October 31, 2025 at 10:15am
Title: Semester Welcome Brunch
Speaker: Thomas Lachmann
Location: RPTU - Campus Kaiserslautern, Building 6
November 07, 2025 at 10:15am
Title:
Speaker: Baharan Taleghani (PhD student; supervisors: Thomas Lachmann & Omar Jubran)
Abstract: This research project examines how different driving scenarios evoke emotional responses in drivers and how these emotions can be quantified and interpreted within simulated environments. The project aims to identify which driving conditions elicit positive or negative affective states and how these are reflected in both subjective reports and objective physiological measures. Initial progress includes survey-based identification of emotionally relevant driving situations, forming the basis for controlled simulator studies. The current phase involves a large-scale user study to refine and validate scenario selection. Future work will focus on analyzing multimodal data and designing simulation experiments to investigate the dynamic interaction between emotion, cognition, and driving behavior.
Location: RPTU - Campus Kaiserslautern, Building 57,Room 508
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Zoom Link: uni-kl-de.zoom-x.de/j/67446643257
November 21, 2025 at 10:15am
Title: Mini Conference - Cognitive Science
Speaker: Master students from Cognitive Science
Abstract: Talks and poster presentations from various labrotations
Location: RPTU - Campus Kaiserslautern, Building 57, Room 315
December 05, 2025 at 10:15am
Title: Distinct Brain Networks Supporting Inhibitory Control in Neurotypical Populations
Speaker: Laura Quintero (PhD student; supervisors: Thomas Lachmann & Ann-Kathrin Beck)
Abstract: Inhibitory control refers to the ability to regulate information processing during goal directed behaviour, by being able to control attention, behaviour, and emotions. Adele Diamond (2013) conceptualized inhibitory control with three subcomponents: response inhibition, which involves the ability to resist temptation and supress prepotent responses, and interference control, which comprises attention control (e.g., suppressing attention to irrelevant stimuli) and cognitive control (e.g., suppressing prepotent mental representations). There is growing research on inhibitory control alteration and its relation to disorders (e.g., Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or addictions). Consequently, the literature is mainly focused on clinical population, limiting the study of typical execution of inhibitory control in neurotypical populations.
We are conducting a meta-analysis to gain insight into inhibitory control across its three distinct subcomponents in healthy populations, focusing on studies that utilise functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques and employ tasks such as Go/no-go, Stop-signal, Flanker, Stroop, and Simon. This review aims to understand and identify the distinct brain regions and networks involved in inhibitory control. Furthermore, the meta-analysis will serve as a foundation to disentangle which component is used in the on going project “Roles of Semantic Memory Search and Interference Control in Linking Unrelated Concepts”, which aims to investigates the neural mechanism of associative and dissociative thinking.
Location: RPTU - Campus Kaiserslautern, Building 57, Room 315
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Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom-x.de/j/67446643257?pwd=66EX0brr1AtD29xvavbynzOMySqbdN.1
January 16, 2026 at 10:15am
Title: Emotion in Two Languages: Rating and Processing of Emotion Words in German-English Bilinguals
Speaker: Rabea Breininger (PhD student; supervisors: Shanley Allen & Daniela Czernochowski)
Abstract: Emotional language provides a powerful window into the neural mechanisms of emotion processing. In particular, written words allow researchers to investigate both independent and interactive contributions of affective dimensions such as valence and arousal. Although prior work has proposed a distinction between emotion-label words (e.g., joy, anger) and emotion-laden words (e.g., vacation, funeral), existing affective norm databases are limited in their coverage of the former word type and are rarely designed with bilingual populations in mind, which may limit their application in research on non-native emotional language processing. This research project addresses these gaps by first conducting a rating study in German native speakers and German-English bilinguals to establish affective norms for emotion-label words in both languages. Participants rate words on valence, arousal, emotional prototypicality, and degree of adherence to emotion-label definitions. In a next step, this database will be used to investigate the neural correlates of emotion word processing in the first and second language in an EEG study. Especially, it seeks to determine how affective dimensions, word type, and language status interact.
Location: RPTU - Campus Kaiserslautern, Building 57, Room 315
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Zoom Link: uni-kl-de.zoom-x.de/j/67446643257
January 23, 2026 at 10:15am
Title: Mini Conference - Cognitive Science
Speaker: Master students from Cognitive Science
Abstract: Talks and poster presentations from various labrotations
Location: RPTU - Campus Kaiserslautern, Building 57, Room 315
January 30, 2026 at 10:15am
Title: Neural and Behavioral Correlates of Retrieval Suppression: The Role of Trait Anxiety and Negative Affect
Speaker: Anastasiia Lavrenova (Master student; supervisors: Daniela Czernochowski & Ann-Kathrin Beck)
Abstract: Actively excluding unwanted memories, or retrieval suppression, supports mental well-being. Yet how mood states and personality traits influence this process remains unclear. This study uses the Think/No-Think (TNT) paradigm to investigate how suppression of emotional memories is modulated by trait anxiety, state anxiety, subclinical depression, and stress. Twenty participants learned cue–target word pairs of varying emotional valence (neutral, negative, and positive) and later either retrieved or suppressed specific targets, followed by the final recall tests. For the behavioral analysis, final recall was assessed using two types of tests. The Same-Probe Test (with original cues) showed significant suppression, with greater effects for emotional versus neutral items. The Independent-Probe Test (with novel, semantically related cues) revealed no suppression effect. As predicted, EEG markers of inhibitory control (frontocentral N450 component) and conscious recollection (left parietal LPP component) showed significant TNT condition effects. No-Think trials demonstrated a reliably more negative N450 peak amplitude and shorter latency, with emotional items eliciting reliably longer latencies compared to neutral items. The LPP mean amplitude was significantly higher in the Think condition. General linear models and Pearson’s correlations provided evidence that suppression-induced forgetting depends on the emotional valence of stimuli, and can be shaped by specific components of negative affect and trait anxiety, as well as their influence on neural activity.
Location: RPTU - Campus Kaiserslautern, Building 57, Room 315
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Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom-x.de/j/67446643257?pwd=66EX0brr1AtD29xvavbynzOMySqbdN.1
Please note that we will exceptionally begin at 9:00 am - Building 6
February 06, 2026 at 9:00am
Title: Personal reflections on psychological research beyond academia
Speaker: Carlos Velasco (Experimental Psychology - Norwegian Businnes School; invited by Lais Muntini)
Abstract: This session draws on my experience developing and guiding scientific projects in collaboration with private organisations, with a particular focus on applying multisensory and psychological science to real world decision making. I will briefly reflect on my professional trajectory and discuss how research questions arise from commercial and organisational challenges, how projects are scoped and governed, and how methodological rigour is sustained at the interface between industry and academia. Selected examples from consulting and applied research will be used to illustrate recurring trade-offs, expectations, and skill requirements. The aim is to offer graduate students a concise, practice grounded perspective on conducting research in private initiative contexts.
Bio: Carlos Velasco is a professor at the Department of Marketing, BI Norwegian Business School (Norway), where he co-founded the Centre for Multisensory Marketing. Carlos received his D.Phil. in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University, after which he worked in a number of postdoctoral and consulting projects in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. His work is situated at the intersection between Psychology, Marketing, and Human–Computer Interaction, and focuses on understanding, and capitalizing on, our multisensory experiences and their guiding principles. He co-wrote the book "Multisensory experiences: Where the senses meet technology" (Oxford University Press), "Digital dining: New innovations in food and technology" (Springer Nature), the edited the collection "Multisensory packaging: Designing new product experiences" (Palgrave Macmillan), and authored the independently published non-science book “Your reality is a construction”. Carlos has worked with a number of companies from around the world on topics such as multisensory experiences, food and drink, branding, and consumer research. For more information, visit https://carlosvelasco.info/
Location: RPTU - Campus Kaiserslautern, Building 6
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Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom-x.de/j/67446643257?pwd=66EX0brr1AtD29xvavbynzOMySqbdN.1
February 06, 2026 at 10:15am
Title: A Developmental Investigation of Core Priming Effects on the Dative Alternation in German-Speaking Monolingual and Bilingual Children and Adults
Speaker: Alina Kholodova (PhD student - supervisor: Shanley Allen)
Abstract: Structural priming is the tendency to reuse a sentence structure after recent exposure and offers insight into how syntactic knowledge and learning mechanisms develop (Bock, 1986). Although the adult literature is well established, research on children is comparatively sparse, especially for bilingual populations. We examined four core priming effects in monolingual and bilingual children aged 3–8 acquiring German: abstract priming (reusing a structure regardless of the words involved), lexical boost(stronger priming when the same verb is repeated), surprisal effects (stronger priming for less frequent structures), and cumulative priming (increased use of a structure after repeated exposure over time). Using an elicited production paradigm, we manipulated the prime structure of the German dative alternation by presenting either prepositional object (PO; The boy gave a flower to the girl) or double object (DO; The boy gave the girl a flower) primes. Crucially, the PO construction is highly dispreferred in German, allowing us to test whether priming effects are modulated by structural frequency. We found early abstract priming in monolingual children and a slightly later emergence in bilinguals, late-developing lexical boost effects emerging at similar rates in both child groups, surprisal for the infrequent structure, and decreasing cumulative priming with age. Overall, monolingual and bilingual children followed similar developmental trajectories, consistent with the Implicit Learning Account, which proposes that children gradually adapt to infrequent structures through a prediction-based mechanism.
Location: RPTU - Campus Kaiserslautern, Building 6
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Zoom Link: https://uni-kl-de.zoom-x.de/j/67446643257?pwd=66EX0brr1AtD29xvavbynzOMySqbdN.1
Additional talk – please note the start time
February 13, 2026 at 10:00am
Title: The Effects of Concurrent Working Memory Demands on Linguistic Prediction
Speaker: Christopher Allison (PhD student; supervisors: Shanley Allen and Thomas Lachmann)
Abstract: Linguistic prediction is the preactivation of an aspect of language before it is encountered. Some empirical evidence suggests this might be an effortful process, although the current findings on the involvement of working memory in linguistic prediction are varied and inconsistent. During this defense, I present a series of three studies that directly manipulate the availability of visuospatial and/or verbal working memory resources during a prediction task. Concurrent verbal and concurrent visuospatial working memory demands were found to reduce evidence of predictive behavior, but did so differentially. These findings suggest that, instead of predictions being generally subject to processing limitations, verbal and visuospatial working memory demands interfere with specific aspects of linguistic prediction.
Location: RPTU - Campus Kaiserslautern, Building 57 - Room 315