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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
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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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    23
    Apr

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

    April 23
    2:00 pm - 4:00 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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    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
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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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    Relevant Publications

    For full list of selected publications, see the publications page

    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

    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)

    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

    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

    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

    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....

    Intuitive Expertise in Moral Judgments

    Horvath, 2022 Horvath, J., & Wiegmann, A. (2022). Intuitive Expertise in Moral Judgments. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 100(2), 342–359. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2021.1890162

    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.

    Mental Content

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

    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 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

    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)....

    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

    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...

    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.

    Retaliation or selfishness? An rTMS investigation of the role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in prosocial motives

    Brüne, 2018 Müller-Leinß, J.-M., Enzi, B., Flasbeck, V., & Brüne, M. (2018). Retaliation or selfishness? An rTMS investigation of the role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in prosocial motives. Social Neuroscience, 13(6), 701–709....

    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),...

    Storage fidelity for sequence memory in the hippocampal circuit

    Wiskott, 2018 Bayati, M., Neher, T., Melchior, J., Diba, K., Wiskott, L., & Cheng, S. (2018). Storage fidelity for sequence memory in the hippocampal circuit. PloS One, 13(10), e0204685. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204685

    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...

    Mechanistic flexibility of the Retrosplenial Cortex enables its contribution to spatial cognition

    Manahan-Vaughan, 2022 Stacho M, Manahan-Vaughan D (2022) Mechanistic flexibility of the Retrosplenial Cortex enables its contribution to spatial cognition. Trends Neurosci. 45:284- 296. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2022.01.007

    Stress and memory retrieval: mechanisms and consequences

    Profiles of animal consciousness: A species-sensitive, two-tier account to quality and distribution.

    Newen, 2023 Dung, L., & Newen, A. (2023). Profiles of animal consciousness: A species-sensitive, two-tier account to quality and distribution. Cognition, 235, 105409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105409

    Information Easiness Affects Non-experts’ Evaluation of Scientific Claims About Which They Hold Prior Beliefs

    Stadtler, 2021 Scharrer, L., Bromme, R., & Stadtler, M. (2021). Information Easiness Affects Non-experts’ Evaluation of Scientific Claims About Which They Hold Prior Beliefs. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 678313. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.678313

    Doing without metarepresentation: Scenario construction explains the epistemic generativity and privileged status of episodic memory

    Werning, 2018 Werning, M., & Cheng, S. (2018). Doing without metarepresentation: Scenario construction explains the epistemic generativity and privileged status of episodic memory. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 41, e34....