MELISSA J. COFFEL
Welcome
My name is Melissa Coffel. (she/her/hers)
Thank you for visiting my website, which serves as a more interactive, detailed CV.
Education
Columbia University
Master of Science
Neuroscience & Education
I completed my MS in neuroscience and education at Columbia University. During my graduate eduction, I was advised by Dr. Peter Gordon, Dr. Karen Froud, and Dr. Kimberly Noble.
Thesis: "From Brain and Behavior to Machine: Advancing Neuroimaging and Neuropsychological Diagnostic Tools with Machine Learning-Assisted Prediction of Dyscalculia"
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Bachelor of Science
Psychology
I completed my BS in psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During my undergraduate eduction, I was advised by Dr. Kiel Christianson and Dr. Kara Federmeier.
Formal concentration: Behavioral Neuroscience
Research Experience
Yale University
I am currently working as a clinical research analyst in the Schizophrenia Neuropharmacology Research Group at Yale (SNRGY). This lab is associated with Yale University School of Medicine and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. In this lab, I am working on MEG, MEG/EEG, and EEG/EMG projects investigating the differences of neurotypical subjects and patients with schizophrenia during various cognitive tasks.
Columbia University
PI: Dr. Peter Gordon
In the Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at Columbia University, I worked on visual perceptual organization in schizophrenia and neurotypical brains. This work is in collaboration with Mt. Sinai Hospital and the Cognitive Neuropsychology Lab at Columbia University. I was also involved in the EEG numbers project, which looks to understand numerical cognition in children and the Pirahã people. My fully independent research projects utilize EEG/ERPs, eye tracking, and pupillometry to investigate semantic and associative priming effects on cognition in neurotypical and clinical populations. I am still collaborating with this group to examine mathematical prodigy, reading, and word recognition in autistic children.
PI: Dr. Karen Froud
In the Neurocognition of Language Lab at Columbia University, I worked on semantic depth of processing in digital versus print reading. I presented this work on behalf of the lab at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society 2021 annual meeting.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
PI: Dr. Kara Federmeier
I spent the majority of my undergraduate education working as a research assistant in and the laboratory manager for the Cognition and Brain Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. During this time, I worked on several studies that employed EEG/ERP, eye tracking, and pupillometry methods to explore word expectancy and the N400, foveal semantic load, parafoveal processes in reading, and language comprehension indexed by the N400 and P600 in normative aging. Further, I aided in work that applied the simultaneous/co-registration of EEG/ERP, eye tracking, and pupillometry research methods to evaluate language comprehension and memory during self-paced reading.
PI: Dr. Kiel Christianson
My introduction to research began in the Educational Psychology Psycholinguistics Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. During this time, I performed eye tracking research examining psycholinguistic effects on reading, cognition, and second language acquisition in children and adults. This work explored reading comprehension differences between monolingual and bilingual English speakers whose native (L1) languages were Mandarin, Korean, Russian, and Arabic.
My research interests lie at the intersections of cognitive neuroscience, clinical psychology/neuropsychology, education, and artificial intelligence.
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Cognition
Emotion
Intervention
Outcome