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Tipologie di descrizione di ambienti in funzione delle caratteristiche ambientali, individuali e di familiarità con i luoghi
No full textAcquiring spatial knowledge from different sources and perspectives: Abilities, strategies and representations.
No full textIn recent years our Memory and Learning lab at the University of Padua has conducted research projects, many of them inspired by Barbara Tversky’s work, to investigate the interactions between individual and environmental variables affecting performance in several spatial tasks: navigation, short-cut finding, map learning, and spatial text comprehension. A variety of methods and tools have been used to do so, from self-reports (questionnaires on sense of direction [SOD], strategies and preferences in spatial representations) to objective measures of spatial abilities and visuospatial working memory (VSWM). Our general goal has been to explore differences and similarities in spatial representations constructed from different sources (navigation, map inspection, spatial texts) and perspectives, and to shed light on whether and how SOD, spatial representation strategies and styles, spatial abilities, and VSWM work together in influencing performance in various spatial tasks.
Studies on this topic originated a long time ago, in 1993, when the first author of this chapter presented a poster together with Cesare Cornoldi at the 34th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society. It is there that we met Barbara Tversky (and a brilliant PhD student: Holly Taylor), and embarked on a long story of research exchanges and friendship that, some years later, came to involve the second author too. The present chapter is a sign of our grateful acknowledgment of how Barbara continues to inspire our work, and how she brought fresh perspectives to our lives
Spatial skills, working memory, and strategies in spatial learning. “Where are we now? Understanding Spatial Skills, Strategies, and Navigation”
No full textPerceived restorativeness and environment quality in relation to well-being, residential satisfaction, and sense of community: an analysis in Northeast Italy
Get PDFIntroduction: Residential satisfaction consists of pleasure derived from living in a place according to one’s needs, expectations, and outcomes. The present study examines the role of sociodemographic variables, perceived residential quality indicators, and restorativeness in predicting i) well-being, ii) residential satisfaction, and iii) sense of communities in northeast Italy. Methods: A total of 100 residents (47 women) in various cities in northeast Italy and 211 (112 women) residents in Piazzola sul Brenta (PD) took part in two studies. They answered demographic questions about self-reported restorativeness, residential environment quality, residential satisfaction, mental well-being, and sense of community. Results: After accounting for age, gender, and income, the results showed that perceived restorativeness enhances sense of community in the Northeast and Piazzola sul Brenta samples and predicts psychological well-being and residential satisfaction in Piazzola sul Brenta. Architectural and functional aspects contribute, respectively, to residential satisfaction and sense of community in both samples, and functional factors predict residential satisfaction for the Northeast sample. Place attachment plays a positive role in residential satisfaction and sense of community in the Northeast and Piazzola sul Brenta. Discussion: The study reveals a link between perceived restorativeness and residential satisfaction and well-being, providing insight for professionals and policy to improve urban quality
Cognitive styles and mental rotation ability in map learning
No full textIn inspecting, learning and reproducing a map, a wide range of abilities is potentially involved. This study examined the role of mental rotation (MR) and verbal ability, together with that of cognitive styles in map learning. As regards cognitive styles, the traditional distinction between verbalizers and visualizers has been taken into account, together with a more recent distinction between two styles of visualization: spatial and object. One hundred and seven participants filled in two questionnaires on cognitive styles: the Verbalizer–Visualizer Questionnaire (Richardson in J Ment Imag 1:109–125, 1977) and the Object-Spatial Imagery Questionnaire (Blajenkova et al. in Appl Cogn Psych 20:239–263, 2006), performed MR and verbal tests, learned two maps, and were then tested for their recall. It was found that MR ability and cognitive styles played a role in predicting map learning, with some distinctions within cognitive styles: verbal style favoured learning of one of the two maps (the one rich in verbal labels), which in turn was disadvantaged by the adoption of spatial style. Conversely, spatial style predicted learning of the other map, rich in visual features. The discussion focuses on implications for cognitive psychology and everyday cognition
Compiti per casa: motivarsi, emozionarsi, appassionarsi allo studio
No full textL'articolo illustra alcune tematiche legate agli aspetti motivazionali, emotivi e alle convinzioni sui compiti per casa
Following the instructions ! Effects of gender beliefs in mental rotation
No full textResearch has widely demonstrated male superiority in the Mental Rotation Test (MRT). Various explanations have been put
forward to account for these differences. We considered gender beliefs and argued that women may fare less well than men partly
because they are considered unable to perform this kind of task. Beliefs about spatial ability were experimentally manipulated in
samples of 107 female and of 90 male high-school students, divided into three groups, following the instructions: men are better,
women are better, general (with no gender reference). Our data show that women who expect to be more able than men and men
who expect to be more able than women outperformed their counterparts. MRT performance fell for those expecting to be less able.
The effects of induced beliefs on cognitive performance are stressed, particularly in the educational context
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