JOAN Danielle Ongchoco was the first Filipina to receive the United States William James Prize award.

The award was given by the Society for Philosophy and Psychology during its 47th annual meeting.

Ongchoco was recognized for her research work “Figments of imagination: Scaffolded attention creates non-sensory object and event representations.”

Her research revolves around “scaffolded attention,” a new phenomenon inspired by how a grid of squares serves as the scaffold or raw material for imagination. Her recent works involve event segmentation, enumeration, musical sequences, and visual working memory.

Ongchoco graduated summa cum laude from Yale-NUS College in Singapore, where she was a member of the inaugural graduating class of 2017.

Next year, she will graduate from Yale University with a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology.