The Auditory Perception and Action Lab || Dr. Peter Pfordresher ||

APAL Staff

Director
Dr. Peter Pfordresher

Graduate students
Mary Flaherty
Emma Greenspon
Andrew Jebb
Anastasiya Kobrina
James Mantell
Tim A. Pruitt

Undergraduate research assistants
Malak Sharif
Esther Song
Michael Williams
Alex Woodruff

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 arrived at UB after five years as 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. Of particular concern is the way in which people use (or do not use) the perceived consequences of their actions in order to maintain fluency in communication. His research is currently funded by the National Science Foundation and has appeared in flagship journals in the domains of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, and music cognition. Dr. Pfordresher currently serves as a consulting editor for Perception and Psychophysics, Music Perception, and the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. You can read his vita (.pdf). Also see his faculty web page on the psychology department website here.

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Graduate students

Mary Flaherty is a PhD student in cognitive psychology. She received her BS in psychology from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in 2007. She primarily works in Dr. James Sawusch's lab at UB, where she studies how our knowledge of words alters ours perceptions of the segments that make up words. Mary is currently working on a qualifying project in APAL, and is investigating the relationship between action and auditory feedback in piano players.

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Emma Greenspon is a first year 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.

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Andrew Jebb is a first year MA student in psychology. He graduated from Duquesne University in 2011 with a BA in psychology, though initially entering as a music student. The switch was brought on by his interest in psychology, psychoanalytic theory in particular. Not involved in the psychoanalytic branch anymore, Andrew studies cognitive psychology, the philosophy of mind, evolutionary psychology, and other areas of cognitive science. In the lab, he anticipates collaborating on an atonal project with Dr. Pfordresher and also working on his own project involving the bases of human beat and tempo processing. In his free time, Andrew keeps up his jazz guitar playing and hopes to be playing in the Buffalo area soon.

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Anastasiya Kobrina is a Master’s student in cognitive psychology. She started out her undergraduate career in Brooklyn College, and received her Bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University at Buffalo in 2011. Inspired by her undergraduate experience in the Auditory Perception and Action Lab, she is currently working on her master’s project. As a piano player she is interested in the interaction between pitch and meter. Anastasiya intends to dedicate her Master’s career to the investigation of the effects of altered auditory feedback on piano performance. In the future she hopes to integrate her music cognition experience into the field of cognitive neuroscience. Her personal interests include brain imaging, neurology and neural disorders, as well as animal cognition.

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James Mantell is a PhD candidate in cognitive psychology; he joined APAL in 2007. He graduated from the Honors College at Millersville University of Pennsylvania in 2005 with a BA in psychology and philosophy. He then worked as a research assistant for two years at the Speech Research Lab at A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware. His masters project identified the facilitative role of phonetic information in speech and song imitation. He completed a qualifying project with Dr. Jim Sawusch that investigated the influence of nonspeech rate information on speech perception. He completed another qualifying project with Dr. Eduardo Mercado III that implemented computational algorithms for fundamental frequency detection. James is currently working on his dissertation—an investigation of the effects of nonspeech acoustic events on speech production. Visit his website.

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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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Undergraduate research assistants

Malak Sharif is a junior undergraduate pursuing a BA in psychology and minors in Italian and history. She is interested in the cognitive aspect of psychology and hopes to further her education in the field. She is also working at Dr. J. David Smith's lab and is excited about her first experiences in the labs.

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Esther Song is a third year undergraduate student pursuing a psychology BS degree at the University at Buffalo. She is interested in the forensic and cognitive aspects of psychology. She has played violin for over twelve years and is currently playing in the UB Symphony Orchestra. This is her first experience with laboratory research and she is excited to be a part of the lab.

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Michael Williams is a fourth year senior pursuing a B.S. in Psychology as well as a B.A. in English. He has played guitar since the age of seven and has played drums from the ages of nine to seventeen. He is incredibly excited for the opportunity to work in a laboratory tied so closely to his personal interests.

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Alex Woodruff is a third year biomedical sciences student at the University at Buffalo. At this time, he is considering a career in medicine with the intentions to deliver healthcare abroad. He is also very active in music performance and has been singing in the UB Choir for several years. This is his first experience in a research lab setting and is excited to be a member of APAL.

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Lab alumni

Stefanie Acevedo
Rob Beasley
Matt Wisniewski
Justin Couchman
Alex Tilton
Joe Gibson
Brian Schafheimer
Dr. Jon Prince, former post doc, now Lecturer at Murdoch University
Tom Varco
Ryan Coppolo
Rebecca O'Connor
John Kulpa, Graduate Student at New Mexico State University
Xiaojun (Gene) Shan
David Ricotta
Jennifer O'Sullivan
Meredith Zintz
Marianna Sobczak
Tom Beal-Schwab
Jennifer Walsh
Ece Yildirim
Amy Mazur

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