Born in 1946 in Fulda/Hesse; A-levels in Hanover; studied psychology at the Institute of Psychology at the Ruhr University Bochum; member of staff at the Language Psychology and Information Processing Unit (headed by Prof. Dr Hans Hörmann); topic of Diplom thesis: "Auditory Scanning and Laterality" supervised by Prof. Dr Hans Hörmann.

Doctorate with the dissertation "Emotional foundations of aesthetic judgement" (after the death of Prof. Hörmann supervised by Prof. Dr Johannes Engelkamp and Prof. Dr Peter Orlik; Saarbrücken); habilitation "On the relationship between consciousness and sound"; research on sound processing and visual aesthetics, research stays in Japan; research in recent years in the field of psychological museology. Director of the Institute of Psychology at the University of Oldenburg 2007-2010.

Memberships:

• International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA).
  See: www.science-of-aesthetics.org.
  
• German Society for Psychology (DGPs).
  See www.dgps.de
  
• German Society for Music Psychology
  www.music-psychology.de
  
• International Council of Museums (ICOM).
  See www.icom.museum
  
• Gustav Theodor Fechner Society, Leipzig
  See www.uni-leipzig.de/~fechner/verein.htm
  
• Oldenburgische Landschaft
  www.oldenburgische-landschaft.de

Functions outside the University of Oldenburg:

• 1985-2008 Secretary General of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA).
  
• 2008-2012 President of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA).
  
• 2013 Appointed Honorary Lifetime President of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA).
  
• Since 1995 Member of the Board of Advisory Editors of the journal "Empirical Studies of the Arts" (Baywood Publishing Company, U.S.A.) - official organ of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA).
  Online.
  
• 1995-2004 Editor of the Newsletter of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (printed in the journal Empirical Studies of the Arts; ISSN 0276-2374).
  
• 2005-2010 Editor of the electronic newsletter of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA). Online
  
• 1996-2005 Member of the scientific editorial board of the German Society for Music Psychology for the Yearbook of Music Psychology
  
• 2005-2013 Co-editor of the "Jahrbuch für Musikpsychologie" (Göttingen: Hogrefe) of the German Society for Music Psychology (ISBN 3-8017-1141-2).
  
• 2011 Participation in the accreditation of degree programmes at(Accreditation Council - Foundation for the Accreditation of Degree Programmes in Germany; AHPGS)
  
  
• 2014 Academic appointment to the Accreditation Commission(Accreditation Council - Foundation for the Accreditation of Degree Programmes in Germany; AHPGS)
  

Main areas of work

Since 1995: evaluation and visitor studies of educational institutions (museums, environmental education centres); museology; research: (a) informal lifelong learning, (b) time orientation; (c) on questions of personal identity (cultural, spatial, national).