About Me
I am a recent PhD from the Developmental, Cognitive, and Behavioral Neuroscience
program at the University of Houston. Working with Dr. Benjamin Tamber-Rosenau in the
Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention Lab, my graduate research investigated general
aspects of attention, attentional capture, and the interactions between stimulus-driven
capture and goal-driven attentional control. My dissertation research examined the
emotional attentional blink (emotion-induced blindness)—more specifically the limits of
the emotional attentional blink and the ability of emotion to capture temporal attention.
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Prior to joining the PhD program at UH in the fall of 2017, I graduated summa cum laude
from the University of Florida in the spring of 2017. Here, I conducted research in the
Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention with Dr. Andreas Keil, where I completed my
undergraduate honors thesis on emotional capture in the attentional blink. I went on to obtain my master's degree from UH in the fall of 2019 and my PhD in the spring of 2023.
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My broad research interests include general aspects and limitations of human attention. More specifically, I am currently working on research that examines the interactions between goal-driven attentional control and stimulus-driven attentional capture across the temporal domain. I am interested in what drives attentional capture by task- irrelevant stimuli and am considering the effects of a distractor's visual distinctiveness compared to surrounding stimuli, a distractor's emotional valence, the task's difficulty, and the target-defining features (i.e., task processing requirements). I am also interested in the capacity limits of human attention while dual tasking. Similarly, I am interested in cognitive or motor declines while walking and simultaneously engaging in a cognitive
task, especially in older adults. As I continue my career, I wish to expand on my current work on attentional capture, dual tasking, or other general limits of human attention.
I hope to join a postdoctoral position where I can gain more experience with
neurophysiological methods, such as fMRI and EEG, or extending my work to other
populations, such as older adults or children. Learn more about my research!
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Aside from research, my hobbies include anything art-related, such as painting, digital
art, graphic design, and other crafting projects. I also spend time trying to make a
difference in my community—I was a founding member of the Diversity, Equity, and
Inclusion for Graduate Students (DEIGS) committee at UH and serve as a representative
to relay information between DEIGS and the faculty diversity committee. I am also a
fan of Hozier (stream Eat Your Young), love Hamilton, and have a cat named Lola!
University of Houston graduation, May 2023
Logo I designed for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Graduate Students (DEIGS)
