Psychology of Space & Time Lab
My Lab at Ball State University, Department of Psychological Science
My primary interest is spatial cognition, i.e., how we think of space and solve spatial problems. This is something we deal with every day, whether in a formal setting (visualizing brain sections from different angles; rotating molecules mentally) or informal (putting together furniture; navigating a new environment). I specifically focus on memory and perception of the environment and related individual differences – why are some of us better than others at navigation?
Current Lab Members | Fall 2026
Top row, from left: Dan Nardi, Keegan Maxwell
Middle row, from left: Ada Lanier, Dan Gavin, Fern Auditore, Robin Disney
Bottom row: Zaria Yin
Grad students:
Dan Gavin (lab manager). Dan is a second-year graduate student in the Psychological Sciences Master’s Program at Ball State University. Dan received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Indiana University Bloomington in 2025. This is Dan’s second year in Dr. Nardi’s laboratory, and he is currently serving as the lab manager. He’s interested in cognitive psychology, specifically memory and learning. In his free time, he likes to spend time with friends, watch movies, and exercise.
Keegan Maxwell. Keegan Maxwell (He/Him) is a 1st year Master’s graduate student getting their degree in Psychological Science. Keegan received their Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology at Ball State University in 2022. Keegan’s research interest are Mindfulness, Meditation, Death, and Dying. Keegan plans to get a Ph.D. in the future. Outside of the lab, Keegan enjoys the outdoors, clouds, the wind, bugs, birds, and other flying things.
Undergrad students:
Fern Auditore. Fern is a third-year undergraduate student majoring in Psychological Science and minoring in Neuroscience. Fern wants to attend graduate school for clinical psychology to become a neuropsychologist. Fern likes to listen to music, write, and spend time with Auggie (cat.)
Robin Disney. Robin is a senior psychology major with minors in technical theatre and psychology of human development. His research interests include psychopathology and trauma, particularly through a developmental and etiological lens. He plans to attend graduate school and earn his PhD in clinical psychology to become a licensed psychologist and practice in diagnostics. In his free time, Robin enjoys playing video games, reading, and doing diamond art.
Ada Lanier. Ada is a freshman biomedical sciences major with a concentration in pre-medicine. She has a deep interest in researching the capabilities of the human mind and the correlations between neurological disorders. Specifically, her future research ambitions are defined by exploring and finding possible treatments for neurodegenerative diseases like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s. She plans to attend a medical school to become a doctor of allopathic medicine and hopes to pursue a residency that will proficiently train her in neurology. In her free time, she loves to read, draw, and help promote the university’s libraries as the vice president of Ball State’s University Libraries Ambassadors (ULA).
Zaria Yin. Zaria is a high school senior at the Indiana Academy and is her first year working in Dr. Nardi’s lab. She is interested in psychology and hopes to learn more about psychological research and how studies are designed and conducted. She plans to continue studying psychology in college. In her free time, Zaria enjoys playing tennis, cooking and trying new things.
Former members
Graduate: Anna Gick, Corey Griffin, Carlie Merriweather, Molly Armstrong, Claire Weseman, Jospeh Wilson, Alex Detrich, Katelyn Singer, Alexa Pellegrino, Krista Price, Sam Carpenter, Somer Johnson.
Undergraduate: Genesis Jones, Daniel Trujillo, Caroline Erny, Dana Ibarra, Ian McBeath, Trey Koch, Christian Jenkins, Jack Gill, Kai Klaker, Kayleen Mitchell, Lauren Brizzi, Ethan Clapp, Alicia Van Duyn, Alissa Dittmer, Cameron Savage, Ruby Yantz, Raina Huber, Joe Bryant, Mackenzie Hathaway, Viveka Melo.
ABOUT ME
I received my Ph.D. in Psychology (concentration in Cognitive Neuroscience) from Bowling Green State University, under the supervision of Vern Bingman. I also have a Master’s and a Bachelor degree in Biology.
I am currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological Science at Ball State University.
Current Project: EEG Study of Mnemonic Strategies in VR
The purpose of the project is to study the effectiveness of mnemonic strategies and the associated neural underpinnings. Participants will be tested in a memory task in which they have to encode objects presented in a Virtual Reality environment. While participants are performing the task, their brainwaves will be recorded with electroencephalography (EEG). This will allow us to study the neural signatures of stronger memory traces (i.e., better memory retrieval) and understand what – if any – neural differences are exhibited between participants with better memory and those with poorer memory.
Previous Projects
Floor Slant Perception and Memory (2023-2024). How do people navigate without vision? We are interested in nonvisual cues that people can use in the environment to find their way. We specifically focus on the slant of the ground (a hill, or a ramp). Participants are tested for their ability to perceive the slant and remember it. The question is: what makes some people better than others? Are there individual characteristics that make some of us more skilled in navigation?
The Influence of Mask Wearing on Distance Perception (2022-2023). The Action-Specific View of Perception holds that we perceive the world in terms of our ability to act upon it. For example, studies have found that if someone is wearing a backpack, a hill will seem steeper. If someone is afraid of spiders, spiders will seem closer (and larger). In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, in this project we examine if people perceive strangers as closer when the stranger is not wearing a facemask (more threatening), and as farther when they are wearing a facemask (less threatening).
And now some pictures of my lab at conferences and events
List of recent accomplishments (for a complete list, see my cv)
- Publications (journal articles)
- Weseman, C. E., Nardi, D., Ahenkora-Amoako, H., Ramirez, G., Erny, C. E., Gill, J. D., Jenkins, C. T., Koch, T., McBeath, I. D., & Wilson, J. B. (2025). Influence of working memory and spatial anxiety on floor slant perception. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006), 17470218251370907. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218251370907
- Nardi, D., Dickin, D.C., Detrich, A.N., Aultman, A.L., Burns, E., Pellegrino, A., Price, K.M., Savage, C.J., Welch, J.N., Yantz, R.J., Huber, R.N., & Shaw, S.T. (2024). Individual Differences in Proprioceptive Reorientation: A Study on Body Characteristics and Posturography. Spatial Cognition & Computation. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/13875868.2024.2403355
- Nardi, D., Singer, K.J., Price, K.M., Carpenter, S.E., Bryant, J.A., Hatheway, M.A., Johnson, J.N., Pairitz, A.K., Young, K.L., & Newcombe, N.S. (2021). Navigating Without Vision: Spontaneous Use of Terrain Slant in Outdoor Place Learning. Spatial Cognition & Computation. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/13875868.2021.1916504
- Coppola, V.J., Nardi, D., & Bingman, V.P. (2021). Age-associated decline in septum neuronal activation during spatial learning in homing pigeons (Columba livia). Behavioural Brain Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2020.112948
- Presentations (peer reviewed)
- Armstrong, M., Merriweather, C., Erny, C., Gick, A., Ibarra-Escobar, D., Griffin, C., Nardi, D. (2025, May). Examining the Impact of the Method of Loci Strategy on Memory Retrieval and ERP. [Poster Presentation]. Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, Washington, DC.
- Merriweather, C., Armstrong, M., Erny, C., Gick, A., Ibarra-Escobar, D.*, & Nardi, D. (April, 2025). An ERP Study of Mnemonic Strategy in Virtual Reality. [Poster session]. Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
- Edwards, B.*, & Nardi, D. (April, 2025). The effects of the Method of Loci on state anxiety. [Poster session]. Midwestern Psychological Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
- Weseman, C.*, & Nardi, D. (2024, April). How Spatial Anxiety and Working Memory Impact Nonvisual Spatial Reorientation. Poster Presented at the 2024 Midwestern Psychological Association Conference, Chicago, IL.
- Detrich, A.N.*, & Nardi, D. (2023, November). Contagion Fear: Influence of Mask-Wearing on Distance Perception. Psychonomic Society, San Francisco, CA.
- Nardi, D., Detrich, A., & Huber, R. N. (2023, April). Effect of Weight in a Nonvisual Spatial Reorientation Task. Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
- Detrich, A.*, Pellegrino, A.*, Price, K.*, & Nardi, D. (2022, May). Floor-Slant Perception in Older Adults. Association for Psychological Science Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
