Maria Casagrande
Biographic Data
| ID | 1282764 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maria Casagrande |
| GIVEN NAMES | Maria |
| FAMILY NAME | Casagrande |
| SIGNATURE | CASAGRANDE M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Sapienza University of Rome |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4430-3367 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 23 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Emotional–cognitive integration in aging
Introduction Aging is accompanied by a range of cognitive and emotional changes. Among these, difficulty in identifying and describing feelings and a tendency toward externally oriented thinking have been associated with frank cognitive decline. This pattern is known as alexithymia and reflects emotional dysregulation. Research Questions– This study aimed to investigate the largely unexplored relationship between alexithymia and cognitive functio…
The Effect of Sex and Gender‐Role on Social Attention
The literature has shown that both eye‐gaze and arrow cues elicit quantitatively similar attentional orienting effects. Nonetheless, a qualitative dissociation between the orienting of attention triggered by these two types of stimuli has been observed under specific methodological conditions. It has been found that, while eye‐gaze retains attention at the specific looked‐at location, with arrows attention is spread towards broader parts of the e…
When arrows behave like eyes
The Reversed Congruency Effect (RCE) typically observed with gaze targets has been rarely demonstrated with non-social stimuli like arrows targets. In a novel approach, we conducted two pre-registered experiments to investigate whether the RCE can be elicited using non-social stimuli (arrows) when directional information is visually masked. Participants performed a spatial Stroop task with arrows varying in perceptual complexity due to overlappin…
Top-down and bottom-up attentional responses to manipulations of perceptual organization in a complex visual Image
Artistic perception engages both bottom-up and top-down attentional processes, modulated by Gestalt principles. • Artificial violations of Gestalt laws in a mosaic artwork significantly influenced reaction times and attention allocation. • Alterations to figure-ground ratio and central figure size reversed the typical flicker task effect. • Structural incongruities increased cognitive load, shifting processing from automatic to controlled attenti…
Investigating the gaze‐driven reversed congruency effect in the spatial Stroop task
This study investigated how social (faces and eyes) and non‐social (arrows) stimuli modulate attentional orienting in a spatial Stroop task, using a distributional approach. Data from 11 studies ( N = 705) were analysed through cumulative distribution functions (CDF), delta functions, and polynomial trend analyses. Three models were applied: (1) a reaction time (RT) model comparing social (faces and eyes) vs. non‐social stimuli under congruent an…
Exploring the spatial interference effects elicited by social and non-social targets
Recent studies employing the spatial interference paradigm reveal qualitative differences in congruency effects between gaze and arrow targets. Typically, arrows produce a standard congruency effect (SCE), with faster responses when target direction aligns with its location. Conversely, gaze targets often lead to a reversed congruency effect (RCE), where responses are slower in similar conditions. We explored this dissociation using the Condition…
Validation of the brief screening of Social Network Addiction Risk
INTRODUCTION: This study aims to develop a valid and reliable tool to evaluate social network behavior in young adults. METHODS: To validate the Brief screening for Social Network Addiction Risk (BSNA), data from 776 Italian young adults (64.3 % of women) were collected. The suitability of the instrument was statistically assessed. Experts' opinions, item reliability, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and convergent validity were adop…
Inhibition changes across the lifespan
Individuals constantly exert inhibitory control over their thoughts and behaviors to plan actions that compete with habits and impulses. Cognitive inhibition enhances the selection of task-relevant stimuli and is closely related to neural changes that occur across the lifespan. Since few studies have focused on the entire lifespan, this study aimed to assess cognitive inhibition abilities in a sample of 425 healthy participants (age range: 7-88 y…
The role of cognitive flexibility on higher level executive functions in mild cognitive impairment and healthy older adults
Background Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a preclinical condition between healthy and pathological aging, which is characterized by impairments in executive functions (EFs), including cognitive flexibility. According to Diamond’s model, cognitive flexibility is a core executive function, along with working memory and inhibition, but it requires the development of these last EFs to reach its full potential. In this model, planning and fluid in…
The protective role of cognitive reserve
The clinical picture that emerged from the results showed that lower CR could be considered a characteristic of pathological aging, such as MCI.Public significance statement, Since the brain attempts to cope with life-related changes or pathologies, it is fundamental for both clinicians and researchers to investigate further the factors that contribute to brain resilience. As an indirect expression of brain reserve, cognitive reserve may be both …
Poor Sleep Quality in Aging
Sleep disturbances are common in the elderly. A primary sleep disorder can result from the physiological decline of aging; however, secondary sleep problems result from various causes involving physical and mental health. Since little is known about the relationships between sleep quality and mental health in aging, the present study aims to understand how different aspects generally associated with sleep (e.g., psychological and physiological fa…
Personality and Behavioral Inhibition/Activation Systems in Behavioral Addiction
Binge-watching (BW) refers to a pattern of watching TV series characterized by the consecutive viewing of three or more episodes in one sitting. Although there is some evidence about its effects on mental health, little is known about predictive variables which may affect negative occurrences of BW, such as problematic and addictive behavior. This study aimed to assess the unique contribution of personality traits (i.e., neuroticism, extraversion…
A Portrait of Gambling Behaviors and Associated Cognitive Beliefs Among Young Adolescents in Italy
Gambling disorder is a highly prevalent behavioral addiction in young adults. Accordingly, data on the prevalence of gambling as experience and problem gambling as at-risk behavior among adolescents are necessary, due to the increase in gambling behavior and its implications in recent years. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and characteristics (i.e., cognitive beliefs and knowledge of risk) of gambling among Italian adolescents. A cross-…
Integration of Facial Expression and Gaze Direction in Individuals with a High Level of Autistic Traits
These results suggest that individuals with more autistic traits may not integrate multiple communicative signals based on their emotional value
Behavioral Addictions Questionnaire (BAQ)
This study deals with the uncertainty in defining behavioral addictions (BAs). BAs are characterized by specific compulsive behaviors, regardless of potential negative consequences. However, to differentiate a behavior from a leisure activity to an addictive one is still an object of debate in the literature. Accordingly, this study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the Behavioral Addictions Questionnaire (BAQ) as a possible screenin…
Decision Making
The Italians in the Time of Coronavirus
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is a worldwide public health emergency that forced the Italian Government to deliberate unprecedented actions, including quarantine, with a relevant impact on the population. The present study is one of the first Italian nationwide survey within the first period of the COVID-19 outbreak aimed to understand the social and psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: An online survey collected informatio…
The enemy who sealed the world
The Night Effect of Anger
These findings suggest that the analysis of some psychological factors, such as anger, could be necessary to better understand differences in nocturnal BP alterations. Trait anger and suppression of anger may contribute to the description and classification of patients who exhibit a maladaptive dipping phenomenon. However, modifiable (i.e., cigarette consumption) and unmodifiable (i.e., age) risk factors appear to mediate this relationship. Altho…
The Night Side of Blood Pressure
Introduction: The dipping phenomenon is a physiological drop in blood pressure (around 10-20%) during sleep and represents an event related to the circadian blood pressure trend. This phenomenon, in some cases, is characterized by some alterations that can be expressed by an increase (extreme dipping), a decrease (non-dipping), or a reverse (i.e., higher blood pressure during sleep compared to awake state; reverse-dipping) physiological decline o…
Covid-19 Pandemic in the Italian Population
Since December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has attracted worldwide attention for its rapid and exponential diffusion. The long-term psychological impact, of both the spread of the virus and the restrictive policies adopted to counteract it, remains uncertain. However, recent studies reported a high level of psychological distress and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The purpose of this study is to assess the psychometric properties…
Spoken and written dream communication
A psycholinguistic method for analyzing two modalities of thought in dream reports
Following the general idea of a substantial bydimensionality of mind, a cognitive psycholinguistic model is proposed attempting to describe how two thinking modalities - named Y and X - may contribute to the production of a dream report. Based on this model, two sets of syntactical-lexical categories were defined whose counts, divided for report length, should indicate the contribution of the two modalities to the verbal report of the dream. Prel…
Exploring the spatial interference effects elicited by social and non-social targets
Recent studies employing the spatial interference paradigm reveal qualitative differences in congruency effects between gaze and arrow targets. Typically, arrows produce a standard congruency effect (SCE), with faster responses when target direction aligns with its location. Conversely, gaze targets often lead to a reversed congruency effect (RCE), where responses are slower in similar conditions. We explored this dissociation using the Condition…
A psycholinguistic method for analyzing two modalities of thought in dream reports
Following the general idea of a substantial bydimensionality of mind, a cognitive psycholinguistic model is proposed attempting to describe how two thinking modalities - named Y and X - may contribute to the production of a dream report. Based on this model, two sets of syntactical-lexical categories were defined whose counts, divided for report length, should indicate the contribution of the two modalities to the verbal report of the dream. Prel…
Spoken and written dream communication
The enemy who sealed the world
The Night Effect of Anger
These findings suggest that the analysis of some psychological factors, such as anger, could be necessary to better understand differences in nocturnal BP alterations. Trait anger and suppression of anger may contribute to the description and classification of patients who exhibit a maladaptive dipping phenomenon. However, modifiable (i.e., cigarette consumption) and unmodifiable (i.e., age) risk factors appear to mediate this relationship. Altho…
The Night Side of Blood Pressure
Introduction: The dipping phenomenon is a physiological drop in blood pressure (around 10-20%) during sleep and represents an event related to the circadian blood pressure trend. This phenomenon, in some cases, is characterized by some alterations that can be expressed by an increase (extreme dipping), a decrease (non-dipping), or a reverse (i.e., higher blood pressure during sleep compared to awake state; reverse-dipping) physiological decline o…
Covid-19 Pandemic in the Italian Population
Since December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has attracted worldwide attention for its rapid and exponential diffusion. The long-term psychological impact, of both the spread of the virus and the restrictive policies adopted to counteract it, remains uncertain. However, recent studies reported a high level of psychological distress and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The purpose of this study is to assess the psychometric properties…
The Italians in the Time of Coronavirus
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is a worldwide public health emergency that forced the Italian Government to deliberate unprecedented actions, including quarantine, with a relevant impact on the population. The present study is one of the first Italian nationwide survey within the first period of the COVID-19 outbreak aimed to understand the social and psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: An online survey collected informatio…
Integration of Facial Expression and Gaze Direction in Individuals with a High Level of Autistic Traits
These results suggest that individuals with more autistic traits may not integrate multiple communicative signals based on their emotional value
Behavioral Addictions Questionnaire (BAQ)
This study deals with the uncertainty in defining behavioral addictions (BAs). BAs are characterized by specific compulsive behaviors, regardless of potential negative consequences. However, to differentiate a behavior from a leisure activity to an addictive one is still an object of debate in the literature. Accordingly, this study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the Behavioral Addictions Questionnaire (BAQ) as a possible screenin…
Decision Making
Poor Sleep Quality in Aging
Sleep disturbances are common in the elderly. A primary sleep disorder can result from the physiological decline of aging; however, secondary sleep problems result from various causes involving physical and mental health. Since little is known about the relationships between sleep quality and mental health in aging, the present study aims to understand how different aspects generally associated with sleep (e.g., psychological and physiological fa…
Personality and Behavioral Inhibition/Activation Systems in Behavioral Addiction
Binge-watching (BW) refers to a pattern of watching TV series characterized by the consecutive viewing of three or more episodes in one sitting. Although there is some evidence about its effects on mental health, little is known about predictive variables which may affect negative occurrences of BW, such as problematic and addictive behavior. This study aimed to assess the unique contribution of personality traits (i.e., neuroticism, extraversion…
A Portrait of Gambling Behaviors and Associated Cognitive Beliefs Among Young Adolescents in Italy
Gambling disorder is a highly prevalent behavioral addiction in young adults. Accordingly, data on the prevalence of gambling as experience and problem gambling as at-risk behavior among adolescents are necessary, due to the increase in gambling behavior and its implications in recent years. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and characteristics (i.e., cognitive beliefs and knowledge of risk) of gambling among Italian adolescents. A cross-…
Validation of the brief screening of Social Network Addiction Risk
INTRODUCTION: This study aims to develop a valid and reliable tool to evaluate social network behavior in young adults. METHODS: To validate the Brief screening for Social Network Addiction Risk (BSNA), data from 776 Italian young adults (64.3 % of women) were collected. The suitability of the instrument was statistically assessed. Experts' opinions, item reliability, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and convergent validity were adop…
Inhibition changes across the lifespan
Individuals constantly exert inhibitory control over their thoughts and behaviors to plan actions that compete with habits and impulses. Cognitive inhibition enhances the selection of task-relevant stimuli and is closely related to neural changes that occur across the lifespan. Since few studies have focused on the entire lifespan, this study aimed to assess cognitive inhibition abilities in a sample of 425 healthy participants (age range: 7-88 y…
The role of cognitive flexibility on higher level executive functions in mild cognitive impairment and healthy older adults
Background Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a preclinical condition between healthy and pathological aging, which is characterized by impairments in executive functions (EFs), including cognitive flexibility. According to Diamond’s model, cognitive flexibility is a core executive function, along with working memory and inhibition, but it requires the development of these last EFs to reach its full potential. In this model, planning and fluid in…
The protective role of cognitive reserve
The clinical picture that emerged from the results showed that lower CR could be considered a characteristic of pathological aging, such as MCI.Public significance statement, Since the brain attempts to cope with life-related changes or pathologies, it is fundamental for both clinicians and researchers to investigate further the factors that contribute to brain resilience. As an indirect expression of brain reserve, cognitive reserve may be both …
Investigating the gaze‐driven reversed congruency effect in the spatial Stroop task
This study investigated how social (faces and eyes) and non‐social (arrows) stimuli modulate attentional orienting in a spatial Stroop task, using a distributional approach. Data from 11 studies ( N = 705) were analysed through cumulative distribution functions (CDF), delta functions, and polynomial trend analyses. Three models were applied: (1) a reaction time (RT) model comparing social (faces and eyes) vs. non‐social stimuli under congruent an…
Exploring the spatial interference effects elicited by social and non-social targets
Recent studies employing the spatial interference paradigm reveal qualitative differences in congruency effects between gaze and arrow targets. Typically, arrows produce a standard congruency effect (SCE), with faster responses when target direction aligns with its location. Conversely, gaze targets often lead to a reversed congruency effect (RCE), where responses are slower in similar conditions. We explored this dissociation using the Condition…
Emotional–cognitive integration in aging
Introduction Aging is accompanied by a range of cognitive and emotional changes. Among these, difficulty in identifying and describing feelings and a tendency toward externally oriented thinking have been associated with frank cognitive decline. This pattern is known as alexithymia and reflects emotional dysregulation. Research Questions– This study aimed to investigate the largely unexplored relationship between alexithymia and cognitive functio…
The Effect of Sex and Gender‐Role on Social Attention
The literature has shown that both eye‐gaze and arrow cues elicit quantitatively similar attentional orienting effects. Nonetheless, a qualitative dissociation between the orienting of attention triggered by these two types of stimuli has been observed under specific methodological conditions. It has been found that, while eye‐gaze retains attention at the specific looked‐at location, with arrows attention is spread towards broader parts of the e…
When arrows behave like eyes
The Reversed Congruency Effect (RCE) typically observed with gaze targets has been rarely demonstrated with non-social stimuli like arrows targets. In a novel approach, we conducted two pre-registered experiments to investigate whether the RCE can be elicited using non-social stimuli (arrows) when directional information is visually masked. Participants performed a spatial Stroop task with arrows varying in perceptual complexity due to overlappin…
Top-down and bottom-up attentional responses to manipulations of perceptual organization in a complex visual Image
Artistic perception engages both bottom-up and top-down attentional processes, modulated by Gestalt principles. • Artificial violations of Gestalt laws in a mosaic artwork significantly influenced reaction times and attention allocation. • Alterations to figure-ground ratio and central figure size reversed the typical flicker task effect. • Structural incongruities increased cognitive load, shifting processing from automatic to controlled attenti…
Psychology (20 works) · Medicine (12 works) · Cognition (10 works) · Clinical Psychology (9 works) · Psychiatry (9 works) · Clinical Psychology (8 works) · Cognitive psychology (6 works) · Developmental psychology (6 works) · Environmental health (5 works) · Addiction (4 works)