Principal Investigator
Simona Ghetti, Ph.D.
Lab Director and Principal Investigator
Ph.D., University of California, Davis
Email: sghetti@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Students
Sarah Leckey, M.S.
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
Sabrina Karjack
Doctoral Student
B.A. in Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2020
Email: skarjack@ucdavis.edu
Sabrina is broadly interested in how memory develops in young children and the development of the hippocampus. She is particularly interested in understanding infantile amnesia–how is it that a young child can learn so much about their surroundings and the world, yet forget all early life events? Beyond her research, she loves knitting, working with kids, and showing them that science has so much more to offer than what they learn in the classroom.
Junior Specialist
Alix Mahon
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
Dr. Elliott Johnson
MaD Lab Position: Graduate Student
Current Position: Post-Doctoral Scholar at the Temple University
& Dr. Penny Louise Johnson!
PUPhD in Pupology from UC Davis 2020
Dr. Christine Coughlin
MaD Lab Position: Graduate Student
Current Position: Post-Doctoral Scholar at the University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Joshua K. Lee
MaD Lab Position: Graduate Student
Current Position: Post-Doctoral Scholar at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute
Dr. Emily Hembacher
MaD Lab Position: Graduate Student
Current Position: Data Scientist at NextDoor
Dr. Kristen Lyons
MaD Lab Position: Graduate Student
Current Position: Associate Professor at Metropolitan University of Denver
Dr. Dana DeMaster
MaD Lab Position: Graduate Student
Current Position: Assistant Professor at University of Texas at Houston
Dr. Paola Castelli
MaD Lab Position: Graduate Student
Current Position: Associate Professor at John Cabot University in Rome
Post-Doctoral Scholars
MaD Lab Position: Post-Doctoral Scholar
Current Position: World Bank
Dr. Diana Selmeczy
MaD Lab Position: Post-Doctoral Scholar
Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Colorado
Dr. Janani Prabhakar
MaD Lab Position: Post-Doctoral Scholar
Current Position: National Institute of Mental Health
Dr. Yana Fandakova
MaD Lab Position: Post-Doctoral Scholar
Current Position: Research Scientist at the Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Dr. Thanujeni (Jeni) Pathman
MaD Lab Position: Post-Doctoral Scholar
Current Position: Assistant Professor at Queen’s University
Junior Specialists
Kelsey Davinson
MaD Lab Position: Junior Specialist
Current Position: Graduate Student at the University of Connecticut
Aidan Sandhoefner
MaD Lab Position: Junior Specialist
Current Position: Teaching English in Spain
Ethan Fox
MaD Lab Position: Junior Specialist
Current Position:
Pamela Gallego
MaD Lab Position: Junior Specialist
Current Position:
Peter Desautels
MaD Lab Position: Junior Specialist
Current Position: Staff Member at University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Dr. Clint Perry
MaD Lab Position: Junior Specialist
Current Position:
Jacqueline Pospisil
MaD Lab Position: Junior Specialist
Current Position: Facebook Research Unit
Julia Ross, M.D.
MaD Lab Position: Junior Specialist
Current Position: Pediatrician, M.D. from Virginia Tech Medical School
Marcos Sastre III, M.S.
MaD Lab Position: Junior Specialist
Current Position: Speech Language Pathologist at Speech and Voice Experience in Rockville, MD
Lauren Hunter
MaD Lab Position: Junior Specialist
Current Position: Graduate Student at UC Berkeley
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
Dr. Kepa Paz-Alonso
MaD Lab Position: Visiting UC Berkeley Post-Doctoral Researcher
Current Position: Bask Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language