Graduate Students
Chihiro Honda is a Ph.D. student in cognitive psychology. She was born in Japan and came to the United States in 2010 to further her education. She received her B.A. in psychology from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where her research focused on mental representation of emotion in bilingual speakers in Dr. Nancy Alvarado’s cognitive lab, as well as bilingual language processing by using the Taboo Stroop Task in Dr. Eleonora Rossi’s EEG lab. In addition to being bilingual, her passion for music amplified her interests in cognitive psychology. Since childhood, she has enjoyed playing music; she learned the classical piano, trumpet, drum, guitar, and some Japanese traditional instruments. Currently, she works with Dr. Pfordresher at the Auditory Perception and Action Lab on language acquisition and pitch imitation. To learn more about Chihiro and her current projects, please visit buffalo.edu/~chihiroh
Yan Chen is a Ph.D. student in Psychology working with Dr. Pfordresher at the Auditory Perception and Action Lab. Her current research focuses on the sensorimotor mechanisms in pitch imitation. She has been interested in music since childhood and she enjoys playing the piano in her free time.
Nicole Coleman is a cognitive Ph.D. student working with Dr. Pfordresher in the Auditory Perception and Action Lab. She received her B.A. from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. There, she studied music’s influence on individual time perception in Dr. Nicholas Van Horn’s Cognitive Lab. She began playing the violin at a young age which sparked her interest in how music can affect aspects of everyday life. To pursue this interest, her current research focuses on timing in speech and music production.
David Vollweiler is a student in the MS Data Analytics in the Social Sciences program and is the Lab Manager for the Auditory Perception and Action Lab. He earned his BA in Psychology from UB in 2021 where he worked as an Undergraduate Research Assistant in APAL. He will start a Ph.D. in Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in the Fall 2023 semester. He has been interested in music since childhood and has learned to play the trumpet and sing. His current research focuses on the association between involuntary musical imagery (commonly referred to as “earworms”) and musical abilities. He is also contributing to the on-going Grammy Foundation funded project that compares the effects of singing versus mental imagery training on overall pitch imitation abilities.
Nathan Zak is a Buffalo-native graduate student and has had a life-long interest in both music and human cognition. He completed his B.S. at University at Buffalo in 2017, and is now pursing a Masters in Psychology, working as a graduate assistant with Dr. Pfordresher in the Auditory Perception and Action Lab. He currently studies jazz guitar and bass, and plays in local groups. More specific interests include examining the relationships between music and language, and how analogs can be drawn.