No abstract

Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) is the most frequent of the inherited ataxias. However, very few studies have examined the cognitive status of patients with genetically defined FRDA. Our aim was to study cognitive performance of FRDA patients taking into account the motor problems characteristic of this clinical population. Thirty-six FRDA patients were administered a comprehensive neuropsychological battery measuring multiple domains: processing speed, attention, working memory, executive functions, verbal and visual memory, visuoperceptive and visuospatial skills, visuoconstructive functions, and language. Thirty-one gender, age, years of education, and estimated IQ-matched healthy participants served as control subjects. All participants were native Spanish speakers. Patients showed decreased motor and mental speed, problems in conceptual thinking, a diminished verbal fluency, deficits in acquisition of verbal information and use of semantic strategies in retrieval, visuoperceptive and visuoconstructive problems, and poor action naming. Scores on the depression inventory were significantly higher in patients than controls, but depression did not account for group differences in cognitive performance. The observed pattern of neuropsychological impairment is indicative of executive problems and parieto-temporal dysfunction. Neuropathological and neuroimaging studies with FRDA patients have reported only mild anomalies in cerebral hemispheres. Thus, cognitive impairment in FRDA is probably caused by the interruption of the cerebro-cerebellar circuits that have been proposed as the anatomical substrate of the cerebellar involvement in cognition.

This study was designed to determine a word problem difficulty classification in children with arithmetic learning disabilities (ALD; n = 104) in comparison with typically achieving students (n = 44). We tested variables such as (a) semantic structure (Change, Combine, Compare, and Equalize), (b) operation (subtraction and addition), and (c) position of the unknown quantity in the problem. Facet theory with multidimensional scaling techniques (MINISSA) was used to analyze the underlying dimensions in the responses of each group of participants. Our results indicate that although the word problem difficulty classifications for the 2 groups of children were different, the position of the unknown quantity had a greater influence on the level of difficulty of story problems than other variables. The noncanonical problems--specifically, those with the unknown term in the first place--although difficult for both groups of children, were the most difficult problems for children with ALD.

Restorativeness is defined as the potential of the environment to re-establish certain cognitive capacities related to human information processing. The most frequently used instrument for evaluating the restorativeness of places is the Perceived Restorativeness Scale, proposed by Hartig et al. (1991). Later on, shorter versions of the Perceived Restorativeness Scale were proposed. The aim of this work is to evaluate the discriminatory capacity of the original and of a shorter Spanish version of the PRS, considering urban settings previously selected for having different level of restorativeness, according to expert’s criteria. The study involved 244 students and used a 3 × 2 mixed experimental design, with two independent variables: Restorativeness of a place (between-subjects), which was manipulated by showing pictures of settings selected with varying levels of restorativeness (high, medium, low), and length of the scale (within-subjects), which was manipulated by asking subjects to fill in both the original and a shorter version of the PRS. The order of presentation of the two scales was counterbalanced. Results show an appropriate reliability for both version of the scale. Items of being-away, fascination, and coherence of the shorter scale correlate more strongly with the corresponding factor of the original scale, compared to the others factors. Both scales produce similar values for the perceived restorativeness of the different places, except for places with low restorativeness.

Purpose. The aim of this study is to propose and test a comprehensive model of compliance with environmental law (EL). The legal and psychosocial peculiarities of environmental transgressions suggest that the nature and relative impact of the determinants of ordinary people's compliance with EL may differ from those involved in compliance with ordinary laws. Method.A total of 439 university students of Law, Psychology, Pedagogy, and Speech Therapy majors, aged between 18 and 58, took part in the study. Participants answered a questionnaire assessing illegal anti-ecological behaviour (IAEB), legal-sanction-related variables, injunctive and prescriptive social norms, personal norms, and sustainability attitudes. The data from all participants were processed using structural equation analysis to test the hypothesized model. Results.The main antecedents of IAEB are personal norms and, to a lesser extent, sustainability attitudes and descriptive social norms. Personal norms on IAEB are influenced by injunctive social norms and also by sustainability attitudes. Legal-sanctionrelated variables affect personal norms and IAEB, but only by indirectly influencing social norms. Conclusions.Although legal-sanction-related variables and norms have been traditionally used to explain illegal behaviour, the legal and psychosocial peculiarities of IAEB are reflected in the process of compliance with environmental protection laws. Results allow for a refinement of the relationship between personal and social norms, showing that the main determinants of IAEB is personal norm, but that descriptive social norms also directly affect behaviour, and that sustainability attitudes play an unquestionable role in compliance with ELs.