Plyfaa Suwanamalik-Murphy

I'm fascinated by the eyes and what they reveal about our perception.

I'm an incoming PhD student in Dr. Timothy Brady's Visual and Memory Lab at UC San Diego. Currently, I'm a Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Dr. Peter Bandettini's lab, where I'm investigating how we can control pupil size in real time to improve our perception. Previously, I built decoding pipelines for BCIs as a Simons Foundation Fellow under Dr. Sergey Stavisky, and investigated visual perception at the University of Oxford advised by Dr. Hannah Smithson.

I completed my Bachelor's in Cognitive Science from UC Davis in 2 years. And spent most of that time learning as much as I could about eye-tracking, EEG, and visual cognition, finding my way into as many research research opportunities as I could.

Research

NSF GRFP Research Proposal · 2025 - present

Neural and Behavioral Dynamics of Semantic Congruency in Visual Search

Visual search is an everyday activity where humans effectively integrate multiple sources of information to find relevant objects. Recent evidence demonstrates that semantic congruency, how well an object fits within its scene context, drives overt visual attention. Read more about my proposal here!

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Side Projects

Nudge — focus tracking web app

Web App · In Development · 2026

Focus tracking, study tools, and smarter breaks

A web app designed to help you stay focused, study more effectively, and take smarter breaks.

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Reach out to talk about vision and perception, collaborations, or just to schedule a coffee chat.

plysuwana@gmail.com