Soft skills and their relationship with life satisfaction and cognitive reserve in adulthood and older age.

Soft skills are key factors for success in multiple contexts of daily life, as well as for life satisfaction, but little is known about their role in late adulthood and older age. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationships of soft skills, as defined by the World Economic Forum, with two indicators of successful/healthy aging: life satisfaction and cognitive reserve. A sample of 435 adults aged 50 and over completed self-reported measures of soft skills, life satisfaction, and cognitive reserve.

The Italian Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI-I).

The importance of social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills is recognized worldwide, but their measurement has always been a challenge. The BESSI measures 32 SEB skills, divided into five domains (social engagement, cooperation, self-management, emotional resilience, and innovation), but its validity must be expanded to new languages and contexts. Across two studies ( = 990, = 824) we developed the Italian version of the BESSI, provided further support for its convergent and discriminant validity with the Big Five, and expanded its nomological network to procrastination, self-efficacy, and emotion regulation.

Why Are Causal and Temporal Connectives Difficult to Understand? A Comparison Between Italian Hearing Good and Poor Comprehenders and Deaf Poor Comprehenders.

Purpose: Both hearing poor comprehenders (PCs) and deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) PCs have problems in understanding causal and temporal coherence relations signaled by connectives. The study examined whether hearing and DHH PCs' problems with connective understanding are similar and mainly related to their limited vocabulary, including knowledge of connective words, or to their poor reading comprehension abilities more generally.

Method: Three groups of 7- to 10-year-old readers, matched on grade level (hearing PCs, DHH PCs, and hearing good comprehenders [GCs]) performed a reading comprehension task, a vocabulary task, and causal and temporal connective understanding tasks.

Academic Achievement and Satisfaction Among University Students With Specific Learning Disabilities: The Roles of Soft Skills and Study-Related Factors.

Understanding the individual qualities sustaining students with and without specific learning disabilities (SLDs) is key to supporting their academic achievement and well-being. In this study, we investigated the differences between students with and without SLDs in terms of intraindividual factors (soft skills and study-related factors), academic and nonacademic outcomes (achievement, academic and life satisfaction), and the relationships between such intraindividual factors and the three outcomes. A total of 318 students (79 males; = 22.

EEG correlates of developmental dyslexia: a systematic review.

Dyslexia is one of the most studied learning disorders. Despite this, its biological basis and main causes are still not fully understood. Electroencephalography (EEG) could be a powerful tool in identifying the underlying mechanisms, but knowledge of the EEG correlates of developmental dyslexia (DD) remains elusive.

Recollection contributes to children's reading comprehension: Using the process dissociation procedure in a working memory updating task.

Recollection, rather than familiarity, seems to play a crucial part in sustaining children's reading comprehension. However, the roles of recollection and familiarity in both word reading and reading comprehension have yet to be fully understood. In this study, we examined estimates of recollection and familiarity in a working memory updating task using an adaptation of the process dissociation procedure.

The role of working memory updating, inhibition, fluid intelligence, and reading comprehension in explaining differences between consistent and inconsistent arithmetic word-problem-solving performance.

Children's performance in arithmetic word problems (AWPs) predicts their academic success and their future employment and earnings in adulthood. Understanding the nature and difficulties of interpreting and solving AWPs is important for theoretical, educational, and social reasons. We investigated the relation between primary school children's performance in different types of AWPs and their basic cognitive abilities (reading comprehension, fluid intelligence, inhibition, and updating processes).

Structure of working memory in children from 3 to 8 years old.

Several models of working memory (WM) have been proposed in the literature. Most of the research on the architecture of WM is based on adults or older children, but less is known about younger children. In this study, we tested various models of WM on a sample of 739 Italian children, ranging in age from 3 to 8 years, primarily of European heritage and from medium to medium-high socioeconomic background.

Individuals with Down Syndrome: Editorial.

Down syndrome (DS) is the most common syndromic cause of intellectual disability, so it has long been of interest to researchers [...

Shallow or deep? The impact of orthographic depth on visual processing impairments in developmental dyslexia.

The extent to which impaired visual and phonological mechanisms may contribute to the manifestation of developmental dyslexia across orthographies of varying depth has yet to be fully established. By adopting a cross-linguistic approach, the current study aimed to explore the nature of visual and phonological processing in developmental dyslexic readers of shallow (Italian) and deep (English) orthographies, and specifically the characterisation of visual processing deficits in relation to orthographic depth. To achieve this aim, we administered a battery of non-reading visual and phonological tasks.

Developmental Trajectories in Spatial Visualization and Mental Rotation in Individuals with Down Syndrome.

Background: The analysis of developmental trajectories of visuospatial abilities in individuals with Down Syndrome (DS) remains an unexplored field of investigation to examine in depth. The study aimed to fill such a gap by examining changes in two visuospatial abilities: spatial visualization (the ability to manage spatial stimuli) and mental rotation (the ability to rotate spatial stimuli).

Method: Eighty-seven participants with DS, aged between 7 and 53 years (forty-seven males and forty females), completed spatial visualization and mental rotation tasks.

Developmental Language Disorder: Early Predictors, Age for the Diagnosis, and Diagnostic Tools. A Scoping Review.

Background: Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is frequent in childhood and may have long-term sequelae. By employing an evidence-based approach, this scoping review aims at identifying (a) early predictors of DLD; (b) the optimal age range for the use of screening and diagnostic tools; (c) effective diagnostic tools in preschool children.

Methods: We considered systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and primary observational studies with control groups on predictive, sensitivity and specificity values of screening and diagnostic tools and psycholinguistic measures for the assessment of DLD in preschool children.

Path Learning in Individuals With Down Syndrome: The Challenge of Learning Condition and Cognitive Abilities.

Analyzing navigational abilities and related aspects in individuals with Down syndrome (DS) is of considerable interest because of its relevance to everyday life. This study investigates path learning, the conditions favoring it, and the cognitive abilities involved. A group of 30 adults with DS and 32 typically-developing (TD) children matched on receptive vocabulary were shown a 4 × 4 Floor Matrix and asked to repeat increasingly long sequences of steps by walking on the grid.

Dyslexia treatment studies: A systematic review and suggestions on testing treatment efficacy with small effects and small samples.

Poor response to treatment is a defining characteristic of reading disorder. In the present systematic review and meta-analysis, we found that the overall average effect size for treatment efficacy was modest, with a mean standardized difference of 0.38.

The Use of New Technologies for Improving Reading Comprehension.

Since the introduction of writing systems, reading comprehension has always been a foundation for achievement in several areas within the educational system, as well as a prerequisite for successful participation in most areas of adult life. The increased availability of technologies and web-based resources can be a really valid support, both in the educational and clinical field, to devise training activities that can also be carried out remotely. There are studies in current literature that has examined the efficacy of internet-based programs for reading comprehension for children with reading comprehension difficulties but almost none considered distance rehabilitation programs.

Path Learning in Individuals With Down Syndrome: The Floor Matrix Task and the Role of Individual Visuo-Spatial Measures.

Environment learning is essential in everyday life. In individuals with Down syndrome (DS), this skill has begun to be examined using virtual exploration. Previous studies showed that individuals with DS can learn and remember paths in terms of sequences of turns and straight stretches, albeit with some difficulty, and this learning is supported by their cognitive abilities.

Working memory training format in older adults: individual versus group sessions.

Working memory (WM) training has been shown to increase the performance of participants in WM tasks and in other cognitive abilities, but there has been no study comparing directly the impact of training format (individual vs. group) using the same protocol. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of the Borella et al.

The efficacy of a training that combines activities on working memory and metacognition: Transfer and maintenance effects in children with ADHD and typical development.

: It has been demonstrated that children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have impairments in working memory (WM), and particularly its visuospatial component, responsible for academic underachievement. Furthermore, children with ADHD have difficulty in metacognition, and consequently use inappropriate strategies to control attention and impulsive behavior. The aim of the present study was to devise a training that combined individual exercises on visuospatial WM and group metacognitive activities capable of helping children with ADHD to ameliorate their performance in executive functioning tasks, and to contain their inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive behavior.

Text reading speed in a language with a shallow orthography benefits less from comprehension as reading ability matures.

Background: Reading can be assessed using different materials, including non-words and texts. Unlike reading words or non-words, reading a text may be supported by reading comprehension, and the extent of this support could change with the amount of schooling.

Aim: The present study aimed to examine how reading decoding in a shallow orthography like Italian changed with years of schooling, depending on the type of material and the contribution of non-word reading and reading comprehension to text reading speed.

Working Memory Training for Older Adults After Major Surgery: Benefits to Cognitive and Emotional Functioning.

Objectives: Cognitive and mood changes can affect postoperative recovery in hospitalized older adults undergoing major surgical procedures, but few studies have considered postoperative cognitive interventions to sustain such patients' cognitive functioning and mood. The aim of this pilot study was to assess the efficacy of working memory training in improving cognitive functioning and mood, or emotional functioning, in older adults undergoing major surgery.

Methods: Thirty-four older adults (from 64 to 75 years of age) hospitalized for partial or total arthroplasty of the knee were randomly assigned to either a trained group (N = 18) or an active control group (N = 16).

Improving Everyday Functioning in the Old-Old with Working Memory Training.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess gains related to working memory (WM) training, in the short and long term (9 months after the training), in abilities required in everyday life, and in cognitive measures in old-old adults (aged ≥ 75 years).

Methods: Thirty-two community-dwelling older adults (aged 75-85 years) were randomly assigned to a training or an active control group. In addition to testing for any specific gains in a WM task similar to the one used in the training (criterion task), we sought transfer effects to: 1) abilities involved in everyday life using objective performance-based tasks (the Everyday Problem Test [EPT] and the Timed Instrumental Activities of Daily Living [TIADL] scale; 2) tasks demanding the comprehension and recall of spatial information and pairing names with faces; and 3) a measure of inhibitory control, that is, recall errors (intrusion errors).

Nearest transfer effects of working memory training: A comparison of two programs focused on working memory updating.

This study analyzed the mechanisms involved in possible transfer effects for two different working memory updating (WMU) training programs administered to young adults and based on two updating paradigms: n-back and arithmetical updating. The influence of practice distribution on transfer effects was also explored by including two training regimens: massed and spaced practice. Performance on different WMU tasks more or less structurally similar to the tasks used in the training was assessed to analyze the nearest transfer effects.

Verbal working memory training in older adults: an investigation of dose response.

The WM training protocol proposed by Borella et al. found specific and transfer effects among seniors, however, the studies were carried out in the same socio-cultural context and variations in the procedure were never tested. The present study aimed at analyzing the efficacy of Borella et al.

Correction: Musicians have better memory than nonmusicians: A meta-analysis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.