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It has been hypothesized that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) present difficulties in processing time durations. However, so far evidence on this difficulty and its related mechanisms has been unclear and collected only with rating scales or laboratory experimental tasks. The current study examined whether this difficulty can be seen in children carrying out everyday actions (e.g., telephone calls, cooking activities) and to what extent it is influenced by working memory (WM) abilities. In total, 182 children aged 7 to 10 years were included in the study: 91 children with ADHD symptoms and 91 typically developing (TD) children matched for gender and other characteristics. We administered sequence reordering, time reproduction, and duration comparison tasks, and as stimuli we used six movies lasting 10 to 60 s showing three women completing six different actions. We also collected measures of verbal and visuospatial WM tests (digit span and Corsi task). Children with ADHD symptoms tended to underestimate the long durations and were less accurate than TD children in remembering the exact order of events and in comparing the duration of two different events. These difficulties appeared to be related to WM abilities.

Children with a specific learning disorder (SLD) are often characterized by marked intellectual strengths and weaknesses. In the last few years, research has focused on a common discrepancy between low working memory and processing speed on the one hand, and high verbal and visuoperceptual intelligence on the other. SLD profiles featuring a specific discrepancy between verbal and visuoperceptual abilities have been only marginally considered, however, and their systematic comparison vis-à-vis typically-developing (TD) populations has yet to be conducted. The present study examined a dataset of 1624 WISC-IV profiles of children with a diagnosis of SLD. It emerged that the proportion of children with a Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) at least 1.5 SD (22 standardized points) lower than their scores on the Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI) was larger than the proportion of SLD children with the opposite discrepant profile; it was also larger than the same proportion found among TD children. Comparing the two discrepant profiles revealed that the children also differed by type of learning difficulty, gender, and performance in the WISC-IV Symbol search task. Further examination suggested that children who were discrepant and also distinctly poor in visuoperceptual intelligence were particularly slow in general processing.

Handwriting is fundamental in school and everyday life situations. Legibility guarantees that writing productions communicate information, and speed is often crucial, especially in children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in order to increase the likelihood of their being able to work efficiently and stay on-task during school activities. Preliminary reports have shown an impairment in handwriting of children with ADHD, but evidence is still unclear, especially in the case of speed where research has offered contradictory results. Children’s performance, furthermore, has yet to be investigated under the cognitive loading conditions typical of academic tasks in classroom. To shed light on this matter, we examined the handwriting performance in a simple condition but also under (verbal or spatial) working memory (WM) load in 16 fourth- and fifth-grade children with symptoms of ADHD and 16 matched control children. Our results showed that the groups speed differed significantly only in the verbal WM loading condition, where children with symptoms of ADHD wrote more slowly and showed a greater intra-individual variability than controls. Handwriting legibility was affected by verbal WM loading too. These findings are discussed in relation to their educational and clinical implications.

Time processing is a fundamental ability in everyday living that improves with age. It has been suggested that time processing may be related to the representation of quantity and therefore with mathematical difficulties, but the relationship and, in particular, the implications of different time intervals are still unclear. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between mathematical abilities and the ability to reproduce time intervals of different lengths to test whether children with mathematical difficulties would also exhibit temporal impairment especially when long time intervals are involved. Twenty children with mathematical difficulties and twenty matched children without difficulties were administered a time reproduction task using short standard intervals (500 ms, 1000 ms, and 1500 ms) and long standard intervals (4 s, 9 s, and 14 s). Results showed lower temporal abilities in children with mathematical difficulties, which were particularly evident when the standard intervals were long, thus supporting the hypotheses of a relationship between mathematical and time processing abilities and of distinct systems to process time.

Visuo-constructive and perceptual abilities have been poorly investigated in children with learning disabilities. The present study focused on local or global visuospatial processing in children with nonverbal learning disability (NLD) and dyslexia compared with typically-developing (TD) controls. Participants were presented with a modified block design task (BDT), in both a typical visuo-constructive version that involves reconstructing figures from blocks, and a perceptual version in which respondents must rapidly match unfragmented figures with a corresponding fragmented target figure. The figures used in the tasks were devised by manipulating two variables: the perceptual cohesiveness and the task uncertainty, stimulating global or local processes. Our results confirmed that children with NLD had more problems with the visuo-constructive version of the task, whereas those with dyslexia showed only a slight difficulty with the visuo-constructive version, but were in greater difficulty with the perceptual version, especially in terms of response times. These findings are interpreted in relation to the slower visual processing speed of children with dyslexia, and to the visuo-constructive problems and difficulty in using flexibly-experienced global vs local processes of children with NLD. The clinical and educational implications of these findings are discussed.

It has been hypothesized that ADHD is associated both with difficulties in mathematical problem solving and in updating information in working memory. However, the relationship between updating and performance on mathematical word problems has never been studied for children with ADHD. The present study examined these issues comparing the performance of solving mathematical word problems (with no updating request vs high updating request) in a group of 11-12year old children with ADHD compared to a matched control group with typical development (TD). Results showed that children with ADHD solved fewer problems correctly than typically-developing children; moreover they made more errors in solving problems with updating requirements than those without updating requirements. In contrast, typically-developing children did not show any differences in problems performance on problems with and without updating requirements. Fine grained analyses of children's problem solving processes showed that children with ADHD found more difficult to select the appropriate data prior to calculation and to choose and execute the correct solution than typically-developing children. The difficulty to select the appropriate data results more severe in problems with updating requirements. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that the learning difficulties of children with ADHD are related to their executive dysfunctions, that negatively affect complex tasks requiring updating of to-be-processed information.

It has been hypothesized that learning disabled children meet short-term memory (STM) problems especially when they must bind different types of information, however the hypothesis has not been systematically tested. This study assessed visual STM for shapes and colors and the binding of shapes and colors, comparing a group of children (aged between 8 and 10 years) at risk of non-verbal learning disabilities (NLD) with a control group of children matched for general verbal abilities, age, gender, and socioeconomic level. Results revealed that groups did not differ in retention of either shapes or colors, but children at risk of NLD were poorer than controls in memory for shape-color bindings.

Individuals with high vs. low sensation seeking respond to and remember emotional events in different ways. The present study investigates how high vs. low sensation seekers differ in memory performance for emotional events. Participants were presented with a series of pictures depicting everyday events, some of which had an emotional outcome, and subsequently administered a recognition task. Results showed that high vs. low sensation seekers differed in memory performance for episodes with negative outcome, such that performance was better in low sensation seekers. It is suggested that heightened aversive reactions to negative stimuli may improve memory for scripted episodes in low sensation seekers, while high sensation seekers may be motivated to avoid consideration of events that had a negative outcome.

Emotional disorders have been related with attentional and memory biases, especially for emotional material. Recent research has shown that depression, dysphoria and high internalizing traits are related with an increase of false memories for negative events. However, it is not clear whether anxiety alone may imply the same effect and whether it applies to all emotional events or only negative ones. The present study examined these questions by using a paradigm based on pictorial scripted material to analyze inferential memory errors for negative, positive and neutral everyday events in high-anxious vs. control young adults. Results showed an increase in negative (but not positive) inferential false memories in high-anxious individuals, even after controlling for depression level. On the contrary, negative material reduced false memories in control participants, further supporting previous research. It is concluded that high trait anxiety enhances elaboration of negative emotional material, which eventually leads to misremember causal antecedents of negative events as previously experienced while they were only inferred.

The present study was devoted to test the validity, of the Italian adaptation of the Motor Observation Questionnaire for Teachers (MOQ-T, Schoemaker, Flapper, Reinders-Messelink, & De Kloet, 2008) as a fast screening instrument, based on teachers' ratings, for detecting developmental coordination disorders symptoms and to study its relationship with praxic and visuospatial working memory deficits. In a first study on a large sample of children, we assessed the reliability and structure of the Italian adaptation of the MOQ-T. Results showed a good reliability of the questionnaire and a hierarchical structure with two first-order factors (reflecting motor and handwriting skills), which are influenced by a second-order factor (general motor function) at the top. In a second study, we looked at the external validity of the MOQ-T and found that children with symptoms of Developmental Coordination Disorder (children with high scores on the MOQ-T) also had difficulty reproducing gestures, either imitating others or in response to verbal prompts. Our results also showed that children with high MOQ-T scores had visuospatial WM impairments. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Although geometry is one of the main areas of mathematical learning, the cognitive processes underlying geometry-related academic achievement have not been studied in detail. This study explored the relationship among working memory (WM), intelligence (g factor), and geometry in 176 typically developing children attending school in their fourth and fifth grades. Structural equation modeling showed that approximately 40% of the variance in academic achievement and in intuitive geometry (which is assumed to be independent of a person's cultural background) was explained by WM and the g factor. After taking intelligence and WM into account, intuitive geometry was no longer significantly related to academic achievement in geometry. We also found intuitive geometry to be closely related to fluid intelligence (as measured by Raven's colored progressive matrices) and reasoning ability, whereas academic achievement in geometry depended largely on WM. These results were confirmed by a series of regressions in which we estimated the contributions of WM, intelligence, and intuitive geometry to the unique and shared variance explaining academic achievement in geometry. Theoretical and educational implications of the relationship among WM, intelligence, and academic achievement in geometry are discussed.

This study examined the involvement of verbal and visuo-spatial domains in solving addition problems with carrying in a sample of children diagnosed with developmental dyscalculia (DD) divided into two groups: (i) those with DD alone and (ii) those with DD and dyslexia. Age and stage matched typically developing (TD) children were also studied. The addition problems were presented horizontally or vertically and associated with verbal or visuo-spatial information. Study results showed that DD children's performance on mental calculation tasks was more impaired when they tackled horizontally presented addition problems compared to vertically presented ones that are associated to verbal domain involvement. The performance pattern in the two DD groups was found to be similar. The theoretical, clinical and educational implications of these findings are discussed.

Introduction Research has shown that lay people, and even psychologists, may have distorted knowledge about memory functioning. May different study programs in psychology influence their ideas? Objective(s) The study was aimed at evaluating psychology students’ and psychology professors’ knowledge about memory and factors potentially affecting the accuracy of episodic memory reports in clinical and legal contexts. Method A questionnaire was administered to introductory and advanced students of psychology enrolled at different curricula – experimental psychology and clinical psychology with a psychoanalytical orientation – and to professors teaching the courses in the same curricula. Results Results showed that advanced students and professors in experimental psychology have higher general knowledge of factors influencing memory performance than their peers, including memory issues of particular relevance to clinical psychology; no difference between the curricula was found for the introductory students. Conclusion The results are discussed in terms of the risks that the lack of knowledge on memory functioning of the psychologists with a psychodynamic orientation may have in producing wrong reports in forensic contexts.

A study was conducted on the involvement of visuospatial working memory (VSWM) in intuitive geometry and in school performance in geometry at secondary school. A total of 166 pupils were administered: (1) six VSWM tasks, comprising simple storage and complex span tasks; and (2) the intuitive geometry task devised by Dehaene, Izard, Pica, and Spelke (2006), which distinguishes between core, presumably innate, and culturally-mediated principles of geometry; and (3) a task measuring academic achievement in geometry. Path analysis models showed that some VSWM components support culturally-mediated principles of geometry, whereas no VSWM component is related to the core principles of geometry. A complex VSWM task requiring the manipulation of visual information as well as core and culturally-mediated principles of geometry directly predicted academic achievement in geometry. Our results are discussed in terms of the role of VSWM in learning geometry.

Recent results of international assessment programs (e.g., PISA) have shown a large difference in high school students' performance between northern and southern Italy. On this basis, it has been argued that the discrepancy reflects differences in average intelligence of the inhabitants of regions and is associated with genetic factors ( Lynn, 2010a , Lynn, 2012 ). This paper provides evidence in contrast to this conclusion by arguing that the use of PISA data to make inferences about regional differences in intelligence is questionable, and in any case, both PISA and other recent surveys on achievement of North and South Italy students offer some results that do not support Lynn's conclusions. In particular, a 2006–2009 PISA data comparison shows a relevant decrease in the North–South difference in only three years, particularly evident in the case of a single region (Apulia). Other large surveys (including INVALSI-2011) offer different results; age differences suggest that schooling could have an important role.

Enhanced semantic processing is associated with increased false recognition of items consistent with studied material, suggesting that children with poor semantic skills could produce fewer false memories. We examined whether memory errors differed in children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and controls. Children viewed 18 photographs for each of 4 scripts (e.g., eating at a restaurant). A recognition test followed which included old and new photographs, some of which presenting script consistent information and others depicting the cause (e.g., knocking over a glass of coke) of an effect actually viewed during encoding (wiping the table at the restaurant). Children with ADHD exhibited lower false recognition for script-consistent photographs and were more confident in their errors than controls.

Similarly to sighted people, individuals congenitally affected by a severe visual impairment can maintain and mentally manipulate spatial information about tactile stimuli [Vecchi, T., Cattaneo, Z., Monegato, M., Pece, A., Cornoldi, C., Pietrini, P., 2006. Why Cyclops could not compete with Ulysses: monocular vision and mental images. NeuroReport 17, 723–726]. The aim of the present study was to assess whether the onset timing of a severe (but not total) sight loss may influence spatial imagery abilities based on haptic input. To this purpose, a group of late severe visually impaired people and a matched group of normally sighted participants (all blindfolded) were presented with an imagery task requiring to memorize and retrieve a number of locations presented on tactile matrices. Results indicate that a severe visual deficit occurring later in life significantly impairs spatial imagery abilities to a greater extent than in the case of congenital blindness, probably as a consequence of a modest development of specific compensatory mechanisms associated with congenital deficits.

The paper describes the performance of three children with specific visuospatial working memory (VSWM) impairments (Study 1) and three children with visuospatial (nonverbal) learning disabilities (Study 2) assessed with a battery of working memory (WM) tests and with a number of school achievement tasks. Overall, performance on WM tests provides evidence of a double dissociation between spatial-simultaneous processes, underpinning the memorization item positioning in a spatial configuration, and spatial-sequential processes, which allow memorization of the presentation order. In both groups of children of the two studies, a selective impairment either on spatial-sequential or on spatial-simultaneous working memory tasks was observed. These data support the existence of -simultaneous and -sequential modality-dependent processes in visuospatial working memory and confirm the importance of distinguishing between different subtypes of visuospatial (nonverbal) learning-disabled children.

It has been suggested that the ability to learn a foreign language is related to working memory. However, there is no clear evidence about which component of working memory may be involved. Two experiments investigated working memory problems in groups of seventh and eighth grade Italian children with difficulties in learning English as a second language. They were compared with control groups of children matched for age, education, school, and intelligence who differed for foreign language learning ability. Experiment 1 focused on clarifying how modality-specific the memory problem of children with a foreign language learning difficulty (FLLD) is. Verbal working memory tasks (forward and backward digit span) were proposed together with visuospatial working memory (VSWM) tasks. Groups showed a significant difference only in the more passive verbal working memory task, that is, the forward digit span. Experiment 2 focused on clarifying how central the verbal working memory problem of students with an FLLD is. A nonword repetition task and an Italian version of the listening span test were proposed. Groups differed significantly in both tasks. However, differences in the listening span test disappeared when nonword repetition performance was partialed out. It was concluded that a difficulty in learning a foreign language is mainly related to the more passive aspects of verbal working memory, typically associated with the articulatory loop.

The present paper examines the issue of the capacity of visuo-spatial working memory. A series of experiments test the hypothesis that two different components are critical in visuo-spatial working memory (passive store and active imagery operations), and, thereafter, attempt to specify the variables that affect the capacity of the passive store component. In the experiments, congenitally blind and sighted participants were asked to remember the spatial positions of target objects in two-dimensional matrices, with or without simultaneously performing a sequence of spatially-based imagery operations. We considered both the positions recall performance (the passive storage component) and the sequential imagery processing performance (the active processing component). We suggest that the two components of visuo-spatial working memory are independent. We also propose that both the number of relevant matrices and the number of target objects within each matrix affect the capacity of visuo-spatial working memory, with the latter factor possibly playing a greater role than the former one.

The study of visuo-spatial imagery abilities in totally congenitally blind people may be instrumental in understanding the contribution of visual experience to imagery processes. In the present paper visuo-spatial imagery capacity was explored through a task devised by Kerr (1987) and adapted for presentation to the blind, in which subjects were asked to imagine either two- or three-dimensional matrices of different complexity and to follow a mental pathway. The first experiment showed that blind people have difficulty with three-dimensional matrices which are within the reach of sighted people, and that their performance is affected by the processing rate. In the second experiment the spatial and pictorial components of visual imagery were analyzed by way of the same spatial task and of a pictorial-tactual task in which subjects had to match a mental representation of a pathway to a tactually explored wire silhouette. On the latter task, blind people did not meet any particular difficulty, probably because they could form representations using other sensory modalities and because they were skillful in tactual exploration. These data suggest that research on the blind cannot easily contribute to the distinction between the spatial and pictorial components of visual imagery.

The present paper explores the effects of the use of loci mnemonics by expert people when series of three items (triplets) must be memorized. In an initial experiment, 14 subjects were asked to memorize 20 triplets of concrete, high-imagery, high-frequency words, connecting them to 20 well-known mnemonic loci and following ‘progressive elaboration’ instructions. Their performance on serial recall was compared with that of a group of subjects who used ‘progressive elaboration’ instructions but did not know loci mnemonics. Both groups revealed a position effect in the triplet (the item in first position was remembered better than the second or third in the triplet). However, the overall performance of the loci mnemonic group was far better, especially in the order of recall both within the triplets and between them. In the second experiment following the same procedure, the effects of different modalities of a 7-day delayed test were analyzed in 8 groups of 7 subjects. The mnemonic group performed better both on free recall and recognition, but not on cued recall. When a word strongly associated to the first word of the triplet was given as a cue, both loci mnemonic and control subjects gave a low, not significantly different, performance. It is argued that the latter cue is in conflict both with the cue-locus and with the specific encoding of the triplet given also by controls. Further, in all groups, retrieval seems to proceed from the first to the second to the third items. The most general result of the two experiments is that progressive elaboration instructions make loci mnemonics not only powerful with series of materials, but also capable of maintaining the order of information within and between the loci. Finally, the effects of loci mnemonics appear stronger in subjects with good performance on a memory localization test requiring them to remember where pictures appeared on the pages of a book.