Feeling connected to nature: validation of the connectedness to nature scale in the Italian context.

Environmental issues are at the center of the political and cultural debate, representing one of the greatest challenges of our century. Sustainability and pro-environmental conducts are recognized as increasingly urgent to address the decay of ecosystems. To support the acquisition of attitudes that give greater consideration to environmental issues, experiencing a sense of connection with nature has been acknowledged in psychology as a particularly relevant individual component. Among the most commonly used scales in Anglo-Saxon context to analyses this feeling is the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) assessing the emotional and experiential bond between humans and nature. To examine the reliability and validity of this scale in the Italian context, a study including 271 Italian adults (44,3% female; 55% males; Mean age = 34.70; SD = 13.584; age-range = 18-65 years) was conducted to establish evidence supporting the internal consistency of the CNS, as well as its ability to measure convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed that CNS in Italian has a single-factor structure as reported in the original version by Mayer and Frantz. Furthermore, as expected, positive correlations were observed between the CNS and pro-environmental attitudes and negative correlations with civic moral disengagement. Finally, as assumed, the CNS positively correlated with mental well-being. A broad vision of this study concerns the idea that individuals who have a stronger connection with nature are likely to exhibit reduced tendencies to cause harm to it.

Is Aesthetic Good? A Study on the Aesthetic and Vitality Judgment of Pictorial Representations of the Dead, Saints and Non-Saints.

In the history of the Western world, there has always been an association between good and beautiful. Starting from a brief history of beauty, two questions arise: is beauty linked to good even in art? How important are people's religious beliefs in aesthetic and vitality judgments? The psychology of art could answer these questions by studying people's reactions to the images of Saints as testimonials of goodness. Moreover, the study of Saints' paintings would allow us to investigate vitality, understood as one's perception of a living being. The research aimed to investigate the aesthetic and vitality judgments of faces representing the dead, Saints and non-Saints. More than a hundred participants were asked to evaluate the aesthetics and vitality of these paintings; moreover, two tests assessing spirituality and religiosity were administered. Overall, these data suggest Saints were judged more beautiful than non-Saints, and non-Saints were judged more vital than Saints. This might suggest a relationship between ethics and aesthetics, also in the perception of art, and offers reflections on the theme of vitality. The religion and spirituality of participants are not correlated to aesthetic or vitality judgments; this fact could support that these judgments are linked to the basic bottom-up reactions to images.

Children's representations of the COVID-19 lockdown and pandemic through drawings.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures to face it have placed children and their caregivers in front of many challenges that could represent sources of stress. This work aims to explore the point of view of children through drawing, as a spontaneous means of expression, relating it to parents' perceptions of children's difficulties, strengths, and mentalization skills. The sample consists of 18 children (mean age = 8.22, SD = 1.79). Parents were asked to complete: a socio-demographic questionnaire with information on the impact of COVID-19 on the family, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and the Everyday Mindreading Scale. Children were asked to draw three moments: "Before" the pandemic, "During" the lockdown, and "After," when the COVID-19 will be passed. The drawings were coded by constructing a content and expressive analysis grid, adapting coding systems found in the literature. Data were collected at the beginning of the summer of 2020, just after the first lockdown period (from March to May 2020 in Italy). The results of the present work are in line with previous studies that reported experiences of wellbeing and tranquility of children in time spent at home with family during the pandemic. From the drawings emerges that children feel sufficiently able to master the situation, as reflected by including themselves in drawings and providing many details of the house in "During" drawings. The literature also reports a feeling of sadness/loneliness caused by the lack of friends, an element that we also find in the tendency to represent friends significantly more in the drawings concerning the future. Some contents of drawings (inclusion of friends, relatives, and parents) appeared associated with emotional, interpersonal, and mentalizing abilities of children, as perceived by parents. Exploring children's representations of a stressful event like the pandemic through drawings allows to focus both on their difficulties and on their resources, with useful implications for the educational support.

"Art, Colors, and Emotions" Treatment (ACE-t): A Pilot Study on the Efficacy of an Art-Based Intervention for People With Alzheimer's Disease.

Increasing evidence suggests that non-pharmacological therapies impact on neuropsychiatric symptoms and quality of life in people with Alzheimer's disease. Among these, art-based interventions seem particularly suitable for elders' rehabilitation as they act both on cognitive functions and quality of life. However, their benefits are not yet appropriately explored. The main aim of this quasi-experimental study was to test the feasibility and the likely efficacy of a novel multi-dimensional visual art intervention for people with Alzheimer's disease (PWAD), named Art, Colors, and Emotions treatment (ACE-t). A group of PWAD (N = 10) was recruited from the Memory Clinic of Don Gnocchi Foundation to take part in the ACE-t. A historical control group that followed a usual care program (N = 10) was used for comparison. We considered both feasibility output (adherence and acceptability) and efficacy outcome measures (neuropsychological and neurobehavioral scales). We observed a good adherence to and acceptability of the ACE-t. The following significant intervention-related changes were also observed in ACE-t with respect to usual care: improvement in general cognition, as assessed with the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive, amelioration in language, and in executive functions, and reduction in Neuropsychiatric Inventory Scale score. In conclusion, ACE-t could be considered as a suitable intervention for the rehabilitation of PWAD, with positive effects on the cognitive and the behavioral status. ACE is a promising new art-based intervention that merits further research, including confirmatory trials of our preliminary results.

Knowledge, Concerns, and Behaviors of Individuals During the First Week of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic in Italy.

Importance: At the beginning of a public health crisis, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, it is important to collect information about people's knowledge, worries, and behaviors to examine their influence on quality of life and to understand individual characteristics associated with these reactions. Such information could help to guide health authorities in providing informed interventions and clear communications. Objectives: To document the initial knowledge about COVID-19 and recommended health behaviors; to assess worries (ie, one's perception of the influence of the worries of others on oneself), social appraisal, and preventive behaviors, comparing respondents from areas under different movement restrictions during the first week after the outbreak; and to understand how worries, perceived risk, and preventive behaviors were associated with quality of life and individual characteristics among Italian adults. Design, Setting, and Participants: This convenience sample, nonprobablistic survey study recruited adult participants with a snowballing sampling method in any Italian region during the first week of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy from February 26, 2020, to March 4, 2020. Data were analyzed from March 5 to 12, 2020. Exposures: Information was collected from citizens living in the quarantine zone (ie, red zone), area with restricted movements (ie, yellow zone), and COVID-19-free regions (ie, green zone). Main Outcomes and Measures: Levels of knowledge on the virus, contagion-related worries, social appraisal, and preventive behaviors were assessed with ratings of quality of life (measured using the Short Form Health Survey). Additionally, some individual characteristics that may be associated with worries and behaviors were assessed, including demographic characteristics, personality traits (measured using Big Five Inventory-10), perceived health control (measured using the internal control measure in the Health Locus of Control scale), optimism (measured using the Revised Life Orientation Test), and the need for cognitive closure (measured using the Need for Closure Scale). Results: A total of 3109 individuals accessed the online questionnaire, and 2886 individuals responded to the questionnaire at least partially (mean [SD] age, 30.7 [13.2] years; 2203 [76.3%] women). Most participants were well informed about the virus characteristics and suggested behaviors, with a mean (SD) score of 77.4% (17.3%) correct answers. Quality of life was similar across the 3 zones (effect size = 0.02), but mental health was negatively associated with contagion-related worries (ß = -0.066), social appraisal (ß = -0.221), and preventive behaviors (ß = -0.066) in the yellow zone (R2 = 0.108). Social appraisal was also associated with reduced psychological well-being in the green zone (ß = -0.205; R2 = 0.121). In the yellow zone, higher worries were negatively correlated with emotional stability (ß = -0.165; R2 = 0.047). Emotional stability was also negatively associated with perceived susceptibility in the yellow (ß = -0.108; R2 = 0.040) and green (ß = -0.170; R2 = 0.087) zones. Preventative behaviors and social appraisal were also associated with the need for cognitive closure in both yellow (preventive behavior: ß = 0.110; R2 = 0.023; social appraisal ß = 0.115; R2 = 0.104) and green (preventive behavior: ß = 0.174; R2 = 0.022; social appraisal: 0.261; R2 = 0.137) zones. Conclusions and Relevance: These findings suggest that during the first week of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy, people were well informed and had a relatively stable level of worries. Quality of life did not vary across the areas, although mental well-being was challenged by the social appraisal and worries related to the contagion. Increased scores for worries and concerns were associated with more cognitive rigidity and emotional instability.

Beauty in life: An eye-tracking study on young adults' aesthetic evaluation and vitality judgment of pictorial representations of sleeping and dead subjects.

Preferring life to death is deeply rooted in our biology. With the present study, we explored two questions: (1) Can this inclination be transposed to aesthetics, so that a living being is valued as more beautiful than a non-living being? and (2) Are there any differences in the visual exploration of portrayals of a living compared to a dead human? In particular, are there any specific facial features representing the vitality status of a living or dead subject? By answering both questions, young adults' eye gazing was analyzed while they observed, aesthetically judged, and judged the vitality status of faces extracted from paintings representing a sleeping or dead subject. The aesthetic preference for the stimuli as a function of vitality (living, dead) was assessed both during the eye-tracking study and during a follow-up priming behavioral experiment. The analysis of the responses given during the aesthetic judgment task in the eye-tracking study revealed preference for the sleeping compared to the dead subjects, supporting proclivity to attribute greater aesthetic value to living beings. This evidence was substantially confirmed by the follow-up priming behavioral study, which further showed a significant effect of explicit vitality labeling on the aesthetic evaluation of the portrayals of sleeping subjects. As far as the visual exploration of the stimuli is concerned, the main eye-tracking results revealed great attention to the eye region of both sleeping and dead subjects, which was particularly enhanced for the sleeping compared to the dead subjects. For the latter stimuli, focused attention was also found to the mouth region. These results are discussed in light of different theoretical proposals, including the "embodied" theory of aesthetic perception based on the existence of mirror systems.

Videogames for Emotion Regulation: A Systematic Review.

INTRODUCTION: Emotion regulation (ER) supports multiple individual functions and promotes mental health and wellbeing. Among the tools that may be used to help people in managing their affective states, videogames are reaching attention and are showing positive effects. Yet, little is known about their effectiveness. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to assess the amount and quality of studies investigating the effects and modalities of the use of videogames for ER. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic literature search according to PRISMA guidelines was performed. Subsequently, according to expert advice other few studies have been added. RESULTS: Twenty-three studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review; they can be categorized into three groups, namely (1) cross-sectional and qualitative studies, (2) experimental studies investigating the effects of videogame experience on ER and (3) ER intervention with serious games. DISCUSSION: Discussion of the reviewed studies highlights that frequent gaming with commercial games offers more opportunities for ER improvement (related to gameplay and enjoyment of fictional properties) than limited-time experiences, such as those supported by bespoke serious games. This research area is still in its infancy and findings need to be interpreted with caution; furthermore, future reviews are encouraged to include clinical populations. CONCLUSION: Videogames offer several opportunities for ER and a challenge for educational and psychological interventions.

Body Aesthetic Preference in Preschoolers and Attraction to Canons Violation: An Exploratory Study.

Sensitivity to canons of beauty as represented in the human body-and as typically defined in the Western Culture-has been poorly studied in children. Current literature shows that infants as young as about three months are sensitive to the human body structure and its parts. Using a sample of 54 three- to five-year-old children, the present study investigated preference for drawings representing the "canonical" body structure, contrasting these with drawings showing the same bodies, but where the relation between trunk and legs was modified. It was hypothesized that preference for the canonical body structures would emerge as early as three years, increasing with age. Results only partially supported the hypothesis: while three-year-olds showed a significant preference for the canonical body structures as predicted, a significant preference reversal was found for the four-year-olds, with a tendency to return to preferring the canonical body at five years. The results are discussed in light of research findings associated with developmental theories hallmarking visual art perception in children.

How Children's Mentalistic Theory Widens their Conception of Pictorial Possibilities.

An interpretative theory of mind enables young children to grasp that people fulfill varying intentions when making pictures. We tested the hypothesis that in middle childhood a unifunctional conception of artists' intention to produce a picture widens to include artists' intention to display their pictures to others. Children aged between 5 and 10 years viewed a brief video of an artist deliberately hiding her picture but her intention was thwarted when her picture was discovered and displayed. By 8 years of age children were almost unanimous that a picture-producer without an intention to show her work to others cannot be considered to be an artist. Further exploratory studies centered on aspects of picture-display involving normal public display as well as the contrary intentions of hiding an original picture and of deceitfully displaying a forgery. Interviews suggested that the concept of exhibition widened to take others' minds into account viewers' critical judgments and effects of forgeries on viewers' minds. The approach of interpolating probes of typical possibilities between atypical intentions generated evidence that in middle childhood the foundations are laid for a conception of communication between artists' minds and viewers' minds via pictorial display. The combination of hypothesis-testing and exploratory opening-up of the area generates a new testable hypothesis about how an increasingly mentalistic approach enables children to understand diverse possibilities in the pictorial domain.

Visual exploration patterns of human figures in action: an eye tracker study with art paintings.

Art exploration is a complex process conditioned by factors at different levels and includes both basic visual principles and complex cognitive factors. The human figure is considered a critical factor attracting the attention in art painting. Using an eye-tracking methodology, the goal of this study was to explore different elements of the human figure performing an action (face and body parts in action) in complex social scenes characterized by different levels of social interaction between agents depicted in scenes (individual vs. social). The sample included 44 laypersons, and the stimuli consisted of 10 fine art paintings representing the figurative style of classical art. The results revealed different scanning patterns of the human figure elements related to the level of social interaction of agents depicted in the scene. The agents' face attracted eye movements in social interaction scenes while the agents' body parts attracted eye movements only when the agents were involved in individual actions. These processes were confirmed specifically in participants with high empathic abilities who became immediately fixated on faces to develop a mimetic engagement with other agents. Future studies integrating other measures would help confirm the results obtained and strengthen their implication for embodiment processes.

Human, Nature, Dynamism: The Effects of Content and Movement Perception on Brain Activations during the Aesthetic Judgment of Representational Paintings.

Movement perception and its role in aesthetic experience have been often studied, within empirical aesthetics, in relation to the human body. No such specificity has been defined in neuroimaging studies with respect to contents lacking a human form. The aim of this work was to explore, through functional magnetic imaging (f MRI), how perceived movement is processed during the aesthetic judgment of paintings using two types of content: human subjects and scenes of nature. Participants, untutored in the arts, were shown the stimuli and asked to make aesthetic judgments. Additionally, they were instructed to observe the paintings and to rate their perceived movement in separate blocks. Observation highlighted spontaneous processes associated with aesthetic experience, whereas movement judgment outlined activations specifically related to movement processing. The ratings recorded during aesthetic judgment revealed that nature scenes received higher scored than human content paintings. The imaging data showed similar activation, relative to baseline, for all stimuli in the three tasks, including activation of occipito-temporal areas, posterior parietal, and premotor cortices. Contrast analyses within aesthetic judgment task showed that human content activated, relative to nature, precuneus, fusiform gyrus, and posterior temporal areas, whose activation was prominent for dynamic human paintings. In contrast, nature scenes activated, relative to human stimuli, occipital and posterior parietal cortex/precuneus, involved in visuospatial exploration and pragmatic coding of movement, as well as central insula. Static nature paintings further activated, relative to dynamic nature stimuli, central and posterior insula. Besides insular activation, which was specific for aesthetic judgment, we found a large overlap in the activation pattern characterizing each stimulus dimension (content and dynamism) across observation, aesthetic judgment, and movement judgment tasks. These findings support the idea that the aesthetic evaluation of artworks depicting both human subjects and nature scenes involves a motor component, and that the associated neural processes occur quite spontaneously in the viewer. Furthermore, considering the functional roles of posterior and central insula, we suggest that nature paintings may evoke aesthetic processes requiring an additional proprioceptive and sensori-motor component implemented by "motor accessibility" to the represented scenario, which is needed to judge the aesthetic value of the observed painting.

Exploring responses to art in adolescence: a behavioral and eye-tracking study.

Adolescence is a peculiar age mainly characterized by physical and psychological changes that may affect the perception of one's own and others' body. This perceptual peculiarity may influence the way in which bottom-up and top-down processes interact and, consequently, the perception and evaluation of art. This study is aimed at investigating, by means of the eye-tracking technique, the visual explorative behavior of adolescents while looking at paintings. Sixteen color paintings, categorized as dynamic and static, were presented to twenty adolescents; half of the images represented natural environments and half human individuals; all stimuli were displayed under aesthetic and movement judgment tasks. Participants' ratings revealed that, generally, nature images are explicitly evaluated as more appealing than human images. Eye movement data, on the other hand, showed that the human body exerts a strong power in orienting and attracting visual attention and that, in adolescence, it plays a fundamental role during aesthetic experience. In particular, adolescents seem to approach human-content images by giving priority to elements calling forth movement and action, supporting the embodiment theory of aesthetic perception.

When art moves the eyes: a behavioral and eye-tracking study.

The aim of this study was to investigate, using eye-tracking technique, the influence of bottom-up and top-down processes on visual behavior while subjects, naïve to art criticism, were presented with representational paintings. Forty-two subjects viewed color and black and white paintings (Color) categorized as dynamic or static (Dynamism) (bottom-up processes). Half of the images represented natural environments and half human subjects (Content); all stimuli were displayed under aesthetic and movement judgment conditions (Task) (top-down processes). Results on gazing behavior showed that content-related top-down processes prevailed over low-level visually-driven bottom-up processes when a human subject is represented in the painting. On the contrary, bottom-up processes, mediated by low-level visual features, particularly affected gazing behavior when looking at nature-content images. We discuss our results proposing a reconsideration of the definition of content-related top-down processes in accordance with the concept of embodied simulation in art perception.

Relational factors in psychopathological responses to childbirth.

Childbirth can represent for women the time of greatest vulnerability experience, often associated with being out of control, loneliness or sadness. One hundred and sixty women who had 'normal' births were assessed within 48 hours on potential predictive measures and at 3-6 months post-partum for PTSD. Symptoms of depression, anxiety, perceived and desired support by family members, friends, medical personnel were also assessed. t-Test and chi-square were used to analyze, differences between 'risk group' and 'non-risk group'. Few women (1.25%) showed questionnaire responses suggesting clinically significant levels on PTSD; other women (28.75%) reported clinically significant symptoms for at least one subscale. Being at the first delivery experience, together with perceptions of low levels of support from family members and medical personnel, were found to be related to experience of post-traumatic stress symptoms. Anxiety for the child and previous depression are also related to such symptoms. Moreover, anxiety and depression are related to a difficult recognition of the support received, as well as to the desire for more support, in the care of the newborn, from medical professionals.