Josephine Zerna

Josephine Zerna is a Researcher at the Chair of Differential and Personality Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden. Her work focuses on the intersection of cognitive mechanisms (e.g., Need for Cognition) and psychological well-being, employing EEG microstate analysis and effort discounting paradigms. She actively contributes to open science initiatives, including the OSIP and co-authored strategies to institutionalize reproducible research practices.

Research interests include emotion regulation strategies, cognitive load preferences, and the neurophysiological underpinnings of valence processing. Key findings include no sequential processing of valence/arousal in EEG microstates and associations between Need for Cognition and task-load preferences. Academic contributions span meta-analyses on well-being mechanisms and experimental designs for measuring subjective task values.

• Received IGOR Prize (2023) and OSIP Award (2023) for open science contributions
• Active in conferences: Society of Affective Science, German Psychological Society

Current projects involve the Cognitive and Affective Discounting (CAD) subproject within CRC 940. Her work emphasizes bridging cognitive theories with practical applications in education and clinical settings.