My name is Nastasia and I study how a person’s cognitive state changes over time (as a function of things like effort, fatigue, and task switching), and how those changes show up in behavior and in the brain. I’m a fourth-year PhD candidate in Stanford Psychology (Cognitive Neuroscience), advised by Russ Poldrack in the Poldrack Lab, and a Mind, Brain, Computation and Technology Fellow. I design experiments, build computational models of the results, and analyze fMRI data. I’m also running a series of studies on how well people can control their own learning when they use AI. Going forward, I’m excited to bring this work to brain-computer interfaces, helping build systems that can detect changes in cognitive states like fatigue and adapt to them.

Previously, I received a B.S.E. degree in Computer Science from Princeton University, with certificates in Cognitive Science and Linguistics. I worked in the Niv Lab as a lab manager and research assistant. I also spent two summers interning at Meta (first on a Facebook team then at FAIR labs).

Outside of the lab, I care about education and mental health. I also speak Russian fluently, and I like to read, write short stories, and run (slowly)!