Cedar Riener, Ph.D.: Dr. Riener is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Mills College, where he has been since 2007. He received his A.B. in History of Science from Harvard University in 1998, and his PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Virginia in 2007. In his spare time, he enjoys netflixing HBO shows (like the best show in the history of television: The Wire) and watching a season in two weeks, and playing with his twin sons and daughter.cv. personal web page.

Research Assistants

Samantha Foster is a senior at Mills College, majoring in Psychology and Women's Studies. She focuses her studies on women's health issues, with particular concentration in the reproductive and mental health fields. Samantha looks forward to researching the correlations between people's [physical and mental] health and their perception of the physical world. She actually finds SPSS to be gratifying and enjoyable, and is thrilled with even scatter-plot formations.

Meghan Sloan is a senior double-majoring in Psychology and English Literature. She is interested in organizational psychology, visual and speech perception, and the written word. She loves to read, shop, and take spontaneous road trips in her spare time.


Katherine Kugay is a major of psychology at Mills College. Last summer she had the good fortune of interning with James Pennebaker at UT Austin and explored the psychometrics of language use. Her obsession with vowels has led to what some may call de-evolution, involving such activities as stuffing balloons in her mouth and recording the voices of unwitting conversation partners, though not without the supervision of qualified academics. In her spare time she enjoys pretending she's an expert on film, writes music, embarks on daring baking projects, and helps old ladies cross the street.

Alyssa Alcorn is a senior psychology major and a native of the San Francisco Bay Area. Her primary fields of interest are in visual perception, object recognition, neural networks, and applied cognitive psychology. When not sweating over PsychInfo, Alyssa is active in the Book Arts department and eats as much sushi as she can afford. She hopes to enter a PhD program in cognitive psychology, or to invent the next Pet Rock and retire to a private island in the Outer Hebrides.

Alumni

Lauren Steinberg graduated from Mills in December with a degree in Biopsychology. She is taking a year off before entering grad school to pursue slant perception research as well as work at the Berkeley Center for Independent Living. In her free time she seeks out any and all outlets to feed her need for adrenaline.