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CfA: RUB-LSE Workshop on Animal Minds

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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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    Upcoming Events

    Full event calender

    14
    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
    View Details
    21
    Apr

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

    April 21
    10:00 am - 5:00 pm
    View Details
    23
    Apr

    <i>Psychology</i> <br>Barbara Tversky (Stanford & Columbia) <br><b>Mind in Motion</b>

    April 23
    2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
    View Details
    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
    View Details
    28
    Apr

    <i>Neuroscience</i> <br>Joanes Grandjean (Nijmegen) <br><b>Mice are not tiny humans (but brain network homologies exist!)</b>

    April 28
    4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
    View Details
    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
    View Details

    Relevant Publications

    For full list of selected publications, see the publications page

    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

    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)

    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...

    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

    Minds, Brains, and Deep Learning: The Development of Cognitive Science Through the Lens of Kant’s Approach to Cognition

    Schlicht, 2022 Schlicht, T. (2022). 1 Minds, Brains, and Deep Learning: The Development of Cognitive Science Through the Lens of Kant’s Approach to Cognition. Kant and Artificial Intelligence.

    Stress-Mediated Abnormalities in Regional Myocardial Wall Motion in Young Women with a History of Psychological Trauma

    Brüne, 2023 Aweimer, A., Engemann, L., Amar, S., Ewers, A., Afshari, F., Maiß, C., Kern, K., Lücke, T., Mügge, A., El-Battrawy, I., Dietrich, J. W., & Brüne, M. (2023). Stress-Mediated Abnormalities in Regional Myocardial Wall Motion in Young Women with a History...

    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.

    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)....

    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....

    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

    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....

    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 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

    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...

    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:...

    Stress research during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

    Wolf, 2021 Pfeifer, L. S., Heyers, K., Ocklenburg, S., & Wolf, O. T. (2021). Stress research during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 131, 581–596. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.09.045

    The embodied self, the pattern theory of self, and the predictive mind

    Newen, 2018 Newen, A. (2018). The Embodied Self, the Pattern Theory of Self, and the Predictive Mind. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2270. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02270

    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

    Death anxiety and depression in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients and their primary caregivers

    Tegenthoff, 2018 Grabler, M. R., Weyen, U., Juckel, G., Tegenthoff, M., & Mavrogiorgou-Juckel, P. (2018). Death Anxiety and Depression in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Patients and Their Primary Caregivers. Frontiers in Neurology, 9, 1035....

    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

    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.

    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

    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

    Improving sensory representations using episodic memory

    Wiskott, 2021 Görler, R., Wiskott, L., & Cheng, S. (2020). Improving sensory representations using episodic memory. Hippocampus, 30(6), 638–656. https://doi.org/10.1002/hipo.23186