2023 Bochum Early Career Researchers Workshop in Philosophy of Mind & Cognitive Science

This year's ECR Workshop focuses on the role of the brain in learning. By bringing together (early career) researchers from different disciplines with similar research interests, we want to facilitate a fruitful exchange on this topic. The aim of this workshop is to elucidate how the process of learning differs - or is the same - in systems that possess brains and those that don't.

Recent advances in the fields of artificial intelligence, animal and even plant behavior have shown that being able to learn is not a property unique to brains. Therefore, an important task for young researchers in cognitive science will be to develop and apply a concept of learning that captures learning processes in both artificial and natural systems. While learning may be considered as multiply realizable, it is also evident that the brain realizes learning in a different way than artificial or simple biological systems do. In this year's ECR Workshop, we would like to discuss recent approaches to answering questions such as:

• How do brained and non-brained systems differ in realizing learning?
• What organismal and environmental conditions suffice for learning?
• Are there different kinds of learning, and if so, are some of them unique to brains?
• How should new insights into the mechanisms of learning in non-brained systems change the way we think about learning in the brain?
• Which spatiotemporal scales does learning occur on? Is it a process confined to the brain, or does it include states and processes of the organism and the environment as well?

We cordially invite early career researchers interested in these and related questions to submit an abstract this year's workshop. Please find more information about abstract submission and participation on our website: