Research Research UnitsPAS-PAS

PAS-PAS – Psicologia e Scuola: Promuovere Apprendimento e Socializzazione (Psychology and School: Promoting Learning and Socialization)

Keywords: emergent literacy, reading, writing, learning disorders, theory of the mind, critical thinking, basic cognitive functions, typical and atypical development.

Research topics: emergent literacy; reading and writing acquisition; predictors and treatment of learning disorders; concept-building processes; comparative study between typical and atypical development; text comprehension and critical thinking; theory of the mind and psychological vocabulary.

Aims and objectives: The research unit’s overall focus is on investigating relationships between cognitive and functional social skills toward satisfactory schooling, and the specific characteristics of the educational context with which individuals interact in their different periods of existence.

Good school performance requires full efficiency of the cognitive processes responsible for learning: for example executive functions, memory, attention, meta-cognition, inferential capacity, critical thinking, strategic attitude, reasoning and transfer skills, and conceptual change. There are many children and young people who are in difficulty because due to lacks in one or more of the cognitive processes involved in school learning. Social and affective skills are also needed to guide the interpretation and construction of meaningful relationships within the school context to foster favorable terrain for harmonious development.

The school is called upon to manage students’ difficulties regarding atypicality in their development, both at an educational level and integration and social adaptation level, as well as to support their social-relational skills to ensure adequate development of the growing individual and, consequently, to facilitate their academic and professional career. To this end, it is important to know how cognitive and social skills evolve in these situations. The project aims to expand knowledge of the development of specific social skills in learning contexts of typical and atypical development. The results may prove particularly useful in the creation of intervention and support programs, both in educational and relational fields.

Current projects:

1) Developmental trends in emergent literacy skills, construction of an explanatory model of the construct and study of its predictive relevance.

2) Prevention and recovery regarding learning difficulties and disorders in reading and writing through the stimulation of vocabulary building processes.

3) Reading and understanding in the 21st century: comprehension of multiple texts and critical thinking.

4) Promoting Conceptual Learning in Physics.

5) Assessment and intervention in basic cognitive functions, in particular memory, attention and executive functions in pre-school and school age.

For further information:

Laboratory of Scholastic Psychology