THE EFFECT OF STUDY SKILL TRAINING ON LEARNING DISABLED STUDENTS' RETELLING OF EXPOSITORY MATERIAL

This research was conducted to determine the effects of a study skill training procedure on oral retelling of printed expository material read by three intermediate-grade learning disabled students. Measures of story retelling, study characteristics, and answers to comprehension questions were obtained during each session. The study skills taught during the intervention phase involved a modified Study, Question, Read, Recite, and Review technique (Robinson, 1941). Findings confirmed the existence of a functional relationship between the use of the study skill procedure and improved retelling. Experimenter directions and assistance were systematically faded so that during postchecks students used the procedure easily and quickly while obtaining their highest scores for retelling.     

Lexicality and Stimulus Length Effects in Italian Dyslexics: Role of the Overadditivity Effect

The effect of lexicality and stimulus length was studied in 32 third- and fourth-grade Italian dyslexics and in 86 age-matched controls. A visual lexical decision task was used. As proposed by Faust et al. (1999) Faust, M. E., Balota, D. A., Spieler, D. H. and Ferraro, F. R. 1999. Individual differences in information-processing rate and amount: Implications for group differences in response latency. Psychological Bulletin, 125: 777–799. [INFOTRIEVE][CROSSREF][CSA][Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], the results were analyzed in terms of raw reaction time (RT) data and using the z-score transformation to control for the presence of overadditivity effects. In terms of RTs, dyslexics showed a larger difference between words and nonwords (lexicality effect) and between short and long stimuli (length effect) than proficient readers. When data were transformed into z scores, only the group by length interaction remained significant while that with lexicality vanished. This pattern indicates that stimulus length has a specific role in Italian dyslexics’ reading deficit; in contrast, slowness in responding to nonwords was not specific but was interpreted as one aspect of dyslexics’ general inability to deal with alphabetical material (overadditivity effect).     

Laboratory of functional neuroelectrical imaging and brain–computer interfacing at Fondazione Santa Lucia

The laboratory of functional neuroelectrical imaging and brain–computer interfacing at Fondazione Santa Lucia is based on the joint work of researchers with a bioengineering and clinical neurophysiology background. The activity is mainly devoted to two aims: the non-invasive investigation of the motor cortical function under physiological and pathological conditions, through the development of advanced processing methods of the electroencephalographic signals; the development of a real-time EEG-based brain–computer interface (BCI) and the study of its use as an aid to enhance (or even to allow) the functional independence of persons with different degrees of motor disability.     

The impact of orbital prefrontal cortex damage on emotional activation to unanticipated and anticipated acoustic startle stimuli

Damage to the orbital prefrontal cortex has been implicated in selectively diminishing electrodermal autonomic nervous system responses to anticipated punishing stimuli (e.g., losing money; Bechara, Damasio, & Damasio, 2000), but not to unanticipated punishing stimuli (e.g., loud noises; Damasio, Tranel, & Damasio, 1990). We extended this research by examining the effects of orbitofrontal damage on emotional responses to unanticipated and anticipated acoustic startles and collecting a more extensive set of physiological measures, emotional facial behavior, and self-reported emotional experience. Consistent with previous research, patients showed intact physiology to an unanticipated startle but failed to show appropriate anticipatory cardiovascular responses (patients’ heart rates decreased, controls’ increased). In addition, patients displayed more surprise facial behavior and reported marginally more fear than did controls in response to the unanticipated startle. Thus, orbitofrontal damage may compromise the ability to anticipate physiologically the onset of aversive stimuli, despite intact or enhanced emotional responses when such stimuli occur unexpectedly.     

The regulatory function of self-conscious emotion: insights from patients with orbitofrontal damage

Although once considered disruptive, self-conscious emotions are now theorized to be fundamentally involved in the regulation of social behavior. The present study examined the social regulation function of self-conscious emotions by comparing healthy participants with a neuropsychological population--patients with orbitofrontal lesions--characterized by selective regulatory deficits. Orbitofrontal patients and healthy controls participated in a series of tasks designed to assess their social regulation and self-conscious emotions. Another task assessed the ability to infer others' emotional states, an appraisal process involved in self-conscious emotion. Consistent with the theory that self-conscious emotions are important for regulating social behavior, the findings show that deficient behavioral regulation is associated with inappropriate self-conscious emotions that reinforce maladaptive behavior. Additionally, deficient behavioral regulation is associated with impairments in interpreting the self-conscious emotions of others.     

Postdecisional counterfactual thinking by actors and readers

How do individuals think counterfactually about the outcomes of their decisions? Most previous studies have investigated how readers think about fictional stories, rather than how actors think about events they have actually experienced. We assumed that differences in individuals' roles (actor vs. reader) can make different information available, which in turn can affect counterfactual thinking. Hence, we predicted an effect of role on postdecisional counterfactual thinking. Reporting the results of eight studies, we show that readers undo the negative outcome of a story by undoing the protagonist's choice to tackle a given problem, rather than the protagonist's unsuccessful attempt to solve it. But actors who make the same choice and experience the same negative outcome as the protagonist undo this outcome by altering features of the problem. We also show that this effect does not depend on motivational factors. These results contradict current accounts of counterfactual thinking and demonstrate the necessity of investigating the counterfactual thoughts of individuals in varied roles.     

Effect of conspecific sex on aggression during pregnancy and lactation in golden hamsters

The effect of conspecific sex on maternal aggression in hamsters was determined by comparing the frequency of aggressive responses by dams continuously housed with either a virgin male or female cagemate during pregnancy and lactation. Dams easily established aggressive dominance over male cagemates soon after pairing, and their aggression was low thereafter for the duration of pregnancy and lactation. The aggression of dams with females, on the other hand, tended to fluctuate with highs during mid pregnancy and mid lactation and lows around birth. When dam aggression was low around birth, female cagemates frequently became aggressively dominant, and several dams lost their litters. The higher aggression of dams toward females than males is probably a reflection of greater intrasexual competition for environmental resources that includes pups.     

Lexicality and stimulus length effects in Italian dyslexics: role of the overadditivity effect.

The effect of lexicality and stimulus length was studied in 32 third- and fourth-grade Italian dyslexics and in 86 age-matched controls. A visual lexical decision task was used. As proposed by Faust et al. (1999), the results were analyzed in terms of raw reaction time (RT) data and using the z-score transformation to control for the presence of overadditivity effects. In terms of RTs, dyslexics showed a larger difference between words and nonwords (lexicality effect) and between short and long stimuli (length effect) than proficient readers. When data were transformed into z scores, only the group by length interaction remained significant while that with lexicality vanished. This pattern indicates that stimulus length has a specific role in Italian dyslexics' reading deficit; in contrast, slowness in responding to nonwords was not specific but was interpreted as one aspect of dyslexics' general inability to deal with alphabetical material (overadditivity effect).