Short CV

After completing the Research Master’s programme ‘Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies’ Marcella Pavias started her Phd project in October 2014 ( The role of social cognition in the development of reading comprehension abilities: Evidence from behavioral, eye-tracking, and neuroimaging methods). She joined the Brain and Education Lab in November 2012 as a research assistant under supervision of Dr. Linda van Leijenhorst and Anne Helder. In June 2014 Marcella was awarded an NWO Research Talent Grant which enables her to work towards a PhD in the coming years under supervision of Prof. Dr. P.W. van den Broek and Dr.  L. van Leijenhorst.        

Research

Reading comprehension skills are usually acquired in the context of narratives, whose understanding requires social cognitive abilities such as perspective taking. The project combines insights from developmental cognitive neuroscience and research on reading comprehension to determine the cognitive and neural bases of the development of reader characteristics that contribute to text comprehension in childhood and adolescence. The role of the development of social cognition will be examined using behavioral, eye-tracking, as well as functional MRI techniques.

Grants

NWO Research Talent Grant

Relevant links

• nl.linkedin.com/in/marcellapavias
• ​www.brainandeducationlab.nl

Promotor

Prof. dr. P.W. van den Broek
Dr. L. van Leijenhorst

Publications