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.
David Vollweiler
Graduate Student
David Vollweiler (he/him) 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. His current research investigates how well individuals can hold on to the beat when listening to music and whether individual differences (e.g., musicality and mental imagery) predict this ability. Outside of school and research, he enjoys going to concerts, traveling the world, and exploring Las Vegas.
Rachel DeWald
Graduate Student
Rachel DeWald, M.A. (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in the Psychological and Brain Sciences program. She received her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience from University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her master's thesis, Perception of Emotion in Autism with Controlled Elicitation, explored similarities and differences between autistic and non-autistic individuals' emotional experiences. Going forward, she will be incorporating music, autism, and how emotions develop from childhood into adulthood.
Isabella McConley
Graduate Student
Isabella McConley, B.S.A (she/her) is a second-year graduate student in the Psychological and Brain Sciences program studying with Drs. Joel Snyder and Erin Hannon. She received her B.S.A. in Neuroscience and a minor in English from the University of Texas at Austin, where she stayed for a few years post-grad working as a research coordinator and project manager. She is currently running an EEG project investigating auditory affective experiences like misophonia, ASMR and musical chills. In her free time, she enjoys reading, piano, sunshine, live music, and terrible reality TV.
Nick Panasevich
Graduate Student
Nick Panasevich (he/him) is a Ph.D. student in the Psychological and Brain Sciences program at UNLV, where he studies with Dr. Erin Hannon. Originally from outside Boston, MA, he holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.A. in Music Education from New York University. He completed a post-baccalaureate program at the University of Pennsylvania, working in Dr. Delphine Dahan’s lab on collaborative language use. His research interests center on the relationship between music and language, particularly how children acquire these faculties. Beyond academia, he has performed in bands and taught K–8 music in New York City and Philadelphia. In his free time, he enjoys fostering animals, watching baseball, and spending time with his kids.
