Hadas Rishony has a BA in Psychology and Musicology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She works as a musical editor and broadcaster at 'Kan Kol Hamuzika' radio station and studies for an MA track in Musicology, focusing on Music Cognition. Previously, she worked as a research assistant on several projects led by Professor Edwin Seroussi at the Jewish Musical Research Center and was also a teaching assistant for the class "Concerto for Music and the Brain: Music from a Cognitive Perspective," taught by Professor Roni Granot.
Hadas' thesis studies long-term memory encoding of pitch among adult musicians. Supervised by Professor Roni Granot, this study argues that absolute pitch is a rare attribute and therefore considered challenging to develop in adulthood; however, evidence in the literature indicates that some individuals, both musicians and non-musicians, have some ability to encode pitch into long-term memory. By performing retrieval tests among choir singers, in addition to in-depth interviews with these singers about the processes of encoding and retrieval of pitch in different musical pieces they perform, this research aims to shed new light on the ability of singers to retrieve the original pitch of various musical pieces from their repertoire, alongside the factors that may influence the quality of pitch encoding into long-term memory.
In July 2022, Hadas co-authored a book chapter titled "What Is Music for Neuroplasticity?: Combined Value on Infant Development and Inclusion" with Dr. Ephtyimios Papatzikis (OsloMet University, Norway ). The chapter focuses on the neuroplastic changes in the infant's brain when provoked by music and its value on infant development and inclusion of children with special needs. The chapter suggests possible advantages of inclusive musical activities and the importance of their establishment at a young age for all participants, whether they are neurotypical or dealing with cognitive or emotional disabilities.