Aristide Saggino

Differential patterns of cortical activation as a function of fluid reasoning complexity

Fluid intelligence (gf) refers to abstract reasoning and problem solving abilities. It is considered a human higher cognitive factor central to general intelligence (g). The regions of the cortex supporting gf have been revealed by recent bioimaging studies and valuable hypothesis on the neural correlates of individual differences have been proposed. However, little is known about the interaction between individual variability in gf and variation in cortical activity following task complexity increase. To further investigate this, two samples of participants (high‐IQ, N = 8; low‐IQ, N = 10) with significant differences in gf underwent two reasoning (moderate and complex) tasks and a control task adapted from the Raven progressive matrices. Functional magnetic resonance was used and the recorded signal analyzed between and within the groups. The present study revealed two opposite patterns of neural activity variation which were probably a reflection of the overall differences in cognitive resource modulation: when complexity increased, high‐IQ subjects showed a signal enhancement in some frontal and parietal regions, whereas low‐IQ subjects revealed a decreased activity in the same areas. Moreover, a direct comparison between the groups activation patterns revealed a greater neural activity in the low‐IQ sample when conducting moderate task, with a strong involvement of medial and lateral frontal regions thus suggesting that the recruitment of executive functioning might be different between the groups. This study provides evidence for neural differences in facing reasoning complexity among subjects with different gf level that are mediated by specific patterns of activation of the underlying fronto‐parietal network. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009.

Psychometric Properties of the Attitudes toward Self-Revised in Italian Young Adults

Objectives and Methods. Several researchers have provided support for the critical role of cognitive vulnerabilities in the development of depression. The Attitudes toward Self-Revised (ATS-R) was designed to assess three potential self-regulatory vulnerabilities to depression: High Standards (HS), Self-Criticism (SC), and Negative Generalization (NG). The aim of the study was to assess the psychometric properties of the ATS-R in the Italian young adult population. The ATS-R, the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), and the Teate Depression Inventory (TDI) were administered to 857 (320 men and 537 women) young adults. Results. The best-fitting solution for the ATS-R was a 2-factor model, which obtained satisfactory homogeneity of content (HS/SC: Cronbach α = 0.81; mean interitem correlation = 0.46. NG: Cronbach α = 0.75; mean interitem correlation = 0.43) and significant correlation with the BDI-II (NG: Pearson r = 0.29, P < 0.01), the TDI (HS/SC: Pearson r = −0.26, P < 0.01), and the BHS (HS/SC: Pearson r = −0.29, P < 0.01; NG: Pearson r = 0.22, P < 0.01). Conclusions. The Italian version of the ATS-R seems to be a valid instrument for the study of the role of cognitive tendencies as potential vulnerability for depression.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WAIS-R INTELLIGENCE AND THE FIVE-FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY IN A NORMAL ELDERLY SAMPLE

The present study examined associations between Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Revised (WAIS–R) scores and the five-factor model of personality, as measured by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. Both tests were administered to a nonclinical sample of 100 Italian subjects 75 years and older. Analysis showed that the NEO-PI–R Openness to Experience domain was a weak but the best predictor of the three WAIS–R intelligence scores (Total, Verbal, and Performance). Were such a relationship confirmed by further investigations, Openness could be interpreted as a factor which might mitigate intellectual impoverishment which accompanies the normal aging process.

Religious Fundamentalism and Psychological Well-Being: An Italian Study

This studys aims were two-fold: to contribute to an understanding of the relationship between religious fundamentalism and psychological well-being and to test the psychometric properties of the Italian adaptation of the revised Religious Fundamentalism Scale (RFS-12; Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 2004), one of the most important instruments for assessing religious fundamentalism when it is conceptualized as a cognitive process. Confirmative factor analysis and reliability and correlational analyses were conducted on a sample of 319 Catholic undergraduate students. Findings indicate that the Italian adaptation of the Religious Fundamentalism Scale, as a one-dimensional construct, represents a valid and reliable measure of religious fundamentalism. Furthermore, results highlight the positive role that religious fundamentalism plays in promoting life satisfaction and psychological well-being.

Psychometric Properties of the Italian Version of the Young Schema Questionnaire L-3: Preliminary Results

Schema Therapy (ST) is a well-known approach for the treatment of personality disorders. This therapy integrates different theories and techniques into an original and systematic treatment model. The Young Schema Questionnaire L-3 (YSQ-L3) is a self-report instrument, based on the ST model, designed to assess 18 Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMSs). During the last decade, it has been translated and validated in different countries and languages. This study aims to establish the psychometric properties of the Italian Version of the YSQ-L3. We enrolled two groups: a clinical (n = 148) and a non-clinical one (n = 918). We investigated the factor structure, reliability and convergent validity with anxiety and depression between clinical and non-clinical groups. The results highlighted a few relevant findings. Cronbachs alpha showed significant values for all the schemas. All of the factor models do not seem highly adequate, even if the hierarchical model has proven to be the most significant one. Furthermore, the questionnaire confirms the ability to discriminate between clinical and non-clinical groups and could represent a useful tool in the clinical practice. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Irrelevant Features of a Stimulus Can Either Facilitate or Disrupt Performance in a Working Memory Task: The Role of Fluid Intelligence

It has been shown that fluid intelligence (gf) is fundamental to overcome interference due to information of a previously encoded item along a task-relevant domain. However, the biasing effect of task-irrelevant dimensions is still unclear as well as its relation with gf. The present study aimed at clarifying these issues. Gf was assessed in 60 healthy subjects. In a different session, the same subjects performed two versions (letter-detection and spatial) of a three-back working memory task with a set of physically identical stimuli (letters) presented at different locations on the screen. In the letter-detection task, volunteers were asked to match stimuli on the basis of their identity whereas, in the spatial task, they were required to match items on their locations. Cross-domain bias was manipulated by pseudorandomly inserting a match between the current and the three back items on the irrelevant domain. Our findings showed that a task-irrelevant feature of a salient stimulus can actually bias the ongoing performance. We revealed that, at trials in which the current and the three-back items matched on the irrelevant domain, group accuracy was lower (interference). On the other hand, at trials in which the two items matched on both the relevant and irrelevant domains, the group showed an enhancement of the performance (facilitation). Furthermore, we demonstrated that individual differences in fluid intelligence covaries with the ability to override cross-domain interference in that higher gf subjects showed better performance at interference trials than low gf subjects. Altogether, our findings suggest that stimulus features irrelevant to the task can affect cognitive performance along the relevant domain and that gf plays an important role in protecting relevant memory contents from the hampering effect of such a bias.

Dissociative Experiences and Psychopathology Among Inmates in Italian and Portuguese Prisons

The association between dissociation and psychopathological symptoms is well established, yet studies with inmates are lacking. If higher rates of dissociation and psychiatric symptoms are reported in inmate samples, it is not clear whether they represent two separate, albeit related, characteristics. We examined the association between dissociation and psychopathological symptoms among 320 Italian subjects (122 inmates and 198 community participants) and a Portuguese inmate sample (n = 67). Then, we tested whether dissociation and psychopathology levels were higher among inmates. Both hypotheses were supported, confirming the relevance of dissociative, paranoid, and psychotic symptoms among inmates, as well as their interrelations. Notably, the group difference in dissociation remained significant after partialing out the variance associated with other psychopathological symptoms. Conversely, only the difference in paranoid symptoms remained—marginally—significant when controlling for the influence of dissociation. This finding suggests that dissociation may have unique relevance for the psychological functioning of inmates.

Socio-demographic and Five Factor Model Variables as Predictors of Religious Fundamentalism: An Italian Study

In the present article, we investigated the relation between socio-demographic variables and personality factors with religious fundamentalism (RF). Our data were collected from a sample of 125 Italian Catholic participants (40 males, 85 females). Correlation analyses showed a significant association between RF and the openness domain of personality (negative pole), including both facet scales (openness to experiences and openness to cultures). We also found a significant association between RF and conscientiousness (only including the scrupulousness facet). Regarding socio-demographic variables, we found significant correlations between RF and years of education, church attendance, belief, and age, while there was no significant correlation between RF and gender. Path analysis showed that the effects on RF of socio-demographic factors are stronger than those of personality factors.

Psychometric Characteristics of the Italian Clinical Depression Questionnaire Using a 5-Point Rating Scale with Undergraduates

The aim was to investigate the psychometric properties of a proposed experimental version of the 1979 Italian adaptation of the Clinical Depression Questionnaire (Krug & Laughlin, 1976). This version is composed of an increased number of choice alternatives (5 instead of 3), tested with 240 Italian undergraduates. An exploratory item-factor analysis yielded one factor, which accounted for 28.2% of the variance. Analysis of the relationship between this version and an experimental one in 2002 of the 1979 Italian edition of the Anxiety Scale Questionnaire showed the corrective factor was not effective in increasing the discriminative power of the questionnaire for anxiety.

Integration among psychotherapies and the future of psychotherapy.

As society as a whole and the scientific world have begun to expect that the validity of psychotherapy be verified, a scientific and integrated approach to psychotherapy is the only possible answer. The development of operational definitions and the use of scientific designs represent the most effective way to generate empirical data and the only way to integrate psychotherapy objectively into general psychology.