Vera Pereira was born in Lisbon in 1981. She has a Ph.D in Evolutionary Psychology from the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Lisbon and is also graduated in Clinical Psychology from the same institution.
Her PH.D thesis was about the psychological origins of afterlife beliefs. She applied an evolutionary and interdisciplinary approach to the study of religious thought in line with current work done in the field of Cognitive Science of Religion.
She is a founding member of the Interdisciplinary Association for the Study of Mind, an association founded in 2010 in Lisbon with the goal of promoting the study of mind’s nature and functioning from an interdisciplinary perspective, considering diverse approaches such as: philosophical, scientific, artistic and religious.
Her research skills include experience in the application of qualitative and quantitative methods and techniques, using software such as NVIVO and SPSS.
Research interests: Levels of self-awareness; Self phenomenology, Techniques for enhancing self-experience; Altered Self and altered self-experience; Mindfulness and self-experience; Mindfulness and mental health; Intuitive mind-body dualistic reasoning, Evolution and ontogenetic development of the Self, Theory of Mind, Social Cognition, Cognitive Science of Religion, Evolutionary psychology.
At the Mind and Cognition group she is dedicated to research on the following topics: Self and Consciousness and Philosophy of Psychiatry and Mental Ilness. She has been working on the Sarsaw project in IFILNOVA, FCSH-UNL.
Publications:
Pereira, V., Faísca, L., & Sá-Saraiva, R. (under review for an international peer-review journal). Representing the self after death: afterlife beliefs and self-experience.
Pereira, V. (Forthcoming). Mindfulness and self-experience: no-self consciousness or empty-self consciousness? In J. Gonçalves & A. Gerner (Eds.) The Altered Self and Altered Self-Experience.
Pereira, V. (2012). Origens psicológicas das crenças na vida após a morte: aplicação de uma perspectiva evolutiva ao estudo do pensamento religioso. (Dissertação de Doutoramento). Faculdade de Psicologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa.
Pereira, V., Faísca, L., & Sá-Saraiva, R. (2012). Immortality of the Soul as an Intuitive Idea: Towards a psychological explanation of the origins of afterlife beliefs. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 12, 101-128
Selected communications:
Pereira,V., Gonçalves,J., Ramalho,D., Sousa, L., & Fonseca, J. (2014, Março). Conceito de Self na Filosofia, Psicologia e Neurociências: Resultados preliminares de um estudo qualitativo. Ciclo de conferências 2014, ISPA-Instituto Universitário, Lisboa, Portugal.
Pereira, V., Hipólito, I., & Gonçalves, J. (2014, Março). Self as Other, Others as Selves: ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ as mutually dependent concepts. Self and Social (International workshop), IFILNOVA, FCSH-UNL, Lisboa, Portugal.
Pereira, V. (2014, Fevereiro). Levels of self-awareness and modalities of self-referential processing: Between Philosophy, Psychology and Neuroscience. Neurophilosophy, Self, and Brain (International workshop), IFILNOVA, FCSH-UNL, Lisboa, Portugal.
Pereira, V. (2013, Novembro). Autismo: uma perturbação do Self? Comunicação apresentada no seminário do Internato de Psiquiatria, coordenado pelo Prof. Doutor Cabral Fernandes, numa parceira com o projecto "Fundamentos Cognitivos do Si" IFL, FSCH-UNL. Hospital Júlio de Matos, Lisboa, Portugal.
Pereira, V. (2013, Janeiro). Self-consciousness and psychological distress: the dark side of objective self-awareness. Comunicação oral apresentada no Workshop “Alterações da Experiência de Si” realizado no âmbito do projecto “Fundamentos cognitivos do Si” no Instituto de Filosofia da Linguagem da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
Pereira, V., Faísca, L., & Sá-Saraiva, R. (2011, Julho). Intuitive notions of the 'I' and the representation of being dead. Comunicação apresentada no simpósio: Evolution of the I and Me: an interdisciplinary approach. 12th European Congress of Psychology, Istambul, Turquia.
Pereira,V., Faísca, L., & Sá-Saraiva, R. (2011, Julho). Immortality of the soul as an intuitive idea: Psychological origins of afterlife beliefs. 12th European Congress of Psychology, Istambul, Turquia.
Pereira, V., Saraiva, R. de Sá-Nogueira, & Faísca, L. (2011, Abril). Origens psicológicas da noção de imortalidade da alma: Estará o Homem predisposto a entender a morte como um estado de continuidade do Eu? II Jornadas do CINEICC: Novos olhares sobre a mente, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal.
Sá-Saraiva, R., Sá-Saraiva, A., & Pereira, V. (2011, Abril). Evolução filogenética do Eu e da mente modernas: Teoria e dados. II Jornadas do CINEICC: Novos olhares sobre a mente, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal.
Her PH.D thesis was about the psychological origins of afterlife beliefs. She applied an evolutionary and interdisciplinary approach to the study of religious thought in line with current work done in the field of Cognitive Science of Religion.
She is a founding member of the Interdisciplinary Association for the Study of Mind, an association founded in 2010 in Lisbon with the goal of promoting the study of mind’s nature and functioning from an interdisciplinary perspective, considering diverse approaches such as: philosophical, scientific, artistic and religious.
Her research skills include experience in the application of qualitative and quantitative methods and techniques, using software such as NVIVO and SPSS.
Research interests: Levels of self-awareness; Self phenomenology, Techniques for enhancing self-experience; Altered Self and altered self-experience; Mindfulness and self-experience; Mindfulness and mental health; Intuitive mind-body dualistic reasoning, Evolution and ontogenetic development of the Self, Theory of Mind, Social Cognition, Cognitive Science of Religion, Evolutionary psychology.
At the Mind and Cognition group she is dedicated to research on the following topics: Self and Consciousness and Philosophy of Psychiatry and Mental Ilness. She has been working on the Sarsaw project in IFILNOVA, FCSH-UNL.
Publications:
Pereira, V., Faísca, L., & Sá-Saraiva, R. (under review for an international peer-review journal). Representing the self after death: afterlife beliefs and self-experience.
Pereira, V. (Forthcoming). Mindfulness and self-experience: no-self consciousness or empty-self consciousness? In J. Gonçalves & A. Gerner (Eds.) The Altered Self and Altered Self-Experience.
Pereira, V. (2012). Origens psicológicas das crenças na vida após a morte: aplicação de uma perspectiva evolutiva ao estudo do pensamento religioso. (Dissertação de Doutoramento). Faculdade de Psicologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa.
Pereira, V., Faísca, L., & Sá-Saraiva, R. (2012). Immortality of the Soul as an Intuitive Idea: Towards a psychological explanation of the origins of afterlife beliefs. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 12, 101-128
Selected communications:
Pereira,V., Gonçalves,J., Ramalho,D., Sousa, L., & Fonseca, J. (2014, Março). Conceito de Self na Filosofia, Psicologia e Neurociências: Resultados preliminares de um estudo qualitativo. Ciclo de conferências 2014, ISPA-Instituto Universitário, Lisboa, Portugal.
Pereira, V., Hipólito, I., & Gonçalves, J. (2014, Março). Self as Other, Others as Selves: ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ as mutually dependent concepts. Self and Social (International workshop), IFILNOVA, FCSH-UNL, Lisboa, Portugal.
Pereira, V. (2014, Fevereiro). Levels of self-awareness and modalities of self-referential processing: Between Philosophy, Psychology and Neuroscience. Neurophilosophy, Self, and Brain (International workshop), IFILNOVA, FCSH-UNL, Lisboa, Portugal.
Pereira, V. (2013, Novembro). Autismo: uma perturbação do Self? Comunicação apresentada no seminário do Internato de Psiquiatria, coordenado pelo Prof. Doutor Cabral Fernandes, numa parceira com o projecto "Fundamentos Cognitivos do Si" IFL, FSCH-UNL. Hospital Júlio de Matos, Lisboa, Portugal.
Pereira, V. (2013, Janeiro). Self-consciousness and psychological distress: the dark side of objective self-awareness. Comunicação oral apresentada no Workshop “Alterações da Experiência de Si” realizado no âmbito do projecto “Fundamentos cognitivos do Si” no Instituto de Filosofia da Linguagem da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
Pereira, V., Faísca, L., & Sá-Saraiva, R. (2011, Julho). Intuitive notions of the 'I' and the representation of being dead. Comunicação apresentada no simpósio: Evolution of the I and Me: an interdisciplinary approach. 12th European Congress of Psychology, Istambul, Turquia.
Pereira,V., Faísca, L., & Sá-Saraiva, R. (2011, Julho). Immortality of the soul as an intuitive idea: Psychological origins of afterlife beliefs. 12th European Congress of Psychology, Istambul, Turquia.
Pereira, V., Saraiva, R. de Sá-Nogueira, & Faísca, L. (2011, Abril). Origens psicológicas da noção de imortalidade da alma: Estará o Homem predisposto a entender a morte como um estado de continuidade do Eu? II Jornadas do CINEICC: Novos olhares sobre a mente, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal.
Sá-Saraiva, R., Sá-Saraiva, A., & Pereira, V. (2011, Abril). Evolução filogenética do Eu e da mente modernas: Teoria e dados. II Jornadas do CINEICC: Novos olhares sobre a mente, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal.
