Our Team
Celebrating our seniors in Spring 2024
Director
Dr. Cristina D. Zepeda
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Human Development
Research Interests: Dr. Zepeda’s research examines how students navigate their learning and pinpoints ways to improve their learning experiences. Using self-regulated learning theories as a guide, she focuses on how to support students use of metacognition (e.g., monitoring and controlling one’s thoughts) and cognitive learning strategies (e.g., retrieval practice, self-explanation) as well as ways to help them adopt beneficial motivational beliefs, values, and goals (e.g., achievement goals, self-efficacy, utility values). In her free time, she loves spending time with her family and working on projects around the house.
CV || GoogleScholar || Website || Email
Graduate Students
Sarah Shaw
M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin – Madison
B.S. in Recreation, Indiana University – Bloomington
Sarah Shaw is a PhD student in Psychological Sciences and is interested in math identity development, education technology, and girls in STEM. Prior to coming to Vanderbilt, she founded and led an ed tech nonprofit that helped students build strong career identities. She holds an M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.S. in Recreation from Indiana University. Beyond academics, you can find Sarah getting lost in a good book, playing pretend with her daughter, or going on outdoor adventures with her family and two huskies.
Xinran (Wendy) Wang
M.S. in Cognitive Psychology in Context, Vanderbilt University
B.A. in Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
Xinran (Wendy) Wang is a PhD student in Psychological Science. She is co-advised by Dr. Cristina Zepeda and Dr. Bethany Rittle-Johnson. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from UCLA in 2022 and completed her M.S. in Cognitive Psychology in Context at Vanderbilt University. She is interested in understanding the profound interplay between metacognition, motivation, and the art of mastering new knowledge in STEM. Outside of academics, she enjoys anime, musicals, modern art, and pottery.
Collaborating Graduate Students
Kaicheng Zhang
M.Ed. in Quantitative Methods, Vanderbilt University
Kaicheng Zhang is currently a first-year PhD student in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology program at Michigan State University. His research focuses on supporting student motivation and engagement in higher STEM education. Specifically, his work examines three areas: (1) How student motivation is shaped by interpersonal interactions, (2) How can we use technology-enhanced environment to facilitate motivation, (3) How can we measure motivation with multimodal data in technology-enhanced environment.
Rachel Smith-Peirce
M.A. in Education, Washington University in St. Louis
B.S. in Cognitive Science, University of California, Irvine
Rachel Smith-Peirce is a PhD Candidate in Education at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research centers around how students benefit from and use various cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational learning strategies with a focus on individual differences among students and using learning strategies in combination. Outside of graduate school, she enjoys indoor rock climbing, playing soccer, and traveling with her partner.
Website
Siyu (Serena) Luo
M.S. in Cognitive Psychology in Context, Vanderbilt University
B.A. in Psychology, the University of Rochester
Siyu (Serena) Luo is a first-year Ph.D. student at The Ohio State University in Educational Psychology, advised by Dr. Shirley Yu. Her research interests include: 1) Applying cognitive science to education, especially how cognitive study strategies can enhance students’ learning outcomes. 2) How students regulate their motivation and emotions in STEM learning. 3) Learning behaviors and building effective learning habits.
Wen Lu
M.S. in Human Development, University of Pennsylvania
M.A. in Interpreting and Translating, University of Bath
Wen Lu is a PhD student in Psychological Sciences at Vanderbilt University. Her research interests include the development of metacognition and theory of mind, which enables children to gain awareness and control of their mental processes. She hopes that her research will be applied to inform how children can learn more effectively and efficiently, and become more discerning consumers of information.
Wesley Morris
M.A. in Applied Linguistics, Georgia State University
B.A. in Psychology, Charter Oak State College
Wes is a statistician and data scientist who specializes in Natural Language Processing (NLP), with years of experience in training and deploying large language models in academia and industry. He spent fifteen years as a classroom teacher before returning to complete his PhD at Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. Wes is interested in how humans draw meaning from text, and why different people may draw different meanings from the same text. He uses NLP tools and explanatory item response models to explore how humans make evaluative judgements about language.
Website
Lab Manager
Yucheng Bao
B.A. in Social Science, Minor in Economics, New York University Shanghai
Yucheng Bao is a second-year master’s student in the cognitive psychology in context master’s program at Vanderbilt University. With a background in developmental psychology, he has also developed a strong interest in educational and cognitive psychology. His research interest focuses on metacognition and motivation within learning processes, as well as interventions that promote students’ self-regulated learning. He is also passionate about understanding how study strategies can improve students’ learning outcomes and help students take more active roles in their learning journeys. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with friends and exploring nature and cities.
Masters Students
MacClaine Greene
B.S. in Psychology, Cumberland University
MacClaine Greene is a second-year master’s student in the Cognitive Psychology in Context program at Vanderbilt University. Her research interests include the study of metacognitive ability and its related interplay with learner autonomy. She is thrilled to be a member of the Advancing Learning Lab, and excitedly anticipates exploring more about implementing the use of metacognition and cognitive learning strategies to promote academic success. Beyond academics, MacClaine enjoys listening to and playing music, reading a good book, exploring nature, and practicing yoga.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Cori Jones
Cori Jones is a student at Tennessee State University majoring in Biology. She was initially interested in general pharmacology, but after working at a summer camp in her home city, Memphis, Tennessee, she developed a particular interest in child psychology and pediatric medicine. Cori is particularly curious about the use of medicine to treat children with developmental or learning delays. She is passionate about understanding the psychological and metacognitive challenges that children experience inside the classroom and using this information to better assess the overall needs of children within healthcare settings, especially children from underrepresented communities. Cori loves spending time with her family and friends back home. When alone, she enjoys cooking, baking, and reading psychological thrillers and sci-fi novels. Cori intends to further her education after obtaining her bachelor’s degree.
Isa Dominguez
Isa is a senior at Vanderbilt University majoring in Computer Science, Cognitive Studies, and Applied Math with a minor in Data Science. She is passionate about education technology and is excited to expand her knowledge by exploring the psychology behind these technologies. She has previous research in the Learning in Virtual Environments Lab (led by Dr. Daniel Levin) and is excited to apply that experience to the Advancing Learning Lab. Outside of school, she loves to journal, read, and explore Nashville!
Keanani Afu
Keanani is a senior at Vanderbilt University majoring in Psychology and Child Development with a minor in Chinese. Her interest and beliefs in the equity and accessibility of education as well as her interest in developmental psychology led her to join the Advancing Learning Lab. In the future, she wants to go to graduate school and pursue a career that applies psychological principles to guide, support, and empower youth. Keanani is very grateful and excited to be in the ALL lab.
Madison Peroutka
Madison is a senior at Vanderbilt University and is majoring in Child Development and Medicine, Health, and Society. When she is not doing her own schoolwork, you’ll probably find her helping any of her five younger siblings complete theirs! Her personal interest in study methods led her to join the Advanced Learning Lab. She has a passion for developmental psychology and is excited to explore its impact on students’ learning. Madison is very grateful to be a part of this lab!
Tobasum Mandal
Tobasum is a sophomore at Vanderbilt University majoring in Computer Science, Economics, and Applied Math. She is passionate about equity in tech by broadening who has access to and representation within technology, as well as tech as a tool for equity by helping reduce barriers in fields like education. She works with several labs at Vanderbilt, including iTELL AI (LEAR Lab), and in summer research on DNN categorization behavior. Outside of academics, she enjoys photography, learning new languages, and playing violin with the Commodore Orchestra.
Ziyan Chen
Ziyan is a junior at Vanderbilt University studying Cognitive Studies and Psychology, with a minor in Computer Science and Data Science. She is introspective and always excited about to stepping outside her comfort zone to explore and grow into new versions of herself. With a lifelong passion for emerging technologies, she now hopes to apply AI/tech in ways that create meaningful change in education and beyond. She is excited to join the Advancing Learning Lab because she hopes to help learners build the courage to believe in themselves, recognize their strengths, and feel inspired to maximize their potential to achieve incredible things. Her long-term goal is to integrate psychology, technology, and data-driven insights to design innovations to help everyone’s personal growth. Outside of academics, Ziyan really enjoys spending time with her friends, filming and editing vlogs, listening to all genres of music, and exploring new restaurants around Nashville.
Faculty Collaborators
Dr. Cynthia Brame
Assistant Professor of the Practice of Biological Sciences
Vanderbilt University
Dr. Andy Butler
Associate Professor of Education and Psychological and Brain Sciences
Washington University in St. Louis
Dr. Thomas Clements
Senior Lecturer of Biological Sciences
Vanderbilt University
Dr. Kelley Durkin
Research Assistant Professor of Teaching and Learning
Vanderbilt University
Dr. Heather Johnson
Associate Professor of the Practice of Science Education
Director of Secondary Education, Department of Teaching and Learning
Vanderbilt University
Dr. Yeo-eun Kim
Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology
Florida State University
Dr. Tim Nokes-Malach
Professor of Psychology and Learning Sciences and Policy
Senior Scientist, Learning Research & Development Center
University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Bethany Rittle-Johnson
Professor of Psychology and Human Development
Vanderbilt University
Dr. Chris Rozek
Assistant Professor of Education and Psychological and Brain Sciences
Washington University in St. Louis
Lab Alumni
Graduate Student Alumni
Kaicheng (Josh) Zhang, Serena Luo, Rebecca Adler
Post-Baccalaureate Alumni
Evy Mattson
Undergraduate Alumni
Jie (Joey) Cang, Morrigan Dunlap-Loomis, Sofia Manuel, Simone’ Simmons, Steve Wang, Alexis Richmond, Cassidy Ditkoff, Grace West, & Alyssa Coladipietro