Center for Mind & Cognition

Anthropology Daniel Haun (MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology & Universität Leipzig) Rethinking Cognitive Uniqueness: A Comparative Cultural Psychology of the Human Mind
2026-06-10 16:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Berlin) | IA 02/461
What makes human cognition unique? In this talk, I revisit an ambition already present in Wundt’s vision of psychology: to understand
the human mind through coordinated evidence from child development, cross-cultural variation, and species comparison. I argue that
uniquely human cognition cannot be understood from any one of these perspectives alone. A Comparative Cultural Psychology
approach asks how cognitive capacities emerge in children, which capacities humans share with other animals, and how far proposed
human universals are shaped by social, ecological, and cultural environments. Drawing on examples from chimpanzee cognition and
culture, and from children’s development across diverse societies, I will examine a series of target domains, including social learning,
social cognition, and abstraction. Together, these perspectives suggest that human cognitive uniqueness may lie not in any single
species-defining capacity, but in the developmental interaction between shared biological foundations, human-typical social and
representational capacities, and culturally structured environments that give rise to diverse forms of thinking, learning, and social life.

Philosophy Manolo Martínez (Universitat de Barcelona) The Information-Processing Perspective on Representation
2026-06-10 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom
Representations in Minds, Brains, and AI
18:00-20:00 CET
Zoom Lecture
https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom-x.de/j/64692924755?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting-ID: 646 9292 4755 | Passwort: [REDACTED]

Neuroscience Umberto Olcese (University of Amsterdam) Do inactive (and inactivated) neurons contribute to visual perception?
2026-06-11 14:00 - 16:00 | MB 7/159 & Zoom, Universitätsstr. 150, Bochum, NRW, 44801, Germany
Predictive Brain Talk Series 2026 (Hybrid)
in person: MB7/159
Zoom: https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom-x.de/j/68193768258?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 681 9376 8258. Passwort: [REDACTED]

Philosophy Tony Cheng (Waseda Institute of Advanced Study) TBA
2026-06-16 12:00 - 14:00 | Online via Zoom
Bochum-Grenoble-Taipei Memory Colloquium
12:15-13:45 Central European Summer Time
Zoom
https://univ-grenoble-alpes-fr.zoom.us/j/98859063721?pwd=[REDACTED]
meeting ID: 988 5906 3721
password: [REDACTED]

Philosophy Regina Fabry (Sydney) Grief and the Problem of Neuronormativity
2026-06-16 14:00 - 16:00 | GA 04/187 & Zoom
Hybrid event: GA 04/187 & Zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85349838236?pwd=[REDACTED]

Clinical Neuroscience Ekrem Dere (RUB) Future-oriented mental time travel and self-reinforcement
2026-06-16 16:00 - 18:00 | IB 6/127 & Zoom
Research Colloquium „Cognitive Psychology and Psychoneuroendocrinology“
SuSe 2026
Tue 16:15-17:45
IB 6 /127 (Hybrid)
https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom-x.de/j/61764573363?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting-ID: 617 6457 3363; Passwort: [REDACTED]

Psychology Claudia Passos-Ferreira (New York University) Infant Consciousness: How, Where, Whether, When , What?
2026-06-17 16:00 - 17:30 | MB 7/159 & Zoom, Universitätsstr. 150, Bochum, NRW, 44801, Germany

Philosophy John Krakauer (Johns Hopkins/Champalimaud Foundation) & Bill Ramsey (Nevada, Las Vegas) Mental Representation without Neural Representation
2026-06-17 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom

Workshop: The Conscious Mind at 30
2026-06-18 10:00 - 2026-06-19 18:00 | Kunstmuseum Bochum, Kortumstr. 147, Bochum, 44787
June 18-19
In 1996, David Chalmers’ The Conscious Mind. In search of a fundamental theory (OUP) shook the Philosophy of Mind by presenting rigorous philosophical arguments and ingenious thought experiments against the physicalistic mainstream. Chalmers introduced the hard problem of consciousness and offered a range of non-reductive approaches to consciousness. 30 years later, the scientific study of consciousness is thriving with its cornerstone of searching the neural correlates of consciousness, adversarial collaborations testing and comparing major theories of consciousness, and complex considerations of markers and tests for consciousness in infants, non-human animals and artificial systems.
In this workshop, we want to look back by celebrating the massive influence of The Conscious Mind and look forward to the future of the science of consciousness. We look forward to welcoming an exciting number of renowned philosophers and scientists to discuss philosophical and scientific themes from the book: Axel Cleeremans, Keith Frankish, François Kammerer, Johannes Kleiner, Christian List, Lucia Melloni, Hedda Hasssel Mørch, Liad Mudrik, Martine Nida-Rümelin, and Anil Seth.
We also invite Early Career Researchers from Philosophy and Cognitive Science to submit abstracts of max. 700 words on themes from the book for Poster Presentation. Please email to Franzsika.Klasen@rub.de by April 1st, 2026.

Philosophy Juan Diego Bogotá (University of Jyväskylä) TBA
2026-06-23 12:00 - 14:00 | Online via Zoom

Psychoneuroendocrinology Erik Ilkevič, (Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Lithuania) Evaluation of interactions between testosterone and cortisol with stress perception and emotion regulation in a sample of males
2026-06-23 16:15 - 17:45 | IB 6/127 & Zoom
June 23rd
Room: IB6/127 & Zoom
Zoom Link:
https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom-x.de/j/61764573363?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting-ID: 617 6457 3363
Passwort: [REDACTED]

Philosophy Sven Nyholm (LMU Munich) Artificial Intelligence: The Term, The Concept, and the Property
2026-06-24 12:00 - 14:00 | GA 1/128 & Zoom, Universitätsstr. 150, Bochum, 44801, Germany
Kolloquium des Instituts für Philosophie II
https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom-x.de/j/62005024610?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting-ID: 620 0502 4610 | Passwort: [REDACTED]

Philosophy Nina Poth (Radboud University, Nijmegen) & Annika Schuster (Universität Dortmund) Mental, Scientific, and Artificial Representations
2026-06-24 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom

IGSN Symposium: Small-Fiber Neuropathy: Mechanisms, Diagnostics, and Therapeutic Frontiers
2026-06-29 15:00 - 18:00 | FNO 01/117, Universitätsstr. 150, Bochum, NRW, 44801, Germany
Speakers: Praveen Anand, Wolfgang Greffrath, Andreas Leffler
Host: Baffour Kyei Sarpong

Psychoneuroendocrinology Samuel Bosbach & Dirk Moser (RUB) Comparison of salivary collection methods for cortisol and alpha-amylase assessment during acute exercise
2026-06-30 16:00 - 18:00 | IB 6/127 & Zoom

Philosophy Lotem Elber-Dorozko (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) & Devin Gouvêa (College of the Holy Cross) "Neural Representation" is not a Defective Concept
2026-07-01 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom

Philosophy Santiago Amaya (Rice University) TBA
2026-07-07 12:00 - 14:00 | Online via Zoom

Philosophy Thilo Hagendorff (Stuttgart) Studying Minds We Built: Psychology, Deception, and Self-Awareness in AI
2026-07-07 14:00 - 16:00 | Online via Zoom
Zoom Lecture
Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81127005946?pwd=[REDACTED]

Cognitive Psychology Maike Kneist (RUB) Effects of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on cognitive emotion regulation
2026-07-07 16:15 - 17:45 | IB 6/127 & Zoom

Philosophy Changsheng “Lex” Lai (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)Transformative Memories
2026-07-08 12:15 - 13:45 | GA 04/187 & Zoom
When: Wednesday, 9 July 2026, 12:15-13:45
Where: GA 04/187 & Zoom
https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom-x.de/j/65346616873?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting-ID: 653 4661 6873
Passwort: [REDACTED]

Philosophy Zina B. Ward (Florida State University)Directive Representation and the Job Description Challenge
2026-07-08 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom

Philosophy Leonard Dung (Ruhr-University Bochum) Emotion without feeling? Assessing the case for unconscious effect
2026-07-09 14:00 - 16:00 | MB 7/159 & Zoom, Universitätsstr. 150, Bochum, NRW, 44801, Germany

Cognitive Psychology Lisa Wirz (Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior) Training reappraisal under stress
2026-07-14 16:00 - 18:00 | IB 6/127 & Zoom

Philosophy Krzysztof Dolega (Ruhr-University Bochum) The Gloss on the Machine: Egan's Representations in Mechanistic Explanation
2026-07-15 18:00 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom

Workshop:Neo-Emotions. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Emerging Emotions
2026-07-16 | College UA Ruhr, Essen, Lindenallee 39, Essen, 45127, Germany
Organized by Eva Weber-Guskar (RUB) & Kathryn Temple (Georgetown University, Washington)
16.07.2026 at UA Ruhr College Essen

Psychology Chaz Firestone (Johns Hopkins University) Seeing “How”
2026-07-16 14:00 - 15:30 | MB 7/159 & Zoom, Universitätsstr. 150, Bochum, NRW, 44801, Germany

Psychology Linda Onnasch (TU Berlin) & Eileen Roesler (George Mason University) Trust(worthiness) Issues with Trust in Human-Robot Interaction
2026-07-21 16:00 - 18:00 | IA 02/461
Guest Lecture
Building IA 02/461
Ruhr-University Bochum

Psychology Valeria Peviani (UKE Hamburg) From Sensation to Structure: Inferring the Body in Space
2026-08-13 14:00 - 15:30 | MB 7/159 & Zoom, Universitätsstr. 150, Bochum, NRW, 44801, Germany

Psychology Michael Levin (Tufts University) How Cognition Emerges in Cell Collectives
2026-10-22 15:00 - 16:30 | Online via Zoom
Predictive Brain Talk Series 2026 (Zoom Talk)
Zoom: https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom-x.de/j/68193768258?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 681 9376 8258. Passwort: [REDACTED]

Psychology Justin Wood (Indiana University Bloomington) Origins of Intelligence in Animals and Machines
2026-11-12 14:00 - 15:30 | Online via Zoom
