Was born in 1976

Academic degree in Psychology – University of Florence (2002)

Present position: Associate Professor in Developmental and Educational Psychology

Serena Lecce directs the LASC (Laboratory for Social Cognition -http://psicologia.unipv.it/laboratori/lasc.html). She is interested in the topic of Theory of Mind, that is the ability to understand and infer other people’s mental states (emotions, beliefs, desires). Her work examines the individual differences in Theory of Mind in a life span perspective. Her main research activity focused on: i) understanding causes and consequences of individual differences in socio-cognitive understanding both in the social and cognitive domain, and ii) designing targeted interventions to promote socio-cognitive understanding. 

Main research topics include:

• Theory of mind and social relationships: are individual differences associated with social behaviors and social relationships? What mechanisms underlie these associations?
• Promoting theory of mind: is it possible to promote children’s and older adults’ theory of mind? What are the more efficient strategies to do so?
• Theory of mind in aging: does theory of mind change across aging? What are the predictors and consequences of these changes?
• Theory of mind and pragmatics: is theory of mind associated with the ability to understand pragmatic utterances such as metaphors, irony and jokes?
• Theory of mind and synchronization: can theory of mind be enhanced through synchronized movements? If so, why is that?

Author of more than 50 scientific papers, 5 books and several chapters. A complete list of scientific publications can be found on the following links

http://www.serenalecce.com/publications.html

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Serena_Lecce

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YzSWy9EAAAAJ