Does Attentional Style Moderate the Relationship between Time Perspective and Social Network Addiction? A Cross-Sectional Study on a Sample of Social Networking Sites Users.

The present study investigates the role of attentional style as a moderator variable between temporal perspective and social network addiction, since little is known about users' cognitive variables involved in this kind of addictive behavior. To achieve this goal, a sample of 186 volunteers and anonymous social networking sites users (M = 34%; F = 66%; = 22.54 years; SD = 3.

Do Mental Health and Vitality Mediate the Relationship between Perceived Control over Time and Fear of COVID-19? A Survey in an Italian Sample.

Several studies evidenced increased elevated symptomatology levels in anxiety, general stress, depression, and post-traumatic stress related to COVID-19. Real difficulties in the effective control of time that could be responsible for mental health issues and loss of vitality were also reported. Prior literature highlighted how perceived control over time significantly modulates anxiety disorders and promotes psychological well-being.

The relationship between fear of COVID-19 and intention to get vaccinated. The serial mediation roles of existential anxiety and conspiracy beliefs.

Today, we witness the progress toward global COVID-19 vaccinations organized by countries worldwide. Experts say a mass vaccination plan is the only effective antidote against the spread of SARS-COV-2. However, a part of the world population refuses vaccination.

Neuroticism and Fear of COVID-19. The Interplay Between Boredom, Fantasy Engagement, and Perceived Control Over Time.

The Italian government adopted measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) infection from March 9, 2020, to May 4, 2020 and imposed a phase of social distancing and self-isolation to all adult citizens. Although justified and necessary, psychologists question the impact of this process of COVID-19 isolation on the mental health of the population. Hence, this paper investigated the relationship between neuroticism, boredom, fantasy engagement, perceived control over time, and the fear of COVID-19.

Autobiographical Memory, Personality, and Facebook Mementos.

The present study analyzed the relationships between directive, self and social functions of autobiographical memory, personality traits, as defined by the Five Factor model, and the Facebook mementos. We defined Facebook mementos as objective measures of the textual (i.e.

The Dimensions of Facebook Addiction as Measured by Facebook Addiction Italian Questionnaire and Their Relationships with Individual Differences.

The studies reported analyze the factorial structure of Facebook Addiction Italian Questionnaire (FAIQ), a variant of 20-item Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT). In Study 1, we tested FAIQ psychometric properties using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). In Study 2, we performed a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to verify the FAIQ factorial structure identified through EFA.

Effects of the benzodiazepine inverse agonist FG7142 on the structure of anxiety-related behavior of male Wistar rats tested in hole board.

Rationale: Little is known about the structural characteristics of the behavior of rats with enhanced anxiety level. To fill this gap, a study was undertaken where effects of an anxiogenic drug were examined on behavioral structure of rats tested in hole board.

Objectives: This study investigates effects of increased anxiety level on the structure of the behavior of rats tested in hole board METHODS: Different doses of FG7142 (1, 4, 8 mg/kg IP), a potent anxiety-inducing drug, were administered to three groups of male Wistar rats.

Preferential Biases for Texts That Include Neuroscientific Jargon.

The results of an experiment of preferential biases for texts that include neuroscientific jargon are presented. Such preferential bias has been reported even when the presented jargon is meaningless. In a variation of the well-known Weisberg et al.

Personality variables as predictors of Facebook usage.

This study investigates the role of personality factors as predictors of Facebook usage. Data concerning Facebook usage and personality factors from 654 Facebook users were gathered using a web survey. Using path analysis, the results showed Openness was a predictor of Facebook early adoption, Conscientiousness with sparing use, Extraversion with long sessions and abundant friendships, and Neuroticism with high frequency of sessions.

Using robotics construction kits as metacognitive tools: a research in an Italian primary school.

The present paper is aimed at analyzing the process of building and programming robots as a metacognitive tool. Quantitative data and qualitative observations from a research performed in a sample of children attending an Italian primary school are described in this work. Results showed that robotics activities may be intended as a new metacognitive environment that allows children to monitor themselves and control their learning actions in an autonomous and self-centered way.

Factorial structure of Web credibility in a population of Italian Internet users: a pilot study.

Recent studies by Fogg and his colleagues have defined a new psychological construct called Web credibility. It describes the principal dimensions which lead people to believe (or not) online information. In this framework, the factorial structure of Web credibility was explored in a sample of 152 Italian students of psychology who were Internet users, using a questionnaire.

Facilitating effect of natural frequencies: size does not matter.

The question of whether humans are able to work in a Bayesian way is currently a topic of substantial investigation. An important finding, reported by Gigerenzer and Hoffrage in 1995 is that Bayesian reasoning is facilitated when the information format corresponds to natural frequencies. The present concern was whether the facilitating effect of frequencies persists when natural frequencies relate to samples which are not convenient multiples of 10.

Attentional vs computational complexity measures in observing paintings.

Because of the great heterogeneity of subjects and styles, esthetic perception delineates a special and elusive field of research in vision, which represents an interesting challenge for cognitive science tools. With specific regard to the role of visual complexity, in this paper we present an experiment aimed to measure this dimension in a heterogeneous set of paintings. We compared perceived time complexity measures - based on a temporal estimation paradigm - with physical and statistical properties of the paintings, obtaining a strong correlation between psychological and computational results.

A study of temporal estimation from the perspective of the Mental Clock Model.

M. Cardaci's (2000) Mental Clock Model maintains that a task requiring a low mental workload is associated with an acceleration of perceived time, whereas a task requiring a high mental workload is associated with a deceleration. The authors examined the predictions of this model in a musical listening condition in which musical pieces were audible in several structural complexities.

Artificial organisms as tools for the development of psychological theory: Tolman's lesson.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Edward Tolman developed a psychological theory of spatial orientation in rats and humans. He expressed his theory as an automaton (the "schematic sowbug") or what today we would call an "artificial organism." With the technology of the day, he could not implement his model.

Frequency format facilitates reasoning in simple numerical tasks.

This study examined whether it is easier to reason in terms of frequencies or with percentages for simple numerical tasks. Research on probabilistic reasoning has shown that humans can draw correct inferences when problems are presented in terms of natural frequencies but not when in percentages. Whether the same effect can be observed in other numerically simple tasks which are not probabilistic was studied with 40 undergraduate students who volunteered for the experiment (13 men, 27 women; M age of 23 yr.

Rethinking of the heuristic-analytic dual process theory: a comment on Wada and Nittono (2004) and the reasoning process in the Wason selection task.

This paper raises some methodological problems in the dual process explanation provided by Wada and Nittono for their 2004 results using the Wason selection task. We maintain that the Nittono rethinking approach is weak and that it should be refined to grasp better the evidence of analytic processes.

New frontiers for psychology and education: robotics.

The paper reviews the first attempts to study the educational and psychological usefulness of robotics: (1) the social and cooperative dimensions involved in the robot-building activities; (2) the reasoning strategies implied in building and programming robots; (3) the influences of robotics on mathematical and scientific achievement; (4) the use of robotics in modification of social skills of autistic children.

Time estimation in Alzheimer's disease and the role of the central executive.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of short-term memory and attention in time estimation. For this purpose we studied prospective time verbal estimation in 21 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and compared their performance with that of 21 matched normal controls in two different conditions: during a digit span task and during an attentional task. Results showed that the performance of AD patients was significantly worse than that of the controls; the interaction between group and condition was significant.

Relations among perceived self-efficacy, self-esteem, and school achievement.

The present research explored empirically the factorial dimensions of self-efficacy and self-esteem and associations among self-esteem, self-efficacy, and scholastic achievement as measured in 151 subjects (M age = 13.4 yr.).