DR ANDREA PIOVESAN

I obtained my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Psychology at the University of Padova (Italy) in 2012 and 2014 respectively. In 2013, I joined the Erasmus program collecting data for my Master dissertation at the University of Liverpool. After my master completion, I moved to the UK obtaining my PhD in Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University in 2019. Since then, I have had multiple teaching and research contracts in the following universities: Liverpool John Moores University (UK), Edge Hill University (UK), and IUAV University of Venice (Italy). Currently, I am a lecturer at Edge Hill University (UK).

My main research area is in the field of perception, including time, pain, vision and perception of fonts. I frequently combine behavioural tasks with recordings of physiological measures (e.g., EDA, ECG, EEG).

Time perception

My main research revolves around how humans perceive time. My interest started with my PhD, when I investigated the effect of pain on time perception using physiological techniques to measure arousal (i.e., EDA and ECG). After obtaining my PhD, I have examined the effect of the stimulus magnitudes (e.g., sizes, brightness, numerosity) on its perceived duration. More recently, I investigated the effect of the restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic on how British and Italians perceived the passage of time.

Currently, I am exploring how chronic pain sufferers experience the passage of time and how it is related to changes in their pain level. I am also conducting physiological experiments in the lab to test how the duration of auditory and visual stimuli are encoded by the brain.

Typeface perception

I have conducted a literature review of articles investigating the ability of typefaces to communicate semantic qualities, such as simplicity and reliability.

Currently, I am asking thousands of people to rate how they perceive hundreds of typefaces based on multiple qualities. The aim is to create a vast dataset containing these ratings that could be used to test if specific typeface features (e.g., boldness) are directly responsible for the perception of such qualities. The data will also made available here to graphic designers and professionals who could use the ratings to improve the selection of appropriate typefaces for their work projects.

Autism

Since 2020, I have been collaborating with Dr Atherton and Dr Cross (EHU) in a series of projects investigating individuals with diagnosis of autism. My contribution consists in the data analysis and the writing up of the results. This fruitful collaboration has already led to multiple published articles in high quality journals.