Dr. Frank W. Stahnisch presents at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

During Reading Week, Dr. Frank Stahnisch was invited to present at a prominently staffed international conference, organized by the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG, Berlin) and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (MPIPL, Nijmegen). The conference in the Netherlands (Nov. 13-17, 2023) was entitled “Notes from the Future – From Behaviourism to Cognitive Science to Neuroscience." It brought together an interdisciplinary group of specialists celebrating the acquisition by the MPIPL of the private library of American experimental and humanist psychologist Jerome Bruner (1915-2016).  Discussions related to the role of archives and libraries in the history of neuropsychology, the historical development of the field between the psychology of language, cognitive science, and modern neuroscience, as well as current and future perspectives of behavioural neuroscience and artificial intelligence. 

Dr. Stahnisch presented findings from his previous research as a visiting scholar with the History of the Max Planck Society Research Program in a talk entitled: “The Meandering Course from Psycholinguistics to Cognitive Science and Neuroimaging – The MPI for Psycholinguistics as an Important Historical Case Example in (Inter-)Disciplinary Research Organization.” It addressed questions of “lived interdisciplinarity” in the field of psycholinguistics since the legendary Cornell Summer Seminars, organized by American psychologist John B. Carroll (1916-2003) in June-August 1951, and the incorporation of their recommendations into the founding of the MPIPL and its impactful research programs spanning the psychology of language, the neurobiology of language, along with comparative cognitive anthropology.