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» Published on 25. November 2015

Why bartenders have to ignore some signals

Research into pub communication with robot James continues at Bielefeld University  

A robotic bartender has to do something unusual for a machine: It has to learn to ignore some data and focus on social signals. Researchers at the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) of Bielefeld University investigated how a robotic bartender can understand human communication and serve drinks socially appropriately. For their new study, they invited participants in the lab and asked them to jump into the shoes of their robotic bartender. The participants looked through the robot’s eyes and ears and selected actions from its repertoire. The results have now been published in the open-access research journal “Frontiers in Psychology”.

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» Published on 10. November 2015

People live their own form of spirituality

Bielefeld theologian publishes findings of study 

Was does spirituality mean? Each individual has his or her own answer to this question. Theologian and psychologist of religion at Bielefeld University, Professor Dr. Heinz Streib, has just published the results of a long-term study in German on the semantics and psychology of spirituality with the psychologist and psychoanalyst Dr. Barbara Keller. The title of the book is Was bedeutet Spiritualität (What does spirituality mean?).  The findings make clear that self-labelling as a “spiritual person” always occurs within a certain semantic context. For some individuals this expresses their experience of transcendence whereas for others it distances them from religion. In addition, personal biography is closely connected to how an individual perceives and understands spirituality. In parallel, Streib and his colleague Ralph Hood in Chattanooga (USA) have published a more comprehensive book in English. The title is “Semantics and the Psychology of Spirituality” and is published by Springer. Both books came out in October 2015.

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» Published on 4. November 2015

Mammography screening: Only one in three women is well-informed

New study published by health care researchers at Bielefeld University

Only one in three women participating in Germany’s mammography screening programme (MSP) is well-informed about it: the higher the level of education, the greater the chance of women making an informed decision. These are the results of a study that health care researchers at Bielefeld University are publishing today (03.11.2015) in the international specialist journal PLoS One. ‘Further information and support services are needed to spread more knowledge about the programme – especially to women with little education and women with a Turkish migration background,’ sums up Junior professor Jacob Spallek, who ran the study together with Professor Petra Kolip.

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