Meet the Team
Principle Investigator
Zenzi Griffin, PhD
Professor and Researcher
Dr. Griffin is head of the Cognition and Communication Lab. She received her PhD in Psychology with a minor in Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998. She is interested in the cognitive processes that allow people to speak.
Graduate Students
Fatemeh Soleimani
PhD Student
Fatemeh is a PhD student in the French department, and she is working on metaphor comprehension from a psycholinguistic point of view. More specifically, she wants to know how people interpret a surreal poem and how they map different concepts.
Faith (Fateme) Mohseni
PhD Student
Fateme is a first-year PhD student researching language production in social contexts, with a particular focus on how humans synchronize their conversations in real time. Previously, she studied social cognition development and literacy in children. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, watching movies, and playing board games with friends.
Undergraduate Students
Madeleine Gomez
Research Assistant, Programmer
Madeleine is a 4th-year undergraduate student at UT Austin studying Informatics with a concentration in User Experience Design. As part of the lab's coding team, she designs a variety of programs to analyze and conduct experiments. Right now, she's developing a sentiment analysis model to contextualize endearments. Outside of the lab, she's a proud bookworm and self-taught artist. In fact, she designed the page you're seeing now!
Aaryana Sharma
Research Assistant
Aaryana is a junior undergraduate student at UT Austin who is a Research Assistant in the Cognition and Communication (Griffin) Lab. Currently, she is planning an independent research project on spontaneous language planning in American Sign Language. Apart from psychology, she likes writing and is pursuing a Creative Writing certificate with an emphasis in poetry.
Iris Wei
Research Assistant
Iris is a 2nd-year undergraduate psychology student at UT Austin contributing to the Cognition and Communication Lab with Dr. Griffin as a research assistant. She is interested in language processing and cognitive psychology and plans to begin an independent research project in the upcoming semesters. Outside of the lab, Iris is a part of LAHSC (Liberal Arts Honors Student Council), and she enjoys writing and crocheting.
Crystal Lee
Research Assistant
Crystal is a sophomore psychology BA student with minors in sociology and law, justice, and society. After graduating, she plans to pursue a master’s in forensic psychology. In addition to the Griffin Lab, Crystal is currently working in the Mood Disorders Lab, where they’re looking at attention bias modification for depression. She is also involved in the Texas Student Psychological Association (TSPA) and TRUE.
Pruthviraj Chavda
Research Assistant
Pruthviraj is a freshman at The University of Texas at Austin with a passion for Organizational Psychology. As a Research Assistant in Dr. Griffin’s lab, he contributes to studies on cognitive development and communication. His interest in the psychology of business has also led him to internships at SPIC - a consulting firm - and the United Nations. Outside of academics, Pruthviraj shares insights from self-help literature through his Readerzz podcast and actively seeks opportunities to broaden his experience in organizational psychology.
Kira Montgomery
Research Assistant
Mehr Chaudhary
Research Assistant
Eric Tian
Research Assistant
Chris Kim
Research Assistant
Eri Pilon
Research Assistant
Claire Guzman
Research Assistant
Andrew Alan
Programmer