Nilli Lavie, FBA, is an academic, psychologist, and neuroscientist with British-Israeli dual nationality. A Professor of Psychology and Brain Sciences and Director of the Attention and Cognitive Control laboratory at the

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience UCL Neuroscience is a research domain that encompasses the breadth of neuroscience research activity across University College London's (UCL) School of Life and Medical Sciences. The domain was established in January 2008, to coordinate neurosci ...

, she is an elected Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

, American Psychological Society,

Royal Society of Biology The Royal Society of Biology (RSB), previously called the Society of Biology, is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom created to advance the interests of biology in academia, industry, education, and research. Fo ...

, and

British Psychological Society The British Psychological Society (BPS) is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. History It was founded on 24 October 1901 at University College London (UCL) as ''The Psychological Society'', the organ ...

. An honorary life member of the UK

Experimental Psychology Society The Experimental Psychology Society (EPS) is an academic society which facilitates research into experimental psychology and communication between experimental psychologists. It is based in the United Kingdom. The society was originally formed a ...

, she is known for providing a resolution to the 40 year debate on the role attention in information processing and as the creator of the Perceptual load theory of attention, perception and cognitive control.

Biography and education

Lavie earned BA Degrees in Psychology and in Philosophy from

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

in 1987, and completed a PhD in

Cognitive Psychology Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, which ...

at Tel Aviv University in 1993. In the mid-nineties she received the Miller fellowship for postdoctoral training at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

, which she held in Anne Treisman's laboratory. Following her postdoctoral training, she moved to the UK where she married the late

Jon Driver Jonathon Stevens "Jon Driver" (4 July 1962 – 28 November 2011) was a psychologist and neuroscientist. He was a leading figure in the study of perception, selective attention and multisensory integration in the normal and damaged human brain ...

and held her first faculty job at the MRC-Applied Psychology Unit (now the

Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit The Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit is a branch of the United Kingdom, UK Medical Research Council (UK), Medical Research Council, based in Cambridge, England. The CBSU is a centre for cognitive neuroscience, with a mission to improve human hea ...

), Cambridge, UK. In late 1995 she joined UCL where she currently works and has written over 100 scientific papers.

Awards and honours

She has received a British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Award for outstanding contribution to research in 2006. In 2011, she was selected as an "inspirational woman" in the

WISE Campaign The WISE Campaign (Women into Science and Engineering) encourages women and girls to value and pursue science, technology, engineering and maths-related courses in school or college and move on into related careers and progress. Its mission statem ...

(Women into Science, Engineering and Construction). In 2012, she received the Mid-Career Award from the

. She was named an 'Academic Champion' at UCL ( PALS division)(2012). She was also selected as an academic role model at

UCL Faculty of Life Sciences The UCL Faculty of Life Sciences is one of the University College London#Faculties and departments, 11 constituent faculties of University College London (UCL). History The roots of UCL’s Faculty of Life Sciences can be traced back to 1826, w ...

(2012).

Research

Lavie's researchLavie, N. (1995). Perceptual load as a necessary condition for selective attention. ''Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance'', 21, pp. 451-68.Lavie, N. (2010) Attention, Distraction and Cognitive Control under Load. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(3), pp. 143-58 concerns the effects of information load on brain mechanisms, psychological functions (perception, conscious awareness, memory and emotion) and behaviour. This research is guided by the framework of her Load theory of attention and cognitive control.Lavie, N., Hirst, A., De Fockert, J. W. & Viding, E. (2004) Load theory of selective attention and cognitive control. ''Journal of Experimental Psychology: General'', 133, pp. 339-54. Lavie originally proposed the Load Theory in the mid-nineties to resolve the "Locus of Attentional Selection" debate. Load Theory offered a new approach concerning the nature of information processing that reconciles the apparently contradicting views in this debate regarding the issue of capacity limits versus automaticity of processing. In Load Theory - perceptual information processing has limited capacity but processing proceeds automatically on all information within its capacity. The theory made an important contribution to the understanding of the impact of attention on information processing, visual perception and awareness. It explains how people use their

working memory Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity that can hold information temporarily. It is important for reasoning and the guidance of decision-making and behavior. Working memory is often used synonymously with short-term memory, ...

during task performance and the ways in which people can exert

cognitive control In cognitive science and neuropsychology, executive functions (collectively referred to as executive function and cognitive control) are a set of cognitive processes that are necessary for the cognitive control of behavior: selecting and succe ...

over their perception, attention and behaviour.

In the media

Lavie has made numerou
media appearances
in many TV science documentary programmes, interviews, and articles in British print and electronic media, including

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Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

,'' as well as international media outlets.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lavie, Nilli Israeli women psychologists Israeli academics Living people Israeli cognitive neuroscientists Tel Aviv University alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Israeli emigrants to the United Kingdom Academics of University College London