Dipartimento DI Psicologia Brain Neuroscience

Children with autism and typically developing children walked blindfolded to a previously seen target (blindwalking task) and matched the frontal to the sagittal extent of a pattern formed by ropes on the ground (L-matching task). All participants were accurate in the blindwalking task. Children with autism were also very accurate in the matching task. By contrast, in the matching task typically developing children made substantial underestimations that were inversely correlated with age. These findings support models that posit independent representations for the egocentric distance to a target location and for the spatial extent to a target object relative to the other spatial extents. These latter representations involve a form of large-scale pattern perception that may mature more slowly than representations of egocentric distance and develop atypically in autism.

When holding a small-scale model of Ames's trapezoidal window with the arms fully extended, several observers experience a striking proprioceptive distortion (eg one hand appears farther from the other, or one arm appears longer than the other). However, data from a matching experiment suggest that the proprioceptive misalignment of the hands is, in fact, rather less than the apparent slant of the window when this is not held. This finding argues against a ‘visual-capture’ account, supports an explanation in terms of bimodal integrative processes, and underscores the importance of supplementing phenomenological observations with objective measures.

After more than three centuries, Molyneux's question continues to challenge our understanding of cognition and perceptual systems. Locke, the original recipient of the question, approached it as a theoretical exercise relevant to long-standing philosophical issues, such as nativism, the possibility of common sensibles, and the empiricism-rationalism debate. However, philosophers were quick to adopt the experimentalist's stance as soon as they became aware of recoveries from congenital blindness through ophtalmic surgery. Such recoveries were widely reported to support empiricist positions, suggesting that the question had found its empirical answer. Contrary to this common view, we argue that studies of patients recovering from early blindness through surgery cannot provide an answer. In fact, because of the very nature of such ophtalmological interventions it is impossible to test the question in the empirical conditions outlined by Molyneux. Thus we propose that Molyneux's question be treated as an early thought experiment of a specific kind. Although thought experiments of this kind cannot be turned into actual experimental conditions, they provide a conceptual restructuring of theories. Such restructuring in turn leads to new predictions that can then be tested by "normal" experiments. In accord with this interpretation, we show that Molyneux's question can be analyzed into a hierarchy of specific questions about vision in its phenomenal and sensory-motor components. Some of these questions do lead to actual experimental conditions that could be studied empirically.

When viewing a three-dimensional Necker cube with one eye, participants can experience illusory reversals even while they feel the cube with their hands. This surprising property of the visual-haptic Necker cube affords a unique opportunity to investigate temporal constraints on interactions between vision and touch during extended observation of a three-dimensional object. Our observers reported reversals while they viewed the cube and, at the same time, they either held it with two-finger grips, felt it with while their hands remained stationary, or actively explored it by moving one hand. Consistent with a multisensory approach to three-dimensional form perception, touch had a clear effect on both the number and the duration of illusory percepts. Additionally, when observers alternated between stationary and moving periods during exploration, transitions from stationary to moving-hand haptics played a crucial role in inhibiting illusory reversals. A temporal analysis of the probability of first reversals occurring after different types of motor transition revealed a "vetoing window" initiating approximately 2 s after the transition and lasting at least another 1-2 s. Implications for multisensory processes during exploration are discussed.

The perception of the risk of a vaccine and its effectiveness has always been the subject of study. The human mind, in fact, tends to underestimate the effectiveness of a vaccine and overestimate its risk. But where does this problem come from and how does the human being think when he is talking about a vaccine? In this chapter, I intend to review the main studies on the efficacy of the vaccine. I also intend to deepen the studies on the perception of risk to highlight what are the strategies of thought adopted by the human beings when they must reason on these issues.

Insects as food is a recommended cultural shift by the FAO, especially among Western consumers. The objective of this study is to understand those elements, which can most contribute to explaining the desire to eat insects as food. There-fore, we evaluated people's knowledge and beliefs about the benefits deriving from the farming and consumption of insects, for the health of man and the plan-et. Furthermore, we investigated people's perceived credibility towards the main sources of communication that can convey information on insects as food. Final-ly, some suggestions for possible future communication campaigns are presented.

Educational personnel are seen as agents of change toward inclusive schools. This research aims to examine the daily-based interactions through which inclusion is experienced by support teachers and how their social identity is constructed within a secondary school in a northern Italy province. The theoretical basis of this research is formed by the conceptual contributions of social identity approach and symbolic interactionism to understand self-categorization and identification processes, through the narratives of actors. An ethnographic design was implemented, with 4-month participant observation and 20 semi-structured interviews of long duration as the main data collection techniques. Fieldnotes and interviews transcriptions were inductively analyzed through a thematic approach to grounded theorising. Results show a school community in which there is a strong hierarchical relationship among main and support teachers, where support teachers experience strong feelings of inferior...