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Cognition, Development and Mental Health Research Group

Socio-cognitive and emotional development

This line of research focuses on researching the development of socio-cognitive skills, also called theory of the mind, which consist of understanding the behaviour of other people based on the attribution of mental and emotional states (intentions, desires, beliefs, etc.).

 

In the last ten years, funding has been obtained from the following competitive projects:

Project ‘Impact of an emotional education programme in the well-being of people with intellectual disabilities’ (Ref: CX22-00216). FLAC - Fundació 'La Caixa'. Period: 2023-2026

Project ‘Advanced linguistic and socio-cognitive skills in children without language alterations’ (Ref: PID2020-118419GB-I00). EMCIU -Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities - MCIU. Period: 2021-2025

‘Determining the Feasibility and Impact of the SEE Learning Programme on Educators and Students within Spain.’ Emory University. Period: 2022-2023

Project ‘The explicit and implicit comprehension of faked emotions: the role of language’ (Ref: PSI2015-69419-R). MECO - Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Period: 2016-2019.

 

This line of research focuses on the study of the following aspects:

  • Socio-cognitive skills in childhood.
  • The relationship between socio-cognitive and linguistic skills - see also the line of 'Language acquisition, evaluation and processing’.
  • Developing the ability to understand other people’s emotions and, in particular, the ability to simulate emotions.
  • The development of socio-cognitive and emotional skills in people with developmental disorders, language disorders, deafness, and intellectual disability.
  • The relationship between sociocognitive skills and other cognitive skills (e.g. referential communication, executive functions, moral reasoning, etc.)

The line began in 2006. In this regard, collaborations with researchers from other universities are carried out here, both nationally and internationally: Gary Morgan (City University London), Clara Andrés (Universitat Jaume I, Castellón), Stephanie Durrleman (Université de Genève), and David Tacuri (Universidad de Cuenca, Ecuador).

Publicacions

Sidera, F.; Amadó, A.; Andrés-Roqueta, C.; Górriz Plumed, A.; Perpiñà, G., Soria-Izquierdo, E.; Serrat, E."Adaptation and Preliminary Validation of the TRUST for Primary School Teachers (TRUST-PS)."  Psicología educativa: revista de los psicólogos de educación  31 (2025):  63-71.

Serrat, E., Amadó, A., Durrleman, S., Intxaustegi, A., & Sidera, F."Expressive syntax matters for second order false belief: a study with hearing impaired children."  Frontiers in communication  9 (2024).

Perpiñà, G..; Sidera, F.; Senar, F.; Serrat, E."Executive functions are important for academic achievement, but emotional intelligence too."Scandinavian Journal of Psychology64 (2023):470-478.

Amadó, A.; Sidera, F.; Serrat, E."Affective and cognitive theory of mind in children with down syndrome: A brief report."International Journal Of Disability Development And Education(2022):1-9.Sidera, F.; Lillard, A. S., Amadó, A., Caparrós, B., Rostan, C., Serrat, E."Pretending emotions in the early years: the role of language and symbolic play."InfancyOnline Version(2021).

Sidera, F.; Lillard, A. S., Amadó, A., Caparrós, B., Rostan, C., Serrat, E."Pretending emotions in the early years: the role of language and symbolic play."Infancy26 (2021):920-931.

Sidera, F.; Morgan, G.; Serrat, E."Understanding Pretend Emotions in Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing."Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education25 (2020):141-152.

Serrat, E.; Amadó, A.; Rostan, C.; Caparrós, B.; Sidera, F."Identifying Emotional Expressions: Children's Reasoning About Pretend Emotions of Sadness and Anger."Frontiers in Psychology11 (2020): Volume 11, Article 602385.

Perpiñà, G.; Sidera, F.; Serrat, E."Does Emotional Intelligence Have an Impact on Linguistic Competences? A Primary Education Study."Sustainability (Switzerland)12 (2020):10474-.

Perpiñà, G.; Sidera, F.; Serrat, E."Rendimiento académico en educación primaria: relaciones con la Inteligencia Emocional y las Habilidades Sociales = Academic achievement in middle childhood: relationships with Emotional Intelligence and Social Skills."  Revista de educación  395 (2022):  291-319.

Sidera, F.; Perpiñà, G.; Serrat, E."Adquisició del llenguatge i comprensió emocional en infants amb sordesa."Llengua, societat i comunicació = Language, society and communication(2020):64-79.

Amadó Codony, A., i Fernández-Olaria, R. (2019). Comunicación, lenguaje y habla en el síndrome de Down. Dins de E. Aguilar-Mediavilla i A. Igualada (Eds.), Dificultades del lenguaje en los trastornos del desarrollo, Vol II: Síndromes genéticos y trastorno del espectro autista (83-139). Barcelona: Editorial UOC.

Sidera, F; Badia, I.; Manzano, E."Proposta d'un instrument d'avaluació de la teoria de la ment a la infància."Àmbits de psicopedagogia: revista catalana de psicopedagogia i educació(2019):23-49.

Sidera, Francesc; Rostan, Carles; Collell, Jordi; Agell, Sara"Aplicación de un programa de aprendizaje socioemocional y moral para mejorar la convivencia en educación secundaria."Universitas Psychologica  18 (2019):  1-14.

Sidera, F.; Serrat, E.; Amadó, A.; Morgan, G. " Emotion recognition skills in children with hearing loss. What is the role of language? ." Atypical language development in romance languages / edited by Eva Aguilar-Mediavilla, Lucía Buil-Legaz, Raúl López-Penadés, Victor A. Sanchez-Azanza . Amsterdam / Philadelphia (NLD): John Benjamins Publishing, 2019.

Serrat, E.; Sidera, F. "Conocimiento emocional y lenguaje." Desarrollo emocional en los primeros años de vida. Debates actuales y retos futuros. (ESP): Pirámide, 2018.

Sidera, F.; Perpiñà, G.; Serrano, J.; Rostan, C. "Why Is Theory of Mind Important for Referential Communication?." Current Psychology (2018): 82-9.

Sidera, F.; Amadó, A.; Martínez, L. "Influences on Facial Emotion Recognition in Deaf Children." Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 22 (2017): 164-177.

Amadó, A., Serrat, E., Vallès-Majoral, E. (2016). The Role of Executive Functions in Social Cognition among Children with Down Syndrome: Relationship Patterns. Frontiers in Psychology, 7:1363. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01363

Serrat, E.; Sidera, F.; Rostan, C.; Amadó, A. "Adquisició del llenguatge i cognició."Llengua, societat i comunicació = Language, society and communication (2015): 30-37.

Rostan Sánchez, C.; Sidera Caballero, F.; Serrano Ortiz, J.; Amadó Codony, A.; Vallés-Mayoral, E.; Esteban Guitart, M.; Serrat Sellabona, E. "Fostering Theory of Mind development. Short- and medium-term effects of training false belief understanding." Infancia y Aprendizaje 37 (2014): 498-529.

Sidera, F.; Serrat, E.; Amadó, A. "Children's understanding of pretend emotions: The role of the vocabulary and the syntax of complementation with cognitive and communicative verbs." L’Année psychologique: Topics in Cognitive Psychology 114 (2014): 231-249.

Amadó, A.; Serrat, E.; Sidera, F. "Developmental readiness in the understanding of own and other's false beliefs." Child Development Research 2014 (2014):-

Rostan, C.; Sidera, F.; Amadó, A. "New wine in old bottle. The interrelation between executive functions, theory of mind and language in the light of Vygotsky and Luria." Metis 21 (2014): 29-50.

Serrat, E.; Rostan, C.; Vallès-Majoral, E.; Esteban, M.; Sidera, F.; Serrano, J. "Labelling improves false belief understanding. A training study." The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 16 (2013): 1-14.

Sidera, F.; Amadó, A.; Serrat, E. "Are You Really Happy? Children's Understanding of Real vs. Pretend Emotions." Current Psychology 32 (2013): 18-31.

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