Faculty and Grad Students
- ANDRAS N. ZSIDO | Lab Director
Andras is a senior research fellow at the University of Pécs, Hungary; where he also received his PhD in 2019. His research interests fall under the broad heading of visual cognition, particularly research into visual attention. His other research interests include the development and refinement of psychometric tests and specific phobias. His primary work focuses on attention, with an emphasis on human visual processing. In his research, he mostly relies on standard behavioral measurements (e.g., reaction time, questionnaires), but he is also a member of a research group utilizing eye-tracking and physiological measures (e.g. galvanic skin response).
Publications:
Email: zsido.andras@pte.hu
Job title: Lab Director- DIANA T. PAKAI-STECINA | Postdoctor
Diana graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from University of Pécs in 2017 and earned her master's degree in Psychology in 2019. She is now working on her PhD. in experimental psychology. Her research interest lies in the field of cognitive psychology, more specifically in chemical and behavioural addictions, visual attention and threat perception. The main topics of her work so far have been the perception of evolutionary and modern threatening stimuli placed in different contexts, nicotine addiction and the question of why it might be harder for women to quit smoking, and the effects of digital media and problematic internet use. She plans to continue researching the topics of threat perception and digital media usage during her PhD years, mainly from the point of view of their effect on visual attention, using technologies such as eye-tracking and peripheral measuring devices.
Diana is currently working on her PhD thesis in our lab and at the Stiftung Universität Hildesheim (Germany).
Publications:
Email: stecina.diana@pte.hu
Job title: Doctoral Candidate- ATAKAN M. AKIL | Doctoral Candidate
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Atakan is a PhD candidate at Eötvös Loránd University and is currently working in our lab as a research assistant. His research focuses on the brain mechanisms underlying self-regulation, including aspects such as attention and inhibitory control.
Publications:
Email: atakan.akil@ppk.elte.hu or atakan.akil@pte.hu
Job title: Doctoral Candidate - CINTIA BALI | Assistant lecturer
Cintia graduated with her master's degree in Psychology from the University of Pécs in 2020. Cinta's research interest lies in the usage of Information and Communication Technology devices in the field of education. Within this area, she is especially concerned about the electronic storybooks’ effects on information processing among preschoolers. In her future work, she intends to examine the performance of children with special needs - e.g. risk of Attentional Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - while they are using these multimedia devices.
Cintia is an assistant lecturer and is currently working on her PhD thesis in our lab.
Publications:
Email: bali.cintia@pte.hu
Job title: Assistant lecturer- BOTOND KISS | Assistant research fellow
Botond received his BA and MA in psychology at the University of Pécs in 2020 and 2022, respectively. Botond studies the unique characteristics of specific phobias such as animal phobias and blood-injury-injection phobias. He uses survey methods and behavioral experiments.
Botond started his PhD studies in the fall of 2022 and is currently a fellow research assistant in our Lab.
Publications:
Email: kiss.botond@pte.hu
Job title: Assistant research fellow- JULIA BASLER | Assistant lecturer
Julia received her BA and MA degrees in psychology at the University of Pécs in 2020 and 2022, respectively. She is mostly interested in cognitive biases related to social phobia and social anxiety. She uses emotional facial and body expressions in her research. She also plans to use VR technology in future research.
Julia is currently a PhD student in the lab.
Publications:
Email: basler.julia@pte.hu
Job title: PhD Student- OTÍLIA CSONKA | PhD Student
Otília is currently an MA student at the University of Pécs where she acquired her BA degree in 2021. She is now leading the research project about supernatural fears. Her main interest lies in supernatural fears, and her future plan is to study other unusual phobias and anxieties.
Otília is preparing her MA thesis (in clinical and health psychology) at our lab where she focuses on the background mechanisms of emetophobia and how it affects cognition of related objects.
Job title: Research assistant
- BAHTIYAR YILDIZ | PhD Student
Bahtiyar received his BA degree in psychological counselling at the Çukurova University and his MA degree at the University of Pécs with the degree of distinction. He started his PhD studies at the University of Pécs in 2023 and is conducting his research at our lab. His research focuses on astraphobia and how it affects visual cognition towards related stimuli (thunderstorms, lighting, etc.). He also considers including VR in later research.
Publications:
Job title: PhD Student
- BRIGITTA VÁRADI-BORBÁS | PhD Student
Brigitta is a PhD student at Eötvös Loránd University. She obtained her Research Master's degree in Psychopathology at Maastricht University in 2020. Her drive for conducting research is to improve the understanding of phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder by finding out more about the psychopathology of these conditions. In her PhD project, she aims to investigate the relationship of control-related cognitions (sense of control and desire for control) and safety behaviors, with special attention to superstitious behaviors and magical thinking. Her other research interests lie within examining the characteristics and correlates of the current subtypes of specific phobias and OCD; investigating and categorizing the motivators of repetitive behaviors in different mental disorders; and determining which factors can influence to what extent an anxiety disorder interferes with the daily life of people.
Brigitta is currently on maternity leave.
Job title: PhD Student
- LILLA BEA | MA student
Lilla is currently an MA student (clinical and health psychology) at the University of Pécs where she acquired her BA degree in 2022. She currently assists in a research project about supernatural fears.
Job title: MA Student
- HANNA BARANYAI | MA student
Hanna is currently a first-year MA student (cognitive psychology) at the University of Pécs, where she acquired her BA degree in 2023. She assists with the ongoing supernatural fears research project. Her main interest includes the supernatural and different phobias, and also autism and ADHD in adults.
Job title: MA Student
- ANNA ASZÓDI | Research Assistant
Anna was already a member of the lab when she was studying at the University of Pécs during her BA years. She has been involved in the Supernatural fears project for four years. She is currently pursuing her MA studies at BME and continues to assist in research.
Job title: Research Assistant
Undergraduate Research Assistants
- BLANKA PÁL | Research assistant
I am in the final year of my BA and working towards continuing my Cognitive Psychology MA. My main interest is habituation, cognitive emotional regulation, and the factors that can influence our stress reactions. I find it interesting, how some aspects of our personality can change how we react to negative stimuli, and the different outcomes it can create. I am also working on research about the relationship between morbid curiosity and true crime, and their effect on attention and anxiety control.
Job title: Research assistant
- ZSUZSANNA FEHÉR | Junior Research assistant
I am a second-year BA student, my main interest lies in how technology affects attention and shapes various cognitive functions. I am currently working on a project which analyzes the importance of older adults' ICT usage.
Job title: Junior Research assistant
- VERONIKA BÁNFI | Research assistant
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Research Collaborators
- DR CARLOS M. COELHO
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Assistant Professor at the University of the Azores, Portugal
Carlos is an associate professor at the University of the Azores, Portugal, where he specializes in the study of fear, phobias, and anxiety disorders. He completed his PhD in 2005. His research interests focus on understanding the mechanisms underlying these conditions, as well as developing effective interventions. Carlos primarily employs behavioral assessments, psychometric tools, and physiological measures in his research. His work aims to bridge theoretical insights with practical applications to improve mental health outcomes.
E-mail: carlos.sm.coelho@uac.pt
- DR MICHAEL C. HOUT
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Full Professor at the New Mexico State University, USA
- DR JAKUB POLÁK
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Assistant Professor at the Ambis University, Czechia
- DR DAVID S. MARCH
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Assistant Professor at the Florida State University, USA
- DR PEDRO DIAS
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Associate Professor at the University of the Azores, Portugal
- DR HAYWARD J. GODWIN
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Associate Professor at the University of Southampton, UK
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5x7gwr/doctor-hayward-godwin
Lab Alumni
Here we list the names of those who contributed to our projects and worked in our lab but have since moved on to other universities, graduated or left academia due to other reasons.
- Orsolya Csabai
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Orsolya worked at our lab during her BA years at the University of Pécs. She moved on to the University of Szeged to pursue her MA degree.
- Edina Papp
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Edina worked at our lab during her years of BA in Psychology at the University of Pécs. She took part in studies related to social anxiety. She is working on her MA in Clinical Psychology right now.
- Friderika Szalai
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Friderika received her MA degree in psychology at the University of Pécs in 2022. Her research in the lab focused on specific phobias, and she was the leader of a project that focused on supernatural fears.
She is now working as a Clinical Psychology Intern at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Medical School at University of Pécs.
- Rebecca Cseh
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Rebecca acquired both her bachelor's and master's degrees in Psychology from the University of Pécs in 2019 and 2022, respectively. She did research on the field of how emotionally charged pictures affect various processes related to visual cognition.
She is now doing her PhD at the Semmelweis University.
- Nagy Bálint
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Nagy Bálint helped out as a research assistant throughout his years of BA studies.
- Burghardt Katalin
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- Szuhád Khalil
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Szuhád assisted with a lot of experiments that were conducted at our lab and helped with numerous surveys as a research assistant during her years of BA studies.
- Dóra Szüts
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Dóra was a member of our lab during her years as a BA student (2019-2020). She worked on a project that deals with blood-injection-injury phobia and medical fears. Dóra helped with various experiments and surveys that were going on in our lab.
- Antónia Balogh
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Antónia was a member of our research group between 2019 and 2022 as a research assistant. She was interested in cognitive psychology, including fear, since there would be no person who would not be afraid of something. Last year she worked on a project that dealt with fears and phobias, including snake and spider phobias. Antónia carried out one of the mandatory research practices and is also preparing a work for the National Conference of Scientific Students' Associations in our lab. She moved on to the Budapest University of Technology and Economics to pursue her MA degree there.
- Zilahi Léna
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Léna was a research assistant at our research lab for two years. She moved on to the Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary) to pursue her MA degree in health psychology.
- Katalin Bernát
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Katalin carried out one of the mandatory research practices and is also preparing a work for the National Conference of Scientific Students' Associations in our lab.
- Eszter Schönberger
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Eszter carried out one of the mandatory research practices and is also preparing a work for the National Conference of Scientific Students' Associations in our lab.
- Virag Ihasz
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Virag received her master's degree in Psychology at the University of Pécs in 2020. She is most interested in the developmental aspects of emotion processing and cognition. In her thesis, the main question was whether children and adults see different facial emotional expressions as similar or different when seen on faces of peers or non-peers. We wish her all the best in her future works!
- Séllei Bianka
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Bianka carried out one of the mandatory research practices and is also preparing a work for the National Conference of Scientific Students' Associations in our lab.
