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Gitit Kave, Professor

Contact Info

The Open University The Dorothy De Rothschild Campus One University Road P.O.B. 808 Ra’anana 43107, Israel
Office: 972-9-778-1445 Fax: 972-9-778-0632 Email: gititka@openu.ac.il

Gitit Kavé is a Full Professor at the Department of Education and Psychology, The Open University. She is also a Clinical Neuropsychologist. She studies language and aging, as well as neuropyschological assessment, with a focus on word retrieval. 

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2003
PhD, Neuropsychology, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
1998
MA, Neuropsychology, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem (Summa Cum Laude)
1994
MA, English Linguistics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem (Magna Cum Laude)
1990
BA, English Literature and Linguistics, Tel Aviv University (Summa Cum Laude)
1999
Doctoral writing grant from the Israel Foundations Trustees
1999
Doctoral grant from the Brookdale Institute of Gerontology and Human Development, and Eshel - The Association for the Planning and Development of Services for the Aged in Israel 
1999
Doctoral grant from the Eshkol Institute for the Study of Society, Economics and Policy in Israel 
1998
Wolf Foundation award for academic excellence
1995-1999
Doctoral scholarship, the Psychology Department, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
1993-1994
MA scholarship, Center of Languages, Literature and Art, Faculty of the Humanities, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
1991-1993
Rector scholarship for MA studies, Faculty of the Humanities, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 
2022-to date
Chair of the Department of Education and Psychology
2019-to date
Member of the Open University Council
2019-to date
Member of the Committee for the Appointment of Associate and Full Professors
2018-to date

Member of the Committee for the Appointment of Lecturers and Senior Lecturers
2018-to date
Head of the Institutional and Departmental Ethics Committees
2020-2022
Member of the Open University Executive Committee
2017-2021

President's Advisor for the Promotion of Gender Fairness
2015-to date
Member of the Committee of Approval of Program Studies  
2013-to date
Member of the Sub-Committee of the Department of Education and Psychology
2015-2013

Head of the Ethics Committee, Department of Education and Psychology

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Caspi, A., Etgar, S., & Kavé, G. (in press). Attributing values to devices. Social Science Computer Review.

Kavé, G. (in press). Vocabulary changes in adulthood: Main findings and methodological considerations. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders.

Bregman, N., Shiner, T., Kavé, G., Alcalay, R., Gana-Weisz, M., Goldstein, O., Glinka, T., Aizenstein, O., Ben Bashat, D., Alcalay, Y., Mirelman, A., Thaler, A., Giladi, N., & Omer, N. (2023). The natural history study of preclinical genetic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD): A prospective longitudinal study protocol. BMC Neurology, 23, 151.

Kavé, G., & Sapir-Yogev, S. (2023). Differences between semantic and phonemic verbal fluency in adolescents with reading disorders. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 38(1), 126-130.

Kavé, G., Sapir-Yogev, S., Bregman, N., & Shiner, T. (2022). On the importance of using local tests and local norms in the assessment of memory. Applied Neuropsychology: Adult, 29(6), 1492-1498. 

Sayag, M., & Kavé, G. (2022). The effects of social comparisons on subjective age and self-rated health. Ageing and Society, 42(9), 2140-2153.

Weissberger, G. H., Bodner, E., Palgi, Y, Kavé, G., Shmotkin, D., & Shrira, A. (2022). The association between views of aging and subjective cognitive complaints in older adults: Findings from two samples​. Research on Aging, 44(7-8), 531-544.

Zel​ekha, Y. & Kavé, G. (2022). Entrepreneurial tendency across the adult lifespan. PLOS One, 17(2), e0262856.

Petashnik, J. R., Shrira, A., Hoffman, Y., Palgi, Y., Kavé, G., & Shmotkin, D. (2022). Subjective age and late-life functional status: Mediating and moderating effects. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Science, 77(1), 61-70.​

Kavé, G., Sapir-Yogev, S., Zamsh, O., & Waintraub, N. (2022). Explaining vocabulary knowledge in adulthood through comparison with knowledge of math concepts. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 29(1), 34-47.

Bloch, A., Maril, S., & Kavé, G. (2021). How, when, and for whom: Decisions regarding remote neuropsychological assessment during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic​. Israel Journal of Health Policy ​​​Research, 10, 31.

Shiner, T., Mirelman, A., Rozenblum, Y., Kavé, G., Gana Weisz, M., Bar-Shira, A., Goldstein, O., Thaler, A., Gurevich, T., Orr-Urtreger, A., Giladi, N., & Bregman, N. (2021). The effect of GBA mutations and APOE polymorphisms on Dementia with Lewy Bodies in Ashkenazi Jews. Journal of Alzheimer Disease, 80(3), 1221-1229.

Kavé, G., Bloch, A., Shabi, A., & Maril, S. (2020). Neuropsychological assessment in the Israeli healthcare system: A practitioners' survey​. Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, 9, 46.​

Kavé, G., Bloch, A., Maril, S., & Shabi, A. (2020). Familiarity with neuropsychological assessment among Israeli physicians. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 35(5), 553-561.

Bregman, N., Kavé, G., Zeltzer, E., & Biran, I. (2020). Memory impairment and Alzheimer's disease pathology in individuals with MCI who underestimate or overestimate their decline. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 35(5), 581-588.

Kavé, G., & Sapir-Yogev, S. (2020). Associations between memory and verbal fluency tasks. Journal of Communication Disorders, 83, 105968.

Kavé, G., Gorokhod, R., Yerushalmi,​ A., & Salner, N. (2019). Frequency effects on spelling in Hebrew-speaking younger and older adults. Applied Psycholinguistic, 40(5), 1173-1188.

Bregman, N., Kavé, G., Mirelman, A., Thaler, A., Gana Weisz, M., Bar-Shira, A., Orr-Urtreger, A., Giladi, N., & Shiner, T. (2019). Distinguishing dementia with Lewy bodies from Alzheimer's disease: What is the influence of the GBA genotypein Ashkenazi Jews? ​Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders, 33(3), 279-281.

Caspi, A., Dani​el, M., & Kavé, G. (2019). Technology makes older adults feel older. Aging and Mental Health, 23(8), 1025-1030.

Bregman, N., Kavé, G., Shiner, T., & Biran, I. (2019). Dissociations in awareness of memory and language decline in Alzheimer’s disease. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 34(4), 558-454.

Palgi, Y., Shrira, A., Kavé, G., Rubinstein, T., & Shmotkin, D. (2019). Which factors do older adults consider when estimating the time left for them to live? The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences, 74(1), 69-73.

Kavé, G., Fridkin, S., & Ayalon, L. (2018). Demographic factors and retrieval of object and proper names after age 70. PLoS ONE, 13(1), e0191876.

Kavé, G., & Dassa, A. (2018). Severity of Alzheimer’s disease and language features in picture descriptions. Aphasiology, 32 (1), 27-40.

Kavé, G., & Goral, M. (2017). Do age-related word retrieval difficulties appear (or disappear) in connected speech? Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 24 (5), 508-527.

Kavé, G., & Heinik, J. (2017). Cognitive correlates of perseverations in individuals with memory impairment. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 32(1), 63-70.

Kavé, G., & Goral, M. (2016). Word retrieval in picture descriptions produced by individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 38(9), 958-966. 

Kalman, Y. M., Kavé, G., & Umanski, D. (2015). Writing in a digital world: Self-correction while typing in younger and older adults. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public  Health (Special Issue: Aging and Cognition), 12, 12723-12734.

Kavé, G., & Knafo-Noam, A. (2015). Lifespan development of phonemic and semantic fluency: Universal increase, differential decrease. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 37(7), 751-763.

Kavé, G., & Halamish, V. (2015). Doubly blessed: Older adults know more vocabulary and know better what they know. Psychology and Aging, 30(2), 68-73.

Kavé, G., Gavrieli, R., & Mashal, N. (2014). Stronger left-hemisphere lateralization in older versus younger adults while processing conventional metaphors. Laterality, 19(6), 705-717.

Palgi, Y., Shrira, A., Ben-Ezra, M., Spalter, T., Kavé, G., & Shmotkin, D. (2014). Age-related and death-related differences in emotional complexity. Psychology and Aging, 29(2), 284-296.

Kavé, G., & Yafé, R. (2014). Performance of younger and older adults on tests of word knowledge and word retrieval: Independence or interdependence of skills? American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 23(1), 36-45. 

Kavé, G., Shalmon, M., & Knafo, A. (2013). Environmental contributions to preschoolers' semantic fluency. Developmental Science, 16(1), 124-135.

Kavé, G., Heinik, J., & Biran, I. (2012). Preserved morphological processing in semantic dementia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 29(7-8), 550-568.

Kavé, G., Shrira, A., Palgi, Y., Spalter, T., Ben-Ezra, M., & Shmotkin, D. (2012). Formal education level versus self-rated literacy as predictors of cognitive aging. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences, 67(6), 697-704.

Kavé, G., & Nussbaum, S. (2012). Characteristics of noun retrieval in picture descriptions across the adult lifespan. Aphasiology, 26(10), 1238-1249.

Kavé, G., & Mashal, N. (2012). Age-related differences in word-retrieval but not in meaning generation. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 19(4), 515-529.

Mashal, N., Gavrieli, R.,& Kavé, G. (2011). Age-related changes in the appreciation of novel metaphoric semantic relations. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 18(5), 527-543.

Kavé, G., Heled, E., Vakil, E.,& Agranov, E. (2011). Which verbal fluency measure is most useful in demonstrating executive deficits after traumatic brain injury? Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 33(3), 358-365.

Shrira, A., Palgi, Y., Ben-Ezra, M., Spalter, T., Kavé, G., & Shmotkin, D. (2011). For better and for worse: The relationship between future expectations and functioning in the second half of life. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences, 66B(2), 195-203.

Kavé, G., Kukulansky-Segal, D., Avraham, A., Herzberg, O., & Landa, J. (2010). Searching for the right word: Performance on four word-retrieval tasks across childhood. Child Neuropsychology, 16(6), 549-563.

Kavé, G., Knafo, A., & Gilboa, A. (2010). The rise and fall of word retrieval across the lifespan. Psychology and Aging, 25(3), 719-724.

Shmotkin, D., Lerner-Geva, L., Cohen Mansfield, J., Blumstein, T., Eyal, N., Shorek, A., Kavé, G., & Hazan, H. (2010). Profiles of functioning as predictors of mortality in old age: The advantage of a configurative approach. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 51, 68-75.

Palgi, Y., Shrira, A., Ben-Ezra, M., Spalter, T., Shmotkin, D., & Kavé, G. (2010). Delineating terminal change in subjective well being and subjective health. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences, 65B(1), 61-64.

Kavé, G., Samuel-Enoch, K., & Adiv, S. (2009). The association between age and the frequency of nouns selected for production. Psychology and Aging, 24(1), 17-27.

Heinik, J., Werner, P., & Kavé, G. (2008). Psychiatric diagnoses in a sample of outpatient psycho-geriatric new referrals with suspected mild cognitive impairment. The Open Geriatric Medicine Journal, 1, 10-13.

Kavé, G., Kigel, S., & Kochva, R. (2008). Switching and clustering in verbal fluency tasks throughout childhood. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 30(3), 349-359.

Kavé, G., Eyal, N., Shorek, A., & Cohen-Mansfield, J. (2008). Multilingualism and cognitive state in the oldest old. Psychology and Aging, 23(1), 70-78.

Kavé, G., Bar Ze'ev, H., & Lev, A. (2007). Morphological processing with deficient phonological short-term memory. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 24(5), 516-534.

Kavé, G., Avraham, A., Kukulansky-Segal, D., & Herzberg, O. (2007). How does the homophone meaning generation test associate with the phonemic and semantic fluency tests? A quantitative and qualitative analysis. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 13(3), 424-432.

Kavé, G., Leonard, C., Cupit, J., & Rochon, E. (2007). Structurally well-formed narrative production in the face of severe conceptual deterioration: A longitudinal case study of a woman with semantic dementia. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 20(2), 161-177.

Kavé, G., & Levy, Y. (2005). The processing of morphology in old age: Evidence from Hebrew. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48(6), 1442-1451.

Kavé, G., & Heinik, J. (2005). Issues to consider when using the new diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment. Israel Medical Association Journal, 7(11), 732-735.

Kavé, G. (2005). Phonemic fluency, semantic fluency, and difference scores: Normative data for adult Hebrew speakers. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 27(6), 690-699.

Kavé, G. (2005). Standardization and norms for a Hebrew naming test. Brain and Language, 92(2), 204-211.

Kavé, G., & Levy, Y. (2004). Preserved morphological decomposition in persons with Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47(4), 835-847.

Rochon, E., Kavé, G., Cupit, J., Jokel, R., & Winocur, G. (2004). Sentence comprehension in semantic dementia: A longitudinal case study. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 21(2-4), 317-330.

Kavé, G., & Heinik, J. (2004). Neuropsychological evaluation of Mild Cognitive Impairment: Three case reports. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 18(3), 362-372.

Kavé, G., & Levy, Y. (2003). Morphology in picture descriptions provided by persons with Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46(2), 341-352.

Kavé, G., & Levy, Y. (2003). Sensitivity to gender, person, and tense inflection by persons with Alzheimer's disease. Brain and Language, 87(2), 267-277.

Levy, Y., & Kavé, G. (1999). Language breakdown and linguistic theory: A tutorial overview. Lingua, 107, 95-143.

Grodzinsky, Y., & Kavé, G. (1993/1994). Do children really know Condition A? Language Acquisition, 3(1), 41-54.

Segal, D., Kavé, G., Goral, M., & Gollan, T. H. (2019). Multilingualism and cognitive benefits in aging. In S. Montanari & S. Quay (Eds.), Multidisciplinary perspectives on multilingualism (Chapter 16, pp. 351-373). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Kavé, G. (2022). Time will tell: Psychology of aging. A textbook and study guide. Raanana, Israel: The Open University (in Hebrew).

Kavé, G. (2019). Reading disabilities: A textbook (Understanding Dyslexia) and study guide. Raanana, Israel: The Open University (in Hebrew).

Kavé, G. (2014). Psychology of aging and old age: A textbook and study guide. Raanana, Israel: The Open University (in Hebrew).

Kavé, G. (2008). Cognitive neuropsychology: A textbook and study guide. Raanana, Israel: The Open University (in Hebrew).

Biran, I., Glik, A., & Kavé, G. (2010). Fluency tests for examination of executive functions. Journal of the Israeli Neurological Association, 1, 26-29 (in Hebrew).

Kavé, G. (2008). On the association between education, multilingualism and successful cognitive aging. Gadish: A Journal of Adult Education, 11, 103-110 (in Hebrew).

Kavé, G., Fridkin, S., & Ayalon, L. A longitudinal study of demographic effects on naming people and objects after age 70. A poster presented at the International Neuropsychological Society Mid-Year Meeting, London. July, 2016.

Kavé, G., Kalman, Y. M., & Umanski, D. Measures of lexical diversity in written texts provided by older and younger adults. A poster presented at the Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta. April, 2016. 

Kalman, Y. M., Kavé, G., & Umanski, D. Writing in a digital world: Self-correction while typing in younger and older adults. IsraHCI, the Fourth Israeli Human-Computer Interaction Research Conference, Ramat Gan. February, 2016.

Kavé, G., Gavrieli, R., & Mashal, N. Stronger left-hemisphere lateralization in older versus younger adults while processing conventional metaphors. A poster presented at the Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta. April, 2014.

Kavé, G. Using words across the  lifespan: Advantages and disadvantages of aging as viewed through language. The Interdisciplinary Aging Conference, Bar Ilan. March, 2013.

Kavé, G., Meiri, M., & Pertman, T. Frequency and typicality of words on a semantic fluency test: Comparing all words and the initial ten words produced by younger and older adults. A poster presented at the Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta. April, 2012. 

Glik, A., Kavé, G., Hassin-Baer, S., Cohen, O. S., & Biran, Y. The homophone meaning generation test may serve as a test for early cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease and may differentiate akinetic-rigid from tremor dominant type. A poster presented at the annual meeting of the Israeli Neurological Society. November 2011. 

Palgi, Y., Shrira, A., Ben-Ezra, M., Spalter, T., Shmotkin, D., & Kavé, G. Are subjective well-being and subjective health more related to the aging process or to distance from death? The 18th biannual conference of the Israeli Association of Gerontology. February, 2010.

Kavé, G. Frequency and concreteness effects in spontaneous noun production. Academy of Aphasia, Boston. October, 2009.

Yafé, R., & Kavé, G. Does word morphology affect vocabulary knowledge and word retrieval in old age? A poster presented at the Academy of Aphasia, Boston. October, 2009.

Kavé, G., Samuel-Enoch, K., & Adiv, S. Word retrieval across the lifespan: Harder to be tested than to tell stories. The annual conference of the Israeli Speech Hearing Language Association. January, 2008.

Kavé, G., Samuel-Enoch, K., & Adiv, S. Do old people with word retrieval difficulties on naming and fluency tests produce more frequent words in connected speech? Findings from Hebrew speakers aged 20-85. The summer conference of SCRIPT - The Israeli Association for Literacy. July, 2007.

Biran, I., Kavé, G., & Heinik, J. What happens to word inflections when word meanings deteriorate? Two case reports of Hebrew speakers with semantic dementia. A poster presented at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco. April, 2006.

Biran, I., Kavé, G., & Heinik, J. Morphological preservation alongside lexical deterioration in two individuals with semantic dementia. A poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, San Diego. April, 2006. Abstract in Neurology, 66, (Suppl. 2), A206.

Structure and Meaning in the Language of Hebrew Speaking Alzheimer Patients. The Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Research Areas
◾ Language and aging 
◾ The interaction between morphological processing and cognitive difficulties 
◾ Language production in Alzheimer's disease and related disorders 
◾ Development and decline of word retrieval across the lifespan
◾ Neuropsychology

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2021-2024
  .Israel Science Foundation. Aging-related increases in reliance on prior knowledge when spelling​
2018-2019
Israel Science Foundation. International workshop on age-related and death-related perceptions and their relationship to health. Together with Y. Palgi, A. Shrira, & D. Shmotkin
2017-2019
The Israel National Institute for Health Policy Research. What prevents people who need neuropsychological evaluation from receiving it through the national health law? Together with A. Bloch
2014-2018
Israel Science Foundation. What people know about their approaching death. Together with Y. Palgi, A. Shrira, & D. Shmotkin
2014-2016
Research fund from the Open University for a study on HCI markers for cognitive decline. Together with Y. Kalman
2012
Research fund from the Open University for a study on vocabulary testing in aging
2010
Research fund from the Open University for a study on confidence in vocabulary knowledge in aging
2008
Research fund from the Open University for a study on age-related changes in the lexical frequency of nouns
2006
Chief Scientist-Ministry of Health. Assessment of mental flexibility through language tests in adolescents with and without brain injury. Together with J. Landa and O. Herzberg

2005 – to date  The Open University, Israel 

2007 – 2008  Herczeg Institute on Aging, Tel Aviv University

2003 – 2005  Department of Communication Disorders, Tel Aviv University (post-doctoral fellow) 

1999 – 2000  The Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, Canada 

Teaching Experience
 
Courses at the Open University
◾Honors Research Seminar on Language and Aging (10969)
◾Psychology of Aging and Old Age (10781)
◾Cognitive Neuropsychology (10935)
◾Reading Disorders (10593)
◾Field Experience in Psychology (91410)
◾Mathematical Disabilities (10905)
 
Selected Teaching outside the Open University
"Language and Aging" for MA students, Department of Communication Disorders, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
"Normal Aging and Cognitive Disorders of Old Age," Department of Communication Disorders, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
"Cognitive Neuropsychology" for MA students, Department of Communication Disorders, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
"Developments in Neuropsychological Research on Learning Disorders," School of Continuing Education, Levinsky College
"Neuropsychology of Aging" for MA students, the Department of Gerontology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University
Guest Lecturer in the post-graduate studies in "Psychogeriatrics" for practicing physicians, School of Continuing Education in Medicine, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University