About myself

I work as an Assistant Professor at the section of Developmental Psychology at the University of Amsterdam. 

From January to July 2009 I was a visiting research scholar at the section of Biological Anthropology at University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA).

I have received my PhD degree, based on the defense of my thesis 'Towards an integration of evolutionary psychology and developmental science: New insights from evolutionary developmental biology', on December 3rd, 2008.

My research interests

General:

- evolutionary psychology

- dynamic systems theory

- evolutionary developmental (evo-devo) biology

More specific:

- evolution of psychiatric disorders

- the modularity-of-the-mind debat

- evolution of intelligence

- evolution of sex differences

Publications

Honing, H., & Ploeger, A. (in press). Cognition and evolution of music: Pitfalls and prospects. Topics in Cognitive Science .

Ploeger, A., & Galis, F. (in press). Evolutionary approaches to autism: an overview and integration. McGill Journal of Medicine .
Penke, L., Borsboom, D., Johnson, W., Kievit, R. A., Ploeger, A., & Wicherts, J. M. (2012). Evolutionary psychology and intelligence research cannot be integrated the way Kanazawa (2010) suggests. American Psychologist, 66, 916-917 .

Ploeger, A., & Galis, F. (2011). Evo Devo and cognitive science. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science , 2 , 429-440.

Ploeger, A. (2010). Evolutionary psychology as a metatheory for the social sciences. Integral Review, 6, 164-174.

Ploeger, A. (2010). Evolutionary psychology, developmental systems theory and advaita philosophy as metatheories: Are the three compatible? Integral Review, 6, 201-206.

Ploeger, A. (2010). De evolutie van algemene intelligentie: Een paradox ontrafeld. BLIND! Digitaal tijdschrift over interdisciplinair onderzoek, nummer 24, www.ziedaar.nl

Ploeger,A., Raijmakers, M.E.J., van der Maas, H.L.J., & Galis, F. (2010). The association between autism and errors in early embryogenesis: what is the causal mechanism? Biological Psychiatry, 67, 602-607.

Kan, K.-J., Ploeger, A., Raijmakers, M.E.J., Dolan, C.V., & van der Maas, H.L.J. (2010). Nonlinear epigenetic variance: Review and simulations. Developmental Science, 13, 11-27.

Ploeger, A., van der Maas, H.L.J., Raijmakers, M.E.J., & Galis, F. (2009). Why did the savant syndrome not spread in the population? A psychiatric example of a developmental constraint. Psychiatry Research, 166, 85-90.

Ploeger,A. (2009). Autisme en lichamelijke afwijkingen: een verklaring vanuit de evolutionaire ontwikkelingsbiologie. Neuropraxis, 13, 43-46.

Ploeger, A., van der Maas, H.L.J., & Raijmakers, M.E.J. (2008). Is evolutionarypsychology a metatheoryfor psychology? A discussion of four major issues in psychology from an evolutionary developmental perspective. Psychological Inquiry, 19, 1-18.

Ploeger, A., van der Maas, H.L.J., & Raijmakers, M.E.J. (2008). Is evolutionary developmental biology a viable approach to the study of the human mind? (Reply to commentaries). Psychological Inquiry, 19, 41-48.

Frankenhuis, W.E., & Ploeger, A. (2007). Evolutionary psychology versus Fodor:Arguments for and against the massive modularity hypothesis. Philosophical Psychology, 20, 687-710.

Ploeger, A. (2007). Een bron van inspiratie: Over evolutionaire ontwikkelingsbiologie en psychologie. BLIND! Digitaal tijdschrift over interdisciplinair onderzoek, nummer 12, www.ziedaar.nl

Wagemans, J., De Winter, J., Op de Beeck, H. P., Ploeger,A., Beckers, T., & Vanroose, P. (2008). Identification of everyday objects on the basis of silhouette and outline versions. Perception, 37, 207-244.

Hock, H.S., & Ploeger, A. (2006). Linking dynamical perceptual decisions at different levelsof description in motion pattern formation: Psychophysics. Perception & Psychophysics, 68(3), 505-514.

Ploeger, A. (2004). Op naar een rijkere evolutionaire psychologie. BLIND! Digitaal tijdschrift over interdisciplinair onderzoek, nummer 2, www.ziedaar.nl

Ploeger, A., van der Maas, H.L.J., & Hartelman, P.A.I. (2002). Stochastic catastrophe analysis of switches in the perception of apparent motion. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9(1), 26-42.

Gilroy, L.A., Hock, H.S., & Ploeger, A. (2001). Differential activation solution to the motion correspondence problem. Perception & Psychophysics, 63(5), 847-861.

Teaching

- Evolutionary Psychology (Kernthema AK06 for psychology students) (February - March)

- Animal Cognition (Kernthema AK14 for psychology students) (September-October)

- Cognitive Psychology (BAICOP6 for artificial intelligence students) (February - March)

- Developmental Biology, Developmental Psychology & Language (203PB for psychobiology students) (November - December)

- Animal Cognition (PB302 for psychobiology students) (September - October)

- Supervision of students who like to write a Bachelor thesis (Psychology) or do a Bachelor research internship (Psychobiology) on evolutionary (developmental) psychology

- Supervision of students who like to do research for their Master thesis on evolutionary (developmental) psychology

- Supervision of students who like to write their second year paper (VRT-2 or Miniscriptie) on evolutionary (developmental) psychology

My daugther Meander

Meander, six weeks old

My daugther Meander

Meander, six months old, with her Daddy

My daugther Veerle

Veerle, 1.5 years old

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