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Interweaving Social Dominance theory with Person-Environment (P-E) fit theory, the present study examines how people higher on social dominance orientation (SDO, i.e., those who generally favor group hierarchies and inequalities) can deal with belonging to institutions that culturally sustain group equality (i.e., hierarchy-attenuating institutions). We enrolled two cohorts of first year students majoring in social work (Sample 1, N = 296; Sample 2, N = 117), a typical hierarchy-attenuating setting. Participants’ belonging to a hierarchy-attenuating institution was primed before administering a self-report questionnaire for measuring the study’s variables. Results of mediation analyses showed that people higher in SDO experienced higher P-E misfit with the institution in both samples. In turn, P-E misfit was positively associated with the intention to leave the social work faculty and with a higher pro-self hierarchy-enhancing motivation (i.e., agreeing that “I am enrolled in a Social work faculty primarily to have more chances to gain money and success in the future”). These results show that people higher in SDO can deal with the dissonant condition of P-E misfit with a hierarchy-attenuating institution by leaving such institution (i.e., differential attrition process) and/or by adopting a framework for their presence in a hierarchy-attenuating institution that aligns with their own’s socially dominant beliefs (i.e., motivational shaping process). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Il presente studio ha l'obiettivo di fornire evidenze circa la validità psicometrica dello "Strumento Integrato per la Valutazione del Benessere Organizzativo (SIVBO)". Facendo rife-rimento al modello teorico job demands-resources (JD-R, Demerouti et al., 2001) lo strumen-to ha l'obiettivo di misurare il benessere organizzativo. I partecipanti allo studio (N = 754), provenienti da diversi contesti lavorativi, hanno risposto ad un questionario autodescrittivo contenente il SIVBO e altre scale di misura. L'analisi fattoriale esplorativa ha messo in eviden-za una soluzione fattoriale composta di un totale di 18 item, con quattro dimensioni denomina-te: richieste lavorative, risorse lavorative, risorse lavorative relazionali e risorse personali. L'analisi fattoriale confermativa ha comprovato che il modello a quattro fattori, con un fattore sovraordinato di secondo ordine, denominato benessere organizzativo, è quello che presenta un miglior adattamento ai dati. Gli indici di coerenza interna (alfa di Cronbach, rho di Spear-man e composite reliability) dello strumento sono risultati adeguati. Le analisi di correlazione e regressione hanno messo in evidenza che le scale del SIVBO risultano significativamente as-sociate a misure concorrenti e discriminanti. Il SIVBO si presenta come uno strumento dotato di proprietà psicometriche adeguate che, considerando anche la sua brevità, si candida a essere applicato agevolmente per la misurazione del benessere organizzativo in molteplici contesti lavorativi.

In three surveys of adults in five nations, we investigated how shared beliefs about the political system motivate individuals' political engagement. Specifically, we tested whether individuals' beliefs that the political context is fair, noncorrupt, and their belief that they could influence politics motivates political engagement to a higher extent for higher- compared to lower-status group members. In a novel use of social dominance theory, we theoretically conceived of these political beliefs as legitimizing ideologies, so that we predicted that people with higher social dominance orientation endorse these beliefs, which in turn enhance the motivation to engage in politics to support current social hierarchical systems. Moreover, we expected that these relationships would be stronger for higher- compared to lower-status groups. These hypotheses were tested considering different levels of group status: wealth status within a country (Study 1), political-regional differences within a country (Study 2), and international status (i.e., between countries; Study 3), and they were largely supported.

Individuals who have a strong locomotion orientation tend to be future-oriented and motivated to move from the present state toward a future state, making swift and steady progress toward their goals. The current study has assessed the conceptual possibility that such motivation leads locomotors to experience greater hopeful thinking, an active cognitive process that consists in planning the future and implementing these plans. The results of Study 1 lend preliminary support to this possibility. The practical implication was linked to the importance of hope in the subjective well-being experienced in everyday life. For this reason, Study 2 tested a model in which hopeful thinking mediated the subjective well-being experienced by locomotors. The results supported the hypothesis: locomotion orientation was associated with enhanced hope capabilities that, in turn, were associated with higher subjective well-being, with significant positive implications for individuals.

Summary Social workers’ occupational health has become a central theme in the psychosocial literature. This study aimed at exploring how specific job demands and psychological well-being are related to work engagement. A sample of 140 Italian social workers was analyzed in accordance with the job demands–resources model. Participants were asked to complete a written questionnaire containing several measurement scales. Findings Multiple regression analyses showed that social workers’ psychological well-being was positively related to work engagement. Moderation analyses also indicated that, when psychological well-being was high (vs. low), job demands were associated to higher levels of work engagement, thus highlighting the buffering role of psychological well-being as a specific personal resource. When job demands were high (vs. low), the psychological well-being appeared to be strongly related to lowest levels of work engagement, showing that high job demands could reduce the fostering role of psychological well-being on social workers’ work engagement. Applications While administration of job demands may often be difficult in social work contexts, managers should be encouraged, as part of a systemic approach to training, to promote specific measures for improving social workers’ psychological well-being as a personal resource for promoting work engagement.

We studied whether high-social dominant employees sustain hierarchies in different hierarchy-enhancing and hierarchy-attenuating organizations endorsing harsh and soft power tactics. We found that social dominance orientation was positively associated with harsh power tactics, and negatively associated with soft power tactics. Employees higher in social dominance orientation endorsed harsh and opposed to soft power tactics as respectively hierarchy-enhancing and hierarchy-attenuating legitimizing myths that promote a dominant-submissive form of intergroup relationships. We also found that supervisors higher in social dominance, due to their dominant position, strongly opposed soft power tactics more than subordinates did. Amongst high-social dominant employees in the hierarchy-attenuating (vs. hierarchy-enhancing) organization, we observed the strongest opposition to soft power tactics, which are the tactics most shared in an organization which tends to attenuate hierarchies.

Social dominance theory (SDT; Sidanius & Pratto, 1999) hypothesizes that members of subordinate groups who are higher on social dominance orientation (SDO; desire for maintaining status hierarchies) coordinate with dominant ones in maintaining asymmetrical relationships. The present research tests this hypothesis in a higher education setting by examining whether SDO serves as an antecedent to subordinates' compliance with harsh power tactics. A longitudinal study asked students (N = 91) to imagine themselves in a subordinated condition doing specific tasks in which they were supervised by a professor. Respondents' SDO and compliance to harsh tactics were measured at two different times. A cross-lagged path analysis, using Bayesian estimation, supported the hypotheses. Students' SDO measured at time 1 predicted their compliance to harsh power tactics measured at time 2, controlling for their initial levels of compliance to harsh power tactics. There was no evidence for the converse; students' compliance to harsh power tactics at time 1 did not predict SDO measured at time 2 taking into account the initial levels of SDO.

The organizational well-being construct has become a theme with broad scientific and law debate, pertaining prevention and protection measures concerning work-related stress, both for assessment and intervention on psychosocial risks. This paper focuses on a case study identified in a specific organizational context of a upper middle school.Starting from a research-intervention perspective, this paper was primarily based on the use of the "Psychosocial Risk Assessment" (Va.RP) Italian tool, in shape for medium organizations, Va.RP-M, in a further form specially remodeled for organizational school contexts. Some of the dimensions measured by the instrument are: the role, transparency of information, support, the relationship between work vs. private life, the perception of organizational and managerial aspects. In addition to this instrument, it was made a board regarding the "practical solutions" deemed most relevant according to the critical organizational received by workers, closing with a request for comments and suggestions on initiatives in order to prevent work-related stress.The results show an emerging dissatisfaction primarily related to the dimensions of perceived lack of organizational justice, role, career advancement, leadership and work flexibility. As for "practical solutions" suggested, respondents identify priorities for high salient specific actions.Overall, it is confirmed as the face and prevent work-related stress is a process that must involve all stakeholders comprised into the organization, with a particular concern in promoting a strength of organizational management, to improve the well-being in partcular in classroom settings. Teachers emerge as a figure of multiparty function experienced in the psychosocial dynamics considered.Introduzione. Il benessere organizzativo è ormai divenuto un costrutto oggetto di ampio dibattito scientifico e normativo, sia per le misure di prevenzione e tutela in materia di stress lavoro-correlato, sia per la valutazione e gli interventi sui rischi psicosociali. Il presente contributo è focalizzato su un caso di studio in uno specifico ambito organizzativo scolastico d’istruzione medio superiore d’istruzione. Metodo. Il lavoro, in un’ottica di ricerca-intervento, è stato principalmente basato sull’impiego dello strumento “Valutazione Rischi Psicosociali” (Va.RP) nella forma per medie organizzazioni, Va.RP-M, in una ulteriore forma con un wording appositamente adattato per i contesti organizzativi scolastici. Alcune delle dimensioni di snodo valutate tramite lo strumento sono: il ruolo, la chiarezza delle informazioni, il supporto, la relazione vita privata/lavoro, la percezione degli aspetti gestionali e organizzativi. Oltre a tale strumento è stata formulata una scheda inerente le “soluzioni pratiche” ritenute più rilevanti in base alle criticità organizzative percepite dai lavoratori e con la richiesta di osservazioni e suggerimenti su iniziative per contrastare e prevenire lo stress lavoro-correlato. Risultati. I risultati mostrano un emergente stato di malessere principalmente ricondotto alle dimensioni relative all’equità percepita, il ruolo, l’avanzamento di carriera, la leadership e la flessibilità lavorativa. Per quanto riguarda le “soluzioni pratiche” suggerite, gli intervistati individuano priorità di intervento del tutto salienti. Conclusioni. Nell’insieme, si suggerisce come l’affrontare e prevenire lo stress lavoro-correlato è un processo che deve veder coinvolti, come da più parti da tempo sottolineato, tutti gli attori dell’organizzazione, in una prospettiva di promozione di politiche gestionali e sociali più generali, volte a migliorare il benessere anche nei contesti scolastici. Gli insegnanti emergono come figura di snodo per la funzione da essi assolta nelle complesse dinamiche relazionali in cui sono inseriti.

Inspired by the popular Arab protests against oppressive regimes that began in 2010,people around the world protested in sympathy with the Arab peoples. The present research draws on two major theories of intergroup relations to develop an initial integrative model of sympathetic collective action. We incorporate social dominance theory’s (SDT) concept of (rejectionist) legitimizing myths with the solidarity and emotional mediation concept of the social identity model of collective action (SIMCA) to understand motivations for sympathetic collective action among bystanders. Using data from 12 nations (N=1480), we tested three models: (a) SIMCA (i.e. solidarity, anger, and efficacy), (b) a social dominance theory model of collective action (i.e. social dominance orientation and ideologies concerning Arab competence), and (c) an integrated model of sympathetic collective action combining both theories. Results find the greatest support for an integrated model of collective action. Discussion focuses on theoretical pluralism and suggestions for future research., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The present studies examined the influence of two regulatory mode concerns—a locomotion concern with movement from state to state and an assessment concern with making comparisons [see Higgins, E. T., Kruglanski, A. W., & Pierro, A. (2003). Regulatory mode: Locomotion and assessment as distinct orientations. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 35, pp. 293–344). New York: Academic Press]—on engaging in counterfactual thinking and experiencing post-decisional regret. When contemplating a decision with a negative outcome, it was predicted that high (vs. low) locomotion would induce less counterfactual thinking and less regret, whereas the opposite would be true for high (vs. low) assessment. Locomotion and assessment orientations were measured as chronic individual differences in Study 1 and 2, and were induced experimentally in Study 3. In Study 1 and 3 a purchase scenario with a negative outcome was used to elicit counterfactuals and regret, while in Study 2 participants were asked to recall one of their own personal purchases that had a negative outcome. The results supported our predictions. We discuss the implications of these findings for the nature of counterfactual thinking and regret from the perspective of their relation to regulatory mode.

We tested the internal reliability and predictive validity of a new 4-item Short Social Dominance Orientation (SSDO) scale among adults in 20 countries, using 15 languages (N = 2,130). Low scores indicate preferring group inclusion and equality to dominance. As expected, cross-nationally, the lower people were on SSDO, the more they endorsed more women in leadership positions, protecting minorities, and aid to the poor. Multilevel moderation models showed that each effect was stronger in nations where a relevant kind of group power differentiation was more salient. Distributions of SSDO were positively skewed, despite use of an extended response scale; results show rejecting group hierarchy is normative. The short scale is effective. Challenges regarding translations, use of short scales, and intersections between individual and collective levels in social dominance theory are discussed. © The Author(s) 2013.

The socio-political values predominant in a particular society will reflect the correspondent needs of that society, and these needs can include factors other than the material or agent-focused. This paper discusses the role of three inter-related drives in shaping responses to societal-level forces such as oppression in hierarchical sociopolitical systems: self-definition/agency, physical survival/protection, and relational harmony. In comparison to post-materialist theory (Inglehart, 1971), we argue that a) personal and national economic affluence or security may not be sufficient to describe social ecology nor account for the self-amplifying nature of the interchangeable forms of power that can influence values, b) individual and collective social-relational needs are utilitarian and essential, c) fulfillment of material and social needs can be directed by ‘non-material’ as well as material political values, d) ‘non-material’ values can be just as common in impoverished or subordinated nations as they are in affluent or empowered nations, and e) ‘non-material’ values directing the need for relational harmony, such as equality or affinity for resistance against oppression, may be more commonly held, and more strongly so, among people living under worse power ecologies. A conceptual analysis, a new measure of cross-level relational power, and a survey study of adult convenience samples in 7 nations (N=685) provide evidence supporting these hypotheses. Implications for theories of socio-political values and hierarchy are discussed.

Arab nations are decades behind many other previously colonized nations in developing stronger economies, more democratic institutions, and more autonomy and self-government, in part as a result of external interference. The year 2011 brought the potential for greater Arab autonomy through popular uprisings against autocratic governments in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen, and through the Palestinian request for state recognition by the United Nations. We examined the psychology of support for Arab ascendancy among adults in 14 nations in the Balkans, the Middle East, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and North America. We predicted and found that people low on social dominance orientation endorsed forming an independent Palestinian state and desired that the Arab uprisings succeed. Rejection of ideologies that legitimize outside interference with Arabs mediated this support. Measures and model results were robust across world regions. We discuss theoretical implications regarding the advent of new ideologies and extending social dominance theory to address international relations.

This study tests a path model in which residential satisfaction, operationalized in terms of multidimensional perceived residential environment quality (PREQ), predicts neighbourhood attachment considered as the final criterion. Socio-demographic (age, sex, socio-economic level) and residential (length of residence both in the neighbourhood and in Rome, number of persons living together) variables are also included in the theoretical model as predictors of both PREQ and neighbourhood attachment. Using a multidimensional questionnaire for the measurement of PREQ and a unidimensional scale for the measurement of neighbourhood attachment, the study focuses on a sample of 497 inhabitants from 20 different neighbourhoods in the city of Rome. The multidimensional PREQ questionnaire comprises 20 different scales covering four main areas: architectural and town-planning features (six scales); social relations features (three scales); punctual and in-network services (six scales); context features (five scales). First, the path model is tested separately in each area using structural equation analysis. Then, the best predictors emerging from each area, together with all socio-demographic and residential variables, are included in a final model. This model shows both the relevance of predictors from all four areas in predicting attachment, and also a hierarchy between the areas in the power of the prediction (context area giving the most powerful predictors, services giving the weakest ones, architectural and town-planning, and social relations having intermediate importance). Length of residence in the neighbourhood and socio-economic level are the most relevant of the residential and socio-demographic variables. Results are discussed with reference to the multicomponential nature of the process of neighbourhood attachment.

Many studies investigated the importance of a correct assessment of work-related stress because of its large effects on work planning and work management. The aim of the present study is to demonstrate the psychometric validity of the CSL Checklist questionnaire for the assessment of work related stress regarding micro and small enterprises. This tool has been conceived to investigate the perception of stress in the workplace by workers.The questionnaire has been submitted to 1033 workers belonging to 136 firms differentiated by production sectors and sizes. In order to conduct these analysis, objective data were considered too.The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), present three factors with a good internal consistency and reliability: "Organizational Culture" (alpha = .84), "Workload" (alpha = .76), and "Quality of relations and support" (alpha = .79). The Structural Equation Modelling confirms the goodness of the factorial solution (NNFI = 0,98; CFI = 0,99; RMSEA = 0,076). Good relations between the CSL dimensions and the organizational indicators have been observed (p0.01). Finally, the logistic regression shows how the Organizational Culture and Workload are good predictors of some of the organizational indicators like use of Proctective Equipment at Work and the number of work accidents.Psychometric qualities of the CSL questionnaire are good. The CSL is a short and simple tool, useful to assess work-related stress regarding micro and small enterprises.

The International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) is an accelerator-driven intense neutron source where candidate materials for fusion reactors will be tested and validated. The high energy neutron flux is produced by means of two deuteron beams (total current of 250 mA, energy of 40 MeV) that strikes a liquid lithium target circulating in a lithium loop of IFMIF plant. The European (EU) contribution to the development of the lithium facility comprises five procurement packages, as follow: (1) participation to the experimental activities of the EVEDA lithium test loop in Oarai (Japan); (2) study aimed at evaluating the corrosion and erosion phenomena, promoted by lithium, for structural fusion reference materials like AISI 316L and Eurofer; (3) design and validation of the lithium purification method with the aim to provide input data for the design of the purification system of IFIMF lithium loop; (4) design and validation of the remote handling (RH) procedures for the refurbishment/replacement of the EU concept of IFMIF target assembly including the design of the remote handling tools; (5) the engineering design of the European target assembly for IFMIF and the safety and RAMI analyses for the entire IFMIF lithium facility. The paper gives an overview of the status of the activities and of the main outcomes achieved so far. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The studies presented here focus on the relationship between legitimizing ideologies and ambivalent sexism. 544 Italian students (Study 1) and 297 US students (Study 2) completed several scales: social dominance orientation (SDO), system justification (SJ), political orientation, religiosity, and the Glick and Fiske (J Pers Soc Psychol 70(3):491–512, 1996) Ambivalent Sexism Inventory. Zero-order correlations revealed all facets of ideological attitudes to be positively related to each other and correlated with ambivalent sexism. In particular, the SDO was related to both ideology components of SJ and political orientation and to ambivalent sexism (hostile and benevolent). Moderated regressions revealed that SDO has a positive impact on hostile sexism for men only, while SJ has a positive impact on hostile sexism for women only. While the first result was stable across the two studies, the last moderated effect has been detected only in Study 1. We discuss the results with respect to different facets of social ideologies and cultural differences between the two countries.

The present research incorporates both intergroup and interpersonal approaches to power to examine influence tactics in organizations. Both approaches suggest that there should be coordination between supervisors and subordinates in the workplace for the smooth functioning of organizations. Study 1 tested how employees' social dominance orientation corresponds to what interpersonal influence tactics employees view as acceptable for supervisors. Study 2 tested how employees' SDO corresponds to interpersonal influence tactics they would use on subordinates. Complementarily, results showed that the higher participants were on SDO, the more they endorsed harsh tactics as legitimate. Implications for integrating power theories are discussed.

The dysregulation of EGF family ligand cleavage has severe consequences for the developing as well as the adult organism. Therefore, their production is highly regulated. The limiting step is the ectodomain cleavage of membrane-bound precursors by one of several a disintegrin and metalloprotease (ADAM) metalloproteases, and understanding the regulation of cleavage is an important goal of current research. We have previously reported that in mouse lung epithelial cells, the pro-EGF ligands TGFα, neuregulin 1β (NRG), and heparin-binding EGF are differentially cleaved depending on the cleavage stimulus (Herrlich, A., Klinman, E., Fu, J., Sadegh, C., and Lodish, H. (2008) FASEB J.). In this study in mouse embryonic fibroblasts that lack different ADAMs, we show that induced cleavage of EGF ligands can involve the same substrate-specific metalloprotease but does require different stimulus-dependent signaling pathways. Cleavage was stimulated by phorbol ester (12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), a mimic of diacylglycerol and PKC activator), hypertonic stress, lysophosphatidic acid (LPA)-induced G protein-coupled receptor activation, or by ionomycin-induced intracellular calcium release. Although ADAMs showed substrate preference (ADAM17, TGFα and heparin-binding EGF; and ADAM9, NRG), substrate cleavage differed substantially with the stimulus, and cleavage of the same substrate depended on the presence of different, sometimes multiple, PKC isoforms. For instance, classical PKC was required for TPA-induced but not hypertonic stress-induced cleavage of all EGF family ligands. Inhibition of PKCζ enhanced NRG release upon TPA stimulation, but it blocked NRG release in response to hypertonic stress. Our results suggest a model in which substantial regulation of ectodomain cleavage occurs not only on the metalloprotease level but also on the level of the substrate or of a third protein.

Quotidiani locali, comunicazione politica e percezione ambientale - The present contribution concerns the interface role between politics and the readers that print media play, with reference to management choices which have an impact on the environment. We acknowledged that the influence of media on shared social representations within users’ communities is a strategic point for politicians’ research and building of consensus. Thus, this study focused on the content analysis of both the press conference on the Regional Landscape Plan held by the President of the Sardinia Autonomous Region and the articles published by the three newspapers at Regional circulation on such topic during the previous and the following days. Consistently with our hypothesis, the statistical analysis of the textual material show that the three newspapers mirror a clear and distinct political orientation, and use different newsmaking modalities, insofar confirming the openness to manipulation of the press conference tool in the political communication.

This study proposes a psychological analysis of the relationships between people and their residential environment in two neighbourhoods in Rome, within the theoretical framework of place theory. The analysis was aimed at getting indications for neighbourhood improvement, which can lead to residential satisfaction and neighbourhood attachment. We considered both constructs as the result of the relationships between the physical attributes of the environment, the cognitive perceptions and the affective appraisals of residents, and the activities they carry out. The role of socio-demographic and residential variables was also considered. Theoretical implications of results and indications for neighbourhood improvement are discussed. Residential satisfaction and neighbourhood attachment have a different pattern of predictors, emerging from all the dimensions of analysis we considered. Using hierarchical linear models, cognitive, affective and behavioural variables emerged as significant first-level predictors of both criterions, and physical attributes were found to be significant second-level predictors. In addition, the joint analysis of objective neighbourhood features and residents’ experience within a place-specific framework showed to be an effective approach to identify relevant domains for neighbourhood improvement. Commercial and leisure facilities can contribute to make the neighbourhood more lively; building density and green areas have inverse effects on the prevalence of social activities.

Pratto, F., Çidam A., Stewart, A. L., Zeineddine, F. B., Aranda, M., Aiello, A., Chryssochoou, X., Cichocka, A., Cohrs, J. C., Durrheim, K., Eicher, V., Foels, R., Górska, P., Lee, I.-C., Licata, L., Liu, J. H., Li, L., Meyer, I., Morselli, D., Muldoon, O., Muluk, H., Papastamou, S., Petrovic, I., Petrovic, N., Prodromitis, G., Prati, F., Rubini, M., Saab, R., van Stekelenburg, J., Sweetman, J., Zheng, W., Henkel, K. E. (2013). Social dominance in context and in individuals: Contextual moderation of robust effects of social dominance orientation in 15 languages and 20 countries. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 4(5), 587-599. (Original DOI: 10.1177/1948550612473663) On page 587 of the above article published in Social Psychological and Personality Science, author Monica Rubini's institutional affiliation was listed as the University of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland; however, her institutional affiliation was with the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna in Bologna, Italy.

Pratto, F., Saguy, T., Stewart, A. L., Morselli, D., Foels, R., Aiello, A., Aranda, M., Cidam, A., Chryssochoou, X., Durrheim, K., Eicher, V., Licata, L., Liu, J. H., Liu, L., Meyer, I., Muldoon, O., Papastamou, S., Petrovic, N., Prati, F., Prodomitis, G., & Sweetman, J. (2014). Attitudes toward Arab ascendance: Israeli and global perspectives. Psychological Science, 25, 85–94. (Original DOI: 10.1177/0956797613497021 )

In order to understand the relationships between city residents and urban green spaces, a number of investigations have been carried out within the multidisciplinary UNESCO-MAB Programme on Urban Ecosystems ongoing since many years in the city of Rome. Different studies have focussed on : (1) the inhabitants' practices and attitudes of satisfaction/dissatisfactions toward their residential neighbourhood, and (2) their images of, and attitudes toward urban green spaces. The results of these investigations show that : (a) green spaces have a high degree of importance for residents 'urban practices and satisfaction/dissatisfaction with, and attachment to, neighbourhood ; (b) residents and natural science experts tend to evaluate the quality of urban green spaces in different ways ; and (c) urban residents tend to exhibit ambivalent attitudes toward green spaces depending on their socio-demographic characteristics and place of residence., Afin de comprendre la spécificité du rapport des habitants avec les espaces verts urbains, plusieurs lignes de recherche ont été développées au sein du Programme Pluridisciplinaire UNESCO-MAB sur les écosystèmes urbains en cours depuis quelques années sur la ville de Rome. Différentes études ont été menées sur : (1) les pratiques et les attitudes de satisfaction/insatisfaction des habitants vis-à-vis de leur quartier de résidence, (2) les images et les attitudes vis-à-vis des espaces verts de la ville en général. Les résultats tendent à montrer (a) la grande importance qu'ont les espaces verts du quartier dans les pratiques urbaines des habitants en ce qui concerne leur satisfaction/insatisfaction et leur attachement au quartier en général ; (b) la tendance des habitants à évaluer la qualité des espaces verts urbains de manière différente de celle d'experts naturalistes ; (c) l'existence chez les citadins d'une attitude très ambivalente envers les espaces verts urbains, qui semble liée aux caractéristiques socio-démographiques et au lieu de résidence., Bonnes Mirilia, Aiello Antonio, Bonaiuto Mario. Les espaces verts urbains dans les pratiques et les représentations des habitants. In: Villes en parallèle, n°28-29, décembre 1999. Ville et environnement. Approche psychosociologique. pp. 176-194.

The theoretical distinction between an articulatory control process and a short-term phonological store was supported in five experiments on immediate serial recall. In Experiment 1, articulatory suppression during the presentation and recall of auditory material abolished the word length effect but not the phonemic similarity effect. In Experiment 2, the two latter effects were found to be independent with auditory presentation. In Experiment 3, the effects of irrelevant speech and word length were found to be independent with visual presentation. In Experiment 4, articulatory suppression during the presentation and recall of auditory material abolished the phonemic similarity effect with a slow presentation rate. Nevertheless, in Experiment 5, articulatory suppression with a conventional presentation rate did not reduce the effect of phonemic similarity, even when a 10-sec interval was interposed between presentation and recall. These results indicate that the encoding, maintenance, and retrieval of spoken material within the phonological store do not depend on a process of articulatory rehearsal.

Ubiquitous Computing, Mobile Computing and Internet of Things (UMI) technologies, are widely diffused in the everyday life. In addition to their primary usage (e.g., supporting the implementation of the future 5G network), these technologies can be used in the context of Science Education. According to this perspective, the innovative psycho-pedagogical approach here presented has been ad-hoc developed for the Horizon 2020 Project “Exploiting Ubiquitous Computing, Mobile Computing and the Internet of Things to promote Science Education” (Umi-Sci-Ed). The aim of the project is to enhance knowledge and skills of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and to promote positive attitudes towards these disciplines. In order to reach this goal, the UMI technologies, framed in the Community of Practices (CoPs) paradigm, will be introduced in the learning process ofsecondary schools’ students (i.e., 9thand 10thgrade). Specifically, the students will attend to innovative learning activities, such as hands-on activities, concerning with Networking and networked Robotics. In the present contribution, the theoretical framework that constitutes the rationale for the Umi-Sci-Ed project will be described. In particular, the “bottom-up” socio-constructionist perspective will be presented, as well as the main technological tools (e.g., UDOO) that would be used to implement an integrated STEM learning environment. The expected results of the project will be discussed.