My PhD, obtained in 2010 at York University, Toronto Canada, is in the field of Psychology with an emphasis on Cognitive Neuroscience.
For my doctoral dissertation, I explored the relation between emotion and reasoning, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and I proposed a new neural model of the interaction of reasoning and emotion (MIRE).
Previously I conducted an eye-tracking study involving people with Asperger syndrome.
For my masters thesis, I conducted an fMRI study of theory of mind (also called mentalizing), comparing reasoning about other people’s thoughts with reasoning about others’ intended physical behaviour.
As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in a position held simultaneously at University of Sussex, UK and Université de Picardie Jules Verne, France, I explored the changing neural correlates across two timepoints of the cognitive and emotional effects of binge drinking among young adults.
As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow / Associate in the Goel Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, I continued the investigation of the emotion / reason relation at the neural level of analysis.
As well, I designed and directed the execution of behavioural studies to examine the effect on reasoning of cognitive ability, cognitive style, and personality. I was particularly interested in exploring whether ambiguity tolerance and need for closure would have an impact on performance when reasoning materials involved uncertainty (indeterminacy). I provided mentoring to graduate and honours thesis students, and supervised research assistants and volunteers.