معرفی
Andrea Bender is a Professor in the Department of Social Psychology at the University of Bergen (Norway), where she conducts research at the intersection of cognition, language, and culture. Her work spans multiple research groups including the Research group for decision-making, intuition, consciousness and emotions and the Bergen Laboratory for the Study of Decision, Intuition, Consciousness, and Emotion.
Her primary research interests focus on the relationship between cognition, language, and culture, with specific attention to conceptual systems and fundamental cognitive processes. She investigates numerical representation, spatial and temporal references, causal cognition, and the impact of linguistic categories (such as grammatical gender) on thought processes. Her research employs diverse methodologies including conceptual analysis, ethnography (particularly in the Polynesian kingdom of Tonga), cross-cultural/cross-linguistic comparisons, and cognitive and psycholinguistic experiments.
Analysis of her recent publications (2019-2025) reveals a consistent research trajectory exploring cultural influences on cognitive processes, with particular emphasis on numerical cognition across cultures. Her work has evolved from studies of Polynesian counting systems (notably the Mangarevan binary system) to broader investigations of causal cognition, spatial reasoning, and more recently, cultural knowledge systems related to mushrooms. Her research demonstrates a strong commitment to cross-cultural cognitive science, highlighting both universal and culturally-specific aspects of human cognition.
- Media coverage in ScienceNOW for Evolution of number systems research (2008)
- Media coverage in The Guardian for Finger counting research (2012)
- Media coverage in ScienceNOW, Nature, and New Scientist for Mangarevan binary counting research (2013)
Professor Bender teaches several courses including Introduction to the Cognitive Sciences (KOGVIT101), Perspectives in Psychological Science (MAPSYK301), Cognitive Psychology, Advanced Topics in Cognitive Psychology (MAPSYK317), and Research perspectives within social and cognitive psychology (MAPSYK304). She also supervises Master's theses in psychology. Her research is associated with the Center for Early Sapiens Behavior (SapienCE), funded by the Research Council of Norway.
She leads the Bergen Laboratory for the Study of Decision, Intuition, Consciousness, and Emotion, which conducts cross-cultural research on fundamental cognitive processes. Her team collaborates with researchers across disciplines to investigate how cultural contexts shape cognitive mechanisms, with particular attention to numerical cognition, spatial reasoning, and causal attribution.
