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Staff Structures

LUCIA MASON

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Position

Professoressa Ordinaria

Address

VIA VENEZIA, 8 - PADOVA

Telephone

0498276562

Full Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology

President of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI)

Past Editor-in-Chief, Learning and Instruction (Elsevier)

Editorial Board Member:
Contemporary Educational Psychology
Educational Psychology Review
Educational Research Review
Journal of Computer Assisted Learning
Journal of Educational Psychology
Journal of Experimental Education
Learning and Individual Differences
Learning and Instruction

Professional Associations Member:
Italian Association of Psychology (AIP)
European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI)
American Educational Research Association (AERA)
American Psychology Association (APA), Division 15

Notices

Office hours

  • Tuesday from 13:30 to 15:30
    at Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, secondo piano, tel.: 049 8276562

Publications

Selected Journal Articles (see pdf)

Savvidou, S., Diakidoy, I-A., & Mason, L. (2024). Multiple‐text comprehension and evaluation: The influence of reading goal, belief consistency, and argument type. Reading Research Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.568

Mason, L., Ronconi, A., Carretti, B., Nardin, S., & Tarchi, C. (2023). Highlighting and highlighted information in text comprehension and learning from digital reading. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 1‒17.

Mason, L., Manzione, L., Ronconi, A., & Pazzaglia, F. (2022). Lessons in a green school environment and in the classroom: effects on students’ cognitive functioning and and affect. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(24). Article 16823

Ronconi, A., Veronesi, V., Mason, L., Manzione, L., Florit, E., Anmarkrud, Ø., & Bråten, I. (2022). Effects of reading medium on the processing, comprehension, and calibration of adolescent readers. Computers & Education, 185. Article 104520

Zaccoletti, S., Raccanello, D., Burro, R., & Mason, L. (2022). Reading with induced worry: the role of physiological self-regulation and working memory updating in text comprehension. British Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12491

Raccanello, D., Florit, E., Brondino, & Mason, L. (2022). Control and value appraisals and online multiple-text comprehension in primary school: the mediating role of boredom and the moderating role of word-reading fluency. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(1), 2

Mason, L., & Zaccoletti, S. (2020). Inhibition and conceptual learning in science: A review of studies. Educational Psychology Review. Advance online publication. doi:10.1007/s10648-020-09529-x

Zaccoletti, S., Altoè, G., & Mason, L. (2020). Enjoyment, anxiety and boredom, and their control-value antecedents as predictors of reading comprehension. Learning and Individual Differences. Advance online publication. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2020.101869

Zaccoletti, S., Altoè, G., & Mason, L. (2020). The interplay of reading‐related emotions and updating in reading comprehension performance. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(3), 663‒682. doi:10.1111/bjep.12324

Mason, L., Zaccoletti, S., Scrimin, S., Tornatora, M. C., Florit, E., & Goetz, T. (2020). Reading with the eyes and under the skin: Comprehending conflicting digital texts. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 36, 89‒101. doi:10.1111/jcal.12399

Florit, E., De Carli, P., Giunti, G., & Mason, L. (2019). Advanced theory of mind uniquely contributes to children’s multiple-text comprehension. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 189, Advance online publication. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104708

Mason, L. (2018). Multiplicity in the digital era: Processing and learning from multiple sources
and modalities of instructional presentations. Learning and Instruction, 57, 66-81. doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2018.03.004

Mason, L., Scrimin, S., Tornatora, M. C., Zaccoletti, S., & Goetz, T. (2018). Webpage reading: Psychophysiological correlates of emotional arousal and regulation predict multiple-text comprehension. Computers in Human Behavior, 87, 217−326. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2018.05.020

Mason, L., Zaccoletti, S., Carretti, B., Scrimin, S., & Diakidoy, I. A. (2018). The role of inhibition in conceptual learning from refutation and standard expository texts. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 17, 483-501. doi:10.1007/s10763-017-9874-7

Research Area

RESEARCH LINES WITH SOME OF THE SPECIFIC ISSUES PROPOSED FOR PHD STUDENTS:

1. Exposure to nature and students' cognitive functioning and well-being

2. The interply of cognition and emotion in learning tasks

a. Do affective states (emotion, mood) influence students' learning from text? In what ways? Is this influence mediate by individual differences?
b. Does emotional regulation predict academic performance after controlling for crucial cognitive characteritics?
c. Does physiological arousal as egagement at microlevel contribute to text processing and comprehension?
Mood induction methodologies and measurement of peripheral physiological reactions.

3. Conceptual change through multimedia learning (learning from text and graphics)

Are refutation texts and refutation pictures equally effective in changing students' misconceptions
about science phenomena? Can refutation materials compensate for low levels of individual characteristics? Eye movements and physiological arousal are used to get process data.

4. Conceptual change and inhibition

What happens to misconceptions once scientific conceptions have been learned and conceptual change has occurred? Does the executive function of inhibition play a role in knowledge restructuring in the domain of science?

5. Multiple-text comprehension

Students are often required to process and synthesize information from multiple texts, either printed or digital.

a. Are primary school students' sensitive to discrepancies among texts on the same topic?
b. Beyond the well-known cognitive and linguistic factors, do motivational variables, such as self-concept for reading and the value attributed to reading predict on-line processing and off-line comprehension and integration of multiple texts?
The methodology of eye tracking is used.

6. "Cool" and "hot" executive functions and academic achievement

Do both cool and hot executive functions contribute to academic achievement in students at different educational level? Do students' learning-related behavior problems and engagement mediate the relation between executive functions and achievement?

7. Eye-Movement Modeling Examples (EMME).

Is a perceptual tool, like the gaze replay of an expert, effective to model the execution of tasks that are far from perceptual, although they involve perception processes (e.g., reading complex texts)? Is EMME especially effective for some students (aptitude-treatment-interaction)?

Thesis proposals

LEARNING AT SCHOOL (affective, cognitive, and metacognitive aspects)

1. Exposure to nature (greenspace) and students' cognitive functioning, emotions, and well-being
2. Learning and digital media (reading form paper and screen; learning from texts and videos) videos
3. Learning and multitasking
4. Emotions in the classroom and their influence on cognitive performance
5. Conceptual change and inhibition
6. Conceptual change and multimedia learning (learning from text and graphics)
7. Executive functions and school achievement
8. Comprehension processes of verbal and graphical materials (eye-tracking methodology)
9. Reading on the Internet: search of information, evaluatio of source credibility, and comprehension
10. Motivational factors underlying school achievement

*** Opportunities of research internship