Memory coding in individuals with Down syndrome

Previous research has identified a deficit in phonological short-term memory in individuals with Down syndrome.

The present work aimed to analyze how a group of 30 individuals with Down syndrome performed in a picture span task compared with 30 typically developing children of the same mental age. The task involved four conditions (i.e., dissimilar, phonologically similar, visually similar, and long-name items) chosen to analyze the strategy used by individuals with Down syndrome to code visually presented nameable items.

Individuals with Down syndrome performed less well than typically developing children. Both groups showed the visual similarity effect.

Taken together, our results confirm that individuals with Down syndrome have a verbal working memory deficit, even when nameable items are presented visually. Mental age appears to be an important determinant of memory coding stage in individuals with Down syndrome.     

Word Production and the Picture-Word Interference Paradigm: The Role of Learning

Psycholinguistic experiments conducted with the picture-word interference paradigm are typically preceded by a phase during which participants learn the words they will have to produce in the experiment. In Experiment 1, the pictures (e.g., a frog) were to be named and were presented with a categorically related (e.g., cat) or unrelated distracter (e.g., pen). In the related condition responses were slower relative to the unrelated condition for the participants who had gone through the learning phase. In contrast, participants who had not been previously familiarized with the materials showed facilitation. In Experiment 2 one group of participants, as usual, learned to produce the targets upon presentation of the corresponding pictures (e.g., a frog). The other group learned to produce the same targets upon presentation of unrelated pictures (e.g., a clock). They showed very similar semantic effects. The implications of the findings in the study of word production are discussed.     

Vocational and overall identity: A person-centered approach in Italian university students

Establishing a vocational and overall identity involve defining life altering plans and associated commitments to pursue and achieve them and are, therefore, among the most central aspects of the developmental tasks of late adolescents and emerging adults. In the Italian context, young adults' opportunity to develop coherent and fulfilling future plans are strongly threated by the current distressed economic climate in Italy. Assuming these features of the Italian context can produce specific identity patterns, the present study aimed to contribute to the understanding of overall and vocational identity processes in Italian emerging adults and to explore the relationship between the two domains of identity using a person-centered approach. The study is composed of two parts. The first study assessed the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Vocational Identity Status Assessment (VISA) in a sample of university students from Italy (N = 560). The second study included a cluster analytic approach in order to explore the configuration of both vocational and overall identity domains. The findings suggest that the Italian version of the VISA is a promising tool for assessing vocational identity dimensions in the Italian context. Furthermore, unlike the previous literature, we found different patterns of vocational and overall identity in Italian university students. The findings suggest that the current socio-economic Italian situation may be hindering students' progress toward achieving a vocational identity, especially for freshmen.     

What an Ideal Is

What I intend to do in the following pages is to focus on what might be termed the most important turn in the very dimension of ideality throughout the history of Western culture: the introduction of the notion of ideal drawn from Plato’s notion of idea, and especially its singular contemporary destiny. In the first part of the article, I am going to analyze Kant’s introduction of the notion of ideal and Hegel’s reading of it, and I am going to argue that the former affirms a dualistic relationship which the latter negates. In the second part of the article, I am going to reason on the actual effects of both the affirmation and the negation of the dualism between the ideal and the real, especially focusing on the forms of totalitarianism and anarchism which characterized the twentieth-century history of Western culture. This will lead me to argue that we should try to avoid both the bad uses of the ideal (namely, the idealization of the real and the debasement of the real through the ideal) and the death of the ideal (namely, forms of epistemological and ethical anarchism) in order to work on a notion of ideal which could be an exceedingly promising tool for us to change and improve the real. This change and improvement can be achieved through the affirmation of the dualistic relationship between the ideal and the real, and more specifically through what I will call an evolutionary notion of ideal versus a revolutionary notion of ideal.     

The cognitive specificity of learned helplessness and depression deficits: The role of self-focused cognitions

Abstract

Four experiments assessed similarities and differences in learned helplessness and depression-related deficits in cognitive performance and self-focused cognitions. Subjects answered the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961), were exposed to no-feedback or failure in unsolvable problems, and their response time in a digit comparison task (with or without a memory component, with different number of digits, and different number of mental transformations) and self-focused cognitions were assessed. Learned helplessness and depression deficits were found in a memory task, and the deficits increased with the number of digits. Depression deficits also increased with the number of transformations, and were also found in the no-memory/two transformation condition. Finally, task-related worries were related to learned helplessness deficits, and task-irrelevant thoughts were related to depression deficits. Findings were discussed in terms of the cognitive specificity of learned helplessness and depression deficits.     

Recent developments in the experimental investigation of the illusion of control. A meta‐analytic review

The present study analyzes recent developments in the experimental investigation of the illusion of control by using the methods of meta‐analysis. The aim of the study was to estimate the effect sizes associated with different factors thought to induce the illusion of control considering different conceptualizations of the phenomenon. The overall weighted mean effect size (D) was.62, with the 95% confidence interval about the mean.49 to.75. Generally, experiments tend to obtain moderate to large effect sizes, and the illusion of control is constantly present as an effect of several situational and psychological factors. Nevertheless, the large heterogeneity of the studies in terms of dependent measures suggests that the underlying phenomena can be of a different nature.     

Group Merger Between Political Parties: The Role of the Ingroup Projection Process

In 2007, the two most important Italian left‐wing parties merged into a single political entity. This study intends to analyze the merging process. Specifically, and in line with the ingroup projection hypothesis of Mummendey & Wenzel, we have explored whether the identification and the favoritism toward the upcoming common group was affected by the perceivers' projection of specific and common stereotypical traits from the subordinate groups to the superordinate one. Political militants' (N = 132) levels of ingroup identification; their representations of the previous ingroup, outgroup, and of the new party; and their attitudes towards the common group were assessed. Results confirmed that the cognitive representation of the merged party was shaped much more on the basis of the typical traits of the ingroup than of the outgroup. Moreover, structural equation analyses showed that the identification with the superordinate category and the consequent favoritism toward the merger were related to the projection of ingroup attributes. The findings also suggested that the ingroup projection may be particularly crucial when the intergroup bias is high. Finally, political implications are discussed in terms of obstacles and resources inherent to the merging process.     

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy With Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACT

This research wants to verify the effectiveness of couple's treatment, when a neurodegenerative disease affects one of the two partners. The disease affects not only the ailing individual, but also the dynamics within the couple. Fourteen patients affected by neurodegenerative diseases participated in an emotionally focused couple therapy (EFT) with their spouses. We collected a measure of the quality of life (SF-36) and relationship satisfaction (DAS) at the beginning and at the end of the treatment for both partners. The results show an improvement in quality of life and couple contentment, underlining the usefulness of such a psychotherapeutic intervention on the couple.