Curriculum Vitae

Irene Valori has expertise in Developmental and Clinical Psychology. She completed her masters’ and doctoral studies at the University of Padova, Italy, delving into perceptual, motor, and cognitive aspects of humans’ interaction with virtual environments. Her previous work focused on the potential of VR to promote child development and support individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions such as Autism and ADHD. She joins the Chair of Acoustic and Haptic Engineering at the Technische Univeristät Dresden, and contributes to CeTI research. Specifically, she investigates the role of affective touch in promoting interpersonal trust in technology-mediated human-to-human exchanges or human-machine interactions. Her research aims to explore individual differences in tactile emotional vocabulary (how do people use and perceive touch that conveys different emotional meanings?), with a focus on differences related to developmental trajectories, culture, and gender.

Projects/co-operation within CeTI you are already involved in:
Touch & Trust

What are the main topics or questions that drive your research?

I research the potential of technology to enable new and meaningful ways of connecting through social touch, even in remote communication or cases of social isolation. My work explores individual preferences for touch—particularly among children and adolescents—while considering gender dynamics and cultural backgrounds. I study how touch integrates with other senses to shape our social interactions in virtual contexts.

What inspired you to  pursue your current field of work?

Studying how children develop reminds me that we learn through the wonder of discovery, through the body and all the senses. Technology like virtual reality now makes it possible for everyone to have experiences that go beyond the ordinary limits of reality.

What excites you most about being part of CeTI?

I am happy to be part of CeTI because we are a multidisciplinary group focused on translating research into new practices and concrete tools for people’s well-being, for example in the field of education and care.

How do you like to recharge or spend your time outside of work?

Outside of work, I have a busy schedule of playtime with my child and our big, furry dog.

Publications

1.

Letizia Della Longa; Irene Valori; Francesco Rizzi; Irene Guglielminetti; Merle T. Fairhurst; Gustavo Marfia; Teresa Farroni

Social exclusion in virtual reality: Touch modulates physiological markers of self-regulation (Journal Article)

In: Heliyon, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. e44373:1–17, 2026.

(Links | BibTeX)

2.

Irene Valori; Yichen Fan; Merel M. Jung; Simone Shamay-Tsoory; Merle T. Fairhurst

To touch or to talk: Individual preferences, trust and empathy in comforting behaviours (Journal Article)

In: Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. e70216:1–16, 2026.

(Links | BibTeX)

3.

Irene Valori; Jasmin L. Merkel; Giovanna Furlan; Tobias Grossmann; Merle T. Fairhurst

Touch facilitates newborns’ self-regulation: Systematic review of multidimensional arousal outcomes (Journal Article)

In: Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, vol. 178, pp. 106353:1–21, 2025.

(Links | BibTeX)

4.

Wenhan Sun; Domna Banakou; Justyna Świdrak; Irene Valori; Mel Slater; Merle T. Fairhurst

Multisensory experiences of affective touch in virtual reality enhance engagement, body ownership, pleasantness, and arousal modulation (Journal Article)

In: Virtual Reality, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 162:1–16, 2024.

(Links | BibTeX)

5.

Irene Valori; Merel M. Jung; Merle T. Fairhurst

Social touch to build trust: A systematic review of technology-mediated and unmediated interactions (Journal Article)

In: Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 153, pp. 108121:1–13, 2024.

(Links | BibTeX)

6.

Irene Valori; Yichen Fan; Merel M. Jung; Merle T. Fairhurst

Propensity to trust shapes perceptions of comforting touch between trustworthy human and robot partners (Journal Article)

In: Scientific Reports, vol. 14, pp. 6747:1–15, 2024.

(Links | BibTeX)

7.

Merle T. Fairhurst; Irene Valori

A functional framework for multisensory and interactive mediated social touch experiences (Proceedings Article)

In: Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences Workshops (IMXw), 2023, (keynote).

(Links | BibTeX)