Principal Investigator
| Russell A. Epstein, PhD Associate Professor, Psychology Goddard Laboratories, Office 522 epstein[at]psych.upenn.edu | CV |
I am a professor in the psychology department at Penn and I'm pleased to work with all the fine folks below. I got into this business somewhat by accident: after an undergraduate degree in physics at the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in computer vision with Alan Yuille at Harvard, I wandered into a postdoc with Nancy Kanwisher at MIT just around the time that fMRI was taking off. I then spend 2 years working with John Duncan at the MRC-CBU in the other Cambridge before coming to Penn in 2002. When I'm not thinking about scenes, places, and the brain, I like to talk about politics and ponder the meaning of the word "representation" over a glass or two of beer. |
Postdoctoral Fellow
| Steven Marchette, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow, Psychology Goddard Laboratories, Office 315 stmar[at]sas.upenn.edu |
I did my graduate work with Amy Shelton studying the principals of human spatial memory, such as reference frame selection, as well as individual differences in the use of memory systems during navigational learning. In September 2011, I joined the Epstein lab to study how humans form memory representations of distinct places they encounter during navigation. I am particularly interested how people establish and maintain their orientation, and how orientation must take into account the hierarchical nature of space. With rooms inside buildings and buildings placed around a college campus, it can be quite tricky to reorient yourself. It's turtles all the way down, as a famous Dr. once said! Other things that occupy my time and brain include exploring Philadelphia and learning to live in a real city, reading, my cat Sasha, and playing board games with friends. |
Graduate Students
| Lindsay Vass Graduate Student, Neuroscience Goddard Laboratories, Office 320 lmo[at]mail.med.upenn.edu |
I'm a 5th year graduate student in the lab and am interested in how the brain represents spatial information used for navigation. In particular, I'm curious how you represent where you are (e.g., 37th & Spruce St.), what direction you're facing (e.g., North), and the positions of landmarks in the environment. I've been using fMRI multi-voxel pattern analysis to understand how this information is coded in the brain. When I'm not answering questions about when I'll graduate, I enjoy thrifting, crafting, cooking, observing cat behavior in response to a variety of stimuli, and drinking wines with animals on the label. |
| Josh Julian Graduate Student, Psychology Goddard Laboratories, 3rd Floor joshua.b.julian[at]gmail.com |
I am interested in tackling questions of scene perception, navigation, and spatial cognition. In particular, what cognitive and neural systems support our ability to perceive the environment, and use that information to navigate? What representations and computations are involved? How do such systems develop, and change a result of abnormal development? To investigate such questions, I draw on theoretical perspectives from multiple fields, including psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and computer vision, and use a variety of experimental techniques, such as psychophysics, neuroimaging, and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Prior to joining the lab, I graduated from Binghamton University (SUNY) with bachelor's degrees in mathematical physics, philosophy, and mathematics, pursued graduate work in philosophy at Tufts University, and worked a research assistant in Nancy Kanwisher's cognitive neuroscience lab at MIT. |
| Teresa Pegors Graduate Student, Psychology Goddard Laboratories, Office 307 tpegors[at]sas.upenn.edu | homepage |
I am interested in the neural correlates of subjective responses to environments. What happens in the brain when we evaluate a place as beautiful or ugly? How does a "restorative" place affect emotion and attention processing? More broadly, I'm interested in the frontal network involved in subjective evaluations of stimuli (such as the orbitofrontal cortex) and in what ways this network might be organized according to stimulus and reward properties. |
| Alon Hafri Graduate Student, Psychology Goddard Laboratories, 3rd Floor ahafri[at]gmail.com |
I started in September 2012 as a research assistant in the lab working on MVPA analysis. Before that, I worked for 3 years in John Trueswell and Lila Gleitman's language lab. My research projects have focused on event perception, including visual examination on interacting events and gist extraction from event scenes. I am an avid soup-maker and play music in a band called The Really Cooks. |
Research Specialists
| John Ryan Research Specialist, Psychology Goddard Laboratories, Office 320 jack[dot]jackryan[at]gmail.com |
I received my B.A. in Psychology from Temple University in August 2012. While at Temple, I worked in the intersection of Spatial Cognition and the Geosciences under the guidance of Thomas F. Shipley. My undergraduate thesis examined specific mechanisms involved in visualizing object intersections. I'm very excited to work with and learn from the wonderful people above. |
Postdoctoral Fellows
Seth Bouvier, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Psychology
sethbouvier[at]gmail.com
Victor Schinazi, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Psychology
v.schinazi[at]gmail.com
Sean MacEvoy, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Psychology
Currently: Assistant Professor at Boston College
sean.macevoy.1[at]bc.edu
Graduate Students
Matt McCabe
Graduate Student, Psychology
Marieta Pehlivanova
Rotating Graduate Student, Psychology
marieta[at]sas.upenn.edu
Rotating Graduate Student, Psychology
Goddard Laboratories, 5th Floor
mattar[at]sas.upenn.edu
Vanessa Troiani
Current Post-Doc at Temple University
Research Specialists
Anthony Stigliani
Research Specialist Emeritus
Currently: PhD Candidate at Stanford
astiglia[at]stanford.edu
Mary Smith
Research Specialist Emeritus
Currently: PhD Candidate at UCSD
maryesmith[at]gmail.com
Emily Ward
Research Specialist Emeritus
Currently: PhD Candidate at Yale
emily.ward[at]yale.edu
Whitney Parker
Research Specialist Emeritus
Steve Higgins
Research Specialist Emeritus
Alana Feiler
Research Specialist Emeritus
Undergraduate Researchers
Ben van Buren
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Ross Avila
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Beth Lovisa
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Karen Jablonski
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Laboratory Mascot
Munchkin
Lab Mascot Emeritus