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Alex

Research

I study rapid structure learning in minds and machines.

My Research

Humans are remarkably fast learners and their ability to continue learning over the course of a lifetime remains an unsolved problem in machine learning. My work aims to understand how we acquire structured knowledge rapidly and what happens to this knowledge over time.

Leveraging a combination of behavioural paradigms, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and biologically-inspired neural network modeling, I seek to build experiments that reveal how human memory works, and instantiate these phenomena in machines.

Diffusion tensor imaging tractography across nine axial brain slices, with white-matter tracts colour-coded by orientation.

Academic Background

I am currently a 4th year PhD Candidate at the University of Pennsylvania in the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience lab working under the supervision of Dr. Anna Schapiro.

I completed my undergraduate work at the University of Toronto in 2021, majoring in Neuroscience, Cognitive Science (computational cognition stream), and minoring in Computer Science. While at the University of Toronto I worked with Dr. Katherine Duncan and built models of cholinergic effects on memory in biologically plausible models of the hippocampus.

After undergrad, I joined Dr. Alison Preston’s lab at the University of Texas at Austin for two years as a research scientist assistant and lab manager where I worked on virtual environments to test statistical learning in a more naturalistic setting. There I was certified to operate fMRI machines for research and data collection.

In 2023, I began my work with Dr. Anna Schapiro at UPenn. In 2025, I completed my Master's requirements. In 2026, I defended my last qualifying exam and am now dissertating.

Curriculum Vitae

Updated: July 2026

Education

Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania

Computational Cognitive Neuroscience, studying learning and memory in the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab under the supervision of Dr. Anna Schapiro. Advanced to candidacy in 2026; expected completion 2028.

Master of Arts at the University of Pennsylvania

Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab. Masters work on relating hippocampal anatomy to the learning of general and specific information with intra-hippocampal diffusion tensor imaging.

Honours Bachelor of Science at the University of Toronto

Majors: Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (Computational Cognition Stream); Minor: Computer Science.

Academic Employment

Lab Manager and Research Scientist Assistant at the Preston Lab

Alongside lab administration, I contributed to numerous lab projects by collecting behavioural and neuroimaging data, coding and testing experimental software built with Unity3D, and analyzing project data. During my work at the Preston lab I’ve achieved full scanner certification on the Siemens 3T Skyra and improved lab operations through my scripting and technical knowledge.

Lab Programmer and Research Assistant at the Duncan Memory Lab

Developed OpenMaze, an open-source Unity3D toolbox for building virtual navigation experiments without writing code, alongside supporting C# and Python tooling. Also recruited and ran study participants. Began as a volunteer position before moving into a paid role.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Alsbury-Nealy, K., Wang, H., Howarth, C., Gordienko, A., Schlichting, M. L. & Duncan, K. D. (2022). OpenMaze: An open-source toolbox for creating virtual navigation experiments. Behavior Research Methods, 54(3), 1374–1387. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01664-9

Conference Posters

Category learning drives neural repulsion initially but integration at a delay

Marlie C. Tandoc, Sarah H. Solomon, Ashley B. Williams, Alex Gordienko, Jacob A. Parker, Anna C. Schapiro

Poster at Cognitive Neuroscience Society Meeting. fMRI study looking at the learning of general and specific information in a category learning task immediately following learning and after consolidation.

Invited Talks

Probabilistic inference of latent causes develops through adolescence

Andrei Amatuni, Nicole L. Varga, Alex Gordienko, Omer Ashmaig, Neal W Morton, Alison R. Preston

Context and Episodic Memory Symposium 2024

Grants

MindCORE Neuroimaging Pilot Grant

Grant awarded to pilot a novel associative inference study at the MindCORE Scanning Center. Award value of $6,250.

Teaching

PSYC 1230 Teaching Assistant - Cognitive Neuroscience

Teaching assistant for Dr. Michael Arcaro’s Cognitive Neuroscience course. This course provides an overview of the major fields of cognitive neuroscience, surveying the different major brain areas and current research concerning them. In this class, I assist with course administration, grade exams, labs, and quizzes, and hold office hours.

PSYC 1340 Teaching Assistant - Perception

Teaching assistant for the University of Pennsylvania’s Perception course. I taught weekly recitations covering the perceptual systems and the mechanisms of sensory transduction, and held office hours.

COG260 Teaching Assistant - Data, Computation, and the Mind

Teaching assistant for the University of Toronto’s introduction to computational approaches in cognitive science, supporting students through the course’s programming and data-analysis assignments.

Open Source

Object Memorability Image Normed Database Software

Open source normed object dataset made accessible through a desktop electron application users can install.

https://github.com/DuncanLab/OMINDS

Dataset Creation Tool for Emergent Models

A browser tool for hand-authoring TSV datasets for the Emergent neural simulation framework (used here for hippocampal modeling). Click cells in the pattern grids to set activations, then export a .tsv whose layout matches Emergent's tensor-column format.

https://github.com/AlexGordienko/Hippocampal-Dataset-Creation-Tool

hip-ACh

A biologically-based neural network model of the hippocampus used to explore how acetylcholine shifts the balance between encoding and retrieval.

https://github.com/AlexGordienko/hip-ACh

OpenMaze

An open-source Unity3D toolbox that lets researchers build virtual navigation experiments without writing code, published in Behavior Research Methods.

https://github.com/DuncanLab/OpenMaze

Certifications

Level 1 and Level 2 Certification on Siemens MAGNETOM 3T Cima.X with Gemini Gradients

MindCORE Research Scanner Operator certification at University of Pennsylvania

Level 1 and Level 2 Certification on Siemens MAGNETOM 3T Skyra, Prisma, and Vida

University of Texas at Austin Scan Center with certification for both the research scanner (before and after the upgrade from the Skyra to the Prisma) as well as the med school scanner (Vida).

Service

Graduate Resident Assistant at Harrison College House

Fulfilled the duties of a GRA at Harrison and exceeded expectations across a number of metrics. Fostered community and furthered personal development of undergraduates on the college house floor.

Graduate Student Representative

Volunteer position to promote graduate student development and wellbeing in the Psychology Graduate Group at the University of Pennsylvania. Worked with admin and the Director of Graduate Studies on improvements to the major grad student milestones. Planned for and hosted prospective graduate students in the spring.

Conference Volunteer at UTISM 2018 - The Cognitive Science of Disruption

Volunteered at the University of Toronto Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Mind, supporting speakers and delegates across the day’s sessions.