Short Bio:

I am a PhD Student at the Psychology Department of the Hebrew University. My research, under the supervision of Prof. Asher Cohen, focuses on spatial attention across perception and action.

In order to function adaptively in our world, the human cognitive system must keep an ongoing interaction and integration of perception and action. Even though much is known about perception and action separately, we are only now beginning to understand the importance of the interaction between them: our actions can affect our perception and vice versa. My dissertation research takes this notion further and provides evidence that perception and action share the same attentional mechanism. The cognitive system commonly classifies stimuli by their location. A prominent attentional mechanism, spatial attention, controls stimuli via their location. Can we dissociate perception and action when talking about spatial attention? I designed a novel paradigm that enables me to examine this question and the operation of spatial attention in the interaction between perception and action.

I received my B.A. in Cognitive science and Psychology from the Hebrew University and then continued directly to a PhD in the Neuropsychology research track. In addition to my research I also serve as lab manager of the Attention and Performance lab.

Publications:

Cohen, A., & Israel, M. (2015). Exogenous control processes: controlled and automatic. Cognitive Modeling in Perception and Memory: A Festschrift for Richard M. Shiffrin, 16-34.

Israel, M., & Cohen, A. (2011). Involuntary strategy-dependent dual task performance. Psychological Research, 75, 513-524.

Breska, A., Israel, M., Maoz, K., Cohen, A., & Ben-Shakhar, G. (2011). Personally-significant information affects performance only within the focus of attention: A direct manipulation of attention. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 73, 1754-1767.

Honors and Awards:

2013- Present:   Hoffman Leadership and Responsibility Fellowship Program for outstanding Ph.D. candidates, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

2014:                Israel Association of Academic Women Award.

2013-2014:       A grant for “Chevruta” – Study and Discussion Groups for Research Students, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem 

2010-2014:       Ariane de Rothschild Women Doctoral Scholarship Program, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

2009-2010:       Direct Ph.D. Scholarship, Department of Psychology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem