Jan Pohl, Dr. rer. nat. in Psychology

(That's me)

About

I’m a cognitive scientist with a broad curiosity for how minds work, focusing especially on embodied cognition and human–robot interaction. My work also engages with cross-cultural psychology, which appeals to me because it challenges the default perspective. I first entered the field because of a fascination with consciousness and the self, concepts that sit at the heart of many debates in philosophy, neuroscience, and psychology. A common thread in my work is the investigation of agency attribution, how people decide whether something “has a self”, “a mind”, or is “acting intentional”. I am also interested in how this is influenced by social contexts, movement behavior, and physical embodiment. My doctoral research introduced a component-based approach to selfhood attribution, identifying key behavioral cues that influence perceptions of agency, intelligence, and sociality among other dimensions. I extended this work to explore group dynamics, finding that the presence of other agents can systematically modulate attributed agency.

My background is multidisciplinary: I started studying Psychology in Berlin (DE) for my Bachelor's Degree and during my ERASMUS stay in Dublin (IE) I also studied Philosophy. For my Master in Potsdam (DE) I switched to Cognitive Science. In 2025 I completed my PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) summa cum laude at the Dresden University of Technology (DE) in a DFG funded project in collaboration with a PhD candidate from the field of robotics. Currently I am working at the Adaptive Systems Group at the Humboldt University of Berlin (DE). Additionally, I am associated with the Co-Embodiment Self Lab in Lisbon (PT), where I was a visiting researcher in early 2025. Here in Berlin I am focusing on a project investigating the effect of different robot embodiments on our perception of their movement.

Key interests

Embodied cognition
Social cognition
Cross-cultural psychology
Philosophy of Mind
Human-robot interaction
Abstract concepts

Research methods

Meta-analysis
Human-robot interaction
Virtual Reality
Grip-force

Curriculum Vitae

Academic Career

Since 05/2025		Guest Scientist, Adaptive Systems Group, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany Working on my "Beyond Embodiment"-project exploring how movement affects perception of agents across different embodiments. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Verena Hafner
03/2025 - 04/2025		Guest Scientist, Co-Embodiment Self Lab, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal Includes a collaboration on a VR study investigating joint agency in human-robot interaction. Host: Dr. Anna Ciaunica
01/2024 - 04/2025		Scientific Staff, Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden University of Technology, Germany Continuation of my PhD project. Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Christian Beste & Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hommel
06/2022 - 12/2023		Scientific Staff, Chair of Biopsychology, Faculty of Psychology, Dresden University of Technology, Germany Working on my PhD in the "Reconstructing the naïve theory of the self" project. Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Clemens Kirschbaum & Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hommel
02/2022 - 05/2022		Research Assistant, Chair of Biopsychology, Faculty of Psychology, Dresden University of Technology, Germany I started working on the DFG project "Reconstructing the naïve theory of the self" (part of the SPP "The Active Self"). The aim was to identify characteristics that lay people use to attribute a self to other agents and construct a minimal model to be tested in a Turing-test like setting. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hommel
08/2021 - 01/2022		Research Assistant, Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology, Germany Continuation of the internship to write my master thesis. The project transfered the classical psycholinguistic "click paradigm" from the auditory-oral to the visual-spatial modality of sign languages. Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Angela D. Friederici & Dr. Emiliano Zaccarella
05/2021 - 08/2021		Intern, Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology, Germany I assisted in the conceptualization and implementation of a reaction-time study (Literature search and review, supporting stimulus creation, independent coding of automated stimulus editing and the experiment itself, administrative work). Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Angela D. Friederici & Dr. Emiliano Zaccarella
06/2021 - 11/2021 11/2020 - 04/2021		Research Assistant, Potsdam Embodied Cognition Group, University Potsdam, Germany I worked on a meta-analysis about space-valence associations (literature selection, coding, statistical processing and writing a manuscript, co-supervision of an intern). Data collection in VR and behavioral labs.
03/2020 - 08/2020		In the first year, my main involvement was in two VR experimental studies on motor affordances and spatial-numerical associations (technical support, data collection and statistical processing). Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Martin H. Fischer & Dr. Alex Miklashevsky
05/2019 - 08/2019		Intern, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Department of Psychiatry, Department Personality Disorder & Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Germany Included diagnostical work (observation of and consulting with therapists in training, independent interviewing of patients) as well as technical support in studies (data collection and processing). Supervisors: Prof. Dr. med. Stefan Röpke & Dr. Katrin Janke
04/2018 - 03/2022		Intern (voluntary position), Structural Analysis of Cultural Systems, Institute for research and consulting, Germany Assisting in research projects (technical support, data processing), presentations and web-management. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Arnold Groh

Grants & Awards

2025		30.000€, Early Career Booster Fund, German Research Foundation (DFG) SPP "The Active Self" "Beyond Embodiment: Does Robot Movement Elicit Consistent Attributions Across Different Physical Appearances?"
2025		750€, Travel Award, Graduate Academy, Dresden University of Tecchnology For attending the 28th Annual meeting of the association for the scientific study of consciousness (ASSC)

Teaching Experience

2023

Cognitive Neuroscience Extended, Dresden University of Technology, Germany
Seminar following "Ward, J. (2015) The student's guide to cognitive neuroscience. Psychology press" and additionally exploring the field of embodied cognition.

University Service

01/2022 - 03/2022		Member of the election committee for the "Cognitive Science" student representatives (voluntary position)
01/2021 - 12/2021		Elected president of the Cognitive Science - Embodied Cognition student representatives (voluntary position)
08/2020 - 03/2022		Active in the Cognitive Science student body

Education

06/2022 - 07/20255		PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in Psychology (summa cum laude), Dresden University of Technology, Germany Thesis: Towards a Pars-Pro-Toto Account of Selfhood-Attribution Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Clemens Kirschbaum & Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hommel
10/2019 - 03/2022		M.Sc. in Cognitive Science - Embodied Cognition, University Potsdam, Germany Thesis: Can detection of extraneous signals reveal the syntactic structure of sign language? Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Martin H. Fischer & Dr. Emiliano Zacccarella
10/2015 - 09/2019		B.Sc. in Psychology, Free University of Berlin, Germany Thesis: Norm conflicts in peer-interactions of children from eight different societies Supervisors: Dr. Patricia Kanngießer & Dr. Moritz Köster
09/2017 - 01/2018		ERASMUS+, Psychology & Philosophy, University College Dublin, Ireland

Publications

Pohl, J., Nikolovska, K., Maurelli, F., Kappas, A., & Hommel, B. (2025, Oktober). Selfhood-attribution in a social context: Further evidence for a Pars Pro Toto account. Frontiers in Psychology (16). doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1528172
Pohl, J., Nikolovska, K., Maurelli, F., Kappas, A., & Hommel, B. (2025). When less is more: Single selfhood-related cues elicit higher selfhood ratings than multiple cues. Available at OSF [Preprint]. doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/d3gkh_v1
Pohl, J. & Miklashevsky, A. (2025, March). Vertical and Horizontal Space-Valence Associations: A Meta-Analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 170, 106054. doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106054
Nikolovska, K., Pohl, J., Hommel, B., Kappas, A., & Maurelli, F. (2024, August). The Impact of Social Inter-Robot Encounters on User Perception. In 2024 33^rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (ROMAN) (pp. 238-243). IEEE. doi.org/10.1109/RO-MAN60168.2024.10731412
Nikolovska, K., Pohl, J., Hommel, B., Kappas, A., & Maurelli, F. (2024, July). User Perception of Robot Behavior as a Function of Previous Experience with Robots. In 2024 16^th International Conference on Human System Interaction (HSI) (pp. 1-7). IEEE. doi.org/10.1109/HSI61632.2024.10613554
Pohl, J., Nikolovska, K., Küster, D., Maurelli, F., Kappas, A., & Hommel, B. (2024). Attribution of Selfhood Based on Simple Behavioral Cues: Towards a Pars Pro Toto Account. Available at SSRN 4764128 [Preprint]. dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4764128
Trettenbrein, P., Maran, M., Pohl, J., Finkbeiner T. A., Zaccarella, E., Friederici, A., Steinbach, M. & Meister, N. K. (2024). Detection of extraneous visual signals does not reveal the syntactic structure of German Sign Language (DGS). Available at OSF [Preprint]. doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/esyqm

Special Interest Newsletters

Pohl, J., Nikolovska, K., Küster, D., Maurelli, F., Kappas, A., & Hommel, B. (2024). Towards a Pars Pro Toto Account of Selfhood-Attribution. The Brunswick Society Newsletter [Newsletter], 39, 48-51. https://brunswiksociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-Brunswik-Society-Newsletter.pdf

Conferences

Workshops	Nikolovska, K., Pohl, J., Lange, A., L., Pischedda, D, Kontogiorgos, D., Maurelli, F., & Hafner, V. V. (2025). Movement matters - A Turing test for robot interaction. 34th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN). (co-organizer)
Symposia	Pohl, J. (2024). Self-processing in the social mind: Insights from behavioral and neurocognitive psychology. 66th Conference of Experimental Psychologists. (organizer & chair)
Talks	Pohl, J. (2025). From naïve to social self. The social nature of the self Symposium of the DFG SPP "The Active Self". (invitation only)
	Pohl, J., & Miklashevsky, A. (2025). Left-right (and up-down) space-valence associations – A meta-analysis investigating handedness, culture and other factors. The Oslo Virtual Laterality Colloquium. (invited talk)
	Pohl, J., Nikolovska, K., Maurelli, F., Kappas, A., & Hommel, B. (2025). Beyond embodiment: Simple behavioral cues always affect our perception of robot agents. 67^th Conference of Experimental Psychologists.
	Pohl, J., Nikolovska, K., Maurelli, F., Kappas, A. & Hommel, B. (2024). Attribution of selfhood based on simple behavioral cues: Towards a Pars-Pro-Toto model. DFG SPP "The Active Self" Symposium.
	Pohl, J., Nikolovska, K., Maurelli, F., Kappas, A. & Hommel, B. (2024). Reconstructing the naïve theory of the self. 33^rd International Congress of Psychology.
	Pohl, J., Nikolovska, K., Küster, D., Maurelli, F., Kappas, A. & Hommel, B. (2024). Attribution of selfhood based on simple behavioral cues: Towards a Pars Pro Toto model. 66th Conference of Experimental Psychologists.
	Pohl, J. & Miklashevsky, A. (2023). Space-Valence Associations: A Meta-Analysis. Embodied and Situated Language Processing Conference.
	Pohl, J., Nikolovska, K., Maurelli, F., Kappas, A. & Hommel, B. (2023). Reconstructing the naïve theory of the self. 65^th Conference of Experimental Psychologists. (also chair of Human machine interaction and social cognition session)
Posters	Pohl, J.,, Nikolovska, K., Maurelli, F., Kappas, A. & Hommel, B. (2025). When less is more: Robots showing single selfhood-related cues perceived as more human-like. 34th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN): Movement matter - A Turing test for robot interaction.
	Vanni, A., Pohl, J.,** Liu, S., Yin, J., Pan, S., X., Hamilton, A. F. de C. & Ciaunica, A. (2025). (Dis)Embodied joint agency in human-VR agents interactions. 28th Annual meeting of the association for the scientific study of consciousness (ASSC). (*shared first authorship)
	Pohl, J., Nikolovska, K., Küster, D., Maurelli, F., Kappas, A. & Hommel, B. (2024). Attributing the concept of “self” to non-humanoid robots based on simple behavioral cues. Embodied and Situated Language Processing Conference.

Contact

Dr. rer. nat. Jan Pohl
jan-pohl@cog-sci.eu
Adaptive Systems Group
Building 4, Room 120
Humboldt University of Berlin
Rudower Chaussee 25
12489 Berlin