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Ricerche di Psicologia/Psychological Research Journal - Open Access

Articoli

No. 4 (2022): Is it time to change the paradigm to address neural development disorders? From research to clinical practice

Logic-methodological proposals useful for detecting bias and beliefs about executive attentional functions. Critical issues related to clinical observation and research protocols

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/rip2022oa15373
Submitted
febbraio 3, 2023
Published
2023-02-14

Abstract

In the target article of this review, the reflections of Antonietti, Borgatti, and Giorgetti meet a scientific and clinical unease that for years has been confronted with methodological prejudices, inexplicable tendencies that lead to misunderstandings, and the publication of dubious articles or tests. Here we make a proposal with the intention of curbing, at least in part, these tendencies.
This proposal, which uses functional neurophysiological knowledge and formal logic to support methodological constraints, is articulated in a number of points. 1) Reflection on the interpretative risks of diagnoses and research results that rely completely on ‘diagnostic labels’ that can easily turn into stereotypes and ineffective tautological and circular explanations; 2) Need to revise neurocognitive models, including those concerning attentional executive functions, in light of recent studies on the neurophysiology of the brain networks that underlie them, in contrast to the outdated paradigms still widely practiced, often uncritically; 3) Founding logical-methodological principles of the constructs are proposed, highlighting the arbitrariness of choices and the uncertainty of isolated functions through abductive ‘inverse inferences’. Such operations are confronted with the possibility of incurring at least three logical fallacies (anticipation of the consequent, negation of the antecedent, excess of analogy).
This leads to possible infractions (duly analyzed and explained) that fall negatively on both clinical and research protocols (including interpretative discussions of results).

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