معرفی
Donatella Ferrante is an Associate Professor in General Psychology (M-PSI/01) at the Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste. She serves as a member of the University Ethics Committee, Departmental Council, and teaching committee for the PhD program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science. She heads the Thinking & Decision Laboratory and has been involved with multiple doctoral colleges across cycles XXVIII to XXXIX.
Her educational background includes a Philosophy degree from the University of Trieste (1986), a scholarship at the Institute of Psychology of the CNR in Rome (1988), and a PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Trieste (1993). She has held significant administrative roles including Deputy Director of the Department of Psychology (2003-2006, 2009-2011), coordinator of the Bachelor's Degree in Psychological Sciences (2016-2018), and coordinator of the Master's Degree in Psychology (2019-2021).
Professor Ferrante's research spans several interconnected domains in cognitive and applied psychology. Her primary focus is on counterfactual thinking processes and their influence on affective states and social judgment. She has made significant contributions to understanding work-related stress through the development of psychometric tools like the Italian adaptation of the HSE Management Standards Work-Related Stress Indicator Tool. Her work in health promotion examines risk communication formats and interventions for wellbeing across different age groups. More recently, she has explored judgment and decision-making in groups, particularly applying argumentative theory to fake news recognition.
Her publication record shows a consistent trajectory from fundamental cognitive processes toward applied contexts, with increasing focus on organizational and health psychology applications. The research demonstrates methodological diversity across experimental, field, and applied settings, with growing emphasis on developing practical assessment tools and interventions.
Professor Ferrante has supervised numerous research projects as scientific manager, including national projects (CNR 1995, CNR 1996, PRIN 2004, PRIN 2006, PRIN 2008) and international collaborations. Current projects include PROBEN_0000008 for university community wellbeing and Prot. 2022MW3XTA on neurocognitive foundations of technical cognition.
She leads the Thinking & Decision Laboratory, which includes researchers Marta Stragà, Diana Carbone, Angela Faiella, and external collaborator Francesco Marcatto. The laboratory maintains active collaborations with European universities and has developed specialized expertise in experimental paradigms for studying counterfactual thinking, decision-making processes, and stress assessment methodologies.
