
Alessandro Ansani
Biography
I'm a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain (University of Jyväskylä, Finland). Here I do research in Psychology of Music, Psychology of Audiovisuals. In particular, I investigate auditory cross-modal associations and correspondences via online and lab psychophysical studies. Moreover, I take care of several projects' methodological/psychometric aspects. I received my Ph.D. in Psychology & Cognitive Science at Sapienza University of Rome with an experimental thesis on the influence of soundtracks on the interpretation of audiovisuals in terms of several psychological mechanisms, such as empathy, attributed emotions, attention (eye-tracking & pupillometry), time perception, and memory.
My studies have an inclination toward methodological rigour and statistical analysis (GLMM, SEM, LGM, MDS, Latent Profile/Class, model comparison, Bayesian statistics, etc.), complemented by a creative approach to experimental methodology.
I have the pleasure and honour to actively collaborate with several research institutes all over the world, among which: Institute Jean Nicod (École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France), Universidad Católica Luis Amigó (Medellín, Colombia), University of Victoria (Canada), University of Sussex (UK), University of Oxford (UK), University of York (UK), and Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC - CNR, Italy).
Research interests
I mainly work as a data analyst / psychometrician for multiple research groups.
My own research can be summed up into three main branches:
1 Music and cross-modal associations: exploring how people with different cultural and musical backgrounds associate music with images, shapes, colours, emotions, and words.
2 Film music: how soundtracks/background music influence the interpretation of audiovisuals via several psychological mechanisms, especially persuasion, empathy, attention (eye-tracking / pupillometry), memory, & time perception
3 Face perception: trustworthiness, morality, and emotion perception from faces
My studies have a strong inclination toward methodological rigor and statistical analysis, without neglecting creativity in experimental methodology.