Principal Investigator
Hannah Hausman (she/her) is the principal investigator for the Hausman Memory and Metacognition Lab. Outside of the lab, she loves to mountain bike, trail run, and cross-country ski with her husband and dog. She loves to cook and is working her way through the cookbook Grist, learning how to cook with all sorts of heirloom beans, grains, and legumes.
Graduate Students
Melanie Prieto
Melanie (any pronouns) is a third-year in the UCSC Cognitive Psychology Ph.D. program. She is primarily interested in STEM learning, metacognition, and how we can use study strategies to increase performance and retention in STEM classrooms, particularly as it pertains to increasing the representation of underrepresented groups. Outside of research, Melanie likes to draw and paint.
Hunter Avila
Hunter (He/Him) is a first-year in the UCSC Cognitive Psychology Ph.D. program. His research interests include learning strategies and instructional formatting to better promote student learning. The primary topics explored in this domain are comparison learning, elaborative feedback, error correction, pre-testing effects, and metacognition. Hunter has lived his whole life in Santa Cruz and completed his undergrad at UC Santa Cruz.
Isabel Folger
Isabel Folger (she/her) is a post-bacc researcher who graduated from Carleton College in 2024 with a BA in Psychology and Cognitive Science. She is currently exploring the cognitive mechanisms underlying errorful learning. Isabel grew up two blocks from campus and is excited to be back in Santa Cruz.
Lab Managers
Sohrab Komeili
Sohrab Komeili (he/him) is a fourth-year Intensive Psychology major. Sohrab is interested in researching the formation and psychological aftereffects of human social hierarchies, and how both dominant and oppressed groups navigate through these systems. He enjoys going to the beach, working out, and playing video games in his spare time.
Payten Taggart
Payten Taggart (she/her) is a third-year Cognitive Science, B.S. major. Payten’s research interests are how interaction with AI impacts cognitive processes (primarily within learning) and the trust relationship between humans and AI. She enjoys reading, hiking, and playing guitar in her spare time.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Samantha Garcia
Sohrab Komeili
Payten Taggart
Louie Hidalgo
Lily Hallenback
Allison Zepeda
Isabel Fernandez
Lorelei Altura
Mac Edmister
Chloe Mcguire