How the Mind Comes into Being Introducing Cognitive Science from a Functional and Computational Perspective

Martin V. Butz, Professor in Cognitive Modeling, Department of Computer Science and Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Tubingen, Germany. Esther F. Kutter, PhD student, Department of Computer Science and Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Tubingen, Germany.

With a Diplom with honors in computer science with a minor in psychology (University of Wurzburg, Germany, 08/2001) and a PhD in computer science (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA, 10/2004), Dr. Butz has been pursuing interdisciplinary, collaborative research in cognitive science for more than fifteen years. He has published more than fifty journal articles in various disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals including, for example, Neural Networks, Evolutionary Computation, Biological Cybernetics, Journal of Vision, Experimental Brain Research, PLoS ONE, and Psychological Review. Since 09/2011 Dr. Butz has been working as a full professor in Cognitive Modeling at the University of Tubingen, Germany.
Esther Kutter has graduated with honors with a Master of Science in cognitive science (University of Tubingen, Germany, 09/2015). Her primary research focus lies in understanding how the brain represents the own body and how abstract concepts and categories are established and encoded purposefully for enabling intelligent, goal-directed behavior. She is currently continuing her research as a PhD student in neuroscience at the department of Animal Research at the University of Tubingen.