Research activities of the faculty focus on neurocognition, affect, emotion and motivation, learning (including technology-supported learning) and memory, neurodevelopment, neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodiversity. Researchers use a variety of methodologies, including electroencephalography, virtual reality, and eye-tracking.

 

Researchers at the Faculty of Psychology

Portrait of Andrea Samson
Prof. Dr Andrea Samson Full Professor
Pamela Banta
Prof. Dr Pamela Banta Lavenex Dean / Programme direction for the French language Bachelor in Psychology and Master in Psychology / Associate Professor
Portrait de Géraldine Coppin
Prof. Dr Géraldine Coppin Associate Professor
Géraldine Coppin is an Associate Professor since February 2020. She was Assistant Professor in Psychology at UniDistance Suisse from January 2018 till January 2020 before being tenured. 
Prof. Dr Tino Endres Associate Professor
Tino Endres is an Associate Professor of Psychology at UniDistance Suisse. He directs the Educational Psychology Lab and conducts fundamental research on cognitive, motivational, and metacognitive processes related to learning with complex and digital materials.
Prof. Dr Matthias Maalouli-Hartmann Vice-dean / Programme direction for the PhD programme / Associate Professor
Photo de Corinna Martarelli
Prof. Dr Corinna Martarelli Vice-Rector for Teaching
Prof. Dr Thomas Reber Vice-dean / Programme direction for the German language Bachelor in Psychology and Master in Psychology / Associate Professor
Photo de Nicolas Rothen
Prof. Dr Nicolas Rothen Rector
Professor Nicolas Rothen is Rector and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Psychology at UniDistance Suisse.
Dr Sergi Blanco-Cuaresma Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Alain Butler Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Lucia-Manuela Cantonas Post-doctoral Researcher
PhD Loïc Chareyron Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Mirela Dittrich-Dubravac Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Maximilian Haas Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Darias Holgado Post-doctoral Researcher
I study the subjective experience of exercise and cognitive performance. My work bridges Sport Science, Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Statistics to generate robust evidence and practical impact.
Dr Rémy Lachelin Post-doctoral Researcher
My current research interest is understanding sequence space synaesthesia as well as the interplay between perception and long term memory. I worked on numerical cognition and multilingualism during my PhD.
Dr Seraina Lerch Post-doctoral Researcher
Portrait de Sophie Mantzouranis-Baudat
Dr Sophie Mantzouranis-Baudat Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Maëlan Menétrey Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Alessandro Miani Postdoc
Dr Ana Milosavljevic Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Alodie Rey-Mermet Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Michael Rihs Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Ulrike Rimmele Postdoc
Dr Simon Ruch Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Chhavi Sachdeva Post-doctoral Researcher
My research focuses on the relationship between visual perception and memory, which I primarily investigate through the study of healthy special populations.
Dr rer. nat. Julia Schütze Post-doctoral Researcher
Since August 2025, I have been working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Cognitive Neurophysiology Group at UniDistance Suisse. My research examines how people perceive and evaluate auditory information. I am currently investigating how different levels of fluency in terms of audio and video quality in digital communication settings influence social judgments, and I am also working on psychoacoustic studies of binaural-beat perception. 
PD Dr Kurt Stocker Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Bogdan Vlasenko Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Anastasios Ziogas Post-doctoral Researcher
MSc Sam Ahmad PhD Student
Pauline Berthouzoz PhD Student
MSc Seraina Bohren PhD Student
Lucas Dall'Olio PhD Student
Msc Marie-Sarah Didier PhD Student
MSc Magali Dumureau PhD Student
M Sc Niels Oliver Kempkens PhD Candidate
MSc Tobias Kühlwein Teaching and Research Assistant
Tobias Kühlwein has been a PhD student and teaching assistant since 2023. His research focuses on prospective memory (memory for future intentions) and the question of whether prospective memory shares common cognitive resources with working memory (the ability to temporarily maintain and manipulate information).In teaching, he has been involved in M08: Experimental Practice as well as M09: General Psychology II: Learning and Memory in the German bachelor’s programme, as well as VG1: Cognitive Neuroscience in the German Master’s programme in Psychology.He completed his Master of Science in Psychology at the University of Darmstadt in Germany.
Portrait d'Alexandra Lapteva
MA Alexandra Lapteva PhD Student
Msc Dwayne Lieck PhD Student
MSc Valentine Martin-Savary PhD Student
Sandy C. Marca PhD Student
MSc Cheyenne Mauriello PhD student
MSc Laura Moreno PhD Student
BSc Petra Müller PhD Student
MSc Laura Rotheichner PhD Student
MSc Chiara Samatanga PhD Student
MSc Kevin Schwab PhD Student
Dr Nicole Skieresz PhD Student
Msc Théo Vernede PhD Student
MSc Charlotte Vössing PhD Student
Charlotte Vössing is a research assistant at the Educational Psychology Lab at UniDistance Suisse. After completing her Master's degree in Psychology at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, she is now pursuing her doctorate on the design of complex learning materials. Her research focuses on how learning materials can be structured to foster learners' interest development and thereby improve learning outcomes. In the KeBNE project, she applies this perspective to the communication of findings in the field of Education for Sustainable Development.
Alexandra Zaharia PhD Student

Academic Events

Psychology
Psychology Seminar Series - When mood meets food: Associations between maternal diet, mental health, breastmilk composition and infant body composition
Dr Leah Gilbert, University of Fribourg
Thursday, October 1, 2026 11:00 - 12:00 (CEST+2)
Psychology
Jouer les émotions, comprendre l'humain
UniDistance Suisse
Wednesday, November 11, 2026 13:45 - 17:00 (CET+1)
Psychology
Emotionen Spielerisch erleben, den Menschen verstehen
UniDistance Suisse
Wednesday, November 11, 2026 13:45 - 17:00 (CET+1)

Research groups

Attentional Control Project

How do we control our attention? How do we ignore or suppress distracting information?

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Neurocognitive Development

Welcome to Prof. Dr Pamela Banta Lavenex "Neurocognitive Development" research group

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Food & Human Behavior Lab

« Do you want to take a look at the desert menu? »
« A fruit salad or a molten chocolate cake? »
 

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Experimental cognitive psychology

The research group is concerned with basic research in the field of cognitive psychology (including perception and emotion), on the one hand, and with applied questions such as the influence of tablets and e-learning tools on…

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Methodology and Statistics

Our group carries out research in the field of cognitive psychology – in particular in the areas of learning, memory, and perception. Our research is mainly experimental and quantitative. We collect eye-tracking data and…

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Cognitive Neurophysiology

We are interested in the neural mechanisms enabling memory, perception & consciousness. We conduct research with healthy participants using behavioral studies and EEG. We also collaborate with epilepsy clinics in Switzerland…

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chEERS Lab

The chEERS Lab (Swiss Emotion Experience, Emotion Regulation and Support Laboratory) at UniDistance Suisse and the University of Fribourg is a team of researchers who studies affective processes and their impact on our mental…

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Experimental psychology & cognitive neurosciences

The research group dedicates itself to basic research and applied science in the fields of learning and memory. The focus here is on the following research questions: What are the bases of good memory capacity?

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Research projects

Other-Focused Emotion Regulation in Neurodevelopmental Conditions

Faculty of Psychology

Associations between the use of communication technologies in parent-youth interactions and youth outcomes: A systematic review

Faculty of Psychology

Lasting Learning in Physics – LLIPs

Faculty of Psychology

Narration

Faculty of Psychology

Interest Development

Faculty of Psychology

MEL-TS - Mental Effort and Load–Translingual Scale

Faculty of Psychology

KeBNE - Kommunikation evidenzbasierter Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung in Schulen

Faculty of Psychology

Humor as an Emotion Regulation Strategy

Faculty of Psychology

Neuroanatomical investigation of the hippocampus and amygdala in two mouse models of Williams syndrome

Faculty of Psychology

Climate change: no laughing matter? Using humor to prevent and correct misinformation

Faculty of Psychology

Affective mechanisms of reward processing underlying food intake and sedentariness

Faculty of Psychology

Insights into the Well-being and Quality of Life of Families with Autistic Children in the Canton of Valais

Faculty of Psychology

Elucidating the neural bases of flexible emotion regulation in autistic children and adolescents

Faculty of Psychology

Obesity and cognitive functions in adults: exploring the mediating role of circadian rhythms

Faculty of Psychology

Assessment and Refinement of a Literacy-Course in AI and Neuroscience to Sup-port Learning and Teaching at UniDistance Suisse

Faculty of Psychology

Smartphone use and well-being

Faculty of Psychology

Effects of fluency on higher-order cognitive judgements

Faculty of Psychology

Psychophysics of Binaural Beats

Faculty of Psychology

Empowering Connections: Interpersonal Emotion Regulation as a Key to Managing Challenging Behaviors in Individuals with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

Faculty of Psychology

Socrates & Aristotle: AI-Based Dialogue to Enhance Learning in Higher Education

Faculty of Psychology

Developing socio-emotional competences through our games: A pedagogical innovation in collaboration with the HEP-VS

Faculty of Psychology

Subjective experiences in music practice and performance

Faculty of Psychology

Profiles of temporal order memory abilities in Down syndrome, Williams syndrome and typical development - It’s about time.

Faculty of Psychology

Does Environment Matter? Conversational AI-based avatars in immersive and low-immersive virtual reality

Faculty of Psychology

Is creativity linked to illusory perception?

Faculty of Psychology

The number sense: Exploring the foundations of spatial-numerical associations

Faculty of Psychology

Levels of Processing for Basic Visual Perceptual Features

Faculty of Psychology

Exploring the interplay of daily demands and future intentions

Faculty of Psychology

Do working memory and prospective memory share common cognitive resources?

Faculty of Psychology

Do human concept cells encode novel associations that support transitive inference?

Faculty of Psychology

The genetic basis of cognitive abilities in individuals with Williams syndrome

Faculty of Psychology

Concept learning in the human brain

Faculty of Psychology

Bodily Sensation Mapping: How Emotions Are Represented in the Body

Faculty of Psychology

The current challenge in attentional-control research: Establishing reliable and valid measures

Faculty of Psychology

Do the same cognitive systems support perception and memory? A healthy special populations perspective

Faculty of Psychology

Linking irrational beliefs to perception, cognition, and social media use

Faculty of Psychology

Understanding disengagement during learning and memory

Faculty of Psychology

Memory and healthy aging

Faculty of Psychology

Mental whiteboard: spatial coding of serial order in working memory

Faculty of Psychology

School of Tomorrow

Faculty of Psychology

Socio-emotional processes in individuals with a developmental disorder (SOEMO)

Faculty of Psychology

Reward mechanisms in individuals with obesity

Faculty of Psychology

The impact of intermodal training on the cognitive capacities of individuals with handicaps

Faculty of Psychology

Links Between Brain Activity (EEG) and Cognitive Abilities

Faculty of Psychology

Oxytocin and percetual thresholds of emotional expressions

Faculty of Psychology

Perceptual thresholds of object recognition with backward masking

Faculty of Psychology

Jeu en réalité virtuelle : Mon premier jour d’école

Faculty of Psychology

Exploring memory in different worlds

Faculty of Psychology

Boredom and self-control as guiding signals for goal-directed behaviour

Faculty of Psychology

Exploring the links between emotions and eating

Faculty of Psychology

Using virtual reality to learn about inaccessible micro- and macrocosmic structures in primary school

Faculty of Psychology

Affective and cognitive functioning in relation to food intake

Faculty of Psychology

How Families with Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities were coping with the COVID-19 pandemic: An International Study

Faculty of Psychology

Preschool children’s learning from 3D virtual reality: Investigating the educational impact of the 21st century fairy tales

Faculty of Psychology

Board games involving emotional skills: promoting positive emotions and emotion regulation skills in adolescents

Faculty of Psychology

Cognitive capacity in the presence of a smartphone

Faculty of Psychology

Numerical Cognition

Faculty of Psychology

Interactions between memory systems in typical development and in neurodevelopmental disorders

Faculty of Psychology

Profiles of spatial abilities in Down and Williams syndromes

Faculty of Psychology

Learning through teaching: Educational applications of virtual reality

Faculty of Psychology