Eli Vakil

In 1974–1976, Vakil studied at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, graduating with a B.A. in psychology.[2]He received his Ph.D. in clinical neuropsychology from the City University of New York (CUNY) in 1985. His dissertation was titled: "Encoding of frequency of occurrence, temporal order, and spatial location information by closed-head-injured and elderly subjects: Is it automatic?". Vakil is married with three children and lives in Ra'anana[4]

In 1995–1996, Vakil was a visiting scholar at the Amnesia Research Laboratory (Professor Neal J. Cohen), Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).[5]

Vakil started his career as a clinical neuropsychologist working in rehabilitation with patients who had sustained severe head-injuries. He worked at the Head Trauma Program at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine in New York University Medical Center, and in the Recanati National Institute for the Rehabilitation of the Head-Injured Person in Israel.[6][2]

Certified by the Ministry of Health as a rehabilitative psychology specialist and supervisor.[7]

Vakil served as a member of the discussion group “Holocaust – Transmitted Memory and Fiction”, a project conducted for a research group and workshop at Van Leer Institute for Advanced Studies, Jerusalem (2013-2015).[8]

In the summer of 2017 he was a visiting scholar at the Kessler Foundation in West Orange, New Jersey.[9]

Vakil was chairman of the rehabilitation psychology section in the Israeli Psychological Association[10] and as the head of the rehabilitation psychology subprogram at Bar-Ilan University.[11]

He is a founding member of the Israeli Neuropsychological Society and has served as a board member of the International Neuropsychological Society (INS).[12]

Vakil has served as an associate editor of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (JINS).[13]

In 2017 he received the Distinguished Career Award of the International Neuropsychological Society (INS).[14]

Vakil has published extensively (over 150 scientific papers and book chapters) in the area of memory and memory disorders in various populations, such as traumatic brain injury patients, Parkinson’s disease patients, and the elderly.

• Distinguished Career Award received by the Israeli Psychological Association – Rehabilitation Psychology. (2019)
• Distinguished Career Award received by the International Neuropsychological Society (INS). (2017)
• Associate Editor of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (JINS). The official journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (INS).[13] (2004 - 2008)
• Chairman of the Psychology Department, Bar-Ilan University (2003-2005)[15]
• Governing Board member of the International Neuropsychological Society (INS) (2004 - 2007) [12]
• Head of the Rehabilitation Psychology Subprogram, Psychology Department, Bar-Ilan University (1996-1999)[11]
• Member of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM)

• Vakil, E. (2005). The Effect of Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) on Different Aspects of Memory: A Selective Review. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 27, 977–1021.
• Vakil, E., Raz, T., & Levy, D. A. (2007). The multifactorial nature of recognition memory context effects. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, 916–923.
• Vakil, E. (2012). Neuropsychological assessment: Principles, rationale, and challenges. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 34, 135–150.
• Levi, Y., Rassovsky, Y., Agranov, E., Sela-Kaufman, M., & Vakil, E. (2013). Cognitive reserve components as expressed in traumatic brain injury. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 19, 664–671.
• Vakil, E. (2013). Breakdowns in everyday memory functioning following moderate-to-severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). In T. Perfect & S. Lindsay (Eds.), SAGE handbook of applied memory. SAGE Publications Ltd. ISBN 1446208427.. CA, USA: Sage Publications.
• Tibon, R., Vakil, E., Levy, D. A., & Goldstein, A. (2014). Episodic temporal structure modulates associative recognition processes: A MEG study. Psychophysiology, 51, 634–644.
• Bloch, A., Tamir, D., Vakil, E. & Zeilig. G. (2016). Specific deficit in implicit motor sequence learning following spinal cord injury. PLOS One. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0158396.
• Vakil, E., Bloch, A., & Cohen, H. (2017). Anticipation measures of sequence learning: Manual versus oculomotor versions of the Serial Reaction Time Task. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70, 579–589.
• Vakil, E., Greenstein, Y., Weis, I., & Stein, S. (2019). The Effects of Moderate-to-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury on Memory: A Meta-Analysis. Neuropsychology Review, 29, 270–287.
• Tal, A. & Vakil, E. (2020). How sequence learning unfolds: Insights from anticipatory eye movements. Cognition.

• Official website
• ELSC-ICNC Seminar: Eli Vakil on YouTube