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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

    05
    Feb

    <i>Philosophy:</i><br>Dylan Trigg (Central European University)<br><b>Atmospheres of pastness: On childhood nostalgia</b>

    February 5
    12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
    View Details
    05
    Feb

    <i>Neuropsychology:</i><br>Zita Patai (RUB)<br><b>Title TBA</b>

    February 5
    2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
    View Details
    06
    Feb

    <i>Neuroscience:</i><br>Fabrizio Londei (Neuroscience Institute, Spain)<br><b>Cell Assembly-Based Analysis of Neurophysiological Data</b>

    February 6
    12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
    View Details
    09
    Feb

    Joint Workshop<br><b>Animal Minds: New Theories and new Observations</b>

    February 9
    12:00 am - 11:59 pm
    View Details

    Relevant Publications

    For full list of selected publications, see the publications page

    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...

    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

    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

    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

    The ALARM theory of consciousness: A two-level theory of phenomenal consciousness

    Newen, 2023 Newen, A., & Montemayor, C. (2023). The ALARM theory of consciousness: A two-level theory of phenomenal consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 30(3-4), 84–105. https://doi.org/10.53765/20512201.30.3.084

    A conceptual framework for empathy in humans and nonhuman animals

    Newen, 2023 Newen, A., Griem, M., Pika, S. (2023): A conceptual framework for empathy in humans and nonhuman animals. In: Wittgenstein and Beyond, Routledge, New York. DOI: 10.4324/9781003202929-15 Chapter PDF

    Mental Content

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

    A Model of Semantic Completion in Generative Episodic Memory

    Cheng, 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.

    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....

    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).

    Metacognition and self-control: An integrative framework. Psychological Review

    Hennecke, 2023 Hennecke, M., & Bürgler, S.(2023). Metacognition and self-control: An integrative framework. Psychological Review, 130(5), 1262-1268. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000406

    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

    Optogenetics reveals paradoxical network stabilizations in hippocampal CA1 and CA3

    Cheng, 2023 de Jong, L. W., Nejad, M. M., Yoon, E., Cheng, S., & Diba, K. (2023). Optogenetics reveals paradoxical network stabilizations in hippocampal CA1 and CA3. Current Biology. 33(9), 1689-1703.

    Dynamical Systems Approaches to Cognition

    Schöner, 2022 Schöner, G. (in press). Dynamical Systems Approaches to Cognition. In Sun, R (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press.

    How does an emotional culture of joy cultivate team resilience? A sociocognitive perspective

    Weiss, 2021 Hartmann, S., Weiss, M., Hoegl, M., & Carmeli, A. (2021). How does an emotional culture of joy cultivate team resilience? A sociocognitive perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 42(3), 313–331. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2496

    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),...

    How stress and glucocorticoids timing-dependently affect extinction and relapse

    Wolf, 2018 Meir Drexler, S., Merz, C. J., Jentsch, V. L., & Wolf, O. T. (2018). How stress and glucocorticoids timing-dependently affect extinction and relapse. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 98, 145–153....

    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....

    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....

    The role of spontaneous recovery effects in the context of German orthography instruction methods with delayed correction.

    Rummel, 2021 Erdmann, J., & Rummel, N. (2021). The role of spontaneous recovery effects in the context of German orthography instruction methods with delayed correction. Journal of Experimental Psychology Applied. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000377

    The interaction of Bayesian pragmatics and lexical semantics in linguistic interpretation: Using event-related potentials to investigate hearers’ probabilistic predictions

    Werning, 2017 Werning, M., & Cosentino, E. (2017). The interaction of Bayesian pragmatics and lexical semantics in linguistic interpretation: Using event-related potentials to investigate hearers’ probabilistic predictions. In: G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T....

    The patterns of problematic social media use (SMU) and their relationship with online flow, life satisfaction, depression, anxiety and stress symptoms in Lithuania and in Germany

    Margraf, 2021 Brailovskaia, J., Truskauskaite-Kuneviciene, I., Kazlauskas, E., & Margraf, J. (2021). The patterns of problematic social media use (SMU) and their relationship with online flow, life satisfaction, depression, anxiety and stress symptoms in Lithuania...

    Consequences of exposure to the thin ideal in mass media depend on moderators in young women: An experimental study.

    Schneider, 2021 Munsch, S., Messerli-Bürgy, N., Meyer, A. H., Humbel, N., Schopf, K., Wyssen, A., Forrer, F., Biedert, E., Lennertz, J., Trier, S., Isenschmid, B., Milos, G., Claussen, M., Whinyates, K., Adolph, D., Margraf, J., Assion, H.-J., Teismann, T., Ueberberg,...

    The interaction between semantic representation and episodic memory

    Wiskott, 2018 Fang, J., Rüther, N., Bellebaum, C., Wiskott, L., & Cheng, S. (2018). The Interaction between Semantic Representation and Episodic Memory. Neural Computation, 30(2), 293–332. https://doi.org/10.1162/neco_a_01044