Dr Zsofia Garai-Takacs

Lecturer in Applied Psychology

  • Clinical Psychology
  • School of Health in Social Sciences

Contact details

Address

Street

Elsie Inglis Quad
Teviot Place

City
Edinburgh
Post code
EH8 9AG

Biography

Background

I conducted my postgraduate studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. I completed a Research Master’s program in Educational Sciences: Normal and Deviant Patterns of Attachment and Self-regulated Learning and a PhD in Developmental Psychopathology from a Cultural and Educational Perspective.

My doctoral research focused on the effects of digital and traditional storybook reading on pre-schoolers’ language development. Between 2015 and 2021 I worked as an Assistant Professor at ELTE Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, and as the Head of the Cognitive Development and Education Research Group.

Qualifications

PhD in Developmental Psychopathology from a Cultural and Educational Perspective (Leiden University)

(Research) MSc in Educational Sciences: Normal and Deviant Patterns of Attachment and Self-regulated Learning (Leiden University)

BA in Communication and Media Studies (ELTE Eötvös Loránd University)

Responsibilities & affiliations

Lecturer in Applied Psychology

Ethics & Integrity Lead

Member - Centre for Applied Developmental Psychology (CADP)

Course Organiser - Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Disorders

Postgraduate teaching

MSc Psychology of Mental Health (Conversion)

- Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Disorders

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Current PhD students supervised

Ke Shi

Dennis Relojo-Howell

Research summary

My research focuses on well-being and development during childhood including language, vocabulary and comprehension skills in addition to self-regulatory and executive function skills and interventions to foster those. I am specifically interested in how preschool and elementary school education can foster these skills thus I primarily conduct applied research investigating the efficacy of different interventions in order to advise evidence-based decision-making in education and the clinical practice. Additionally, I am interested in the role of stress in cognitive functioning and in relation to major transitions like school entry. As far as methodology goes, I am primarily interested in experimental designs and meta-analyses.

Current research interests

I currently focus on mindfulness.

Past research interests

Multimedia and interactive storybooks

Research activities

View all 9 activities on Research Explorer

Project activity

-Mindfulness-based interventions in (pre-)school

-The acute effects of brief mindfulness inductions

-Individual differences in reaction to brief mindfulness inductions

-Neurofeedback-enhanced mindfulness practice

-Moderators of intervention efficacy and the role of child temperament and adult personality traits

-Mindfulness and learning

-Behavior problems in childhood and changes during the last decades

-Development of executive function skills in infant cerebral palsy

-Causal relations between executive function skills and academic achievement

Past project grants

POSTDOCTORAL EXCELLENCE PROGRAM - 2016-2019
Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (Hungary)
Can preschoolers meditate? Fostering young children’s sustained attention and executive function skills with the help of mindfulness meditation (grant number PD121297)

NEW NATIONAL EXCELLENCE PROGRAM - 2017
Ministry of Human Capacities (Hungary)
Mindfulness meditation and children’s stress and anxiety (grant number ÚNKP-17-4-I-ELTE-125)

View all 44 publications on Research Explorer

Invited speaker

INVITED KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

Takacs, Z. K.  (2020). 21st century children’s storybooks: the effects of multimedia and interactive features in digital storybooks.

EARLI SIG Comprehension of Text and Graphics

https://earli.org/SIG22020

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