GW > CPE > Former Employees CPE > Dr. J. van der Helden

Dr. Jurjen van der Helden

I’ve studied Psychology in Groningen and I received my PhD with supervision of Berry Wijers and Ritske de Jong. During my PhD track, I’ve studied Object Based Attention in Illusory Kanizsa Figures and their electrophysiological correlates. During my study and PhD track I had the honor to work with José van Velzen, Hein van Schie, Maarten Boksem, Durk Talsma en Harold Bekkering.

Beginning in July 2005, I am a postdoc researcher in Sequence Learning. This project is financed by the Dutch Scientific Organization (NWO), although the project is directed from the European Scientific Foundation (ESF). Several European partners are involved: Luis Jiménez (Spain), Axel Cleeremans (Belgium), Peter Dominey (France), and Michael Ziessler (England). See our joint website for further information. My expertise is in the use of Electro-Encephalographical (EEG) measures.

 

Research

Learning by Observation and EEG.

Many motor skills are acquired by conscientious observation of others. A child shadows his mother and an athlete imitates his trainer. Research has shown that the motor system is involved in the processing and interpretation of actions of others. Is this system also involved in learning by observation? This research is done in cooperation with Hein van Schie.

Learning of Errors

When we make an error, this coincides with a negativity in the EEG. This effect, the Error-Related Negativity (ERN) is commonly interpreted as the subjective dissonance (better or worse than expected) of the outcome. This theory also predicts that errors are used to learn from and thus that the ERN is a predictor of the quality of learning. As yet, the evidence remains indirect; subjects that are good in learning tasks show a strong ERN and subjects who have learned show a large ERN’s when information is different from the learnt information. However, the ERN has never been shown to be predictive for future learning; if the ERN is large, does this predict that from learning occurs after an error? Maarten Boksem and I cooperate in this research.

Learning in Joint Action

Many motor skills are related to a role in cooperative action. In dancing or football, to list a few, motor skills performed by each single individual are less important than how they are coordinated with others. In some behavioral studies, we focus how these coordination of actions influence the acquisition of skills. This research is done in cooperation with Natalie Sebanz (University of Birmingham).

How are motor chunks concatenated?

By training, a motor chunk (for instance, hitting an accord on a piano or guitar) can be automatized. When some of these chunks coincide in a particular pattern, it’s important to be able to combine these chunks (when playing a melody on guitar or piano). In cooperation with Peter Dominey, we focus on the brain mechanisms, using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) that support the concatenation of motor chunks.

Curriculum Vitae

1992-1999   Master thesis Psychology Groningen

                 Graduaded in psychonomics under supervision of Berry Wijers. Thesis: EEG-effects of simultaneous motoric and attention preparation.

2000-2005

PhD University of Groningen (Ritske de Jong and Berry Wijers)

                 Object-based attention in illusory figures: an electrophysiological investigation. 

2005-2009 Postdoc researcher University of Twente