Dimitris Pnevmatikos

Intraindividual Differences in Executive Functions during Childhood: The Role of Emotions.

Intraindividual differences in executive functions (EFs) have been rarely investigated. In this study, we addressed the question of whether the emotional fluctuations that schoolchildren experience in their classroom settings could generate substantial intraindividual differences in their EFs and, more specifically, in the fundamental unifying component of EFs, their inhibition function. We designed an experimental research with ecological validity within the school setting where schoolchildren of three age groups (8-, 10-, and 12-year-olds) were involved. We executed three experiments. In Experiment 1, using a between-participants design, we isolated a classroom episode that, compared with the other episodes, generated significant differences in inhibitory function in a consequent Go/NoGo task. This was an episode that induced frustration after the experience of anxiety due to the uncertainty. Experiment 2, using a within-participants design, confirmed both the induced emotions from the episode and the intraindividual variability in schoolchildrens inhibition accuracy in the consequent Go/NoGo task. Experiment 3, again using a within-participants design, examined whether the same episode could generate intraindividual differences in a more demanding inhibition task, namely the anti-saccade task. The experiment confirmed the previous evidence; the episode generated high variability that in some age groups accounted for more than 1.5 standard deviations from the interindividual variability between the schoolchildren of the same age. Results showed that, regardless of their sex and the developmental progression in their inhibition with age, the variability induced within participants from the experienced frustration was very high compared with the interindividual variability of the same age group.

Conceptual Changes in Religious Concepts of Elementary Schoolchildren: The case of the house where God lives

The present paper was part of a larger project, which investigated the process of knowledge acquisition in Christian religion. The concept of God in particular is a core construct in any religion and it has been involved in a number of changes in the history of religions. Some of those changes were observed in the childrens constructions of the house that God lives in. Among childrens drawings we found changes which imply, in terms of Thagard (1992) not only belief revision, but also a conceptual change. However, hierarchy reinterpretation, in which the concept of God changes from the part of the cosmos to the creator (ontologically different from the creatures) we did not observe among the primary school children. The development of the different hierarchies we constructed on the basis of childrens drawings seems to follow the developmental changes, which took place in the history of Greek religions. Finally, there were some implications for Religious Education.

Procedural Justice in A Classroom Where Teacher Implements Differentiated Instruction

Students learn in a variety of ways and have different potentials, interests and needs. To meet the needs of a diverse student population, teachers implement ‘differentiated instruction.’ Tomlinson et al. (2003), defined differentiated instruction as “an approach to teaching in which teachers proactively modify teaching methods, resources, learning activities, and student products to address the diverse needs of individual candidates and small groups of candidates to maximize the learning opportunity for each student in the classroom” (p. 120).

The emergence, structure and development of ethnic identity during childhood: The case of Roma identity

This study investigates the emergence, development and structure of ethnic identity during childhood. Forty Roma children living in Greece aged between 2.8 and 11.9 years answered questions about their awareness/recognition of four aspects of their ethnic identity-namely place of habitation, traditional costumes, the Roma language, and early betrothal of children-their identity and their sense of stability and constancy. The study also investigates how the children feel about the abandonment of those four aspects. The evidence from the current data supports the hypothesis that awareness of ethnic identity emerges before the age of 4. Moreover, this study offers direct empirical evidence of the multidimensionality of ethnic identity. A model of three concentric rings is proposed, extending from a core containing the most highly valued aspects of ethnic identity to the outer annulus that comprises the nonpermanent and nonstable aspects of ethnic identity. The aspects in each annulus differ in terms of the development of the sense of stability and constancy and the feelings associated with loss of the aspects in question. Even the youngest participants considered the aspects in the core to be stable and constant as well as emotionally charged; and even the 11-year-olds did not consider the aspects contained in the outer, more fluid annulus as stable and constant aspects of their ethnic identity. The development of an aspect is determined by what the majority of adults in a society, at a particular time in history, consider to be most important.

Greek adolescents' intimate relations before their transition to adulthood.

The study examined whether the characteristics of the other partner in a dyad could reveal some unique intimate relationships regardless of the commonalties in the intimate relationships adolescents and emerging adults endorse with four important partners (mother, father, female and male peers). Six hundred and thirteen (56.8% female) Greek adolescents and emerging adults participated in the study. Participants endorsed their agreement to nine items addressing issues of intimacy and companionship. The intimate relationships with the four important partners share some common characteristics reflecting the person who endorses the intimate relationships and are also reciprocal, depending on who is the other partner in the dyad. The intimacy participants endorsed with their parents contributed to the intimate relationship with their peers of the same sex with the parent. The way Greek youth is gendered could explain the characteristics of the intimate relationships they endorse with the other partners in the dyads.

School Children’s and Adolescents’ Tolerance to Contradictions

One of the core principles in Psychology, the universality of the cognitive processes, has been challenged under the evidence coming from the cross-cultural studies. Scholars studying cognition between cultures showed that a large number of presumably ‘basic’ cognitive processes that trigger by a given situation may not be ‘so universal’ as it is generally supposed or so independent of the particular character or thought that distinguishes one human group from the other (Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, 2001).

Exploring Bioethical Reasoning in Children and Adolescents Using Focus Groups Methodology

The present case study focuses on the exploration of bioethical reasoning in children and adolescents using focus groups methodology. The case study is based on a research project that aimed to explore the ethical considerations that children and adolescents might have, concerning recent developments in medicine and biotechnology. These developments (e.g., xenotransplantation, nanotechnology, treatments based on stem cell usage) and innovative techniques may provide a better quality of life or treatment to life-threatening diseases, but raise ethical considerations regarding the limitations of human intervention in life and death, animal rights, human embryos rights, and so on. The exploration of children and adolescents’ thoughts and reasoning on bioethics could provide us with fruitful information, such as intuitive r e a s o n i n g a n d o r i g i n a l t h o u g h t s o n t h e s e i s s u e s . A l t h o u g h w e u s e d a m i x e d - d e s i g n methodology, including interviews, questionnaires, and focus groups, in the present case, we will focus only on the use of focus groups methodology in children and adolescents. We would like to address the reasons why focus groups methodology was chosen over other research methods, the benefits of this approach for our research project, and also the challenges that we faced while conducting the focus groups with children and adolescents. These challenges raise from participants’ age and age-related characteristics as well as from the research topic itself and range from the preparation and duration of the focus groups to the mediator’s role during focus groups discussion with children and adolescents.

Android OS Mobile Technologies Meets Robotics for Expandable, Exchangeable, Reconfigurable, Educational, STEM-Enhancing, Socializing Robot

In the context of the project “STIMEY” [1], we are constructing a socially assistive robotic artefact. The purpose of the robot is to represent a companion of the student, motivating and rewarding him for his “Science Technology Engineering and Math” (STEM) achievements. Furthermore, the robot should represent a mobile platform capable of deploying prototype STEM content; i.e. representing a powerful vehicle for the introduction of STEM activities in the classroom. Such robot should act as a socialization-means among the owners, thus socializing instead of secluding the user from his social environment, highlighting “STEM” as a fertile environment for social distinction. In this paper, we present existing prior-art on this field and demonstrate how an Android OS smartphone, representing the “head” of the robot, addresses the design requirements.

Mind God's mind: History, development, and teaching

We dispute the target article that belief in Big Gods facilitated development of large societies and suggest that the direction of causality might be inverted. We also suggest that plain theory of mind (ToM), although necessary, is not sufficient to conceive Big Gods. Grasp of other aspects of the mind is required. However, this theory is useful for the teaching of religion.

Prayer as a cause of recovery from illness

This research aimed to examine the developmental trajectory of the beliefs about the power of prayer to aide recovery from illness. One hundred and sixty children and young adults divided in four age groups participated in the study. Participants were interviewed with vignettes presenting two sick individuals who differed in terms of prayers that they received from their friends in order to recover from their illness. The results showed that children and pre-adolescents strongly believe in the power of prayer to recover from illness while only about half of the university students share this belief. Thus, contrary to the framework theory approach, children, adolescents, and young adults did not replace these beliefs (as naive explanations), with the scientific explanations. Instead, they continue to hold these beliefs in parallel to their scientific explanations.