Would you like to be part of the Memory, Attention, & Cognitive Control Lab? Funding is usually available.
Feel free to get in touch with Dr. Günseli to apply for research assistantship (often voluntary), or MSc, Ph.D., and postdoctoral scholarsip positions.
Eren Günseli
Principal Investigator
_edited.jpg)
Eren is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Sabancı University in Istanbul.
Eren's research focuses on attention and memory, and their interactions. He studies these topics using a combination of behavioral, eye tracking, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and electroencephalogram (EEG) techniques.
His CV can be found here.
Eren also spends lots of time checking wind forecast and much less time to actually utilize this information by going kiteboarding.
Ada Beşir Bayraktar
Lab manager
Busenur Akbaş
PhD Student
Ada is a junior double majoring in BIO&PSY. His interest in the workings of the brain began with watching the show Brain Games at a young age, and he is curious in understanding the ways and limits of how we perceive reality. He has lots of energy to help out around the lab and learn new stuff. He likes playing music, reading anything and making new connections (whether with people or between pieces of information) in his free time.
Busenur graduated from Bahcesehir University’s Cognitive Neuropsychology master program. She worked for four years at the experimental psychology department at Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa University.
During her master’s studies, she evaluated metacognitive judgments in episodic memory using EEG. She
also conducted neuropsychological assessments with epilepsy patients for four years. Currently, she is interested in long-term memory reactivation. Besides academic life, she likes photographing, camping, traveling, bird watching, and planting.
Elif Hilal Kurt
PhD Student
(co-supervised with
Dr. Olesya Blazhenkova)
Elif completed her master’s degree in Cognitive Psychology at Bilkent University, where she investigated the effects of repeated exposure, picture presence, and context reinstatement on truth judgments. Currently, she is interested in false memory formation and repeated exposure. Beyond research, she finds creative expression essential: plays flute, draws, and dives into literature.
İpek Şahin
MSc Student
İpek holds a BA in Psychology from Bilkent University. She has research experience in memory, misinformation, and neuroimaging. Her undergraduate thesis focused on how perceptual disfluency influences susceptibility to misinformation. Currently, she’s interested in how event segmentation relates to retrospective memory and memory distortions. When she’s not in the lab, she’s probably wandering around campus with a coffee, trying to snap a photo of a cat.
Efsane Algın
MSc Student
Efsane graduated from Sabancı University as a Psychology major. She has also worked in various fields and voluntary projects. However, she has found her true calling in cognitive neuroscience and enjoys research. She is working on reactivation of LTM in upcoming WM encoding and operations. Outside of her studies, she spends most of her time doing sports and improving her climbing technique. She also enjoys watching old boring art films in her free time.
Nurullah Ertaş
MSc Student
Nurullah graduated from the Psychology Department at Bogazici University, where he developed his knowledge in cognitive science and psychology. He volunteered at the MultiModal Imaging & Physiology Lab (MIMLAB), working on rat brain MRI image pre-processing. He is currently researching the interaction between working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM), focusing on the chunking mechanism in WM. Outside academics, he enjoys sci-fi and animation TV series and movies, online bullet chess, word games, puzzles, and speedcubing. Lastly, he enjoys cooking, especially when there are not too many people to feed.
Shamim Samipour
MSc Student
Shamim graduated from psychology major at Middle East Technical University. During her undergraduate study, she was exploring animal cognition, specifically dogs and ants in different labs at Bilkent University. By starting her MSc in MACC lab, she is interested in exploring the intersection of attention, memory, and communicative cues, with a particular focus on how cognitive control mechanisms operate during dynamic human–agent and human–AI interactions. Outside the lab, she enjoys sleeping, socializing with friends, and walking.
Özlem Kurt
MSc Student
Özlem graduated from the Department of Psychology at Kadir Has University in 2025, where she had the opportunity to work on research in visual cognition, language development, and social psychology. After volunteering at an autism association, preparing for graduate studies, and spending a year with her family, she joined Sabancı University as an MSc student in Psychology. She is deeply interested in understanding how people perceive, encode, and represent visual and auditory spatial information. She aims to pursue a PhD and a career in research. Outside of academia, she enjoys photography.
Ali Yılmaztekin
MSc Student
Ali studied psychology at Koç University and graduated in 2022. After taking a year off from education, he decided to further his schooling by entering the Cognitive Psychology MSc program at Sabancı University. His topics of interest include cognitive processes such as memory, language and attention. He’s currently involved in a study investigating how information stored in long-term memory gets re-activated in working memory. When he is not studying, he likes to read and write fiction and play the guitar.
Azra Duru Erdem
Research volunteer
Azra is a junior Psychology student at Sabancı University with two minors: Decision and Behavior, Gender Studies. Since she joined the lab, she had the opportunity to assist in several studies implementing both behavioral methods and EEG. She is interested in discovering the links between short term and long term memory and hopes to learn more in that field. In addition to her academic interests, she enjoys reading books, painting and sports; especially ultimate frisbee.
Nilsu Bolat
Research volunteer
Nilsu is a sophomore Psychology student at Sabancı University, and she will be starting her double major in Computer Science next year. In MACC Lab, she is helping with EEG studies that investigate the relationship between working memory and long-term memory. She is excited to integrate both her majors in her upcoming years of study, particularly in cognitive psychology and human-robot interaction. In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, playing the guitar, and singing.
Alumni
Former postdoctoral scholars
-
Lara Todorova (Associate Editor at Springer Nature Publishing Group)
-
Ping Zhu (Lecturer at Zhejiang Yuexiu University)
Former PhD students
-
Berna Güler (Postdoctoral researcher at Yale University)
Former Master's students
-
Ahmet Burhan Bağlar (PhD student at Washington University in St. Louis)
-
Yaren Kaynar (PhD student at Univerity of California, Santa Cruz)
-
Yakup Yılmaz (PhD student at University of Missouri)
-
Duygu Yücel (PhD student at Washington University in St. Louis)
-
Nursima Ünver (PhD student at a joint program at the University of Toronto and Max Planck Institute in Frankfurt)
-
Şahcan Özdemir (PhD student at Leibniz Research Center for Working Environments and Human Factors)
-
Sümeyye Karahamza (Business Analyst at Kuveyt Türk Participation Bank)
-
Yağmur D. Şentürk (Independent Social Impact Researcher & Analyst)
Former long-term research volunteers
-
Vedude Rabia Sözkesen (Former lab manager; CS & Psychology student at Sabancı University)
-
Eda Melin Develioğlu (MSc student at Sabanci University)
-
Zozan Ayluçtarhan (Clinical Psychologist & Individual, Couple and Family Pscyhotherapist
-
Pelin Akbaş (Specialist Pscyhologist at OANDA Engineering)
-
Gubse Nur Aydın (MSc student at University of Oldenburg)
-
Betül Türk (MSc Student at Berlin School of Mind and Brain)
-
Ece Karagül (MA student at Bilgi University)
-
İde Melis Yılmaz (Computer Science and Engineering Master’s Student at Sabancı University)
Collaborators
(past & present)
Kirsten Adam (University of California, San Diego)
Mariam Aly (Columbia University)
Edward Awh (University of Chicago)
Oded Bein (Weill Cornell Medicine)
Aysecan Boduroglu (Bogazici University)
David Clewett (UCLA)
Tobias Egner (Duke University)
Johannes Fahrenfort (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Keisuke Fukuda (University of Toronto)
Nicole Hakim (University of Chicago)
Martijn Meeter (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Dirk van Moorselaar (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Sophie Nolden (Goethe University)
Christian N L Olivers (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
David Sutterer (Vanderbilt University)
Jan Theeuwes (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Edward Vogel (University of Chicago)