APAL Staff
DirectorDr. Peter Pfordresher
Graduate students
Karen Chow
Emma Greenspon
Paul Kovacs
Tim A. Pruitt
Malak Sharif
Undergraduate research assistants
Anthony DelGaudio
Brian Kawecki
Thomas Galderab
Paul Lauven
Michelle Lei
Karen Li
Joshua Michaels
Anthony Nagib
Callin Schupbach
Jacquelyn Stoebe
Lab alumni
Dr. Peter Pfordresher, Director
| Dr. Pfordresher's primary training has been in experimental psychology. His many years as a practicing musician provided the basis for his research interest in the cognitive bases of musical communication as it occurs during performance. He is currently a professor in the Department of Psychology at SUNY Buffalo, and was previously a faculty member at the University of Texas (San Antonio). The main question motivating his research concerns the way in which people retrieve complex event sequences in real time, whether in the course of perceiving or producing these sequences. A major recent area, currently funded by the National Science Foundation, concerns sensorimotor mechanisms in the vocal imitation of pitch patterns, including singing. Dr. Pfordresher currently serves as associated editor for the journals Music Perception and Psychological Research, and as a consulting editor for Attention, Perception & Psychophysics. He is co-author (with Siu-Lan Tan and Rom Harre) of the textbook, Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance (2010, Psychology Press). You can read his vita here(.pdf). Also see his faculty web page on the psychology department website here. | 
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Graduate students
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Karen Chow joined the Auditory Perception and Action Lab in 2015 as a PhD student in Cognitive Psychology. She received her B.S. in cognitive science and B.A. in music from UC San Diego, M.M. in piano performance from Boston University, and MSc in music, mind & brain from Goldsmiths, University of London. Previously, she worked with Dr. Daniel Muellensiefen on assessing and modeling absolute pitch abilities, as well as assisting Dr. Sarah Creel with eye-tracking projects examining online processing of melody recognition. Her experience as a pianist and music educator drives her current research interests in auditory effects on motor planning in performance. |
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Emma Greenspon is a PhD student in cognitive psychology. She received her bachelor's of science at the University of Richmond where she conducted research on word expertise in Dr. Bukach's cognitive neuroscience lab. Music has also been a large part of her life since childhood. She has participated in concert bands as well as symphony orchestras playing both the violin and saxophone. Being a member of the Auditory Perception and Action lab allows her to combine her interests of music, psychology and language research. Currently she is working on a project with Dr. Pfordresher and in collaboration with Dr. Halpern from Bucknell University that investigates the role auditory imagery plays in poor pitch singing. She is also starting a project in collaboration with Dr. Caroline Palmer from McGill University that will assess whether preferred rates (self-imposed, comfortable rates of production) are: 1. consistent within a given task, 2. related within a domain, and 3. related across domains. She will also be working with Dr. Chis McNorgan, another cognitive faculty member at the University at Buffalo, to gain experience with fMRI methodology and analysis. |
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Paul Kovacs is currently pursuing an MA in Psychology and is in his first year. His interests within psychology include auditory perception and cognition. Paul's musical background includes playing clarinet for eight years, of which three years were spent as concert-master. He was a singer in the all-county chorus and as a part of this performed at Kleinhans Music Hall. Although Paul no longer plays clarinet or sings, he is still active musically through producing electronic music and playing guitar. |
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Tim A. Pruitt is a Ph.D. student in cognitive psychology. He received his Bachelor's degree from Radford University with a major in psychology and a minor in anthropology. He then obtained a Master's degree in general-experimental psychology from Appalachian State University. During his previous graduate studies he spent time working in Dr. Kenneth Steele's Music Perception Laboratory examining psychoacoustic attributes of timbre as well as methodological issues in timbre research. Tim's current research with APAL investigates the relationship between perception and production across music and language behaviors. He also conducts comparative research with Dr. Micheal Dent which examines auditory perception in the Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulates) and Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata) bird species. Tim is currently developing psychophysiological recording experience related to auditory evoked potentials and is actively honing his teaching abilities related to Psychological Statistics as well as other courses offered at the University at Buffalo. |
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Malak Sharif is a first year PhD student in cognitive psychology. She received her bachelors of arts in psychology from the University at Buffalo in Spring 2014 where she completed her undergraduate thesis with Dr. Pfordresher investigating internal models and deficits of pitch imitation. Malak has performed in concert bands playing clarinet and continues to play in her free time. Her current research is continuing to explore deficits in vocal pitch imitation. |
Undergraduate research assistants
| Jacquelyn Stoebe is a second-year undergraduate student in the Honors College pursuing a double major in Psychology and Speech and Hearing Science. After graduation, she plans to pursue a Master's degree in Communicative Disorders and Sciences with the goal of licensure as a speech-language pathologist. Jacquelyn has been interested in music from a young age, with over ten years of experience on the clarinet. Currently, she plays the bass clarinet in the UB Concert Band. The APAL lab is her first research experience and she is excited to contribute to the field of music psychology. | 
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Lab alumni
Dr. James Mantell , Assistant Professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland
Dr. Pauline Larrouy-Maesteri, Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Aesthetics (Germany)
Dr. Jon Prince, Lecturer at Murdoch University (Australia)
Stefanie Acevedo, Graduate student, Yale University (Music Theory)
Andrew Jebb, Graduate student, Purdue University (I/O Psychology)
John Kulpa, Graduate Student at New Mexico State University
Matt Wisniewski, Postdoc, Wright Patterson Airforce Base
Justin Couchman, Assistant Professor, Albright College
Rob Beasley
Tom Beal-Schwab
Ryan Coppolo
Joe Gibson
Andrew Kothen
Rebecca O'Connor
Zahra Malakotipour
Jennifer O'Sullivan
David Ricotta
Garnettha Sari
Brian Schafheimer
Marianna Sobczak
Xiaojun (Gene) Shan
Daniel Taillie
Tom Varco
Jennifer Walsh
Michael Wright
Ece Yildirim
Dr. Pauline Larrouy-Maesteri, Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Aesthetics (Germany)
Dr. Jon Prince, Lecturer at Murdoch University (Australia)
Stefanie Acevedo, Graduate student, Yale University (Music Theory)
Andrew Jebb, Graduate student, Purdue University (I/O Psychology)
John Kulpa, Graduate Student at New Mexico State University
Matt Wisniewski, Postdoc, Wright Patterson Airforce Base
Justin Couchman, Assistant Professor, Albright College
Rob Beasley
Tom Beal-Schwab
Ryan Coppolo
Joe Gibson
Andrew Kothen
Rebecca O'Connor
Zahra Malakotipour
Jennifer O'Sullivan
David Ricotta
Garnettha Sari
Brian Schafheimer
Marianna Sobczak
Xiaojun (Gene) Shan
Daniel Taillie
Tom Varco
Jennifer Walsh
Michael Wright
Ece Yildirim