Erika Borella

University of Padova | UNIPD · Department of General Psychology

The present study investigates intraindividual variability (IIV) in the Color-Stroop test and in a simple reaction time (SRT) task. Performance level and variability in reaction times (RTs)-quantified with different measures such as individual standard deviation (ISD) and coefficient of variation (ICV), as well as ex-Gaussian parameters (mu, sigma,...

Objective: Cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) has been shown to have significant benefits in enhancing cognitive functioning and improving the quality of life of people with mild to moderate dementia. The present study examines the efficacy of the Italian version of the therapy (CST-IT). Methods: Older adults with mild to moderate dementia (n =...

This study examined the efficacy of a strategy-based memory training for older adults at short- and long-term with two (5- and 11 months) follow-ups. We also explored whether booster sessions (additional training before the first follow-up) facilitated the maintenance of benefits. Thirty-three older adults received a training based on the teaching...

Introduction One of various non-pharmacological treatments for people with dementia (PwD) is horticultural therapy. The aim of this double-blind, pre- and post-test, pilot study was to examine the effects of horticultural activities (HA) for PwD at a residential and daytime care facility. Whether combining HA with elements drawn from other psychoso...

Cognitive Reserve (CR) is often assessed with surveys spanning demographic, lifestyle, and socio-behavioral variables. The role of both past and current life experiences on CR has, however, rarely been examined. We developed the Current and Retrospective Cognitive Reserve (2CR) survey to assess classical CR proxies (socio-economic status, engagemen...

Introduction Exposure to nature is known to support psychological wellbeing, and can support People with Dementia (PwD). Here we describe a case study conducted at a care facility for PwD to examine the effect of their exposure to nature after intervention to renovate an existing Therapeutic Garden (TG). Changes in frequency of attendance and behav...

This study newly explored the relationship between individual characteristics (i.e., connectedness to nature, a preference for natural rather than built environments, personality, visuospatial preferences) with perceived restorativeness, as well as affective and memory-related benefits of exposure to the nature. Eighty adults were individually expo...

This study examined the associations between thought control strategies and subjective and objective sleep quality, across the adult lifespan. One hundred forty-nine individuals without insomnia (age range 18–86 years; M = 45.35, SD = 20.53) completed the Thought Control Questionnaire Insomnia–Revised for assessing sleep-related thought control str...

This study newly investigated the joint contribution of metamemory and personality (traits and facets) in explaining episodic memory (EM) performance in typically aging older adults. Forty-eight participants (age range: 64–75 years) completed a self-paced word list (SPWL) recall task, a metamemory questionnaire assessing perceived control and poten...

Working Memory (WM) training has shown promise in supporting cognitive functioning in older adult populations, but effects that generalize beyond the trained task have been inconsistent. Targeting cognitive processes in isolation might be a limiting factor given that metacognitive and motivational factors have been shown to impact older adults’ eng...

Using the arousal and mood hypothesis as a theoretical framework, we examined whether community-dwelling older adults (N = 132) exhibited cognitive benefits after listening to music. Participants listened to shorter (≈2.5 min) or longer (≈8 min) excerpts from recordings of happy- or sad-sounding music or from a spoken-word recording. Before and aft...

Older adults are particularly compromised when engaged in Prospective Memory (PM) tasks, but it has also been pointed out that age-related PM decline is mainly observed in experimental settings (laboratory vs. naturalistic settings). Here, we present the Padua PM task, a new “real life” video-based assessment designed to investigate age-related PM...

Background Loneliness is a major health issue among older adults. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between loneliness, in its social and emotional facets, and the cognitive (language), and behavioral/psychological functioning as well as quality of life (QoL) in people with mild and moderate dementia, i.e., considering dementia s...

The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis, preregistered with PROSPERO, was to investigate empirical evidence about the effectiveness of Information and Communication Technology-based interventions (ICTs) on different psychological outcomes in adults aged over 60 years with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or dementia. We conducted a s...

Objectives This study examined whether emotions induced by reading before sleep influence sleep quality in young and older adults. Method Sixty older adults (64–75 years) and 60 young adults (18–35 years) were randomly assigned to three conditions: positive reading, neutral reading, and control. The reading groups read a short story at bedtime, wh...

Objectives: This review examined the evidence about training interventions targeting metacognition in improving memory and cognitive performance, metacognitive functioning, and well-being in healthy older adults. Methods: Studies were identified in the PsycInfo, PubMed, and Scopus databases. The risk of bias was assessed using tools based on the...

This study aimed to assess the effects of aging on mind wandering (MW) using a sustained attention to response task (SART) with a low cognitive demand. All task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) and the subcategory of stimulus-independent thoughts (SITUTs) were examined across the adult life span. The relationship between MW, cognitive variables (attention...

Previous studies consistently showed age-related differences in temporal judgment and temporal memory. Importantly, emotional valence plays a crucial role in older adults' information processing. In this study, we examined the effects of emotions at the intersection between time and memory, analysing age-related differences in a temporal source mem...

Objectives: This review aimed to examine the available evidence about non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) aimed at improving sleep quality in older adults without insomnia or dementia. Methods: Studies on NPIs targeting older adults’ sleep were searched in the PsycInfo, PubMed and Scopus databases, with no restriction on publication year up t...

Il presente lavoro affronta il tema della transdisciplinarità nella formazione specialistica, con particolare attenzione all'ambito della Psicologia della Salute. A partire da alcune premesse legate all'approccio biopsicosociale, fortemente orientato all'integrazione delle diverse discipline, vengono sviluppate criticità e possibilità legate all'ap...

Spatial orientation is essential for daily life, but it deteriorates with aging. The present study was aimed at investigating age changes across the adult lifespan in the self-reported use of navigation aids and everyday orientation experiences, as well as investigating to what extent these are related to visuospatial working memory (VSWM) and self...

Introduction: This study examined the role of individual characteristics in predicting short- and long-term benefits of the Italian version of Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST-IT), an evidence-based intervention for people with mild-to-moderate dementia. Materials and Methods: Data were drawn from a sample ( N = 123) of people with dementia (PwD)...

L’objectif de cette étude était d’examiner, chez des adultes jeunes et âgés, la relation entre l’ouverture à l’expérience, les capacités de stratégie d’organisation subjective et les performances de mémoire. Cinquante jeunes adultes et 41 adultes plus âgés ont appris une liste de mots non reliés sémantiquement et ont dû les rappeler successivement...

Oral communication is a fundamental part of teaching and learning in classrooms. Correct reception of the teacher’s message is a necessary condition for good communication, though not sufficient to ensure that students will fully grasp its meaning. The traditional approach to the acoustic qualification of classrooms based on speech intelligibility...

The current pilot study aimed to test the gains of working memory (WM) training, both at the short- and long-term, at a behavioral level, and by examining the electrophysiological changes induced by training in resting-state EEG activity among older adults. The study group included 24 older adults (from 64 to 75 years old) who were randomly assigne...

This paper is a systematic review of quantitative studies conducted on the benefits of visiting gardens and gardening therapy for people with dementia (PWD) in an effort to assess the effectiveness of such treatments and obtain information on the most appropriate garden design for this population. This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items...

Introduction: The study examined age-related differences between young and older adults’ emotional and psychological experience as well as cognitive functioning throughout different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Materials and Methods: Participants were interviewed by phone when confined at home during the national lockdown (T1-May 2020;...

This study examined the available literature concerning the association between sleep quality and quality of life (QoL) in autonomous older people with no sleep disorders. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted on studies identified in the PsychInfo, PubMed and Scopus databases that examined the associations between QoL and sleep qual...

Objective The present study examined whether the everyday problems test (EPT), a performance-based measure of everyday problem-solving, can be considered a useful test in assessing functional independence in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). The relationship between EPT, cognitive abilities (i.e., selective attention, set switching, and w...

IntroductionThe present pilot study examined to what extent the COVID-19 lockdown affected the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) in people with dementia and worsened their family caregivers’ distress. The associations between changes in the BPSD of relatives with dementia (RwD) and in their caregivers’ distress, and sense of...

Objective/Background: Quality of life (QoL) is a broad multidimensional construct, which can be influenced by several factors across the lifespan, including sleep quality. The aim of this study was to examine the association between QoL (and its specific domains), objective and self-reported sleep quality, and subjective sleep-related factors (i.e....

Objective This study examined changes due to COVID-19 lockdown in young and older adults’ self-reported sleep quality and dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs. Methods Adults involved in studies prior to the pandemic were contacted during the COVID-19 lockdown. Seventeen young adults (age range: 18-35 years) and 21 older adults (age range: 65-90 ye...

Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) is one of the most popular evidence-based interventions for people with dementia. The aim of the present study was to assess the effectiveness in the short and long term (on completing the treatment and 3 months later) of an Italian adaptation of the CST protocol (CST-IT). Older adults with mild-to-moderate demen...

The main goal of the present research is to gain a better understanding of the consequences of background noise on learning, with a specific focus on how noise may impair maths achievement. A mental calculation task was administered in the classroom to 162 middle-school students (11 to 13 years old). The listening conditions were manipulated, choos...

A decline in cognitive functioning is part of physiological aging. Accelerated cognitive decline is frequently linked to pathological changes, mostly due to Alzheimer's Disease (AD), but is present also in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) which is a predictor of transition to dementia. This review aims to summarize possible preventive biological and...

Background Cognitive and functional measures are often measured and interpreted separately during the clinical evaluation of patients with cognitive impairment. This can sometimes lead to a challenging interpretation when measures do not show concordance, especially after a clinical intervention. In this study, the development and evaluation of a n...

Working memory (WM) training has been shown to increase the performance of participants in WM tasks and in other cognitive abilities, but there has been no study comparing directly the impact of training format (individual vs. group) using the same protocol. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of the Borella et al. three se...

This study newly explored the relationship between personality (also considering its facets) and an environmental ability as crucial to day-to-day living, and sensitive to age-related decline, as route learning, in young and older adults. Thirty-five young adults (Mage = 24.06, SD = 3.29) and 35 older adults (Mage = 68.34, SD = 3.26) completed the...

Inhibition is thought to help suppress interference from misconceptions in science learning. Using a pre-, post-, and delayed posttest design, we examined the influence on learning from science texts of three inhibitory-related functions—prepotent response inhibition, resistance to distractor interference, and resistance to proactive interference....

Objectives: Strategic memory training involves explicit instructions in mnemonic methods to improve recall. Mental imagery is considered among the most effective encoding strategies. The aim of the present study was to assess the benefits of a strategic memory training based on mental imagery (originally proposed by Carretti et al., 2007) and to f...

The present study took advantage of data collected on more than 2100 Italian adult and elderly individuals during the standardization of the WAIS-IV to examine the relationship between working memory (WM) components and intelligence, and how age affects this relationship. Administering the WAIS-IV enabled us to obtain five different measures for as...

A decline in cognitive functioning is part of physiological aging. Accelerated cognitive decline is frequently linked to pathological changes, mostly due to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), but is present also in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) which is a predictor of transition to dementia. This review aims to summarize possible preventive biological and...

Older adults typically show poor performance in tasks assessing working memory (WM), a crucial cognitive mechanism. The present study examined the electrophysiological correlates of a classic complex WM task often used in studies involving older adults, the Categorization Working Memory Span task (CWMS), by means of event-related potentials. Thirty...

Objectives: Along with changes in subjective and objective sleep patterns, metacognitive control of intrusive and unwanted thoughts at bedtime has been shown to significantly influence sleep quality. The present study examined individual differences between self-reported poor and good sleepers’ thought control strategies, as well as their subjectiv...

Objectives: Along with changes in subjective and objective sleep patterns, metacognitive control of intrusive and unwanted thoughts at bedtime has been shown to significantly influence sleep quality. The present study examined individual differences between self-reported poor and good sleepers’ thought control strategies, as well as their subjectiv...

This study newly assessed visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) in young and older adults with an extended version of the backward Corsi Blocks Task (CBT): the backward Walking Corsi Test (WalCT). It involves recalling sequences of spatial locations while moving in an indoor space (2.5 × 3m) in which the CBT layout is recreated on the floor. The spec...

This study investigated the relationship between personality (particularly emotional stability [ES] and conscientiousness [C]), subjective sleep-related factors (dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep, and metacognitive beliefs about sleeping difficulties), and self-reported and objective sleep quality. A sample of 122 healthy participants...

Objectives: Route learning is an everyday spatial ability important to individuals’ independent living, and is known to decline with age. This study aimed to investigate the benefit of using an imagery strategy to support route learning in young and older adults. Methods: Forty young adults and 40 older adults learned a path from a video. Twenty of...

This chapter presents and discusses a verbal WM training developed for older adults. The model of working memory (WM) proposed by Cornoldi and Vecchi, which is based on an analysis of individual and age-related differences, is used as a framework for discussing the efficacy of the WM training procedure proposed and developed for older adults. The m...

Back-Ground/Study Context: The goal of this study was to examine how repeated practice of an inhibition test could improve performance in the test in young and older adults. In particular, we wished to explore whether the gains made during a practice program varied between age groups, and how educational level influenced practice-related gains in o...

Objectives: Cognitive and mood changes can affect postoperative recovery in hospitalized older adults undergoing major surgical procedures, but few studies have considered postoperative cognitive interventions to sustain such patients' cognitive functioning and mood. The aim of this pilot study was to assess the efficacy of working memory training...

Evidence in the literature suggests that listening to music can improve cognitive performance. The aim of the present study was to examine whether the short- and long-term gains of a working memory (WM) training in older adults could be enhanced by music listening—the Mozart’s Sonata K448 and the Albinoni’s Adagio in G minor—which differ in tempo a...

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess gains related to working memory (WM) training, in the short and long term (9 months after the training), in abilities required in everyday life, and in cognitive measures in old-old adults (aged ≥ 75 years). Methods: Thirty-two community-dwelling older adults (aged 75-85 years) were randomly assigne...

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of type of noise, age, and gender on children’s speech intelligibility (SI) and sentence comprehension (SC). The experiment was conducted with 171 children between 11 and 13 years old in ecologically-valid conditions (collective presentation in real, reverberating classrooms). Two standardized test...

Introduction: It has been demonstrated that children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have impairments in working memory (WM), and particularly its visuospatial component, responsible for academic underachievement. Furthermore, children with ADHD have difficulty in metacognition, and consequently use inappropriate strategies...

Aims: Personality traits are suggested to influence adults’ cognitive performance, but little is known about their association with visuo-spatial competence, in terms of those visuo-spatial abilities and inclinations crucial to remaining autonomous, especially with aging. This study newly investigated whether, and to what extent, major traits and n...

This study analyzed the mechanisms involved in possible transfer effects for two different working memory updating (WMU) training programs administered to young adults and based on two updating paradigms: n-back and arithmetical updating. The influence of practice distribution on transfer effects was also explored by including two training regimens...

We used structural equation modeling to study individual age-related differences in working memory, processing speed, and the general ability of intelligence. The study took advantage of the Italian Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale 4th edition (WAIS-IV) standardization sample (N = 2174) to obtain separate measures of working memory, processing spe...

The WM training protocol proposed by Borella et al. found specific and transfer effects among seniors, however, the studies were carried out in the same socio-cultural context and variations in the procedure were never tested. The present study aimed at analyzing the efficacy of Borella et al.’s training, in terms of short and long-term benefits, i...

Emotional events have been shown to protect individuals against false memory when remembering scripted material. Whether the same is true also for older adults, however, is unclear, and it has been investigated in the present study. Seventy‐six older adults (age range 65–89 years) were presented with a series of photographs depicting scripted event...

Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) is an internationally used, evidence-based psychosocial intervention for people with mild-to-moderate dementia. The present review thus aimed specifically to examine the reliability of the findings and the strength of the evidence obtained in studies on the CST protocol concerning any benefit in terms of cognitiv...

Background Sleep has a crucial role in physical and mental health across the lifespan. In addition to an excessive intrusive sleep‐related cognitive activity, another factor that may influence sleep quality in old age is sleep‐related metacognitive activity, such as metacognitive beliefs about sleeping difficulties, and night‐time thought control s...

The aim of the study was to examine the influence of acute bouts of low and moderate resistance exercise on the executive function of community-living older adults. A total of 40 older adults (20 men and 20 women; age range: 60–75 years) were randomly assigned to an exercise or control group. The exercise group completed two 45-min resistance exerc...

There is evidence of mental rotation (MR) abilities responding to training even in older adults, but it is still not clear whether such training would have generalized and maintained effects. The aim of the present study was to examine the specific short- and long-term gains, and any transfer effects, induced by rotation training in healthy older a...

Working memory updating (WMU) is a core mechanism in the human mental architecture and a good predictor of a wide range of cognitive processes. This study analyzed the benefits of two different WMU training procedures, near transfer effects on a working memory measure, and far transfer effects on nonverbal reasoning. Maintenance of any benefits a m...

Within-task variability across trials (intra-individual variability (IIV)) has been mainly studied using latency measures but rarely with accuracy measures. The aim of the Geneva Variability Study was to examine IIV in both latency and accuracy measures of cognitive performance across the lifespan, administering the same tasks to children, younger...

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Background: The Categorization Working Memory Span Task (CWMS task) is a complex working memory (WM) span test that has been used previously to assess age and individual differences in WM as well as the relationship between WM and complex aspects of cognition such as listening comprehension. Two alternate versions of the task have been developed t...

To counter age-related decline in cognitive abilities, interventions such as working memory trainings have shown some promising results in old age. Yet, findings are mixed and there is enormous interindividual variability in training and transfer effects. Thus, it is still an open question which person-specific factors may moderate training and tra...

Background: Cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) is an evidence-based psychosocial intervention for people with mild-to-moderate dementia due to various etiological factors. Objective: The aim of the present study was to assess the efficacy of the CST program, Italian adaptation -CST-IT-, in individuals who have vascular dementia (VaD). Methods: O...

Musicians represent a model for examining brain and behavioral plasticity in terms of cognitive and auditory profile, but few studies have investigated whether elderly musicians have better auditory and cognitive abilities than nonmusicians. The aim of the present study was to examine whether being a professional musician attenuates the normal age-...

Objective: The present study analyzes the age-related differences in map learning between young and normally-aging young-old and old-old adults in relation to individual visuo-spatial factors to specify which aspects of spatial learning are susceptible to aging. Methods: Forty young, 40 young-old and 40 old-old participants performed a series of...

Introduction: Several studies have shown that psychological well-being (PWB) can be promoted through positive psychological interventions (PPIs). Although these interventions have shown promising results in clinical settings, only a few studies have investigated their effectiveness in older adults, and they have rarely considered an active control...

Reading comprehension is a complex cognitive task crucial to success in formal education and everyday life activities. Working memory (WM) and associated executive processes have been shown to be implicated in reading comprehension abilities. The aim of the present study was to assess the efficacy of a program for improving reading comprehension sk...

Deficits in executive functions have been hypothesized and documented for children with severe mathematics anxiety (MA) or developmental dyscalculia, but the role of inhibition-related processes has not been specifically explored. The main aim of the present study was to shed further light on the specificity of these profiles in children in terms o...

Background The effects of age on the ability to manage everyday functioning, crucial to ensure a healthy aging process, have been rarely examined and when, self-report measures have been used. The aim of the present study was to examine age effects across the adult lifespan in everyday functioning with two performance-based measures: the Everyday P...

Introduction: Working memory (WM) training is known to produce benefits in older adults' WM. Transfer effects to untrained abilities, however, remain controversial and several aspects are thought to influence the generalization of benefits, including the kind of stimuli used in the training tasks, an aspect rarely addressed in older adults. Objecti...

Introduction: Numerous structural and physiological changes influence the quality of sleep in aging. Sleep is also influenced by the individual’s perceived quality of sleep, the dysfunctional beliefs, and the metacognitive beliefs about sleep as well as the nighttime thought management strategies. The aim of this study was to describe the relations...