- Department of Psychology; Behavioral Science
- Email: shaylynn.koban@uri.edu
Major Professor: Mollie A. Ruben, PhD
Lab: EPIC
Biography
Shaylynn is a first-year doctoral student in the Behavioral Science Ph.D. program under the mentorship of Dr. Mollie A. Ruben. She graduated from the University of Maine at Farmington in 2026 with B.A.s in Psychology and Creative Writing and minors in Mathematics and Data Analytics. A majority of her undergraduate research focused on the role of emojis as digital nonverbal cues in text message conversations, particularly how characteristics such as gender, country of residence, and age impacted the way emojis are perceived in digital communication.
Research
Her primary research interests include nonverbal behavior, cross-cultural differences in the perception and expression of nonverbal cues, and quantitative methodology (specifically longitudinal).