Azzurra Ruggeri

Azzurra Ruggeri is an Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Developmental Psychology at the Technical University of Munich's School of Education and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at Central European University in Vienna. From 2016-2023, she served as a Max Planck Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, where she led the iSearch research group focused on information search and active learning across the lifespan. She is also affiliated with the International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course (LIFE).

Her educational background includes dual PhDs in Psychology from Humboldt University of Berlin and in Cognitive Science from University of Siena (both 2012), as well as an MA in Philosophy with focus on Decision Making and Philosophy of Science from University of Pisa (2008). Prior to her current positions, she completed postdoctoral training at both the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the University of California, Berkeley.

Ruggeri's research focuses on how children and adults actively search for information when making decisions, drawing causal inferences, and solving categorization tasks. She investigates how adaptive search strategies are to the structure of tasks and how active information generation impacts learning and understanding. Her work bridges cognitive development, decision science, and educational psychology with strong emphasis on ecological validity.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a consistent focus on children's information search behaviors, particularly how preschoolers and toddlers adapt their exploration to task structures, goals, and information gain. Her research employs both experimental paradigms and computational modeling approaches to understand developmental changes in active learning strategies across the lifespan.

• John Templeton Foundation Virtual Research Network on the Development of Intellectual Humility ($30,000)
• Volkswagen Foundation - Artificial Intelligence and the Society of the Future, "Towards a theory of curiosity" (€1,500,000, of which €585,800 to Ruggeri)
• Innovation funds of Museum für Naturkunde Berlin for "Center for Active Learning in Museums" (€15,500)
• DFG Focus Program: The active self project "Climbing to yourself" (€350,000)
• Marie Curie Actions International Outgoing Fellowships ($282,000)
• Best Early Career Developmental Paper, AIP (Italian Psychological Association) ($1,200)

Ruggeri has supervised PhD students including C. De Simone ("Active and ecological learning to navigate the social world") and A. Jones ("Active learning strategies in child- and adulthood: An interdisciplinary perspective"). Her research group has received substantial grant funding supporting work on children's information search strategies, active learning, and the development of curiosity across multiple institutions.

Her laboratory work focuses on designing ecologically valid experimental paradigms that capture real-world information search behavior while maintaining experimental control, often using games and interactive tasks to examine exploration behavior across development.