Measuring Self-Efficacy for Exercise among Older Adults: Psychometric Properties and Measurement Invariance of a Brief Version of the Self-Efficacy for Exercise (SEE) Scale.

(1) Background: Physical activity is known to promote health and psychological well-being in older adults, yet global inactivity rates in this population remain high. Among the factors associated with physical activity, self-efficacy for exercise represents a key predictor for developing effective interventions in older adults. This study aimed to validate the Self-Efficacy for Exercise Scale (SEE) in individuals over 65. (2) Methods: A sample of 726 older adults from the USA and Italy (51.1% females; age range = 65-95 years; Mage = 72.57, SDage = 6.49) completed the SEE, along with the Godin-Shepard Leisure-Time Physical Activity Questionnaire (GSLTPAQ), the Big Five Inventory 2-Extra Short Form (BFI-2-XS), and the 12-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12). (3) Results: The SEE showed a Cronbach's Alpha of 0.88 and a Composite Reliability of 0.89. Moreover, it demonstrated a unidimensional factor structure and good fit indices. Full measurement invariance was achieved across gender and age, while partial scalar invariance was found across countries, suggesting minor cultural differences. Correlation with the GSLTPAQ, the BFI-2-XS, and the SF-12 support the convergent and nomological validity of the SEE. (4) Conclusions: These findings provide evidence that the SEE is a reliable and valid measure of self-efficacy for exercise among older adults and that the items are interpreted similarly across different ages, genders, and cultures.

The geo domain: a review on the conceptualization of geographical and geopolitical entities.

Investigating how people represent the natural environment and abstract it into geographical (e.g., mountain) and geopolitical (e.g., city) categories is pivotal to comprehending how they move and interact with the places they inhabit. Yet, the conceptualization of geographical and geopolitical domains has received scant attention so far. To deal with that, we reviewed 50 articles tackling this topic. Most studies have focused on assessing the universality of these concepts-especially geographical ones-mainly using free-listing and ethnophysiographic methods. Current perspectives tend to favor a non-universalistic characterization of these kinds of concepts, emphasizing their high cross-linguistic and cross-cultural variability, especially when compared to other semantic domains. Since geographical and geopolitical features are not pre-segmented by nature, the role of categories imposed by humans is crucial for these concepts. Significantly, their variability does not only depend on "cross" differences: evidence suggests that the cognitive demand requested by the task, idiosyncratic characteristics of individuals such as expertise level, and the typology of inhabited environments are further factors impacting the conceptual flexibility of these domains. Exploring the factors influencing our understanding of geographical and geopolitical categories can provide valuable insights for instructing effective communication policies to enhance sustainable development and address ecological emergencies, taking into consideration diverse cultural backgrounds within different populations.

Aging well in an aging society: physical health in older lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults.

Introduction: Older sexual minority people meet a double stigma in our society related to their sexual identity and chronological age. The present study explores how experiences of discrimination and prejudice, coming out, and personal resiliency influence physical health of older lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults. Methods: Respondents were recruited through online advertisements and an online-based survey. The sample included 82 Italian cisgender LGB adults over 65 years: young older adults (65-70 years; 78%) and old-old adults (over 71 years; 22%). Regarding sexual orientation, the sample was composed of sexual minority women (n = 30; 37%) and sexual minority men (n = 52; 63%). Results: ANOVAs' findings showed that sexual minority women described lower levels of physical health compared to sexual minority men. At the same time, old-old adults reported higher experiences of discrimination and prejudice compared to young older adults. Moreover, findings from hierarchical multiple regression analysis described that coming out, higher levels of personal resiliency, and fewer experiences of discrimination were predictors of physical health, regardless of age and sexual minority categories. Conclusion: These findings seem to align with previous studies that underline the relevance of investigating aging well in sexual minority people. Knowledge and awareness of LGBTQ+ issues are necessary for recognizing the unique needs and resources of older LGB people for promoting a healthy aging process.

Is the Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire a Valid Measure in Older People?

BACKGROUND: Despite the widely recognized benefits of physical activity for preventing physical and cognitive decline during aging, global estimates indicate that most older adults do not achieve the recommended amount of physical activity due to a lack of motivation. The current research examined the validity and psychometric properties of the Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire (BREQ-3) among older adults. Based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the BREQ-3 stands out as one of the most extensively utilized tools among exercise motivation studies. METHODS: A sample of older adults (N = 383; M age = 73.2 years, SD age = 7.2) completed the BREQ-3 and the Godin-Shepard Leisure-Time Physical Activity Questionnaire (GSLTPAQ). RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the six-factor structure postulated by SDT, showing good fit indices (CFI= 0.95; RMSEA = 0.05; SRMR = 0.04) and supporting the full measurement invariance of the scale across sex and age groups (65 to 74 years; over 75 years). The construct and criterion validity of the BREQ-3 was upheld through the latent correlations between its subscales and their correlations with the GSLTPAQ. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated for the first time the effectiveness of the BREQ-3 in assessing all forms of behavioral regulation proposed by SDT in older adults, suggesting that older adults similarly interpreted the items across sex and age groups.

Consensus Paper: Current Perspectives on Abstract Concepts and Future Research Directions.

concepts are relevant to a wide range of disciplines, including cognitive science, linguistics, psychology, cognitive, social, and affective neuroscience, and philosophy. This consensus paper synthesizes the work and views of researchers in the field, discussing current perspectives on theoretical and methodological issues, and recommendations for future research. In this paper, we urge researchers to go beyond the traditional abstract-concrete dichotomy and consider the multiple dimensions that characterize concepts (e.g., sensorimotor experience, social interaction, conceptual metaphor), as well as the mediating influence of linguistic and cultural context on conceptual representations. We also promote the use of interactive methods to investigate both the comprehension and production of abstract concepts, while also focusing on individual differences in conceptual representations. Overall, we argue that abstract concepts should be studied in a more nuanced way that takes into account their complexity and diversity, which should permit us a fuller, more holistic understanding of abstract cognition.

Inner speech as language process and cognitive tool.

Many people report a form of internal language known as inner speech (IS). This review examines recent growth of research interest in the phenomenon, which has broadly supported a theoretical model in which IS is a functional language process that can confer benefits for cognition in a range of domains. A key insight to have emerged in recent years is that IS is an embodied experience characterized by varied subjective qualities, which can be usefully modeled in artificial systems and whose neural signals have the potential to be decoded through advancing brain-computer interface technologies. Challenges for future research include understanding individual differences in IS and mapping form to function across IS subtypes.

Grounded Cognition, Linguistic Relativity, and Abstract Concepts.

Kemmerer's paper convincingly claims that the grounded cognition model (GCM) entails linguistic relativity. Here, we underline that tackling linguistic relativity and cultural differences is vital for GCM. First, it allows GCM to focus more on flexible rather than stable aspects of cognition. Second, it highlights the centrality of linguistic experience for human cognition. While GCM-inspired research underscored the similarity between linguistic and nonlinguistic concepts, it is now paramount to understand when and how language(s) influence knowledge. To this aim, we argue that linguistic variation might be particularly relevant for more abstract concepts-which are more debatable and open to revisions.

Concepts, abstractness and inner speech.

We explore the role of inner speech (covert self-directed talk) during the acquisition and use of concepts differing in abstractness. Following Vygotsky, inner speech results from the internalization of linguistically mediated interactions that regulate cognition and behaviour. When we acquire and process abstract concepts, uncertainties about word meaning might lead us to search actively for their meaning. Inner speech might play a role in this searching process and be differentially involved in concept learning compared with use of known concepts. Importantly, inner speech comes in different varieties-e.g. it can be expanded or condensed (with the latter involving syntactic and semantic forms of abbreviation). Do we use inner speech differently with concepts varying in abstractness? Which kinds of inner speech do we preferentially use with different kinds of abstract concepts (e.g. emotions versus numbers)? What other features of inner speech, such as dialogicality, might facilitate our use of concepts varying in abstractness (by allowing us to monitor the limits of our knowledge in simulated social exchanges, through a process we term inner social metacognition)? In tackling these questions, we address the possibility that different varieties of inner speech are flexibly used during the acquisition of concepts and their everyday use. This article is part of the theme issue 'Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences'.

Editorial concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences.

This theme issue aims to view the literature on concepts through a novel lens, that of social interaction and its influence on inner experiences. It discusses unsolved problems in literature on concepts, emphasizing the distinction between concrete versus abstract concepts and external versus internal grounding. This introductory article reflects the two research streams that the theme aims to bridge-in this area, the dimension of embodied interaction with others and how this influences the interaction with ourselves is still underexplored. In the first part, we discuss recent trends in social cognition, showing how interacting with others influences our concepts. In the second part, we address how social interactions become part of our inner world in a Vygotskian fashion. First, we illustrate how interoception, emotion and metacognition are connected with concepts and knowledge. Second, we deal with how language, in both its outer and inner form, can empower cognition and concepts. We also briefly describe how novel experimental and computational methods contribute to investigating the online use of concepts. Overall, this introductory article outlines the potentialities of an integrated and interactive approach that can give new, fresh life to a topic, that of concepts, which lies at the root of human cognition. This article is part of the theme issue 'Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences'.

Abstractness emerges progressively over the second year of life.

words, terms not referring to here and now, are acquired slowly in infancy. They are difficult to acquire as they are more detached from sensory modalities than concrete words. Recent theories propose that, because of their complexity, other people are pivotal for abstract concepts' acquisition and use. Eight children (4 girls) and their mothers were observed longitudinally and extensively from 12 to 24 months of age. Video recordings of mother-infant free play with toys were done every two weeks in a laboratory setting with families in the USA. Children progressively use a range of words referring to abstract concepts, with a major shift from 12 to 15 months and again from 22 to 24 months, but the qualitative data testify an incremental growth of abstract concepts. We identified a progression in the acquisition of words denoting abstract concepts in relation to the overall productive vocabulary, suggesting that having more abstract terms in one's vocabulary promotes faster language acquisition.

Abstract words processing induces parasympathetic activation: A thermal imaging study.

words (e.g., freedom) compose a significant part of speech. Despite this, learning them is complicated. Abstract concepts collect more heterogeneous exemplars and are more detached from sensory modalities than concrete concepts. Recent views propose that, because of their complexity, other people are pivotal for abstract concepts' acquisition and use, e.g., to explain their meaning. We tested this hypothesis using a combined behavioral and thermal imaging paradigm. Twenty-one Italian children (10\F, mean age: 6 years) determined whether acoustic stimuli (concrete and abstract words; non-words) were or not correct Italian words (lexical decision). Concrete terms yielded faster responses than abstract ones: for the first time, this effect appears with response times in very young children. More crucially, the higher increase in temperature of the nasal tip (i.e., typically associated with parasympathetic dominance of the neurovegetative response) suggests that, with abstract concepts, children might be more socially and cognitively engaged.

A Natural Human-Drone Embodied Interface: Empirical Comparison With a Traditional Interface.

Despite the importance of usability in human-machine interaction (HMI), most commonly used devices are not usable by all potential users. In particular, users with low or null technological experience, or with special needs, require carefully designed systems and easy-to-use interfaces supporting recognition over recall. To this purpose, Natural User Interfaces (NUIs) represent an effective strategy as the user's learning is facilitated by features of the interface that mimic the human "natural" sensorimotor embodied interactions with the environment. This paper compares the usability of a new NUI (based on an eye-tracker and hand gesture recognition) with a traditional interface (keyboard) for the distal control of a simulated drone flying in a virtual environment. The whole interface relies on "dAIsy", a new software allowing the flexible use of different input devices and the control of different robotic platforms. The 59 users involved in the study were required to complete two tasks with each interface, while their performance was recorded: (a) exploration: detecting trees embedded in an urban environment; (b) accuracy: guiding the drone as accurately and fast as possible along a predefined track. Then they were administered questionnaires regarding the user's background, the perceived embodiment of the device, and the perceived quality of the virtual experience while either using the NUI or the traditional interface. The results appear controversial and call for further investigation: (a) contrary to our hypothesis, the specific NUI used led to lower performance than the traditional interface; (b) however, the NUI was evaluated as more natural and embodied. The final part of the paper discusses the possible causes underlying these results that suggest possible future improvements of the NUI.

Abstract and concrete concepts in conversation.

Concepts allow us to make sense of the world. Most evidence on their acquisition and representation comes from studies of single decontextualized words and focuses on the opposition between concrete and abstract concepts (e.g., "bottle" vs. "truth"). A significant step forward in research on concepts consists in investigating them in online interaction during their use. Our study examines linguistic exchanges analyzing the differences between sub-kinds of concepts. Participants were submitted to an online task in which they had to simulate a conversational exchange by responding to sentences involving sub-kinds of concrete (tools, animals, food) and abstract concepts (PS, philosophical-spiritual; EMSS, emotional-social, PSTQ, physical-spatio-temporal-quantitative). We found differences in content: foods evoked interoception; tools and animals elicited materials, spatial, auditive features, confirming their sensorimotor grounding. PS and EMSS yielded inner experiences (e.g., emotions, cognitive states, introspections) and opposed PSTQ, tied to visual properties and concrete agency. More crucially, the various concepts elicited different interactional dynamics: more abstract concepts generated higher uncertainty and more interactive exchanges than concrete ones. Investigating concepts in situated interactions opens new possibilities for studying conceptual knowledge and its pragmatic and social aspects.

A computational model of inner speech supporting flexible goal-directed behaviour in Autism.

Experimental and computational studies propose that inner speech boosts categorisation skills and executive functions, making human behaviour more focused and flexible. In addition, many clinical studies highlight a relationship between poor inner-speech and an executive impairment in autism spectrum condition (ASC), but contrasting findings are reported. Here we directly investigate the latter issue through a previously implemented and validated computational model of the Wisconsin Cards Sorting Tests. In particular, the model was applied to explore potential individual differences in cognitive flexibility and inner speech contribution in autistic and neurotypical participants. Our model predicts that the use of inner-speech could increase along the life-span of neurotypical participants but would be reduced in autistic ones. Although we found more attentional failures (i.e., wrong behavioural rule switches) in autistic children/teenagers and more perseverative behaviours in autistic young/older adults, only autistic children and older adults exhibited a lower performance (i.e., fewer consecutive correct rule switches) than matched control groups. Overall, our results corroborate the idea that the reduced use of inner speech could represent a disadvantage for autistic children and autistic older adults. Moreover, the results suggest that cognitive-behavioural therapies should focus on developing inner speech skills in autistic children as this could provide cognitive support throughout their whole life span.