Item Response Theory analysis and Differential Item Functioning across age,gender and country of a short form of the Advanced Progressive Matrices

Item Response Theory (IRT) models were applied to investigate the psychometric properties of the Arthur and Day's Advanced Progressive Matrices-Short Form (APM-SF; 1994) [Arthur and Day (1994). Development of a short form for the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices test. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 54, 395–403] in order to test if the scale is a reliable and valid tool to assess general fluid ability in a short time frame. The APM-SF was administered to 2264 high-school and university students. Once attested the one-factor structure of the scale, unidimensional IRT analyses for dichotomous data were applied to investigate the increases in item difficulty levels, Test Information Function, and Differential Item Functioning across age, gender, and country (comparing Italian and British respondents). Additionally, validity measures were reported. Findings attest that the Arthur and Day's APM-SF is a sound instrument for assessing fluid ability within a short time frame.     

Holistic face processing in newborns, 3-month-old infants, and adults: evidence from the composite face effect

Holistic face processing was investigated in newborns, 3-month-old infants, and adults through a modified version of the composite face paradigm and the recording of eye movements. After familiarization to the top portion of a face, participants (N = 70) were shown 2 aligned or misaligned faces, 1 of which comprised the familiar top part. In the aligned condition, no visual preference was found at any group age. In the misaligned condition, 3-month-olds preferred the face stimulus with the familiar top part, adults preferred the face stimulus with the novel one, and newborns did not manifest any visual preference. Results revealed that both infants' and adults' eye movements may be affected by holistic face information and demonstrated holistic face processing in 3-month-olds.     

The student–teacher relationship quality in children with selective mutism

Selective mutism (SM) is a rare anxiety disorder that compromises children's daily life during critical periods of early development. Because school is a prime context for the manifestation of the disorder, the aim of this study was to investigate the quality of the student–teacher relationship and its effects on behavior and work, and on social and relational skills. The sample consisted of 75 children—15 were affected by SM, with 60 in the control group—and 15 teachers. The results showed greater difficulty on the teacher's part to establish a relationship based on affective closeness with a child affected by SM, compared to that with unaffected children. Nevertheless, an encouraging picture emerges of the inclusion and integration of the child with SM among peers and therefore in the class group.     

A ‘power law’ based method to reduce size-related bias in indicators of knowledge performance: An application to university research assessment

The knowledge production provided by universities is essential to sustaining a country’s long-term economic growth and international competitiveness. Many nations are thus driving to create sustainable and effective funding environments. The evaluation of university knowledge, productivity and research quality becomes critical, with ever increasing share of public funding allocated on the basis of research assessment exercises. Nevertheless, the existing methods to assess the universities’ knowledge production are often affected by limits and biases, extensively discussed in the scientific literature.In this paper we study how to reduce the effect of size-related bias due to university size on the indicators of knowledge performance used in evaluation exercises. We propose an innovative utilization of the scale-free property of the power laws as a scaling relationship, to normalize research productivity indicators, and provide results independent by the university size. Our method has evident policy implications and gives a contribution for the future design of assessment exercises.We apply our findings in a recent Italian research assessment exercise.     

Reading aloud: Dissociating the semantic pathway from the non-semantic pathway of the lexical route

According to dual-route models of reading,consistency effects in pseudoword reading areevidence for the activation of lexicalinformation. We investigated whether thislexical interference has a semantic or anon-semantic origin. In Experiment 1,participants named aloud a set of words andpseudowords. The consistency effect in readingpseudowords co-occurred with associativepriming effects in reading words but not withsemantic priming effects. In Experiment 2, onlywords were presented. Comparable effects ofboth associative priming and semantic primingin naming words were found. This patternprovides evidence for the existence of alexical non-semantic pathway in reading aloud.It also shows that this pathway is sensitive toassociative relations among words. Finally, itcalls into question the likelihood of afeedback mechanism from the semantic system tothe orthographic input lexicon.     

Children’s rights in educational relationships

The aim of this study is that of reaching a better comprehension of the topic of children’s rights within educational relationships. In a first stage, we analysed the representational field of children’s rights produced through free associations by the two partners who are in conflict in everyday life, namely adults (n=267) and adolescents (n=143). In a second stage, we chose a sample of 690 adult subjects that were all parents, half of whom were also teachers; through a structured questionnaire we investigated the role of several aspects (responsibility, respect, values, conditions influencing children’s growth and sense of justice) in the organisation of social representations of children’s rights. The results outlined different contrasts in the organisation of the representational scenario. The first opposes adults and adolescents, in the sense that adults emphasise their duties of offering protection and care, while the youngsters describe rights in terms of autonomous field of experience. Within the group of adults, several differences emerged between teachers and parents: the first seem more doubtful about the positive outcomes of personal involvement, while parents are moved by a general feeling of optimism, anchored in the faith in the family’s strength and integrity.