Speaker
Presentation in SpanishNURIA VITA BARRULL
UNIVERSITY OF LLEIDA. SPAIN
Nuria Vita Barrull holds a degree in Psychology and a Master’s in General Health Psychology from the University of Lleida (UdL). She obtained her PhD from the same university (2023) with the thesis Connecting Through Play: Executive Functions Training Through Modern Board Games in Primary Education.
Since 2018, she has collaborated with the NeuroPGA research group at UdL, currently the SGR group (021SGR01432 Neuropsychology, Methodology, Individual Differences and Linguistic Processes). She has specialised in the use of modern board games for the training of executive functions in school settings, and has also participated in projects aimed at diverse populations and at the development of serious games for psychoeducational and assessment purposes.
After her doctorate, she worked as an Associate Professor in Basic Psychology at UdL, as a Master’s thesis supervisor in the University Master’s in Special Educational Needs and Early Intervention at the International University of Valencia (VIU), and as a thesis supervisor in the Master’s in Neuropsychology and Education at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR). She combined university teaching and research in the NeuroPGA group at UdL with care work at ASPID, an association supporting people with physical disabilities, where she was responsible for the Neuroprevention Unit and worked as a psychologist at the Candi Villafañé Day Centre, carrying out assessment and intervention with adults with physical disabilities.
She is currently an Assistant Professor in Basic Psychology at UdL, coordinator of the Psychology Degree, researcher in NeuroPGA, and a member of the Brain in Game scientific-technical service at UdL. She is also a member of the governing board of the Lleida delegation of the Official College of Psychology of Catalonia (COPC), coordinates the Playful Practices in Psychology Working Group, and is a member of the Ment Lúdica Association, which organises the Ment Lúdica recreational-training conferences at UdL.
Design of Serious Games for Psychological Assessment and Intervention in Children and Adolescents
Serious games have gained relevance in psychology for their capacity to simulate cognitive, ecological, and social experiences in a controlled and safe environment. They are characterised by having been designed with a therapeutic-educational objective, without renouncing the playful component. Previous studies suggest that the use of analogue games promotes the development of socioemotional competencies, executive functions, and academic skills in school-age populations (Sánchez-Moreno et al., 2026; Vita-Barrull et al., 2024; Moya-Higueras et al., 2023). A limitation of their use as a psychological tool is that commercial games, while therapeutically useful, may disappear if they do not achieve sufficient sales. Furthermore, some assessment and intervention tools, though effective, can be unattractive, ecologically limited, and sometimes outdated for children and adolescents. For this reason, we have embarked on the design of serious games.
The main aim of this monographic panel is to present serious analogue game design initiatives for psychological assessment and intervention in children and adolescents. The panel will open with a pilot study on the psychometric properties of the gamified battery IO for the assessment of basic executive functions in school-age populations. In the second presentation, Nexus will be introduced — a role-play game designed to simulate conflicts and develop mediation skills in school contexts. Next, the results of the clinical and psychopedagogical assessment of the game Un día complicado by an expert panel will be presented. Finally, results from a game-based learning experience with university students using Un día complicado to learn stress coping strategies will be shared.
In summary, this panel aims to demonstrate the potential of serious games in the assessment of cognitive processes from a playful and contextualised perspective, as well as in the acquisition of conflict mediation and stress coping strategies in children and adolescents.
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