Dr. Leon Kroczek

Akademische Ausbildung

Berufliche Tätigkeit

Kommunikation und soziale Interaktion

Emotionales Lernen

Angst und Angststörungen

Funktionelle Bildgebung

Elektrophysiologie

Virtuelle Realität

Publikationen

Kroczek, L. O. H., Roidl, M., Lingnau, A., & Zimmermann, M. (2026). How are woodworking and baking represented as we walk from the workshop to the kitchen? Virtual Reality environment modulates the representation of corresponding actions. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-026-03001-7 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Roßkopf, S., Kroczek, L. O. H., Wechsler, T. F., Stärz, F., Blau, M., van de Par, S., & Mühlberger, A. (2026). Hey AI: Can you trigger me? A comparison of Text-to-Speech synthesis and human speech in a virtual social stress paradigm: Effects of Text-to-Speech synthesis on VR experience. Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans, 100371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbah.2026.100371 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Schmidt-Peter, T., Kroczek, L. O. H., & Mühlberger, A. (2026). Preliminary evaluation of the German SPIN and Mini-SPIN for screening social anxiety disorder in university students. BMC psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05119-8 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Stärz, F., van de Par, S., Roßkopf, S., Kroczek, L. O. H., Mühlberger, A., & Blau, M. (2026). Use of audio-visual interactive virtual environments to avoid the room divergence effect in office-like environments. Acta Acustica, 10, 29. https://doi.org/10.1051/aacus/2026024 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Roßkopf, S., Mühlberger, A., Stärz, F., Blau, M., van de Par, S., & Kroczek, L. O. H. (2026). Aurally impressed, yet not more stressed: On the relationship between audiovisual realism, social anxiety, and presence in a virtual social stress scenario. Plos one, 21(3), e0345565. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0345565 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Kroczek, L. O. H., Hasler, M., May, A., Ruider, A., & Mühlberger, A. (2025). Affective interactions with AI controlled conversational agents in Virtual Reality. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 25th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (pp. 1-4). https://doi.org/10.1145/3742886.3756743 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Kroczek, L. O. H. , May, A., Hettenkofer, S., Ruider, A., Ludwig, B., & Mühlberger, A. (2025). The influence of persona and conversational task on social interactions with a LLM-controlled embodied conversational agent. Computers in Human Behavior, 108759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2025.108759 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Kroczek, L. O. H., Frank, S., Gold, U., Hesse, F., Hettenkofer, S., Peterreins, N., ... & Mühlberger, A. (2025). Communicative social intentions modulate emotional mimicry responses. Psychophysiology, 62(9), e70137. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.70137 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Schmidt-Peter, T., Wechsler, T. F., Kroczek, L.O.H., & Mühlberger, A. (2025). The effects of different variants of eye-tracking-based feedback of attentional processes during virtual social interactions. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 6, 1556898. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2025.1556898 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Roßkopf, S., Mühlberger, A., Stärz, F., van de Par, S., Blau, M., & Kroczek, L. O.H. (2025). Impact of Visual Virtual Scene and Localization Task on Auditory Distance Perception in Virtual Reality. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2025.3549855 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Stärz, F., Van De Par, S., Roßkopf, S., Kroczek, L. O. H., Mühlberger, A., & Blau, M. (2025). Comparison of binaural auralisations to a real loudspeaker in an audiovisual virtual classroom scenario: effect of room acoustic simulation, HRTF dataset, and head-mounted display on room acoustic perception. Acta Acustica, 9, 31. https://doi.org/10.1051/aacus/2025012 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Kroczek, L. O. H., & Mühlberger, A. (2025). Neural mechanisms underlying the interactive exchange of facial emotional expressions. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 20(1), nsaf001. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsaf001 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Paul, K., Angus, D. J., Bublatzky, F., Wüllhorst, R., Endrass, T., Greenwood, L.-M., Hajcak, G., Jack, B. N., Korinth, S. P., Kroczek, L. O. H., Lucero, B., Mundorf, A., Nolden, S., Peterburs, J., Pfabigan, D. M., Schettino, A., Severo, M. C., Lee Shing, Y., Turan, G., … Pourtois, G. (2025). Revisiting the electrophysiological correlates of valence and expectancy in reward processing – A multi-lab replication. Cortex, 184, 150–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2024.12.017 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Kroczek, L. O. H., Roßkopf, S., Stärz, F., Blau, M., van de Par, S., & Mühlberger, A. (2024). The influence of affective voice on sound distance perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 50(9), 918–933. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0001222 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Kroczek, L. O. H., Lingnau, A., Schwind, V., Wolff, C., & Mühlberger, A. (2024). Observers predict actions from facial emotional expressions during real-time social interactions. Behavioural Brain Research, 471, 115126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2024.115126 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Aspöck, L., Fels, J., Frank, M., Bertsch, M., Mühlberger, A., Kroczek, L., Roßkopf, S., Seeber, B. U., Llorca-Bofí, J., Vorländer, M., Sladeczek, C., Bergner, J., Hock, K., Rodigast, R., Bös, J., Zotter, F., Sharma, G. K., Stellbrink, M., Weinzierl, S., Amengual Garí, S. V. (2024). Anwendungen der Virtuellen Akustik. Akustik Journal,1,16-26.

Schröder, B., Kroczek, A., Kroczek, L. O. H., Ehlis, A. C., Batra, A., & Mühlberger, A. (2024). Cigarette craving in virtual reality cue exposure in abstainers and relapsed smokers. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 7538. 
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58168-7 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Schroën, J. A., Gunter, T. C., Numssen, O., Kroczek, L. O. H., Hartwigsen, G., & Friederici, A. D. (2023). Causal evidence for a coordinated temporal interplay within the language network. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(47), e2306279120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2306279120 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Kroczek, L. O. H., & Mühlberger, A. (2023). Public speaking training in front of a supportive audience in Virtual Reality improves performance in real-life. Scientific Reports, 13, 13968. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41155-9 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Kroczek, L. O. H., & Mühlberger, A. (2023). Time to Smile: How Onset Asynchronies Between Reciprocal Facial Expressions Influence the Experience of Responsiveness of a Virtual Agent. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-023-00430-z (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Kroczek, L. O. H., & Mühlberger, A. (2022). Returning a smile: Initiating a social interaction with a facial emotional expression influences the evaluation of the expression received in return. Biological Psychology, 108453.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108453 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Kroczek, L.O.H., Böhme, S. & Mühlberger, A. (2022). Face masks reduce interpersonal distance in virtual reality. Scientific Reports, 12, 2213. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-06086-x (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Pfaller, M., Kroczek, L.O.H., Lange, B., Fülöp, R., Müller, M. & Mühlberger, A. (2021) Social Presence as a Moderator of the Effect of Agent Behavior on Emotional Experience in Social Interactions in Virtual Reality. Front. Virtual Real. 2:741138. doi: 10.3389/frvir.2021.741138

Kroczek, L. O. H., Lingnau, A., Schwind, V., Wolff, C., & Mühlberger, A. (2021). Angry facial expressions bias towards aversive actions. Plos one, 16(9), e0256912. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256912 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Kroczek, L. O.H., & Gunter, T. C. (2021). The time course of speaker-specific language processing. Cortex, 141, 311-321. doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2021.04.017 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Biehl, S. C., Schmidmeier, M., Wechsler, T. F., Kroczek, L. O. H., & Mühlberger, A. (2021). Widespread Recommendations Can Change Our Habits of Hand-Washing and Physical Distance During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Clinical Psychology in Europe, 3(1), 1-12. doi.org/10.32872/cpe.3061 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)

Kroczek, L. O. H., Pfaller, M., Lange, B., Müller, M., & Mühlberger, A. (2020). Interpersonal Distance During Real-Time Social Interaction: Insights From Subjective Experience, Behavior, and Physiology. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 561.doi.org (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00561

Kroczek, L. O. H., & Gunter, T. C. (2020). Distinct neural networks relate to common and speaker-specific language priors. Cerebral Cortex Communications, tgaa021.doi.org (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)10.1093/texcom/tgaa021

Kroczek, L.O.H., Gunter, T.C., Rysop, A.U., Friederici, A.D., and Hartwigsen, G. (2019). Contributions of left frontal and temporal cortex to sentence comprehension: Evidence from simultaneous TMS-EEG. Cortex 115, 86-98. doi.org (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)10.1016/j.cortex.2019.01.010.

Kroczek, L.O.H., Gunter, T. C. (2017) Communicative predictions can overrule linguistic priors. Scientific Reports, 7, 17581. doi.org (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)10.1038/s41598-017-17907-9

Hochschulschriften

Kroczek, L. O. H. (2019). The impact of speaker information on language processing. Dissertation, Max-Planck-Institut für Kognitions- und Neurowissenschaften, Leipzig.

Kroczek, L. (2013): May I get a beat with that? Neural correlates of gesture-syntax interaction. Diplomarbeit, Universität Regensburg, Regensburg.

Vorträge

Kroczek, L.O.H. (2023). Investigating Reciprocity in Face-to-Face Dyadic Interaction in Virtual Reality. XR-Meeting Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.

Kroczek, L.O.H. (2023). From reality into the lab (and back again): Mechanisms of social interaction in Virtual Reality. Institute Colloquium of the psychological institute at Kiel University, Kiel, Germany.

Kroczek, L.O.H. (2022). How reciprocity shapes social interactions: Insights from Virtual Reality.Tagung Psychologie und Gehirn, Freiburg i. B., Germany.

Kroczek, L.O.H. (2022). Social Context Conditioning in Virtual Reality. Eurpopean Meeting for Human Fear Conditioning, Virtual/Radboud, Netherlands.

Kroczek, L.O.H. (2021). How facial emotions affect action understanding during social interactions: Insights from action recognition and experience in Virtual Reality. Tagung Psychologie und Gehirn, Tübingen, Germany.

Kroczek, L.O.H. (2019). Returning a smile: The impact of social interaction on the processing of facial emotions. Hengstenberg Symposium on Social Interaction, Heidelberg, Germany.

Kroczek, L.O.H. (2014): Neural correlates of gesture-syntax interaction. 12th Biannual Conference of the German Cognitive Science Society, Tübingen, Germany.