John Paul Minda, PhD
Professor & Associate Chair, Department of Psychology
Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Minda directs the Minda Lab and studies how people learn about categories and concepts, and how conceptual structure influences thinking and decision making. He uses behavioral and computational methods, and is the author of two textbooks on the psychology of thinking.
Anthony Cruz, MSc
PhD Candidate
Anthony studies how people learn best, with a focus on inferential learning and metacognition. His dissertation explores how metacognitive monitoring during learning impacts memory and transfer. He uses behavioral, computational, and smartphone-based methods to make his research ecologically valid and accessible. Anthony is set to defend his dissertation in Fall 2026 and is currently exploring next steps.
Chelsea McKenzie
PhD Candidate
Chelsea studies the conceptual structure of cities to better understand how people think and reason about where they live. She is also examining the effects of culture on category learning and categorization.
Lavine Amin-Zadeh
Honours Thesis Student
Lavine is an undergraduate student completing her honours thesis in the lab. She is passionate in how people organize and represent knowledge, and how these processes shape the way we think, learn, and make decisions.
Benny Zucchet
Honours Thesis Student
Benny is an undergraduate psychology student completing his honours thesis in the lab. He’s interested in research involving rule-based and non-rule-based learning as well as its applications.
Deandre Williams
Independent Study Student
Deandre is an undergraduate independent study student in the lab. He is interested in how the dual memory systems interact to guide cognitive processes, including selective attention and category learning, as well as the brain regions that are involved.
| Name | Years | Thesis |
|---|---|---|
| Priya Kalra | 2021–2026 | Postdoctoral Scholar |
| Paula Barea-Arroyo | 2025–2026 | Visiting PhD Student |
| Madeline Bloomberg | 2023–2025 | MSc thesis |
| Bailey Brashears | 2017–2024 | PhD dissertation |
| Julia Ignaszewski | 2021–2023 | MSc thesis |
| Tim Qiu | 2021–2023 | MSc thesis |
| Neha Khemani | 2020–2022 | MSc thesis |
| Madeline Slack | 2020–2022 | MSc thesis |
| Tianshu (Toka) Zhu | 2018–2022 | PhD dissertation |
| Ana Ruiz Pardo | 2017–2022 | PhD dissertation |
| Emily G. Nielsen | 2015–2020 | PhD dissertation |
| Joshua Hatherley | 2015–2017 | MSc thesis |
| Karen Zhang | 2013–2017 | PhD dissertation |
| Rachel Rabi | 2012–2016 | PhD dissertation |
| Sarah J. Miles | 2009–2013 | PhD dissertation |
| Ruby T. D. Nadler | 2008–2013 | Thesis |
| Sarah L. Devantier | 2006–2008 | MSc |