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Academic appointments

Staff Scientist — Washington University, St. Louis · July 2026 – present
Postdoctoral Scholar — Washington University, St. Louis · July 2023 – June 2026
Investigating how we represent, process and remember complex experiences using eye tracking, fMRI, computational modeling and behavioral analyses.
Mentors: Jeffrey M. Zacks, PhD & Zachariah M. Reagh, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar — University of California, Davis · July 2021 – June 2023
Understanding how scene semantics informs eye movements in naturalistic images and videos.
Mentor: John M. Henderson, PhD

Graduate Assistant — Johns Hopkins University · August 2016 – May 2021
Characterizing attentional and perceptual limits of visual cognition.
Mentor: Jonathan Flombaum, PhD

Education

Ph.D. and M.A., Psychological & Brain Sciences — Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore · 2016–2021
Thesis: Visual Time · Advisor: Jonathan Flombaum, PhD

M.S., Electrical & Computer Engineering — North Carolina State University · 2015–2016

M.Sc. (Hons.) Physics and B.E. (Hons.) Electronics & Communications Engineering — Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani · 2008–2013

Grants, awards & honors
PI, The role of key moments in event perception and memory McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience, 2025–27 (USD 100,000)
The role of prediction, semantics and memory in determining key moments of complex experiences Departmental grant, Psychological & Brain Sciences, WashU, December 2025 (USD 2,500)
G. Stanley Hall Scholar Award For exceptional scholarly progress in dissertation research (USD 500)
Travel Award Object Perception, Attention and Memory, satellite event of the Psychonomic Society (USD 250)
Collaborative Research Award Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, JHU (USD 1,000)
Robert S. Waldrop Graduate Student Fellowship Johns Hopkins University

Selected & invited talks

  1. Key moments synchronize brain activity during comprehension, support later recall, and scaffold narrative meaning. Context & Episodic Memory Symposium, 2026 (upcoming).
  2. The relationship between key moments and event boundaries during naturalistic movie viewing. Psychonomic Society, 2025.
  3. Meaningful moments during film viewing are represented and remembered similarly across participants. Psychonomic Society, 2024.
  4. Aly & Baldassano labs, Columbia University (PIs: Mariam Aly & Christopher Baldassano), 2024.
  5. Barnett Lab, University of Toronto (PI: Alex Barnett), 2023.
  6. Encounters with semantic violations do not interfere with immediately subsequent scene-viewing behavior. Psychonomic Society, 2023.
  7. Event & Memory Cognition group, WashU in St. Louis (PIs: Jeffrey M. Zacks & Zachariah M. Reagh), 2023.
  8. Isik Lab, Johns Hopkins University (PI: Leyla Isik), 2023.
  9. Abstract Representations in Neural Architecture (ARENA) group, Germany, 2023.
  10. Cognitive and Neural Computation Lab, Yale University (PI: Ilker Yildirim), 2021.
  11. Visual Cognition Group, UC Davis (PI: John Henderson), 2021.
  12. Ma Lab, New York University (PI: Wei Ji Ma), 2021.
  13. Tilburg joint workshop on pictorial narrative comprehension, Tilburg University, 2020.
  14. Cognitive Tools Lab, UC San Diego (PI: Judith Fan), 2020.
  15. Mid-Atlantic meeting on Memory & Action, Villanova University, 2019.
  16. Capitol Area conference on Cognition, Action & Perception, Georgetown University, 2018.

Conference presentations

  1. Upadhyayula, A., & Reagh, Z. Cueing with key moments to facilitate narrative recall. Cognitive Neuroscience Society, 2026.
  2. Su, S., & Upadhyayula, A. Semantic information shapes gaze patterns during naturalistic movie viewing. Vision Sciences Society, 2025.
  3. Kim, J., Upadhyayula, A., Zacks, J. M., Barnett, A., & Reagh, Z. M. Complex experiences are represented as a subset of key moments which capture their underlying semantics. Cognitive Neuroscience Society, 2025.
  4. Upadhyayula, A., Henderson, J. M., Zacks, J. M., & Reagh, Z. Meaningful moments during film viewing are represented and remembered similarly across participants. Society for Neuroscience, 2024.
  5. Upadhyayula, A., Henderson, J. M., Zacks, J. M., & Reagh, Z. Intersubject neural similarity and pattern reinstatement during recall are enhanced at meaningful moments during film viewing. Cognitive Neuroscience Society, 2024.
  6. Lu, A., Upadhyayula, A., & Henderson, J. M. Meaning maps predict reaction time in change blindness paradigm. Psychonomics, 2023.
  7. Upadhyayula, A., & Henderson, J. M. Time marches on: Impaired detection of spatiotemporal discontinuities during film viewing. Vision Sciences Society, 2022.
  8. Upadhyayula, A., & Cohn, N. Hierarchical structure in processing visual narratives: A computational investigation. Cognitive Science Society, 2020.
  9. Upadhyayula, A., Phillips, I., & Flombaum, J. Space and time dissociate in the construction of visual now. Vision Sciences Society, 2020.
  10. Phillips, I., Upadhyayula, A., & Flombaum, J. Tachypsychia — subjective expansion of time — happens in immediate memory, and not in perceptual experience. Vision Sciences Society, 2020.
  11. Upadhyayula, A., & Flombaum, J. Two distortions of perceived space and time. Object Perception & Memory (OPAM), 2019.
  12. Upadhyayula, A., & Flombaum, J. The visual now across the visual field. Capitol Area Cognition, Action & Perception, 2019.
  13. Upadhyayula, A., & Flombaum, J. Object size affects multiple object tracking performance (but not via close frequency encounters). Vision Sciences Society, 2018.

Teaching

Role Course Term
Instructor Cognitive Neuroscience, JHU Spring 2020
Instructor Research Methods, JHU Fall 2019
Instructor Design & Experimental Analysis, JHU Spring 2019
Teaching Assistant Sensation & Perception, JHU Fall 2018
Teaching Assistant Introduction to Cognitive Psychology, JHU Spring 2018
Teaching Assistant Introduction to Psychology, JHU Fall 2017

Students mentored

Sophie Garthe — WashU, St. Louis · May 2025 – present
Characterizing the effects of key moments on recall, as part of the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience grant.

June Kim — University of Toronto · May 2024 – May 2026
Key moments capture the semantics underlying continuous experiences.

Sophie (Xing) Su — WashU, St. Louis · December 2024 – June 2026
Using CLIP embeddings and eye fixation maps to capture semantic information during naturalistic movie viewing.

Alan Lu — University of California, Davis · May 2022 – May 2023
Using meaning maps to quantify semantic information in visual processing during a change detection task.

Skills

Programming — Python, JavaScript, R, MATLAB, C, Java

Methodology — Eye tracking, computational modeling, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), psychophysics, electroencephalography (EEG)

Software — jsPsych, PsychoPy, PyTorch, Nilearn, Plotly, TensorFlow, Experiment Builder, EEGLAB, EyeLink systems, NLTK, spaCy

Professional service

Ad hoc reviewing — Cognitive Science; Psychological Review; Attention, Perception & Psychophysics; Visual Cognition; Timing & Time Perception; Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts; Scientific Reports; Memory & Cognition; Psychonomic Bulletin & Review; Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience; Language, Cognition & Neuroscience

Membership — Vision Sciences Society, Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Cognitive Science Society, Psychonomic Society, Society for Neuroscience

Departmental service — Colloquium planning and organizing committee, JHU (2018–2019); Graduate recruitment committee, JHU (2017–2018)

Community service — Judge, WashU Endure symposium (2024–2025); Judge, California State University Student Research Competition (2022–2023)

Press

Now you don't see me, and now you still don't see me: Detecting movie skips using a flicker paradigm — Melinh K. Lai, Psychonomic Society Featured Content, 3 April 2024. Coverage of the Attention, Perception & Psychophysics flicker paper.