Home page
ع
Resources for Current Students, Faculty and Staff
Webmail Directory Catalog Banner Canvas Moodle
Primary Navigation Background
Quick Links / AUC Directory, Faculty Directory
Headshot of a man in a suit

Athanasios Kokkinakis

Brief Biography

Athanasios Kokkinakis investigates cognitive traits (for example, reaction time and memory) through video-game performance analysis, with applications in early detection of conditions like Alzheimer's or schizophrenia. His doctoral work used League of Legends gameplay metrics to build models identifying at-risk individuals or cognitively gifted players.

He holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Bangor University and a master's in cognitive neuroscience from the University of York. His early experimental work compared attentional resources in gamers versus non-gamers. Currently, he studies the link between psychometric intelligence and in-game performance (for example, competitive tiers in League of Legends) to uncover developmental and cognitive insights. Some of his other interests are EEG, visual illusions, face processing, attention and SSVEPs.

Research Interest
  • Video games
  • Intelligence
  • Electroencephalography (EEG)
  • Visual illusions
  • Face processing
  • Attention
  • Steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs)
Education
  • Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science, University of York
  • Master's degree in cognitive neuroscience, University of York
  • Bachelor's degree in psychology, Bangor University
  • Han, N.T., Yan, T., Zhuang, R., Kokkinakis, A.V. and Cao, L. (2025). "Sensory Attenuation of Auditory P2 Responses Is Modulated by the Sense of Action Timing Control." Psychophysiology, 62 (9).
  • Kokkinakis, A. V., Ming, X., Han, N. T. and Cao, L. (2025). "Expectancy Violation in Virtual Environments Causes Headaches, Nausea and Uncanny Feelings." Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 17.
  • Ringer, C., Missaoui, S., Hodge, V. J., Chitayat, A. P., Kokkinakis, A.V. and Ursu, M. (2023). "Time to Die 2: Improved In-Game Death Prediction in Dota 2." Machine Learning with Applications, 12.
  • Demediuk, S., Kokkinakis, A.V. and Olarewaju, O. (2021). "Performance Index: A New Way to Compare Players." Paper presented at the 2021 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, IEEE.
  • Robertson, J., Kokkinakis, A. V. and Olarewaju, O. (2021). "Wait, But Why?: Assessing Behavior Explanation Strategies for Real-Time Strategy Games." Paper presented at the 26th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, 32–42. https://doi.org/10.1145/3397481.3450699
  • Kokkinakis, A.V., York, P., Patra, M. S. and Hook, J. (2021). "Metagaming and Metagames in Esports." International Journal of Esports, 1 (1).
  • Tan, E., Wade, A., Kokkinakis, A.V., Heyes, G., Demediuk, S. P. and Drachen, A. (2021). "Less Is More: Analysing Communication in Teams of Strangers." Paper presented at the Proceedings of HICSS 54.
  • Tot, M., Conserva, M., Chitayat, A. P., Kokkinakis, A.V. and Kirmann, B. (2021). "What Are You Looking At? Team Fight Prediction Through Player Camera." Paper presented at the 2021 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG), 1–8.
  • Olarewaju, O., Kokkinakis, A.V. and Kirmann, B. (2020). "Automatic Generation of Text for Match Recaps Using Esport Caster Commentaries." Paper presented at the International Conference of Natural Language Computing, 117–131.
  • Kokkinakis, A. V., Demediuk, S. and Block, F. (2020). "DAX: Data-Driven Audience Experiences in Esports." Paper presented at the ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences, 94–105.
  • Pedrassoli Chitayat, A., Kokkinakis, A.V. and Drachen, A. (2020). "WARDS: Modelling the Worth of Vision in MOBA’s." In K. Arai, S. Kapoor and R. Bhatia, editors. Intelligent Computing, 1229, 63–81. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52246-9_5
  • Aung, M., Bonometti, V., Drachen, A., Cowling, P., Kokkinakis, A. V., Yoder, C. and Wade, A. (2018). "Predicting Skill Learning in a Large, Longitudinal MOBA Dataset." Paper presented at the 2018 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG), 1–7.
  • Kokkinakis, A. V., Cowling, P. I., Drachen, A. and Wade, A. R. (2017). "Exploring the Relationship Between Video Game Expertise and Fluid Intelligence." PloS One, 12 (11).
  • Johnston, P., Robinson, J., Kokkinakis, A.V., Ridgeway, S., Simpson, M., Johnson, S., Kaufman, J. and Young, A. W. (2017). "Temporal and Spatial Localization of Prediction-Error Signals in the Visual Brain." Biological Psychology, 125, 45–57.
  • Kokkinakis, A. V., Lin, J., Pavlas, D. and Wade, A. R. (2016). "What’s in a Name? Ages and Names Predict the Valence of Social Interactions in a Massive Online Game." Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 605–613.
  • Simpson, M. I., Johnson, S. R., Prendergast, G., Kokkinakis, A. V., Johnson, E., Green, G. G. and Johnston, P. J. (2015). "MEG Adaptation Resolves the Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Face-Sensitive Brain Responses." Journal of Neuroscience, 35 (45), 15088–15096.