The Narrative & Cognition Lab

A platform on a stormy sea. A person stands pointing at an open doorway. In the doorway is a collection of objects in front of a blue sky framed by a pair of red curtains, including a brain, a typewriter and a hat.
Narrative and Cognition Lab logo. Outline of a cube.

How narrative is your sense of self, your memories, emotions, fears, desires or dreams? What do you see in your imagination when you read a novel?
How often do elements of a book or a movie enter your everyday life?

Narrative and experience are deeply entwined. Yet despite this natural convergence, the exchange between narrative scholars, fictional world-makers and mind scientists is hampered by methodological barriers and a lack of mutual collaboration.   

Led by Marco Bernini, the Narrative and Cognition Lab will create a space for collaborations grounded in ‘operational empathy’ – a reciprocal understanding of scientific and narrative methods, models, and findings – to catalyse research across these fields and innovate the science of mind.

  

More about us
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Watch: An introduction to The Narrative & Cognition Lab

EDITORIALS

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EVENTS

A robotic hand reaching towards a human hand against a bright blue background. The hands are colored in vivid pink, conveying a futuristic theme.
12
June
2026

Interdisciplinary AI

What happens to language, thought, agency, and creativity when machines begin to (or appear to) speak, sort, and make for themselves?

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12
June
2025

Creativity and Cognition

A conversation and a workshop with cognitive literary scholar Karin Kukkonen and novelist Laura Otis reflecting on creativity and cognition.

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20
February
2025

AI Gossip

A passport talk on Artificial Intelligence and Gossiping by Joel Krueger. Brought to you by the Narrative and Cognition Lab.

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INTERDISCIPLINARY MIND MODELING

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