Mental Images and School Learning: A Longitudinal Study on Children.

Recent literature have underlined the connections between children's reading skills and capacity to create and use mental representations or mental images; furthermore data highlighted the involvement of visuospatial abilities both during math learning and during subsequent developmental phases in performing math tasks. The present research adopted a longitudinal design to assess whether the processes of mental imagery in preschoolers (ages 4-5 years) are predictive of mathematics skills, writing and reading, in the early years of primary school (ages 6-7 years). The research lasted for two school years; in the first phase, the general group of participants consisted of 100 children, and although all participants agreed to be part of the research, in the second phase, there was a mortality rate of 30%. In order to measure school learning and mental imagery processes four batteries of tests were used. The mental imagery battery evaluated mental generation, inspection and transformation processes. Data underlined that the different aspects in which mental imagery processes are articulated are differently implied in some skills that constitute school learning. These findings emphasize the potential usefulness of a screening for mental imagery ability for schoolchildren to adopt effective measures to increase their mental imagery abilities.

The Big Five Personality Traits and Dispositional Mindfulness as Predictors of Alexithymia in College Students.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this research was to measure the relationship between the Big Five personality traits, dispositional mindfulness and alexithymia, and to investigate personality traits and dispositional mindfulness as predictors of alexithymia in a group of college students. METHOD: In the present study, 150 college students at Tabriz University, aged between 18 and 26, were selected by convenient sampling method. NEO - Five Factor Inventory (NEO - FFI), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS - 20), and Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI-SF) were used for data collection. RESULTS: The results showed that alexithymia was positively associated with neuroticism, and negatively associated with conscientiousness and openness to experiences. Neuroticism is the strongest predictor of alexithymia. After controlling for the effects of baseline characteristics and the Big Five personality traits, mindfulness did not remain a significant predictor of alexithymia. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that neuroticism, openness to experiences and conscientiousness have an essential role in alexithymia.