Address book
Contacts
BARBARA ARFE'
Position
Professoressa Ordinaria
Address
VIA VENEZIA, 8 - PADOVA
Telephone
0498276575
Barbara Arfé is full professor of Educational Psychology and Learning Disabilities at the University of Padova, where she is Deputy Rector for Inclusion and Disabilities and Head of the Learning Lab for Deaf Children (LABs: Laboratorio per gli Apprendimenti del Bambino con Sordità, https://www.dpss.unipd.it/labs/persone). She is also member of the Steering Committee of the Research Centre I-APPROVE: International Auditory Processing Project in Venice. Her research activity focuses primarily on children's learning processes, with attention to three areas: hearing loss, writing, and computational thinking. \n\nPast international appointments:\n\nFrom 2008 to 2018: She has been member of the Management Committee of two COST actions and principal investigator for the University of Padova of the European Project TERENCE, FP7. During that period, she has been also consultant for the UNESCO project EGWA (Early Grade Writing Assessment). \n\nFrom 2019 to 2021 she is Chair of the Psychology Evaluation Panel of FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia- Portuguese public funding agency for R&D) for the Stimulus of Scientific Employment, Individual Support (CEECIND) - 3rd and 4th Edition.\n\nCurrently: \n\nShe serves in the Editorial Board of Learning and Metacognition (Q1), Learning and Instruction (Q1) and Topics in Language Disorders (ASHA Journal, Q2).\n\nFunded research projects 2019-2022: \n\n-"What is in ba, be, bi, bo, bu, etc.? A cross-linguistic study of verbal learning and blending". PI (BIRD199955 Project, University of Padova), in collaboration with University of Copenhagen. € 15.000,00\n\n-"New parameters for indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in primary school: Promoting learning through environmental quality interventions" PI (FSE grant, ID: 10258508, PROJECT CODE: 2105-0010-1463-2019) € 109.980,00\n\n- Innovative didactic (2020). Physics Laboratories in the Age COVID and Social Distancing (Project Partner) € 50.000,00\n\nOngoing funded research projects:\n\n- Chi-CoEN: Children’s cognitive effort in noise. Programma Operativo Nazionale “Ricerca e Innovazione” 2014-2020. Principal Investigator. € 150.000,00 \n\n-“Why is letter blending difficult?” BENEFICENTIA Stiftung. Principal Investigator . € 27.000,00 \n\n- “Addressing the gender gap in informatics”, PhD grant, PNRR, DM 352/2022. Principal investigator *. € 70000,00\n\n- "Learn: Learning in Noise", PRIN 2022. Coordinator. € 240000,00
Notices
Orari di ricevimento
AVVISO: Il ricevimento di giovedì 4 dicembre 2025 è cancellato per via di una mia missione fuori sede. Le studentesse e gli studenti interessati possono contattarmi per concordare un recupero.
Publications
Selected recent publications
Spicciarelli G, Gheller F, Celli M and Arfé B (2025) The effect of unintelligible speech noise on children’s verbal working
memory performance. Front. Psychol. 16:1565112. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1565112
Gheller, F., Spicciarelli, G., Scimemi, P., & Arfé, B. (2024). The effects of noise on children’s cognitive performance: A systematic review. Environment and Behavior, 1-3, https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165241245823
Montuori, C., Gambarota, F., Altoè, G., & Arfé, B. (2024) The Cognitive Effects of Computational Thinking: A systematic Review and Meta-analytic Study. Computers & Education, 210, 104961,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2023.104961 (Q1, Computer Science; Education & Educational Research).
Montuori, C.; Pozzan, G.; Padova, C.; Ronconi, L.; Vardanega, T.; Arfé, B. Combined Unplugged and Educational Robotics Training to Promote Computational Thinking and Cognitive Abilities in Preschoolers. Educ. Sci. 2023, 13, 858. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13090858
Arfé, B., Zancato, T. (2021). Language-specific effects in response to spelling intervention in Italian and in English as an additional language. Journal of Learning Disabilities, https://doi.org/10.1177/00222194211001757
Arfé, B., Festa, F., Ronconi, L., Spicciarelli, G. (2020). Oral sentence generation training to improve fifth and 10th graders’ writing. Reading and Writing, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-020-10114-5
Arfé, B., Vardanega, T., & Ronconi, L. (2020). The effects of coding on children's planning and inhibition skills. Computers & Education, 148. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2020.103807
Arfé, B., Fastelli, A. (2020). The influence of explicit and implicit memory processes on the spoken-written language learning ofchildren with CIs. In M. Marschark and H. Knoors (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies in Learningand Cognition, Oxford University Press.
Gomez, N., Fajardo, I., Ferrer, A., & Arfé, B. (2020). Time-course of grammatical processing in deaf readers: An eye-movement study. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enaa005
Arfé, B., & Danzak, R. (2020). The influence of first language spelling and response inhibition skills on English-as-an-additional-language spelling. Cognitive Development, 56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100952
Arfe, B., Corato, F., Pizzocaro, E., & Merella, A. (2019). The Effects of Script and Orthographic Complexity on the Handwriting and Spelling Performance of Children With Dyslexia. Journal of Learning Disabilities. doi:10.1177/0022219419892845
Dockrell, J., Connelly, V., Arfé, B (2019). Struggling writers In elementary school: capturing drivers of performance. Learning and Instruction, 60, 75-84. doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2018.11.009
Arfé, B., Cona, E., Merella, A. (2018) Implicit training of spelling skills in Italian children with dyslexia. Topics in Language disorders, 38, 299
Arfé, B., Montanaro, M., Mottura, E. , Scaltritti, M., Manara,R., Basso, G., Sainati, L., & Colombatti, R. (2018). Selective difficulties in lexical retrieval and nonverbal executive functioning in children with HbSS sickle cell disease. Journal of Pediatric Psychology. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsy005
Arfé, B., Mason, L., Fajardo, I. (2018). Simplifying informational text structure for struggling readers. Reading and Writing, 31, 2191–2210. doi10.1007/s11145-017-9785-6.
Research Area
Auditory processes, memory and learning in deaf or hard of hearing children \nWriting disorders\nThe cognitive effects of computational thinking and educational robotics
Thesis proposals
Auditory processes, memory and learning in children with hearing loss
The effects of environmental noise on learning
Writing disorders
The Cognitive effects of Computational thinking and educational robotics on children's cognitive development
