OUR TEAM

Brent received his B.S. from the University of Michigan, his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, and postdoctoral training at Stanford University. For fun, he enjoys playing tricks on his young daughter, getting lost on hikes and bike rides, and cooking for friends. 

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Yrian received his B.A. from San Francisco State University (SFSU). As a student at SFSU, he was the lab manager for Dr. Avi Ben-Zeev’s Cognition and Social Equity lab investigating the role of contexts in probabilistic learning – specifically – how incidental social inferences (i.e. stereotypes) disrupt the learning of new associations. Yrian’s current research focuses on group-motivated information sampling, integrating perspectives from Cognitive and Social Psychology to examine how people search out information in their environment and update their prior beliefs when motivated to maintain a consistent world view. When he is not researching, Yrian can be found snorkeling or in the kitchen where he enjoys experimenting with the flavors of local produce. 

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Jake received his B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and subsequently worked as a research coordinator at Virginia Tech. He is interested in self and identity. What gives rise to a sense of self, and how are people motivated to perceive the self as unified,  coherent, and positive? How do such motivations drive changes in identification and self-perception, and what are the implications for interpersonal and intergroup outcomes? He enjoys discovering new music, listening to podcasts at about twice their normal speed, and enduring through 49ers losses.

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Eleanor graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in chemistry and a minor in creative writing, and worked as a lab manager at Dartmouth College. She studies factors that promote social connection and strengthen relationships, with the eventual aim of helping people improve their relational well-being. Outside of her research, Eleanor enjoys writing, playing the piano, and putting her chemistry background to use through inventing hair and skin care recipes.

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Julia received her B.S. in Neuroscience with a minor in Applied Statistics from the University of California, Riverside. She is interested in the influence of self-knowledge, social interaction, and context on decision making and self reports. In her free time, Julia enjoys reading fantasy and science fiction novels, experimenting with different art techniques, and watching TV with her puppy.

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Jennifer graduated with a B.S. in Psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She then assumed the role of research coordinator at University of Washington. Her interests in the representations of self, and their implications on social identity and mental health, brought her to UCRSNL.

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Genesis received her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Comparative Literature and Languages, Classical Studies from the University of California, Riverside. She is interested in the expression and synchrony of neural phenomena at the moment of disclosure from a psycholinguistic perspective, and investigates relational well-being and empathic accuracy, self-compassion and prosocial behavior, and music-evoked autobiographical memory. When not researching and coordinating, she is perpetually eager to share good music, learn exciting words, and convince anyone they can dance.

Arshiya is interested in studying the intersection of human behavior, emotion, and thinking to make the world braver and kinder. She is interested in integrating behavioral experiments, computational modeling, and neuro-imaging techniques to study why we misunderstand each other and how we can improve. Before pursuing psychology, she completed her bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Manipal University, India, in June 2021. Outside work, she enjoys indie music gigs, tending her houseplants, painting, and photography.