Ph.D. in Psychology

Ben-Gurion University

Be’er Sheva, Israel

2023

Thesis: The Electrophysiological Basis of Processing Speed
Supervisor: Prof. Andrea Berger

M.A. in Experimental Cognitive Psychology

Ben-Gurion University

Be’er Sheva, Israel

2017

Thesis: Electrophysiological Evidence for the Role of Processing Speed and Attentional Control in Visual Recognition Tasks.
Supervisor: Prof. Andrea Berger

B.A. in Behavioral Sciences

Ben-Gurion University

Be’er Sheva, Israel

2015

Graduated Magna Cum Laude

Statistical Consultant & Research Analyst

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Since 2016

I am deeply rooted in theoretical and applied statistics, and am committed to the principles of data analysis, inferential statistics, and reproducible research, while also mindful of the practical needs of researchers and academics. I provide guidance throughout all stages of the research process and decision-guided statistical analyses. I specialize in the following methods:

For more info and client testimonials, see my home page.

Statistics Lecturer

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Since 2015

My teaching and instructing are focused on undergraduate- and graduate-level statistics, research methods, and R programming. Over the last 9 years I have taught 920 undergraduate students and 570 graduate students across over a dozen courses. See Teaching Experience section.

R Developer

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Since 2016

Core developer of the easystats eco-system of packages – an award-winning collection of R packages, which aims to provide a unifying and consistent framework to tame, discipline and harness the scary R statistics and their pesky models (e.g., parameters, performance, and more).

• Developer and maintainer of effectsize for estimating indices of effect size and standardized parameters.
  
• Developer of bayestestR, a package for describing and testing posterior distributions and Bayesian models.

See mattansb.r-universe.dev.

Neurocognitive Psychology Researcher

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2015 - 2022

My research focused on differential cognitive psychology using behavioral and physiological methods, occasionally collaborating with international research groups. I have experience designing computerized tasks that evoke individual differences in an array of cognitive abilities. I have also led and managed research projects, including teams of graduate students and research assistants.

Neurophysiological Signal Processing: I have collected and analyzed multi-channel electroencephalography (EEG) data using eeglab. My experience with signal pre-processing includes noise “cleaning” methods as well as dimension reduction tools (PCA, ICA); I specialize in latency measurement of event-related potentials (ERPs).

• Developed Matlab toolboxes for artifact removal (TBT, an eeglab plugin) and for plotting and extracting measurements for processed EEG/ERP/wavelet data (EPP-TB).
• Instructed workshops for pre-processing of experimental EEG.

MITAM Exam Developer

National Institute for Testing and Evaluation

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Since 2020

I am a developer and reviewer of the MITAM exam (entrance test for advanced degrees in psychology - equivalent to the GRE).

Lecturer & Teaching Fellow

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Since 2018

Workshops

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• Evaluating Evidence and Making Decisions using Bayesian Statistics. Workshop at the The 8th Conference on Cognitive Research of the Israeli Society for Cognitive Psychology, Israel.

Traveling workshops:

Teaching Assistant & Instructor

Ben-Gurion University

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2015 - 2018

SIPS Mission Award

Society for Improving Psychological Science (SIPS)

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2023

Awarded to the easystats project for improving the training and research practices of psychological scientists.

Full academic scholarship for graduate studies

Humanities and Social Sci Faculty, Ben-Gurion University

Be’er Sheva, Israel

2015 - 2022

Negev Mid-Way Scholarship

Kreitman School of Advanced Graduate Studies

Be’er Sheva, Israel

2020 - 2021

SIPS Commendation

Society for Improving Psychological Science (SIPS)

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2020

Awarded to the bayestestR package for improving the training and research practices of psychological scientists.

M.H.R Publication Award

Humanities and Social Sci Faculty, Ben-Gurion University

Be’er Sheva, Israel

2020

For Ben-Shachar et al. (2020). DOI:10.1111/acer.14244

Erasmus+ EU Travel Grant

EU programme for education, training, youth and sport in Europe

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2018

Radboud Summer School Scholarship

Radboud University

Nijmegen, Netherlands

2018

Award for Academic Distinction

Dep. of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University

Be’er Sheva, Israel

2014

Peer Reviewed Publications

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• Ben-Shachar, M.S., & Berger, A. (2024). Visual-Spatial Abilities Are NOT Related to the Speed of Mental Rotation. DOI:10.31234/osf.io/gkzxf
• Thériault, R., Ben-Shachar, M.S., Patil, I., Lüdecke, D., Wiernik, B. M., & Makowski, D. (2024). Check your outliers! An introduction to identifying statistical outliers in R with easystats. DOI:10.31234/osf.io/bu6nt
  
• Nahum, M., Sinvani, R.T., Afek, A., Ben Avraham, R., Jordan, J.T., Ben Shachar, M.S., Ben Yehuda, A., Berezin Cohen, N., Davidov, A., & Gilboa, Y. (2023). Inhibitory control and mood in relation to psychological resilience: an ecological momentary assessment study. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 1-10.
  
• Einziger, T., Devor, T., Ben-Shachar, M.S., Arazi, A., Dinstein, I., Klein, C., Auerbach, J.G., & Berger, A. (accepted). Increased neural variability in adolescents with ADHD symptomatology: Evidence from a single-trial EEG study. Cortex, 167, 25-40. DOI:10.1016/j.cortex.2023.06.007
  
• Ben-Shachar, M.S., Patil, I., Thériault, R., Wiernik, B.M., Lüdecke, D. (2023). Phi, Fei, Fo, Fum: Effect Sizes for Categorical Data That Use the Chi‑Squared Statistic. Mathematics, 11, 1982. DOI:10.3390/math11091982
  
• Patil I., Makowski, D., Ben-Shachar, M.S., Wiernik, B.M., Bacher, E., Lüdecke, D. (2022). datawizard: An R Package for Easy Data Preparation and Statistical Transformations. Journal of Open Source Software, 7(78), 4684. DOI:10.21105/joss.04684
  
• Shmueli, M., Ben-Shachar, M.S., Jacobson, S.W., Meintjes, E.M., Molteno, C.D., Jacobson, J.L., Berger, A. (2022). Magnitude comparison and automaticity in number processing in adolescents with prenatal alcohol exposure: An event-related potentials study. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 46(6), 961-978. DOI:10.1111/acer.14823
  
• Lüdecke, D., Patil, I., Ben-Shachar, M.S., Wiernik, B.M., Waggoner, P., & Makowski, D. (2021). see: An R Package for Visualizing Statistical Models. Journal of Open Source Software, 6(64), 3393. DOI:10.21105/joss.03393
  
• Pereg, M., Harpaz, D., Sabah, K., Ben-Shachar, M.S., Amir, I., Dreisbach, G., & Meiran. N. (2021). Learning the Abstract General Task Structure in a Rapidly Changing Task Content. Journal of Cognition, 4(1), 31. DOI:10.5334/joc.176
  
• Lüdecke, D., Ben-Shachar, M.S., Patil, I., Waggoner, P., & Makowski, D. (2021) performance: An R Package for Assessment, Comparison and Testing of Statistical Models. Journal of Open Source Software, 6(60), 3139. DOI:10.21105/joss.03139
  
• Einziger, T., Ben-Shachar, M.S., Devor, T., Shmueli, M., Auerbach, J.G., & Berger, A. (2021). “My Brain Can Stop”: An ERP Study of Longitudinal Prediction of Inhibitory Control in Adolescence. Brain Sciences, 11(1), 100. DOI:10.3390/brainsci11010100
• Ben-Shachar, M.S., Lüdecke, D., & Makowski, D. (2020). effectsize: Estimation of Effect Size Indices and Standardized Parameters Aims of the Package. Journal of Open Source Software, 5(56), 2815. DOI:10.21105/joss.02815
  
• Lüdecke, D., Ben-Shachar, M.S., Patil, I., & Makowski, D. (2020). Extracting, Computing and Exploring the Parameters of Statistical Models using R. Journal of Open Source Software, 5(53), 2445. DOI:10.21105/joss.02445
• Hochman, S., Cohen, Z.Z., Ben-Shachar, M.S., & Henik, A. (2020). Tactile Enumeration and Embodied Numerosity among the Deaf. Cognitive Science, 44, e12880. DOI:10.1111/cogs.12880

Peer Reviewed Publications (cont.)

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• Makowski, D., Ben-Shachar, M.S., Patil, I., & Lüdecke, D. (2020). Methods and Algorithms for Correlation Analysis in R. Journal of Open Source Software, 5(51), 2306. DOI:10.21105/joss.02306
  
• Ben-Shachar, M.S., Shmueli M., Meintjes, E.M., Molteno, C.D., Jacobson, J.L., Jacobson, S.W., & Berger A. (2020). Prenatal alcohol exposure alters error detection during simple arithmetic processing: An Electroencephalography study. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 44(1), 114-124. DOI:10.1111/acer.14244
  
• Makowski, D., Ben-Shachar, M.S., Chen, S.A., & Lüdecke, D. (2019). Indices of Effect Existence and Significance in the Bayesian Framework. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2767. DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02767
  
• Berger, A., Shmueli, M., Lisson, S., Ben-Shachar, M.S., Lindinger, N.M., Lewis, C.E., Dodge, N. C., Molteno, C.D., Meintjes, E.M., Jacobson, J.L., & Jacobson, S.W. (2019). Deficits in arithmetic error detection in infants with prenatal alcohol exposure: an ERP study. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 40, 100722. DOI:10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100722
  
• Makowski, D., Ben-Shachar M.S., & Lüdecke, D. (2019). bayestestR: Describing Effects and their Uncertainty, Existence and Significance within the Bayesian Framework. Journal of Open Source Software, 4(40), 1537. DOI:10.21105/joss.01541
• Lavro, D., Ben-Shachar, M.S., Saville, C.W., Klein, C., & Berger, A. (2018). Testing the bottleneck account for post-error slowing beyond the post-error response. Biological psychology, 138, 81-90. DOI:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.08.010

Books and Book Chapters

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• Jané, M., Xiao, Q., Yeung, S., Ben-Shachar, M.S., … & Feldman, G. (2024). Guide to Effect Sizes and Confidence Intervals. https://matthewbjane.quarto.pub/
• Ben-Shachar, M.S., & Berger, A. (2018). An Introduction to Attention and Its Implication for Numerical Cognition. In A. Henik & W. Fias (Eds.), Heterogeneity of Function in Numerical Cognition (pp. 93-110). Academic Press. DOI:10.1016/B978-0-12-811529-9.00005-4

Preprints and Submitted Manuscripts

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• Ben-Shachar, M.S.*, Lisson, S.*, Shotts-Peretz, D., Hannula-Sormunen, M., & Berger, A. (preprint). Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity Linked to Quantity Discrimination in Children and Adults. DOI:10.31234/osf.io/mt3n9

Talks

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• Ben-Shachar, M. S. (2022, December). A Bayesian Introduction to Probabilitese: The Language of Inference. Psychology graduate seminar, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
  
• Ben-Shachar, M. S. & Berger, A. (2019, May). Impaired detection of erroneous arithmetic equations in adolescents with prenatal alcohol exposure: An EEG study In Child Development. Symposium conducted at the Israeli Human Neuroimaging Conference, Jerusalem, Israel.

Poster Presentations

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• Ben-Shachar, M. S. & Berger, A. (2023, February). Visual-Spatial Abilities Are NOT Related to the Speed of Mental Rotation. Poster presented at the The 5th Conference on Cognitive Research of the Israeli Society for Cognitive Psychology, Akko, Israel.
  
• Ben-Shachar, M. S. & Berger, A. (2022, February). Processing Speed: General Trait or Domain Specific? Mental Rotation as a case study. Poster presented at the The 9th Conference on Cognitive Research of the Israeli Society for Cognitive Psychology, Israel.
  
• Ben-Shachar, M. S. & Berger, A. (2021, February). Adaptation to Temporal Predictability Is Related to Intelligence. Poster presented at the The 8th Conference on Cognitive Research of the Israeli Society for Cognitive Psychology, Israel.
• Ben-Shachar, M. S., Shmueli, M., Jacobson, J. L., Jacobson, S. W., & Berger, A. (2019, February). Brain-level activity in response to perceived arithmetical errors reflects severity of Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). Poster presented at the The 6th Conference on Cognitive Research of the Israeli Society for Cognitive Psychology, Akko, Israel.
• Ben-Shachar, M. S., Jacobson, J. L., Jacobson, S. W., & Berger, A. (2018, May). Neural Evidence for a Deficit in Numerosity Processing in Infants Prenatally Exposed to Alcohol. Poster presented at the the 16th WAIMH World Congress, Rome, Italy.
• Ben-Shachar, M. S., Shotts-Peretz, D., & Berger, A. (2018, February). Increased Acuity of the Analog Magnitude System is Related to Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity in Children and Adults. Poster presented at the The 5th Conference on Cognitive Research of the Israeli Society for Cognitive Psychology, Akko, Israel.
• Ben-Shachar, M. S., Lisson, S., Shotts-Peretz, D., & Berger, A. (2018, January). Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity is Related to Increased Acuity of the Analog Magnitude System. Poster presented at the The 7th International Meeting of the Integrated Brain and Behavior Research Center, Haifa, Israel.
• Ben-Shachar, M. S., Berger, A., Mesika, D., Lewis, C. E., Lindinger, N. M., Dodge, N. C., . Jacobson, S. W. (2017, February). Electrophysiological Evidence for the Role of Processing Speed in Visual Recognition Tasks. Poster presented at the The 4th Conference on Cognitive Research of the Israeli Society for Cognitive Psychology, Akko, Israel.