Prof. Lazar Stankov

Lazar Stankov earned his BA at the University of Belgrade in former Yugoslavia and a Ph.D. in psychology (supervised by John L Horn) at the University of Denver, USA. He worked at the University of Sydney, Australia for more than thirty years. The focus of his research was on intelligence, personality, and issues related to the assessment of cognitive and non-cognitive traits. 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 areas 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.