Public lifeאבישי הניק

Avishai Henik

Avishai Henik is an Israeli neurocognitive psychologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev who studies automatic and voluntary processes in cognition.

born 1945Research on automatic cognitive processesNumerical cognition and dyscalculia studiesAttention research with archerfish

Occupation: cognitive scientist
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Avishai Henik was born in 1945 in Tel Aviv

Avishai Henik was born in Tel Aviv in 1945. He earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and education at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 1971.

He did his MA and PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under Daniel Kahneman, finishing his PhD in 1979. In 1980 he received a Rothschild postdoctoral fellowship and spent 2 years in Oregon, working in the laboratory of Michael I. Posner.

Henik joined Ben-Gurion University as a lecturer in 1979 and became a full professor in 1996. He received the Zlotowski Chair in Cognitive Neuropsychology in 1999 and the title of Distinguished Professor in 2014. He heads the Cognitive Neuropsychology Laboratory and continues research as an emeritus.

His research covers the Stroop effect, visual spatial attention, numerical cognition, dyscalculia, emotions and synesthesia. He has written over 200 articles and led a think tank for the Ministry of Education on neuroscience and education. In 2012 he won an ERC Advanced Grant to study size perception in numerical cognition, including work with archerfish.