C. Cornoldi - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by C. Cornoldi

Giornale italiano di psicologia, 2007

... le principali caratteristiche della MLVS, ritenuta, per l&amp;amp;#x27;appunto, respo... more ... le principali caratteristiche della MLVS, ritenuta, per l&amp;amp;#x27;appunto, responsabile della capacità della nostra mente di generare e manipolare spontaneamente immagini, siano ... delle immagini mentali richiede l&amp;amp;#x27;intervento di diverse componenti del sistema di memoria di lavoro ...

European Psychologist, 2014

Cognitive psychology offers an important contribution to the understanding of the mechanisms unde... more Cognitive psychology offers an important contribution to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying intelligence. In this paper, we synthesize the research showing that, among the different cognitive mechanisms associated with intelligence, working memory has a particularly high explanatory power, especially when considered in its active component involving not only the maintenance (as in short-term memory) but also the manipulation of information. The paper considers two main implications of this finding for the applied and clinical fields. For a start, we examine how intelligence tests take into consideration working memory. Secondly, we consider the highly debated literature on the effects of working memory training on intellectual performance. Theoretical and applied implications for the relationship between working memory and intelligence are discussed.

Brain and cognition

The distinction between passive and active visuo-spatial memory has been useful to interpret vari... more The distinction between passive and active visuo-spatial memory has been useful to interpret various pattern of deficits reported in individual differences studies. However, this interpretation raises the issue of task difficulty, since active tasks could be failed simply because more complex and the corresponding deficit could reflect a reduced capacity of the system. We describe two children with Nonverbal Learning Disability whose performance provides evidence of a dissociation between passive and active memory processes. One of the children showed a selective impairment in passive tasks and performed flawlessly in active tasks, whereas the second child displayed the opposite pattern. These data suggest that a qualitative difference between passive and active processes does exist and that differences in performance do not reflect a lower/higher level of task difficulty. Further, these data underlie the importance of formulating theoretical models of visuo-spatial memory including...

Test psicologico. Scheda descrittiva creata all'interno del progetto Bibliomedi

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2006

This study investigated whether the lack of visual experience affects the ability to create spati... more This study investigated whether the lack of visual experience affects the ability to create spatial inferential representations of the survey type. We compared the performance of persons with congenital blindness and that of blindfolded sighted persons on four survey representation-based tasks (Experiment 1). Results showed that persons with blindness performed better than blindfolded sighted controls. We repeated the same tests introducing a third group of persons with late blindness (Experiment 2). This last group performed better than blindfolded sighted participants, whereas differences between participants with late and congenital blindness were nonsignificant. The present findings are compatible with results of other studies, which found that when visual perception is lacking, skill in gathering environmental spatial information provided by nonvisual modalities may contribute to a proper spatial encoding. It is concluded that, although it cannot be asserted that total lack of ...

Learning and Individual Differences, 2013

Journal of Learning Disabilities, 1999

This study reports the observations gathered from 11 children referred to consulting services bec... more This study reports the observations gathered from 11 children referred to consulting services because of learning difficulties at school and diagnosed with nonverbal learning disabilities (NVLD). These children had an average verbal IQ, but a WISC-R performance IQ lower than the verbal IQ by at least 15 points and experienced difficulties especially in mathematics and drawing. The children completed a battery of four tasks requiring visuospatial working memory and visual imagery: a memory task composed of pictures and their positions (Pictures task), a task that required them to memorize the positions filled in a matrix (Passive Matrix task), a task that required them to imagine a pathway along a matrix (Active Matrix task) and a task that required them to learn groups made up of three words, using a visual interactive imagery strategy (TV task). In comparison to a control group of 49 children, children with NVLD scored lower in all the tasks, showing deficits in the use of visuospa...

Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2003

Verbal and nonverbal forms of developmental learning disabilities have been reported. Whereas the... more Verbal and nonverbal forms of developmental learning disabilities have been reported. Whereas there are several instruments for evaluating children for the presence of verbal learning disabilities at school, no screening tool is available to identify children who have nonverbal learning disabilities. This study aimed at devising and validating a short screening questionnaire that can be used by teachers in primary schools to identify those children who need to be referred for clinical services because they have a visuospatial learning disability (VSLD). An 18-item Shortened Visuospatial Questionnaire (SVS) was derived from an earlier, longer version. Its validation procedure was twofold and was achieved by (a) verifying that children who had been identified with the SVS questionnaire as having a VSLD actually showed visuospatial deficits on psychometric evaluation and by (b) rating with the SVS a clinically identified population of children with VSLD. The results of the validation p...

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2014

Journal of Cognition and Development, 2013

ABSTRACT The effects of warning on false recognition and associated subjective experience of fals... more ABSTRACT The effects of warning on false recognition and associated subjective experience of false recollection and familiarity were investigated in 7- to 13-year-old children and young adults (N=259) using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Two warning conditions (warning with an example of a critical lure and warning without an example of a critical lure) were compared to a control condition, in which no warning was received. We found that 7- to 8-year-olds exhibited higher false recognition in the warning-with-example condition compared with the control condition; in contrast, 12- to 13-year-olds and young adults exhibited reduced false recognition in the warning-with-example condition. No effect of warning was observed in 10- to 11-year-olds. The subjective experience associated with false memories was similar across ages. In contrast, age-related increases in subjective recollection were found for true memories. The processes that enhance or suppress false memories during development are discussed.

Journal of Attention Disorders, 2008

Objective: Two new rating scales are presented for the assessment of ADHD symptoms in Italian pre... more Objective: Two new rating scales are presented for the assessment of ADHD symptoms in Italian preschool children, and the agreement between parents and teachers on the presence of an ADHD profile is examined. Method: The scales were administered to parents and teachers of 180 children with a mean age of 5 years and 9 months, attending final year of the Italian preschool system (kindergarten). Results: Despite the good psychometric properties of the scales, parent and teacher agreement was poor and parents endorsed more symptomatic behaviors in their children than the teachers, especially for the hyperactive dimension, although they did not necessarily associate these with the presence of a potential problem. Conclusions: The low correspondence between teachers and parents shows that ADHD rating scales, although useful screening instruments, are not sufficient for diagnosis and must be combined with other tools. ( J. of Att. Dis. 2009; 12(6) 532-539)

Ricerche di Psicologia, 1995