Graduate Students
Chihiro Honda is a PhD student in Cognitive Psychology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, where she is a member of the Auditory Perception and Action Lab (APAL). She studies music and language perception and production, and she is particularly interested in how these two domains overlap. Her current research examines the effects of musical and language backgrounds on behavioral performance (e.g., pitch imitation) as well as brain activities. Her main research goal is to understand the mechanisms involved in auditory processing in both music and language domains and the transfer of pitch processing ability from one domain to another. She received a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and a master’s degree in Psychology from the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Visit her website.
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.
Nathan Zak is a Buffalo-native graduate student and has had a life-long interest in music and human cognition. He completed his B.S. at University at Buffalo in 2017, and is graduating with a Masters degree in Psychology spring 2024. He has conducted research examining pitch pattern recognition in short-term memory under the mentorship of Dr. Pfordresher. He also currently studies music theory on the 7-string guitar and double bass, and plays in local groups.