Kovacs, Ilona

Psychologist

Graduated from ELTE with a master's degree in psychology in 1983. Received her PhD in 1988, became a candidate in 1997 and a doctor at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2004. Started her career at the Department of General Psychology of ELTE, later worked at the Laboratory of Vision Research, Department of Psychology and Centre for Cognitive Science of Rutgers University (USA). At present professor and head of the Department of Cognitive Science at BME, head of the Neuropsychology and Psycholinguistics Research Group and leader of the PhD Programme in Psychology at BME.
Her research activities are focused on the exploration of visual cortex mechanisms. She has been searching for answers to the following main questions: How do we learn to see? What is the role of vision (and its absence) in perceptual learning? To what extent is vision knowledge-dependent?

How intelligent do we have to be to see?