Member of the Perception and Action Lab
Since October 2020, Ekaterina Varkentin is working as a research scientist and PhD student in the Perception and Action lab at the IWM. In her research she focuses on the comprehension processes in visual narratives (comics). For example, she investigates whether comprehension processes are comparable across different forms of representation. In her dissertation project, she investigates various factors (psychological and medical) which can affect comprehension of text and image narratives. For example, she is interested how narrative understanding looks like in elderly participants or in people suffering from depressive symptoms and other illnesses. She also wants to explore whether narrative comprehension changes under acute stress. She also examines which factors (sport, mental fitness, and stable social contacts) have a positive effect on narrative comprehension. In cooperation with the TREND study at the University Hospital Tübingen, the gained results should expand our knowledge of narrative comprehension in the different groups.
Ekaterina Varkentin studied Psychology at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University) in Moscow, Russia (B.Sc. 2014) and School psychology at the University of Tübingen (M.Sc. 2019) and focused on cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and memory. During her studies, she completed a research internship at the University of Tübingen in clinical psychology. She also worked in the University Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in Tübingen in the field of diagnostics and assessment.
Factors of Narrative Understanding
How do we read comics? – Investigating comprehension processes in visual narratives
Huff, M., Gagarina, N., Varkentin, E., & Brich, I. R. (2024, November 21-24). Education, not age, linked to narrative comprehension. Annual Meeting Psychonomic Society. New York City, NY, USA. http://www.psychonomic.org/page/2024annualmeeting [Talk]
Lindner, D., Said, N., & Varkentin, E. (2024, March 17-20). How induced controllability affects climate change risk perception and learned helplessness. 66. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen (TeaP). Universität Regensburg. [Poster]
Varkentin, E., Brich, I. R., Kurmanbekova, K., & Huff, M. (2024, March 17-20). The role of acute stress in narrative comprehension across age groups. 66. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen (TeaP). Universität Regensburg. [Talk]
Varkentin, E., Brich, I. R., Sünkel, U., von Thaler, A. K., Eschweiler, G. W., & Huff, M. (2024, June 27). Stability of narrative comprehension across age and education: The pictorial advantage and resilience to cognitive decline in older adults. Visual Language (VisLang) Conference 2024. Tilburg University, Netherlands. [Talk]
Varkentin, E., Brich, I. R., Sünkel, U., von Thaler, A. K., Eschweiler, G. W., & Huff, M. (2024, June 27-28). Stability of narrative comprehension across age and education: The pictorial advantage and resilience to cognitive decline in older adults. Visual Language (VisLang) Conference 2024. Tilburg University, Netherlands. [Talk]
Varkentin, E., & Huff, M. (2024, May 13). The role of acute stress and age in narrative comprehension. Presentation during the Visual Language Lab Meeting at Tilburg University. Netherlands. [Talk]
Varkentin, E. (2023, March 26-29). Risk and preventive factors in narrative comprehension. 65. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psycholog:innen (TeaP) - Conference of Experimental Psychologists. University of Trier. [Talk]
Brich, I., Varkentin, E., Gagarina, N., & Huff, M. (2022, März 30). Digitale Comics als Weg zur Teilhabe – Narrationsverstehen in verschiedenen Alters- und Bildungsgruppen. Jahrestagung Leibniz-Forschungsverbund Bildungspotenziale (LERN). Frankfurt am Main (virtuelle Konferenz). [Vortrag]
Brich, I., Varkentin, E., Gagarina, N., & Huff, M. (2021, November 1-3). Do education and age influence visual narrative comprehension processes? (A representative study). MODE 2021: Methods of Online Discourse Elicitation Conference (Text & Tea with LITMUS-MAIN Meeting). Berlin. [Talk]
Varkentin, E. (2021, July 10). Risk perception and codality in a crosscultural context. 10. A-Dok, Doktorand:innen-Workshop 2021. Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. [Poster]
Varkentin, E., Brich, I. R., Kurmanbekova, K., & Huff, M. (2023). Stress induction in young and elderly samples. https://osf.io/r7e5z/
Ekaterina Varkentin
Schleichstraße 6