Current Lab Members

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Ran Hassin

Principal Investigator
I received my PhD in 1999 from Tel Aviv University, and spent the longest postdoc ever at NYU. After being dragged from there by four NY policemen, I moved to the Hebrew University in 2002.
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Gal Chen

PhD Student
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology, In which I’m working with Prof. Hassin and Prof. Deouell. I study the neural and cognitive processes that take place during conscious and non-conscious processing of speech, and the conditions in which we process the things we don't listen to.
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Ildiko Krisztina Preiner

PhD Student
I am a visiting research fellow at the lab, starting my PhD in the Department of Psychology in 2024. I have been researching nonconscious prioritization speed in relation to memory and minority salience.
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Maya Leshkowitz

PhD Student
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences. My research focuses on how people intuitively group information over time and how these groups influence their decisions.
ohadlivnat

Ohad Livnat

PhD Student
Lab Manager
I’m a PhD student at the Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences. I study individual differences in meta-cognitive appraisals of trust in phenomenology – that is, our spontaneous tendency to trust our conscious experiences or assume and act upon them as if they were objectively true.
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Rina Schwartz

PhD Student
I’m currently pursuing a PhD in Clinical-Rehabilitation Neuropsychology. I am interested in perception, emotion, and subjective experience. Right now, I study how perception for action relates to understanding what we see.
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Nadav Weisler

MA Student
I’m a Master student at the Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences and an experienced software engineer. In my own research, I intend to understand the connection between non-conscious prioritization speed and ADHD.
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Innbal Menashri

MA Student
I am an MA student in cognitive science. The lab is collaborating with Prof. Lev Muchnik from the Business Administration Dept. to try to understand different aspects of human curiosity and the way they effect goal-pursuit and decision-making.
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Gaya Aran

MA Student
I’m currently pursuing a master’s degree in Experimental Psychology, after achieving a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Comparative Literature. I am curious about cognitive control, emotion regulation and unconscious learning.
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Avigail Movshovitz

Research Assistance
I finished my B.A in psychology and Jewish history and currently I’m working as a research assistant in the lab. I’m curious about human behavior, unconscious processing, and what is between them. I’m looking for discovering new ideas and exploring old phenomena.

Ran Hassin

ranhassin2
Ran
Hassin
Principal Investigator
I received my PhD in 1999 from Tel Aviv University, and spent the longest postdoc ever at NYU. After being dragged from there by four NY policemen, I moved to the Hebrew University in 2002. I am currently a member of the Psychology Department and the Center for the Study of Rationality, and I am the editor of Oxford University Press’s Social Cognition and Social Neuroscience book series. I am interested in understanding the capabilities of unconscious processes, and in using this knowledge to gain insights into the functions of consciousness. Relatively longstanding projects in the lab include the investigation of (non-conscious) working memory and executive functions, (non-conscious) goal pursuit and motivation, (non-conscious) goal conflict and self control, and (non-conscious) nationalism. Newer projects include (non-conscious) arithmetic and reading, the study of emotional and motivational factors that determine when things pop into consciousness, and application of various of the above-mentioned projects to the area of judgment and decision making. In recent years I have also examined various aspects of emotional processes, ranging from emotion perception, to emotion regulation and phenomenology. The lab mainly uses behavioral measures, but from time to time we resort to physiological data, patient data, and even colorful (and less colorful) pictures of the brain. In one fMRI study, run by a former graduate student in the lab, we even found significant activations outside the skull.

Gal Chen

I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology, In which I’m working with Prof. Hassin and Prof. Deouell. I study the neural and cognitive processes that take place during conscious and non-conscious processing of speech, and the conditions in which we process the things we don't listen to.

Ildiko Krisztina Preiner

ikp
Ildiko
Krisztina
Preiner
PhD Student
I am a visiting research fellow at the lab, starting my PhD in the Department of Psychology in 2024. I have been researching nonconscious prioritization speed in relation to memory and minority salience. I am currently interested in how high-stress environments and ambiguity influence learning and cognitive flexibility. Outside of the lab I’m learning about embodied cognition through meditation and somatic coaching techniques.

Maya Leshkowitz

mayaleshko
Maya
Leshkowitz
PhD Student
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences. My research focuses on how people intuitively group information over time and how these groups influence their decisions. More broadly, I am interested in the cognitive equivalent of dimension reduction and clustering algorithms. I am interested in comparing human grouping to computational models and understanding when deviations from optimality occur.

Ohad Livnat

ohadlivnat
Ohad
Livnat
PhD Student
Lab Manager
I’m a PhD student at the Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences. I study individual differences in meta-cognitive appraisals of trust in phenomenology – that is, our spontaneous tendency to trust our conscious experiences or assume and act upon them as if they were objectively true. In addition, I take part in broad research of a completely new theory of curiosity, a framework that allows one to model in the same theory everything from clickbait-driven epistemic urges to long-lasting personal fields of interest.

Rina Schwartz

rinas
Rina
Schwartz
PhD Student
I’m currently pursuing a PhD in Clinical-Rehabilitation Neuropsychology. I am interested in perception, emotion, and subjective experience. Right now, I study how perception for action relates to understanding what we see. I’m also looking at expanding models of mental chronometry, to include sensory processing. I am grateful to be in a lab that encourages collaboration, which allows all of us to integrate behavioral, social, emotional, and physiological perspectives in building an understanding of consciousness.

Nadav Weisler

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Nadav
Weisler
MA Student
I’m a Master student at the Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences and an experienced software engineer. In my own research, I intend to understand the connection between non-conscious prioritization speed and ADHD. In my former position as software engineer in the lab I developed an end to end program for generating RMS experiments faster and without code. For more information: https://brmsgenerator.readthedocs.io

Innbal Menashri

innbalmens
Innbal
Menashri
MA Student
I am an MA student in cognitive science. The lab is collaborating with Prof. Lev Muchnik from the Business Administration Dept. to try to understand different aspects of human curiosity and the way they effect goal-pursuit and decision-making. The study will apply data science methodologies on large amounts of behavioral data.

Gaya Aran

gayaar
Gaya
Aran
MA Student
I’m currently pursuing a master’s degree in Experimental Psychology, after achieving a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Comparative Literature. I am curious about cognitive control, emotion regulation and unconscious learning. In my own research, I aspire to use unconscious exposure and training as a possible technique for mental treatment. Right now, I’m attempting to cause fear extinction among spider-phobic population, and for that – enjoy the help of a lovely and hopefully frightening tarantula.