Rate My Professor Elisabetta Versace

Dr Elisabetta Versace is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Queen Mary University of London in the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences. She leads the Prepared Minds Lab, an interdisciplinary research group investigating what makes human and other animals smart, adaptable and resilient. Her work examines early visual, tactile and acoustic perception in newborn animals such as chicks and tortoises, cross-modal perception, foundations of social behaviour and cognition, as well as perception and decision-making in insects including bees and flies. Additional research explores remote touch in humans and robots, inspired by avian abilities, and develops interventions to enhance resilience and wellbeing through psychology insights combined with in-person and digital tools. She holds a PhD from the University of Trieste and previously served as Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London before her current tenured Senior Lecturer position. Versace teaches modules including Animal Behaviour and Cognition, Comparative Psychology, and Essential Skills for Psychologists. She supervises PhD students in comparative cognition and serves as School Research Culture lead. Her research has produced over 100 publications and more than 2400 citations, with contributions to journals in animal behaviour, cognition and perception.

Versace is affiliated with the Centre for Brain and Behaviour and has received grants supporting studies on augmented feedback for motor and artistic learning. She has presented findings on topics such as vision and touch linkage in chicks and remote touch capabilities. As head of the Comparative Cognition Lab, her influence extends to advancing understanding of predispositions and early cognition across species.