In emotion and reading motivation, children with a diagnosis of dyslexia are not just the end of a continuum.

Children with dyslexia (CwD) often report poor psychological well-being. We examined (i) whether anxiety, self-concept and reading motivation in CwD differed from those of typically developing children (TDC; case-control design, Study 1a) and (ii) whether these differences mirrored the linear relationships that these variables present with reading ability in the TDC group (dimensional approach, Study 1b). In Study 1a, 34 CwD were compared with 191 TDC in grades 4-8 on anxiety, self-concept, reading motivation and reading strategy using self-reports (controlling for sex, intelligence and math ability scores). In Study 1b, the differences that emerged in Study 1a were compared with the results obtained from a simulation procedure that generated dyslexia observations under the assumptions of a dimensional hypothesis. The CwD group presented small-to-moderate difficulties, which partially mirrored the predictions in the TDC group. However, violations of predictions based on the population without dyslexia were found for reading self-concept, social anxiety and reading competitiveness. In sum, children's diagnoses affect their self-perception as readers and social anxiety in a way that cannot be inferred from linear relationships. CwD need support to preserve an adequate image of themselves as readers and cope with social anxiety.

Sex/gender differences in general cognitive abilities: an investigation using the Leiter-3.

Research has shown that differences between males and females are not in general intelligence, but only in some specific factors and tasks. We used the Italian standardization of the Leiter-3, which is a completely nonverbal cognitive battery, to investigate the nature of sex/gender (we used sex/gender to reflect the awareness that the effects of biological 'sex' and socially constructed 'gender' cannot be easily separated and that most individuals' identities are informed by both sex and gender) differences. In doing so we used a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis approach. Results confirmed that males and females perform similarly in general intelligence, but present with some specificities. Males perform better on some, but not all, tasks requiring the spatial manipulation of the stimuli, but females consistently outperform males in tasks such as the nonverbal Stroop, requiring inhibition and attention control to a larger extent. The clinical and practical implications of our findings are considerable. The identification of specific cognitive strengths and weaknesses in males and females underscores the importance of tailored approaches in clinical assessments and interventions.

Intelligence and working memory: evidence from administering the WAIS-IV to Italian adults and elderly.

The present study took advantage of data collected on more than 2100 Italian adult and elderly individuals during the standardization of the WAIS-IV to examine the relationship between working memory (WM) components and intelligence, and how age affects this relationship. Administering the WAIS-IV enabled us to obtain five different measures for assessing different aspects of WM, and a measure of General Ability (GA) strongly loading on the g-factor. The main results were as follows: (1) age-related impairments in WM are substantial, and they are partly similar and partly different for the various WM measures; (2) the relationship between the WM measures and the General Ability Index (GAI) varies, becoming stronger when the active control required by the WM task is higher; (3) comparing the WM-GAI relationships between different age groups reveals some similar patterns, as well as some specific effects that depend on the WM task considered.

Difficulties of children with symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in processing temporal information concerning everyday life events.

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.

Reading in a transparent second language with limited orality: The case of high school students with dyslexia in Latin.

Research has shown that individuals with dyslexia have difficulty in reading not only in their native language but also in a second language (L2). The considered L2, however, has always been a language acquired through exposure to both written and oral forms. The present study examines the case of Italian adolescents reading in Latin as an L2, which is the special case of a dead language with very limited use of orality. As the learning of Latin is mainly based on the acquisition of grammar, this study also examined the relationship between grammatical proficiency and reading ability in Latin. Results suggested that, compared with control peers, students with dyslexia had difficulty in reading words and non-words in Latin. Interestingly, in spite of Latin being learnt mainly through written language, the extent of their difficulty was no larger than they encountered when reading in their native language. Also, despite the fact that students with dyslexia showed relatively less severe difficulties with Latin grammar (as compared to reading), this did not support them when reading Latin words, unlike typical readers. The theoretical and educational implications of these results are discussed.

Positive events protect children from causal false memories for scripted events.

Adults produce fewer inferential false memories for scripted events when their conclusions are emotionally charged than when they are neutral, but it is not clear whether the same effect is also found in children. In the present study, we examined this issue in a sample of 132 children aged 6-12 years (mean 9 years, 3 months). Participants encoded photographs depicting six script-like events that had a positively, negatively, or a neutral valenced ending. Subsequently, true and false recognition memory of photographs related to the observed scripts was tested as a function of emotionality. Causal errors-a type of false memory thought to stem from inferential processes-were found to be affected by valence: children made fewer causal errors for positive than for neutral or negative events. Hypotheses are proposed on why adults were found protected against inferential false memories not only by positive (as for children) but also by negative endings when administered similar versions of the same paradigm.

Working memory affects false memory production for emotional events.

Whereas a link between working memory (WM) and memory distortions has been demonstrated, its influence on emotional false memories is unclear. In two experiments, a verbal WM task and a false memory paradigm for negative, positive or neutral events were employed. In Experiment 1, we investigated individual differences in verbal WM and found that the interaction between valence and WM predicted false recognition, with negative and positive material protecting high WM individuals against false remembering; the beneficial effect of negative material disappeared in low WM participants. In Experiment 2, we lowered the WM capacity of half of the participants with a double task request, which led to an overall increase in false memories; furthermore, consistent with Experiment 1, the increase in negative false memories was larger than that of neutral or positive ones. It is concluded that WM plays a critical role in determining false memory production, specifically influencing the processing of negative material.

The relevance of memory sensitivity for psychological well-being in aging.

PURPOSE: In the present study, we investigated the relationship between memory sensitivity, which describes a positive attitude to autobiographical memory and the presence of behaviors devoted to saving memories of the personal past, and psychological well-being; in particular, we tested whether their relationship would change across age groups. METHODS: Three hundred eighteen participants, divided in four groups: young to middle-aged adults (20-55 years old), young-old adults (65-74 years old), old adults (75-84 years old), and old-old adults (85-97 years old), completed questionnaires on their memory sensitivity and psychological well-being. RESULTS: Memory sensitivity slightly decreased with age and had a positive relationship with psychological well-being that was critically moderated by age. Specifically, the relationship between memory sensitivity and psychological well-being became increasingly stronger as age increased. CONCLUSIONS: While memory sensitivity may have little or no particular relevance in the case of young to middle-aged adults, it has an increasingly important positive relationship with psychological well-being at later age. It is thus suggested that memory sensitivity represents a dimension that should be considered in the study and interventions on quality of life in the elderly population.

L2 Spelling Errors in Italian Children with Dyslexia.

The present study aimed to investigate L2 spelling skills in Italian children by administering an English word dictation task to 13 children with dyslexia (CD), 13 control children (comparable in age, gender, schooling and IQ) and a group of 10 children with an English learning difficulty, but no L1 learning disorder. Patterns of difficulties were examined for accuracy and type of errors, in spelling dictated short and long words (i.e. disyllables and three syllables). Notably, CD were poor in spelling English words. Furthermore, their errors were mainly related with phonological representation of words, as they made more 'phonologically' implausible errors than controls. In addition, CD errors were more frequent for short than long words. Conversely, the three groups did not differ in the number of plausible ('non-phonological') errors, that is, words that were incorrectly written, but whose reading could correspond to the dictated word via either Italian or English rules. Error analysis also showed syllable position differences in the spelling patterns of CD, children with and English learning difficulty and control children. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Metacognitive aspects influence subjective well-being in parents of children with cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Research suggests that metacognitive beliefs may be involved in psychological distress and even in the pathogenesis of emotional disorders. The present research is a first attempt to investigate how certain metacognitive aspects operate as favorable or adverse factors influencing subjective wellbeing (SWB) in the parents of children with cancer. METHOD: Thirty parents of children being treated for cancer completed questionnaires on their metacognitive beliefs (Metacognition Questionnaire), sensitivity to autobiographical memory, and self-reported measures of positive and negative affect (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule). Results in the study group were compared with those obtained from 36 control parents of children being treated for acute, not life-threatening illnesses (hospitalized control group) and from 30 control parents of healthy children (healthy control group). RESULTS: Parents in both the study group and the hospitalized control group reported less SWB than the healthy control group. Most important, metacognitive aspects explained up to 77% of the variance in SWB in parents of children with cancer, as opposed to only 23% in hospitalized control group and 33% in the healthy control group. CONCLUSION: Differentmetacognitive aspects have a crucial role­both negative and positive­inSWB of parents of children with cancer. It is suggested that the psychological support for parents copingwith a child suffering from oncological disease should assess such aspects and try to address them in clinical practice.

The relationship among geometry, working memory, and intelligence in children.

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.

Inferential false memories of events: negative consequences protect from distortions when the events are free from further elaboration.

The present experiment was conducted to investigate whether negative emotionally charged and arousing content of to-be-remembered scripted material would affect propensity towards memory distortions. We further investigated whether elaboration of the studied material through free recall would affect the magnitude of memory errors. In this study participants saw eight scripts. Each of the scripts included an effect of an action, the cause of which was not presented. Effects were either negatively emotional or neutral. Participants were assigned to either a yes/no recognition test group (recognition), or to a recall and yes/no recognition test group (elaboration + recognition). Results showed that participants in the recognition group produced fewer memory errors in the emotional condition. Conversely, elaboration + recognition participants had lower accuracy and produced more emotional memory errors than the other group, suggesting a mediating role of semantic elaboration on the generation of false memories. The role of emotions and semantic elaboration on the generation of false memories is discussed.

Improving reading comprehension in reading and listening settings: the effect of two training programmes focusing on metacognition and working memory.

BACKGROUND: Metacognition and working memory (WM) have been found associated with success in reading comprehension, but no studies have examined their combined effect on the training of reading comprehension. Another open question concerns the role of listening comprehension: In particular, it is not clear whether training to improve reading comprehension must necessarily be based on processing written material or whether, as suggested in a recent study by Clarke et al. (2010, Psychol. Sci., 21, 1106), a programme based on verbal language could also be effective. AIMS: The study examined the feasibility of improving text comprehension in school children by comparing the efficacy of two training programmes, both involving metacognition and WM, but one based on listening comprehension, the other on reading comprehension. PARTICIPANTS: The study involved a sample of 159 pupils attending eight classes in the fourth and fifth grades (age range 9-11 years). METHOD: The listening and reading programmes focused on the same abilities/processes strictly related to text comprehension, and particularly metacognitive knowledge and control, WM (per se and in terms of integrating information in a text). The training programmes were implemented by school teachers as part of the class's normal school activities, under the supervision of experts. Their efficacy was compared with the results obtained in an active control group that completed standard text comprehension activities. RESULTS: Our results showed that both the training programmes focusing on specific text comprehension skills were effective in improving the children's achievement, but training in reading comprehension generated greater gains than the listening comprehension programme. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that activities focusing specifically on metacognition and WM could foster text comprehension, but the potential benefit is influenced by the training modality, that is, the Reading group obtained greater and longer-lasting improvements than the Active control or Listening groups.

Slowness in writing numbers in words and in digits among children with a specific learning disorder (SLD) and typically developing (TD).

INSTRUCTION: Children with a Specific Learning Disorder (SLD) write linguistic material more slowly than children with typically developing (TD). However, it is not known whether the same difficulties are present when they write numbers. The goal of the present study was to fill this gap and to compare TD's and SLD's speed in writing numbers both in words and in digits. METHODS: Therefore, we examined the ability to write numbers in words and digits (numerals) in a sample of sixth- to eighth-grade children diagnosed with SLD. We assessed 32 children with SLD (17 males and 15 females) and a control group of students with TD matched for sex, age, and grade with two writing speed tasks: writing numbers in words and in digits. The two tasks were administered both in normal condition (N) and in articulatory suppression condition (AS). RESULTS: We found that 6th to 8th graders with a SLD were slower than TD children when writing numbers, both in words and in digits, and their slowness was similar in the two cases. However, when the tasks were carried out under a condition of articulatory suppression, the SLD group exhibited a conspicuous impairment, only when writing numbers in words. A similar pattern of performance was observed also in the case of writing errors. CONCLUSION: We concluded that children with SLD have a general speed problem that may affect writing of different materials but also a specific problem related to the processing of phonological information during writing.

Attentional WM is not necessarily specifically related with fluid intelligence: the case of smart children with ADHD symptoms.

Executive functions and, in particular, Attentional (active) Working Memory (WM) have been associated with fluid intelligence. The association contrasts with the hypothesis that children with ADHD exhibit problems with WM tasks requiring controlled attention and may have a good fluid intelligence. This paper examines whether children who are intelligent but present ADHD symptoms fail in attentional WM tasks. The latter result would be problematic for theories assuming the generality of a strict relationship between intelligence and WM. To study these issues, a battery of tests was administered to a group of 58 children who all displayed symptoms of ADHD. All children were between the age of 8 and 11 years, and were described by their teachers as smart. Children were compared to a control group matched for age, schooling, and gender. The battery included a test of fluid intelligence (Raven's Coloured Matrices), and a series of visuospatial WM tasks. Results showed that children with ADHD were high in intelligence but significantly lower than the controls in WM tasks requiring high attentional control, whereas there was no difference in WM tasks requiring low attentional control. Furthermore, only high attentional control WM tasks were significantly related to Raven's performance in the control group, whereas all WM tasks were similarly related in the ADHD group. It is concluded that performance in high attentional control WM tasks may be related to fluid intelligence, but also to a specific control component that is independent of intelligence and is poor in children with ADHD.

Italian children with dyslexia are also poor in reading English words, but accurate in reading English pseudowords.

It has been argued that children with dyslexia (DC) are poor at learning a foreign language (L2) and, in particular, reading foreign words. This assumption is so general that an Italian law (law 170, October, 2010) has established that DC may be completely exempted from foreign language learning and, in any case, should not be engaged in tuition via written material. However, evidence of L2 difficulties of DC is scarce and, in particular, absent for Italian children learning English. This absence of data is problematic, as it precludes information on the pattern of weaknesses and strengths, which could be found in DC. The present paper assessed these issues by administering an English word and pseudoword reading test to 23 DC and to 23 control children, matched for age, gender, schooling and IQ. The patterns of difficulties were examined individually for accuracy and speed, and the role of measures of native (L1) competence in L2 difficulties was also taken into account. Results confirmed that Italian DC are also poor in reading English words. However, they are accurate in reading pseudowords, suggesting that they have assimilated English pronunciation rules. Difficulties in L2 were, to some extent, but not completely, explained by difficulties in reading in L1.

Gender Differences in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children in a Large Group of Italian Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Despite being repeatedly investigated in children with typical development, research on gender differences in intellectual abilities in specific groups of children, including children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has been scarce. In this paper, we evaluated the performance of a large group of Italian children with ADHD using the WISC-IV. We aimed at investigating the presence of gender differences using a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis approach. Results showed that the WISC is largely gender-invariant. However, some tasks present non-invariant patterns (block design and coding). Differences at the latent level also showed some differences (favoring boys) in the verbal comprehension index. Conversely, differences at the latent level were not found in the full-scale IQ or in the other main indices. These results have theoretical and practical implications.

Copy Skills and Writing Abilities in Children With and Without Specific Learning Disabilities.

Copying a text quickly and accurately is important both in school and in daily life. However, this skill has never been systematically studied, either in children with typical development (TD) or in children with specific learning disabilities (SLD). The aim of this research was to study the features of a copy task and its relationship with other writing tasks. For this purpose, 674 children with TD and 65 children with SLD from Grades 6 through 8 in Italy were tested with a copy task and other writing assessment tasks, measuring three aspects of writing: handwriting speed, spelling, and expressive writing. Children with SLD performed worse on the copy task, both in terms of speed and accuracy, than children with TD. Copy speed was predicted by grade level and by all three major writing skills for children with TD but only by handwriting speed and spelling for children with SLD. Copy accuracy was predicted by gender and the three major writing skills for children with TD but only by spelling for children with SLD. These results suggest that children with SLD also have difficulty copying a text and benefit less than children with TD from their other writing skills.

The Intellectual Profile of Adults with Specific Learning Disabilities.

Despite growing research on adults with specific learning disabilities (SLDs), evidence concerning their intellectual profile remains scarce. The present study examined the results of the administration of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition to 301 adults diagnosed with SLDs and compared them to the results obtained from previous studies with a large sample of children with SLDs. The results showed that: (1) as observed among children, adults with SLDs also presented higher scores in the subtests implying reasoning (associated with the General Ability Index, GAI) and lower scores in the subtests involving working memory and processing speed; (2) the discrepancy between full-scale IQ and the GAI had a good predictive value in discriminating adults with and without SLDs; (3) the four-factor hierarchical structure of intelligence proposed for the general adult population held for adults with SLDs as well, even though there were substantial differences in the loadings and a five-factor structure could be more appropriate; (4) similarities as well as strong differences were present between adults and children with SLDs. In adults, scores on subtests were generally lower, particularly in working memory and processing speed. However, in some cases, scores were equal or even higher (as in the "Similarity" subtest) among adults, meaning that the discrepancy between the full scale and the GAI was accentuated.

The involvement of working memory in children's exact and approximate mental addition.

The involvement of working memory (WM) was examined in two types of mental calculation tasks: exact and approximate. Specifically, children attending Grades 3 and 4 of primary school were involved in three experiments that examined the role of verbal and visuospatial WM in solving addition problems presented in vertical or horizontal format. For Experiment 1, the children were required to solve addition problems with carrying. For Experiment 2, they were required to solve addition problems without carrying. Then, for Experiment 3, the children needed to solve approximate problems with and without carrying. Results confirmed that different WM components are involved in solving mental addition problems. In Experiment 1, horizontally presented addition problems were more impaired than vertically presented ones, according to a verbal WM load; conversely, vertically presented addition problems were more affected by a visuospatial WM load, especially when the children were required to perform approximate calculations. In Experiment 2, this pattern emerged in neither exact nor approximate calculations. Finally, in Experiment 3, the specific involvement of WM components was observed only in problems with carrying. Overall, these results reveal that both approximate calculation and carrying procedures demand particularly high WM resources that vary according to the task's constraints.