51cg

People

Dr Bert Timmermans

Dr Bert Timmermans
Dr Bert Timmermans
Dr Bert Timmermans

Senior Lecturer

51cg
Email Address
bert.timmermans@abdn.ac.uk
Telephone Number
+44 (0)1224 273483
Office Address
S9 William Guild Building
Old Aberdeen Campus
110 St. Machar Drive
AB24 2UB

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School/Department
School of Psychology




Biography

  • 2019– Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor), 51cg
  • 2013–2019 Lecturer (Assistant Professor), 51cg
  • 2010–2012  / , ,
  • 2007–2009 Research Fellow, ,
  • 2006 PhD in Psychology (Social Cognition), Vrije Universiteit Brussel
  • 2000–2006 Research & Teaching Assistant, ,
  • 1999 Master in Cognitive Science, Université Libre de Bruxelles
  • 1998 MSc in Psychology (Clinical/Experimental), Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Qualifications

  • Higher Education Academy Fellow 
    2018 - 51cg 
  • PhD Psychology 
    2006 - Vrije Universiteit Brussel 
  • MSc Cognitive Science 
    1999 - Université Libre de Bruxelles 
  • MSc Psychology 
    1998 - Vrije Universiteit Brussel 

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal Memberships
  • Psychology Ethics Committee 2023–
  • School representative to University Senate 2015–16 / 2022–27
  • Senate Assessor to University Court (until 30th September 2027)
  • School of Psychology first aider () 2019–
External Memberships
  • – Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
  • – European Society for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
  • – European Society for Cognitive Psychology
Research

Research Overview

  • Social cognition: social interaction, social sense of agency, action contingencies & interaction dynamics, gaze & eye tracking, social reward. Consciousness: perceptual awareness and metacognition, implicit learning, subliminal perception.

Current Research

Topics & Projects

Here's some of what's currently going on or will be in the near future. Undergraduates, prospective PhD students or postdocs, please enquire — people with skills in Python, Vizard, MatLab, eye tracking, or Cross-Recurrence Quantification Analysis (CRQA) are especially welcome:

  • Social cognition in interaction versus observation
  • Relationship between Ascriptions of self- and other-agency in social interaction
  • Social versus monetary reward in social cognition & motor learning
  • Real-time gaze-based social interaction, analysis of interaction dynamics
  • Subjective measures of consciousness and metacognition

Supervision

Current SInC lab members:

  • (2026– PhD student, sense of agency in interactions with AI, BBSRC EastBio DTP)
  • (2023– PhD student, visual perspective taking & imagery, School of Psychology PhD Studentship)
  • (2026– Postdoc, ESRC; 2019-24 PhD, sense of agency in social interaction, BBSRC EastBio DTP)

Former SInC lab members:

PhDs/postdocs

  • (PhD student external supervisor, cyber-bullying and learning disorders, with & , 2020-25)
  • M. Kasprzyk (PhD, behavioural effects of social interaction-related reward, 2016-23, School of Psychology PhD Studentship)
  • (PhD, psychopathic traits and social facial expressions, 2016-22, self-funded)
  • (Postdoc, Dual Interactive eye tracking w Virtual Avatars, 2016-18, BT Marie Curie Career Integration Grant)

Research Assistants

 

(2025 sense of agency and memory for faces, Development Trust summer internship); (2024-25 sense of agency in social interaction EEG); P. Mann (2024-25 sense of agency in social interaction EEG); (2023-24 sense of agency in social interaction EEG, Carnegie Vacation Scholarship); (2022-24 sense of agency in social interaction EEG, School of Psychology Summer Internship); (2020-22 sense of agency; social facial expressions, BT Carnegie RIG); (2020 sense of agency in eye gaze); (2020 self-initiated joint attention & reward); (2019 sense of agency in social interaction, BT Carnegie RIG);  (2028-19 self-initiated joint attention & reward); (2018 visual awareness and metacognition); (2017 joint attention and cross-race effect); (2015 self-initiated joint attention & reward, School of Psychology Summer Internship); (2014 Dual Interactive eye tracking w Virtual Avatars, School of Psychology Summer Internship); (2010-13 Dual Interactive eye tracking w Virtual Avatars, Cologne, BT Volkswagen Foundation Grant); (2010-12 perspective taking in autism, Cologne, BT Volkswagen Foundation Grant)

Funding and Grants

Principal Investigator

  • 2025–26 — "Sense of agency in social interaction through reciprocal action timing" £10,000
  • 2019–23 (RIG008270) — "Experiencing myself through you: Self-agency in social interaction" £10,000
  • 2015–19  €100,000
  • 2010–13 — co-PI with L. Schilbach (University Hospital of Cologne), T. Schlicht (Ruhr-University of Bochum), N. Steinbeis (MPI Leipzig) €317,000
  • 2009–11  €169,000

Other

  • 2019–23 Participant to, and UK Management Committee Substitute for (PI Kristian Sandberg, Aarhus University)
  • 2015–18 Research partner to PI , Jagiellonian University of Krakow, on a  from the Polish National Science Centre — "Cognitive and neuronal mechanisms of metacognitive awareness"
Teaching

Courses

Teaching Responsibilities

Undergraduate

  • Level 1-3 — Psychology Methodology curriculum coordinator
  • Level 3 — PS3015 Methodology A [course coordinator; GLM/SPSS]
  • Level 3 — PS3522 Methodology B [course coordinator; GLM/SPSS; research project supervisor]
  • Level 3-4 — SX3504 Consciousness [course coordinator; Behavioural Measures]
  • Level 4 — PS4019 / PS4038 Psychology Thesis [supervision]

Postgraduate

  • MRes — PS5302 / PS5801 Basic & Advanced Research Methods for Postgraduates [R: ANOVA/Factor Analysis/Logistic regression] 
  • MRes — PS5017 Research Project for Postgraduate Students in Psychology [supervision]
  • MSc Psychological Studies — PS5903 Research Project [supervision]

 

Publications

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  • Social interaction builds the we-mode: Online comment on Gallotti & Frith "Social cognition in the we-mode"

    Timmermans, B., Schlicht, T., Schilbach, L.
    Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol. 17, no. 4
    Contributions to Journals: Comments and Debates
    • [ONLINE]

  • Using dual eye-tracking to investigate real time social interactions

    Barišic, I., Timmermans, B., Pfeiffer, U. J., Bente, G., Vogeley, K., Schilbach, L.
    Contributions to Conferences: Papers
    • [ONLINE]

  • Towards a neuroscience of social interaction

    Pfeiffer, U. J., Timmermans, B., Vogeley, K., Frith, C. D., Schilbach, L.
    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, vol. 7, 22
    Contributions to Journals: Editorials
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Eyes on the mind: investigating the influence of gaze dynamics on the perception of others in real-time social interaction

    Pfeiffer, U. J., Schilbach, L., Timmermans, B., Jording, M., Bente, G., Vogeley, K.
    Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 3, 537
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Higher-order thoughts in action: Consciousness as an unconscious re-description process

    Timmermans, B., Schilbach, L., Pasquali, A., Cleeremans, A.
    Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological sciences, vol. 367, no. 1594, pp. 1412-1423
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Introspective minds: using ALE meta-analyses to investigate commonalities in the neural correlates of emotional processing, social and unconstrained cognition

    Schilbach, L., Bzdok, D., Timmermans, B., Fox, P. T., Laird, A. R., Vogeley, K., Eickhoff, S. B.
    PloS ONE, vol. 7, no. 2, e30920
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Spontaneous goal inferences are often inferred faster than spontaneous trait inferences

    Van Overwalle, F., Van Duynslaeger, M., Coomans, D., Timmermans, B.
    Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 13-18
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Measuring consciousness: task accuracy and awareness as sigmoid functions of stimulus duration

    Sandberg, K., Bibby, B. M., Timmermans, B., Cleeremans, A., Overgaard, M.
    Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 1659-1675
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • A non-verbal Turing test: differentiating mind from machine in gaze-based social interaction

    Pfeiffer, U. J., Timmermans, B., Bente, G., Vogeley, K., Schilbach, L.
    PloS ONE, vol. 6, no. 11, e27591
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Measuring consciousness: is one measure better than the other?

    Sandberg, K., Timmermans, B., Overgaard, M., Cleeremans, A.
    Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 1069-1078
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Partial awareness distinguishes between measuring conscious perception and conscious content: Reply to Dienes and Seth

    Timmermans, B., Sandberg, K., Cleeremans, A., Overgaard, M.
    Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 1081-1083
    Contributions to Journals: Comments and Debates
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Know thyself: metacognitive networks and measures of consciousness

    Pasquali, A., Timmermans, B., Cleeremans, A.
    Cognition, vol. 117, no. 2, pp. 182-190
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Experiencing more complexity than we can tell

    Timmermans, B., Windey, B., Cleeremans, A.
    Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 229-230
    Contributions to Journals: Comments and Debates
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Optimizing subjective measures of consciousness

    Overgaard, M., Timmermans, B., Sandberg, K., Cleeremans, A.
    Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 682-684
    Contributions to Journals: Comments and Debates
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • How unconscious is subliminal perception?

    Overgaard, M., Timmermans, B.
    Handbook of Phenomenology and Cognitive Science. Gallagher, S., Schmicking, D. (eds.). Springer, pp. 501-518, 18 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Metacognitive networks and measures of consciousness

    Pasquali, A., Timmermans, B., Cleeremans, A.
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings
    • [ONLINE]

  • Consciousness and metarepresentation: A computational sketch

    Cleeremans, A., Timmermans, B., Pasquali, A.
    Neural Networks, vol. 20, no. 9, pp. 1032-1039
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • The geographic distribution of Big Five personality traits: Patterns and profiles of human self-description across 56 nations

    Schmitt, D. P., Allik, J., McCrae, R. R., Benet-Martínez, V., Alcalay, L., Ault, L., Austers, I., Bennett, K. L., Bianchi, G., Boholst, F., Borg Cunene, M. A., Braeckman, J., Brained Jr., E. G., Timmermans, B., Vanhoomissen, T., Van Overwalle, F.
    Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 173-212
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Discounting and the role of the relationship between causes

    Van Overwalle, F., Timmermans, B.
    European Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 199-223
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Patterns and Universals of Adult Romantic Attachment Across 62 Cultural Regions: Are Models of Self and of Other Pancultural Constructs?

    Schmitt, D. P., Alcalay, L., Allensworth, M., Allik, J., Ault, L., Austers, I., Bennett, K. L., Bianchi, G., Boholst, F., Cunen, M. A. B., Braeckman, J., Brainerd, E. G., Caral, L. G. A., Caron, G., Casullo, M. M., Cunningham, M., Daibo, I., De Backer, C., De Souza, E., Diaz-Loving, R., Diniz, G., Durkin, K., Echegaray, M., Eremsoy, E., Euler, H. A., Falzon, R., Fisher, M. L., Foley, D., Fowler, R., Fry, D. P., Fry, S., Ghayur, M. A., Giri, V. N., Golden, D. L., Grammer, K., Grimaldi, L., Halberstadt, J., Haque, S., Herrera, D., Hertel, J., Hitchell, A., Hoffmann, H., Hooper, D., Hradilekova, Z., Hudek-Kene-Evi, J., Huffcutt, A., Jaafar, J., Jankauskaite, M., Kabangu-Stahel, H., Kardum, I., Khoury, B., Kwon, H., Laidra, K., Laireiter, A., Lakerveld, D., Lampert, A., Lauri, M., LavallÉe, M., Lee, S., Leung, L. C., Locke, K. D., Locke, V., Luksik, I., Magaisa, I., Marcinkeviciene, D., Mata, A., Mata, R., Mccarthy, B., Mills, M. E., Mkhize, N. J., Moreira, J., Moreira, S., Moya, M., Munyae, M., Noller, P., Olimat, H., Opre, A., Panayiotou, A., Petrovic, N., Poels, K., Popper, M., Poulimenou, M., P'Yatokha, V., Raymond, M., Reips, U., Reneau, S. E., Rivera-Aragon, S., Rowatt, W. C., Ruch, W., Rus, V. S., Safir, M. P., Salas, S., Sambataro, F., Sandnabba, K. N., Schleeter, R., Schulmeyer, M. K., SchÜTz, A., Scrimali, T., Shackelford, T. K., Sharan, M. B., Shaver, P. R., Sichona, F., Simonetti, F., Sineshaw, T., Sookdew, R., Speelman, T., Spyrou, S., Sümer, H. C., Sümer, N., Supekova, M., Szlendak, T., Taylor, R., Timmermans, B., Tooke, W., Tsaousis, I., Tungaraza, F. S., Turner, A., Vandermassen, G., Vanhoomissen, T., Van Overwalle, F., Vanwesenbeeck, I., Vasey, P. L., Verissimo, J., Voracek, M., Wan, W. W., Wang, T., Weiss, P., Wijaya, A., Woertman, L., Youn, G., ZupanÈiÈ, A.
    Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 367-402
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Patterns and Universals of Mate Poaching Across 53 Nations: The Effects of Sex, Culture, and Personality on Romantically Attracting Another Person's Partner

    Schmitt, D. P., International Sexuality Description Project, Alcalay, L., Allik, J., Angleitner, A., Ault, L., Austers, I., Bennett, K. L., Timmermans, B., Vanhoomissen, T., Van Overwalle, F.
    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 86, no. 4, pp. 560-584
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Are men universally more dismissing than women? Gender differences in romantic attachment across 62 cultural regions

    Schmitt, D. P., Alcalay, L., Allensworth, M., Allik, J., Ault, L., Austers, I., Bennett, K. L., Timmermans, B., Vanhoomissen, T., Van Overwalle, F.
    Personal Relationships, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 307-331
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Universal sex differences in the desire for sexual variety: Tests from 52 nations, 6 continents, and 13 islands

    Schmitt, D. P., International Sexuality Description Project, Alcalay, L., Allik, J., Ault, L., Austers, I., Bennett, K. L., Timmermans, B., Vanhoomissen, T., Van Overwalle, F.
    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 85, no. 1, pp. 85-104
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Learning about an absent cause: Discounting and augmentation of positively and independently related causes

    Van Overwalle, F., Timmermans, B.
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Rules versus statistics in implicit learning of biconditional grammars.

    Timmermans, B., Cleeremans, A.
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
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