Meet Our Team

LAB DIRECTOR

MONICA CASTELHANO

My primary research interests are visual attention and visual memory and how they function in our everyday lives. Across various studies we investigate how people perceive, explore, search through and remember information from complex, natural stimuli (i.e., real-world scenes) using both behavioural and eye movement measures.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Karolina Krzys

PhD Candidate

My research background lies primarily in a domain of orientation in space and human navigation, which I am currently relating to a field of scene perception. By integrating these two approaches, I am hoping to further our understanding of how spatial updating that occurs during locomotion to novel viewpoints facilitate visual processing in scene recognition. Although my focus is on relation between the level of spatial awareness and eye movement patterns, I am currently taking an advantage of Virtual Reality technology to explore cognitive processing across various tasks including visual perception, attention, navigation, and memory.

Laura Li

PhD Candidate

As a PhD student in Cognitive Neuroscience, my research is primarily focused on exploring cognitive processing in relation to visual attention and memory. Using a combination of innovative tools including Virtual Reality (VR) technology, eye-tracking systems, and various behavioral measures, my work aims to better understand how individuals perceive and retain information from their surroundings, particularly in relation to natural (i.e., real-world) scenes.

Hannah Lum Smith

PhD Candidate

As a PhD student in Cognitive Neuroscience, my research experience revolves around the topics of memory and visual cognition. Currently, I’m investigating the neural correlates of how scene perception is moderated by contextual predictions.

Isil sanusoglu

PhD Candidate

As a PhD student in Cognitive Neuroscience, my research focuses on visual cognition, decision-making, and cognitive modeling. I use fMRI, EEG, and eye tracking to investigate how the brain navigates various cognitive strategies during visual search tasks.

Antonella Feeney

MSc Student

Antonella is a second year Master’s student in the Clinical Psychology program. She completed her Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in psychology at the University of Victoria, where she researched how event boundaries can shape long-term memory organization and retrieval. Currently, she is interested in using eye-tracking technology to explore how autistic people perceive social cues and everyday social exchanges.

LAB COORDINATOR

HONOURS THESIS STUDENTS

Volunteers

Prithika Vishnubala

ASTRA YANG

Hello! I'm in my fourth year of psychology and happy to be helping the QVCL to run smoothly :)

In my undergraduate thesis, I’m currently investigating the relationships between social support, self-compassion, and gender embodiment.

Outside the lab, I love spending time in nature and exploring new coffee shops!

NADYA KALSI

Hi there! My name is Nadya Kalsi and I am honoured to be a thesis student in the QVCL lab this year! My research involves understanding how attention and perception in our everyday environments can jointly determine what gets encoded into memory. Outside of school, I love to dance, cook, work out, and crochet!

DEANNE PINTO

Hi! I’m conducting my undergraduate thesis at QVCL under the supervision of Dr. Castelhano. My research investigates how predictive processing can be shaped by specific information to influence visual search and cognitive processing in natural scenes. Outside of research I enjoy reading, running, and baking!