Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa

About: Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa is a education organization based out in Naples, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Prospective memory. The organization has 158 authors who have published 303 publications receiving 3442 citations.

Registered Replication Report: Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (1990)

Abstract: Trying to remember something now typically improves your ability to remember it later. However, after watching a video of a simulated bank robbery, participants who verbally described the robber were 25% worse at identifying the robber in a lineup than were participants who instead listed U.S. states and capitals—this has been termed the “verbal overshadowing” effect (Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990). More recent studies suggested that this effect might be substantially smaller than first reported. Given uncertainty about the effect size, the influence of this finding in the memory literature, and its practical importance for police procedures, we conducted two collections of preregistered direct replications (RRR1 and RRR2) that differed only in the order of the description task and a filler task. In RRR1, when the description task immediately followed the robbery, participants who provided a description were 4% less likely to select the robber than were those in the control condition. In RRR2, when the description was delayed by 20 min, they were 16% less likely to select the robber. These findings reveal a robust verbal overshadowing effect that is strongly influenced by the relative timing of the tasks. The discussion considers further implications of these replications for our understanding of verbal overshadowing.

Normal aging affects decisions under ambiguity, but not decisions under risk.

Abstract: Old adults have to face many situations that require important decisions. In the present investigation, the authors examined the effects of aging on both decisions under ambiguity and decisions under risk. To this purpose, healthy young and old adults completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the Probability-Associated Gambling task (PAG task). Old adults performed the PAG task as well as young adults, demonstrating ability to make decisions when full information about the problem situation, the options' probabilities and the associated gains and losses was given. Differently, old adults showed poor performance on the IGT relative to young adults, indicating difficulty in making advantageous decisions under ambiguous conditions. Indeed, in the IGT, participants are not aware of the rules for gains and losses and have to learn about the utility of their selections through experience. Results of our analyses point to the contribution of executive functions to all types of decisions. Our findings have also practical implications, suggesting that old people can make advantageous decisions when complete information about the decision situation is available.

The role of visuo-spatial working memory in map learning: new findings from a map drawing paradigm

Abstract: Recently, increasing attention has been devoted to the study of the role of visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) in environmental learning and spatial navigation. The present research was aimed at investigating the role of VSWM in map learning using a map drawing paradigm. In the first study, a dual task methodology was used. Results showed that map drawing was selectively impaired by a spatial tapping task that was executed during the map learning phase, hence supporting the hypothesis that VSWM plays an essential role in learning from maps. In the second study, using a correlational methodology, it was shown that performance in simultaneous VSWM tasks, but not in sequential VSWM tasks, predicted map drawing skills. These skills “in turn” correlated with map learning abilities. Finally, in the third study, we replicated the results of the second study, by using a different map. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to find evidence that the simultaneous aspects of VSWM play a fundamental role in learning from maps.