Descrivere, narrare, argomentare nel manuale d’istruzioni per l’uso

Looking at the external and internal structure of the instructional manual we can distinguish blocks and sections, each of them with its particular characteristics, communicative purposes and consequent complexity and linguistic choices. Some sections aim at describing the machine and its features. Some sections are dedicated to the procedure to obtain the standard use of it. Then, there are sections presenting some non-standard uses of the machine. By means of some examples extracted from a corpus of Italian instruction manuals, we will focus on the different parts of the text trying to underline how description, narration and argumentation are involved and used to serve the more general communicative purposes of exhortation and instruction

Finalità e manuali d'istruzioni per l'uso. Analisi di un corpus di manuali in italiano e spagnolo

Seguendo l'approccio della grammatica filosofica di Prandi (2006) e della genre analysis di Bhatia (2004), viene analizzato il fenomeno della finalità all'interno dei manuali d'istruzioni per l'uso basandosi su un corpus di manuali in italiano e in spagnolo. L'analisi segue le funzioni del linguaggio di Halliday (1978) e cerca di spiegare il ruolo delle subordinate finali nel manuale d'istruzioni per l'uso dal punto di vista ideativo, testuale e interpersonale. Vengono individuate in particolare due funzioni fondamentali delle subordinate finali in questo genere testuale: una funzione di link testuale all'interno di expectation chains cicliche in cui un problema viene proposto e la sua soluzione immediatamente fornita e una funzione interpersonale in cui la subordinata finale alterna con il periodo ipotetico il ruolo di proposta di un'operazione da compiere nel caso in cui ci sia l'intenzione di ottenere un determinato risultato. Dall'analisi comparativa tra le due lingue infine emergono grosse analogie, seppur con alcune piccole differenze che vengono sottolineate nella parte finale del lavoro

L’AGGETTIVO E L’AVVERBIO IN ITALIANO E IN CINESE: ANALISI CONTRASTIVA E PROPOSTE GLOTTODIDATTICHE

Il presente lavoro fornisce un’analisi contrastiva tra italiano e cinese in merito alle categorie grammaticali dell’aggettivo e dell’avverbio, al fine di individuare, da un lato, gli ostacoli che un apprendente sinofono può incontrare nello studio della lingua italiana, ed elaborare, dall’altro, strategie che rendano più efficace l’intervento didattico. La prima parte del contributo illustra sinteticamente la morfosintassi della lingua cinese, che si caratterizza per un maggior rigore e un maggior grado di prevedibilità rispetto alla frase italiana. La seconda parte è dedicata rispettivamente all’aggettivo e all’avverbio; del primo si analizzano la funzione predicativa e attributiva; del secondo i criteri con cui le due lingue classificano questa parte del discorso nonché la sua posizione nella frase, unica  e fissa nel caso del cinese, flessibile nel caso dell’italiano. Il filo conduttore che guida il presente lavoro è la convinzione che nell’insegnamento della grammatica a sinofoni siano necessarie spiegazioni esplicite, anche di quei tratti che solitamente sono impliciti nel sillabo.     Adjectives and adverbs in Italian and Chinese: contrastive analysis and glottodidactic reflections   This article provides a contrastive analysis between Italian and Chinese adjectives and adverbs, in order to identify, on the one hand, the obstacles that Chinese speakers face when learning Italian, and, on the other hand, which strategies are the most appropriate for effective teaching. It initially takes into account the Chinese morphosyntax, which is more rigorous and predictable than it is in Italian. The second part is devoted to adjectives and adverbs. We analyze the attributive and the predicative function of adjectives, and the criteria by which the two languages classify adverbs and their position in sentences, unique and fixed in Chinese, but more flexible in Italian. The main thread of the article highlights the necessity for explicit grammar teaching, including those aspects which are usually implicit in textbooks

Comparing virtual vs real faces expressing emotions in children with autism: An eye-tracking study

AbstractDifficulties in processing emotional facial expressions is considered a central characteristic of children with autism spectrum condition (ASC). In addition, there is a growing interest in the use of virtual avatars capable of expressing emotions as an intervention aimed at improving the social skills of these individuals. One potential use of avatars is that they could enhance facial recognition and guide attention. However, this aspect needs further investigation. The aim of our study is to assess differences in eye gaze processes in children with ASC when they see avatar faces expressing emotions compared to real faces. Eye-tracking methodology was used to compare the performance of children with ASC between avatar and real faces. A repeated-measures general linear model was adopted to understand which characteristics of the stimuli could influence the stimuli's fixation times. Survival analysis was performed to understand differences in exploration behaviour between avatar and real faces. Differences between emotion recognition accuracy and the number of fixations were evaluated through a paired t-test. Our results confirm that children with autism have higher capacities to process and recognize emotions when these are presented by avatar faces. Children with autism are more attracted to the mouth or the eyes depending on the stimulus type (avatar or real) and the emotion expressed by the stimulus. Also, they are more attracted to avatar faces expressing negative emotions (anger and sadness), and to real faces expressing surprise. Differences were not found regarding happiness. Finally, they show a higher degree of exploration of avatar faces. All these elements, such as interest in the avatar and reduced attention to the eyes, can offer important elements in planning an efficient intervention

Learning by task repetition enhances object individuation and memorization in the elderly

A decline in visuospatial Working Memory (vWM) is a hallmark of cognitive aging across various tasks, and facing this decline has become the target of several studies. In the current study we tested whether older adults can benefit from task repetition in order to improve their performance in a vWM task. While learning by task repetition has been shown to improve vWM performance in young adulthood, little is known on whether a similar enhancement can be achieved also by the aging population. By combining different behavioral and electrophysiological measures, we investigated whether practicing a specific task (delayed match-to-sample judgement) over four consecutive sessions could improve vWM in healthy aging, and which are the neurophysiological and cognitive mechanisms modulated by learning. Behavioral data revealed that task repetition boosted performance in older participants, both in terms of sensitivity to change (as revealed by d' measures) as well as capacity estimate (as measured by k values). At the electrophysiological level, results indicated that only after task repetition both target individuation (as evidenced by the N2pc) and vWM maintenance (as reflected by the CDA) were modulated by target numerosity. Our results suggest that repetition learning is effective in enhancing vWM in aging and acts through modifications at different stages of stimulus processing

Connectivity alterations underlying the breakdown of pseudoneglect: New insights from healthy and pathological aging

A right-hemisphere dominance for visuospatial attention has been invoked as the most prominent neural feature of pseudoneglect (i.e., the leftward visuospatial bias exhibited in neurologically healthy individuals) but the neurophysiological underpinnings of such advantage are still controversial. Previous studies investigating visuospatial bias in multiple-objects visual enumeration reported that pseudoneglect is maintained in healthy elderly and amnesic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), but not in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we aimed at investigating the neurophysiological correlates sustaining the rearrangements of the visuospatial bias along the progression from normal to pathological aging. To this aim, we recorded EEG activity during an enumeration task and analyzed intra-hemispheric fronto-parietal and inter-hemispheric effective connectivity adopting indexes from graph theory in patients with mild AD, patients with aMCI, and healthy elderly controls (HC). Results revealed that HC showed the leftward bias and stronger fronto-parietal effective connectivity in the right as compared to the left hemisphere. A breakdown of pseudoneglect in patients with AD was associated with both the loss of the fronto-parietal asymmetry and the reduction of inter-hemispheric parietal interactions. In aMCI, initial alterations of the attentional bias were associated with a reduction of parietal inter-hemispheric communication, but not with modulations of the right fronto-parietal connectivity advantage, which remained intact. These data provide support to the involvement of fronto-parietal and inter-parietal pathways in the leftward spatial bias, extending these notions to the complex neurophysiological alterations characterizing pathological aging

An Innovative Approach to Development of Social Abilities in Individuals with Autism: A Pilot Study

Recent evidence suggests that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) show a significant impairment in social abilities. There are no treatments that have demonstrated evidence of being effective at improving social skills and promoting independence. The transition to adulthood, which often involves loss of school support and child and adolescent mental health services, is a challenge in the rehabilitation field. Our pilot study is the first that describes a novel approach to involving young adults with ASD in metacognitive exercise focused on social cognition. In treatment proposed, participants with ASD help each other to create software aimed at improving children with ASD's understanding of emotions. Our results showed an qualitative and quantitative improvement of their cognitive empathic abilities, as witnessed by parents and of the post- treatment assessment. This pilot study highlights the importance to help individuals with ASD to fulfil their potential in areas of strength

Use of the Parents Preference Test in Child Custody Evaluations: Preliminary Development of Conforming Parenting Index

The Parents Preference Test (PPT) is a graphical test comprised of 24 easy to understand images of daily family life, which is widely used in forensic assessments of parenting skills. Nevertheless, the PPT lacks validity scales to detect participants’ attitudes toward the test; this is an important oversight, as the tendency to demonstrate faking-good parenting behaviors is common in child custody litigants. Study 1 aimed at identifying the differences in PPT responses between a normative/control group (N = 110) and a sample of parents undergoing a psychological evaluation of parenting ability (N = 99). Chi-square goodness of fit tests showed significant differences in answer preferences between groups in 11 vignettes (almost half of the total PPT items). Study 2 aimed at developing an index to detect faking-good behaviors. On the 11 vignettes in which significant differences in answer preferences were found in Study 1, the alternatives chosen with the highest frequency by the forensic group were added to an index called the “Conforming Parenting Index” (CPI). The area under the curve (AUC) of a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for a sample of 58 participants who completed the PPT under both standard and faking-good instructions demonstrated good classification accuracy (AUC= .813)

Register-based cumulative prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders during childhood and adolescence in Central Italy

Background: Studies have evaluated the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), focusing on different ages during childhood and adolescence. How cumulative prevalence increases before adulthood remains unclear.  Methods: We used data from the Autism Register of the Regional Reference Centre for Autism in L’Aquila, Central Italy, to retrieve information on individuals born in 2001–2012 with any of the inclusion diagnoses of ASD (DSM criteria) for the period 2001 to 2018. Cumulative prevalence on L’Aquila district population data was calculated as percentages for three-year age strata.  Results: All prevalence data were estimated at December 31st, 2018. The overall crude prevalence was 0.95% (352 cases over 36938 population). Cumulative prevalence was 1.19% among those born in 2001-2003 (15 to 17 years of follow up), 1.15% among those born in 2004-2006 (12 to 14 years of follow up), 1.04% among those born in 2007-2009 (9 to 11 years of follow up), 0.80% among those born in 2010-2012 (6 to 8 years of follow up), and 0.57% among those born in 2013-2015 (3 to 5 years of follow up). The proportion of ASD diagnoses until the age of 5 years, compared to the group diagnosed 6 to 8 years of age, showed a significant increasing trend over calendar time (53.6% for those born in 2001-2003, to 77.0% for those born in 2010-2012).  Conclusions: Cumulative prevalence by time period provides a better understanding of ASD occurrence than a point prevalence. We did not find any difference in frequency of diagnosis comparing age strata and year of birth, suggesting that frequencies of ASD diagnosis remained roughly constant from 2001 to 2015. Results show that cumulative prevalence of autism diagnosis does not substantially change over time; instead, diagnosis of ASD is more likely at earliest ages over time, although new cases of ASD are also detected at later ages.&nbsp