51cg

The School of Psychology

Dr Bert Timmermans

In this section
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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  • Visual Perspective-taking and Image-like Representations: We Can See it

    Aldrich, L., McDonough, K. L., Timmermans, B., Bach, P.
    Cognition, vol. 278, 106699
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • On Meta-Inference in Artificial Systems: Self-Regulating the Perceived Minds of Robots

    Currie, J. W., Stewart, B., Litt, I., Finch, E., Aldrich, L. P., Timmermans, B., Giannaccini, M. E., Bach, P.
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Method matters: Diverging patterns in online measures of temporal binding

    Silver, C. A., Tatler, B., Chakravarthi, R., Timmermans, B.
    Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 140, 104022
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Psychopathic traits alter facial expression of posed and spontaneous smiles, and associated emotional experience

    Chaliou, A., Miles, L., Timmermans, B.
    Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 257, 113752
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Experimental investigations of social exclusion among adolescents with psychiatric disorders: A systematic review

    Weinreich, L., Moll, K., Sperl, M. F. J., Schulte-Körne, G., Timmermans, B.
    European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 34, pp. 2631–2648
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • The time course of Temporal Binding in social and nonsocial interactions

    Silver, C. A., Tatler, B., Chakravarthi, R., Timmermans, B.
    Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 326-341
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • The time course of social and non-social implicit Sense of Agency

    Silver, C. A., Tatler, B., Chakravarthi, R., Timmermans, B.
    Working Papers: Preprint Papers
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Social Agency as a Continuum

    Silver, C., Tatler, B., Chakravarthi, R., Timmermans, B.
    Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, vol. 28, pp. 434-453
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • Alexithymic and autistic traits: relevance for comorbid depression and social phobia in adults with and without autism spectrum disorder

    Albantakis, L., Brandi, M., Zillekens, I. C., Henco, L., Weindel, L., Thaler, H., Schliephake, L., Timmermans, B., Schilbach, L.
    Autism, vol. 24, no. 8, pp. 2046-2056
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • Research Plan - How gaze is deployed in visual target choice and how we identify if like-wise choices are human- or computer-generated when observing and interacting

    Silver, C. A., Tatler, B., Chakravarthi, R., Timmermans, B.
    EPS Online 2020
    Contributions to Conferences: Posters
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Motor response influences perceptual awareness judgements

    Siedlecka, M., Hobot, J., Skóra, Z., Paulewicz, B., Timmermans, B., Wierzchon, M.
    Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 75, 102804
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE]

  • Multi-scale coordination of distinctive movement patterns during embodied interaction between adults with high-functioning autism and neurotypicals

    Zapata-Fonseca, L., Dotov, D. G., Fossion, R. Y. M., Froese, T., Schilbach, L., Vogeley, K., Timmermans, B.
    Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 9, 2760
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE]

  • Responses improve the accuracy of confidence judgements in memory tasks

    Siedlecka, M., Skóra, Z., Paulewicz, B., Fijalkowska, S., Timmermans, B., Wierzchon, M.
    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 712-723
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • Sensitivity to social contingency in adults with high-functioning autism during computer-mediated embodied interaction

    Zapata-Fonseca, L., Froese, T., Schilbach, L., Vogeley, K., Timmermans, B.
    Behavioral Sciences, vol. 8, no. 2, 22
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Initiating Both Joint and Nonjoint Attention Improves Memory for Other Race Faces

    Timmermans, B., El Amin, D., Luke, C.
    Scottish Vision Group Meeting, 2017, pp. 5-6
    Contributions to Journals: Abstracts
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • The influence of dyadic gaze dynamics on joint and individual decisions

    Timmermans, B., Barisic, I., Hermens, F., Schilbach, L.
    Perception, vol. 44, no. Suppl 1, pp. 263-264
    Contributions to Journals: Abstracts
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • How can we measure awareness? An overview of current methods.

    Timmermans, B., Cleeremans, A.
    Behavioral Methods in Consciousness Research. Overgaard, M. (ed.). Oxford University Press, pp. 21-46, 26 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Why we interact: on the functional role of the striatum in the subjective experience of social interaction

    Pfeiffer, U. J., Schilbach, L., Timmermans, B., Kuzmanovic, B., Georgescu, A. L., Bente, G., Vogeley, K.
    Neuroimage, vol. 101, pp. 124-137
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Investigating alterations of social interaction in psychiatric disorders with dual interactive eye tracking and virtual faces

    Timmermans, B., Schilbach, L.
    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, vol. 8, 758
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Different subjective awareness measures demonstrate the influence of visual identification on perceptual awareness ratings

    Wierzchon, M., Paulewicz, B., Asanowicz, D., Timmermans, B., Cleeremans, A.
    Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 27, pp. 109-120
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Effects of observing eye contact on gaze following in high-functioning autism

    Böckler, A., Timmermans, B., Sebanz, N., Vogeley, K., Schilbach, L.
    Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, vol. 44, no. 7, pp. 1651-1658
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • "Making it explicit" makes a difference: Evidence for a dissociation of spontaneous and intentional level 1 perspective taking in high-functioning autism

    Schwarzkopf, S., Schilbach, L., Vogeley, K., Timmermans, B.
    Cognition, vol. 131, no. 3, pp. 345-354
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Nonconscious learning from crowded sequences

    Atas, A., Faivre, N., Timmermans, B., Cleeremans, A., Kouider, S.
    Psychological Science, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 113-119
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • A second-person neuroscience in interaction: Authors' Response

    Schilbach, L., Timmermans, B., Reddy, V., Costall, A., Bente, G., Schlicht, T., Vogeley, K.
    Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 441-462
    Contributions to Journals: Comments and Debates
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Toward a second-person neuroscience

    Schilbach, L., Timmermans, B., Reddy, V., Costall, A., Bente, G., Schlicht, T., Vogeley, K.
    Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 393-414
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE]
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
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