About

I have been at the University of Amsterdam since 1995, where I am Professor of Theoretical Neuropsychology.

Brief CV

I hold Master’s degrees in Experimental Psychology and Experimental Phonetics, both obtained in 1987 from Utrecht University.

Following my Ph.D. on learning and categorization in neural networks (1992, Leiden Unversity), I worked as a scientist at the MRC Applied Psychology Unit in Cambridge (UK) until 1995.

In 1995, I moved to the University of Amsterdam on a three-year Fellowship by the Netherlands Royal Society, which was later extended to five years.
In 1998, I received a NWO PIONIER grant which allowed me to establish a research group at the University of Amsterdam.

From 2001 to 2008, I held a Endowed Chair in Computational Models of Cognition at the Artificial Intelligence Department of Maastricht University.

From 2002 to 2008, I was President of the Netherlands Society for Psychonomics (NVP).

Research interests

I spend a lot time studying human learning and memory, including optimal learning, the shape of learning and forgetting, autobiographical memory, the effect of sleep on memory, learning and forgetting of advertisements, and implicit memory for advertisements.

The effects of brain lesions on cognitive functioning have also been a recurrent topic of my research, including retrograde amnesia, semantic dementia, and impaired memory with electro-convulsive treatment and in schizophrenia.

Much of my work involves simulations with artificial neural networks and mathematical modeling. With my research group, I have developed mathematical and connectionist models of consolidation of memory, and learning and forgetting.

My PIONIER group was one of the first in the world to use the Internet to gather research data on human memory, via our web site memory.uva.nl, which was established in 1999. Currently, we are using Internet-based approaches for the development of online neuropsychological test batteries, for example to monitor cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy (with NKI and VU) and I am involved in the ANDI project, which aims to offer an online platform for advanced neuropsychological diagnoses by clinicians and scientists.

Current research also includes a fairly extensive project on online brain training with elderly participants as a way of keeping cognitively fit and with stroke patients to help them recover faster and better. This is a recently completed research project with Dutch participants called TAPASS (in Dutch only). Research questions were: Does brain training help improve cognition in the elderly? What training regimes work best? How well does the training generalize to other forms of cognition and activities in daily life? How can stroke patients benefit from brain training?