Situated Cognition Spring School (SCSS) 2025: ‘Situated Cognition in Human Minds, Animal Minds and AI Systems’

Abstract

This spring school of situated cognition brings together a diverse range of researchers working on mind and cognition, and how they relate to the body and environment. We strive to provide an extensive overview of state-of-the-art theorizing, experimenting, observing and surveying of all kinds of situated phenomena in humans, non-human animals and AI systems. The relevance and impact of these advancements is then also reflected upon for the scientific domain and beyond. We are therefore delighted to have a lineup of excellent keynotes coming from diverse backgrounds and with different interests ranging from, but are not limited to, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, animal research, sociology, and artificial systems. Doctoral students and early postdocs from Europe or abroad are cordially invited to apply for a talk or poster presentation. We aim to provide an open and collaborative environment to foster intensive discussion, networking and exchange with leading experts as well as fellow students of this continuously growing area of research.

Participation and Registration

Online participation is free and requires no registration, so feel welcome to join via the Zoom link we will share on this webpage below. However, if you would like to participate as a guest listener on-site, please send an email to Rebecca Watzlawek (rwatzlawek [at] uos DOT de) so that we can prepare the venue location accordingly.
Tuition is free given our funding as a DFG-funded Research Training Group located at Ruhr University Bochum and Osnabrück University.

CLOSED Call for Applications: Talks and Posters

We invited applications from PhD students and early post-doctoral researchers (PhD in 2020 or later) for presentation slots in our program or poster presentations. Any empirical or philosophical research on situated cognition and related areas is welcome. Projects with connections to the topics of the keynote talks are especially appreciated.

Accepted presenters who do not have their own institutional funding will receive support of up to 250 Euros for those based in Europe and 350 Euro for non-EU applicants (within a post-event reimbursement procedure based on submitted expenses; we can only recover costs for traveling and accommodation).

Submission
Applicants were asked to submit an abstract of their work (maximum 500 words) until November 24, 2024 on our SciencesCONF application website (down below). Our anonymous review results will reach you by mid-December, 2024.

During the application, you were asked to indicate a preference whether you would like to give a talk or only present a poster. Applications which are not accepted as talks will also be evaluated for possible poster presentations. Also note that the author information will be requested via the application platform to contact you after the anonymous review process. Therefore, the abstract and any file uploaded should be anonymized with all identifying information removed to allow for a blind review. You can also submit work that is the result of collaborations. However, we will only accept one submission to be presented per speaker. The funding can also only be given to one speaker per talk.

Submissions and reviews are processed here: Submission Page
Please note that the application window has closed. We are now in the review process.

Streaming

The keynote talks will be streamed via Zoom to anyone interested (no registration needed). The Zoom details will be posted here before the event.

Topics

In this workshop we are extremely happy to bring together leading researchers presenting topics from various fields within situated cognition research:

• Empirical Psychology
• Embodiment and Enactment
• Technologies of Cognitive Science
• Philosophy of Situated Cognition

Keynote Speakers (alphabetical order)

To give us insights into the topics, we are delighted to announce the diverse range of speakers guiding us through their work:

• Zanna Clay (Durham University)
• Anna Ciaunica (University of Lisbon)
• Andreas K. Engel (UKE Hamburg)
• Anja Gampe (University Duisburg-Essen)
• Fiona Macpherson (University of Glasgow)
• Celine Riera (Cedars-Sinai, LA)
• Tobias Thelen (Osnabrück University)
• Somogy Varga (Aarhus University)

Further speakers will include members of the RTG and those selected by the previous call.

Program Overview

Monday, March 24

Tuesday, March 25

Wednesday, March 26

Thursday, March 27

Poster Presentations

Our spring school will also welcome young researchers that will give poster presentations in a dedicated session. Please see the Call for Applications above for further details on how to apply and participate.

Venue

We would like to provide our registered guests with some directions for download (to be posted here soon). Furthermore, we also refer to the website of our conference venue building for detailed directions: ZEMOS

Organizers

This workshop is organized by members of the RTG “Situated Cognition”:

• Albert Newen (Speaker; Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
• Nikola Kompa (Deputy speaker; Universität Osnabrück)
• Julia Wolf (Scientific coordinator, Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
• Louis Loock (Deputy scientific coordinator; Universität Osnabrück)

Poster