Barbara Arfé
Biographic Data
| ID | 2492488 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Barbara Arfé |
| GIVEN NAMES | Barbara |
| FAMILY NAME | Arfé |
| SIGNATURE | ARFÉ B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Padua |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9869-9440 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Using Coding to Improve Executive Functioning in Children with Sickle Cell Disease: A Multiple-Baseline Single-Case Study
Executive function (EF) impairments are common in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and have a significant impact on learning and daily life. Cognitive training programs aimed at strengthening EFs may show limited feasibility and generalization. However, recent studies suggest that ecological, curriculum-embedded problem-solving activities may be more promising. This multiple-baseline single-case study tested the feasibili…
Drill-type adaptive debugging to boost programming skills
Background and Context Informatics Education research has often called for including the coverage of debugging skills in education, whose acquisition also fosters the learning of programming. Programming and debugging alike are complex tasks, whose mastering requires operating on multiple interconnected parts simultaneously. Cognitive Load Theory suggests that reducing the complexity of how new information is presented improves educational outcom…
The cognitive effects of computational thinking: A systematic review and meta-analytic study
Linking vestibular, tactile, and somatosensory rhythm perception to language development in infancy
First experiences with rhythm occur in the womb, with different rhythmic sources being available to the human fetus. Among sensory modalities, vestibular, tactile, and somatosensory perception plays a crucial role in early processing. However, a limited number of studies so far have specifically focused on VTS rhythms in language development. The present work investigated VTS rhythmic abilities and their role in language acquisition through two e…
Combined Unplugged and Educational Robotics Training to Promote Computational Thinking and Cognitive Abilities in Preschoolers
Computational thinking (CT) learning activities are increasingly integrated in early-stage school curricula in several countries. Tools used to teach CT in early school years include unplugged coding—i.e., programming without computing devices—and educational robotics (ER)—i.e., giving instructions to a digitally controlled mechanical robot to perform specific actions in a physical environment. Past studies have shown that training coding skills …
The Effects of Noise on Children’s Cognitive Performance: A Systematic Review
Noise exposure may interfere with concentration, learning, and executive functions. In children, in particular, the non-auditory consequences of acoustically inadequate conditions are a serious concern. This systematic review examined the evidence from 26 studies investigating the effects of noise on primary school children’s cognitive and academic performance. The reviewed studies show that speech noise significantly impairs children’s verbal wo…
Language-Specific Effects in Response to Spelling Intervention in Italian and in English as an Additional Language
According to a language-integrated view of spelling development, learning to spell involves the same language-learning skills across alphabetic systems. A prediction based on this view is that the same spelling training should be equally effective for learning to spell in a shallow (Italian, native language) or an opaque (English, additional language) orthography. We tested this prediction by teaching 6- to 9-year-old Italian children to use mult…
The effects of coding on children's planning and inhibition skills
Time-Course of Grammatical Processing in Deaf Readers: An Eye-Movement Study
Twenty participants who were deaf and 20 chronological age-matched participants with typical hearing (TH) (mean age: 12 years) were asked to judge the correctness of written sentences with or without a grammatically incongruent word while their eye movements were registered. TH participants outperformed deaf participants in grammaticality judgment accuracy. For both groups, First Pass and Total Fixation Times of target words in correct trials wer…
Acquisition of nouns and verbs in Italian pre-school children
Noun and verb acquisition was investigated in three- and five-year-old Italian children by means of picture naming of objects and actions, selected from Druks and Masterson (2000). The aim was to examine the previously reported advantage of nouns compared to verbs. Older children were faster than younger children, and naming latencies were faster for object pictures than for action pictures. For errors, the advantage of objects over actions was g…
The Contribution of Verbal Working Memory to Deaf Children's Oral and Written Production
This study investigated the contribution of verbal working memory to the oral and written story production of deaf children. Participants were 29 severely to profoundly deaf children aged 8-13 years and 29 hearing controls, matched for grade level. The children narrated a picture story orally and in writing and performed a reading comprehension test, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition forward digit span task, and a readin…
Temporal and Causal Reasoning in Deaf and Hearing Novice Readers
Temporal and causal information in text are crucial in helping the reader form a coherent representation of a narrative. Deaf novice readers are generally poor at processing linguistic markers of causal/temporal information (i.e., connectives), but what is unclear is whether this is indicative of a more general deficit in reasoning about temporal/causal information. In Study 1, 10 deaf and 63 hearing children, matched for comprehension ability an…
Deaf and hearing students' referential strategies in writing: What referential cohesion tells us about deaf students' literacy development
The ability to organize the referential content of narrative has usually been investigated as a mark of the development of discourse skills. In this study, the pragmatic use of pronominal and nominal forms of reference in written stories was considered instead as a mark of literacy development in deaf and hearing students. Participants in the study were 17 deaf high-school students, 17 school-age matched hearing controls, and 16 hearing second-gr…
Improving the quality of students' academic writing: An Intervention Study
An intervention aimed at improving academic writing—in particular, synthesis writing—was conducted with 52 undergraduate students of psychology of the University of Padua (Italy). Before and after the intervention, which lasted 12 weeks, participants were administered a questionnaire on beliefs about writing and a synthesis writing task. During the intervention, participants practised academic writing by composing texts which were revised by the …
Causal Coherence in Deaf and Hearing Students' Written Narratives
This study investigates the causal coherence of deaf students’ written narratives and the relation between students’ use of causal structures in narrative writing and their linguistic skills. The written narratives of 17 deaf high school students were compared with those of 2 groups of hearing writers: 17 high school tudents and 16 second graders. Participants were asked to produce a written narrative on the basis of the picture storybook Frog, W…
Improving the quality of students' academic writing: An Intervention Study
An intervention aimed at improving academic writing—in particular, synthesis writing—was conducted with 52 undergraduate students of psychology of the University of Padua (Italy). Before and after the intervention, which lasted 12 weeks, participants were administered a questionnaire on beliefs about writing and a synthesis writing task. During the intervention, participants practised academic writing by composing texts which were revised by the …
Causal Coherence in Deaf and Hearing Students' Written Narratives
This study investigates the causal coherence of deaf students’ written narratives and the relation between students’ use of causal structures in narrative writing and their linguistic skills. The written narratives of 17 deaf high school students were compared with those of 2 groups of hearing writers: 17 high school tudents and 16 second graders. Participants were asked to produce a written narrative on the basis of the picture storybook Frog, W…
Causal Coherence in Deaf and Hearing Students' Written Narratives
This study investigates the causal coherence of deaf students’ written narratives and the relation between students’ use of causal structures in narrative writing and their linguistic skills. The written narratives of 17 deaf high school students were compared with those of 2 groups of hearing writers: 17 high school tudents and 16 second graders. Participants were asked to produce a written narrative on the basis of the picture storybook Frog, W…
Improving the quality of students' academic writing: An Intervention Study
An intervention aimed at improving academic writing—in particular, synthesis writing—was conducted with 52 undergraduate students of psychology of the University of Padua (Italy). Before and after the intervention, which lasted 12 weeks, participants were administered a questionnaire on beliefs about writing and a synthesis writing task. During the intervention, participants practised academic writing by composing texts which were revised by the …
Deaf and hearing students' referential strategies in writing: What referential cohesion tells us about deaf students' literacy development
The ability to organize the referential content of narrative has usually been investigated as a mark of the development of discourse skills. In this study, the pragmatic use of pronominal and nominal forms of reference in written stories was considered instead as a mark of literacy development in deaf and hearing students. Participants in the study were 17 deaf high-school students, 17 school-age matched hearing controls, and 16 hearing second-gr…
Temporal and Causal Reasoning in Deaf and Hearing Novice Readers
Temporal and causal information in text are crucial in helping the reader form a coherent representation of a narrative. Deaf novice readers are generally poor at processing linguistic markers of causal/temporal information (i.e., connectives), but what is unclear is whether this is indicative of a more general deficit in reasoning about temporal/causal information. In Study 1, 10 deaf and 63 hearing children, matched for comprehension ability an…
The Contribution of Verbal Working Memory to Deaf Children's Oral and Written Production
This study investigated the contribution of verbal working memory to the oral and written story production of deaf children. Participants were 29 severely to profoundly deaf children aged 8-13 years and 29 hearing controls, matched for grade level. The children narrated a picture story orally and in writing and performed a reading comprehension test, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition forward digit span task, and a readin…
Acquisition of nouns and verbs in Italian pre-school children
Noun and verb acquisition was investigated in three- and five-year-old Italian children by means of picture naming of objects and actions, selected from Druks and Masterson (2000). The aim was to examine the previously reported advantage of nouns compared to verbs. Older children were faster than younger children, and naming latencies were faster for object pictures than for action pictures. For errors, the advantage of objects over actions was g…
The effects of coding on children's planning and inhibition skills
Time-Course of Grammatical Processing in Deaf Readers: An Eye-Movement Study
Twenty participants who were deaf and 20 chronological age-matched participants with typical hearing (TH) (mean age: 12 years) were asked to judge the correctness of written sentences with or without a grammatically incongruent word while their eye movements were registered. TH participants outperformed deaf participants in grammaticality judgment accuracy. For both groups, First Pass and Total Fixation Times of target words in correct trials wer…
Language-Specific Effects in Response to Spelling Intervention in Italian and in English as an Additional Language
According to a language-integrated view of spelling development, learning to spell involves the same language-learning skills across alphabetic systems. A prediction based on this view is that the same spelling training should be equally effective for learning to spell in a shallow (Italian, native language) or an opaque (English, additional language) orthography. We tested this prediction by teaching 6- to 9-year-old Italian children to use mult…
Combined Unplugged and Educational Robotics Training to Promote Computational Thinking and Cognitive Abilities in Preschoolers
Computational thinking (CT) learning activities are increasingly integrated in early-stage school curricula in several countries. Tools used to teach CT in early school years include unplugged coding—i.e., programming without computing devices—and educational robotics (ER)—i.e., giving instructions to a digitally controlled mechanical robot to perform specific actions in a physical environment. Past studies have shown that training coding skills …
The Effects of Noise on Children’s Cognitive Performance: A Systematic Review
Noise exposure may interfere with concentration, learning, and executive functions. In children, in particular, the non-auditory consequences of acoustically inadequate conditions are a serious concern. This systematic review examined the evidence from 26 studies investigating the effects of noise on primary school children’s cognitive and academic performance. The reviewed studies show that speech noise significantly impairs children’s verbal wo…
The cognitive effects of computational thinking: A systematic review and meta-analytic study
Linking vestibular, tactile, and somatosensory rhythm perception to language development in infancy
First experiences with rhythm occur in the womb, with different rhythmic sources being available to the human fetus. Among sensory modalities, vestibular, tactile, and somatosensory perception plays a crucial role in early processing. However, a limited number of studies so far have specifically focused on VTS rhythms in language development. The present work investigated VTS rhythmic abilities and their role in language acquisition through two e…
Using Coding to Improve Executive Functioning in Children with Sickle Cell Disease: A Multiple-Baseline Single-Case Study
Executive function (EF) impairments are common in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and have a significant impact on learning and daily life. Cognitive training programs aimed at strengthening EFs may show limited feasibility and generalization. However, recent studies suggest that ecological, curriculum-embedded problem-solving activities may be more promising. This multiple-baseline single-case study tested the feasibili…
Drill-type adaptive debugging to boost programming skills
Background and Context Informatics Education research has often called for including the coverage of debugging skills in education, whose acquisition also fosters the learning of programming. Programming and debugging alike are complex tasks, whose mastering requires operating on multiple interconnected parts simultaneously. Cognitive Load Theory suggests that reducing the complexity of how new information is presented improves educational outcom…
Psychology (11 works) · Linguistics (7 works) · Hearing Impairment and Communication (6 works) · Cognition (5 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (5 works) · Cognitive psychology (4 works) · Developmental psychology (4 works) · Language Development and Disorders (4 works) · Pedagogy (4 works) · Audiology (3 works)