Antonio Iannaccone

Psychosocial Processes in Argumentation

This chapter examines argumentation as a psychosocial practice, embedded in institutional, historical, and cultural contexts. Even though they are in reality interwoven, several dimensions (cognitive, interactive, and cultural) will be distinguished. At the cognitive and individual level, the questions comprise the following ones: what are the cognitive prerequisites for engaging into an argumentative interaction? How is the development of argumentative skills taking place in children? But focusing only on the individual level would not take into consideration other dimensions that are important such as the relational and dialogical aspects of argumentation, the status of the partners and characteristic of the “audience.” The specific demands of the cultural context in which argumentation takes place are also examined.

Social Representations, Individual and Collective Mind: A Study of Wundt, Cattaneo and Moscovici

The paper presents a discussion on the role of Social Representations in the articulation between individual and collective dimensions of mental activity. An analysis of some concepts in the works of Wundt and Cattaneo is the starting point for a discussion of the relationship between individual processes, practices, artifacts, symbolic systems and functions of Social Representations in the development of culture and individuals. In this perspective, Social Representations could be considered a space of negotiation of the meaning. The relationship between Social Representations, symbolic systems, practices and sense making involves the elaboration of the tension between continuity and innovation, which is developed through communication and practice along time in the interaction between individual and collective minds.

Some Real Experiences in Developing Virtual Environments

The paper presents some experiences in developing a virtual environment using a videogame engine. It provides the details and the caveats met during development, with particular attentions to the architectural reconstruction problem, the textures resolution and the programmability. Some considerations are also reported from an historical point of view, emphasizing the importance of virtual reconstructions, and from a psychological point of view stressing how a narrative context enhances the learning process

Object Use in Children with Autism: Building with Blocks from a Piagetian Perspective

Aim: This study focused on the manipulation of objects by children with suspected autism spectrum disorder. The aim was to demonstrate how objects can be seen as active agents of interpersonal exchange in face-to-face interactions. Participants: Three children with suspected autism spectrum disorder (aged 18, 20, and 24 months) were selected as representative of the sensorimotor stage of development. Methods: Starting from Piaget’s classical approach to the sensorimotor and symbolic developmental stages, the study moved towarda socio-material interpretation in which some patterns of interaction involving object manipulation seem to create a space that supports adult-child communication. In videotaped observations of verbal and non-verbal signs during an (organized) free play session, each child manipulated seven small blocks of colored plastic in the presence of an adult. The observations were informed by a checklist of 14 items, including eye contact and building a tower of toy blocks (from section B of the CHAT (CHecklist for Autism in Toddlers) instrument. Results: Based on a broad Piagetian perspective and recent work in the field of socio-materiality, key observations included the following: 1) sensorimotor and realistic play was observed in all three children; 2) there were some intriguing indications that objects serve as concrete mediators in the intersubjective space between adult and child; 3) some of the children’s attention patterns were visibly mediated by the object. Discussion and conclusions: All three children exhibited a particular sequence of actions. First, they manipulated the blocks through active experimentation; second, there was an apparent pause, during which the children were in fact examining the blocks to determine how best to continue the interaction; and finally, the children monitored adult attention by means of eye contact or by restarting manipulation of the blocks. As this last step in the sequence indicated that the object became a mediator of reciprocal attention, this interpersonal process was labeled “attention mediated by object.”

Argumentation in Dialogue: Final Conclusions

In Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems—Ptolemaic and Copernican was Galileo trying to convince the scientific community? To persuade himself about the rightness of his own theories or simply writing academic texts basically to “save his skin” from the Sacrum Officium?