Verena Seibold

Dr. Verena Seibold is a Researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Tübingen, Germany, specializing in Evolutionary Cognition within the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. She serves as the Coordinator for the B.Sc./M.Sc. Cognitive Science programs and the Center for Cognitive Science (50%) and as Coordinator for Studies and Teaching (24%) in the Department of Computer Science.

Dr. Seibold earned her doctorate (Dr. rer. nat) from the University of Tübingen in February 2015, following her psychology studies (diploma) from 2004 to 2009. Her academic journey also includes studies in art education at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart (2002-2004) and preparatory studies in Fine Arts at Schwäbisch Hall Academy of Arts (2001-2002).

Her primary research focuses on temporal attention and preparation, investigating how warning signals in our environment help us prepare for future events. She examines whether these signals selectively enhance perception and action preparation. Another key area is the mechanisms of attention activation (alerting), exploring why attention-activating signals magnify conflict effects in cognitive tasks and how they influence visuospatial attention allocation. Using event-related potentials (ERP), she studies how temporal attention effects manifest in brain activity, and she also researches language processing, particularly how we handle linguistic information without discourse context.

Dr. Seibold's recent publications (2022-2024) reveal a strong focus on temporal attention mechanisms, discourse comprehension, and the cortical dynamics of language processing. Her work increasingly integrates electrophysiological methods with cognitive paradigms to understand the neural underpinnings of attention and language. She frequently collaborates with researchers like Bettina Rolke, Susanne Dietrich, and Janina Balke.

Her scientific achievements include:

• 2017 Research grant 'Mechanisms of temporal preparation in the context of stimulus selection' (Duration: 2018-2023) from the German Research Foundation (DFG)
• 2015 Doctoral Prize of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences from the University of Tübingen

Dr. Seibold actively contributes to academic service as an elected member of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences since October 2022, and previously served on the Senate Commission 'Studies and Teaching' (2020-2022) and the Cognitive Science Study Commission (2015-2019). She has been teaching Cognitive Science courses since Winter semester 2010/2011, including seminars on Psychophysiology, Data Analysis in R, and Experimental Cognitive Science. Her research is conducted within the Evolutionary Cognition Research Group under Prof. Dr. Bettina Rolke in the Department of Psychology.