Prof. Dr. Erich Schröger

Prof. Dr. Erich Schröger

Professor

Kognitive einschließlich Biologische Psychologie
Städtisches Kaufhaus
Neumarkt 9, Room 235
04109 Leipzig

Phone: +49 341 97-39571
Fax: +49 341 97-39270

Abstract

Prof. Dr. Erich Schröger was appointed to Leipzig University of as professor of Biological Psychology in 1997. Since 2001 he has held a Chair of Cognitive and Biological Psychology and has been the Head of the research group BioCog. He studied philosophy at the Munich School of Philosophy (bachelor's degree in 1982) and psychology at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich (diploma in 1986), where he also received his doctorate (1991) and habilitation (1996). In the winter term 1991 he had been Research Fellow at the Cognitive Brain Research Unit, University of Helsinki. His research focuses on the processes underlying human perception and attention. He is also interested in the history and in the methods of psychology.

Professional career

  • 06/2014 - 10/2016
    Dean of the Faculty of Biosciences, Pharmacy and Psychology
  • 10/2010 - 09/2013
    Dean for Study Affairs in Psychology
  • 05/2004 - 04/2008
    Delegate for Young Researchers of the German Society for Psychology (DGPs)
  • 10/2003 - 10/2005
    Elected Head of the Department General Psychology (Fachgruppe Allgemeine Psychologie) of the German Society for Psychology (DGPs)
  • 05/2002 - 04/2004
    Director of the Institute for General Psychology of the University of Leipzig
  • 05/2001 - 03/2025
    Professor für Cognitive and Biological Psychology at Leipzig University
  • 10/1998 - 10/2003
    Head of the Study-Group (DFG-Forschergruppe) "Working Memory" of the German Research Foundation (DFG)
  • 08/1997 - 04/2001
    Professor für Biological Psychology at Leipzig University
  • 10/1996 - 03/1997
    Associate Professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich
  • 02/1991 - 09/1996
    Assistant Professor at the Institute for Psychology of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich
  • 02/1987 - 01/1991
    Academic Assistant at the Institute for Psychology der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich
  • 04/2017 - 04/2022
    Vice-Rector for Research and Young Academics of Leipzig University

Education

  • 02/1991 - 02/1996
    Habilitation in Psychology Dr. phil. habil. at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
  • 02/1987 - 01/1991
    Dr. phil. (Major: Psychology; minor: Statistics, Philosophy) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
  • 10/1981 - 02/1987
    Diploma in Psychology (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
  • 10/1980 - 03/1982
    Bakkalaureat in Philosophy (Munich School of Philosophy)

Panel Memberships

  • 02/2020 - 01/2026
    Member of the International Commission of Experts for the Elite Network of Bavaria
  • since 10/2019
    Fellow of the Max Planck School of Cognition
  • 10/2015 - 10/2023
    Member of the Advisory Board of the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena
  • 10/2014 - 10/2021
    Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg
  • 10/2013 - 03/2022
    Member of the Selection Committee for the Allocation of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Awards (including the Sofja Kovalevskaja-Award)
  • 10/2005 - 10/2007
    Member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Psychophysiological Research
  • 06/2004 - 04/2011
    Elected Member and Speaker (2007-2011) of the Grant Council (DFG-Fachkollegium) "Psychology" of the German Research Foundation (DFG)

Schröger's main fields of research include perception, attention, and memory. He usually works in audition, but he also investigates visual and multimodal mechanisms of human information processing. Among other scientific contributions, he has developed an experimental paradigm for assessing the mechanisms of automatic distraction of attention and he was able to show that automatic irregularity detection involves both sensory adaptation processes and cognitive comparison processes of sensory memory.


In a Reinhart Koselleck grant awarded from the German Research Foundation, he contributed to a theory of predictive modelling in audition. Due to generative mental models incoming sounds can be processed with astonishing speed as when comprehending spoken language. Likewise, the specific processing of sounds that a person creates by means of its own behavior can be explained by the principles of predictive modeling. In order to optimize a predictive model, the information processing system calculates predictive errors as the difference between the prediction and the actual stimulus signal. Furthermore, Schröger is interested in the History and Methods of Psychology.


As of January 2021, Schröger had published more than 300 scientific papers, book chapters, and books and been an honorary reviewer for more than 100 scientific journals and organizations. According to an analysis of Ioannidis et al. (2020) Schröger belongs to the worldwide most (top 2 promille) cited scientists.

  • Intention-based and sensory-based predictions
    Schröger, Erich
    Duration: 07/2017 – 07/2020
    Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
    Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Kognitive einschließlich Biologische Psychologie
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  • Effects of faulty relevance filtering on control of attentional processes.
    Schröger, Erich
    Duration: 01/2016 – 12/2016
    Funded by: DAAD Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
    Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Kognitive einschließlich Biologische Psychologie
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  • Seeing without awareness
    Schröger, Erich
    Duration: 01/2016 – 12/2016
    Funded by: DAAD Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
    Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Kognitive einschließlich Biologische Psychologie
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  • Piecing auditory cues together: How we learn to integrate cues in speech perception
    Schröger, Erich
    Duration: 03/2016 – 03/2018
    Funded by: Andere ausländische öffentliche Forschungsförderer
    Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Kognitive einschließlich Biologische Psychologie
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  • Global and local aspects of temporal and lexical predictions for speech processing
    Schröger, Erich
    Duration: 10/2014 – 12/2016
    Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
    Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Kognitive einschließlich Biologische Psychologie
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more projects

  • Rozario, K.; Oh Rui Ying, R.; Marselle, M.; Schröger, E.; Gillerot, L.; Ponette, Q.; Godbold, D.; Haluza, D.; Kilpi, K.; Müller, D.; Roeber, U.; Muys, B.; Müller, S.; Shaw, T.; Bonn, A.
    The more the merrier? Perceived forest biodiversity promotes short-term mental health and well-being—A multicentre study.
    People and Nature. 2024. 6 (1). pp. 180–201.
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  • Ringer, H.; Schröger, E.; Grimm, S.
    Within- and between-subject consistency of perceptual segmentation in periodic noise: A combined behavioral tapping and EEG study
    Psychophysiology. 2023. 60 (2).
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  • Ringer, H.; Schröger, E.; Grimm, S.
    Neural signatures of automatic repetition detection in temporally regular and jittered acoustic sequences
    PLoS One. 2023. 18 (11).
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  • Alho, K.; Escera, C.; Kujala, T.; Schröger, E.; Tervaniemi, M.; Winkler, I.; Yabe, H.
    Risto Näätänen (1939-2023)
    Psychophysiology. 2023.
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  • Schröger, E.; Roeber, U.; Coy, N.
    Markov chains as a proxy for the predictive memory representations underlying mismatch negativity
    Frontiers in human neuroscience. 2023.
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more publications

  • Andere Ehrungen: Werner Heisenberg-Medaille der Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
    Schröger, Erich (Kognitive einschließlich Biologische Psychologie)
    awarded in 2022 by Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung.
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  • Andere Ehrungen: Fellow of the Max Planck School of Cognition
    Schröger, Erich (Kognitive einschließlich Biologische Psychologie)
    awarded in 2019 by Max-Planck-Society.
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  • Akademiemitgliedschaften: Mitglied der Wilhelm-Wundt-Gesellschaft
    Schröger, Erich (Kognitive einschließlich Biologische Psychologie)
    awarded in 2017 by Wilhelm-Wundt-Gesellschaft.
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  • Akademiemitgliedschaften: Academia Europaea
    Schröger, Erich (Kognitive einschließlich Biologische Psychologie)
    awarded in 2016 by Academia Europaea.
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  • Andere Stipendien/Forschungspreise: Reinhart Koselleck Project
    Schröger, Erich (Kognitive einschließlich Biologische Psychologie)
    awarded in 2009 by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 103974738.
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more awards

  • Workshop
    Linear ballistic acumulator modelling workshop
    Kognitive einschließlich Biologische Psychologie
    Event Organiser: Schröger, Erich
    29/09/2016 – 30/09/2016
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  • Konferenz
    Error Signals from the Brain - 7th Mismatch Negativity Conference (MMN2015)
    Kognitive einschließlich Biologische Psychologie
    Event Organiser: Wetzel, Nicole; Schröger, Erich
    08/09/2015 – 11/09/2015
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more events

My research group "Cognitive and Biological Psychology" teaches iological and cognitive psychology in the bachelor's program in psychology, and we contribute to the empirical practicum. In the master's program in psychology, we offer teaching on cognitive psychology, with a focus on perception, memory, and attention. In methodological courses, we train our students in programming psychological experiments and in analysing EEG-data.


Cognitive Psychology

The word "cognition" refers to mental activities such as percepton and action, learning, memory, consciousness, attention, problem solving, language. The subject of cognitive psychology is the description and explanation of such mental functions within the framework of the information processing approach.


Biological Psychology

Biological psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with the relationships between physical (bodily) states and processes on the one hand and psychological (mental) states and processes on the other. While psychology is generally defined as the science of human experience and behavior, biological psychology specifically explores the biological basis or correlates of our experience and behavior, especially the connection between the mind and the brain.