Szilvia Biro
Assistant Professor
- Name
- Dr. S. Biro
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 4815
- sbiro@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-2955-247x
Szilvia Biro is a psychologist and received her PhD at University of Cambridge in 2002 conducting research on executive and cognitive impairments in children with autism. She spent two years as a Postdoctoral fellow at the Cognitive Science Center at Rutgers University NJ, USA and then six years at the Department of Psychology at Leiden University as an UD. Her main interest is social-cognitive development in infancy.
More information about Szilvia Biro
Szilvia Biro in the media
Leiden Psychology Blog
Short CV
Biro investigates how infants make sense of the complex social and physical world. She is doing research on the infants’ emerging ability to interpret others’ actions in terms of goals. In a large international collaboration, she investigates the origins of "Theory of mind”. Her current projects also explore how specialization in the infant brain develops for processing social information and she tries to uncover individual differences in neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying the evaluation of prosocial behaviors.
Szilvia Biro has set-up the FSW location of the Leiden Babylab which enables a variety of experimental methods to study infants including looking paradigms, eye tracking, and NIRS (near infrared spectroscopy). Most recently she implemented the usage of the MIT’s “Lookit” online platform for developmental research at Leiden University.
Research areas and activities
- Social-cognitive development in infancy
- Understanding and performing intentional and prosocial actions
- The development of Theory of Mind
- Neural processing of social information
- Attachment security
- Object representation and individuation
- Executive functions in autism
Methods
- Looking time paradigms
- Eye-tracking
- Electrophysiological measures (EEG)
- Optical imaging (NIRS, Near-infrared spectroscopy)
- Behavioral and observational measures
Academic Career
- Assistant Professor, Parenting, Child Care and Development, University of Leiden, 2011- present
- Assistant Professor, Cognitive Psychology Section, Institute for Psychology, University of Leiden, 2005-2011 (fixed term)
- Post Doctoral Fellow, Center of Cognitive Science and Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, NJ, USA, 2001-2003
- PhD, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, 2002
- PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Eotvos Lorand, Budapest, Hungary, 1999
- Young Research Fellow, Institute for Psychology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary, 1997-1998
- MPhil, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, 1996
- Young Research Fellow, Institute for Psychology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary, 1993-1996
- Msc and BA, Department of Developmental and Cognitive Psychology, University of Eotvos Lorand, Budapest, Hungary, 1987-1993
Recent grants
- 2020 “Implementing Online Testing Method for Infants’ Looking Behaviour” (PI). Instituutsbeurs voor COVID-gerelateerd onderzoek. Institute grant for COVID related research
- 2013 "Prenatal tobacco exposure and infant social cognition: A study with Near-Infrared Spectroscopy" LUF/Gratama subsidy PI in collaboration with Stephan Huijbregts and Claartje Levelt.
- 2011 “Roots of Social Cognition”, Interdisciplinary Start-up grant: ‘Brain function and dysfunction over the lifespan’. PI in collaboration with Lenneke Alink, M. van IJzendoorn and R. Vermieren.
- 2011 “Prenatal Tobacco Exposure and Infant Cognition: A Study with Near-Infrared Spectroscopy” , Interdisciplinary Start-up grant: ‘Brain function and dysfunction over the lifespan’. Co-investigator in collaboration with Stephan Huijbregts (PI) and Claartje Levelt.
- 2006-2010 “The development of infant's perception of goal-directed actions” NWO Open MaGW Program, NL. Grant for hiring Ph.D. student for 4 years. PI in collaboration with Bernhard Hommel.
Current teaching activities
- Attachment, parenting and development: research and clinical implications (MA, RMA)
- Methods and instruments in cognitive and affective neuroscience (MA, RMA)
- Conducting and evaluating empirical research (MA, RMA)
- SPSS (BA)
- Research practice (BA)
- Master thesis and BA thesis project supervision
Professional Activities
- Szilvia Biro is the scientific coordinator of the BabyLab: www.babylab-leiden.nl
- Member of LIBC (Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition) and LIBC junior: www.libc-leiden.nl
- Certified coder of Ainsworth's Infant Strange Situation Procedure
- Reviewer for international scientific journals
- Member of the Institute Council of Educational Sciences, University of Leiden: 2019 (2nd semester)
- Member of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
- Member of review board and defense committee for Ph.D. dissertations, 2007-
- Grant reviewer (Fulbright scholar program, USA; SSHRC Canada; MRC, UK)
- Certificate for Education (BKO), University of Leiden, 2013
Dissertations (PhD projects)
- Stephan Verschoor (2014, June 25) "Development of action perception and action control", Promotors: Szilvia Biro and Bernhard Hommel
Academic awards
- National Research Service Award, USA (post-doc fellowship)
- Selected for Series of Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations in Hungary
- 2nd Prize for "Research of Young Scientists" at the Institute for Psychology of Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2000
- Benefactor’s Scholarship, St John’s College, Cambridge, UK and ORS (Overseas Research Scheme) Award, UK, 1998-2000
- MTA-RSYLEFF Scholarship, Hungary-Japan
- Cambridge Overseas Trust, Unilever Cambridge Scholarship, UK
Assistant Professor
- Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen
- Instituut Pedagogische Wetenschappen
- Opvoeding en Ontwikkeling
- Biro S (2023), Twelve months old infants' evaluation of observed comforting behavior using a choice paradigm: the role of animacy cues and self‐distress, Infancy 27: 809-820.
- Bródy G., Oláh K., Király I. & Biro S. (2022), Individuation of agents based on psychological properties in 10 month-old infants, Infancy : .
- Biro S., Peltola M.J., Huffmeijer R., Alink L.R.A., Bakermans M.J. & IJzendoorn M.H. van (2021), Frontal EEG asymmetry in infants observing separation and comforting events: the role of infants’ attachment relationship, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 48: 100941.
- Biro S., Peltola M., Huffmeijer R., Alink L.R.A., Bakermans-Kranenburg M.J. van & IJzendoorn M.H. (2019), Does infants’ attachment relationship bias their neural processing of animated parent-child interactions. SRCD Biennial Meeting 2019, Baltimore. Paper presented at SRCD Biennial Meeting 2019 21 March 2019 - 23 March 2019. Baltimore: Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD).
- Van der Kant A., Biro S., Levelt C. & Huijbregts S.C.J. (2018), Negative affect is related to reduced differential neural responses to social and non-social stimuli in 5-to-8-month-old infants: A functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy-study, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 30: 23-30.
- Biro S., Alink L.R.A., Huffmeijer R., Bakermans M.J. & Van IJzendoorn M.H. (2017), Attachment quality is related to the synchrony of mother and infant monitoring patterns, Attachment & Human Development 19(3): 243-258.
- Biro S., Alink L.R.A., Huffmeijer R., Bakermans-Kranenburg M.J. & Van IJzendoorn M.H. (2017), Disorganized attachment disrupts synchrony of mother and infant monitoring patterns. Biennial meeting of SRCD, Austin. Biennial meeting of SRCD, Austin. 6 April 2017 - 8 April 2017. [conference poster].
- Biro S., Alink L.R.A., Huffmeijer R., Bakermans-Kranenburg M.J. & Van IJzendoorn M.H. (2017), Attachment quality is related to the synchrony of mother and infant monitoring patterns. International Convention for Psychological Science (ICPS), Vienna. 23 March 2017 - 25 March 2017. [conference poster].
- Kant A. van der, Huijbregts S.C.J., Levelt C.C. & Biro S. (2017), Negative affect is related to reduced differential neural responses to social and non-social stimuli in 5-to-8-month-old infants: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy-study, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 30: 23-30.
- Biro S. (21 April 2016), Babylab zoekt voor onderzoek: Moeders die rookten tijdens de zwangerschap. 24Baby Blog: 24Baby.nl. [blog entry].
- Peltola M.J., Leppänen J., Forssman L., Yrttiaho S., Puura K., Biro S., Huffmeijer R., Alink L.R.A., Bakermans-Kranenburg M.J. & Van IJzendoorn M. (2016), Kiintymyssuhde ja kasvonilmeiden havaitseminen vauvaiässä. Psykologia 2016 24 August 2016 - 26 August 2016.
- Verschoor S.A., Paulus M., Spapé M., Biro S. & Hommel B. (2015), The developing cognitive substrate of sequential action control in 9- to 12 month-olds: Evidence for concurrent activation models, Cognition 138: 64-78.
- Bakermans-Kranenburg M.J., Alink L.R.A., Biro S., Voorthuis A. & Van IJzendoorn M.H. (2015), The Leiden Infant Simulator Sensitivity Assessment (LISSA): Parenting an infant simulator as your own baby, Infant and Child Development 24(3): 220-227.
- Biro S., Alink L.R.A., Huffmeijer R., Bakermans-Kranenburg M.J. & IJzendoorn M.H. van (2015), Attachment and maternal sensitivity are related to infants’ monitoring of animated social interactions, Brain and Behavior 5(12): e00410.
- Peltola M.J., Bakermans-Kranenburg M.J., Alink L.R.A., Huffmeijer R., Biro S. & Van IJzendoorn M.H. (2014), Resting frontal EEG asymmetry in children: Meta-analyses of the effects of psychosocial risk factors and associations with internalizing and externalizing behavior, Developmental Psychobiology 56(6): 1377-1389.
- Verschoor S., Paulus M., Biro S. & Hommel B. (2014), Infants' sequential-action representation: Eye-tracking and pupillometric results support concurrent-activation models. ICIS, Berlin, Germany. . Berlin, Germany.
- Peltola M.J., Bakermans-Kranenburg M.J., Van IJzendoorn M.H., Biro S., Alink L.R.A., Huffmeijer R., Forssman L., Yrttiaho S., Puura K. & Leppanen J.M. (2014), Attachment-related individual differences in attention and neural responses to emotional expressions at 5 and 7 months of age. Conference paper ICIS, Berlin. . Berlin, Germany.
- Biro S., Alink L.R.A., Peltola M.J., Huffmeijer R., Bakermans-Kranenburg M.J. & Van IJzendoorn M.J. (2014), Attachment security biases infants' information processing during observation of others' social interaction. Conference paper ICIS, Berlin. . Berlin, Germany.
- Biro S. (2014), The influence of contextual cues on infants' expectations about the adjustability of an agent's direct approach. XIX Biennial International Conference on Infant Studies ICIS, Berlin. 3 July 2014 - 5 July 2014. [conference poster].
- Biro S. (2014), Individuating abstract agents based on preference demonstration. XIX Biennial International Conference on Infant Studies ICIS, Berlin. 3 July 2014 - 5 July 2014. [conference poster].
- Biro S., Alink L.R.A., Van IJzendoorn M.H. & Bakermans-Kranenburg M.J. (2014), Infants' monitoring of social interactions: The effect of emotional cues, Emotion 14(2): 263-271.
- Biro S., Verschoor S., Coalter E. & Leslie A. (2014), Outcome producing potential influences twelve-month-olds’ interpretation of a novel action as goal-directed, Infant Behavior & Development 37(4): 729-738.
- Biro S. & Alink L.R.A. (2013), Infants' processing of separation events and the quality of their attachment relationships. Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), Seattle USA (15-11). Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) 17 April 2013 - 20 April 2013.
- Biro S. & Alink L.R.A. (2013), The association between infants' monitoring of separation events and the quality of their attachment relations. Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), Seattle USA (17-4) . Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) 17 April 2013 - 20 April 2013. Seattle.
- Biro S. & Botterbloem S. (2013), Do infants interpret direct reach and grasp as a goal-directed action?. Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), Seattle. 17 April 2013 - 20 April 2013. [conference poster].
- Verschoor S.A., Spapé M., Biro S. & Hommel B. (2013), From outcome prediction to action selection: Developmental change in the role of action-effect bindings, Developmental Science 16(6): 801-814.
- Biro S. (2013), The role of the efficiency of novel actions in infants' goal anticipation, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 116(2): 415-427.
- Verschoor S.A., Eenshuistra R., Kray J., Biro S. & Hommel B. (2012), Explicit learning of arbitary and non-arbitary action-effect relations in adults and 4-year-olds, Frontiers in Psychology 2: e354.
- Biro S. (1 February 2012), Leids babylab koopt kinderhoofdjesscanner. Leidsch Dagblad.
- Biro S. (1 October 2012), Zingen voor je kind. Leidsch Dagblad.
- Biro S. (2012), The nature of infants' goal representation: commentary on Hernik and Southgate, Developmental Science 15: 723-724.
- Verschoor S.A. & Biro S. (2012), Primacy of information about means selection over outcome selection in goal attribution by infants, Cognitive Science 36(4): 714-725.
- Biro S., Verschoor S.A. & Coenen L. (2011), Evidence for a unitary goal-concept in 12 months old infants, Developmental Science 14(6): 1255-1260.
- Verschoor S.A., Weidema M.A., Biro S. & Hommel B. (2010), Where do action goals come from? Evidence for spontaneous action -effect binding in infants, Frontiers in Psychology 1: e201.
- Biro S. & Leslie A. (2007), Infants' perception of goal-directed actions: development through cues-based bootstrapping, Developmental Science 10(3): 379-398.
- Biro S. & Hommel B. (2007), Becoming an intentional agent: introduction to the special issue, Acta Psychologica 124(1): 1-7.
- Biro S., Csibra G. & Gergely G. (2007), The role of behavioural cues in understanding goal-directed actions in infancy. In: Von Hofsten C. & Rosander K. (Eds.), Progress in brain research: from action to cognition. Progress in Brain Research no. 164.
- Csibra G., Biro S, Gergely G. & Koos O. (2003), One-year-old infants use teleological representations of actions productively, Cognitive Science 27(1): .
- Biro S. & Russell J. (2001), The execution of arbitrary procedures by children with autism, Development and Psychopathology 13(1): 97-110.
- Csibra G., Gergely G., Biro S., Koos O. & Brockbank M. (1999), Goal attribution without agency cues: the perception of 'pure reason' in infancy, Cognition 72(3): 237-267.
- Gergely G., Csibra G, Biro S. & Koos O. (1997), Understanding rational action in infancy, Psychology of Language and Communication 1(2): 29-37.
- Gergely G., Csibra G., Nadasdy Z. & Biro S. (1995), Taking the intentional stance at 12 months of age, Cognition 56(2): 165-193.