Positive and negative effects of collaboration on suggestibility and false memory in online groups

Previous studies demonstrated the positive and negative efects of collaboration on memory (both veridical and false recall) and suggestibility in face-to-face contexts. However, it remains unclear whether the same results can be observed in a virtual context. To clarify this issue, the present study examined the performance of 10 nominal triads and 10 collaborative triads in a fully online setting. Participants interacted live, in videoconference and were tested with the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS) and the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) task. For the GSS, the results replicated the in-person pattern of results, with collaborative triads showing the standard inhibition efect in the immediate and delayed (after 24 h) recall tasks; in addition, collaborative triads were less suggestible than nominal triads. For the DRM, we likewise found that collaboration decreased the recall and recognition of both studied items (the standard inhibitory effect) and critical lures (the error-pruning effect). We therefore conclude that remembering in a virtual context exhibits the same general properties as its in-person counterpart, at least when using a videoconference setting

The Attentional Boost Effect in Young and Adult Euthymic Bipolar Patients and Healthy Controls

In the Attentional Boost Effect (ABE), stimuli encoded with to-be-responded targets are later recognized more accurately than stimuli encoded with to-be-ignored distractors. While this effect is robust in young adults, evidence regarding healthy older adults and clinical populations is sparse. The present study investigated whether a significant ABE is present in bipolar patients (BP), who, even in the euthymic phase, suffer from attentional deficits, and whether the effect is modulated by age. Young and adult euthymic BP and healthy controls (HC) presented with a sequence of pictures paired with target or distractor squares were asked to pay attention to the pictures and press the spacebar when a target square appeared. After a 15-min interval, their memory of the pictures was tested in a recognition task. The performance in the detection task was lower in BP than in HC, in both age groups. More importantly, neither young nor adult BP exhibited a significant ABE; for HC, a robust ABE was only found in young participants. The results suggest that the increase in the attentional demands of the detection task in BP and in adult HC draws resources away from the encoding of target-associated stimuli, resulting in elimination of the ABE. Clinical implications are discussed

Autobiographical memory in contact tracing: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic

IntroductionThe recent COVID-19 pandemic has compelled various governments to trace all contacts of a confirmed case, as well as to identify the locations visited by infected individuals. This task, that requires the activation of our autobiographical memories, can make a difference in the spread of the contagion and was based primarily on telephone interviews with infected people. In this study, we examined whether participants were able to provide contact tracing information and whether their memories were influenced by salient events occurring during the initial phases of the pandemic.MethodsParticipants were asked to fill in an online standardized form in which they recounted every day of the 2 weeks before, reporting as much information as possible. The time period selected included, among other things, the day on which the Italian government issued the decree initiating the COVID-19 lockdown. The task was completed twice, the first time relying solely on their memory, and the second time using external aids (diaries, mobile phones etc.). Reports were then coded using a scheme that segmented accounts into informational details, divided into two broad categories, internal and external.ResultsOur findings showed that (i) the use of external aids was effective only when participants had to recall the day furthest away or if to-be-recalled events have low distinctiveness, and (ii) memories of internal details were recalled better than memories of external details. Participants were overall accurate and reported a large amount of information about people and places. However, because of the connection with key pandemic-related events, the effect was somewhat stronger on specific days (e.g., the day in which the lockdown was announced).DiscussionThe results of this work could provide a useful tool for improving the design of contact tracing procedures in the event of an unwanted future public health crisis caused by a highly infectious agent

Is there a relation between suggestibility, working memory and inhibition control in middle childhood?

Previous research investigating the relation between working memory and children’s suggestibility yielded mixed results. In the present study, 88 primary-school and 85 secondary-school children were assessed with the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS). They read a story, were given immediate and delayed recall tests and answered misleading questions before and after receiving negative feedback. In addition, they performed the Global-Local and Stroop tasks to measure the inhibitory function of central executive (N = 173) and a verbal span task to measure the capacity of the phonological loop (N = 115). Consistent developmental differences were observed in all tasks. Interference indices did not correlate with children’s suggestibility. However, span scores were positively correlated with immediate and delayed recall and negatively correlated with false assents to misleading questions (only after receiving negative feedback). Results suggest that working memory capacity may be more important than that of inhibitory function in predicting children’s suggestibility

Psycho-cognitive predictors of risk perception, social distancing and vaccination intention during COVID-19 outbreak: the case of Italy

The current dissertation was developed during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. The central theme of the present work focuses on the belief that, during this time of extreme difficulty for the world's population, COVID-19 pandemic can be brought under control mainly by massive and rapid behaviour change. One way to achieve this goal is to systematically monitor and understand how different individuals perceive risk and adhere to protective behaviours. The main aim of the present work is to understand whether there exist cognitive, social and psychological predictors of protective behaviours against COVID- 19. In particular, the dissertation takes into consideration three main topics: risk perception, social distancing and vaccine intention in the Italian population. It comprises a detailed letterature review on these topics and three experimental works addressing each aspect. The general suggestion of the present work is that behavioral insights concerning the pandemic are of most importance for governments and the world's population for developing strategies to deal with COVID-19 and other possible pandemics in the future

Assessing the role of misinformation and psychological predictors on the vaccine hesitancy against COVID-19

COVID-19 vaccines are the most promising means of limiting the pandemic. The present study aims at determining the roles of several psychological variables in predicting vaccination intention in Italy. An online questionnaire was disseminated between 9 March and 9 May 2021. The sample included 971 participants. Results showed that most of the participants were willing to vaccinate. Acceptance rates were correlated with age, marital status, and area of residence. Intention to be vaccinated was positively correlated with perceived risk, pro-sociality, fear of COVID-19, use of preventive behaviors, and trust in government, in science, and in medical professionals. Intention to be vaccinated was negatively associated with belief in misinformation. The degree of acceptance is likely to be a result of the campaign tailored to address people’s negative attitudes towards vaccines. Trust in government and trust in science were among the strongest psychological predictors of vaccination intention. Fear of COVID-19, but not perceived risk, was associated with increased vaccine uptake, suggesting that the affective component of risk perception was more important than the cognitive component in predicting participants’ behaviors. Belief in misinformation was associated with reduced vaccination intention. Future studies will take into consideration these variables, to better understand the multifaceted process underlying vaccination intentio

The psychological and cognitive predictors of adherence to social distancing behavior: data from an Italian sample

Social distancing is a widely recommended policy for limiting the COVID-19 pandemic. An internet-based survey was used to investigate the role of several psychological variables in predicting social distancing compliance in Italy. Data from 373 participants, between March and August 2021, revealed that complying with social distancing and prioritizing the benefits to society over personal costs correlated positively with emotional intelligence, extroversion, and higher risk perception of COVID-19, and negatively with age. No relationship was found between working memory capacity and social distancing compliance. The mediation analysis suggests that as the costs of social distancing are perceived to be greater than the benefits, the effect of anxiety on social distancing diminishes. Further studies are needed to better understand the characteristics of individuals who choose to practice social distancing, as this is critical for developing public service campaigns to promote these behaviors during possible future pandemics

The determinants of working memory: past proposals and new findings

Working memory is the limited-capacity cognitive system in charge of maintaining information in the short-term. A number of promising explanations have been proposed to justify the drastic increase in working memory performance throughout childhood, such as a pure increase in storage capacity, or the strategic use of maintenance mechanisms. However, one may wonder whether these determinants are still of interest. This symposium aims at highlighting the most recent work of five different developmental labs and their most recent findings on working memory development. The symposium will shed light on the role of attentional control and goal maintenance in children's working memory development, and will show the latest findings about the development of interrogative susceptibility in relation to working memory, the spontaneous use of attentional refreshing, and the developmental trajectories of memory for multi-feature objects

The attentional boost effect enhances the item-specific, but not the relational, encoding of verbal material: Evidence from multiple recall tests with related and unrelated lists

In the Attentional Boost Effect (ABE), words or images encoded with to-be-detected target squares are later recognized better than words or images encoded with to-be-ignored distractor squares. The present study sought to determine whether the ABE enhanced the encoding of the item-specific and relational properties of the studied words by using the multiple recall paradigm. Previous evidence indicates that manipulations fostering item-specific encoding increased the number of item gains, whereas manipulations fostering relational encoding decreased item losses. Across three experiments, participants were presented with lists of semantically related or unrelated words paired with target (red) or distractor (green) squares, under the instructions to remember all the words and press the spacebar when the square was red. Immediately after the study phase, they were involved in four consecutive recall attempts. In all cases, the classical ABE was replicated, in that participants recalled more target- than distractor-paired words. Most importantly, the analyses converged in showing that item gains were significantly greater for target- than for distractor-paired words when participants studied lists of related words (but not when they studied unrelated lists); in contrast, item losses did not differ between the two types of words, irrespective of the nature of the studied list. Taken together, these data suggest that the ABE enhanced the encoding of item-specific information but had no effect on the encoding of relational information. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Trust in science and belief in misinformation mediate the effects of political orientation on vaccine hesitancy and intention to be vaccinated

In previous studies, anti-vaccination attitudes have been attributed either to far-right voters or to both far-left and far-right voters. The present study investigated the associations of political orientation with vaccine hesitancy and intention to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and the potential mediating roles of trust in science and belief in misinformation. A total of 750 Italian respondents completed an online questionnaire in the period between the second and the third wave of COVID-19 (from 9th March to 9th May 2021). The results showed that political orientation had both direct and indirect associations with vaccine hesitancy and vaccine intention, mediated by trust in science and belief in misinformation. Specifically, right-wing adherents were less trustful of scientists and believed in COVID-19-related misinformation more than left-wing adherents, and these two factors accounted for their higher vaccine hesitancy and reduced willingness to receive an anti-COVID-19 vaccination. Our findings are in line with the predictions of the mindsponge theory and suggest that communicative campaigns aimed at improving the rates of vaccine acceptance in right-wing adherents should be specifically focused on enhancing trust in science and reducing belief in misinformation