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Raven's Progressive Matrices is a frequently used intelligence test, and it has been suggested that the major determinant of difficulty for each item is its numbers of elements and rules, and its rule complexity. The current study investigated another potential source of difficulty--element salience--items are harder where their elements are difficult to identify. We investigated two aspects of this: whether item elements are (1) overlapped; and (2) based upon familiar versus unfamiliar shapes. Three sets of newly devised matrices were compared to the original items: (1) easy to identify elements (European letters); (2) difficult to identify elements (Invented "letters"); and (3) Overlapped elements (using European letters). The original items (with many overlapped and/or unfamiliar elements) were hardest. Performance was significantly better when item elements were either difficult to identify but not overlapped or overlapped but easy to identify. Performance was best when item elements were neither difficult to identify nor overlapped. It is suggested that although element salience can influence the working memory load of an item, the skills necessary for successful element identification are not necessarily related to working memory capacity.

A plethora of research demonstrates that the processing of emotional faces is prioritised over non-emotive stimuli when cognitive resources are limited (this is known as ‘emotional superiority’). However, there is debate as to whether competition for processing resources results in emotional superiority per se, or more specifically, threat superiority. Therefore, to investigate prioritisation of emotional stimuli for storage in visual short-term memory (VSTM), we devised an original VSTM report procedure using schematic (angry, happy, neutral) faces in which processing competition was manipulated. In Experiment 1, display exposure time was manipulated to create competition between stimuli. Participants (n = 20) had to recall a probed stimulus from a set size of four under high (150 ms array exposure duration) and low (400 ms array exposure duration) perceptual processing competition. For the high competition condition (i.e. 150 ms exposure), results revealed an emotional superiority effect per se. In Experiment 2 (n = 20), we increased competition by manipulating set size (three versus five stimuli), whilst maintaining a constrained array exposure duration of 150 ms. Here, for the five-stimulus set size (i.e. maximal competition) only threat superiority emerged. These findings demonstrate attentional prioritisation for storage in VSTM for emotional faces. We argue that task demands modulated the availability of processing resources and consequently the relative magnitude of the emotional/threat superiority effect, with only threatening stimuli prioritised for storage in VSTM under more demanding processing conditions. Our results are discussed in light of models and theories of visual selection, and not only combine the two strands of research (i.e. visual selection and emotion), but highlight a critical factor in the processing of emotional stimuli is availability of processing resources, which is further constrained by task demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies conducted on adults and children found that closing the eyes while recalling an event increased memory accuracy for both free and cued recall. One possible explanation to this phenomenon is that eye closure increases the amount of cognitive resources devoted to the task reducing external stimulation, but it is still not clear whether the beneficial effect is only due to a better focus on the task or to a better encoding of the material leading to an advantage over time. In this study, we evaluated the effect of eye closure instruction on children memory accuracy for a short clip in an immediate and delayed recall. We observed that asking participants to close their eyes while performing a memory task helped them to remember more details and that this effect persisted after a time delay. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Norms for an Italian translation of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS:A) by Shor and Orne (1962) are presented. Subjects recruited from 1986 to 1989 were pooled, resulting in a sample of 376 participants (297 women and 79 men). The normative data were generally congruent with earlier normative studies in score distribution, item difficulty levels, and reliability. Women had significantly higher hypnotizability scores and item pass rates than men. The reliability scores of the Italian adaptation of the HGSHS:A were the same as a previously reported Danish sample and higher than a German sample, but lower than those of the Australian, Canadian, and original American samples. These results suggest that the Italian version of the HGSHS:A is an efficient tool for initial hypnotizability screening in an Italian context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]