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Department of Psychology "Renzo Canestrari"

SEFoRA Research Group (Sviluppo, Educazione, Formazione, Ricerca, Azione SEFoRA).

Processes of social and cognitive development in schools and educational contexts, social networks and ICTs in a developmental perspective. Head: Carlo Tomasetto

Areas: Developmental and educational psychology

Research lines of the group documented by publications in the period 2020-2024

  • Social and cognitive development in childhood, emotions and learning, family and peer influences in social and cognitive developmental processes  
  • Teaching-learning dynamics, analysis of learning contects (e.g., school climate, psycho-social well-being, interactions and communication in the classroom);  
  • Stereotypes, prejudice, stigma and inequalities in child development and educational contexts; 
  • Social networks, ICTs, robotics in support of human develoment and learning. 

Head

Carlo Tomasetto, Full Professor

Members

Martina Benvenuti

Senior assistant professor (fixed-term)

Annalisa Cecconi

PhD Student

Elvis Mazzoni

Associate Professor

Carlo Tomasetto

Full Professor

ERC Sectors

  • SH3_2 - Inequalities, discrimination, prejudice, aggression and violence, antisocial behaviour
  • SH3_4 - Attitudes and beliefs
  • SH3_11 – Social aspects of learning, curriculum studies, educational policies
  • SH3_12 – Communication and information, networks, media
  • SH4_1 - Cognitive basis of human development and education, developmental disorders; comparative cognition
  • SH4_2 – Personality and social cognition; emotion.

Settore Scientifico Disciplinare (SSD): PSIC-02/A

Selected publications of the group indexed in Scopus/WOS in the period 2020-2024

  1. Cvencek, D., Sanders, E. A., Del Río, M. F., Susperreguy, M. I., Strasser, K., Brečić, R., Gaćeša, D., Skala, D., Tomasetto, C., Galdi, S., Cadinu, M., Kapur, M., Passolunghi, M. C., Rueda Ferreira, T. I., Mirisola, A., Mariani, B., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2024). National disparities favoring males are reflected in girls’ implicit associations about gender and academic subjects. Developmental Psychology, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001797 
  2. Benvenuti, M., Giovagnoli, S., Mazzoni, E., Cipresso, P., Pedroli, E., & Riva, G. (2020). The Relevance of Online Social Relationships Among the Elderly: How Using the Web Could Enhance Quality of Life?, Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 551862. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.551862 
  3. Ruggeri, K., Panin, A., Vdovic, M., Većkalov, B., Abdul-Salaam, N., Achterberg, J., Benvenuti, M., ... & Toscano, F. (2021). The globalizability of temporal discounting. Nature Human Behaviour, 6, 1386–1397. DOI:10.1038/s41562-022-01392-w 
  4. Guardabassi, V., & Tomasetto, C. (2022). Weight-based teasing, body dissatisfaction, and eating restraint: Multilevel investigation among primary schoolchildren. Health Psychology, 41, 527 – 537. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0001213
  5. Tomasetto, C., Morsanyi, K., Guardabassi, V., & O'Connor, P.A. (2021). Math anxiety interferes with learning novel mathematics contents in early elementary school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 113, 315 – 329. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000602
  6. Soncini A., Visintin E.P., Matteucci M.C., Tomasetto C., Butera F. (2022). Positive error climate promotes learning outcomes through students’ adaptive reactions towards errors. Learning and Instruction, 80, 101627.  

      Funding for the period 2020-2024

       International Projects 

      • Sestosenso - Physical Intelligence for Smart and Safe Human-Robot Interaction 

       National Projects 

      • Urban Gamers Lab 
      • Connessioni Educative 
      • Riparto 
      • Progetto ERASMUS+ I’M IN TALES [https://www.imintalesproject.eu/] 
      • Educare in Comune (Comune di Cesena) 

       

       

      Active National and International Collaborations documented by publications/ funding/ scientific agreements for the period 2019-2023 

       International collaborations 

      • Department of Child Development and Education (Prof. Monique Volman) - University of Amsterdam - Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences -
      • School of Computer Science, University of Manchester
      • The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Department of Emotion and Motivation Psychology
      • World Health Organization – GATE Initiative
      • UNICEF (Serbia): Advisor on assistive technology in education (contract n. 43345939)
      • Robotics4Children Network
      • Duke Identity & Diversity Lab - Duke University, Durham (NC)
      • Department of Mathematics Education – University of Loughborough 
      • Gender&STEM Network
      • Université de Genève, Faculté de psychologie et Sciences de l’Éducation

       National collaborations 

      • Laboratorio di simulazione del comportamento e robotica educativa "Luciano Gallino" - Università degli Studi di Torino, Dipartimento di Filosofia e Scienze dell'Educazione 
      • ExperienceLab – Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – sede di Milano 
      • Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche (ITD) del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Area della Ricerca di Genova 
      • CRIAD - Centro di Ricerche e studi per l’Informatica Applicata alla Didattica 
      • Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Centro nazionale per le tecnologie innovative in sanità pubblica)  
      • Rete Nazionale Centri Ausili (GLIC) 
      • Associazione Culturale Pediatri Romagna (ACPR) 
      • Università degli Studi di Trieste 
      • Università degli Studi di Firenze 
      • Università degli Studi della Campagna Luigi Vanvitelli – Caserta 
      • AUSL Romagna 

      Unibo collaborations 

      • Alma Mater Research Institute for Human Centered Artificial Intelligence - Humanistic AI - Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Educazione 
      • Centro Studi sul Genere in educazione (CSGE) – Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Educazione 

       

      Editorial activities in the period 2019-2023 

      Elvis Mazzoni

      • Associate Editor of the European Journal of Psychology of Education 
        • Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Communication Technology for Social Networking Services 
          • Associate Editor of the Medcrave Online Journal of Addiction Medicine & Therapy

          Martina Benvenuti

          • Assistant Editor Emerging Adulthood
          • Guest Editor Current Psychology: A Journal for Diverse Perspectives on Diverse Psychological Issues
          • Guest Editor Journal of Interactive Marketing
          • Guest Editor Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications
          • Guest Editor Computers in Human Behavior

          Carlo Tomasetto

          • Associate Editor In-Mind - Italia
          • Editorial Board Journal of Educational Psychology
          • Editorial Board International Review of Social psychology
          • Invited Associate Editor International Journal of Behavioral Development (special section on Developmental Perspectives on the Sexualization of Girls and Women)

           

          Fellow in scientific academies and / or executive committees of scientific associations for the period 2019-2023 

          • Elvis Mazzoni -  Collaborative Knowledge Building Group (CKBG). 
          • Carlo Tomasetto - Network Gender&STEM