andrea Stocco. She received her B.S. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While she worked as a research assistant in UW-Madison, she developed interests in computational modeling. Cher’s research interests include the neural mechanisms of reward and reinforcement, linguistics, and the application of computational modeling in cognitive processing. After joining CCDL, she would like to explore more about the reward system employing computational models and other neuroimaging techniques.

Iris Kuo – 6th Year

Iris is a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in Psychology. A Seattle native, she received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Washington, where she first discovered her love for psycholinguistics and second-language acquisition. After graduation, she went on to obtain her Masters in Psychology from National Taiwan University, where she spent two years studying the neural correlates of Chinese classifiers utilizing fMRI. She is excited to be back at the University of Washington to study the transfer of linguistic skills both within linguistic domains and across non-linguistic domains, such as computer programming. Outside of the lab, Iris enjoys watching films/TV, drawing, and attending theater. Click here for her CV.

Theodros Haile – 5th Year

TeddyTheodros is a graduate student in the Cognition and Cortical Dynamics Laboratory. He received his undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts in Boston. His journey in research started with studying visual attention conducting psychophysics experiments as an undergrad. He went on to join a systems neuroscience laboratory at the National Eye Institute. For the past two, years he conducted fMRI and single-unit recording experiments with non-human primates to uncover the functions of the inferior temporal cortex. He is excited to be shifting his focus towards studying individual differences in learning and skill acquisition in his time at the CCDL and University of Washington. Theodros enjoys cooking extravagant Ethiopian dishes, baking bread, biking, dancing, and music.

Malayka Mottarella – 4th Year

Malayka Mottarella (she/her) is a fourth-year Psychology Ph.D. candidate in the Cognition and Cortical Dynamics Laboratory 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 – 4th Year

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.

Linxing Preston Jiang

Preston is a master student at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. His research interests include the applications of machine learning in Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) and computational modeling on neuro data. His past research focused on BrainNet – a multi-person brain-to-brain interface. Preston plans to keep working on EEG related research, also exploring new fMRI data modeling projects. During his free time, Preston likes to drink beer, work on open-source projects, and listen to Glass Animals.

Website: https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~prestonj/

Graduate Student Alumni

Patrick Rice

Patrick Rice is a graduate student at the University of Washington, pursuing a Ph.D. in Psychology under Dr. Andrea Stocco. Originally born in Australia, he grew up in Pennsylvania and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2013 with a B.S. in Neuroscience. Afterwards, he worked as a research technician for two years before joining the CCDL. Patrick’s research interests include the basal ganglia, motor control, decision making, and how the brain plans for random outcomes. Other than research, Patrick enjoys reading science fiction, cooking, exploring, and hanging out with his awesome cat.

Brianna Yamasaki

Brianna Yamasaki received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington in June 2018. Her program of research focuses on understanding individual differences in language and literacy development, with an emphasis on the role of executive processes (e.g., selective attention, inhibition, working memory). In particular, her work thus far has leveraged cognitive neuroscience, behavioral co-variance, longitudinal designs, and training studies to explore the overlap between language, literacy, and general cognitive mechanisms. She is interested in exploring how executive processes, and their underlying brain systems, support and constrain language and literacy development in populations such as second-language learners and individuals with language impairments. To view her CV click here.

Website: briannayamasaki.com

Roy Seo

She graduated from Indiana University with degrees in Psychology and Linguistics. During her undergraduate years, she examined the role of individual differences in working memory capacity as it relates to sentence comprehension. Through pursuing a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology, she would like to continually explore the neural circuitry involved in the control mechanisms of language processing (e.g., code switching in bilingualism) employing various neuroimaging methodologies. To view her CV click here.

Jose Ceballos

He received his undergraduate degree in Linguistics with a focus in psychobiology from the University of Florida, where he conducted research on the differences in syntactic and semantic processing across various groups of bilingual speakers of English and Spanish. During his PhD studies in the Cognitive Neurosciences Jose wants to investigate the neural basis of higher-level cognition & language. He is particularly interested in the interrelatedness of various cognitive functions and wants to further investigate this topic through innovative neuroimaging techniques. To view his CV click here.