People

CHuN Lab 2026

Director

Marvin M. Chun, Ph.D. [vita]
Marvin M. Chun is the Richard M. Colgate Professor of Psychology with secondary faculty appointments in the Yale School of Medicine Department of Neuroscience, and the Yale College Cognitive Science Program. His cognitive neuroscience laboratory employs brain imaging and machine learning to study how people see, attend, remember, and perform optimally.  One line of work uses brain imaging to decode percepts, thoughts, and memories.  Another major lab focus uses brain imaging to understand and predict what makes people different.

Chun received his B.A. from Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea, after having spent a junior year abroad at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship in the Vision Sciences Lab at Harvard University.  His research has been honored with the 2019 Samsung Ho-Am Prize in Science, a 2006 Troland Research Award from the US National Academy of Sciences, a 2002 American Psychological Association Early Career Award, the 2000 Chase Memorial Award from the Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, and a 1998 APA Division 3 New Investigator Award. His laboratory is grateful for funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. In Yale College he teaches Introduction to Psychology, for which he received the Phi Beta Kappa William DeVane Award for Teaching and Scholarship and the Lex Hixon Prize for Teaching Excellence.

From 2017 – 2022, Professor Chun served as Dean of Yale College.  Prior to that, Professor Chun served as the master and head of Berkeley College at Yale from 2007-2016.  His tenure has been generously recognized with a portrait, which hangs in the Berkeley Dining Hall.  The portrait artist is Alastair Adams, commissioned by the fellows, alumni, and families of Berkeley College, with David Swensen, and Dean Takahashi/Wendy Sharp as leading benefactors.  Professor Chun sat for the portrait in the Swensen House living room, where a portrait of David Swensen by Alastair Adams is on display.  The stained glass artwork of the Berkeley College shield in Chun’s portrait was crafted by his mother, Sang Chun.

Senior Research Scientist

Yaoda Xu, Ph.D. [homepage]
Yaoda studies visual information representation in the human brain using both behavioral measures and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques. She is particularly interested in the involvement of the human posterior parietal cortex in supporting the adaptive and online aspect of visual information processing critical to visual working memory, decision making and behavior.

Yaoda received her Ph.D. from the Department of Brain and Cognitive Neurosciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She did her postdoctoral training at the Harvard University Department of Psychology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Brain and Cognitive Neurosciences. Prior to her current appointment at Yale, she held a research scientist position at the Yale University Department of Psychology and an Associate Professor position at the Harvard University Department of Psychology.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Patxi Elosegi, Ph.D. [Google Scholar]

Patxi is a Basque researcher interested in neuronal representations and the computations that shape them into our subjective visual experience. During his PhD at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL, Donostia, Spain), he investigated the efficient neural encoding of visually redundant information through summary statistical representations, and how this process is modulated by subjective awareness.
Currently, as a postdoctoral researcher at Yale, he is studying the neural and computational mechanisms underlying ensemble perception and how these coding mechanisms may support the encoding and retrieval of information in working memory. To this end, he draws on the toolkit of cognitive computational neuroscience, combining behavioral experiments, computational modeling, and fMRI.

Henry Jones, Ph.D. [Google Scholar]
Henry studies the neural computations underlying our ability to pay attention to, and actively maintain, relevant information for navigating everyday life. For his PhD at the University of Chicago, he applied machine learning techniques to electroencephalography data to isolate neural signatures of spatial attention and working memory storage and explore how these processes vary across tasks and the type of information attended.
As a postdoctoral research associate at Yale, he is studying the neural representations of information in working memory as a lens into the system’s architecture and limitations. He leverages the spatial precision of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging along with modern machine learning and functional connectivity analyses to understand how attention interacts with these representations across the cortex.

Anna Corriveau, Ph.D. [Website]

Anna’s research probes the interaction between attention, cognition, and action. She is particularly interested in studying how humans hold recently-performed actions in mind and how attentional states influence our ability to execute and remember complex movements. Her work leverages behavioral and functional neuroimaging approaches.

Anna earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Chicago. Her graduate research investigated how attention fluctuations modulate brain networks and representations to inform attention’s impacts on perception and memory.

 

Graduate Student

Shijie Qu

Shijie is keen on understanding how our brains facilitate different types of cognitive control processes. His long-term goal is to explore how cognitive control interacts with social cognition, helping people adapt to our highly socialized world successfully. To achieve this goal, Shijie is enthusiastic about employing a diverse array of methodologies, including behavioral analysis, neuroimaging, and machine learning techniques.

Originally hailing from Beijing, China, Shijie received his B.S. degree at the Ohio State University where he double-majored in Computer Science and Data Analytics. He then went up to University of Michigan for his M.S. degree in Computer Science and Engineering. It was during this period that he discovered his passion for unraveling the mysteries of human cognition, prompting him to transition into the realm of cognitive neuroscience.

Jin Ke [homepage]

Jin studies the neurocomputational mechanisms underlying cognition in naturalistic contexts. He is interested in decoding, predicting and reconstructing ongoing thoughts and memory using machine learning and neuroimaging techniques.
Jin received his B.S. from Peking University, where he double majored in Psychology and Environmental Sciences. He then completed a M.A. in Psychology with a certificate in Computational Social Sciences and worked as a lab manager at the University of Chicago.

Kangrim Cho

Kangrim is interested in understanding how human brain networks support cognition across the lifespan, from development to aging. Her research combines multimodal neuroimaging, functional connectivity analysis, and machine learning to investigate individual differences in brain organization and cognitive function.
She received her B.A. with double majors in Quantitative Risk Management and Cognitive Science and her M.S. in Cognitive Science from Yonsei University in South Korea. Before joining Yale, she worked as a research associate in the Department of Radiology at Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine.

Postgraduate Associate

Hairuo Li

Hairuo’s research interests center on the interaction between attention and memory, particularly how visual attention shapes what we remember and how precisely we remember it. She is interested in exploring these questions across working memory and long-term memory using a range of approaches, including neuroimaging, behavioral methods, and computational modeling. Hairuo earned a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Washington, where her research centered on long-term memory and visual perspective-taking.

Lab Alumni

Yuhong Jiang, Ph.D. (Yale) [homepage]
Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Psychology, Harvard University
APA Division 3 Young Investigator Award
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award
Full Professor, Dept. of Psychology, University of Minnesota

Ingrid Olson, Ph.D. (Yale) [homepage]
Research Assistant Professor, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania
Professor, Temple University

Do-Joon Yi, Ph.D. (Yale) [homepage]
Associate Professor of Psychology, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea.

Steven Most, Ph.D. (Harvard) [homepage]
Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Delaware
Senior Lecturer, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Geoff Woodman, Ph.D. (U of Iowa) [homepage]
Assistant then Associate Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt University
Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences

Andrew Leber, Ph.D.  (Yale) [homepage]
Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of New Hampshire
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Ohio State University

Soojin Park, Ph.D. (Yale) [homepage]
Postdoctoral fellow, MIT (with Aude Oliva) at MIT
Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Yonsei University

Justin Junge, Ph.D. (Yale)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Tufts University (with Dan Dennett).
Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University (with George Alvarez)
Lecturer, Princeton University

Yaoda Xu, Ph.D. (MIT) [homepage]
Assistant then Associate Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
Senior Research Scientist, Yale University

Nicholas Turk-Browne, Ph.D. (Yale) [homepage]
NSERC Doctoral Fellow
Assistant Professor to Full Professor, Department of Psychology, Princeton University
APA Early Career Award
Vision Sciences Society Young Investigator Award
Cognitive Neuroscience Society Young Investigator Award
Full Professor, Department of Psychology, Yale University

Julie Golomb, Ph.D. (Yale) [homepage]
NSF Graduate Fellow
Postdoctoral Associate, MIT
Assistant to Associate Professor, Ohio State University
Sloan Fellow
APF Robert L. Fantz Memorial Award
FABBS Early Career Impact Award
APA Early Career Award

Jeremy Shen, Ph.D. (Yale) [resume]
Senior Research Scientist, Unilever

Tim Vickery, Ph.D. (Harvard) [homepage]
Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Delaware

Brice Kuhl, Ph.D. (Stanford) [homepage]
Assistant Professor of Psychology, New York University
Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon

Katherine Sledge Moore, Ph.D. (U of Michigan)
Assistant Professor, Elmhurst College
Assistant Professor, Arcadia University

Scott Guerin, Ph.D. (UCSB) [homepage]
Research Scientist, Stanford University
Google

Marc Coutanche, Ph.D.  (U Penn) [homepage]
Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh

Emily Ward, Ph.D.  (Yale) [homepage]
NSF Graduate Fellow
Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Monica Rosenberg, Ph.D.  (Yale)  [homepage]
NSF Graduate Fellow
Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University
Forbes 2017 30 under 30 Scientists
Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Chicago

Thomas O’Connell, Ph.D.  (Yale)
NSF Graduate Fellow
Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT

YoungHye Judy Kwon, Ph.D.  (KAIST)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern

Qi Lin, Ph.D.  (Yale)
Postdoctoral Fellow, RIKEN
Research Professor, Institute for Basic Science

Viola Mocz, Ph.D. (Yale)
Stanford Graduate School of Education

Ray Kwangsun Yoo, Ph.D. (KAIST) [homepage]
Assistant Professor of Digital Health, Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Sciences and Technology (SAIHST)Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)Assistant Professor of Data Science Research Institute, Research Institute for Future MedicineSamsung Medical Center (SMC)

Alumni Undergraduate Researchers who have authored papers

Kao-ping Chua, B.S., Vanderbilt University
M.D., Washington University Medical School.

Todd Kelley, B.S., Vanderbilt University
Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University (with Steve Yantis)
Postdoctoral Researcher, University College London (with Nilli Lavie)

Tim Brady, B.A., Yale University
Graduate student, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT (with Aude Oliva)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Vision Sciences Lab, Harvard University
Assistant Professor, UC San Diego

Rachel Denison, B.A., Yale University
Marshall Scholar
Graduate Student, UC Berkeley
Postdoctoral Fellow, NYU

Jenika Beck, B.A., Yale University
Graduate Student, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Samuel Norman-Haignere, B.A., Yale University
Graduate Student, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences,MIT

Harrison Korn, B.A., Yale University
Yale Law School ’14

Sam Cartmell, B.A., Yale University
Stanford Medical School

Alan Cowan, B.S., Yale University
Graduate Student, UC Berkeley

Wei-ting Tiffany Hsu, B.S., Yale University
Graduate Student, Department of Psychology, Stanford University

Emily Avery, B.S., Princeton University
Yale School of Medicine

Sreejan Kumar, B.S., Yale University
Graduate Student, Princeton University

Angus Ho Ching Fong, B.S., Yale University
Google

Gigi Stark, B.S., Yale University
Google

Boyang Hu, B.S., University of Rochester
ETH Zurich

Ben Swinchoski, B.S., Yale University
Research Assistant, Yale School of Medicine

Hillary Nguyen, B.S., Yale University
David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA