Prof. Dr. Uwe Mattler

“I am fascinated by the fact that physical stimuli can lead to conscious experiencing.” Uwe Mattler, head of the Department of Experimental Psychology at the Georg-Elias-Müller Institute for Psychology in Göttingen, is interested in how the brain generates conscious experiences. That is exactly what he and his research group attempt to reveal by analyzing the experiencing process and behavior of study participants using methods from the natural sciences. The group employs visual stimuli to investigate how their physical characteristics affect subjective experiencing, how unconscious stimuli influence behavior, and in what way such effects can be altered by expectations.

In the research group laboratory, subjects’ experiencing and behavior is analyzed via response times, eye movements, and verbal reports. To investigate the cerebral activities involved in the processing of unconscious stimuli and contributing to conscious perception, the group uses an EEG laboratory and the MRI scanner of the university hospital in Göttingen.

Cooperation agreements have been established with Robert Fendrich (Dartmouth, USA), Dirk Vorberg (Münster), and the research network "Neuro-cognitive mechanisms of conscious and unconscious visual perception" funded by the German Research Foundation.