Researchers

Andrea Gaggioli graduated in Psychology (address: General and Experimental Psychology) at the University of Bologna, in 1999. After having carried out initial industrial research experiences at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart, in 2005 he obtained a PhD in Psychobiology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Milan. He currently holds the position of Full Professor of General Psychology at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy.

His research activity is part of the scientific-disciplinary field of General Psychology, with two main lines of investigation:

(i) the psychology of experience and its applications in the analysis and design of digital artifacts (User Experience, UX);

(ii) the study of individual and group creativity.

His main positions/roles at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore are:

• Director of the Centre for Studies and Research in the Psychology of Communication (PSICOM)
• Director of the First Level International Master in User Experience Psychology (UxP)
• Member of the University Quality Assurance Committee
• Member of the Teaching Board of the PhD Course in Psychology
• Member of the Steering Committee of the University Teaching and Learning Lab (TeleLab)
• Member of the Steering Committee of the University Centre of the Humane Technology Lab (HTLab)

Carlo Galimberti is full professor of Social Psychology of Communication at the Course of Studies in Media Languages, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. At the same university, from the academic year 2008-2009 to the academic year 2013-2014 he was coordinator of the Technical Committee of the three-year interfaculty course in Media Languages, from 2014 to 2022 he was coordinator of the Faculty Commission for AVA (Quality of Teaching) Procedures.

Author of over one hundred and fifty publications on psychoscial topics, he has dealt with both the epistemological problems related to the different approaches to the study of organizations, and the relationships between individual, group and organization. His interest in methods of analysis of discursive productions led him to practice conversation analysis. He is currently engaged in the construction of an integrated approach to the study of communicative interaction in face-to-face and mediated contexts called the enunciative intersubjectivity model. In the academic year 2013-2014 he spent a period of one month at the GRC of the Université de Lorraine, Nancy campus, as Invited Visiting Professor (Professeur invité). In the AA. AY 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 at the Université de Lorraine in Nancy he participated as President in Commissions for the Soutenance de Thèse Doctorale ("Quels états mentaux les victimes de viol attribuent-elles à leur agresseur dans un entretien psychologique rétrospectif? Étude de cinq cas", candidate Marianne Coutelour, 06.12.14; "Clinique interactionnelle de la consultation d'annonce de diagnostic de cancer en neuro-oncologie : analyse critique des consultations d'annonce et post-annonce des gliomes malins de l'adulte", candidate Rénald Lanfroy, 05.12.15). In the academic year 2016-2017 he spent a three-week period at the GRC of the Université de Lorraine, Nancy campus, as an Invited Researcher (Chercheur invité).

Lecturer in Communication Psychology at the undergraduate degree course in Psychology. Professor of Psychotechnologies for Well-being at the Master's Degree Course in Psychology of Wellbeing. Full Professor of General Psychology (M-PSI-01). Former coordinator of the European research project "VEPSY UPDATED - Virtual Environments in Clinical Psychology", IST-2000-25323; VREPAR "Virtual Reality Environments in Psycho-Neuro-Physiological Assessment and Rehabilitation" and VREPAR 2 (HC 1053 and 1055).

• President of the International Association of CyberPsychology, Training and Rehabilitation.
• European Editor of the impacted international scientific journal "CyberPsychology, Behavior and Social Networking"
• Editor in Chief of the reviewed international scientific journal "Annual Review of CyberTherapy and Telemedicine"
• Associate Editor of the reviewed international journal "Journal of CyberTherapy and Rehabilitation".

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Antonio Bova is Associate Professor of Social Psychology of Communication (M-PSI-05) at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the Catholic University of Milan, where he is a lecturer of the CdS in Media Languages and of the CdS in Tourism Sciences and Enhancement of the Territory, member of the Didactic Coordination and of the Review Commission of the CdS in Media Languages, contact person delegated by the Coordinator of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy Commission for the Quality Assurance of teaching. At the same university, since 2018, he has been a member of the Center for Studies and Research in the Psychology of Communication (CSRPC) and the Laboratory of Communicative Interaction and New Technologies (LICENT). Antonio Bova is Associate Editor of the journals Frontiers in Psychology (I.F. 2.990) and Frontiers in Communication, Language Sciences section. Author of over sixty publications on psychosocial issues, Prof. Bova's research activity is part of the scientific-disciplinary field of Social Psychology, with two main lines of investigation: (i) the study of social interactions at different levels (individual, interpersonal, intra- and inter-group, organizational, community, institutional) through methods and techniques of data analysis of a discursive and conversational nature in online and offline environments; (ii) the study of argumentative dynamics in contexts characterized by a wide prevalence of interpersonal interactions.

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Daniela Villani is Associate Professor in General Psychology at the Faculty of Education and coordinator of the Research Unit in Digital Media, Psychology and Well-being of the Department of Psychology of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. She has collaborated on several national and international projects aimed at investigating the psychological processes involved in the use of technologies in different contexts (health, education and sport) and is the author of numerous scientific publications on the subject. His interests are addressed: to the study of cognitive and affective processes related to interaction with technologies; the analysis of the individual characteristics involved in the positive use of digital media, with particular reference to social media and video games; the analysis of the acceptance factors of the technology; the design and implementation of interventions to promote well-being through the use of new technologies (Positive Technology).

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Anna Flavia Di Natale is a Research Fellow at the Department of Psychology of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. His research interests focus on the application of new technologies, including virtual reality and the Metaverse, for learning. His research activities include studies on the analysis of the effectiveness of virtual educational experiences in terms of social presence, emotions, and cognitive variables, such as flow and cognitive load. Her interests are also directed to the study of cognitive and affective processes related to the use of digital media and their impact on well-being.

Alice Chirico, Ph.D., is a fixed-term researcher in the disciplinary sector M-PSI/01 at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, professor of "Psychotechnologies for Well-being" at the Master's Degree Course in Psychology of Well-being, and lecturer of the course "Creativity and Design thinking", at the Master's Degree Course in Innovation and Digital Entrepreneurship of the Faculty of Economics, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Cremona. Advanced researcher at the Applied Technology for Neuropsychology lab (Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy). She was a visiting scholar at Pennsylvania University (PA) in Philadelphia in 2018, under the supervision of Professor Martin Seligman. In 2016, she was awarded as an Honoree for the "Best Student Experience" at the Proto Wards in Los Angeles (USA) with a project entitled "Body-Swapping: creating the illusion of the embodiment using Virtual Reality". In 2019, he won the international prize "Prize for Mental Health Applications and Ideas" issued by the European Alliance of Innovation. His research mainly concerns the study of complex experiences (e.g., the sublime, awe, flow experience, group creativity) elicited by art (especially music) and through Virtual Reality (VR). She worked on the project "Promoting Education of Scientific and Technological Societal Issues Through Sublime (PROMETHEUS)" funded by the Cariplo Foundation relating to the promotion of motivation to learn in students at risk of dropping out of school through theatrical experiences marked by the sublime. In 2022, it won an RTDA PON, National Operational Program "Research and Innovation" 2014-2020 on the theme "The role of Virtual Reality in eco-sustainable behavior". In 2021, author of the first book in Italian on the profound sublime wonder (awe), curator of the forthcoming collective volume, "Deep Wonder and Depression" (Publisher: Jacabook). In 2022, co-author of the volume "Salvador Dali", series "Between genius and madness" (Publishers: Out of Nowhere, Repubblica, Le Scienze).

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He is a fixed-term researcher in the disciplinary sector M-PSI/01. From February 2009 to 2010 he was a research fellow in General Psychology, scientific disciplinary sector M-PSI/01, Università Cattolica Milan. He obtained the title of PhD in Psychology, Doctoral School in Psychology, XX cycle (2005-2008), Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Area M-PSI/01. Thesis title: "Immersed vs. detached: Reappraisal strategies of situated high-impact emotional events. A behavioral, physiological and experiential response analysis".

His research areas concern emotions, emotional regulation and non-verbal behavior, using methods such as non-verbal behavior analysis, eye-tracking, psychophysiological data analysis. He coordinates the psychodiagnostic assessment service of psychological requirements for driving at the Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Milan.

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He is a Researcher in General Psychology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. and co-director of the Research Unit in Traffic Psychology and of the Service for the Assessment, Empowerment and Diagnosis of the psychological requirements for fitness to drive. She has a PhD in Communication Psychology and Psy.D. in Transactional Analysis. His research interest is to investigate, through a series of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the relationship between intention and human behavior, in the fields of Communication Psychology and Traffic Psychology. He participated as a researcher in the European project Simusafe (SIMUlation of behavioral functions for SAFEr transport), funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. In the area of Communication Psychology, she deals with research on the role of verbal and non-verbal vocal dimensions in conveying specific communicative intentions and in the expression of emotions and empathy and on self-narration as a tool for enhancing well-being. In the field of traffic psychology, his research projects cover risk perception, risk communication, environmental risk and road user behaviour. He collaborates as an editor and reviewer for high-level international journals and other committees related to the fields of his expertise.

Ilaria Vergine is a research fellow for the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan as part of the research project Horizon 2020 – CounteR – Grant Agreement n. 101021607. At the same university he obtained his PhD in Social Psychology in 2021 and is currently an expert on the subject for the courses of: Communication for Organizations and Marketing (at the Faculty of Psychology), Social Psychology of Communication in Groups and Organizations (at the Interfaculty of Humanities and Economics), Social Psychology of Communication (at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy). He is also an expert on the subject at the Brescia campus of the same university for the course of Living the Tourist Experience (at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy). He deals with the social psychology of communication. In particular, his research interests focus on the analysis of communicative interaction in organizational contexts (with particular attention to "digitally augmented" texts, speeches and conversations), on the ways of using television series and on phenomena related to health and safety at work (e.g. technostress). In addition, he has gained experience in the use of methodologies aimed at analyzing both the content of speeches and communicative interactions understood as a set of actions that communicate meanings (for example, gestures combined with posture, oral verbal, etc.).

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PhD student at the Doctoral School in Psychology of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. His research focuses mainly on aesthetic transformative experiences, supported by new technologies, such as virtual reality, and how these technologies can foster creativity and engage a subject in an experience that can have emotional and cognitive consequences relevant to the human being.

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Elisa Pancini is a PhD student in Personal and Educational Sciences at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan as part of the National Operational Program "Research and Innovation". At the same University she obtained her Master's Degree in Psychology for Wellbeing: Empowerment, Rehabilitation and Positive Technology in 2021 with a thesis entitled "e-Savoring and life satisfaction: analysis of age differences and the role of the future time perspective". In 2022 she obtained a Master's degree in Sports Psychology and currently collaborates with the Borgotrebbia Tennis Club in Piacenza to optimize athletes' performance. Her research interests focus on the promotion of subjective and psychological well-being in different populations (healthy, clinical and subclinical) belonging to different age groups through Positive Technologies (Virtual Reality) and Positive Psychology devices. His main line of research concerns the development of a transformative relaxation and empowerment protocol through Virtual Reality and savoring aimed at clinical populations (respiratory diseases, Long Covid) in collaboration with BECOME-HUB and the Inrca Bronchopulmonary Disease Center in Casatenovo.

Sabrina Bartolotta is a PhD student at the Doctoral School in Psychology of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. Her research interests focus on new technologies such as virtual reality and the Metaverse to support experiential learning. Her PhD project includes studies related to both the User Experience (UX) and usability of digital platforms, the design and implementation of learning experiences, and studies on the effectiveness of these experiences in emotional and cognitive terms (e.g., flow, attitude towards learning; learning of concepts and skills).

Flavia Cristofolini is an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Psychology of the Catholic University of Brescia and an instructor for future teachers in the General Psychology course at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. He coordinates the Erasmus+ KA220 2022-2025 project for the ExperienceLab for the creation of a digital app for the promotion of well-being and positive mental health of young people. Following her first degree in Foreign Languages and Literatures, obtained at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Brescia, she carried out tenured teaching activities at the high schools of Brescia for 35 years, gaining further experience in the promotion of school well-being as a Trainer of Socio-Affective Education (two-year course) of teachers. Graduated  in Psychology of Clinical Interventions in Social Contexts at the Catholic University of Brescia, she was an expert in the subject of Cognitive Empowerment; she then specialized in third-generation Cognitive-Behavioral Psychotherapy. She deals with the application of Positive Psychology to teaching, learning and school well-being (she has devised together with Prof. Gaggioli an Integrated Positive Education approach published for Pearson Academy in 2021) and to new technologies (digital apps for psychological dissemination and well-being).

His research interests focus on: the transformative experience in learning and teaching; the promotion of well-being and emotional self-regulation through Positive Psychology and third-wave cognitive-behavioral approaches (ACT, CFT) in the non-clinical setting; design and implementation of interventions to promote well-being through the use of new technologies (Positive Technology).

Maurizio Mauri is an adjunct professor for the teaching of Cognitive Psychology applied to Ergonomics and User Experience, within the degree course of "Psychology of well-being: empowerment, rehabilitation and positive technology", at the Faculty of Psychology of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan; he is also coordinator of the research activities carried out by the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan as a partner in the "Search & Rescue" project, funded by the European Union; he is an adjunct professor of the Master in User Experience Psychology and senior researcher at the ExperienceLab, a laboratory of the Center for Studies and Research in the Psychology of Communication.

He has collaborated in several national and international projects aimed at investigating the neuro- and psychophysiological processes elicited during the use of technologies in different digital contexts (apps, websites, software interfaces, etc.) and is the author of several scientific publications on the subject. Her research interests are directed to the study of communicative processes in terms of the effects reverberated by neuro and psychophysiological reactions, in terms of emotional and cognitive reactions; the analysis of visual explorations of communicative stimuli through the application of eye-tracking techniques; the automatic analysis of emotional expressions of the face, both in terms of emotions and micro-expressions; the analysis of the impact of digital experiences through the application of reaction times and their change in short-term associations; the study of ergonomics and user experience in phygital environments, in order to design and test quality experiences, constantly improving their emotional design.

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