Clinical Psychology of Aging: the Italian Manifesto

In the context of Italian aging population, clinical psychology can play a crucial role in enabling older adults to cope with the multiple challenges associated with the aging process and disease-related issues. This manifesto was  written by the 'Clinical Psychology of Aging' working group, which is part of the Italian Association of Psychology (AIP) consisting of academic experts in this field  who collaborated to elaborate the contents highlighting the most relevant dimensions of the clinical psychology of aging. Specifically, the aging process was addressed from multiple points of view (i.e., theoretical perspectives, multidimensional assessment, interventions), and the role of the clinical psychologists in the National Health System along with training issues were discussed in the attempt to specify  the unique contribution  of the clinical psychology in aging

Do positive and negative somatic markers precede good and bad choices before explicit knowledge is available?

Recent evidence suggests that somatic markers mediate decision- making processes by signaling potential rewards and punishments before conscious knowledge is available (Bechara et al., 2000, Cerebral Cortex, 295–307). The present study investigated wheth- er anticipatory electrodermal responses to good and bad choices modulate choosing advantageously in a gambling task before ex- plicit knowledge about the rules of the task is available. Forty-six undergraduates performed a computerized version of the gam- bling task while participants’ preferences toward the four decks of cards, their knowledge of the rules of the task (yes/no) and wheth- er they could describe them as well as changes in electrodermal activity were measured. Participants were a-posteriori divided in two groups based on their knowledge of the rules by trial 100. Results showed that by trial 50, participants in the “knowledge group” had made more advantageous choices and they had devel- oped clear preferences toward the advantageous decks. Anticipa- tory EDRs before making a choice varied significantly between the two groups throughout the task. More specifically, between rials 21 and 41, participants in the “knowledge group” showed larger anticipatory EDRs before choosing disadvantageously as well as before choosing advantageously. The present results sup- port the notion that positive and negative somatic markers modu- late decision making by helping developing preferences before explicit knowledge is available

Do positive and negative somatic markers precede good and bad choices before explicit knowledge is available?

Recent evidence suggests that somatic markers mediate decision-making processes by signalling potential rewards and punishments before conscious knowledge is available (Bechara et al. 2000, Cerebral Cortex, 295–307). The present study investigated whether anticipatory electrodermal responses to good and bad choices modulate choosing advantageously in a gambling task before explicit knowledge about the rules of the task is available. Forty-six under- graduates performed a computerized version of the gambling task while participants’ preferences toward the four decks of cards, their knowledge of the rules of the task (yes/no) and whether they could describe them as well as changes in electrodermal activity were measured. Participants were a-posteriori divided in two groups based on their knowledge of the rules by trial 100. Results of MANOVAs showed that by trial 50, participants in the "knowledge group" had made more advantageous choices (p 5 .043) and they had developed clear preferences toward the advantageous decks (pso.005). Anticipatory EDRs before making a choice varied significantly throughout the task between the two groups, F (4, 39) 5 2.40, p 5 .05. Between trials 21 and 41, participants in the ‘‘knowledge group’’ showed larger anticipatory EDRs before choosing disadvantageously as well as before choosing advantageously. The present results support the notion that positive and negative somatic markers modulate decision making by helping developing preferences before explicit knowledge is available

Special Issue: “Symmetry in Cognition and Emotion”

The ten contributions of the current Special Issue on “Symmetry in Cognition and Emotion” represent different and original contributions to this topic. The new evidence spans from addressing whether the attentional blink can be elicited by internal events to the role of the fronto-parietal network. The review contributions address the effect of emotion on pseudoneglect and the role of the temporal parietal junction in processing self-related information, respectively. Four contributions provide new evidence on processing different aspects of faces, such as age, gaze, emotional expression, and their effect on response inhibition. Finally, two contributions provide novel evidence on the asymmetric preferences in decisions and on the relation between preferences for visual symmetry, respectively. Taken together, these contributions provide a new insight into the different forms of “Symmetry in Cognition and Emotion”, and we hope they can help to stimulate new research

The role of theory of mind in affective priming

The perception of (the affective valence of) facial expression can automatically recruit attentional resources in the observer and may prioritize stimulus processing. Using concurrent presentation of static facial expressions and words of positive and negative value in an evaluative task, affective priming effects were observed due to the automatic processing of the distracter face (Pecchinenda et al., submitted). The present study investigated the mechanism underlying these effects and tested the hypothesis that they result from the automatic recruitment of the Theory of Mind (ToM) capacity (i.e., the attribution of mental states to others). Hereto, we concurrently presented dynamic displays of positive facial expression

Sparing and impairing. Emotion modulation of the attentional blink and the spread of sparing in a 3-target RSVP task

The performance impairment (attentional blink, AB) on a second target (T2) when it is presented within 200-500 ms after a first target (T1) during rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) is typically attributed to resource depletion. The AB does not occur when targets appear in immediate sequence (sparing). Recently, this account has been challenged by findings that the lag 1 sparing can spread to later lags when using a 3-target RSVP. Two experiments using the 3-targets RSVP investigated the relative contribution of resource depletion and attentional enhancement and/or inhibition on the AB and the sparing when T1 (Exp. 1) or T3 (Exp. 2) are emotionally salient. Findings showed a greater sparing for neutral T3s when preceded by negative compared with neutral T1s (Exp. 1) and for negative T3s (Exp. 2). In contrast, the AB on neutral T3s was greater after negative than after neutral T1s (Exp. 1), but it was reduced when T3 was negative (Exp. 2). The AB and the sparing also depended on how many targets before T3 were correctly reported. These findings indicate that although there is a cost for processing multiple targets, the emotional modulations of the AB and the sparing are better explained by an interplay between emotion-enhancement and capacity limitations on temporal selective attentio