People
Lab Director
Kevin J. Holmes [kjholmes (at) reed (dot) edu] [CV]
Kevin is an Associate Professor of Psychology. He came to Reed by way of Colorado College (Assistant Professor of Psychology for six years), UC Berkeley (Postdoctoral Fellow in Cognitive Science), Emory University (Ph.D. in Psychology: Cognition & Development), and Stanford University (M.A. in Psychology and B.A. in Human Biology). Outside the classroom and the lab, Kevin enjoys tennis (especially rooting for his favorite pros), theatre (especially musicals), and traveling (especially to NYC).
Lab Members and Affiliates
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Enriqueta Canseco-Gonzalez, Emerita Professor of Psychology Enriqueta retired in 2023 after teaching at Reed for 31 years. She continues to collaborate with Professor Holmes in the Thought Lab and with Professor Pitts in the SCALP Lab. When she's not doing research, Enriqueta enjoys playing tennis, kayaking, and hiking. She has also started a second career as an interpreter. |
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Niko Adams ’26 Niko is a senior psychology major and film+media studies minor from the San Francisco Bay Area with a passion for languages and American Film Noir. They are especially invested in the innovative nature of language/linguistic framing and their potential to both reflect and shape our unconscious biases and decisions, with particular regard to gender and stereotype bias. What free time they have is spent dirt-biking, rock-climbing, hosting afternoon tea for friends, cheering for the San Jose Sharks, listening to Def Leppard, and—on Tuesdays—going to the cinema. |
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Jaden Browne ’26 Bio coming soon! |
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Cooper Hammond ’26 Bio coming soon! |
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Isara Moriya ’28 Bio coming soon! |
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Jayna Mumo ’26 Jayna is a junior psychology major from Nairobi, Kenya with a keen interest in academic motivation and how language influences judgment and reasoning. She is particularly interested in how research can be translated into practice in higher education through program evaluation, policy analysis, and intervention. In her free time, she enjoys camping trips, making good food, winning board games, and exploring new cities. |
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Rives Scherer ’26 Rives is a senior psychology major and linguistics minor from Houston, Texas. They are interested in pragmatics and second language education and acquisition. He is also intrigued by the role of linguistic metaknowledge in education, both in practice and in policy. In their free time, they can be found doing fiber crafts, reading, or spinning fire. |
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Ivan Sun ’26 Bio coming soon! |
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Griffin Turek ’27 Griffin is a junior psychology major from San Diego with an interest in pragmatic inference. He is especially interested in how contextual factors are interpreted and processed in cognition and the role that language plays both as a contextual factor and a moderator of interpretation, particularly as it concerns value judgments. Outside of the lab, he enjoys reading science-fiction novels, playing table-top roleplaying games, and going on walks. |
Lab Alumni and Thesis Topics*
* for students who completed a senior thesis in the lab
2025
- Daniela Buchillon-Almeida: Linguistic distancing and emotion regulation in Spanish and English
- Gor Hakobyan: Linguistic diversity and beliefs about the language-reality link
- Amalia Shapira: Generic language and essentialist beliefs about social categories
- Signe Slaughter: LGBTQ+ "panic" defenses, victim framing, and juror decision-making
- Rachel Thacker: Aspectual framing and reasoning about educational achievement
- Celina Tran
- Kati Wolcott: Generic language and structural thinking about social groups
2024
- Teresa Elliott
- Lena Kassin
- Emerson Schimmel
2023
- Ari Goldstein: Gender self-concept and linguistic encoding of gender
- Clarissa Madar
- Molly Moir: The trans panic defense and attitudes toward anti-trans violence
- Liantao (Tony) Shan: Anthropomorphic language and political reasoning
- Sarah Wu: AI, intentionality, and the perception of musical narrative
2022
- Andries Castellano
- Farhan James: Political ideology and attitudes toward Covid-19 vaccination
- Sirisha Krishnamurthy: Climate graph interpretation and political ideology
- Ella Rook: Linguistic framing and anti-fat bias
- Jinduo Wang: Intuitions about mathematical beauty and sublimity
2021
- Lili Davis: Victim framing and attitudes toward police violence
- Nan Elpers
- Sage Schwartz: ADHD, physical activity, and executive functioning
- Maya Star-Lack
- Lux Steinberg: Effects of grammatical gender on object concepts
- Boshang (Cici) Yin: Self-victim framing and attitudes toward sexual assault
2020
- Evan Doherty: Syntactic framing effects and pragmatic reasoning
- Gabriela Garcia
- Wyatt Newhall: Spatial navigation heuristics and local topography
- Olivia Schultz
- Elijah Thornburg
- Daniel Walsh: Affect labeling and emotional experience
- Theresa Westphal
2019
- Josh Alvarado
- Emily Gardner: Cross-linguistic analogical reasoning and essentialism
- Quinn Husney
- Frances Murray
- Casey Pollard
- James van der Vord
- Hannah Warden
- Alice Wu
2018
- Ula Adamska
- Ian Carey
- Noella Garcia-Soberañez
- Andrew Kopel: Effects of language on spatial cognition
- Andrés Madrigal
- Dolma Rabgay
- Robby Welch: Categorical perception of color and discrimination difficulty
2017
- Candelaria Alcat: Spatialization of emotional intensity and valence
- Katlyn Frey: Implicit effects of classifier categories on object perception
- Andrew Kirvin-Quamme
- Erin Luby: Linguistic diversity and essentialist beliefs
- Ruthie Rabinovitch: Spatial mappings in sign languages
- Ben Smotrich
- Tia Tummino
2016
- Andrew DesLauriers
- Laura DiRusso: Environmental effects on spatial reasoning
- Samantha Ellner: Word meaning and dyslexia
- Adam Hunter: Cognitive mechanisms underlying mindfulness meditation
- Jacob Jones
- Taylor LeFevre
- Julia Liao
- Dani Meyer
- Nico Ravitch: Language and categorical perception of color
- Alison Rowe
2015
- Jake Brodsky: Bilingualism and gender essentialism
- Eileen Kitrick
- William Rushton: Artistic experience and holistic face processing
- Jenny Wool
- Hadar Zeigerson: Lateralized categorical perception of facial expressions
2014
- Claire Binder
- Katie Brady: The role of attention in lateralized categorical perception
- : Categorical perception of spatial relations across languages