About Me
I am an incoming PhD student at Georgia State University, where I will join the ADAPT Lab under Dr. Sarah Pope-Caldwell. My research interests center on cognitive flexibility — how humans and other primates adapt their thinking and decision-making to meet the demands of different environments. I am especially interested in understanding how these processes vary across species, developmental stages, and cultural contexts.
My path into comparative cognition began as an undergraduate at Emory University, where I joined Dr. Robert Hampton's Laboratory of Comparative Primate Cognition. Working hands-on with rhesus macaques — training them on touchscreen tasks and analyzing their memory strategies — solidified my commitment to understanding the mind through a comparative lens. At GSU, I look forward to expanding this work to include capuchin monkeys at the Language Research Center, cross-cultural fieldwork with communities in the Republic of the Congo, and human behavioral studies here in Georgia.
Current Research
- Conducting independent study on prospective vs. retrospective working memory strategies using match-to-sample paradigms.
- Designing and implementing cognition experiments with rhesus macaques.
- Programming behavioral tasks and analyzing performance data using R and Python.
Upcoming: PhD Research
- Joining the Adaptive Decision-making, Problem-solving, and Thinking (ADAPT) Lab, directed by Dr. Sarah Pope-Caldwell, which investigates how cognitive flexibility develops across species, ages, and cultural contexts.
- Conducting comparative cognition research with rhesus macaques and capuchin monkeys at GSU's Language Research Center, examining how primates adapt decision-making strategies to changing environments.
- Participating in cross-cultural fieldwork in the Republic of the Congo, studying cognitive flexibility and problem-solving among Bandongo and BaYaka communities in the Likouala region.
- Carrying out human behavioral research with participants in Georgia, contributing to a broader comparative framework spanning nonhuman primates, cross-cultural populations, and Western samples.
Education
ADAPT Lab (Adaptive Decision-making, Problem-solving, and Thinking) — Advisor: Dr. Sarah Pope-Caldwell
Relevant Coursework: Research Methods, Cognition, Statistics, Computer Science.
Presentations
Rebello, A., Cordish, B., Womack, J., & Piramal, N. (2024). How break quality and length impact attentional restoration. Poster presented at Psychology Department Research Symposium, Emory University.
Publications
Coming soon.