Research

My research aims to apply cognitive, educational, social psychology, and user experience design to improve learning experiences and technologies. I build computational models to predict the mechanisms of learning in social and educational contexts, with a focus on reputation, knowledge structures, and collective intelligence, and I engineer online platforms required to conduct this research at scale. I develop web applications and multiplayer games for large-scale, naturalistic studies of social dynamics and collaborative learning. These platforms are built to both serve my specific research questions and to function as generalizable tools that make online experimental methods more accessible and efficient for other researchers.

Publications

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Posters/Poster Contributions

Breaking the IOED: Effects of Generating Explanations on Metacognitive Monitoring and Control
Inez Zung, Jacquelyn Y. Tsui, Emma H. Geller, Caren M. Walker, Steven C. Pan
Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting 2024
PDF
Are You Sure About That? The Impact of Semantic Relatedness on Learning Through Testing, JOLs, and Passive Restudy
Alejandro Carranza, Timothy C. Rickard, Emma H. Geller
CogSci 2025
PDF
Using Gestures to Signal a Causal Lesson Structure
Alan Lopez, Logan Fiorella, Celeste Pilegard
Honors Thesis Poster
PDF
Will this be on the test? - Investigating Signaling to Different Knowledge
Hana Nguyen, Inez Zung, Emma Geller
Honors Thesis Poster
PDF

Current Research

Research Scientist
Sciminds Research Studio @ UCSD (2025-Present)
Lead projects to build computational models to understand and predict learning mechanisms, and to develop online platforms for better and more robust research. Create and utilize game platforms as simulated environments for large multiplayer-scale studies on cognition, behavior, learning tools, social dynamics, and collaborative learning. Develop general tools, frameworks, and templates to make the research process technically easier and more accessible.
PI: Dr. Eshin Jolly, PhD.
Research Assistant
LIME Lab @ UCSD (2024-Present)
Working with graduate students and honors students on multiple research projects investigating preconceptions and learning, judgements of learning during restudy vs. retrieval practice, dual theory of processing in simulated environments, and subsumptive learning within STEM contexts.
PI: Dr. Emma Geller, PhD.
Project Leads: Inez Zung, Alejandro Carranza, Hana Nguyen

Previous Research

Research Assistant
PSI Lab @ UCSD (2024)
Research on how body language and gestures indicating cause and effect impact retention of causal science lessons.
PI: Dr. Celeste Pilegard, PhD.
Project Lead: Alan Lopez
Content & Web Development
Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition @ UCSD (2023-2024)
Developed, maintained, and wrote content for laboratory website. Engaged in literature reviews, helped organize information for cultural psychology book, attended seminars with leading professionals, and created graphics. Director/Advisor: Dr. Michael Cole, PhD. Profile
Cross-Cultural Developmental Psychology
Cultural and Social Development Lab @ Biola University (2022)
Research on cross-cultural developmental psychology, adolescence and emerging adulthood, identity development, and psychology and religion.
PI: Dr. Oscar Baldelomar, PhD.