Lidia Scifo

Researcher in Developmental and Educational Psychology (PSIC-02/A)
LUMSA University – Palermo Campus

Academic Profile

Lidia Scifo is a researcher in Developmental and Educational Psychology at LUMSA University. Her research focuses on developmental and learning processes in educational settings, with particular emphasis on the cognitive and linguistic precursors of literacy, reading comprehension, Specific Learning Disorders, typical and atypical development, and educational inclusion in schools and universities.

A second line of research examines the interaction between psychosocial development, digital technologies, and educational environments. Within this field, she investigates media literacy, digital citizenship, responsible social media use, emotional intelligence, and the risk and protective factors associated with adolescents’ online experiences. Her work also addresses teacher education, educational innovation, and the design of evidence-based educational interventions.

She earned a PhD in Psychology under an international cotutelle agreement between the University of Palermo and the Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife. Her doctoral research investigated risk predictors and the skills involved in learning to read and write during the preschool years. She has conducted research at the Institute for Educational Technology of the Italian National Research Council and has contributed to national and international projects on child development, inclusion, digital education, and adolescent well-being.

She is a member of the international coordination team of ManyBabies 9 – Perceptual Specialization, a multi-laboratory project examining how early experience shapes face perception and discrimination. She has authored national and international scientific publications and serves in editorial and peer-review roles in developmental and educational psychology.

Academic Appointments and Professional Experience

• Since 1 November 2024: fixed-term researcher at LUMSA University.

• Since 2019: research activity at the Institute for Educational Technology of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-ITD), Palermo.

• Since the 2017/2018 academic year: teaching in Developmental and Educational Psychology at LUMSA University.

• Since the 2017/2018 academic year: teaching in Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of Palermo.

• Since 2008: registered as a court-appointed expert with the Court of Ragusa, with expertise in matters concerning minors and family relationships.

Education

PhD in Psychology

2011–2013 – University of Palermo and Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife

PhD in Psychology, 24th cycle, disciplinary field M-PSI/04, awarded under an international cotutelle agreement with the PhD Programme in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Universidad de La Laguna.

Dissertation: Risk Predictors and Learning Skills in Reading and Writing in Italian Pre-school-age Children.

Supervisors:

• Professor Annamaria Pepi, University of Palermo;

• Professor Juan E. Jiménez, Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Universidad de La Laguna.

Postgraduate Specialisation Course

2008 – Specialist in the Psychopathology of Learning Disorders

Advanced training in the processes underlying literacy acquisition and in the design of diagnostic, habilitative, and rehabilitative interventions for learning difficulties and disorders.

Degree in Psychology

2005 – University of Palermo

Degree in Psychology, specialising in Developmental and Educational Psychology, awarded with highest honours (110/110 cum laude) and publication of the dissertation.

Experimental dissertation: Genetic Intellectual Disability and Neurophysiological Alterations: A Polysomnographic Study of Two Groups of Individuals with Down Syndrome and Fragile X Syndrome, conducted at the IRCCS Oasi Maria SS. in Troina. The findings were subsequently published in Clinical Neurophysiology.

Research Areas

• cognitive and linguistic precursors of literacy;

• acquisition and development of reading and writing skills;

• reading comprehension and inferential processes;

• Specific Learning Disorders and Special Educational Needs;

• typical and atypical cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional development;

• inclusion in school, university, and society;

• emotional intelligence and socio-emotional competencies;

• media literacy, digital citizenship, and adolescent social media use;

• educational technologies and digital learning environments;

• teacher education and evidence-based educational practices;

• perceptual development and social cognition in infancy;

• multi-laboratory, cross-cultural, and Open Science research.

Research Projects and Collaborations

ManyBabies 9 – Perceptual Specialization

She is a member of the international coordination team of ManyBabies 9, a project of the ManyBabies consortium. ManyBabies is a collaborative network bringing together hundreds of researchers and laboratories across multiple countries to conduct large-scale, multi-laboratory studies in developmental psychology in accordance with Open Science principles.

MB9 investigates how experience during the first months of life shapes face perception and discrimination and the progressive organisation of early social categories. The project examines perceptual specialisation, the developmental process through which infants become increasingly sensitive to stimuli that are more frequently encountered in their environment. More specifically, it investigates whether and to what extent this process develops differently in infants growing up in multiracial or multiethnic family and social contexts compared with infants growing up in monoracial or monoethnic contexts.

The study explores the relationship between early perceptual experience, the cognitive organisation of social information, and the formation of early social categories. These processes are relevant to understanding the developmental foundations of social cognition and the cognitive precursors that may contribute, over the course of development, to representations of social groups, stereotypes, and prejudice. The knowledge generated may also inform the design of early educational interventions aimed at promoting inclusion, respect for differences, and intercultural coexistence from early childhood.

The study will involve research laboratories worldwide and will employ a shared, preregistered experimental protocol to produce robust, transparent, and replicable findings. As a member of the coordination team, she contributes to the project’s scientific development, the definition of the shared protocol, and the planning of collaborative activities across participating laboratories.

Project website: ManyBabies 9

ManyBabies 4 Spin-off Project

Since 2024, she has participated in Individual Differences in Infants’ Prosocial Behaviors Across Cultures: ManyBabies 4 Spin-off Project, which examines cross-cultural individual differences in infants’ prosocial behaviour.

COURAGE – A Social Media Companion Safeguarding and Educating Students

As an expert in empirical research, she contributed to the international COURAGE project (no. 95567), funded by the Volkswagen Foundation under the initiative Artificial Intelligence and the Society of the Future. The project developed and investigated technological strategies and tools designed to foster media literacy, digital well-being, and responsible social media use among students aged 11–18.

Digital Methods for Social Science

Her research examined the relationship between social networks, migration processes, and digital technologies, with particular attention to how educational technologies can support teaching and the social and educational inclusion of migrants.

Stay Home & Keep in Touch

She served as co-principal investigator of an interdisciplinary research group examining social distancing and the relational experiences of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic, in collaboration with the Italian National Research Council.

International Collaborations

• Since 2012, she has collaborated with Professor Juan E. Jiménez and the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at the Universidad de La Laguna on the precursors of written-language learning in preschool children.

• Since 2024, she has been a member of the University of Salamanca international research group on educational competencies and innovation.

• She has contributed to scientific activities within COST networks addressing social inclusion through technology and empowerment.

Other Research Activities

• Member of the LUMSA research group on children’s literature (2020–2023).

• Member of the LUMSA research group on the anthropology and ethics of childhood (2018–2020).

• Member of the team responsible for the Italian standardisation of the British Ability Scales – Third Edition, BAS-3 (2015–2018).

• Member of the scientific support team for the design of a study in Thematic Area 2 of the ESA Programme at the University of Palermo (2017–2018).

• Member of the Evidence-Based thematic scientific group of the Italian Association of Psychology – Developmental and Educational Psychology Section (2013–2016).

Visiting Appointments and International Research Mobility

• 2023: Visiting Professor at the University of Salamanca; teaching and research on Teaching Excellence, Affectivity and Learning.

• 2022: Research visit to the Volkswagen Foundation, Hanover, for an international COURAGE project meeting.

• 2015: Visiting student at the University of Pittsburgh.

• 2015: Visiting student at Columbia University.

• 2011–2013: Research visits to the Universidad de La Laguna as part of her doctoral project and international cotutelle programme.

• 2011: Study visit to the University of Malta.

University Teaching

LUMSA University

Since the 2017/2018 academic year, she has taught on the Primary Education and Education Sciences degree programmes. Her courses have included:

• Educational Psychology;

• Developmental Psychology;

• Developmental Psychology and Observation Methods;

• Developmental Psychology and Observation Laboratory;

• Developmental Psychology and Laboratory on Specific Learning Disorders;

• Observation Methods in Typical and Atypical Child Development.

In the 2025/2026 academic year, she teaches Observation Methods in Typical and Atypical Child Development on the single-cycle Master’s degree programme in Primary Education and Developmental Psychology and Laboratory on Specific Learning Disorders on the Bachelor’s degree programme in Education Sciences.

University of Palermo

Since the 2017/2018 academic year, she has taught in the following areas:

• Developmental and Educational Psychology;

• Psychology of Disability and Inclusion;

• General Psychology of Development and Disability;

• Educational Psychology;

• integrated psychoeducational intervention models for intellectual disability and pervasive developmental disorders;

• Developmental, Educational, and Instructional Psychology in teacher-support specialisation courses.

Postgraduate Teaching

• Lecturer at the University of Palermo School of Specialisation in Child Neuropsychiatry in the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 academic years, delivering seminars on risks and protective factors in Internet and social media use and on the role of emotional intelligence in adolescence.

• Lecturer on the second-level University Master’s programme in Developmental Learning Disorders and Disabilities from 2013/2014 to 2021/2022.

• Lecturer on the second-level University Master’s programme in Sport and Inclusion: Managing Disability in Educational and Sports Services.

• Lecturer on the second-level University Master’s programme in School Psychology, Education, and Inclusion.

• Lecturer on teacher-support specialisation courses.

• Lecturer on research methodology in Developmental Psychology within doctoral programmes at the University of Palermo.

• Lecturer and scientific coordinator at the CSRM School of Psychotherapy (2016–2022).

She has supervised more than 100 undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations and 24 project works for the second-level University Master’s programme in Developmental Learning Disorders and Disabilities.

Academic Roles and Responsibilities

• Member of the LUMSA team for the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan project Active Guidance in the School-to-University Transition, since 2022.

• Member of the LUMSA Committee for Students with Disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders, since 2019.

• Member of the LUMSA Study Skills Support Service, since 2020.

• Lecturer within LUMSA’s Pathways for Transversal Skills and Guidance, since 2020.

• Member of the CNR-ITD team designing research on educational technology from a lifespan perspective, since 2019.

• Tutor with the University of Palermo Service for Students with Dyslexia (2018–2021).

• Subject expert in M-PSI/04 disciplines at the University of Palermo (2013–2018).

Editorial and Peer-Review Activities

• Guest Editor of the Research Topic Emotional, Moral, and Social Development from Birth to Adolescence: Advances in Mechanisms, Contexts, and Trajectories, hosted by Frontiers in Psychology and Frontiers in Developmental Psychology.

• Editorial board member and reviewer for Frontiers in Developmental Psychology since 2024.

• Editorial board member and reviewer for Frontiers in Education since 2021.

• Editorial board member and reviewer for Human Arenas since 2021.

• Potential reviewer for Frontiers in Psychology and Frontiers in Education since 2021.

• Scientific committee member and reviewer for Esperienze Sociali since 2020.

• Reviewer for national and international scholarly journals and publishers.

Editorial Activity

Geraci, A., D’Amico, A., Scifo, L., & Jiménez Vivas, A. (Guest Eds.). (2026). Emotional, Moral, and Social Development from Birth to Adolescence: Advances in Mechanisms, Contexts, and Trajectories [Frontiers Research Topic]. Frontiers in Psychology / Frontiers in Developmental Psychology.

Scientific Contributions to Conferences and Symposia

She has presented research at national and international conferences on developmental psychology, emotional intelligence, digital education, educational technology, media literacy, inclusion, and artificial intelligence. Major conferences include:

• 27th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development – ISSBD, Lisbon, 2024;

• International Conference on Economics and Social Sciences, Bucharest, 2020–2024;

• EDULEARN – International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, Palma de Mallorca, 2023;

• CKBG – Collaborative Knowledge Building Group National Congress, 2020, 2021, and 2023;

• Herrenhausen Conference AI and the Future of Societies, Hanover, 2022;

• 8th International Congress on Emotional Intelligence, Palermo, 2022;

• International Conference on Higher Education Learning Methodologies and Technologies Online – HELMeTO, Palermo, 2022;

• International Scientific Conference eLearning and Software for Education, 2021;

• International Conference on Computer Supported Education – CSEDU, 2021;

• Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development – SRCD, Philadelphia, 2015;

• International Conference on Education and Educational Psychology, Palermo, 2012;

• European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction – EARLI Metacognition, Palermo, 2012.

Together with A. Maltese, she also convened the symposium New Educational Practices from School to University: Research and Intervention at the 9th CKBG National Congress, Link & Learn: Models, Practices, and Onlife Relationships, University of Salerno, 2023.

Professional Development and Knowledge Transfer

She has designed and delivered training for teachers, educators, and other professionals on the following topics:

• precursors of reading, writing, and numeracy development;

• reading comprehension and inferential processes;

• Specific Learning Disorders and Special Educational Needs;

• observation of typical and atypical development;

• inclusion in school and university;

• media literacy, social media, and emotional intelligence;

• teaching and assessment practices for university students experiencing vulnerability.

She served as lecturer and scientific coordinator for the Incontro…verso project on inclusion and disability and has delivered training in schools, healthcare institutions, training organisations, and professional associations.

Memberships

• ManyBabies Open Science Consortium;

• Italian Association of Psychology – Developmental and Educational Psychology Section;

• Collaborative Knowledge Building Group.

Language Skills

• English: B2;

• Spanish: B2.

Methodological and Digital Skills

• design and implementation of empirical studies in developmental and educational psychology;

• systematic reviews and meta-analyses;

• multi-laboratory research, preregistration, and Open Science practices;

• statistical analysis using IBM SPSS;

• educational technologies and digital learning platforms;

• working knowledge of HTML and JavaScript;

• proficient use of Microsoft and Apple operating systems.

Researcher Profiles

• ORCID 0000-0002-0876-668X

• Scopus Author ID: 24068172100