Biomedical subjects

C Cornoldi

Publications and source records attributed to C Cornoldi.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1995

Visuo-spatial working memory limitations in low visuo-spatial high verbal intelligence children.

Visuo-spatial working memory was investigated in a group of 37 children aged between 10 and 14 years with low visuo-spatial intelligence. Their performance was poorer than that of a matched control group on a series of tests devised to ascertain visuo-spatial working memory yet was broadly similar in a language test and in school achievement tests. It is argued that low visuo-spatial intelligence children typically present limitations in the storage capacity of a passive system of the visuo-spatial working memory (with a raw measure of four-five stored elements) and especially in the operations required to process that information.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Why are there sometimes concreteness effects in memory for prose?

Four experiments explored on-line encoding strategies and memory for high imagery and low imagery texts. Results consistently indicated that concreteness effects in memory for text depend on how materials are presented in several different respects. Most importantly, the experiments clarified apparently contradictory results of previous studies by indicating that concreteness effects generally do not occur in memory for prose when imageability is manipulated between-subjects, and that their occurrence when imageability is manipulated within-subjects depends on the order occurrence when imageability is manipulated within-subjects depends on the order of presentation. In addition, moving window analyses of text processing strategies indicated that differential strategies observed in previous studies when subjects listened to high vs low imagery text do not generalize to reading of the same materials. Potential explanations for the pattern of results are evaluated, and implications for theories of mental imagery and memory are considered.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed1992

Differences in vividness ratings of perceived and imagined patterns.

The present research focuses on the different subjective experiences evoked by perceived and imagined matrices of letters of the alphabet. In three experiments adult subjects were asked to rate the vividness of a letter included in a matrix of letters which varied due to manipulations in colour, rotation and movement. Subjects were asked to observe (perceptual modality), draw and observe (drawing modality), retrieve (memory modality) or imagine (imagery modality) the matrices. For some manipulations of the critical letter (in particular, 45 degrees inclination and high contrast colour), the perceptual modality produced comparatively higher vividness ratings than the other two modalities. The perceptual effect of inclination was also duplicated with the memory modality group. It is argued that different visual processes, either immediate and pre-attentive, or sequential and attentive, may be operating under voluntary control. Although visual imagery varies in some ways from immediate visual perception, the similarities found, between the drawing and imagery modalities, on the one hand, and the perceptual and memory modalities, on the other hand, suggest that they share some common underlying processes.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Cognitive profiles and deviation patterns of dyslexic children.

Cognitive profiles of 20 dyslexic children were examined using a battery of neuropsychological tests. Their ages ranged from 90 to 114 mo. (M = 106.6 mo.). Intelligence and reading comprehension were normal, but the subjects had specific problems in decoding written material. These subjects were matched with a control group of same age, sex, and sociocultural status. The dyslexic children presented specific patterns of response on WISC-R subtests and failed a battery of cognitive tests examining subcomponents of reading. For each child, a deviation score was computed which represented the imbalance among the different cognitive functions. Greater imbalance was observed among the dyslexic children in development of cognitive functions than among the normal children.

Achievement↗

PubMed1991

Individual differences in the capacity limitations of visuospatial short-term memory: research on sighted and totally congenitally blind people.

The study of visuospatial imagery processes in totally congenitally blind people makes it possible to understand the specific contribution of visual experience for imagery processes. We argue that blind people may have visuospatial imagery processes, but they suffer from some capacity limitations. Similar, although smaller, limitations and individual differences may be found in sighted people. Visuospatial imagery capacity was explored by asking people to follow an imaginary pathway through either two- or three-dimensional matrices of different complexity. The blind appear to use specific visuospatial processes in this task (Experiments 2 and 3), but they have difficulty with three-dimensional matrices; sighted people have no such difficulty with three-dimensional matrices (Experiment 1). On the other hand, when a three-dimensional pattern exceeded sighted capacity, the blind and sighted showed similar patterns of errors. Subsequent analyses suggested that both visuospatial processes and verbal mediation were used.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Do memorability ratings affect study-time allocation?

This research addresses the relation between predicting future memory performance (judgment of learning, or JOL) and subsequent self-paced study-time allocation. The results of three experiments support the main hypotheses: (1) recall increases with increasing JOL, (2) restudy increases JOL accuracy, and (3) study time is related to JOL. This last relation depends on the length of initial presentation time of the items. When the initial exposure trials were short, the most restudy time was allocated to the items judged hard to recall, but when the initial exposure times were long, the most restudy time was allocated to the uncertain items. Items studied longer were recalled equally well (Experiments 1 and 3) or to a lesser extent (Experiment 2) than items studied for a shorter time. It is hypothesized that during study time, subjects refine their JOLs for the items initially less well discriminated.

Adult↗

PubMed1979

Imagery rating and recall in congenitally blind subjects.

Imagery ratings, incidental free recall, and intentional free recall of a group of young congenitally blind adults living in an institute for the blind and of control group were compared. Words to be rated and recalled belonged to three categories: (a) high-imagery words whose referents can be sensorially experienced also by the blind; (b) high-imagery words whose referents cannot be experienced; and (c) low-imagery words. In the control group, both ratings of imagery and recall were affected by the category to which the word belonged. For the blind group the category of the word affected only the ratings of imagery which still assumed a peculiar form since words in category b received extremely low ratings. It is concluded that the blind can evaluate the imagery value of a word, but that their recall is not affected by the level of its imagery value. Therefore, the imagery value really seems to describe, as Paivio asserts, the susceptibility of an item to being coded in a specific visuo-imaginal way, which is more available for sighted than for blind people.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1976

Age spacing in firstborns and symbiotic dependence.

Conflicting results concerning the affiliative personality of firstborns and later borns can be explained by considering the importance of the birth of a sibling and the age spacing between the siblings. It is particularly important to determine whether the sibling was born before or after the firstborn was 3 years old, since this age represents the period during which his individuation-separation process is completed. The birth of a sibling before this age would give rise to affiliation and succorance needs, which we propose to consider together under the name of "symbiotic dependence." Comparisons between the responses to the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule given by 32 pairs of firstborns, 17-19 years old, revealed that firstborns having siblings less than 3 years younger show greater affiliation and succorance needs than firstborns not having close siblings.

Adolescent↗