Principal Investigator
Lab Director and Principal Investigator
Ph.D., University of California, Davis
Email: sghetti@ucdavis.edu
Post Doctoral Scholars
Christopher R. Gonzales, Ph.D.
Post Doctoral Scholar
Ph.D., Psychology, Arizona State University, 2018
B.A., Psychology, University of Northern Colorado, 2012
Email: chrgonzales@ucdavis.edu
Dr. Christopher Gonzales is a post-doctoral scholar at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis where he contributes to both the Memory and Development Lab (P.I. Dr. Simona Ghetti) and the Brain and Social Cognition Lab (P.I. Dr. Lindsay Bowman). Chris received his Ph.D. from Arizona State University in developmental psychology and was formerly a post-doctoral researcher at Oregon State University as part of the Kindergarten-Readiness project (P.I. Dr. Megan McClelland). His research aims to elucidate young children’s metacognitive development and its relation to related areas such as children’s theory of mind and executive functioning. His current research utilizes both neuroscientific and behavioral methods to understand how metacognition develops during the preschool years and how this influences children’s academic and social outcomes.
Graduate Students
Doctoral Candidate
B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior; B.A. in Psychology, University of California, Davis, 2015
M.S. in Psychology, University of California, Davis, 2019
Email: ssleckey@ucdavis.edu
Sarah’s work focuses on learning how toddlers and preschoolers utilize their memories to make decisions and how they learn to introspect on their cognitive decisions (metacognition). She uses behavioral, eye-tracking, and neuroimaging methods with both cross-sectional and longitudinal experimental designs to examine questions such as; how behavioral indicators of uncertainty in toddlerhood are related to overt uncertainty monitoring in preschool and how novelty preference may interfere with toddler’s ability to correctly act on their memories.
Alireza Kazemi, M.S.
Doctoral Candidate
B.Sc. in Electronic Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, 2011
M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Tehran, 2014
Email: kazemi@ucdavis.edu
Alireza likes to devote his entire professional life to understand and explain the mysteries behind this squishy piece of gray matter in our skulls. He is passionate about the intersection between computer science and psychology to explain how the human brain works. He is particularly interested in using different imaging methods to study the brain and develop models for the human memory and metamemory. Eventually, Alireza would like to understand the implications of human memory in decision-making, creativity, and intelligence.
Lindsey Mooney
Doctoral Candidate
B.S. in Psychology, Xavier University, 2015
Email: lnmooney@ucdavis.edu
Lindsey’s work focuses on hippocampal development and the development of episodic memory. She uses both behavioral and neuroimaging techniques in order to probe the trajectory of episodic memory development in infants and toddlers. She is broadly interested in the factors that contribute to memory development (sleep, semanticization, consolidation, etc.) and instances of atypical memory development in clinical populations.
Nicholas Christopher-Hayes
Doctoral Student
B.A. in Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015
Email: nchristopherhayes@ucdavis.edu
Nicholas’ research interests primarily focus on the neural correlates of relational memory and attention. Specifically, he wants to better understand how these systems change and interact across the lifespan. To accomplish this, he believes it is important to understand their trajectories during development and aging, both typically and under the constraints of divergent neurological or chronic health conditions. He is training to combine neuropsychological, neuroimaging, eye-tracking, and other scientific methods as investigative tools to pursue these research questions.
Personal Website | Twitter | ResearchGate | Google Scholar | Orcid | LinkedIn
Junior Specialist
Junior Specialist
B.S. in Human Development, Minor in Psychology, University of California, Davis, 2020
Email: apmahon@ucdavis.edu
Jasmeen Dadra
Junior Specialist
B.S. in Psychology; Minor in Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, 2021
Email: jdadra@ucdavis.edu
Lab Alumni
Graduate Students
Post-Doctoral Scholars
Junior Specialists
Dr. Clint Perry
MaD Lab Position: Junior Specialist
Current Position:
Visiting Scholars
Dr. Nesrin Destan
MaD Lab Position: Visiting Scholar
M.S. in Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland, 2011
Email: nesrin.destan@psy.unibe.ch
Current Position: University of Bern