Paul Hemeren

• Ph.D. Cognitive Science, Lund University
• Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Hope College, USA 

Dissertation:
Hemeren, P. E. (2008). Mind in Action: Action Representation and the Perception of Biological Motion. Lund University Cognitive Studies 140, Lund University, Sweden. [ISBN 978-91-977380-2-6] [Abstract] [complete dissertation: pdf]

Member of Cognition and Interaction Lab, COIN

Current Research Projects

1. ROSSI [EU-funded project, part-time]:
   Emergence of communication in RObots through Sensorimotor and Social Interaction (ROSSI).
   http://www.rossiproject.eu/

2. Detecting Pedestrian Intent via Social Signal Processing
   [As principal investigator together with Mikael Johannesson.] The gist of the project is to establish cooperation between researchers within the humanities and social sciences  and companies that are interested in the potential of applying knowledge of human action recognition to the development of traffic and driver safety technology.

Swedish media links to the project:

• Local television TV4
• Swedish National Radio (Ekot)
• Local morning radio (SR-Skaraborg)
• Brief description from a news site.

Research Interests

Our ability to recognize other people and their actions is critical for us in our daily lives. The focus of my research is the perception (and production) of human motion, i.e., motor cognition.  As a cognitive scientist, my research addresses the relationship between perception, categorization and language. How can we talk about what we see? How can we talk about what others are doing, and what qualities do different actions have such that they cause us to see them as being similar or different? To what extent does language reflect and depend on the way our bodies can move and the way different cultures talk about human actions? How is information about human action/movement processed in the brain?

In Swedish
I min forskning tittar jag på hur vi bildar begrepp för saker och ting. Mer specifikt undersöker jag hur vi uppfattar andra människors rörelser i form av olika handlingar. Människan och andra varelser har en fantastiskt förmåga att snabbt uppfatta vad andra gör. Hur går detta till? Vilken information används för att uppfatta en annan människas avsikter hos en handling eller rörelse?

En sida hos min forskning handlar om hur vi organiserar vår kunskap om andras och våra egna handlingar. Den andra sidan i min forskning handlar om hur rörelseinformation i samband med andras handlingar bearbetas i den mänskliga hjärnan. Ett viktigt syfte med min forskning är att integrera dessa två sidor för att få en bredare och djupare förståelse för hur vi uppfattar vår interaktion med andra.

Teaching

Intro to Cognitive Science
[Swedish webpage] Kognitionsvetenskap - introduktion, 7,5 hp

Research Perspectives in Cognitive Science
Kognitionsvetenskap - forskningsperspektiv, 7,5 hp

Cognition and Intuition
[Swedish webpage] Kognition och intuition, 7,5 hp

Quantitative Methods
[English webpage] Kognitionsvetenskap - kvantitativa metoder, 7,5 hp

Professional Membership

• Member of the Cognitive Science Society
• Member of 2nd European Network for the Advancement of Artificial Cognitive Systems, Interaction and Robotics.
• Member of the UK Cognitive Linguistics Association
• Member of the Association for Psychological Science
• Member of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology

Review Work

• PLoS ONE
• Vision Research
• Consciousness and Cognition
• Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Scientific Works

Hemeren, P.E. & Thill, S. (2011). Deriving motor primitives through action segmentation. Frontiers in Psychology, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00243 .

Thill, S., Hemeren, P.E. & Durán, B. (2011). Prediction of human action segmentation based on end-effector kinematics using linear models. European Conference on Cognitive Science, Sofia, Bulgaria. [pdf]

Hemeren, P.E. & Alklind Taylor, A-S. (forthcoming). Vad gör en kognitionsvetare? [Eng. trans.What can you do with an undergraduate degree in cognitive science?]. In: M. Jensen (Ed.) En introduktion till kognitionsvetenskap. Studentlitteratur, Lund.

Malmgren, H., Hemeren, P.E. & Svensson, H. (forthcoming). Begrepp och mentala representationer. [Eng. trans. Concepts and Mental Representations]. In: M. Jensen (Ed.) En introduktion till kognitionsvetenskap. Studentlitteratur, Lund.

Hemeren, P.E., Thill, S., Duran, B. & Ziemke, T. (2010). Action Segmentation: Finding cognitively plausible action primitives. 4th International Conference on Cognitive Systems, Zurich, Switzerland.

Thill, S., Durán, B., Hemeren, P.E. & Ziemke, T. (2010). Bio-plausible robot control via the Mirror Neuron System. Poster presented at the International Conference on Cognitive Systems. Zürich, Switzerland.

Hemeren, P.E., Kasviki, S. & Gawronska, B. (2008). Lexicalization of natural actions and cross-linguistic stability. In A. Botinis (Ed.) Proceedings of the 2nd ISCA Workshop on Experimental Linguistics (pp. 105-108), ExLing 2008, 25-27 August 2008, Athens, Greece, University of Athens. [ISBN 978-960-466-020-9]

Hemeren, P.E. & Gawronska, B. (2007). Cross-linguistic comparisons of spatial patterns for natural action verbs. 10th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference, Krakow, Poland.

Hemeren, P.E. & Gawronska, B. (2007). Lexicalization of natural actions and cross-linguistic stability. In E. Ahlsén et al. (Eds.) Communication - Action - Meaning: A Festschrift to Jens Allwood (pp. 57-73) Göteborg University. [ISBN 978-91-975752-45]

Hemeren, P.E. (2005). Orientation specific effects of automatic access to categorical information in biological motion perception. In B.G. Bara, L. Barsalou & M. Bucciarelli (Eds.) Proceedings of the Twenty-seventh Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 935-940. [ISBN 0-9768318-1-3][Oral presentation] [pdf]

Hemeren, P.E. (2005). The embodiment of perception: A case for semantic level representations. European conference on Computing and Philosophy, Mälardalen University, Sweden. [Oral presentation] [Abstract pdf]

Hemeren, P.E. (2005). The role of high-level representations and conscious awareness in biological motion perception. Conference for the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Lund University, Sweden. [Oral presentation] [Abstract pdf]

Hemeren, P.E. (2003). Long-term priming and orentation specificity in the perception of biological motin. In T. Bajo & Lupiáñez (Eds.) XIII Conference of the European Society of Cognitive Psychology, Universidad De Granada, 250. [ISBN-84-338-3004-x][Oral presentation]

Hemeren, P.E. & Pálsdóttir, S.H. (2003). Category effects and orientation specificity in inverted and upright displays of biological motion. Perception, 42, 142. [Poster presentation at the 26th European Conference on Visual Perception, Paris, France.] [Abstract pdf]

Hemeren, P.E. (1997). Typicality and context effects in action categories. In M.G. Shafto & P. Langley (Eds.), Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 949. [ISBN 0-8058-2941-5]

Hemeren, P.E. (1996). Frequency, ordinal position and semantic distance as measures of cross-cultural stability and hierarchies for action verbs. Acta Psychologica, 91, 39-66. [pdf]

Hemeren, P.E. (1993). Actions and biological motion: A method for generating dynamic displays in experimental settings. Paper presented at: The Primacy of Action: An advanced interdisciplinary workshop, Manchester, England. [Conference site]

Hemeren, P.E. (1992). Frequency Norms for Actions in Swedish and American Samples. Lund University Cognitive Studies, 10.