Elisabetta Lombardi

Promoting Mentalizing in Pupils by Acting on Teachers: Preliminary Italian Evidence of the "Thought in Mind" Project

Mentalization research focuses on different aspects of this topic, highlighting individual differences in mentalizing and proposing programs of intervention for children and adults to increase this ability. The “Thought in Mind Project” (TiM Project) provides training targeted to adults—teachers or parents—to increase their mentalization and, consequently, to obtain mentalization improvement in children. The present research aimed to explore for the first time ever the potential of training for teachers based on the TiM Project, regarding the enhancement of mentalizing of an adult who would have interacted as a teacher with children. For this reason, two teachers – similar for meta-cognitive and meta-emotional skills - and their classes (N = 46) were randomly assigned to the training or control condition. In the first case, the teacher participated in training on the implementation of promotion of mentalizing in everyday school teaching strategies; in the second case the teacher participated in a control activity, similar to training for scheduling and methods, but without promoting the implementation of mentalization (in both conditions two meetings lasting about 3 h at the beginning of the school year and two supervisions during the school year were conducted). The children were tested by tasks assessing several aspects of mentalization (second and third-order false belief understanding, Strange Stories, Reading the mind in the Eyes, Mentalizing Task) both before and after the teacher participate in the TiM or control training (i.e., at the beginning and at the end of the school year). The results showed that, although some measured components of mentalization progressed over time, only the TiM Project training group significantly improved in third order false belief understanding and changed - in a greater way compared to the control group – in two of the three components of the Mentalizing Task. These evidences are promising about the idea that the creation of a mentalizing community promotes the mentalization abilities of its members.

Prospective thinking and decision making in primary school age children

In this study, we seek to widen our understanding of the developmental processes underlying bargaining behaviour in children addressing the concept of prospective thinking. We argue that the emergence of the capacity to think prospectively about future outcomes or behaviours in response to current actions is a required precedent to strategic decision making. To test this idea, we compared 6, 8 and 10 years old children’s performance on three tasks: the ultimatum game assessing fairness/inequality aversion, the marshmallow task, an intertemporal choice task evaluating the ability to delay gratification, and the dictator game assessing altruism. The children’s socio-demographic and cognitive variables were also evaluated. We hypothesized that development of strategic thinking in the ultimatum game is related to an increased ability to delay gratification − given that both tasks require looking at prospective benefits − and, crucially, not to altruism, which benefits from immediate selfless reward. Our results confirmed our hypothesis suggesting that increased strategic planning with age would also stem from the development of competencies like prospective thinking.

Crisi economica: quali percezioni, quali conseguenze

La crisi economica offre la possibilita di confrontare le concezioni dei giovani su un fenomeno transnazionale. Questa e un’occasione non frequente poiche molte delle concezioni sociali sono largamente pervase da aspetti culturali che ne riducono le possibilita comparative; questa e anche la ragione di un piu ridotto numero di studi volti ad approfondire le ragioni di incomprensioni e bias che impediscono una corretta comprensione dei fenomeni sociali. Le indagini che mirano ad indagare le concezioni ingenue delle questioni economiche sono relativamente scarse e gli studi su questo argomento sono relativamente recenti. La ricerca che qui viene presentata mira a riempire questo divario esplorando la concezione degli adolescenti sui fenomeni economici complessi che sono alla base della comprensione della crisi. E stata condotta una ricerca qualitativa, attraverso questionari a risposta aperta di 97 studenti di scuola secondaria (eta media: 17 anni; 57% maschi), analizzati secondo il modello della competenza esperta per i contenuti sociali ed economici. Tra i risultati si possono individuare le modalita di ragionamento che si fondano su un continuum che va dall’everyday cognition a quello di alfabetizzazione disciplinare sino all’expertise cioe delle conoscenze sistematiche disciplinari approfondite. In merito ai risultati sono state ricostruite le caratteristiche principali delle argomentazioni in cui si riconoscono il principio di non contraddizione, la pertinenza di affermazioni rispetto al dominio di conoscenza e la coerenza delle elaborazioni rispetto al contenuto. I dati ottenuti confermano che gli studenti mostrano serie difficolta rispetto alla comprensione di fenomeni economici complessi ed evidenziano la difficile trasferibilita delle conoscenze economiche acquisite nella comprensione di problemi economici quotidiani.

Body Aesthetic Preference in Preschoolers and Attraction to Canons Violation: An Exploratory Study

Sensitivity to canons of beauty as represented in the human body—and as typically defined in the Western Culture—has been poorly studied in children. Current literature shows that infants as young as about three months are sensitive to the human body structure and its parts. Using a sample of 54 three- to five-year-old children, the present study investigated preference for drawings representing the “canonical” body structure, contrasting these with drawings showing the same bodies, but where the relation between trunk and legs was modified. It was hypothesized that preference for the canonical body structures would emerge as early as three years, increasing with age. Results only partially supported the hypothesis: while three-year-olds showed a significant preference for the canonical body structures as predicted, a significant preference reversal was found for the four-year-olds, with a tendency to return to preferring the canonical body at five years. The results are discussed in light of research findings associated with developmental theories hallmarking visual art perception in children.

Adolescents’ and Young Adults' Naïve Understandings of the Economic Crisis

Over the last decade, Financial Literacy (FL) and interventions aimed at improving it, that is Financial Education (FE), have been the focus of increased attention from economists, governments, and international organizations such as the world Bank and OECD, but much less by scholars in the fields of Learning and Instruction. We examined open-ended written answers on the causes of the economic crisis that started in 2007-2008, as given by 381 Italian secondary school and university students, and 268 Swiss Italian-speaking secondary school students. Most Italian students mentioned internal political causes (i.e., corrupt politicians or inefficiency of the government), whereas Swiss students mentioned banks more often. International factors were rarely mentioned by either group, and explanations were generally very poor, listing a few causes without making connections between them. These findings indicate the need for economics education aimed at making people more knowledgeable of the workings of the economic system and the effects of financial systems on the real economy.

Decision making as a complex psychological process

Summary This paper describes the decision-making process from a psychological perspective and the importance of the analyses of its developmental trajectories. It focuses on three main points: first, shifting from adult-centered to child-centered view; second, seeing decision making in an interpersonal and social perspective; third, similarities and differences in normative and descriptive approaches. Furthermore, we present two important tools of the Game Theory: the Ultimatum Game and the Dictator Game. Zusammenfassung Der vorliegende Beitrag analysiert Entscheidungsprozesse aus einer psychologischen Perspektive. Dabei wird auf drei Aspekte besonders eingegangen: Erstens auf den Paradigmenwechsel in der Psychologie von einer Perspektive, die nur Entscheidungsprozesse Erwachsener betrachtet, hin zu einer Psychologie lebenslanger Entwicklung, in der auch eine kindzentrierte Perspektive eingenommen wird; zweitens auf die Auffassung von Entscheidungen als individuellen Prozessen, die nur in einem interpersonalen und sozialen Kontext verstanden werden können; drittens auf Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede in normativen und beschreibenden Zugängen. In diesem Zusammenhang werden zwei wichtige Methoden der Spieltheorie zur Analyse von Entscheidungsprozessen vorgestellt und analysiert: das Ultimumspiel und das Diktatorspiel.