DepartmentCognitive science and Psychology
Department Chair
Assoc. Prof. Penka Hristova, PhD
Penka Hristova is an Associate Professor of Cognitive Psychology at New Bulgarian University. She holds a Master's degree in Cognitive Science and a PhD in General Psychology. She teaches courses in cognitive psychology, thinking, memory and research methods both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Her main research interests are in the cognitive mechanisms underlying analogy-making, relational representation and categorization. Specifically, she focuses on (1) studying cognitively demanding analogical mapping, relational priming, and relational encoding as key sub-processes for analogies, (2) searching for the LTM representational substrate that drives analogies, and (3) looking at the influence of emotions on the underlying mechanisms of analogy making. In her research, she favors behavioral experiments using simple measures such as accuracy, RT, and d'. Her applied work is primarily in educational psychology (primary and secondary education), seeking to improve the acquisition of transferable knowledge and advance high-level reasoning as a form of relational reasoning. She has participated in several international research projects and co-authored articles on analogical reasoning and educational psychology.
Contact information:
Building 1, Room 414 А
tel.: 00359 2 8110454
e-mail: phristova@cogs.nbu.bg