Christina Bergmann

Science is supposed to make universally valid statements, but does not reflect the diverse perspectives and experiences of humanity. Therefore, one goal of open science must be to promote participation, both as a scientist and in citizen science. In various interrelated projects and, more recently, in my job as an internal recruiter for future professors, I am tackling precisely this issue.

On compcog.science (founded with Dr. Olivia Guest), people who belong to underrepresented minorities in cognitive modeling can register. The low-threshold service empowers people to network and increase the visibility of their work.

ManyBabies is a grassroots project that benefits enormously from the diversity of participants and researchers and actively promotes both. Sharing knowledge on an equal footing is key and together we develop best practices for infant research, for example regarding documentation and data processing. Innovation in the form of (automated) web-based data collection is another tool for promoting diversity in ManyBabies, as it allows more researchers and participants to take part.
Within seven years, we have gained over 490 active members and completed a study with more than 2000 participating infants (The ManyBabies Consortium, 2020), with seven more projects on the way, three of which are web-based.

MetaLab (the idea was developed with Prof. Sho Tsuji and Prof. Alejandrina Cristia) shows how the current state of research on questions regarding early development can be extracted from the often inaccessible specialized literature. Data are visualized and can be downloaded anonymously. This completely new approach has already been taken up and implemented in other areas (including the Leibniz Institute of Psychology). The long-term goal is to provide all stakeholders with access to the current state of knowledge - i.e. all relevant studies - on a topic and to provide information in a format that supports and facilitates evidence-based decisions.

All of these projects are united by the theme of innovation for diversity and participation, so that creating and sharing knowledge is made possible for everyone equally, including those who may not even believe that science is for them.

I currently work as a recruiter and talent manager at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, where I continue to pursue my goal of a more open, transparent science. In this role, I support potential future professors - including those who may not yet have discovered this career path for themselves.

At the same time, I am a guest researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, where I worked as a senior researcher and head of the Innovation Team until 2022. During this time, I led various projects; for example, the transition from paper questionnaires to web-based surveys, language acquisition and screen use surveys in 12 countries during the first COVID-19 lockdown, and innovative methods for measuring language processing in young children and across the lifespan.

Before that, I worked in Paris at the Ecole normale supérieure, funded by a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, among others. Here I researched early language acquisition and the role of variable input, using the interplay of computer models and behavioral data. At the same time, I founded the Paris chapter of R-Ladies with Dr. Page Piccinini. MetaLab was also founded at this time, and ManyBabies was launched shortly afterwards.

My dissertation, defended on 07.07.2014 at the Radboud University Nijmegen, dealt with computer simulations of early language acquisition and thus laid the foundation for my work in Paris.

Before that, I studied cognitive neuroscience (M.Sc.) in Nijmegen and cognitive science (B.Sc.) in Osnabrück.