The present thesis addresses several experimental questions regarding the nature of the processes underlying the larger centro-parietal Late Positive Potential (LPP) measured during the viewing of emotional(both pleasant and unpleasant) compared to neutral pictures. During a passive viewing condition, this modulatory difference is significantly reduced with picture repetition, but it does not completely habituate even after a massive repetition of the same picture exemplar. In order to investigate the obligatory nature of the affective modulation of the LPP, in Study 1 we introduced a competing task during repetitive exposure of affective pictures. Picture repetition occurred in a passive viewing context or during a categorization task, in which pictures depicting any mean of transportation were presented as targets, and repeated pictures (affectively engaging images) served as distractor stimuli. Results indicated that the impact of repetition on the LPP affective modulation was very similar between the passive and the task contexts, indicating that the affective processing of visual stimuli reflects an obligatory process that occurs despite participants were engaged in a categorization task. In study 2 we assessed whether the decrease of the LPP affective modulation persists over time, by presenting in day 2 the same set of pictures that were massively repeated in day 1. Results indicated that the reduction of the emotional modulation of the LPP to repeated pictures persisted even after 1-day interval, suggesting a contribution of long-term memory processes on the affective habituation of the LPP. Taken together, the data provide new information regarding the processes underlying the affective modulation of the late positive potential.

In recent decades fascinating studies in developmental psychology, especially in infant research (for review see Lavelli, 2007) and recent discoveries in neuroscience (Welsh, et al, 2007; Siegel, 2001; Pally, 2007) have brought great interest to study the mode of sharing subjective experiences (affective states, intentions and attentional focus) in children and adults.It therefore appears today in the clinic is a growing consensus about the fact that the psychological disorder can be read as a deficit in intersubjective processes of affect regulation (see Benecke C. et al 2005; psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual-PDM, 2006) leading many authors to assume the centrality of affect regulation in the construction of the psychotherapeutic process of change (just to name a few Tronick, Greenberg, Stern, Sander, Fonagy, Beebe, Philippot, Rimé etc..). As previously stated, this study has led us to hypothesize that the long process of therapy is to assist with the sessions continue, a growing "emotional attunement" between the communication styles of both patient and therapist. And also to speculate that this synchronization can represent the existence of a significant positive correlation between the increased level of "emotional synchronization" and increased capacity for regulation of emotions by the patient.The research results despite the limitations of small sample showed encouraging results about the verification of the existence of an increasing degree of attunement between therapist and patient long psychotherapy sessions and also showed a good degree of positive correlation between the increase the latter construct and emotional regulation through the implicit mode of expression and nonverbal communication.

The theme “Belongingness” has a central role in the current debate on Community Psychology and in daily life. To try to understand the consequences of these changes, the research focuses on the concept of Sense of Community. In fact, Sense of Community has always been a central tool (Sarason, 1974; MacMillan & Chavis, 1986) to study communities (McMillan, 2011; Nowell & Boyd, 2011) and for a long time has represented positive values and something to aspire to. However, current debates indicate that Sense of Community is an outmoded concept and underline the problematic issue of “promotion of Sense of Community” in contexts of multi culture. The aim of the present research is to analyze Sense of Community in context of multi culture, as we consider that it can still be a fundamental tool to study and understand communities. In particular we are interested in understanding the role of Multiple Sense of Community (Brodsky, 2009) on Identity and Wellbeing (and its dimensions). We focused on a specific context, the Station Zone in Reggio Emilia, that is characterized by high levels of cultural diversity and different social problems (Giovannini & Vezzali, 2011). The research is developed and divided into two parts. The first part consists of an exploratory qualitative study that analyzes meanings of community among leaders of different ethnic groups living in the Station Zone. The second part consists of a “General Model” study and four parallel studies to analyze Multiple Sense of Community in different ethnic groups (Albanians, Moroccans, Chinese and Italians. The results indicate the different role of Multiple SOC in the relation between Identity and Wellbeing, in particular the relevance of Relational SOC and its different implications. Moreover, the factor “culture” represents an significant element in order to consider differences among ethnic groups.

This thesis investigated affordances and verbal language to demonstrate the flexibility of embodied simulation processes. Starting from the assumption that both object/action understanding and language comprehension are tied to the context in which they take place, six studies clarified the factors that modulate simulation. The studies in chapter 4 and 5 investigated affordance activation in complex scenes, revealing the strong influence of the visual context, which included either objects and actions, on compatibility effects. The study in chapter 6 compared the simulation triggered by visual objects and objects names, showing differences depending on the kind of materials processed. The study in chapter 7 tested the predictions of the WAT theory, confirming that the different contexts in which words are acquired lead to the difference typically observed in the literature between concrete and abstract words. The study in chapter 8 on the grounding of abstract concepts tested the mapping of temporal contents on the spatial frame of reference of the mental timeline, showing that metaphoric congruency effects are not automatic, but flexibly mediated by the context determined by the goals of different tasks. The study in chapter 9 investigated the role of iconicity in verbal language, showing sound-to-shape correspondences when every-day object figures, result that validated the reality of sound-symbolism in ecological contexts. On the whole, this evidence favors embodied views of cognition, and supports the hypothesis of a high flexibility of simulation processes. The reported conceptual effects confirm that the context plays a crucial role in affordances emergence, metaphoric mappings activation and language grounding. In conclusion, this thesis highlights that in an embodied perspective cognition is necessarily situated and anchored to a specific context, as it is sustained by the existence of a specific body immersed in a specific environment.

For decades, researchers have been trying to understand how the human mind/brain processes rhythm and time in general. Within this framework, many studies have explored the influence of long-term musical training on the neural and behavioral correlates of rhythm processing. Some pieces of evidence point to enhanced rhythm processing in musicians as one of the consequences of the structural and functional changes in many brain areas involved in auditory processing, motor synchronization and cognitive control. Yet there is still more controversy than consensus on this field. Indeed, several behavioral and neural studies report opposite results and describe contrasting effects associated to rhythm perception in musicians and non-musicians. The aim of the project described in this thesis was to shed new light on the effects of long-term musical training on the behavioral and neural correlates of rhythm processing. First, I addressed whether musical expertise influences rhythm processing when this is not task-relevant. Next, I expanded the investigation to the ability of musicians to orient efficiently attention in time. I explored these questions by looking at behavioral and electroencephalographic (EEG) correlates associated to the detection of auditory deviant stimuli. Chapter 1 is a general introduction to the current knowledge on rhythm processing. After a description of the most influential theories of temporal elaboration, it introduces some of the electrophysiological correlates associated to regularity violation. Then, it provides a detailed description of the neural and behavioral changes triggered by a long-term musical training, focusing on rhythm processing. At the end of this introduction, the aims and hypotheses of each experiment are presented in detail. In Chapter 2, I describe two behavioral experiments that explored how the processing of different temporal structures (rhythmical, non-rhythmical) influences the detection of deviant stimuli (Experiment 1), and addressed the role of a refined metrical representation in musicians and non-musicians (Experiment 2). The results revealed an overall superior performance of musicians in all experimental conditions, thus pointing to an enhanced auditory perception as consequence of their musical training. The results also highlight a large-scale processing of rhythm, independent of musical expertise. Furthermore, the results on response speed indicate a refined metrical processing only in musicians. Thus, the first part of the thesis demonstrates that long-term musical training boosts meter processing, whereas (some form of) rhythm processing appears to be overall present in all individuals. In Chapter 3, I report an EEG experiment which was aimed at exploring the effects of long-term musical training on the neural correlates of auditory deviance violation (Mismatch Negativity – MMN and Middle Latency Responses - MLRs), by inserting deviant stimuli in rhythmical (at strong and weak metrical positions) and non-rhythmical structures. Deviant stimuli within rhythmical structures elicited larger MMN compared to non-rhythmical ones in all participants. Moreover, the MMN was also modulated by meter as showed by the smaller amplitude for deviants at strong than weak positions. Interestingly, a deeper investigation of the neural modulations associated to the strong positions revealed a stronger response in musicians than non-musicians. This demonstrates the prevailing effect of stimulus salience (strong metrical positions and frequency deviant at these positions) over the effect of prediction for musicians. Finally, effect of long-term musical training modulated the MLRs for deviants within rhythmical structures. Taken together, these results indicate an effect of musical expertise at early and late stages of deviance perception, as evidenced by modulations of the MLR and MMN responses. Chapter 4 reports the results of a cross-modal cueing experiment aimed at investigating the influence of long-term musical training on the ability to orient attention in time using external cues. Besides behavioral and ERP responses, here I examined a particular neural response associated to entrainment: the steady state evoked potential (SS-EP). The results showed that auditory cues greatly facilitate attention orienting in time. Furthermore, targets preceded by short intervals were highly expected and this was visible both at the behavioral (high efficiency and more anticipations) and neural (larger CNV and reduced P300 amplitude) levels. Effects of musical expertise were present only in behavioral data and only when considering the mostly trained sensory modality (audition). Finally, musicians were less synchronized to the rhythm than non-musicians (reduced SS-EPs). In sum, these results indicate that the auditory modality better guide temporal orienting than the visual one, and that this effect is magnified for musicians. Finally, weaker synchronization to rhythm in musicians may mirror the ease with which they process rhythm. Chapter 5 is a summary of the main results and of their interpretation.

Il comportamento di faking è un problema trasversale che riguarda la ricerca sul comportamento umano in molti contesti quali la psicologia (Hopwood, Talbert, Morey, & Rogers, 2008), le scienze sociali (Van der Geest & Sarkodie, 1998) ed economiche (Crawford, 2003), la psichiatria (Beaber, Marston, Michelli, & Mills, 1985), la medicina forense (Gray, MacCulloch, Smith, Morris, & Snowden, 2003) e le frodi scientifiche (Marshall, 2000). Esso è un problema importante sia perché va ad alterare l’affidabilità di un test quando lo si usa per le decisioni in ambito inferenziale, sia perché i dati così raccolti perdono di validità e quindi le relazioni tra variabili misurate perdono di significato. Diversi studi hanno dimostrato che istruendo a dovere i partecipanti a un questionario, essi sono in grado di modificare le risposte fornendo risposte più estreme (es, Furnham, 1986; Hesketh, Griffin, & Grayson, 2004; McFarland & Ryan, 2000; Viswesvaran & Ones, 1999). Gli effetti conosciuti del faking da un punto di vista psicometrico agiscono sulla struttura della covarianza delle scale distorte. Generalmente si è visto che i punteggi che hanno subito una manipolazione da faking, in una situazione in cui i soggetti venivano motivati, tendono ad avere una varianza più piccola e una minore affidabilità (Eysenck, Eysenck, & Shaw, 1974; Topping & O’Gorman, 1997; Ellingson, Smith, & Sackett, 2001; Hesketh et al., 2004). Allo stesso tempo però è stato osservato che quando è stato chiesto ai soggetti di mentire intenzionalmente, questo aumenta il grado di covariazione tra gli item manipolati (Ellingson, Sackett, & Hough, 1999; Gali?, Jernei?, & Kova?i?, 2012; Pauls & Crost, 2005; Zickar & Robie, 1999; Ziegler & Buehner, 2009). Il lavoro del capitolo 3 è stato il primo a iniziare e a essere terminato esso ci ha permesso di risollevare il problema dell’identificazione dei fakers e di definire quale riteniamo essere la motivazione principale della poca efficienza degli indici di fit individuale (PFS), cioè una non discriminazione tra i fakers e gli onesti sulla base della likelihood. Le somiglianze con altri tipi di manipolazioni contenute nella parte di review contenuta nello stesso capitolo (par. 3.2) ci hanno dato conferma, almeno a nostro avviso, che l’SGR si inserisce di diritto all’interno delle manipolazioni dei dati. Oltretutto non si limita al faking, consideriamo il faking solo uno dei possibili impieghi, basta utilizzare un adeguato modello manipolativo a seconda della specifica situazione. Se da un lato la simulazione per individuare i fakers è stata piuttosto robusta e approfondita (par. 3.3), dall’altro la parte conclusiva riguardo lo studio della likelihood (par. 3.4), purtroppo, è stata trattata più velocemente solo attraverso esempi e la generalizzazione a tutti i questionari solo dedotta. Probabilmente sarebbe interessante approfondire quella sezione per farla diventare un robusto lavoro indipendente. Nella stesura della simulazione era già emerso il concetto della mixture, cioè che il comportamento del mentitore sia coerente all’interno del pattern di risposte e che il campione si suddivida in sinceri e fakers, ma non ulteriormente formalizzato. La situazione migliore per il mentitore è quando mente su quasi la totalità degli item, cercando di creare pattern menzogneri, ma coerenti e questo comportamento gli crea un vantaggio nel non essere identificato (figure da 3.1 a 3.4) rispetto al mentire solo a metà degli item. Rimanendo però con l’idea della non-indipendenza tra item, con l’obiettivo di innovare l’utilizzo della struttura SGR fino a quel momento utilizzata, ci siamo resi conto che un questionario di molti item è difficile da analizzare perché le combinazioni di risposte sono esponenziali al numero di item. Quindi abbiamo scelto di ricominciare il percorso analitico da due item per non perdere il nostro assunto di interdipendenza nelle risposte. La decisione di questo "passo indietro" si è mostrata vincente perché ci avrebbe successivamente permesso l’esplorazione matematica delle distribuzioni di probabilità nel caso bivariato. Purtroppo resta ancora difficile applicare le formule (cap. 4) a casi reali per la difficoltà a ipotizzare i veri modelli di manipolazione e la quantità di soggetti faker, ad esempio, per cercare di ricostruire i dati originali (formula 4.16). Nonostante i limiti empirici a livello campionario, lo studio matematico ha permesso lo studio a livello di popolazione e mostrare che gli effetti del faking possono diventare facilmente invasivi nell’esisto di una ricerca gonfiando o diminuendo correlazioni o, addirittura, invertendone il segno. In particolare, i nostri risultati si possono sovrapporre, almeno parzialmente, a quelli di Loken e Gelman (2017). Nell’articolo gli autori parlano di errore casuale di misura, il quale può modificare la dimensione dell’effetto principale, anche accentuandolo nei piccoli campioni. Siamo arrivati a conclusioni simili quasi contemporaneamente; anzi il nostro tipo di “errore” di misura è più evoluto e rappresenta un comportamento complesso, strategico e non indipendente (attraverso gli item) dei soggetti. In particolare gli autori ci servono su un piatto d’argento la giustificazione di tutte le ore di lavoro che abbiamo dedicato a questo progetto: "The situation become more complicated in problems with multiple predictors, or with nonindependent error " (pg. 585). Il faking potrebbe essere, appunto, un esempio di errore non-indipendende. Ovviamente buoni presupposti non sono garanzia di un ottimo risultato, ma sono almeno un buon punto di partenza.

This thesis collects a set of research articles and working papers produced during my doctoral program. Overall, they refer to: (i) the general problem of collecting measures for the dynamic processes underlying human rating tasks (section Models, methods, instruments) (ii) the proposal of new statistical methods to analyse data structures arising from the dynamic rating measurements (section Statistical techniques). The section Models, methods, instruments contains three chapters on models and methods designed to represent the dynamics of rating evaluations together with some relevant applications. In particular, the latter refer to two different contexts, namely Likert-type questionnaires (Chapters 1 and 2) and two-choice decision making (Chapter 3). Finally, the section also describes two new measurement instruments for dynamic ratings, DYFRAT (Chapter 1) and DYFRAS (Chapter 2). In a similar way, the section Statistical techniques contains three works on novel statistical methodologies to run data analysis in the context of structured data€ , namely fuzzy numbers (Chapters 4 and 5) and interval-valued data (Chapter 6). The justification for structured-data comes directly from the treatment of the dynamic rating components in the sense that such a kind of data can offer a simple and flexible formal representation to model the information related to the rating properties.

This developmental research adopted an adapted Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) structure to design an e-learning course module and a learning procedure, and embedded a self-regulated learning procedure into the PSI course. A set of self-regulated learning tools were developed and applied in this process. Through this PSI-based course, students learned a comparative culture study topic and learned to develop their self-regulated learning skills. This research also conducted Formative Evaluation. Suggestions from expert review and small group evaluation were used to design and revise this module and learning procedure. Evaluation outcomes from expert review and small group evaluation confirmed that this SRL embedded PSI framework was applicable for this e-learning environment. Implications for future use in both academic and practical areas were discussed. / Ph. D.

Human beings must constantly adapt to an uncertain and mutable world by generating efficient behavioral strategies to pursue their goals. The complexity of this task increases in interactive contexts, where the outcomes of our actions depend also on the choices of other agents. When the environment does not provide reliable feedback, the effectiveness of behavioral strategies rests on the ability to handle available knowledge: agents have indeed to extract relevant information from noisy signals and build an exhaustive representation of the set of potential actions and outcomes available to themselves and to others. Individual differences in the implementation of these information- processing operations may underlie behavioral heterogeneity in several judgment and decision making tasks. Here we report three eye-tracking studies revealing the existence of distinct information-processing strategies in different individuals. Study 1 explores inter-individual differences in the generation of relational representations of interdependent contingencies. In Study 2 and Study 3, we move towards social contexts to investigate the mechanisms of strategy generation underlying strategic behavior in interaction. Our findings indicate that gaze data can disclose individual differences in the process of spontaneous strategy generation in both individual and interacting settings. We also report results suggesting that the emergence of unsophisticated information-processing strategies is associated with cognitive style. Moreover, we show that the attentional mechanisms sustaining the generation of unsophisticated strategies can be reconsidered and updated under the impact of endogenous and exogenous cues revealing the existence of alternative information-processing behaviors.

That humans and animals learn from interaction with the environment is a foundational idea underlying nearly all theories of learning and intelligence. Learning that certain outcomes are associated with specific actions or stimuli (both internal and external), is at the very core of the capacity to adapt behaviour to environmental changes. In the present work, appetitive and aversive reinforcement learning paradigms have been used to investigate the fronto-striatal loops and behavioural correlates of adaptive and maladaptive reinforcement learning processes, aiming to a deeper understanding of how cortical and subcortical substrates interacts between them and with other brain systems to support learning. By combining a large variety of neuroscientific approaches, including behavioral and psychophysiological methods, EEG and neuroimaging techniques, these studies aim at clarifying and advancing the knowledge of the neural bases and computational mechanisms of reinforcement learning, both in normal and neurologically impaired population.