UHEI TEAM

Prof. Sabina Pauen
PI for the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg

 I am an expert in the field of early socio-cognitive development and its relation to human brain development. I introduced research paradigms for assessing executive functions and general development across neurodiversity, using a broad range of methods, including live observations, video microanalysis, eye-tracking, and standardized tests. I have been involved in various large-scale radio, print media, and TV-broadcasting projects in Germany for many years and serve as a consultant for multiple political institutions and foundations promoting early childhood development.

I am a member of the Wilhelm Wundt Association and the German Academy of Science. Since 2019, I have been part of the main evaluation board for Psychology of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and have previously served on different boards evaluating junior professorship applications at both the national and international levels. Since 1996, I have consistently received multiple research grants each year, funded by agencies such as the VW Foundation, DFG, Jacobs Foundation, German Ministry for Education and Science (BMBF), and the EU.

As the initiator and head of Field of Focus 4 (FoF4): Self- and Co-regulation – Individuals and Organizations, one of the four new main interdisciplinary research topics at UHEI, I established a fully equipped Interaction Lab, which now receives sustainable funding from the DFG within the Institutional Excellence Strategy of UHEI (1.5 million Euros each year).

Dr Cecil Mata
I am a psychologist with a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology and a Ph.D. In the past, I have participated in various research projects as a coordinator at the Early Childhood Unit of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Currently, I am postdoctoral fellow at the University of Heidelberg, and a researcher at the Staatsinstitut für Frühpädagogik und Medienkompetenz (IFP). I am also a member of the Millennium Institute for Research on Depression and Personality (MIDAP) in Chile.
My research focuses primarily on early childhood attachment, social-emotional development, theory of mind, mentalization, empathy, and early caregiver-child interactions within home and school environments. In recent years, I have also focused on process-oriented microanalytic methods for assessing caregiver-child dynamics and cross-cultural research.

Dr. Trinh Nguyen 
I am a Research Associate at the University of Heidelberg and a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Italian Institute of Technology in Rome. I graduated with a PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of Vienna. My research explores the neurobiological processes underlying social interactions, with a particular focus on early childhood and guided by a synthesis of Predictive Processing and Attachment Theory. In my previous work, I investigated interpersonal neural, behavioral, and physiological synchrony during various contexts of parent-child interaction, such as problem solving, conversations and face-to-face interactions. Currently, my research focuses on rhythmic and in particular musical communication in early childhood and interpersonal neural synchrony across the lifespan. I use a multi-method approach that combines behavioral (micro-coding and motion tracking), neural (fNIRS and EEG), and physiological (ECG) measures.