Workshop Leipzig
Decode the face
Eye-tracking and face-reading technologies are invaluable tools for advancing research on human behavior and emotions across disciplines like psychology, education, and neuroscience. Traditionally focused on cognition, the study of social behavior increasingly highlights the central role of emotions.
This workshop explores how these innovative methods transform our understanding of the interplay between cognition and emotion in both lab and real-world settings. Furthermore, it will also address the challenges of data collection, analysis, and interpretation.
By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, the workshop offers a unique platform for researchers, educators, and practitioners to exchange insights and address practical and theoretical hurdles in the use of these emerging technologies. Whether you are new to these tools or an experienced user, this workshop aims to equip you with the knowledge and skills to unlock their full potential in your research, but also to learn from and exchange with your peers.
Details and program
Join us at our workshop in Leipzig!
Date | March 25th, 2025
Time | 9:30 - 16:00 CET
Location | Universität Leipzig, Erziehungswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Haus 5, Marschnerstrasse 29a, 04109 Leipzig.
Program
- 9:30 – Walk-in
- 10:00 – Start of the workshop, 10-min intro
- 10:15 – Speaker | Brigitte Latzko and Sandra Dietrich
- 11:00 – Speaker | Katrin Rothmaler
- 11:45 – 15-min break
- 12:00 – Speaker | Daniela Schmidt
- 12:45 – Round talk
- 13:00 – Lunch break
- 14:00 – Open/Practical Session, short intro of Nenad Jovanovic (Tobii) and Judith Potvin (Noldus)
- 16:00 – Closing words
Speakers
Brigitte Latzko & Sandra Dietrich | Leipzig University
Brigitte Latzko is a Professor of Educational Psychology at Leipzig University. Together with Sandra Dietrich, a research assistant, three of the ongoing studies in their Emotion Lab will be presented, all of which use either the Noldus or the Tobii technique to capture emotions and gaze. The common aim of the different studies is to investigate the role of emotions for specific development or learning processes. For example, the role of positive emotions in an e-learning environment or the role of moral emotions for children’s moral, prosocial behaviour. They will discuss how combining the new technology and extending it to physiological measures can help to gain more insight.
Katrin Rothmaler | HumanKind, Leipzig University
Dr. Katrin Rothmaler is a Research Associate at the Humboldt Science Center for Child Development (HumanKind), an interdisciplinary research center at Leipzig University. HumanKind unites experts from research, practice, and policy to foster children’s positive development, mental health, and well-being. At HumanKind, Dr. Rothmaler leads the Leipzig Longitudinal Study about Kindness (LiebKind), a 12-year study (N = 3000) that follows children from birth to adulthood to uncover the foundations, precursors, and impacts of kindness across the lifespan. In her talk, Dr. Rothmaler will provide an overview of the LiebKind study and discuss opportunities to integrate advanced methodologies such as eye-tracking and automated facial expression analysis into the research, offering innovative insights into the developmental trajectories of kindness.
Daniela Schmidt | Max Planck Institute
Dr. Daniela Schmidt works as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Minerva Fast Track Group "Facets of Early Social Learning" at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Her previous work focused on employing eye tracking and facial electromyography to explore social learning and social motivation in infants. Her current work centers on comparing and advancing eye-tracking data quality across human infants, toddlers, adults, and chimpanzees. ion can be used to examine differences in levels of processing when learning from text.
Nenad Jovanovic | Tobii AB
Dr. Nenad Jovanovic has been an integral part of Tobii AB for nearly two years, leveraging his expertise in eye-tracking technology to drive customer success and innovation. With a PhD focused on language acquisition and processing using eye-tracking methodologies, Dr. Jovanovic combines academic consistency with practical experience to deliver tailored solutions to users. His previous work with eye-tracking software further helps him to understand and meet the diverse needs of clients in Germany.
Judith Potvin | Noldus IT
As part of Noldus IT, Judith Potvin will be presenting technologies for behavioural analysis. Indeed, Noldus has developed solutions in cooperation with researchers, that aim at providing the best insights into behavior without the technical hurdles. Noldus Technologies provide insights into expressions, emotions, stress, physiology, cognitive load, interaction, gaze, and more.