Barbara Tversky

Barbara Tversky is a Professor Emerita of Psychology at Stanford University and a Professor of Psychology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Tversky specializes in cognitive psychology. She is a leading authority in the areas of visual-spatial reasoning and collaborative cognition. Tversky's additional research interests include language and communication, comprehension of events and narratives, and the mapping and modeling of cognitive processes.

Tversky received a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1963 and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1969. She has served on the faculty of Stanford University since 1977 and of Teachers College, Columbia University since 2005.

Tversky was named a Fellow of the American Psychological Society in 1995, the Cognitive Science Society in 2002, and the Society of Experimental Psychology in 2004. In 1999, she received the Phi Beta Kappa Excellence in Teaching Award. Tversky is an active and well-regarded teacher of psychology courses at both the introductory and advanced level. In addition, Tversky has served on the editorial boards of multiple prominent academic journals, including Psychological Research (1976-1984), the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition (1976-1982), the Journal of Experimental Psychology:  General (1982-1988), Memory and Cognition (1989-2001), and Cognitive Psychology (1995-2002).

Tversky has led an esteemed career as a research psychologist. She has published in leading academic journals prolifically for almost four decades. Multiple of her studies are among the most significant in both cognitive psychology and experimental psychology generally.

Tversky was married to fellow prominent psychologist Amos Tversky (1937-1996) until his death in 1996.