Phonemic awareness of schoolers test assessment (PASTA): A pseudoword blending task for Italian pupils

Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to reflect on and process the sounds of spoken language and to conduct mental operations on the units that represent them, that is, phonemes. This study intended to examine the descriptive and psychometric properties of the phonemic awareness of schoolers test assessment (PASTA), a new tool that assesses one dimension of phonological awareness, namely the ability to blend pseudowords. A sample of 627 Italian 3rd-5th graders, 314 females and 313 males (M-age = 9.3 years, SD = 10.2 months, age range = 7.8-11.4 years) took part in the study. Participants completed a battery of tests assessing verbal intelligence and working memory, reading, writing, word, and pseudoword-blending skills. A satisfactory internal consistency of PASTA (Kudar-Richardson 20 = 0.81) was documented. Moreover, a series of Pearson's correlations revealed adequate concurrent validity of the new test. In addition, an ANOVA showed the positive main effect of education in the PASTA condition (F[2,621) = 11.083, p < .0001, eta(2)p = .03). As expected, 3rd-grade pupils were outperformed by children attending the 4th- and 5th grades. In conclusion, the PASTA is a reliable and valid instrument for the assessment of phonological processing in Italian 3rd to 5th graders of primary school

The measurement of enhancement in mathematical abilities as a result of joint cognitive trainings in numerical and visual-spatial skills: A preliminary study

A body of literature shows the significant role of visual-spatial skills played in the improvement of mathematical skills in the primary school. The main goal of the current study was to investigate the impact of a combined visuo-spatial and mathematical training on the improvement of mathematical skills in 146 second graders of several schools located in Italy. Participants were presented single pencil-and-paper visuo-spatial or mathematical trainings, computerised version of the above mentioned treatments, as well as a combined version of computer-assisted and pencil-and-paper visuo-spatial and mathematical trainings, respectively. Experimental groups were presented with training for 3 months, once a week. All children were treated collectively both in computer-assisted or pencil-and-paper modalities. At pre and post-test all our participants were presented with a battery of objective tests assessing numerical and visuo-spatial abilities. Our results suggest the positive effect of different types of training for the empowerment of visuo-spatial and numerical abilities. Specifically, the combination of computerised and pencil-and-paper versions of visuo-spatial and mathematical trainings are more effective than the single execution of the software or of the pencil-and-paper treatment

Does institutionalization influence perceived metamemory, psychological well-being, and working-memory efficiency in Italian elders? A preliminary study

Background/Purpose: This study was mainly aimed at investigating the impact of institutionalization on working-memory and self-referent metamemory abilities in a sample of cognitively healthy Italian elders. Methods: Fifteen participants (70-91 years old) were recruited from several nursing homes located in Ogliastra, the central eastern area of Sardinia, which is characterized by a higher longevity of its inhabitants. A further sample of 15 community-dwelling elders was recruited in the same areas. The participants were asked to complete several visuospatial and verbal working-memory tasks, and a battery of questionnaires assessing their psychological well-being, general beliefs about global and prospective-memory efficiency, and personal metamnestic abilities. Results: The results showed that, compared with the community-dwelling participants, the institutionalized elders self-rated lower metamemory efficiency, but they trust more general metamemory functions of a stereotypical adult. Furthermore, no differences were found on the well-being measures between the two groups. These outcomes are not biased by social desirability. Conclusion: These findings suggest that institutionalization selectively impacts self-assessed metamemory functions, but not psychological well-being

Psychological well-being and metacognition in the fourth age: an explorative study in an Italian oldest old sample

Objectives: The research largely aimed at exploring the impact of marital status, cognitive efficiency, gender, physical health and sociocultural context on self-rated emotional competence, depression, memory and cognitive measures.Method: Ninety-four healthy adults aged 75–99 were recruited in the Sardinian province of Ogliastra, where a collectivistic culture prevails, and in northern Italy, which in turn is characterized by the prevalence of individualistic cultural traits. Participants were administered self-referent metacognitive efficiency, subjective wellness and depression measures.Results: Sardinian elders self-rated lower levels of depression and cognitive failures and had greater levels of emotional competence.Conclusions: Perceived psychological well-being, metacognitive efficiency and depression seem to be affected by sociocultural context

How is the serial order of a verbal sequence coded? Some comparisons between models

Current models of verbal short‐term memory (STM) propose various mechanisms for serial order. These include a gradient of activation over items, associations between items, and associations between items and their positions relative to the start or end of a sequence. We compared models using a variant of Hebb's procedure in which immediate serial recall of a sequence improves if the sequence is presented more than once. However, instead of repeating a complete sequence, we repeated different aspects of serial order information common to training lists and a subsequent test list. In Experiment 1, training lists repeated all the item–item pairings in the test list, with or without the position–item pairings in the test list. Substantial learning relative to a control condition was observed only when training lists repeated item–item pairs with position–item pairs, and position was defined relative to the start rather than end of a sequence. Experiment 2 attempted to analyse the basis of this learning effect further by repeating fragments of the test list during training, where fragments consisted of either isolated position–item pairings or clusters of both position–item and item–item pairings. Repetition of sequence fragments led to only weak learning effects. However, where learning was observed it was for specific position–item pairings. We conclude that positional cues play an important role in the coding of serial order in memory but that the information required to learn a sequence goes beyond position–item associations. We suggest that whereas STM for a novel sequence is based on positional cues, learning a sequence involves the development of some additional representation of the sequence as a whole

Does education influence visuo-spatial and verbal immediate serial recall in healthy older adults?

There are conflicting findings concerning the effect of education on different cognitive measures in late adulthood. The primary aim of the current study was to determine if level of education predicted the efficiency of passive and active visuo-spatial and verbal immediate serial order functions in Italian cognitively healthy elders aged 60–99 years. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to immediately retrieve sequences of positions in forward and backward order using the Corsi Block Tapping Task. In Experiment 2 a further sample of Italian elders was presented the Digit Span test, that is, the forward and backward immediate recall of strings of digits was requested. Our results suggest that level of education impacts significantly the efficiency of visuo-spatial and verbal immediate recall processes in late adulthood. Moreover, the assessment of passive and active working memory processes in older people can be partially biased by schooling effects