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Del Gatto C, Indraccolo A, Pedale T, Brunetti R. Crossmodal interference on counting performance: Evidence for shared attentional resources. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0294057. [PMID: 37948407 PMCID: PMC10637692 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2023] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 11/12/2023] Open
Abstract
During the act of counting, our perceptual system may rely on information coming from different sensory channels. However, when the information coming from different sources is discordant, such as in the case of a de-synchronization between visual stimuli to be counted and irrelevant auditory stimuli, the performance in a sequential counting task might deteriorate. Such deterioration may originate from two different mechanisms, both linked to exogenous attention attracted by auditory stimuli. Indeed, exogenous auditory triggers may infiltrate our internal "counter", interfering with the counting process, resulting in an overcount; alternatively, the exogenous auditory triggers may disrupt the internal "counter" by deviating participants' attention from the visual stimuli, resulting in an undercount. We tested these hypotheses by asking participants to count visual discs sequentially appearing on the screen while listening to task-irrelevant sounds, in systematically varied conditions: visual stimuli could be synchronized or de-synchronized with sounds; they could feature regular or irregular pacing; and their speed presentation could be fast (approx. 3/sec), moderate (approx. 2/sec), or slow (approx. 1.5/sec). Our results support the second hypothesis since participants tend to undercount visual stimuli in all harder conditions (de-synchronized, irregular, fast sequences). We discuss these results in detail, adding novel elements to the study of crossmodal interference.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudia Del Gatto
- Experimental and Applied Psychology Laboratory, Department of Human Sciences, Università Europea di Roma, Rome, Italy
| | - Allegra Indraccolo
- Experimental and Applied Psychology Laboratory, Department of Human Sciences, Università Europea di Roma, Rome, Italy
| | - Tiziana Pedale
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
- Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Fondazione Santa Lucia, IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Riccardo Brunetti
- Experimental and Applied Psychology Laboratory, Department of Human Sciences, Università Europea di Roma, Rome, Italy
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Henry JD, Coundouris SP, Craik FIM, von Hippel C, Grainger SA. The cognitive tenacity of self-directed ageism. Trends Cogn Sci 2023:S1364-6613(23)00072-4. [PMID: 37147237 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.03.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2022] [Revised: 03/21/2023] [Accepted: 03/26/2023] [Indexed: 05/07/2023]
Abstract
Ageism refers to prejudice or discrimination based on a person's age. When ageism is directed at older people, it is unique in two ways: it is socially condoned in a manner that other types of prejudice are not, and the animus is eventually self-directed. Of central interest here is why ageism becomes self-directed in late adulthood, despite its potentially harmful personal costs. We present a cognitive model in which negative ageist beliefs become increasingly accessible and difficult to eliminate owing to broader developmental shifts in mentation. Given that these effects are contingent on our social environment, systemic changes in societal conceptions of age and aging are needed if we are to reduce vulnerability to self-directed ageism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie D Henry
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
| | - Sarah P Coundouris
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | | | - Courtney von Hippel
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Sarah A Grainger
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
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Capurso M, Pedale T, Santangelo V, Salmi LP, Mazzeschi C. Italian Children's Accounts of the Lockdown: Insights and Perspectives. JOURNAL OF CHILD AND FAMILY STUDIES 2023; 32:145-159. [PMID: 36643882 PMCID: PMC9831020 DOI: 10.1007/s10826-022-02508-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/30/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
COVID-19 lockdown-imposed restrictions emerged as a risk to children's well-being. However, the extant literature often ignored children's experiences, emotions, struggles, hopes, and expectations. Based on a large sample of Italian students (N = 906; mean age = 9.4 years, 48.8% female), we drew data from a post-lockdown school re-entry program where students completed narrative activities in 2020. These narratives underwent quantitative content analysis according to gender and school level. Overall, children reported mixed feelings about the lockdown; they felt safe at home but also experienced fear and missed their friends, school, and freedom. Screen-time, technology and friendships helped, but children struggled to make sense of the events. Our findings show how children attempted to make sense of the lockdown experience and may provide key information for the development of community coping programs to help children facing crises in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michele Capurso
- Department of Philosophy, Social & Human Sciences and Education, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
| | - Tiziana Pedale
- Neuroimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Perugia, Italy
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology “Vittorio Erspamer”, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Valerio Santangelo
- Department of Philosophy, Social & Human Sciences and Education, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
| | | | - Claudia Mazzeschi
- Department of Philosophy, Social & Human Sciences and Education, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
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Searching for a Relationship between Early Breastfeeding and Cognitive Development of Attention and Working Memory Capacity. Brain Sci 2022; 13:brainsci13010053. [PMID: 36672035 PMCID: PMC9856597 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13010053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2022] [Revised: 12/17/2022] [Accepted: 12/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous research consistently reported that subjects that were exclusively breastfed (eBF) vs. not-exclusively breastfed (neBF) during infancy (0-6 months) showed increased scores of general intelligence measures (e.g., the intelligence quotient). However, the existent literature largely neglected whether breastfeeding also affects specific cognitive processes, such as attention and working memory (WM) capacity. We tested whether eBF vs. neBF subjects showed performance differences in relation to these two core cognitive functions. The Attention Network Test (ANT), to measure alerting, orienting, and conflict, and the Change Colour Task (CCT), to measure visuospatial WM capacity, were administered to 144 participants divided according to age (6-, 10-, and 18-year-old participants) and breastfeeding (eBF or neBF during 0-6 months of life). Importantly, the sub-groups were homogenous in terms of maternal education, a factor potentially affecting the relation between breastfeeding and cognition. While we found increased performance as a function of participants' age in both tasks, we failed to observe effects related to breastfeeding, as evidenced by Bayesian analyses. These findings highlight for the first time that the pattern of nutrition provided during early infancy does not appear to affect the development of attention and WM capacity, at least starting from the age considered in the present study.
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Pedale T, Mastroberardino S, Capurso M, Macrì S, Santangelo V. Developmental differences in the impact of perceptual salience on short-term memory performance and meta-memory skills. Sci Rep 2022; 12:8185. [PMID: 35581267 PMCID: PMC9113989 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-11624-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2021] [Accepted: 04/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
In everyday life, individuals are surrounded by many stimuli that compete to access attention and memory. Evidence shows that perceptually salient stimuli have more chances to capture attention resources, thus to be encoded into short-term memory (STM). However, the impact of perceptual salience on STM at different developmental stages is entirely unexplored. Here we assessed STM performance and meta-memory skills of 6, 10, and 18 years-old participants (total N = 169) using a delayed match-to-sample task. On each trial, participants freely explored a complex (cartoon-like) scene for 4 s. After a retention interval of 4 s, they discriminated the same/different position of a target-object extracted from the area of maximal or minimal salience of the initially-explored scene. Then, they provided a confidence judgment of their STM performance, as an index of meta-memory skills. When taking into account 'confident' responses, we found increased STM performance following targets at maximal versus minimal salience only in adult participants. Similarly, only adults showed enhanced meta-memory capabilities following maximal versus minimal salience targets. These findings documented a late development in the impact of perceptual salience on STM performance and in the improvement of metacognitive capabilities to properly judge the content of one's own memory representation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tiziana Pedale
- Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy
| | - Serena Mastroberardino
- Department of Psychology, School of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Michele Capurso
- Department of Philosophy, Social Sciences and Education, University of Perugia, Piazza G. Ermini 1, 06123, Perugia, Italy
| | - Simone Macrì
- Centre for Behavioural Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
| | - Valerio Santangelo
- Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy. .,Department of Philosophy, Social Sciences and Education, University of Perugia, Piazza G. Ermini 1, 06123, Perugia, Italy.
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Amer T, Wynn JS, Hasher L. Cluttered memory representations shape cognition in old age. Trends Cogn Sci 2022; 26:255-267. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2021] [Revised: 12/06/2021] [Accepted: 12/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
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