media
Alexander von Humboldt Professorship Harald Baayen

The Alexander von Humboldt Professorship is Germany’s most prestigious prize for international researchers. In 2011, Harald Baayen was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship. Soon after, the following video was made by the Alexander von Humboldt foundation. It introduces Harald Baayen and his research to the German research community. Although my role in this video is limited, it provides a nice introduction to the type of research I work on.





discrimination learning and aging

In a line of research initiated and lead by Michael Ramscar, we argued that discrimination learning offers an alternative explanation to aging effects documented in the cognitive science literature. Rather than being indicative of cognitive decline, we argue, the decrease of performance in a number cognitive tasks during the (healthy) aging process is a straightforward consequence of an evolving dynamic learning system. Our paper “The myth of cognitive decline: Non-linear dynamics of lifelong learning“ (Ramscar, Hendrix, Shaoul, Milin & Baayen, 2014 []) received an overwhelming amount of attention in the international press. Below are some examples of noteworthy press coverage of this paper.


interviews with me

[] De Limburger (a regional Dutch newspaper from my providence of birth)

[] newspapers affiliated with De Persdienst (i.e., a majority of regional Dutch newspapers)


general reports & interviews with Michael Ramscar

[] BBC Radio 4 report “Ageing and the brain” (includes an interview with Michael Ramscar)

[] National Geographic

[] Huffington Post

[] The New York Times

[] The Guardian

[] The Telegraph

[] The Independent

[] Daily Mail

[] National Post

[] Frankfurter Allgemeine (in German)

[] Forbes

[] Business Insider

[] Psychology Today