People

Veena D. Dwivedi, Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Veena D. Dwivedi, PhD

Univ of Massachusetts-Amherst

Director
vdwivedi AT brocku DOT ca
905.688.5550 ext. 5389

Dr. Dwivedi is a professor in the Department of Psychology and Centre for Neuroscience at Brock University.  She has previously taught at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst,  the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and at McGill University before coming to Brock.

She has a BSc from McGill University in Physiology and a PhD from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in Linguistics.  She may be reached either by e-mail or via phone 905.688.5550 ext. 5389.

Haorong Ding, BA

Haorong Ding

Honours Thesis Student (Psychology)

Haorong is a 4th year PsychologyHonours Research Stream student at Brock University. She completed her second co-op term as a Research Assistant in the Dwivedi Brain and Language lab last summer and is currently completing her Honours thesis examining the role of eye-gaze in sentence interpretation.  

Emma Martin

Lab Coordinator

Emma recently transferred to Brock for Psychology from Niagara College’s Law Clerk program. She is responsible for co-ordinating lab scheduling, and administrative tasks in the lab. She is also keenly interested in learning experimental techniques and data analysis in psychological science. 

Molly Stamp

Research Assistant Intern

Molly is a 3rd year Neuroscience – (Neuropsychology Stream) student at Brock University. She is interested in learning techniques in neuroscientific investigation in sentence processing.

Hi Leung

Psychology, Alumni

Hi (pronounced as “he”) was a 4th year Psychology and Computer Science (double major) Honours student. His thesis project examined effects of eye-gaze, handedness and reference in sentences.   

Orlin Chowdhury, mentorship student

Orlin Chowdhury

Highschool Mentorship Student

Orlin was a grade 12 student from Laura Secord Secondary School. She was a Brock University Science Mentorship student. She collected data on sentence interpretation and effects of eye-gaze. She is currently pursuing a Health Science degree at Queen’s University. 

Kaitlyn Damaso

Research Assistant, Psychology

Kaitlyn Damaso was a second year Psychology student who completed her summer co-op as an RA in our lab.  

Pratik Nath, MA

Psychology, Alumni

Pratik Nath completed his MA thesis by analyzing previously collected EEG response to noisy channel sentences.  

Meher Damathia, BA (Hons.) 

Psychology, Alumni

Meher Damathia was a 4th year Psychology Honours student (2021-2022)

She conducted a cross-cultural study investigating how people rate Bollywood music clips (in terms of positive and negative affect). These stimuli will be used at a future date to investigate the role of affect and sentence processing.

Brent Dryczewycz

Research Assistant, BSc (Hons.) in Medical Sciences

Brent Dryczewycz was a fourth year undegraduate Medical Sciences student at Brock University. He conducted his honours thesis by analyzing EEG data on ERP language experiments examining sentence comprehension and task effects. He will pursue a Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology at Western University in September 2021.

Avery Keith, BA (Hons.)

Avery Keith

Research Assistant, MA (ABA) in Applied Disability Studies

Avery Keith was a Research Assistant in the Brain and Language Lab. She is an MA student in Applied Disability Studies specializing in Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA).

Sean Chisholm, BA (Hons.)

Psychology, Alumni

Sean Chisholm was a fourth year undergraduate Psychology student at Brock University.

He conducted his honours thesis; using EEG methods, investigating the role of dispositional affect in sentence processing, specifically with respect to the P600 ERP component.

Sean will be pursuing an MSc in Applied Psychology beginning in September 2019 under the Industrial/Organizational (I/O) stream at Waterloo University, with a focus on personality and leadership.

Joana Frieske

Psychology, alumni

Joana Frieske was an international exchange student from the Psychology department in Maastricht University, the Netherlands.  She participated in a selective honours program called Marble, Maastricht Research Based Learning Excellence program, where she conducted ERP language research in Dr. Dwivedi’s continuing collaboration with Brain and Cognitive Science at MIT (with Dr. Ted Gibson).

Amelie Backes

Psychology, Alumni

Amelie Backes was an international exchange student from the Psychology department in Maastricht University, the Netherlands.  She participated in a selective honours program called Marble, Maastricht Research Based Learning Excellence program, where she conducted ERP language research in Dr. Dwivedi’s continuing collaboration with Brain and Cognitive Science at MIT (with Dr Ted Gibson).

Janahan Selvanayagam, Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Janahan Selvanayagam, BSc (Hons.)

Neuroscience, Alumni

Janahan Selvanayagam is currently pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Western Ontario. He conducted his honours thesis, using EEG methods to investigate the role of dispositional affect in sentence processing, under Dr. Dwivedi’s supervision.

He has also been involved in Dr Dwivedi’s collaboration with Brain and Cognitive Science at MIT (with Dr Ted Gibson) using EEG methods to investigate sentence processing. Janahan completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience (Neurobiology stream with Co-op option) at Brock University in 2018.

Alanna Kozak. Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Alanna Kozak, BA (Hons.)

Speech and Language Sciences, Alumni

Alanna Kozak was a fourth year undergraduate student in the Applied Linguistics, Speech and Language Sciences program at Brock University.

She recently completed her honours thesis this past year, which used self-paced reading methods to investigate the role of dispositional affect in sentence processing.

She will be pursuing an MD at the University of Western Ontario.

Harmonie Chan, Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Harmonie Chan, BSc (Hons.)

Medical Sciences, Alumni

Harmonie Chan was a fourth year Medical Sciences student at Brock University.

She recently completed her honours thesis this past year, which used EEG methods to investigate sentence processing in Dr Dwivedi’s collaboration with Brain and Cognitive Science at MIT (with Dr Ted Gibson).

She will be pursuing an MSc in Speech-Language Pathology at McMaster University.

Victoria Witte, Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Victoria Witte, BSc (Hons.)

Neuroscience, Alumni

Victoria Witte is currently pursuing an MSc in Molecular Bioscience at Heidelberg University in Germany. She conducted her honours thesis, using EEG methods to investigate the role of dispositional affect in sentence processing, under Dr. Dwivedi’s supervision.

She has also been heavily involved in Dr Dwivedi’s collaboration with Brain and Cognitive Science at MIT (with Dr Ted Gibson) using EEG methods to investigate sentence processing.  Victoria completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience (Neurobiology stream) at Brock University in 2017.

Victoria Tarkowski, Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Victoria Tarkowski, BA (Hons.)

Speech and Language Sciences, Alumni

Victoria Tarkowski is currently pursuing an MD at Wroclaw Medical University in Poland.

She conducted her honours thesis, using self-paced reading methods to investigate the role of dispositional affect in sentence processing, under Dr. Dwivedi’s supervision.

Victoria completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and Language Sciences at Brock University in 2017.

Kaitlin Goertz, Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Kaitlin Goertz, BSc (Hons.)

Neuroscience, Alumni

Kaitlin Curtiss Goertz is a graduate of the Brock University Neuroscience (Neuropsychology stream with Co-op Option) program.  She conducted her honours thesis, which investigated the role of event knowledge and number in the interpretation of scenes defined by word triplets, under Dr. Dwivedi’s supervision.

She is currently working as Project Coordinator for the Words in the World Partnered Research Training Initiative.

Leslie Rowland,, Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Leslie Rowland, BA (Hons.)

Speech and Language Sciences, Alumni

Leslie is currently pursuing an MSc in Communication Disorders and Sciences at McGill University in Montreal. She conducted her honours thesis under Dr. Dwivedi’s supervision, employing a self-paced reading task to examine the on-line effects of context vs. task evaluation on the processing of quantifier scope ambiguous sentences.

Leslie completed her  Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and Language Sciences at Brock University in 2014.

Hope Magnus, Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Hope Magnus, BA (Hons.)

Speech and Language Sciences and TESL, Alumni

Hope is currently pursuing an MA in Teaching and Learning at McGill University in Montreal. She conducted an independent study under the supervision of Dr. Dwivedi in which she employed a self-paced reading task to investigate the heuristic first, algorithmic second model of language processing by looking at the effects of context on quantifier disambiguation.

Hope completed her  Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and Language Sciences at Brock University in 2014.

Rachel Elliot, Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Rachel Elliot, BA Psych (Hons.)

CERT in Speech Lg Sciences, Alumni

Rachel is currently pursuing an MClSc in Speech-Language Pathology at Western University.

She volunteered in the Brain and Language Lab in 2013-2014 as a student in the speech language science certificate program at Brock University after completing an honours psychology degree at Laurentian University.

Rae Gibson, Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Rae Gibson, BSc (Hons.)

Neuroscience, Alumni

Rae Gibson is currently pursuing graduate work in Neuroscience at Western, under the supervision of Dr Adrian Owen.  She conducted a directed studies thesis under Dr Dwivedi’s supervision, examining the electrophysiological processing of number in a dual task study that involved reading sentences exhibiting quantifier scope ambiguity.

In the summers of 2010 and 2011, Rae held a position in the lab as a Research Assistant with an NSERC-funded Undergraduate Student Research Award.

Lynsey Endicott, Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Lynsey Endicott, BA (Hons.)

Speech and Language Sciences, Alumni

Lynsey is currently working as a Speech-Language Pathologist at Groves Memorial Community Hospital. She recently completed her MHSc in Speech Language Pathology at University of Toronto in 2014, after completing her Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Language Sciences at Brock University in 2012.

She conducted her Honours Thesis under Dr. Dwivedi’s supervision, employing both self-paced reading and picture verification tasks to examine the on-line interpretation of quantifier scope ambiguous sentences.

Leanne Angus, Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Leanne Angus, BA (Hons.)

Speech and Language Sciences, Alumni

Leanne is currently working as a Speech-Language Pathologist at Saint Elizabeth Health Care.  She conducted her Honours Thesis under Dr. Dwivedi’s supervision.

She completed her Bachelor of Arts Honours (first class standing) in Speech and Language Sciences at Brock and subsequently completed a Master’s Degree in Communicative Disorders and Sciences at SUNY-Buffalo.

Chris Luckhart, Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Chris Luckhart, BSc (Hons.)

Neuroscience, Alumni

Chris Luckhart is currently pursuing an MSc in Neuroscience at U Ottawa.

Chris began working in the lab in May 2010 until April 2011.

She was  responsible for day-to-day lab functions including data analysis, administering experiments, and various other administrative duties involving the lab.

Matt Goldhawk, Brain and Language Research, Brock University

Matt Goldhawk, BSc (Hons.)

Biology/Chemistry, Alumni

Matt Goldhawk was the first Research Assistant at the Brain and Language lab. He has graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Biology/Chemistry with minors in both Psychology and Music.

Matt went on to pursue Teacher’s College at Brock University and is currently a Math and Science high school teacher at Royal Elite International Academy.