Iris Schnepf (née Zerweck)

Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

Experimental Cognitive Science

Sand 6 / room F234

72076 Tübingen

Germany

 

E-Mail: iris.schnepf (at) uni-tuebingen.de

Phone: +49 (0)7071 29 78973

Office hours: by appointment (please send a short email)

About Me

'All life is problem solving.' - Karl R. Popper

I believe this holds true not only for science, but for perception itself. This world is full of noise, movement, and light — and yet we manage to see clearly.

I am a cognitive scientist exploring how the brain builds this fragile stability we call perception. Since becoming a mother, I have rediscovered what it means to truly see — to look with curiosity, patience, and wonder — and that spirit guides both my research and my way of thinking. Using EEG, eye tracking, and psychophysics, I explore how visual information becomes robust enough to guide perception and action.

Research interests

My research focuses on how visual information becomes robust enough to guide perception and action in real time. I combine EEG, eye tracking, and psychophysics to study how visual signals evolve and stabilize across time — from early sensory encoding to behaviorally relevant decisions. I am particularly interested in developing and applying sensitivity-based EEG analyses that go beyond traditional group-difference measures and provide a more direct estimate of the informational content of neural signals.

A central motivation in my work is to ensure high methodological rigor and data quality. I believe that good science relies on both clean data and well-founded analyses, and that replicating classic findings under carefully controlled variations is essential to truly understand cognitive mechanisms.

My previous projects focused on visual information processing in unconscious response priming and ultra-rapid object recognition, both within the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre 1233 “Robust Vision.” Together with my colleagues, I demonstrated that methodological limitations in traditional ERP analyses can lead to misinterpretations — for example, assuming unconscious processing or purely feedforward visual recognition where the data do not actually support it. Building on this, my current work investigates when and how visual information becomes sufficiently robust to support categorical decisions, using combined EEG–eye tracking paradigms and computational modeling of decision dynamics.

In the long term, I aim to extend this line of research toward understanding robust perception in complex, multisensory environments, and to explore how neural sensitivity metrics can serve as a general tool across domains — from perception to decision-making and applied contexts.

CV

I studied Technical Biology at the University of Stuttgart and conducted my master’s thesis in cooperation with the University of Hohenheim, focusing on visual attention to food cues using mobile eye tracking. Currently, I am completing my PhD in Cognitive Science at the University of Tübingen (Experimental Cognitive Science Group, Prof. Volker Franz), within the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre 1233 “Robust Vision.” I am experienced in EEG, psychophysics, and eye tracking, and have a strong methodological background including training in advanced ERP analysis (Steve Luck & Emily Kappenman, UC Davis).

Publications

2025

Schnepf, I. A.,, Friedrich, F., Meyen, S., Hepting, C., Basgöl, H., Franz, V. H. (planned submission: Nov '25). How early is early? EEG classification of objects in ultra-rapid tasks. [Target Journal: JOV]

2022

Schnepf, I. A.,, Friedrich, F., Hepting, C., Meyen, S., Franz, V. H. (2022). Neural mechanisms of response priming to not support veridical unconscious processing.[Special issue: Neural mechanisms and markers of veridical and non-veridical conscious perception] Consciousness and Cognition, 102,103348. DOI

Meyen, S., Zerweck, I. A., Amado, C., von Luxburg, U., & Franz, V. H. (2022). Advancing research on unconscious priming: When can scientists claim an indirect task advantage? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151(1), 65–81. DOI

2021

Zerweck, I. A., Kao, C., Meyen, S., Amado, C., von Eltz, M., Franz, V. H. (2021). Number processing outside awareness? Systematically testing sensitivities of direct and indirect measures of consciousness. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 83 , 2510-2529. DOI | PDF | Open materials & data |

Zerweck, I. A., Meyen, S., Friedrich, F., Hepting, C., Franz, V. H. (2021). Unconscious priming revisited: Is there evidence for superior unconscious processing with EEG? (Poster presented at the "43rd European Conference on Visual Perception" (ECVP), 22.8.-27.8.2021, Virtual)

Zerweck, I. A., Meyen, S., Friedrich, F., Hepting, C., Franz, V. H. (2021). Effects of visually masked numbers and lines on brain activity. Journal of Vision, 21(9), 2293-2293  

Zerweck, I. A., Meyen, S., Friedrich, F., Franz, V. H. (2021). Unconscious priming. Should scientists use continuous direct measures? (Talk session accepted for the "Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen" (TeaP@home), 14.3.-16.3.2021, Virtual)

2020-2017

Zerweck, I. A., Meyen, S., Amado, C., Franz, V. H. (2020). Can we process task-irrelevant stimuli better than task-relevant stimuli? The case of number- and line-stimuli. (Talk session accepted for the "Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen" (TeaP), March 2020, Jena, Germany)

Zerweck, I. A., von Eltz, M., Kao, C., Meyen, S., Amado, C., Klimm, M., Franz, V. H. (2020). Effects of number priming on task performance: No evidence for preserved unconscious processing (Poster presented at the GK Doctoral Symposium on Cognitive Science, 23.1.-24.1.2020, Tübingen, Germany)

Zerweck, I. A., von Eltz, M., Kao, C., Meyen, S., Amado, C., Klimm, M., Franz, V. H. (2019). Is there evidence for unconscious processing of digits? Journal of Vision, 19(10), 275c. (Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of Vision Sciences Society, Florida, USA)  

Zerweck, I. A. (2019, February 20). The bossy brain. Talk given at the Science Slam as part of the "Doktorandentage", 20.2.-22.2.2019, Tübingen, Germany) [Video]

Zerweck, I. A., Meyen, S., Amado, C.,Friedrich, F., Franz, V. H. (2018). Evaluating methods in visual tasks: Confidence ratings convey more information than binary responses. (Poster presented at the "41st European Conference on Visual Perception" (ECVP), 26.8.-30.8.2018, Triest, Italy)

Zerweck, I. A., Meyen, S., Friedrich, F., Grethen, K., Franz, V. H. (2018). Unconscious processing of numbers: How important is the response format? (Poster presented at the "Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen" (TeaP), 11.3.-14.3.2018, Marburg, Germany)

Hummel, G., Ehret, J., Zerweck, I. A.,Salazar Winter, S., Stroebele-Benschop, N. (2018). How eating behavior, food stimuli and gender may affect visual attention - An eye tracking study. Eating Behaviors, 31, 60-67. DOI

Hummel, G., Zerweck, I. A., Ehret, J., Salazar Winter, S., Stroebele-Benschop, N. (2017). The influence of the arrangement of different food images on participants’ attention: An experimental eye-tracking study. Food Quality and Preference, 62. DOI