My research is mainly focused on the examination of the subjective experience of agency, the link between sense of agency and body ownership, and how action/outcome relevant cues can alter the sense of agency.
I am also interested in investigating cross-cultural differences in self-construal, i.e., one’s self-perception in relation to the others, and how these differences can be linked to one's feeling of responsibility over their actions.
2012-2016
Waterloo, ON-Canada
Thesis: The Influence of Freedom and Choice in Action Selection and the Valence of Action-outcomes on the Sense of Agency
Supervisors: Prof. Sukhvinder S. Obhi & Dr William E. Hockley
2009-2012
Istanbul, Turkey
Thesis: The Interplay between Bottom-up and Top-down Processes Underlying Pre-reflective and Reflective Sense of Agency: An Integrative Approach
Supervisors: Assist Prof. Hasan Bahcekapili, Prof. Stephen Voss, Assist Prof. Esra Mungan
1998-2002
Istanbul, Turkey
Jan 2017- Present
2012-2016
Waterloo-ON, Canada
Courses assisted: • Introduction to Psychology • Introduction to Cognitive Psychology • Thesis (4th year undergraduate project) • Introduction to Statistics • Research Methods • Social Cognitive Neuroscience • Sensation and Perception • Introduction to Programming-Python • Introduction to Object Oriented Programming • Introduction to System Programming
2011-2012
Istanbul, Turkey
Courses assisted: • Introduction to Computing • Algorithms and Programming • Data structures and Algorithms
2011-2012
Istanbul, Turkey
Project: Development of permutation tests for goodness-of-fit testing of mathematical models to experimental data, with Prof. Hamit Fisek.
2009-2010
Istanbul, Turkey; Nijmegen, Netherlands
Project: Emerged & established sign language acquisition and use by deaf children and adults, with Prof. Asli Ozyurek
2006-2008
Istanbul, Turkey
2002-2004
Istanbul, Turkey
2001-2002
Istanbul, Turkey
1999-2001
Istanbul, Turkey
2016-Wilfrid Laurier University
2011-Bogazici University
Attended Donders Autumn School on Perception, Action and Control, 2011, Nijmegen, Netherlands
2010-The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey
Attended International Summer School in Cognitive Science, 2010, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria
2017-2019, CITEC
2012-2016, Wilfrid Laurier University
2012-2016, Wilfrid Laurier University
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Experimental Brain Research, Acta Psychologica, Consciousness and Cognition, Cognitive Processing, Cognitive Systems Research, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
Barlas, Z., & Kopp, S. (2018). Action Choice and Outcome Congruency Independently Affect Intentional Binding and Feeling of Control Judgments. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12(April), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00137
Barlas, Z., Hockley, W. E., & Obhi, S. S. (2017). The effects of freedom of choice in action selection on perceived mental effort and the sense of agency. Acta Psychologica, 180, 122–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2017.09.004
Barlas, Z., Hockley, W. E., & Obhi, S. S. (2017). Effects of free choice and outcome valence on the sense of agency: evidence from measures of intentional binding and feelings of control. Experimental Brain Research. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-017-5112-3
Barlas, Z., & Obhi, S. S. (2014). Cultural background influences implicit but not explicit sense of agency for the production of musical tones. Consciousness and Cognition, 28(1), 94–103. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2014.06.013
Barlas, Z., & Obhi, S. S. (2013). Freedom, choice, and the sense of agency. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7(August), 514. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00514
Fişek, M. H., & Barlas, Z. (2013). Permutation tests for goodness-of-fit testing of mathematical models to experimental data. Social Science Research, 42(2), 482–95. doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.09.010
Barlas, Z. (2018). Self-construal in biculturals. The effect of culture-specific social cues on error related negativity and flanker task performance in Asian-Canadian and Canadian individuals. Open Self Conference 2018, Berlin, Germany.
Barlas, Z. (2018). Perceived autonomy of the co-agents: Examination of the sense of agency in human- versus robot-intended actions. 22th meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, Krakow, Poland.
Barlas, Z., Kopp, S. (2017). Prospective influence of emotional valence on the sense of agency. Presented at Psychonomic Society 58th Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Barlas, Z., Hockley, W. E., & Obhi, S. S. (2017). Free action selection without any external influence enhances the sense of agency. Presented at the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCoP), Potsdam, Germany.
Barlas, Z., & Hockley, W. E. (2015). The effect of contextual meaningfulness on recognition memory. Presented at CSBBCS (Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science), Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
Barlas, Z., & Obhi, S. S. (2013). Freedom, choice, and the sense of agency. Presented at ICCS (International Conference of Cognitive Science), Kuching, Malaysia.
2017, January "The effects of action selection and outcome valence on the sense of agency". Presented at CITEC Club, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.
2018, May "The effects of action choice, outcome valence, and action-outcome congruency on the sense of agency". Presented at the Psychology Colloquium at Wurzburg University, Wurzburg, Germany.
