About Me
I am a fourth-year PhD Candidate at Western University in beautiful London, Ontario. I study Psychology in the Cognitive, Developmental, and Brain Sciences cluster with my supervisor, John Paul Minda. I use basic science to study learning, memory, and metacognition. I use behavioral and computational methods. Long-term, I hope to connect theory to practice.
I am passionate about science communication. As the Managing Editor of GradCast, I managed a team of hardworking hosts and producers to share Western University's innovative research with the broader community. Check it out at https://gradcast.ca/. Listen to me discuss my comprehensive exam in Episode 444, or listen to one of the hundreds of other episodes highlighting graduate student excellence. In my current role of Vice-President Academic of Western's Society of Graduate Students, I continue to oversee the GradCast Editorial Board as well as the Academic Committee, which puts together the Western Research Forum, Western's largest interdisciplinary graduate student conference. Find more information on the 2025 Western Research Forum here!
When I have a moment to myself, I enjoy attending local comedy nights, running, going on hikes, and playing video games. Feel free to send me an email or message me on LinkedIn if you want to chat!
I am passionate about science communication. As the Managing Editor of GradCast, I managed a team of hardworking hosts and producers to share Western University's innovative research with the broader community. Check it out at https://gradcast.ca/. Listen to me discuss my comprehensive exam in Episode 444, or listen to one of the hundreds of other episodes highlighting graduate student excellence. In my current role of Vice-President Academic of Western's Society of Graduate Students, I continue to oversee the GradCast Editorial Board as well as the Academic Committee, which puts together the Western Research Forum, Western's largest interdisciplinary graduate student conference. Find more information on the 2025 Western Research Forum here!
When I have a moment to myself, I enjoy attending local comedy nights, running, going on hikes, and playing video games. Feel free to send me an email or message me on LinkedIn if you want to chat!
Research Overview
Speaking broadly, I research ways to optimize inferential learning, the way that we learn to apply past experiences to understand new ones. I do this using category learning paradigms, which make it possible to differentiate between retention (memorization) and transfer (abstraction), which is necessary for inference-making.
For example, one of my primary interests is metacognitive reactivity, the phenomenon wherein actively reflecting on your learning while you are still learning tends to imrpove your memory. For example, imagine that you are in a lecture; actively reflecting on how well you know the material could impact how well you pay attention to and encode it. I am building upon existing theories of metacognitive reactivity with the eventual goal of making predictions about how metacognition might impact memory and inference-making in a variety of contexts ,including educational contexts.
I take great interest in categorization, the cognitive process by which we sort stimuli into groups (categories) based on shared features. Categorization makes it easier to understand the world around us, breaking it down into bite-sized chunks. We are always putting things into categories, consciously and unconsciously. Some great examples include speech sounds and colors. Even though we do it all the time, we aren't born knowing how to categorize things. We learn categories throughout our lifetimes. This is at the heart of inference-making. I conduct basic-level research on how people learn new categories, asking questions like:
For example, one of my primary interests is metacognitive reactivity, the phenomenon wherein actively reflecting on your learning while you are still learning tends to imrpove your memory. For example, imagine that you are in a lecture; actively reflecting on how well you know the material could impact how well you pay attention to and encode it. I am building upon existing theories of metacognitive reactivity with the eventual goal of making predictions about how metacognition might impact memory and inference-making in a variety of contexts ,including educational contexts.
I take great interest in categorization, the cognitive process by which we sort stimuli into groups (categories) based on shared features. Categorization makes it easier to understand the world around us, breaking it down into bite-sized chunks. We are always putting things into categories, consciously and unconsciously. Some great examples include speech sounds and colors. Even though we do it all the time, we aren't born knowing how to categorize things. We learn categories throughout our lifetimes. This is at the heart of inference-making. I conduct basic-level research on how people learn new categories, asking questions like:
- What is the best way to learn new categories?
- How does learning new categories impact the way your brain responds to things?
- What are we really learning when we learn new categories; stimulus-response associations, categorization strategies, or something else entirely?
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Kalra, P., Minda, J. P., Roark, C. L., & Cruz, A. (2025). Reply to ‘Single and multiple systems in probabilistic categorization.’ Nature Reviews Psychology, 4(1), 65–65. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00390-1
Roark, C. L., Minda, J. P., Kalra, P., & Cruz, A. (2025). Reply to ‘Structure-based dissociations provide agnostic evidence to the multiple-systems debate.’ Nature Reviews Psychology, 4(1), 67–67. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00396-9
Minda, J. P., Roark, C. L., Kalra, P., & Cruz, A. (2024). Single and multiple systems in categorization and category learning. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00336-7
Cruz, A., & Minda, J. P. (2024). Was That My Cue? Reactivity to Category-Level Judgments of Learning. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 46(0). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0nr5974b
Cruz, A. & Minda, J. P. (2024). The spacing effect in remote information-integration category learning. Memory & Cognition. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-024-01569-w
Roark, C. L., Minda, J. P., Kalra, P., & Cruz, A. (2025). Reply to ‘Structure-based dissociations provide agnostic evidence to the multiple-systems debate.’ Nature Reviews Psychology, 4(1), 67–67. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00396-9
Minda, J. P., Roark, C. L., Kalra, P., & Cruz, A. (2024). Single and multiple systems in categorization and category learning. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00336-7
Cruz, A., & Minda, J. P. (2024). Was That My Cue? Reactivity to Category-Level Judgments of Learning. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 46(0). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0nr5974b
Cruz, A. & Minda, J. P. (2024). The spacing effect in remote information-integration category learning. Memory & Cognition. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-024-01569-w
Conferences & Workshops
Oral Presentations
Cruz, A. & Minda, J. P. (2025, July 8--11). Are there two distinct mechanisms of JOL reactivity? Talk presented at the 35th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Science (CSBBCS), Dundee, Scotland.Cruz, A. (2023, October 3). Harnessing smartphone power: A breakthrough approach to medical diagnostic category learning. Centre for Education Research and Innovation (CERI) 2023 Research Symposium, London, ON.
Cruz, A. & Minda, J. P. (2022, November 17--20). Sorry, I Can’t Talk Right Now: Category Learning on the Go. Talk presented at the 63rd annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Boston, MA.
Poster Presentations
Cruz, A. Njeru, A., & Minda, J. P. (2024, November 21-24). Boost or Bust? Role of JOLs in Word Pair Recognition. Poster presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, New York, NY. (X)Cruz, A. & Minda, J. P. (2024, July 24-27). Was that my cue? Reactivity to Category-Level Judgments of Learning. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Rotterdam, NL.
Cruz, A. & Minda, J. P. (2023, November 17-19). Give Me a Break: Pausing to Reflect May Lessen Attention Attenuation in Massed Learning. Poster presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, San Francisco, CA. (X)
Cruz, A. & Minda, J. P. (2023, July 17-19). PRaM-Scaping: Efficient Similarity Data Collection through Trial Reduction. Poster presented at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Science (CSBBCS), Guelph, ON. (X)
Cruz, A., Saulnier, K. G., Huet, A. & Allan, N. P. (May 2020). Attentional control as a potential mechanism linking worry and error monitoring: An event-related potential study. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) 2020, Virtual.
Cruz, A. (July 2019). Understanding patterns of interlock use based on failure times, failure rates, invalid test rates, and rolling retest rates. Poster presented at the University of Missouri Summer Undergraduate Research & Creative Achievements Forum, Columbia, MO.
Cruz, A. & Sharrock, A. (April 2018). National suicide trends and suicide trends in Southeast Ohio. Poster presented at the Ohio University Student Research and Creativity Expo, Athens, OH.
Workshop Presentations
Cruz, A. (2024, March 9--11). Come see your brain waves with the Muse hadband! Workshop presented at Inspiring Diversity in STEM, London, ON.Kalra, P. & Cruz, A. (2023, December 1--3). Modern Realities of Behavioural Research. Talked presented at Western University BrainHack, London, ON.
Kalra, P. & Cruz, A. (2022, November 30--2). Modern Realities of Behavioural Research. Talked presented at Western University BrainHack, London, ON.
Teaching
Graduate Teaching Assistant (Western University)
Psychology 9040--Scientific ComputingPsychology 4225--Individual Differences in Cognitive Neuroscience
Psychology 9041--Introduction to Data Management and Linear Modeling Using R
Psychology 2802--Research Methods in Psychology II
Psychology 2820--Research Methods & Statistical Analysis in Psychology
Psychology 3139--Introduction to Cognitive Science
Supplemental Instruction Leader (Ohio University)
Psychology 2110--Statistics for the Behavioral SciencesMathematics 1350--Survey of Calculus
Private Tutoring
I have worked as a private mathematics and statistics tutor since 2018, covering content from Grade 7 math through University calculus. Having taught various age groups and topics, I have refined my approach to one-on-one tutoring, often calling upon research that I have conducted on learning. Feel free to contact me for tutoring inquiries.Code
Random Response Simulator
During a feedback-based category learning study, participants are often expected to use a random guessing strategy to make their decisions early in the task. However, some participants never stop random guessing. By the end of the task, it is important to dissociate random guessers from learners. How well could a random guesser be expected to perform? This question is highly dependent on task design. My random response simulator predicts the highest level of achievement that a random guesser should reasonable be able to achieve.
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