معرفی
Mikko Peltola is an Associate Professor (tenure track) in Welfare Sciences at Tampere University's Faculty of Social Sciences. He also serves as a University Lecturer in Welfare Sciences and has been the Psychology Degree Programme Manager since 2023.
Dr. Peltola earned his PsM from the University of Tampere in 2006 and his PsT (equivalent to PhD) in 2011. His academic journey includes postdoctoral research at Leiden University (2012-2013) and the University of Tampere (2014-2017), followed by prestigious positions as Academy Research Fellow at the University of Tampere (2017-2022) and University Research Fellow at the Tampere Institute for Advanced Study (2021-2023).
Dr. Peltola's research centers on developmental psychology with emphasis on social information perception, emotional development, and childhood empathy. His work investigates how infants and children perceive emotional cues, examining the biological and social factors influencing empathy development. He employs psychophysiological methods to explore the neural mechanisms underlying social cognition in development, with recent projects focusing on infant attachment, parental sensitivity, and the development of emotional recognition skills.
Analysis of Dr. Peltola's publication record reveals a strong trajectory in developmental research with increasing international collaboration. His work spans from foundational studies on infant cognition to large-scale cross-cultural projects like the Global Temperament Project involving 59 nations. A distinctive trend in his recent work is the innovative integration of robotics into developmental research, using humanoid robots to investigate social attention and emotion perception in infants and children.
Dr. Peltola actively contributes to academic service as an editorial board member of Developmental Psychology (2022-2024) and previously chaired the Psychology Doctoral Education Network Dopsy (2019-2022). His supervisory activities include mentoring master's students and serving as pre-examiner for doctoral dissertations, reflecting his commitment to developing the next generation of psychological scientists.
Dr. Peltola leads the TransParent research project and conducts his research within the Human Information Processing laboratory at Tampere University. His team also investigates the relationship between sleep patterns and developmental outcomes through the Child sleep and health study (CHILD-SLEEP), demonstrating the breadth of his research interests in child development and welfare.
