Upward and downward comparison in the intermediate-status group: the role of social stratification stability

This work analyses intergroup comparison choices made by intermediate-status group members. Seventy-six psychology students were categorized in an intermediate position with respect to other faculties. Stability was manipulated at three levels: stable, upwardly unstable, and downwardly unstable. Data on strength of comparison, comparison for enhancing, comparison for evaluation, and ingroup identification were collected. Results revealed that in the stable condition, participants were equally engaged in both upward and downward comparison. In the upwardly unstable condition, participants were more likely to compare themselves with the high-status group, whereas in the downwardly unstable condition, they were more likely to choose a downward comparison. In this latter condition, both downward comparison for enhancement and in-group identification were lower than in other conditions.     

Measured and predicted mechanical internal work in human locomotion

Predictive methods estimating mechanical internal work (W_int, i.e., work to accelerate limbs with respect to BCOM during locomotion) are needed in absence of experimental measurements. A previously proposed model equation predicts such a parameter based upon velocity, stride frequency, duty factor, and a compound critical term (q) accounting for limb geometry and inertial properties. That first predicted W_int estimate (PW_int) has been validated only for young males and for a limited number of horses. The present study aimed to extend the comparison between model predictions and experimentally measured W_int (MW_int) data on humans with varying gender, age, gait, velocity, and gradient. Seventy healthy subjects (males and females; 7 age groups: 6-65 years) carried out level walking and running on treadmill, at different velocities. Moreover, one of the subject groups (25-35 years) walked and ran also at several uphill/downhill gradients. Reference values of q represent the main important results: (a) males and females have similar q values; (b) q is independent on velocity and gradient. Also, different data filtering depth was found to affect MW_int and, indirectly, PW_int, thus also the reference q values here obtained (0.08 in level, 0.10 in gradient) suffer a - 20% underestimation with respect to the previous predicting model. Despite of this effect, the close match between MW_int and PW_int trends indicates that the model equation could be satisfactorily applied, in various locomotion conditions.     

Neural correlates of infant accent discrimination: an fNIRS study

The present study investigated the neural correlates of infant discrimination of very similar linguistic varieties (Quebecois and Parisian French) using functional Near InfraRed Spectroscopy. In line with previous behavioral and electrophysiological data, there was no evidence that 3‐month‐olds discriminated the two regional accents, whereas 5‐month‐olds did, with the locus of discrimination in left anterior perisylvian regions. These neuroimaging results suggest that a developing language network relying crucially on left perisylvian cortices sustains infants’ discrimination of similar linguistic varieties within this early period of infancy.     

Italian Adaptation and Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Full and the Short Form of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory

This study was designed to adapt and to assess the reliability and factor structure of an Italian translation of the full and short form of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. A sample of 1,244 Italian adults who had experienced a range of adverse life events participated in this study. Five models of the underlying structure of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory were tested via confirmatory factor analyses. Analyses of both the short and full form of the PTGI provided support for the original correlated five-factor structure. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis supported the invariance of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory across gender.     

Making our ends meet: shared intention,goal adoption and the third-person perspective

Mind reading (i.e. the ability to infer the mental state of another agent) is taken to be the main cognitive ability required to share an intention and to collaborate. In this paper, I argue that another cognitive ability is also necessary to collaborate: representing others’ and ones’ own goals from a third-person perspective (other-centred or allocentric representation of goals). I argue that allocentric mind reading enables the cognitive ability of goal adoption, i.e. having the goal that another agent’s achieve p because and as long as another agent has that goal that p. Having clarified the relevance of mutual goal adoption for acting jointly, I argue that when an intention is shared between several agents, each individual has an intention in favour of the joint action and one in favour of a joint mode of reasoning. This mode of reasoning is allocentric reasoning. Finally, I elaborate on the consequences of this view for the scientific study of human collaboration.     

Science at the Supermarket: Multiplication,Personalization and Consumption of Science in Everyday Life

Which is the kind science’s psychological guidance upon everyday life? I will try to discuss some issues about the role that techno-scientific knowledge plays in sense-making and decision making about practical questions of life. This relation of both love and hate, antagonism and connivance is inscribable in a wider debate between a trend of science to intervene in fields that are traditionally prerogative of political, religious or ethical choices, and, on the other side, the position of those who aim at stemming “technocracy” and governing these processes. I argue that multiplication, personalization and consumption are the characteristics of the relationship between science, technology and society in the age of “multiculturalism” and “multi-scientism”. This makes more difficult but intriguing the study and understanding of the processes through which scientific knowledge is socialized. Science topics, like biotech, climate change, etc. are today an unavoidable reference frame. It is not possible to not know them and to attach them to the most disparate questions. Like in the case of Moscovici’s “Freud for all seasons”, the fact itself that the members of a group or a society believe in science as a reference point for others, roots its social representation and the belief that it can solve everyday life problems.     

First steps toward an understanding of procedural fairness

In four experiments, we tested whether 20‐month‐old infants are sensitive to violations of procedural impartiality. Participants were shown videos in which help was provided in two different ways. A main character provided help to two other agents either impartially, by helping them at the same time, or in a biased way, by helping one agent almost immediately while the other after a longer delay. Infants looked reliably longer at the biased than at the unbiased help scenarios despite the fact that in both scenarios help was provided to each beneficiary. This suggests that human infants can attend to departures from impartiality and, in their second year, they already show an initial understanding of procedural fairness.     

On the empirical indistinguishability of knowledge structures

In recent years a number of articles have focused on the identifiability of the basic local independence model. The identifiability issue usually concerns two model parameter sets predicting an identical probability distribution on the response patterns. Both parameter sets are applied to the same knowledge structure. However, nothing is known about cases where different knowledge structures predict the same probability distribution. This situation is referred to as ʻempirical indistinguishabilityʼ between two structures and is the main subject of the present paper. Empirical indistinguishability is a stronger form of unidentifiability, which involves not only the parameters, but also the structural and combinatorial properties of the model. In particular, as far as knowledge structures are concerned, a consequence of empirical indistinguishability is that the existence of certain knowledge states cannot be empirically established. Most importantly, it is shown that model identifiability cannot guarantee that a certain knowledge structure is empirically distinguishable from others. The theoretical findings are exemplified in a number of different empirical scenarios.