SHIREL BAKBANI-ELKAYAM (MA)

Shirel is a Ph.D. candidate, married and a mother of four.

Her work involves behavioral measures (Sampling MDD patients and the general population) as well as measure of the electrical activity on the scalp during performing a computerized task, using EEG (for now, in general population only). These methods enable her to indicate how integration of reinforcement is effected by different forms of reinforcement (RSP Vs. Monetary reward) and whether RT facilitation is derived from premotor processes including stimulus associated processing or from motor processes including response-associated operations.

Hitherto, results from her work suggest that MDD is not associated with global impairment in integration of reinforcements. Moreover, the findings imply a further parsing of the reinforcement processes into reward-specific and reward-unrelated ("valence-free") reinforcements. Specifically, reinforcement from RSP may stem from dedicated processes of motor control and reinforcement from rewards on more general computations of utility.

She received her B.A. (Summa cum Laude) in psychology and education from Tel Hai Academic College; and her Master's degree (magna cum laude) in psychology from the University of Haifa.

In 2019 she was awarded the Azrieli Fellowship for Ph.D students in Social Sciences.

PUBLICATIONS

Published

    • Hemed, E., Bakbani-Elkayam, S., Teodorescu, A., Yona, L., & Eitam, B., (2020). Evaluation of an Action’s Effectiveness by the Motor System in a Dynamic Environment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

    • Hemed, E., Mark, I., Bakbani-Elkayam, S., Hertz, U., Eitam, B., (2021). Automatically Controlled: Task Irrelevance Fully Cancels Otherwise Automatic Imitation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

    • Karsh, N., Hemed, E., Nafcha, O., Bakbani-Elkayam, S., Custers, R. & Eitam, B., (2020). The Differential Impact of a Response’s Effectiveness and its Monetary Value on Response-Selection. Scientific Reports.

Under Revision

    • Bakbani-Elkayam, S., Dolev-Amit, T., Hemed, E., Zilcha-Mano, S., & Eitam, B. Robust Responsiveness to Reinforcement in Major Depression: The Case of Reinforcement from Sensorimotor Predictability. (invited revision).

    • Bakbani-Elkayam, S., Degani, T., Hemed, E., Drawshey, L., Wyble, B., Hertz, U., Solewicz, Y., & Eitam, B.*. Limited Attentional Selection Within an Auditory Stimulus (invited revision).

In preparation

    • Bakbani-Elkayam, S., Givon, L., Daxa, M., Eitam, B., Ditlmann, R., & Stadler, T. (in preparation). Evaluation of A Surfing Program Designed to Increase Personal Well-Being Among ‘At Risk’ Young People.

    • Barnoy, A., Bakbani-Elkayam, S., Keren, A., Miller, B., (in preparation). Mitigating the Spread of Epistemically Toxic Content.

    • Shoval, R., Bakbani-Elkayam, S., Zilcha, S., Eitam, B. (in preparation). Do People with Major Depressive Disorder Choose Not to Choose?