Prof. Dr. Harald Lachnit

Short Biography

I am professor of Experimental and Biological Psychology at Philipps Universität Marburg, Faculty of Psychology. My research concerns fundamental processes of learning and cognition in humans and other animals, using behavioral, computational, and neurobiological techniques. In particular, I take care of how the input of the “learning machinery” has to be specified. To this end, my research focuses on properties of stimuli (including context), attention, the flexibility of stimulus processing, and aspects of time in acquisition and extinction. In order to enhance the understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of associative learning, I rely on the logic of convergent operations. Many of my findings point to a similarity between the basic mechanisms of learning in animals and humans.

After obtaining my PhD (1985) and habilitation (1991) at Universität of Gießen I became professor of psychology at Philipps-Universität in 1992 and professor of  experimental and biological psychology in 1994. From 2010 until 2016 I served as Vice President of Philipps-Universität Marburg.

Publications

... are linked in Researchgate

Funding

• Overview see ORCID
• Current participation in coordinated programs:
  • DFG SFB/TRR 135 Cardinal Mechanisms of Persception TP B4
  • DFG SFB 1280 Extinction Learning TP A15
  • Research Training Group GRK 2271 Expectation Violation