Jonathan Z. Ong (He/Him)

jonathanzong98@gmail.com
https://jonathanongzm.github.io/

EDUCATION

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
MA in Psychology, Jan 2023–Jun 2025, GPA: 5.00/5.00
Advisors: Professors Victoria Leong and George Augustine

Project: Sociometric AI Screening Tool to Risk-Stratify Infant Neurodevelopmental Trajectories

Collected, preprocessed, and analyzed multimodal time-series data, including EEG, ECG, and behavioral data from parent-child dyads using MATLAB, R, and Python.
Designed and optimized naturalistic tasks to assess executive functions and neurodevelopmental trajectories in children aged 6–36 months, in a parent-child social interactive context.
Developed analytical pipelines to generate rich behavioral data from well-designed ethograms, perform data wrangling to synchronize multimodal data streams, and compute novel metrics as precursors of executive functions.

Project: Optogenetic Parent-Offspring Mouse Model of Neural Synchrony and Social Learning

Modified the social transmission of food preference paradigm for parent-child dyads, compatible with optogenetics and behavioral recording, to investigate the neurobehavioral mechanisms of social learning.
Managed mouse husbandry, including breeding, genotyping, and maintenance of transgenic lines, with strict adherence to animal welfare and ethical standards.
Performed brain harvests and immunohistochemistry to verify optogenetic manipulation in the medial prefrontal cortex.
Thesis: Interpersonal Neural Synchrony Mechanisms for Parent-Offspring Social Learning.

Monash University, Malaysia
BPsych(Hons), Mar 2021–Dec 2021, GPA: 4.00/4.00, Best Graduate Award
Thesis: The Relationship between Romantic Dispositions and Romantic Need Prioritization in Single Adult Malaysians: The Moderating Role of Gender

Monash University, Malaysia
BPsych, Jul 2017–Jul 2020, GPA: 3.92/4.00, Best Graduate Award

HONORS & AWARDS

A*STAR Fully-Sponsored Master’s Studentship (~USD 70,000)
Nanyang Technological University (PI: Prof Victoria Leong), Jan 2023–Jan 2025

Two-Time Best Graduate Award Recipient
BPsych and BPsych(Hons), Monash University Malaysia, 2020, 2021

Graduate Pathway Research Scholarship (~USD 2,400)
BPsych(Hons), Monash University Malaysia, 2021

Undergraduate Studies Loan Exemption (~USD 6,200)
BPsych, Malaysian National Higher Education Fund Corporation, 2021

Monash High Achiever Award (~USD 1,100)
BPsych, Monash University Malaysia, 2019

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Research Assistant; Jan 2024 – Present, PI: Professor Victoria Leong
Project: Assessing Social Influences on Executive Function in Infants

Coordinating an interdisciplinary team of psychologists, neuroscientists, engineers, and AI/data scientists to develop novel social interaction metrics for clinical and commercial applications.

Sunway University, Malaysia
Research Assistant; Jul 2022 – Nov 2022, PI: Professor Alexandre Schaefer
Project: Aging, Health and Well-Being (AGEWELL)

Conducted community outreach to recruit a socioeconomically diverse Malaysian cohort aged 60 and above and administered neuropsychological assessments to evaluate executive functions alongside EEG data acquisition.
Preprocessed EEG data and computed event-related potentials as markers of cognitive aging in MATLAB.
Performed general linear modeling in R to investigate the protective role of cognitive reserve against cognitive decline in older adults.

Monash University, Malaysia
Research Assistant, 2018 – 2022

Conducted literature reviews and applied qualitative methods, including transcription, Malay to English translation, and thematic coding, to investigate cultural differences in cancer stigma (PI: Professor Elizabeth Jones).
Collected and analyzed dyadic social interaction data from questionnaires and behavior coding to examine individual differences in social perceptions using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (PI: Dr Goh Pei Hwa).
Co-organized the first and second Southeast Asian Indigenous Psychology Scientific Meeting, 2021 and 2022 (Supervisor: Dr Rachel Sing-Kiat Ting).

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

Goh, P. H., & Ong, J. Z.* (2022). It’s a guy thing: Sex as a moderator of the relationship between social anxiety and perception of interpersonal warmth in initial heterosexual interactions. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 25(4), 806–815. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12536

Ham, G. X., Ong, J. Z., Augustine, G. J., & Leong, V. (2024). Protocol to study dam-pup social transmission using a modified paradigm for transmission of food preference. STAR Protocols, 5(2), 103077. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2024.103077

IN PREPARATION

Koh, D. M., Ong, J. Z., & Goh, P. H. (Under review). Helicopter parenting and social competence among single Malaysian adults: Filial piety as a moderator. Journal of Adolescent Development.

Vafa, S., Ong, J. Z., Yong, M. H., Arokiaraj, A. S., Shee, D., Chia, Y. C., & Schaefer, A. (Revised and resubmitted). Online cognitive testing with Asian older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: A proof-of-feasibility study. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/t8exs. Behavior Research Methods.

CONFERENCE POSTERS, INVITED TALK & MEDIA

Marzuki, A. A., Thanaraju, A., Ong, J. Z., Yip, W. Z., Yap, Z. J., Wong, K. Y., … Schaefer, A. (2022). AGEWELL: Investigating the predictors of healthy neurocognitive aging in a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse Malaysian cohort. Poster awarded People’s Choice Award at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience 2022, Singapore Chapter. http://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.18928.74241

Ong, J. Z. & Goh, P. H. (2020). It’s a guy thing: Sex as a moderator of the relationship between social anxiety and perception of interpersonal warmth in initial heterosexual interactions. Poster awarded 3rd Place for Best Poster Presentation at the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences Research Symposium (2020). http://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.12484.85121

Leong, V., Campolo, D., & Ong, J. Z. (2024). Understanding infants’ mental skills: New AI and sensor tools to measure development. Nanyang Technological University Magazine: Pushing Frontiers, (23), 22–23. PDF

Invited Speaker, Ethics First – Treating Your Participants Right, Research Integrity and Ethics Office, Nanyang Technological University, 27 May 2025.

TEACHING & MENTORING

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Teaching Assistant and Grader for Introductory Psychology (Fall 2023, Spring 2025).
Co-mentor to 9 thesis students and 9 undergraduate RAs, providing training in research methodology, ethics and data management, data collection, and analysis.

Monash University, Malaysia

Grader for Biological Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Contemporary Social Psychology, and Research Theory and Methods (2022).
Peer Tutor for Introductory Psychology (Spring 2022), Research Methods and Theory (Fall 2021, 2022).
Volunteer English Teacher for a class of 15 Chin refugee children (Fall 2017).

SK & SMK Bandar Tun Hussein Onn 2, Malaysia

Part-Time Teacher for elementary (Jun–Dec 2016) and high school (Feb–May 2017) students, with class sizes of about 30.

SKILLS

Experimental Methods
EEG and ECG Hyperscanning, Naturalistic Behavioral Recordings, Parent-Infant Interactions, Task Design and Development for Human and Rodent Models.

Computational Skills
Proficient in R, MATLAB, Python, SPSS, JASP, and Statistica, with experience in Generalized Linear Modeling, Structural Equation Modeling, Dynamical Systems Modeling, Time Series Analysis, Data Wrangling, Data Visualization, Analytical Pipeline Development, and Matrix Operations.

Typesetting and Web Development
Experienced in LaTeX for document typesetting, and HTML, CSS, and Ruby for website development.

Wet Lab Skills
Mouse Husbandry, Genotyping, Brain Harvest, Immunohistochemistry, Optogenetics.