An investigation of repetition and language processing in a case of conduction aphasia

A study is reported of a single case of conduction aphasia. A battery of tasks designed to investigate the parameters of the patient's severe repetition deficit is supplemented by tests of several language functions. The results provide extensive information on a wide range of the patient's language abilities and are used to evaluate the adequacy of four models that have been offered to account for conduction aphasia. An argument is made in support of the suggestion that the syndrome of conduction aphasia should be divided into two subgroups based on patients' ability to select and realize phonemes in speech output. It is concluded that the best explanation for the disorder of patients with repetition deficit but without significant speech output problems is the hypothesis that repetition ability is compromised by a pathological limitation of auditory-verbal short-term memory. This hypothesis is extended to account for the pattern of results obtained in the language tasks.     

La représentation sociale des droits de l'homme: Une recherche internationale sur l'étendue et les limites de l'universalité

La perception des violations des droits de l'homme par de jeunes individus insérés dans des contextes nationaux différents est-elle organisée selon des principes comparables à ceux d'experts ou d'institutions internationales? La présente étude contribue à élucider cette question en la situant dans le champ de la psychologie sociale. La représentation sociale des droits humains a été analysée par le biais d'un questionnaire standardisé soumis à des sujets de quatre pays (Costa Rica, France, Italie et Suisse) âgés de 13 à 20 ans. Les résultats montrent que les individus partagent dans une large mesure une conception institutionnelle des droits humains. De fortes variations à l'intérieur et entre les contextes nationaux apparaissent néanmoins, en particulier dans la délimitation des libertés individuelles et du contrôle étatique.     

The selective impairment of phonological processing: A case study

A case study is reported of an aphasic patient with fluent speech and markedly superior comprehension of written vs. spoken words. Results of extensive testing supported the hypothesis that the patient suffers from a phonological processing deficit that affects performance in all tasks that require the generation of a phonological code. This selective deficit is interpreted as the underlying cause of diverse symptoms such as asyntactic comprehension of written sentences, the commission of spelling errors in writing, and the production of literal paraphasias and neologisms in spontaneous speech. Alternative possibilities for the classification of this patient are discussed.     

An in-depth look at scholastic success: Fluid intelligence,personality traits or emotional intelligence?

The aim of the present study was to take an in-depth look at the role of fluid intelligence, personality traits and emotional intelligence (both ability-based and self-reported) in predicting scholastic success, verifying the existence of incremental validity of emotional intelligence with respect to fluid intelligence and personality variables. One hundred twenty-four students attending the last two years of high school were administered: the Advanced Progressive Matrices, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised Short Form, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory: Short. The results demonstrate the influence exercised by fluid intelligence, personality and emotional intelligence on scholastic success, underlining, in particular, the role of emotional intelligence defined according to the ability-based model.     

Incremental variance in indecisiveness due to cognitive failure compared to fluid intelligence and personality traits

This study investigated the role of fluid intelligence, personality traits and perceived cognitive failure in relation to indecisiveness. The Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM), the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ) and the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) were administered to 429 Italian high school students. The study revealed that perceived cognitive failure added a significant percentage of incremental variance in indecisiveness compared to variances due to fluid intelligence and personality traits thereby offering new research and intervention possibilities.     

Effectiveness of the career interest profile

This study examined the effectiveness of group‐based career counseling using the Career Interest Profile (CIP). The study used an experimental design involving 2 groups of Italian university students: an experimental group (42 participants) who received narrative career counseling and a control group (47 participants) who did not. Results indicated more specific life and occupational goals after the intervention among members of the experimental group in addition to a decrease in career decision‐making difficulties and an increase in career decision‐making self‐efficacy, thus suggesting the value of group‐based career counseling on the basis of the principles embodied in the CIP.     

Organizational Justice: Personality Traits or Emotional Intelligence? An Empirical Study in an Italian Hospital Context

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of personality traits and emotional intelligence in relation to organizational justice. The Organizational Justice Scale, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire–Revised Short Form, and the Bar‐On Emotional Quotient Inventory were administered to 384 Italian nurses. The emotional intelligence dimensions explained a greater percentage of the incremental variance in relation to the four organizational justice dimensions (distributive: ΔR²= .11; procedural: ΔR²= .12; interpersonal: ΔR²= .19; informational: ΔR²= .16) with respect to personality traits (distributive: R²= .06; procedural: R²= .08; interpersonal: R²= .12; informational: R²= .09). The results highlight the role of emotional intelligence in explaining organizational justice, thereby offering new research and intervention perspectives.     

Enhanced encoding of nonverbal cues in bipolar illness in males

Twenty-five affectively bipolar males were found to possess an enhanced ability to encode nonverbal cues when compared to matched controls. This ability was present during both manic and euthymic phases.     

Visual illusory productions with or without amodal completion.

A new type of illusory contour is presented whose appearance is generated by the graphic representation of groups of human figures interacting in a coordinated manner with external reality. When numerous pictorial indicators of cause-effect relationships are provided, and appropriate techniques and sufficiently ambiguous observation conditions are used, hallucinatory objects congruent with expectations linked to the meaning of the configurations appear. There is thus a high-level semantic component that is active in the formation of visual illusory contours and is even capable of interacting with other known factors: brightness contrast, the number of elements, the degree of alignment of the elements, etc. This new type of illusory contour fits current definitions and can be experimentally modified. The variations in subjective clarity scores are presented for a study in which twenty subjects observed nineteen experimental figures, certain variables of which were manipulated. The issue is worthy of further experimental investigation.