The influence of journal submission guidelines on authors’ reporting of statistics and use of open research practices: Five years later

Changes in statistical practices and reporting have been documented by Giofre et al. PLOS ONE 12(4), e0175583 (2017), who investigated ten statistical and open practices in two high-ranking journals (Psychological Science [PS] and Journal of Experimental Psychology-General [JEPG]): null hypothesis significance testing; confidence or credible intervals; meta-analysis of the results of multiple experiments; confidence interval interpretation; effect size interpretation; sample size determination; data exclusion; data availability; materials availability; and preregistered design and analysis plan. The investigation was based on an analysis of all papers published in these journals between 2013 and 2015. The aim of the present study was to follow up changes in both PS and JEPG in subsequent years, from 2016 to 2020, adding code availability as a further open practice. We found improvement in most practices, with some exceptions (i.e., confidence interval interpretation and meta-analysis). Despite these positive changes, our results indicate a need for further improvements in statistical practices and adoption of open practices

Remote delivery of executive function training to children. Feasibility and preliminary efficacy of two interventions in clinical and educational settings.

Il potenziamento delle funzioni esecutive (FE) ha ricevuto un'attenzione crescente negli ultimi decenni, poich\ue9 \ue8 stato dimostrato che le FE sono un importante predittore dello sviluppo dalla prima infanzia all'et\ue0 adulta. Questa tesi presenta i risultati di diversi studi volti a valutare la fattibilit\ue0 e l'efficacia di due diversi training delle FE per diverse popolazioni. Un programma di tele-riabilitazione \ue8 stato proposto a bambini con una storia di ictus, mentre un potenziamento multimodale che integra sessioni a casa e a scuola \ue8 stato proposto a bambini della scuola elementare. In entrambi i casi, la fattibilit\ue0 e l'efficacia sono state valutate coinvolgendo bambini, genitori e insegnanti.Enhancement of executive function (EF) has received increasing attention over the past decades, as FEs have been shown to be an important predictor of development from early childhood to adulthood. This work presents the results of several studies designed to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of two different FE training for different populations. A tele-rehabilitation program was proposed to children with a history of stroke, while a multimodal training integrating home and school sessions was proposed to elementary school children. In both cases, feasibility and efficacy was evaluated involving children, parents and teachers

Executive functions and psychosocial impairment in children following arterial ischemic stroke

This study examined the executive function (EF) of children with a history of arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) and preserved intellectual abilities, with reference to age at stroke onset, lesion characteristics, language, and motor functioning. In addition, the associations between EF and emotional and behavioral functioning were investigated. A battery of standardized neuropsychological tests was administered to children with previous AIS aged 7–12 in order to assess EF, including inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and attention. Parents rated questionnaires regarding real-life emotional and behavioral functioning. Finally, clinical and neuroradiological data were also gathered. Thirty patients were enrolled. Eight children fall in the lower end of the normative range or below in more than half of the EF measures, with working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility equally impaired, and attention relatively better preserved. Larger lesion size and language deficits were significantly associated with higher EF impairment. Emotional and behavioral functioning was lower in children with weaker EF. Children with a history of AIS, even those with preserved intellectual functioning, have a high risk of showing poor EF, mostly regardless of clinical features or functional impairment. EF difficulties are in turn associated with emotional and behavioral problems. Therefore, a standardized evaluation of EF in this population is mandatory as part of the follow-up, in order to ensure an early intervention and prevent related difficulties

TeleFE: A New Tool for the Tele-Assessment of Executive Functions in Children

In recent decades, the utility of cognitive tele-assessment has increasingly been highlighted, both in adults and in children. The present study aimed to present TeleFE, a new tool for the tele-assessment of EF in children aged 6–13. TeleFE consists of a web platform including four tasks based on robust neuropsychological paradigms to evaluate inhibition, interference suppression, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning. It also includes questionnaires on EF for teachers and parents, to obtain information on the everyday functioning of the children. As TeleFE allows the assessment of EF both remotely and in-person, a comparison of the two modalities was conducted by administering TeleFE to 1288 Italian primary school children. A series of ANOVA was conducted, showing no significant effect of assessment modality (p > 0.05 for all the measures). In addition, significant differences by class emerged for all the measures (p < 0.001 for all the measures except p = 0.008 for planning). Finally, a significant sex effect emerged for inhibition (p < 0.001) and for the reaction times in both interference control (p = 0.013) and cognitive flexibility (p < 0.001), with boys showing a lower inhibition and faster reaction times. The implications of these results along with the indications for the choice of remote assessment are discussed