Dr. Mark Schmuckler Mark A. Schmuckler, PhD

Principal Investigator

Mark completed his Honors B.A. in Music and Psychology from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1983, working with Dr. Richard Pastore. He completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1988, conducting research on music cognition with Carol Krumhansl, and infant development with Eleanor Jack Gibson. Mark then completed a two year post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Virginia (working with Professors Bennett Bertenthal, Dennis Proffitt, and Micheal Kubovy, and fellow post-doc David Gilden), and in 1989 began as an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He was promoted to Associate Professor (with tenure) in 1994, and was promoted to Full Professor in 2000. Since July 2013 he has been serving as the Vice-Dean, Undergraduate, at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

For more information about Mark and his research interests, visit his personal website.

Trenton Johanis, BSc, MA

PhD Student

Trenton is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Psychology under Professor Mark Schmuckler. He earned his M.A. in Psychology in 2019 from U of T and B.Sc. in Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour (Music Cognition Specialization) in 2017 from McMaster University. His research focuses on Music Cognition, Positive Psychology (Flow State), and Auditory Perception, and he has additional publications in Developmental Psychology and Social Psychology. When he’s not in the lab, you can find him making music, working out, or citing random sports stats.

Lauren Vomberg, BASc, MSc

PhD Student

Lauren is in the fifth year of her PhD in the Adult Music Cognition Lab. She completed an Honour’s BASc in clarinet performance and psychology at the University of Lethbridge in 2017 (under the supervision of Dr. John Vokey), and an MSc in cognitive psychology at the University of Lethbridge in 2019 (under the co-supervision of Dr. John Vokey and Dr. Scott Allen, in collaboration with Dr. Javid Sadr and Dr. Bryn Hughes). Her research explores tonality and auditory illusions, pitch, auditory stream segregation, and serious games. She also completed the collaborative specialization program in psychology, psychiatry, and engineering at the University of Toronto. Outside of academia, she is heavily involved in Western classical music performance and science communication.

Master’s Thesis: Mechanisms of Pitch Discrimination in Musicians and Non-Musicians

  Antonette Pillainayagam

Research Assistant

Antonette is in her fourth year at the University of Toronto. She is interested in learning more about the intersection between music and cognition, so as to learn about the applications and translation of this knowledge into real-world settings. Aside from her academics, she is part of various choirs and enjoys listening to and exploring new genres of music

Kaarunya Kandeephan
Research Assistant

 

Kaarunya is in her second year, currently pursuing her HBSc. In Neuroscience and Mental Health Studies. Her research interests focus on the role music plays in neuroplasticity, and its ability to recover functions that have been lost. Beyond the classroom, Kaarunya enjoys reading and trying new foods

Jorge Aguilar
Research Assistant

 

Hello 🙂 My name is Jorge and I am currently in my third year in my specialist neuroscience program at UTSC pursuing my BSc. I have an interest in healing through music, especially in the forms of therapy for mental disorders and trauma. In my downtime, I like to practice my violin and play some video games (sometimes a bit too much).

Phoebe Leung
Research Assistant

 

Phoebe is in her second year of the Specialist (Co-operative) Mental Health Studies program at the University of Toronto Scarbrough. With years of training in classical music, her research interest focuses on how the tonality of music affects musicians’ performances. In her free time, she likes playing music (piano, vocal, guitar), watching k-drama, and playing with her dog!