About Us

Welcome to the website of the Language, Emotion, and Learning Laboratory! Our lab is affiliated with the Faculty of Education at the University of Haifa and is headed by Prof. Anat Prior and Prof. Orly Rubinsten. It is part of the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities and the Department of Learning Disabilities.

We investigate high-level human cognitive functions using experimental psychology, educational research, electrophysiological approaches (Event-Related Potential Technique – ERP), and physiological approaches (eye-tracking).
Our research explores the complexities of human cognition across the domains of language, emotion, and learning, aiming to understand how these fundamental skills develop, interact, and shape our everyday thinking.

In the Language Lab, we investigate how different people comprehend, produce, and learn languages across different stages of life and linguistic backgrounds, and how languages of the individual affect each other. Our work in the Emotion and Learning Lab focuses on how individuals process, understand, and utilize numerical concepts, examining cognitive mechanisms that support mathematical reasoning and identifying the predictive markers of intact and deficient development of numerical skills. We wish to shed light on the important issue of how numerical intuitions can be fostered through classroom practice in both typical and atypical (e.g., dyscalculia and math anxiety) developing children.

By studying both areas independently and in relation to each other, our lab seeks to advance knowledge that can inform educational practices, support diverse learning needs, and shed light on the cognitive foundations of language and numerical understanding.

Our main courses of research in the Language Lab:

• • • Cognitive consequences of bilingualism/multilingualism
    • Second and foreign language learning
    • Interactions between first, second, and third language systems
    • Minority students’ literacy performance
    • Reading comprehension in first, second, and third language.
    • Individual differences in language learning
    • Domain general vs. specific bases of language processing

Our main courses of research in the  Emotion and Learning Lab:

• Strategies for Emotional Regulation: The Effect of Reappraisal and Suppression on Cognitive Processes.
• Learning and Problem Solving in Conditions of Uncertainty: How the Neurocognitive System Assesses Attention Requirements and Allocates Resources under Stress and Uncertainty Conditions.
• Anxiety and Learning: The physiological and cognitive mechanisms by which anxiety disrupts effective learning and problem-solving.
• Measures of Cognitive and Emotional Effort: Mapping the timing of the mobilization of cognitive resources, such as attention, using physiological measures.