Do babies and toddlers thrive more in a noisy or quiet day care centre? Research by specialist in Education and Child Studies Claudia Werner shows that children feel most comfortable in an environment where there is a little noise. With this kind of research, the method of analysis is very important.…

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences brings together high-quality research and outstanding teaching.

Which criteria do ED patients and therapists evaluate as most relevant for recovery? Do patients and therapists differ in their evaluations? Do eating disorder patients differ from a healthy control group in their scores on the Recovery Scale?

Symposium and Workshops

Matheus Mendes was awarded the 12th Jaap Doek Thesis Prize at a ceremony on 13 December 2024 for his thesis on the right to read. The prize honours outstanding master’s theses in children’s rights.

Cognitive psychologists Eliska Prochazkova and Mariska Kret from Leiden University have won an Ig Nobel Prize for their research into the romantic click between people. They discovered that attraction between people can be predicted by synchrony in heart rate and skin conductance.

We are delighted to announce that Speech Prosody 2024 will be held in Leiden, The Netherlands (02–05 July 2024). The conference aims to showcase the facets of prosodic variation and their role in the production, comprehension, and acquisition of speech in order to obtain a better understanding of the…

AI MAPS adopts a freedom and social well-being perspective and focuses on three themes to address key security challenges; Social disorder and public nuisances in neighbourhoods, High-impact crime, and Crowds and events.

What is the role of cell wall-deficiency in the persistence of tuberculosis?

The Cognitive Psychology Unit contributes to the three-year BSc program and organizes two MSc specialisations.

The Creative Intelligence Lab is an interdisciplinary place which connects researchers with different backgrounds across the cognitive and computer sciences.

We study expressions of emotion and social decision making across species.

The Institute of Psychology is responsible for innovative and interdisciplinary research and education within psychology and related disciplines.

Within the Dutch Research School for Medieval Studies, medievalists from six Dutch universities work together. The school (together with the local graduate schools of the universities) takes care of the training of researchers focussed on the Middle Ages and provides educational activities…

In this dissertation I argue that the proto-daoist text the Zhuangzi and the ethical relation of Levinas are fruitful resources to reconsider the self-other relation in comparative philosophy.

The programme group Parenting, Child Care and Development studies how parents and other educators affect children's development, well-being and health. The emphasis is on the child's social, emotional and cognitive development and prevention of problems in these areas.

Speech Prosody 2024 includes several poster sessions, the description of which you can find below.

VVI Research Meetings 2023-2024

Leiden researchers and students receive national and international awards in recognition of their valuable performance in the areas of science and society.

Ragazzi, ‘Suspect community or suspect category?‘, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

The goal is to establish an intuitive search and querying service that allows researchers to quickly retrieve the most valuable digital resources, in order to allow them to integrate and synthesise the results into a coherent narrative of the past. The current focus of the project is to implement…

We work with groups and individuals, stakeholders and centers of excellence to create an environment in which Open Science and Recognition & Rewards can flourish.

Speech Prosody is the biennial meeting of the Speech Prosody Special Interest Group (SProSIG) of the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA).

How can child participation be defined, what is the importance of child participation and how can it be promoted?

Lecture, Research Seminar

Leiden University social scientists have shown that customised intervention pays off. A new fundamental research-based approach in children who are in danger of going off the rails has delivered spectacular results.

In case of serious illness, treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (IC) may be necessary. Intensive care treatments has improved over the years and more and more seriously ill patients are surviving admission to the ICU. This favorable development however has a downside since long-term consequences of…

Leiden University neuropsychologists have shown that customised intervention pays off. A new fundamental research-based approach in children who are in danger of going off the rails has delivered spectacular results.

Since itch and pain can be very burdensome, especially when individuals suffer from (either of) these symptoms chronically, it is important to know the factors by which these sensations are influenced. It becomes more and more clear that psychological factors play an important role in the experience…

The master's specialisation Clinical Neuropsychology consists of three main parts: the mandatory and elective courses, a thesis and an internship.

How can parents avoid passing on stress and mental health problems to their children? Professor of Stress-Related Psychopathology Bernet Elzinga develops simple interventions to help both parents and young people. For her research, she has been awarded the Spinoza Prize, the highest academic honour…

Somatic symptoms, such as pain, itch, and fatigue have been shown to have a bidirectional relationship with mental symptoms. Although acute somatic symptoms serve some adaptive properties, chronic symptoms can instead lead to interference in daily activities and lower quality of life.

Some children and adolescents find it hard to attend school because of anxiety and/or depression, a problem which is often referred to as school refusal. The main research question is how we can best help these young people reduce their emotional distress and increase their school attendance in order…

Adoptees in the Netherlands generally do not use more medication than their non-adopted peers.

Media & interaction is where artificial intelligence and machine learning meet philosophy, cognitive science, and the creative arts. Examples of research questions in this domain are: 'Can an algorithm be creative by human standards?', 'Can creative processes, such as composing music or writing poetry,…

Baroque flautist Jed Wentz followed two years of dancing classes in order to develop the right feeling for the gestures required for the Baroque French opera genre ‘tragédie en musique’. In his dissertation, the links between gesture affect and rhythmic freedom in the performance of the tragédie en…

Media & interaction is where artificial intelligence and machine learning meet philosophy, cognitive science, and the creative arts. Examples of research questions in this domain are: 'Can an algorithm be creative by human standards?', 'Can creative processes, such as composing music or writing poetry,…

The aim of our research program is to better understand the aetiology and course of mood, anxiety and trauma and stressor-related disorders and to test and improve treatments for these disorders.

Fundamental research teaches us how our brain decides to eat one more sweet, instead of doing exercise. A public information campaign about healthy lifestyle has little impact on the decision, as Professor of General Psychology Bernard Hommel is aware. However, he does know what works. But the question…

The master's specialisation Economic and Consumer Psychology consists of three main parts: the mandatory and elective courses, a thesis and an internship.

Permission was recently given for all members of the examining committee and co-supervisors at PhD ceremonies to wear academic dress, even if they’re not full professors. How historic is this change?

PhD defence

ENPAIR, the European Network on Psychoeducational Assessment, Intervention and Rehabilitation, has its founding roots in Europe, but brings together scientific researchers and evidence-based working practitioners from countries all over the world.

The Creative Intelligence Lab (CIL) is an interdisciplinary research lab that connects researchers with different backgrounds across the cognitive and computer sciences. It is affiliated to the Media Technology MSc program. Researchers and students from the Media Technology group play a large role in…

The unit Health, Medical and Neuropsychology offers eduction and conducts research on related fields of Health, Medical and Neuropsychology.

Central elements in the research activities of all programme group members are: attachment, sensitive caregiving, and prevention and intervention.

Observational, cognitive and physiological measurements in social contexts.

It is integral to many cluster members’ research to use Medieval and Early Modern Arts as a lens for studying the medieval and early modern periods at large: