RUB » Department of Philosophy » Philosophy of Language and Cognition

Prof. Dr. Markus Werning

Chair of Philosophy
of Language & Cognition
Department of Philosophy
Room GA 04/43
Ruhr University Bochum
44780 Bochum
Email:
Phone: 0234-32-24734
Fax: 0234-32-14463

Administration:
Christiane Dahl, MA
Email:
Phone: 0234-32-26739, Room GA 04/42

Student office hours during the lecture period: Tuesdays 15:15-16:00.
(in person without appointment, via Zoom after prior appointment, for the Zoom link klick here.)


My agenda is deeply rooted in a naturalistic understanding of philosophy. The overarching goal of my research is to approach questions in the philosophy of language and cognition and related areas with exact theoretical (formal semantics, Bayesianism, computational modelling) and advanced empirical methods (EEG and fMRI). I view these areas of philosophy in continuity with the cognitive sciences where, in philosophy, emphasis is put on theoretical rigor as well as meta- and cross-disciplinary aspects.

News & Upcoming Events

 

Publications

Curriculum Vitae

Research Funding

Most Recent Publications

  • Werning, M., & Liefke, K. (accepted). Reference in memories from perceptual and non-perceptual experiences: A non-disjunctivist account including vicarious, oneiric and fictional remembering. Synthese.
  • Liefke, K., & Werning, M. (2024). Diachronicity Matters! How Semantics Supports Discontinuism About Remembering and Imagining. Topoi. doi: 10.1007/s11245-024-10068-1.
  • Rappe, S., & Werning, M. (2024). Episodic memory in causal reasoning about singular events. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 46, 3984–3992. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/21c5f7b4.
  • Reimer, L., Spychalska, M., & Werning, M. (2024). Integrating Co-Speech Gestures into Sentence Meaning Comprehension. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 46, 5025–5032.https://escholarship.org/uc/item/42z48648.
  • Rappe, S., & Werning, M. (2024). The role of episodic memory in causal reasoning with counterfactuals: A perspective from predictive processing and trace minimalism. PsyArXiv Preprints. doi: 10.31234/osf.io/t2m5u.
  • Reimer, L., & Werning, M. (2023). Modelling the Integration of Co-Speech Gestures into Sentence Meaning Composition. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 45, 625–631. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/50b230ts.
  • Werning, M., & Liefke, K. (in press). Remembering Dreams: Parasitic Reference by Minimal Traces in Memories from Non-Veridical Experiences. In D. Gregory & K. Michaelian (Eds.), Dreaming and Memory: Philosophical Issues. Heidelberg: Springer. [pdf]
  • Peeters, A., Cosentino, E., & Werning, M. (2023). Constructing a wider view on memory—Beyond the dichotomy of field and observer perspectives. In A. Berninger & Í. V. Ferran (Eds.), Philosophical Perspectives on Memory and Imagination (pp. 165–190). London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003153429-11 [open access]
  • Liefke, K., & Werning, M. (in press). Factivity variation in episodic memory reports. New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Y. Katsutoshi, T. Yasufumi, & K. Mineshima (Eds.). Heidelberg: Springer. [pdf]
  • Jainta, B., Siestrup, S., El-Sourani, N., Trempler, I., Wurm, M. F., Werning, M., Cheng, S., Schubotz, R. I. (2022). Seeing what I did (not): Cerebral and behavioral effects of agency and perspective on episodic memory re-activation. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 15(793115), 1–18. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.793115
  • Spychalska, M., Reimer, L., Schumacher, P. B., & Werning, M. (2021). The Cost of the Epistemic Step: Investigating Scalar Implicatures in Full and Partial Information Contexts. Frontiers in Psychology, 12(679491), 1–26. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.679491.
  • Liefke, K., & Werning, M. (2021). Experiential imagination and the inside/outside-distinction. New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 12758, 96–112. N. Okazaki, K. Yada, K. Satoh, & K. Mineshima (Eds.), Heidelberg: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-79942-7_7 [pdf]
  • Werning, M. (2020). Predicting the Past from Minimal Traces: Episodic Memory and its Distinction from Imagination and Preservation. Review of Philosophy and Psychology 11, 301–333. doi: 10.1007/s13164-020-00471-z (open access).
  • Haase, V., Spychalska, M., & Werning, M. (2019). Investigating the comprehension of negated sentences employing world knowledge: an event-related potential study. Frontiers in Psychology 10 (2814). doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02184 (open access).
  • Feldbacher-Escamilla, C. J., Gebharter, A., Brössel, P. & Werning, M. (2019, eds.). Special Issue: Logical perspectives on science and cognition. Synthese. DOI: 10.1007/s11229-019-02334-2
  • Feldbacher-Escamilla, C. J.; Gebharter, A.; Brössel, P. & Werning, M. (2019). Introduction to the special issue "Logical perspectives on science and cognition". Synthese 197, 1381–1390. DOI: 10.1007/s11229-019-02334-2
  • Spychalska, M., Haase, V., Kontinen, J, & Werning, M. (2019). Processing of affirmation and negation in contexts with unique and multiple alternatives: Evidence from event-related potentials. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society 41, 2845-2851. [pdf]
  • Werning, M., Unterhuber, M., Wiedemann, G. (2019). Bayesian Pragmatics Provides the Best Quantitative Model of Context Effects on Word Meaning in EEG and Cloze Data. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society 41, 3085-91. [pdf]
  • Spychalska, M., & Kontinen, J., Noveck, I., Reimer, L., & Werning, M. (2019). When numbers are not exact: ambiguity and prediction in the processing of sentences with bare numerals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 45(7), 1177-1204. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000644
  • Liefke, K., & Werning, M. (2018). Evidence for single-type semantics an alternative to e/t-based dual-type semantics. Journal of Semantics 35 (4), 639-685. doi: /10.1093/jos/ffy009.
  • Werning, M., & Cheng, S. (2018.). Doing without metarepresentation: Scenario construction explains the epistemic generativity and privileged status of episodic memory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 41. doi:10.1017/S0140525X17001534. [Sharable link]
  • Ben-Yami, H., Carston, R. & Werning, M. (2018). Introduction to the 2nd Synthese Special Issue: Trends in Philosophy of Language and Mind. Synthese 195 (8), 3289-3291. DOI:10.1007/s11229
  • Cosentino, E., Baggio, G., Kontinen, J., & Werning, M. (2017). The time-course of sentence meaning composition. N400 effects of the interaction between context-induced and lexically stored affordances. Frontiers in Psychology 8 (818). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00813
  • Werning, M., & Cosentino, E. (2017). The interaction of Bayesian pragmatics and lexical semantics in linguistic interpretation: Using event-related potentials to investigate hearers’ probabilistic predictions. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society 39, 3504-3509. [pdf]
  • Werning, M., & Cheng, S. (2017). Taxonomy and Unity of Memory. In: Bernecker, S., & Michaelian, K. (Eds.) Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Memory (pp 7-20). New York: Routledge. [pdf]
  • Reuter, K., Werning, M., Kuchinke, L, & Cosentino, E. (2017). Reading Words Hurts: The impact of pain sensitivity on people’s ratings of pain-related words. Language and Cognition 9 (3), 553-567. DOI:10.1017/langcog.2016.29
  • Spychalska, M., Kontinen, J., & Werning, M. (2016). Investigating Scalar Implicatures in a Truth-value Judgment Task: Evidence from Event-related Brain Potentials. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 31 (6), 817–840. DOI 10.1080/23273798.2016.1161806
  • Cheng, S., Werning, M., & Suddendorf, T. (2016). Dissociating Memory Traces and Scenario Construction in Mental Time Travel. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 60, 82-89. DOI 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.11.011
  • Cheng, S., & Werning, M. (2016). What is Episodic Memory if it is a Natural Kind? Synthese 193, 1345–1385. DOI 10.1007/s11229-014-0628-6
  • Publications before 2016.