Reducing Competitive Victimhood in Kosovo: The Role of Extended Contact and Common Ingroup Identity

During intractable conflicts, “competitive victimhood” refers to the subjective belief that one's own ingroup has suffered more than the outgroup. Although competitive victimhood is considered an important inhibitor of reconciliation processes, no research has attempted to examine ways of reducing it. The present study aims to fill this gap. Kosovar Albanians students (N = 170) were asked to report their perception of ingroup and outgroup victimhood during the protracted violence between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. Our findings revealed that frequent and high‐quality extended contact with outgroup members and identification with a common ingroup reduced competitive victimhood. The effects of extended contact and common ingroup identification were fully mediated by increased perspective taking and trust toward the outgroup, and by decreased outgroup infrahumanization. The implications of these results for restoring fractured intergroup relations are discussed.     

Selective impairment of living things and musical instruments on a verbal 'Semantic Knowledge Questionnaire' in a case of apperceptive visual agnosia

Semantic memory was investigated in a patient (MR) affected by a severe apperceptive visual agnosia, due to an ischemic cerebral lesion, bilaterally affecting the infero-mesial parts of the temporo-occipital cortices. The study was made by means of a Semantic Knowledge Questionnaire (Laiacona, Barbarotto, Trivelli, & Capitani, 1993), which takes separately into account four categories of living beings (animals, fruits, vegetables and body parts) and of artefacts (furniture, tools, vehicles and musical instruments), does not require a visual analysis and allows to distinguish errors concerning super-ordinate categorization, perceptual features and functional/encyclopedic knowledge. When the total number of errors obtained on all the categories of living and non-living beings was considered, a non-significant trend toward a higher number of errors in living stimuli was observed. This difference, however, became significant when body parts and musical instruments were excluded from the analysis. Furthermore, the number of errors obtained on the musical instruments was similar to that obtained on the living categories of animals, fruits and vegetables and significantly higher of that obtained in the other artefact categories. This difference was still significant when familiarity, frequency of use and prototypicality of each stimulus entered into a logistic regression analysis. On the other hand, a separate analysis of errors obtained on questions exploring super-ordinate categorization, perceptual features and functional/encyclopedic attributes showed that the differences between living and non-living stimuli and between musical instruments and other artefact categories were mainly due to errors obtained on questions exploring perceptual features. All these data are at variance with the 'domains of knowledge' hypothesis', which assumes that the breakdown of different categories of living and non-living things respects the distinction between biological entities and artefacts and support the models assuming that 'category-specific semantic disorders' are the by-product of the differential weighting that visual-perceptual and functional (or action-related) attributes have in the construction of different biological and artefacts categories.     

Eye movements and bisection behavior in spatial neglect syndrome: representational biases induced by the segment length and spatial dislocation of the stimulus

The present study explored behavioral and eye-movement measures in unilateral neglect patients in response to online bisection task (unfilled gap line). Two different tasks supported the bisection performance, a pointing and a grasping strategy. It was explored whether these different strategies may influence subjects' behavioral and eye-movement measures in response to different segment features: segment length (from shorter to longer) and segment spatial dislocation (from right to left spatial location). Consistent spatial biases were found for both bisection responses, fixation count, and duration, as well as for the first fixation count in case of pointing task. An "extreme-left" gradient effect was suggested and discussed, with patients' behavioral and eye measures more impaired. On the contrary, the patients' performance overlaps with the controls' one in case a grasping task. The direct link of visual pointing and grasping strategy, respectively, with the two cortical ventral and dorsal pathways was adduced to explain our results.     

Eye movements and bisection behavior in spatial neglect syndrome: representational biases induced by the segment length and spatial dislocation of the stimulus

The present study explored behavioral and eye-movement measures in unilateral neglect patients in response to online bisection task (unfilled gap line). Two different tasks supported the bisection performance, a pointing and a grasping strategy. It was explored whether these different strategies may influence subjects’ behavioral and eye-movement measures in response to different segment features: segment length (from shorter to longer) and segment spatial dislocation (from right to left spatial location). Consistent spatial biases were found for both bisection responses, fixation count, and duration, as well as for the first fixation count in case of pointing task. An “extreme-left” gradient effect was suggested and discussed, with patients’ behavioral and eye measures more impaired. On the contrary, the patients’ performance overlaps with the controls’ one in case a grasping task. The direct link of visual pointing and grasping strategy, respectively, with the two cortical ventral and dorsal pathways was adduced to explain our results.     

Perhaps There Is Accounting for Taste: Evaluating the Creativity of Products

Ratings on a creativity rating scale of students' designs of a hands-free mobile phone holder were compared for 2 sets of raters: experts (professional art teachers) and novices (visual art students). Reliabilities of total creativity scores were high for both groups, and interjudge consistency on total creativity scores, as well as on grades, was high among novices, but not as high among experts. Correlations between grades and total functional creativity scores within and across groups of raters (experts and novices) were highly significant. Scores on the scale resembled those yielded by assessments using grades and the scale did not yield better consistency among judges than conventional grades. Nonetheless, it provided a differentiated assessment of products that made it possible to explain the basis of experts' opinions and the reasons for disagreement, and to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of students' designs in a systematic and differentiated way.     

The Role of Gratitude in Breast Cancer: Its Relationships with Post-traumatic Growth, Psychological Well-Being and Distress

Despite the increasing number of studies documenting the positive effects of gratitude in coping with traumatic events and facilitating psychological well-being, none is addressed to patients with life-threatening illnesses such as cancer. The aims of this study are to examine the role of gratitude in a breast cancer sample and its correlations with post-traumatic growth, psychological well-being, and distress; and to compare patients reporting higher levels of gratitude (High Gratitude Individuals, HGI) versus those reporting lower levels (Low Gratitude Individuals, LGI). 67 breast cancer patients were assessed with: (1) Gratitude Questionnaire; (2) Post-traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI); (3) Psychological Well-being Scales (PWBS) (4) Symptom Questionnaires (SQ); and were divided into: (1) High Gratitude Individuals—HGI (n = 27); (2) Low Gratitude Individuals—LGI (n = 40). Bivariate correlations between questionnaires and ANOVA between-group were calculated. Gratitude was significantly and positively correlated to all of PTGI scales, to PWBS positive relations, to SQ relaxation and contentment, and negatively related to anxiety, depression, and hostility-irritability. HGI and LGI reported significant differences on the PTGI and SQ dimensions, but not on PWB scales, with HGI displaying higher levels of PTGI, positive affect and lower symptomatology. Also in breast cancer patients gratitude is strongly associated to post-traumatic growth, reduced distress and increased positive emotions, but surprisingly not to psychological well-being. Since the majority of patients reported low gratitude levels, the results suggest the importance of developing interventions to clinically increase them also in oncology.     

Where Am I? A new case of developmental topographical disorientation

Recently, developmental topographical disorientation (DTD) was described (Bianchini et al., 2010, J Clin Exp Neuropsychol, 20, 807–27; Iaria & Barton, 2010, Exp Brain Res, 206, 189–96; Iaria, Bogod, Fox, & Barton, 2009, Neuropsychologia, 47, 30–40) as a navigational deficit in the absence of neurological or psychiatric disorders. Here, we reported the case of a healthy subject who presented this disorder. Dr. WAI was a 29‐year‐old right‐handed man with normal development and no clinical history of neurological or psychiatric diseases who was affected by a very pervasive topographical orientation and navigational disorder. A neuroradiological exam confirmed the absence of structural and anatomical alterations of the brain. Dr. WAI was submitted to an extensive neuropsychological examination and to a battery of tests specifically developed to assess developmental topographical disorder. Using this battery, we analysed Dr. WAI's acquisition of navigational information and re‐orientation processes. He showed severe DTD accompanied by deficits of different cognitive processes directly or indirectly involved in navigational skills. Dr. WAI showed a deficit in developing cognitive maps, already found in previous cases, plus difficulties in evaluating distances and computing metric environmental features. He represents a further confirmation of the existence of DTD suggesting dissociations within the disorder related to the level of development of the ability to build cognitive maps and the association of different imagery deficits. Dr. WAI can help in shedding some light on the mechanisms underlying lack of development of navigational skills.     

The Effect of Age and Socio-Cultural Factors on Self-Rated Well-Being and Metacognitive and Mnestic Efficiency Among Healthy Elderly People

The aim of the present research was to investigate the effect of cross-cultural and age-related factors on self-referent metacognitive efficiency, psychological well-being, and mnestic performance in late adulthood. Ninety-three healthy adults recruited in individualistic northwest Italian and collectivistic Sardinian contexts were respectively assigned to the Old (i.e., 65–74 years) and Very Old (i.e., ≥ 75 years) groups and were individually administered a battery of well-being and metacognitive measures and working memory tasks. A series of MANOVAs was carried out on well-being and metacognitive measures and working memory tasks. Sardinians showed greater levels of perceived well-being, less marked psychological distress, and more preserved mnestic functions than the controls from the northwest Italian context. Moreover, participants from the Old group self-referred more coping strategies, emotional competencies, and personal satisfaction, and less depressive symptoms. Then, a hierarchical linear regressions where different socio-demographic, working memory metacognitive and social desirability measures were used as predictors of general psychological well-being shows that socio cultural context, social desirability, visuo-spatial sequential working memory and metamemory measures predict perceived well-being. Socio-cultural contexts emphasizing the positive social role of the elderly seem to promote psychological well-being, that is, life quality in late adulthood.     

Perceived Cognitive Efficiency and Subjective Well-Being in Late Adulthood: The Impact of Developmental Factors

The current literature shows cross-cultural differences related to implicit theories of ageing. Specifically, in the Western individualistic cultural context, elderly people are perceived as obsolete, weak and unable to contribute usefully to society, whereas in collectivistic cultures, older people are venerated as a source of knowledge and cultural traditions (e.g. Yoon et al. in Psychol Aging 15:694–704, 2000). The focus of the current study was to investigate the effect of age-related factors affecting self-referent well-being in the Italian population. One hundred and thirty-nine healthy adults (20–99 years) were recruited in Northern Italian (i.e. individualistic context) and Sardinian (i.e. collectivist context) contexts and were, respectively, assigned to the following groups: Young (20–30 years old), Old (65–74 years old) and Very Old (>75 years old). Participants were administered a battery of tests, including self-referent cognitive efficiency scales, subjective psychological well-being, depression and psychological distress scales. Participants from Sardinia showed greater levels of well-being and lower levels of psychological distress than adults from Northern Italy. Moreover, participants from the Old group reported more coping strategies, emotional competencies and personal satisfaction, as well as fewer depressive symptoms, than the Very Old group. One possible explanation is that sociocultural contexts emphasising the positive social role of the elderly like that prevailing in Sardinia promote psychological well-being in late adulthood.