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A cross-national comparison between Italy and Spain was conducted on probabilistic reasoning performance presented in verbal-numerical and graphical-pictorial formats. This study investigated the similarities and differences in Psychology undergraduates in these two countries (Italy n=290; Spain n=130) and attempted to identify aspects that might enhance the probability of a student belonging to one country. The findings underscored that Spanish students had higher levels of visuospatial abilities, more positive attitudes toward statistics, lower statistical anxiety, and higher confidence in the correctness of their responses. Additionally, they gave a higher number of correct responses to problems presented in a verbal-numerical format. These data suggest interesting insights and highlight the interactions among multiple layers of variables at the collective, contextual, and individual levels.

Research on the graphical facilitation of probabilistic reasoning has been characterised by the effort expended to identify valid assessment tools. The authors developed an assessment instrument to compare reasoning performances when problems were presented in verbal-numerical and graphical-pictorial formats. A sample of undergraduate psychology students (n = 676) who had not developed statistical skills, solved problems requiring probabilistic reasoning. They attended universities in Spain (n = 127; f = 71.7%) and Italy (n = 549; f = 72.9%). In Italy 173 undergraduates solved these problems under time pressure. The remaining students solved the problems without time limits. Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) were applied to assess the effect of two formats and to evaluate criterion and discriminant validity. The instrument showed acceptable psychometric properties, providing preliminary evidence of validity.

This study aims to investigate about the existence of a graphical facilitation effect on probabilistic reasoning. Measures of undergraduates' performances on problems presented in both verbal-numerical and graphical-pictorial formats have been related to visuo-spatial and numerical prerequisites, to statistical anxiety, to attitudes towards statistics and to the confidence in response correctness. Psychology undergraduates in Italy and Spain with no statistical expertise (N= 676) completed a protocol under conditions of presence versus absence of time pressure. Hierarchical linear regressions and ANCOVAs with mixed design have been carried out separately for each sample. The best predictor of performance in both formats has been the confidence in solution correctness under the condition of time pressure administration, which seemed to promote the commitment to the task. The findings suggest that the eventual occurrence of a graphical facilitation could be the result of a multifactorial interaction among contextual and individual dimensions, rather than being strictly related to the problem presentation format.