Lab Members

Principal Investigator

Dr. Jelena Ristic 

jelena.ristic [at] mcgill.ca | Faculty Page | Google Scholar

Professor Jelena Ristic received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. at the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia and completed postdoctoral training at the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She joined McGill University in 2009 as an Assistant Professor and held the William Dawson Chair until 2022. Jelena Ristic is a Fellow of the Psychonomic Society, and the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science (CSBBCS), and a winner of a Mid-Career award from the CSBBCS, Best Article awards from the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA), and a Mentorship Award from Women in Cognitive Science. Professor Ristic is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance and Visual Cognition. Her multifaceted research spans basic mechanisms of human attention, cognitive neuroscience of attention, social and interactive cognition, eye tracking, social behavior, social attention, and attentional development.

Dr. Sarah McCrackin

sarah.mccrackin [at] mail.mcgill.ca | Personal Website | Google Scholar

I am a post-doctoral researcher in the A&SC lab, working with Jelena Ristic. I recently completed my Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Waterloo. During my time there, I studied how we use information from the eye-gaze of others to relate to them on an emotional level. This included how we use gaze cues to infer the emotional states of others, to empathize with them, and to discriminate their facial expression and direction of attention. I used electroencephalography to explore the neural underpinnings of cognition and behaviour when examining these questions, and I hope to expand upon a separate line of research examining how gaze and emotional expressions interact to orient an observer's attention to a gazed-at location.

Florence Mayrand

florence.mayrand [at] mail.mcgill.ca

I am a Ph.D. student in the Experimental Psychology program here at McGill. While doing my B.S.H. at Seton Hall University, I worked with Dr. Marianne Lloyd on the effectiveness of stereotype suppression and divided attention in the Memory Lab. Now at McGill, I am turning my focus to the processes involved in perspective taking. My Master’s thesis, which I also completed in the A&SC Lab, investigated the role of directionality and mentalizing in perspective taking and how they interact. In addition, I am currently working on projects involving gaze behaviour in dyadic interactions using eye tracking. Outside the lab, I spend my time enjoying views while hiking around the province and traveling as far as I possibly can.

Luowei Yan

luowei.yan [at] mail.mcgill.ca

I am a second-year MSc student in the Experimental Psychology program at McGill University. I completed my HBSc at University of Toronto with a double major in Psychology and Neuroscience. My current research focuses on group perception and visual attention. For instance, do we automatically perceive a group of people facing one another as a unit? Using eye tracking, I am also interested in seeing where and how our attention is oriented when viewing these groups. Outside of the lab, I enjoy trying different foods, hiking, swimming, and films.

Jessica Savoie

jessica.savoie2 [at] mail.mcgill.ca

I am a first-year MSc student in the Experimental Psychology program. I completed a Bachelor of Science in Honours Psychology at Saint Mary’s University. As well, I completed a Post-Graduate certificate in the psychology and neuroscience of mental health at King’s College London. My current research at the Attention & Social Cognition lab focuses on perception and visual attention in social groups. Specifically, my research aims to see how our attention is elicited in social groups of varying sizes. Outside of academia, I enjoy spending time with my pets, hiking, and trying as many of the great restaurants in Montreal as I can!

Clara Colombatto

c.colombatto [at] ucl.ac.uk | Personal Website | Google Scholar

I recently completed my PhD at Yale University with Brian Scholl, and am now a postdoc at UCL working with Steve Fleming. My research focuses on the visual roots of social cognition: for example, I have explored how socially powerful stimuli are prioritized in our visual experience, and how visual processing might impact higher-level social and moral judgments. In collaboration with Dr. Ristic, I am investigating how our attention might be influenced by the perception of others' attention, as signaled for example by their pupil size or body pose.

Mikayla Strandberg

mikayla.strandberg [at] mail.mcgill.ca

I am a U3 student completing a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and minoring in History. I completed my thesis at the Attention & Social Cognition Lab under the supervision of Florence Mayrand investigating the effect of masks on gaze distribution in dyadic interactions. I am very excited to take on the role of lab coordinator this year and be involved in multiple projects throughout the year. Outside of the lab, I enjoy hiking, cooking, and attending concerts. 

Alice Zhang

yu.zhang11 [at] mail.mcgill.ca

I am a U3 Honours Psychology student, and this is my second year in the Attention & Social Cognition Lab. Last year, I did my honours thesis about the effect of neutral and emotional gaze cueing on our perception of time duration under Dr. Sarah McCrackin’s and Dr. Jelena Ristic’s supervision. I enjoyed my time at the lab, so I decided to stay as a volunteer and learn how to use some of the equipment I didn’t get the chance to use last year, such as EEG. In the future, my goal is to pursue graduate studies in child clinical psychology. Outside of the lab, I enjoy trying out new activities and food places with my friends!

Coco Jie Wang

jie.wang3 [at] mail.mcgill.ca

My name is Coco Jie and I am a research assistant of A&SC lab. I completed my 1st Honours Thesis “Mimicking the facial expressions of masked faces does not restore empathetic responses towards them” with the lab under the supervision of Dr.Sarach McCrackin and Dr.Jelena Ristic. I am currently helping the lab on participant recruitment, EEG capping and data monitoring, etc.

Angran Liu

angran.liu [at] mail.mcgill.ca

I am a U3 student completing a BA in psychology and minoring in music and behavioral science. I am conducting my honours-equivalent thesis at the Attention & Social Cognition Lab under the supervision of Dr. Sarah McCrackin and Florence Mayrand. My project investigates how face masks impact emotional and neutral gaze cueing. I plan to pursue graduate studies in the field of Industrial/ Organizational Psychology after my bachelor’s degree. Outside the academic realm, I'm an avid music enthusiast, enjoying genres like K-pop, rock, and old-school hip-hop, and I love getting stronger with regular gym workouts.