Researchers
Erin Hannon
Principal Investigator
Erin Hannon is a Professor of the Psychological and Brain Sciences department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She received a Ph.D. Experimental Psychology in 2005 from Cornell University. Her research combines her interests in cognition, culture, child development, music and dance, and language. She examines how an individual's culture-specific listening experiences influence his or her perception of music, the similarities and differences between musical and linguistic skills as they develop and perhaps interact during infancy and childhood, how we acquire the ability to move in time with music, and how developmental milestones in music perception might be related to other social, emotional, cognitive, and linguistic abilities and behaviors. Download her publications or her vita.
Rodica Constantine
Graduate Student
Rodica is a Ph.D. student in the Psychological and Brain Sciences program studying with Drs. Erin Hannon and Joel Snyder. She holds a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in Music from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as a piano pedagogy certificate from Carnegie Mellon University. Her primary research interests lie at the intersection of music and language perception and acquisition across development. Additional interests include auditory scene analysis and perceptual restoration in audition. Aside from research, she enjoys playing and teaching piano, songwriting, and hiking.
David Vollweiler
Graduate Student
David is a Ph.D. student in the Psychological and Brain Sciences program working with Drs. Erin Hannon and Joel Snyder. He is from Long Island, NY and holds a B.A. in Psychology and an M.S. in Data Analysis in Social Sciences from the University at Buffalo, SUNY. There, he studied the association between involuntary musical imagery (commonly referred to as “earworms”) and musical abilities in the Auditory Perception and Action Lab under the advisement of Dr. Peter Pfordresher. He has been interested in music since childhood and has learned to play the trumpet and sing. He has specific interests in looking at the role auditory imagery plays in musical abilities. Outside of school and research, he enjoys going to concerts, traveling the world, and exploring Las Vegas.
Dan Berkowitz
Graduate Student
Dan Berkowitz (he/him) is a 2nd year grad student in the Psychological and Brain Sciences program studying with Dr. Snyder. He moved to Las Vegas to join the lab last summer from Boston, where he had been living for the past 5 years. There, he finished his undergrad at Tufts University with a double major in Cognitive & Brain Sciences and Music, graduating in 2021. He stayed at Tufts for an extra year, earning a Master’s Degree in Data Analytics before entering UNLV last fall! His research currently focuses on the sensation of groove in music and other forms of audio-affective processing, and he is also working on replicating a study as part of the #EEGManyLabs consortium. In his free time, Dan enjoys playing Dungeons & Dragons and Magic the Gathering with pals, listening to metal music, playing trombone, and cuddling with his cat Zebby.