Cognitive robotics for the modelling of cognitive dysfunctions: A study on unilateral spatial neglect

© 2015 IEEE. Damage to the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) can cause patients to fail to orient toward, explore, and respond to stimuli on the contralesional side of the space. PPC is thought to play a crucial role in the computation of sensorimotor transformations that is in linking sensation to action. Indeed, this disorder, known as Unilateral Spatial Neglect (USN), can compromise visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory modalities and may involve personal, extra-personal, and imaginal space [1], [2]. For this reason, USN describes a collection of behavioural symptoms in which patients appear to ignore, forget, or turn away from contralesional space [3]. Given the complexity of the disease and the difficulties to study human patients affected by USN, because of their impairments, several computer simulation studies were carried out via artificial neural networks in which damage to the connection weights was also found to yield neglect-related behaviour [4]-[6]

Motivation and personality traits for choosing religious tourism. A research on the case of Medjugorje.

Religion has long been a primary motivation for journeys and it is considered the oldest non-economic reason for travelling. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons tourists choose to travel to sacred sites, with the specific aim of discovering relationships between personality traits and motivations for religious travel. Participating in the research were 679 Italian travellers to Medjugorje sanctuary, who completed the travel motivation scale and big five questionnaire. The results show that motivation is focused prevalently on the need for discovery in men and socialisation in women. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that personality traits are predictive of motivation factors differently for males and females

Brief review of robotics in low-functioning autism therapy

© 2020 CEUR-WS. All rights reserved. In the last decade, numerous research studies showed that robots can be suitable assistants in the care and treatment of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Still, more investigation is required to fully assess the introduction of robotics assistants, as the majority of the studies was limited in numbers of participants and scope, e.g. by considering stand-alone interventions, High Functioning Autism (HFA) individuals only, and provided limited objective results, i.e. usually the success is evaluated via qualitative analysis of videos recorded during the interaction. In this paper, we present a brief review of the experience on integrating robotassisted therapy also in the treatment of children with Low-Functioning Autism (LFA) which is the most common case (>70%). Studies described here investigated the integration of a robot-assisted intervention in the training, and the results encourage the use of a robotic assistant also in LFA. Based on this experience, we suggest that current robotic technology is still at an experimental stage and require to actively involve all stakeholders in design of new robotic systems that can successfully account for the peculiar characteristics of ASD individuals

An empirical study on integrating a small humanoid robot to support the therapy of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and intellectual disability

Recent research showed the potential benefits of robot-assisted therapy in treating children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. These children often have some form of Intellectual Disability (ID) too, but this has mainly been neglected by previous robotics research. This article presents an empirical evaluation of robot-assisted imitation training, where the child imitated the robot, integrated into the Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication handicapped Children (TEACCH) program. The sample included six hospitalized children with different levels of ID, from mild to profound. We applied mixed methods to assess their progress, during treatment and three months later. Results show increased Gross Motor Imitation skills in the children, except for those with profound ID and the therapists' positive attitude towards the humanoid robot. Furthermore, the therapists suggest how a robot could be used to autonomously collect and analyze the information obtained in the rehabilitation training for a continuous evaluation of the participants

Do personality traits and self-regulatory processes affect decision-making tendencies?

Objective: This research attempted to clarify the role played by personality traits and self-regulated motivation in affecting decision-making tendencies. Method: Study 1 (n = 209) examined whether the Big Five personality traits predict minimising, maximising, and satisficing tendencies; Study 2 (n = 460) tested the mediating role of self-regulatory orientations in the relationship between personality traits and decision-making tendencies by performing structural equation modelling with latent variables. Results: Conscientiousness emerged as the strongest positive predictor of maximising, whereas openness to experience, conscientiousness, and agreeableness emerged as negative predictors of satisficing. As for the mediational model, both locomotion and assessment played a role in mediating the relationships between the personality traits and decision-making tendencies. Conclusions: This research provided interesting insights into the underlying motivations and strategies that lead individuals to maximise, satisfice, or minimise

Influenza degli aspetti socio-demografici e delle caratteristiche di personalità sulla scelta di partecipare ad un corso di accompagnamento alla nascita e sull’esito del parto

Pregnancy is a crucial stage of the woman’s lifespan, with conflicting aspects which could have negative outcome in delivery. In the transition toward motherhood the woman is offered the opportunity to attend prenatal courses; but small empically-based knowledge exists about the psychological factors influencing the choice to participate in these courses. The aim of this study was to assess socio-demographic factors and personality characteristics influencing the decision to attend an accompanying birth course and the relation between these variables and the pregnancy development and outcome. For this purpose, 71 pregnant women, divided in two groups according to the willingness to attend a prenatal course, were submitted a structured interview and Big Five Questionnaire. The results showed significant differences concerning level of education and personality profiles, particularly perseverance and openness to experience, which could have a role in influencing the choice to participate in antenatal classes. The results regarding delivery (term or preterm; type of delivery; Apgar index (score), weight, length of newborn) didn’t show significant differences between the two group

Decisional procrastination in academic settings: The role of metacognitions and learning strategies

Nowadays, university students suffer from a broad range of problems, such as educational underachievement or the inability to control themselves, that lead to procrastination as a consequence. The present research aimed at analyzing the determinants of decisional procrastination among undergraduate students and at assessing a path model in which self regulated learning strategies mediated the relationship between metacognitive beliefs about procrastination and decisional procrastination. 273 students from Southern Italy filled out a questionnaire composed by: the socio-demographic section, the Metacognitive Beliefs About Procrastination Questionnaire, the procrastination subscale of the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire, and the Anxiety, the Time Management, and the Information Processing subscales of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory. Results showed that the relationship between negative and positive metacognitive beliefs about procrastination and decisional procrastination was mediated only by time management and anxiety. Such findings underlined the crucial role played by learning strategies in predicting the tendency to delay decisional situations and in mediating the relationship between metacognitive beliefs about procrastination and decisional procrastination

Further exploration of the psychometric properties of the revised version of the Italian smartphone addiction scale – short version (SAS-SV)

Problematic smartphone use (PSU) is an emerging public and social issue, potentially connected to the significant increase in smartphone applications. Different scales have been designed and developed to identify the risk of smartphone addiction, and the 10-item Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV) is one of the most used instruments to assess the risk of PSU. The main objective of the present study was to provide further psychometric properties of the Italian version of the SAS-SV. The study was conducted with a convenience sample of 858 Italian university students. Parallel and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to confirm if the one-factor structure fitted the data well. In addition, because previous studies have emphasised gender and age differences in the SAS-SV, measurement invariance was also tested. Network analysis, predictive validity, and convergent validity were also explored. The parallel analysis results suggested removing Item 3 (feeling pain) because its factor loading was low, resulting in a nine-item SAS-SV. The measurement invariance showed that the SAS-SV performed similarly for gender and age. However, partial scalar invariance across gender and age was observed. Furthermore, gender differences indicated that more females than males scored higher on SAS-SV. No significant age differences were found. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve results indicated a cutoff of 29 points as the best for the SAS-SV (AUC = 0.85). Moreover, among males, the cutoff was 25 (AUC = 0.84), and among females, the cutoff was 30 (AUC = 0.84). The SAS-SV showed a strong association with problematic social media use (PSMU) and other variables related to smartphone use (e.g., time spent on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp). Overall, the present study results indicate that the nine-item SAS-SV appears to be a valid and reliable instrument to assess PSU risk among Italian university students

Social robots as psychometric tools for cognitive assessment: a pilot test

Recent research demonstrated the benefits of employing robots as therapeutic assistants and caregivers, but very little is known on the use of robots as a tool for psychological assessment. Socially capable robots can provide many advantages to diagnostic practice: engage people, guarantee standardized administration and assessor neutrality, perform automatic recording of subject behaviors for further analysis by practitioners. In this paper, we present a pilot study on testing people’s cognitive functioning via social interaction with a humanoid robot. To this end, we programmed a social robot to administer a psychometric tool for detecting Mild Cognitive Impairment, a risk factor for dementia, implementing the first prototype of robotic assistant for mass screening of elderly population. Finally, we present a pilot test of the robotic procedure with healthy adults that show promising results of the robotic test, also compared to its traditional paper version

PsyCARE study: assessing impact, cost-effectiveness, and transdiagnostic factors of the Italian ministry of health’s “psychological bonus” policy

Background: The prevalence of anxiety and depression disorders is surging worldwide, prompting a pressing demand for psychological interventions, especially in less severe cases. Responding to this need, the Italian government implemented the “Psychological Bonus” (PB) policy, allotting 25 million euros for mental health support. This policy entitles individuals to a minimum of four to twelve psychological sessions. In collaboration with the National Board of Italian Psychologists, our study assesses this policy’s effectiveness. Indeed, the PsyCARE study aims to examine the utilization of the Psychological Bonus, evaluate its impact on adult and adolescent participants’ psychological well-being through pre- and post-intervention assessments and six-month follow-up, and conduct a longitudinal cost-effectiveness analysis of this policy. A secondary aim is to investigate the influence of these interventions on transdiagnostic factors, including emotion regulation and epistemic trust. Methods: The study involves licensed psychotherapists and their patients, both adults and adolescents, benefiting from the Psychological Bonus. Data collection is underway and set to conclude in December 2023. Psychotherapists will provide diagnostic information and assess patient functioning. In addition, patients will be evaluated on mental health aspects such as clinical symptoms, emotion regulation, epistemic trust, and quality of life. We will employ linear mixed-effects models to analyze the outcomes, accounting for both fixed and random effects to capture the hierarchical structure of the data. Discussion: We anticipate the study’s findings will highlight reduced psychological distress and improved quality of life for participants and demonstrate the Psychological Bonus policy’s cost-effectiveness. The study will gather data on the role of specific versus nonspecific therapeutic factors in psychotherapy while adopting a patient-tailored approach to identify effective therapeutic elements and examine transdiagnostic factors. Overall, this study’s findings will guide future measures within the Italian healthcare system, fostering a psychological health culture and providing valuable insights to the broader public. Study registration: https://osf.io/6zk2j