Harold Bekkering (born 19 October 1965) is a Dutch professor of

cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, which ...

at the

Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Donders is a Dutch surname meaning "thunder's", perhaps originally referring to a person's temper or voice, or to an artillery man.Radboud University Nijmegen Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, nl, Radboud Universiteit , formerly ''Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen'') is a public research university located in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The university bears the name of Saint Radboud, a 9th century D ...

. His research has covered many different ways of

learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machine learning, machines ...

, ranging from basic sensorimotor learning to complex forms of social learning. Lately, he aims to implement knowledge about human learning in educational settings.

Career

Bekkering was born in

Oldenzaal Oldenzaal (; Tweants: ''Oldnzel'') is a municipality and a city in the eastern province of Overijssel in the Netherlands. It is part of the region of Twente and is close to the German border. It received city rights in 1249. Historically, the city ...

on 19 October 1965. He studied psychology at the Radboud University Nijmegen between 1985 and 1990 and obtained a BSc. He obtained an MA in cognitive psychology in 1990. Five years later he obtained a PhD from

Maastricht University Maastricht University (abbreviated as UM; nl, Universiteit Maastricht) is a public research university in Maastricht, Netherlands. Founded in 1976, it is the second youngest of the thirteen Dutch universities. In 2021, 22,383 students studied at ...

. In 2000 he obtained his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

from the

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

. Between May 1995 and December 2000 Bekkering was a senior researcher at the

Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research The Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research was a research institute of the Max Planck Society formerly located in Munich in Germany. Founded in 1981, the institute included during its history the following units: * Behavioral and Cognitiv ...

. The next two years he was an associate professor at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...

. In October 2002 he was appointed a professor of cognitive psychology. Bekkering's field of research is broad, covering amongst others developmental and cognitive psychology, the implementation of cognition in robotics and cognitive neuroscience. In the book ''De lerende mens'' Bekkering and Jurjen van der Helden expressed their findings and opinions on the future of education. Concerning the digitalization of education and especially the use of Internet Bekkering expects a broader, rather than deeper development of students, leading to a new kind of ''

Homo universalis A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...

''. The two authors criticized the preliminary policy paper Platform Onderwijs 2032 for not taking sufficient account of findings in psychology and neuroscience. Bekkering was elected a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

in 2016. He was elected a member of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

in 2017.

Works

* Jurjen van der Helden & Harold Bekkering, ''De lerende mens'', 2015, Boom.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bekkering, Harold 1965 births Living people Cognitive psychologists Dutch psychologists Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Maastricht University alumni Members of Academia Europaea Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Oldenzaal Radboud University Nijmegen alumni Academic staff of Radboud University Nijmegen

Career

Works

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References