People

Lab Director, Kerri L. Johnson, Ph.D.

Kerri is Professor in the Departments of Communication and Psychology at UCLA, the Department Chair for Communication, and the director of the UCLA Social Vision Lab. Her research probes the production and perception of gendered cues, with a particular emphasis on understanding how perceptual processes impact perceptual preferences and prejudices.

A copy of her CV can be found here.

Links to her lab’s publications can be found here.

Current Doctoral Students

Nicholas Alt

Broadly, Nicholas is interested in social vision research and its applications to understanding the perceptions of groups. As such, he utilizes ensemble coding methodology with thin-slice perception research to understand threat related judgments of groups. An additional line of work investigates walk motion cues in relation to threat and harm detection.

Jessica Shropshire

Jessica is a fourth year doctoral student in Social Psychology. Her research focuses on understanding how visual cues (i.e. gender and race) are perceived and evaluated and the role of these visual cues in applied social settings such as for women in STEM fields, romantic relationships, minority categorization, and perceptions of groups.

Gerald Higginbotham

Gerald’s is a third year doctoral student in Social Psychology.

Kimberly Martin

Kim is a second year doctoral student in Social Psychology.

Zach Oxford

Zach is a first year doctoral student in Social Psychology. His research examines how political beliefs interact with social visual processes.

Grace Gillespie

Grace is a long time member of the lab, and she will begin her doctoral work in Fall 2019.

Lab Alumni

Brianna Goodale

Bri earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Psychology at UCLA in 2017. Her dissertation research tested how a glimpse of a group impacts feelings of fit and belonging. She is currently an affiliate at the University of Utah.

DJ Lick

DJ earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Psychology at UCLA in 2015. His research tested the social cognitive underpinnings of prejudice related to sex, gender, sexual orientation, and race. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at NYU, DJ worked at Facebook, and he is now a researcher for Google.

Colleen Carpinella

Colleen earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Psychology at UCLA in 2014. Her research tested social perception the intersection of gender, power, and politics. After completing post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Hawaii and Disney Research, she now works in private industry.

Mariana Preciado

Mariana earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Psychology at UCLA in 2013. She now conducts educational research for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Leah E. Lurye

Leah earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Psychology at NYU in 2010. Her research interests focus on the development of gender and gender knowledge.

Jon Freeman

Jon was the lab’s first lab manager before it moved to UCLA. He is now an Associate Professor of Psychological at New York University. His research interests focus on multiple aspects of person construal.