The complexity of neuroenhancement and the adoption of a social cognitive perspective

This contribution attempts to provide a broad perspective to the psychological study of neuroenhancement (NE). It departs from the assumption that, as the use of performance enhancing substances in sport, the use of substances with the aim of improving one’s cognitive, motivational and affective functioning in academic domains is a goal-directed behavior. As such, its scientific study may very well benefit from an analysis taking into account the psychological processes regulating people’s behavioral intentions and decisions. Within this broad framework, this contribution addresses several issues that currently seem to characterize the debate in the literature on neuroenhancement substances (NES) use. The first conceptual issue seeks to determine and define the “boundaries” of the phenomenon. The second issue concerns the empirical evidence on the prevalence of using certain substances for the purpose of NE. Finally, there is a debate around the ethical and moral implications of NE. Along these lines, the existing psychological research on NE has adopted mainly sociological and economic decision-making perspectives, greatly contributing to the psychological discourse about the phenomenon of NE. However, we argue that the existing psychological literature does not offer a common, explicit and integrated theoretical framework. Borrowing from the framework of doping research, we recommend the adoption of a social cognitive model for pursuing a systematic analysis of the psychological processes that dynamically regulate students’ use of NES over tim

The personal and interpersonal components of perfectionism: the Italian validation of “Multidimensional Inventory of Perfectionism in Sport”

The present research focused on the general theme of perfectionism in the sport domain, and it provided the first empirical validation of the original 72-item “Multidimensional Inventory of Perfectionism in Sport” (MIPS) among Italian athletes. The study, specifically, also focused on the relations linking personal and interpersonal components of perfectionism to athletes’ competitive anxiety. The research overall relied on data from 644 Italian sport science students and professional athletes and included both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. Data analyses primarily focused on structural equation modeling, and the findings overall supported the psychometric and construct validity of the Italian version of the MIPS, also highlighting the key role of the personal components of perfectionism

Doping use in sport teams : the development and validation of measures of team-based efficacy beliefs and moral disengagement from a cross-national perspective

Objectives: The main goal of this research focused on the development and validation of three instruments designed to assess athletes' self-regulatory efficacy in team contexts, team collective efficacy and team moral disengagement with relevance for doping use across three European countries. Design: The research relied on three distinct studies. A first qualitative study focused on item development. The second study assessed the factor structure and internal reliability of each of the new team instruments. The third study provided evidence for instrument validity by assessing the hypothesis that efficacy measures and moral disengagement would contribute to team athletes' doping intentions. The latter two studies also focused on the relations among measures and on measurement reliability, both within and across countries. Method: The first study relied on focus group data collected from twenty-one team sport professionals (mean age=34; SD=11.65). Four hundred and fourteen adolescent athletes (mean age=16.69; SD=1.55) participated in the second study, whereas seven hundred forty-nine adolescent team athletes (mean age=16.43; SD=1.69) participated in the third study. For the latter two studies, team athletes were recruited across Italy, Germany and Greece and provided data on the new team measures. Only athletes participating to the third study provided data on prospective doping intentions. Results: The findings of the three studies supported the empirical goals of the investigation and provided evidence for the factor structure, reliability and validity of the team instruments. Furthermore, multigroup findings supported the hypothesis that the new instruments would have equivalent measurement and validity characteristics across the three European countries. The conclusions focus on the conceptual and practical implications of these findings

From Inscriptions to Lexica and Back: A Platform for Editing and Linking the Languages of Ancient Italy

Available language technology is hardly applicable to scarcely attested ancient languages, yet their digital semantic representation, though challenging, is an asset for the purpose of sharing and preserving existing cultural knowledge. In the context of a project on the languages and cultures of ancient Italy, we took up this challenge. This paper thus describes the development of a user friendly web platform, EpiLexO, for the creation and editing of an integrated system of language resources for ancient fragmentary languages centered on the lexicon, in compliance with current digital humanities and Linked Open Data principles. EpiLexo allows for the editing of lexica with all relevant cross-references: for their linking to their testimonies, as well as to bibliographic information and other (external) resources and common vocabularies. The focus of the current implementation is on the languages of ancient Italy, in particular Oscan, Faliscan, Celtic and Venetic; however, the technological solutions are designed to be general enough to be potentially applicable to different contexts and scenarios

Sonnolenza e incidentalità stradale notturna:uno studio sulle percezioni di rischio in giovani guidatori/ Sleepiness and nocturnal driving safety: a study on risk perception in young drivers

The present study is aimed to evaluate: 1) the factors that affect the risk perception of young people in nocturnal driving; 2) how the way of presenting information about the sleepiness-accident relationship influences attributions, goals and decisions about driver sleepiness. 572 young drivers answered to a questionnaires, composed according to the paradigms of study framing, on three decisional problems about sleepiness and nocturnal vehicle accidents. 285 answered to questionnaires with problems presented in a positive frame of and 287 in a negative frame. All subjects were requested to answer to questions on drive risk perception and nocturnal sleepiness, on nocturnal driving experience and on the adopted strategies to counterattack sleepiness. Results show that experiences of sleep attacks during driving and nocturnal driving frequency are factors that affect both the risk perception and the commitment in adopting preventive strategies. Furthermore, the manipulation on two out of the three problems (attributions and risk decisions frames) clearly affected the choices of responders. Present results can give useful suggestions about how to present information in educational programs aimed to the prevention of vehicle accidents among young peopl

Validating Driver Behavior and Attitude Measure for Older Italian Drivers and Investigating Their Link to Rare Collision Events

The present study aimed to: (a) validate the factor structures of three scales assessing driving behavior, attitudes toward traffic safety (ATTS) and self-regulation in driving, in a sample of Italian older adults, through confirmatory factor analyses and (b) to determine the effectiveness of these measures in predicting the likelihood and the frequency of collision involvements in the following year. A 28-item driver behavior questionnaire (DBQ), a 16-item ATTS, a 21-item extended driving mobility questionnaire (DMQ-A) were administered to 369 active Italian drivers, aged between 60 and 91 years. Results showed a four-factor structure for the DBQ, a five-factor structure for the ATTS and a two-factor structure for the Extended DMQ-A, as the best fitting models. Hurdle model analysis of count data with extra-zeros showed that all factors of DBQ predicted the likelihood of road collisions. Risky behavior, except for aggressive violations, self-regulation and attitudes toward traffic rules were associated with the frequency of collision involvement. The aforementioned three scales seemed to be a useful and concise suite of instruments assessing risky as well as protective factors of driving behavior in elderly

The role of achievement goals and moral disengagement in explaining moral attitudes and behaviours in sport

The aim of the present study is to test, in a sample of young athletes, a model linking task and ego orientation, moral disengagement, self-reported cheating behaviours through the mediation of the moral attitudes (e.g. attitudes toward sportspersonship, cheating, gamesmanship). Four-hundred and nine young Italian athletes (69.3% male; M age = 19.16 years, SD = 3.04) practicing individual (33%) and team sport (67%) filled out validated measures of achievement goals (i.e. task and ego orientation), moral disengagement, moral attitudes and self-reported past cheating behaviour. The results of a Variance Based-SEM showed that task and ego orientation influence both prosocial and antisocial attitudes. Moral disengagement resulted to positively predict attitudes toward antisocial behaviours such as cheating and gamesmanship, and negatively predict prosocial attitudes. Finally, both prosocial and antisocial attitudes resulted significantly related to self-reported past cheating behaviours

Adolescents’ Characteristics and Peer Relationships in Class: A Population Study

Abstract: Background: This study aimed to investigate differences in adolescents’ social relationships with classmates of diverse gender, socioeconomic status, immigrant background, and academic achievement. Methods: A population of 10th-grade students (N = 406,783; males = 50.3%; Mage = 15.57 years, SDage = 0.75) completed the Classmates Social Isolation Questionnaire (CSIQ), an instrument specifically designed to measure two distinct but correlated types of peer relationships in class: peer acceptance and peer friendship. To obtain reliable comparisons across diverse adolescent characteristics, the measurement invariance of the CSIQ was established by means of CFAs and then latent mean differences tests were performed. Results: Immigrant background, academic achievement, and socioeconomic status all proved to be important factors influencing relationships with classmates, while being a male or a female was less relevant. Being a first-generation immigrant adolescent appears to be the foremost risk factor for being less accepted by classmates, while having a low academic achievement is the greatest hindrance for having friends in the group of classmates, a finding that diverges from previous studies. Conclusions: This population study suggests that adolescent characteristics (especially immigrant background, socioeconomic status, and academic achievement) seem to affect social relationships with classmates

Elite athletes’ values in action : an important yet complicated aspect in anti-doping education

Values-based education seeks to cultivate personal responsibility, empathy, and integrity to encourage critical reflection on the (anticipated or actual) consequences of one’s choices and behaviours. To comply with the World Anti-Doping Agency's International Standard for Education, anti-doping education programmes must incorporate values-based components. To facilitate this development, we explored how elite athletes interpret and apply their values in various situations throughout their athletic careers. Adopting a qualitative description design, 13 focus groups were conducted with 60 elite athletes from 13 countries participating in 27 sports at national or international levels. Audio recordings were transcribed/translated and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Athletes noted that their values guide their actions but struggled to articulate how these values influence their behaviour. Three overarching themes were created to capture: (1) value consciousness and clarity, (2) intrapersonal value continuity, and (3) value conflict and management. Dynamic relationships between athletes’ values, priorities, and decision-making processes were evident. Specifically, the results illustrate shifts in value priorities as athletes matured and progressed in their careers, and across situations to meet situational demands whilst making behaviour personally permissible. To live up to the fundamental principles of values-based education, anti-doping programmes must incorporate activities that facilitate conceptually sound discussions and provide athletes with time and support to unpack the behavioural meaning of their values. Developing athletes’ decision-making abilities through conscious sense-making activities to anticipate the pain of a value transgression and the value of value fulfilment is key to this process

The L 98-59 System: Three Transiting, Terrestrial-size Planets Orbiting a Nearby M Dwarf

We report the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) discovery of three terrestrial-size planets transiting L 98-59 (TOI-175, TIC 307210830)—a bright M dwarf at a distance of 10.6 pc. Using the Gaia-measured distance and broadband photometry, we find that the host star is an M3 dwarf. Combined with the TESS transits from three sectors, the corresponding stellar parameters yield planet radii ranging from 0.8 R ⊕ to 1.6 R ⊕. All three planets have short orbital periods, ranging from 2.25 to 7.45 days with the outer pair just wide of a 2:1 period resonance. Diagnostic tests produced by the TESS Data Validation Report and the vetting package DAVE rule out common false-positive sources. These analyses, along with dedicated follow-up and the multiplicity of the system, lend confidence that the observed signals are caused by planets transiting L 98-59 and are not associated with other sources in the field. The L 98-59 system is interesting for a number of reasons: the host star is bright (V = 11.7 mag, K = 7.1 mag) and the planets are prime targets for further follow-up observations including precision radial-velocity mass measurements and future transit spectroscopy with the James Webb Space Telescope; the near-resonant configuration makes the system a laboratory to study planetary system dynamical evolution; and three planets of relatively similar size in the same system present an opportunity to study terrestrial planets where other variables (age, metallicity, etc.) can be held constant. L 98-59 will be observed in four more TESS sectors, which will provide a wealth of information on the three currently known planets and have the potential to reveal additional planets in the system