Search

Cognitive reserve (CR) represents the adaptive response of the cognitive system responsible for preserving normal functioning in the face of brain damage. Experiential factors such as education, occupation, and leisure activities influence the development of CR. Theoretically, such factors build up from childhood and across adulthood. Thus, appropriate tools to define and measure CR as early as adolescence are essential to understand its developmental processes. To this aim, we introduce the construct of “Cognitive Reserve Potential” (CRP) and its corresponding index of experiential factors tailored to youth. We investigated prototypical youth exposures potentially associated with the lifelong development of CR (e.g., sport practice, musical experiences, cultural activities, and relationships with peers and family). Principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis identified and replicated the CRP factor structure on two independent samples of Italian students: N = 585 (295 F) and N = 351 (201 F), ages 11 to 20. CRP was associated mainly with family socio-cultural status (i.e., socioeconomic status [SES], Home Possessions, and Books at Home). Results confirmed the strength of the factorial model and warranted the proposal of the CRP-questionnaire as an innovative tool for understanding CR evolutionary dynamics.

The visual mechanisms underlying approximate numerical representation are still intensely debated because numerosity information is often confounded with continuous sensory cues (e.g., texture density, area, convex hull). However, numerosity is underestimated when a few items are connected by illusory contours (ICs) lines without changing other physical cues, suggesting in turn that numerosity processing may rely on discrete visual input. Yet, in these previous works, ICs were generated by black-on-gray inducers producing an illusory brightness enhancement, which could represent a further continuous sensory confound. To rule out this possibility, we tested participants in a numerical discrimination task in which we manipulated the alignment of 0, 2, or 4 pairs of open/closed inducers and their contrast polarity. In Experiment 1, aligned open inducers had only one polarity (all black or all white) generating ICs lines brighter or darker than the gray background. In Experiment 2, open inducers had always opposite contrast polarity (one black and one white inducer) generating ICs without strong brightness enhancement. In Experiment 3, reverse-contrast inducers were aligned but closed with a line preventing ICs completion. Results showed that underestimation triggered by ICs lines was independent of inducer contrast polarity in both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, whereas no underestimation was found in Experiment 3. Taken together, these results suggest that mere brightness enhancement is not the primary cause of the numerosity underestimation induced by ICs lines. Rather, a boundary formation mechanism insensitive to contrast polarity may drive the effect, providing further support to the idea that numerosity processing exploits discrete inputs.

The cognitive benefits of closed-skill sports practice have so far been scantily investigated. Here, we thus focused on the potential impact of swimming and running - two sports that highly rely on a precise control of timing - on time processing. To investigate the impact of these closed-skill sports on time perception and estimation, three groups of participants (for a total of eighty-four young adults) took part in the present study: expert swimmers, expert runners, and non-athletes. The ability to process temporal information in the milliseconds and seconds range was assessed through a time reproduction and a finger-tapping tasks, while a motor imagery paradigm was adopted to assess temporal estimation of sport performance in a wider interval range. We also employed the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire to assess the individual's ability of motor imagery. Results showed that closed-skill sports, specifically time-related disciplines, enhance motor imagery and time perception abilities. Swimmers were more accurate and consistent in perceiving time when compared to runners, probably thanks to the sensory muffled environment that leads these athletes to be more focused on the perception of their internal rhythm.

Whether mathematics is a gendered domain or not is a long-lasting issue bringing along major social and educational implications. The females' underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has been considered one of the key signs of the math gender gap, although the current view largely attributes the origin of this phenomenon to sociocultural factors. Indeed, recent approaches to math gender differences reached the universal conclusion that nature and nurture exert reciprocal effects on each other, establishing the need for approaching the study of the math gender issue only once its intrinsic complexity has been accepted. Building upon a flourishing literature, this review provides an updated synthesis of the evidence for math gender equality at the start, and for math gender inequality on the go, challenging the role of biological factors. In particular, by combining recent findings from different research areas, the paper discusses the persistence of the “math male myth” and the associated “female are not good at math myth,” drawing attention to the complex interplay of social and cultural forces that support such stereotypes. The suggestion is made that longevity of these myths results from the additive effects of two independent cognitive biases associated with gender stereotypes and with math stereotypes, respectively. Scholars' responsibility in amplifying these myths by pursuing some catching lines of research is also discussed.

L'attenzione sostenuta, la capacità di mantenere l'attenzione su un compito per un periodo di tempo prolungato senza distrarsi, è alla base di molte attività quotidiane. I questionari di autovalutazione tipicamente usati per misurarla presentano notevoli limiti: valutare la propria attenzione durante lo svolgimento di un compito può interferire con il compito stesso, mentre valutarla a posteriori difficilmente permette di coglierne i cambiamenti nel tempo. Al contrario, alcuni parametri fisiologici potrebbero costituire una misura oggettiva dell’attivazione cognitiva nel tempo senza alterare l’attività svolta. La recente disponibilità di strumenti accurati e poco invasivi per registrare questi parametri permetterebbe di studiarli anche in situazioni più vicine all’esperienza quotidiana. Questo studio mira a validare, come indicatori di attenzione sostenuta, misure basate sulla variabilità della frequenza cardiaca e della conduttanza cutanea. Un gruppo di 30 partecipanti volontari (20-28 anni) ha eseguito al computer due test neuropsicologici di attenzione sostenuta: il Jumping Square Task e il Sustained-Pace Finger Tapping task, indossando contemporaneamente un device da polso per la registrazione dei parametri fisiologici. La capacità di attenzione sostenuta è stata operazionalizzata dal punto di vista comportamentale come il cambiamento in correttezza e in tempi di risposta tra la prima e la seconda metà di ciascun compito. I parametri fisiologici sono stati analizzati in modo analogo. I risultati mostrano un'associazione, anche se moderata, tra la capacità di attenzione cognitiva e il cambiamento nei parametri fisiologici.

The past few years have witnessed a fervent theoretical debate about the exact visual mechanisms supporting nonsymbolic number processing. The idea that quantity information is extracted through a primitive visual segmentation algorithm has been challenged by recent models, which rather tap on low-level features confounded with numerosity (i.e., density, convex hull, or total area). Here we used an original manipulation based on visual illusions to disentangle whether visual numerosity processing operates over discrete units or rather over continuous variables. In particular, we generated a set of stimuli composed by open inducers (e.g., like a pac-man shape) that simulate physical connections with Kanizsa-like illusory contours (ICs). Test sets contained pairs of collinear open inducers items that prompted 0 IC, 2 IC, or 4 IC lines connecting 2 objects. Critically, low-level visual features were fully controlled across connectedness levels. We found a systematic underestimation as we increased the IC connections when participants had to select the larger between 2 sets of objects (Experiment 1) but not in the case of aligned closed inducers preventing illusory lines (Experiments 2A and 2B). We also found a systematic numerosity underestimation when both IC connections and continuous features (e.g., convex hull) were independently manipulated in test stimuli (Experiment 3). Finally, these results were shown to be task independent because the same effects of IC connections were replicated in an estimation task (Experiment 4). Taken together, our findings indicate that numerosity perception relies on basic visual-segmentation mechanisms, pointing out the need of new theoretical frameworks integrating both continuous and discrete perceptual number signals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) Public Significance Statement—This study indicates that our brain is endowed with the ability to rapidly extract approximate information about the number o

How non-symbolic numerosity is visually extracted remains a matter of intense debate. Most evidence suggests that numerosity is directly extracted on individual objects following Weber's law, at least for a moderate numerical range. Alternative accounts propose that, whatever the range, numerosity is indirectly derived from summary texture-statistics of the raw image such as spatial frequency (SF). Here, to disentangle these accounts, we tested whether the well-known behavioural signature of numerosity encoding (ratio effect) is preserved despite the equalisation of the SF content. In Experiment 1, participants had to select the numerically larger of two briefly presented moderate-range numerical sets (i.e., 8–18 dots) carefully matched for SF; the ratio between numerosities was manipulated by levels of increasing difficulty (e.g., 0.66, 0.75, 0.8). In Experiment 2, participants performed the same task, but they were presented with both the original and SF equalised stimuli. In both experiments, the results clearly showed a ratio-dependence of the performance: numerosity discrimination became harder and slower as the ratio between numerosities increased. Moreover, this effect was found to be independent of the stimulus type, although the overall performance was better with the original rather than the SF equalised stimuli (Experiment 2). Taken together, these findings indicate that the power spectrum per se cannot explain the main behavioural signature of Weber-like encoding of numerosities (the ratio effect), at least over the tested numerical range, partially challenging alternative indirect accounts of numerosity processing.

Current theories of intelligence maintain that intellectual development is the expression of a strict interplay among different cognitive abilities and the environment. Yet, the environment in which the individual develops has often been reduced to a single measure in empirical research, which thus loses sight of its inherent multifaceted structure. This work stems from the need to grasp such multifaceted complexity, by differentiating the associations of cultural and socioeconomic factors with crystallized and fluid intelligence in adolescence. An updated and digitalized version of the Verbal task from the Primary Mental Abilities battery (PMA Verbal) was administered to a large group of Italian adolescents as a measure of crystallized intelligence. Item Response Theory confirmed the good psychometric properties of the test. The relationship among cognitive abilities and the environment was explored through a Network Analysis on measures of crystallized intelligence (PMA Verbal), fluid intelligence (Raven SPM) and various environmental dimensions (socioeconomic status, home possessions, books at home, reading habits). Network Analysis is particularly suited for highlighting the individual role of each variable within such a complex system. Our results illustrated a key role of books at home, which was positively connected to verbal abilities on the one hand and to reading habits on the other, whereas no relationship to fluid intelligence was found. Crucially, these findings were independent of socioeconomic status. This study indicates that a more detailed conceptualization of the environment provides a better understanding of how cognitive abilities develop.

Despite increasing attention towards Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), as reflected by the publication of the International Clinical Practice Recommendations (Blank et al., 2012; 2019), the absence of prevalence data in the Italian population well attests the extent to which this clinical condition is overlooked and misrecognised in our country. Aim of this discussion is to call for a concerted effort in understanding the reasons for which DCD is still unfamiliar to most of the clinicians facing with the assessment and the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders. By defining DCD and Developmental dyspraxia respectively, as well as by promoting general awareness on the psychosocial consequences of DCD, the hope is to extend to the Italian community recognition, early identification, and targeted support to individuals with developmental coordination disorders.

While seminal theories suggest that nonsymbolic visual numerosity is mainly extracted from segmented items, more recent views advocate that numerosity cannot be processed independently of nonnumeric continuous features confounded with the numerical set (i.e., such as the density, the convex hull, etc.). To disentangle these accounts, here we employed two different visual illusions presented in isolation or in a merged condition (e.g., combining the effects of the two illusions). In particular, in a number comparison task, we concurrently manipulated both the perceived object segmentation by connecting items with Kanizsa-like illusory lines, and the perceived convex-hull/density of the set by embedding the stimuli in a Ponzo illusion context, keeping constant other low-level features. In Experiment 1, the two illusions were manipulated in a compatible direction (i.e., both triggering numerical underestimation), whereas in Experiment 2 they were manipulated in an incompatible direction (i.e., with the Ponzo illusion triggering numerical overestimation and the Kanizsa illusion numerical underestimation). Results from psychometric functions showed that, in the merged condition, the biases of each illusion summated (i.e., largest underestimation as compared with the conditions in which illusions were presented in isolation) in Experiment 1, while they averaged and competed against each other in Experiment 2. These findings suggest that discrete nonsymbolic numerosity can be extracted independently from continuous magnitudes. They also point to the need of more comprehensive theoretical views accounting for the operations by which both discrete elements and continuous variables are computed and integrated by the visual system.

The exact visual mechanisms underpinning the approximate number system are still debated. Recent evidence suggests that numerosity is extracted on segmented visual objects, at least for a moderate numerical range (e.g., < 100 items), whereas alternative models rather propose that numerosity is derived from low-level features (e.g., power spectrum) of an unsegmented image, independently from the range. Here, to disentangle these accounts, we generated stimuli that were equalized for spatial frequency amplitude spectrum and luminance across sets of moderate range numerosities (e.g., 9-15 dots), while independently manipulating the perceived item segmentation by connecting dots with illusory contours (ICs). In Experiment 1, participants performed a numerical discrimination task, in which they had to select the numerically larger between two stimuli: a reference stimulus (always 12 dots) and a test stimulus (from 9 to 15 dots) containing 0, 2 or 4 pairs of dots grouped by ICs lines. In Experiment 2, participants were presented only the test stimulus and performed an estimation task. Results clearly showed that in both experiments participants' performance followed well-known numerical signatures (e.g., distance effect and scalar variability), with numerosity that was underestimated as the illusory connections increased. Crucially, this was found despite spatial frequencies and luminance were kept constant across all the experimental stimuli and these variables were thus uninformative about numerosity. Taken together, these findings indicate that power spectrum in its own cannot explain numerical processing. Rather, visual segmentation mechanisms may be crucial in such processing at least for a moderate numerosity range.

Expert readers have been repeatedly reported to misperceive the centre of visual stimuli, shifting systematically to the left the bisection of any lines (pseudoneglect) while showing a cross-over effect while bisecting different types of orthographic strings (Arduino et al., 2010, Neuropsychologia, 48, 2140). This difference has been attributed to asymmetrical allocation of attention that visuo-verbal material receives when lexical access occurs (e.g., Fischer, 2004, Cognitive Brain Research, 4, 163). The aim of this study was to further examine which visual features guide recognition of potentially orthographic materials. To disentangle the role of orthography, heterogeneity, and visuo-perceptual discreteness, we presented Italian unimpaired adults with four experiments exploiting the bisection paradigm. The results showed that a cross-over effect emerges in most discrete strings, especially when their internal structure, that is being composed of heterogeneous elements, is suggestive of orthographically relevant material. Interestingly, the cross-over effect systematically characterized the processing of letter strings (Experiment 2) and words (Experiments 3 and 4), whether visually discrete or not. Overall, this pattern of results suggests that neither discreteness nor heterogeneity per se are responsible for activating visual scanning mechanisms implied in text exploration, although both contribute to increasing the chance of a visual stimulus undergoing a perceptual analysis dedicated to pre-lexical processing

A tendency to over-attend the left side of the space (i.e., pseudoneglect) has been repeatedly reported in Western adult populations and is supposed to reflect a right hemisphere dominance in the control of visuospatial attention. This neurobiological hypothesis has been partially challenged by growing evidence showing that pseudoneglect is profoundly triggered by cultural practices such as reading and writing habits. Accordingly, more recent theoretical accounts suggest a strict coupling between nature and nurture dimensions at the origins of such bias. To further explore this possibility, here we first administered a digitized cancellation task to right-handed Western children before and after literacy acquisition. Results showed an incremental leftward shift of attention in the cancellation of the first target and an increasing preference for a left-to-right visual search from preschoolers to second graders. Yet, despite these differences, the overall distribution of visuospatial attention was biased to the left in both groups. To explore the role of handedness in visuospatial asymmetries, we also tested a group of left-handed second graders. Results showed an impact of handedness on visuospatial performance, with an accentuated rightward-oriented visual search for left-handed children, although the overall distribution of attention was again biased to the left hemispace. Taken together, these findings do not provide support to a pure neurobiological view of visuospatial biases. Rather, our study indicates that the control of visuospatial attention is mediated by a dynamic interplay among biological (i.e., right hemisphere dominance), biomechanical (i.e., hand dominance), and cultural (i.e., reading habits) factors.

Despite a large body of evidence suggests positive effects of playing action video games and practising sports on various visual attentional skills, the impact of these activities on the ability to maintain attention over prolonged periods of time (i.e., sustained attention) has been largely neglected. Here, we first explored free-time habits on a group of 310 adolescents by means of a self-reported questionnaire. We found an inverse relationship between the time spent with sports and video games, but not with other extra-scholastic activities: the time spent practising sports and playing video games clearly competed with each other, with the more-intensive-sport practitioners being less involved in video game play. Next, we directly measured sustained attention and other attentional skills in a subgroup of 76 participants, divided as a function of their time spent in sports and action video games. In particular, sustained attention was assessed by means of two tasks: a classic exogenous task, requiring participants to attend to a flashing visual stimulus; and an internal (endogenous) sustained attention task, requiring participants to synchronise their manual responses to the rhythm of auditory pulses presented in an earlier phase. As previously documented, we found that action video game players displayed worse ability to maintain attention over time, as compared with non-action players. In striking contrast, intensive sports practice was associated with an increased ability to maintain attention over time. Overall, these findings unveil distinct cascading effects on sustained attention induced by doing sport and playing action video games.

This study investigates the bi-directionality of synaestesic experience by means of a flanked bisection paradigm in TT, a number-colour synaesthete. Previous studies have shown that bisection is shifted towards the larger digit flanker (e.g., Ranzini & Girelli, 2012). TT and controls performed line bisections with lines flanked by black digits (experiment 1), by TT’s photism colours (experiment 2), and by congruently (experiment 3), or incongruently coloured digits (experiment 4). While the results of the control group mainly replicated previous findings, only the colour-digit congruence elicited in TT the larger-digit bias. TT’s absence of effects in the other conditions was not due to reduced sensitivity to luminance effects (experiment 5), or to mathematical expertise (experiment 6). We suggest that grapheme-colour synaesthesia might be characterised by a rigid access to semantic representation when the inducer is task-irrelevant.

This study investigates the bi-directionality of synaestesic experience by means of a flanked bisection paradigm in TT, a number-colour synaesthete. Previous studies have shown that bisection is shifted towards the larger digit flanker (e.g., Ranzini & Girelli, 2012). TT and controls performed line bisections with lines flanked by black digits (experiment 1), by TT’s photism colours (experiment 2), and by congruently (experiment 3), or incongruently coloured digits (experiment 4). While the results of the control group mainly replicated previous findings, only the colour-digit congruence elicited in TT the larger-digit bias. TT’s absence of effects in the other conditions was not due to reduced sensitivity to luminance effects (experiment 5), or to mathematical expertise (experiment 6). We suggest that grapheme-colour synaesthesia might be characterised by a rigid access to semantic representation when the inducer is task-irrelevant.

Humans from different cultures tend to represent time on a spatially oriented Mental Time Line (MTL). This is supported by research showing that response selection is faster when salient features of the stimulus (i.e., past and future) and of the response (i.e., left and right, or back and forward) are congruent to each other in working memory. Yet, whether the spatial frame of reference onto which the MTL is anchored (i.e., horizontal or sagittal) depends on the specific content to be processed (i.e., autobiographical and episodic) is still unknown. The present study aims to investigate whether personal and non-personal events activate different spatial frame of reference in WM. Fifty-one university students performed a computerized stimulus-response compatibility task and they classified as past or future, personal (e.g., First Kiss) and non-personal (e.g., Twin Towers) events with manual movements along the horizontal plane (i.e., leftward/rightward oriented movements) and along the sagittal plane (i.e., by making backward/forward movements). Results showed that the preferential spatial mapping representation depends on the nature of the event. In particular, non-personal events were represented only along the horizontal plane (i.e., past/future events responded faster with leftward/rightward movements compared to the opposite condition). On the contrary, personal events were represented only along the sagittal plane (i.e., past/future events responded faster with backward/forward movements). These findings indicate that the content (i.e., autobiographical, episodic) of a word in working memory may activate different spatial frames of reference onto which the MTL is mapped.

Line bisection studies generally find a left-to-right shift in bisection bias with increasing distance between the observer and the target line, which may be explained by hemispheric differences in the processing of proximo-distal information. In the present study, the segregation between near and far space was further characterized across the motor system and contextual cues. To this aim, 20 right-handed participants were required to perform a manual bisection task of simple lines presented at three different distances (60, 90, 120 cm). Importantly, the horizontal spatial location of the line was manipulated along with the viewing distance to investigate more deeply the hemispheric engagement in the transition from near to far space. As the motoric component of the manual task producing activations of left premotor and motor areas may be partially responsible for the observed transition, participants were also involved in an ocular bisection task. Further, participants were required to bisect Judd variants of the target lines, which are known to elicit a Müller-Lyer-type illusion. Since the Judd illusion depends on areas in the ventral visual stream, we predicted that line bisections of Judd-type lines would be unaffected by viewing distance. Results showed that manual bisection of simple lines was modulated separately by viewing distance and the hemispace of presentation, with this pattern being similar for ocular bisection. Critically, bisections in the Judd illusion task were not modulated by viewing distance, whether performed by hand or by eye. Overall, these findings support the hypothesis that the right hemisphere plays a dominant role in the processing of space close to the body. They also present novel evidence for a general reduction of this dominance at farther distances, whether hand motor actions are involved or not. Finally, our study documents a dissociation between the processing of pure visuospatial information and that of a visual illusion as a f

The prompt recognition of pleasant and unpleasant odors is a crucial regulatory and adaptive need of humans. Reactive answers to unpleasant odors ensure survival in many threatening situations. Notably, although humans typically react to certain odors by modulating their distance from the olfactory source, the effect of odor pleasantness over the orienting of visuospatial attention is still unknown. To address this issue, we first trained participants to associate visual shapes with pleasant and unpleasant odors, and then we assessed the impact of this association on a visuospatial task. Results showed that the use of trained shapes as flankers modulates performance in a line bisection task. Specifically, it was found that the estimated midpoint was shifted away from the visual shape associated with the unpleasant odor, whereas it was moved toward the shape associated with the pleasant odor. This finding demonstrates that odor pleasantness selectively shifts human attention in the surrounding space. (PsycINFO Database Record

Many children fail in geometric learning, but factors underlying these failures have not been explored in detail. The present study addresses this issue by comparing fifth and sixth-grade children who had good or poor geometric learning, and were otherwise comparable on verbal intelligence, gender and age. Results showed that children with poor geometric learning have deficits in both arithmetic and geometric problem solving but they are more impaired in the latter. Results also showed that poor geometric learners have weaknesses in working memory, calculation, and visuospatial mental imagery. The results from logistic regressions pointed out that mental imagery skills and arithmetic problem solving ability had the highest discriminatory power in distinguishing between the two groups. Theoretical and practical implications of this research for designing interventions to help poor geometric learners are discussed.

The present study examined whether traveling through serially-ordered verbal memories exploits overt visuospatial attentional resources. In a three-phase behavioral study, five single-digits were presented sequentially at one spatial location in phase 1, while recognition and verbal recall were tested in phases 2 and 3, respectively. Participants' spontaneous eye movements were registered along with the verbal responses. Results showed that the search and the retrieval of serially-ordered information were mediated by spontaneous ocular movements. Specifically, recognizing middle items of the memorized sequence required longer inspection times and, importantly, a greater involvement of overt attentional resources, than recognizing the serially first-presented item and, to a lesser extent, the last-presented item. Moreover, serial order was found to be spatially encoded from left-to-right, as eye position during vocal responses deviated the more to the right, the later the serial position of the retrieved item in the sequence. These findings suggest that overt spatial attention mediates the scanning of serial order representation.

Ordinality is a fundamental aspect of numerical cognition. However, preverbal infants' ability to represent numerical order is poorly understood. In the present study we extended the evidence provided by Macchi Cassia, Picozzi, Girelli, and de Hevia (2012), showing that 4-month-old infants detect ordinal relationships within size-based sequences, to numerical sequences. In three experiments, we showed that at 4 months of age infants fail to represent increasing and decreasing numerical order when numerosities differ by a 1:2 ratio (Experiment 1), but they succeed when numerosities differ by a 1:3 ratio (Experiments 2 and 3). Critically, infants showed the same behavioral signature (i.e., asymmetry) described by Macchi Cassia et al. for discrimination of ordinal changes in area: they succeed at detecting increasing but not decreasing order (Experiments 2 and 3). These results support the idea of a common (or at least parallel) development of ordinal representation for the two quantitative dimensions of size and number. Moreover, the finding that the asymmetry signature, previously reported for size-based sequences, extends to numerosity, points to the existence of a common constraint in ordinal magnitude processing in the first months of life. The present findings are discussed in the context of possible evolutionary and developmental sources of the ordinal asymmetry, as well as their implication for other related cognitive abilities. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Humans show a systematic tendency to perceive the future as psychologically closer than the past. Based on the clinical hypothesis that anxiety would be associated more with future threat life events, whereas depression with past loss events, here we explored whether people with anxiety- and depression-related personality traits perceive differently the psychological distance of temporal events. Results showed that the common tendency to perceive the future as psychologically closer than the past is exaggerated in individuals with anxiety-related personality traits, whereas this asymmetry drastically shrinks in individuals with depression-related personality traits. Beyond substantiating the hypothesis that the past and the future are differently faced by people with depression- and anxiety-related personality traits, the present findings suggest that temporal orientation of one’s self may be greatly altered in anxiety and depression.

Increasing evidence supports the contribution of both biological and cultural factors to visuospatial processing. The present study adds to the literature by exploring the interplay of perceptual and linguistic mechanisms in determining visuospatial asymmetries in adults (Experiment 1) and children (Experiment 2). In particular, pre-schoolers (3 and 5 year-olds), school-aged children (8 year-old), and adult participants were required to bisect different types of stimuli, that is, lines, words, and figure strings. In accordance with the literature, results yielded a leftward bias for lines and words and a rightward bias for figure strings, in adult participants. More critically, different biases were found for lines, words, and figure strings in children as a function of age, reflecting the impact of both cultural and biological factors on the processing of different visuospatial materials. Specifically, an adult-like pattern of results emerged only in the older group of children (8 year-old), but not in pre-schoolers. Results are discussed in terms of literacy, reading habits exposure, and biological maturation.

Ordinality is a fundamental aspect of numerical cognition. However, preverbal infants’ ability to represent numerical order is poorly understood. In the present study we extended the evidence provided by Macchi Cassia, Picozzi, Girelli, and de Hevia (2012), showing that 4-month-old infants detect ordinal relationships within size-based sequences, to numerical sequences. In three experiments, we showed that at 4 months of age infants fail to represent increasing and decreasing numerical order when numerosities differ by a 1:2 ratio (Experiment 1), but they succeed when numerosities differ by a 1:3 ratio (Experiments 2 and 3). Critically, infants showed the same behavioral signature (i.e., asymmetry) described by Macchi Cassia et al. for discrimination of ordinal changes in area: they succeed at detecting increasing but not decreasing order (Experiments 2 and 3). These results support the idea of a common (or at least parallel) development of ordinal representation for the two quantitative dimensions of size and number. Moreover, the finding that the asymmetry signature, previously reported for size-based sequences, extends to numerosity, points to the existence of a common constraint in ordinal magnitude processing in the first months of life. The present findings are discussed in the context of possible evolutionary and developmental sources of the ordinal asymmetry, as well as their implication for other related cognitive abilities.

The bisection of lines positioned radially (with the two ends of the line close and far, with respect to the participant's body) has been less investigated than that of lines placed horizontally (with their two ends left and right, with respect to the body's midsagittal plane). In horizontal bisection, patients with left neglect typically show a rightward bias for both lines and words, greater with longer stimuli. As for radial bisection, available data indicate that neurologically unimpaired participants make a distal error, while results from right-brain-damaged patients with left spatial neglect are contradictory. We investigated the bisection of radially oriented words, with the prediction that, during bisection, linguistic material would be recoded to its canonical left-to-right format in reading, with the performance of neglect patients being similar to that for horizontal words. Thirteen right-brain-damaged patients (seven with left spatial neglect) and fourteen healthy controls were asked to manually bisect 40 radial and 40 horizontal words (5-10 letters), and 80 lines, 40 radial and 40 horizontal, of comparable length. Right-brain-damaged patients with spatial neglect exhibited a proximal bias in the bisection of short radial words, with the proximal part corresponding to the final right part of horizontally oriented words. This proximal error was not found in patients without neglect and healthy controls. For bisection, short radial words may be recoded to the canonical orthographic horizontal format, unveiling the impact of left neglect on radially oriented stimuli

Theories of embodied cognition emphasize the importance of sensorimotor schemas linked to external world experience for representing conceptual knowledge. Accordingly, some researchers have proposed that the spatial representation of numerical and non-numerical sequences relies on visuomotor routines, like reading habit and finger counting. There is a growing interest in how these two routines contribute to the spatial representation of ordinal sequences, although no investigation has so far directly compared them. The present study aims to investigate how these routines contribute to represent ordinal information in space. To address this issue, bilingual participants reading either from left-to-right or right-to-left were required to map ordinal information to all fingers of their right dominant hand. Critically, we manipulated both the direction of the mapping and the language of the verbal information. More specifically, a finger-mapping compatibility task was adopted in three experiments to explore the spatial representation of numerical (digit numbers and number words) and non-numerical (days of the week, presented in Hebrew and in English) sequences. Results showed that numerical information was preferentially mapped according to participants' finger counting habits, regardless of hand posture (prone and supine), number notation and reading habit. However, for non-numerical ordinal sequences, reading and finger counting directions both contributed to determine a preferential spatial mapping. These findings indicate that abstract knowledge representation relies on multiple over-trained visuomotor routines. More generally, these results highlight the capacity of our cognitive system to flexibly represent abstract ordered information, by relying on different directional experiences (finger counting, reading direction) depending on the stimuli and on the task at hand.

Theories of embodied cognition emphasize the importance of sensorimotor schemas linked to external world experience for representing conceptual knowledge. Accordingly, some researchers have proposed that the spatial representation of numerical and non-numerical sequences relies on visuomotor routines, like reading habit and finger counting. There is a growing interest in how these two routines contribute to the spatial representation of ordinal sequences, although no investigation has so far directly compared them. The present study aims to investigate how these routines contribute to represent ordinal information in space. To address this issue, bilingual participants reading either from left-to-right or right-to-left were required to map ordinal information to all fingers of their right dominant hand. Critically, we manipulated both the direction of the mapping and the language of the verbal information. More specifically, a finger-mapping compatibility task was adopted in three experiments to explore the spatial representation of numerical (digit numbers and number words) and non-numerical (days of the week, presented in Hebrew and in English) sequences. Results showed that numerical information was preferentially mapped according to participants' finger counting habits, regardless of hand posture (prone and supine), number notation and reading habit. However, for non-numerical ordinal sequences, reading and finger counting directions both contributed to determine a preferential spatial mapping. These findings indicate that abstract knowledge representation relies on multiple over-trained visuomotor routines. More generally, these results highlight the capacity of our cognitive system to flexibly represent abstract ordered information, by relying on different directional experiences (finger counting, reading direction) depending on the stimuli and on the task at hand.

It has long been thought that the primary cognitive and neural systems responsible for processing numerosities are not predisposed to encode empty sets (i.e., numerosity zero). A new study challenges this view by demonstrating that zero is translated into an abstract quantity along the numerical continuum by the primate parietofrontal magnitude system.

Time is often conceptualized in terms of space (mental time line; MTL). A prevalent representation of temporal concepts, indeed, construes the past and the future as respectively behind and in front of the ego. Insofar, however, a major omission of this line of research is that manual responses were restricted to the frontal space. This work provides the first striking demonstration that temporal processing affects the motor programming of active whole-body movements. Participants initiated steps backward much faster in response to past-than to future-related words, whereas they were faster to step forward in response to future-than past-related words. Furthermore, since the reported compatibility effect was limited to movement initiation time, it is likely that the processing of temporal information acted on the early stages of response selection (see Ulrich et al., 2012). Beyond substantiating the longstanding hypothesis that humans spatialize time on an egocentric spatial frame of reference, our findings demonstrate that the intangible domain of time extends to the more concrete domain of space through our body's action in the physical world.

A privileged way of representing numbers in the human mind is along an oriented mental number line. Activation of this representation has been proposed to account for the impact of numbers on motor tasks, such as on grasping, pointing, and eye movements. Here we evaluated the impact of numbers on motor control, by exploiting the evidence that the speed reached by the manual connection of two points is correlated with their physical distance. We reasoned that, if irrelevant numbers induce a mis-perception of the distance between two points, this should be reflected in the movement speed. Results showed a speed difference in the manual connection of two numerically close numbers (i.e., connected slower) and two numerically distant numbers (i.e., connected faster), placed at equal physical distance. This representational length effect indicates not only that symbolic distance modulates speed movement as physical distance does, but suggests that the impact of numbers on action planning does not only involve action initiation but it extends to the definition of kinematic parameters. More generally, the reported findings show that the representation of numbers along a mental space affects our behaviour in the physical space.

Although the existence of an association between numbers and space has been largely documented in educated adults, the origin of this association still remains debated. Recent evidence suggests that associations between numbers and space might originate during the preschool years from the repeated action of counting in peripersonal space. However, it is also possible that preschoolers may additionally acquire directional preferences by counting on their own body, specifically on their fingers. To address this hypothesis, the present study explores the presence of early directional indexes in processing numerical information in both peripersonal and personal space in a sample of 90 preschoolers. We identified children who consistently exhibited a counting directional bias and generalized it to their processing of numbers in space. Moreover, given the tight connection between counting routine and numerical knowledge, we investigated the relation between these indexes and numerical achievement, evaluated by means of various tasks. Results indicate that distinct spatial-numerical associations, in both peripersonal and personal space, coexist from an early age and can be used flexibly. However, regardless of its directionality, the presence of a consistent spatial-numerical association appears to be related to numerical comprehension.

Growing evidence shows that individuals consistently match auditory pitch with visual size. For instance, high-pitched sounds are perceptually associated with smaller visual stimuli, whereas low-pitched sounds with larger ones. The present study explores whether this crossmodal correspondence, reported so far for perceptual processing, also modulates motor planning. To address this issue, we carried out a series of kinematic experiments to verify whether actions implying size processing are affected by auditory pitch. Experiment 1 showed that grasping movements toward small/large objects were initiated faster in response to high/low pitches, respectively, thus extending previous findings in the literature to more complex motor behavior. Importantly, auditory pitch influenced the relative scaling of the hand preshaping, with high pitches associated with smaller grip aperture compared with low pitches. Notably, no effect of auditory pitch was found in case of pointing movements (no grasp implied, Experiment 2), as well as when auditory pitch was irrelevant to the programming of the grip aperture, that is, in case of grasping an object of uniform size (Experiment 3). Finally, auditory pitch influenced also symbolic manual gestures expressing "small" and "large" concepts (Experiment 4). In sum, our results are novel in revealing the impact of auditory pitch on motor planning when size processing is required, and shed light on the role of auditory information in driving actions.

Several psychophysical and neuropsychological investigations suggest that the processing of number and spatial information is strongly associated. A popular account for this bulk of evidence argues that this association has its origin in the underlying mental representation of numbers taking the form of a horizontally oriented mental number line, which is isomorphic to the representation of physical lines. Recently however, several alternative explanations have been put forward. We describe those theories and argue that no single current framework is on itself able to explain the full range of observations. To do this, a hybrid account is proposed which takes into account the underlying representation but emphasizes the processing mechanisms required by the task at hand.

The present study examined whether traveling through serially-ordered verbal memories exploits overt visuospatial attentional resources. In a three-phase behavioral study, five single-digits were presented sequentially at one spatial location in phase 1, while recognition and verbal recall were tested in phases 2 and 3, respectively. Participants' spontaneous eye movements were registered along with the verbal responses. Results showed that the search and the retrieval of serially-ordered information were mediated by spontaneous ocular movements. Specifically, recognizing middle items of the memorized sequence required longer inspection times and, importantly, a greater involvement of overt attentional resources, than recognizing the serially first-presented item and, to a lesser extent, the last-presented item. Moreover, serial order was found to be spatially encoded from left-to-right, as eye position during vocal responses deviated the more to the right, the later the serial position of the retrieved item in the sequence. These findings suggest that overt spatial attention mediates the scanning of serial order representation.

A motivational model integrating self-determination theory, the theory of planned behaviour, and the health action process approach was tested in three samples in three behavioural contexts: fruit and vegetable, breakfast, and snack consumption. Perceived support for autonomous (self-determined) forms of motivation from parents and autonomous motivation from self-determination theory were hypothesised to predict intention and behaviour indirectly via the mediation of attitude and perceived behavioural control from the theory of planned behaviour. It was also expected that planning strategies would mediate the effect of intention on behaviour. Relations in the proposed models were expected to be similar across the behaviours. A two-wave prospective design was adopted. Three samples of high-school students (total N = 1041; 59.60% female; M age = 17.13 years ± 1.57) completed measures of perceived autonomy support, autonomous motivation, theory of planned behaviour constructs, planning strategies and behaviour for each of the three behavioural contexts. Three months later, 816 participants (62,24% female; M age: 17.13 years, SD = 1.58) of the initial sample self-reported their behaviour referred to the previous three months. Structural equation models provided support for the key hypothesised effects of the proposed model for the three health-related behaviours. Two direct effects were significantly different across the three behaviours: the effect of perceived autonomy support on perceived behavioural control and the effect of attitude on intention. In addition, planning strategies mediated the effect of intention on behaviour in fruit and vegetable sample only. Findings extend knowledge of the processes by which psychological antecedents from the theories affect energy-balance related behaviours.

While associations between number and space, in the form of a spatially oriented numerical representation, have been extensively reported in human adults, the origins of this phenomenon are still poorly understood. The commonly accepted view is that this number-space association is a product of human invention, with accounts proposing that culture, symbolic knowledge, and mathematics education are at the roots of this phenomenon. Here we show that preverbal infants aged 7 months, who lack symbolic knowledge and mathematics education, show a preference for increasing magnitude displayed in a left-to-right spatial orientation. Infants habituated to left-to-right oriented increasing or decreasing numerical sequences showed an overall higher looking time to new left-to-right oriented increasing numerical sequences at test (Experiment 1). This pattern did not hold when infants were presented with the same ordinal numerical information displayed from right to left (Experiment 2). The different pattern of results was congruent with the presence of a malleable, context-dependent baseline preference for increasing, left-to-right oriented, numerosities (Experiment 3). These findings are suggestive of an early predisposition in humans to link numerical order with a left-to-right spatial orientation, which precedes the acquisition of symbolic abilities, mathematics education, and the acquisition of reading and writing skills.

Emotion recognition is mediated by a complex network of cortical and subcortical areas, with the two hemispheres likely being differently involved in processing positive and negative emotions. As results on valence-dependent hemispheric specialisation are quite inconsistent, we carried out three experiments with emotional stimuli with a task being sensitive to measure specific hemispheric processing. Participants were required to bisect visual lines that were delimited by emotional face flankers, or to haptically bisect rods while concurrently listening to emotional vocal expressions. We found that prolonged (but not transient) exposition to concurrent happy stimuli significantly shifted the bisection bias to the right compared to both sad and neutral stimuli, indexing a greater involvement of the left hemisphere in processing of positively connoted stimuli. No differences between sad and neutral stimuli were observed across the experiments. In sum, our data provide consistent evidence in favour of a greater involvement of the left hemisphere in processing positive emotions and suggest that (prolonged) exposure to stimuli expressing happiness significantly affects allocation of (spatial) attentional resources, regardless of the sensory (visual/auditory) modality in which the emotion is perceived and space is explored (visual/haptic)

While associations between number and space, in the form of a spatially oriented numerical representation, have been extensively reported in human adults, the origins of this phenomenon are still poorly understood. The commonly accepted view is that this number-space association is a product of human invention, with accounts proposing that culture, symbolic knowledge, and mathematics education are at the roots of this phenomenon. Here we show that preverbal infants aged 7 months, who lack symbolic knowledge and mathematics education, show a preference for increasing magnitude displayed in a left-to-right spatial orientation. Infants habituated to left-to-right oriented increasing or decreasing numerical sequences showed an overall higher looking time to new left-to-right oriented increasing numerical sequences at test (Experiment 1). This pattern did not hold when infants were presented with the same ordinal numerical information displayed from right to left (Experiment 2). The different pattern of results was congruent with the presence of a malleable, context-dependent baseline preference for increasing, left-to-right oriented, numerosities (Experiment 3). These findings are suggestive of an early predisposition in humans to link numerical order with a left-to-right spatial orientation, which precedes the acquisition of symbolic abilities, mathematics education, and the acquisition of reading and writing skills.