Amit Yashar

Principal Investigator

I completed my PhD in psychology at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Dominique Lamy, and continued as a postdoctoral student at New York University’s Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science with Marisa Carrasco. I began my role as principal investigator and senior lecturer (associate professor) in the Department of Special Education within the Education Faculty at the University of Haifa in February 2018. I am also affiliated with the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities and a member of the Haifa University Neuroimaging Forum. Besides my academic work, I enjoy drawing, painting, and playing guitar. 

Personal website: amityashar.com
eMail: amit.yashar@edu.haifa.ac.il
Tel: +972 (4) 8249297

Kendra Kandana Arachchige

Post Doctoral student

I completed by PhD in Psychology at the University of Mons (Belgium), under the supervision of Prof. Laurent Lefebvre and Dr. Isabelle Simoes Loureiro. During my PhD, I investigated the involvement of cognitive processes such as working memory and attentional processes in the integration of iconic gesture and speech in healthy population. I have also had the opportunity to work on a behavioral and neuromodulation study (using TMS) in collaboration with Dr. Henning Holle, from the University of Hull (England), where I have spent several months as a visiting researcher. I am currently (since 2021) a substitute lecturer at the University of Mons, for the class of Adult and Aging Neuropsychology. As a postdoc at the University of Haifa, I am now focusing on the (a)typical processing of biological motion/movement in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Besides my research work, I enjoy long walks, am a Krav Maga practitioner and have recently started kickboxing.

eMail: kkandana@campus.haifa.ac.il; kendrakandana@edu.haifa.ac.il

Laurina Fazioli

PhD student

I completed my master’s degree in research in clinical neurosciences and neuropsychology at the Grenoble Alpes University in France. I am currently in my second year of PhD studies in the department of special education at the University of Haifa. I am exploring the ways in which (and if at all) people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) differ from the neurotypical population in fundamental perceptual processes and in higher level of decision on perceptual stimuli. Thus, I am conducting behavioral experiment and using the frame of bayesian decision making to test my hypothesis.    

eMail: laurina.fazioli@hotmail.fr

Adi Shechter

Research Assistant, PhD Candidate

I am a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Learning Disabilities, Faculty of Education and The Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities at the University of Haifa. In my Ph.D. thesis, supervised by Prof. David Share, I am studying cognitive effort in word reading and word learning through the lens of pupil dilation among both university students and elementary-school children. As a research assistant at the Yashar Lab, I am investigating the mechanisms underlying the crowding effect, such as the inner-outer asymmetry. In addition to my academic work, I am an educational therapist in the field of reading acquisition and comprehension.

eMail: ashechter05@gmail.com

Radan Nasrallah

PhD Candidate

I completed my Master’s degree in Linguistics at Tel-Aviv University focusing on Phonology and Psycholinguistics in language acquisition, now I’m conducting a preliminary to PhD study to test the effect of perceptual learning of a novel orthography on visual crowding, under the supervision of Dr. Amit Yashar and Dr. Sarit Szpiro.

eMail: radannasrallah9@gmail.com‏

Shani Ben Aderet

MA Student

I am a master’s degree student in the Department of Learning Disabilities in the faculty of Education in Haifa University. I hold B.A in Education and a teaching certificate from Oranim College. Currently, I am writing an M.A. thesis at the Visual Attention and Cognition Lab supervised by Dr. Amit Yashar.

eMail: shaniba0000007@gmail.com

Zenab Na’aran Saleh

Research Assistant

I completed my master’s degree at the Department of Special Education at the University of Haifa. My MA thesis was about emotion and cognition in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Currently, I am in the first year of my Ph.D. studies at the University of Haifa. I am studying visual perception in people with learning disabilities, and I will investigate the effect of inter trail feature priming in visual attention in people with developmental dyslexia (DD), and the influence of explicit visual working memory on the priming of pop out (PoP) in people with DD.

eMail: naaran@gmail.com

Lian Ibrahem

Research Assistant

I am in my last semester of my BA degree in Psychology and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Haifa. I work as a research assistant in Yashar lab in Luarina’s Phd study, wich is searching the difference between the people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and the neurotypical population, in the ways of the fundamental perceptual processes and in higher level of decision on perceptual stimuli. In addition I work as a research assistant in Simone’s Social and Affective Neuroscience Lab.

eMail: lianibrahem11@gmail.com

Md. Salman Sarkar,

PhD Scholar

I come from West Bengal, an eastern state in India. I completed my master’s in Optometry and Vision Science from University of Hyderabad in 2018 and I was trained at L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad as a clinical intern during the tenure of my course. In my master’s dissertation, I studied the long-term effects of glaucoma filtration surgery in patients who had very low visual field sensitivity (MD) and a high chance of vision loss. I was invited to Indonesia to participate in a week-long eye care program by the Indonesian govt. in late 2018.In early 2019, I instructed clinical SOPs to the vision technicians at Alina Vision, Vietnam. I published two peer-reviewed papers so far; one of these has dealt with the improvement (mechanical and optical aspects) of various low-vision devices to enhance the perception, cognition, and mobility, of low-vision patients, and the other is on public health. Currently, I am working jointly in the visual cognition lab and the cognitive development lab as a Ph.D. scholar. I am investigating the development of multiple characteristics of binocular vision and its association with cortical areas in amblyopic and non-amblyopic subjects who underwent visual deprivation at any phase of their life.

Email: optomsarkar@gmail.com
msarkar@campus.haifa.ac.il

Mor Keleynikov

Lab Manger

My research focuses on emotion regulation among parents of children with disabilities. I mainly research whether and how depression, burnout, fatigue and stress affect parents’ emotion regulation. I also manage the Yashar Lab’s two sister laboratories- The Emotion Lab, directed by Dr. Noga Cohen, and The Brain and Math Education lab, directed by Dr. Tali Raveh

eMail: mavrah18@campus.haifa.ac.il

Amit Licht

Research Assistant

I am currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Department of Learning Disabilities at the University of Haifa.
My M.A. thesis, supervised by Dr. Shelly Shaul, focuses on early childhood cognitive abilities associated with reading and reading comprehension difficulties later in Elementary School.

eMail: lichtamit@gmail.com‏

Ayelet Limor Mann

Research Assistant

I am in my final year of my B.A Studies in Special Education and Counseling of Human Development. I will be working in Yashar Lab as part of my final year seminar for outstanding students. Specifically, I will be working as a research assistant with PhD Candidate Laurina Fazioli on her research.
The research will compare physiological and behavioral performances between people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and neurotypical population by examining the ways in which (and if at all) people with ASD vary from the neurotypical population in their fundamental perceptual processes (especially visual perception).

eMail: ayelet3.4.96@gmail.com

Jasmine Sagi

Lab Manager

I am in the final year of my direct Ph.D. studies in cognitive psychology in the University of Haifa. My research focuses on the effects of intermediate retrieval on long-term memory of eye-witnesses. I mainly focus on oculomotor activity during the different stages of memory processing. I am also a teaching assistant in the the Max Stern Academic College Of Emek Yezreel, and also manage the Yashar Lab’s two sister laboratories- The Emotion Lab, directed by Dr. Noga Cohen, and The Brain and Math Education lab, directed by Dr. Tali Raveh

eMail: jasmine.sagi@gmail.com

Daria Cohen

Research Assistant

I am in the final semester of my bachelor’s degree in special education, counseling, and human development at the University of Haifa. I also work as a research assistant in Dr. Yair Ziv’s developmental research on social information processing in preschool children.

eMail: daria2070@gmail.com

Mikel Jimenez

Postdoctoral Student

My research interest revolves around common topics in experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience, specifically those related to visual perception (e.g. low, mid and high-level processes) and visual awareness. During my past research, I have explored early visual processes – such as perceptual grouping, feature integration or illusory contour perception – using very restrictive visual conditions. In my PhD thesis, I investigated whether the depth at which a stimulus is processed modulates visual awareness, using both behavioural measures and electrophysiological (EEG) recordings. During this time, I have collaborated with Profs. Pedro R. Montoro and Dolores Luna at UNED (Spain), Prof. José Antonio Hinojosa at Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) and Prof. Mika Koivisto at the University of Turku (Finland), where I spent several months as a visiting researcher. Now, as a postdoc at the Yashar lab in the University of Haifa, I will work with Prof. Amit Yashar applying probabilistic models to explore how different factors (i.e. attention, perceptual learning or different grouping processes) influence visual crowding.

eMail: mjimen01@campus.haifa.ac.il

Bahiya Kewan

M.A.

I hold an undergraduate degree from The Department of Communication Disorders at Tel Aviv University and currently work as speech and language therapist for children with language and developmental disabilities, learning disabilities and autism. I am currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Department of Special Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Haifa.

eMail: bahiyakewan@gmail.com

Asaf Elbaz

Postdoctoral Researcher

My PhD, completed under the supervision of Prof. Yaffa Yeshurun, examined how auditory and visual rhythms (regular, irregular and musical) shape temporal attention. Another key interest of the work was the role of visual accents in generating metric entrainment. As a postdoc at the Yashar lab, I am applying probablistics models to explore the nature of spatial crowding across different stimuli features. In addition to my research work, I enjoy playing jazz guitar. 

eMail: asafelbaz@gmail.com‏

Hadas Nathan Gamliel

Research Assistant

I hold an MA from the University of Haifa’s program in Clinical Neuropsychology, which integrates the fields of clinical and rehabilitation psychology and neuroscience. In my MA thesis, I examined the influence of group membership on behavioral and neural interpersonal synchrony. My recent work experience has largely been in the psychology field, involving occupational psychology, psychotherapy and conducting neuropsychological assessments. At the University of Haifa, I have worked as a teaching assistant prior to my current position as manager at the Yashar Lab. 

eMail: hadasnathan@gmail.com

LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/hadas-nathan-gamliel-33893bb8