Lumpers vs. splitters: Intelligence in children with specific learning disorders

A multigroup bifactor model was used to compare the explained variance and the reliability of the general vs. specific factors of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-4th edition (WISC-IV) in 1617 Italian children diagnosed with specific learning disorder (SLD) and an Italian normative sample of typically-developing children (with the exclusion of IQ < 70). Results suggested that more than half of the common variance, 56.1%, was accounted for by the domain-specific factors in SLD, against only 39.5% in typical development. The reliability of both general and specific factors was rather limited in SLD, whereas the reliability of the g-factor was good in typical development. An additional analysis using previous information from American data showed very similar results. Our results suggest that the role of the specific factors, of VCI and PSI in particular and WMI to a lesser extent, should be considered as probably largely distinct from the g-factor in children with SLD. Results also seem to indicate that the PRI is a less distinctive factor, which is, in the SLD group, hardly distinguishable from the g-factor. The use of Bayesian priors from American data indicated that results on Italian and American samples of children with SLD were similar, and different from those on the normative samples of both countries, suggesting remarkable cross-cultural and cross-linguistic similarity of the structure of intelligence in children with SLD

Shallow or deep? The impact of orthographic depth on visual processing impairments in developmental dyslexia

Copyright © The Author(s) 2022. The extent to which impaired visual and phonological mechanisms may contribute to the manifestation of developmental dyslexia across orthographies of varying depth has yet to be fully established. By adopting a cross-linguistic approach, the current study aimed to explore the nature of visual and phonological processing in developmental dyslexic readers of shallow (Italian) and deep (English) orthographies, and specifically the characterisation of visual processing deficits in relation to orthographic depth. To achieve this aim, we administered a battery of non-reading visual and phonological tasks. Developmental dyslexics performed worse than typically developing readers on all visual and phonological tasks. Critically, readers of the shallow orthography were disproportionately impaired on visual processing tasks. Our results suggest that the impaired reading and associated deficits observed in developmental dyslexia are anchored by dual impairments to visual and phonological mechanisms that underpin reading, with the magnitude of the visual deficit varying according to orthographic depth

Identifying the preschool home learning experiences that predict early number skills: Evidence from a longitudinal study

This study examines the longitudinal relationships between home learning experiences and early number skills. The counting, number transcoding and calculation skills of 274 children were assessed in the penultimate term of preschool (Mage = 4:0). Prior to these assessments, parents completed questionnaires that surveyed the frequency of the children's home learning experiences. Three types of experiences were indexed: code-focused home literacy experiences that focus on the phonological and orthographic features of language, meaning-focused home literacy experiences that focus on sharing the meaning of language and text, and home number experiences. The children's language abilities (phonological awareness and vocabulary) and nonverbal abilities (inhibitory control and nonverbal reasoning) were assessed in the final term of preschool (Mage = 4:3). Their number skills were reassessed in the final term of the first year of primary school (Mage = 5:3). Home letter–sound interaction experiences (interactive code-focused literacy experiences) had significant longitudinal relationships with counting and number transcoding that were independent of language and nonverbal abilities. The relationship between letter–sound interaction experiences and later counting was also independent of the autoregressive influence of baseline counting ability. We extend previous findings by demonstrating that interactive code-focused home literacy experiences in the preschool period predict growth in counting skills even when a broad range of language and cognitive abilities are controlled. Supporting parents to engage in code-focused home literacy experiences may benefit pre-schoolers’ counting skills

Pain and Frailty in Hospitalized Older Adults

Introduction: Pain and frailty are prevalent conditions in the older population. Many chronic diseases are likely involved in their origin, and both have a negative impact on quality of life. However, few studies have analysed their association. Methods: In light of this knowledge gap, 3577 acutely hospitalized patients 65 years or older enrolled in the REPOSI register, an Italian network of internal medicine and geriatric hospital wards, were assessed to calculate the frailty index (FI). The impact of pain and some of its characteristics on the degree of frailty was evaluated using an ordinal logistic regression model after adjusting for age and gender. Results: The prevalence of pain was 24.7%, and among patients with pain, 42.9% was regarded as chronic pain. Chronic pain was associated with severe frailty (OR = 1.69, 95% CI 1.38–2.07). Somatic pain (OR = 1.59, 95% CI 1.23–2.07) and widespread pain (OR = 1.60, 95% CI 0.93–2.78) were associated with frailty. Osteoarthritis was the most common cause of chronic pain, diagnosed in 157 patients (33.5%). Polymyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and other musculoskeletal diseases causing chronic pain were associated with a lower degree of frailty than osteoarthritis (OR = 0.49, 95%CI 0.28–0.85). Conclusions: Chronic and somatic pain negatively affect the degree of frailty. The duration and type of pain, as well as the underlying diseases associated with chronic pain, should be evaluated to improve the hospital management of frail older people

The multifaceted spectrum of liver cirrhosis in older hospitalised patients: Analysis of the REPOSI registry

Background: Knowledge on the main clinical and prognostic characteristics of older multimorbid subjects with liver cirrhosis (LC) admitted to acute medical wards is scarce. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of LC among older patients admitted to acute medical wards and to assess the main clinical characteristics of LC along with its association with major clinical outcomes and to explore the possibility that well-distinguished phenotypic profiles of LC have classificatory and prognostic properties. Methods: A cohort of 6,193 older subjects hospitalised between 2010 and 2018 and included in the REPOSI registry was analysed. Results: LC was diagnosed in 315 patients (5%). LC was associated with rehospitalisation (age-sex adjusted hazard ratio, [aHR] 1.44; 95% CI, 1.10-1.88) and with mortality after discharge, independently of all confounders (multiple aHR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.37-3.22), but not with in-hospital mortality and incident disability. Three main clinical phenotypes of LC patients were recognised: relatively fit subjects (FIT, N = 150), subjects characterised by poor social support (PSS, N = 89) and, finally, subjects with disability and multimorbidity (D&M, N = 76). PSS subjects had an increased incident disability (35% vs 13%, P < 0.05) compared to FIT. D&M patients had a higher mortality (in-hospital: 12% vs 3%/1%, P < 0.01; post-discharge: 41% vs 12%/15%, P < 0.01) and less rehospitalisation (10% vs 32%/34%, P < 0.01) compared to PSS and FIT. Conclusions: LC has a relatively low prevalence in older hospitalised subjects but, when present, accounts for worse post-discharge outcomes. Phenotypic analysis unravelled the heterogeneity of LC older population and the association of selected phenotypes with different clinical and prognostic features

Autopercezioni di abilit\ue0 e disagio in ragazzi con basse abilit\ue0 visuospaziali

Il disturbo non verbale di apprendimento (NLD) sembra essere correlato con il rischio di sviluppare disagio emotivo e depressione. La presente ricerca studia la relazione tra basso indice visuospaziale, che caratterizza il disturbo non verbale, e la presenza di disagio emotivo in ragazzi delle scuole secondarie. Il campione era costituito da 202 soggetti (di cui 95 maschi e 107 femmine) frequentanti le classi I, II e III della scuola secondaria di primo grado. Sono stati somministrati due strumenti di valutazione delle abilit\ue0 visuospaziali \u2013 Shortened Visual-Spatial (SVS) e il Questionario sulle Difficolt\ue0 nelle Attivit\ue0 Scolastiche (QDS) \u2013 ed un questionario per valutare i sintomi depressivi \u2013 Children\u2019s Depression Inventory (CDI). Dalle analisi risulta una relazione significativa tra basse abilit\ue0 visuospaziali e la presenza di tratti depressivi. Inoltre, soggetti con basse abilit\ue0 spaziali tendono a presentare maggiori sintomi depressivi

Entia Non Sunt Multiplicanda . . . Shall I look for clusters in my cognitive data?

Unsupervised clustering methods are increasingly being applied in psychology. Researchers may use such methods on multivariate data to reveal previously undetected sub-populations of individuals within a larger population. Realistic research scenarios in the cognitive science may not be ideally suited for a successful use of these methods, however, as they are characterized by modest effect sizes, limited sample sizes, and non-orthogonal indicators. This combination of characteristics even presents a high risk of detecting non-existing clusters. A systematic review showed that, among 191 studies published in 2016–2020 that used different clustering methods to classify human participants, the median sample size was only 322, and a median of 3 latent classes/clusters were detected. None of them concluded in favor of a one-cluster solution, potentially giving rise to an extreme publication bias. Dimensionality reduction techniques are almost never used before clustering. In a subsequent simulation study, we examined the performance of popular clustering techniques, including Gaussian mixture model, a partitioning, and a hierarchical agglomerative algorithm. We focused on their ability to detect the correct number of clusters, and on their classification accuracy. Under a reasoned set of scenarios that we considered plausible for the cognitive research, none of the methods adequately discriminates between one vs two true clusters. In addition, non-orthogonal indicators lead to a high risk of incorrectly detecting multiple clusters where none existed, even in the presence of only modest correlation (a frequent case in psychology). In conclusion, it is hard for researchers to be in a condition to achieve a valid unsupervised clustering for inferential purposes with a view to classifying individuals

Dyslexia treatment studies: A systematic review and suggestions on testing treatment efficacy with small effects and small samples

Poor response to treatment is a defining characteristic of reading disorder. In the present systematic review and meta-analysis, we found that the overall average effect size for treatment efficacy was modest, with a mean standardized difference of 0.38. Small true effects, combined with the difficulty to recruit large samples, seriously challenge researchers planning to test treatment efficacy in dyslexia and potentially in other learning disorders. Nonetheless, most published studies claim effectiveness, generally based on liberal use of multiple testing. This inflates the risk that most statistically significant results are associated with overestimated effect sizes. To enhance power, we propose the strategic use of repeated measurements with mixed-effects modelling. This novel approach would enable us to estimate both individual parameters and population-level effects more reliably. We suggest assessing a reading outcome not once, but three times, at pre-treatment and three times at post-treatment. Such design would require only modest additional efforts compared to current practices. Based on this, we performed ad hoc a priori design analyses via simulation studies. Results showed that using the novel design may allow one to reach adequate power even with low sample sizes of 30–40 participants (i.e., 15–20 participants per group) for a typical effect size of d = 0.38. Nonetheless, more conservative assumptions are warranted for various reasons, including a high risk of publication bias in the extant literature. Our considerations can be extended to intervention studies of other types of neurodevelopmental disorders

Shallow or deep? The impact of orthographic depth on visual processing impairments in developmental dyslexia

The extent to which impaired visual and phonological mechanisms may contribute to the manifestation of developmental dyslexia across orthographies of varying depth has yet to be fully established. By adopting a cross-linguistic approach, the current study aimed to explore the nature of visual and phonological processing in developmental dyslexic readers of shallow (Italian) and deep (English) orthographies, and specifically the characterisation of visual processing deficits in relation to orthographic depth. To achieve this aim, we administered a battery of non-reading visual and phonological tasks. Developmental dyslexics performed worse than typically developing readers on all visual and phonological tasks. Critically, readers of the shallow orthography were disproportionately impaired on visual processing tasks. Our results suggest that the impaired reading and associated deficits observed in developmental dyslexia are anchored by dual impairments to visual and phonological mechanisms that underpin reading, with the magnitude of the visual deficit varying according to orthographic depth