Effects of instruction on learners’ ability to generate an effective pathway in the method of loci

One of the most effective mnemonic techniques is the well-known method of loci. Learning and retention, especially of sequentially ordered information, is facilitated by this technique which involves mentally combining salient loci on a well-known path with the material to be learned. There are several variants of this technique that differ in the kind of path that is suggested to the user and it is implicitly assumed that these variants are comparable in effectiveness. The experiments reported in this study were designed to test this assumption. The data of two experiments show that participants who are instructed to generate and apply loci on a route to their work recall significantly more items in a memory test than participants who are instructed to generate and apply loci on a route in their house. These results have practical implications for the instruction and application of the method of loci.     

One, two, three, four, or is there something more? Numerical discrimination in day-old domestic chicks

Human adults master sophisticated, abstract numerical calculations that are mostly based on symbolic language and thus inimitably human. Humans may nonetheless share a subset of non-verbal numerical skills, available soon after birth and considered the evolutionary foundation of more complex numerical reasoning, with other animals. These skills are thought to be based on the two systems: the object file system which processes small values (<3) and the analogue magnitude system which processes large magnitudes (>4). Infants’ ability to discriminate 1 vs. 2, 1 vs. 3, 2 vs. 3, but not 1 vs. 4, seems to indicate that the two systems are independent, implying that the conception of a continuous number processing system is based on precursors that appear to be interrupted at or about the number four. The findings from the study being presented here indicating that chicks are able to make a series of discriminations regarding that borderline number (1 vs. 4, 1 vs. 5, 2 vs. 4) support the hypothesis that there is continuity in the number system which processes both small and large numerousness.     

Parenting Dimensions and Internalizing Difficulties in Italian and U.S. Emerging Adults: The Intervening Role of Autonomy and Relatedness

The present study examined the associations between emerging adults’ perceived parental psychological control and autonomy support, and their autonomy, relatedness and internalizing difficulties in Italy and the U.S. The participants included 494 Italian and 414 U.S. college students, between 18 and 28 years of age (Mean = 21.58, SD = 2.18). Our findings showed that dependency-oriented psychological control had no significant direct associations with autonomy, relatedness or internalizing difficulties. Moreover, the association between parental autonomy support and internalizing problems was fully intervened by autonomy and relatedness, whereas the association between achievement-oriented psychological control and anxiety and depressive symptoms was partially intervened by autonomy and relatedness. Finally, although parental psychological control and autonomy support had similar effects on maladjustment across the two countries, relatedness appeared to play a more central role as an intervening variable for anxiety in the Italian group than in the U.S. group. Overall, our findings highlighted the importance of examining parents’ contributions to emerging adults’ internalizing problems via autonomy support and psychological control across cultures.     

Remembering the Grocery Shopping List: a Study on Metacognitive Biases

Three experiments examined the influence on memory monitoring and memory control of typicality and frequency of purchase of grocery items. On the basis of normative data, food items were divided into three categories: T+F+ (items typically bought in an Italian food store, and of frequent purchase for university students), T+F− (items typical but not frequently purchased) and T−F− (items low in both characteristics). Experiment 1 revealed that despite an equal recall of the three categories of items, ease of learning judgments were significantly lower for T−F− items. In Experiments 2 and 3, T−F− items were also treated differently than the two other types, when subjects had to decide which items to select for an additional check, and when they had to apportion their study time. Overall, data show that biases independent of the memory state of an item can influence memory monitoring. In addition, the same biases appear to influence the cognitive behaviour, suggesting that monitoring can have an impact on subsequent cognitive behaviour independent of the memorization processes. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identifying pre-service teachers’ profiles of conceptions of learning: a cluster analysis

Social Psychology of Education - This study was conducted to track conceptions of learning among pre-service teachers and to verify whether they can be grouped in profiles. A sample of 232...     

Risk Perception and Psychological Distress in Genetic Counselling for Hereditary Breast and/or Ovarian Cancer

Oncological Genetic Counselling (CGO) allows the identification of a genetic component that increases the risk of developing a cancer. Individuals’ psychological reactions are influenced by both the content of the received information and the subjective perception of their own risk of becoming ill or being a carrier of a genetic mutation. This study included 120 participants who underwent genetic counselling for breast and/or ovarian cancer. The aim of the study was to examine the relation between their cancer risk perception and the genetic risk during CGO before receiving genetic test results, considering the influence of some psychological variables, in particular distress, anxiety and depression. Participants completed the following tools during a psychological interview: a socio-demographic form, Cancer Risk Perception (CRP) and Genetic Risk Perception (GRP), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Distress Thermometer (DT). The data seem to confirm our hypothesis. Positive and significant correlations were found between the observed variables. Moreover, genetic risk perception determined an increase in depressive symptomatology and cancer risk perception led to an increase in anxious symptomatology, specifically in participants during cancer treatment. The present results suggest the importance of assessing genetic and cancer risk perception in individuals who undergo CGO, to identify those who are at risk of a decrease in psychological well-being and of developing greater psychological distress.     

C-CAT: A computer software used to analyze and select Chinese characters and character components for psychological research

The Character-Component Analysis Toolkit (C-CAT) software was designed to assist researchers in constructing experimental materials using traditional Chinese characters. The software package contains two sets of character stocks: one suitable for research using literate adults as subjects and one suitable for research using schoolchildren as subjects. The software can identify linguistic properties, such as the number of strokes contained, the character-component pronunciation regularity, and the arrangement of character components within a character. Moreover, it can compute a character’s linguistic frequency, neighborhood size, and phonetic validity with respect to a user-selected character stock. It can also search the selected character stock for similar characters or for character components with user-specified linguistic properties.     

Dynamics of Flow: A Nonlinear Perspective

The aims of this study are to consider the experience of flow from a nonlinear dynamics perspective. The processes and temporal nature of intrinsic motivation and flow, would suggest that flow experiences fluctuate over time in a dynamical fashion. Thus it can be argued that the potential for chaos is strong. The sample was composed of 20 employees (both full and part time) recruited from a number of different organizations and work backgrounds. The Experience Sampling Method (ESM) was used for data collection. Once obtained the temporal series, they were subjected to various analyses proper to the complexity theory (Visual Recurrence Analysis and Surrogate Data Analysis). Results showed that in 80% of the cases, flow presented a chaotic dynamic, in that, flow experiences delineated a complex dynamic whose patterns of change were not easy to predict. Implications of the study, its limitations and future research are discussed.