LAB DIRECTOR
Mark A. Thornton
Mark studies how people organize their knowledge of the social world, and use that knowledge to make accurate social prediction. To this end he uses a combination of fMRI, text analysis, computational modeling, and behavioral methods. He received his A.B. in Psychology from Princeton University in 2011, and his Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard University in 2017, before returning to Princeton University for postdoctoral training. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Lindsey Tepfer
Lindsey completed her B.S. in Neuroscience & Biological Anthropology at Temple University. After a few years in industry, she returned to Temple to receive her M.S. in Neuroscience. Broadly, she's interested in social cognition, emotion, and social decision making. Outside of research, she likes to lift weights and play video games.
Landry Bulls
Landry completed his B.S. in Psychology at UT Austin before spending two years as a lab manager in the SCRAP Lab, where he developed methods for extracting social signals from audiovisual recordings of naturalistic social interactions. As a PhD student, he is interested in the neuroscience underlying people’s ability keep track of themselves and others when embedded in multi-person environments like group conversations. Using data analytic techniques from deep learning, social signal processing, and fMRI, he is interested in characterizing complex social interactions as dynamical systems that transition between different collective social states. In the meantime, he loves being outdoors in any form or fashion, running, people watching, and tinkering with visual effects and audio synthesis.
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS
Katherine Jia
Katherine is a first-year undergraduate student at Dartmouth College. At SCRAP Lab, she is a research assistant working with Landry Bulls. She is interested in understanding perspectives through conversations, especially when age groups and experiences differ. Outside of the lab, she is a Division I swimmer, learning Japanese, a crochet enthusiast, and an avid photographer.
Tiana Duong
Tiana is a freshman intending to major in Psychology on the pre-medicine track and minor in Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages. She works with Lindsey Tepfer under the Women in Science Program (WISP). As a RA in the lab, she plans to explore collaborative judgments, learn fMRI methods and is excited to learn new data collection and analytic skills. Outside of work, she loves to do yoga, cook, and learn art history.
LAB ALUMNI
Amisha Vyas
Amisha received her B.A. in Psychology from New York University. Her previous research with Drs. Jon Freeman and Molly Crockett has broadly explored trait inferences from faces, impression formation, and moral cognition. At SCRAP Lab, she is excited to study how people leverage rich, multi-modal information from social targets and the environment to navigate their social world. Outside of the lab, she enjoys going for long walks, trying new recipes, and exploring history through art, literature, and films. Amisha is currently at PhD Student at Columbia University.
Chujun Lin
Chujun is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at UCSD. She completed her Ph.D. in Social Science at the California Institute of Technology in 2019, and her postdoctoral training in Social Psychology at Dartmouth College in 2023. Chujun's work focuses on how people infer others’ enduring traits via both dubious shortcuts (e.g. faces) and meaningful signals (e.g., emotions), and how biases in these trait inferences impact consequential real-world decisions (e.g., in politics, media, and science).
Caroline Conway - Research Assistant
Elizabeth Li - Research Assistant
Jason Davis - Research Assistant
Brandon Dormes - Research Assistant
Bupe Mwalongo - Research Assistant
Eleanor Amer - Research Assistant
Julia Martin - Research Assistant
JOIN US!
Become part of SCRAP Lab!
Want to know more about what it's like to be part of SCRAP Lab? Check out our lab's policy document.
Prospective graduate students: the lab will consider graduate applicants during the 2024-2025 admission cycle. See the PBS graduate admissions page for detail about how to apply. Please note that Prof. Thornton does not meet with propsective students prior to department's graduate admissions deadline.
Potential postdocs: researchers interested in joining SCRAP Lab as a postdoc should contact Mark directly to discuss potential projects and funding options. Include your CV and a cover letter describing your interest in the lab.
Lab managers: the lab is not currently seeking any lab managers or research technicians.
Undergraduates: the lab is currently looking for undergraduate research assistants. If interested, please email Amisha (Lab Manager) with your CV / resumé and a short description of your research interests.