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WIAS and ZUKO (Zukunftskolleg at the University of Konstanz, Germany), our partner institute, have started a bilateral exchange program to foster research collaboration. Here is the second report from Assistant Professor HUNG Shao-Min, the second WIAS researcher to utilize the program and visit ZUKO. In this update, he reports his research achievements during his stay at the University of Konstanz.

ZUKO and WIAS Network Research Visits program report AY 2024, vol. 2 (Assistant Professor HUNG Shao-Min)

Over the first half of my visit, we successfully set up and piloted our experiments. Several students were trained to execute the experiment, and I hoped this gave them a taste of the world of experimental psychology. The experiments are still ongoing, at the current speed, it will take about six months to complete. However, we have pre-registered the hypothesis, procedure, experimental stimuli, and analyses to make the study transparent. We expected to see personal trait affects how emotion is perceived, both consciously and unconsciously. With the scale of this study (n~200) and the repertoire of experiments, I believe this will be one-of-a-kind synergy between cognitive and clinical sciences, which eventually will shed light on the fundamental understanding of personal traits and psychological disorders.

Apart from the study, Zuko fellows are expected to attend and present at the weekly Jour Fixe, among other career development series. The exchanges during these meetings were stimulating and interdisciplinary. In the second half of my visit, I utilized this chance and traveled to both University of Fribourg (Switzerland) and Justus Liebig University Giessen (Germany). Besides a public, departmental speech, I had multiple individual meetings in both occasions. It was such a pleasure to connect to all these research groups. It turned out that some of us had been going to the same conferences for the past ten years! These new connections will definitely help and shape my future research.

The fantastic Zuko team!

Other than all the intellectual stimulations from research activities, I explored other aspects of Germany, including a local concert, museums in Munich (special thanks to my dear colleague Antonia (KARAISL Antonia, WIAS) for all the suggestions), and Christmas markets. In fact, I went to seven Christmas markets right before my departure and had a fair share of Glühwein (hot wine). I never expected to stay in Europe for such a long time, and this ZUKO research visit gave me a chance to explore, to connect, and to ponder about why we do what we do.