Chi legge ... ragiona meglio? Abitudini di lettura e funzioni di ragionamento

Abstract

Studies in the literature have amply demonstrated how reading fiction influences and operates in many cognitive levels, and can therefore act as a real gym for the mind. In this study we tried to investigate how a frequent reading habit can affect verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning skills. The results show that readers called "strong" have better performances in both verbal and numerical reasoning tests against readers defined as "weak". As well as a workout for verbal reasoning, derived directly from the activity of mentalizing which is a typical process of the narrative understanding, it would seem that reading also affects the working memory, a crucial function for numerical reasoning.