ANNA PECCHINENDA

Biografia/Biography
After obtaining the PhD at Sapienza University, I worked at the Université Laval (Canada), at Emory University (U.S.A.) and at Hull University (U.K.). At the end of 2009 I returned to Italy, at the Department of Psychology, Sapienza University, Rome.
Ricerca/Research
My research focuses on the interactions between attention and emotion. I study the mechanisms underlying selective attention under conditions of emotional conflict, that is when some emotional information is to be attended and other information is to be ignored. I use Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation to assess the contribution of brain areas involved in cognitive control and I am interested in changes that occur across the lifespan. Another line of research looks at how attention is oriented in space based on the observed direction of eye-gaze of another individual (e.g., gaze cueing). I am especially interested in disentangling the conditions under which gaze cueing is modulated by emotion and to what extent these effects rely on top-down mechanism. Recent work also looks at how attentional orienting based on eye-gaze changes across the lifespan from childhood to old age and to what extent it is affected by individual characteristics (i.e., loneliness).  Finally, I study temporal selective attention to emotional faces and the effects of implicit contingencies on attention.
 
I am P.I. of the lab Affective Processes and Social Cognition/Processi Affettivi e Cognizione Sociale
 
Didattica/teaching sem 1 2025/2026
Courses
Psicologia Sperimentale delle Emozioni 6 CFU
Affective Neuroscience Across the Lifespan  6 CFU  (3 +3)
Learning Disorders part 1 - 3 CFU (covering for Prof. M. Martelli who is on sabbatical this year)-- for information pleasse contact the Module leader Prof. Allegra Cattani (allegra.cattani@uniroma1.it)
 
Lezioni/Lectures: (attendance is "in person" only)
CdLM in Neuroscienze Cognitive e Riabilitazione Ppsicologica: Psicologia Sperimentale delle Emozioni
CdLM in Cognitive Neuroscience: Affective Neuroscience Across the Lifespan
CdLM in Cognitive Neuroscience: Learning Disorders

My courses have a companion website on Moodle (https://elearning.uniroma1.it/)

Ricevimento/Office Hours:
Previo appuntamento da richiedere via email/ by requesting an appointment via email: anna.pecchinenda@uniroma1.it
By appointment only. Please email anna.pecchinenda@uniroma1.it

Dopo aver conseguito il dottorato di ricerca presso l'Università Sapienza, ho lavorato all'Université Laval (Canada), alla Emory University (USA) e alla Hull University (Regno Unito). Dalla fine del 2009 lavoro in Italia come professore associato confermato al Dipartimento di Psicologia dell'Università Sapienza di Roma.

La mia ricerca si concentra sulle interazioni tra attenzione ed emozione e si declina in diverse linee di ricerca. Alcuni esempi riguardano lo studio:
dei meccanismi alla base dell'attenzione selettiva in condizioni di conflitto emotivo (i.e., quando alcune informazioni emotive devono essere elaborate e altre ignorate).
dei cambiamenti nelle interazioni attenzione-emozione che si verificano nell'arco di vita.
dell''attenzione sociale
degli effetti dell'ostracismo sull'attenzione sociale
degli effetti della solitudine sulla cognizione

Sono responsabile del laboratorio "Processi Affettivi e Cognizione Sociale".

After earning my PhD from Sapienza University, I have worked at Université Laval (Canada), Emory University (USA), and Hull University (UK). Since the end of 2009, I work in Italy as a tenured associate professor at the Department of Psychology at Sapienza University of Rome.

My research focuses on the interactions between attention and emotion and encompasses several lines of research. Some examples include:
the mechanisms underlying selective attention under conditions of emotional conflict (i.e., when some emotional information must be considered and others ignored);
changes in attention-emotion interactions that occur across the lifespan;
social attention;
the effects of ostracism on social attention;
the effects of loneliness on cognition.

I am the head of the "Affective Processes and Social Cognition" lab.