Estuda as experiências anômalas (EAs), as quais podem ser definidas como incomuns e irregulares, ainda que vivenciadas por uma grande parcela da população. Dentre a variedade de EAs, concentra-se nas experiências relacionadas a psi, que incluem duas categorias. A primeira abrange relatos de percepção extra-sensorial (ESP), ou seja, indicativos da capacidade de se obter informação sem a utilização dos canais sensoriais ou de inferências lógicas. A segunda é chamada de Psicocinesia (PK) e refere-se a relatos da ação ou efeito da mente sobre a matéria, ou seja, quando as preferências ou pensamentos de pessoas parecem afetar o ambiente físico, sem a mediação do sistema muscular ou outra força física ou mecanismo físico reconhecido. Investiga se: a) é possível treinar pessoas para estarem mais aptas para perceber e utilizar os fenômenos psi no contexto experimental e b) se a manipulação de certos fatores pode aumentar significativamente os índices de psi em laboratório. Para tanto, revisa e discute por meio de sistematização a eficácia das pesquisas de treinamentos psi (TP) e os resultados de estudos que manipulam variáveis consideradas psicondutivas (VCP). Agrupa os estudos nestas duas categorias (TP e VCP), considerando variáveis específicas e comuns para os dois grupos. Avalia os estudos em blocos, segundo as variáveis consideradas, com ênfase nos dados estatísticos e do método. A revisão da literatura ocorre de março de 2007 a fevereiro de 2008 e abrange livros e artigos científicos relacionados ao tema. 128 estudos são revisados, sendo 87 deles relacionados a manipulação de VCP e 41 relacionados ao TP, totalizando 9.153 participantes em 845.815 ensaios. Avalia que 37% dos estudos TP são criticados, sendo a maior parte das críticas endereçada a problemas de método, enquanto que 16% dos estudos VCP recebem críticas. Conclui que os estudos não são eficazes em treinar psi ou manipular variáveis psi-condutivas, ainda que a maior parte deles obtenha resultados significativos e na direção esperada. De uma forma geral eles falham em termos da elaboração de métodos capazes de excluir hipóteses alternativas àquelas testadas, sendo que as principais falhas são: 1. falta de grupos controle; 2. controle inadequado da variável crença, tanto em relação aos sujeitos como aos pesquisadores; 3. falha em avaliar o real aprendizado; a maioria dos estudos são de curta ou curtíssima duração e sem a avaliação e/ou correlação dos fatores, aos quais se atribui aprendizado, com os escores psi. Com exceção de um estudo, os demais não apresentam testes posteriores para verificar a possível manutenção dos níveis de psi alcançados; 4. o efeito experimentador psi e psicológico é amplamente ignorado pela maioria dos estudos; 5. falta de parâmetros padrões para avaliar determinadas características ou estados (ex. hipnose, meditação, ganzfeld); 6. falta de uma abordagem sistêmica e integrada em relação aos fenômenos psi, aos métodos para testá-los e as múltiplas variáveis passíveis de influenciá-lo. Considera estas falhas apresentando sugestões para superá-las e uma proposta inicial exploratória de treinamento psi / This dissertation is about studies of anomalous experiences (AEs), which can be defined as uncommon and irregular, but reported by a large segment of the population. Among the variety of AEs, this work concentrates on psi-related experiences, which includes two categories. The first are reports of extrasensory perception (ESP), which suggest the capacity of obtaining information without the use of the sensory channels or logical inference. The second is called of psychokinesis (PK), which refers to reports of the action or effect of the mind on matter, or when people\'s thoughts seem to affect the physical environment, without the mediation of the muscular system, a physical force, or a recognized physical mechanism. The study explores if: a) it is possible to train people to be more capable to perceive and use psi phenomena in the experimental context and, b) if the manipulation of some factors can increase psi scores significantly in the laboratory. A review of the research on the effectiveness of psi trainings (PT) and of studies that manipulate psi-conductive variables (PCV) is presented. The studies are grouped in these two categories (PT and PCV), considering specific and common variables for both groups. Studies are evaluated in subgroups, according to specific variables, with emphasis on statistics and methods. The literature review was conducted from March 2007 to February 2008, and it includes books and scientific papers on the topic. 128 studies are reviewed; 87 of them about the manipulation of VCP and 41 of TP, for a total of 9.153 participants in 845.815 trials. 37% of the TP studies are criticized, mostly on methodological grounds, while the same was the case for 16% of the VCP studies. Although most of the studies obtained significant results in the expected direction, it is concluded that they are not effective to train psi or to manipulate psiconductive variables. In general they fail in terms of the elaboration of methods capable to exclude alternative hypotheses, and the main flaws are: 1. lack of control groups; 2. inappropriate control of the variable of belief, for both the subjects and researchers; 3. lack of evaluation of learning; most of the studies were of brief duration and without the evaluation and/or correlation of the factors to which learning is attributed, and in relation to psi scores. With the exception of one study, the rest do not present subsequent analyses to verify the possible maintenance of the psi levels obtained; 4. the experimenter effect (psi and psychological) is ignored completely in most of the studies; 5. lack of standard parameters to evaluate certain characteristics or states (for example hypnosis, meditation, ganzfeld); 6. lack of a systemic and integrated approach in relation to psi phenomena, to the methods used to test them, and to multiple variables that may influence them. In addition to discussing these problems, suggestions are presented to improve the situation, together with an exploratory initial proposal for psi training

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No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Ludmyla Santos Tavares - 2017.pdf: 3302208 bytes, checksum: 2c09a6f32925fa84f5c2ccb2eabbcf69 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-24 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The analysis of drugs of abuse in non-conventional biological fluids is attracting a lot of interest due to recent legislation changes in Brazil and a greater police surveillance. However, complex matrix samples have a large amount of endogenous, exogenous and other interfering compounds that make direct analysis impossible in analytical systems. In this way, sample preparation has been presented as an important tool for rapid and sensitive analytical methods. The miniaturized sample preparation technique called disposable pipette extraction (DPX) has shown to be promising once it integrates the clean-up and pre-concentration of samples. Restricted access materials (RAM) are a class of materials that allow the exclusion of endogenous compounds and the extraction of analytes in a single step. In this manner, in this work a RAM extraction phase has been developed for DPX applied to the analysis of cocaine in oral fluid via liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (DPX-RAM/LC-MS). The proposed method was optimized using a 24 factorial design. According to the results obtained, the better efficiency of extraction was obtained in the following conditions: pH 9, 10 extractions cycles (draw/eject), 3 desorption cycles (draw/eject) and acetonitrile as desorption solvent. The DPX-RAM/LC-MS method showed to be linear from 10 to 100 ng.mL-1 and have R2 = 0,999. As an alternative to sample preparation and a previous separation step, it was also evaluated in this work, a direct injection system for the mass spectrometer (MS) employing an ambient ionization source called Paper Spray Ionization (PSI). For this purpose, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) for the analysis of cocaine were synthetized directly on the surface of a cellulose membrane and employed as paper in a PSI system. The membrane containing MIP showed to be more selective and had a greater intensity of signal when compared to the chromatographic paper normally used for PSI. MIP-PSI method showed to be linear from 1 to 100 ng.mL-1 and have R2 = 0,998.The methods proposed are precise and accurate with obtained values bellow 15%, recovery above 80% and the limits of detection and quantification are lower than the ones found in the literature. Both techniques were standardized and validated according to ANVISA’s normative. / As análises de drogas de abuso em fluidos biológicos não convencionais têm atraído muito interesse devido às recentes mudanças nas legislações nacionais e maior fiscalização policial. No entanto, amostras com matrizes complexas apresentam grande quantidade de compostos endógenos, exógenos e outros interferentes que inviabilizam a análise direta em sistemas analíticos. Neste sentido, o preparo de amostras tem se apresentado como importante ferramenta para métodos analíticos rápidos e sensíveis. A técnica miniaturizada de preparo de amostras, conhecida como extração em ponteiras descartáveis (DPX) tem se mostrado promissora uma vez que integra o clean-up e a pré-concentração das amostras. Os materiais de acesso restrito (RAM) são uma classe de materiais que permitem a exclusão dos compostos endógenos e a extração dos analitos de interesse em uma única etapa. Assim sendo, neste trabalho foi desenvolvida uma fase extratora RAM para DPX e aplicada à análises de cocaína em fluido oral por cromatografia líquida acoplada ao espectrômetro de massas (DPX-RAM/LC-MS). O método proposto foi otimizado utilizando um planejamento fatorial 24 e segundo os resultados obtidos, a maior eficiência de extração foi obtida nas seguintes condições: pH 9, 10 ciclos de extração (aspirar/dispensar), 3 ciclos de dessorção (aspirar/dispensar) e acetonitrila como solvente de dessorção. O método DPXRAM/LC-MS mostrou-se linear de 10 a 100 ng.mL-1 com R2 = 0,999. Como alternativa ao preparo de amostras e a separação prévia foi também avaliado, neste trabalho, um sistema para injeção direta no espectrômetro de massas (MS) pela técnica de ionização ambiente conhecida como Paper Spray Ionization (PSI). Para tanto, polímeros molecurlamente impressos (MIPs) para análise de cocaína foram sintetizados diretamente na superfície de uma membrana filtrante e empregados como papel em sistema PSI. A membrana contendo o MIP mostrou ser mais seletiva e apresentou maior intensidade no sinal quando comparada com o papel cromatográfico usualmente utilizado para PSI. O método PSI-MS mostrou-se linear de 1 a 100 ng.mL-1 com R2 = 0,998. Os dois métodos apresentaram valores de exatidão e precisão abaixo de 15%, recuperação acima de 80% e os limites de quantificação e detecção abaixo dos encontrados na literatura. Ambas técnicas foram padronizadas e validadas de acordo com as normativas da ANVISA.

La masse du quark top est un paramètre fondamental du Modèle Standard de la physique des particules. L'un des défis du programme de physique du LHC, où le quark top est produit en abondance, est la détermination précise de ce paramètre. Actuellement, il est mesuré via la reconstruction directe de tous les produits de désintégration du quark top. L'incertitude systématique sur la calibration en énergie des jets et sur l'étiquetage de quarks b limite grandement la précision de cette mesure et il est donc indispensable de développer des mesures alternatives. Une possibilité très prometteuse – jusque-là jamais exploitée – est l'étude de désintégrations de paires de quarks top, où l'un des deux quarks se désintègre dans le canal leptonique avec un J/psi créé lors de la fragmentation du quark b. La masse du quark top est extraite à travers sa corrélation à la masse invariante de la combinaison du J/psi et du lepton chargé. Cette méthode présente l'avantage de n'utiliser que des leptons chargés, dont l'énergie-impulsion est mesurée avec une grande précision dans le détecteur CMS / The top quark mass is a fundamental parameter of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. One of the challenges in the LHC physics case, where the top quark is produced in abundance, is the precise determination of this parameter. Currently, it is measured through the direct reconstruction of all the top quark decay products. The systematic uncertainty on the jet energy calibration and b tagging sensibly limits the precision on this measurement and it is thus vital to develop alternative measurements. A very promising possibility – never exploited until now – is the study of top pair decays, where one of the two quarks decays in the leptonic channel with a J/psi created in the b quark fragmentation. The top quark mass is extracted through its correlation to the invariant mass of the J/psi-charged lepton combination. This method presents the advantages of using charged leptons only, whose energy momentum is measured with great accuracy in the CMS detector

La production hadronique des Quarkonia est un puzzle de longue date, qui teste la capacité des physiciens des particules à décrire les interactions de couleur. Même si la structure de la chromodynamique quantique (QCD) est bien définie et inspirée par l’électrodynamique quantique (QED), les différences par rapport à cette dernière rendent très difficile la description théorique des propriétés des hadrons.Un grand nombre de modèles et de théories effectives des champs ont été proposés pour décrire la production de quarkonia lourds, mais aucune n'a réussi à prédire, de façon fiable, différentes observables. En particulier, la QCD non relativiste (NRQCD) est arrivée à décrire les sections efficaces des quarkonia au Tevatron, mais a failli pour la prédiction du degré de polarisation du J/psi. Par contre, le modèle singulet de couleur (CSM: Color Singlet Model) présentait des résultats légèrement meilleurs du coté de la polarisation mais avait des problèmes avec la normalisation et la forme des sections efficaces différentielles.Le démarrage du LHC au CERN est une excellente opportunité expérimentale pour résoudre ces problèmes. En effet le saut en énergie, par rapport au Tevatron, permet d'avoir des sections efficaces de quarks lourds bien plus élevées que dans le passé, de plus les performances excellentes des expériences LHC nous permettent de procéder à des analyses difficiles.ALICE est l’expérience du LHC dédiée à l’étude de la matière dense et chaude produite dans les collisions d’ions lourds ultra-relativistes : le plasma de quarks et de gluons (PQG). Pendant les deux premières années de prises de données, elle a montré des performances excellentes pour la détection des J/psi, aussi bien en collisions PbPb qu’en collisions pp.Dans cette thèse est présenté la mesure de la polarisation de J/psi inclusif, produits dans les collisions pp à une énergie dans le centre de masse de 7 TeV. L’analyse a été effectuée sur presque 80% de la statistique recueillie par le spectromètre à muons d’ALICE en 2010. Elle a été basée sur l’extraction de la distribution angulaire des muons provenant de la désintégration du J/psi.Les résultats obtenus par cette étude représentent la première mesure de la polarisation des quarkonia au LHC et offrent la possibilité de tester les modèles théoriques dans un régime d’énergie plus de trois fois supérieur à celui du Tevatron.Une première comparaison avec les derniers calculs théoriques est également présentée dans cette thèse. / Quarkonium hadroproduction is a long standing puzzle which tests the ability of particle physicists to describe colour interactions. Even if the structure of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is well established and inspired to quantum electrodynamics (QED), its differences with respect to the latter make the theoretical description of hadron properties very difficult.Many models and effective field theories have been proposed in order to describe heavy quarkonia production, but none of them have been able to predict different observables in a reliable way. In particular, nonrelativistic QCD (NRQCD) succeeded in describing quarkonia cross sections at the Tevatron, but failed in predicting the degree of polarization of the J/psi. On the other hand, the color-singlet model (CSM) had slightly better results from the polarization side, but had problems with the magnitude and differential shapes of the cross sections.The startup of the LHC at CERN provides a very important experimental opportunity in solving these problems. Indeed, the big jump in energy with respect to Tevatron leads to much higher heavy-quarks cross sections than in the past and, moreover, the very good performances of the LHC experiments allow to perform delicate analysis.ALICE is the LHC experiment dedicated to the study of the dense and hot matter produce in ultrarelativistic heavy ions collisions: the quark gluon plasma (QGP). During the first two years of data taking it showed very good performance in the detection of J/psi, both in PbPb and pp collisions.In this thesis, the polarization measurement of J/psi inclusively produced in pp collisions at a center of mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The analysis was performed on almost 80% of the statistics collected by the ALICE forward muon spectrometer during 2010. It was based on the extraction of the angular distribution of the muons coming from the J/psi decay. The results obtained with this study represent the first measurement of quarkonia polarization at the LHC and they offer the possibility to test the theoretical models in a more than three times higher energy regime with respect to Tevatron. A first comparison with recent theoretical calculations is also presented in this document.

La Chromodynamique Quantique prédit que la matière chaude et dense produite en collisions d'ions lourds ultra-relativistes, le Plasma de Quarks et de Gluons (QGP), se conduit comme un état déconfiné de quarks et gluons.ALICE est la seule expérience au LHC qui a été conçue et construite pour caractériser la physique du QGP. Le spectromètre à muons, un des détecteurs d'ALICE, est utilisé pour mesurer la production de quarkonia à rapidité en avant.Dans la thèse suivante, l'efficacité des chambres de trajectographie du spectromètre à muons est étudiée durant une année de pris des données. Les résultats obtenus des données réelles sont comparés avec des simulations pour calculer les incertitudes systématiques par rapport aux chambres de trajectographie.Une analyse complète de la production inclusive de J/psi --> mu^+ mu^- dans les collisions Pb-Pb 2011 est également presentée. L' étude inclut l'extraction du signal, normalisation et corrections d'acceptance et d'efficacité. Une partie importante est consacrée à quantifier les incertitudes systématiques liées aux différentes sources. Les résultats, R_{AA} et <p_{T}> , sont comparés avec des expériences précédentes et des modèles théoriques. / Quantum Chromodynamics predicts that the hot and dense matter produced in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), behaves as a deconfined state of quarks and gluons. Since 1980's it was predicted that quarkonia are suppressed due to screening effects in the QGP, making quarkonia a good tool to probe the plasma.ALICE is the only experiment at the LHC that was designed and built to characterize the physics of the QGP. The muon spectrometer, one of the detectors in ALICE, is used to measure the quarkonia production at forward rapidity. In this thesis the efficiency of the tracking chambers of the muon spectrometer is studied along one year of data taking. The results obtained from real data are compared to simulations in order to compute the systematic uncertainties associated to the tracking apparatus.A complete analysis of the inclusive J/psi --> mu^+ mu^- production in the 2011 Pb-Pb collisions is also presented. The study includes the signal extraction, normalization and acceptance times efficiency corrections. An important part is dedicated to the quantify the systematic uncertainties arising from different sources. The resulting R_{AA} and <p_{T}> are compared to previous experiments and also to theoretical models.

IL LAVORO TRATTA IL TEMA DELLA VALUTAZIONE E DELL’INTERVENTO CON VIDEOFEEDBACK A FAVORE DI GENITORI DI BAMBINI CON GRAVE DISABILITA’ NEUROEVOLUTIVA. LA PRIMA PARTE PRESENTA PICCOLO, UN MODELLO DI VALUTAZIONE DEL FUNZIONAMENTO INTERATTIVO GENITORIALE CHE, PER LE CARATTERISTICHE CHE VENGONO DISCUSSE, E’ INDICATO PER ESSERE IMPLEMENTATO ALL’INTERNO DI INTERVENTI DI SUPPORTO AI GENITORI DI BAMBINI CON GRAVE DISABILITA’ NEUROEVOLUTIVA. DOPO UNA PANORAMICA DELLO STRUMENTO E DELLE SUE CARATTERISTICHE E’ PRESENTATO LO STUDIO DI ADATTAMENTO E VALIDAZIONE DI PICCOLO AL CONTESTO ITALIANO. 181 DIADI MADRE-BAMBINO SONO STATE RECLUTATE PER LA SOMMINISTRAZIONE DEL PROTOCOLLO OSSERVAZIONALE; I FILMATI DELLE INTERAZIONI SONO STATI CODIFICATI DA RICERCATORI FORMATI SOTTO LA SUPERVISIONE DEGLI AUTORI ORIGINALI DI PICCOLO. SI PRESENTANO LA TRADUZIONE ITALIANA, LE NORMATIVE DI RIFERIMENTO E I RISULTATI DELLE ANALISI CIRCA LE PROPRIETA’ PSICOMETRICHE. L’ADATTAMENTO ITALIANO DI PICCOLO SI DIMOSTRA ATTENDIBILE E VALIDO, PUR CON QUALCHE FRAGILITA’ NELLA SUA STRUTTURA DIMENSIONALE. LA SECONDA PARTE DEL LAVORO TRATTA IL TEMA DELL’INTERVENTO CON VIDEOFEEDBACK. COME DESCRITTO, TALE TECNICA HA DELLE POTENZIALITA’ PER ESSERE APPLICATA AL CONTESTO DELLA GRAVE DISABILITA’ PRECOCE, IN QUANTO EFFICACE CON ALTRE POPOLAZIONI DI BAMBINI A RISCHIO NEL MIGLIORARE I COMPORTAMENTI GENITORIALI E INDIRETTAMENTE GLI ESITI DI SVILUPPO DEL BAMBINO. SI PRESENTA UNA REVISIONE SISTEMATICA DELLA LETTERATURA FINALIZZATA A DESCRIVERE LO STATO DELL’ARTE DELL’APPLICAZIONE DI TALE METODLOGIA DI INTEVENTO A POPOLAZIONI DI BAMBINI CON DISABILITA’. SONO DISCUSSE LE DIVERSE IMPOSTAZIONI METODOLOGICHE E PRESENTATI I RISULTATI DELLE RICERCHE IN TERMINI DI EFFICACIA NEL MODIFICARE I COMPORTAMENTI PARENTALI E, INDIRETTAMENTE, LO SVILUPPO DEL BAMBINO. INFINE, VIENE PRESENTATO IL METAMODELLO ABC-D, OVVERO UN MODELLO CONCETTUALE PER SUPPORTARE GLI OPERATORI CHE INCONTRANO I GENITORI DI BAMBINI CON DISABILITA’ NEUROEVOLUTIVA, GUIDANDOLI NEL COMPRENDERE I BISOGNI DI SUPPORTO PSICOLOGICO PREVALENTI E NEL PIANIFICARE L’INTERVENTO. IL MODELLO DISTINGUE QUATTRO DOMINI DA INDAGARE (AFFETTI/EMOZIONI, COMPORTAMENTI INTERATTIVI, RAPPRESENTAZIONI MENTALI E COGNIZIONI + DISABILITA’), DA CUI DISCENDONO SCELTE CIRCA GLI OBIETTIVI E LE METODOLOGIE DI INTERVENTO A FAVORE DEI GENITORI. / PARENTING INTERACTIVE BEHAVIORS ASSESSMENT AND VIDEOFEEDBACK INTERVENTION ARE HERE DISCUSSED IN RELATION TO CHILDREN WITH NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY. THE FIRST CHAPTER IS A PRESENTATION OF THE PICCOLO, A OBSERVATIONAL EMPIRICALLY VALIDATED TOOL TO EVALUATE PARENTING INTERACTIVE BEHAVIORS IN THE FIRST YEARS OF CHILDREN. SUCH INSTRUMENT APPEARS FITTED TO BE IMPLEMENTED WITH PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY IN A HOSPITAL OR HOME SETTING. THE SECOND CHAPTER IS THE ITALIAN ADAPATION OF PICCOLO IMPLEMENTED WITH 181 MOTHER-INFANTS DYADS. THE SAMPLE HAS BEEN RECRUITED IN DIFFERENT PART OF ITALY AND THE MOTHERS WERE ASKED TO INTERACT FOR 10 MINUTES WITH THE CHILD- THE RECORDING HAS BEEN CODED FOLLOWING THE INSTRUMENTS MANUAL AND AFTER A TRAINING IN CONNECTION WITH AMERICAN ORIGINAL AUTHORS. THE RESULTS SHOWS SOM WEAKNESS IN PSYCHOMETRIC VALUES FOR ITALIAN ADAPTATION. THE THIRD CHAPTER PRESENTS A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW INVESTIGATING THE USE OF VIDEOFEEBACK INTERVENTION WITH PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY. THE STATE OF ART OF SUCH METHOD IMPLMENTATION ARE DISCUSSED, AND THE DIFFERENT METHODOLOGIES ARE PRESENTED. FINALLY, THE ABC-D MODEL, A META THEORY TO GUIDE PARENTAL PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF NEURODEVELOPMTAL DISABILITY, IS DISCUSSED. THE ABC-D MODEL HAS BEEN CONCEPTUALIZED AS COMPOSED BY FOUR DIMENSIONS: AFFECT, BEHAVIOR, COGNITION, AND DISABILITY. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICTIONERS AND RESEARCHERS ARE PRESENTED.

Despite a large body of research has investigated child attachment during middle childhood, only a limited number of studies has focused on children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Additionally. The few studies available on this topic have exclusively used self-reported measures to assess quality of attachment, overlooking the role of internal representations, which are considered to play a fundamental role since attachment is internalized. Therefore, no studies examined the way in which child attachment representations are associated with child diagnosis, parenting and caregiving environment in ASD. In the first study, we assessed attachment representations in children with ASD, Learning Disabilities (LD) and Typical development (TD). In particular, we investigated possible group differences on perceived attachment to parents, self-protective strategies and quality of attachment implicit representations using the Dynamic Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation (DMM). The Study 2 focused on the caregiving environment and its influence on child attachment implicit representations. To this aim, we assessed parenting stress and parental style in mothers and fathers of children with ASD and TD, examining whether parents of children with ASD differ from those of matched TD group. Secondly, we examined which caregiving environment dimensions contribute significantly in predicting at-risk attachment representations, assessing separately the contribution of maternal and paternal parenting stress and parental interactive social style. In the third study maternal and paternal attachment style were assessed to test the hypothesis of attachment continuity across generations. Firstly, we investigated whether parents of children of ASD reported higher level of attachment-related avoidance/anxiety compared to their TD counterpart. Next, the associations between attachment style of both mothers and fathers and quality of child attachment representations was tested, by examining the moderation effect of child ASD diagnosis. The Study 4 investigated the role of other potential child attachment predictors. Due higher co-occurrence of ASD and difficulties in identifying, describing and distinguishing one’s own feelings, the predictive effect of alexithymia on child explicit attachment representations was tested. Moreover, we also examined whether children with ASD reported higher level of alexithymia compared to controls. The Study 1 showed that children with ASD are able to develop secure and coherent attachment implicit representations, albeit with a lesser extent compared to typically developing children. They were able to engage the attachment interview, confirming the suitability of this method in this clinical sample. Importantly, children with ASD showed high-risk attachment implicit representations and greater presence of unresolved trauma and modifiers, despite no differences emerged on perceived attachment to parents. The lack of group difference on perceived attachment suggested that implicit and explicit attachment representations of children with ASD originate from different sources of information. It is plausible that low reflective functioning, impaired metacognition as well as altered psychobiological processes of children with ASD contributed to attachment maladaptive information processing. Secondly, we replicated the well-established finding of higher parenting distress in parents of children with ASD compared to controls also in fathers. Moreover, the Study 2 documented less didactic and limit/setting style in parents of children with ASD. In accordance to a bidirectional perspective, these parenting behaviors were interpreted as parental functional responses to adapt to child unusual social-communication. Interestingly, data revealed a significant effect of maternal parenting stress and social exchange style on child attachment implicit representations. Thus, the study supports the coexistence of both child-driven and parent-driven effects in the context of parent-child relationship in ASD. Similarly, the Study 3 documented that children with ASD who have an insecurely attached primary caregiver showed at-risk attachment implicit representations. In other words, the continuity of attachment security across generations revealed a clear effect in ASD, suggesting that these children may be more susceptible to this mechanism compared to controls. In addition, parents of children with ASD reported higher attachment-related avoidance in comparison to their TD counterpart. This difference could be associated to the significant couple adjustment associated to the impact of rear a child with ASD. In addition, the Study 4 showed that alexithymia, but not ASD predicts perceived attachment to parents highlighting the different nature of attachment explicit and implicit representation. Moreover, our results confirmed higher co-occurrence of alexithymia and ASD also in school-age, extending literature on adulthood. Our findings pointed out that children with ASD (without intellectual disability) showed higher rates of at-risk self-protective strategies (attachment pattern). These results may be related to several factors associated with ASD symptoms, such as the more frequent disruptions of interpersonal exchanges with the caregiver across development, the difficulties in social information processing and reflective functioning. The higher exposure to adverse childhood experience (e.g. bullying), may explained the higher occurrence of unresolved trauma in these children. Up to date, to the best of our knowledge, these are the first studies on group differences and parental predictors of attachment implicit representations in school-age children with ASD. Therefore, these studies brought initial data to ASD literature on attachment representations, suggesting that these children are at increased risk of developing maladaptive information processing. Limitations of the studies and clinical implications are discussed.

Storicamente, lo studio delle Nuove Tecnologie ha visto l’evoluzione di diverse discipline interessate alla valutazione delle stesse, in termini di sicurezza, usabilità, esperienza globale (dall’Ergonomia fino alla User Experience, passando per la cyberpsicologia). Tali discipline hanno identificato nei “bisogni degli utenti” la guida fondamentale di valutazione e design. Tuttavia, è mancata una contestualizzazione teorica del concetto di bisogno dell’utente. A tal proposito, questa tesi propone un modello teorico (PIM) basato sulla relazione tra tecnologie e intenzioni degli utenti. Queste ultime, sulla base della letteratura psicologica e filosofica, sono viste come l’antecedente mentale delle azioni, strutturate gerarchicamente. Sulla base del modello, vengono presentati tre esperimenti incentrati sull’interazione con le tecnologie e le intenzioni al livello motorio, prossimale e distale. I risultati del primo esperimento indicano che l’utilizzo di tecnologie interattive può modificare il contenuto rappresentazionale delle intenzioni motorie. Il secondo esperimento mostra che la presenza di intenzioni prossimali in utenti orienta la loro percezione di opportunità d’azione e la valutazione della tecnologia. Il terzo esperimento dimostra che la presenza di intenzioni distali negli utenti influenza la valutazione di usabilità di una tecnologia e le emozioni ad essa legate. La conclusione della tesi approfondisce l’importanza dell’analisi delle intenzioni nella valutazione delle tecnologie. / Historically, the study of New Technologies has seen the evolution of the various disciplines involved in technology evaluation, in terms of safety, usability, and the overall experience (from ergonomics to User Experience, and cyberpsychology). These disciplines have identified the "user needs" as the fundamental guideline for evaluation and design. However, a theoretical contextualization of the concept of user needs is still missing. This dissertation proposes a theoretical model (PIM) based on the relationship between technology and user intentions. Based on the psychological and philosophical literature, it defines intentions as the hierarchically-structured mental antecedents of actions. Starting from the model, three experiments are presented focusing on the interaction with the technologies and motor, proximal and distal intentions. The results of the first experiment indicate that the use of interactive technologies can modify the representational content of motor intentions. The second experiment shows that the presence of proximal intentions in users drives their perception of affordances in the technologies and their final evaluation. The third experiment shows that users’ distal intentions influence the evaluation of usability in the technology and the experience of usage-related emotions. The conclusion explores the importance of intention analysis in technology evaluation.

Il presente lavoro di ricerca si propone di esplorare le concezioni degli studenti sulla creatività attraverso strumenti quali la parola e il disegno, a tramite attività mentali quali il giudizio, il riconoscimento e la descrizione. Tre sono i concetti chiave oggetto di indagine della presente ricerca: il riconoscimento, inteso come l’abilità nel distinguere prodotti (e autori) creativi da quelli non creativi. Tale distinzione ha luogo nel momento in cui l’individuo è in grado di cogliere quegli elementi che portano a un cambiamento di significato di un dato oggetto che in questo modo viene considerato creativo. Il secondo concetto chiave è il giudizio, ovvero l’abilità di un individuo di valutare l’autore - o gli autori - di prodotti creativi e non creativi. Il terzo concetto è quello legato all’abilità, attraverso la quale le persone esprimono il loro potenziale creativo. Gli obiettivi declinati nel presente lavoro di ricerca sono tre. Il primo si prefigge di indagare la capacità che gli studenti hanno di riconoscere la fase di ristrutturazione - costitutiva dell’atto creativo - distinguendo i prodotti creativi da quelli non creativi sulla base del loro diverso livello di originalità. A tale proposito sono state messe a punto diverse serie di disegni che rappresentano la realizzazione di artefatti creativi e non creativi e presentate prima a un campione di studenti universitari (Studio 1) e poi di studenti della scuola Primaria e Secondaria (Studio 2, Studio 3). Il secondo obiettivo consisteva nel descrivere la rappresentazione del comportamento del creativo. Attraverso una storia è stato richiesto agli studenti di giudicare il ruolo della persona creativa (Studio 2, Studio 3). Infine, il terzo obiettivo era valutare l’espressione della creatività e la sua relazione con la rappresentazione (Studio 3) attraverso l’impiego di strumenti diversi, quali il differenziale semantico, il compito di completamento di disegni ed il test delle Linee Parallele tratta dal Test di Pensiero Creativo di Torrance (TTCT: Torrance, 1989). / The present work is aimed at exploring how students represent creativity. To explore their beliefs we used different research tools (as words, drawings), and different cognitive tasks (as judging, recognizing, describing). Three concepts will be investigated in this research: (1) recognition, intended as the ability to distinguish between creative and non-creative products as well as between creative and non-creative authors: we tried to identify if our participants were able to catch the distinctive elements that determine the change of meaning of an artifact so that it become creative; (2) judgment, intended as the ability to judge the author(s) of creative and non-creative products; (3) expression, intended as the ability to express our own creative potential. Three specific aims has been set across this research. The first aim was to investigate the ability of students to recognize the restructuring phase of a creative act, differentiating between creative and non-creative products. Different series of drawings that represented the realization of creative and non-creative objects were devised and tested on undergraduates (Study 1) and on school children (Study 2, Study 3). The second aim was to describe the representation of creative behaviour. Using a story as a baseline, students were requested to judge the role of the creative person (Study 2, Study 3). The third aim was to evaluate the expression of creativity and the relationship between expression and representation of creativity (Study 3) using different tasks: a semantic differential scale, a picture completion task and a subscale of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT: Torrance, 1989).

Le interazioni sociali richiedono che un agente sia in grado di selezionare ed elaborare informazioni ambientali rilevanti, che sia situato in un contesto complesso, e che interagisca con altri agenti, rispettando le opportunità e i vincoli di contesto. Riconoscere noi stessi e gli altri come agenti intenzionali è un passaggio cruciale per il processo generale di comprensione sociale e, in particolare, per la nostra capacità di percepire le intenzioni e gli scopi altrui. Tali competenze sociali sostengono il nostro sviluppo fisico, cognitivo e affettivo promuovendo interazioni adattive. Di conseguenza, una disfunzione di tali competenze può compromettere gravemente l’autonomia e la qualità di vita. Si ritiene che un sistema distribuito medi la percezione di agentività e degli stati mentali altrui, ma la struttura interna dei processi che costituiscono la nostra capacità di comprendere i nostri simili e di interagire adeguatamente è tuttora per buona parte sconosciuta. Il progetto ha come obiettivo indagare le fasi iniziali di tali processi e, in particolare, l’elaborazione precoce di cues sociali (social affordances) per la detezione di agentività e opportunità d’interazione in contesti sociali. È strutturato in tre studi principali: il primo mira a esplorare i correlati elettrofisiologici (ERPs e dati di source localization) dell’elaborazione di informazioni visive per la detezione di agentività in interazione; il secondo mira a indagare possibili marcatori (ERPs) del profilo delle competenze di comprensione sociale associate alla sindrome di Williams; il terzo ha testato, tramite TMS, il ruolo causale di rTPJ nel mediare l’elaborazione pre-riflessiva di agentività e intenzionalità nel comportamento osservato. / Social interactions require an agent to be able to select and process relevant environmental information, to be situated in a complex context and to interact with other agents, according to the opportunities and boundaries of that context. Sensing ourselves and detecting others as intentional agents is a crucial step for the overall social understanding process and, in particular, for our ability to perceive others’ intentions and goals. Those social skills foster our physical, cognitive and affective development by promoting adaptive interactions. Consequently, a dysfunction of such skills can seriously affect the autonomy and quality of life. A distributed system is thought to subserve the perception of agency and others’ mental states, but the internal structure of processes that constitute our ability to understand our similars and interact adequately is still largely unknown. This project aimed at investigating early stages of those processes and, in particular, the initial elaboration of social cues (social affordances) for the detection of agentivity and opportunities for interaction in social situations. It is structured in three main empirical studies: the first one aimed at looking electrophysiological correlates (ERPs and source localization data) of visual information processing for the detection of agency in interactions; the second one aimed at looking for possible markers (ERPs) of the uneven profile of basic WS social understanding; the third one tested the causal role of rTPJ in mediating pre-reflective processing of agency and intentionality from observed behaviour by means of TMS.