Interview with Viviane Clay, winner of the Mendeley Data FAIRest Datasets Award

Open access datasets are absolutely essential for the researcher ecosystem for two reasons: „The first is for collaboration and moving the field forward together in a more efficient way. And the second is all about responsibility and accountability“ explains Viviane Clay who has won the Mendeley Data FAIRest Datasets Award as an important recognition for publishing data and analysis scripts in a reusable way. The whole interview is to be found on Elsevier Connect News.

Covid-19 forecasts: joint project with the Jülich Supercomputing Centre

Neuroinformatics scientists at Osnabrück University and data specialists at Forschungszentrum Jülich are releasing new model results daily to forecast COVID-19 infections. The results include estimates updated daily of the reported new infections and a 5-day forecast for every German district, and are available here. The predictions are based on data from the Robert Koch Institute, which are statistically analysed using a new model weighted by probability that was developed by Osnabrück's neuroinformatics scientists on high-performance computers at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC).

Information on teaching during the winter term 2020/2021

Teaching during the winter term 2020/2021 will be conducted in three different ways. Most classes will be realized as digital courses and do not require constant presence in Osnabrück. Some selected courses, where feasible, will be realized as either hybrid or contact classes. During hybrid classes a part of the audience will be physically present during a lecture or seminar, while another part of the audience follows via video-conference. It is usually not required, but it can be recommended, to be present at least sometimes for a hybrid class. There will also be a few contact classes where all participants are present in the class room. It may be useful, possibly even required, to attend some or all sessions of a contact class. To plan for the coming semester, please consult the course site of each class on StudIP for information about how this class will be realized. The respective lecturers are able to answer questions concerning specific courses.

Wild chimpanzees eat tortoises after cracking them open against tree trunks

An international team of researchers from the Osnabrück University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany) have observed wild chimpanzees in the Loango National Park, Gabon, eating tortoises. They describe the first observations of this potentially cultural behavior where chimpanzees hit tortoises against tree trunks until the tortoises’ shells break open and then feed on the meat.

First evidence of ‘joint attention’ in a non-human animal species, the Arabian babbler

Humans’ cooperation and communication skills strongly rely on the ability to coordinate attention with conspecifics: a socio-cognitive capacity called joint attention. But what promoted the evolution of this – allegedly – uniquely human capacity? A recent study by Simone Pika from the University of Osnabrück, Institute of Cognitive Science (Comparative BioCognition) and Center for Early Childhood Development and Education Research, Yitzchak Ben Mocha, and Roger Mundry from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig in Germany, shed light on this question by studying communicative interactions in a cooperatively breeding bird species, Arabian babblers, living in the Shezaf Nature Reserve in Israel.

KI-Campus Osnabrück

Supporting and creating technological change in a humane way is the self-assigned goal of our university's so-called KI-Campus. And it shall be reached by researching and developing innovative software solutions along the interfaces between AI and human intelligence, while considering and assessing the related impact on our society.

We are part of the DFG-funded research unit RU 2253

The Institute of Cognitive Science participates in a DFG-funded multi-local research unit (RU 2253) with the aim to investigate the coordinated development of language and cognition.

In the RU research groups from the universities of Potsdam, Mainz, Leipzig, Hamburg, Göttingen, LMU Munich and Giessen will closely cooperate. Prof. Jutta L. Mueller from the research group Psycho- and Neurolinguistics will test how the acoustic and linguistic properties of sounds impact on the learning of complex rules in toddlers.

A warm welcome to our new colleague: Prof. Dr. Simone Pika

The Institute of Cognitive Science is happy to announce that the renowned behavioral biologist Dr. Simone Pika holds beginning with this year the professorship for Comparative BioCognition at this Institute. Prof. Dr. Simone Pika’s research focus is on the evolution and development of communication with a particular interest in gestures. She studies different model systems including human children, primates and corvids.

Infant cognition includes the potentially human-unique ability to encode embedding

5-month olds already detect complex embedded sound structures similar to those that are characteristic for human language. This finding has been recently published in Science Advances by a research team including scientists from the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabrück and the MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Science in Leipzig. Prof. Jutta Mueller, professor for Psycho- and Neurolinguistics at the University of Osnabrück states: “We know that the ability to detect complex auditory sequences characterizes language processing in adults, a potentially human specific ability. Whether other animals can do the same is unclear. Our study shows that 5-month old humans seem to have this ability already.”

Designing Ergonomic Workstations with Embodied Engineering

The Institute of Cognitive Science, as part of a joint research project, will support the designing process of ergonomically optimized workstations by using virtual reality (VR). Under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Peter König, the scientists of the Institute in Osnabrück University plan to develop a novel eye-tracking technology to simulate complex motion sequences in virtual environments.

This project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research and will be carried out in close cooperation with Virtual Spice from SALT & PEPPER, a technology and consultancy company from Osnabrück, that has been performing ergonomic tests for working places for a long time already.

„Virtual and Augmented Reality“

Development in the field of virtual and augmented reality is gradually taking up speed and could well advance to become the next top focus in cognitive science research for the coming years.

On 26 October the ICO InnovationsCentrum Osnabrück presented the "Treffpunkt Innovation 2017" with state-of-the-art information, discussions and demonstrations about VR & AR.

"Die Zukunft im Visier" summarizes this highly interesting event, with participation of the Neurobiopsychology lab:
https://www.innovationscentrum-osnabrueck.de/ico/news/die-zukunft-im-visier/

DFG Research Training School on Situated Cognition

From 2017 to 2021, the IKW is home to a bi-local international Research Training Group ("Graduiertenkolleg") on Situated Cognition, in collaboration with colleagues at the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB).

Convinced that only a joint effort and the interplay between empirical research and philosophical reflection can provide us with an adequate account of the human mind, the more than 25 senior researchers and doctorate students of the Research Training Group connect philosophy of mind and cognition with many other subdisciplines of cognitive science.  They combine philosophical analysis with stated of the art experimental research in biological psychology, developmental psychology, linguistics, neurolinguistics, neurobiopsychology and psychiatry.