People
Lab Director
Kevin J. Holmes [kjholmes (at) reed (dot) edu] [CV]
Kevin is an Associate Professor of Psychology. He came to Reed by way of Colorado College (Assistant Professor of Psychology for six years), UC Berkeley (Postdoctoral Fellow in Cognitive Science), Emory University (Ph.D. in Psychology: Cognition & Development), and Stanford University (M.A. in Psychology and B.A. in Human Biology). Outside the classroom and the lab, Kevin enjoys tennis (especially rooting for his favorite pros), theatre (especially musicals), and traveling (especially to NYC).
Lab Members and Affiliates
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Enriqueta Canseco-Gonzalez, Emerita Professor of Psychology Enriqueta retired in 2023 after teaching at Reed for 31 years. She continues to collaborate with Professor Holmes in the Thought Lab and with Professor Pitts in the SCALP Lab. When she's not doing research, Enriqueta enjoys playing tennis, kayaking, and hiking. She also hopes to start a second career as an interpreter. |
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Lena Kassin ’24 Lena is a senior psychology major interested in cognition and emotion, cross-linguistic/cultural research, metaphors, and framing. In the lab, they have worked on projects exploring linguistic distancing and emotion regulation across languages, affect labeling, and memory. Their thesis in the Academic Motivation Lab examines what motivates “dabblers” to write poetry. Lena also enjoys taking anthropology, creative writing, and dance classes at Reed. In their free time, they love creative writing, film photography, reality TV, and spending time with friends. |
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Emerson Schimmel ’24 Emerson is a senior neuroscience major interested in inner speech, the psychology of individual differences, and clinical psychology. He has worked in the lab on projects exploring affect labeling, pragmatic reasoning, and the role of inner speech in categorical perception. Branching off from the world of cognitive science, his thesis this year will investigate the comorbidity of OCD and ADHD in an animal model. In his free time, Emerson enjoys theatre, fire spinning, and crocheting (usually while watching a TTRPG show). |
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Teresa Elliott ’24 Tess is a senior psychology major interested in moral reasoning and the intersection of language and cognition. For her thesis, she is studying the relationship between moral decision making and gender. She is also working on a project examining event perception in speakers of different languages. Beyond academics, Tess loves to travel, write, and spend time with her friends, and is hoping to ultimately learn a variety of languages. |
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Gor Hakobyan ’25 Gor was born and raised in Yerevan, Armenia and is a junior psychology major and a Russian minor. He is interested in how languages affect the way we perceive and think about the world. He is also very passionate about developmental and clinical psychology. In his free time, he gravitates toward writing poetry/comedy, playing video games, and spending time outdoors. |
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Daniela Buchillon-Almeida ’25 Daniela is a junior psychology major interested in cross-linguistic research, framing, and the relationship between language and emotion. She is also passionate about clinical psychology and public health. She hopes to one day be able to combine cognitive and clinical psychology to address public mental health challenges. In her free time, she enjoys knitting, language learning, and film photography. |
Lab Alumni and Thesis Topics*
* for students who completed a senior thesis in the lab
2023
- Ari Goldstein: Gender self-concept and linguistic encoding of gender
- Clarissa Madar
- Molly Moir: The trans panic defense and attitudes toward anti-trans violence
- Liantao (Tony) Shan: Anthropomorphic language and political reasoning
- Sarah Wu: AI, intentionality, and the perception of musical narrative
2022
- Andries Castellano
- Farhan James: Political ideology and attitudes toward Covid-19 vaccination
- Sirisha Krishnamurthy: Climate graph interpretation and political ideology
- Ella Rook: Linguistic framing and anti-fat bias
- Jinduo Wang: Intuitions about mathematical beauty and sublimity
2021
- Lili Davis: Victim framing and attitudes toward police violence
- Nan Elpers
- Sage Schwartz: ADHD, physical activity, and executive functioning
- Maya Star-Lack
- Lux Steinberg: Effects of grammatical gender on object concepts
- Boshang (Cici) Yin: Self-victim framing and attitudes toward sexual assault
2020
- Evan Doherty: Syntactic framing effects and pragmatic reasoning
- Gabriela Garcia
- Wyatt Newhall: Spatial navigation heuristics and local topography
- Olivia Schultz
- Eli Thornburg
- Daniel Walsh: Affect labeling and emotional experience
- Theresa Westphal
2019
- Josh Alvarado
- Emily Gardner: Cross-linguistic analogical reasoning and essentialism
- Quinn Husney
- Frances Murray
- Casey Pollard
- James van der Vord
- Hannah Warden
- Alice Wu
2018
- Ula Adamska
- Ian Carey
- Noella Garcia-Soberañez
- Andrew Kopel: Effects of language on spatial cognition
- Andrés Madrigal
- Dolma Rabgay
- Robby Welch: Categorical perception of color and discrimination difficulty
2017
- Candelaria Alcat: Spatialization of emotional intensity and valence
- Katlyn Frey: Implicit effects of classifier categories on object perception
- Andrew Kirvin-Quamme
- Erin Luby: Linguistic diversity and essentialist beliefs
- Ruthie Rabinovitch: Spatial mappings in sign languages
- Ben Smotrich
- Tia Tummino
2016
- Andrew DesLauriers
- Laura DiRusso: Environmental effects on spatial reasoning
- Samantha Ellner: Word meaning and dyslexia
- Adam Hunter: Cognitive mechanisms underlying mindfulness meditation
- Jacob Jones
- Taylor LeFevre
- Julia Liao
- Dani Meyer
- Nico Ravitch: Language and categorical perception of color
- Alison Rowe
2015
- Jake Brodsky: Bilingualism and gender essentialism
- Eileen Kitrick
- William Rushton: Artistic experience and holistic face processing
- Jenny Wool
- Hadar Zeigerson: Lateralized categorical perception of facial expressions
2014
- Claire Binder
- Katie Brady: The role of attention in lateralized categorical perception
- Kelsey Moty: Categorical perception of spatial relations across languages