2015 Heymans symposium

Heymans Talks line up (see all video's on the Heymans Talks page)

To Think or not to Think
*Dr. M.R. (Marc) Nieuwenstein - Information Processing and Task Performance
An idea popularized in bestsellers such as Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink - The power of thinking without thinking” and “The smart unconscious” by Ap Dijksterhuis is that you should not think too hard when you need to make a difficult decision. Instead, it would be better to seek some form of distraction and to let your unconscious mind solve the problem at hand. In this talk, I explore the origins of this widely popular idea, and I discuss what scientific research has to say about it.

What does the scan tell us about behaviour and what does behavior tell us about the scan?
*Prof.dr. J. M. (Joke) Spikman - Neuropsychology across the Life-Span
The complex relationship in clinical neurology between indices of brain damage from structural scans and indices of behavioral dysfunction from a neuropsychological examination is topic of this presentation.

How do antidepressants work (when they do)?
* Dr. M. (Marije) aan het Rot - Experimental Psychotherapy and Psychopathology
Psychologists and neuroscientists may provide different answers to this question; perhaps their ideas can be integrated. Specifically, I propose an interpersonal model of antidepressant action.

Earthquakes, emotions and actions
*Prof. dr. T.T. (Tom) Postmes - Interpersonal Behavior
Groningen is the scene of a slowly unfolding disaster due to earthquakes caused by gas extraction. This talk will illustrate and elaborate the role of collective emotions in predicting action and inaction in situations such as this.

How personalized learning can improve grades
* F. (Florian) Sense, MSc - Psychometrics and Statistics
Wouldn’t you want your students you learn more efficiently? Using our knowledge of human memory, we capitalize on individual differences to optimize the learning process. Through personalized learning using an online system, students learn more efficiently and we gain better insights into their learning process.

The Road to Excellence
*Dr. J.R. (Ruud) den Hartigh - Developmental Processes
How can we explain the exceptionality of Einstein, Federer, or Mozart? Since the late 19th century, debate exists on the exact origins of excellence. In this talk I will discuss that excellent performance likely develops out of dynamic networks that consist of interconnected personal and environmental variables.

The social Dynamics of Children’s Learning Processes
* Dr. H.W.(Henderien) Steenbeek - Developmental Processes
Currently, most researchers agree that learning is a socially situated, transactional process, in which both the teacher and the learner make their own unique contribution.  However, when children with behavioral problems are involved, not much attention is paid to this dynamics. In the presentation, empirical data of teacher-student interaction are given, and how it influences the development of (undesired or desired) learning trajectories.

Explaining the inexplicable?
* Dr. K.E. (Katherine) Stroebe - Interpersonal Behavior
Being a victim of violence, losing someone one loves – these are life events we feel a need to explain and make sense of. I will talk about how people’s underlying worldviews may be key to understanding who or what we see as causing important outcomes in life.

Snijders-Kouwer Award

Wiebren Jansen, MSc is this year's winner. The jury awarded him for:
Jansen, W.S., Otten, S., Van der Zee, K.I., & Jans, L. (2014). Inclusion: Conceptualization and measurement. European Journal of Social Psychology, 44(4),370-385. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2011