Erich Schröger (born 11 November 1958, in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

) is a German

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

and

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, Biological neural network, neural circuits, and glia, and their Behavior, behavioral, biological, and psycholo ...

Biography

Erich Schröger studied

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

at the

Munich School of Philosophy Munich School of Philosophy (German: ''Hochschule für Philosophie München'') is a small Jesuit higher education college in Munich, Germany founded in 1925. History Founded as a seminary at Pullach in 1925 by Augustin Bea, first named the Ber ...

and at the

Ludwig Maximilians University The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

(LMU) in Munich. In 1982, he earned a Baccalaureat in Philosophy, in 1986 he earned a Diploma in Psychology, and in 1991 he was awarded a PhD from the LMU for his work on loudness constancy. After research stays at the Cognitive Brain Research unit of the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

(Finland) and a stint of teaching at the

Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt The Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU) is a Catholic research university in Eichstätt and Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. It is the only Catholic university in Germany. Compared to other German universities it is a rather small ...

(Germany), Schröger achieved his Habilitation in psychology in 1996 at LMU. In 1997, Schröger was appointed to the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

as a professor of

Biological Psychology Behavioral neuroscience, also known as biological psychology, biopsychology, or psychobiology,Psychobi ...

. Since 2001 he has held its Chair of

Cognitive Cognition is the "mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

and Biological Psychology and has been the Head of the research group BioCog. In 2017, Schröger became Vice Rector for Research and Young Academics. From 1999 to 2002, Schröger served as Vice-Dean of the Faculty for Biological Sciences, Pharmacy, and Psychology at the University of Leipzig. From 2014 to 2016, he was Dean of the Faculty. Schröger's other service roles at the university include: from 2002 to 2004, Director of the Institute for General Psychology; from 2003 to 2004, Head of the Psychological Institutes; in 2005 and from 2010 to 2013, Dean for Study Affairs in Psychology.

Research

Schröger's main fields of research include

perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous syste ...

attention Attention or focus, is the concentration of awareness on some phenomenon to the exclusion of other stimuli. It is the selective concentration on discrete information, either subjectively or objectively. William James (1890) wrote that "Atte ...

, and

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembe ...

. He usually works in

audition An audition is a sample performance by an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other performer. It typically involves the performer displaying their talent through a previously memorized and rehearsed solo piece or by performing a work or piece gi ...

, 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 by changes of task-irrelevant stimulus information. Contributing to the work of the Finnish psychologist

Risto Näätänen Risto Kalervo Näätänen (14 June 1939 – 5 October 2023 ) was a Finnish psychology, psychological scientist, pioneer in the field of cognitive neuroscience, and known worldwide as one of the discoverers of the electrophysiological mismatch ne ...

, Schröger has described important processes on which the detection of violations in regular stimulus sequences is based. For example, he was able to show that such automatic change detection involves both sensory adaptation processes and cognitive comparison processes of sensory memory. Furthermore, Schröger is interested in the History and Methods of Psychology. As of April 2022, Schröger had published more than 400 scientific papers, book chapters, and books and been an honorary reviewer for more than 100 scientific journals and organizations.

Grants

Schröger has received more than 15 grants from

German Research Council The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bud ...

(DFG), more than five grants from the DAAD, and several EU-projects. In December 2008, Schröger won a one-million-Euro, five-year

Reinhart Koselleck Reinhart Koselleck (23 April 1923 – 4 February 2006) was a German historian. He is widely considered to be one of the most important historians of the 20th century. He occupied a distinctive position within history, working outside of any pre- ...

Project Grant by the DFG. The main research issue of this project was the mechanism of predictive modeling in audition. Specifically, Schröger investigated how automatic predictions about upcoming auditory events can be generated on the basis of regular environmental stimulation. Due to this mechanism, for example, incoming acoustic stimuli can be processed with astonishing speed as when comprehending spoken language or localizing moving sounds. Likewise, the specific processing of self-induced auditory stimuli—stimuli 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.

Honours

For his scientific work, Schröger received the 1996 Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career – Contribution to Psychophysiology from the

Society for Psychophysiological Research The Society for Psychophysiological Research is an international scientific organization with over 800 members worldwide. The society is composed of scientists whose research is focused on the study of the interrelationships between the physiologica ...

(SPR). From 2004 to 2011, he was a Fellow of the Review Board for Psychology within the DFG, Since 2012 he has been a member of the Selection Committee for the Allocation of

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation () is a foundation that promotes international academic cooperation between scientists and scholars from Germany and abroad. Established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is funded by t ...

research awards. In January 2018, Schröger was named among the 50 most influential living psychologists in the world.The Best Schools. (2018). The 50 most influential living psychologists in the world. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20180110175411/https://thebestschools.org/features/most-influential-psychologists-world/

References

External links

Universität Leipzig - BioCog: Erich Schröger

Publications: Erich Schröger
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schroger, Erich 1958 births German psychologists German neuroscientists Living people