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CfA: RUB-LSE Workshop on Animal Minds
Participation via Zoom is also possible. More information
Call for abstracts: Ruhr-University Bochum & London School of Economics joint workshop “Animal Minds: New Theories and New Observations”, 9th-10th of February 2026 in Bochum, abstract deadline: 01.12.2025
The interdisciplinary workshop “Animal Minds: New Theories and New Observations”, jointly organized by Ruhr-University Bochum and The London School of Economics, will take place on the 9th & 10th of February 2026 at Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.
The workshop will combine discussions of new theoretical and methodological approaches with presentations of novel empirical findings about animal minds.
The following speakers are confirmed: Colin Allen, Kristin Andrews, Jonathan Birch, Thomas Bugnyar, Tomer Czaczkes, Rebecca Dreier, Leonard Dung, Albert Newen, Simone Pika, Sanja Sreckovic, and Daria Zakharova.
We are inviting contributions from philosophy, psychology, ethology, neuroscience, biology, and other relevant disciplines. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- What do we know about capacities such as reasoning, sentience, or social understanding in other species?
- How do the cognitive and affective capacities of different species compare and contrast with each other and with human capacities?
- What is the evolutionary origin of important human psychological features?
- What are promising methodological frameworks and experimental paradigms for investigating animal minds?
- Which theories about animal minds are supported by recent empirical findings?
- What are the promises and limitations of multidimensional profile and signature testing accounts in comparative psychology?
To be considered for a talk (30 minutes + 15 minutes discussion) or poster presentation, please send an abstract of your proposed presentation of up to 500 words (excluding references) to: hilfskraefte-newen@rub.de. The abstract should be anonymous, allowing blinded review, and accompanied by a second Word or PDF file containing author name(s), affiliation(s), and contact details. The deadline for abstract submissions is the 1st of December 2025. We plan to notify everyone about whether their abstract is accepted within two weeks after the deadline.
This joint event is organized by the following team:
Ruhr-University Bochum: Sanja Sreckovic, Leonard Dung, & Albert Newen
London School of Economics: Jonathan Birch
Please direct any questions to: leonard.dung@rub.de
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Relevant Publications
For full list of selected publications, see the publications page
Out of touch? How trauma shapes the experience of social touch – neural and endocrine pathways
Scheele, 2024 Stevens L., Bregulla M., Scheele D. (2024). Out of touch? How trauma shapes the experience of social touch – neural and endocrine pathways. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (in press)
Opposing serial effects of stimulus and choice in speech perception scale with context variability
Blank, 2024 Ufer, C. & Blank, H. (2024) Opposing serial effects of stimulus and choice in speech perception scale with context variability. iScience:110611.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.110611
Deceptive XAI: Typology, Creation and Detection
Meske, 2024 Schneider, J., Meske, C. & Vlachos, M. (2024). Deceptive XAI: Typology, Creation and Detection. SN Computer Science 5, 81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-023-02401-z
Prediction error processing and sharpening of expected information across the face-processing hierarchy
Blank, 2024 Garlichs, A. & Blank, H. (2024). Prediction error processing and sharpening of expected information across the face-processing hierarchy. Nature Communications, 15, 3407.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47749-9
Foundation Models – A New Paradigm for Artificial Intelligence
Meske, 2024 Schneider, J., Meske, C. and Kuss, P. (2024). Foundation Models – A New Paradigm for Artificial Intelligence. Business & Information Systems Engineering 66, 221–231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12599-024-00851-0
When is learning “effortful”? Scrutinizing the concept of mental effort in cognitively-oriented research from a motivational perspective
Roelle, 2024 Grund, A., Fries, S., Nückles, M., Renkl, A., & Roelle, J. (2024). When is learning “effortful”? Scrutinizing the concept of mental effort in cognitively-oriented research from a motivational perspective. Educational Psychology Review, 36, Article...
A map of spatial navigation for neuroscience
Wiskott, 2023 Parra-Barrero, E., Vijayabaskaran, S., Seabrook, E., Wiskott, L., & Cheng, S. (2023). A map of spatial navigation for neuroscience. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 152, 105200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105200
Can you teach me not to be angry? Relations between temperament and the emotion regulation strategy distraction in 2-year-olds.
Schneider, 2022 Schoppmann, J., Schneider, S., & Seehagen, S. (2022). Can you teach me not to be angry? Relations between temperament and the emotion regulation strategy distraction in 2-year-olds. Child Development, 93(1), 165–179....
Factivity variation in episodic memory reports
Liefke & Werning, 2022 Liefke, K., & Werning, M. (in press). Factivity variation in episodic memory reports. In Y. Katsutoshi, T. Yasufumi, & K. Mineshima (Eds.), New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Heidelberg:...
Berechenbare Gefühle? Grundlegendes zu einer Ethik der digitalen Emotionserfassung
Weber-Guskar, 2023 Weber-Guskar, E. (2023). Berechenbare Gefühle? Grundlegendes zu einer Ethik der digitalen Emotionserfassung. In: Schweiger, G., Zichy, M. (eds) Zwischenmenschliche Beziehungen im Zeitalter des Digitalen. Techno:Phil – Aktuelle Herausforderungen der...
Happy together? On the relationship between research on retrieval practice and generative learning using the case of follow-up learning tasks
Roelle, 2023 Roelle, J., Endres, T., Abel, R., Obergassel, N., Nückles, M., & Renkl, A. (2023). Happy together? On the relationship between research on retrieval practice and generative learning using the case of follow-up learning tasks. Educational Psychology...
A Perceptually Grounded Neural Dynamic Architecture Establishes Analogy Between Visual Object Pairs
Sabinasz & Schöner, 2022 Sabinasz, D. & Schöner, G. (2022). A Perceptually Grounded Neural Dynamic Architecture Establishes Analogy Between Visual Object Pairs. In J. Culbertson, Perfors, A., Rabagliati, H., & Ramenzoni, V. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 44th...
Olfactory information encoding engages subcortical and cortical brain regions that enable sensory information processing and valence encoding
Manahan-Vaughan, 2022 Strauch C., Angenstein F., Huong, T.H. & Manahan-Vaughan, D. (2022). Olfactory information encoding engages subcortical and cortical brain regions that enable sensory information processing and valence encoding. Cerebral Cortex 30(2)....
A Model of Semantic Completion in Generative Episodic Memory
Wiskott, 2022 Fayyaz, Z., Altamimi, A., Zoellner, C., Klein, N., Wolf, O. T., Cheng, S., & Wiskott, L.. (2022). A Model of Semantic Completion in Generative Episodic Memory. Neural Computation, 34(9), 1841–1870. http://doi.org/10.1162/neco_a_01520
Reflecting (on) Replica. Can We Have a Good Affective Relationship with a Social Chatbot?
Weber-Guskar, 2022 Weber-Guskar, E. (2022). Reflecting (on) Replica. Can We Have a Good Affective Relationship with a Social Chatbot? In: Social Robotics and the Good Life: The Normative Side of Forming Emotional Bonds With Robots. (2022). transcript Verlag....
The function of teacher dashboards depends on the amount of time pressure in the classroom situation: results from teacher interviews and an experimental study
Rummel, 2022 Van Leeuwen, A., & Rummel, N. (2022). The function of teacher dashboards depends on the amount of time pressure in the classroom situation: results from teacher interviews and an experimental study. Unterrichtswissenschaft, 50, 561–588....
Evolutionary Inquiries Into the Origin and Nature of Mental Disorders
Brüne, 2023 Brüne M. (2023). Evolutionary Inquiries Into the Origin and Nature of Mental Disorders. JAMA psychiatry, 80(6), 537–538. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.0662
Adversarial attacks against automatic speech recognition systems via psychoacoustic hiding
Kolossa, 2018 Schönherr, L., Kohls, K., Zeiler, S., Holz, T., & Kolossa, D. (2018). Adversarial Attacks Against Automatic Speech Recognition Systems via Psychoacoustic Hiding. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/pdf/1808.05665v2
You can’t always get what you want: Predictive Processing and Consciousness.
Schlicht, 2021 Schlicht, T., Dolega, K. (2021) You can’t always get what you want: Predictive Processing and Consciousness. Philosophy and the Mind Scienceshttps://philosophymindscience.org/index.php/phimisci/article/view/9153
Exploring accidental triggers of smart speakers
Kolossa, 2022 Schönherr, L., Golla, M., Eisenhofer, T., Wiele, J., Kolossa, D., & Holz, T. (2022). Exploring accidental triggers of smart speakers. Computer Speech & Language, 73, 101328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csl.2021.101328
The stabilization of visibility for sequentially presented, low-contrast objects: Experiments and neural field model.
Schöner, 2023 Hock, H. S., & Schöner, G. (2023). The stabilization of visibility for sequentially presented, low-contrast objects: Experiments and neural field model. Journal of Vision, 23(8), 12.https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.23.8.12
Special Issue: Predictive Processing and Consciousness
Schlicht, 2022 Miller, Mark, Andy Clark, und Tobias Schlicht (eds.). „Special Issue: Predictive Processing and Consciousness“. Review of Philosophy and Psychology 13, Nr. 4 (1. Dezember 2022).
Happy together? On the relationship between research on retrieval practice and generative learning using the case of follow-up learning tasks
Roelle, 2023 Roelle, J., Endres, T., Abel, R., Obergassel, N., Nückles, M., & Renkl, A. (2023). Happy together? On the relationship between research on retrieval practice and generative learning using the case of follow-up learning tasks. Educational Psychology...
Constructing a wider view on memory – Beyond the dichotomy of field and observer perspectives
Peters, Cosentino & Werning, 2022 Peeters, A., Cosentino, E., & Werning, M. (2022). Constructing a wider view on memory – Beyond the dichotomy of field and observer perspectives. In A. Berninger & Í. V. Ferran (eds.), Memory and Imagination (pp. 165–190)....
The Cost of the Epistemic Step: Investigating Scalar Implicatures in Full and Partial Information Contexts
Werning, 2021 Spychalska, M., Reimer, L., Schumacher, P. B., & Werning, M. (2021). The Cost of the Epistemic Step: Investigating Scalar Implicatures in Full and Partial Information Contexts. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 2133....
The time-course of sentence meaning composition. N400 effects of the interaction between context-induced and lexically stored affordances
Werning, 2017 Cosentino, E., Baggio, G., Kontinen, J., & Werning, M. (2017). The Time-Course of Sentence Meaning Composition. N400 Effects of the Interaction between Context-Induced and Lexically Stored Affordances. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 813....