CURRENT LAB MEMBERS

Principal Investigator

Scott Fraundorf

I'm an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh and a research scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center. I head the MAPLE (Memory And Psycholinguistics in Learning & Education) Lab, where we investigate language processing, memory, and their interaction.
[ Scott's CV ]

Research Associates

Lin Chen

I'm a Research Associate at the Learning Research & Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. I got my Ph.D. in Psychology and post-doc training in Linguistics. My research interests are largely directed towards understanding the fundamental incremental processes of reading with a focus on comparing the first and second language reading using event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral methods. Outside of research, I love traveling, learning and experiencing new stuff, hanging out with friends, and visiting museums.

Graduate Students

Doug Getty

I’m a Ph.D. student at Pitt in the Cognitive Psychology program. My research interests are in the processing of variability in language and using speaker knowledge during processing. Currently I am examining how listeners' comprehension systems process syntactic structure in non-native speakers. In my free time I enjoy rock climbing, biking, cooking, and going to concerts.
[ Doug's web page ]

Jess Macaluso

I'm a Ph.D. student in the Cognitive Psychology Program at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to graduate school, I attended UC Davis for my undergraduate studies where I majored in Psychology with a Biological Emphasis and minored in Aging and Adult Development. My research interests include learning in real-world memory contexts, adult aging and memory, metacognition, and emotional memories. Outside of research, I love hiking, going to the gym, hanging out with my dog Nala, cooking, and bingeing shows on Netflix.

Undergraduate Directed Research Students

 Keya Dixit
 McKenna Dunbar
 Hanna Enos
 Taylor Kim

LAB ALUMNI

Post-Docs & Research Associates

Laura Morett

Laura worked in the MAPLE lab from fall 2015 to spring 2016 as a postdoctoral researcher. She currently heads the Neuroscience of Education Research on Development (N.E.R.D.) Lab at the University of Missouri.
[ Laura's website ]

Connie Qun Guan

Connie is a full professor at the University of Science and Technology in Beijing, China. She visited the lab as a Sino-US Fullbright Scholar sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.

Graduate Students

Kole Norberg

Kole earned his Ph.D. student in cognitive psychology in 2022. He is now a learning engineer with Carnegie Learning.
[ Kole's website ]

Hyeju Han

Hyeju was a Ph.D. student in the School of Education who worked as a Graduate Student Researcher from summer 2018 to summer 2020. She is now an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction at National Louis University.
[ Hyeju's website ]

Afton Kirk-Johnson

Afton was a Ph.D. student in the School of Education Applied Developmental Psychology program who worked as a Graduate Student Researcher from summer 2016 to summer 2018.

Caitlin Rice

Caitlin was a Ph.D. student in Natasha Tokowicz's PLUM Lab who also worked with us in the MAPLE Lab. She is now a speech scientist with Amazon.

Lab Coordinator

Rachel Peters

Rachel worked as lab coordinator from summer 2016 to summer 2018.

Honors Students

Dalia Maeroff

Dalia was an honors student in the MAPLE Lab from fall 2022 to spring 2023. She is now a project coordinator here at the Learning Research and Development Center.

Catie Apgar

Catie was an honors student in the MAPLE Lab from fall 2021 to spring 2022. She began attending UPenn as a graduate student in cognitive psychology in fall 2022.

Cody Gilbert

Cody was an honors student in the MAPLE Lab from fall 2018 to spring 2019. He began attending SUNY Albany as a graduate student in social psychology in fall 2019.

Rodica Constantine

Rodica was an honors student in the MAPLE Lab from fall 2017 to spring 2018. She began attending UNLV as a graduate student in cognitive psychology in fall 2018.

Brenna Mauro

Brenna was an honors student in the MAPLE Lab from spring 2017 to fall 2017. She began attending Shenandoah University as a Master's student in occupational therapy in fall 2018.

LRDC Summer Internship Alumni

Isabel Martin, Summer 2022
Diana Uribe, Summer 2021
Ramya Beuford, Spring 2021

Directed Research and First Experiences in Research Student Alumni

Sicheng Lan, Spring 2022
Anna Roberts, Spring 2022 - Fall 2022
Nishant Purewal, Spring 2021 - Spring 2022
Lydia Boyer, Fall 2020 - Spring 2023
Rishika Dhanda, Fall 2020 - Spring 2023
Lauren Zaslow, Summer 2020 - Fall 2020
Zehan Ge, Summer 2020 - Fall 2020
Xin Qian, Summer 2020 - Fall 2020
Melody Jin, Fall 2019 - Fall 2020
Irene Tandoc, Spring 2020
Brett Soltysiak, Fall 2019-Spring 2020
Suzy Wan, Fall 2019-Spring 2020
Angela Tanygin, Fall 2018-Spring 2020
Dongxiao Li, Spring 2019-Fall 2019
Chu Jiang, Spring 2019-Summer 2019
Alan Lu, Summer 2018-Spring 2019
Joanna Ye, Summer 2018-Spring 2019
Danni Zhang, Summer 2018-Fall 2018
Sophia Lu, Spring 2018-Fall 2018
Allison Hill, Spring 2018
Sriteja Gummadi, Fall 2017-Fall 2019
Robert Hines, Fall 2017-Spring 2018
Genevieve O'Brien, Fall 2016-Spring 2018
Alexis Hensel, Summer 2017
Sareen Ali, Summer 2017
Eva Bacas, Spring 2017-Fall 2017
Catherine Mowery, Spring 2017-Fall 2017
Carmen Sepulveda, Fall 2016-Spring 2017
Anisah Rafi, Spring 2016-Summer 2016
Emalee Dauginikas, Fall 2015