Claudia Mazzuca (she/her)

👶Thanks @jennysaffran.bsky.social for a fantastic talk—rich with insights into how early experience shapes learning and what it reveals about the foundations of language.👶

@annaborghi.bsky.social @chiaradelivio.bsky.social w/Guido Giovanardi & Marta Mirabella

We discuss our findings in light of theories of linguistic fluency, underscoring the importance of taking into account underlying cognitive processes when dealing with gendered language, besides socio-cultural components.

We did, however, find some interesting differences between feminine and masculine role nouns—suggesting that despite general awareness, gender biases are still present in the Italian context.

We found no clear preference for either of the two gender-inclusive desinences, both of which are judged as being less familiar and pleasant than their gendered counterparts.

🏳️‍🌈 Excited to share the #preprint of the first Italian database of gender-inclusive role nouns (GIRN-I), featuring ratings on 9 semantic dimensions for nouns with gendered (feminine/masculine) and gender-inclusive (asterisk/schwa) desinences. 🏳️‍🌈 doi.org/10.31234/osf...

with @annaborghi.bsky.social and @chiarafini.bsky.social

Great to see this brilliant work led by @ileniafalcinelli.bsky.social finally published and #OA. Our results add further layers to the study of conceptual abstractness, showing differences in the representation of technological&ecological concepts across two age cohorts (65yo+ and younger adults)👵

If you are interested, you can read more about the study on ecological concepts led by @ileniafalcinelli.bsky.social at osf.io/preprints/os...; for details about the conversations study led by @chiarafini.bsky.social please get in touch with her!

Truly honoured to have been given the chance to present my work in my first keynote talk as the 2024 winner of Best Young Researcher from the Italian Association of Cognitive Science at #AISC2025 in the wonderful IMT of Lucca

Wonderful talk by @claudiamazzuca.bsky.social at AISC, Italian Association of Cognitive Science, in Lucca, IMT, on "the worlds within words" - on the importance of considering diversity in language/culture, gender, age, and expertise in research on cognition. @ballabrome.bsky.social

Great news!

To conclude, I would like to add an anecdotal piece of evidence collected a few days ago that attests what it is like to live with a chemist. I encourage you to find out which is the only item I have not added to the list.

All in all, these data suggest expertise affects conceptual representations showing that more essentialist patterns of thinking might also emerge as a result of prolonged life experiences.

Finally, we also found that chemists judge the concept of H2O as being significantly more concrete compared to laypeople.

A sentence acceptability task suggested chemists might hold a stricter representation of what counts as water, with some water examples (e.g., ocean water) considered to be mixtures of water rather than pure water.

We found chemists incorporate more than laypeople H2O as a constituent element of the concept of water; we also show the conceptual organisation of the domain exhibits qualitative differences across the two groups;

In five experiments—four of which replicate Barbara Malt’s 1994 study—we compared experienced chemists and laypeople’s conceptual representation of water. @annaborghi.bsky.social @chiarafini.bsky.social @ileniafalcinelli.bsky.social & Marta Arcovito

Water Is and Is Not H2O, Depending on Who You Ask: Conceptualizations of Water Vary Across Chemists and Laypeople Conceptual representations can be shaped by multiple factors, including expertise. In this study, we tested whether the concept of water is represented differently across laypeople and chemists, focu...

🧪🧑‍🔬 Do chemists think of water differently from laypeople? In this #preregistered #OpenAccess study we find that this is partly so, showing that their conceptual representation of water is more “essentialised” compared to that of laypeople onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Our new paper is now online at @natrevpsychol.nature.com, with some of our latest perspectives on conceptual #abstractness and its relation with #vagueness and social interaction. Check it out at rdcu.be/elbbT

Join the conference tomorrow!

🗓 February 25 | 3:15–6:00 PM CET
💡 Gender & Ecological Concepts: (un)consciousness, cognition, and politics

www.youtube.com/live/QDTBFWc...

w/
@Emma Renström
@annalisa-setti.bsky.social
@glupyan.bsky.social

Be part of the conversation—participate & spread the word!

🗣️New paper out and #openaccess in Cognition w/@abstractionerc.bsky.social on conversation dynamics afforded by abstract vs concrete sentences. Some insights on interactive repairs too and their relation with abstractness. Thanks to all the people that collaborated to this exciting project! 🗣️