Original Brunswik

International conference about the works of Egon Brunswik
(1903-1955 / Budapest – Wien – Berkeley)

July 16-17, 2008
D-76829 Landau in der Pfalz (Germany)

Purpose of the conference

  • Psychologists grappling with the question of how an organism copes with its environment should give greater weight to the authentic psychological work of Egon Brunswik, because some often overlooked parts of his unique approach are relevant.

  • Some of his important ideas taken from his 48 publications (theoretical, methodological, experimental, practical) will be presented at Landau in July 2008, (compare the enclosed reference list).

  • The main focus will be on papers which examine the connections between (a) fundamental principles of the original work of Brunswik and (b) modern psychological research (especially in relation to factors such as decision, judgment or choice processes as they relate to concerning cognition and action).

Only selected experts on the original work of Brunswik
will participate and present papers

  • Probably 15 – 25 persons

Homepage: www.originalbrunswik.org

Language of the meeting: English

Organizer: Bernhard Wolf, University of Landau

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Wolf
University of Landau
Institute of Education
August-Croissant-Str. 5
D-76829 Landau
Germany
Phone: ++49-6341-990160
wolf@originalbrunswik.org

Scientifically supported by

  • Brunswik Society (www.brunswik.org)
  • Prof. Dr. Kenneth R. Hammond, Emeritus of the University of Colorado at Boulder
  • Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition (Director: Prof. Dr. Gerd Gigerenzer) at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin
  • University of Landau, Departments of Psychology and Education

Lodging and conference venue

Park-Hotel
Mahla Str. 1
D-76829 Landau
Germany
Phone: ++49-6341-1450
Email: info@parkhotel-landau.de
www.parkhotel-landau.de

Registration fee

30 Euro (can be paid in cash during the meeting)

Significance of Brunswik’s work

  • A largely overlooked, theoretical background for the explanation of the processes of adaptation between organism and environment.
  • Egon Brunswik (1903-1955) can be regarded as one of the most important psychologists between 1934 and 1955. He started his academic career in 1927 at the University of Vienna and later worked as a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. His theoretical, methodological and experimental contributions in the field of “Wahrnehmung” (perception), and later on, in cognition, were unique and still today are very promising for psychology (and its practical applications). Because he was a “loner”, his influence in scientific research was modest – then and now. Worldwide, only a few people today are well informed about and value this exceptional psychological approach. In order to broaden the knowledge about Brunswik’s authentic ideas which are highly relevant for the understanding in the areas of judgment, decision and choice in practice-oriented contexts, the meeting at Landau in July 2008 will provide the insight into some of his fundamental principles.
  • Within the important domain of „cognition“, two aspects are evident: correspondence and coherence. „Correspondence“is characterized by intuition, perception, equivocality, imperfection, but often vital relevance. “Coherence” is characterized by “arithmetic inference”, univocality, high precision, but sometimes bizarre errors. The two terms “Correspondence” and “Coherence” were proposed by Hammond. A reconciliation between the opposing points of view seems to be possible through complementary combination. – Compare, for example, the works of Brunswik, Hammond, and Gigerenzer.
  • His promising approach of construing “psychology in terms of objects” (“Grundlegung einer Psychologie vom Gegenstand her”, Brunswik, 1934a) was not accepted by the „main stream of psychological research” and should be reevaluated. “Environment” is regarded by Brunswik as an indispensable component of psychological research as represented in his structure model of organism and environment (compare Wolf, 1995, p. 23).
  • Brunswik’s illumination of the human “central navigation process” describes how the organism is able to cope with equivocality and ambiguity in an environment full of uncertainty (“lens model”; Brunswik, 1952, p. 20; Wolf, 1995, p 90-92)
  • The combination of the general principles of “probabilism” (in a broader sense) and “functionalism” can be utilized for the description of processes in cognition and action.
  • His draft model for a new methodology, called “representative design” was developed between 1941 and 1955 (Brunswik, 1956a), and enables us today to compute quantitative single-case studies (Wolf, 2007).

Topics (“Cues” for papers)

A list of topics derived from Brunswik’s original works is attached for the foundation in preparing a lecture for the meeting at Landau. Of course, this lecture can also deal with modern applications of Brunswikian ideas, but it should first and foremost contain substantial parts of Brunswik’s original concepts. Each conference paper should refer to the general title of the conference: “Original Brunswik”

Call for papers (and registration)

Papers for the Landau-meeting can be proposed at any time. Please use the email-address of Bernhard Wolf = wolf@originalbrunswik.org, in order to ask for clarification of any questions. The final decision about the structure of the agenda of the meeting in July 2008 will be finished at the end of May, 2008. Early announcements of the titles of papers (at the end of 2007) are desired.

Deadline for papers: April 30, 2008
Please send the title of the paper with a short summary (not more than 70 words) to Landau.

Deadline for registration: May 31, 2008

References

The following lists of references are attached

Persons who will be informed about the meeting

  • All members of the “Brunswik-Society”: via “List-Service” in www.brunswik.org
  • All participants of the 23rd meeting of the Brunswik society at Long Beach in November 2007
  • Through the Brunswik-Newsletter 2007, edited by L. Sjoedahl
  • All members of Gigerenzer’s ABC-Research Group at the Max-Planck-Institute in Berlin
  • All members of the faculty of psychology, the Institute of Education, and the Center of Educational Research (University of Landau)
  • Selected persons who are well informed about the work of Egon Brunswik

Results of the meeting

In 2008, all papers of the Landau-meeting will be published.

Books on Brunswik

Hammond, K.R. (Ed.).(1966). The psychology of Egon Brunswik. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Hammond, K.R. & Stewart, T. (Eds.).(2001). The essential Brunswik. Beginnings, explications, applications. New York: Oxford University Press.

Wolf, B. (1995). Brunswik und ökologische Perspektiven in der Psychologie. (Brunswik and ecological perspectives in psychology.) Weinheim: Deutscher Studien Verlag (Habilitationsschrift).

… three days before the International Congress of Psychology in Berlin

The following combination is possible with the Landau-meeting:
29th International Congress of Psychology (ICP)
July 20-25, 2008
Berlin (Germany)