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In order to evaluate the effect of a policy or treatment with pre- and post-treatment outcomes, we propose an approach based on a transition model, which may be applied with multivariate outcomes and accounts for unobserved heterogeneity. This model is based on potential versions of discrete latent variables representing the individual characteristic of interest and may be cast in the hidden (latent) Markov literature for panel data. Therefore, it can be estimated by maximum likelihood in a relatively simple way. The approach extends the difference-in-difference method as it is possible to deal with multivariate outcomes. Moreover, causal effects may be expressed with respect to transition probabilities. The proposal is validated through a simulation study, and it is applied to evaluate educational programs administered to pupils in the sixth and seventh grades during their middle school period. These programs are carried out in an Italian region to improve non-cognitive skills (CSs). We study if they impact also on students’ CSs in Italian and Mathematics in the eighth grade, exploiting the pretreatment test scores available in the fifth grade. The main conclusion is that the educational programs aimed to develop noncognitive abilities help the best students to maintain their higher cognitive abilities over time.

The analysis of what human capital (HC) is has a long history and culminates in the acknowledgment that HC and its growth are very important for both cognitive education (cognitive skills (CSs)) and personal life (noncognitive skills (NCSs)) and that CSs and NCSs have a strong reciprocal relationship, as studies by Heckman demonstrated. The present contribution (following Heckman’s approach) analyzed the relationship between CSs and NCSs in a sample of middle school students in the Autonomous Province of Trento. The second goal of the research was to verify whether educational teaching behaviors improved students’ personalities. Aside from the use of administrative data (INVALSI data, 2015 and 2018), one survey was administered in the 2018–2019 schooling year to verify the relationship between NCSs and CSs. Moreover, we sought to determine whether education teaching behavior improved the students’ personalities (1522 students in 25 schools) and whether programs could enhance NCSs. Methodological tools for the analysis involved the generalized least squares approach to answer the first question and a difference-in-differences model for the second. The main results showed that the levels of NCSs affected the ability to learn and improve CSs; a challenging teaching approach, especially if accompanied by programs improving its quality, had positive results. Finally, the research suggested that a wider, national-based survey following students from primary to secondary school would allow for a greater understanding of the dynamics of CSs and NCSs.

We propose a new approach with which to measure school efficiency by including student Non-Cognitive Skills in the analysis. In classical analysis, efficiency is measured separately from effectiveness. In our framework, we jointly consider efficiency and effectiveness, including both Cognitive Skills and Non-Cognitive Skills. We call our approach “Non-Cognitive Skills Efficiency” and we propose two analyses. The first is called “Static Non-Cognitive Skills Efficiency” and measures the efficiency of transforming Non-Cognitive Skills into Cognitive Skills, by means of a Stochastic Frontier Approach. We verify that some Non-Cognitive Skills have effect on Cognitive Skills and contribute to increase school efficiency. The second is defined “Dynamic Non-Cognitive Skills Efficiency” and measures the efficiency of school educational programmes aimed at improving Non-Cognitive Skills. The statistical method is a Difference-in-Differences model based on a Stochastic Frontier Approach. We find that these educational programmes (treatment) have a positive effect on Non-Cognitive Skills. The survey concerns 8th grade students attending 25 schools in the Provincia Autonoma di Trento, in Italy. The dataset comprises both survey data and the administrative data of local authorities, thus providing a complete set of information at student level on CS and NCS skills, social capital variables, in particular the socioeconomic background of families, and teaching parameters. We measure school efficiency at class level, because this level is less affected by unobserved environmental factors. The results provide new perspectives on education in schools.

We present the results of the study entitled “The development of non-cognitive skills in Trentino pupils”, carried out on middle school pupils in the Autonomous Province of Trento. The aim was to verify whether non-cognitive skills lead to an improvement in cognitive skills, as measured by school performance, and whether appropriate educational programmes increase non-cognitive skills, through two analyses, the first related to the 2017-2018 school year, and the second to the following year. The results confirm that the presence of more robust non-cognitive skills promotes growth in cognitive skills as well. Furthermore, various aspects of non-cognitive skills can be improved through specific educational programmes conducted in school settings.

Time perception – how humans and animals perceive the passage of time – forms the basis for important cognitive skills such as decision-making, planning, and communication. In this work, we propose a framework for examining the mechanisms responsible for time perception. We first model neural time perception as a combination of two known timing sources: internal neuronal mechanisms and external (environmental) stimuli, and design a decision-making framework to replicate them. We then implement this framework in a simulated robot. We measure the robot’s success on a temporal discrimination task originally performed by mice to evaluate their capacity to exploit temporal knowledge. We conclude that the robot is able to perceive time similarly to animals when it comes to their intrinsic mechanisms of interpreting time and performing time-aware actions. Next, by analysing the behaviour of agents equipped with the framework, we propose an estimator to infer characteristics of the timing mechanisms intrinsic to the agents. In particular, we show that from their empirical action probability distribution we are able to estimate parameters used for perceiving time. Overall, our work shows promising results when it comes to drawing conclusions regarding some of the characteristics present in biological timing mechanisms., QC 20220627

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in the performance of cognitive abilities between 25 cigarette and 25 cannabis smokers who were 18 to 30 years old (both groups correspond to university students) and to correlate their cognitive performance with time and frequency of consumption. This quantitative, non-experimental-transversal study, whose scope was descriptive, comparative and correlational, evidenced that cannabis smokers had significantly lower results in each cognitive ability, especially in executive functions, being the skill that presented the worst performance in both groups. On the other hand, the skill that presents the smallest gap between the groups is language, a skill that showed better performance in marijuana users, compared to the other skills. Despite the finding, it was not possible to establish the relationship between the deficit of these skills and the time and frequency of use in any group because the sample consisted of recent users. It is concluded that both types of consumption influence the deficit of cognitive skills in the short term, and for that reason is very important that multidisciplinary teams of professionals specialized in health area consider prevention and intervention actions in those young patients who abuse consumption of licit or illicit substances in order to minimize the effects on physical and cognitive health in adulthood., El propósito de este estudio fue determinar las diferencias en el rendimiento de las habilidades cognitivas entre 25 consumidores de cigarrillo y 25 consumidores de cannabis de 18 a 30 años (ambos grupos corresponden a estudiantes universitarios) y correlacionar su desempeño con el tiempo y frecuencia de consumo. Este estudio de tipo cuantitativo, no experimental-transversal, cuyo alcance fue descriptivo, comparativo y correlacional, evidenció que los consumidores de cannabis presentaron resultados significativamente menores en cada una de las habilidades cognitivas, especialmente en las funciones ejecutivas, siendo la habilidad que presentó peor desempeño en ambos grupos. Por otro lado, la habilidad que presenta una menor brecha entre los grupos es el lenguaje, habilidad que mostró tener un mejor rendimiento en los consumidores de marihuana en comparación con las demás habilidades. A pesar de los hallazgos, no fue posible establecer la relación entre el déficit de dichas habilidades y el tiempo y la frecuencia de consumo en ningún grupo debido a que la muestra estaba constituida por consumidores recientes. Se concluye que ambos tipos de consumo influyen en el déficit de las habilidades cognitivas a corto plazo, por lo cual es importante que equipos multidisciplinarios de profesionales especializados en el área de la salud consideren acciones de prevención e intervención en aquellos pacientes jóvenes que abusan del consumo tanto de sustancias lícitas como ilícitas con el fin de minimizar los efectos tanto en la salud física como en la cognitiva en la edad adulta.

We present the results of the study entitled “The development of non-cognitive skills in Trentino pupils”, carried out on middle school pupils in the Autonomous Province of Trento. The aim was to verify whether non-cognitive skills lead to an improvement in cognitive skills, as measured by school performance, and whether appropriate educational programmes increase non-cognitive skills, through two analyses, the first related to the 2017-2018 school year, and the second to the following year. The results confirm that the presence of more robust non-cognitive skills promotes growth in cognitive skills as well. Furthermore, various aspects of non-cognitive skills can be improved through specific educational programmes conducted in school settings.

This paper investigates the impact of attending early childcare on immigrant children’s cognitive outcomes. Our analysis makes use of administrative data on the entire population of students in the fifth grade collected by the Italian Institute for the Evaluation of the Educational System (INVALSI) for school years 2014/2015 to 2016/2017, matched to unique administrative records on early childcare availability at the municipal level. Our identification strategy exploits cross-sectional and time series variations in the provision of early childcare services across Italian municipalities as an instrument for individual attendance. Our results indicate that the effect of early childcare attendance differs between native and immigrant children. Estimates show a positive and significant effect on the language test scores of immigrant children, with the effect being mostly driven by children with low-educated mothers and by children who, at home, speak a language highly dissimilar to Italian. Unlike immigrants, native students are negatively impacted by early childcare attendance. Effects are stronger on math test scores for children with highly educated mothers and in municipalities with a relatively low public supply of early childcare.

Inspired by the work of Rubinstein, this study revisits data from a previous lab experiment to explore the relation between response times and tax compliance and understand the potential non-linearity between them by classifying decisions and individuals into compliance types. We find that individuals’ decision response time is related to their compliance decisions. Full-non compliant individuals (those who did not declare any earned income) have shorter response times than those who fully or partially complied. Full-compliant individuals also tend to declare income faster than partially compliant subjects. Such results are robust throughout time and when controlling for contextual characteristics of experimental design. We find non-linearity via an inverted U-shape function that reaches its maximum declaration time around a compliance rate of 60%, even after controlling for contextual experimental design factors. In addition, we observe a non-linear relation between cognitive skills, response time, and tax compliance. Participants with relatively high cognitive skills and very low or very high tax compliance level have low response times, while subjects with relatively lower cognitive skills tend to report higher decision times for higher compliance levels.

La psicomotricità è una disciplina che intende supportare i processi evolutivi dell'infanzia basandosi su una visione olistica del bambino e utilizzando il gioco e il corpo come strumenti preferenziali nell'interazione. Nonostante l'intervento psicomotorio preventivo e promozionale in età prescolare sia molto diffuso in Italia e in Europa, esistono pochi studi sperimentali che ne testimonino l'efficacia. Il lavoro di revisione condotto ha permesso di identificare l'effetto positivo dell'intervento psicomotorio su molteplici aree di sviluppo, come quella motoria, cognitiva ed emotivo-relazionale, e su alcune competenze specifiche, in alcuni casi evidenziate dalla letteratura come predittive di un miglior benessere psicosociale in età adolescenziale ed adulta. L'interpretazione dei nostri risultati, pur tenendo conto dei limiti oggettivi dello studio, offre importanti spunti di riflessione per interventi futuri.

This thesis estimates the returns to education in association with childhood cognitive ability for Filipino youth using the Cebu Longituditional Health and Nutrition Survey Data. After reviewing wide range of literature on returns to education and cognitive ability, we find that limited studies have been done concerning the returns to education in conjunction with childhood cognitive ability in the context of developing country. Estimated results using OLS method show that the male returns to education at average cognitive level is 2.5% and for female it is around 8%. In terms of cognitive ability, the marginal effect of schooling decreases as cognitive ability increases indicating that the schooling has the largest impact for low cognitive ability people. Female seems to earn 20% less than male signaling the need of policy formulation for female empowerment. Employment type has positive and significant impact on earning, mothers education, base level household income, family size and community level characteristics have positive but insignificant impact on earnings.

This thesis estimates the returns to education in association with childhood cognitive ability for Filipino youth using the Cebu Longituditional Health and Nutrition Survey Data. After reviewing wide range of literature on returns to education and cognitive ability, we find that limited studies have been done concerning the returns to education in conjunction with childhood cognitive ability in the context of developing country. Estimated results using OLS method show that the male returns to education at average cognitive level is 2.5% and for female it is around 8%. In terms of cognitive ability, the marginal effect of schooling decreases as cognitive ability increases indicating that the schooling has the largest impact for low cognitive ability people. Female seems to earn 20% less than male signaling the need of policy formulation for female empowerment. Employment type has positive and significant impact on earning, mothers education, base level household income, family size and community level characteristics have positive but insignificant impact on earnings.

The objective of this study was to examine whether or not relatively short period of sleep deprivation will degrade cognitive skills. Using the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) two critical submarine jobs were analyzed to reveal the main attributes of the jobs and then the Automated Portable Test System battery (APTS) was used to simulate these attributes. The PAQ analysis snowed clearly that the cognitive skills (Estimation, Mental process and decision making) were essential for these jobs (i.e., Torpedo Data Control Unit operator and Sonar operator jobs) . The results showed that subjects were highly sensitive to the sleep loss and their cognitive performance degraded as a function of 36 hours of sleep deprivation and time of sleep deprivation., http://archive.org/details/cognitiveperform1094521194, Lieutenant (junior grade), Turkish Navy, Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.