Tina Iachini, Alessandro Iavarone, Vincenzo Paolo Senese, Francesco Ruotolo, Gennaro Ruggiero,
In the literature it is commonly reported that several spatial abilities decline with normal aging, even though such a decline is not uniform. So far, it is not yet clear which spatial components present a normal age-related decline, which ones are preserved and at what point the deficit is so severe to represent an index of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or a symptom of potential degenerative progression as in the early-stage Alzheimers disease (AD). In particular, AD (from early onset) is characterised ...
Tópico(s): Categorization, perception, and language
2009 - Bentham Science Publishers | Current Aging Science
Tina Iachini, Alessandro Iavarone, Vincenzo Paolo Senese, Francesco Ruotolo, Gennaro Ruggiero,
In the literature it is commonly reported that several spatial abilities decline with normal aging, even though such a decline is not uniform. So far, it is not yet clear which spatial components present a normal age-related decline, which ones are preserved and at what point the deficit is so severe to represent an index of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or a symptom of potential degenerative progression as in the early-stage Alzheimers disease (AD). In particular, AD (from early onset) is characterised ...
Tópico(s): Spatial Cognition and Navigation
2009 - Bentham Science Publishers | Current Aging Science
Tina Iachini, Francesco Ruotolo, Gennaro Ruggiero,
This paper reports a study of how familiarity and gender may influence the frames of reference used in memory to represent a real-world regularly shaped environment. Familiar and unfamiliar participants learned the locations of three triads of buildings by walking on a path which encircled each triad. Then they were shown with maps reproducing these triads at five different orientations (from 0° to 180°) and had to judge whether each triad represented correctly the relative positions between the ...
Tópico(s): Categorization, perception, and language
2008 - Elsevier BV | Journal of Environmental Psychology
Francesco Ruotolo, Gennaro Ruggiero, Michela Vinciguerra, Tina Iachini,
Tópico(s): Safety Warnings and Signage
2011 - Elsevier BV | Acta Psychologica
Vincenzo Paolo Senese, Francesco Ruotolo, Gennaro Ruggiero, Tina Iachini,
The Weinstein’s Noise Sensitivity Scale (WNSS) is one of the most widely used questionnaires to measure noise sensitivity, the most important subjective factor moderating the impact of noise on perceived annoyance. The present study evaluates the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the WNSS, tests the measurement invariance of this scale as a function of internal and external factors, and evaluates the effect of age, sex, and context on noise sensitivity. The scale was administered ...
Tópico(s): Vehicle Noise and Vibration Control
2011 - Hogrefe Verlag | European Journal of Psychological Assessment
Francesco Ruotolo, Gennaro Ruggiero, Mathijs Raemaekers, Tina Iachini, Ineke J.M. van der Ham, Alessio Fracasso, Albert Postma,
Spatial relations (SRs: coordinate/metric vs categorical/non metric) and frames of reference (FoRs: egocentric/body vs allocentric/external element) represent the building blocks underlying any spatial representation. In the present 7-T fMRI study we have identified for the first time the neural correlates of the spatial representations emerging from the combination of the two dimensions. The direct comparison between the different spatial representations revealed a bilateral fronto-parietal network, ...
Tópico(s): Categorization, perception, and language
2019 - Elsevier BV | Neuroscience
Mariachiara Rapuano, Francesco Ruotolo, Gennaro Ruggiero, Massimiliano Masullo, Luigi Maffei, Adriana Galderisi, Alice Palmieri, Tina Iachini,
Is it possible to develop urban spaces that address the different emotional and well-being needs of individuals? This work seeks to answer this question by focusing on the role of urban parks in helping users to relax and/or recharge their energy. Participants were presented with 15 images depicting three categories of urban parks, i.e., Green Parks with only natural greenery and water elements, Colorful Parks with a mixture of natural greenery and colorful architectural elements, and Squares with ...
Tópico(s): Noise Effects and Management
2022 - Elsevier BV | Journal of Environmental Psychology
Francesco Ruotolo, Tina Iachini, Gennaro Ruggiero, Ineke J.M. van der Ham, Albert Postma,
The aim of this study was to explore how people use egocentric (i.e., with respect to their body) and allocentric (i.e., with respect to another element in the environment) references in combination with coordinate (metric) or categorical (abstract) spatial information to identify a target element. Participants were asked to memorize triads of 3D objects or 2D figures, and immediately or after a delay of 5 s, they had to verbally indicate what was the object/figure: (1) closest/farthest to them (egocentric ...
Tópico(s): Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience
2016 - Springer Science+Business Media | Experimental Brain Research
Tina Iachini, Francesco Ruotolo, Michela Vinciguerra, Gennaro Ruggiero,
Being able to predict potential collisions is a necessary survival prerequisite for all moving species. Temporal and spatial information is fundamental for this purpose. However, it is not clear yet if the peripersonal (i.e. near) and extrapersonal (i.e. far) distance between our body and the moving objects affects the way in which we can predict possible collisions. In order to assess this, we manipulated independently velocity and path of two balls moving one towards the other in such a way as to ...
Tópico(s): Primate Behavior and Ecology
2017 - Elsevier BV | Cognition
Francesco Ruotolo, Tina Iachini, Gennaro Ruggiero, Gianluca Scotto di Tella, Laurent Ott, Angela Bartolo,
Tópico(s): Spatial Cognition and Navigation
2020 - Springer Science+Business Media | Psychological Research
Gianluca Scotto di Tella, Francesco Ruotolo, Gennaro Ruggiero, Tina Iachini, Angela Bartolo,
This study examines whether the perception of an object automatically activates the representation of the direction of use of that object. To this aim, we carried out two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to explicitly categorise objects as used either away from the body (AB, for example, a hammer) or towards the body (TB, for example, a toothbrush). In Experiment 2, participants were asked to judge whether the same objects were natural or manmade. In both experiments, they were ...
Tópico(s): Child and Animal Learning Development
2021 - SAGE Publishing | Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
Francesco Ruotolo, Vincenzo Paolo Senese, Gennaro Ruggiero, Luigi Maffei, Massimiliano Masullo, Tina Iachini,
Tópico(s): Categorization, perception, and language
2012 - Springer Science+Business Media | Cognitive Processing
Tina Iachini, Luigi Maffei, Francesco Ruotolo, Vincenzo Paolo Senese, Gennaro Ruggiero, Massimiliano Masullo, Natalia Alekseeva,
Summary In this study, a multisensory methodology is used to assess acoustic comfort aboard different real‐world metros by means of subjective annoyance and cognitive performance measures. Two experimental conditions were compared: unimodal versus bimodal. Immersive virtual reality was used to simulate journeys aboard metro coaches. Participants performed four tasks (Rey Test, Verbal Fluency, Backward Counting and Auditory Words Discrimination) while listening to metro sounds (unimodal condition) ...
Tópico(s): Hearing Loss and Rehabilitation
2012 - Wiley | Applied Cognitive Psychology
Gennaro Ruggiero, Francesco Ruotolo, Tina Iachini,
Tópico(s): Categorization, perception, and language
2009 - Springer Science+Business Media | Cognitive Processing
Tina Iachini, Gennaro Ruggiero, Francesco Ruotolo,
Tópico(s): Categorization, perception, and language
2009 - Springer Science+Business Media | Cognitive Processing
Gennaro Ruggiero, Francesco Ruotolo, Tina Iachini,
Tópico(s): Spatial Neglect and Hemispheric Dysfunction
2012 - Springer Science+Business Media | Cognitive Processing
Tina Iachini, Gennaro Ruggiero, Francesco Ruotolo,
There is evidence that early deprivation of vision prompts the use of body-based, egocentric spatial representations in congenitally blind individuals, whereas previous visual experience favors the use of object-based, allocentric representations (e.g. Pasqualotto A, Spiller MJ, Jansari AS, Proulx MJ. Visual experience facilitates allocentric spatial representation. Behav Brain Res 2013;236:175-79). Here we investigated whether the influence of the visual status on the capacity to represent egocentric ...
Tópico(s): Tactile and Sensory Interactions
2014 - Elsevier BV | Behavioural Brain Research
Tina Iachini, Gennaro Ruggiero, Francesco Ruotolo, Michela Vinciguerra,
The aim of this study was to explore the role of motor resources in peripersonal space encoding: are they intrinsic to spatial processes or due to action potentiality of objects? To answer this question, we disentangled the effects of motor resources on object manipulability and spatial processing in peripersonal and extrapersonal spaces. Participants had to localize manipulable and non-manipulable 3-D stimuli presented within peripersonal or extrapersonal spaces of an immersive virtual reality ...
Tópico(s): Spatial Neglect and Hemispheric Dysfunction
2014 - Elsevier BV | Acta Psychologica
Tina Iachini, Gennaro Ruggiero, Francesco Ruotolo, Armando Schiano di Cola, Vincenzo Paolo Senese,
Tópico(s): Urban Green Space and Health
2015 - Springer Science+Business Media | Cognitive Processing
Gennaro Ruggiero, Francesco Ruotolo, Tina Iachini,
Tópico(s): Multisensory perception and integration
2018 - Springer Science+Business Media | Experimental Brain Research
Gennaro Ruggiero, Francesco Ruotolo, Renato Orti, Barbara Rauso, Tina Iachini,
Research on visuospatial memory has shown that egocentric (subject‐to‐object) and allocentric (object‐to‐object) reference frames are connected to categorical (non‐metric) and coordinate (metric) spatial relations, and that motor resources are recruited especially when processing spatial information in peripersonal (within arm reaching) than extrapersonal (outside arm reaching) space. In order to perform our daily‐life activities, these spatial components cooperate along a continuum from recognition‐related ( ...
Tópico(s): Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience
2020 - Wiley | British Journal of Psychology
Massimiliano Masullo, Luigi Maffei, Tina Iachini, Mariachiara Rapuano, Federico Cioffi, Gennaro Ruggiero, Francesco Ruotolo,
Assessing the emotional impact that sounds have on individuals is of fundamental importance. In fact, individuals might choose a particular environment, such as a square or a green urban park, by also considering how positively or negatively the acoustic characteristics of that environment make them feel. However, at the moment, no questionnaire allows to reliably and clearly assess the emotional salience of sounds; that is how positively and negatively a sound is perceived by individuals. Therefore, ...
Tópico(s): Urban Green Space and Health
2021 - Elsevier BV | Applied Acoustics
Ferdinando Fornara, Oriana Mosca, Andrea Bosco, Alessandro O. Caffò, Antonella Lopez, Tina Iachini, Gennaro Ruggiero, Francesco Ruotolo, Filomena Leonela Sbordone, Antonella Ferrara, Zaira Cattaneo, Maria Arioli, Francesca Frassinetti, Michela Candini, Laura Miola, Francesca Pazzaglia,
Prolonged periods of restrictions on people's freedom of movement during the first massive wave of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that most people engaged in all their daily activities at home. This suggested the need for the spatial features of the home and its occupants' perception of them to be investigated in terms of people's wellbeing. The present study was conducted on a large sample (N = 1354) drawn from different Italian regions. It examined the relationship between the "objective" and "subjective" ...
Tópico(s): Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
2021 - Elsevier BV | Journal of Environmental Psychology
Francesco Ruotolo, Gennaro Ruggiero, Zaira Cattaneo, Maria Arioli, Michela Candini, Francesca Frassinetti, Francesca Pazzaglia, Ferdinando Fornara, Andrea Bosco, Tina Iachini,
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of home confinement/social isolation (i.e., lockdown), imposed to reduce large-scale spread of a disease in the population, on the mental health of individuals. Through an online survey during the lockdown (DL) related to COVID-19 (1085 respondents, 627 females, agerange: 18-82) (Italy, 23 April-2 May 2020), we revealed that situational factors, i.e., the presence of children at home and female gender, and psychological factors, i.e., a greater ...
Tópico(s): Optimism, Hope, and Well-being
2023 - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Francesco Ruotolo, Gennaro Ruggiero, Teresa Pia Arabia, Laurent Ott, Yann Coello, Angela Bartolo, Tina Iachini,
The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of mental representation processes during the planning, reaching, and use phases of actions with tools commonly used toward the body (TB, e.g., toothbrush) or away from the body (AB, e.g., pencil). In the first session, healthy participants were asked to perform TB (i.e., making circular movements with the toothbrush near the mouth) and AB (i.e., making circular movements with the pencil near the desk) actions both with (i.e., actual use) and without ...
Tópico(s): Sport Psychology and Performance
2022 - Wiley | Cognitive Science
Francesco Ruotolo, Mariachiara Rapuano, Massimiliano Masullo, Luigi Maffei, Gennaro Ruggiero, Tina Iachini,
The aim of the present work was to verify whether the perception of visual and acoustic characteristics of urban parks is influenced by the age of the participants. Fifty young (average age 25 years) and fifty elderly (average age 66 years) people were shown with combinations of different types of urban parks (i.e., green, colorful parks and squares) and different types of sound (i.e., bird song, water, chattering and traffic). For each audio-video scenario, participants indicated how calm, happy and ...
Tópico(s): Noise Effects and Management
2023 - Elsevier BV | Journal of Environmental Psychology
Gennaro Ruggiero, Francesco Ruotolo, Alessandro Iavarone, Tina Iachini,
Research has reported deficits in egocentric (subject-to-object) and mainly allocentric (object-to-object) spatial representations in the early stages of the Alzheimer's disease (eAD). To identify early cognitive signs of neurodegenerative conversion, several studies have shown alterations in both reference frames, especially the allocentric ones in amnestic-Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and eAD patients. However, egocentric and allocentric spatial frames of reference are intrinsically connected ...
Tópico(s): Categorization, perception, and language
2020 - Elsevier BV | Behavioural Brain Research
Francesco Ruotolo, Ineke J.M. van der Ham, Albert Postma, Gennaro Ruggiero, Tina Iachini,
This study explores how people represent spatial information in order to accomplish a visuo-motor task. To this aim we combined two fundamental components of the human visuo-spatial system: egocentric and allocentric frames of reference and coordinate and categorical spatial relations. Specifically, participants learned the position of three objects and then had to judge the distance (coordinate information) and the relation (categorical information) of a target object with respect to themselves (egocentric ...
Tópico(s): Action Observation and Synchronization
2015 - Elsevier BV | Behavioural Brain Research
Gennaro Ruggiero, Francesco Ruotolo, Tina Iachini,
Egocentric (subject-to-object) and allocentric (object-to-object) spatial reference frames are fundamental for representing the position of objects or places around us. The literature on spatial cognition in blind people has shown that lack of vision may limit the ability to represent spatial information in an allocentric rather than egocentric way. Furthermore, much research with sighted individuals has reported that ageing has a negative impact on spatial memory. However, as far as we know, no study ...
Tópico(s): Spatial Cognition and Navigation
2021 - SAGE Publishing | Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
Mariachiara Rapuano, Maria Sarno, Francesco Ruotolo, Gennaro Ruggiero, Sabrina Iuliano, Massimiliano Masullo, Luigi Maffei, Federico Cioffi, Tina Iachini,
Longer life expectancy and global population growth result in new environmental demands to meet different material and psychological needs across the lifespan. Since the physical environment is a fundamental factor in the quality of life, here we investigated which different indoor features (i.e., colors, materials/textures) have the most positive impact on individuals in terms of emotional reactions and whether these reactions could vary with age. Four groups of participants (i.e., younger adults, ...
Tópico(s): Multisensory perception and integration
2023 - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute | Buildings