Hi there

I am a Ph.D. applicant for admission in Fall 2024. I am currently a Clinical Research Assistant at Columbia Center for Eating Disorders, coordinating several research studies investigating risk and maintenance factors of eating disorders using neurocognitive tasks, fMRI, EEG, EMAs, and longitudinal approach. I completed my master's thesis examining self-referential processing bias in anorexia nervosa with drift-diffusion model under the mentorship of Dr. Lisa M. Ranzenhofer in 2022. I am interested in using computational modeling and a multi-method approach (neurocognitive tasks, neuroimaging, eye tracking, EMAs) to identify transdiagnostic mechanisms and protective factors of psychopathology, including but not limited to eating, mood, and anxiety related disorders. I am committed to developing novel evidence-based interventions for these disorders using an idiographic approach that targets person-specific maintenance and cultural factors.

Education

M.A., Clinical Psychology
Teachers College, Columbia University
HBSc, Specialist in Psychology, Major in IRHR
University of Toronto, Innis College

Publications and Manuscripts

Gu, S. J., Aimufua, I., Pagliaccio, D., Shankman, S. A., Steinglass, J. E., Auerbach, R. P., & Ranzenhofer, L. M. (Under Review) Self-referential Processing Biases in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa.

Presentations

Paper Presentations

4. Gu, S. J., Aimufua, I., Pagliaccio, D., Shankman, S. A., Steinglass, J., Auerbach, R. P., & Ranzenhofer, L. (2023, June). Self-referential Processing Biases in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa. International Conference for Eating Disorders (ICED), United States, Washington D.C. [Slides] 3. Patmore, J., Ranzenhofer, L., Attia, E., Gu, S. J., Xu, S., & Kalich, V. (2022, June). The Role of Alliance in a Peer Mentorship Program for Individuals with Eating Disorders. International Conference for Eating Disorders (ICED) (Virtual Conference). 2. Patmore, J., Ranzenhofer, L., Attia, E., Kalach, V., Gu, S. J., Chiao, S., Nathan, R., Akason, T., Atri, E., Clarizio, D., Agrawal, P., & Farber, B. (2022, July). How Patient Knowledge of Provider Lived Experience with an Eating Disorder Facilitates Positive Outcomes. Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR), University of Denver, Denver, Colorado. 1. Patmore J., Sinclair C., Cao E., Ng S., Mayall D., Agrawal P., Gu, S. J., Chiao S., & Kalach V. (2021, July). The Utility of Lived Experience with an Eating Disorder as a Therapeutic Tool to Facilitate Client Self-disclosure: An Evaluation of a Peer-Based Community Support Group. Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR), United States (Virtual Conference).

Poster Presentations

5. Ranzenhofer, L., Trivedi, E., Aimufua, I., Gu, S. J., Steinglass J., Auerbach R. P. (2023, September) Passive Sensing Of Social Processes In Adolescents With An Eating Disorder Eating Disorders Research Society, United States, Boston. 4. Aimufua, I., Ranzenhofer, L., Gu, S. J., Steinglass, J., Walsh, T. B. (2023, June) Concordance of the EDE-Q and EDE-12 in a Clinical Sample of Patients with Eating Disorders International Conference for Eating Disorders (ICED), United States, Washington D.C. 3. Tang J. E., Kurylo, D. D., Gu, S. J., Jain, M., Waxman, R., & Gordon, P. (2021, May). Neural Correlates of Visual Perceptual Organization (PO) in an EEG Oddball Paradigm. Association for Psychological Science (APS), United States (Virtual Conference). 2. Cochrane B.A., Gu, S. J. & Pratt J. (2020, November). Are Event Files due to a Long-Term or a Short-Term Memory Process? The Psychonomic Society 61st Annual Meeting. (Virtual conference). 1. Cochrane B.A., Gu, S. J. & Pratt J. (2020, June). Are Event Files due to a Long-Term or a Short-Term Memory Process?. The Transdisciplinary Research Association on Cognition and Embodiment 7th Annual Meeting, Germany, Würzburg (Cancelled conference).

Coding and Task Development

Here are the list of computer tasks that I coded in Python/Javascript. See more on GitHub page. 5. Web Surf Task.py, ~.js, ~.psychojs This task, originally developed by Abram et al. (2019), presents different amounts of time to forage for videos across four types and asks participants to choose whether to stay and wait or skip the video to assess their visual and decision-makingprocessing. 4. Incentive Flanker Task.py This task, originally developed by Norman et al. (2021), presents five letters, one of which is the target letter, in high/low interference conditions with high/low rewards and asks people to identify the target letter to earn rewards in order to assess their cognitive control and reward processing. 3. Two Step Decision Task.py This task, originally developed by Foerde et al. (2021), presents a set of two choices (first two spaceships, then two aliens) at both model-based and model-free learning phases and asks people to learn the probability pattern to earn the reward associated with the choices to assess their goal-directed learning abilities. 2. Food Choice Task.py, ~.psyexp This task, originally developed by Steinglass et al. (2014) and Foerde et al. (2015), presents 76 food images three times in three blocks: healthiness, tastiness, and preferences of the food items and asks participants to rate the items respectively on a Likert scale of 1 to 5 to assess their evaluations and preferences on high fat or low-fat food. 1. Visual Perceptual Organization Task.psyexp This task, originally developed by Kurylo et al. (2018), presents 20 x 20 dot arrays of elements that indicate general organization (Horizontal or Vertical orientation) with motion/color differences at four difficulty levels, and asks participants to detect the stimuli orientations to assess their visual processing system.