Time: 12.00- 13.00 uur
Place: 0B.13
Speakers: Eveline Terwindt, Carla Frankenhuis & Linda Kersten

During this lecture, an accredited 6-hour training program for healthcare professionals - Skills4Comfort- is presented. The course introduces the principles of positive and suggestive language, showing how healthcare professionals can enhance the placebo effect and reduce anxiety and pain during everyday medical procedures such as intravenous insertions or vaccinations. The speakers will share how the Skills4Comfort training was developed and implemented, its scientific foundation, and its evidence-based approach. They will also demonstrate how theoretical insights on placebo and nocebo effects can be translated into practical communication strategies through videos, exercises, and examples from the training.

Time: 09.00 - 10.00 uur 
Place: 1A09 
Speaker: Rachit Dubey - Computational Cognitive Policy Lab, UCLA

Despite escalating climate disasters, climate change remains low on voters’ priority lists, and policy responses remain tepid. Why does it persist as a background issue, and what can cognitive science do about it? In this talk, Rachit Dueby will share his lab’s recent research on the cognitive mechanisms that drive the “normalization” of climate change, along with new evidence on how specific cognitive strategies can disrupt this process. Time permitting, he will also outline ongoing policy work using AI-mediated deliberation systems to help diverse groups find common ground on climate action.

Time: 16.00- 17.00 uur
Place: 1A.20
Spreaker: Bruce McCandliss | Stanford University

Sylvius Lecture (LIBC)

Time: 14.00-15.00 uur
Place: 1A.01
Speaker: Niamh MacSweeney | Oslo University 

Her research explores how brain development relates to depression risk during adolescence, with a particular focus on puberty, sex hormones, and early life experiences. She is especially interested in understanding how sex differences in mental health conditions, such as depression, emerge from puberty onwards.