Masters Students

TONIA BONTIOTI

I am a master student in Human Factor’s and Engineering Psychology at the University of Twente. I hold a BSc degree in Psychology from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where my research focused on the “The Social Stigma in COVID-19: The Role of Emotional, Ideological, and Intergroup Factors”. At the moment, thanks to my master’s, my academic journey focuses a lot on the relationship between human cognition and technology. My current research focus centers on my master’s thesis, “The Impact of Color Perception on Sustainable Consumption Behavior in Virtual Reality”, under the guidance of my primary supervisor, Funda Yildirim, and second supervisor, Letizia Alvino. Next to my studies, I work as a student assistant in various positions. One of them is focused on collecting data about research on ‘Exploring the Effectiveness of Virtual Reality in Addressing Misinformation in Climate Change ‘, supervised by Funda Yildirim. My other position is in the BMS Lab as a part of the communication media team, and most specifically as a content creator and social media manager.

BURCU ECE KARTAL

I have received my Bachelor’s Degree of Computer Science and Engineering from Yeditepe University in 2022. I am a person who loves research in the interdisciplinary fields. Furthermore, I successfully completed my graduation project “Color Palette Matching” in CNVP Laboratory under the supervision of Dr. Funda Yıldırım on color difference, visual perception and machine learning. In this project, I identified similarities between natural and digital colors to be most matched to human color perception. Also my research interests lie in the intersection of computer science and biological sciences such as bioengineering, neurobiology and molecular biology.

HABIBE SEDA DÜNDAR

After I obtained Psychology Bachelor’s degree from KTO Karatay University, I continued to Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University Psychology Master’s Program. Meanwhile, I am working at the Abdullah Gul University Psychology Department as a research assistant. I am interested in cognitive-experimental psychology- and visual illusions, attention processes, and false memory. In 2023 summer, I started investigating sensory processes and consumption behavior through Virtual Reality (VR), under the supervision of dr Funda Yildirim at the CNVP Lab. Now, I am in the process of integrating my research topics using VR environments.

ANIL BAYINDIR

(Currently a PhD student at Ruhr University Bochum)

I obtained my master’s degree in Neuropsychology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. My master’s thesis focused on the neural correlates of retrieval practice on memory using EEG. I received my bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Middle East Technical University (METU) Northern Cyprus Campus. I wrote my bachelor’s thesis about the effect of environmental and voice context on face recognition. Currently, I am working on the project of the Perception of Symmetry: an fMRI adaptation study on symmetric faces and symmetric pattern under the supervision of Dr. Funda Yıldırım at the Computational Neuroscience and Visual Perception Lab. ​

GİZEM TANSELİ KASPAR

(Currently a PhD student at University of Iceland)

I graduated from the Psychology Department of Yeditepe University. Currently, I am a graduate student in Cognitive Science MA Program at Yeditepe University. When I was studying psychology, I had a deep interest in memory, attention, cognition and cognitive neuroscience. I conducted some experiments on related topics as a fresh and curious student. I like to learn more about cognitive neuroscience. Currently, I am working on the topics related to auditory attention, visual attention, and short-term memory using eye tracker.

AHMET BURAK KURT

(Currently a PhD student at the University of Genoa)

I graduated from Yıldız Technical University, English Language Teaching Department. I am a graduate student at Yeditepe University, Cognitive Science MA program. For my thesis, I am working on modeling new language structures, using multisensory integration to understand sensory substitution deeper. I am also interested in ANNs together with neuroscience and therefore I want to be involved in future studies. Currently, I am helping with projects that involve, EEG analysis, machine learning, multisensory integration of gustatory, visual, olfactory, auditory, and somatosensory perception. Other than academic studies, I am interested in martial arts, drawing portraits, and playing Armenian duduk.

ŞULE TAŞLIYURT

(Currently a PhD student at the University of Giessen)

I graduated from Başkent University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2018 and a minor degree in molecular biology and genetics in 2019. I started to Cognitive Science MA program in 2019. In my undergraduate years, I worked on visual working memory and visual perception. After that, I examined how the eye movements changed in negative and neutral situations, and how the eye movements changed when they saw faces of different emotional expressions using an eye tracker. I am currently working on the effect of configuration on visual crowding and motion perception using an eye tracker.

NAZLI KONUKOĞLU

(Currently working as a Data Scientist at Seriously Digital Entertainment, Helsinki)

I got my bachelor degree from Bilkent University Industrial Engineering Department in 2016. Since then, I have been working as an analyst in mobile app/gaming industries. I was quite interested in various topics about cognitive science, therefore I decided on this topic for my master’s degree. As of now, I am in my last year of Cognitive Science MA program at Yeditepe University. I enjoy learning about past experimental studies and their findings, especially about perception, memory and evolution. Currently, I am working on visual perception and classification focusing on shape properties and color for my thesis.

FİLİZ TEZCAN

(Currently a PhD student at Max Planc Institute for Psycholinguistics)

I graduated from Boğaziçi University, Chemical Engineering Department. Currently, I’m a MA student Cognitive Science Program in Yeditepe University. My interest in cognitive science started when I was working on EEG signal analysis for a course project. My main area of interest is sounds perception and how brain creates meaning from auditory signals.

KHALED AL KAMHA

Khaled Al Kamha, final year MA student of Cognitive Science at Yeditepe University. He graduated from Applied Science University (ASU) of Jordan with BSc in Software Engineering. Khaled’s passion to study the human brain started when his supervisor at ASU told him that the brain generates electrical signals which could be analyzed using a computer. His undergrad project was a classification of EEG signals using feature extraction and machine learning. Currently, Khaled is working on modelling human visual processors under the supervision of Dr. Funda Yıldırım; his MA thesis focuses on 3D modelling of motion in terms of clusters. He wishes to pursue a PhD where he can answer questions at the intersection of human perception, attention, and memory.

Kübra Akyüz

I graduated from Hacettepe University Elementary Mathematics Education Department in 2008. I started Data Science Master’s Program at Yeditepe University in 2019. Currently, my thesis topic covers both data science and data science fields. I use deep learning methods to create an artificial neural network that models visual regions of the brain with fMRI data.