Bert Timmermans

Bert Timmermans is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Aberdeen, where he has been working since 2013. He leads the SInC (Social Interaction and Cognition) lab, focusing on social cognition and consciousness research. His work bridges experimental psychology with neuroscience approaches to understand how humans interact with each other and with technology.

• PhD in Psychology (Social Cognition), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2006)
• Master in Cognitive Science, Université Libre de Bruxelles (1999)
• MSc in Psychology (Clinical/Experimental), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (1998)

Bert Timmermans' research focuses on social cognition, specifically examining social interaction, action contingencies, interaction dynamics, gaze behavior, eye tracking, social reward mechanisms, virtual avatars, and social agency. His consciousness research investigates perceptual awareness, metacognition, implicit learning, subliminal perception, and agency. He employs advanced methodologies including dual interactive eye tracking with virtual avatars to study real-time social interactions. His work has significant implications for understanding social difficulties in conditions like autism spectrum disorder and developing better human-AI interaction systems.

His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on the dynamics of social interaction, particularly examining how gaze behavior, temporal binding, and social agency function in both human-human and human-AI interactions. His research increasingly integrates computational approaches with traditional psychological methods, exploring how social rewards drive motor learning and how we distinguish between human and computer-generated behaviors in interactive contexts.

Scientific Awards and Recognition

• Higher Education Academy Fellow (2018, University of Aberdeen)

Timmermans has successfully secured multiple competitive research grants including a Carnegie Trust Research Incentive Grant (2019-2023), a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (2015-2019), a Volkswagen Foundation grant (2010-2013), and a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (2009-2011). He actively supervises PhD students and postdoctoral researchers through the SInC lab, with current projects including 'Sense of agency in interactions with AI versus humans' funded by BBSRC EastBio. His teaching responsibilities span undergraduate methodology courses and consciousness studies, as well as postgraduate research methods.

As principal investigator of the SInC lab, Timmermans leads a team investigating social cognition through innovative methodologies including dual interactive eye tracking and virtual reality. His lab members work on projects examining visual perspective taking, sense of agency in social interaction, and behavioral effects of gaze in social contexts. He collaborates extensively with researchers across Europe on consciousness and social cognition research.