Percorrer por autor "Ladera, Valentina"

A mostrar 1 - 2 de 2
  • Item
    Executive functioning in obese individuals waiting for clinical treatment
    (Colegio Oficial de Psicologos Asturias, 2017) Gameiro, Fátima; Perea, Maria Victoria; Ladera, Valentina; Rosa, Beatriz; García, Ricardo; FCSEA - Faculty of Social Sciences, Education and Administration; EPCV - School of Psychology and Life Sciences
    Background: Executive functions have an important role in human behavioural regulation and can be a determinant of eating behaviour. Our aim was to study the different components of executive functions in obese individuals waiting for clinical treatment, comparing them with normoweight subjects with similar socio-demographic characteristics. Method: A total of 114 adults (76 obese and 38 normoweight) completed a neuropsychological battery that included tasks of conceptualization and abstraction, motor programming, response maintenance, inhibition and resistance, problem solving, cognitive flexibility, and verbal fluency. Results: There was a statistically significant difference between groups for all the dimensions of the executive functions evaluated, with the obese group showing poorer performance compared to normoweight. Conclusions: Obese individuals demonstrated poorer executive functions than normoweight individuals.
  • Item
    Hemispheric asymmetries in recognition memory for negative and neutral words
    (Edições Universitárias Lusófonas, 2011) Oliveira, Jorge; Gamito, Pedro; Perea, Maria; Ladera, Valentina; Morais, Diogo; Rosa, Pedro Joel; Saraiva, Tomaz; EPCV - School of Psychology and Life Sciences
    Federmeier and Benjamin (2005) have suggested that semantic encoding for verbal information in the right hemisphere can be more effective when memory demands are higher. However, other studies (Kanske & Kotz, 2007) also suggest that visual word recognition differ in function of emotional valence. In this context, the present study was designed to evaluate the effects of retention level upon recognition memory processes for negative and neutral words. Sample consisted of 15 right-handed undergraduate portuguese students with normal or corrected to normal vision. Portuguese concrete negative and neutral words were selected in accordance to known linguistic capabilities of the right hemisphere. The participants were submitted to a visual half-field word presentation using a continuous recognition memory paradigm. Eye movements were continuously monitored with a Tobii T60 eye-tracker that showed no significant differences in fixations to negative and neutral words. Reaction times in word recognition suggest an overall advantage of negative words in comparison to the neutral words. Further analysis showed faster responses for negative words than for neutral words when were recognised at longer retention intervals for left-hemisphere encoding. Electrophysiological data through event related potentials revealed larger P2 amplitude over centro-posterior electrode sites for words studied in the left hemifield suggesting a priming effect for right-hemisphere encoding. Overall data suggest different hemispheric memory strategies for the semantic encoding of negative and neutral words.