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Copying a text quickly and accurately is important both in school and in daily life. However, this skill has never been systematically studied, either in children with typical development (TD) or in children with specific learning disabilities (SLD). The aim of this research was to study the features of a copy task and its relationship with other writing tasks. For this purpose, 674 children with TD and 65 children with SLD from Grades 6 through 8 in Italy were tested with a copy task and other writing assessment tasks, measuring three aspects of writing: handwriting speed, spelling, and expressive writing. Children with SLD performed worse on the copy task, both in terms of speed and accuracy, than children with TD. Copy speed was predicted by grade level and by all three major writing skills for children with TD but only by handwriting speed and spelling for children with SLD. Copy accuracy was predicted by gender and the three major writing skills for children with TD but only by spelling for children with SLD. These results suggest that children with SLD also have difficulty copying a text and benefit less than children with TD from their other writing skills.

Amid rising political polarisation, inaccurate memory for facts and exaggerated memories of grievances can drive individuals and groups further apart. We assessed whether people with more accurate memories of the facts concerning political events were less susceptible to bias when remembering how events made them feel. Study 1 assessed participants' memories concerning the 2016 U.S. presidential election (N = 571), and included 33 individuals with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM). Study 2 assessed participants' memories concerning the 2018 referendum on abortion in Ireland (N = 733). Participants rated how happy, angry, and scared they felt days after these events. Six months later, they recalled their feelings and factual information. In both studies, participants overestimated how angry they had felt but underestimated happiness and fear. Adjusting for importance, no association was found between the accuracy of memory for facts and feelings. Accuracy in remembering facts was predicted by media exposure. Accuracy in remembering feelings was predicted by consistency over time in feelings and appraisals about past events. HSAM participants in Study 1 remembered election-related facts better than others, but not their feelings. Thus, having a good grasp of the facts did not protect against bias in remembering feelings about political events.

This investigation examined the relation between two sources of bias when people remember how they felt about political events: their current appraisals of the past political event and their current feelings about it. We assessed participants' memories for their emotional response to a major political event: the 2016 United Kingdom referendum on European Union membership. Participants reported their emotional experience and appraisals within 2 weeks after the outcome. After 18 months, participants reported their current appraisals and emotions concerning the referendum's outcome and their remembered past emotional response. The results showed that current negative emotions fully mediated the link between current appraisals and remembered negative emotions. We discuss this result within a feeling-is-for-doing approach.

Since Brown and Kulik (1977) coined the term 'Flashbulb memories' (FBMs), there are still heated debates about their nature. We thus considered it useful to take stock of almost 50 years of research by reviewing 57 test–retest studies on FBMs for public events. The review aimed to answer six research questions by examining the target events and populations investigated (RQ1); the methods used to assess differences among groups and the effect of time on memory (RQ2); the assessment of FBMs' contents (RQ3), consistency (RQ4), vividness and confidence (RQ5); the criteria used to draw studies' conclusions (RQ6). Results show a huge methodological heterogeneity which may have contributed to the different conclusions about the special status of FBMs. The in‐depth comparison of 9/11 studies suggests that results may differ depending on the methods used. Finally, the paper provides methodological suggestions for future FBMs studies and seeks to stimulate critical theoretical reflections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors compare school motivation in Kenya and Italy, two countries that differ in terms of socioeconomic conditions, structure of the school system, and access to education. Free primary education is indeed a recent attainment for Kenyan students. The participants, 449 Kenyan and 480 Italian students, 9-14 years old and attending Grades 4-8, were asked to complete a questionnaire about learning motivation. A factor analysis revealed that school motivation can be described by five dimensions in both contexts: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, academic self-concept, causal attribution, and amotivation. Differences between countries and lower (Grades 4-5) and higher (Grades 6-8) grades emerged: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and academic self-concept were found to be higher in Kenyan than in Italian students, whereas amotivation was lower. Moreover, only Italian students showed less intrinsic motivation and more amotivation in higher grades than in the lower ones.

In the present study, we examined the relation between memory for a consequential and emotional event and memory for the circumstances in which people learned about that event, known as flashbulb memory. We hypothesized that these two types of memory have different determinants and that event memory is not necessarily a direct causal determinant of flashbulb memory. Italian citizens (N = 352) described their memories of Italy’s victory in the 2006 FootballWorld Cup Championship after a delay of 18months. Structural equation modeling showed that flashbulb memory and event memory could be clearly differentiated and were determined by two separate pathways. In the first pathway, importance predicted emotional intensity, which, in turn, predicted the frequency of overt and covert rehearsal. Rehearsal was the only direct determinant of vivid and detailed flashbulb memories. In the second pathway, importance predicted rehearsal by media exposure, which enhanced the accuracy and certainty of event memory. Event memory was also enhanced by prior knowledge. These results have important implications for the debate concerning whether the formation of flashbulb memory and event memory involve different processes and for understanding how flashbulb memory can be simultaneously so vivid and so error-prone.

The present work aims to investigate the relation between appraisals, emotions, and emotion regulation strategies by creating a structural equation model which integrates these three aspects of the emotion process. To reach this aim, Italian students (N = 610) confronted with their high school diploma examination completed a questionnaire 3 weeks before the beginning of the exam. Results showed that they experienced primarily three types of emotions—anxiety/fear, frustration/powerlessness, positive emotions—which were related to specific appraisal profiles. Importantly, these appraisal profiles and emotions were associated with the use of different strategies for regulating emotions: anxiety/fear was associated with focusing on the exam, drug use, and an inability to distance oneself from the exam; frustration/powerlessness, with use of suppression, distancing, and drugs; positive emotion, with reappraisal and problem focused strategies. The effectiveness of these different strategies will be discussed.