Social Cognition
About
The focus of the study group is the research field of social cognition, which assembles all cognitive processes, which are relevant for the interaction and communication between human beings. These skills can be summed up by the term of „ selbst femd austausch“.
Research Topics
Previous studies have looked into the mental conditions ( i.e.: thoughts, feelings, wishes) for others.
In recent years nonverbal communication signals, which are essential for our social alltagsbegenungen, became more and more important in social and cognitive neuroscience. View/ eye/ look behaviour Gestures and mimic are compromised by those signals. As the successful differentiation of mental states of others is condition which is required for social cognitive processes, so are the bundle of cognitive skills also of great interest, which are subject of the self-other-differentiation (i.e. change of perspective in space, the experience of animiertheit, urheberschaft and agentenschaft).
Besides this research of universal psychological processes and neuronal mechanisms, which are subject of these cognitive processes, we are also interested in the different factors of variance, which can influence these skill. These skills can be heavily restricted due to psychological disorders. On the clinical side we are especially interested in the high functional autism, which is represented as a disorder of social cognitive functions, though the cognitive functions are fully at function. Another source of variance that is also systematically examined, as an influence factor, is the the social-cultural context.