People

Dr. Hannah Tarder-Stoll (she/her)

Principal Investigator

Dr. Hannah Tarder-Stoll is an Assistant Professor at York University (Glendon Campus). Her research seeks to understand how we form and use memories to guide adaptive, future-oriented behaviour. She is interested in how we learn structured information about our environment, how these memories are transformed over time into durable models of the world, and how they are flexibly retrieved to support behaviour in everyday life. She and her lab study these processes using behavioural experimentation, neuroimaging, and computational approaches to understand how memory representations in the mind and brain shape behaviour.

Fun fact: I love to cook and spend most of my spare time in the kitchen trying out new cookbooks and developing my own recipes.

Sahana Radhaharan (she/her)

Graduate Student

Hi! I’m a first year MA student co-supervised by Dr. Tarder-Stoll and Dr. Buddhika Bellana. I’m interested in narrative comprehension, and my MA project will be about narrative coherence over time.
Fun fact: When I’m not thinking about memory, you can find me exploring neighbourhoods and cafes in the city.

Alla Spinu (she/her)

Research Assistant

Hi! I’m Alla. I’m a research assistant at the Tarder-Stoll Memory Lab, where I work on studies looking at how reward and social feedback shape what we remember, and how we segment continuous experience into meaningful events. More broadly, I’m interested in how memory helps people make sense of their lives as well as how the past gets reorganized over time into something useful for the present. Outside of memory research, I’m also drawn to psychotherapy and the applied side of the field.
Fun fact: I have a serious weakness for collaging and stationery, and an ongoing, largely unsuccessful policy against buying more notebooks.

Faiza Haji (she/her)

Research Assistant

Hi! I’m Faiza (she/her). I’m a fourth-year undergraduate student at Glendon Campus of York University, majoring in Psychology with a specialization in Cognitive Neuropsychology. I joined the Tarder-Stoll Memory Lab in Fall 2025. I am interested in how we process and organize our past experiences, specifically the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying episodic memory, event segmentation, and how the narratives we construct shape and influence our memories. I’m also fascinated by how our brains resolve ambiguous stimuli and the top-down biases that influence our perception (think: the Yanny/Laurel phenomenon!).
Fun fact: In my free time, I enjoy going on walks, getting lost in a good book, and spending time with my two cats.

Arya Santhan Kumar (she/her)

Research Assistant

I just graduated York University Glendon Campus with my undergraduate degree in psychology. I did my thesis and independent research alongside Dr. Tarder-Stoll. I want to continue studying in the future to become a sports psychologist. My interests are in memory, sports and behavioural psychology.
Fun fact: I trained and competed in the Junior Olympics in fencing for 5 years in Qatar, and was ranked #13 in the country. Once I moved to Brunei, I taught children to fence for 4 years.

Kieran Yansen (they/them)

Research Assistant

My name is Kieran, and I’m working in the Tarder-Stoll lab as a volunteer research assistant! I’m in my second year of a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at York, Glendon campus. I’m working with Hannah and Arya on a study that investigates whether expertise influences event segmentation, and thus memory as a whole. I’m excited to keep working on the study to see what we can find!
Fun fact: I was in a performing arts program in high school! My favourite role was Wadsworth in Clue.

Gabriella Maitland (she/her)

Research Assistant

Gabriella is a second year student at York University’s Glendon Campus. She has always been impassioned about taking an active role in supporting those who may struggling—particularly with mental health—and has an interest in studying brain function, with a newfound curiosity in memory. Gabriella is still exploring topics of interest, but she believes it would be interesting to one day study how deeply intersected memory retention and mental health truly are.
Fun Fact: I have hiked the volcano, La Soufrière, in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines despite having a fear of heights.

Alina Hasan (she/her)

Research Assistant

Hi! My name is Alina. I am a research assistant in the Tarder-Stoll lab, currently working on exploring how hippocampus lesions affect event segmentation in the brain!
Fun fact: I have a robo dwarf hamster named Bean. He is the cutest, tiniest little thing in the world.

Irene Missir

Research Assistant

I am an enthusiastic psychology student interested in pursuing research in graduate or medical school. My research interests include integrating neuroscience and psychology to develop a better understanding of behaviour, neuro cognition and development. I am also interested in the intersectional factors that affect our cognition.
Fun fact: My favourite book ever is “crying in h mart”.

Caroleen Martino

Research Assistant

I’m an undergraduate student at York University’s Glendon Campus, studying psychology, French, and education. I am interested in understanding the inner workings of the mind, particularly how memory, attention, and cognitive systems shape the way we learn, behave, and navigate daily life. After taking my first memory course, I developed a growing interest in neuropsychology. I’m especially curious about exploring how research can deepen our understanding of the relationship between memory, learning, and everyday decision-making, and how these findings can be applied to improve educational practices.
Outside of academics, I enjoy hiking, playing soccer, baking, and spending time with friends and family.
Fun fact: I love learning new languages. I’m bilingual in English and French, and I’m in the process of learning Italian!

Cristina Cirone

Research Assistant

Hi! I am Cristina (she/her), a 3rd year Psychology undergraduate at York. My research interests are reward and memory consolidation, episodic memory and aging, socioeconomic stress and cognitive development, and eyewitness testimony and memory reconstruction.
Fun fact: I am a hobby hopper! My current hobbies are beading, thrift-flipping, and sourdough baking!