Solena Mednicoff

PhD Candidate

University of California, Irvine

Biography

I am a PhD Candidate in Cognitive Sciences with an emphasis in Cognitive Neuroscience. My research interests include music cognition, neuroscience, learning and behavior, as well as user engagement & analytics.

I lead and collaborate with research groups to investigate the neurobiology of listening to major and minor music. I also manage and work with a communications team to create content for the UC Irvine Graduate Division social media platforms.

Interests

Music Cognition
Music Information Retrieval
Data Science
Social Media Research & Analytics

Education

PhD in Cognitive Sciences, exp. 2021

University of California, Irvine
MS in Cognitive Neuroscience, 2017

University of California, Irvine
BS in Neuroscience, 2015

University of Nevada, Reno
Minor in Piano Performance, 2015

University of Nevada, Reno

Skills

Matlab

Python

R

Overleaf/Latex

Technical Writing

Critical Thinking

Experience

Graduate Student Researcher - Social Media

UC Irvine Graduate Division

Jun 2019 – Present California

Create content and marketing campaigns for the UC Irvine Graduate Division Social Media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

Job duties include:

Coordinate and manage workflows
Develop strategic content & communications
Implement various marketing campaigns across platforms for different departments
Analyze user metrics to improve audience retention and engagement

Instructor/ Teaching Associate

UC Irvine

Sep 2018 – Aug 2018 California

Taught a Psychology Fundamentals/Psychology & Social Behaviors summer session course. Created my own lectures, learning activities, and examination materials for 50+ students.

Topics taught include:

Biological bases of behavior (emotional & social)
Learning & Memory
Developmental psychology
Neuroscience

Pre-doctoral Research Fellow

Center for Hearing Research

Jul 2016 – Jul 2018 California

Two year research fellowship awarded to gain experience in analyzing auditory and audiosignal processing, Monte Carlo simulations, modeling, as well as analyzing audio- and spectrograms.

Graduate Student Researcher - Cognitive Sciences

UC Irvine

Sep 2015 – Present California

Why do we perceive emotions in music and speech? My research examines the sensitivity of the human auditory system to the emotional content in music and speech.

Job duties include: