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CfA: RUB-LSE Workshop on Animal Minds

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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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    Upcoming Events

    Full event calender

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    Apr

    <i>Psychoneuroendocrinology</i> <br>Katja Wingenfeld (Charité Berlin) <br><b>Testosterone in Borderline Personality Disorder</b>

    April 14
    4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
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    21
    Apr

    IGSN-Conference: <br><b>25 Years of Excellent Education</b>

    April 21
    10:00 am - 5:00 pm
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    28
    Apr

    <i>Psychology</i> <br>Katja Langer (RUB) <br><b>Interindividual differences in emotion regulation flexibility: the moderating role of working memory capacity and regulation performances</b>

    April 28
    4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
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    12
    May

    <i>Psychoneuroendocrinology</i> <br>Lena Pfeifer (RUB) <br><b>Cortisol, sex hormones and memory retrieval</b>

    May 12
    4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
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    19
    May

    <i>Psychology</i> <br>Lianne Wolsink (RUB) <br><b>Stress effects on memory accuracy vs. generalization over time</b>

    May 19
    4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
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    27
    May

    Rudolf-Carnap-Lectures 2026: Transformative Experience. with L.A. Paul

    May 27
    10:00 am - 6:00 pm
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    Relevant Publications

    For full list of selected publications, see the publications page

    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

    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

    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...

    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

    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)

    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

    Mental Content

    Schlicht, 2022 Dołęga, K., & Schlicht, T. (2022). Mental Content. In Mind, Cognition, and Neuroscience. Routledge.

    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

    Modeling the function of episodic memory in spatial learning

    Wiskott, 2023 Zeng, X., Diekmann, N., Wiskott, L., & Cheng, S. (2023). Modeling the function of episodic memory in spatial learning. Frontiers in psychology, 14, 1160648. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1160648

    Quo Vadis Psychiatry? Why It Is Time to Endorse Evolutionary Theory

    Brüne, 2022 Brüne, M., Palanza, P., Parmigiani, S., & Troisi, A. (2022). Quo Vadis Psychiatry? Why It Is Time to Endorse Evolutionary Theory. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 210(4), 235-245.

    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

    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

    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

    Verlangsamung und Stillstand: Über eine Störung des Zeitbewusstseins und ihre ethische Relevanz

    Weber-Guskar, 2023 Weber-Guskar, E. (2023). Verlangsamung und Stillstand: Über eine Störung des Zeitbewusstseins und ihre ethische Relevanz. Zeitschrift für Praktische Philosophie, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.22613/zfpp/10.1.9

    Metacomprehension in Multiple Document Reading. Can Judgment Accuracy Be Fostered by Generating Twitter-Like Summaries?

    Stadtler, 2023 Schuster, C., Alef, M., Mierwald, M., Brauch, N., & Stadtler, M. (2023). Metacomprehension in Multiple Document Reading. Can Judgment Accuracy Be Fostered by Generating Twitter-Like Summaries? Zeitschrift für Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogische...

    Altered Left Ventricular Myocardial Deformation in Young Women With Borderline Personality Disorder: An Echocardiographic Study

    Brüne, 2022 Engemann, L., Aweimer, A., Ewers, A., Afshari, F., Maiß, C., Kern, K., … & Brüne, M. (2022). Altered Left Ventricular Myocardial Deformation in Young Women With Borderline Personality Disorder: An Echocardiographic Study. Psychosomatic Medicine, 84(5),...

    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....

    Does separating intentionality from mental representation imply radical enactivism?

    Schlicht, 2018 Schlicht, T. (2018). Does Separating Intentionality From Mental Representation Imply Radical Enactivism? Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1497. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01497

    Cardiac parasympathetic activity in female patients with borderline personality disorder predicts approach/avoidance behavior towards angry faces

    Brüne, 2021 Maiß, C., Engemann, L., Kern, K., Flasbeck, V., Mügge, A., Lücke, T., & Brüne, M. (2021). Cardiac parasympathetic activity in female patients with borderline personality disorder predicts approach/avoidance behavior towards angry faces. Biological...

    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

    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...

    The value of mere completion

    Hennecke, 2023 Converse, B. A., Tsang, S., & Hennecke, M. (2023). The value of mere completion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(11), 3021–3036. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001434

    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)....

    Trial-by-trial dynamics of reward prediction error-associated signals during extinction learning and renewal.

    Güntürkün, 2021 Packheiser, J., Donoso, J. R., Cheng, S., Güntürkün, O., & Pusch, R. (2021). Trial-by-trial dynamics of reward prediction error-associated signals during extinction learning and renewal. Progress in Neurobiology, 197, 101901....

    Ontogenesis of lateralization

    Güntürkün, 2017 Güntürkün, O., & Ocklenburg, S. (2017). Ontogenesis of Lateralization. Neuron, 94(2), 249–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.02.045

    Designing for the co-Orchestration of Social Transitions between Individual, Small-Group and Whole-Class Learning in the Classroom.

    Rummel, 2021 Olsen, J. K., Rummel, N., & Aleven, V. (2021). Designing for the co-Orchestration of Social Transitions between Individual, Small-Group and Whole-Class Learning in the Classroom. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 31(1),...