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Professor Emeritus, University of Sydney; Professor, Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University

Lazar Stankov earned his BA at the University of Belgrade in former Yugoslavia and Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Denver, USA. He worked at the Department of Psychology, at the University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia for two years and at the University of Sydney, Australia for more than thirty years. He taught courses in assessment and individual differences. The focus of his research was on intelligence, personality and issues related to the assessment of cognitive and non-cognitive traits. After retiring from the University of Sydney he spent five years working as the Principle Research Scientist within the Research & Development Division at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey. Between 2008 and 2012 he was Professor at the National Institute of Education, Singapore.

He has been particularly interested in neuropsychological aspects of intelligence, in developing cognitive tests based on sensory modalities other than vision (auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory), in the role of basic cognitive processes (attention, working memory, mental speed) and in the distinction between task difficulty and task complexity. On a more applied side, he studied cognitive changes during adulthood and he has developed tests that are currently used for personnel selection. Much of his current work is on the role of metacognitive processes in test-taking and in the area between intelligence and personality. This includes the study of self-confidence, amoral social attitudes and the effects of cultural factors on test performance. Currently he is also doing research in social and cross-cultural psychology and has carried out large-scale studies of cross-cultural differences in personality, social attitudes, values and social norms. He has also developed several scales for the measurement of militant extremist mindset.

Experience

  • –present
    Honorary Professor, The University of Sydney
  • 2008–2012
    Professor, National Institute of Education, Singapore