Graduate Students

PhD Student (Developmental Psychology and Education)

sijia.wu@mail.utoronto.ca | Google Scholar | ResearchGate 

Si Jia received her BA in philosophy with a minor in psychology from University of Toronto and her MA in developmental psychology and education from Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. During her undergraduate studies, she was also a Research Assistant and Lab Manager at Dr. Kang Lee's Development Lab, working on moral reasoning of children between ages 3-12. For her MA thesis, she validated the use of Transdermal Optical Imaging for assessment of stress based on Heart Rate Variability in comparison to electrocardiography. Additionally, she has explored the use of Transdermal Optical Imaging for accurate and reliable measure of physiological (e.g., heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, glycated hemoglobin) and psychological states (e.g., stress, emotions, lies), with a focus on stress in university students. Currently, she continues her research on stress while pursuing a new line of research on children's emotional engagement with manga stories.

EdD Candidate (Child Study and Education)

mandana.jafarian@mail.utoronto.ca | Google Scholar | ResearchGate

Mandana is a 4th-year EdD Candidate in the Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development. She obtained her Master of Applied Science (MASc) in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and a Bachelor’s degree (BSc) in Computer Engineering from the University of Tehran. With over 15 years of diverse professional experience, including software development, Mandana's research interests lie at the intersection of psychology, education, and technology. She is particularly interested in studying how students’ emotions affect their learning and utilizing AI to enhance the learning experience. Currently, she is focused on researching Misophonia to understand the challenges it presents and identify coping strategies in academic settings.

PhD Student; Academic Integrity Team Lead

kanza.batool@utoronto.ca | ResearchGate

Kanza received her BSc in mental health studies from the University of Toronto and a post-graduate certificate in addictions and mental health studies from Humber College. She is currently pursuing her Master of Education in Developmental Psychology and Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Her current research interests are focused on early childhood development and the factors that contribute to academic rule-breaking within young children.

PhD Candidate (Developmental Psychology and Education)

jj.peng@mail.utoronto.ca | ResearchGate | CV

Junjie received a Bachelor of Science degree from Tianhua College of Shanghai Normal University and a Master of Science degree in Applied Psychology from Hangzhou Normal University. During his graduate studies, he and his supervisor, Dr. Li Zhao, explored the factors that influence cheating behavior in preschool, middle school, and college students, such as persistence, test difficulty, moral reminders, and the consequences of cheating. In his master's thesis, he developed a questionnaire and a behavioral paradigm to measure preschoolers' persistence to success, exploring the relation between persistence and preschoolers' cheating behavior. His current research interests include 1) development of scales to assess children's trait persistence and situational persistence; 2) the relation between children's persistence and immoral behavior.

MA Candidate

cali.brake@mail.utoronto.ca 

Calahndra (Cali) received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a Research Intensive Specialization and a minor in Legal Studies from the University of Waterloo. She is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Developmental Psychology & Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Her research will focus on children's understanding of stealing.