Contact Information
Research Areas
Biography
I received my bachelor's degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara, majoring in Psychology and Brain Science. I'm currently a second-year student in the Master of Science in Psychological Science (MSPS) program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where I work with Prof. Wang and Prof. Simons in the area of attention and perception.
Research Interests
My first research interest lies in attention and perception. Vision is a fundamental aspect of our daily lives, enabling us to perceive the colors and shapes of objects, adding vibrancy to our world. Within the realm of vision, attention plays a pivotal role. While vision presents us with a plethora of stimuli from our surroundings, attention acts as a filter that allows us to focus exclusively on what captivates us. I am interested in conducting research that explores how people filter information, how they represent visual stimuli in their mind, and the interaction of attention and senses.
I’m also interested in human cognition. In particular, I’m passionate about human reasoning and decision-making. As people navigate the world through their senses, they observe events and try to explain the occurrence by relating the events to each other. For example, suppose when the weather changes, insects change their movements. While some people claim that changes in insect behaviors are caused by the weather, others will say that insect behaviors are correlated with changes in weather. People seem to have their own rules for categorizing a relationship as correlated or causal. What criteria do they use to draw conclusions about the relationship between two events? What cognitive processes do they employ to make a final decision?
Research Description
Currently, I am investigating the mind wandering phenomenon - the moment where our attention shifts from the current task. In collaboration with Dr. Wang and Dr. Simons, I designed a study to examine how negative emotions influence mind-wandering frequency. We are particularly interested in fear because of its distinctive characteristics. While some negative emotions, such as sadness, are related to increased mind-wandering activity, fear may have the opposite effect because it activates the "fight or flight" response; people may mind wander less when they are scared.
A second project I’m developing is to examine why some people mind wander more than others. In daily working and studying, you may notice that some people focus better than others, while some people are more distractible. Are these differences due to stable attributes such as personality or temporary attributes, such as task difficulty? We hypothesize that people’s mind wandering likelihood acts more like a steady trait although temporary factors may affect it.