Differences Between Emerging Adults’ and Adults’ Internet Use Before and During the COVID-19 Emergency: The Role of Well-Being and Mood Regulation

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the significance of Internet use in many contexts of human life (e.g., work/study, family, and leisure), daily activities, and developmental tasks (e.g., transition to university/work) associated with specific life stages (e.g., emerging adults, 18-29 years, and adults, over 30 years old). Based on the lifespan model of developmental challenges and focusing on emerging adulthood and adulthood, the current study analyzed functional and dysfunctional Internet use in two different Italian populations: before and during the COVID-19 emergency. The sample consisted of 375 individuals who completed an online survey before COVID-19 and 286 who completed same survey during the COVID-19 emergency. All questionnaires were related to well-being, life/work satisfaction, problematic Internet use, cyberloafing, and interaction overload. Both samples were further differentiated into three life stages, associated with specific transitions and developmental tasks: early emerging adults (18-24), older emerging adults (25-29), and adults (over 30). Results show how the transitions (and related developmental tasks) of each life stage affect, in relevant ways, the functional or dysfunctional Internet use as well as well-being and life satisfaction related to Internet use

Lezione 01: ACCESSO alle SLIDES e PRESENTAZIONE del CORSO

Presentazione del corso di Psicologia dello Sviluppo (03079) del Dott. Elvis Mazzon

Enhancing the Potential of Creative Thinking in Children with Educational Robots

This observational study analyzes the effectiveness of the non-humanoid robot Ozobot as interactive-tool for school- children to enhance their potential of creative thinking. Based on the socio-constructivist theoretical background, referring to the zone of proximal development and the socio-cognitive conflict, the study compares three experimental condition (Ozobot Single Work, Ozobot Pair Work, and Control Group) of a problem-solving task with a robot (programming the robot to perform a given route in a preconfigured labyrinth). 171 children (85 females, 86 males), aged between 9 (IV class) and 10 years (V class) of two centralnorthern Italy primary schools, participated in the study. Children were randomly assigned to one of the three group conditions. Results show that children who performed the task alone with the educational robot (Ozobot Single Work) significantly improved their potential of creative thinking, compared both to those who perform the task in pair with the educational robot (Ozobot Pair Work) and to the control group. No gender differences occur

Riflessioni sull’efficacia del Social Networking nel supportare le transizioni degli adulti emergenti in differenti sistemi di attività

Il contributo presenta una riflessione relativamente ai Siti di Social Networking (SSN) e al supporto che tali artefatti web possono dare agli adulti emergenti durante le importanti transizioni che essi affrontano: scuolaàlavoro; scuolaàuniversità; universitààlavoro. Tali transizioni spesso impongono importanti spostamenti che rischiano di indebolire il capitale sociale preesistente e richiedono, allo stesso tempo, la costruzione di una nuova rete di relazioni nel nuovo ambiente. Da questo punto di vista, i SSN rappresentano importanti artefatti sociali che ampliano le potenzialità degli adulti emergenti garantendo loro una modalità efficace ed efficiente per mantenere il capitale sociale preesistente e ampliarlo grazie alle nuove relazioni nel nuovo ambiente. Facendo riferimento all’approccio dell’Activity Theory, il contributo descrive i SSN come organi funzionali che permettono agli adulti emergenti di andare oltre i confini determinati dalle personali abilità fisico-mentali e raggiungere risultati altrimenti irrealizzabili (in termini di potenzialità di mantenimento e ampliamento del capitale sociale)

Can Virtual Reality Best Assess Peer Exclusion Affecting Mood and Emotions within an Experimental Design?

Peer exclusion is a pervasive phenomenon that can lead to negative mood states in affected individuals. To model peer exclusion experimentally, the Cyberball paradigm has been widely used. However, the effectiveness of this paradigm may vary depending on the presentation format. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the Cyberball paradigm in a virtual reality (VR) environment and compare it to the traditional 2D version. Specifically, we aim to determine which paradigm is more effective in experimentally manipulating peer exclusion. To achieve this objective, we will recruit 150 children and adolescents aged 8-16 years. Participants will complete a background questionnaire, which will collect data on their social support, rejection experiences, and demographic variables. They will then be exposed to two peer exclusion situations, one in 2D and one in VR, in random order. After each situation, participants will be asked to report on their mood, satisfaction, and frustration with their basic psychological needs and immersion. We expect that both experimental situations will result in a decline in participants' negative mood on average. However, we hypothesize that the VR paradigm will be more effective in inducing negative mood states than the 2D situation. By exploring the differential effectiveness of the Cyberball paradigm in different presentation formats, this study will contribute to the existing literature on peer exclusion and pave the way for future research on the use of VR in this domain

Learning Landscape in Gamification: The Need for a Methodological Protocol in Research Applications

In education, the term “gamification” refers to of the use of game-design elements and gaming experiences in the learning processes to enhance learners’ motivation and engagement. Despite researchers’ efforts to evaluate the impact of gamification in educational settings, several methodological drawbacks are still present. Indeed, the number of studies with high methodological rigor is reduced and, consequently, so are the reliability of results. In this work, we identified the key concepts explaining the methodological issues in the use of gamification in learning and education, and we exploited the controverses identified in the extant literature. Our final goal was to set up a checklist protocol that will facilitate the design of more rigorous studies in the gamified-learning framework. The checklist suggests potential moderators explaining the link between gamification, learning, and education identified by recent reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses: study design, theory foundations, personalization, motivation and engagement, game elements, game design, and learning outcomes

Preliminary evidence on machine learning approaches for clusterizing students’ cognitive profile

Assessing the cognitive abilities of students in academic contexts can provide valuable insights for teachers to identify their cognitive profile and create personalized teaching strategies. While numerous studies have demonstrated promising outcomes in clustering students based on their cognitive profiles, effective comparisons between various clustering methods are lacking in the current literature. In this study, we aim to compare the effectiveness of two clustering techniques to group students based on their cognitive abilities including general intelligence, attention, visual perception, working memory, and phonological awareness. 292 students, aged 11–15 years, participated in the study. A two-level approach based on the joint use of Kohonen's Self-Organizing Map (SOMs) and k-means clustering algorithm was compared with an approach based on the k-means clustering algorithm only. The resulting profiles were then predicted via AdaBoost and ANN supervised algorithms. The results showed that the two-level approach provides the best solution for this problem while the ANN algorithm was the winner in the classification problem. These results laying the foundations for developing a useful instrument for predicting the students’ cognitive profile

Bridging Minds: A Mixed Methodology to Assess Networked Flow

The main goal of this contribution is to present a methodological framework to study Networked Flow, a bio-psycho-social theory of collective creativity applying it on creative processes occurring via a computer network. First, we draw on the definition of Networked Flow to identify the key methodological requirements of this model. Next, we present the rationale of a mixed methodology, which aims at combining qualitative, quantitative and structural analysis of group dynamics to obtain a rich longitudinal dataset. We argue that this integrated strategy holds potential for describing the complex dynamics of creative collaboration, by linking the experiential features of collaborative experience (flow, social presence), with the structural features of collaboration dynamics (network indexes) and the collaboration outcome (the creative product). Finally, we report on our experience with using this methodology in blended collaboration settings (including both face-to-face and virtual meetings), to identify open issues and provide future research directions

Determinants and effects of mobile phone addiction and phubbing: a study in 17 countries

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio