People

Michael Gilead (PI)

Michael is an Assistant Professor of psychology at Tel Aviv University. His research utilizes neuroimaging, experimental, and big-data methodologies to investigate humans’ symbolic cognition and the process of symbolic interaction. He has authored papers on topics such as mentalizing, mental simulation, language and cognition, emotion, and decision making. He is the recipient of the APS Rising Star award.

Almog Simchon (Ph.D. student)

Almog recieved a B.A. in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Studies as part of the Excellent Students’ program in Cognitive Sciences from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience of Language from the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language and The University of the Basque Country, Spain.
His research project examines linguistic relativity in the domain of social cognition using both lab studies and big-data analyses.

Ann Haberman (Ph.D. student)

Ann received her B.A. in psychology and business management from Tel Aviv University and her M.A in clinical psychology from Ben-Gurion University.
Her research project focuses on perspective taking and emotion regulation using Ecological Momentary Assessment.

Inon Raz (Ph.D. student)

Inon received a B.A. in Psychology from the Open University, and his M.A. in Social Psychology from Ben-Gurion University (Magna Cum Laude). His M.A. research focused on emotions and emotional regulation. His Ph.D. research uses behavioral and brain imaging (fMRI) methods to examine how individuals cope with the tension between their desire to know the truth and their desire to find pleasure. He is a founding partner of a company in the field of green energy. He is also a pilot and a senior skydiving instructor and a professional manager at a skydiving school.

Yhonatan Shemesh (Ph.D. student)

My research focuses on mental models; how knowledge is represented in the mind. I am particularly interested in the interface between the human evolutionary cognitive endowment and the modern world. My Masters thesis investigated the joint contribution of ideology and personality in determining lay perceptions of the economy, In 2018, I co-authored a book on economic psychology titled How We Misunderstand Economics and Why it Matters (Routledge)

Avi Gamoran (Ph.D. student)

Avi received his M.A. in cognitive science at at Ben-Gurion University. His research project, jointly supervised with Dr. Talya Sadeh, utilizes natural language processing methods to investigate the role of meta-representations in episodic memory.

Stav Khen (M.A student)

Stav recieved her B.A. in Psychology at Ben-Gurion University. She is currently an M.A. student in the clinical psychology program. Her research attempts to extend our understanding of the way people resolve states of cognitive dissonance.

Ron Dulkin (M.A. student)

Ron received his B.A. in Behavioral Sciences at Ben-Gurion University. He is currently an M.A. student in the Social Psychology and Data Science program.
His research project examines the Propagation of Pro-Social and Anti-Social Norms in Virtual Video-Game Environments.

Zohar Rotem (M.A student)

Zohar received her B.A. in psychology and cognitive science at Ben-Gurion University. She is currently an M.A. student in the social psychology and data science program.
Her research project, jointly supervised with Dr. Talya Sadeh, examines the interaction between episodic memory and decision-making processes, specifically, if the use of episodic memory can improve forecasting accuracy.

Yuval Geiger (M.A student)

Yuval received his B.A. in Psychology and Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University. He is currently a clinical psychology student. Yuval Geiger (M.A student).

Maayan Klimenko (M.A student)

Maayan received her B.A. in psychology and counseling-and-human-development at Haifa University. She is currently an M.A. student in the social psychology and data science program. Her research project, jointly supervised with Dr. Eran Bar-Kalifa, using machine learning and natural language processing to analyze and predict future romantic relationship satisfaction.

Itamar Zan Ger (M.A student)

Itamar received his B.A. in Psychology, education, and conflict management resolution at Ben-Gurion University. He is currently an M.A. student in the Social Psychology and Data Science program. His research project analyzes psychological aspects that affect the performance of elite athletes (NBA players).

Rotem Simhon (M.A student)

Rotem received her B.A. in Psychology and Economics at Ben-Gurion University. She is currently an M.A. student in the Experimental Psychology, Cognition and Neuroscience program. Her research project focuses on classification of emotional states using thermal imaging and video magnification.

Ram Orr (M.A student)

Ram received his B.A. in psychology and philosophy at Ben-Gurion University. He is currently an M.A. student in the Social Psychology and Data Science program. His research project makes use of computerized text analysis and psycho-linguistic measures to uncover implicit biases affecting mentalizing in intergroup contexts.

Yuval Geiger (M.A student)​​Yuval received his B.A. in Psychology and Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University. He is currently a clinical psychology student. Yuval Geiger (M.A student).

Yuval Geiger (M.A student)

Yuval received his B.A. in Psychology and Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University. He is currently a clinical psychology student. Yuval Geiger (M.A student).