1,721,036 research outputs found
Decision Making and Risk Taking: The Role of Creativity and Divergent Thinking
Full text linkThis book investigates the relationships between decision making (DM), risk taking (RT), and creativity, focusing on divergent thinking (DT). Since risk is an integral part of decision making and often this construct is related to creativity, it was chosen to investigate the relationship between these three variables. Most research focused on age-related changes in DM across the lifespan has found that decision-making skills tend to decline with age, but the results are controversial. In addition, some authors suggested that there are differences in decision-making styles and risk taking due to cultural background.
Finding a relationship between how people make decisions and the role of creative thinking (specifically divergent thinking) in this process could open up the possibility of designing interventions to help people maintain autonomy and independence in their daily DM and risk management behaviors.
The first two chapters of this dissertation explain the definition and theories of decision making, risk taking and creativity. In addition to a systematic review of the literature presented in chapter three, which investigates how the relationship between creativity and risk has been studied, three experimental studies.
From the studies, it can be concluded that there is a relationship between creativity (divergent thinking) and the decision-making process. Specifically, divergent thinking skills are related to functional DM strategies and risk-taking profiles defined in the literature as more functional. This may suggest that strengthening divergent thinking may improve risk management and decision-making skills, especially metacognitive ones
L'educazione finanziaria per potenziare le competenze di progettazione dei soggetti autori di reato
No full textIl presente articolo descrive un percorso di educazione economico e finanziaria, "Nulla osta per una progettazione consapevole", ideato per la popolazione carceraria che attraverso l’utilizzo di una metodologia interattiva e di un gioco di società (Projetto), ha l’intento di pro-muovere la consapevolezza dei soggetti autori di reato nella progettazione del loro futuro lavorativo, favorendo l’autovalutazione e l’automonitoraggio delle condizioni di fattibilità di un proprio progetto personale. L’articolo presenta anche una descrizione sintetica della prima rea-lizzazione di tale percorso presso la sezione maschile della casa di reclusione di Bollate e le ri-flessioni emerse in conclusione.The current article describes a training in financial education, “Nulla osta per una progettazione consapevole”, proposed to a prison population. This training, through an interactive methodology and the use of a board game (Proj€tto), aims to increase prisoners’ awareness in planning their future working activity, promoting the self-assessment and self-monitoring of the feasibility conditions of their own future project. The article alsopresents a synthetic description of the first edition of this training in the 32male section of Prison of Bollate (Milan) and reflections emerged from it
Il processo di decisione e l’assunzione del rischio: il ruolo della creatività e del pensiero divergente
No full textQuesta tesi indaga la relazione tra il processo decisionale (DM), il rischio (RT) e la creatività, concentrandosi sul pensiero divergente (DT). Poiché il rischio è parte integrante del processo decisionale e spesso questo costrutto è legato alla creatività, si è scelto di indagare la direzione della relazione tra queste tre variabili. La maggior parte delle ricerche che si sono concentrate sui cambiamenti legati all'età nelle abilità decisionali nel corso della vita, hanno sottolineato come queste tendano a diminuire con l'età. Tuttavia, i risultati sono contrastanti.
Inoltre, alcuni autori suggeriscono che ci sono differenze negli stili decisionali e nella propensione al rischio dovute al background culturale.
Trovare una relazione tra il modo in cui le persone prendono decisioni e il ruolo del pensiero creativo (in particolare del pensiero divergente) in questo processo, potrebbe aprire la possibilità di progettare interventi volti ad aiutare le persone a mantenere autonomia e indipendenza nella gestione quotidiana di comportamenti potenzialmente legati al DM e alla gestione del rischio.
I primi due capitoli di questa tesi spiegano le varie teorie e le definizioni che si sono susseguite nel tempo di “processo decisionale”, “assunzione di rischio” e “creatività”.
Oltre a una revisione sistematica della letteratura presentata nel terzo capitolo, che indaga come la relazione tra creatività e rischio è stata studiata da diversi autori, sono stati condotti tre studi sperimentali in collaborazione con il Champlain College di Burlington (Vermont, U.S.A.) e l'Università Cattolica di Milano.
Dalla revisione della letteratura emergono alcune implicazioni metodologiche e teoriche, in particolare la necessità di avere strumenti che consentano una valutazione diretta, adeguata e comparabile dei costrutti.
I primi due studi hanno indagato la relazione tra stili decisionali, l’assunzione di rischio e il pensiero divergente con questionari self-report.
Il primo studio ha coinvolto un campione di 140 soggetti sani giovani (età 18-30) americani e italiani. Nel secondo studio, il campione comprende 174 soggetti italiani sani (età 18-75). Il terzo studio (76 soggetti italiani sani, età 20-75 anni) ha indagato la relazione tra processo decisionale, rischio e pensiero divergente utilizzando compiti di performance.
Dagli studi, si può concludere che esista una relazione tra la creatività (pensiero divergente) e il processo di decisione. In particolare, le abilità di pensiero divergente sono collegate alle strategie funzionali di DM e a profili di assunzione del rischio definiti in letteratura come più funzionali. Questo può suggerire che il rafforzamento del pensiero divergente può migliorare la gestione del rischio e le abilità decisionali, specialmente quelle metacognitive.This dissertation investigates the relationships between decision making (DM), risk taking (RT), and creativity, focusing on divergent thinking (DT). Since risk is an integral part of decision making and often this construct is related to creativity, it was chosen to investigate the relationship between these three variables. Most research focused on age-related changes in DM across the lifespan, has found that decision-making skills tend to decline with age, but the results are controversial. In addition, some authors suggest that there are differences in decision-making styles and risk taking due to cultural background. Finding a relationship between how people make decisions and the role of creative thinking (specifically divergent thinking) in this process could open up the possibility of designing interventions to help people maintain autonomy and independence in their daily DM and risk management behaviors.
The firsts two chapters of this dissertation explain the theories and definition of decision making, risk taking and creativity. In addition to a systematic review of the literature presented in chapter three, which investigates how the relationship between creativity and risk has been studied, three studies were conducted in collaboration with the Champlain College in Burlington (Vermont, U.S.A.) and the Catholic University of Milan. From the literature review, some methodological and theoretical implications emerged, particularly the need to have tools that allow a straightforward, adequate, comparable assessment of the constructs. The first two studies have investigated the relationship between decision styles, risk taking and divergent thinking with self-report questionnaires. The first study presented a sample of 140 healthy young (age 18-30) American and Italian subjects. In the second study, the sample included 174 healthy Italian subjects (age 18-75). In contrast, the third study (76 healthy Italian subjects, age 20-75) has investigated the relationship between decision making, risk, and divergent thinking using performance tasks.
From the studies, it can be concluded that there is a relationship between creativity (divergent thinking) and the decision-making process. Specifically, divergent thinking skills are related to functional DM strategies and risk-taking profiles defined in the literature as more functional. This may suggest that strengthening divergent thinking may improve risk management and decision-making skills, especially metacognitive ones
An Integrated Approach of Video Game Therapy®: A Case Study
Full text linkInternational literature in the field of rehabilitation and psychological support is increasingly characterized by the inclusion and use of video games and virtual media, even if the results are controversial. The theoretical basis on which the study presented is based is Video Game Therapy®. This approach uses commercial video games, which are generally free or available at a relatively low cost. These games possess many essential functions that make them practical as preventive tools or support for integration into traditional therapies. Video Game Therapy® allows the patient to reflect on emotional containment and cognitive self-regulation to establish a state of mental balance and well-being. It encourages insight and leads the player to reflect on some salient aspects of their character and lifestyle and their emotions and thoughts linked to specific life episodes relived in the game setting. Starting from these premises, the study shows promising results, presenting a single case of a boy with social isolation problems and relational difficulties, in which significant changes were highlighted in the perception, expression, and management of emotions, as well as in metacognition and self-efficacy
Antonyms: A serious game for enhancing inhibition mechanisms in children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
No full textThis paper describes the planning and the implementation of a serious game (SG) for the improvement of attention skills in children with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD) to promote learning and autonomous management of impulsive behaviors and to inhibit irrelevant thoughts. The SG, called Antonyms, is a personal computer videogame consisting of a series of activities, each eliciting the tendency to respond in an immediate, inadequate way based on the Dual Pathway Model proposed by Sonuga-Barke. Children must block such a tendency, reflect upon the situation and find the nonintuitive solution to foster self-regulation skills. Antonyms consists of three mini-games in a single framework. It is designed for educational and rehabilitation settings. The expected outcome is an increase in the ability to keep attention focused on the relevant elements of situations that children face in their everyday lif
The Use of a Serious Game to Assess Inhibition Mechanisms in Children
Full text linkThe design and implementation of a serious game (SG) concerning inhibition skills in children are presented. The SG consists of a set of activities, each eliciting the tendency to respond in an immediate and inappropriate (wrong) way. The SG is based on the Dual Pathway model of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) proposed by Sonuga-Barke and on the Unity/Diversity model of executive functions proposed by Miyake. In the SG, children must block impulsive tendencies, reflect upon the situation, inhibit irrelevant thoughts, and find the non-immediate solution. A study was carried out by testing the SG on typically developing primary school children (30 children, 16 boys; age, years, SD = 0.87) to verify that it measures the same variables addressed by tests usually employed to assess attention ability in children and to diagnose ADHD. Three standardized tasks belonging to the Italian Battery for ADHD were administered, as well as an ad hoc questionnaire devised to check the acceptability, usability, and comprehensibility of the SG. Positive correlations between impulsiveness as measured by standard tests and impulsiveness scores in the SG emerged. These findings support the notion that skills associated with the control of impulsivity are involved in the SG. Furthermore, self-report ratings in the questionnaire showed that the SG is easy to be understood, is engaging, and elicits positive reactions in children
Developmental Topographical Disorientation (DTD): A review
No full textTopographical orientation is a complex cognitive ability defined as the capacity to orient and navigate successfully through familiar and unfamiliar environments. It is believed to involve different cognitive processes such as attention, memory, perception, decision making, mental imagery and all these cognitive functions are required to be preserved in order to recognize, use and integrate salient environmental landmarks and information to explore space and to reach a predefined destination in the complex environment of everyday life. Usually, difficulties in these abilities occur after brain damage; brain lesion studies have indeed confirmed the complexity of the human navigational system, highlighting that patients who suffer from damage to different brain areas showed also different types of topographical difficulties. However, recent evidence has highlighted a newly discovered condition called "Developmental Topographical Disorientation (DTD)" in which subjects seemed to suffer from a lifelong navigational deficit without any congenital, acquired brain damage or neurological diseases. Patients typically report severe difficulties to orient themselves in unfamiliar and even in familiar environments without any other cognitive complaints. This literature review aims to systematically summarize and compare neuropsychological, behavioral and neuroimaging evidence of the DTD single-cases reported until now, considering also findings reported by the group-study performed by Iaria et al., 2014. Generally, DD subjects showed a substantially preserved general intelligence but, in spite of that, they revealed different patterns of cognitive, spatial and navigational impairments so that some authors have already forwarded the idea of the existence of different DTD subtypes. Similarly, neuroimaging studies have evidenced different patterns of anomalous or lacking activations in different areas of the navigational network (such as hippocampus, parahippocampal place area, medial temporal lobe, prefrontal cortex, cuneus and precuneus and retrosplenial cortex) and also different aberrant functional connectivity between them was discovered. According to that, we aim to review and critically discuss the taxonomies which have been taken into consideration from previous authors in order to differentiate different subtypes of DTD patients. Suggestion for future studies will be also provided
The Controversial Effect of Age on Divergent Thinking Abilities: A Systematic Review
No full textDivergent thinking (DT) is considered as an indicator of creative potential and a predictor of creative achievement. Furthermore, it is also conceptualized as an indicator of cognitive reserve (CR) in healthy elderly. CR refers to a functional benefit that can potentially offer protection against brain pathologies and is thereby considered a protective factor against cognitive decline. Creativity researchers have therefore attempted to understand the impact of the aging processes on DT abilities; however, it is difficult to draw a
coherent picture from these studies. The aim of our systematic review was to more consistently summarize and interpret evidence about this topic. We selected 16 studies using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Our findings highlight a complex and multidimensional, rather than a simple linear relationship between the aging processes and DT performances, especially if the different DT indexes are considered separately. We also found that findings from more recent studies suggest that older subjects are able to think as divergently as younger people, particularly in the verbal domain, if no time constraints are imposed and if the workload is not too high. We conclude by discussing theoretical and methodological issues and implications for future research
Supporting rehabilitation of ADHD children with serious games and enhancement of inhibition mechanisms
No full textThe Attention Deficit–Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a behavior-related disorder, already present in children in pre-scholar and scholar age, that mainly includes hyperactivity, lacks in attention skills, impulsivity (delay aversion). While several approaches have been studied and developed for modelling and facing the various aspects of ADHD, the Dual Pathway Model (DPM), by Sonuga-Barke, is an evidence-based model that synthetizes in the cognitive and motivational paths the key dysfunctions, the inhibitory and delay aversion ones. In this paper is presented the development of a prototype of a computer serious game, called Antonyms, based on the DPM model, that is aimed at promoting learning and autonomous management of impulsive behaviors and at inhibiting irrelevant thoughts in children with ADHD. The game is structured as a set of tasks, contextualized in a story, impelling the player to react in an inadequate and immediate way while the player, to win, has to enhance his/her own skills of self-regulation, waiting, reflecting upon a situation, finding a not-intuitive solution. Preliminary tests on a control group show that impulsivity and inattention are really addressed during gameplay
The Role of Cognitive Reserve in Coping with Subjective Cognitive Complaints: An Exploratory Study of People with Parkinson’s Disease (PwPD).
Full text linkBackground/Objectives: Depression, anxiety and apathy are often associated with subjective cognitive complaints (SCCs) in people with Parkinson’s disease (PwPD) without cognitive impairment. Cognitive reserve (CR) enhances emotional resilience, allowing people to better cope with stress and emotional challenges, factors affecting quality of life. We aimed to explore the relationship between CR and mood/anxiety in cognitively intact PwPD with and without SCCs. Methods: In this cross-sectional study we enrolled 133 PwPD and normal cognitive function (age 59.8 ± 6.7 years; disease duration 9.0 ± 5.5 years; male/female 84/49). We assessed cognitive reserve (CR scale), subjective cognitive complaints (with PD-CFRS), QoL (PDQ8), mood, anxiety and apathy (BDI-II; STAI, PAS, Apathy scales). We used a t-test to compare groups (with/without SCC; M/F); correlations and moderation analysis to evaluate the relation between CR and behavioral features and the interplay between CR, behavioral discomfort and QoL. Results: The group with SCCs had significantly (p < 0.05) higher scores in PDQ8, Apathy, STAI, PAS-C and BDI-II scales than those with no SCCs. Males with SCCs had higher scores in PDQ8, Apathy scale and BDI-II while females differed in PDQ8 and Apathy scale scores. In the SCC group, late-life CR was negatively correlated with PAS-C (avoidance behavior) and BDI-II; correlations were confirmed in the male group where CR also correlated with PDQ-8 and PAS persistent anxiety. Conclusions: PwPD and SCCs are more depressed and anxious compared to people without SCCs. Furthermore, we found a relationship between depressive symptoms, anxiety and CR: PwPD with SCCs may rely on cognitive reserve to better cope with the feeling of anxiety and depression, especially in male gender
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