Professional qualifications and professional memberships

• DPhil in Developmental Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton (2003) 
• MSc in Health Psychology, City University, London (1995) 
• BSc Hons in Psychology, University of Crete, Greece (1993) 
• Member of the British Psychological Society (BPS)

Research interests

• Children’s cognitive development (Children's understanding of biology, health and illness, life and death, health related behaviours, science)
• Cross cultural comparisons in children's understanding of biology
• Children’s social development (understanding of morality)
• Treatment adherence in paediatric epilepsy
• Communication with children in health care settings

Career summary

• Lecturer in Developmental Psychology (2003-2006). School of Psychology, University of East London 
• Post-doctoral Research Fellow (2003). School of Psychology, University of East London 
• Visiting lecturer (2001-2002). Department of Psychology, Kingston University, London 
• Visiting lecturer (2001-2002). Centre for Social Work and Policy, University of Sussex, Brighton 

One of my research interests focuses on the development of children's naïve biological 'theories' and how different cultural contexts, as well as experience(e.g., experience of an illness), influence their understanding of biology. In my research, I use interviews and specifically designed tasks to investigate children’s understanding of the human body, its functioning, and the concepts of life and death.

A related research area concerns children’s perceptions of health and illness that is their ideas about the causes, symptoms, treatments and prevention of various physical and mental conditions. Some of the questions this research attempts to answer are: 1) What do children know and feel about physical and mental illnesses and what factors influence the way their knowledge develops? 2) How accurately do parents and health professionals (e.g., doctors and nurses) assess children’s perceptions of illness? and 3) To what extent do parents’ own illness perceptions relate to their children’s? Answering these questions has important implications for the way in which information about health and illness is communicated to young children in health care settings.

In collaboration with developmental, health psychologists and pediatricians at UEA and the NNUH I am developing a new study on the psychological factors influencing children’s concordance with the treatment for epilepsy. Factors such as demographic characteristics, cognitive development, self-efficacy, perceptions of risk, and children’s understanding of the causes, consequences and cure of epilepsy will be studied during interviews with children and adolescents with epilepsy. Findings from this exploratory study will be used for the development of an effective intervention that will substantially improve children’s understanding of their condition, its risks, and their concordance with therapy.

Another area of my ongoing research concerns the development of children’s scientific ideas, in particular their understanding of the shape of the earth, gravity and the day–night cycle. This research also investigates how different methods of testing children and adults (e.g., drawings and model selection tasks, open and closed interviews) influence the way individuals represent their knowledge. Recently, and in collaboration with Dr Gavin Nobes at the School of Social Work and Psychology, UEA, I completed an ESRC funded project that explored the origins of children's knowledge of the earth, the structure of their concepts, and how scientific understanding in the domain of astronomy is acquired https://www.uea.ac.uk/swp/people/gnobes/cue. 

Selected publications
Siegal, M, Nobes, G and Panagiotaki, G (2011).  Nature Geoscience, 4 (3), 130-132

Frede, V, Nobes, G, Frappart, S, Panagiotaki, G, Troadec, B and Martin A (2011).  Infant and Child Development, 20 (6), 432-448

Panagiotaki, G., Nobes, G. & Potton, A. (2009). Mental models and other misconceptions in children’s understanding of the earth. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 52–67

Nobes, G. & Panagiotaki, G. (2009). Mental models or methodological artifacts? Adults' 'naïve' responses to a test of children's conceptions of the earth. British Journal of Psychology, 100, 347–363

Nobes, G. & Panagiotaki, G. (2007). Adults' representations of the earth: Implications for children's acquisition of scientific concepts. British Journal of Psychology, 98, 645-665

Panagiotaki, G., Nobes, G., & Banerjee, R. (2006). Is the World Round or Flat? Children's Understanding of the Earth. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 3 (2), 124-141

Panagiotaki, G., Nobes, G., & Banerjee, R. (2006). Children's Understanding of the Earth: A Methodological Comparison. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24 (2), 353-372

Nobes, G., Martin, A., & Panagiotaki, G. (2005). The Development of Scientific Knowledge of the Earth. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23, 47-66

Nobes, G., Moore, DJ., Martin, A., Cilifford, B., Butterworth, G., Panagiotaki, G. & Siegal, M. (2003). Children's Understanding of the Earth in a Multicultural Society. Developmental Science, 6 (1), 72-85

Laing, E., Butterworth, G., Ansaril, D., Gsödl, M., Longhi, E., Panagiotaki, G. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2002). Atypical Development of Language and Social Communication in Toddlers with Williams Syndrome. Developmental Science, 5 (2), 233-246

MBBS Medical Degree course

• Teaching of Developmental and Health Psychology
• Facilitation of Problem Based Learning (PBL) groups
• Facilitation of Consultation Skills Workshops
• Supervision of students' SSS (Self Selected Studies) presentations

• Theme Leader for the Psychology curriculum of the MB/BS course