Attentional deployment is not necessary for successful emotion regulation via cognitive reappraisal or expressive suppression.

PubMed

Bebko, Genna M; Franconeri, Steven L; Ochsner, Kevin N; Chiao, Joan Y

2014-06-01

According to appraisal theories of emotion, cognitive reappraisal is a successful emotion regulation strategy because it involves cognitively changing our thoughts, which, in turn, change our emotions. However, recent evidence has challenged the importance of cognitive change and, instead, has suggested that attentional deployment may at least partly explain the emotion regulation success of cognitive reappraisal. The purpose of the current study was to examine the causal relationship between attentional deployment and emotion regulation success. We examined 2 commonly used emotion regulation strategies--cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression-because both depend on attention but have divergent behavioral, experiential, and physiological outcomes. Participants were either instructed to regulate emotions during free-viewing (unrestricted image viewing) or gaze-controlled (restricted image viewing) conditions and to self-report negative emotional experience. For both emotion regulation strategies, emotion regulation success was not altered by changes in participant control over the (a) direction of attention (free-viewing vs. gaze-controlled) during image viewing and (b) valence (negative vs. neutral) of visual stimuli viewed when gaze was controlled. Taken together, these findings provide convergent evidence that attentional deployment does not alter subjective negative emotional experience during either cognitive reappraisal or expressive suppression, suggesting that strategy-specific processes, such as cognitive appraisal and response modulation, respectively, may have a greater impact on emotional regulation success than processes common to both strategies, such as attention.

Cognitive control processes in paranoia: the impact of threat induction on strategic cognition and self-focused attention.

PubMed

Flower, Laura; Newman-Taylor, Katherine; Stopa, Lusia

2015-01-01

Current clinical models emphasize certain cognitive processes in the maintenance of distressing paranoia. While a number of these processes have been examined in detail, the role of strategic cognition and self-focused attention remain under-researched. This study examined the deployment of cognitive strategies and self-focused attention in people with non-clinical paranoia. An experimental design was used to examine the impact of a threat activation task on these processes, in participants with high and low non-clinical paranoia. Twenty-eight people were recruited to each group, and completed measures of anxiety, paranoid cognition, strategic cognition and self-focused attention. The threat activation task was effective in increasing anxiety in people with high and low non-clinical paranoia. The high paranoia group experienced more paranoid cognitions following threat activation. This group also reported greater use of thought suppression, punishment and worry, and less use of social control strategies when under threat. No differences were found between the groups on measures of self-focused attention. This study shows that the threat activation task increased anxiety in people with high non-clinical paranoia, leading to increased paranoid thinking. The use of strategic cognition following threat activation varied dependent on level of non-clinical paranoia. If these differences are replicated in clinical groups, the strategies may be implicated in the maintenance of distressing psychosis, and may therefore be a valuable target for therapeutic intervention.

Episodic memory and organizational strategy in free recall in unipolar depression: the role of cognitive support and executive functions.

PubMed

Taconnat, Laurence; Baudouin, Alexia; Fay, Severine; Raz, Naftali; Bouazzaoui, Badiaa; El-Hage, Wissam; Isingrini, Michel; Ergis, Anne-Marie

2010-08-01

Executive functioning and memory impairment have been demonstrated in adults with depression. Executive functions and memory are related, mainly when the memory tasks require controlled processes (attentional resource demanding processes)--that is, when a low cognitive support (external aid) is provided. A cross-sectional study was carried out on 45 participants: 21 with depression, and 24 healthy controls matched for age, verbal ability, education level, and anxiety score. Cognitive support was manipulated by providing a categorized word list at encoding, presented either clustered (high cognitive support) or randomized (low cognitive support) to both depressed and healthy adults. The number of words recalled was calculated, and an index of clustering was computed to assess organizational strategies. Participants were also administered cognitive tests (executive functions, cognitive speed, and categorical fluency) to explore the mediators of organizational strategies. Depressed participants had greater difficulty recalling and organizing the words, but the differences between the two groups were reduced for both measures when high cognitive support was provided at encoding. Healthy adults performed better on all cognitive tests. Statistical analyses revealed that in the depressed group, executive functions were the only variable associated with clustering and only when low cognitive support was provided. These findings support the view that the decrement in executive function due to depression may lead to impairment in organization when this mnemonic strategy has to be self-initiated.

Personal contextual characteristics and cognitions: predicting child abuse potential and disciplinary style.

PubMed

Rodriguez, Christina M

2010-02-01

According to Social Information Processing theory, parents' cognitive processes influence their decisions to engage in physical maltreatment, although cognitions occur in the context of other aspects of the parents' life. The present study investigated whether cognitive processes (external locus of control, inappropriate developmental expectations) predicted child abuse potential and overreactive disciplinary style beyond personal contextual factors characteristic of the parent (hostility, stress, and coping). 363 parents were recruited online. Results highlight the relative importance of the contextual characteristics (particularly stress, avoidant coping, and irritability) relative to cognitive processes in predicting abuse potential and overreactive discipline strategies, although an external locus of control also significantly contributed. Findings do not support that parents' developmental expectations uniquely predict elevated abuse risk. Results indicate stressed parents who utilize avoidance coping strategies are more likely to use overreactive discipline and report increased abuse potential. Findings are discussed with regard to implications for prevention/intervention efforts.

Decision Making Under Objective Risk Conditions-a Review of Cognitive and Emotional Correlates, Strategies, Feedback Processing, and External Influences.

PubMed

Schiebener, Johannes; Brand, Matthias

2015-06-01

While making decisions under objective risk conditions, the probabilities of the consequences of the available options are either provided or calculable. Brand et al. (Neural Networks 19:1266-1276, 2006) introduced a model describing the neuro-cognitive processes involved in such decisions. In this model, executive functions associated with activity in the fronto-striatal loop are important for developing and applying decision-making strategies, and for verifying, adapting, or revising strategies according to feedback. Emotional rewards and punishments learned from such feedback accompany these processes. In this literature review, we found support for the role of executive functions, but also found evidence for the importance of further cognitive abilities in decision making. Moreover, in addition to reflective processing (driven by cognition), decisions can be guided by impulsive processing (driven by anticipation of emotional reward and punishment). Reflective and impulsive processing may interact during decision making, affecting the evaluation of available options, as both processes are affected by feedback. Decision-making processes are furthermore modulated by individual attributes (e.g., age), and external influences (e.g., stressors). Accordingly, we suggest a revised model of decision making under objective risk conditions.

Neural bases of a specific strategy for visuospatial processing in rugby players.

PubMed

Sekiguchi, Atsushi; Yokoyama, Satoru; Kasahara, Satoshi; Yomogida, Yukihito; Takeuchi, Hikaru; Ogawa, Takeshi; Taki, Yasuyuki; Niwa, Shin-Ichi; Kawashima, Ryuta

2011-10-01

Rugby is one of the most tactically complex sports. Rugby coaching theory suggests that rugby players need to possess various cognitive abilities. A previous study claimed that rugby players have high visuospatial awareness, which is induced by a strategy described as taking a "bird's eye view." To examine if there were differential cortical networks related to visuospatial processing tasks among top-level rugby players and control novices, we compared brain activities during a visuospatial processing task between 20 male top-level rugby players (Top) and 20 control novice males (Novice) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). To avoid the effect of differential behavioral performances on brain activation, we recruited novices whose visuospatial ability was expected to match that of the rugby players. We adopted a 3-D mental rotation task during fMRI scanning as a visuospatial processing task. Significantly greater activations from baseline were observed for the Top group than for the Novice group in the right superior parietal lobe and lateral occipital cortex. Significantly greater deactivations from baseline were observed for the Top group than for the Novice group in the right medial prefrontal cortex. The discrepancy between psychobehavioral outputs and the fMRI results suggested the existence of a cognitive strategy among top-level rugby players that differs from that among control novices. The greater activation of the right superior parietal lobe and lateral occipital cortex in top-level rugby players suggested a strategy involving visuospatial cognitive processing with respect to the bird's eye view. In addition, the right medial prefrontal cortex is known to be a part of the default mode networks, suggesting an additional cognitive load for the Top group when using the bird's-eye-view strategy. This further supported the existence of a specific cognitive strategy among top-level rugby players.

Systematic Training Program for Enhancing Learning Strategies and Skills: Further Development

DTIC Science & Technology

1978-09-01

Habits andAttitudes, Form C, New York: The Psychological Corporation, 1966. Craik , F. I. M. & Lockhart , R. S. “ Levels of processing : A framework for...supported by the work of Rothkopf (1966) and Craik and Lockhart (1972). Although varying somewhat in surface structure, the main differences between...strategies cognitive strategies cognitive training memory human Information processing 20. TRACT (Conllma, an r.~~ra• aid. If n.c..a.ry and ld.ntlfy by

The Relation between Assessment for Learning and Elementary Students' Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategy Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baas, Diana; Castelijns, Jos; Vermeulen, Marjan; Martens, Rob; Segers, Mien

2015-01-01

Background: Assessment for Learning (AfL) is believed to create a rich learning environment in which students develop their cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Monitoring student growth and providing scaffolds that shed light on the next step in the learning process are hypothesized to be essential elements of AfL that enhance cognitive and…

Switching from Reaching to Navigation: Differential Cognitive Strategies for Spatial Memory in Children and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Belmonti, Vittorio; Cioni, Giovanni; Berthoz, Alain

2015-01-01

Navigational and reaching spaces are known to involve different cognitive strategies and brain networks, whose development in humans is still debated. In fact, high-level spatial processing, including allocentric location encoding, is already available to very young children, but navigational strategies are not mature until late childhood. The…

Neurobiological correlates of cognitions in fear and anxiety: a cognitive-neurobiological information-processing model.

PubMed

Hofmann, Stefan G; Ellard, Kristen K; Siegle, Greg J

2012-01-01

We review likely neurobiological substrates of cognitions related to fear and anxiety. Cognitive processes are linked to abnormal early activity reflecting hypervigilance in subcortical networks involving the amygdala, hippocampus, and insular cortex, and later recruitment of cortical regulatory resources, including activation of the anterior cingulate cortex and prefrontal cortex to implement avoidant response strategies. Based on this evidence, we present a cognitive-neurobiological information-processing model of fear and anxiety, linking distinct brain structures to specific stages of information processing of perceived threat.

Gambling with Rose-Tinted Glasses on: Use of Emotion-Regulation Strategies Correlates with Dysfunctional Cognitions in Gambling Disorder Patients

PubMed Central

Navas, Juan F.; Verdejo-García, Antonio; LÓpez-GÓmez, Marta; Maldonado, Antonio; Perales, José C.

2016-01-01

Background and aims Existing research shows that gambling disorder patients (GDPs) process gambling outcomes abnormally when compared against healthy controls (HCs). These anomalies present the form of exaggerated or distorted beliefs regarding the expected utility of outcomes and one’s ability to predict or control gains and losses, as well as retrospective reinterpretations of what caused them. This study explores the possibility that the emotional regulation strategies GDPs use to cope with aversive events are linked to these cognitions. Methods 41 GDPs and 45 HCs, matched in sociodemographic variables, were assessed in gambling severity, emotion-regulation strategies (cognitive emotion-regulation questionnaire, CERQ), and gambling-related cognitions (gambling-related cognitions scale, GRCS). Results GDPs showed higher scores in all gambling-related cognition dimensions. Regarding emotion regulation, GDPs were observed to use self-blame and catastrophizing, but also positive refocusing, more often than controls. Additionally, in GDPs, putatively adaptive CERQ strategies shared a significant portion of variance with South Oaks gambling screen severity and GRCS beliefs. Shared variability was mostly attributable to the roles of refocusing on planning and putting into perspective at positively predicting severity and the interpretative bias (GDPs propensity to reframe losses in a more benign way), respectively. Discussion and conclusions Results show links between emotion-regulation strategies and problematic gambling-related behaviors and cognitions. The pattern of those links supports the idea that GDPs use emotion-regulation strategies, customarily regarded as adaptive, to cope with negative emotions, so that the motivational and cognitive processing of gambling outcomes becomes less effective in shaping gambling-related behavior. PMID:27363462

Prospective memory training in older adults and its relevance for successful aging.

PubMed

Hering, Alexandra; Rendell, Peter G; Rose, Nathan S; Schnitzspahn, Katharina M; Kliegel, Matthias

2014-11-01

In research on cognitive plasticity, two training approaches have been established: (1) training of strategies to improve performance in a given task (e.g., encoding strategies to improve episodic memory performance) and (2) training of basic cognitive processes (e.g., working memory, inhibition) that underlie a range of more complex cognitive tasks (e.g., planning) to improve both the training target and the complex transfer tasks. Strategy training aims to compensate or circumvent limitations in underlying processes, while process training attempts to augment or to restore these processes. Although research on both approaches has produced some promising findings, results are still heterogeneous and the impact of most training regimes for everyday life is unknown. We, therefore, discuss recent proposals of training regimes aiming to improve prospective memory (i.e., forming and realizing delayed intentions) as this type of complex cognition is highly relevant for independent living. Furthermore, prospective memory is associated with working memory and executive functions and age-related decline is widely reported. We review initial evidence suggesting that both training regimes (i.e., strategy and/or process training) can successfully be applied to improve prospective memory. Conceptual and methodological implications of the findings for research on age-related prospective memory and for training research in general are discussed.

[The role of cognitive emotional self-regulation in adolescence in levels of depression, psychosomatic symptoms and subjective well-being].

PubMed

Kriston, Pálma; Pikó, Bettina

More and more studies suggest that mental health may be determined by processes of emotional self-regulation. Emotion regulation is a complex concept which can be explicit and implicit and includes different cognitive and behavioral processes: evaluation, modifying of emotional reaction to accomplish goals. Our research aim was to explore the use of cognitive emotional self-regulation strategies related to mental health indicators among adolescents. The youth study was performed with a sample size of 1245 participants in Makó, in 2016. Data collection was based on self-administrated questionnaries that contained items on mental health, subjective well-being and background of sociodemographics. The data were compared on the basis of gender differences and tested by multiple linear regression analysis to map associations between the regulation strategies and mental health indicators: depression, psychosomatic symptoms, satisfaction with life. Girls reported higher levels of depression and psychosomatic symptoms and lower satisfaction with life than boys. Significant differences were observed between boys and girls in using rumination, positive refocusing, selfblame, others-blame and putting into perspective regulation strategy. In addition the nonadaptive strategies were proved to be related to higher depression and psychosomatic symptom scores, whereas adaptive strategies to higher level of satisfaction with life in both boys and girls. The study draws attention to the importance of cognitive emotion regulation strategies from the point of view of mental health and to explore the background factors of cognitive processes of emotional self-regulation.

Learners' Internal Management of Cognitive Processing in Online Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, C.-Y.; Pedersen, S.

2012-01-01

This study examined students' internal management of their cognitive processing in an interactive online class. A mixed methods approach was used to explore students' strategy use in online discussions. The focus is on examining individual knowledge construction through active cognitive engagement, rather than the social interactions, in the…

The relation between cognitive and metacognitive strategic processing during a science simulation.

PubMed

Dinsmore, Daniel L; Zoellner, Brian P

2018-03-01

This investigation was designed to uncover the relations between students' cognitive and metacognitive strategies used during a complex climate simulation. While cognitive strategy use during science inquiry has been studied, the factors related to this strategy use, such as concurrent metacognition, prior knowledge, and prior interest, have not been investigated in a multidimensional fashion. This study addressed current issues in strategy research by examining not only how metacognitive, surface-level, and deep-level strategies influence performance, but also how these strategies related to each other during a contextually relevant science simulation. The sample for this study consisted of 70 undergraduates from a mid-sized Southeastern university in the United States. These participants were recruited from both physical and life science (e.g., biology) and education majors to obtain a sample with variance in terms of their prior knowledge, interest, and strategy use. Participants completed measures of prior knowledge and interest about global climate change. Then, they were asked to engage in an online climate simulator for up to 30 min while thinking aloud. Finally, participants were asked to answer three outcome questions about global climate change. Results indicated a poor fit for the statistical model of the frequency and level of processing predicting performance. However, a statistical model that independently examined the influence of metacognitive monitoring and control of cognitive strategies showed a very strong relation between the metacognitive and cognitive strategies. Finally, smallest space analysis results provided evidence that strategy use may be better captured in a multidimensional fashion, particularly with attention paid towards the combination of strategies employed. Conclusions drawn from the evidence point to the need for more dynamic, multidimensional models of strategic processing that account for the patterns of optimal and non-optimal strategy use. Additionally, analyses that can capture these complex patterns need to be further explored. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

The Effects of Cognitive Strategy Instruction on Knowledge of Math Problem-Solving Processes of Middle School Students with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krawec, Jennifer; Huang, Jia; Montague, Marjorie; Kressler, Benikia; de Alba, Amanda Melia

2013-01-01

This study investigated the effectiveness of "Solve It!" instruction on students' knowledge of math problem-solving strategies. "Solve It!" is a cognitive strategy intervention designed to improve the math problem solving of middle school students with learning disabilities (LD). Participants included seventh- and eighth-grade…

Cognitive Processes and Learner Strategies in the Acquisition of Motor Skills

DTIC Science & Technology

1978-12-01

children: Capacity or processing deficits? Memory and Cognition, 1976, 4, 559-S72. Craik , F. I. M., & Lockhart , R. S. Levels of processing : A framework...learning and memory research. In F. I. M. Craik & L. S. Cermak (Eds.), Levels of processing and theories of memory. Hillsdale, N. J.: Erlbaum, 1978...functions. Cognitive activities are described at a highly theoretical (technical) level as well as in a pragmatic manner. Differences in processing

Fuzzy Cognitive and Social Negotiation Agent Strategy for Computational Collective Intelligence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chohra, Amine; Madani, Kurosh; Kanzari, Dalel

Finding the adequate (win-win solutions for both parties) negotiation strategy with incomplete information for autonomous agents, even in one-to-one negotiation, is a complex problem. Elsewhere, negotiation behaviors, in which the characters such as conciliatory or aggressive define a 'psychological' aspect of the negotiator personality, play an important role. The aim of this paper is to develop a fuzzy cognitive and social negotiation strategy for autonomous agents with incomplete information, where the characters conciliatory, neutral, or aggressive, are suggested to be integrated in negotiation behaviors (inspired from research works aiming to analyze human behavior and those on social negotiation psychology). For this purpose, first, one-to-one bargaining process, in which a buyer agent and a seller agent negotiate over single issue (price), is developed for a time-dependent strategy (based on time-dependent behaviors of Faratin et al.) and for a fuzzy cognitive and social strategy. Second, experimental environments and measures, allowing a set of experiments, carried out for different negotiation deadlines of buyer and seller agents, are detailed. Third, experimental results for both time-dependent and fuzzy cognitive and social strategies are presented, analyzed, and compared for different deadlines of agents. The suggested fuzzy cognitive and social strategy allows agents to improve the negotiation process, with regard to the time-dependent one, in terms of agent utilities, round number to reach an agreement, and percentage of agreements.

Cognitive costs of decision-making strategies: A resource demand decomposition analysis with a cognitive architecture.

PubMed

Fechner, Hanna B; Schooler, Lael J; Pachur, Thorsten

2018-01-01

Several theories of cognition distinguish between strategies that differ in the mental effort that their use requires. But how can the effort-or cognitive costs-associated with a strategy be conceptualized and measured? We propose an approach that decomposes the effort a strategy requires into the time costs associated with the demands for using specific cognitive resources. We refer to this approach as resource demand decomposition analysis (RDDA) and instantiate it in the cognitive architecture Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R). ACT-R provides the means to develop computer simulations of the strategies. These simulations take into account how strategies interact with quantitative implementations of cognitive resources and incorporate the possibility of parallel processing. Using this approach, we quantified, decomposed, and compared the time costs of two prominent strategies for decision making, take-the-best and tallying. Because take-the-best often ignores information and foregoes information integration, it has been considered simpler than strategies like tallying. However, in both ACT-R simulations and an empirical study we found that under increasing cognitive demands the response times (i.e., time costs) of take-the-best sometimes exceeded those of tallying. The RDDA suggested that this pattern is driven by greater requirements for working memory updates, memory retrievals, and the coordination of mental actions when using take-the-best compared to tallying. The results illustrate that assessing the relative simplicity of strategies requires consideration of the overall cognitive system in which the strategies are embedded. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Learning from professionals: Exploring cognitive rehabilitation strategies for the definition of the functional requirements of a telerehabilitation platform.

PubMed

Rosso, Giovanni; Frisiello, Antonella; Trizio, Marco; Mosso, Cristina O; Bazzani, Marco

2018-04-01

In the past few years, the advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) led to the development of platforms and applications that aim to support cognitive rehabilitation therapy that contributes to extend patients' treatment at home. In our research we adopted the Human Centered Approach to design a cognitive rehabilitation platform that is able to provide tools and features tailored to the professional needs and strategies and also able to engage patients in their treatment process. In order to explore the clinicians' point of view on the neuropsychological intervention strategies, we applied two different techniques often used in human factors research: the Critical Decision Method to study professionals' strategies with a descriptive perspective, and the Hierarchical Task Analysis to analyze the processes with a normative view. The results of our research showed that the hybrid approach adopted allowed us to have a better focus on the cognitive rehabilitation process and on the professionals' decision making mechanism. This led to a better understanding of functional requirements for supporting clinician's strategic decision making, in terms of personalization of treatments, cognitive exercises settings and feedback customization. In conclusion, our research highlights the value of the CDM to focus deeply on which functionalities professionals require from a cognitive telerehabilitation system and allowed us to design more precisely clinician-patients interactions inside the system compared to prescriptive methods currently used. Our study offers contribution to the comprehension of the rehabilitation processes, suggesting the positive impacts of an "extended" clinic treatment by adopting a flexible and adaptable tool. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The theory of active involvement: processes underlying interventions that engage adolescents in message planning and/or production.

PubMed

Greene, Kathryn

2013-01-01

Adolescence is a time of increased risk taking, and recent intervention strategies have included adolescents planning or producing antirisk messages for their peers. Although these projects may generate enthusiasm, we know little about message planning or production as a strategy for changing adolescent decision-making and behavior. This article articulates the Theory of Active Involvement (TAI) to describe and explain the processes through which these active involvement interventions influence adolescents. TAI is based on social cognitive theory's notion of self-regulation and examines multiple perspective taking and activating the self-reflection processes. The theory specifically describes the process of cognitive changes experienced by participants in active involvement interventions. The sequence is conceptualized as starting when engagement with the intervention (arousal and involvement) produces skill and knowledge gains (immediate outcomes) that lead to reflection (perceived discrepancy) and then other cognitions (expectancies, norms, intentions), with the ultimate outcome being behavior change. Engaging the target audience in a process of self-reflection is conceptualized as the crucial ingredient for meaningful and sustainable change in cognitions and behavior. This article provides valuable insight into how active involvement strategies function and how to best design these interventions, particularly those targeting adolescents.

Diagnostic Reasoning and Cognitive Biases of Nurse Practitioners.

PubMed

Lawson, Thomas N

2018-04-01

Diagnostic reasoning is often used colloquially to describe the process by which nurse practitioners and physicians come to the correct diagnosis, but a rich definition and description of this process has been lacking in the nursing literature. A literature review was conducted with theoretical sampling seeking conceptual insight into diagnostic reasoning. Four common themes emerged: Cognitive Biases and Debiasing Strategies, the Dual Process Theory, Diagnostic Error, and Patient Harm. Relevant cognitive biases are discussed, followed by debiasing strategies and application of the dual process theory to reduce diagnostic error and harm. The accuracy of diagnostic reasoning of nurse practitioners may be improved by incorporating these items into nurse practitioner education and practice. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(4):203-208.]. Copyright 2018, SLACK Incorporated.

Diagnostic decision-making and strategies to improve diagnosis.

PubMed

Thammasitboon, Satid; Cutrer, William B

2013-10-01

A significant portion of diagnostic errors arises through cognitive errors resulting from inadequate knowledge, faulty data gathering, and/or faulty verification. Experts estimate that 75% of diagnostic failures can be attributed to clinician diagnostic thinking failure. The cognitive processes that underlie diagnostic thinking of clinicians are complex and intriguing, and it is imperative that clinicians acquire explicit appreciation and application of different cognitive approaches to make decisions better. A dual-process model that unifies many theories of decision-making has emerged as a promising template for understanding how clinicians think and judge efficiently in a diagnostic reasoning process. The identification and implementation of strategies for decreasing or preventing such diagnostic errors has become a growing area of interest and research. Suggested strategies to decrease diagnostic error incidence include increasing clinician's clinical expertise and avoiding inherent cognitive errors to make decisions better. Implementing Interventions focused solely on avoiding errors may work effectively for patient safety issues such as medication errors. Addressing cognitive errors, however, requires equal effort on expanding the individual clinician's expertise. Providing cognitive support to clinicians for robust diagnostic decision-making serves as the final strategic target for decreasing diagnostic errors. Clinical guidelines and algorithms offer another method for streamlining decision-making and decreasing likelihood of cognitive diagnostic errors. Addressing cognitive processing errors is undeniably the most challenging task in reducing diagnostic errors. While many suggested approaches exist, they are mostly based on theories and sciences in cognitive psychology, decision-making, and education. The proposed interventions are primarily suggestions and very few of them have been tested in the actual practice settings. Collaborative research effort is required to effectively address cognitive processing errors. Researchers in various areas, including patient safety/quality improvement, decision-making, and problem solving, must work together to make medical diagnosis more reliable. © 2013 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Process and representation in graphical displays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gillan, Douglas J.; Lewis, Robert; Rudisill, Marianne

1990-01-01

How people comprehend graphics is examined. Graphical comprehension involves the cognitive representation of information from a graphic display and the processing strategies that people apply to answer questions about graphics. Research on representation has examined both the features present in a graphic display and the cognitive representation of the graphic. The key features include the physical components of a graph, the relation between the figure and its axes, and the information in the graph. Tests of people's memory for graphs indicate that both the physical and informational aspect of a graph are important in the cognitive representation of a graph. However, the physical (or perceptual) features overshadow the information to a large degree. Processing strategies also involve a perception-information distinction. In order to answer simple questions (e.g., determining the value of a variable, comparing several variables, and determining the mean of a set of variables), people switch between two information processing strategies: (1) an arithmetic, look-up strategy in which they use a graph much like a table, looking up values and performing arithmetic calculations; and (2) a perceptual strategy in which they use the spatial characteristics of the graph to make comparisons and estimations. The user's choice of strategies depends on the task and the characteristics of the graph. A theory of graphic comprehension is presented.

The influence of emotion regulation on decision-making under risk.

PubMed

Martin, Laura N; Delgado, Mauricio R

2011-09-01

Cognitive strategies typically involved in regulating negative emotions have recently been shown to also be effective with positive emotions associated with monetary rewards. However, it is less clear how these strategies influence behavior, such as preferences expressed during decision-making under risk, and the underlying neural circuitry. That is, can the effective use of emotion regulation strategies during presentation of a reward-conditioned stimulus influence decision-making under risk and neural structures involved in reward processing such as the striatum? To investigate this question, we asked participants to engage in imagery-focused regulation strategies during the presentation of a cue that preceded a financial decision-making phase. During the decision phase, participants then made a choice between a risky and a safe monetary lottery. Participants who successfully used cognitive regulation, as assessed by subjective ratings about perceived success and facility in implementation of strategies, made fewer risky choices in comparison with trials where decisions were made in the absence of cognitive regulation. Additionally, BOLD responses in the striatum were attenuated during decision-making as a function of successful emotion regulation. These findings suggest that exerting cognitive control over emotional responses can modulate neural responses associated with reward processing (e.g., striatum) and promote more goal-directed decision-making (e.g., less risky choices), illustrating the potential importance of cognitive strategies in curbing risk-seeking behaviors before they become maladaptive (e.g., substance abuse).

Balance among Cognitive Control Processes: A Case Study of A Gifted Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Urben, Sébastien; Camos, Valérie; Habersaat, Stéphanie; Constanty, Lauriane; Stéphan, Philippe

2018-01-01

This case study analyzed the cognitive strategies of Ethan, a gifted youth, when performing a Stop Signal Task assessing cognitive control processes including response inhibition as well as proactive and reactive adjustments of response. In the case of Ethan, the response inhibition score was biased, revealing that Ethan did not follow the…

Test Takers' Performance Appraisals, Appraisal Calibration, and Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategy Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phakiti, Aek

2016-01-01

The current study explores the nature and relationships among test takers' performance appraisals, appraisal calibration, and reported cognitive and metacognitive strategy use in a language test situation. Performance appraisals are executive processes of strategic competence for judging test performance (e.g., evaluating the correctness or…

Set as an instance of a real-world visual-cognitive task.

PubMed

Nyamsuren, Enkhbold; Taatgen, Niels A

2013-01-01

Complex problem solving is often an integration of perceptual processing and deliberate planning. But what balances these two processes, and how do novices differ from experts? We investigate the interplay between these two in the game of SET. This article investigates how people combine bottom-up visual processes and top-down planning to succeed in this game. Using combinatorial and mixed-effect regression analysis of eye-movement protocols and a cognitive model of a human player, we show that SET players deploy both bottom-up and top-down processes in parallel to accomplish the same task. The combination of competition and cooperation of both types of processes is a major factor of success in the game. Finally, we explore strategies players use during the game. Our findings suggest that within-trial strategy shifts can occur without the need of explicit meta-cognitive control, but rather implicitly as a result of evolving memory activations. Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Evaluating the relationship between white matter integrity, cognition, and varieties of video game learning.

PubMed

Ray, Nicholas R; O'Connell, Margaret A; Nashiro, Kaoru; Smith, Evan T; Qin, Shuo; Basak, Chandramallika

2017-01-01

Many studies are currently researching the effects of video games, particularly in the domain of cognitive training. Great variability exists among video games however, and few studies have attempted to compare different types of video games. Little is known, for instance, about the cognitive processes or brain structures that underlie learning of different genres of video games. To examine the cognitive and neural underpinnings of two different types of game learning in order to evaluate their common and separate correlates, with the hopes of informing future intervention research. Participants (31 younger adults and 31 older adults) completed an extensive cognitive battery and played two different genres of video games, one action game and one strategy game, for 1.5 hours each. DTI scans were acquired for each participant, and regional fractional anisotropy (FA) values were extracted using the JHU atlas. Behavioral results indicated that better performance on tasks of working memory and perceptual discrimination was related to enhanced learning in both games, even after controlling for age, whereas better performance on a perceptual speed task was uniquely related with enhanced learning of the strategy game. DTI results indicated that white matter FA in the right fornix/stria terminalis was correlated with action game learning, whereas white matter FA in the left cingulum/hippocampus was correlated with strategy game learning, even after controlling for age. Although cognition, to a large extent, was a common predictor of both types of game learning, regional white matter FA could separately predict action and strategy game learning. Given the neural and cognitive correlates of strategy game learning, strategy games may provide a more beneficial training tool for adults suffering from memory-related disorders or declines in processing speed, particularly older adults.

Computer Aided Training of Cognitive Processing Strategies with Developmentally Handicapped Adults.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryba, Kenneth A.; And Others

1985-01-01

Correlational results involving 60 developmentally handicaped adults indicated that a computerized cross-modal memory game had a highly significant relationship with most cognitive and motor coordination measures. Computer aided training was not effective in improving overall cognitive functioning. There was no evidence of cognitive skills being…

Process factors facilitating and inhibiting medical ethics teaching in small groups.

PubMed

Bentwich, Miriam Ethel; Bokek-Cohen, Ya'arit

2017-11-01

To examine process factors that either facilitate or inhibit learning medical ethics during case-based learning. A qualitative research approach using microanalysis of transcribed videotaped discussions of three consecutive small-group learning (SGL) sessions on medical ethics teaching (MET) for three groups, each with 10 students. This research effort revealed 12 themes of learning strategies, divided into 6 coping and 6 evasive strategies. Cognitive-based strategies were found to relate to Kamin's model of critical thinking in medical education, thereby supporting our distinction between the themes of coping and evasive strategies. The findings also showed that cognitive efforts as well as emotional strategies are involved in discussions of ethical dilemmas. Based on Kamin's model and the constructivist learning theory, an examination of the different themes within the two learning strategies-coping and evasive-revealed that these strategies may be understood as corresponding to process factors either facilitating or inhibiting MET in SGL, respectively. Our classification offers a more nuanced observation, specifically geared to pinpointing the desired and less desired process factors in the learning involved in MET in the SGL environment. Two key advantages of this observation are: (1) it brings to the forefront process factors that may inhibit and not merely facilitate MET in SGL and (2) it acknowledges the existence of emotional and not just cognitive process factors. Further enhancement of MET in SGL may thus be achieved based on these observations. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Supporting Multiple Cognitive Processing Styles Using Tailored Support Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tuan Q. Tran; Karen M. Feigh; Amy R. Pritchett

According to theories of cognitive processing style or cognitive control mode, human performance is more effective when an individual’s cognitive state (e.g., intuition/scramble vs. deliberate/strategic) matches his/her ecological constraints or context (e.g., utilize intuition to strive for a "good-enough" response instead of deliberating for the "best" response under high time pressure). Ill-mapping between cognitive state and ecological constraints are believed to lead to degraded task performance. Consequently, incorporating support systems which are designed to specifically address multiple cognitive and functional states e.g., high workload, stress, boredom, and initiate appropriate mitigation strategies (e.g., reduce information load) is essential to reduce plantmore » risk. Utilizing the concept of Cognitive Control Models, this paper will discuss the importance of tailoring support systems to match an operator's cognitive state, and will further discuss the importance of these ecological constraints in selecting and implementing mitigation strategies for safe and effective system performance. An example from the nuclear power plant industry illustrating how a support system might be tailored to support different cognitive states is included.« less

Toward an Information-Processing Theory of Client Change in Counseling.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Jack

1985-01-01

Information-processing models of client-centered and rational-emotive counseling are constructed that relate counseling skills and strategies employed in these approaches to hypothesized client cognitive changes. An integrated view of client cognitive change in counseling also is presented. (Author/BL)

Inductive Reasoning: A Training Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klauer, Karl Josef; Phye, Gary D.

2008-01-01

Researchers have examined inductive reasoning to identify different cognitive processes when participants deal with inductive problems. This article presents a prescriptive theory of inductive reasoning that identifies cognitive processing using a procedural strategy for making comparisons. It is hypothesized that training in the use of the…

Rhetorical, Metacognitive, and Cognitive Strategies in Teacher Candidates' Essay Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diaz Larenas, Claudio; Ramos Leiva, Lucía; Ortiz Navarrete, Mabel

2017-01-01

This paper reports on a study about the rhetoric, metacognitive, and cognitive strategies pre-service teachers use before and after a process-based writing intervention when completing an argumentative essay. The data were collected through two think-aloud protocols while 21 Chilean English as a foreign language pre-service teachers completed an…

Strategy Generalization across Orientation Tasks: Testing a Computational Cognitive Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gunzelmann, Glenn

2008-01-01

Humans use their spatial information processing abilities flexibly to facilitate problem solving and decision making in a variety of tasks. This article explores the question of whether a general strategy can be adapted for performing two different spatial orientation tasks by testing the predictions of a computational cognitive model. Human…

The Theory of Active Involvement: Processes Underlying Interventions that Engage Adolescents in Message Planning and/or Production

PubMed Central

Greene, Kathryn

2013-01-01

Adolescence is a time of increased risk-taking and recent intervention strategies have included adolescents planning or producing anti-risk messages for their peers. Although these projects may generate enthusiasm, we know little about message planning or production as a strategy for changing adolescent decision-making and behavior. The paper articulates the Theory of Active Involvement (TAI) to describe and explain the processes through which these active involvement interventions influence adolescents. TAI is based on social cognitive theory’s notion of self-regulation and examines multiple perspective-taking and activating the self-reflection processes. The theory specifically describes the process of cognitive changes experienced by participants in active involvement interventions. The sequence is conceptualized as starting when engagement with the intervention (arousal and involvement) produces skill and knowledge gains (immediate outcomes) that lead to reflection (perceived discrepancy) and then other cognitions (expectancies, norms, intentions), with the ultimate outcome being behavior change. Engaging the target audience in a process of self-reflection is conceptualized as the crucial ingredient for meaningful and sustainable change in cognitions and behavior. This paper provides valuable insight into how active involvement strategies function and how to best design these interventions, particularly those targeting adolescents. PMID:23980581

Cultural differences in room size perception

PubMed Central

Bülthoff, Heinrich H.; de la Rosa, Stephan; Dodds, Trevor J.

2017-01-01

Cultural differences in spatial perception have been little investigated, which gives rise to the impression that spatial cognitive processes might be universal. Contrary to this idea, we demonstrate cultural differences in spatial volume perception of computer generated rooms between Germans and South Koreans. We used a psychophysical task in which participants had to judge whether a rectangular room was larger or smaller than a square room of reference. We systematically varied the room rectangularity (depth to width aspect ratio) and the viewpoint (middle of the short wall vs. long wall) from which the room was viewed. South Koreans were significantly less biased by room rectangularity and viewpoint than their German counterparts. These results are in line with previous notions of general cognitive processing strategies being more context dependent in East Asian societies than Western ones. We point to the necessity of considering culturally-specific cognitive processing strategies in visual spatial cognition research. PMID:28426729

Enhanced visual memory during hypnosis as mediated by hypnotic responsiveness and cognitive strategies.

PubMed

Crawford, H J; Allen, S N

1983-12-01

To investigate the hypothesis that hypnosis has an enhancing effect on imagery processing, as mediated by hypnotic responsiveness and cognitive strategies, four experiments compared performance of low and high, or low, medium, and high, hypnotically responsive subjects in waking and hypnosis conditions on a successive visual memory discrimination task that required detecting differences between successively presented picture pairs in which one member of the pair was slightly altered. Consistently, hypnotically responsive individuals showed enhanced performance during hypnosis, whereas nonresponsive ones did not. Hypnotic responsiveness correlated .52 (p less than .001) with enhanced performance during hypnosis, but it was uncorrelated with waking performance (Experiment 3). Reaction time was not affected by hypnosis, although high hypnotizables were faster than lows in their responses (Experiments 1 and 2). Subjects reported enhanced imagery vividness on the self-report Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire during hypnosis. The differential effect between lows and highs was in the anticipated direction but not significant (Experiments 1 and 2). As anticipated, hypnosis had no significant effect on a discrimination task that required determining whether there were differences between pairs of simultaneously presented pictures. Two cognitive strategies that appeared to mediate visual memory performance were reported: (a) detail strategy, which involved the memorization and rehearsal of individual details for memory, and (b) holistic strategy, which involved looking at and remembering the whole picture with accompanying imagery. Both lows and highs reported similar predominantly detail-oriented strategies during waking; only highs shifted to a significantly more holistic strategy during hypnosis. These findings suggest that high hypnotizables have a greater capacity for cognitive flexibility (Batting, 1979) than do lows. Results are discussed in terms of several theoretical approaches: Paivio's (1971) dual-coding theory and Craik and Tulving's (1975) depth of processing theory. Additional discussion is given to the question of whether hypnosis involves a shift in cerebral dominance, as reflected by the cognitive strategy changes and enhanced imagery processing.

Critical Thinking in Critical Care: Five Strategies to Improve Teaching and Learning in the Intensive Care Unit.

PubMed

Hayes, Margaret M; Chatterjee, Souvik; Schwartzstein, Richard M

2017-04-01

Critical thinking, the capacity to be deliberate about thinking, is increasingly the focus of undergraduate medical education, but is not commonly addressed in graduate medical education. Without critical thinking, physicians, and particularly residents, are prone to cognitive errors, which can lead to diagnostic errors, especially in a high-stakes environment such as the intensive care unit. Although challenging, critical thinking skills can be taught. At this time, there is a paucity of data to support an educational gold standard for teaching critical thinking, but we believe that five strategies, routed in cognitive theory and our personal teaching experiences, provide an effective framework to teach critical thinking in the intensive care unit. The five strategies are: make the thinking process explicit by helping learners understand that the brain uses two cognitive processes: type 1, an intuitive pattern-recognizing process, and type 2, an analytic process; discuss cognitive biases, such as premature closure, and teach residents to minimize biases by expressing uncertainty and keeping differentials broad; model and teach inductive reasoning by utilizing concept and mechanism maps and explicitly teach how this reasoning differs from the more commonly used hypothetico-deductive reasoning; use questions to stimulate critical thinking: "how" or "why" questions can be used to coach trainees and to uncover their thought processes; and assess and provide feedback on learner's critical thinking. We believe these five strategies provide practical approaches for teaching critical thinking in the intensive care unit.

Critical Thinking in Critical Care: Five Strategies to Improve Teaching and Learning in the Intensive Care Unit

PubMed Central

Chatterjee, Souvik; Schwartzstein, Richard M.

2017-01-01

Critical thinking, the capacity to be deliberate about thinking, is increasingly the focus of undergraduate medical education, but is not commonly addressed in graduate medical education. Without critical thinking, physicians, and particularly residents, are prone to cognitive errors, which can lead to diagnostic errors, especially in a high-stakes environment such as the intensive care unit. Although challenging, critical thinking skills can be taught. At this time, there is a paucity of data to support an educational gold standard for teaching critical thinking, but we believe that five strategies, routed in cognitive theory and our personal teaching experiences, provide an effective framework to teach critical thinking in the intensive care unit. The five strategies are: make the thinking process explicit by helping learners understand that the brain uses two cognitive processes: type 1, an intuitive pattern-recognizing process, and type 2, an analytic process; discuss cognitive biases, such as premature closure, and teach residents to minimize biases by expressing uncertainty and keeping differentials broad; model and teach inductive reasoning by utilizing concept and mechanism maps and explicitly teach how this reasoning differs from the more commonly used hypothetico-deductive reasoning; use questions to stimulate critical thinking: “how” or “why” questions can be used to coach trainees and to uncover their thought processes; and assess and provide feedback on learner’s critical thinking. We believe these five strategies provide practical approaches for teaching critical thinking in the intensive care unit. PMID:28157389

The Use of Classroom Assessment to Explore Problem Solving Skills Based on Pre-Service Teachers’ Cognitive Style Dimension in Basic Physics Course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahmawati; Rustaman, Nuryani Y.; Hamidah, Ida; Rusdiana, Dadi

2017-02-01

The aim of this study was to explore the use of assessment strategy which can measure problem solving skills of pre-service teachers based on their cognitive style in basic physics course. The sample consisted of 95 persons (male = 15, female = 75). This study used an exploratory research with observation techniques by interview, questionnaire, and test. The results indicated that the lecturer only used paper-pencil test assessment strategy to measure pre-service teachers’ achievement and also used conventional learning strategy. It means that the lecturer did not measure pre-services’ thinking process in learning, like problem solving skills. One of the factors which can influence student problem solving skills is cognitive style as an internal factor. Field Dependent (FD) and Field Independent (FI) are two cognitive styles which were measured with using Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT) test. The result showed that 82% of pre-service teachers were FD cognitive style and only 18% of pre-service teachers had FI cognitive style. Furthermore, these findings became the fundamental design to develop a problem solving assessment model to measure pre-service teachers’ problem solving skills and process in basic physics course.

The Influence of Emotion Regulation on Decision-making under Risk

PubMed Central

Martin, Laura N.; Delgado, Mauricio R.

2011-01-01

Cognitive strategies typically involved in regulating negative emotions have recently been shown to also be effective with positive emotions associated with monetary rewards. However, it is less clear how these strategies influence behavior, such as preferences expressed during decision-making under risk, and the underlying neural circuitry. That is, can the effective use of emotion regulation strategies during presentation of a reward-conditioned stimulus influence decision-making under risk and neural structures involved in reward processing such as the striatum? To investigate this question, we asked participants to engage in imagery-focused regulation strategies during the presentation of a cue that preceded a financial decision-making phase. During the decision phase, participants then made a choice between a risky and a safe monetary lottery. Participants who successfully used cognitive regulation, as assessed by subjective ratings about perceived success and facility in implementation of strategies, made fewer risky choices in comparison to trials where decisions were made in the absence of cognitive regulation. Additionally, blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses in the striatum were attenuated during decision-making as a function of successful emotion regulation. These findings suggest that exerting cognitive control over emotional responses can modulate neural responses associated with reward processing (e.g., striatum), and promote more goal-directed decision-making (e.g., less risky choices), illustrating the potential importance of cognitive strategies in curbing risk-seeking behaviors before they become maladaptive (e.g., substance abuse). PMID:21254801

Cognitive Attentional Syndrome and Metacognitive Beliefs in Male Sexual Dysfunction: An Exploratory Study.

PubMed

Giuri, Simona; Caselli, Gabriele; Manfredi, Chiara; Rebecchi, Daniela; Granata, Antonio; Ruggiero, Giovanni Maria; Veronese, Guido

2017-05-01

Erectile dysfunction (ED) and premature ejaculation (PE) are two forms of male sexual disorder with both psychological and physical features. While their cognitive, attentional, and affective components have been investigated separately, there is a lack of knowledge about the role played by cognitive attentional syndrome in their onset and maintenance. The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible contribution of perseverative thinking styles and thought control strategies to the development and maintenance of ED and PE. The authors hypothesized that such modes of processing might constitute a cognitive attentional syndrome specific to these disorders and sustained by particular metacognitive beliefs. A semistructured interview was administered to 11 participants with ED and 10 with PE in order to assess their metacognitive beliefs and cognitive attentional processes. The results suggest that individuals with ED and PE adopt a range of cognitive attentional strategies aimed at improving their sexual performance, and endorse both positive and negative metacognitive beliefs about these thinking responses. Overall, their cognitive and attentional patterns worsened negative internal states, reduced sexual excitement, detached them from their bodily sensations, and hindered sexual functioning. These preliminary findings suggest that perseverative thinking, thought control strategies, and metacognitive beliefs may play a key role in the onset and maintenance of male sexual dysfunction.

Cognitive Processes at Work in CALL

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vinther, Jane

2005-01-01

The seminal work by Ericsson and Simon established verbal reports as a genuine way to get a glimpse into the "black box" of the workings of the human mind, and it is now recognised as a method of value in the pursuit of new knowledge relating to, for instance, learner strategies, cognitive strategies, human-computer interaction, and functionality…

Cognitions and emotions in eating disorders.

PubMed

Siep, Nicolette; Jansen, Anita; Havermans, Remco; Roefs, Anne

2011-01-01

The cognitive model of eating disorders (EDs) states that the processing of external and internal stimuli might be biased in mental disorders. These biases, or cognitive errors, systematically distort the individual's experiences and, in that way, maintains the eating disorder. This chapter presents an updated literature review of experimental studies investigating these cognitive biases. Results indicate that ED patients show biases in attention, interpretation, and memory when it comes to the processing of food-, weight-, and body shape-related cues. Some recent studies show that they also demonstrate errors in general cognitive abilities such as set shifting, central coherence, and decision making. A future challenge is whether cognitive biases and processes can be manipulated. Few preliminary studies suggest that an attention retraining and training in the cognitive modulation of food reward processing might be effective strategies to change body satisfaction, food cravings, and eating behavior.

Cross-national comparisons of complex problem-solving strategies in two microworlds.

PubMed

Güss, C Dominik; Tuason, Ma Teresa; Gerhard, Christiane

2010-04-01

Research in the fields of complex problem solving (CPS) and dynamic decision making using microworlds has been mainly conducted in Western industrialized countries. This study analyzes the CPS process by investigating thinking-aloud protocols in five countries. Participants were 511 students from Brazil, Germany, India, the Philippines, and the United States who worked on two microworlds. On the basis of cultural-psychological theories, specific cross-national differences in CPS strategies were hypothesized. Following theories of situatedness of cognition, hypotheses about the specific frequency of problem-solving strategies in the two microworlds were developed. Results of the verbal protocols showed (a) modification of the theoretical CPS model, (b) task dependence of CPS strategies, and (c) cross-national differences in CPS strategies. Participants' CPS processes were particularly influenced by country-specific problem-solving strategies. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Aging effects in sequential modulations of poorer-strategy effects during execution of memory strategies.

PubMed

Hinault, Thomas; Lemaire, Patrick; Touron, Dayna

2017-02-01

In this study, we asked young adults and older adults to encode pairs of words. For each item, they were told which strategy to use, interactive imagery or rote repetition. Data revealed poorer-strategy effects in both young adults and older adults: Participants obtained better performance when executing better strategies (i.e., interactive-imagery strategy to encode pairs of concrete words; rote-repetition strategy on pairs of abstract words) than with poorer strategies (i.e., interactive-imagery strategy on pairs of abstract words; rote-repetition strategy on pairs of concrete words). Crucially, we showed that sequential modulations of poorer-strategy effects (i.e., poorer-strategy effects being larger when previous items were encoded with better relative to poorer strategies), previously demonstrated in arithmetic, generalise to memory strategies. We also found reduced sequential modulations of poorer-strategy effects in older adults relative to young adults. Finally, sequential modulations of poorer-strategy effects correlated with measures of cognitive control processes, suggesting that these processes underlie efficient trial-to-trial modulations during strategy execution. Differences in correlations with cognitive control processes were also found between older adults and young adults. These findings have important implications regarding mechanisms underlying memory strategy execution and age differences in memory performance.

Measurements of Rationality: Individual Differences in Information Processing, the Transitivity of Preferences and Decision Strategies

PubMed Central

Sleboda, Patrycja; Sokolowska, Joanna

2017-01-01

The first goal of this study was to validate the Rational-Experiential Inventory (REI) and the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) through checking their relation to the transitivity axiom. The second goal was to test the relation between decision strategies and cognitive style as well as the relation between decision strategies and the transitivity of preferences. The following characteristics of strategies were investigated: requirements for trade-offs, maximization vs. satisficing and option-wise vs. attribute-wise information processing. Respondents were given choices between two multi-attribute options. The options were designed so that the choice indicated which strategy was applied. Both the REI-R and the CRT were found to be good predictors of the transitivity of preferences. Respondents who applied compensatory strategies and the maximization criterion scored highly on the REI-R and in the CRT, whereas those who applied the satisficing rule scored highly on the REI-R but not in the CRT. Attribute-wise information processing was related to low scores in both measurements. Option-wise information processing led to a high transitivity of preferences. PMID:29093695

Measurements of Rationality: Individual Differences in Information Processing, the Transitivity of Preferences and Decision Strategies.

PubMed

Sleboda, Patrycja; Sokolowska, Joanna

2017-01-01

The first goal of this study was to validate the Rational-Experiential Inventory ( REI ) and the Cognitive Reflection Test ( CRT ) through checking their relation to the transitivity axiom. The second goal was to test the relation between decision strategies and cognitive style as well as the relation between decision strategies and the transitivity of preferences. The following characteristics of strategies were investigated: requirements for trade-offs, maximization vs. satisficing and option-wise vs. attribute-wise information processing. Respondents were given choices between two multi-attribute options. The options were designed so that the choice indicated which strategy was applied. Both the REI-R and the CRT were found to be good predictors of the transitivity of preferences. Respondents who applied compensatory strategies and the maximization criterion scored highly on the REI-R and in the CRT , whereas those who applied the satisficing rule scored highly on the REI-R but not in the CRT . Attribute-wise information processing was related to low scores in both measurements. Option-wise information processing led to a high transitivity of preferences.

Experiential avoidance as an emotion regulatory function: an empirical analysis of experiential avoidance in relation to behavioral avoidance, cognitive reappraisal, and response suppression.

PubMed

Wolgast, Martin; Lundh, Lars-Gunnar; Viborg, Gardar

2013-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to empirically test the suggestion that experiential avoidance in an emotion regulation context is best understood as an emotion regulatory function of topographically distinct strategies. To do this we examined whether a measure of experiential avoidance could statistically account for the effects of emotion regulation strategies intervening at different points of the emotion-generative process as conceptualized by Gross' (1998) process model of emotion regulation. The strategies under examination were behavioral avoidance, cognitive reappraisal, and response suppression. The specific hypotheses to be tested were (1) that behavioral avoidance, cognitive reappraisal, and response suppression would statistically mediate the differences in measures of psychological well-being between a clinical and nonclinical sample, but that (2) these indirect effects would be reduced to nonsignificant levels when controlling for differences in experiential avoidance. The results provide clear support for the first hypothesis with regard to all the studied strategies. In contrast to the second hypothesis, the results showed the predicted outcome pattern only for the response-focused strategy "response suppression" and not for cognitive reappraisal or behavioral avoidance. The results are interpreted and discussed in relation to theories on experiential avoidance and emotion regulation.

The effect of visual representation style in problem-solving: a perspective from cognitive processes.

PubMed

Nyamsuren, Enkhbold; Taatgen, Niels A

2013-01-01

Using results from a controlled experiment and simulations based on cognitive models, we show that visual presentation style can have a significant impact on performance in a complex problem-solving task. We compared subject performances in two isomorphic, but visually different, tasks based on a card game of SET. Although subjects used the same strategy in both tasks, the difference in presentation style resulted in radically different reaction times and significant deviations in scanpath patterns in the two tasks. Results from our study indicate that low-level subconscious visual processes, such as differential acuity in peripheral vision and low-level iconic memory, can have indirect, but significant effects on decision making during a problem-solving task. We have developed two ACT-R models that employ the same basic strategy but deal with different presentations styles. Our ACT-R models confirm that changes in low-level visual processes triggered by changes in presentation style can propagate to higher-level cognitive processes. Such a domino effect can significantly affect reaction times and eye movements, without affecting the overall strategy of problem solving.

The Effect of Visual Representation Style in Problem-Solving: A Perspective from Cognitive Processes

PubMed Central

Nyamsuren, Enkhbold; Taatgen, Niels A.

2013-01-01

Using results from a controlled experiment and simulations based on cognitive models, we show that visual presentation style can have a significant impact on performance in a complex problem-solving task. We compared subject performances in two isomorphic, but visually different, tasks based on a card game of SET. Although subjects used the same strategy in both tasks, the difference in presentation style resulted in radically different reaction times and significant deviations in scanpath patterns in the two tasks. Results from our study indicate that low-level subconscious visual processes, such as differential acuity in peripheral vision and low-level iconic memory, can have indirect, but significant effects on decision making during a problem-solving task. We have developed two ACT-R models that employ the same basic strategy but deal with different presentations styles. Our ACT-R models confirm that changes in low-level visual processes triggered by changes in presentation style can propagate to higher-level cognitive processes. Such a domino effect can significantly affect reaction times and eye movements, without affecting the overall strategy of problem solving. PMID:24260415

Learning how the electron transport chain works: independent and interactive effects of instructional strategies and learners' characteristics.

PubMed

Darabi, Aubteen; Arrastia-Lloyd, Meagan C; Nelson, David W; Liang, Xinya; Farrell, Jennifer

2015-12-01

In order to develop an expert-like mental model of complex systems, causal reasoning is essential. This study examines the differences between forward and backward instructional strategies' in terms of efficiency, students' learning and progression of their mental models of the electronic transport chain in an undergraduate metabolism course (n = 151). Additionally, the participants' cognitive flexibility, prior knowledge, and mental effort in the learning process are also investigated. The data were analyzed using a series of general linear models to compare the strategies. Although the two strategies did not differ significantly in terms of mental model progression and learning outcomes, both groups' mental models progressed significantly. Mental effort and prior knowledge were identified as significant predictors of mental model progression. An interaction between instructional strategy and cognitive flexibility revealed that the backward instruction was more efficient than the conventional (forward) strategy for students with lower cognitive flexibility, whereas the conventional instruction was more efficient for students with higher cognitive flexibility. The results are discussed and suggestions for future research on the possible moderating role of cognitive flexibility in the area of health education are presented.

Design of Computer-aided Instruction for Radiology Interpretation: The Role of Cognitive Task Analysis

PubMed Central

Pusic, Martin V.; LeBlanc, Vicki; Patel, Vimla L.

2001-01-01

Traditional task analysis for instructional design has emphasized the importance of precisely defining behavioral educational objectives and working back to select objective-appropriate instructional strategies. However, this approach may miss effective strategies. Cognitive task analysis, on the other hand, breaks a process down into its component knowledge representations. Selection of instructional strategies based on all such representations in a domain is likely to lead to optimal instructional design. In this demonstration, using the interpretation of cervical spine x-rays as an educational example, we show how a detailed cognitive task analysis can guide the development of computer-aided instruction.

Secondary Students' Dynamic Modeling Processes: Analyzing, Reasoning About, Synthesizing, and Testing Models of Stream Ecosystems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stratford, Steven J.; Krajeik, Joseph; Soloway, Elliot

This paper presents the results of a study of the cognitive strategies in which ninth-grade science students engaged as they used a learner-centered dynamic modeling tool (called Model-It) to make original models based upon stream ecosystem scenarios. The research questions were: (1) In what Cognitive Strategies for Modeling (analyzing, reasoning,…

The Regulation of Task Performance: A Trans-Disciplinary Review

PubMed Central

Clark, Ian; Dumas, Guillaume

2016-01-01

Definitions of meta-cognition typically have two components: (1) knowledge about one's own cognitive functioning; and, (2) control over one's own cognitive activities. Since Flavell and his colleagues provided the empirical foundation on which to build studies of meta-cognition and the autonoetic (self) knowledge required for effective learning, the intervening years have seen the extensive dissemination of theoretical and empirical research on meta-cognition, which now encompasses a variety of issues and domains including educational psychology and neuroscience. Nevertheless, the psychological and neural underpinnings of meta-cognitive predictions and reflections that determine subsequent regulation of task performance remain ill understood. This article provides an outline of meta-cognition in the science of education with evidence drawn from neuroimaging, psycho-physiological, and psychological literature. We will rigorously explore research that addresses the pivotal role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in controlling the meta-cognitive processes that underpin the self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies learners employ to regulate task performance. The article delineates what those strategies are, and how the learning environment can facilitate or frustrate strategy use by influencing learners' self-efficacy. PMID:26779050

Drawing links between the autism cognitive profile and imagination: Executive function and processing bias in imaginative drawings by children with and without autism.

PubMed

Ten Eycke, Kayla D; Müller, Ulrich

2018-02-01

Little is known about the relation between cognitive processes and imagination and whether this relation differs between neurotypically developing children and children with autism. To address this issue, we administered a cognitive task battery and Karmiloff-Smith's drawing task, which requires children to draw imaginative people and houses. For children with autism, executive function significantly predicted imaginative drawing. In neurotypically developing controls, executive function and cognitive-perceptual processing style predicted imaginative drawing, but these associations were moderated by mental age. In younger (neurotypically developing) children, better executive function and a local processing bias were associated with imagination; in older children, only a global bias was associated with imagination. These findings suggest that (a) with development there are changes in the type of cognitive processes involved in imagination and (b) children with autism employ a unique cognitive strategy in imaginative drawing.

Strategy selection in cue-based decision making.

PubMed

Bryant, David J

2014-06-01

People can make use of a range of heuristic and rational, compensatory strategies to perform a multiple-cue judgment task. It has been proposed that people are sensitive to the amount of cognitive effort required to employ decision strategies. Experiment 1 employed a dual-task methodology to investigate whether participants' preference for heuristic versus compensatory decision strategies can be altered by increasing the cognitive demands of the task. As indicated by participants' decision times, a secondary task interfered more with the performance of a heuristic than compensatory decision strategy but did not affect the proportions of participants using either type of strategy. A stimulus set effect suggested that the conjunction of cue salience and cue validity might play a determining role in strategy selection. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that when a perceptually salient cue was also the most valid, the majority of participants preferred a single-cue heuristic strategy. Overall, the results contradict the view that heuristics are more likely to be adopted when a task is made more cognitively demanding. It is argued that people employ 2 learning processes during training, one an associative learning process in which cue-outcome associations are developed by sampling multiple cues, and another that involves the sequential examination of single cues to serve as a basis for a single-cue heuristic.

The "Word Game": An Innovative Strategy for Assessing Implicit Processes in Parents at Risk for Child Physical Abuse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crouch, Julie L.; Irwin, Lauren M.; Wells, Brett M.; Shelton, Christopher R.; Skowronski, John J.; Milner, Joel S.

2012-01-01

Objective: Contemporary theories of child physical abuse (CPA) emphasize the proximal role of social cognitive processes (many of which are implicit in nature) in the occurrence of parental aggression. However, methods that allow for the systematic examination of implicit cognitive processes during the course of aggressive interactions are needed.…

Optimising the Use of Note-Taking as an External Cognitive Aid for Increasing Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Makany, Tamas; Kemp, Jonathan; Dror, Itiel E.

2009-01-01

Taking notes is of uttermost importance in academic and commercial use and success. Different techniques for note-taking utilise different cognitive processes and strategies. This experimental study examined ways to enhance cognitive performance via different note-taking techniques. By comparing performances of traditional, linear style…

Refining Uses and Gratifications with a Human Information Processing Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffin, Robert J.

A study was conducted as part of a program to develop and test an individual level communications model. The model proposes that audience members bring to communications situations a set of learned cognitive processing strategies that produce cognitive structural representations of information in memory to facilitate the meeting of the various…

Cognitive Processes in Interpreting the Contour-Line Portrayal of Terrain Relief.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cross, Kenneth D.; And Others

Designed to gain a more thorough understanding of the cognitive processes involved and apply this knowledge in defining improved teaching strategies, this study of contour interpretation (referred to as "position fixing") required 12 subjects to locate their position on a map after being transported, blindfolded, to test sites where…

The Effects of Test Anxiety on Learning at Superficial and Deep Levels of Processing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weinstein, Claire E.; And Others

1982-01-01

Using a deep-level processing strategy, low test-anxious college students performed significantly better than high test-anxious students in learning a paired-associate word list. Using a superficial-level processing strategy resulted in no significant difference in performance. A cognitive-attentional theory and test anxiety mechanisms are…

Aging and List-Wide Modulations of Strategy Execution:A Study in Arithmetic.

PubMed

Hinault, Thomas; Lemaire, Patrick

2017-01-01

Background/Study Context: This study aimed at further our understanding of the cognitive processes involved during strategy execution, and how the processes involved change with age. More specifically, the main goal was to investigate whether poorer-strategy effects (i.e., poorer performance when a cued strategy is not the best) and sequential modulations of poorer-strategy effects (i.e., decreased poorer-strategy effects on current problems following poorer-strategy problems compared with after better-strategy problems) are influenced by proportions of poorer-strategy problems. We used a computational estimation task (i.e., providing approximate products to two-digit multiplication problems such as 38 × 74) with problems sets including 75%, 50%, or 25% of poorer-strategy problems (i.e., participants have to estimate products with another strategy than the better strategy). The remaining problems were cued with the better strategy. Age-related differences were also investigated. We found that proportions of poorer-strategy problems influenced sequential modulations of poorer-strategy effects. Indeed, sequential modulations of poorer-strategy effects were larger when proportions of poorer-strategy problems were equal than unequal. Moreover, proportion effects were different for young and older adults, as older adults benefited more from low proportions of poorer-strategy problems compared with young adults. These findings have important implications regarding cognitive control mechanisms underlying both list-wide and trial-to-trial modulations of strategy execution, and how these processes change during aging.

Neural Underpinnings of Decision Strategy Selection: A Review and a Theoretical Model.

PubMed

Wichary, Szymon; Smolen, Tomasz

2016-01-01

In multi-attribute choice, decision makers use decision strategies to arrive at the final choice. What are the neural mechanisms underlying decision strategy selection? The first goal of this paper is to provide a literature review on the neural underpinnings and cognitive models of decision strategy selection and thus set the stage for a neurocognitive model of this process. The second goal is to outline such a unifying, mechanistic model that can explain the impact of noncognitive factors (e.g., affect, stress) on strategy selection. To this end, we review the evidence for the factors influencing strategy selection, the neural basis of strategy use and the cognitive models of this process. We also present the Bottom-Up Model of Strategy Selection (BUMSS). The model assumes that the use of the rational Weighted Additive strategy and the boundedly rational heuristic Take The Best can be explained by one unifying, neurophysiologically plausible mechanism, based on the interaction of the frontoparietal network, orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and the brainstem nucleus locus coeruleus. According to BUMSS, there are three processes that form the bottom-up mechanism of decision strategy selection and lead to the final choice: (1) cue weight computation, (2) gain modulation, and (3) weighted additive evaluation of alternatives. We discuss how these processes might be implemented in the brain, and how this knowledge allows us to formulate novel predictions linking strategy use and neural signals.

Student Motivations as Predictors of High-Level Cognitions in Project-Based Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stolk, Jonathan; Harari, Janie

2014-01-01

It is well established that active learning helps students engage in high-level thinking strategies and develop improved cognitive skills. Motivation and self-regulated learning research, however, illustrates that cognitive engagement is an effortful process that is related to students' valuing of the learning tasks, adoption of internalized goal…

Cognitive-Operative Model of Intelligent Learning Systems Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laureano-Cruces, Ana Lilia; Ramirez-Rodriguez, Javier; Mora-Torres, Martha; de Arriaga, Fernando; Escarela-Perez, Rafael

2010-01-01

In this paper behavior during the teaching-learning process is modeled by means of a fuzzy cognitive map. The elements used to model such behavior are part of a generic didactic model, which emphasizes the use of cognitive and operative strategies as part of the student-tutor interaction. Examples of possible initial scenarios for the…

[Psychotherapy with mild cognitive impairment and dementia].

PubMed

Linnemann, A; Fellgiebel, A

2017-11-01

Despite evidence for psychotherapy (PT) in elderly patients, it is not standard care in patients with mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Although neuropsychiatric symptoms are frequent in these patients, there is a lack of studies investigating the importance and efficiency of PT. Can patients with mild cognitive impairment and dementia benefit from PT? If so, which modifications of therapeutic strategies are necessary for treating elderly patients with mild cognitive impairments? Evaluation of empirical evidence on the efficiency of PT for patients with mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Presentation of interventions and modifications of therapeutic strategies. Empirical evidence points towards beneficial effects of PT on depressive symptoms and quality of life. The treatment of anxiety disorders has so far been broadly neglected. Modifications of therapeutic strategies include simplification of content, repetitions, implementation of external memory aids and inclusion of caregivers into therapeutic process. Psychotherapy can be effective in patients with mild cognitive impairment and early stages of dementia. When practicing PT, an adaptation of therapeutic strategies is necessary. Nevertheless, there is a need for further studies investigating the benefits and implementation of PT into standard care, especially as pharmacological interventions are very limited in their efficiency and tolerability in this patient population.

The science of medical decision making: neurosurgery, errors, and personal cognitive strategies for improving quality of care.

PubMed

Fargen, Kyle M; Friedman, William A

2014-01-01

During the last 2 decades, there has been a shift in the U.S. health care system towards improving the quality of health care provided by enhancing patient safety and reducing medical errors. Unfortunately, surgical complications, patient harm events, and malpractice claims remain common in the field of neurosurgery. Many of these events are potentially avoidable. There are an increasing number of publications in the medical literature in which authors address cognitive errors in diagnosis and treatment and strategies for reducing such errors, but these are for the most part absent in the neurosurgical literature. The purpose of this article is to highlight the complexities of medical decision making to a neurosurgical audience, with the hope of providing insight into the biases that lead us towards error and strategies to overcome our innate cognitive deficiencies. To accomplish this goal, we review the current literature on medical errors and just culture, explain the dual process theory of cognition, identify common cognitive errors affecting neurosurgeons in practice, review cognitive debiasing strategies, and finally provide simple methods that can be easily assimilated into neurosurgical practice to improve clinical decision making. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How do they make it look so easy? The expert orienteer's cognitive advantage.

PubMed

Eccles, David W; Arsal, Guler

2015-01-01

Expertise in sport can appear so extraordinary that it is difficult to imagine how "normal" individuals may achieve it. However, in this review, we show that experts in the sport of orienteering, which requires on-foot navigation using map and compass through wild terrain, can make the difficult look easy because they have developed a cognitive advantage. Specifically, they have acquired knowledge of cognitive and behavioural strategies that allow them to circumvent natural limitations on attention. Cognitive strategies include avoiding peaks of demand on attention by distributing the processing of map information over time and reducing the need to attend to the map by simplifying the navigation required to complete a race. Behavioural strategies include reducing the visual search required of the map by physically arranging and rearranging the map display during races. It is concluded that expertise in orienteering can be partly attributed to the circumvention of natural limitations on attention achieved via the employment of acquired cognitive and behavioural strategies. Thus, superior performance in sport may not be the possession of only a privileged few; it may be available to all aspiring athletes.

The Practice of Information Processing Model in the Teaching of Cognitive Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozel, Ali

2009-01-01

In this research, the differentiation condition of teaching the learning strategies depending on the time which the first grade of primary school teachers carried out to form an information-process skeleton on student is tried to be found out. This process including the efforts of 260 teachers in this direction consists of whether the adequate…

Design and Development of the Learning Activities Questionnaire

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-08-01

attention has been given to cognitive components of the study process. For example, Laycock and Russell (1941) found that among the 35 most frequently...suitable place to work. Very little attention centered upon the cognitive activities of the learner himself, with the exception of advice concerning the...learners in general most frequently apply, the 1,658 responses were divided into the five strategy categories. Rote strategies were reported most

Relation between coping and posttrauma cognitions on PTSD in a combat-trauma population.

PubMed

Sheerin, Christina M; Chowdhury, Nadia; Lind, Mackenzie J; Kurtz, Erin D; Rappaport, Lance M; Berenz, Erin C; Brown, Ruth C; Pickett, Treven; McDonald, Scott D; Danielson, Carla Kmett; Amstadter, Ananda B

2018-01-01

Individual differences in cognitive processes and coping behaviors play a role in the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Given the large numbers of combat-exposed service members returning from the Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and Operation New Dawn (OND) conflicts, exploring individual differences in cognitive-affective processes is important for informing our understanding of PTSD etiology and early intervention in military samples. The present study examined the unique main and interactive effects of negative posttrauma cognitions (i.e., negative beliefs about self [NS], the world [NW], and self-blame [SB]) and coping strategies (i.e., positive behavioral, positive cognitive, avoidant coping, and social and emotional coping) on PTSD diagnosis within 155 ( M age = 30.7, SD = 4.48) OEF/OIF/OND combat trauma-exposed veterans recruited from an ongoing study examining the effects of combat trauma and stress reactivity. In the final, stepwise logistic regression analysis, avoidant coping, but no other coping strategy, was significantly positively related to PTSD diagnosis in the initial step. Higher levels of NS, but not NW, were significantly associated with having a PTSD diagnosis, while SB was associated with decreased likelihood of PTSD, above and beyond coping strategies. A significant interaction effect was found between NS and positive cognitive coping, such that greater positive cognitive coping weakened the relationship between NS and PTSD. Examining and addressing coping behaviors and negative thoughts of self jointly may benefit assessment and intervention approaches in a combat-trauma population.

Real-time strategy game training: emergence of a cognitive flexibility trait.

PubMed

Glass, Brian D; Maddox, W Todd; Love, Bradley C

2013-01-01

Training in action video games can increase the speed of perceptual processing. However, it is unknown whether video-game training can lead to broad-based changes in higher-level competencies such as cognitive flexibility, a core and neurally distributed component of cognition. To determine whether video gaming can enhance cognitive flexibility and, if so, why these changes occur, the current study compares two versions of a real-time strategy (RTS) game. Using a meta-analytic Bayes factor approach, we found that the gaming condition that emphasized maintenance and rapid switching between multiple information and action sources led to a large increase in cognitive flexibility as measured by a wide array of non-video gaming tasks. Theoretically, the results suggest that the distributed brain networks supporting cognitive flexibility can be tuned by engrossing video game experience that stresses maintenance and rapid manipulation of multiple information sources. Practically, these results suggest avenues for increasing cognitive function.

Episodic memory deficits slow down the dynamics of cognitive procedural learning in normal ageing

PubMed Central

Beaunieux, Hélène; Hubert, Valérie; Pitel, Anne Lise; Desgranges, Béatrice; Eustache, Francis

2009-01-01

Cognitive procedural learning is characterized by three phases, each involving distinct processes. Considering the implication of the episodic memory in the first cognitive stage, the impairment of this memory system might be responsible for a slowing down of the cognitive procedural learning dynamics in the course of aging. Performances of massed cognitive procedural learning were evaluated in older and younger participants using the Tower of Toronto task. Nonverbal intelligence and psychomotor abilities were used to analyze procedural dynamics, while episodic memory and working memory were assessed to measure their respective contributions to learning strategies. This experiment showed that older participants did not spontaneously invoke episodic memory and presented a slowdown in the cognitive procedural learning associated with a late involvement of working memory. These findings suggest that the slowdown in the cognitive procedural learning may be linked with the implementation of different learning strategies less involving episodic memory in older subjects. PMID:18654928

Real-Time Strategy Game Training: Emergence of a Cognitive Flexibility Trait

PubMed Central

Glass, Brian D.; Maddox, W. Todd; Love, Bradley C.

2013-01-01

Training in action video games can increase the speed of perceptual processing. However, it is unknown whether video-game training can lead to broad-based changes in higher-level competencies such as cognitive flexibility, a core and neurally distributed component of cognition. To determine whether video gaming can enhance cognitive flexibility and, if so, why these changes occur, the current study compares two versions of a real-time strategy (RTS) game. Using a meta-analytic Bayes factor approach, we found that the gaming condition that emphasized maintenance and rapid switching between multiple information and action sources led to a large increase in cognitive flexibility as measured by a wide array of non-video gaming tasks. Theoretically, the results suggest that the distributed brain networks supporting cognitive flexibility can be tuned by engrossing video game experience that stresses maintenance and rapid manipulation of multiple information sources. Practically, these results suggest avenues for increasing cognitive function. PMID:23950921

Learning Goals and Strategies in the Self-regulation of Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaeta Gonzalez, Martha Leticia

2013-01-01

In order to self-regulate their learning, students need to use different strategies to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning activities (meta-cognitive strategies), as well as to control their motivation and emotion (volitional strategies). Students' effectiveness in their self-regulated learning process also varies depending on the academic…

Exploring the Interconnectedness among Strategy Development, Shared Mental Models, Organisational Learning and Organisational Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malan, Renee

2011-01-01

The cognitive psychological processes related to learning and change behaviour are factors that impact on organisational strategy development. Strategy development is dependent on strategic thinking that is reciprocally influenced by shared mental models, organisational learning and organisational change. Although strategy development, shared…

Creative Practices Embodied, Embedded, and Enacted in Architectural Settings: Toward an Ecological Model of Creativity.

PubMed

Malinin, Laura H

2015-01-01

Memoires by eminently creative people often describe architectural spaces and qualities they believe instrumental for their creativity. However, places designed to encourage creativity have had mixed results, with some found to decrease creative productivity for users. This may be due, in part, to lack of suitable empirical theory or model to guide design strategies. Relationships between creative cognition and features of the physical environment remain largely uninvestigated in the scientific literature, despite general agreement among researchers that human cognition is physically and socially situated. This paper investigates what role architectural settings may play in creative processes by examining documented first person and biographical accounts of creativity with respect to three central theories of situated cognition. First, the embodied thesis argues that cognition encompasses both the mind and the body. Second, the embedded thesis maintains that people exploit features of the physical and social environment to increase their cognitive capabilities. Third, the enaction thesis describes cognition as dependent upon a person's interactions with the world. Common themes inform three propositions, illustrated in a new theoretical framework describing relationships between people and their architectural settings with respect to different cognitive processes of creativity. The framework is intended as a starting point toward an ecological model of creativity, which may be used to guide future creative process research and architectural design strategies to support user creative productivity.

Creative Practices Embodied, Embedded, and Enacted in Architectural Settings: Toward an Ecological Model of Creativity

PubMed Central

Malinin, Laura H.

2016-01-01

Memoires by eminently creative people often describe architectural spaces and qualities they believe instrumental for their creativity. However, places designed to encourage creativity have had mixed results, with some found to decrease creative productivity for users. This may be due, in part, to lack of suitable empirical theory or model to guide design strategies. Relationships between creative cognition and features of the physical environment remain largely uninvestigated in the scientific literature, despite general agreement among researchers that human cognition is physically and socially situated. This paper investigates what role architectural settings may play in creative processes by examining documented first person and biographical accounts of creativity with respect to three central theories of situated cognition. First, the embodied thesis argues that cognition encompasses both the mind and the body. Second, the embedded thesis maintains that people exploit features of the physical and social environment to increase their cognitive capabilities. Third, the enaction thesis describes cognition as dependent upon a person’s interactions with the world. Common themes inform three propositions, illustrated in a new theoretical framework describing relationships between people and their architectural settings with respect to different cognitive processes of creativity. The framework is intended as a starting point toward an ecological model of creativity, which may be used to guide future creative process research and architectural design strategies to support user creative productivity. PMID:26779087

[Cognitive aging mechanism of signaling effects on the memory for procedural sentences].

PubMed

Yamamoto, Hiroki; Shimada, Hideaki

2006-08-01

The aim of this study was to clarify the cognitive aging mechanism of signaling effects on the memory for procedural sentences. Participants were 60 younger adults (college students) and 60 older adults. Both age groups were assigned into two groups; half of each group was presented with procedural sentences with signals that highlighted their top-level structure and the other half with procedural sentences without them. Both groups were requested to perform the sentence arrangement task and the reconstruction task. Each task was composed of procedural sentences with or without signals. Results indicated that signaling supported changes in strategy utilization during the successive organizational processes and that changes in strategy utilization resulting from signaling improved the memory for procedural sentences. Moreover, age-related factors interfered with these signaling effects. This study clarified the cognitive aging mechanism of signaling effects in which signaling supports changes in the strategy utilization during organizational processes at encoding and this mediation promotes memory for procedural sentences, though disuse of the strategy utilization due to aging restrains their memory for procedural sentences.

Influence of Cognitive Styles on Technical Drawing Students' Achievements in Senior Secondary School in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owodunni, A. Samuel; Sanni, AbdulRahman; Nwokolo-Ojo, Joy; Igwe, C. Obeta

2017-01-01

There are different cognitive strategies for processing information which in turn influence students' academic achievement. This paper reports an investigation of cognitive styles and achievement scores of secondary school students. In the study, the standardised Group Embedded Figures Test was used to determine the influence of student's…

Arithmetic strategy development and its domain-specific and domain-general cognitive correlates: a longitudinal study in children with persistent mathematical learning difficulties.

PubMed

Vanbinst, Kiran; Ghesquière, Pol; De Smedt, Bert

2014-11-01

Deficits in arithmetic fact retrieval constitute the hallmark of children with mathematical learning difficulties (MLD). It remains, however, unclear which cognitive deficits underpin these difficulties in arithmetic fact retrieval. Many prior studies defined MLD by considering low achievement criteria and not by additionally taking the persistence of the MLD into account. Therefore, the present longitudinal study contrasted children with persistent MLD (MLD-p; mean age: 9 years 2 months) and typically developing (TD) children (mean age: 9 years 6 months) at three time points, to explore whether differences in arithmetic strategy development were associated with differences in numerical magnitude processing, working memory and phonological processing. Our longitudinal data revealed that children with MLD-p had persistent arithmetic fact retrieval deficits at each time point. Children with MLD-p showed persistent impairments in symbolic, but not in nonsymbolic, magnitude processing at each time point. The two groups differed in phonological processing, but not in working memory. Our data indicate that both domain-specific and domain-general cognitive abilities contribute to individual differences in children's arithmetic strategy development, and that the symbolic processing of numerical magnitudes might be a particular risk factor for children with MLD-p. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recognizing and managing errors of cognitive underspecification.

PubMed

Duthie, Elizabeth A

2014-03-01

James Reason describes cognitive underspecification as incomplete communication that creates a knowledge gap. Errors occur when an information mismatch occurs in bridging that gap with a resulting lack of shared mental models during the communication process. There is a paucity of studies in health care examining this cognitive error and the role it plays in patient harm. The goal of the following case analyses is to facilitate accurate recognition, identify how it contributes to patient harm, and suggest appropriate management strategies. Reason's human error theory is applied in case analyses of errors of cognitive underspecification. Sidney Dekker's theory of human incident investigation is applied to event investigation to facilitate identification of this little recognized error. Contributory factors leading to errors of cognitive underspecification include workload demands, interruptions, inexperienced practitioners, and lack of a shared mental model. Detecting errors of cognitive underspecification relies on blame-free listening and timely incident investigation. Strategies for interception include two-way interactive communication, standardization of communication processes, and technological support to ensure timely access to documented clinical information. Although errors of cognitive underspecification arise at the sharp end with the care provider, effective management is dependent upon system redesign that mitigates the latent contributory factors. Cognitive underspecification is ubiquitous whenever communication occurs. Accurate identification is essential if effective system redesign is to occur.

Homo Heuristicus: Less-is-More Effects in Adaptive Cognition

PubMed Central

Brighton, Henry; Gigerenzer, Gerd

2012-01-01

Heuristics are efficient cognitive processes that ignore information. In contrast to the widely held view that less processing reduces accuracy, the study of heuristics shows that less information, computation, and time can in fact improve accuracy. We discuss some of the major progress made so far, focusing on the discovery of less-is-more effects and the study of the ecological rationality of heuristics which examines in which environments a given strategy succeeds or fails, and why. Homo heuristicus has a biased mind and ignores part of the available information, yet a biased mind can handle uncertainty more efficiently and robustly than an unbiased mind relying on more resource-intensive and general-purpose processing strategies. PMID:23613644

The Effect of Personal and School-Wide Goals on Deep Processing Strategies of At-Risk, Not At-Risk and Special Education Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderman, Eric M.

Middle school students (N=712) were surveyed about their achievement goals and cognitive processing strategies. Results suggest that academically at-risk students use deep strategies less and are less learning focused than not at-risk and special education students. Special education and at-risk students tended to be more ability-focused than not…

Verbalizing, Visualizing, and Navigating: The Effect of Strategies on Encoding a Large-Scale Virtual Environment

PubMed Central

Kraemer, David J.M.; Schinazi, Victor R.; Cawkwell, Philip B.; Tekriwal, Anand; Epstein, Russell A.; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L.

2016-01-01

Using novel virtual cities, we investigated the influence of verbal and visual strategies on the encoding of navigation-relevant information in a large-scale virtual environment. In two experiments, participants watched videos of routes through four virtual cities and were subsequently tested on their memory for observed landmarks and on their ability to make judgments regarding the relative directions of the different landmarks along the route. In the first experiment, self-report questionnaires measuring visual and verbal cognitive styles were administered to examine correlations between cognitive styles, landmark recognition, and judgments of relative direction. Results demonstrate a tradeoff in which the verbal cognitive style is more beneficial for recognizing individual landmarks than for judging relative directions between them, whereas the visual cognitive style is more beneficial for judging relative directions than for landmark recognition. In a second experiment, we manipulated the use of verbal and visual strategies by varying task instructions given to separate groups of participants. Results confirm that a verbal strategy benefits landmark memory, whereas a visual strategy benefits judgments of relative direction. The manipulation of strategy by altering task instructions appears to trump individual differences in cognitive style. Taken together, we find that processing different details during route encoding, whether due to individual proclivities (Experiment 1) or task instructions (Experiment 2), results in benefits for different components of navigation relevant information. These findings also highlight the value of considering multiple sources of individual differences as part of spatial cognition investigations. PMID:27668486

Gender-related differences in lateralization of hippocampal activation and cognitive strategy.

PubMed

Frings, Lars; Wagner, Kathrin; Unterrainer, Josef; Spreer, Joachim; Halsband, Ulrike; Schulze-Bonhage, Andreas

2006-03-20

Gender-related differences in brain activation patterns and their lateralization associated with cognitive functions have been reported in the field of language, emotion, and working memory. Differences have been hypothesized to be due to different cognitive strategies. The aim of the present study was to test whether lateralization of brain activation in the hippocampi during memory processing differs between the sexes. We acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging data from healthy female and male study participants performing a spatial memory task and quantitatively assessed the lateralization of hippocampal activation in each participant. Hippocampal activation was significantly more left lateralized in women, and more right lateralized in men. Correspondingly, women rated their strategy as being more verbal than men did.

Cognitive Processes in Decisions Under Risk are not the Same as in Decisions Under Uncertainty

PubMed Central

Volz, Kirsten G.; Gigerenzer, Gerd

2012-01-01

We deal with risk versus uncertainty, a distinction that is of fundamental importance for cognitive neuroscience yet largely neglected. In a world of risk (“small world”), all alternatives, consequences, and probabilities are known. In uncertain (“large”) worlds, some of this information is unknown or unknowable. Most of cognitive neuroscience studies exclusively study the neural correlates for decisions under risk (e.g., lotteries), with the tacit implication that understanding these would lead to an understanding of decision making in general. First, we show that normative strategies for decisions under risk do not generalize to uncertain worlds, where simple heuristics are often the more accurate strategies. Second, we argue that the cognitive processes for making decisions in a world of risk are not the same as those for dealing with uncertainty. Because situations with known risks are the exception rather than the rule in human evolution, it is unlikely that our brains are adapted to them. We therefore suggest a paradigm shift toward studying decision processes in uncertain worlds and provide first examples. PMID:22807893

Development of Elementary School Students' Cognitive Structures and Information Processing Strategies under Long-Term Constructivist-Oriented Science Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Ying-Tien; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2005-01-01

The main purpose of this study was to explore the effects of long-term constructivist-oriented science instruction on elementary school students' process of constructing cognitive structures. Furthermore, such effects on different science achievers were also investigated. The subjects of this study were 69 fifth graders in Taiwan, while they were…

Online advertisement: how are visual strategies affected by the distance and the animation of banners?

PubMed

Pasqualotti, Léa; Baccino, Thierry

2014-01-01

Most of studies about online advertisements have indicated that they have a negative impact on users' cognitive processes, especially when they include colorful or animated banners and when they are close to the text to be read. In the present study we assessed the effects of two advertisements features-distance from the text and the animation-on visual strategies during a word-search task and a reading-for-comprehension task using Web-like pages. We hypothesized that the closer the advertisement was to the target text, the more cognitive processing difficulties it would cause. We also hypothesized that (1) animated banners would be more disruptive than static advertisements and (2) banners would have more effect on word-search performance than reading-for-comprehension performance. We used an automatic classifier to assess variations in use of Scanning and Reading visual strategies during task performance. The results showed that the effect of dynamic and static advertisements on visual strategies varies according to the task. Fixation duration indicated that the closest advertisements slowed down information processing but there was no difference between the intermediate (40 pixel) and far (80 pixel) distance conditions. Our findings suggest that advertisements have a negative impact on users' performance mostly when a lots of cognitive resources are required as for reading-for-comprehension.

Neural Underpinnings of Decision Strategy Selection: A Review and a Theoretical Model

PubMed Central

Wichary, Szymon; Smolen, Tomasz

2016-01-01

In multi-attribute choice, decision makers use decision strategies to arrive at the final choice. What are the neural mechanisms underlying decision strategy selection? The first goal of this paper is to provide a literature review on the neural underpinnings and cognitive models of decision strategy selection and thus set the stage for a neurocognitive model of this process. The second goal is to outline such a unifying, mechanistic model that can explain the impact of noncognitive factors (e.g., affect, stress) on strategy selection. To this end, we review the evidence for the factors influencing strategy selection, the neural basis of strategy use and the cognitive models of this process. We also present the Bottom-Up Model of Strategy Selection (BUMSS). The model assumes that the use of the rational Weighted Additive strategy and the boundedly rational heuristic Take The Best can be explained by one unifying, neurophysiologically plausible mechanism, based on the interaction of the frontoparietal network, orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and the brainstem nucleus locus coeruleus. According to BUMSS, there are three processes that form the bottom-up mechanism of decision strategy selection and lead to the final choice: (1) cue weight computation, (2) gain modulation, and (3) weighted additive evaluation of alternatives. We discuss how these processes might be implemented in the brain, and how this knowledge allows us to formulate novel predictions linking strategy use and neural signals. PMID:27877103

Effects of Experiment Learning Strategy versus Expository and Cognitive Style for Physical Learning Result for Senior High School Student at Class XI of Senior High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prayekti

2016-01-01

The research was aimed to know Effects of Experiment Learning Strategy versus Expository and Cognitive Style for Physical Learning Result of Senior High School Student at Class XI of Senior High School. Data was collected by test and observation. It is processed by ANCOVA and different test (t-test). (1) The result showed that all learning system…

Analyzing the Learning Process of an Online Role-Playing Discussion Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hou, Huei-Tse

2012-01-01

Instructional activities based on online discussion strategies have gained prevalence in recent years. Within this context, a crucial research topic is to design innovative and appropriate online discussion strategies that assist learners in attaining a deeper level of interaction and higher cognitive skills. By analyzing the process of online…

Students' Reading Comprehension Performance with Emotional Literacy-Based Strategy Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yussof, Yusfarina Mohd; Jamian, Abdul Rasid; Hamzah, Zaitul Azma Zainon; Roslan, Samsilah

2013-01-01

An effective reading comprehension process demands a strategy to enhance the cognitive ability to digest text information in the effort to elicit meaning contextually. In addition, the role of emotions also influences the efficacy of this process, especially in narrative text comprehension. This quasi-experimental study aims to observe students'…

Audience Involvement with Entertainment-Education Programs: Explicating Processes and Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quintero Johnson, Jessie Marguerite

2011-01-01

One area of health promotion research rich with potential for both theoretical and empirical investigation is the "entertainment-education" (EE) strategy. Though a growing body of evidence points to the effectiveness of the EE strategy, further investigation is needed to explore the underlying cognitive and affective processes that make EE an…

Direct Evidence for a Dual Process Model of Deductive Inference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Markovits, Henry; Brunet, Marie-Laurence; Thompson, Valerie; Brisson, Janie

2013-01-01

In 2 experiments, we tested a strong version of a dual process theory of conditional inference (cf. Verschueren et al., 2005a, 2005b) that assumes that most reasoners have 2 strategies available, the choice of which is determined by situational variables, cognitive capacity, and metacognitive control. The statistical strategy evaluates inferences…

You are such a bad child! Appraisals as mechanisms of parental negative and positive affect.

PubMed

Gavita, Oana Alexandra; David, Daniel; DiGiuseppe, Raymond

2014-01-01

Although parent cognitions are considered important predictors that determine specific emotional reactions and parental practices, models on the cognitive strategies for regulating parental distress or positive emotions are not well developed. Our aim was to investigate the nature of cognitions involved in parental distress and satisfaction, in terms of their specificity (parental or general) and their processing levels (inferential or evaluative cognitions). We hypothesized that parent's specific evaluative cognitions will mediate the impact of more general and inferential cognitive structures on their affective reactions. We used bootstrapping procedures in order to test the mediation models proposed. Results obtained show indeed that rather specific evaluative parental cognitions are mediating the relationship between general cognitions and parental distress. In terms of the cognitive processing levels, it seems that when parents hold both low self-efficacy and parental negative global evaluations for the self/child, this adds significantly to their distress.

A cognitive task analysis of information management strategies in a computerized provider order entry environment.

PubMed

Weir, Charlene R; Nebeker, Jonathan J R; Hicken, Bret L; Campo, Rebecca; Drews, Frank; Lebar, Beth

2007-01-01

Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) with electronic documentation, and computerized decision support dramatically changes the information environment of the practicing clinician. Prior work patterns based on paper, verbal exchange, and manual methods are replaced with automated, computerized, and potentially less flexible systems. The objective of this study is to explore the information management strategies that clinicians use in the process of adapting to a CPOE system using cognitive task analysis techniques. Observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 88 primary-care clinicians at 10 Veterans Administration Medical Centers. Interviews were taped, transcribed, and extensively analyzed to identify key information management goals, strategies, and tasks. Tasks were aggregated into groups, common components across tasks were clarified, and underlying goals and strategies identified. Nearly half of the identified tasks were not fully supported by the available technology. Six core components of tasks were identified. Four meta-cognitive information management goals emerged: 1) Relevance Screening; 2) Ensuring Accuracy; 3) Minimizing memory load; and 4) Negotiating Responsibility. Strategies used to support these goals are presented. Users develop a wide array of information management strategies that allow them to successfully adapt to new technology. Supporting the ability of users to develop adaptive strategies to support meta-cognitive goals is a key component of a successful system.

Personality, Cognitive Style and Students' Learning Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Entwistle, Noel; Hanley, Maureen

1977-01-01

Research into learning strategies students adopt in tackling academic work is reviewed. A report is presented of a research program underway at the Institute for Post-Compulsory Education at the University of Lancaster which is examining characteristics of students who adopt deep-level or surface processing strategies. (JMD)

Implementation science: a role for parallel dual processing models of reasoning?

PubMed Central

Sladek, Ruth M; Phillips, Paddy A; Bond, Malcolm J

2006-01-01

Background A better theoretical base for understanding professional behaviour change is needed to support evidence-based changes in medical practice. Traditionally strategies to encourage changes in clinical practices have been guided empirically, without explicit consideration of underlying theoretical rationales for such strategies. This paper considers a theoretical framework for reasoning from within psychology for identifying individual differences in cognitive processing between doctors that could moderate the decision to incorporate new evidence into their clinical decision-making. Discussion Parallel dual processing models of reasoning posit two cognitive modes of information processing that are in constant operation as humans reason. One mode has been described as experiential, fast and heuristic; the other as rational, conscious and rule based. Within such models, the uptake of new research evidence can be represented by the latter mode; it is reflective, explicit and intentional. On the other hand, well practiced clinical judgments can be positioned in the experiential mode, being automatic, reflexive and swift. Research suggests that individual differences between people in both cognitive capacity (e.g., intelligence) and cognitive processing (e.g., thinking styles) influence how both reasoning modes interact. This being so, it is proposed that these same differences between doctors may moderate the uptake of new research evidence. Such dispositional characteristics have largely been ignored in research investigating effective strategies in implementing research evidence. Whilst medical decision-making occurs in a complex social environment with multiple influences and decision makers, it remains true that an individual doctor's judgment still retains a key position in terms of diagnostic and treatment decisions for individual patients. This paper argues therefore, that individual differences between doctors in terms of reasoning are important considerations in any discussion relating to changing clinical practice. Summary It is imperative that change strategies in healthcare consider relevant theoretical frameworks from other disciplines such as psychology. Generic dual processing models of reasoning are proposed as potentially useful in identifying factors within doctors that may moderate their individual uptake of evidence into clinical decision-making. Such factors can then inform strategies to change practice. PMID:16725023

Implementation science: a role for parallel dual processing models of reasoning?

PubMed

Sladek, Ruth M; Phillips, Paddy A; Bond, Malcolm J

2006-05-25

A better theoretical base for understanding professional behaviour change is needed to support evidence-based changes in medical practice. Traditionally strategies to encourage changes in clinical practices have been guided empirically, without explicit consideration of underlying theoretical rationales for such strategies. This paper considers a theoretical framework for reasoning from within psychology for identifying individual differences in cognitive processing between doctors that could moderate the decision to incorporate new evidence into their clinical decision-making. Parallel dual processing models of reasoning posit two cognitive modes of information processing that are in constant operation as humans reason. One mode has been described as experiential, fast and heuristic; the other as rational, conscious and rule based. Within such models, the uptake of new research evidence can be represented by the latter mode; it is reflective, explicit and intentional. On the other hand, well practiced clinical judgments can be positioned in the experiential mode, being automatic, reflexive and swift. Research suggests that individual differences between people in both cognitive capacity (e.g., intelligence) and cognitive processing (e.g., thinking styles) influence how both reasoning modes interact. This being so, it is proposed that these same differences between doctors may moderate the uptake of new research evidence. Such dispositional characteristics have largely been ignored in research investigating effective strategies in implementing research evidence. Whilst medical decision-making occurs in a complex social environment with multiple influences and decision makers, it remains true that an individual doctor's judgment still retains a key position in terms of diagnostic and treatment decisions for individual patients. This paper argues therefore, that individual differences between doctors in terms of reasoning are important considerations in any discussion relating to changing clinical practice. It is imperative that change strategies in healthcare consider relevant theoretical frameworks from other disciplines such as psychology. Generic dual processing models of reasoning are proposed as potentially useful in identifying factors within doctors that may moderate their individual uptake of evidence into clinical decision-making. Such factors can then inform strategies to change practice.

The Causes of Errors in Clinical Reasoning: Cognitive Biases, Knowledge Deficits, and Dual Process Thinking.

PubMed

Norman, Geoffrey R; Monteiro, Sandra D; Sherbino, Jonathan; Ilgen, Jonathan S; Schmidt, Henk G; Mamede, Silvia

2017-01-01

Contemporary theories of clinical reasoning espouse a dual processing model, which consists of a rapid, intuitive component (Type 1) and a slower, logical and analytical component (Type 2). Although the general consensus is that this dual processing model is a valid representation of clinical reasoning, the causes of diagnostic errors remain unclear. Cognitive theories about human memory propose that such errors may arise from both Type 1 and Type 2 reasoning. Errors in Type 1 reasoning may be a consequence of the associative nature of memory, which can lead to cognitive biases. However, the literature indicates that, with increasing expertise (and knowledge), the likelihood of errors decreases. Errors in Type 2 reasoning may result from the limited capacity of working memory, which constrains computational processes. In this article, the authors review the medical literature to answer two substantial questions that arise from this work: (1) To what extent do diagnostic errors originate in Type 1 (intuitive) processes versus in Type 2 (analytical) processes? (2) To what extent are errors a consequence of cognitive biases versus a consequence of knowledge deficits?The literature suggests that both Type 1 and Type 2 processes contribute to errors. Although it is possible to experimentally induce cognitive biases, particularly availability bias, the extent to which these biases actually contribute to diagnostic errors is not well established. Educational strategies directed at the recognition of biases are ineffective in reducing errors; conversely, strategies focused on the reorganization of knowledge to reduce errors have small but consistent benefits.

Different strategies in solving series completion inductive reasoning problems: an fMRI and computational study.

PubMed

Liang, Peipeng; Jia, Xiuqin; Taatgen, Niels A; Zhong, Ning; Li, Kuncheng

2014-08-01

Neural correlate of human inductive reasoning process is still unclear. Number series and letter series completion are two typical inductive reasoning tasks, and with a common core component of rule induction. Previous studies have demonstrated that different strategies are adopted in number series and letter series completion tasks; even the underlying rules are identical. In the present study, we examined cortical activation as a function of two different reasoning strategies for solving series completion tasks. The retrieval strategy, used in number series completion tasks, involves direct retrieving of arithmetic knowledge to get the relations between items. The procedural strategy, used in letter series completion tasks, requires counting a certain number of times to detect the relations linking two items. The two strategies require essentially the equivalent cognitive processes, but have different working memory demands (the procedural strategy incurs greater demands). The procedural strategy produced significant greater activity in areas involved in memory retrieval (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, DLPFC) and mental representation/maintenance (posterior parietal cortex, PPC). An ACT-R model of the tasks successfully predicted behavioral performance and BOLD responses. The present findings support a general-purpose dual-process theory of inductive reasoning regarding the cognitive architecture. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Improving brain injury cognitive rehabilitation by personalized telerehabilitation services: Guttmann neuropersonal trainer.

PubMed

Solana, Javier; Cáceres, César; García-Molina, Alberto; Opisso, Eloy; Roig, Teresa; Tormos, José M; Gómez, Enrique J

2015-01-01

Cognitive rehabilitation aims to remediate or alleviate the cognitive deficits appearing after an episode of acquired brain injury (ABI). The purpose of this work is to describe the telerehabilitation platform called Guttmann Neuropersonal Trainer (GNPT) which provides new strategies for cognitive rehabilitation, improving efficiency and access to treatments, and to increase knowledge generation from the process. A cognitive rehabilitation process has been modeled to design and develop the system, which allows neuropsychologists to configure and schedule rehabilitation sessions, consisting of set of personalized computerized cognitive exercises grounded on neuroscience and plasticity principles. It provides remote continuous monitoring of patient's performance, by an asynchronous communication strategy. An automatic knowledge extraction method has been used to implement a decision support system, improving treatment customization. GNPT has been implemented in 27 rehabilitation centers and in 83 patients' homes, facilitating the access to the treatment. In total, 1660 patients have been treated. Usability and cost analysis methodologies have been applied to measure the efficiency in real clinical environments. The usability evaluation reveals a system usability score higher than 70 for all target users. The cost efficiency study results show a relation of 1-20 compared to face-to-face rehabilitation. GNPT enables brain-damaged patients to continue and further extend rehabilitation beyond the hospital, improving the efficiency of the rehabilitation process. It allows customized therapeutic plans, providing information to further development of clinical practice guidelines.

Cognition of an expert tackling an unfamiliar conceptual physics problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schuster, David; Undreiu, Adriana

2009-11-01

We have investigated and analyzed the cognition of an expert tackling a qualitative conceptual physics problem of an unfamiliar type. Our goal was to elucidate the detailed cognitive processes and knowledge elements involved, irrespective of final solution form, and consider implications for instruction. The basic but non-trivial problem was to find qualitatively the direction of acceleration of a pendulum bob at various stages of its motion, a problem originally studied by Reif and Allen. Methodology included interviews, introspection, retrospection and self-reported metacognition. Multiple facets of cognition were revealed, with different reasoning strategies used at different stages and for different points on the path. An account is given of the zigzag thinking paths and interplay of reasoning modes and schema elements involved. We interpret the cognitive processes in terms of theoretical concepts that emerged, namely: case-based, principle-based, experiential-intuitive and practical-heuristic reasoning; knowledge elements and schemata; activation; metacognition and epistemic framing. The complexity of cognition revealed in this case study contrasts with the tidy principle-based solutions we present to students. The pervasive role of schemata, case-based reasoning, practical heuristic strategies, and their interplay with physics principles is noteworthy, since these aspects of cognition are generally neither recognized nor taught. The schema/reasoning-mode perspective has direct application in science teaching, learning and problem-solving.

Timing effects of antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation strategies.

PubMed

Paul, Sandra; Simon, Daniela; Kniesche, Rainer; Kathmann, Norbert; Endrass, Tanja

2013-09-01

Distraction and cognitive reappraisal influence the emotion-generative process at early stages and have been shown to effectively attenuate emotional responding. Inhibiting emotion-expressive behavior is thought to be less beneficial due to later implementation, but empirical results are mixed. Thus, the current study examined the temporal dynamics of these emotion regulation strategies at attenuating the late positive potential (LPP) while participants were shown unpleasant pictures. Results revealed that all strategies successfully reduced the LPP and self-reported negative affect. We confirmed that distraction attenuated the LPP earlier than cognitive reappraisal. Surprisingly, expressive suppression affected emotional responding as early as distraction. This suggests that suppression was used preventively and disrupted the emotion-generative process from the very beginning instead of targeting the emotional response itself. Thus, the obtained results point to the importance of considering the point in time when response-focused emotion regulation strategies are being implemented. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

"Put Myself Into Your Place": Embodied Simulation and Perspective Taking in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

PubMed

Conson, Massimiliano; Mazzarella, Elisabetta; Esposito, Dalila; Grossi, Dario; Marino, Nicoletta; Massagli, Angelo; Frolli, Alessandro

2015-08-01

Embodied cognition theories hold that cognitive processes are grounded in bodily states. Embodied processes in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have classically been investigated in studies on imitation. Several observations suggested that unlike typical individuals who are able of copying the model's actions from the model's position, individuals with ASD tend to reenact the model's actions from their own egocentric perspective. Here, we performed two behavioral experiments to directly test the ability of ASD individuals to adopt another person's point of view. In Experiment 1, participants had to explicitly judge the left/right location of a target object in a scene from their own or the actor's point of view (visual perspective taking task). In Experiment 2, participants had to perform left/right judgments on front-facing or back-facing human body images (own body transformation task). Both tasks can be solved by mentally simulating one's own body motion to imagine oneself transforming into the position of another person (embodied simulation strategy), or by resorting to visual/spatial processes, such as mental object rotation (nonembodied strategy). Results of both experiments showed that individual with ASD solved the tasks mainly relying on a nonembodied strategy, whereas typical controls adopted an embodied strategy. Moreover, in the visual perspective taking task ASD participants had more difficulties than controls in inhibiting other-perspective when directed to keep one's own point of view. These findings suggested that, in social cognitive tasks, individuals with ASD do not resort to embodied simulation and have difficulties in cognitive control over self- and other-perspective. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Emotion regulation and risk taking: predicting risky choice in deliberative decision making.

PubMed

Panno, Angelo; Lauriola, Marco; Figner, Bernd

2013-01-01

Only very recently has research demonstrated that experimentally induced emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) affect risky choice (e.g., Heilman et al., 2010). However, it is unknown whether this effect also operates via habitual use of emotion regulation strategies in risky choice involving deliberative decision making. We investigated the role of habitual use of emotion regulation strategies in risky choice using the "cold" deliberative version of the Columbia Card Task (CCT; Figner et al., 2009). Fifty-three participants completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003) and--one month later--the CCT and the PANAS. Greater habitual cognitive reappraisal use was related to increased risk taking, accompanied by decreased sensitivity to changes in probability and loss amount. Greater habitual expressive suppression use was related to decreased risk taking. The results show that habitual use of reappraisal and suppression strategies predict risk taking when decisions involve predominantly cognitive-deliberative processes.

Cognitive pathways and historical research.

PubMed

Sutherland, J A

1997-01-01

The nursing literature is replete with articles detailing the logical reasoning processes required by the individual scientist to implement the rigors of research and theory development. Much less attention has been focused on creative and critical thinking as modes for deriving explanations, inferences, and conclusions essential to science as a product. Historical research, as a particular kind of qualitative research, is dependent on and compatible with such mental strategies as logical, creative, and critical thinking. These strategies depict an intellectual framework for the scientist examining archival data and offer a structure for such inquiry. A model for analyzing historical data delineating the cognitive pathways of logical reasoning, creative processing, and critical thinking is proposed.

Examining the Real-Time Effects of Reading-Strategy Training.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamman, D.; And Others

A think-aloud protocol study examined changes in real-time cognitive, metacognitive, and motivation processing that may have resulted from reading-strategy training. Eighth-grade students participated in 4 weeks of reading-strategy training during social studies class. Students used their own social studies text during the training. Fourteen…

Individual differences in spatial relation processing: effects of strategy, ability, and gender

PubMed Central

van der Ham, Ineke J. M.; Borst, Gregoire

2011-01-01

Numerous studies have focused on the distinction between categorical and coordinate spatial relations. Categorical relations are propositional and abstract, and often related to a left hemisphere advantage. Coordinate relations specify the metric information of the relative locations of objects, and can be linked to right hemisphere processing. Yet, not all studies have reported such a clear double dissociation; in particular the categorical left hemisphere advantage is not always reported. In the current study we investigated whether verbal and spatial strategies, verbal and spatial cognitive abilities, and gender could account for the discrepancies observed in hemispheric lateralization of spatial relations. Seventy-five participants performed two visual half field, match-to-sample tasks (Van der Ham et al., 2007; 2009) to study the lateralization of categorical and coordinate relation processing. For each participant we determined the strategy they used in each of the two tasks. Consistent with previous findings, we found an overall categorical left hemisphere advantage and coordinate right hemisphere advantage. The lateralization pattern was affected selectively by the degree to which participants used a spatial strategy and by none of the other variables (i.e., verbal strategy, cognitive abilities, and gender). Critically, the categorical left hemisphere advantage was observed only for participants that relied strongly on a spatial strategy. This result is another piece of evidence that categorical spatial relation processing relies on spatial and not verbal processes. PMID:21353361

Perception and Cognition in the Ageing Brain: A Brief Review of the Short- and Long-Term Links between Perceptual and Cognitive Decline

PubMed Central

Roberts, Katherine L.; Allen, Harriet A.

2016-01-01

Ageing is associated with declines in both perception and cognition. We review evidence for an interaction between perceptual and cognitive decline in old age. Impoverished perceptual input can increase the cognitive difficulty of tasks, while changes to cognitive strategies can compensate, to some extent, for impaired perception. While there is strong evidence from cross-sectional studies for a link between sensory acuity and cognitive performance in old age, there is not yet compelling evidence from longitudinal studies to suggest that poor perception causes cognitive decline, nor to demonstrate that correcting sensory impairment can improve cognition in the longer term. Most studies have focused on relatively simple measures of sensory (visual and auditory) acuity, but more complex measures of suprathreshold perceptual processes, such as temporal processing, can show a stronger link with cognition. The reviewed evidence underlines the importance of fully accounting for perceptual deficits when investigating cognitive decline in old age. PMID:26973514

Coping strategies and styles of family carers of persons with enduring mental illness: a mixed methods analysis.

PubMed

Kartalova-O'Doherty, Yulia; Doherty, Donna Tedstone

2008-03-01

A qualitative exploratory study investigated the experiences and needs of family carers of persons with enduring mental illness in Ireland. The current mixed-methods secondary study used content analysis and statistical procedures to identify and explore the coping strategies emerging from the original interviews. The majority of family carers reported use of active behavioural coping strategies, sometimes combined with active cognitive or avoidance strategies. The percentage of cares reporting use of active cognitive strategies was the lowest among those whose ill relative lived in their home, and the highest among those whose relative lived independently. Participants with identified active cognitive strategies often reported that their relative was employed or in training. Participants who reported use of avoidance strategies were significantly younger than participants who did not report use of such strategies. The lowest percentage of avoidance strategies was among participants whose ill relative lived independently, whereas the highest was among carers whose relative lived in their home. The findings of this study highlight the importance of a contextual approach to studying coping styles and processes. Further research questions and methodological implications are discussed.

The functional-cognitive framework as a tool for accelerating progress in cognitive neuroscience: On the benefits of bridging rather than reducing levels of analyses.

PubMed

Vahey, Nigel; Whelan, Robert

2016-02-01

The subject matter of neuroscience research is complex, and synthesising the wealth of data from this research to better understand mental processes is challenging. A useful strategy, therefore, may be to distinguish explicitly between the causal effects of the environment on behaviour (i.e. functional analyses) and the mental processes that mediate these effects (i.e. cognitive analyses). In this article, we describe how the functional-cognitive (F-C) framework can accelerate cognitive neuroscience and also advance a functional treatment of brain activity. We first highlight that cognitive neuroscience can particularly benefit from the F-C approach by providing an alternative to the problematic practice of reducing cognitive constructs to behavioural and/or neural proxies. Next, we outline how functional (behaviour-environment) relations can serve as a bridge between cognitive and neural processes by restoring mental constructs to their original role as heuristic tools. Finally, we give some examples of how both cognitive neuroscience and traditional functional approaches can mutually benefit from the F-C framework. © 2015 International Union of Psychological Science.

Investigation of an Activity-Based Text-Processing Strategy in Mixed-Age Child Dyads

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marley, Scott C.; Szabo, Zsuzsanna; Levin, Joel R.; Glenberg, Arthur M.

2011-01-01

The authors examined an activity-based listening strategy with first- and third-grade children in mixed-grade dyads. On the basis of theories of cognitive development and previous research, the authors predicted the following: (a) children in an activity-based strategy would recall more story events compared with those in a repetition strategy and…

Uncovering the cognitive processes underlying mental rotation: an eye-movement study.

PubMed

Xue, Jiguo; Li, Chunyong; Quan, Cheng; Lu, Yiming; Yue, Jingwei; Zhang, Chenggang

2017-08-30

Mental rotation is an important paradigm for spatial ability. Mental-rotation tasks are assumed to involve five or three sequential cognitive-processing states, though this has not been demonstrated experimentally. Here, we investigated how processing states alternate during mental-rotation tasks. Inference was carried out using an advanced statistical modelling and data-driven approach - a discriminative hidden Markov model (dHMM) trained using eye-movement data obtained from an experiment consisting of two different strategies: (I) mentally rotate the right-side figure to be aligned with the left-side figure and (II) mentally rotate the left-side figure to be aligned with the right-side figure. Eye movements were found to contain the necessary information for determining the processing strategy, and the dHMM that best fit our data segmented the mental-rotation process into three hidden states, which we termed encoding and searching, comparison, and searching on one-side pair. Additionally, we applied three classification methods, logistic regression, support vector model and dHMM, of which dHMM predicted the strategies with the highest accuracy (76.8%). Our study did confirm that there are differences in processing states between these two of mental-rotation strategies, and were consistent with the previous suggestion that mental rotation is discrete process that is accomplished in a piecemeal fashion.

Need for closure and heuristic information processing: the moderating role of the ability to achieve the need for closure.

PubMed

Kossowska, Małgorzata; Bar-Tal, Yoram

2013-11-01

In contrast to the ample research that shows a positive relationship between the need for closure (NFC) and heuristic information processing, this research examines the hypothesis that this relationship is moderated by the ability to achieve closure (AAC), that is, the ability to use information-processing strategies consistent with the level of NFC. Three different operationalizations of heuristic information processing were used: recall of information consistent with the impression (Study 1); pre-decisional information search (Study 2); and stereotypic impression formation (Study 3). The results of the studies showed that there were positive relationships between NFC and heuristic information processing when participants assessed themselves as being able to use cognitive strategies consistent with their level of NFC (high AAC). For individuals with low AAC, the relationships were negative. Our data show that motivation-cognition interactions influence the information-processing style. © 2012 The British Psychological Society.

Competency criteria and the class inclusion task: modeling judgments and justifications.

PubMed

Thomas, H; Horton, J J

1997-11-01

Preschool age children's class inclusion task responses were modeled as mixtures of different probability distributions. The main idea: Different response strategies are equivalent to different probability distributions. A child displays cognitive strategy s if P (child uses strategy s, given the child's observed score X = x) = p(s) is the most probable strategy. The general approach is widely applicable to many settings. Both judgment and justification questions were asked. Judgment response strategies identified were subclass comparison, guessing, and inclusion logic. Children's justifications lagged their judgments in development. Although justification responses may be useful, C. J. Brainerd was largely correct: If a single response variable is to be selected, a judgments variable is likely the preferable one. But the process must be modeled to identify cognitive strategies, as B. Hodkin has demonstrated.

Examining Evidence for the Validity of PISA Learning Strategy Scales Based on Student Response Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hopfenbeck, Therese N.; Maul, Andrew

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate response-process based evidence for the validity of the Programme for International Student Assessment's (PISA) self-report questionnaire scales as measures of specific psychological constructs, with a focus on scales meant to measure inclination toward specific learning strategies. Cognitive interviews (N…

Aiming to Complete the Matrix: Eye-Movement Analysis of Processing Strategies in Children's Relational Thinking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Zhe; Honomichl, Ryan; Kennedy, Diane; Tan, Enda

2016-01-01

The present study examines 5- to 8-year-old children's relation reasoning in solving matrix completion tasks. This study incorporates a componential analysis, an eye-tracking method, and a microgenetic approach, which together allow an investigation of the cognitive processing strategies involved in the development and learning of children's…

How Accumulated Real Life Stress Experience and Cognitive Speed Interact on Decision-Making Processes

PubMed Central

Friedel, Eva; Sebold, Miriam; Kuitunen-Paul, Sören; Nebe, Stephan; Veer, Ilya M.; Zimmermann, Ulrich S.; Schlagenhauf, Florian; Smolka, Michael N.; Rapp, Michael; Walter, Henrik; Heinz, Andreas

2017-01-01

Rationale: Advances in neurocomputational modeling suggest that valuation systems for goal-directed (deliberative) on one side, and habitual (automatic) decision-making on the other side may rely on distinct computational strategies for reinforcement learning, namely model-free vs. model-based learning. As a key theoretical difference, the model-based system strongly demands cognitive functions to plan actions prospectively based on an internal cognitive model of the environment, whereas valuation in the model-free system relies on rather simple learning rules from operant conditioning to retrospectively associate actions with their outcomes and is thus cognitively less demanding. Acute stress reactivity is known to impair model-based but not model-free choice behavior, with higher working memory capacity protecting the model-based system from acute stress. However, it is not clear which impact accumulated real life stress has on model-free and model-based decision systems and how this influence interacts with cognitive abilities. Methods: We used a sequential decision-making task distinguishing relative contributions of both learning strategies to choice behavior, the Social Readjustment Rating Scale questionnaire to assess accumulated real life stress, and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test to test cognitive speed in 95 healthy subjects. Results: Individuals reporting high stress exposure who had low cognitive speed showed reduced model-based but increased model-free behavioral control. In contrast, subjects exposed to accumulated real life stress with high cognitive speed displayed increased model-based performance but reduced model-free control. Conclusion: These findings suggest that accumulated real life stress exposure can enhance reliance on cognitive speed for model-based computations, which may ultimately protect the model-based system from the detrimental influences of accumulated real life stress. The combination of accumulated real life stress exposure and slower information processing capacities, however, might favor model-free strategies. Thus, the valence and preference of either system strongly depends on stressful experiences and individual cognitive capacities. PMID:28642696

How Accumulated Real Life Stress Experience and Cognitive Speed Interact on Decision-Making Processes.

PubMed

Friedel, Eva; Sebold, Miriam; Kuitunen-Paul, Sören; Nebe, Stephan; Veer, Ilya M; Zimmermann, Ulrich S; Schlagenhauf, Florian; Smolka, Michael N; Rapp, Michael; Walter, Henrik; Heinz, Andreas

2017-01-01

Rationale: Advances in neurocomputational modeling suggest that valuation systems for goal-directed (deliberative) on one side, and habitual (automatic) decision-making on the other side may rely on distinct computational strategies for reinforcement learning, namely model-free vs. model-based learning. As a key theoretical difference, the model-based system strongly demands cognitive functions to plan actions prospectively based on an internal cognitive model of the environment, whereas valuation in the model-free system relies on rather simple learning rules from operant conditioning to retrospectively associate actions with their outcomes and is thus cognitively less demanding. Acute stress reactivity is known to impair model-based but not model-free choice behavior, with higher working memory capacity protecting the model-based system from acute stress. However, it is not clear which impact accumulated real life stress has on model-free and model-based decision systems and how this influence interacts with cognitive abilities. Methods: We used a sequential decision-making task distinguishing relative contributions of both learning strategies to choice behavior, the Social Readjustment Rating Scale questionnaire to assess accumulated real life stress, and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test to test cognitive speed in 95 healthy subjects. Results: Individuals reporting high stress exposure who had low cognitive speed showed reduced model-based but increased model-free behavioral control. In contrast, subjects exposed to accumulated real life stress with high cognitive speed displayed increased model-based performance but reduced model-free control. Conclusion: These findings suggest that accumulated real life stress exposure can enhance reliance on cognitive speed for model-based computations, which may ultimately protect the model-based system from the detrimental influences of accumulated real life stress. The combination of accumulated real life stress exposure and slower information processing capacities, however, might favor model-free strategies. Thus, the valence and preference of either system strongly depends on stressful experiences and individual cognitive capacities.

[Level of reading skills as a measure of cognitive reserve in elderly adults].

PubMed

Soto-Añari, Marcio; Flores-Valdivia, Gilda; Fernández-Guinea, Sara

2013-01-16

Cognitive reserve modulates between neurodegenerative processes and the clinical manifestations of cognitive impairment and dementia. This construct is associated with the capacity to optimise the execution of tasks by recruiting neuronal networks and with the use of alternative cognitive strategies that would be mediated by formal educational processes. To analyse the level of reading skills as a measure of cognitive reserve and as a reliable predictor of performance in tests for evaluating different cognitive domains. The sample consisted of 87 healthy subjects who were asked to complete the Word Naming test as an indicator of the level of reading skills; this allowed us to divide the sample into subjects with a low and a high level of reading ability. A broad neuropsychological battery was then applied. The subjects with a low level of reading skills displayed lower general cognitive performance, reduced processing speed and cognitive deficits. Furthermore, the level of reading skills is a better predictor of performance in executive functions and general cognitive performance than the variables age, years of schooling and education. The level of reading skills has shown itself to be a good measure of cognitive reserve and a reliable predictor of executive and cognitive functioning in ageing.

Diagnostic reasoning: where we've been, where we're going.

PubMed

Monteiro, Sandra M; Norman, Geoffrey

2013-01-01

Recently, clinical diagnostic reasoning has been characterized by "dual processing" models, which postulate a fast, unconscious (System 1) component and a slow, logical, analytical (System 2) component. However, there are a number of variants of this basic model, which may lead to conflicting claims. This paper critically reviews current theories and evidence about the nature of clinical diagnostic reasoning. We begin by briefly discussing the history of research in clinical reasoning. We then focus more specifically on the evidence to support dual-processing models. We conclude by identifying knowledge gaps about clinical reasoning and provide suggestions for future research. In contrast to work on analytical and nonanalytical knowledge as a basis for reasoning, these theories focus on the thinking process, not the nature of the knowledge retrieved. Ironically, this appears to be a revival of an outdated concept. Rather than defining diagnostic performance by problem-solving skills, it is now being defined by processing strategy. The version of dual processing that has received most attention in the literature in medical diagnosis might be labeled a "default/interventionist" model,(17) which suggests that a default system of cognitive processes (System 1) is responsible for cognitive biases that lead to diagnostic errors and that System 2 intervenes to correct these errors. Consequently, from this model, the best strategy for reducing errors is to make students aware of the biases and to encourage them to rely more on System 2. However, an accumulation of evidence suggests that (a) strategies directed at increasing analytical (System 2) processing, by slowing down, reducing distractions, paying conscious attention, and (b) strategies directed at making students aware of the effect of cognitive biases, have no impact on error rates. Conversely, strategies based on increasing application of relevant knowledge appear to have some success and are consistent with basic research on concept formation.

Combined Training of One Cognitive and One Metacognitive Strategy Improves Academic Writing Skills.

PubMed

Wischgoll, Anke

2016-01-01

Academic writing is a challenging task. Expert writers apply various writing skills as they anticipate the reader's view of their text while paying attention to structure and content. Research in the high school setting shows that the acquisition of writing skills can be supported by single-strategy training. However, research in higher education is scarce. We tested whether the development of academic writing skills can also be effectively supported by training single strategies or even combined strategies. As metacognition is an important skill for advanced and adult learners, we focused in this study on the benefit of combined cognitive strategies with and without a metacognitive strategy. An experiment including three conditions was conducted (N = 60 German-speaking psychology undergraduates, M = 22.8, SD = 4.4), which lasted for three hours. Each group received a modeling intervention of a basic cognitive strategy on the application of text structure knowledge. Two groups received an additional modeling intervention with either a cognitive strategy treatment on text summarization or a metacognitive strategy treatment on self-monitoring the writing process. One group received no further strategy treatment. Prior knowledge and learning outcomes were measured with a specially developed test on academic writing skills. In addition, all participants wrote an abstract of an empirical article. We found that learners who received the additional self-monitoring strategy intervention benefited significantly more in terms of acquisition of academic writing skills and the quality of their texts than learners who did not receive this intervention. Thus, the results underline the importance of self-monitoring strategies in academic writing. Implications and further research opportunities are discussed.

How are learning strategies reflected in the eyes? Combining results from self-reports and eye-tracking.

PubMed

Catrysse, Leen; Gijbels, David; Donche, Vincent; De Maeyer, Sven; Lesterhuis, Marije; Van den Bossche, Piet

2018-03-01

Up until now, empirical studies in the Student Approaches to Learning field have mainly been focused on the use of self-report instruments, such as interviews and questionnaires, to uncover differences in students' general preferences towards learning strategies, but have focused less on the use of task-specific and online measures. This study aimed at extending current research on students' learning strategies by combining general and task-specific measurements of students' learning strategies using both offline and online measures. We want to clarify how students process learning contents and to what extent this is related to their self-report of learning strategies. Twenty students with different generic learning profiles (according to self-report questionnaires) read an expository text, while their eye movements were registered to answer questions on the content afterwards. Eye-tracking data were analysed with generalized linear mixed-effects models. The results indicate that students with an all-high profile, combining both deep and surface learning strategies, spend more time on rereading the text than students with an all-low profile, scoring low on both learning strategies. This study showed that we can use eye-tracking to distinguish very strategic students, characterized using cognitive processing and regulation strategies, from low strategic students, characterized by a lack of cognitive and regulation strategies. These students processed the expository text according to how they self-reported. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

Online advertisement: how are visual strategies affected by the distance and the animation of banners?

PubMed Central

Pasqualotti, Léa; Baccino, Thierry

2014-01-01

Most of studies about online advertisements have indicated that they have a negative impact on users' cognitive processes, especially when they include colorful or animated banners and when they are close to the text to be read. In the present study we assessed the effects of two advertisements features—distance from the text and the animation—on visual strategies during a word-search task and a reading-for-comprehension task using Web-like pages. We hypothesized that the closer the advertisement was to the target text, the more cognitive processing difficulties it would cause. We also hypothesized that (1) animated banners would be more disruptive than static advertisements and (2) banners would have more effect on word-search performance than reading-for-comprehension performance. We used an automatic classifier to assess variations in use of Scanning and Reading visual strategies during task performance. The results showed that the effect of dynamic and static advertisements on visual strategies varies according to the task. Fixation duration indicated that the closest advertisements slowed down information processing but there was no difference between the intermediate (40 pixel) and far (80 pixel) distance conditions. Our findings suggest that advertisements have a negative impact on users' performance mostly when a lots of cognitive resources are required as for reading-for-comprehension. PMID:24672501

A work-centered cognitively based architecture for decision support: the work-centered infomediary layer (WIL) model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zachary, Wayne; Eggleston, Robert; Donmoyer, Jason; Schremmer, Serge

2003-09-01

Decision-making is strongly shaped and influenced by the work context in which decisions are embedded. This suggests that decision support needs to be anchored by a model (implicit or explicit) of the work process, in contrast to traditional approaches that anchor decision support to either context free decision models (e.g., utility theory) or to detailed models of the external (e.g., battlespace) environment. An architecture for cognitively-based, work centered decision support called the Work-centered Informediary Layer (WIL) is presented. WIL separates decision support into three overall processes that build and dynamically maintain an explicit context model, use the context model to identify opportunities for decision support and tailor generic decision-support strategies to the current context and offer them to the system-user/decision-maker. The generic decision support strategies include such things as activity/attention aiding, decision process structuring, work performance support (selective, contextual automation), explanation/ elaboration, infosphere data retrieval, and what if/action-projection and visualization. A WIL-based application is a work-centered decision support layer that provides active support without intent inferencing, and that is cognitively based without requiring classical cognitive task analyses. Example WIL applications are detailed and discussed.

Depending on My Mood: Mood-Driven Influences on Text Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bohn-Gettler, Catherine M.; Rapp, David N.

2011-01-01

Reading comprehension is a critical component of success in educational settings. To date, research on text processing in educational and cognitive psychological domains has focused predominantly on cognitive influences on comprehension and, in particular, those influences that might be derived from particular tasks or strategies. However, there…

Is Relaxation Training Effective in the Treatment of Clinical Depression?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beaty, Lee A.

The process of relaxation is a complex triarchic phenomenon that incorporates behavioral, cognitive, and physiological components. Existing literature is surveyed in order to determine the efficacy of treating various forms of depression with cognitive-behavioral relaxation strategies. Relaxation training has been shown to be effective in treating…

Depending on My Mood: Mood-Driven Influences on Text Comprehension

PubMed Central

Bohn-Gettler, Catherine M.; Rapp, David N.

2011-01-01

Reading comprehension is a critical component of success in educational settings. To date, research on text processing in educational and cognitive psychological domains has focused predominantly on cognitive influences on comprehension, and in particular, those influences that might be derived from particular tasks or strategies. However, there is growing interest in documenting the influences of emotional factors on the processes and products of text comprehension, because these factors are less likely to be associated with explicit reading strategies. The present study examines this issue by evaluating the degree to which mood can influence readers’ processing of text. Participants in control, happy-induced, or sad-induced groups thought aloud while reading expository texts. Happy, sad, and neutral moods influenced the degree to which readers engaged in particular types of coherence-building processes in the service of comprehension. Although reading strategies clearly influence processing, understudied factors that are less explicitly goal-driven, such as mood, can similarly impact comprehension activity. These findings have important implications for the role of mood on reading instruction and evaluation. PMID:21927504

Head west or left, east or right: interactions between memory systems in neurocognitive aging

PubMed Central

Pereira, Inês Tomás; Gallagher, Michela; Rapp, Peter R.

2018-01-01

Cognitive aging is accompanied by decline in multiple domains of memory. Here, we developed a T-maze task that required rats to learn competing hippocampal, and striatal navigation strategies in succession, across days. A final session increased demands on cognitive flexibility and required within-day switching between strategies, emphasizing capacities that engage the prefrontal cortex. Background characterization in young and aged rats used a water maze protocol optimized for individual differences in hippocampal integrity. Consistent with earlier work, young adults acquired place strategies in the T-maze faster than response, whereas the opposite was observed in aged rats with impaired spatial memory. The novel result was that aged animals with preserved spatial memory displayed a qualitatively distinct pattern, acquiring place and response strategies equally rapidly, without disruption when switching between them. Subsequent in situ hybridization for the plasticity-related immediate-early gene Arc revealed that while increasing demands on cognitive flexibility and within-day strategy switching potently engaged the prefrontal cortex in young adult and aged-impaired rats, Arc expression was insensitive in aged rats with normal spatial memory and superior switching abilities. Together, the results indicate that cognitive aging is an emergent property of the interactions between memory systems, and that successful cognitive outcomes reflect a distinct neuroadaptive process rather than a slower rate of aging. PMID:26281759

Cognitive strategies regulate fictive, but not reward prediction error signals in a sequential investment task.

PubMed

Gu, Xiaosi; Kirk, Ulrich; Lohrenz, Terry M; Montague, P Read

2014-08-01

Computational models of reward processing suggest that foregone or fictive outcomes serve as important information sources for learning and augment those generated by experienced rewards (e.g. reward prediction errors). An outstanding question is how these learning signals interact with top-down cognitive influences, such as cognitive reappraisal strategies. Using a sequential investment task and functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that the reappraisal strategy selectively attenuates the influence of fictive, but not reward prediction error signals on investment behavior; such behavioral effect is accompanied by changes in neural activity and connectivity in the anterior insular cortex, a brain region thought to integrate subjective feelings with high-order cognition. Furthermore, individuals differ in the extent to which their behaviors are driven by fictive errors versus reward prediction errors, and the reappraisal strategy interacts with such individual differences; a finding also accompanied by distinct underlying neural mechanisms. These findings suggest that the variable interaction of cognitive strategies with two important classes of computational learning signals (fictive, reward prediction error) represent one contributing substrate for the variable capacity of individuals to control their behavior based on foregone rewards. These findings also expose important possibilities for understanding the lack of control in addiction based on possibly foregone rewarding outcomes. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Text Processing Differences among Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garner, Ruth

Explanations for differences in reading proficiency should be constructed around an atlas of reading-related individual differences in cognition. Such an atlas should include well-documented "bottom-up", text-driven reading strategies and less thoroughly investigated "top-down", schema-driven reading strategies. Research…

A Cognitive Task Analysis of Information Management Strategies in a Computerized Provider Order Entry Environment

PubMed Central

Weir, Charlene R.; Nebeker, Jonathan J.R.; Hicken, Bret L.; Campo, Rebecca; Drews, Frank; LeBar, Beth

2007-01-01

Objective Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) with electronic documentation, and computerized decision support dramatically changes the information environment of the practicing clinician. Prior work patterns based on paper, verbal exchange, and manual methods are replaced with automated, computerized, and potentially less flexible systems. The objective of this study is to explore the information management strategies that clinicians use in the process of adapting to a CPOE system using cognitive task analysis techniques. Design Observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 88 primary-care clinicians at 10 Veterans Administration Medical Centers. Measurements Interviews were taped, transcribed, and extensively analyzed to identify key information management goals, strategies, and tasks. Tasks were aggregated into groups, common components across tasks were clarified, and underlying goals and strategies identified. Results Nearly half of the identified tasks were not fully supported by the available technology. Six core components of tasks were identified. Four meta-cognitive information management goals emerged: 1) Relevance Screening; 2) Ensuring Accuracy; 3) Minimizing memory load; and 4) Negotiating Responsibility. Strategies used to support these goals are presented. Conclusion Users develop a wide array of information management strategies that allow them to successfully adapt to new technology. Supporting the ability of users to develop adaptive strategies to support meta-cognitive goals is a key component of a successful system. PMID:17068345

Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Mitigation Strategies of Cognitive Deficits in Aging with HIV: Implications for Practice and Research

PubMed Central

Vance, David E.

2013-01-01

Highly active antiretroviral therapy has given the chance to those living with HIV to keep on living, allowing them the opportunity to age and perhaps age successfully. Yet, there are severe challenges to successful aging with HIV, one of which is cognitive deficits. Nearly half of those with HIV experience cognitive deficits that can interfere with everyday functioning, medical decision making, and quality of life. Given that cognitive deficits develop with more frequency and intensity with increasing age, concerns mount that as people age with HIV, they may experience more severe cognitive deficits. These concerns become especially germane given that by 2015, 50% of those with HIV will be 50 and older, and this older cohort of adults is expected to grow. As such, this paper focuses on the etiologies of such cognitive deficits within the context of cognitive reserve and neuroplasticity. From this, evidence-based and hypothetical prevention (i.e., cognitive prescriptions), rehabilitation (i.e., speed of processing training), and mitigation (i.e., spaced retrieval method) strategies are reviewed. Implications for nursing practice and research are posited. PMID:23431469

The contributions of cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging to understanding mechanisms of behavior change in addiction.

PubMed

Morgenstern, Jon; Naqvi, Nasir H; Debellis, Robert; Breiter, Hans C

2013-06-01

In the last decade, there has been an upsurge of interest in understanding the mechanisms of behavior change (MOBC) and effective behavioral interventions as a strategy to improve addiction-treatment efficacy. However, there remains considerable uncertainty about how treatment research should proceed to address the MOBC issue. In this article, we argue that limitations in the underlying models of addiction that inform behavioral treatment pose an obstacle to elucidating MOBC. We consider how advances in the cognitive neuroscience of addiction offer an alternative conceptual and methodological approach to studying the psychological processes that characterize addiction, and how such advances could inform treatment process research. In addition, we review neuroimaging studies that have tested aspects of neurocognitive theories as a strategy to inform addiction therapies and discuss future directions for transdisciplinary collaborations across cognitive neuroscience and MOBC research. 2013 APA, all rights reserved

The Contributions of Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging to Understanding Mechanisms of Behavior Change in Addiction

PubMed Central

Morgenstern, Jon; Naqvi, Nasir H.; Debellis, Robert; Breiter, Hans C.

2013-01-01

In the last decade, there has been an upsurge of interest in understanding the mechanisms of behavior change (MOBC) and effective behavioral interventions as a strategy to improve addiction-treatment efficacy. However, there remains considerable uncertainty about how treatment research should proceed to address the MOBC issue. In this article, we argue that limitations in the underlying models of addiction that inform behavioral treatment pose an obstacle to elucidating MOBC. We consider how advances in the cognitive neuroscience of addiction offer an alternative conceptual and methodological approach to studying the psychological processes that characterize addiction, and how such advances could inform treatment process research. In addition, we review neuroimaging studies that have tested aspects of neurocognitive theories as a strategy to inform addiction therapies and discuss future directions for transdisciplinary collaborations across cognitive neuroscience and MOBC research. PMID:23586452

Cognitive processes in anesthesiology decision making.

PubMed

Stiegler, Marjorie Podraza; Tung, Avery

2014-01-01

The quality and safety of health care are under increasing scrutiny. Recent studies suggest that medical errors, practice variability, and guideline noncompliance are common, and that cognitive error contributes significantly to delayed or incorrect diagnoses. These observations have increased interest in understanding decision-making psychology.Many nonrational (i.e., not purely based in statistics) cognitive factors influence medical decisions and may lead to error. The most well-studied include heuristics, preferences for certainty, overconfidence, affective (emotional) influences, memory distortions, bias, and social forces such as fairness or blame.Although the extent to which such cognitive processes play a role in anesthesia practice is unknown, anesthesia care frequently requires rapid, complex decisions that are most susceptible to decision errors. This review will examine current theories of human decision behavior, identify effects of nonrational cognitive processes on decision making, describe characteristic anesthesia decisions in this context, and suggest strategies to improve decision making.

Improving post-stroke cognitive and behavioral abnormalities by using virtual reality: A case report on a novel use of nirvana.

PubMed

De Luca, Rosaria; Torrisi, Michele; Piccolo, Adriana; Bonfiglio, Giovanni; Tomasello, Provvidenza; Naro, Antonino; Calabrò, Rocco Salvatore

2017-10-11

Cognitive impairment, as well as mood and anxiety disorders, occur frequently in patients following stroke. Aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a combined rehabilitative treatment using conventional relaxation and respiratory techniques, in a specific rehabilitative virtual environment (by using Bts-Nirvana). A 58-year-old woman, affected by hemorrhagic stroke, underwent two different rehabilitation trainings, including either standard relaxation techniques alone in a common clinical setting or the same psychological approach in a semi-immersive virtual environment with an augmented sensorial (audio-video) and motor feedback (sensory motor-interaction). We evaluated the patient's cognitive and psychological profile before and after the two different trainings, by using a specific psychometric battery, aimed to assess cognitive status, attention processes and to estimate the presence of mood alterations, anxiety and coping strategies. Only at the end of the combined approach, we observed a significant improvement in attention and memory functions, with a nearly complete relief of anxiety symptoms and an improvement in coping strategies. Relaxation and respiratory techniques in a semi-immersive virtual reality environment, using Bts-Nirvana, may be a promising tool in improving attention process, coping strategies, and anxiety in individuals with neurological disorders, including stroke.

Disrupted latent inhibition in individuals at ultra high-risk for developing psychosis.

PubMed

Kraus, Michael; Rapisarda, Attilio; Lam, Max; Thong, Jamie Y J; Lee, Jimmy; Subramaniam, Mythily; Collinson, Simon L; Chong, Siow Ann; Keefe, Richard S E

2016-12-01

The addition of off-the-shelf cognitive measures to established prodromal criteria has resulted in limited improvement in the prediction of conversion to psychosis. Tests that assess cognitive processes central to schizophrenia might better identify those at highest risk. The latent inhibition paradigm assesses a subject's tendency to ignore irrelevant stimuli, a process integral to healthy perceptual and cognitive function that has been hypothesized to be a key deficit underlying the development of schizophrenia. In this study, 142 young people at ultra high-risk for developing psychosis and 105 controls were tested on a within-subject latent inhibition paradigm. Additionally, we later inquired about the strategy that each subject employed to complete the test, and further investigated the relationship between reported strategy and the extent of latent inhibition exhibited. Unlike controls, ultra high-risk subjects did not demonstrate a significant latent inhibition effect. This difference between groups became greater when controlling for strategy. The lack of latent inhibition effect in our ultra high-risk sample suggests that individuals at ultra high-risk for psychosis are impaired in their allocation of attentional resources based on past predictive value of repeated stimuli. This fundamental deficit in the allocation of attention may contribute to the broader array of cognitive impairments and clinical symptoms displayed by individuals at ultra high-risk for psychosis.

Predictors of response to pain management treatment. The role of family environment and changes in cognitive processes.

PubMed

Tota-Faucette, M E; Gil, K M; Williams, D A; Keefe, F J; Goli, V

1993-06-01

The purpose of the present study was to examine factors that influence individual differences in treatment response after multidisciplinary pain management. Pre-post assessment design. 119 chronic pain inpatients. Outcome measures included pain report from the McGill Pain Questionnaire, emotional distress from the Symptom Checklist-90 Revised, and activity discomfort from the Activity Discomfort Scale. Process measures included the Family Environment Scale, the Coping Strategies Questionnaire, and the Inventory of Negative Thoughts in Response to Pain. Results indicated that pretreatment family environment, cognitive coping strategies, and negative thinking accounted for small yet significant proportions of the variance in outcome. The proportion of variance accounted for by the changes in cognitive coping and negative thinking was somewhat higher. An increase in pain control and rational thinking was related to decreases in depression and anxiety, pain report, and activity discomfort. Decreases in negative social cognitions were related to decreased depression at posttreatment. Changes in coping strategies and negative thinking may be important mechanisms related to improvement, or lack of improvement, in a range of outcome measures. Patients from families who are controlling and disorganized, and patients high on negative thinking at pretreatment may represent high-risk groups in need of further individually tailored interventions.

Neurocognitive inefficacy of the strategy process.

PubMed

Klein, Harold E; D'Esposito, Mark

2007-11-01

The most widely used (and taught) protocols for strategic analysis-Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) and Porter's (1980) Five Force Framework for industry analysis-have been found to be insufficient as stimuli for strategy creation or even as a basis for further strategy development. We approach this problem from a neurocognitive perspective. We see profound incompatibilities between the cognitive process-deductive reasoning-channeled into the collective mind of strategists within the formal planning process through its tools of strategic analysis (i.e., rational technologies) and the essentially inductive reasoning process actually needed to address ill-defined, complex strategic situations. Thus, strategic analysis protocols that may appear to be and, indeed, are entirely rational and logical are not interpretable as such at the neuronal substrate level where thinking takes place. The analytical structure (or propositional representation) of these tools results in a mental dead end, the phenomenon known in cognitive psychology as functional fixedness. The difficulty lies with the inability of the brain to make out meaningful (i.e., strategy-provoking) stimuli from the mental images (or depictive representations) generated by strategic analysis tools. We propose decreasing dependence on these tools and conducting further research employing brain imaging technology to explore complex data handling protocols with richer mental representation and greater potential for strategy creation.

New social tasks for cognitive psychology; or, new cognitive tasks for social psychology.

PubMed

Wettersten, John

2014-01-01

To elucidate how differing theories of rationality lead to differing practices, their social rules must be analyzed. This is true not merely in science but also in society at large. This analysis of social thinking requires both the identification of innate cognitive social psychological processes and explanations of their relations with differing rules of rational practice. These new tasks can enable social psychologists to contribute to the study of how social situations facilitate or inhibit rational practice and enable cognitive psychologists to improve social psychological theory. In contrast to dominant current research strategies, social and cognitive psychologists can integrate social studies of rational practices and their consequences with studies of underlying cognitive psychological processes. In this article I do not attempt to carry out these tasks but rather point to both their lack of recognition and their importance.

Increasing relational memory in childhood with unitization strategies.

PubMed

Robey, Alison; Riggins, Tracy

2018-01-01

Young children often experience relational memory failures, which are thought to result from immaturity of the recollection processes presumed to be required for these tasks. However, research in adults has suggested that relational memory tasks can be accomplished using familiarity, a process thought to be mature by the end of early childhood. The goal of the present study was to determine whether relational memory performance could be improved in childhood by teaching young children memory strategies that have been shown to increase the contribution of familiarity in adults (i.e., unitization). Groups of 6- and 8-year-old children were taught to use visualization strategies that either unitized or did not unitize pictures and colored borders. Estimates of familiarity and recollection were extracted by fitting receiver operator characteristic curves (Yonelinas, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 20, 1341-1354, 1994, Yonelinas, Memory & Cognition 25, 747-763, 1997) based on dual-process models of recognition. Bayesian analysis revealed that strategies involving unitization improved memory performance and increased the contribution of familiarity in both age groups.

Blackboxing: social learning strategies and cultural evolution.

PubMed

Heyes, Cecilia

2016-05-05

Social learning strategies (SLSs) enable humans, non-human animals, and artificial agents to make adaptive decisions aboutwhenthey should copy other agents, andwhothey should copy. Behavioural ecologists and economists have discovered an impressive range of SLSs, and explored their likely impact on behavioural efficiency and reproductive fitness while using the 'phenotypic gambit'; ignoring, or remaining deliberately agnostic about, the nature and origins of the cognitive processes that implement SLSs. Here I argue that this 'blackboxing' of SLSs is no longer a viable scientific strategy. It has contributed, through the 'social learning strategies tournament', to the premature conclusion that social learning is generally better than asocial learning, and to a deep puzzle about the relationship between SLSs and cultural evolution. The puzzle can be solved by recognizing that whereas most SLSs are 'planetary'--they depend on domain-general cognitive processes--some SLSs, found only in humans, are 'cook-like'--they depend on explicit, metacognitive rules, such ascopy digital natives. These metacognitive SLSs contribute to cultural evolution by fostering the development of processes that enhance the exclusivity, specificity, and accuracy of social learning. © 2016 The Author(s).

Reading Strategies in a L2: A Study on Machine Translation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karnal, Adriana Riess; Pereira, Vera Vanmacher

2015-01-01

This article aims at understanding cognitive strategies which are involved in reading academic texts in English as a L2/FL. Specifically, we focus on reading comprehension when a text is read either using Google translator or not. From this perspective we must consider the reading process in its complexity not only as a decoding process. We follow…

Double jeopardy in inferring cognitive processes

PubMed Central

Fific, Mario

2014-01-01

Inferences we make about underlying cognitive processes can be jeopardized in two ways due to problematic forms of aggregation. First, averaging across individuals is typically considered a very useful tool for removing random variability. The threat is that averaging across subjects leads to averaging across different cognitive strategies, thus harming our inferences. The second threat comes from the construction of inadequate research designs possessing a low diagnostic accuracy of cognitive processes. For that reason we introduced the systems factorial technology (SFT), which has primarily been designed to make inferences about underlying processing order (serial, parallel, coactive), stopping rule (terminating, exhaustive), and process dependency. SFT proposes that the minimal research design complexity to learn about n number of cognitive processes should be equal to 2n. In addition, SFT proposes that (a) each cognitive process should be controlled by a separate experimental factor, and (b) The saliency levels of all factors should be combined in a full factorial design. In the current study, the author cross combined the levels of jeopardies in a 2 × 2 analysis, leading to four different analysis conditions. The results indicate a decline in the diagnostic accuracy of inferences made about cognitive processes due to the presence of each jeopardy in isolation and when combined. The results warrant the development of more individual subject analyses and the utilization of full-factorial (SFT) experimental designs. PMID:25374545

Long-Term Cognitive Impairment in Kleine-Levin Syndrome

PubMed Central

Uguccioni, Ginevra; Lavault, Sophie; Chaumereuil, Charlotte; Golmard, Jean-Louis; Gagnon, Jean-François; Arnulf, Isabelle

2016-01-01

Study Objectives: In Kleine-Levin syndrome (KLS), episodes of hypersomnia, cognitive, and behavioral disturbances alternate with asymptomatic periods. Because 50% of patients report decreased academic performances, we evaluated their cognitive status during asymptomatic periods, determinants of deficits, and changes during follow-up. Methods: The cognitive assessment during asymptomatic periods in all consecutive patients with typical KLS and healthy controls included the non-verbal intelligence quotient (Raven Progressive Matrices), the Trail Making Test, the Stroop Color-Word Test, the Wechsler Memory Test, verbal fluencies, the Free and Cued Learning Memory Test, and the Rey-Osterreith Complex Figure. Cognitive status was reevaluated after 0.5 to 2 y in 44 patients. Results: At baseline, compared with the 42 controls, the 122 patients with KLS exhibited lower non-verbal intelligence quotient, speed of processing, attention, and reduced retrieval strategies in episodic memory. Higher episode frequency, shorter episode duration, shorter time since last episode, deeper sleep, and megaphagia during episodes predicted impaired memory. The visuoconstructional abilities and non-verbal memory were intact. After a mean follow-up of 1.7 ± 1.0 y, the episode frequency decreased from 4.6 ± 4.8 to 1.7 ± 1.9/y. The logical reasoning and attention improved, the processing speed remained low, and the retrieval strategies in verbal memory further worsened. Conclusions: In this field study, one-third of patients with KLS have long-term cognitive deficits affecting retrieval and processing speed. Cognitive function should be systematically tested in patients with KLS, which appears important to help patients in their academic studies. Citation: Uguccioni G, Lavault S, Chaumereuil C, Golmard JL, Gagnon JF, Arnulf I. Long-term cognitive impairment in kleine-levin syndrome. SLEEP 2016;39(2):429–438. PMID:26414895

Impact of anxiety on prefrontal cortex encoding of cognitive flexibility

PubMed Central

Park, Junchol; Moghaddam, Bita

2016-01-01

Anxiety often is studied as a stand-alone construct in laboratory models. But in the context of coping with real-life anxiety, its negative impacts extend beyond aversive feelings and involve disruptions in ongoing goal-directed behaviors and cognitive functioning. Critical examples of cognitive constructs affected by anxiety are cognitive flexibility and decision making. In particular, anxiety impedes the ability to shift flexibly between strategies in response to changes in task demands, as well as the ability to maintain a strategy in the presence of distractors. The brain region most critically involved in behavioral flexibility is the prefrontal cortex (PFC), but little is known about how anxiety impacts PFC encoding of internal and external events that are critical for flexible behavior. Here we review animal and human neurophysiological and neuroimaging studies implicating PFC neural processing in anxiety-induced deficits in cognitive flexibility. We then suggest experimental and analytical approaches for future studies to gain a better mechanistic understanding of impaired cognitive inflexibility in anxiety and related disorders. PMID:27316551

From emotion resonance to empathic understanding: a social developmental neuroscience account.

PubMed

Decety, Jean; Meyer, Meghan

2008-01-01

The psychological construct of empathy refers to an intersubjective induction process by which positive and negative emotions are shared, without losing sight of whose feelings belong to whom. Empathy can lead to personal distress or to empathic concern (sympathy). The goal of this paper is to address the underlying cognitive processes and their neural underpinnings that constitute empathy within a developmental neuroscience perspective. In addition, we focus on how these processes go awry in developmental disorders marked by impairments in social cognition, such as autism spectrum disorder, and conduct disorder. We argue that empathy involves both bottom-up and top-down information processing, underpinned by specific and interacting neural systems. We discuss data from developmental psychology as well as cognitive neuroscience in support of such a model, and highlight the impact of neural dysfunctions on social cognitive developmental behavior. Altogether, bridging developmental science and cognitive neuroscience helps approach a more complete understanding of social cognition. Synthesizing these two domains also contributes to a better characterization of developmental psychopathologies that impacts the development of effective treatment strategies.

Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis, Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases: Possible Strategies to Prevent Cognitive Impairment.

PubMed

Vivar, Carmen

2015-01-01

The adult brain of humans and other mammals continuously generates new neurons throughout life. However, this neurogenic capacity is limited to two brain areas, the dentate gyrus (DG of the hippocampus and the subventricular zone (SVZ of the lateral ventricle. Although the DG generates new neurons, its neurogenic capacity declines with age and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD and Huntington's disease (HD. This review focuses on the role of newly-born neurons in cognitive processes, and discusses some of the strategies proposed in humans and animals to enhance neurogenesis and counteract age-related cognitive deficits, such as physical exercise and intake of natural products like omega-3 fatty acids, curcumin and flavanols.

Selecting decision strategies: the differential role of affect.

PubMed

Scheibehenne, Benjamin; von Helversen, Bettina

2015-01-01

Many theories on cognition assume that people adapt their decision strategies depending on the situation they face. To test if and how affect guides the selection of decision strategies, we conducted an online study (N = 166), where different mood states were induced through video clips. Results indicate that mood influenced the use of decision strategies. Negative mood, in particular anger, facilitated the use of non-compensatory strategies, whereas positive mood promoted compensatory decision rules. These results are in line with the idea that positive mood broadens the focus of attention and thus increases the use of compensatory decision strategies that take many pieces of information into account, whereas negative mood narrows the focus of attention and thus fosters non-compensatory strategies that rely on a selective use of information. The results further indicate that gaining a deeper theoretical understanding of the cognitive mechanisms that govern decision processes requires taking emotions into account.

Developing a Cognitive Training Strategy for First-Episode Schizophrenia: Integrating Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches

PubMed Central

Nuechterlein, Keith H.; Ventura, Joseph; Subotnik, Kenneth L.; Hayata, Jacqueline N.; Medalia, Alice; Bell, Morris D.

2014-01-01

It is clear that people with schizophrenia typically have cognitive problems in multiple domains as part of their illness. The cognitive deficits are among the main contributors to limitations in their everyday functioning, including their work recovery. Cognitive remediation has been applied successfully to help people with long-term, persistent schizophrenia to improve their cognitive functioning, but it is only beginning to be applied with individuals who have recently had a first episode of psychosis. Several different approaches to cognitive training have been developed. Some approaches emphasize extensive systematic practice with lower-level cognitive processes and building toward higher-level processes (“bottom-up”), while others emphasize greater focus on high-level cognitive processes that normally integrate and organize lower-level processes (“top-down”). Each approach has advantages and disadvantages for a disorder like schizophrenia, with its multiple levels of cognitive dysfunction. In addition, approaches to cognitive remediation differ in the extent to which they systematically facilitate transfer of learning to everyday functioning. We describe in this article the cognitive training approach that was developed for a UCLA study of people with a recent first episode of schizophrenia, a group that may benefit greatly from early intervention that focuses on cognition and recovery of work functioning. This approach integrated bottom-up and top-down computerized cognitive training and incorporated an additional weekly group session to bridge between computerized training and application to everyday work and school functioning. PMID:25489275

An Analysis of the Associations among Cognitive Impulsiveness, Reasoning Process, and Rational Decision Making

PubMed Central

Jelihovschi, Ana P. G.; Cardoso, Ricardo L.; Linhares, Alexandre

2018-01-01

Impulsivity may lead to several unfortunate consequences and maladaptive behaviors for both clinical and nonclinical people. It has a key role in many forms of psychopathology. Although literature has discussed the negative impact of impulsivity, few have emphasized the relationship between cognitive impulsiveness and decision making. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of cognitive impulsiveness on decision making and explore the strategies used by participants to solve problems. For this purpose, we apply two measures of impulsivity: the self-report Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and the performance based Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). Moreover, we evaluate participants' reasoning processes employed to answer CRT questions based on the calculation expressions, data organization, and erasures they made while answering the CRT (note that we utilized the instruments using pen and paper). These reasoning processes are related to the role of executive functions in decision making, and its relationship with impulsiveness. The sample consists of 191 adults, who were either professionals or undergraduate students from the fields of business, management, or accounting. The results show that cognitive impulsiveness may negatively affect decision making, and that those who presented the calculation to answer the CRT questions made better decisions. Moreover, there was no difference in the strategies used by impulsive vs. nonimpulsive participants during decision making. Finally, people who inhibited their immediate answers to CRT questions performed better during decision making. PMID:29375440

An Analysis of the Associations among Cognitive Impulsiveness, Reasoning Process, and Rational Decision Making.

PubMed

Jelihovschi, Ana P G; Cardoso, Ricardo L; Linhares, Alexandre

2017-01-01

Impulsivity may lead to several unfortunate consequences and maladaptive behaviors for both clinical and nonclinical people. It has a key role in many forms of psychopathology. Although literature has discussed the negative impact of impulsivity, few have emphasized the relationship between cognitive impulsiveness and decision making. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of cognitive impulsiveness on decision making and explore the strategies used by participants to solve problems. For this purpose, we apply two measures of impulsivity: the self-report Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and the performance based Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). Moreover, we evaluate participants' reasoning processes employed to answer CRT questions based on the calculation expressions, data organization, and erasures they made while answering the CRT (note that we utilized the instruments using pen and paper). These reasoning processes are related to the role of executive functions in decision making, and its relationship with impulsiveness. The sample consists of 191 adults, who were either professionals or undergraduate students from the fields of business, management, or accounting. The results show that cognitive impulsiveness may negatively affect decision making, and that those who presented the calculation to answer the CRT questions made better decisions. Moreover, there was no difference in the strategies used by impulsive vs. nonimpulsive participants during decision making. Finally, people who inhibited their immediate answers to CRT questions performed better during decision making.

Satisficing in split-second decision making is characterized by strategic cue discounting.

PubMed

Oh, Hanna; Beck, Jeffrey M; Zhu, Pingping; Sommer, Marc A; Ferrari, Silvia; Egner, Tobias

2016-12-01

Much of our real-life decision making is bounded by uncertain information, limitations in cognitive resources, and a lack of time to allocate to the decision process. It is thought that humans overcome these limitations through satisficing, fast but "good-enough" heuristic decision making that prioritizes some sources of information (cues) while ignoring others. However, the decision-making strategies we adopt under uncertainty and time pressure, for example during emergencies that demand split-second choices, are presently unknown. To characterize these decision strategies quantitatively, the present study examined how people solve a novel multicue probabilistic classification task under varying time pressure, by tracking shifts in decision strategies using variational Bayesian inference. We found that under low time pressure, participants correctly weighted and integrated all available cues to arrive at near-optimal decisions. With increasingly demanding, subsecond time pressures, however, participants systematically discounted a subset of the cue information by dropping the least informative cue(s) from their decision making process. Thus, the human cognitive apparatus copes with uncertainty and severe time pressure by adopting a "drop-the-worst" cue decision making strategy that minimizes cognitive time and effort investment while preserving the consideration of the most diagnostic cue information, thus maintaining "good-enough" accuracy. This advance in our understanding of satisficing strategies could form the basis of predicting human choices in high time pressure scenarios. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Disentangling working memory processes during spatial span assessment: a modeling analysis of preferred eye movement strategies.

PubMed

Patt, Virginie M; Thomas, Michael L; Minassian, Arpi; Geyer, Mark A; Brown, Gregory G; Perry, William

2014-01-01

The neurocognitive processes involved during classic spatial working memory (SWM) assessment were investigated by examining naturally preferred eye movement strategies. Cognitively healthy adult volunteers were tested in a computerized version of the Corsi Block-Tapping Task--a spatial span task requiring the short term maintenance of a series of locations presented in a specific order--coupled with eye tracking. Modeling analysis was developed to characterize eye-tracking patterns across all task phases, including encoding, retention, and recall. Results revealed a natural preference for local gaze maintenance during both encoding and retention, with fewer than 40% fixated targets. These findings contrasted with the stimulus retracing pattern expected during recall as a result of task demands, with 80% fixated targets. Along with participants' self-reported strategies of mentally "making shapes," these results suggest the involvement of covert attention shifts and higher order cognitive Gestalt processes during spatial span tasks, challenging instrument validity as a single measure of SWM storage capacity.

Combined Training of One Cognitive and One Metacognitive Strategy Improves Academic Writing Skills

PubMed Central

Wischgoll, Anke

2016-01-01

Academic writing is a challenging task. Expert writers apply various writing skills as they anticipate the reader’s view of their text while paying attention to structure and content. Research in the high school setting shows that the acquisition of writing skills can be supported by single-strategy training. However, research in higher education is scarce. We tested whether the development of academic writing skills can also be effectively supported by training single strategies or even combined strategies. As metacognition is an important skill for advanced and adult learners, we focused in this study on the benefit of combined cognitive strategies with and without a metacognitive strategy. An experiment including three conditions was conducted (N = 60 German-speaking psychology undergraduates, M = 22.8, SD = 4.4), which lasted for three hours. Each group received a modeling intervention of a basic cognitive strategy on the application of text structure knowledge. Two groups received an additional modeling intervention with either a cognitive strategy treatment on text summarization or a metacognitive strategy treatment on self-monitoring the writing process. One group received no further strategy treatment. Prior knowledge and learning outcomes were measured with a specially developed test on academic writing skills. In addition, all participants wrote an abstract of an empirical article. We found that learners who received the additional self-monitoring strategy intervention benefited significantly more in terms of acquisition of academic writing skills and the quality of their texts than learners who did not receive this intervention. Thus, the results underline the importance of self-monitoring strategies in academic writing. Implications and further research opportunities are discussed. PMID:26941671

Ethnography of Novices' First Use of Web Search Engines: Affective Control in Cognitive Processing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nahl, Diane

1998-01-01

This study of 18 novice Internet users employed a structured self-report method to investigate affective and cognitive operations in the following phases of World Wide Web searching: presearch formulation, search statement formulation, search strategy, and evaluation of results. Users also rated their self-confidence as searchers and satisfaction…

U.S. Army Research Institute Program in Basic Research-FY 2010

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-11-01

2007). Do learning protocols support learning strategies and outcomes? The role of cognitive and metacognitive prompts. Learning and Instruction ...73 Achievement in Complex Learning Environments as a Function of Information Processing Ability ...Development and Validation of a Situational Judgment Test to Predict Attrition Incrementally Over General Cognitive Ability and a Forced-Choice

The Effect of Teaching with Stories on Associate Degree Nursing Students' Approach to Learning and Reflective Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bradshaw, Vicki

2012-01-01

This action research study is the culmination of several action cycles investigating cognitive information processing and learning strategies based on students approach to learning theory and assessing students' meta-cognitive learning, motivation, and reflective development suggestive of deep learning. The study introduces a reading…

Effects of planning strategies on writing dynamics and final texts.

PubMed

Limpo, Teresa; Alves, Rui A

2018-06-12

Expert writing involves the interaction among three cognitively demanding processes: planning, translating, and revising. To manage the cognitive load brought on by these processes, writers frequently use strategies. Here, we examined the effects of planning strategies on writing dynamics and final texts. Before writing an argumentative text with the triple-task technique, 63 undergraduates were asked either to elaborate an outline with the argumentative structure embedded (structure-based planning condition), to provide a written list of ideas for the text (list-based planning condition), or to do a non-writing-related filler task (no planning condition). Planning showed no effects on the length of the pre-writing pause and cognitive effort, but influenced writing processes occurrences. Compared to participants in the no-planning condition, those in the planning conditions showed a later activation of revising. Moreover, participants in the structure-based condition were mainly focused on translating in the beginning and middle of composition, whereas their peers tended to distribute their attention among all processes. Planning ahead of writing also resulted in texts with longer words, produced at a higher rate. Only the structure-based planning strategy led to an increase in the number of argumentation elements as well as in essays' persuasiveness and overall quality. There was, however, no indication that these improvements in final texts were associated with changes in the dynamics of writing. Overall, the use of structure-based plans seems to be an effective and efficient way of improving undergraduates' argumentative writing. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Classification of L2 Vocabulary Learning Strategies: Evidence from Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Bo; Li, Changyu

2011-01-01

This research presents a classification theory for the L2 vocabulary learning strategies. Based on the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of strategies that adult Chinese English learners used, this theory identifies six categories, four of which are related to the cognitive process in lexical acquisition and the other two are…

Time course of emotion-related responding during distraction and reappraisal

PubMed Central

Schönfelder, Sandra; Kanske, Philipp; Heissler, Janine

2014-01-01

Theoretical accounts of emotion regulation (ER) discriminate various cognitive strategies to voluntarily modify emotional states. Amongst these, attentional deployment (i.e. distraction) and cognitive change (i.e. reappraisal), have been shown to successfully down-regulate emotions. Neuroimaging studies found that both strategies differentially engage neural structures associated with selective attention, working memory and cognitive control. The aim of this study was to further delineate similarities and differences between the ER strategies reappraisal and distraction by investigating their temporal brain dynamics using event-related potentials (ERPs) and their patterns of facial expressive behavior. Twenty-one participants completed an ER experiment in which they had to either passively view positive, neutral and negative pictures, reinterpret them to down-regulate affective responses (reappraisal), or solve a concurrently presented mathematical equation (distraction). Results demonstrate the efficacy of both strategies in the subjective control of emotion, accompanied by reductions of facial expressive activity (Corrugator supercilii and Zygomaticus major). ERP results indicated that distraction, compared with reappraisal, yielded a stronger and earlier attenuation of the late positive potential (LPP) magnitude for negative pictures. For positive pictures, only distraction but not reappraisal had significant effect on LPP attenuation. The results support the process model of ER, separating subtypes of cognitive strategies based on their specific time course. PMID:23988760

Enquire within: cultural evolution and cognitive science.

PubMed

Heyes, Cecilia

2018-04-05

Cultural evolution and cognitive science need each other. Cultural evolution needs cognitive science to find out whether the conditions necessary for Darwinian evolution are met in the cultural domain. Cognitive science needs cultural evolution to explain the origins of distinctively human cognitive processes. Focusing on the first question, I argue that cultural evolutionists can get empirical traction on third-way cultural selection by rooting the distinction between replication and reconstruction, two modes of cultural inheritance, in the distinction between System 1 and System 2 cognitive processes. This move suggests that cultural epidemiologists are right in thinking that replication has higher fidelity than reconstruction, and replication processes are not genetic adaptations for culture, but wrong to assume that replication is rare. If replication is not rare, an important requirement for third-way cultural selection, one-shot fidelity , is likely to be met. However, there are other requirements, overlooked by dual-inheritance theorists when they conflate strong (Darwinian) and weak (choice) senses of 'cultural selection', including dumb choices and recurrent fidelity In a second excursion into cognitive science, I argue that these requirements can be met by metacognitive social learning strategies , and trace the origins of these distinctively human cognitive processes to cultural evolution. Like other forms of cultural learning, they are not cognitive instincts but cognitive gadgets.This article is part of the theme issue 'Bridging cultural gaps: interdisciplinary studies in human cultural evolution'. © 2018 The Author(s).

Controlled encoding strategies in memory tests in lithium patients.

PubMed

Opgenoorth, E; Karlick-Bolten, E

1986-03-01

The "levels of processing" theory (Craik and Lockhart) and "dual coding" theory (Paivio) provide new aspects for clinical memory research work. Therefore, an incidental learning paradigm on the basis of these two theoretical approaches was chosen to test aspects of memory performances with lithium therapy. Results of two experiments, with controlled non-semantic processing (rating experiment "comparison of size") and additive semantic processing (rating "living--non-living") indicate a slight reduction in recall (Fig. 1) and recognition performance (Fig. 2) in lithium patients. Effects on encoding strategies are of equal quality in patients and healthy subjects (Tab. 1, 2) but performance differs between both groups: poorer systematic benefit from within code repetitions ("word-word" items, "picture-picture" items) and dual coding (repeated variable item presentation "picture-word") is obtained. The less efficient encoding strategies in the speeded task are discussed with respect to cognitive rigidity and slowing of performance by emotional states. This investigation of so-called "memory deficits" with lithium is an attempt to explore impairments at an early stage of processing; the characterization of the perceptual cognitive analysis seems useful for further clinical research work on this topic.

Lifestyle modification in the management of the metabolic syndrome: achievements and challenges

PubMed Central

Grave, Riccardo Dalle; Calugi, Simona; Centis, Elena; Marzocchi, Rebecca; Ghoch, Marwan El; Marchesini, Giulio

2010-01-01

Lifestyle modification based on behavior therapy is the most important and effective strategy to manage the metabolic syndrome. Modern lifestyle modification therapy combines specific recommendations on diet and exercise with behavioral and cognitive strategies. The intervention may be delivered face-to-face or in groups, or in groups combined with individual sessions. The main challenge of treatment is helping patients maintain healthy behavior changes in the long term. In the last few years, several strategies have been evaluated to improve the long-term effect of lifestyle modification. Promising results have been achieved by combining lifestyle modification with pharmacotherapy, using meals replacement, setting higher physical activity goals, and long-term care. The key role of cognitive processes in the success/failure of weight loss and maintenance suggests that new cognitive procedures and strategies should be included in the traditional lifestyle modification interventions, in order to help patients build a mind-set favoring long-term lifestyle changes. These new strategies raise optimistic expectations for an effective treatment of metabolic syndrome with lifestyle modifications, provided public health programs to change the environment where patients live support them. PMID:21437107

[Acceptance and mindfulness-based cognitive-behavioral therapies].

PubMed

Ngô, Thanh-Lan

2013-01-01

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the main approaches in psychotherapy. It teaches the patient to examine the link between dysfunctional thoughts and maladaptive behaviors and to re- evaluate the cognitive biases involved in the maintenance of symptoms by using strategies such as guided discovery. CBT is constantly evolving in part to improve its' effectiveness and accessibility. Thus in the last decade, increasingly popular approaches based on mindfulness and acceptance have emerged. These therapies do not attempt to modify cognitions even when they are biased and dysfunctional but rather seek a change in the relationship between the individual and the symptoms. This article aims to present the historical context that has allowed the emergence of this trend, the points of convergence and divergence with traditional CBT as well as a brief presentation of the different therapies based on mindfulness meditation and acceptance. Hayes (2004) described three successive waves in behavior therapy, each characterized by "dominant assumptions, methods and goals": traditional behavior therapy, cognitive therapy and therapies based on mindfulness meditation and acceptance. The latter consider that human suffering occurs when the individual lives a restricted life in order avoid pain and immediate discomfort to the detriment of his global wellbeing. These therapies combine mindfulness, experiential, acceptance strategies with traditional behavior principles in order to attain lasting results. There are significant points of convergence between traditional CBT and therapies based on mindfulness meditation and acceptance. They are both empirically validated, based upon a theoretical model postulating that avoidance is key in the maintenance of psychopathology and they recommend an approach strategy in order to overcome the identified problem. They both use behavioral techniques in the context of a collaborative relationship in order to identify precise problems and to achieve specific goals. They focus on the present moment rather than on historical causes. However, they also present significant differences: control vs acceptance of thoughts, focus on cognition vs behavior, focus on the relationship between the individual and his thoughts vs cognitive content, goal of modifying dysfunctional beliefs vs metacognitive processes, use of experiential vs didactic methods, focus on symptoms vs quality of life, strategies used before vs after the unfolding of full emotional response. The main interventions based on mindfulness meditation and acceptance are: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Functional Analytic Therapy, the expanded model of Behavioral Activation, Metacognitive Therapy, Mindfulness based Cognitive Therapy, Dialectic Behavior Therapy, Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy and Compassionate Mind Training. These are described in this article. They offer concepts and techniques which might enhance therapeutic efficacy. They teach a new way to deploy attention and to enter into a relationship with current experience (for example, defusion) in order to diminish cognitive reactivity, a maintenance factor for psychopathology, and to enhance psychological flexibility. The focus on cognitive process, metacognition as well as cognitive content might yield additional benefits in therapy. It is possible to combine traditional CBT with third wave approaches by using psychoeducation and cognitive restructuring in the beginning phases of therapy in order to establish thought bias and to then encourage acceptance of internal experiences as well as exposure to feared stimuli rather than to continue to use cognitive restructuring techniques. Traditional CBT and third wave approaches seem to impact different processes: the former enhance the capacity to observe and describe experiences and the latter diminish experiential avoidance and increase conscious action as well as acceptance. The identification of personal values helps to motivate the individual to undertake actions required in order to enhance quality of life. In the case of chronic illness, it diminishes suffering by increasing acceptance. Although the evidence base supporting the efficacy of third wave approaches is less robust than in the case of traditional cognitive or behavior therapy, therapies based on mindfulness meditation and acceptance are promising interventions that might help to elucidate change process and offer complementary strategies in order to help patients.

Chicken or the Egg: Longitudinal Analysis of the Causal Dilemma between Goal Orientation, Self-Regulation and Cognitive Processing Strategies in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Clercq, Mikael; Galand, Benoit; Frenay, Mariane

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the direction of the effect between goal orientation, self-regulation and deep processing strategies in order to understand the impact of these three constructs on students' achievement. The participants were 110 freshmen from the engineering faculty at the Universite catholique de Louvain in Belgium, who…

Search and the Aging Mind: The Promise and Limits of the Cognitive Control Hypothesis of Age Differences in Search.

PubMed

Mata, Rui; von Helversen, Bettina

2015-07-01

Search is a prerequisite for successful performance in a broad range of tasks ranging from making decisions between consumer goods to memory retrieval. How does aging impact search processes in such disparate situations? Aging is associated with structural and neuromodulatory brain changes that underlie cognitive control processes, which in turn have been proposed as a domain-general mechanism controlling search in external environments as well as memory. We review the aging literature to evaluate the cognitive control hypothesis that suggests that age-related change in cognitive control underlies age differences in both external and internal search. We also consider the limits of the cognitive control hypothesis and propose additional mechanisms such as changes in strategy use and affect that may be necessary to understand how aging affects search. Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

A cognitive approach for design of a multimedia informed consent video and website in pediatric research.

PubMed

Antal, Holly; Bunnell, H Timothy; McCahan, Suzanne M; Pennington, Chris; Wysocki, Tim; Blake, Kathryn V

2017-02-01

Poor participant comprehension of research procedures following the conventional face-to-face consent process for biomedical research is common. We describe the development of a multimedia informed consent video and website that incorporates cognitive strategies to enhance comprehension of study related material directed to parents and adolescents. A multidisciplinary team was assembled for development of the video and website that included human subjects professionals; psychologist researchers; institutional video and web developers; bioinformaticians and programmers; and parent and adolescent stakeholders. Five learning strategies that included Sensory-Modality view, Coherence, Signaling, Redundancy, and Personalization were integrated into a 15-min video and website material that describes a clinical research trial. A diverse team collaborated extensively over 15months to design and build a multimedia platform for obtaining parental permission and adolescent assent for participant in as asthma clinical trial. Examples of the learning principles included, having a narrator describe what was being viewed on the video (sensory-modality); eliminating unnecessary text and graphics (coherence); having the initial portion of the video explain the sections of the video to be viewed (signaling); avoiding simultaneous presentation of text and graphics (redundancy); and having a consistent narrator throughout the video (personalization). Existing conventional and multimedia processes for obtaining research informed consent have not actively incorporated basic principles of human cognition and learning in the design and implementation of these processes. The present paper illustrates how this can be achieved, setting the stage for rigorous evaluation of potential benefits such as improved comprehension, satisfaction with the consent process, and completion of research objectives. New consent strategies that have an integrated cognitive approach need to be developed and tested in controlled trials. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Can Training in a Real-Time Strategy Videogame Attenuate Cognitive Decline in Older Adults?

PubMed Central

Basak, Chandramallika; Boot, Walter R.; Voss, Michelle W.; Kramer, Arthur F.

2014-01-01

Declines in various cognitive abilities, particularly executive control functions, are observed in older adults. An important goal of cognitive training is to slow or reverse these age-related declines. However, opinion is divided in the literature regarding whether cognitive training can engender transfer to a variety of cognitive skills in older adults. Yet, recent research indicates that videogame training of young adults may engender broad transfer to skills of visual attention. In the current study, we used a real-time strategy videogame to attempt to train executive functions in older adults, such as working memory, task switching, short-term memory, inhibition, and reasoning. Older adults were either trained in a real-time strategy videogame for 23.5 hours (RON, n=20) or not (CONTROLS, n=20). A battery of cognitive tasks, including tasks of executive control and visuo-spatial skills, were assessed before, during, and after video game training. The trainees improved significantly in the measures of game performance. They also improved significantly more than the controls in a subset of the cognitive tasks, such as task switching, working memory, visual short term memory, and mental rotation. Trends in improvement were also observed, for the video game trainees, in inhibition and reasoning. Individual differences in changes in game performance were correlated with improvements in task-switching. The study has implications for the enhancement of executive control processes of older adults. PMID:19140648

Dynamic mapping of brain and cognitive control of virtual gameplay (study by functional magnetic resonance imaging).

PubMed

Rezakova, M V; Mazhirina, K G; Pokrovskiy, M A; Savelov, A A; Savelova, O A; Shtark, M B

2013-04-01

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging technique, we performed online brain mapping of gamers, practiced to voluntary (cognitively) control their heart rate, the parameter that operated a competitive virtual gameplay in the adaptive feedback loop. With the default start picture, the regions of interest during the formation of optimal cognitive strategy were as follows: Brodmann areas 19, 37, 39 and 40, i.e. cerebellar structures (vermis, amygdala, pyramids, clivus). "Localization" concept of the contribution of the cerebellum to cognitive processes is discussed.

Homo heuristicus: why biased minds make better inferences.

PubMed

Gigerenzer, Gerd; Brighton, Henry

2009-01-01

Heuristics are efficient cognitive processes that ignore information. In contrast to the widely held view that less processing reduces accuracy, the study of heuristics shows that less information, computation, and time can in fact improve accuracy. We review the major progress made so far: (a) the discovery of less-is-more effects; (b) the study of the ecological rationality of heuristics, which examines in which environments a given strategy succeeds or fails, and why; (c) an advancement from vague labels to computational models of heuristics; (d) the development of a systematic theory of heuristics that identifies their building blocks and the evolved capacities they exploit, and views the cognitive system as relying on an "adaptive toolbox;" and (e) the development of an empirical methodology that accounts for individual differences, conducts competitive tests, and has provided evidence for people's adaptive use of heuristics. Homo heuristicus has a biased mind and ignores part of the available information, yet a biased mind can handle uncertainty more efficiently and robustly than an unbiased mind relying on more resource-intensive and general-purpose processing strategies. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Serotonin Transporter Knockout Rats Show Improved Strategy Set-Shifting and Reduced Latent Inhibition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nonkes, Lourens J. P.; van de Vondervoort, Ilse I. G. M.; de Leeuw, Mark J. C.; Wijlaars, Linda P.; Maes, Joseph H. R.; Homberg, Judith R.

2012-01-01

Behavioral flexibility is a cognitive process depending on prefrontal areas allowing adaptive responses to environmental changes. Serotonin transporter knockout (5-HTT[superscript -/-]) rodents show improved reversal learning in addition to orbitofrontal cortex changes. Another form of behavioral flexibility, extradimensional strategy set-shifting…

Helping Students Develop Learning Strategies: Some Theoretical and Practical Considerations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrison, Ian D.

The collaborative curriculum development process in a postsecondary language education program in Japan is described, looking specifically at the work of five curriculum development teams, or focus groups: needs assessment; curriculum aims, goals, and objectives; cognitive development and learner strategies; materials development; and learner…

The Effects of Verbal Elaboration and Visual Elaboration on Student Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chanlin, Lih-Juan

1997-01-01

This study examined: (1) the effectiveness of integrating verbal elaboration (metaphors) and different visual presentation strategies (still and animated graphics) in learning biotechnology concepts; (2) whether the use of verbal elaboration with different visual presentation strategies facilitates cognitive processes; and (3) how students employ…

Complex clinical reasoning in the critical care unit - difficulties, pitfalls and adaptive strategies.

PubMed

Shaw, M; Singh, S

2015-04-01

Diagnostic error has implications for both clinical outcome and resource utilisation, and may often be traced to impaired data gathering, processing or synthesis because of the influence of cognitive bias. Factors inherent to the intensive/acute care environment afford multiple additional opportunities for such errors to occur. This article illustrates many of these with reference to a case encountered on our intensive care unit. Strategies to improve completeness of data gathering, processing and synthesis in the acute care environment are critically appraised in the context of early detection and amelioration of cognitive bias. These include reflection, targeted simulation training and the integration of social media and IT based aids in complex diagnostic processes. A framework which can be quickly and easily employed in a variety of clinical environments is then presented. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Developmental Steps in Metaphorical Language Abilities: The Influence of Age, Gender, Cognitive Flexibility, Information Processing Speed, and Analogical Reasoning.

PubMed

Willinger, Ulrike; Deckert, Matthias; Schmöger, Michaela; Schaunig-Busch, Ines; Formann, Anton K; Auff, Eduard

2017-12-01

Metaphor is a specific type of figurative language that is used in various important fields such as in the work with children in clinical or teaching contexts. The aim of the study was to investigate the developmental course, developmental steps, and possible cognitive predictors regarding metaphor processing in childhood and early adolescence. One hundred sixty-four typically developing children (7-year-olds, 9-year-olds) and early adolescents (11-year-olds) were tested for metaphor identification, comprehension, comprehension quality, and preference by the Metaphoric Triads Task as well as for analogical reasoning, information processing speed, cognitive flexibility under time pressure, and cognitive flexibility without time pressure. Metaphor identification and comprehension consecutively increased with age. Eleven-year-olds showed significantly higher metaphor comprehension quality and preference scores than seven- and nine-year-olds, whilst these younger age groups did not differ. Age, cognitive flexibility under time pressure, information processing speed, analogical reasoning, and cognitive flexibility without time pressure significantly predicted metaphor comprehension. Metaphorical language ability shows an ongoing development and seemingly changes qualitatively at the beginning of early adolescence. These results can possibly be explained by a greater synaptic reorganization in early adolescents. Furthermore, cognitive flexibility under time pressure and information processing speed possibly facilitate the ability to adapt metaphor processing strategies in a flexible, quick, and appropriate way.

Neural substrates of similarity and rule-based strategies in judgment

PubMed Central

von Helversen, Bettina; Karlsson, Linnea; Rasch, Björn; Rieskamp, Jörg

2014-01-01

Making accurate judgments is a core human competence and a prerequisite for success in many areas of life. Plenty of evidence exists that people can employ different judgment strategies to solve identical judgment problems. In categorization, it has been demonstrated that similarity-based and rule-based strategies are associated with activity in different brain regions. Building on this research, the present work tests whether solving two identical judgment problems recruits different neural substrates depending on people's judgment strategies. Combining cognitive modeling of judgment strategies at the behavioral level with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we compare brain activity when using two archetypal judgment strategies: a similarity-based exemplar strategy and a rule-based heuristic strategy. Using an exemplar-based strategy should recruit areas involved in long-term memory processes to a larger extent than a heuristic strategy. In contrast, using a heuristic strategy should recruit areas involved in the application of rules to a larger extent than an exemplar-based strategy. Largely consistent with our hypotheses, we found that using an exemplar-based strategy led to relatively higher BOLD activity in the anterior prefrontal and inferior parietal cortex, presumably related to retrieval and selective attention processes. In contrast, using a heuristic strategy led to relatively higher activity in areas in the dorsolateral prefrontal and the temporal-parietal cortex associated with cognitive control and information integration. Thus, even when people solve identical judgment problems, different neural substrates can be recruited depending on the judgment strategy involved. PMID:25360099

The Influence of the Knowledge Base on the Development of Mnemonic Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ornstein, Peter A.; Naus, Mary J.

A dominant theme in cognitive psychology is that prior knowledge in long-term memory has a strong influence on an individual's cognitive processing. Citing numerous memory studies with children, knowledge base effects are presented as part of a broader picture of memory development. Using the sort/recall procedure (asking subjects to group sets of…

Lateralized Cognition: Asymmetrical and Complementary Strategies of Pigeons during Discrimination of the "Human Concept"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yamazaki, Y.; Aust, U.; Huber, L.; Hausmann, M.; Gunturkun, O.

2007-01-01

This study was aimed at revealing which cognitive processes are lateralized in visual categorizations of "humans" by pigeons. To this end, pigeons were trained to categorize pictures of humans and then tested binocularly or monocularly (left or right eye) on the learned categorization and for transfer to novel exemplars (Experiment 1). Subsequent…

The Effect of Different Feedback on Writing Quality of College Students with Different Cognitive Styles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wahyuni, Sri

2017-01-01

Feedback provision in the process of writing has been believed that it is beneficial. However, different strategies of providing feedback may affect differently on writing quality of students. This study aimed at investigating the effect of different feedback provision on the writing quality of students having different cognitive styles. By…

Opening the Closed Mind: The Effect of Exposure to Literature on the Need for Closure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Djikic, Maja; Oatley, Keith; Moldoveanu, Mihnea C.

2013-01-01

The need for cognitive closure has been found to be associated with a variety of suboptimal information processing strategies, leading to decreased creativity and rationality. This experiment tested the hypothesis that exposure to fictional short stories, as compared with exposure to nonfictional essays, will reduce need for cognitive closure. One…

Parental Factors that Detract from the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Childhood Anxiety: Recommendations for Practitioners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walker, Jerry V., III

2012-01-01

This article reviews the recent empirical literature on the various parental factors that detract from the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral treatment for children with anxiety. Interventions such as treating parental anxiety and increasing parental involvement in the therapeutic process may combat these factors. Newer strategies such as…

Case Report: Evaluation strategies and cognitive intervention: the case of a monovular twin child affected by selective mutism

PubMed Central

Capobianco, Micaela; Cerniglia, Luca

2018-01-01

The present work describes the assessment process, evaluation strategies, and cognitive intervention on a 9 years old child with selective mutism (SM), a monovular twin of a child also affected by mutism. Currently, the cognitive behavioral multimodal treatment seems the most effective therapeutic approach for children diagnosed with selective mutism (Capobianco & Cerniglia, 2018). The illustrated case confirms the role of biological factors involved in mutacic disorder but also highlights the importance of environmental influences in the maintenance of the disorder with respect to relational and contextual dynamics (e.g. complicity between sisters, family relationships). The article discusses furthermore the importance of an early diagnosis as a predictor of positive treatment outcomes. PMID:29568498

Case Report: Evaluation strategies and cognitive intervention: the case of a monovular twin child affected by selective mutism.

PubMed

Capobianco, Micaela; Cerniglia, Luca

2018-01-01

The present work describes the assessment process, evaluation strategies, and cognitive intervention on a 9 years old child with selective mutism (SM), a monovular twin of a child also affected by mutism. Currently, the cognitive behavioral multimodal treatment seems the most effective therapeutic approach for children diagnosed with selective mutism (Capobianco & Cerniglia, 2018). The illustrated case confirms the role of biological factors involved in mutacic disorder but also highlights the importance of environmental influences in the maintenance of the disorder with respect to relational and contextual dynamics (e.g. complicity between sisters, family relationships). The article discusses furthermore the importance of an early diagnosis as a predictor of positive treatment outcomes.

[Cognitive errors in diagnostic decision making].

PubMed

Gäbler, Martin

2017-10-01

Approximately 10-15% of our diagnostic decisions are faulty and may lead to unfavorable and dangerous outcomes, which could be avoided. These diagnostic errors are mainly caused by cognitive biases in the diagnostic reasoning process.Our medical diagnostic decision-making is based on intuitive "System 1" and analytical "System 2" diagnostic decision-making and can be deviated by unconscious cognitive biases.These deviations can be positively influenced on a systemic and an individual level. For the individual, metacognition (internal withdrawal from the decision-making process) and debiasing strategies, such as verification, falsification and rule out worst-case scenarios, can lead to improved diagnostic decisions making.

Image processing and applications based on visualizing navigation service

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hwang, Chyi-Wen

2015-07-01

When facing the "overabundant" of semantic web information, in this paper, the researcher proposes the hierarchical classification and visualizing RIA (Rich Internet Application) navigation system: Concept Map (CM) + Semantic Structure (SS) + the Knowledge on Demand (KOD) service. The aim of the Multimedia processing and empirical applications testing, was to investigating the utility and usability of this visualizing navigation strategy in web communication design, into whether it enables the user to retrieve and construct their personal knowledge or not. Furthermore, based on the segment markets theory in the Marketing model, to propose a User Interface (UI) classification strategy and formulate a set of hypermedia design principles for further UI strategy and e-learning resources in semantic web communication. These research findings: (1) Irrespective of whether the simple declarative knowledge or the complex declarative knowledge model is used, the "CM + SS + KOD navigation system" has a better cognition effect than the "Non CM + SS + KOD navigation system". However, for the" No web design experience user", the navigation system does not have an obvious cognition effect. (2) The essential of classification in semantic web communication design: Different groups of user have a diversity of preference needs and different cognitive styles in the CM + SS + KOD navigation system.

Understanding and shifting drug-related decisions: Contributions of automatic decision-making processes

PubMed Central

Carpenter, Kenneth M.; Bedi, Gillinder; Vadhan, Nehal P.

2015-01-01

While substance use is common, only a minority of individuals who use drugs or alcohol develop problematic use. An understanding of the factors underlying the transition from substance use to misuse may improve prevention and intervention efforts. A key feature of substance misuse is ongoing decisions to use drugs or alcohol despite escalating negative consequences. Research findings highlight the importance of both relatively automatic, associative cognitive processes and relatively controlled, deliberative, and rational-analytic cognitive processes, for understanding situational decisions to use drugs. In this review, we discuss several cognitive component processes that may contribute to decision-making that promotes substance use and misuse, with a focus on more automatic processes. A growing body of evidence indicates that relative differences in the strength of these component processes can account for individual differences in the transition from substance use to misuse, and may offer important avenues for developing novel intervention strategies. PMID:26084667

Understanding and shifting drug-related decisions: contributions of automatic decision-making processes.

PubMed

Carpenter, Kenneth M; Bedi, Gillinder; Vadhan, Nehal P

2015-08-01

While substance use is common, only a minority of individuals who use drugs or alcohol develop problematic use. An understanding of the factors underlying the transition from substance use to misuse may improve prevention and intervention efforts. A key feature of substance misuse is ongoing decisions to use drugs or alcohol despite escalating negative consequences. Research findings highlight the importance of both relatively automatic, associative cognitive processes and relatively controlled, deliberative, and rational-analytic cognitive processes, for understanding situational decisions to use drugs. In this review, we discuss several cognitive component processes that may contribute to decision-making that promotes substance use and misuse, with a focus on more automatic processes. A growing body of evidence indicates that relative differences in the strength of these component processes can account for individual differences in the transition from substance use to misuse and may offer important avenues for developing novel intervention strategies.

Effects of Cognitive Training with and without Aerobic Exercise on Cognitively-Demanding Everyday Activities

PubMed Central

McDaniel, Mark A.; Binder, Ellen F.; Bugg, Julie M.; Waldum, Emily R.; Dufault, Carolyn; Meyer, Amanda; Johanning, Jennifer; Zheng, Jie; Schechtman, Kenneth B.; Kudelka, Chris

2015-01-01

We investigated the potential benefits of a novel cognitive training protocol and an aerobic exercise intervention, both individually and in concert, on older adults’ performances in laboratory simulations of select real-world tasks. The cognitive training focused on a range of cognitive processes, including attentional coordination, prospective memory, and retrospective-memory retrieval, processes that are likely involved in many everyday tasks, and that decline with age. Primary outcome measures were three laboratory tasks that simulated everyday activities: Cooking Breakfast, Virtual Week, and Memory for Health Information. Two months of cognitive training improved older adults’ performance on prospective memory tasks embedded in Virtual Week. Cognitive training, either alone or in combination with six months of aerobic exercise, did not significantly improve Cooking Breakfast or Memory for Health Information. Although gains in aerobic power were comparable to previous reports, aerobic exercise did not produce improvements for the primary outcome measures. Discussion focuses on the possibility that cognitive training programs that include explicit strategy instruction and varied practice contexts may confer gains to older adults for performance on cognitively challenging everyday tasks. PMID:25244489

Three Strategies for the Critical Use of Statistical Methods in Psychological Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campitelli, Guillermo; Macbeth, Guillermo; Ospina, Raydonal; Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando

2017-01-01

We present three strategies to replace the null hypothesis statistical significance testing approach in psychological research: (1) visual representation of cognitive processes and predictions, (2) visual representation of data distributions and choice of the appropriate distribution for analysis, and (3) model comparison. The three strategies…

The Relationship between College Students' Executive Functioning and Study Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petersen, Rebecca; Lavelle, Ellen; Guarino, A. J.

2006-01-01

Working from a cognitive perspective, a range of studies have supported the relationship between study strategies and academic performance of college students (e.g., Peverly, Brobst, Graham, & Shaw, 2003). In particular, self-regulatory processes comprised of learner-directed activities geared toward promoting academic achievement have been…

Cognitive Strategies and Skill Acquisition.

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-02-09

Behavior (Acadmic Press, N.Y., 1974). ( 9). Craik , F.I.M., 8 Lockhart , R.S., Levels of processing : A frame- work for memory research, Journal of...C.D., a Stein, B.S., Some general constraints on learning and memory research, in: F.I.M. Craik 6 L.S. Cermak.(eds.), Levels of Processing and...instructions, or instructions in the use of particular strategies. (Belmont & Butterfield, 1971; Craik & Lockhart , 1972; Weinstein, 1978) have had

The use of cognitive task analysis to improve the learning of percutaneous tracheostomy placement.

PubMed

Sullivan, Maura E; Brown, Carlos V R; Peyre, Sarah E; Salim, Ali; Martin, Matthew; Towfigh, Shirin; Grunwald, Tiffany

2007-01-01

The purpose of the current study was to determine the effectiveness of using cognitive task analysis (CTA) to develop a curriculum to teach the behavioral skills and the cognitive strategies of a percutaneous tracheostomy (PT) placement. Postgraduate 2, 3, and 4 general surgery residents were randomly assigned to either the CTA group (N = 9) or the control group (N = 11). The CTA group was taught percutaneous tracheostomy placement using the CTA curriculum. The control group received the traditional curriculum. The CTA group performed significantly higher on the PT procedure at 1 month (CTA: 43.5 +/- 3.7, control 35.2 +/- 3.9, P = .001) and at 6 months post-instruction (CTA: 39.4 +/- 4.2, control: 31.8 +/- 5.8, P = .004). In addition, the CTA group demonstrated superior cognitive strategies than the control group (CTA: 25.4 +/- 5.3, control: 19.2 +/- 2.0, P = .004). The use of CTA was effective in improving the cognitive processes and technical skills of performing a PT for surgical residents.

Understanding cognitive processes behind acceptance or refusal of phase I trials.

PubMed

Pravettoni, Gabriella; Mazzocco, Ketti; Gorini, Alessandra; Curigliano, Giuseppe

2016-04-01

Participation in phase I trials gives patients the chance to obtain control over their disease by trying an experimental therapy. The patients' vulnerability, the informed consent process aiming at understanding the purpose and potential benefits of the phase I trial, and the complexity of the studies may impact the patient's final decision. Emotionally difficult health conditions may induce patients to succumb to cognitive biases, allocating attention only on a part of the provided information. Filling the gap in patients' information process can foster the implementation of strategies to help physicians tailor clinical trials' communication providing personalized support and tailored medical information around patients' need, so avoiding cognitive biases in patients and improving informed shared decision quality. The aim of the present review article focuses on the analysis of cognitive and psychological factors that affect patients' decision to participate or not to early phase clinical trials. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Can training in a real-time strategy video game attenuate cognitive decline in older adults?

PubMed

Basak, Chandramallika; Boot, Walter R; Voss, Michelle W; Kramer, Arthur F

2008-12-01

Declines in various cognitive abilities, particularly executive control functions, are observed in older adults. An important goal of cognitive training is to slow or reverse these age-related declines. However, opinion is divided in the literature regarding whether cognitive training can engender transfer to a variety of cognitive skills in older adults. In the current study, the authors trained older adults in a real-time strategy video game for 23.5 hr in an effort to improve their executive functions. A battery of cognitive tasks, including tasks of executive control and visuospatial skills, were assessed before, during, and after video-game training. The trainees improved significantly in the measures of game performance. They also improved significantly more than the control participants in executive control functions, such as task switching, working memory, visual short-term memory, and reasoning. Individual differences in changes in game performance were correlated with improvements in task switching. The study has implications for the enhancement of executive control processes of older adults. Copyright (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

More than one way to see it: Individual heuristics in avian visual computation

PubMed Central

Ravignani, Andrea; Westphal-Fitch, Gesche; Aust, Ulrike; Schlumpp, Martin M.; Fitch, W. Tecumseh

2015-01-01

Comparative pattern learning experiments investigate how different species find regularities in sensory input, providing insights into cognitive processing in humans and other animals. Past research has focused either on one species’ ability to process pattern classes or different species’ performance in recognizing the same pattern, with little attention to individual and species-specific heuristics and decision strategies. We trained and tested two bird species, pigeons (Columba livia) and kea (Nestor notabilis, a parrot species), on visual patterns using touch-screen technology. Patterns were composed of several abstract elements and had varying degrees of structural complexity. We developed a model selection paradigm, based on regular expressions, that allowed us to reconstruct the specific decision strategies and cognitive heuristics adopted by a given individual in our task. Individual birds showed considerable differences in the number, type and heterogeneity of heuristic strategies adopted. Birds’ choices also exhibited consistent species-level differences. Kea adopted effective heuristic strategies, based on matching learned bigrams to stimulus edges. Individual pigeons, in contrast, adopted an idiosyncratic mix of strategies that included local transition probabilities and global string similarity. Although performance was above chance and quite high for kea, no individual of either species provided clear evidence of learning exactly the rule used to generate the training stimuli. Our results show that similar behavioral outcomes can be achieved using dramatically different strategies and highlight the dangers of combining multiple individuals in a group analysis. These findings, and our general approach, have implications for the design of future pattern learning experiments, and the interpretation of comparative cognition research more generally. PMID:26113444

The Utility of Cognitive Plausibility in Language Acquisition Modeling: Evidence From Word Segmentation.

PubMed

Phillips, Lawrence; Pearl, Lisa

2015-11-01

The informativity of a computational model of language acquisition is directly related to how closely it approximates the actual acquisition task, sometimes referred to as the model's cognitive plausibility. We suggest that though every computational model necessarily idealizes the modeled task, an informative language acquisition model can aim to be cognitively plausible in multiple ways. We discuss these cognitive plausibility checkpoints generally and then apply them to a case study in word segmentation, investigating a promising Bayesian segmentation strategy. We incorporate cognitive plausibility by using an age-appropriate unit of perceptual representation, evaluating the model output in terms of its utility, and incorporating cognitive constraints into the inference process. Our more cognitively plausible model shows a beneficial effect of cognitive constraints on segmentation performance. One interpretation of this effect is as a synergy between the naive theories of language structure that infants may have and the cognitive constraints that limit the fidelity of their inference processes, where less accurate inference approximations are better when the underlying assumptions about how words are generated are less accurate. More generally, these results highlight the utility of incorporating cognitive plausibility more fully into computational models of language acquisition. Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Understanding the cognitive processes involved in writing to learn.

PubMed

Arnold, Kathleen M; Umanath, Sharda; Thio, Kara; Reilly, Walter B; McDaniel, Mark A; Marsh, Elizabeth J

2017-06-01

Writing is often used as a tool for learning. However, empirical support for the benefits of writing-to-learn is mixed, likely because the literature conflates diverse activities (e.g., summaries, term papers) under the single umbrella of writing-to-learn. Following recent trends in the writing-to-learn literature, the authors focus on the underlying cognitive processes. They draw on the largely independent writing-to-learn and cognitive psychology learning literatures to identify important cognitive processes. The current experiment examines learning from 3 writing tasks (and 1 nonwriting control), with an emphasis on whether or not the tasks engaged retrieval. Tasks that engaged retrieval (essay writing and free recall) led to better final test performance than those that did not (note taking and highlighting). Individual differences in structure building (the ability to construct mental representations of narratives; Gernsbacher, Varner, & Faust, 1990) modified this effect; skilled structure builders benefited more from essay writing and free recall than did less skilled structure builders. Further, more essay-like responses led to better performance, implicating the importance of additional cognitive processes such as reorganization and elaboration. The results highlight how both task instructions and individual differences affect the cognitive processes involved when writing-to-learn, with consequences for the effectiveness of the learning strategy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Aiming to complete the matrix: Eye-movement analysis of processing strategies in children's relational thinking.

PubMed

Chen, Zhe; Honomichl, Ryan; Kennedy, Diane; Tan, Enda

2016-06-01

The present study examines 5- to 8-year-old children's relation reasoning in solving matrix completion tasks. This study incorporates a componential analysis, an eye-tracking method, and a microgenetic approach, which together allow an investigation of the cognitive processing strategies involved in the development and learning of children's relational thinking. Developmental differences in problem-solving performance were largely due to deficiencies in engaging the processing strategies that are hypothesized to facilitate problem-solving performance. Feedback designed to highlight the relations between objects within the matrix improved 5- and 6-year-olds' problem-solving performance, as well as their use of appropriate processing strategies. Furthermore, children who engaged the processing strategies early on in the task were more likely to solve subsequent problems in later phases. These findings suggest that encoding relations, integrating rules, completing the model, and generalizing strategies across tasks are critical processing components that underlie relational thinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Time course of emotion-related responding during distraction and reappraisal.

PubMed

Schönfelder, Sandra; Kanske, Philipp; Heissler, Janine; Wessa, Michèle

2014-09-01

Theoretical accounts of emotion regulation (ER) discriminate various cognitive strategies to voluntarily modify emotional states. Amongst these, attentional deployment (i.e. distraction) and cognitive change (i.e. reappraisal), have been shown to successfully down-regulate emotions. Neuroimaging studies found that both strategies differentially engage neural structures associated with selective attention, working memory and cognitive control. The aim of this study was to further delineate similarities and differences between the ER strategies reappraisal and distraction by investigating their temporal brain dynamics using event-related potentials (ERPs) and their patterns of facial expressive behavior. Twenty-one participants completed an ER experiment in which they had to either passively view positive, neutral and negative pictures, reinterpret them to down-regulate affective responses (reappraisal), or solve a concurrently presented mathematical equation (distraction). Results demonstrate the efficacy of both strategies in the subjective control of emotion, accompanied by reductions of facial expressive activity (Corrugator supercilii and Zygomaticus major). ERP results indicated that distraction, compared with reappraisal, yielded a stronger and earlier attenuation of the late positive potential (LPP) magnitude for negative pictures. For positive pictures, only distraction but not reappraisal had significant effect on LPP attenuation. The results support the process model of ER, separating subtypes of cognitive strategies based on their specific time course. © The Author (2013). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Comparing decision making between cancer patients and the general population: thoughts, emotions, or social influence?

PubMed

Yang, Z Janet; McComas, Katherine A; Gay, Geri K; Leonard, John P; Dannenberg, Andrew J; Dillon, Hildy

2012-01-01

This study extends a risk information seeking and processing model to explore the relative effect of cognitive processing strategies, positive and negative emotions, and normative beliefs on individuals' decision making about potential health risks. Most previous research based on this theoretical framework has examined environmental risks. Applying this risk communication model to study health decision making presents an opportunity to explore theoretical boundaries of the model, while also bringing this research to bear on a pressing medical issue: low enrollment in clinical trials. Comparative analysis of data gathered from 2 telephone surveys of a representative national sample (n = 500) and a random sample of cancer patients (n = 411) indicated that emotions played a more substantive role in cancer patients' decisions to enroll in a potential trial, whereas cognitive processing strategies and normative beliefs had greater influences on the decisions of respondents from the national sample.

Acceptance Presentation and Research Study Summary: Research in Educational Communications and Technology. 1982 Association for Educational Communications and Technology Young Researcher Award, Research and Theory Division.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canelos, James

An internal cognitive variable--mental imagery representation--was studied using a set of three information-processing strategies under external stimulus visual display conditions for various learning levels. The copy strategy provided verbal and visual dual-coding and required formation of a vivid mental image. The relational strategy combined…

An Analytics-Based Approach to Managing Cognitive Load by Using Log Data of Learning Management Systems and Footprints of Social Media

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yen, Cheng-Huang; Chen, I-Chuan; Lai, Su-Chun; Chuang, Yea-Ru

2015-01-01

Traces of learning behaviors generally provide insights into learners and the learning processes that they employ. In this article, a learning-analytics-based approach is proposed for managing cognitive load by adjusting the instructional strategies used in online courses. The technology-based learning environment examined in this study involved a…

The Role of Self-Regulation and Personal Agency Beliefs: A Psychoeducational Approach with Asian High School Students in Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chong, Wan Har

2005-01-01

This article presents a socio-cognitive approach to psychoeducational group work in which elements of self-regulatory and self processes are incorporated to facilitate student learning and problem-solving. The role of personal agency beliefs and the use of metacognitive, cognitive, and affective strategies in fostering students with a sense of…

"Who I Work with Is Important": Dyslexic Students' Narratives about the Benefits of Grouping for Instruction in Caribbean Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blackman, Stacey

2010-01-01

This article utilises a multiple case study strategy to explore the narratives of Caribbean students with dyslexia on grouping for instruction. It presents a model on learner engagement which highlights students' cognitions about the social and cognitive aspects of learning and the processes that contribute to building knowledge and understanding.…

Korean Learners' Metacognition in Reading Using Think-Aloud Procedures with a Focus on Regulation of Cognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Hyang-Il; Cha, Kyung-Ae

2015-01-01

The primary goal of this study was to explore the changes that four Korean university students made in their regulation of cognition during reading processes. The students were trained using explicit reading strategy instruction based on the CALLA model. To this end, first, metacognition was framed and categorized by the definition from Baker and…

Impact of negative cognitions about body image on inflammatory status in relation to health.

PubMed

Černelič-Bizjak, Maša; Jenko-Pražnikar, Zala

2014-01-01

Evidence suggests that body dissatisfaction may relate to biological processes and that negative cognitions can influence physical health through the complex pathways linking psychological and biological factors. The present study investigates the relationships between body image satisfaction, inflammation (cytokine levels), aerobic fitness level and obesity in 96 middle-aged men and women (48 normal and 48 overweight). All participants underwent measurements of body satisfaction, body composition, serological measurements of inflammation and aerobic capabilities assessment. Body image dissatisfaction uniquely predicted inflammation biomarkers, C-reactive protein and tumour necrosis factor-α, even when controlled for obesity indicators. Thus, body image dissatisfaction is strongly linked to inflammation processes and may promote the increase in cytokines, representing a relative metabolic risk, independent of most traditional risk factors, such as gender, body mass index and intra-abdominal (waist to hip ratio) adiposity. Results highlight the fact that person's negative cognitions need to be considered in psychologically based interventions and strategies in treatment of obesity, including strategies for health promotion. Results contribute to the knowledge base of the complex pathways in the association between psychological factors and physical illness and some important attempts were made to explain the psychological pathways linking cognitions with inflammation.

The response strategy and the place strategy in a plus-maze have different sensitivities to devaluation of expected outcome.

PubMed

Kosaki, Yutaka; Pearce, John M; McGregor, Anthony

2018-04-10

Previous studies have suggested that spatial navigation can be achieved with at least two distinct learning processes, involving either cognitive map-like representations of the local environment, referred to as the "place strategy", or simple stimulus-response (S-R) associations, the "response strategy". A similar distinction between cognitive/behavioral processes has been made in the context of non-spatial, instrumental conditioning, with the definition of two processes concerning the sensitivity of a given behavior to the expected value of its outcome as well as to the response-outcome contingency ("goal-directed action" and "S-R habit"). Here we investigated whether these two versions of dichotomist definitions of learned behavior, one spatial and the other non-spatial, correspond to each other in a formal way. Specifically, we assessed the goal-directed nature of two navigational strategies, using a combination of an outcome devaluation procedure and a spatial probe trial frequently used to dissociate the two navigational strategies. In Experiment 1, rats trained in a dual-solution T-maze task were subjected to an extinction probe trial from the opposite start arm, with or without prefeeding-induced devaluation of the expected outcome. We found that a non-significant preference for the place strategy in the non-devalued condition was completely reversed after devaluation, such that significantly more animals displayed the use of the response strategy. The result suggests that the place strategy is sensitive to the expected value of the outcome, while the response strategy is not. In Experiment 2, rats with hippocampal lesions showed significant reliance on the response strategy, regardless of whether the expected outcome was devalued or not. The result thus offers further evidence that the response strategy conforms to the definition of an outcome-insensitive, habitual form of instrumental behavior. These results together attest a formal correspondence between two types of dual-process accounts of animal learning and behavior. © 2018 The Authors Hippocampus Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Effects of β-hydroxy-β-methyl butyrate on working memory and cognitive flexibility in an animal model of aging.

PubMed

Hankosky, Emily R; Sherrill, Luke K; Ruvola, Lauren A; Haake, Rachel M; Kim, Taehyeon; Hammerslag, Lindsey R; Kougias, Daniel G; Juraska, Janice M; Gulley, Joshua M

2017-09-01

Normal aging results in cognitive decline and nutritional interventions have been suggested as potential approaches for mitigating these deficits. Here, we used rats to investigate the effects of short- and long-term dietary supplementation with the leucine metabolite β-hydroxy-β-methyl butyrate (HMB) on working memory and cognitive flexibility. Beginning ∼12 months of age, male and female Long-Evans rats were given twice daily access to sipper tubes containing calcium HMB (450 mg/kg) or vehicle (285 mg/kg calcium lactate) in a sucrose solution (20% w/v). Supplementation continued for 1 or 7 months (middle- and old-age (OA) groups, respectively) before testing began. Working memory was assessed by requiring rats to respond on a previously sampled lever following various delays. Cognitive flexibility was assessed by training rats to earn food according to a visual strategy and then, once acquired, shifting to an egocentric response strategy. Treatment with HMB improved working memory performance in middle-age (MA) males and OA rats of both sexes. In the cognitive flexibility task, there was a significant age-dependent deficit in acquisition of the visual strategy that was not apparent in OA males treated with HMB. Furthermore, HMB ameliorated an apparent deficit in visual strategy acquisition in MA females. Together, these findings suggest that daily nutritional supplementation with HMB facilitates learning and improves working memory performance. As such, HMB supplementation may mitigate age-related cognitive deficits and may therefore be an effective tool to combat this undesirable feature of the aging process.

Practice Evaluation Strategies Among Social Workers: Why an Evidence-Informed Dual-Process Theory Still Matters.

PubMed

Davis, Thomas D

2017-01-01

Practice evaluation strategies range in style from the formal-analytic tools of single-subject designs, rapid assessment instruments, algorithmic steps in evidence-informed practice, and computer software applications, to the informal-interactive tools of clinical supervision, consultation with colleagues, use of client feedback, and clinical experience. The purpose of this article is to provide practice researchers in social work with an evidence-informed theory that is capable of explaining both how and why social workers use practice evaluation strategies to self-monitor the effectiveness of their interventions in terms of client change. The author delineates the theoretical contours and consequences of what is called dual-process theory. Drawing on evidence-informed advances in the cognitive and social neurosciences, the author identifies among everyday social workers a theoretically stable, informal-interactive tool preference that is a cognitively necessary, sufficient, and stand-alone preference that requires neither the supplementation nor balance of formal-analytic tools. The author's delineation of dual-process theory represents a theoretical contribution in the century-old attempt to understand how and why social workers evaluate their practice the way they do.

Strategy generalization across orientation tasks: testing a computational cognitive model.

PubMed

Gunzelmann, Glenn

2008-07-08

Humans use their spatial information processing abilities flexibly to facilitate problem solving and decision making in a variety of tasks. This article explores the question of whether a general strategy can be adapted for performing two different spatial orientation tasks by testing the predictions of a computational cognitive model. Human performance was measured on an orientation task requiring participants to identify the location of a target either on a map (find-on-map) or within an egocentric view of a space (find-in-scene). A general strategy instantiated in a computational cognitive model of the find-on-map task, based on the results from Gunzelmann and Anderson (2006), was adapted to perform both tasks and used to generate performance predictions for a new study. The qualitative fit of the model to the human data supports the view that participants were able to tailor a general strategy to the requirements of particular spatial tasks. The quantitative differences between the predictions of the model and the performance of human participants in the new experiment expose individual differences in sample populations. The model provides a means of accounting for those differences and a framework for understanding how human spatial abilities are applied to naturalistic spatial tasks that involve reasoning with maps. 2008 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Age-related similarities and differences in monitoring spatial cognition.

PubMed

Ariel, Robert; Moffat, Scott D

2018-05-01

Spatial cognitive performance is impaired in later adulthood but it is unclear whether the metacognitive processes involved in monitoring spatial cognitive performance are also compromised. Inaccurate monitoring could affect whether people choose to engage in tasks that require spatial thinking and also the strategies they use in spatial domains such as navigation. The current experiment examined potential age differences in monitoring spatial cognitive performance in a variety of spatial domains including visual-spatial working memory, spatial orientation, spatial visualization, navigation, and place learning. Younger and older adults completed a 2D mental rotation test, 3D mental rotation test, paper folding test, spatial memory span test, two virtual navigation tasks, and a cognitive mapping test. Participants also made metacognitive judgments of performance (confidence judgments, judgments of learning, or navigation time estimates) on each trial for all spatial tasks. Preference for allocentric or egocentric navigation strategies was also measured. Overall, performance was poorer and confidence in performance was lower for older adults than younger adults. In most spatial domains, the absolute and relative accuracy of metacognitive judgments was equivalent for both age groups. However, age differences in monitoring accuracy (specifically relative accuracy) emerged in spatial tasks involving navigation. Confidence in navigating for a target location also mediated age differences in allocentric navigation strategy use. These findings suggest that with the possible exception of navigation monitoring, spatial cognition may be spared from age-related decline even though spatial cognition itself is impaired in older age.

Overcoming Innocents' Naiveté: Pre-interrogation Decision-making Among Innocent Suspects.

PubMed

Scherr, Kyle C; Alberts, Kimberly M; Franks, Andrew S; Hawkins, Ian

2016-07-01

Suspects, especially innocent ones, are highly susceptible to waiving their interrogation rights. This research tested the ability of two strategies to overcome innocent suspects' willingness to waive their rights. One strategy was based on the social influence of scarcity (i.e., not constraining the pre-interrogation time limit). The other strategy focused on disrupting individuals' cognitive fluency during the decision-making process (i.e., violating their induced expectation of offering a waiver). Disrupting innocent individuals' cognitive fluency increased their willingness to invoke their rights and, notably, was not qualified by interactions with any other factors. However, scarcity did not influence individuals' pre-interrogation decision-making. Results also further established the association between innocent individuals' naïve mindset and their willingness to waive their rights - specifically, innocents' willingness to waive their rights increased with the strength of their just world beliefs. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed. The importance and benefit of reforming pre-interrogation protocols using fair and feasible strategies that would disrupt suspects' cognitive fluency are emphasized. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

On the generalizability of the Chunk-and-Pass processing approach: Perspectives from language acquisition and music.

PubMed

Lakshmanan, Usha; Graham, Robert E

2016-01-01

Christiansen & Chater (C&C) offer the Chunk-and-Pass strategy as a language processing approach allowing humans to make sense of incoming language in the face of cognitive and perceptual constraints. We propose that the Chunk-and-Pass strategy is not adequate to extend universally across languages (accounting for typologically diverse languages), nor is it sufficient to generalize to other auditory modalities such as music.

Behavioral, Cognitive and Social Science Research in the Military

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-08-01

Education The objective of this project is to demonstrate empirically based cost-effective training strategies , with particular emphasis on how to best ... best to train soldiers for peacekeeping missions and how those techniques differ from training soldiers to take part in war. We want to understand...and formed a new strategic planning process for the entire S&T Program. The foundation of this process is the Defense S&T Strategy , which along with

A Competitive and Experiential Assignment in Search Engine Optimization Strategy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clarke, Theresa B.; Clarke, Irvine, III

2014-01-01

Despite an increase in ad spending and demand for employees with expertise in search engine optimization (SEO), methods for teaching this important marketing strategy have received little coverage in the literature. Using Bloom's cognitive goals hierarchy as a framework, this experiential assignment provides a process for educators who may be new…

Overcoming Obstacles and Academic Hope: An Examination of Factors Promoting Effective Academic Success Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hansen, Michele Joann; Trujillo, Daniel J.; Boland, Donna L.; MacKinnon, Joyce L.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the underlying non-cognitive processes and institutional factors that allowed first-year students to enact effective strategies for attaining academic success and persisting despite obstacles. The varying levels of academic preparation and unique obstacles faced by the student participants…

Using Comparison of Multiple Strategies in the Mathematics Classroom: Lessons Learned and Next Steps

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durkin, Kelley; Star, Jon R.; Rittle-Johnson, Bethany

2017-01-01

Comparison is a fundamental cognitive process that can support learning in a variety of domains, including mathematics. The current paper aims to summarize empirical findings that support recommendations on using comparison of multiple strategies in mathematics classrooms. We report the results of our classroom-based research on using comparison…

Increased prolactin levels are associated with impaired processing speed in subjects with early psychosis.

PubMed

Montalvo, Itziar; Gutiérrez-Zotes, Alfonso; Creus, Marta; Monseny, Rosa; Ortega, Laura; Franch, Joan; Lawrie, Stephen M; Reynolds, Rebecca M; Vilella, Elisabet; Labad, Javier

2014-01-01

Hyperprolactinaemia, a common side effect of some antipsychotic drugs, is also present in drug-naïve psychotic patients and subjects at risk for psychosis. Recent studies in non-psychiatric populations suggest that increased prolactin may have negative effects on cognition. The aim of our study was to explore whether high plasma prolactin levels are associated with poorer cognitive functioning in subjects with early psychoses. We studied 107 participants: 29 healthy subjects and 78 subjects with an early psychosis (55 psychotic disorders with <3 years of illness, 23 high-risk subjects). Cognitive assessment was performed with the MATRICS Cognitive Consensus Cognitive Battery, and prolactin levels were determined as well as total cortisol levels in plasma. Psychopathological status was assessed and the use of psychopharmacological treatments (antipsychotics, antidepressants, benzodiazepines) recorded. Prolactin levels were negatively associated with cognitive performance in processing speed, in patients with a psychotic disorder and high-risk subjects. In the latter group, increased prolactin levels were also associated with impaired reasoning and problem solving and poorer general cognition. In a multiple linear regression analysis conducted in both high-risk and psychotic patients, controlling for potential confounders, prolactin and benzodiazepines were independently related to poorer cognitive performance in the speed of processing domain. A mediation analysis showed that both prolactin and benzodiazepine treatment act as mediators of the relationship between risperidone/paliperidone treatment and speed of processing. These results suggest that increased prolactin levels are associated with impaired processing speed in early psychosis. If these results are confirmed in future studies, strategies targeting reduction of prolactin levels may improve cognition in this population.

Strategic cognitive sequencing: a computational cognitive neuroscience approach.

PubMed

Herd, Seth A; Krueger, Kai A; Kriete, Trenton E; Huang, Tsung-Ren; Hazy, Thomas E; O'Reilly, Randall C

2013-01-01

We address strategic cognitive sequencing, the "outer loop" of human cognition: how the brain decides what cognitive process to apply at a given moment to solve complex, multistep cognitive tasks. We argue that this topic has been neglected relative to its importance for systematic reasons but that recent work on how individual brain systems accomplish their computations has set the stage for productively addressing how brain regions coordinate over time to accomplish our most impressive thinking. We present four preliminary neural network models. The first addresses how the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and basal ganglia (BG) cooperate to perform trial-and-error learning of short sequences; the next, how several areas of PFC learn to make predictions of likely reward, and how this contributes to the BG making decisions at the level of strategies. The third models address how PFC, BG, parietal cortex, and hippocampus can work together to memorize sequences of cognitive actions from instruction (or "self-instruction"). The last shows how a constraint satisfaction process can find useful plans. The PFC maintains current and goal states and associates from both of these to find a "bridging" state, an abstract plan. We discuss how these processes could work together to produce strategic cognitive sequencing and discuss future directions in this area.

Understanding pictorial information in biology: students' cognitive activities and visual reading strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brandstetter, Miriam; Sandmann, Angela; Florian, Christine

2017-06-01

In classroom, scientific contents are increasingly communicated through visual forms of representations. Students' learning outcomes rely on their ability to read and understand pictorial information. Understanding pictorial information in biology requires cognitive effort and can be challenging to students. Yet evidence-based knowledge about students' visual reading strategies during the process of understanding pictorial information is pending. Therefore, 42 students at the age of 14-15 were asked to think aloud while trying to understand visual representations of the blood circulatory system and the patellar reflex. A category system was developed differentiating 16 categories of cognitive activities. A Principal Component Analysis revealed two underlying patterns of activities that can be interpreted as visual reading strategies: 1. Inferences predominated by using a problem-solving schema; 2. Inferences predominated by recall of prior content knowledge. Each pattern consists of a specific set of cognitive activities that reflect selection, organisation and integration of pictorial information as well as different levels of expertise. The results give detailed insights into cognitive activities of students who were required to understand the pictorial information of complex organ systems. They provide an evidence-based foundation to derive instructional aids that can promote students pictorial-information-based learning on different levels of expertise.

Incremental Validity of the Subscales of the Emotional Regulation Related to Testing Scale for Predicting Test Anxiety

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feldt, Ronald; Lindley, Kyla; Louison, Rebecca; Roe, Allison; Timm, Megan; Utinkova, Nikola

2015-01-01

The Emotional Regulation Related to Testing Scale (ERT Scale) assesses strategies students use to regulate emotion related to academic testing. It has four dimensions: Cognitive Appraising Processes (CAP), Emotion-Focusing Processes (EFP), Task-Focusing Processes (TFP), and Regaining Task-Focusing Processes (RTFP). The study examined the factor…

Deliberation's blindsight: how cognitive load can improve judgments.

PubMed

Hoffmann, Janina A; von Helversen, Bettina; Rieskamp, Jörg

2013-06-01

Multitasking poses a major challenge in modern work environments by putting the worker under cognitive load. Performance decrements often occur when people are under high cognitive load because they switch to less demanding--and often less accurate--cognitive strategies. Although cognitive load disturbs performance over a wide range of tasks, it may also carry benefits. In the experiments reported here, we showed that judgment performance can increase under cognitive load. Participants solved a multiple-cue judgment task in which high performance could be achieved by using a similarity-based judgment strategy but not by using a more demanding rule-based judgment strategy. Accordingly, cognitive load induced a shift to a similarity-based judgment strategy, which consequently led to more accurate judgments. By contrast, shifting to a similarity-based strategy harmed judgments in a task best solved by using a rule-based strategy. These results show how important it is to consider the cognitive strategies people rely on to understand how people perform in demanding work environments.

Investigation of potential cognitive tests for use with older adults in audiology clinics.

PubMed

Vaughan, Nancy; Storzbach, Daniel; Furukawa, Izumi

2008-01-01

Cognitive declines in working memory and processing speed are hallmarks of aging. Deficits in speech understanding also are seen in aging individuals. A clinical test to determine whether the cognitive aging changes contribute to aging speech understanding difficulties would be helpful for determining rehabilitation strategies in audiology clinics. To identify a clinical neurocognitive test or battery of tests that could be used in audiology clinics to help explain deficits in speech recognition in some older listeners. A correlational study examining the association between certain cognitive test scores and speech recognition performance. Speeded (time-compressed) speech was used to increase the cognitive processing load. Two hundred twenty-five adults aged 50 through 75 years were participants in this study. Both batteries of tests were administered to all participants in two separate sessions. A selected battery of neurocognitive tests and a time-compressed speech recognition test battery using various rates of speech were administered. Principal component analysis was used to extract the important component factors from each set of tests, and regression models were constructed to examine the association between tests and to identify the neurocognitive test most strongly associated with speech recognition performance. A sequencing working memory test (Letter-Number Sequencing [LNS]) was most strongly associated with rapid speech understanding. The association between the LNS test results and the compressed sentence recognition scores (CSRS) was strong even when age and hearing loss were controlled. The LNS is a sequencing test that provides information about temporal processing at the cognitive level and may prove useful in diagnosis of speech understanding problems, and in the development of aural rehabilitation and training strategies.

Memory and multitasking performance during acute allergic inflammation in seasonal allergic rhinitis.

PubMed

Trikojat, K; Buske-Kirschbaum, A; Plessow, F; Schmitt, J; Fischer, R

2017-04-01

In previous research, patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR) showed poorer school and work performance during periods of acute allergic inflammation, supporting the idea of an impact of SAR on cognitive functions. However, the specific cognitive domains particularly vulnerable to inflammatory processes are unclear. In this study, the influence of SAR on memory and multitasking performance, as two potentially vulnerable cognitive domains essential in everyday life functioning, was investigated in patients with SAR. Non-medicated patients with SAR (n = 41) and healthy non-allergic controls (n = 42) performed a dual-task paradigm and a verbal learning and memory test during and out of symptomatic allergy periods (pollen vs. non-pollen season). Disease-related factors (e.g. symptom severity, duration of symptoms, duration of disease) and allergy-related quality of life were evaluated as potential influences of cognitive performance. During the symptomatic allergy period, patients showed (1) poorer performance in word list-based learning (P = 0.028) and (2) a general slowing in processing speed (P < 0.001) and a shift in processing strategy (P < 0.001) in multitasking. Yet, typical parameters indicating specific multitasking costs were not affected. A significant negative association was found between learning performance and duration of disease (r = -0.451, P = 0.004), whereas symptom severity (r = 0.326; P = 0.037) and quality of life (r = 0.379; P = 0.015) were positively associated with multitasking strategy. Our findings suggest that SAR has a differentiated and complex impact on cognitive functions, which should be considered in the management of SAR symptoms. They also call attention to the importance of selecting sensitive measures and carefully interpreting cognitive outcomes. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

COGNITIVE RESERVE IN AGING

PubMed Central

Tucker, Adrienne M.; Stern, Yaakov

2011-01-01

Cognitive reserve explains why those with higher IQ, education, occupational attainment, or participation in leisure activities evidence less severe clinical or cognitive changes in the presence of age-related or Alzheimer’s disease pathology. Specifically, the cognitive reserve hypothesis is that individual differences in how tasks are processed provide reserve against brain pathology. Cognitive reserve may allow for more flexible strategy usage, an ability thought to be captured by executive functions tasks. Additionally, cognitive reserve allows individuals greater neural efficiency, greater neural capacity, and the ability for compensation via the recruitment of additional brain regions. Taking cognitive reserve into account may allow for earlier detection and better characterization of age-related cognitive changes and Alzheimer’s disease. Importantly, cognitive reserve is not fixed but continues to evolve across the lifespan. Thus, even late-stage interventions hold promise to boost cognitive reserve and thus reduce the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related problems. PMID:21222591

The unconscious pursuit of emotion regulation: Implications for psychological health

PubMed Central

Hopp, Henrik; Troy, Allison S.; Mauss, Iris B.

2012-01-01

Because of the central involvement of emotion regulation in psychological health and the role that implicit (largely unconscious) processes appear to play in emotion regulation, implicit emotion-regulatory processes should play a vital role in psychological health. We hypothesised that implicitly valuing emotion regulation translates into better psychological health in individuals who use adaptive emotion-regulation strategies. A community sample of 222 individuals (56% women) who had recently experienced a stressful life event completed an implicit measure of emotion regulation valuing (ER-IAT) and reported on their habitual use of an important adaptive emotion-regulation strategy: cognitive reappraisal. We measured three domains of psychological health: well-being, depressive symptoms, and social adjustment. As hypothesised, individuals who implicitly valued emotion regulation exhibited greater levels of psychological health, but only when they were high in cognitive reappraisal use. These findings suggest that salutary effects of unconscious emotion-regulation processes depend on its interplay with conscious emotion-regulation processes. PMID:21432692

Reversal of age-related neural timing delays with training

PubMed Central

Anderson, Samira; White-Schwoch, Travis; Parbery-Clark, Alexandra; Kraus, Nina

2013-01-01

Neural slowing is commonly noted in older adults, with consequences for sensory, motor, and cognitive domains. One of the deleterious effects of neural slowing is impairment of temporal resolution; older adults, therefore, have reduced ability to process the rapid events that characterize speech, especially in noisy environments. Although hearing aids provide increased audibility, they cannot compensate for deficits in auditory temporal processing. Auditory training may provide a strategy to address these deficits. To that end, we evaluated the effects of auditory-based cognitive training on the temporal precision of subcortical processing of speech in noise. After training, older adults exhibited faster neural timing and experienced gains in memory, speed of processing, and speech-in-noise perception, whereas a matched control group showed no changes. Training was also associated with decreased variability of brainstem response peaks, suggesting a decrease in temporal jitter in response to a speech signal. These results demonstrate that auditory-based cognitive training can partially restore age-related deficits in temporal processing in the brain; this plasticity in turn promotes better cognitive and perceptual skills. PMID:23401541

To master or perform? Exploring relations between achievement goals and conceptual change learning.

PubMed

Ranellucci, John; Muis, Krista R; Duffy, Melissa; Wang, Xihui; Sampasivam, Lavanya; Franco, Gina M

2013-09-01

Research is needed to explore conceptual change in relation to achievement goal orientations and depth of processing. To address this need, we examined relations between achievement goals, use of deep versus shallow processing strategies, and conceptual change learning using a think-aloud protocol. Seventy-three undergraduate students were assessed on their prior knowledge and misconceptions about Newtonian mechanics, and then reported their achievement goals and participated in think-aloud protocols while reading Newtonian physics texts. A mastery-approach goal orientation positively predicted deep processing strategies, shallow processing strategies, and conceptual change. In contrast, a performance-approach goal orientation did not predict either of the processing strategies, but negatively predicted conceptual change. A performance-avoidance goal orientation negatively predicted deep processing strategies and conceptual change. Moreover, deep and shallow processing strategies positively predicted conceptual change as well as recall. Finally, both deep and shallow processing strategies mediated relations between mastery-approach goals and conceptual change. Results provide some support for Dole and Sinatra's (1998) Cognitive Reconstruction of Knowledge Model of conceptual change but also challenge specific facets with regard to the role of depth of processing in conceptual change. © 2012 The British Psychological Society.

Dealing with feeling: a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation.

PubMed

Webb, Thomas L; Miles, Eleanor; Sheeran, Paschal

2012-07-01

The present meta-analysis investigated the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation in modifying emotional outcomes as indexed by experiential, behavioral, and physiological measures. A systematic search of the literature identified 306 experimental comparisons of different emotion regulation (ER) strategies. ER instructions were coded according to a new taxonomy, and meta-analysis was used to evaluate the effectiveness of each strategy across studies. The findings revealed differences in effectiveness between ER processes: Attentional deployment had no effect on emotional outcomes (d(+) = 0.00), response modulation had a small effect (d(+) = 0.16), and cognitive change had a small-to-medium effect (d(+) = 0.36). There were also important within-process differences. We identified 7 types of attentional deployment, 4 types of cognitive change, and 4 types of response modulation, and these distinctions had a substantial influence on effectiveness. Whereas distraction was an effective way to regulate emotions (d(+) = 0.27), concentration was not (d(+) = -0.26). Similarly, suppressing the expression of emotion proved effective (d(+) = 0.32), but suppressing the experience of emotion or suppressing thoughts of the emotion-eliciting event did not (d(+) = -0.04 and -0.12, respectively). Finally, reappraising the emotional response proved less effective (d(+) = 0.23) than reappraising the emotional stimulus (d(+) = 0.36) or using perspective taking (d(+) = 0.45). The review also identified several moderators of strategy effectiveness including factors related to the (a) to-be-regulated emotion, (b) frequency of use and intended purpose of the ER strategy, (c) study design, and (d) study characteristics.

Helping medical learners recognise and manage unconscious bias toward certain patient groups.

PubMed

Teal, Cayla R; Gill, Anne C; Green, Alexander R; Crandall, Sonia

2012-01-01

For the last 30 years, developments in cognitive sciences have demonstrated that human behaviour, beliefs and attitudes are shaped by automatic and unconscious cognitive processes. Only recently has much attention been paid to how unconscious biases based on certain patient characteristics may: (i) result in behaviour that is preferential toward or against specific patients; (ii) influence treatment decisions, and (iii) adversely influence the patient-doctor relationship. Partly in response to accreditation requirements, medical educators are now exploring how they might help students and residents to develop awareness of their own potential biases and strategies to mitigate them. In this paper, we briefly review key cognition concepts and describe the limited published literature about educational strategies for addressing unconscious bias. We propose a developmental model to illustrate how individuals might move from absolute denial of unconscious bias to the integration of strategies to mitigate its influence on their interactions with patients and offer recommendations to educators and education researchers. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2012.

Preparing learners with partly incorrect intuitive prior knowledge for learning

PubMed Central

Ohst, Andrea; Fondu, Béatrice M. E.; Glogger, Inga; Nückles, Matthias; Renkl, Alexander

2014-01-01

Learners sometimes have incoherent and fragmented intuitive prior knowledge that is (partly) “incompatible” with the to-be-learned contents. Such knowledge in pieces can cause conceptual disorientation and cognitive overload while learning. We hypothesized that a pre-training intervention providing a generalized schema as a structuring framework for such knowledge in pieces would support (re)organizing-processes of prior knowledge and thus reduce unnecessary cognitive load during subsequent learning. Fifty-six student teachers participated in the experiment. A framework group underwent a pre-training intervention providing a generalized, categorical schema for categorizing primary learning strategies and related but different strategies as a cognitive framework for (re-)organizing their prior knowledge. Our control group received comparable factual information but no framework. Afterwards, all participants learned about primary learning strategies. The framework group claimed to possess higher levels of interest and self-efficacy, achieved higher learning outcomes, and learned more efficiently. Hence, providing a categorical framework can help overcome the barrier of incorrect prior knowledge in pieces. PMID:25071638

Diagnosing Crime and Diagnosing Disease: Bias Reduction Strategies in the Forensic and Clinical Sciences.

PubMed

Lockhart, Joseph J; Satya-Murti, Saty

2017-11-01

Cognitive effort is an essential part of both forensic and clinical decision-making. Errors occur in both fields because the cognitive process is complex and prone to bias. We performed a selective review of full-text English language literature on cognitive bias leading to diagnostic and forensic errors. Earlier work (1970-2000) concentrated on classifying and raising bias awareness. Recently (2000-2016), the emphasis has shifted toward strategies for "debiasing." While the forensic sciences have focused on the control of misleading contextual cues, clinical debiasing efforts have relied on checklists and hypothetical scenarios. No single generally applicable and effective bias reduction strategy has emerged so far. Generalized attempts at bias elimination have not been particularly successful. It is time to shift focus to the study of errors within specific domains, and how to best communicate uncertainty in order to improve decision making on the part of both the expert and the trier-of-fact. © 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Cognitive variables related to worry among adolescents: avoidance strategies and faulty beliefs about worry.

PubMed

Gosselin, Patrick; Langlois, Frédéric; Freeston, Mark H; Ladouceur, Robert; Laberge, Myriam; Lemay, Dominique

2007-02-01

Studies aiming to better understand worry have neglected children and adolescents. This constitutes an important limitation considering that excessive worry is frequent among adolescents and that patients suffering from excessive worries associate the beginning of their disorder with adolescence. This study evaluates the cognitive variables associated with worry in a sample of 777 adolescents. It attempts to determine whether cognitive avoidance and false beliefs about the usefulness of worries are present and associated with worries in adolescence. The results showed that participants with a high level of worry used more avoidance strategies and held more beliefs about worry. The results also revealed that avoidance of stimuli that trigger unpleasant thoughts and thought substitution were the major avoidance strategies related to worry among adolescents. The belief that worry helps to avoid future negative events was also related to worry. These findings may suggest that adolescents' worries are maintained by processes similar to those observed among adults.

Cognitive deconstruction of parenting in schizophrenia: the role of theory of mind.

PubMed

Mehta, Urvakhsh M; Bhagyavathi, Haralahalli D; Kumar, Channaveerachari Naveen; Thirthalli, Jagadisha; Gangadhar, Bangalore N

2014-03-01

Schizophrenia patients experience impairments across various functional roles. Emotional unresponsiveness and an inability to foster intimacy and display affection may lead to impairments in parenting. A comprehensive cognitive understanding of parenting abilities in schizophrenia has the potential to guide newer treatment strategies. As part of a larger study on functional ability in schizophrenia patients, we attempted a cognitive deconstruction of their parenting ability. Sixty-nine of the 170 patients who participated in a study on social cognition in remitted schizophrenia were parents (mean age of their children: 11.8 ± 6.2 years). They underwent comprehensive assessments for neurocognition, social cognition (theory of mind, emotion processing, social perception and attributional bias), motivation and insight. A rater blind to their cognitive status assessed their social functioning using the Groningen Social Disabilities Schedule. We examined the association of their functional ability (active involvement and affective relationship) in the parental role with their cognitive performance as well as with their level of insight and motivation. Deficits in first- and second-order theory of mind (t = 2.57, p = 0.01; t = 3.2, p = 0.002, respectively), speed of processing (t = 2.37, p = 0.02), cognitive flexibility (t = 2.26, p = 0.02) and motivation (t = 2.64, p = 0.01) had significant association with parental role dysfunction. On logistic regression, second-order theory of mind emerged as a specific predictor of parental role, even after controlling for overall functioning scores sans parental role. Second-order theory of mind deficits are specifically associated with parental role dysfunction of patients with schizophrenia. Novel treatment strategies targeting theory of mind may improve parenting abilities in individuals with schizophrenia.

From creatures of habit to goal-directed learners: Tracking the developmental emergence of model-based reinforcement learning

PubMed Central

Decker, Johannes H.; Otto, A. Ross; Daw, Nathaniel D.; Hartley, Catherine A.

2016-01-01

Theoretical models distinguish two decision-making strategies that have been formalized in reinforcement-learning theory. A model-based strategy leverages a cognitive model of potential actions and their consequences to make goal-directed choices, whereas a model-free strategy evaluates actions based solely on their reward history. Research in adults has begun to elucidate the psychological mechanisms and neural substrates underlying these learning processes and factors that influence their relative recruitment. However, the developmental trajectory of these evaluative strategies has not been well characterized. In this study, children, adolescents, and adults, performed a sequential reinforcement-learning task that enables estimation of model-based and model-free contributions to choice. Whereas a model-free strategy was evident in choice behavior across all age groups, evidence of a model-based strategy only emerged during adolescence and continued to increase into adulthood. These results suggest that recruitment of model-based valuation systems represents a critical cognitive component underlying the gradual maturation of goal-directed behavior. PMID:27084852

Neural Architecture of Selective Stopping Strategies: Distinct Brain Activity Patterns Are Associated with Attentional Capture But Not with Outright Stopping.

PubMed

Sebastian, Alexandra; Rössler, Kora; Wibral, Michael; Mobascher, Arian; Lieb, Klaus; Jung, Patrick; Tüscher, Oliver

2017-10-04

In stimulus-selective stop-signal tasks, the salient stop signal needs attentional processing before genuine response inhibition is completed. Differential prefrontal involvement in attentional capture and response inhibition has been linked to the right inferior frontal junction (IFJ) and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), respectively. Recently, it has been suggested that stimulus-selective stopping may be accomplished by the following different strategies: individuals may selectively inhibit their response only upon detecting a stop signal (independent discriminate then stop strategy) or unselectively whenever detecting a stop or attentional capture signal (stop then discriminate strategy). Alternatively, the discrimination process of the critical signal (stop vs attentional capture signal) may interact with the go process (dependent discriminate then stop strategy). Those different strategies might differentially involve attention- and stopping-related processes that might be implemented by divergent neural networks. This should lead to divergent activation patterns and, if disregarded, interfere with analyses in neuroimaging studies. To clarify this crucial issue, we studied 87 human participants of both sexes during a stimulus-selective stop-signal task and performed strategy-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging analyses. We found that, regardless of the strategy applied, outright stopping displayed indistinguishable brain activation patterns. However, during attentional capture different strategies resulted in divergent neural activation patterns with variable activation of right IFJ and bilateral VLPFC. In conclusion, the neural network involved in outright stopping is ubiquitous and independent of strategy, while different strategies impact on attention-related processes and underlying neural network usage. Strategic differences should therefore be taken into account particularly when studying attention-related processes in stimulus-selective stopping. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Dissociating inhibition from attention has been a major challenge for the cognitive neuroscience of executive functions. Selective stopping tasks have been instrumental in addressing this question. However, recent theoretical, cognitive and behavioral research suggests that different strategies are applied in successful execution of the task. The underlying strategy-dependent neural networks might differ substantially. Here, we show evidence that, regardless of the strategy used, the neural network involved in outright stopping is ubiquitous. However, significant differences can only be found in the attention-related processes underlying those different strategies. Thus, when studying attentional processing of salient stop signals, strategic differences should be considered. In contrast, the neural networks implementing outright stopping seem less or not at all affected by strategic differences. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/379786-10$15.00/0.

Processing Time and Cognitive Effort of Longhand Note Taking When Reading and Summarizing a Structured or Linear Text

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olive, Thierry; Barbier, Marie-Laure

2017-01-01

We examined longhand note taking strategies when reading and summarizing a source text that was formatted with bullets or that was presented in a single paragraph. We analyzed cognitive effort when reading the source text, when jotting notes, when reading the notes, and when composing the summary, as well as time spent in these activities and the…

Investigating Shared Norms in Multicultural Teams: Exploring How Team Member Scripts and Cognitive Adjustment Strategies Impact the Norm Formation Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGurrin, Daniel Paul

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to understand how shared norms are developed in the early phase of multicultural team (MCT) formation. The development of shared norms is recognized as critical to MCTs' contributions to organizations, and they are a result of the cognitive adjustment of the team members in recognition of their differences (Brandl…

Neuropsychological Assessment and Training of Cognitive Processing Strategies for Reading Recognition and Comprehension: A Computer Assisted Program for Learning Disabled Students. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Teeter, Phyllis Anne; Smith, Philip L.

The final report of the 2-year project describes the development and validation of microcomputer software to help assess reading disabled elementary grade children and to provide basic reading instruction. Accomplishments of the first year included: design of the STAR Neuro-Cognitive Assessment Program which includes a reproduction of…

A Multidimensional View of Resistance to Organizational Change: Exploring Cognitive, Emotional, and Intentional Responses to Planned Change across Perceived Change Leadership Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szabla, David B.

2007-01-01

In this survey research study, the researcher employed a causal-comparative, or ex post facto, design to explore the relationship between how union employees of a U.S. county government perceived implementation of a new electronic performance appraisal process and how they responded to the planned organizational change along cognitive, emotional,…

Sleep Moderates the Association Between Response Inhibition and Self-Regulation in Early Childhood

PubMed Central

Schumacher, Allyson M.; Miller, Alison L.; Watamura, Sarah E.; Kurth, Salome; Lassonde, Jonathan M.; LeBourgeois, Monique K.

2017-01-01

Early childhood is a time of rapid developmental changes in sleep, cognitive control processes, and the regulation of emotion and behavior. This experimental study examined sleep-dependent effects on response inhibition and self-regulation, as well as whether acute sleep restriction moderated the association between these processes. Preschool children (N = 19; 45.6 ± 2.2 months; 11 female) followed a strict sleep schedule for at least 3 days before each of 2 morning behavior assessments: baseline (habitual nap/night sleep) and sleep restriction (missed nap/delayed bedtime). Response inhibition was evaluated via a go/no-go task. Twelve self-regulation strategies were coded from videotapes of children while attempting an unsolvable puzzle. We then created composite variables representing adaptive and maladaptive self-regulation strategies. Although we found no sleep-dependent effects on response inhibition or self-regulation measures, linear mixed-effects regression showed that acute sleep restriction moderated the relationship between these processes. At baseline, children with better response inhibition were more likely to use adaptive self-regulation strategies (e.g., self-talk, alternate strategies), and those with poorer response inhibition showed increased use of maladaptive self-regulation strategies (e.g., perseveration, fidgeting); however, response inhibition was not related to self-regulation strategies following sleep restriction. Our results showing a sleep-dependent effect on the associations between response inhibition and self-regulation strategies indicate that adequate sleep facilitates synergy between processes supporting optimal social-emotional functioning in early childhood. Although replication studies are needed, findings suggest that sleep may alter connections between maturing emotional and cognitive systems, which have important implications for understanding risk for or resilience to developmental psychopathology. PMID:27652491

Sleep Moderates the Association Between Response Inhibition and Self-Regulation in Early Childhood.

PubMed

Schumacher, Allyson M; Miller, Alison L; Watamura, Sarah E; Kurth, Salome; Lassonde, Jonathan M; LeBourgeois, Monique K

2017-01-01

Early childhood is a time of rapid developmental changes in sleep, cognitive control processes, and the regulation of emotion and behavior. This experimental study examined sleep-dependent effects on response inhibition and self-regulation, as well as whether acute sleep restriction moderated the association between these processes. Preschool children (N = 19; 45.6 ± 2.2 months; 11 female) followed a strict sleep schedule for at least 3 days before each of 2 morning behavior assessments: baseline (habitual nap/night sleep) and sleep restriction (missed nap/delayed bedtime). Response inhibition was evaluated via a go/no-go task. Twelve self-regulation strategies were coded from videotapes of children while attempting an unsolvable puzzle. We then created composite variables representing adaptive and maladaptive self-regulation strategies. Although we found no sleep-dependent effects on response inhibition or self-regulation measures, linear mixed-effects regression showed that acute sleep restriction moderated the relationship between these processes. At baseline, children with better response inhibition were more likely to use adaptive self-regulation strategies (e.g., self-talk, alternate strategies), and those with poorer response inhibition showed increased use of maladaptive self-regulation strategies (e.g., perseveration, fidgeting); however, response inhibition was not related to self-regulation strategies following sleep restriction. Our results showing a sleep-dependent effect on the associations between response inhibition and self-regulation strategies indicate that adequate sleep facilitates synergy between processes supporting optimal social-emotional functioning in early childhood. Although replication studies are needed, findings suggest that sleep may alter connections between maturing emotional and cognitive systems, which have important implications for understanding risk for or resilience to developmental psychopathology.

Communication skills and thalamic lesion: Strategies of rehabilitation.

PubMed

Amaddii, Luisa; Centorrino, Santi; Cambi, Jacopo; Passali, Desiderio

2014-01-01

To describe the speech rehabilitation history of patients with thalamic lesions. Thalamic lesions can affect speech and language according to diverse thalamic nuclei involved. Because of the strategic functional position of the thalamus within the cognitive networks, its lesion can also interfere with other cognitive processes, such as attention, memory and executive functions. Alterations of these cognitive domains contribute significantly to language deficits, leading to communicative inefficacy. This fact must be considered in the rehabilitation efforts. Whereas evaluation of cognitive functions and communicative efficiency is different from that of aphasic disorder, treatment should also be different. The treatment must be focused on specific cognitive deficits with belief in the regaining of communicative ability, as well as it occurs in therapy of pragmatic disorder in traumatic brain injury: attention process training, mnemotechnics and prospective memory training. According to our experience: (a) there is a close correlation between cognitive processes and communication skills; (b) alterations of attention, memory and executive functions cause a loss of efficiency in the language use; and (c) appropriate cognitive treatment improves pragmatic competence and therefore the linguistic disorder. For planning a speech-therapy it is important to consider the relationship between cognitive functions and communication. The cognitive/behavioral treatment confirms its therapeutic efficiency for thalamic lesions. Copyright © 2014 Polish Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Society. Published by Elsevier Urban & Partner Sp. z.o.o. All rights reserved.

A Cognitive Modeling Approach to Strategy Formation in Dynamic Decision Making.

PubMed

Prezenski, Sabine; Brechmann, André; Wolff, Susann; Russwinkel, Nele

2017-01-01

Decision-making is a high-level cognitive process based on cognitive processes like perception, attention, and memory. Real-life situations require series of decisions to be made, with each decision depending on previous feedback from a potentially changing environment. To gain a better understanding of the underlying processes of dynamic decision-making, we applied the method of cognitive modeling on a complex rule-based category learning task. Here, participants first needed to identify the conjunction of two rules that defined a target category and later adapt to a reversal of feedback contingencies. We developed an ACT-R model for the core aspects of this dynamic decision-making task. An important aim of our model was that it provides a general account of how such tasks are solved and, with minor changes, is applicable to other stimulus materials. The model was implemented as a mixture of an exemplar-based and a rule-based approach which incorporates perceptual-motor and metacognitive aspects as well. The model solves the categorization task by first trying out one-feature strategies and then, as a result of repeated negative feedback, switching to two-feature strategies. Overall, this model solves the task in a similar way as participants do, including generally successful initial learning as well as reversal learning after the change of feedback contingencies. Moreover, the fact that not all participants were successful in the two learning phases is also reflected in the modeling data. However, we found a larger variance and a lower overall performance of the modeling data as compared to the human data which may relate to perceptual preferences or additional knowledge and rules applied by the participants. In a next step, these aspects could be implemented in the model for a better overall fit. In view of the large interindividual differences in decision performance between participants, additional information about the underlying cognitive processes from behavioral, psychobiological and neurophysiological data may help to optimize future applications of this model such that it can be transferred to other domains of comparable dynamic decision tasks.

A Cognitive Modeling Approach to Strategy Formation in Dynamic Decision Making

PubMed Central

Prezenski, Sabine; Brechmann, André; Wolff, Susann; Russwinkel, Nele

2017-01-01

Decision-making is a high-level cognitive process based on cognitive processes like perception, attention, and memory. Real-life situations require series of decisions to be made, with each decision depending on previous feedback from a potentially changing environment. To gain a better understanding of the underlying processes of dynamic decision-making, we applied the method of cognitive modeling on a complex rule-based category learning task. Here, participants first needed to identify the conjunction of two rules that defined a target category and later adapt to a reversal of feedback contingencies. We developed an ACT-R model for the core aspects of this dynamic decision-making task. An important aim of our model was that it provides a general account of how such tasks are solved and, with minor changes, is applicable to other stimulus materials. The model was implemented as a mixture of an exemplar-based and a rule-based approach which incorporates perceptual-motor and metacognitive aspects as well. The model solves the categorization task by first trying out one-feature strategies and then, as a result of repeated negative feedback, switching to two-feature strategies. Overall, this model solves the task in a similar way as participants do, including generally successful initial learning as well as reversal learning after the change of feedback contingencies. Moreover, the fact that not all participants were successful in the two learning phases is also reflected in the modeling data. However, we found a larger variance and a lower overall performance of the modeling data as compared to the human data which may relate to perceptual preferences or additional knowledge and rules applied by the participants. In a next step, these aspects could be implemented in the model for a better overall fit. In view of the large interindividual differences in decision performance between participants, additional information about the underlying cognitive processes from behavioral, psychobiological and neurophysiological data may help to optimize future applications of this model such that it can be transferred to other domains of comparable dynamic decision tasks. PMID:28824512

Self-Verification of Ability through Biased Performance Memory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karabenick, Stuart A.; LeBlanc, Daniel

Evidence points to a pervasive tendency for persons to behave to maintain their existing cognitive structures. One strategy by which this self-verification is made more probable involves information processing. Through attention, encoding and retrieval, and the interpretation of events, persons process information so that self-confirmatory…

[Establishment and practice of traditional Chinese medicine property cognitive model based on three elements].

PubMed

Zhang, Bing; Jin, Rui; Huang, Jianmei; Liu, Xiaoqing; Xue, Chunmiao; Lin, Zhijian

2012-08-01

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) property theory is believed to be a key and difficult point of basic theory studies of TCM. Complex concepts, components and characteristics of TCM property have long puzzled researchers and urged them to develop new angles and approaches. In the view of cognitive science, TCM property theory is a cognitive process of storing, extracting, rebuilding and summarizing the sensory information about TCMs and their effects during the medical practice struggling against diseases under the guidance of traditional Chinese philosophical thinking. The cognitive process of TCM property has particular cognitive elements and strategies. Taking into account clinical application characteristics of TCMs, this study defines the particular cognitive elements. In the combination of research methods of modern chemistry, biology and mathematics, and on the basis early-stage work for five years, we have built a TCM property cognition model based on three elements and practiced with drugs with pungent and hot properties as example, in the hope of interpreting TCM properties with modern science and providing thoughts for the nature of medical properties and instruction for rational clinical prescription.

More than one way to see it: Individual heuristics in avian visual computation.

PubMed

Ravignani, Andrea; Westphal-Fitch, Gesche; Aust, Ulrike; Schlumpp, Martin M; Fitch, W Tecumseh

2015-10-01

Comparative pattern learning experiments investigate how different species find regularities in sensory input, providing insights into cognitive processing in humans and other animals. Past research has focused either on one species' ability to process pattern classes or different species' performance in recognizing the same pattern, with little attention to individual and species-specific heuristics and decision strategies. We trained and tested two bird species, pigeons (Columba livia) and kea (Nestor notabilis, a parrot species), on visual patterns using touch-screen technology. Patterns were composed of several abstract elements and had varying degrees of structural complexity. We developed a model selection paradigm, based on regular expressions, that allowed us to reconstruct the specific decision strategies and cognitive heuristics adopted by a given individual in our task. Individual birds showed considerable differences in the number, type and heterogeneity of heuristic strategies adopted. Birds' choices also exhibited consistent species-level differences. Kea adopted effective heuristic strategies, based on matching learned bigrams to stimulus edges. Individual pigeons, in contrast, adopted an idiosyncratic mix of strategies that included local transition probabilities and global string similarity. Although performance was above chance and quite high for kea, no individual of either species provided clear evidence of learning exactly the rule used to generate the training stimuli. Our results show that similar behavioral outcomes can be achieved using dramatically different strategies and highlight the dangers of combining multiple individuals in a group analysis. These findings, and our general approach, have implications for the design of future pattern learning experiments, and the interpretation of comparative cognition research more generally. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mathematics Literacy of Secondary Students in Solving Simultanenous Linear Equations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sitompul, R. S. I.; Budayasa, I. K.; Masriyah

2018-01-01

This study examines the profile of secondary students’ mathematical literacy in solving simultanenous linear equations problems in terms of cognitive style of visualizer and verbalizer. This research is a descriptive research with qualitative approach. The subjects in this research consist of one student with cognitive style of visualizer and one student with cognitive style of verbalizer. The main instrument in this research is the researcher herself and supporting instruments are cognitive style tests, mathematics skills tests, problem-solving tests and interview guidelines. Research was begun by determining the cognitive style test and mathematics skill test. The subjects chosen were given problem-solving test about simultaneous linear equations and continued with interview. To ensure the validity of the data, the researcher conducted data triangulation; the steps of data reduction, data presentation, data interpretation, and conclusion drawing. The results show that there is a similarity of visualizer and verbalizer-cognitive style in identifying and understanding the mathematical structure in the process of formulating. There are differences in how to represent problems in the process of implementing, there are differences in designing strategies and in the process of interpreting, and there are differences in explaining the logical reasons.

[Contemporary cognitive theories about developmental dyscalculia].

PubMed

Castro-Cañizares, D; Estévez-Pérez, N; Reigosa-Crespo, V

To analyze the current theories describing the cognitive mechanisms underlying developmental dyscalculia. The four most researched hypotheses concerning the cognitive deficits related to developmental dyscalculia, as well as experimental evidences supporting or refusing them are presented. The first hypothesis states that developmental dyscalculia is consequence of domain general cognitive deficits. The second hypothesis suggests that it is due to a failure in the development of specialized brain systems dedicated to numerosity processing. The third hypothesis asserts the disorder is caused by a deficit in accessing quantity representation through numerical symbols. The last hypothesis states developmental dyscalculia appears as a consequence of impairments in a generalized magnitude system dedicated to the processing of continuous and discrete magnitudes. None of the hypotheses has been proven more plausible than the rest. Relevant issues rose by them need to be revisited and answered in the light of new experimental designs. In the last years the understanding of cognitive disorders involved in developmental dyscalculia has remarkably increased, but it is nonetheless insufficient. Additional research is required in order to achieve a comprehensive cognitive model of numerical processing development and its disorders. This will improve the diagnostic precision and the effectiveness of developmental dyscalculia intervention strategies.

An Examination of Strategy Implementation During Abstract Nonlinguistic Category Learning in Aphasia.

PubMed

Vallila-Rohter, Sofia; Kiran, Swathi

2015-08-01

Our purpose was to study strategy use during nonlinguistic category learning in aphasia. Twelve control participants without aphasia and 53 participants with aphasia (PWA) completed a computerized feedback-based category learning task consisting of training and testing phases. Accuracy rates of categorization in testing phases were calculated. To evaluate strategy use, strategy analyses were conducted over training and testing phases. Participant data were compared with model data that simulated complex multi-cue, single feature, and random pattern strategies. Learning success and strategy use were evaluated within the context of standardized cognitive-linguistic assessments. Categorization accuracy was higher among control participants than among PWA. The majority of control participants implemented suboptimal or optimal multi-cue and single-feature strategies by testing phases of the experiment. In contrast, a large subgroup of PWA implemented random patterns, or no strategy, during both training and testing phases of the experiment. Person-to-person variability arises not only in category learning ability but also in the strategies implemented to complete category learning tasks. PWA less frequently developed effective strategies during category learning tasks than control participants. Certain PWA may have impairments of strategy development or feedback processing not captured by language and currently probed cognitive abilities.

Opening the Black Box: Cognitive Strategies in Family Practice

PubMed Central

Christensen, Robert E.; Fetters, Michael D.; Green, Lee A.

2005-01-01

PURPOSE We wanted to describe the cognitive strategies used by family physicians when structuring the decision-making tasks of an outpatient visit. METHODS This qualitative study used cognitive task analysis, a structured interview method in which a trained interviewer works individually with expert decision makers to capture their stages and elements of information processing. RESULTS Eighteen family physicians of varying levels of experience participated. Three dominant themes emerged: time pressure, a high degree of variation in task structuring, and varying degrees of task automatization. Based on these data and previous research from the cognitive sciences, we developed a model of novice and expert approaches to decision making in primary care. The model illustrates differences in responses to unexpected opportunity in practice, particularly the expert’s use of attentional surplus (reserve capacity to handle problems) vs the novice’s choice between taking more time or displacing another task. CONCLUSIONS Family physicians have specific, highly individualized cognitive task-structuring approaches and show the decision behavior features typical of expert decision makers in other fields. This finding places constraints on and suggests useful approaches for improving practice. PMID:15798041

Video Game Development Strategies for Creating Successful Cognitively Challenging Games

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Walter K.

2018-01-01

The video game industry is a global multibillion dollar industry with millions of players. The process of developing video games is essential for the continued growth of the industry, and developers need to employ effective strategies that will help them to create successful games. The purpose of this explorative qualitative single case study was…

Cognitive and Emotion Regulation Change Processes in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder.

PubMed

O'Toole, Mia S; Mennin, Douglas S; Hougaard, Esben; Zachariae, Robert; Rosenberg, Nicole K

2015-01-01

The objective of the study was to investigate variables, derived from both cognitive and emotion regulation conceptualizations of social anxiety disorder (SAD), as possible change processes in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for SAD. Several proposed change processes were investigated: estimated probability, estimated cost, safety behaviours, acceptance of emotions, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Participants were 50 patients with SAD, receiving a standard manualized CBT program, conducted in groups or individually. All variables were measured pre-therapy, mid-therapy and post-therapy. Lower level mediation models revealed that while a change in most process measures significantly predicted clinical improvement, only changes in estimated probability and cost and acceptance of emotions showed significant indirect effects of CBT for SAD. The results are in accordance with previous studies supporting the mediating role of changes in cognitive distortions in CBT for SAD. In addition, acceptance of emotions may also be a critical component to clinical improvement in SAD during CBT, although more research is needed on which elements of acceptance are most helpful for individuals with SAD. The study's lack of a control condition limits any conclusion regarding the specificity of the findings to CBT. Change in estimated probability and cost, and acceptance of emotions showed an indirect effect of CBT for SAD. Cognitive distortions appear relevant to target with cognitive restructuring techniques. Finding acceptance to have an indirect effect could be interpreted as support for contemporary CBT approaches that include acceptance-based strategies. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Using an Experimental Medicine Model to Explore Combination Effects of Pharmacological and Cognitive Interventions for Depression and Anxiety

PubMed Central

Browning, Michael; Grol, Maud; Ly, Verena; Goodwin, Guy M; Holmes, Emily A; Harmer, Catherine J

2011-01-01

Selective serotonergic reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and cognitive therapies are effective in the treatment of anxiety and depression. Previous research suggests that both forms of treatments may work by altering cognitive biases in the processing of affective information. The current study assessed the effects of combining an SSRI with a cognitive intervention on measures of affective processing bias and resilience to external challenge. A total of 62 healthy participants were randomly assigned to receive either 7 days of citalopram (20 mg) or placebo capsules while also completing either an active or a control version of a computerized cognitive bias training task. After treatment, standard measures of affective processing bias were collected. Participants' resilience to external stress was also tested by measuring the increase in negative symptoms induced by a negative mood induction. Participants who received both citalopram and the active cognitive bias training task showed a smaller alteration in emotional memory and categorization bias than did those who received either active intervention singly. The degree to which memory for negative information was altered by citalopram predicted participants' resistance to the negative mood induction. These results suggest that co-administration of an SSRI and a cognitive training intervention can reduce the effectiveness of either treatment alone in terms of anxiety- and depression-relevant emotional processing. More generally, the findings suggest that pinpointing the cognitive actions of treatments may inform future development of combination strategies in mental health. PMID:21832988

Clinical observations of a Cantonese cognitive-behavioral treatment program for Chinese immigrants.

PubMed

Shen, Edward K; Alden, Lynn E; Söchting, Ingrid; Tsang, Pheobe

2006-01-01

In this article, the authors describe our clinical observations about the process of delivering a Cantonese-language cognitive- behavioral therapy program to treat depression in Hong Kong immigrants to Vancouver, Canada. Our experiences indicated that standard referral and assessment procedures were not optimal for this population. Other factors that required consideration were how to convert Cantonese terms for dysphoric affect into English equivalents and how to implement cognitive modification strategies when dealing with culture-syntonic beliefs about social relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Discipline responses: influences of parents' socioeconomic status, ethnicity, beliefs about parenting, stress, and cognitive-emotional processes.

PubMed

Pinderhughes, E E; Dodge, K A; Bates, J E; Pettit, G S; Zelli, A

2000-09-01

Direct and indirect precursors to parents' harsh discipline responses to hypothetical vignettes about child misbehavior were studied with data from 978 parents (59% mothers; 82% European American and 16% African American) of 585 kindergarten-aged children. SEM analyses showed that parents' beliefs about spanking and child aggression and family stress mediated a negative relation between socioeconomic status and discipline. In turn, perception of the child and cognitive-emotional processes (hostile attributions, emotional upset, worry about child's future, available alternative disciplinary strategies, and available preventive strategies) mediated the effect of stress on discipline. Similar relations between ethnicity and discipline were found (African Americans reported harsher discipline), especially among low-income parents. Societally based experiences may lead some parents to rely on accessible and coherent goals in their discipline, whereas others are more reactive.

Religious coping and cognitive symptoms of depression in elderly medical patients.

PubMed

Koenig, H G; Cohen, H J; Blazer, D G; Kudler, H S; Krishnan, K R; Sibert, T E

1995-01-01

The investigators examined associations between depressive symptom type and religious coping in 832 consecutively admitted older medical inpatients. Cognitive symptoms of depression, but not somatic symptoms, were related to religious coping. Boredom, loss of interest, social withdrawal, feeling downhearted and blue, restlessness, feeling like a failure, feeling hopeless, or feeling that other people were better off were all significantly less common among religious copers. Difficulty initiating new activities was the only somatic symptom related to this coping behavior. Religious coping, a strategy heavily dependent on cognitive processes, is associated with fewer cognitive but not somatic symptoms of depression in medically ill older patients

Increased Prolactin Levels Are Associated with Impaired Processing Speed in Subjects with Early Psychosis

PubMed Central

Montalvo, Itziar; Gutiérrez-Zotes, Alfonso; Creus, Marta; Monseny, Rosa; Ortega, Laura; Franch, Joan; Lawrie, Stephen M.; Reynolds, Rebecca M.; Vilella, Elisabet; Labad, Javier

2014-01-01

Hyperprolactinaemia, a common side effect of some antipsychotic drugs, is also present in drug-naïve psychotic patients and subjects at risk for psychosis. Recent studies in non-psychiatric populations suggest that increased prolactin may have negative effects on cognition. The aim of our study was to explore whether high plasma prolactin levels are associated with poorer cognitive functioning in subjects with early psychoses. We studied 107 participants: 29 healthy subjects and 78 subjects with an early psychosis (55 psychotic disorders with <3 years of illness, 23 high-risk subjects). Cognitive assessment was performed with the MATRICS Cognitive Consensus Cognitive Battery, and prolactin levels were determined as well as total cortisol levels in plasma. Psychopathological status was assessed and the use of psychopharmacological treatments (antipsychotics, antidepressants, benzodiazepines) recorded. Prolactin levels were negatively associated with cognitive performance in processing speed, in patients with a psychotic disorder and high-risk subjects. In the latter group, increased prolactin levels were also associated with impaired reasoning and problem solving and poorer general cognition. In a multiple linear regression analysis conducted in both high-risk and psychotic patients, controlling for potential confounders, prolactin and benzodiazepines were independently related to poorer cognitive performance in the speed of processing domain. A mediation analysis showed that both prolactin and benzodiazepine treatment act as mediators of the relationship between risperidone/paliperidone treatment and speed of processing. These results suggest that increased prolactin levels are associated with impaired processing speed in early psychosis. If these results are confirmed in future studies, strategies targeting reduction of prolactin levels may improve cognition in this population. PMID:24586772

Comparing the Use of Evidence and Culture in Targeted Colorectal Cancer Communication for African Americans

PubMed Central

Thompson, Vetta L. Sanders; Kalesan, Bindu; Wells, Anjanette; Williams, Sha-Lai; Caito, Nicole M.

2010-01-01

Objective This study examined the effects (affective reactions, cognitive reactions and processing, perceived benefits and barriers and intent to screen) of targeted Peripheral + Evidential (PE) and Peripheral+Evidential+Socio-cultural (PE+SC) colorectal cancer communications. Methods This study was a two-arm randomized control study of cancer communication effects on affective, cognitive processing, and behavioral outcomes over a 22-week intervention. There were 771 African American participants, 45 to 75 years, participating in the baseline survey related to CRC screening. Three follow-up interviews that assessed intervention effects on affective response to the publications, cognitive processing, and intent to obtain CRC screening were completed. Results There were no statistically significant differences between PE and PE+SC intervention groups for affect, cognitive processing or intent to screen. However, there were significant interactions effects on outcome variables. Conclusions The advantages and disadvantages of PE+SC targeted cancer communications and implications of sex differences are considered. Practice Implications While there do not appear to be significant differences in behavioral outcomes when using PE and PE+SC strategies, there appear to be subtle differences in affective and cognitive processing outcomes related to medical suspicion and ethnic identity, particularly as it relates to gender. PMID:20702056

Comparing the use of evidence and culture in targeted colorectal cancer communication for African Americans.

PubMed

Thompson, Vetta L Sanders; Kalesan, Bindu; Wells, Anjanette; Williams, Sha-Lai; Caito, Nicole M

2010-12-01

This study examined the effects (affective reactions, cognitive reactions and processing, perceived benefits and barriers and intent to screen) of targeted peripheral+evidential (PE) and peripheral+evidential+socio-cultural (PE+SC) colorectal cancer communications. This study was a two-arm randomized control study of cancer communication effects on affective, cognitive processing, and behavioral outcomes over a 22-week intervention. There were 771 African American participants, 45-75 years, participating in the baseline survey related to CRC screening. Three follow-up interviews that assessed intervention effects on affective response to the publications, cognitive processing, and intent to obtain CRC screening were completed. There were no statistically significant differences between PE and PE+SC intervention groups for affect, cognitive processing or intent to screen. However, there were significant interactions effects on outcome variables. The advantages and disadvantages of PE+SC targeted cancer communications and implications of sex differences are considered. While there do not appear to be significant differences in behavioral outcomes when using PE and PE+SC strategies, there appear to be subtle differences in affective and cognitive processing outcomes related to medical suspicion and ethnic identity, particularly as it relates to gender. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social cognition and neurocognition as independent domains in psychosis.

PubMed

van Hooren, S; Versmissen, D; Janssen, I; Myin-Germeys, I; à Campo, J; Mengelers, R; van Os, J; Krabbendam, L

2008-08-01

Patients with psychosis display alterations in social cognition as well as in the realm of neurocognition. It is unclear, however, to what degree these cognitive domains represent two separate dimensions of liability or the pleiotropic expression of a single deficit. The purpose of the present study was to investigate (i) to what extent alterations in social cognition represent an independent area of vulnerability to psychosis, separate from neurocognitive deficits and (ii) whether social cognition is one construct or can be divided into several subcomponents. Five social cognition and three neurocognitive tasks were completed by 186 participants with different levels of vulnerability for psychosis: 44 patients with psychotic disorder; 47 subjects at familial risk; 41 subjects at psychometric risk and 54 control subjects. The social cognition tasks covered important basic subcomponents of social cognition, i.e. mentalisation (or theory of mind), data gathering bias (jumping to conclusions), source monitoring and attribution style. Neurocognitive tasks assessed speed of information processing, inhibition, cognitive shifting and strategy-driven retrieval from semantic memory. The results of factor analysis suggested that neurocognition and social cognition are two separate areas of vulnerability in psychosis. Furthermore, the social cognition measures lacked significant overlap, suggesting a multidimensional construct. Cognitive liabilities to psychosis are manifold, and include key processes underlying basic person-environment interactions in daily life, independent of cognition quantified by neuropsychological tests.

Keystroke Logging in Writing Research: Using Inputlog to Analyze and Visualize Writing Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leijten, Marielle; Van Waes, Luuk

2013-01-01

Keystroke logging has become instrumental in identifying writing strategies and understanding cognitive processes. Recent technological advances have refined logging efficiency and analytical outputs. While keystroke logging allows for ecological data collection, it is often difficult to connect the fine grain of logging data to the underlying…

A Longitudinal Integration of Identity Styles and Educational Identity Processes in Adolescence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Negru-Subtirica, Oana; Pop, Eleonora Ioana; Crocetti, Elisabetta

2017-01-01

Identity formation is a main adolescent psychosocial developmental task. The complex interconnection between different processes that are at the basis of one's identity is a research and applied intervention priority. In this context, the identity style model focuses on social-cognitive strategies (i.e., informational, normative, and…

Implicit and Explicit Cognitive Processes in Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ender, Andrea

2016-01-01

Studies on vocabulary acquisition in second language learning have revealed that a large amount of vocabulary is learned without an overt intention, in other words, incidentally. This article investigates the relevance of different lexical processing strategies for vocabulary acquisition when reading a text for comprehension among 24 advanced…

Cognitive Processes in University Learning: A Developmental Framework Using Structural Equation Modelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phan, Huy P.

2011-01-01

Background: Both achievement goals and study processing strategies theories have been shown to contribute to the prediction of students' academic performance. Existing research studies (Fenollar, Roman, & Cuestas, 2007; Liem, Lau, & Nie, 2008; Simons, Dewitte, & Lens, 2004) amalgamating these two theoretical orientations in different causal models…

The Role of Memory in Early Literacy Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stone, Sandra J.

Emerging literacy is a developmental process which is closely tied to the child's developing cognitive processes. The interaction of memory and emerging literacy can be discussed in the context of Marie Clay's Reading Recovery model. Memory types, encoding and retrieval, strategy use, and executive control/expectancies are components of cognitive…

Creating Cartoons to Promote Leaderships Skills and Explore Leadership Qualities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Latisha L.; Clausen, Courtney K.; Teske, Jolene K.; Ghayoorrad, Maryam; Gray, Phyllis; Al Subia, Sukainah; Atwood-Blaine, Dana; Rule, Audrey C.

2015-01-01

This document describes a strategy for increasing student leadership and creativity skills through the creation of cartoons. Creating cartoons engages students in divergent thinking and cognitive processes, such as perception, recall, and mental processing. When students create cartoons focused on a particular topic, they are making connections to…

Mining EEG with SVM for Understanding Cognitive Underpinnings of Math Problem Solving Strategies

PubMed Central

López, Julio

2018-01-01

We have developed a new methodology for examining and extracting patterns from brain electric activity by using data mining and machine learning techniques. Data was collected from experiments focused on the study of cognitive processes that might evoke different specific strategies in the resolution of math problems. A binary classification problem was constructed using correlations and phase synchronization between different electroencephalographic channels as characteristics and, as labels or classes, the math performances of individuals participating in specially designed experiments. The proposed methodology is based on using well-established procedures of feature selection, which were used to determine a suitable brain functional network size related to math problem solving strategies and also to discover the most relevant links in this network without including noisy connections or excluding significant connections. PMID:29670667

Mining EEG with SVM for Understanding Cognitive Underpinnings of Math Problem Solving Strategies.

PubMed

Bosch, Paul; Herrera, Mauricio; López, Julio; Maldonado, Sebastián

2018-01-01

We have developed a new methodology for examining and extracting patterns from brain electric activity by using data mining and machine learning techniques. Data was collected from experiments focused on the study of cognitive processes that might evoke different specific strategies in the resolution of math problems. A binary classification problem was constructed using correlations and phase synchronization between different electroencephalographic channels as characteristics and, as labels or classes, the math performances of individuals participating in specially designed experiments. The proposed methodology is based on using well-established procedures of feature selection, which were used to determine a suitable brain functional network size related to math problem solving strategies and also to discover the most relevant links in this network without including noisy connections or excluding significant connections.

Understanding the distributed cognitive processes of intensive care patient discharge.

PubMed

Lin, Frances; Chaboyer, Wendy; Wallis, Marianne

2014-03-01

To better understand and identify vulnerabilities and risks in the ICU patient discharge process, which provides evidence for service improvement. Previous studies have identified that 'after hours' discharge and 'premature' discharge from ICU are associated with increased mortality. However, some of these studies have largely been retrospective reviews of various administrative databases, while others have focused on specific aspects of the process, which may miss crucial components of the discharge process. This is an ethnographic exploratory study. Distributed cognition and activity theory were used as theoretical frameworks. Ethnographic data collection techniques including informal interviews, direct observations and collecting existing documents were used. A total of 56 one-to-one interviews were conducted with 46 participants; 28 discharges were observed; and numerous documents were collected during a five-month period. A triangulated technique was used in both data collection and data analysis to ensure the research rigour. Under the guidance of activity theory and distributed cognition theoretical frameworks, five themes emerged: hierarchical power and authority, competing priorities, ineffective communication, failing to enact the organisational processes and working collaboratively to optimise the discharge process. Issues with teamwork, cognitive processes and team members' interaction with cognitive artefacts influenced the discharge process. Strategies to improve shared situational awareness are needed to improve teamwork, patient flow and resource efficiency. Tools need to be evaluated regularly to ensure their continuous usefulness. Health care professionals need to be aware of the impact of their competing priorities and ensure discharges occur in a timely manner. Activity theory and distributed cognition are useful theoretical frameworks to support healthcare organisational research. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Improving Social Cognition in People with Schizophrenia with RC2S: Two Single-Case Studies.

PubMed

Peyroux, Elodie; Franck, Nicolas

2016-01-01

Difficulties in social interactions are a central characteristic of people with schizophrenia, and can be partly explained by impairments of social cognitive processes. New strategies of cognitive remediation have been recently developed to target these deficits. The RC2S therapy is an individualized and partly computerized program through which patients practice social interactions and develop social cognitive abilities with simulation techniques in a realistic environment. Here, we present the results of two case-studies involving two patients with schizophrenia presenting with specific profiles of impaired social cognition. Each patient completed three baseline sessions, 14 treatment sessions, and 3 follow-up sessions at the end of the therapy - and for 1 patient, another 3 sessions 9 months later. We used a multiple baseline design to assess specific components of social cognition according to the patients' profiles. Functioning and symptomatology were also assessed at the end of the treatment and 6 months later. Results highlight significant improvements in the targeted social cognitive processes and positive changes in functioning in the long term. The RC2S program seems, thus, to be a new useful program for social cognitive remediation in schizophrenia.

Improving Social Cognition in People with Schizophrenia with RC2S: Two Single-Case Studies

PubMed Central

Peyroux, Elodie; Franck, Nicolas

2016-01-01

Difficulties in social interactions are a central characteristic of people with schizophrenia, and can be partly explained by impairments of social cognitive processes. New strategies of cognitive remediation have been recently developed to target these deficits. The RC2S therapy is an individualized and partly computerized program through which patients practice social interactions and develop social cognitive abilities with simulation techniques in a realistic environment. Here, we present the results of two case-studies involving two patients with schizophrenia presenting with specific profiles of impaired social cognition. Each patient completed three baseline sessions, 14 treatment sessions, and 3 follow-up sessions at the end of the therapy – and for 1 patient, another 3 sessions 9 months later. We used a multiple baseline design to assess specific components of social cognition according to the patients’ profiles. Functioning and symptomatology were also assessed at the end of the treatment and 6 months later. Results highlight significant improvements in the targeted social cognitive processes and positive changes in functioning in the long term. The RC2S program seems, thus, to be a new useful program for social cognitive remediation in schizophrenia. PMID:27199776

[Attentional impairment after traumatic brain injury: assessment and rehabilitation].

PubMed

Ríos-Lago, M; Muñoz-Céspedes, J M; Paúl-Lapedriza, N

Attention disorders are a major problem after traumatic brain injury underlying deficits in other cognitive functions and in everyday activities, hindering the rehabilitation process and the possibility of return to work. Functional neuroimaging and neuropsychological assessment have depicted theoretical models considering attention as a complex and non-unitary process. Although there are conceptual difficulties, it seems possible to establish a theoretical background to better define attentional impairments and to guide the rehabilitation process. The aim of the present study is to review some of the most important pieces involved in the assessment and rehabilitation of attentional impairments. We also propose an appropriate model for the design of individualized rehabilitation programs. Lastly, different approaches for the rehabilitation are reviewed. Neuropsychological assessment should provide valuable strategies to better design the cognitive rehabilitation programs. It is necessary to establish a link between basic and applied neuropsychology, in order to optimize the treatments for traumatic brain injury patients. It is also emphasized that well-defined cognitive targets and skills are required, given that an unspecific stimulation of cognitive processes (pseudorehabilitation) has been shown to be unsuccessful.

Coping with pediatric cancer: strategies employed by children and their parents to manage cancer-related stressors during treatment.

PubMed

Hildenbrand, Aimee K; Clawson, Kathleen J; Alderfer, Melissa A; Marsac, Meghan L

2011-01-01

Pediatric cancer patients and their families face significant physical, emotional, and psychosocial challenges. Few studies have investigated how children manage these challenges and how parents may help in the process. This qualitative study aimed to explore common cancer-related stressors for children and to examine child coping and parental assistance in coping with these stressors during treatment. Fifteen children undergoing cancer treatment and their parents participated in semistructured interviews. Four themes emerged capturing cancer-related stressors: cancer treatment/side effects, distressing emotions, disruption in daily routines, and social challenges. Six themes emerged regarding child coping strategies that were classified within an approach/avoidance coping framework. Approach coping strategies included the following: cognitive restructuring, relaxation, practical strategies, seeking social support, and emotional expression. Distraction was the only avoidant coping strategy. Parents tended to encourage approach coping strategies (eg, cognitive restructuring, social support). Within families, few coping strategies were reported (child: M = 1.47, SD = 0.99; parent: M = 3.33, SD = 1.18), suggesting that early family-based interventions teaching coping techniques for cancer-related stressors may be beneficial.

Trauma or growth after a natural disaster? The mediating role of rumination processes

PubMed Central

García, Felipe E.; Cova, Félix; Rincón, Paulina; Vázquez, Carmelo

2015-01-01

The aim of this study was to test a cognitive model of posttraumatic symptoms (PTS) and posttraumatic growth (PTG) after exposure to a natural disaster. It was hypothesized that although subjective severity of trauma would be related to the severity of PTS, this relation would be mediated by brooding and cognitive strategies related to the presence of repetitive negative content in thoughts. Furthermore, the relation between severity and PTG would be fully mediated by deliberate rumination (DR), cognitive strategies related to conscious efforts focused on handling the event. To evaluate the cognitive model, adults (N=351) who lost their homes as a result of the earthquake and tsunami that occurred in Chile on February 27, 2010, were selected. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The resulting model had adequate indices of goodness adjustment and showed that brooding completely mediated the relation between subjective severity and PTS, and DR completely mediated the relation between subjective severity, brooding, and PTG. These results highlight the role of both the content and process of rumination in mediating the association between subjective severity of trauma, PTS, and PTG. The implications of these results for a more comprehensive model of symptom severity that occurs after trauma are discussed. PMID:26234365

A Systematic Review of the Effect of Cognitive Strategies on Strength Performance.

PubMed

Tod, David; Edwards, Christian; McGuigan, Mike; Lovell, Geoff

2015-11-01

Researchers have tested the beliefs of sportspeople and sports medicine specialists that cognitive strategies influence strength performance. Few investigators have synthesised the literature. The specific objectives were to review evidence regarding (a) the cognitive strategy-strength performance relationship; (b) participant skill level as a moderator; and (c) cognitive, motivational, biomechanical/physiological, and emotional mediators. Studies were sourced via electronic databases, reference lists of retrieved articles, and manual searches of relevant journals. Studies had to be randomised or counterbalanced experiments with a control group or condition, repeated measures, and a quality control score above 0.5 (out of 1). Cognitive strategies included goal setting, imagery, self-talk, preparatory arousal, and free choice. Dependent variables included maximal strength, local muscular endurance, or muscular power. Globally, cognitive strategies were reliability associated with increased strength performance (results ranged from 61 to 65 %). Results were mixed when examining the effects of specific strategies on particular dependent variables, although no intervention had an overall negative influence. Indeterminate relationships emerged regarding hypothesised mediators (except cognitive variables) and participant skill level as a moderator. Although cognitive strategies influence strength performance, there are knowledge gaps regarding specific types of strength, especially muscular power. Cognitive variables, such as concentration, show promise as possible mediators.

Cognitive Bias in Systems Verification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Larson, Steve

2012-01-01

Working definition of cognitive bias: Patterns by which information is sought and interpreted that can lead to systematic errors in decisions. Cognitive bias is used in diverse fields: Economics, Politics, Intelligence, Marketing, to name a few. Attempts to ground cognitive science in physical characteristics of the cognitive apparatus exceed our knowledge. Studies based on correlations; strict cause and effect is difficult to pinpoint. Effects cited in the paper and discussed here have been replicated many times over, and appear sound. Many biases have been described, but it is still unclear whether they are all distinct. There may only be a handful of fundamental biases, which manifest in various ways. Bias can effect system verification in many ways . Overconfidence -> Questionable decisions to deploy. Availability -> Inability to conceive critical tests. Representativeness -> Overinterpretation of results. Positive Test Strategies -> Confirmation bias. Debiasing at individual level very difficult. The potential effect of bias on the verification process can be managed, but not eliminated. Worth considering at key points in the process.

Performance on the Hamilton search task, and the influence of lateralization, in captive orange-winged Amazon parrots (Amazona amazonica).

PubMed

Cussen, Victoria A; Mench, Joy A

2014-07-01

Psittacines are generally considered to possess cognitive abilities comparable to those of primates. Most psittacine research has evaluated performance on standardized complex cognition tasks, but studies of basic cognitive processes are limited. We tested orange-winged Amazon parrots (Amazona amazonica) on a spatial foraging assessment, the Hamilton search task. This task is a standardized test used in human and non-human primate studies. It has multiple phases, which require trial and error learning, learning set breaking, and spatial memory. We investigated search strategies used to complete the task, cognitive flexibility, and long-term memory for the task. We also assessed the effects of individual strength of motor lateralization (foot preference) and sex on task performance. Almost all (92%) of the parrots acquired the task. All had significant foot preferences, with 69% preferring their left foot, and showed side preferences contralateral to their preferred limb during location selection. The parrots were able to alter their search strategies when reward contingencies changed, demonstrating cognitive flexibility. They were also able to remember the task over a 6-month period. Lateralization had a significant influence on learning set acquisition but no effect on cognitive flexibility. There were no sex differences. To our knowledge, this is the first cognitive study using this particular species and one of the few studies of cognitive abilities in any Neotropical parrot species.

Cognitive Strategy Instruction that Really Improves Children's Academic Performance. Cognitive Strategy Training Series. Second Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pressley, Michael, Ed.; Woloshyn, Vera, Ed.

This volume is the flagship volume in a series on cognitive strategy instruction. While strategies instruction is particularly appropriate for the learning disabled, it is also very useful for normal learners, especially inner city and minority children. The series focuses on conveying strategies instruction methods for use with these children.…

The cognitive style of nursing students: educational implications for teaching and learning.

PubMed

Noble, Kim A; Miller, Susan M; Heckman, James

2008-06-01

As cognitive and kinesthetic demands on nursing students increase, so does the need for optimal learning environments. Witkin's empirically supported measure of field dependent/independent cognitive style assesses the manner in which students perceive and process information and classifies them along a continuum of field dependence to field independence. Witkin's Groups Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) was administered to 876 students enrolled in 10 health care programs. Statistically significant differences in the GEFT mean scores of students enrolled in the different programs were discovered. The effect size was moderate. Undergraduate nursing students scored higher on the GEFT than did graduate or RN-to-BSN nursing students. However, nursing students were classified as more field dependent than students in other health-related disciplines. Due to their cognitive processing requirements, field-dependent nursing students may be at risk for academic failure. Therefore, instructional strategies tailored to students' needs should be incorporated into the nursing curriculum.

Electrophysiologic Assessment of Auditory Training Benefits in Older Adults

PubMed Central

Anderson, Samira; Jenkins, Kimberly

2015-01-01

Older adults often exhibit speech perception deficits in difficult listening environments. At present, hearing aids or cochlear implants are the main options for therapeutic remediation; however, they only address audibility and do not compensate for central processing changes that may accompany aging and hearing loss or declines in cognitive function. It is unknown whether long-term hearing aid or cochlear implant use can restore changes in central encoding of temporal and spectral components of speech or improve cognitive function. Therefore, consideration should be given to auditory/cognitive training that targets auditory processing and cognitive declines, taking advantage of the plastic nature of the central auditory system. The demonstration of treatment efficacy is an important component of any training strategy. Electrophysiologic measures can be used to assess training-related benefits. This article will review the evidence for neuroplasticity in the auditory system and the use of evoked potentials to document treatment efficacy. PMID:27587912

Blackboxing: social learning strategies and cultural evolution

PubMed Central

Heyes, Cecilia

2016-01-01

Social learning strategies (SLSs) enable humans, non-human animals, and artificial agents to make adaptive decisions about when they should copy other agents, and who they should copy. Behavioural ecologists and economists have discovered an impressive range of SLSs, and explored their likely impact on behavioural efficiency and reproductive fitness while using the ‘phenotypic gambit’; ignoring, or remaining deliberately agnostic about, the nature and origins of the cognitive processes that implement SLSs. Here I argue that this ‘blackboxing' of SLSs is no longer a viable scientific strategy. It has contributed, through the ‘social learning strategies tournament', to the premature conclusion that social learning is generally better than asocial learning, and to a deep puzzle about the relationship between SLSs and cultural evolution. The puzzle can be solved by recognizing that whereas most SLSs are ‘planetary'—they depend on domain-general cognitive processes—some SLSs, found only in humans, are ‘cook-like'—they depend on explicit, metacognitive rules, such as copy digital natives. These metacognitive SLSs contribute to cultural evolution by fostering the development of processes that enhance the exclusivity, specificity, and accuracy of social learning. PMID:27069046

Social exclusion modulates priorities of attention allocation in cognitive control

PubMed Central

Xu, Mengsi; Li, Zhiai; Diao, Liuting; Zhang, Lijie; Yuan, Jiajin; Ding, Cody; Yang, Dong

2016-01-01

Many studies have investigated how exclusion affects cognitive control and have reported inconsistent results. However, these studies usually treated cognitive control as a unitary concept, whereas it actually involved two main sub-processes: conflict detection and response implementation. Furthermore, existing studies have focused primarily on exclusion’s effects on conscious cognitive control, while recent studies have shown the existence of unconscious cognitive control. Therefore, the present study investigated whether and how exclusion affects the sub-processes underlying conscious and unconscious cognitive control differently. The Cyberball game was used to manipulate social exclusion and participants subsequently performed a masked Go/No-Go task during which event-related potentials were measured. For conscious cognitive control, excluded participants showed a larger N2 but smaller P3 effects than included participants, suggesting that excluded people invest more attention in conscious conflict detection, but less in conscious inhibition of impulsive responses. However, for unconscious cognitive control, excluded participants showed a smaller N2 but larger P3 effects than included participants, suggesting that excluded people invest less attention in unconscious conflict detection, but more in unconscious inhibition of impulsive responses. Together, these results suggest that exclusion causes people to rebalance attention allocation priorities for cognitive control according to a more flexible and adaptive strategy. PMID:27511746

Parent-child mediated learning interactions as determinants of cognitive modifiability: recent research and future directions.

PubMed

Tzuriel, D

1999-05-01

The main objectives of this article are to describe the effects of mediated learning experience (MLE) strategies in mother-child interactions on the child's cognitive modifiability, the effects of distal factors (e.g., socioeconomic status, mother's intelligence, child's personality) on MLE interactions, and the effects of situational variables on MLE processes. Methodological aspects of measurement of MLE interactions and of cognitive modifiability, using a dynamic assessment approach, are discussed. Studies with infants showed that the quality of mother-infant MLE interactions predict later cognitive functioning and that MLE patterns and children's cognitive performance change as a result of intervention programs. Studies with preschool and school-aged children showed that MLE interactions predict cognitive modifiability and that distal factors predict MLE interactions but not the child's cognitive modifiability. The child's cognitive modifiability was predicted by MLE interactions in a structured but not in a free-play situation. Mediation for transcendence (e.g., teaching rules and generalizations) appeared to be the strongest predictor of children's cognitive modifiability. Discussion of future research includes the consideration of a holistic transactional approach, which refers to MLE processes, personality, and motivational-affective factors, the cultural context of mediation, perception of the whole family as a mediational unit, and the "mediational normative scripts."

Social exclusion modulates priorities of attention allocation in cognitive control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Mengsi; Li, Zhiai; Diao, Liuting; Zhang, Lijie; Yuan, Jiajin; Ding, Cody; Yang, Dong

2016-08-01

Many studies have investigated how exclusion affects cognitive control and have reported inconsistent results. However, these studies usually treated cognitive control as a unitary concept, whereas it actually involved two main sub-processes: conflict detection and response implementation. Furthermore, existing studies have focused primarily on exclusion’s effects on conscious cognitive control, while recent studies have shown the existence of unconscious cognitive control. Therefore, the present study investigated whether and how exclusion affects the sub-processes underlying conscious and unconscious cognitive control differently. The Cyberball game was used to manipulate social exclusion and participants subsequently performed a masked Go/No-Go task during which event-related potentials were measured. For conscious cognitive control, excluded participants showed a larger N2 but smaller P3 effects than included participants, suggesting that excluded people invest more attention in conscious conflict detection, but less in conscious inhibition of impulsive responses. However, for unconscious cognitive control, excluded participants showed a smaller N2 but larger P3 effects than included participants, suggesting that excluded people invest less attention in unconscious conflict detection, but more in unconscious inhibition of impulsive responses. Together, these results suggest that exclusion causes people to rebalance attention allocation priorities for cognitive control according to a more flexible and adaptive strategy.

Social exclusion modulates priorities of attention allocation in cognitive control.

PubMed

Xu, Mengsi; Li, Zhiai; Diao, Liuting; Zhang, Lijie; Yuan, Jiajin; Ding, Cody; Yang, Dong

2016-08-11

Many studies have investigated how exclusion affects cognitive control and have reported inconsistent results. However, these studies usually treated cognitive control as a unitary concept, whereas it actually involved two main sub-processes: conflict detection and response implementation. Furthermore, existing studies have focused primarily on exclusion's effects on conscious cognitive control, while recent studies have shown the existence of unconscious cognitive control. Therefore, the present study investigated whether and how exclusion affects the sub-processes underlying conscious and unconscious cognitive control differently. The Cyberball game was used to manipulate social exclusion and participants subsequently performed a masked Go/No-Go task during which event-related potentials were measured. For conscious cognitive control, excluded participants showed a larger N2 but smaller P3 effects than included participants, suggesting that excluded people invest more attention in conscious conflict detection, but less in conscious inhibition of impulsive responses. However, for unconscious cognitive control, excluded participants showed a smaller N2 but larger P3 effects than included participants, suggesting that excluded people invest less attention in unconscious conflict detection, but more in unconscious inhibition of impulsive responses. Together, these results suggest that exclusion causes people to rebalance attention allocation priorities for cognitive control according to a more flexible and adaptive strategy.

[Cognitive and emotional feeling states and controllability: effects on judgment contents and processing style].

PubMed

Lantermann, E D; Otto, J H

1994-01-01

Reviews summarizing experiments on the interaction of emotional and cognitive processes generally conclude that moods or feelings influence memory, decision-making, and learning processes. The congruency effects observed concern the content or quality of cognition involved as well as the style of information processing. This experiment aimed to further differentiate the conditions of the congruency effects. Therefore, with a 3-factorial design, the influence of (1) positive and negative feelings, (2) a detached and vivid mode of experiencing, and (3) cognitive control on two aspects of probability estimates concerning future events were investigated. 194 female and male subjects (M = 22.58, SD = 4.85 years of age) participated. The feeling states were induced by an autobiographical recollection procedure, and the modality and control conditions were manipulated by means of instructions. 3-way interactions for the content and style of judgments as dependent variables support the expected mood-congruency effects. Three factors quality these effects. First, the mood-congruity effect as described in the literature can be interpreted as being composed of two different parts, a strong emotional and a weak cognitive mood-congruency effect, the latter being an artifact, if real emotion-cognition relationships are concerned. Second, the influence of feelings on information processing style can only be replicated under conditions of "hot" cognition, and so is a truly emotional phenomenon. Third, the interactions of mood, control, and modality point towards different control strategies being implicit in various feeling states. Positive mood is ruled by "compensation" control, whereas negative mood states are governed by "congruency" control if future life events are evaluated.

Saudi EFL Learners' Reported Reading Problems and Strategic Processing of Text Types: A Think-Aloud Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alkhaleefah, Tarek A.

2017-01-01

Research in strategy use needs to provide comprehensive and detailed qualitative discussion of individual cases and their strategic processing of texts to deepen our understanding of the cognitive and metacognitive processes readers resort to when reading different texts for different purposes. Hence, the present paper aims to provide in-depth and…

Anticipation by multi-modal association through an artificial mental imagery process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaona, Wilmer; Escobar, Esaú; Hermosillo, Jorge; Lara, Bruno

2015-01-01

Mental imagery has become a central issue in research laboratories seeking to emulate basic cognitive abilities in artificial agents. In this work, we propose a computational model to produce an anticipatory behaviour by means of a multi-modal off-line hebbian association. Unlike the current state of the art, we propose to apply hebbian learning during an internal sensorimotor simulation, emulating a process of mental imagery. We associate visual and tactile stimuli re-enacted by a long-term predictive simulation chain motivated by covert actions. As a result, we obtain a neural network which provides a robot with a mechanism to produce a visually conditioned obstacle avoidance behaviour. We developed our system in a physical Pioneer 3-DX robot and realised two experiments. In the first experiment we test our model on one individual navigating in two different mazes. In the second experiment we assess the robustness of the model by testing in a single environment five individuals trained under different conditions. We believe that our work offers an underpinning mechanism in cognitive robotics for the study of motor control strategies based on internal simulations. These strategies can be seen analogous to the mental imagery process known in humans, opening thus interesting pathways to the construction of upper-level grounded cognitive abilities.

Gender differences in visuospatial planning: an eye movements study.

PubMed

Cazzato, Valentina; Basso, Demis; Cutini, Simone; Bisiacchi, Patrizia

2010-01-20

Gender studies report a male advantage in several visuospatial abilities. Only few studies however, have evaluated differences in visuospatial planning behaviour with regard to gender. This study was aimed at exploring whether gender may affect the choice of cognitive strategies in a visuospatial planning task and, if oculomotor measures could assist in disentangling the cognitive processes involved. A computerised task based on the travelling salesperson problem paradigm, the Maps test, was used to investigate these issues. Participants were required to optimise time and space of a path travelling among a set of sub-goals in a spatially constrained environment. Behavioural results suggest that there are no gender differences in the initial visual processing of the stimuli, but rather during the execution of the plan, with males showing a shorter execution time and a higher path length optimisation than females. Males often showed changes of heuristics during the execution while females seemed to prefer a constant strategy. Moreover, a better performance in behavioural and oculomotor measures seemed to suggest that males are more able than females in either the optimisation of spatial features or the realisation of the planned scheme. Despite inconclusive findings, the results support previous research and provide insight into the level of cognitive processing involved in navigation and planning tasks, with regard to the influence of gender.

Dual-process cognitive interventions to enhance diagnostic reasoning: a systematic review.

PubMed

Lambe, Kathryn Ann; O'Reilly, Gary; Kelly, Brendan D; Curristan, Sarah

2016-10-01

Diagnostic error incurs enormous human and economic costs. The dual-process model reasoning provides a framework for understanding the diagnostic process and attributes certain errors to faulty cognitive shortcuts (heuristics). The literature contains many suggestions to counteract these and to enhance analytical and non-analytical modes of reasoning. To identify, describe and appraise studies that have empirically investigated interventions to enhance analytical and non-analytical reasoning among medical trainees and doctors, and to assess their effectiveness. Systematic searches of five databases were carried out (Medline, PsycInfo, Embase, Education Resource Information Centre (ERIC) and Cochrane Database of Controlled Trials), supplemented with searches of bibliographies and relevant journals. Included studies evaluated an intervention to enhance analytical and/or non-analytical reasoning among medical trainees or doctors. Twenty-eight studies were included under five categories: educational interventions, checklists, cognitive forcing strategies, guided reflection, instructions at test and other interventions. While many of the studies found some effect of interventions, guided reflection interventions emerged as the most consistently successful across five studies, and cognitive forcing strategies improved accuracy and confidence judgements. Significant heterogeneity of measurement approaches was observed, and existing studies are largely limited to early-career doctors. Results to date are promising and this relatively young field is now close to a point where these kinds of cognitive interventions can be recommended to educators. Further research with refined methodology and more diverse samples is required before firm recommendations may be made for medical education and policy; however, these results suggest that such interventions hold promise, with much current enthusiasm for new research. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Load-Dependent Interference of Deep Brain Stimulation of the Subthalamic Nucleus with Switching from Automatic to Controlled Processing During Random Number Generation in Parkinson's Disease.

PubMed

Williams, Isobel Anne; Wilkinson, Leonora; Limousin, Patricia; Jahanshahi, Marjan

2015-01-01

Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN DBS) ameliorates the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, some aspects of executive control are impaired with STN DBS. We tested the prediction that (i) STN DBS interferes with switching from automatic to controlled processing during fast-paced random number generation (RNG) (ii) STN DBS-induced cognitive control changes are load-dependent. Fifteen PD patients with bilateral STN DBS performed paced-RNG, under three levels of cognitive load synchronised with a pacing stimulus presented at 1, 0.5 and 0.33 Hz (faster rates require greater cognitive control), with DBS on or off. Measures of output randomness were calculated. Countscore 1 (CS1) indicates habitual counting in steps of one (CS1). Countscore 2 (CS2) indicates a more controlled strategy of counting in twos. The fastest rate was associated with an increased CS1 score with STN DBS on compared to off. At the slowest rate, patients had higher CS2 scores with DBS off than on, such that the differences between CS1 and CS2 scores disappeared. We provide evidence for a load-dependent effect of STN DBS on paced RNG in PD. Patients could switch to more controlled RNG strategies during conditions of low cognitive load at slower rates only when the STN stimulators were off, but when STN stimulation was on, they engaged in more automatic habitual counting under increased cognitive load. These findings are consistent with the proposal that the STN implements a switch signal from the medial frontal cortex which enables a shift from automatic to controlled processing.

Load-Dependent Interference of Deep Brain Stimulation of the Subthalamic Nucleus with Switching from Automatic to Controlled Processing During Random Number Generation in Parkinson’s Disease

PubMed Central

Williams, Isobel Anne; Wilkinson, Leonora; Limousin, Patricia; Jahanshahi, Marjan

2015-01-01

Background: Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN DBS) ameliorates the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, some aspects of executive control are impaired with STN DBS. Objective: We tested the prediction that (i) STN DBS interferes with switching from automatic to controlled processing during fast-paced random number generation (RNG) (ii) STN DBS-induced cognitive control changes are load-dependent. Methods: Fifteen PD patients with bilateral STN DBS performed paced-RNG, under three levels of cognitive load synchronised with a pacing stimulus presented at 1, 0.5 and 0.33 Hz (faster rates require greater cognitive control), with DBS on or off. Measures of output randomness were calculated. Countscore 1 (CS1) indicates habitual counting in steps of one (CS1). Countscore 2 (CS2) indicates a more controlled strategy of counting in twos. Results: The fastest rate was associated with an increased CS1 score with STN DBS on compared to off. At the slowest rate, patients had higher CS2 scores with DBS off than on, such that the differences between CS1 and CS2 scores disappeared. Conclusions: We provide evidence for a load-dependent effect of STN DBS on paced RNG in PD. Patients could switch to more controlled RNG strategies during conditions of low cognitive load at slower rates only when the STN stimulators were off, but when STN stimulation was on, they engaged in more automatic habitual counting under increased cognitive load. These findings are consistent with the proposal that the STN implements a switch signal from the medial frontal cortex which enables a shift from automatic to controlled processing. PMID:25720447

Short-Term Memory Limitations in Children: Capacity or Processing Deficits?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chi, Michelene T. H.

1976-01-01

Evaluates the assertion that short-term memory (STM) capacity increases with age and concludes that the STM capacity limitation in children is due to the deficits in the processing strategies and speeds, which presumably improve with age through cumulative learning. (JM) Available from: Memory and Cognition, Psychonomic Society, 1018 West 34…

Investigating Persuasive Processes in Legal Discourse in Real Time: Cognitive Biases and Rhetorical Strategy in Appeal Court Briefs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stratman, James F.

1994-01-01

Reports findings from a think-aloud protocol study of reading, writing, and persuasive processes in legal discourse during an actual appellate court case. Discusses three aspects of advocates' use of persuasive techniques in written appeal briefs. Focuses on specific persuasive techniques utilized by attorneys. (HB)

Pharmacological and Non-pharmacological Therapies of Cognitive Impairment in Multiple Sclerosis.

PubMed

Miller, Elzbieta; Morel, Agnieszka; Redlicka, Justyna; Miller, Igor; Saluk, Joanna

2018-01-01

Cognitive impairment is one of the most important clinical features of neurodegenerative disorders including multiple sclerosis (MS). Conducted research shows that up to 65 percent of MS patients have cognitive deficits such as episodic memory, sustained attention, reduced verbal fluency; however, the cognitive MS domain is information processing speed. It is the first syndrome of cognitive dysfunction and the most widely affected in MS. Occasionally these impairments occur even before the appearance of physical symptoms. Therefore, this review focused on the current status of our knowledge about possible methods of treatment cognitive impairment in MS patients including novel strategies. Research and online content was performed using Medline and EMBASE databases. The most recent research suggests that cognitive impairment is correlated with brain lesion volume and brain atrophy. The examination of the cognitive impairment is usually based on particular neuropsychological batteries. However, it can be not enough to make a precise diagnosis. This creates a demand to find markers that might be useful for identifying patients with risk of cognitive impairment at an early stage of the disease. Currently the most promising methods consist of neuroimaging indicators, such as diffusion tensor imaging, the magnetization transfer ratio, and N-acetyl aspartate levels. Diagnosis problems are strictly connected with treatment procedures. There are two main cognitive therapies: pharmacological (disease modifying drugs (DMD), symptomatic treatments) and non-pharmacological interventions that are focused on psychological and physical rehabilitation. Some trials have shown a positive association between physical activity and the cognitive function. This article is an overview of the current state of knowledge related to cognition impairment treatment in MS. Additionally, novel strategies for cognitive impairments such as cryostimulation and other complementary methods are presented. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Aging, training, and the brain: A review and future directions

PubMed Central

Lustig, Cindy; Shah, Priti; Seidler, Rachael; Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia A.

2010-01-01

As the population ages, the need for effective methods to maintain or even improve older adults’ cognitive performance becomes increasingly pressing. Here we provide a brief review of the major intervention approaches that have been the focus of past research with healthy older adults (strategy training, multi-modal interventions, cardiovascular exercise, and process-based training), and new approaches that incorporate neuroimaging. As outcome measures, neuroimaging data on intervention-related changes in volume, structural integrity, and functional activation can provide important insights into the nature and duration of an intervention's effects. Perhaps even more intriguingly, several recent studies have used neuroimaging data as a guide to identify core cognitive processes that can be trained in one task with effective transfer to other tasks that share the same underlying processes. Although many open questions remain, this research has greatly increased our understanding of how to promote successful aging of cognition and the brain. PMID:19876740

From Creatures of Habit to Goal-Directed Learners: Tracking the Developmental Emergence of Model-Based Reinforcement Learning.

PubMed

Decker, Johannes H; Otto, A Ross; Daw, Nathaniel D; Hartley, Catherine A

2016-06-01

Theoretical models distinguish two decision-making strategies that have been formalized in reinforcement-learning theory. A model-based strategy leverages a cognitive model of potential actions and their consequences to make goal-directed choices, whereas a model-free strategy evaluates actions based solely on their reward history. Research in adults has begun to elucidate the psychological mechanisms and neural substrates underlying these learning processes and factors that influence their relative recruitment. However, the developmental trajectory of these evaluative strategies has not been well characterized. In this study, children, adolescents, and adults performed a sequential reinforcement-learning task that enabled estimation of model-based and model-free contributions to choice. Whereas a model-free strategy was apparent in choice behavior across all age groups, a model-based strategy was absent in children, became evident in adolescents, and strengthened in adults. These results suggest that recruitment of model-based valuation systems represents a critical cognitive component underlying the gradual maturation of goal-directed behavior. © The Author(s) 2016.

Cognitive-Behavioral Coping, Illness Perception, and Family Adaptability in Oncological Patients with a Family History of Cancer.

PubMed

Postolica, Roxana; Iorga, Magdalena; Petrariu, Florin Dumitru; Azoicai, Doina

2017-01-01

Aim . The study investigated the differences between patients with and without a family history of cancer regarding coping strategies, illness perception, and family adaptability to the disease. Material and Methods . A total of 124 patients diagnosed with cancer were included in the research (55 of them with a family history of cancer). The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire , the Strategic Approach to Coping Scale , the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale , and the Illness Perception Questionnaire were applied. The data were processed using the SPSS 21 software. Results . Patients with previous records of cancer in the family get significantly higher scores for the illness coherence factor. Family satisfaction is significantly higher for patients with a genetic risk, compared to the one reported by patients who suffer from the disease but have no genetic risk. Cognitive-behavioral coping strategies and family cohesion are factors that correlate with an adaptive perception of the illness in the case of patients with a family history of cancer. Conclusion . Results are important for the construction of strategies used for patients with a family history of cancer.

Cognitive-Behavioral Coping, Illness Perception, and Family Adaptability in Oncological Patients with a Family History of Cancer

PubMed Central

Petrariu, Florin Dumitru; Azoicai, Doina

2017-01-01

Aim. The study investigated the differences between patients with and without a family history of cancer regarding coping strategies, illness perception, and family adaptability to the disease. Material and Methods. A total of 124 patients diagnosed with cancer were included in the research (55 of them with a family history of cancer). The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Strategic Approach to Coping Scale, the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale, and the Illness Perception Questionnaire were applied. The data were processed using the SPSS 21 software. Results. Patients with previous records of cancer in the family get significantly higher scores for the illness coherence factor. Family satisfaction is significantly higher for patients with a genetic risk, compared to the one reported by patients who suffer from the disease but have no genetic risk. Cognitive-behavioral coping strategies and family cohesion are factors that correlate with an adaptive perception of the illness in the case of patients with a family history of cancer. Conclusion. Results are important for the construction of strategies used for patients with a family history of cancer. PMID:28424789

Neural bases of different cognitive strategies for facial affect processing in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Fakra, Eric; Salgado-Pineda, Pilar; Delaveau, Pauline; Hariri, Ahmad R; Blin, Olivier

2008-03-01

To examine the neural basis and dynamics of facial affect processing in schizophrenic patients as compared to healthy controls. Fourteen schizophrenic patients and fourteen matched controls performed a facial affect identification task during fMRI acquisition. The emotional task included an intuitive emotional condition (matching emotional faces) and a more cognitively demanding condition (labeling emotional faces). Individual analysis for each emotional condition, and second-level t-tests examining both within-, and between-group differences, were carried out using a random effects approach. Psychophysiological interactions (PPI) were tested for variations in functional connectivity between amygdala and other brain regions as a function of changes in experimental conditions (labeling versus matching). During the labeling condition, both groups engaged similar networks. During the matching condition, schizophrenics failed to activate regions of the limbic system implicated in the automatic processing of emotions. PPI revealed an inverse functional connectivity between prefrontal regions and the left amygdala in healthy volunteers but there was no such change in patients. Furthermore, during the matching condition, and compared to controls, patients showed decreased activation of regions involved in holistic face processing (fusiform gyrus) and increased activation of regions associated with feature analysis (inferior parietal cortex, left middle temporal lobe, right precuneus). Our findings suggest that schizophrenic patients invariably adopt a cognitive approach when identifying facial affect. The distributed neocortical network observed during the intuitive condition indicates that patients may resort to feature-based, rather than configuration-based, processing and may constitute a compensatory strategy for limbic dysfunction.

Relational Analysis of High School Students' Cognitive Self-Regulated Learning Strategies and Conceptions of Learning Biology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sadi, Özlem

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to analyze the relation between students' cognitive learning strategies and conceptions of learning biology. The two scales, "Cognitive Learning Strategies" and "Conceptions of Learning Biology", were revised and adapted to biology in order to measure the students' learning strategies and…

The nature of mind wandering during reading varies with the cognitive control demands of the reading strategy.

PubMed

Moss, Jarrod; Schunn, Christian D; Schneider, Walter; McNamara, Danielle S

2013-11-20

Prior studies of mind wandering find the default network active during mind wandering, but these studies have yielded mixed results concerning the role of cognitive control brain regions during mind wandering. Mind wandering often interferes with reading comprehension, and prior neuroimaging studies of discourse comprehension and strategic reading comprehension have shown that there are at least two networks of brain regions that support strategic discourse comprehension: a domain-general control network and a network of regions supporting coherence-building comprehension processes. The present study was designed to further examine the neural correlates of mind wandering by examining mind wandering during strategic reading comprehension. Participants provided ratings of mind wandering frequency that were used to investigate interactions between the strategy being performed and brain regions whose activation was modulated by wind wandering. The results support prior findings showing that cognitive control regions are at times more active during mind wandering than during a task with low control demands, such as rereading. This result provides an initial examination of the neural correlates of mind wandering during discourse comprehension and shows that the processes being engaged by the primary task need to be considered when studying mind wandering. The results also replicate, in a different learning domain, prior findings of key brain areas associated with different reading strategies. © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Cognitive processing speed is related to fall frequency in older adults with multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

Sosnoff, Jacob J; Balantrapu, Swathi; Pilutti, Lara A; Sandroff, Brian M; Morrison, Steven; Motl, Robert W

2013-08-01

To examine mobility, balance, fall risk, and cognition in older adults with multiple sclerosis (MS) as a function of fall frequency. Retrospective, cross-sectional design. University research laboratory. Community-dwelling persons with MS (N=27) aged between 50 and 75 years were divided into 2 groups-single-time (n=11) and recurrent (n=16; >2 falls/12 mo) fallers-on the basis of fall history. Not applicable. Mobility was assessed using a variety of measures including Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale-12, walking speed (Timed 25-Foot Walk test), endurance (6-Minute Walk test), and functional mobility (Timed Up and Go test). Balance was assessed with the Berg Balance Scale, posturography, and self-reported balance confidence. Fall risk was assessed with the Physiological Profile Assessment. Cognitive processing speed was quantified with the Symbol Digit Modalities Test and the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test. Recurrent fallers had slower cognitive processing speed than single-time fallers (P ≤.01). There was no difference in mobility, balance, or fall risk between recurrent and single-time fallers (P>.05). Results indicated that cognitive processing speed is associated with fall frequency and may have implications for fall prevention strategies targeting recurrent fallers with MS. Copyright © 2013 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Understanding planning ability measured by the Tower of London: an evaluation of its internal structure by latent variable modeling.

PubMed

Koppenol-Gonzalez, Gabriela V; Bouwmeester, Samantha; Boonstra, A Marije

2010-12-01

The Tower of London (TOL) is a widely used instrument for assessing planning ability. Inhibition and (spatial) working memory are assumed to contribute to performance on the TOL, but findings about the relationship between these cognitive processes are often inconsistent. Moreover, the influence of specific properties of TOL problems on cognitive processes and difficulty level is often not taken into account. Furthermore, it may be expected that several planning strategies can be distinguished that cannot be extracted from the total score. In this study, a factor analysis and a latent class regression analysis were performed to address these issues. The results showed that 4 strategy groups that differed with respect to preplanning time could be distinguished. The effect of problem properties also differed for the 4 groups. Additional analyses showed that the groups differed on average planning performance but that there were no significant differences between inhibition and spatial working memory performance. Finally, it seemed that multiple factors influence performance on the TOL, the most important ones being the score measurements, the problem properties, and strategy use.

Pharmacological evidence is consistent with a prominent role of spatial memory in complex navigation

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

The ability to learn about the spatial environment plays an important role in navigation, migration, dispersal, and foraging. However, our understanding of both the role of cognition in the development of navigation strategies and the mechanisms underlying these strategies is limited. We tested the hypothesis that complex navigation is facilitated by spatial memory in a population of Chrysemys picta that navigate with extreme precision (±3.5 m) using specific routes that must be learned prior to age three. We used scopolamine, a muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist, to manipulate the cognitive spatial abilities of free-living turtles during naturally occurring overland movements. Experienced adults treated with scopolamine diverted markedly from their precise navigation routes. Naive juveniles lacking experience (and memory) were not affected by scopolamine, and thereby served as controls for perceptual or non-spatial cognitive processes associated with navigation. Further, neither adult nor juvenile movement was affected by methylscopolamine, a form of scopolamine that does not cross the blood–brain barrier, a control for the peripheral effects of scopolamine. Together, these results are consistent with a role of spatial cognition in complex navigation and highlight a cellular mechanism that might underlie spatial cognition. Overall, our findings expand our understanding of the development of complex cognitive abilities of vertebrates and the neurological mechanisms of navigation. PMID:26865305

Jog Your Mind: methodology and challenges of conducting evaluative research in partnership with community organizations.

PubMed

Bier, Nathalie; Lorthios-Guilledroit, Agathe; Nour, Kareen; Parisien, Manon; Ellemberg, Dave; Laforest, Sophie

2015-01-01

Jog Your Mind is a community-based program aiming at empowering elderly people to maintain their cognitive abilities using a multi-strategic approach including cognitively stimulating activities, mnemonic strategies, and strategies to promote healthy behaviors. It is offered to elderly individuals without known or diagnosed cognitive impairment by volunteers or community practitioners over ten weekly sessions. This paper describes the protocol of a quasi-experimental study designed to evaluate Jog Your Mind. Community responsible to recruit participants were either assigned to the experimental group (participating in the Jog Your Mind program) or to the control group (one-year waiting list). All participants were interviewed at baseline (T1), after the program (T2), and 12 months after the baseline (T3). Primary outcomes were the use of everyday memory strategies and aids and subjective memory functioning in daily life. Secondary outcomes included attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors related to cognitive vitality and cognitive abilities (memory and executive functions). Program delivery, organizational and environmental variables were recorded to document the implementation process. Twenty-three community organizations recruited 294 community-dwelling elderly individuals in total at T1. Between T1 and T3, an attrition rate of 15.2% was obtained. Jog Your Mind is one of the only programs targeting cognition among older adults being offered in community settings by community practitioners. The protocol described was designed with a focus on maximizing broad generalizations of the results while achieving scientific rigor. It can serve as an example to guide future research aiming to evaluate health interventions under natural conditions.

Teaching Creativity and Inventive Problem Solving in Science

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Engaging learners in the excitement of science, helping them discover the value of evidence-based reasoning and higher-order cognitive skills, and teaching them to become creative problem solvers have long been goals of science education reformers. But the means to achieve these goals, especially methods to promote creative thinking in scientific problem solving, have not become widely known or used. In this essay, I review the evidence that creativity is not a single hard-to-measure property. The creative process can be explained by reference to increasingly well-understood cognitive skills such as cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control that are widely distributed in the population. I explore the relationship between creativity and the higher-order cognitive skills, review assessment methods, and describe several instructional strategies for enhancing creative problem solving in the college classroom. Evidence suggests that instruction to support the development of creativity requires inquiry-based teaching that includes explicit strategies to promote cognitive flexibility. Students need to be repeatedly reminded and shown how to be creative, to integrate material across subject areas, to question their own assumptions, and to imagine other viewpoints and possibilities. Further research is required to determine whether college students' learning will be enhanced by these measures. PMID:19723812

Teaching creativity and inventive problem solving in science.

PubMed

DeHaan, Robert L

2009-01-01

Engaging learners in the excitement of science, helping them discover the value of evidence-based reasoning and higher-order cognitive skills, and teaching them to become creative problem solvers have long been goals of science education reformers. But the means to achieve these goals, especially methods to promote creative thinking in scientific problem solving, have not become widely known or used. In this essay, I review the evidence that creativity is not a single hard-to-measure property. The creative process can be explained by reference to increasingly well-understood cognitive skills such as cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control that are widely distributed in the population. I explore the relationship between creativity and the higher-order cognitive skills, review assessment methods, and describe several instructional strategies for enhancing creative problem solving in the college classroom. Evidence suggests that instruction to support the development of creativity requires inquiry-based teaching that includes explicit strategies to promote cognitive flexibility. Students need to be repeatedly reminded and shown how to be creative, to integrate material across subject areas, to question their own assumptions, and to imagine other viewpoints and possibilities. Further research is required to determine whether college students' learning will be enhanced by these measures.

How Analysts Cognitively “Connect the Dots”

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bradel, Lauren; Self, Jessica S.; Endert, Alexander

2013-06-04

As analysts attempt to make sense of a collection of documents, such as intelligence analysis reports, they may wish to “connect the dots” between pieces of information that may initially seem unrelated. This process of synthesizing information between information requires users to make connections between pairs of documents, creating a conceptual story. We conducted a user study to analyze the process by which users connect pairs of documents and how they spatially arrange information. Users created conceptual stories that connected the dots using organizational strategies that ranged in complexity. We propose taxonomies for cognitive connections and physical structures used whenmore » trying to “connect the dots” between two documents. We compared the user-created stories with a data-mining algorithm that constructs chains of documents using co-occurrence metrics. Using the insight gained into the storytelling process, we offer design considerations for the existing data mining algorithm and corresponding tools to combine the power of data mining and the complex cognitive processing of analysts.« less

Novel applications of Tablet PCs to investigate expert cognition in the geosciences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turner, Sheldon; Libarkin, Julie

2012-05-01

In this paper, we present new methodologies developed to investigate cognitive processes related to perceiving and interpreting Earth phenomena. This area of study, known as geocognition, is an emerging and vital aspect of geoscience. Geocognition gives geoscientists an understanding of how people conceptualize earth processes. For example, geocognition research can be used to generate effective strategies for increasing public scientific literacy in this new era of climate change and energy crisis. We collected spatial visualization and working memory data using a Camtasia add-on for PowerPoint to generate a unique set of static drawings and videos of the drawing process. Analyzing these data provides unique insight into the underlying cognitive processes. For example, quantitative patterns that emerge within a subpopulation of novices or experts show us the common errors and patterns in how objects are drawn, including drawing order and time spent drawing. We believe that these unique data will contribute to the ongoing efforts to generate new understanding of the nature of geoscientific expertise.

What Happens to Student Learning When Color Is Added to a New Knowledge Representation Strategy? Implications from Visual Thinking Networking.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longo, Palma J.

A long-term study was conducted to test the effectiveness of visual thinking networking (VTN), a new generation of knowledge representation strategies with 56 ninth grade earth science students. The recent findings about the brain's organization and processing conceptually ground VTN as a new cognitive tool used by learners when making their…

Rational adaptation under task and processing constraints: implications for testing theories of cognition and action.

PubMed

Howes, Andrew; Lewis, Richard L; Vera, Alonso

2009-10-01

The authors assume that individuals adapt rationally to a utility function given constraints imposed by their cognitive architecture and the local task environment. This assumption underlies a new approach to modeling and understanding cognition-cognitively bounded rational analysis-that sharpens the predictive acuity of general, integrated theories of cognition and action. Such theories provide the necessary computational means to explain the flexible nature of human behavior but in doing so introduce extreme degrees of freedom in accounting for data. The new approach narrows the space of predicted behaviors through analysis of the payoff achieved by alternative strategies, rather than through fitting strategies and theoretical parameters to data. It extends and complements established approaches, including computational cognitive architectures, rational analysis, optimal motor control, bounded rationality, and signal detection theory. The authors illustrate the approach with a reanalysis of an existing account of psychological refractory period (PRP) dual-task performance and the development and analysis of a new theory of ordered dual-task responses. These analyses yield several novel results, including a new understanding of the role of strategic variation in existing accounts of PRP and the first predictive, quantitative account showing how the details of ordered dual-task phenomena emerge from the rational control of a cognitive system subject to the combined constraints of internal variance, motor interference, and a response selection bottleneck.

The Influence of Exercise on Cognitive Abilities

PubMed Central

Gomez-Pinilla, Fernando; Hillman, Charles

2013-01-01

Scientific evidence based on neuroimaging approaches over the last decade has demonstrated the efficacy of physical activity improving cognitive health across the human lifespan. Aerobic fitness spares age-related loss of brain tissue during aging, and enhances functional aspects of higher order regions involved in the control of cognition. More active or higher fit individuals are capable of allocating greater attentional resources toward the environment and are able to process information more quickly. These data are suggestive that aerobic fitness enhances cognitive strategies enabling to respond effectively to an imposed challenge with a better yield in task performance. In turn, animal studies have shown that exercise has a benevolent action on health and plasticity of the nervous system. New evidence indicates that exercise exerts its effects on cognition by affecting molecular events related to the management of energy metabolism and synaptic plasticity. An important instigator in the molecular machinery stimulated by exercise is brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which acts at the interface of metabolism and plasticity. Recent studies show that exercise collaborates with other aspects of lifestyle to influence the molecular substrates of cognition. In particular, select dietary factors share similar mechanisms with exercise, and in some cases they can complement the action of exercise. Therefore, exercise and dietary management appear as a noninvasive and effective strategy to counteract neurological and cognitive disorders. PMID:23720292

Cognitive Styles and Virtual Environments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ford, Nigel

2000-01-01

Discussion of navigation through virtual information environments focuses on the need for robust user models that take into account individual differences. Considers Pask's information processing styles and strategies; deep (transformational) and surface (reproductive) learning; field dependence/independence; divergent/convergent thinking;…

Increased alertness, better than posture prioritization, explains dual-task performance in prosthesis users and controls under increasing postural and cognitive challenge.

PubMed

Howard, Charla L; Perry, Bonnie; Chow, John W; Wallace, Chris; Stokic, Dobrivoje S

2017-11-01

Sensorimotor impairments after limb amputation impose a threat to stability. Commonly described strategies for maintaining stability are the posture first strategy (prioritization of balance) and posture second strategy (prioritization of concurrent tasks). The existence of these strategies was examined in 13 below-knee prosthesis users and 15 controls during dual-task standing under increasing postural and cognitive challenge by evaluating path length, 95% sway area, and anterior-posterior and medial-lateral amplitudes of the center of pressure. The subjects stood on two force platforms under usual (hard surface/eyes open) and difficult (soft surface/eyes closed) conditions, first alone and while performing a cognitive task without and then with instruction on cognitive prioritization. During standing alone, sway was not significantly different between groups. After adding the cognitive task without prioritization instruction, prosthesis users increased sway more under the dual-task than single-task standing (p ≤ 0.028) during both usual and difficult conditions, favoring the posture second strategy. Controls, however, reduced dual-task sway under a greater postural challenge (p ≤ 0.017), suggesting the posture first strategy. With prioritization of the cognitive task, sway was unchanged or reduced in prosthesis users, suggesting departure from the posture second strategy, whereas controls maintained the posture first strategy. Individual analysis of dual tasking revealed that greater postural demand in controls and greater cognitive challenge in prosthesis users led to both reduced sway and improved cognitive performance, suggesting cognitive-motor facilitation. Thus, activation of additional resources through increased alertness, rather than posture prioritization, may explain dual-task performance in both prosthesis users and controls under increasing postural and cognitive challenge.

Do cognitive training strategies improve motor and positive psychological skills development in soccer players? Insights from a systematic review.

PubMed

Slimani, Maamer; Bragazzi, Nicola Luigi; Tod, David; Dellal, Alexandre; Hue, Olivier; Cheour, Foued; Taylor, Lee; Chamari, Karim

2016-12-01

Soccer players are required to have well-developed physical, technical and cognitive abilities. The present systematic review, adhering to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines, examined the effects of cognitive training strategies on motor and positive psychological skills development in soccer performance and identified the potential moderators of the "cognitive training-soccer performance" relationship. Thirteen databases were systematically searched using keywords related to psychological or cognitive training in soccer players. The review is based on 18 studies, employing 584 soccer players aged 7-39 years. Cognitive strategies, particularly imagery, appear to improve sports performance in soccer players. Regarding imagery, the combination of two different types of cognitive imagery training (i.e., cognitive general and cognitive specific) has a positive influence on soccer performance during training, whereas motivational imagery (i.e., motivational general-arousal, motivational general-mastery and motivational specific) enhance competition performance. Younger soccer players employ cognitive general and cognitive specific imagery techniques to a greater extent than older soccer players. Combined cognitive training strategies were more beneficial than a single cognitive strategy relative to motor skills enhancement in elite (particularly midfielders) and amateur (i.e., when practising complex and specific soccer skills in precompetitive period) soccer players. In conclusion, it appears that there are differences in cognitive/psychological training interventions, and their efficacy, according to whether they are directed towards training or competition, and the age, standard and playing position of the players.

The Influence of Schema and Cultural Difference on L1 and L2 Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Shi-sheng

2010-01-01

Reading in L1 shares numerous basic elements with reading in L2, and the processes also differ greatly. Intriguing questions involve whether there are two parallel cognitive processes at work, or whether there are processing strategies that accommodate both L1 and L2. This paper examines how reading in L1 is different from and similar to reading…

On Cognitive Strategies for Facilitating Acquisition, Retention, and Retrieval in Training and Education

DTIC Science & Technology

1976-05-01

real time task that calls for flexibility in allocating attention to differ- ent tasks and the ability to cope with divided attention , or to time... attentional and intentional processes. Self-directional resources include self-programming and self-monitoring processes. Possibilities for teaching...students better control over attentional and intentional processes, by using neurophysiological indicators, particularly to reduce self-generated

Bully victimization and emotional problems in adolescents:moderation by specific cognitive coping strategies?

PubMed

Garnefski, Nadia; Kraaij, Vivian

2014-10-01

Relationships between bully victimization and symptoms of depression/anxiety were examined. In addition, it was studied whether this relationship was moderated by specific cognitive coping strategies. Participants were 582 secondary school students who filled out online self-report questionnaires on bully victimization, cognitive coping, and depression/anxiety. (Moderated) Multiple Regression analysis was performed. Strong relationships were found between bully victimization and symptoms of depression and anxiety. On top of that, two cognitive coping strategies moderated the relationship between bullying and depression, i.e. rumination (strengthening) and positive refocusing (reducing). Cognitive coping strategies that moderated the effect of bullying on anxiety symptoms were rumination, catastrophizing (strengthening) and positive reappraisal (reducing). The results provide possible targets for intervention: when helping adolescents who have been bullied, maladaptive cognitive coping strategies could be assessed and challenged, while more adaptive strategies could be acquired. Copyright © 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recommendations for Development of New Standardized Forms of Cocoa Breeds and Cocoa Extract Processing for the Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease: Role of Cocoa in Promotion of Cognitive Resilience and Healthy Brain Aging.

PubMed

Dubner, Lauren; Wang, Jun; Ho, Lap; Ward, Libby; Pasinetti, Giulio M

2015-01-01

It is currently thought that the lackluster performance of translational paradigms in the prevention of age-related cognitive deteriorative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), may be due to the inadequacy of the prevailing approach of targeting only a single mechanism. Age-related cognitive deterioration and certain neurodegenerative disorders, including AD, are characterized by complex relationships between interrelated biological phenotypes. Thus, alternative strategies that simultaneously target multiple underlying mechanisms may represent a more effective approach to prevention, which is a strategic priority of the National Alzheimer's Project Act and the National Institute on Aging. In this review article, we discuss recent strategies designed to clarify the mechanisms by which certain brain-bioavailable, bioactive polyphenols, in particular, flavan-3-ols also known as flavanols, which are highly represented in cocoa extracts, may beneficially influence cognitive deterioration, such as in AD, while promoting healthy brain aging. However, we note that key issues to improve consistency and reproducibility in the development of cocoa extracts as a potential future therapeutic agent requires a better understanding of the cocoa extract sources, their processing, and more standardized testing including brain bioavailability of bioactive metabolites and brain target engagement studies. The ultimate goal of this review is to provide recommendations for future developments of cocoa extracts as a therapeutic agent in AD.

Needed: A Standard Information Processing Model of Learning and Learning Processes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carifio, James

One strategy to prevent confusion as new paradigms emerge is to have professionals in the area develop and use a standard model of the phenomenon in question. The development and use of standard models in physics, genetics, archaeology, and cosmology have been very productive. The cognitive revolution in psychology and education has produced a…

Electrophysiological (Event-Related Potentials) Indices of Cognitive Processing in Autistic Learners.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shibley, Ralph, Jr.; And Others

Event-related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded to both auditory and visual stimuli from the scalps of nine autistic males and nine normal controls (all Ss between 12 and 22 years of age) to examine the differences in information processing strategies. Ss were tested on three different tasks: an auditory missing stimulus paradigm, a visual color…

The Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Plays a Role in Self-Initiated Elaborative Cognitive Processing during Episodic Memory Encoding: rTMS Evidence

PubMed Central

Hawco, Colin; Berlim, Marcelo T.; Lepage, Martin

2013-01-01

During episodic memory encoding, elaborative cognitive processing can improve later recall or recognition. While multiple studies examined the neural correlates of encoding strategies, few studies have explicitly focused on the self-initiation of elaborative encoding. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), a method which can transiently disrupt neural activity, was administered during an associative encoding task. rTMS was either applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) or to the vertex (a control region not involved in memory encoding) during presentation of pairs of words. Pairs could be semantically related or not related. Two encoding instructions were given, either cueing participants to analyze semantic relationships (cued condition), or to memorize the pair without any specific strategy cues (the self-initiated condition). Participants filled out a questionnaire regarding their use of memory strategies and performed a cued-recall task. We hypothesized that if the DLPFC plays a role in the self-initiation of elaborative encoding we would observe a reduction in memory performance in the self-initiated condition, particularly for related. We found a significant correlation between the effects of rTMS and strategy use, only in the self-initiated condition with related pairs. High strategy users showed reduced performance following DLPFC stimulation, while low strategy users tended to show increased recall following DLPFC stimulation during encoding. These results suggest the left DLPFC may be involved in the self-initiation of memory strategy use, and individuals may utilize different neural networks depending on their use of encoding strategies. PMID:24040072

Effects of Explicit Instruction in Cognitive and Metacognitive Reading Strategies on Iranian EFL Students' Reading Performance and Strategy Transfer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aghaie, Reza; Zhang, Lawrence Jun

2012-01-01

This study explored the impact of explicit teaching of reading strategies on English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students' reading performance in Iran. The study employed a questionnaire adapted from Chamot and O'Malley's (1994) cognitive and metacognitive strategies framework. To test the effects of explicit teaching of cognitive and…

Preparing Brigade Combat Team Soldiers for Mission Readiness Through Research on Intangible Psychological Constructs and their Applications. Phase 2: Measurement and Learning Methods

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-02-01

10 Cognitive Learning Strategies, Metacognitive Strategies, Scaffolding, and Cognitive Tutoring...culture, technology , and instructional practices. 11 7. Motivational and emotional influences on learning - What and how much is learned is...of learning and intangible skills. These resulting set of theories includes: 12 • Cognitive learning strategies, metacognitive strategies

Vitamin B-12 and Cognition in Children.

PubMed

Venkatramanan, Sudha; Armata, Ilianna E; Strupp, Barbara J; Finkelstein, Julia L

2016-09-01

Vitamin B-12 is essential for brain development, neural myelination, and cognitive function. Inadequate vitamin B-12 status during pregnancy and early childhood has been associated with adverse child health outcomes, including impaired cognitive development. However, the underlying mechanisms have not been elucidated. This review was conducted to examine the evidence that links vitamin B-12 and cognition in children. The search strategy resulted in 17 studies: 3 cross-sectional, 1 case-control, and 12 cohort studies, and 1 randomized trial. Cognitive processes assessed included attention, memory, and perception. Developmental outcomes, academic performance, and intelligence quotient were also considered. Despite the high prevalence of vitamin B-12 insufficiency and associated risk of adverse cognitive outcomes in children, to our knowledge, no studies to date have been conducted to examine the effects of vitamin B-12 supplementation on cognition in children. The role of vitamin B-12 in the etiology of child cognitive outcomes needs to be elucidated to inform public health interventions. © 2016 American Society for Nutrition.

Online Information Search Performance and Search Strategies in a Health Problem-Solving Scenario.

PubMed

Sharit, Joseph; Taha, Jessica; Berkowsky, Ronald W; Profita, Halley; Czaja, Sara J

2015-01-01

Although access to Internet health information can be beneficial, solving complex health-related problems online is challenging for many individuals. In this study, we investigated the performance of a sample of 60 adults ages 18 to 85 years in using the Internet to resolve a relatively complex health information problem. The impact of age, Internet experience, and cognitive abilities on measures of search time, amount of search, and search accuracy was examined, and a model of Internet information seeking was developed to guide the characterization of participants' search strategies. Internet experience was found to have no impact on performance measures. Older participants exhibited longer search times and lower amounts of search but similar search accuracy performance as their younger counterparts. Overall, greater search accuracy was related to an increased amount of search but not to increased search duration and was primarily attributable to higher cognitive abilities, such as processing speed, reasoning ability, and executive function. There was a tendency for those who were younger, had greater Internet experience, and had higher cognitive abilities to use a bottom-up (i.e., analytic) search strategy, although use of a top-down (i.e., browsing) strategy was not necessarily unsuccessful. Implications of the findings for future studies and design interventions are discussed.

Online Information Search Performance and Search Strategies in a Health Problem-Solving Scenario

PubMed Central

Sharit, Joseph; Taha, Jessica; Berkowsky, Ronald W.; Profita, Halley; Czaja, Sara J.

2017-01-01

Although access to Internet health information can be beneficial, solving complex health-related problems online is challenging for many individuals. In this study, we investigated the performance of a sample of 60 adults ages 18 to 85 years in using the Internet to resolve a relatively complex health information problem. The impact of age, Internet experience, and cognitive abilities on measures of search time, amount of search, and search accuracy was examined, and a model of Internet information seeking was developed to guide the characterization of participants’ search strategies. Internet experience was found to have no impact on performance measures. Older participants exhibited longer search times and lower amounts of search but similar search accuracy performance as their younger counterparts. Overall, greater search accuracy was related to an increased amount of search but not to increased search duration and was primarily attributable to higher cognitive abilities, such as processing speed, reasoning ability, and executive function. There was a tendency for those who were younger, had greater Internet experience, and had higher cognitive abilities to use a bottom-up (i.e., analytic) search strategy, although use of a top-down (i.e., browsing) strategy was not necessarily unsuccessful. Implications of the findings for future studies and design interventions are discussed. PMID:29056885

Learning-Disabled Children: General Suggestions for Maximizing Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Telzrow, Cathy F.; Speer, Barbara

1986-01-01

Effective intervention strategies for learning disabled students should recognize such cognitive deficiencies as weaknesses in attention, memory deficits, and problems in generalizing and abstracting information. Approaches which emphasize enhanced learning processes include: self-monitoring; repetition and deliberate instruction in control…

Cognitive Modeling of Video Game Player User Experience

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bohil, Corey J.; Biocca, Frank A.

2010-01-01

This paper argues for the use of cognitive modeling to gain a detailed and dynamic look into user experience during game play. Applying cognitive models to game play data can help researchers understand a player's attentional focus, memory status, learning state, and decision strategies (among other things) as these cognitive processes occurred throughout game play. This is a stark contrast to the common approach of trying to assess the long-term impact of games on cognitive functioning after game play has ended. We describe what cognitive models are, what they can be used for and how game researchers could benefit by adopting these methods. We also provide details of a single model - based on decision field theory - that has been successfUlly applied to data sets from memory, perception, and decision making experiments, and has recently found application in real world scenarios. We examine possibilities for applying this model to game-play data.

Neuropsychological assessment in autism spectrum disorder and related conditions

PubMed Central

Zwick, Georg Peter

2017-01-01

Neuropsychological assessment provides a profound analysis of cognitive functioning in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Individuals on the autistic spectrum often show a high level of anxiety and are frequently affected by comorbidities that influence their quality of life. Yet, they also have cognitive strengths that should be identified in order to develop effective support strategies. This article presents an overview of five cognitive areas that are essential for neuropsychological evaluation (ie, intelligence, attention, executive function, social cognition, and praxis) and explores the underlying causes of behavioral problems in persons with ASD. Furthermore, it stresses the importance of meticulous neuropsychological testing with regard to cognitive remediation, a method that can help to enhance single cognitive processes in a targeted manner. Objective test results suggest it might be possible to promote an improved sense of coherence. In line with the salutogenic model, this may be fundamental for human health and well-being. PMID:29398932

Cognitive interviews to test and refine questionnaires.

PubMed

García, Alexandra A

2011-01-01

Survey data are compromised when respondents do not interpret questions in the way researchers expect. Cognitive interviews are used to detect problems respondents have in understanding survey instructions and items, and in formulating answers. This paper describes methods for conducting cognitive interviews and describes the processes and lessons learned with an illustrative case study. The case study used cognitive interviews to elicit respondents' understanding and perceptions of the format, instructions, items, and responses that make up the Diabetes Symptom Self-Care Inventory (DSSCI), a questionnaire designed to measure Mexican Americans' symptoms of type 2 diabetes and their symptom management strategies. Responses to cognitive interviews formed the basis for revisions in the format, instructions, items, and translation of the DSSCI. All those who develop and revise surveys are urged to incorporate cognitive interviews into their instrumentation methods so that they may produce more reliable and valid measurements. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Thinking through cancer risk: characterizing smokers' process of risk determination.

PubMed

Hay, Jennifer; Shuk, Elyse; Cruz, Gustavo; Ostroff, Jamie

2005-10-01

The perception of cancer risk motivates cancer risk reduction behaviors. However, common measurement strategies for cancer risk perceptions, which involve numerical likelihood estimates, do not adequately capture individuals' thoughts and feelings about cancer risk. To guide the development of novel measurement strategies, the authors used semistructured interviews to examine the thought processes used by smokers (N = 15) as they considered their cancer risk. They used grounded theory to guide systematic data coding and develop a heuristic model describing smokers' risk perception process that includes a cognitive, primarily rational process whereby salient personal risk factors for cancer are considered and combined, and an affective/attitudinal process, which shifts risk perceptions either up or down. The model provides a tentative explanation concerning how people hold cancer risk perceptions that diverge from rational assessment of their risks and will be useful in guiding the development of non-numerical measurements strategies for cancer risk perceptions.

The process of disclosing a diagnosis of dementia and mild cognitive impairment: A national survey of specialist physicians in Denmark.

PubMed

Nielsen, T Rune; Svensson, Birthe Hjorth; Rohr, Gitte; Gottrup, Hanne; Vestergaard, Karsten; Høgh, Peter; Waldemar, Gunhild

2018-01-01

Background Although general recommendations for diagnostic disclosure of dementia are available, little is known about how these recommendations are implemented. The aim of the current study was to investigate the process and content of dementia diagnostic disclosure meetings, and to compare key aspects of disclosing a diagnosis of dementia and mild cognitive impairment. Method A total of 54 specialist physicians in Danish dementia diagnostic departments completed an online survey on their practices regarding diagnostic disclosure of dementia and mild cognitive impairment. The influence of respondent characteristics was assessed, and differences on key aspects of disclosing a diagnosis of dementia and mild cognitive impairment were analyzed. Results The results suggest that among Danish specialist physicians, there is a general consensus regarding the organization of diagnostic disclosure meetings. However, differences in employed terminology and information provided when disclosing a dementia diagnosis were evident. Significant differences were present on key aspects of the diagnostic disclosure of dementia and mild cognitive impairment. For instance, 91% would use the term dementia during diagnostic disclosures compared to just 72% for mild cognitive impairment. Conclusion The range of practices reflected in the present study confirms the complexity of diagnostic disclosure and highlights the importance of preparation and follow-up strategies to tailor the disclosure process to the needs of individual patients with dementia and their caregivers. Due to earlier diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders, more research is urgently needed on this aspect of the diagnostic process, especially to develop evidence-based models for the disclosure of mild cognitive impairment.

Cognitive Deficits in Schizophrenia: Understanding the Biological Correlates and Remediation Strategies

PubMed Central

Tripathi, Adarsh; Shukla, Rashmi

2018-01-01

Cognitive deficits are one of the core symptoms of schizophrenia that evolve during the course of schizophrenia, after being originated even before the onset of illness. Existing pharmacological and biological treatment modalities fall short to meet the needs to improve the cognitive symptoms; hence, various cognitive remediation strategies have been adopted to address these deficits. Research evidences suggest that cognitive remediation measures improve the functioning, limit disability bettering the quality of life. The functional outcomes of cognitive remediation in schizophrenia are resultant of neurobiological changes in specific brain areas. Recent years witnessed significant innovations in cognitive remediation strategies in schizophrenia. This comprehensive review highlights the biological correlates of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia and the remedial measures with evidence base. PMID:29397662

Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Anxiety and Depression Understood as Types of Personality.

PubMed

Domaradzka, Ewa; Fajkowska, Małgorzata

2018-01-01

The identification of distinctive and overlapping features of anxiety and depression remains an important scientific problem. Currently, the literature does not allow to determine stable similarities and differences in the use of cognitive emotion regulation strategies (CERS) in anxiety and depression, especially concerning the adaptive strategies. Consequently, the aim of this study was to identify the overlapping and distinctive patterns of CERS use in the recently proposed types of anxiety and depression in a general population. In this dimensional approach, types of anxiety and depression are considered as personality types and distinguished based on their specific structural composition and functional role (reactive or regulative) in stimulation processing. 1,632 participants from a representative sample completed the Anxiety and Depression Questionnaire (measuring the Arousal and Apprehension Types of anxiety and the Valence and Anhedonic Types of depression) and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Regression analyses were conducted with the affective types as predictors. The co-occurrence of the types was accounted for in order to examine their independent relationships with the CERS. We found that reactive arousal anxiety was not related to any strategies, while regulative apprehension anxiety primarily predicted the use of rumination, which is presumably related to the type's cognitive structural components. The strategy specific to reactive valence depression was other-blame (as predicted by the high negative affect in its structure), and the regulative, most structurally complex anhedonic depression predicted the use of the largest number of strategies, including the adaptive ones. The relationships between the types of depression and self-blame and refocus on planning were moderated by sex but the effects were small. These findings fit into the current trend of exploring the shared and specific features of anxiety and depression, which might facilitate their differentiation by identifying CERS that are characteristic for the specific types. This information can be used for supporting diagnosis and targeting selected strategies in therapy both in clinical and non-clinical populations.

The 3 faces of clinical reasoning: Epistemological explorations of disparate error reduction strategies.

PubMed

Monteiro, Sandra; Norman, Geoff; Sherbino, Jonathan

2018-06-01

There is general consensus that clinical reasoning involves 2 stages: a rapid stage where 1 or more diagnostic hypotheses are advanced and a slower stage where these hypotheses are tested or confirmed. The rapid hypothesis generation stage is considered inaccessible for analysis or observation. Consequently, recent research on clinical reasoning has focused specifically on improving the accuracy of the slower, hypothesis confirmation stage. Three perspectives have developed in this line of research, and each proposes different error reduction strategies for clinical reasoning. This paper considers these 3 perspectives and examines the underlying assumptions. Additionally, this paper reviews the evidence, or lack of, behind each class of error reduction strategies. The first perspective takes an epidemiological stance, appealing to the benefits of incorporating population data and evidence-based medicine in every day clinical reasoning. The second builds on the heuristic and bias research programme, appealing to a special class of dual process reasoning models that theorizes a rapid error prone cognitive process for problem solving with a slower more logical cognitive process capable of correcting those errors. Finally, the third perspective borrows from an exemplar model of categorization that explicitly relates clinical knowledge and experience to diagnostic accuracy. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Muscarinic and nicotinic receptors synergistically modulate working memory and attention in humans.

PubMed

Ellis, Julia R; Ellis, Kathryn A; Bartholomeusz, Cali F; Harrison, Ben J; Wesnes, Keith A; Erskine, Fiona F; Vitetta, Luis; Nathan, Pradeep J

2006-04-01

Functional abnormalities in muscarinic and nicotinic receptors are associated with a number of disorders including Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. While the contribution of muscarinic receptors in modulating cognition is well established in humans, the effects of nicotinic receptors and the interactions and possible synergistic effects between muscarinic and nicotinic receptors have not been well characterized in humans. The current study examined the effects of selective and simultaneous muscarinic and nicotinic receptor antagonism on a range of cognitive processes. The study was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, repeated measures design in which 12 healthy, young volunteers completed cognitive testing under four acute treatment conditions: placebo (P); mecamylamine (15 mg) (M); scopolamine (0.4 mg i.m.) (S); mecamylamine (15 mg)/scopolamine (0.4 mg i.m.) (MS). Muscarinic receptor antagonism with scopolamine resulted in deficits in working memory, declarative memory, sustained visual attention and psychomotor speed. Nicotinic antagonism with mecamylamine had no effect on any of the cognitive processes examined. Simultaneous antagonism of both muscarinic and nicotinic receptors with mecamylamine and scopolamine impaired all cognitive processes impaired by scopolamine and produced greater deficits than either muscarinic or nicotinic blockade alone, particularly on working memory, visual attention and psychomotor speed. These findings suggest that muscarinic and nicotinic receptors may interact functionally to have synergistic effects particularly on working memory and attention and suggests that therapeutic strategies targeting both receptor systems may be useful in improving selective cognitive processes in a number of disorders.

Affect, Reason, and Persuasion: Advertising Strategies That Predict Affective and Analytic-Cognitive Responses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chaudhuri, Arjun; Buck, Ross

1995-01-01

Develops and tests hypotheses concerning the relationship of specific advertising strategies to affective and analytic cognitive responses of the audience. Analyses undergraduate students' responses to 240 advertisements. Demonstrates that advertising strategy variables accounted substantially for the variance in affective and analytic cognition.…

Cognitive Strategy Instruction for Teaching Word Problems to Primary-Level Struggling Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pfannenstiel, Kathleen Hughes; Bryant, Diane Pedrotty; Bryant, Brian R.; Porterfield, Jennifer A.

2015-01-01

Students with mathematics difficulties and learning disabilities (LD) typically struggle with solving word problems. These students often lack knowledge about efficient, cognitive strategies to utilize when solving word problems. Cognitive strategy instruction has been shown to be effective in teaching struggling students how to solve word…

Neural circuits of emotion regulation: a comparison of mindfulness-based and cognitive reappraisal strategies.

PubMed

Opialla, Sarah; Lutz, Jacqueline; Scherpiet, Sigrid; Hittmeyer, Anna; Jäncke, Lutz; Rufer, Michael; Grosse Holtforth, Martin; Herwig, Uwe; Brühl, Annette B

2015-02-01

Dealing with one's emotions is a core skill in everyday life. Effective cognitive control strategies have been shown to be neurobiologically represented in prefrontal structures regulating limbic regions. In addition to cognitive strategies, mindfulness-associated methods are increasingly applied in psychotherapy. We compared the neurobiological mechanisms of these two strategies, i.e. cognitive reappraisal and mindfulness, during both the cued expectation and perception of negative and potentially negative emotional pictures. Fifty-three healthy participants were examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging (47 participants included in analysis). Twenty-four subjects applied mindfulness, 23 used cognitive reappraisal. On the neurofunctional level, both strategies were associated with comparable activity of the medial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. When expecting negative versus neutral stimuli, the mindfulness group showed stronger activations in ventro- and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, supramarginal gyrus as well as in the left insula. During the perception of negative versus neutral stimuli, the two groups only differed in an increased activity in the caudate in the cognitive group. Altogether, both strategies recruited overlapping brain regions known to be involved in emotion regulation. This result suggests that common neural circuits are involved in the emotion regulation by mindfulness-based and cognitive reappraisal strategies. Identifying differential activations being associated with the two strategies in this study might be one step towards a better understanding of differential mechanisms of change underlying frequently used psychotherapeutic interventions.

Early Developmental Disturbances of Cortical Inhibitory Neurons: Contribution to Cognitive Deficits in Schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Volk, David W.; Lewis, David A.

2014-01-01

Cognitive dysfunction is a disabling and core feature of schizophrenia. Cognitive impairments have been linked to disturbances in inhibitory (gamma-aminobutyric acid [GABA]) neurons in the prefrontal cortex. Cognitive deficits are present well before the onset of psychotic symptoms and have been detected in early childhood with developmental delays reported during the first year of life. These data suggest that the pathogenetic process that produces dysfunction of prefrontal GABA neurons in schizophrenia may be related to altered prenatal development. Interestingly, adult postmortem schizophrenia brain tissue studies have provided evidence consistent with a disease process that affects different stages of prenatal development of specific subpopulations of prefrontal GABA neurons. Prenatal ontogeny (ie, birth, proliferation, migration, and phenotypic specification) of distinct subpopulations of cortical GABA neurons is differentially regulated by a host of transcription factors, chemokine receptors, and other molecular markers. In this review article, we propose a strategy to investigate how alterations in the expression of these developmental regulators of subpopulations of cortical GABA neurons may contribute to the pathogenesis of cortical GABA neuron dysfunction and consequently cognitive impairments in schizophrenia. PMID:25053651

Cognitive control predicts use of model-based reinforcement learning.

PubMed

Otto, A Ross; Skatova, Anya; Madlon-Kay, Seth; Daw, Nathaniel D

2015-02-01

Accounts of decision-making and its neural substrates have long posited the operation of separate, competing valuation systems in the control of choice behavior. Recent theoretical and experimental work suggest that this classic distinction between behaviorally and neurally dissociable systems for habitual and goal-directed (or more generally, automatic and controlled) choice may arise from two computational strategies for reinforcement learning (RL), called model-free and model-based RL, but the cognitive or computational processes by which one system may dominate over the other in the control of behavior is a matter of ongoing investigation. To elucidate this question, we leverage the theoretical framework of cognitive control, demonstrating that individual differences in utilization of goal-related contextual information--in the service of overcoming habitual, stimulus-driven responses--in established cognitive control paradigms predict model-based behavior in a separate, sequential choice task. The behavioral correspondence between cognitive control and model-based RL compellingly suggests that a common set of processes may underpin the two behaviors. In particular, computational mechanisms originally proposed to underlie controlled behavior may be applicable to understanding the interactions between model-based and model-free choice behavior.

Cognitive and neuropsychiatric impairments in Alzheimer's disease: current treatment strategies.

PubMed

Borisovskaya, Anna; Pascualy, Marcella; Borson, Soo

2014-09-01

This update on Alzheimer's disease (AD) discusses treatment strategies for cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms (such as agitation, psychosis, anxiety, and depression) common in this illness, emphasizing in particular nonpharmacologic strategies such as cognitive interventions, physical exercise, and psychotherapy. We provide an overview of cognitive enhancers and their combination strategies and medications commonly used for treatment of neuropsychiatric symptoms in AD. Finally, we give recommendations for providing support to caregivers and suggest how to identify caregiver/patient pairs most in need of intensive dementia care services.

Taking Aim at the Cognitive Side of Learning in Sensorimotor Adaptation Tasks.

PubMed

McDougle, Samuel D; Ivry, Richard B; Taylor, Jordan A

2016-07-01

Sensorimotor adaptation tasks have been used to characterize processes responsible for calibrating the mapping between desired outcomes and motor commands. Research has focused on how this form of error-based learning takes place in an implicit and automatic manner. However, recent work has revealed the operation of multiple learning processes, even in this simple form of learning. This review focuses on the contribution of cognitive strategies and heuristics to sensorimotor learning, and how these processes enable humans to rapidly explore and evaluate novel solutions to enable flexible, goal-oriented behavior. This new work points to limitations in current computational models, and how these must be updated to describe the conjoint impact of multiple processes in sensorimotor learning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Self-imagination can enhance memory in individuals with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Raffard, Stéphane; Bortolon, Catherine; Burca, Mariana; Novara, Caroline; Gely-Nargeot, Marie-Christine; Capdevielle, Delphine; Van der Linden, Martial

2016-01-01

Previous research has demonstrated that self-referential strategies can be applied to improve memory in various memory- impaired populations. However, little is known regarding the relative effectiveness of self-referential strategies in schizophrenia patients. The main aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a new self-referential strategy known as self- imagination (SI) on a free recall task. Twenty schizophrenia patients and 20 healthy controls intentionally encoded words under five instructions: superficial processing, semantic processing, semantic self-referential processing, episodic self-referential processing and semantic self- imagining. Other measures included depression, psychotic symptoms and cognitive measures. We found a SI effect in memory as self- imagining resulted in better performance in memory retrieval than semantic and superficial encoding in schizophrenia patients. The memory boost for self-referenced information in comparison to semantic processing was not found for other self-referential strategies. In addition no relationship between clinical variables and free recall performances was found. In controls, the SI condition did not result in better performance. The three self-referential strategies yielded better free recall than both superficial and semantic encoding. This study provides evidence of the clinical utility of self-imagining as a mnemonic strategy in schizophrenia patients.

Is interpolation cognitively encapsulated? Measuring the effects of belief on Kanizsa shape discrimination and illusory contour formation

PubMed Central

Keane, Brian P.; Lu, Hongjing; Papathomas, Thomas V.; Silverstein, Steven M.; Kellman, Philip J.

2012-01-01

Contour interpolation is a perceptual process that fills-in missing edges on the basis of how surrounding edges (inducers) are spatiotemporally related. Cognitive encapsulation refers to the degree to which perceptual mechanisms act in isolation from beliefs, expectations, and utilities (Pylyshyn, 1999). Is interpolation encapsulated from belief? We addressed this question by having subjects discriminate briefly-presented, partially-visible fat and thin shapes, the edges of which either induced or did not induce illusory contours (relatable and non-relatable conditions, respectively). Half the trials in each condition incorporated task-irrelevant distractor lines, known to disrupt the filling-in of contours. Half of the observers were told that the visible parts of the shape belonged to a single thing (group strategy); the other half were told that the visible parts were disconnected (ungroup strategy). It was found that distractor lines strongly impaired performance in the relatable condition, but minimally in the non-relatable condition; that strategy did not alter the effects of the distractor lines for either the relatable or non-relatable stimuli; and that cognitively grouping relatable fragments improved performance whereas cognitively grouping non-relatable fragments did not. These results suggest that 1) filling-in effects during illusory contour formation cannot be easily removed via strategy; 2) filling-in effects cannot be easily manufactured from stimuli that fail to elicit interpolation; and 3) actively grouping fragments can readily improve discrimination performance, but only when those fragments form interpolated contours. Taken together, these findings indicate that discriminating filled-in shapes depends on strategy but filling-in itself may be encapsulated from belief. PMID:22440789

Stochastic modeling of neurobiological time series: Power, coherence, Granger causality, and separation of evoked responses from ongoing activity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yonghong; Bressler, Steven L.; Knuth, Kevin H.; Truccolo, Wilson A.; Ding, Mingzhou

2006-06-01

In this article we consider the stochastic modeling of neurobiological time series from cognitive experiments. Our starting point is the variable-signal-plus-ongoing-activity model. From this model a differentially variable component analysis strategy is developed from a Bayesian perspective to estimate event-related signals on a single trial basis. After subtracting out the event-related signal from recorded single trial time series, the residual ongoing activity is treated as a piecewise stationary stochastic process and analyzed by an adaptive multivariate autoregressive modeling strategy which yields power, coherence, and Granger causality spectra. Results from applying these methods to local field potential recordings from monkeys performing cognitive tasks are presented.

Environmental risk, social cognition, and drug use among young men who have sex with men: longitudinal effects of minority status on health processes and outcomes.

PubMed

Traube, Dorian E; Schrager, Sheree M; Holloway, Ian W; Weiss, George; Kipke, Michele D

2013-01-01

Young men who have sex with men (YMSM) continue to be at elevated risk for substance use; however, models explaining this phenomenon have often focused on a limited array of explanatory constructs. This study examined the longitudinal relationship of contextual risk factors, social cognitive processes, mental health, and health protective behavior to identify key mechanisms of illicit drug use of YMSM as they aged through emerging adulthood. Our sample included an ethnically diverse cohort of 487 YMSM recruited through venue based probability sampling in Los Angeles. We used latent growth curve modeling to understand relationships between environmental risk factors, changing individual and social process variables, health protective behavior, psychological distress, and illicit drug use outcomes among YMSM. Age, ethnicity, violence and discrimination, depression, and previous histories of illicit drug use were key elements of risk for future illicit drug use among YMSM. During this theoretically distinct time period, health as a value, self-efficacy, and social support are vital social cognitive processes for promoting self-change among YMSM, and YMSM have independent growth within each process. Health as a value, self-efficacy, and social support were dynamic social cognitive processes, which served as key mechanisms by which risk factors were converted into health promotion strategies or psychological distress, and ultimately illicit drug use. The efficacy of prevention interventions aimed at reducing illicit drug use among YMSM can be enhanced by addressing social cognitive processes for this underserved portion of the male population. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmental risk, social cognition, and drug use among young men who have sex with men: Longitudinal effects of minority status on health processes and outcomes

PubMed Central

Traube, Dorian E.; Schrager, Sheree M.; Holloway, Ian W.; Weiss, George; Kipke, Michele D.

2012-01-01

BACKGROUND Young men who have sex with men (YMSM) continue to be at elevated risk for substance use; however, models explaining this phenomenon have often focused on a limited array of explanatory constructs. This study examined the longitudinal relationship of contextual risk factors, social cognitive processes, mental health, and health protective behavior to identify key mechanisms of illicit drug use of YMSM as they aged through emerging adulthood. METHODS Our sample included an ethnically diverse cohort of 487 YMSM recruited through venue based probability sampling in Los Angeles. We used latent growth curve modeling to understand relationships between environmental risk factors, changing individual and social process variables, health protective behavior, psychological distress, and illicit drug use outcomes among YMSM. RESULTS Age, ethnicity, violence and discrimination, depression, and previous histories of illicit drug use were key elements of risk for future illicit drug use among YMSM. During this theoretically distinct time period, health as a value, self-efficacy, and social support are vital social cognitive processes for promoting self-change among YMSM, and YMSM have independent growth within each process. Health as a value, self-efficacy, and social support were dynamic social cognitive processes, which served as key mechanisms by which risk factors were converted into health promotion strategies or psychological distress, and ultimately illicit drug use. CONCLUSIONS The efficacy of prevention interventions aimed at reducing illicit drug use among YMSM can be enhanced by addressing social cognitive processes for this underserved portion of the male population. PMID:22749680

A Big Data and Learning Analytics Approach to Process-Level Feedback in Cognitive Simulations.

PubMed

Pecaric, Martin; Boutis, Kathy; Beckstead, Jason; Pusic, Martin

2017-02-01

Collecting and analyzing large amounts of process data for the purposes of education can be considered a big data/learning analytics (BD/LA) approach to improving learning. However, in the education of health care professionals, the application of BD/LA is limited to date. The authors discuss the potential advantages of the BD/LA approach for the process of learning via cognitive simulations. Using the lens of a cognitive model of radiograph interpretation with four phases (orientation, searching/scanning, feature detection, and decision making), they reanalyzed process data from a cognitive simulation of pediatric ankle radiography where 46 practitioners from three expertise levels classified 234 cases online. To illustrate the big data component, they highlight the data available in a digital environment (time-stamped, click-level process data). Learning analytics were illustrated using algorithmic computer-enabled approaches to process-level feedback.For each phase, the authors were able to identify examples of potentially useful BD/LA measures. For orientation, the trackable behavior of re-reviewing the clinical history was associated with increased diagnostic accuracy. For searching/scanning, evidence of skipping views was associated with an increased false-negative rate. For feature detection, heat maps overlaid on the radiograph can provide a metacognitive visualization of common novice errors. For decision making, the measured influence of sequence effects can reflect susceptibility to bias, whereas computer-generated path maps can provide insights into learners' diagnostic strategies.In conclusion, the augmented collection and dynamic analysis of learning process data within a cognitive simulation can improve feedback and prompt more precise reflection on a novice clinician's skill development.

Negative priming in a numerical Piaget-like task as evidenced by ERP.

PubMed

Daurignac, Elsa; Houdé, Olivier; Jouvent, Roland

2006-05-01

Inhibition is a key executive function in adults and children for the acquisition and expression of cognitive abilities. Using event-related potentials in a priming adaptation of a Piaget-like numerical task taken from developmental psychology, we report a negative priming effect in adults measured just after the cognitive inhibition of a misleading strategy, the visuospatial length-equals-number bias. This effect was determined in the N200 information processing stage through increased N200 amplitude. We show here that for accuracy in numerical quantification, the adult brain still had to control the child-like cognition biases that are stored in a kind of "developmental memory."

Cognitive aspect of diagnostic errors.

PubMed

Phua, Dong Haur; Tan, Nigel C K

2013-01-01

Diagnostic errors can result in tangible harm to patients. Despite our advances in medicine, the mental processes required to make a diagnosis exhibits shortcomings, causing diagnostic errors. Cognitive factors are found to be an important cause of diagnostic errors. With new understanding from psychology and social sciences, clinical medicine is now beginning to appreciate that our clinical reasoning can take the form of analytical reasoning or heuristics. Different factors like cognitive biases and affective influences can also impel unwary clinicians to make diagnostic errors. Various strategies have been proposed to reduce the effect of cognitive biases and affective influences when clinicians make diagnoses; however evidence for the efficacy of these methods is still sparse. This paper aims to introduce the reader to the cognitive aspect of diagnostic errors, in the hope that clinicians can use this knowledge to improve diagnostic accuracy and patient outcomes.

Evaluation of Enhanced Attention to Local Detail in Anorexia Nervosa Using the Embedded Figures Test; an fMRI Study

PubMed Central

Giampietro, Vincent; Van den Eynde, Frederique; Davies, Helen; Lounes, Naima; Andrew, Christopher; Dalton, Jeffrey; Simmons, Andrew; Williams, Steven C.R.; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Tchanturia, Kate

2013-01-01

The behavioural literature in anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorders has indicated an overlap in cognitive profiles. One such domain is the enhancement of local processing over global processing. While functional imaging studies of autism spectrum disorder have revealed differential neural patterns compared to controls in response to tests of local versus global processing, no studies have explored such effects in anorexia nervosa. This study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging in conjunction with the embedded figures test, to explore the neural correlates of this enhanced attention to detail in the largest anorexia nervosa cohort to date. On the embedded figures tests participants are required to indicate which of two complex figures contains a simple geometrical shape. The findings indicate that whilst healthy controls showed greater accuracy on the task than people with anorexia nervosa, different brain regions were recruited. Healthy controls showed greater activation in the precuneus whilst people with anorexia nervosa showed greater activation in the fusiform gyrus. This suggests that different cognitive strategies were used to perform the task, i.e. healthy controls demonstrated greater emphasis on visuospatial searching and people with anorexia nervosa employed a more object recognition-based approach. This is in accordance with previous findings in autism spectrum disorder using a similar methodology and has implications for therapies addressing the appropriate adjustment of cognitive strategies in anorexia nervosa. PMID:23691129

Evaluation of enhanced attention to local detail in anorexia nervosa using the embedded figures test; an FMRI study.

PubMed

Fonville, Leon; Lao-Kaim, Nick P; Giampietro, Vincent; Van den Eynde, Frederique; Davies, Helen; Lounes, Naima; Andrew, Christopher; Dalton, Jeffrey; Simmons, Andrew; Williams, Steven C R; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Tchanturia, Kate

2013-01-01

The behavioural literature in anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorders has indicated an overlap in cognitive profiles. One such domain is the enhancement of local processing over global processing. While functional imaging studies of autism spectrum disorder have revealed differential neural patterns compared to controls in response to tests of local versus global processing, no studies have explored such effects in anorexia nervosa. This study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging in conjunction with the embedded figures test, to explore the neural correlates of this enhanced attention to detail in the largest anorexia nervosa cohort to date. On the embedded figures tests participants are required to indicate which of two complex figures contains a simple geometrical shape. The findings indicate that whilst healthy controls showed greater accuracy on the task than people with anorexia nervosa, different brain regions were recruited. Healthy controls showed greater activation in the precuneus whilst people with anorexia nervosa showed greater activation in the fusiform gyrus. This suggests that different cognitive strategies were used to perform the task, i.e. healthy controls demonstrated greater emphasis on visuospatial searching and people with anorexia nervosa employed a more object recognition-based approach. This is in accordance with previous findings in autism spectrum disorder using a similar methodology and has implications for therapies addressing the appropriate adjustment of cognitive strategies in anorexia nervosa.

Research on cognitive, social and cultural processes of written communication.

PubMed

Arroyo González, Rosario; Salvador Mata, Francisco

2009-08-01

This article compiles the investigations carried out by a Research Group of the University of Granada, Spain. Its different projects on writing's cognitive social and cultural processes have been supported by the Spanish Government. This line of research joined together linguistic, psychological, social and cultural contributions to the development of writing from the 1970s. Currently, this line of research develops in collaboration with other European Universities: (a) Interuniversity Centre for Research On Cognitive Processing in Natural and Artificial Systems (ECONA), "La Sapienza" University of Rome (Italy); (b) Anadolu University, (Eskisehir, Turkey); (c) Coimbra University (Portugal); (d) University of Zaragoza (Spain); (e) the Institute of Education of the University of London (United Kingdom). The aforementioned collaboration is materializing into projects like the International Master on Multilingual Writing: Cognitive, Intercultural and Technological Processes of Written Communication ( http://www.multilingualwriting.com ) and the International Congress: Writing in the twenty-first Century: Cognition, Multilinguisim and Technologies, held in Granada ( http://www.asprogrades.org ). This research line is focussed on the development of strategies in writing development, basic to train twenty-first century societies' citizens. In these societies, participation in production media, social exchange and the development of multilingual written communication skills through new computer technologies spread multicultural values. In order to fulfil the social exigencies, it is needed to have the collaboration of research groups for designing and applying international research projects.

Analysis of the relationship between cognitive skills and unilateral sensory hearing loss.

PubMed

Calderón-Leyva, I; Díaz-Leines, S; Arch-Tirado, E; Lino-González, A L

2018-06-01

To analyse cognitive skills in patients with severe unilateral hearing loss versus those in subjects with normal hearing. 40 adults participated: 20 patients (10 women and 10 men) with severe unilateral hearing loss and 20 healthy subjects matched to the study group. Cognitive abilities were measured with the Spanish version of the Woodcock Johnson Battery-Revised; central auditory processing was assessed with monaural psychoacoustic tests. Box plots were drawn and t tests were performed for samples with a significance of P≤.05. A comparison of performances on the filtered word testing and time-compressed disyllabic word tests between patients and controls revealed a statistically significant difference (P≤.05) with greater variability among responses by hearing impaired subjects. This same group also showed a better cognitive performance on the numbers reversed, visual auditory learning, analysis synthesis, concept formation, and incomplete words tests. Patients with hearing loss performed more poorly than controls on the filtered word and time-compressed disyllabic word tests, but more competently on memory, reasoning, and auditory processing tasks. Complementary tests, such as those assessing central auditory processes and cognitive ability tests, are important and helpful for designing habilitation/rehabilitation and therapeutic strategies intended to optimise and stimulate cognitive skills in subjects with unilateral hearing impairment. Copyright © 2016 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Working memory training promotes general cognitive abilities in genetically heterogeneous mice.

PubMed

Light, Kenneth R; Kolata, Stefan; Wass, Christopher; Denman-Brice, Alexander; Zagalsky, Ryan; Matzel, Louis D

2010-04-27

In both humans and mice, the efficacy of working memory capacity and its related process, selective attention, are each strongly predictive of individuals' aggregate performance in cognitive test batteries [1-9]. Because working memory is taxed during most cognitive tasks, the efficacy of working memory may have a causal influence on individuals' performance on tests of "intelligence" [10, 11]. Despite the attention this has received, supporting evidence has been largely correlational in nature (but see [12]). Here, genetically heterogeneous mice were assessed on a battery of five learning tasks. Animals' aggregate performance across the tasks was used to estimate their general cognitive abilities, a trait that is in some respects analogous to intelligence [13, 14]. Working memory training promoted an increase in animals' selective attention and their aggregate performance on these tasks. This enhancement of general cognitive performance by working memory training was attenuated if its selective attention demands were reduced. These results provide evidence that the efficacy of working memory capacity and selective attention may be causally related to an animal's general cognitive performance and provide a framework for behavioral strategies to promote those abilities. Furthermore, the pattern of behavior reported here reflects a conservation of the processes that regulate general cognitive performance in humans and infrahuman animals. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The feasibility of meta-cognitive strategy training in acute inpatient stroke rehabilitation: case report.

PubMed

Skidmore, Elizabeth R; Holm, Margo B; Whyte, Ellen M; Dew, Mary Amanda; Dawson, Deirdre; Becker, James T

2011-04-01

Meta-cognitive strategy training may be used to augment inpatient rehabilitation to promote active engagement and subsequent benefit for individuals with cognitive impairments after stroke. We examined the feasibility of administering a form of meta-cognitive strategy training, Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP), during inpatient rehabilitation. We trained an individual with cognitive impairments after right hemisphere stroke to identify performance problems, set self-selected goals, develop plans to address goals, and evaluate performance improvements. To assess feasibility, we examined the number of meta-cognitive training sessions attended, the number of self-selected goals, and changes in goal-related performance. We also examined changes in rehabilitation engagement and disability. The participant used the meta-cognitive strategy to set eight goals addressing physically oriented, instrumental, and work-related activities. Mean improvement in Canadian Occupational Performance Measure Performance Scale scores was 6.1. Pittsburgh Rehabilitation Participation Scale scores (measuring rehabilitation engagement) improved from 3.2 at admission to 4.9 at discharge. Functional Independence Measure scores (measuring disability) improved from 68 at admission, to 97 at discharge. Performance Assessment of Self-Care Skills scores improved from 1.1 at admission to 2.9 at discharge. The results indicate that meta-cognitive strategy training was feasible during inpatient rehabilitation and warrants further evaluation to determine its effectiveness.

Cognitive niches: an ecological model of strategy selection.

PubMed

Marewski, Julian N; Schooler, Lael J

2011-07-01

How do people select among different strategies to accomplish a given task? Across disciplines, the strategy selection problem represents a major challenge. We propose a quantitative model that predicts how selection emerges through the interplay among strategies, cognitive capacities, and the environment. This interplay carves out for each strategy a cognitive niche, that is, a limited number of situations in which the strategy can be applied, simplifying strategy selection. To illustrate our proposal, we consider selection in the context of 2 theories: the simple heuristics framework and the ACT-R (adaptive control of thought-rational) architecture of cognition. From the heuristics framework, we adopt the thesis that people make decisions by selecting from a repertoire of simple decision strategies that exploit regularities in the environment and draw on cognitive capacities, such as memory and time perception. ACT-R provides a quantitative theory of how these capacities adapt to the environment. In 14 simulations and 10 experiments, we consider the choice between strategies that operate on the accessibility of memories and those that depend on elaborate knowledge about the world. Based on Internet statistics, our model quantitatively predicts people's familiarity with and knowledge of real-world objects, the distributional characteristics of the associated speed of memory retrieval, and the cognitive niches of classic decision strategies, including those of the fluency, recognition, integration, lexicographic, and sequential-sampling heuristics. In doing so, the model specifies when people will be able to apply different strategies and how accurate, fast, and effortless people's decisions will be.

Cognitive Function as a Trans-Diagnostic Treatment Target in Stimulant Use Disorders

PubMed Central

Sofuoglu, Mehmet; DeVito, Elise E.; Waters, Andrew J.; Carroll, Kathleen M.

2016-01-01

Stimulant use disorder is an important public health problem, with an estimated 2.1 million current users in the United States alone. No pharmacological treatments are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for stimulant use disorder and behavioral treatments have variable efficacy and limited availability. Most individuals with stimulant use disorder have other comorbidities, most with overlapping symptoms and cognitive impairments. The goal of this article is to present a rationale for cognition as a treatment target in stimulant use disorder, and to outline potential treatment approaches. Rates of lifetime comorbid psychiatric disorders among people with stimulant use disorders are estimated at 65% - 73%, with the most common being mood disorders (13% - 64%) and anxiety disorders (21% - 50%), as well as non-substance induced psychotic disorders (under 10%). There are several models of addictive behavior, but the dual process model particularly highlights the relevance of cognitive impairments and biases to the development and maintenance of addiction. This model explains addictive behavior as a balance between automatic processes and executive control, which in turn are related to individual (genetics, comorbid disorders, psychosocial factors) and other (craving, triggers, drug use) factors. Certain cognitive impairments, such as attentional bias and approach bias, are most relevant to automatic processes, while sustained attention, response inhibition, and working memory are primarily related to executive control. These cognitive impairments and biases are also common in disorders frequently comorbid with stimulant use disorder, and predict poor treatment retention and clinical outcomes. As such, they may serve as feasible trans-diagnostic treatment targets. There are promising pharmacological, cognitive, and behavioral approaches that aim to enhance cognitive function. Pharmacotherapies target cognitive impairments associated with executive control and include cholinesterase inhibitors (e.g., galantamine, rivastigmine) and monoamine transporter inhibitors (e.g., modafinil, methylphenidate). Cognitive behavioral therapy and cognitive rehabilitation also enhance executive control, while cognitive bias modification targets impairments associated with automatic processes. Cognitive enhancements to improve treatment outcomes is a novel and promising strategy, but its clinical value for the treatment of stimulant use disorder, with or without other psychiatric comorbidities, remains to be determined in future studies. PMID:26828702

Assisting Students' Cognitive Strategies with the Use of CAS

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarvari, Csaba; Lavicza, Zsolt; Klincsik, Mihaly

2010-01-01

This paper examines various cognitive strategies applied while CAS (Computer Algebra System) are used in undergraduate-level engineering mathematics teaching and learning. We posed some questions in relation to such CAS use: What kind of tools can CAS offer to enhance different cognitive strategies of students? How can the use of CAS widen the…

Interrelations among University Students' Approaches to Learning, Regulation of Learning, and Cognitive and Attributional Strategies: A Person Oriented Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heikkila, Annamari; Niemivirta, Markku; Nieminen, Juha; Lonka, Kirsti

2011-01-01

This study investigated the relationships among approaches to learning, regulation of learning, cognitive and attributional strategies, stress, exhaustion, and study success. University students (N = 437) from three faculties filled in a questionnaire concerning their self-reported study behaviour, cognitive strategies, and well-being. Their…

Dissociable effects of motivation and expectancy on conflict processing: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Soutschek, Alexander; Stelzel, Christine; Paschke, Lena; Walter, Henrik; Schubert, Torsten

2015-02-01

Previous studies suggest that both motivation and task difficulty expectations activate brain regions associated with cognitive control. However, it remains an open question whether motivational and cognitive determinants of control have similar or dissociable impacts on conflict processing on a neural level. The current study tested the effects of motivation and conflict expectancy on activity in regions related to processing of the target and the distractor information. Participants performed a picture-word interference task in which we manipulated the size of performance-dependent monetary rewards (level of motivation) and the ratio of congruent to incongruent trials within a block (level of conflict expectancy). Our results suggest that motivation improves conflict processing by facilitating task-relevant stimulus processing and task difficulty expectations mainly modulate the processing of distractor information. We conclude that motivation and conflict expectancy engage dissociable control strategies during conflict resolution.

Converging on a core cognitive deficit: the impact of various neurodevelopmental insults on cognitive control

PubMed Central

O'Reilly, Kally C.; Kao, Hsin-Yi; Lee, Heekyung; Fenton, André A.

2014-01-01

Despite substantial effort and immense need, the treatment options for major neuropsychiatric illnesses like schizophrenia are limited and largely ineffective at improving the most debilitating cognitive symptoms that are central to mental illness. These symptoms include cognitive control deficits, the inability to selectively use information that is currently relevant and ignore what is currently irrelevant. Contemporary attempts to accelerate progress are in part founded on an effort to reconceptualize neuropsychiatric illness as a disorder of neural development. This neuro-developmental framework emphasizes abnormal neural circuits on the one hand, and on the other, it suggests there are therapeutic opportunities to exploit the developmental processes of excitatory neuron pruning, inhibitory neuron proliferation, elaboration of myelination, and other circuit refinements that extend through adolescence and into early adulthood. We have crafted a preclinical research program aimed at cognition failures that may be relevant to mental illness. By working with a variety of neurodevelopmental rodent models, we strive to identify a common pathophysiology that underlies cognitive control failure as well as a common strategy for improving cognition in the face of neural circuit abnormalities. Here we review our work to characterize cognitive control deficits in rats with a neonatal ventral hippocampus lesion and rats that were exposed to Methylazoxymethanol acetate (MAM) in utero. We review our findings as they pertain to early developmental processes, including neurogenesis, as well as the power of cognitive experience to refine neural circuit function within the mature and maturing brain's cognitive circuitry. PMID:24966811

Content and strategy in syllogistic reasoning.

PubMed

Marrero, Hipólito; Elena, Gámez

2004-09-01

Syllogistic reasoning has been investigated as a general deductive process (Johnson-Laird & Byrne, 1991; Revlis, 1975; Rips, 1994). However, several studies have demonstrated the role of cognitive strategies in this type of reasoning. These strategies focus on the method used by the participants (Ford, 1995; Gilhooly, Logie, Wetherick, & Wynn, 1993) and strategies related to different interpretations of the quantified premises (Roberts, Newstead, & Griggs, 2001). In this paper, we propose that content (as well as individual cognitive differences) is an important factor in inducing a certain strategy or method for syllogistic resolution. Specifically, we suggest that syllogisms with a causal conditional premise that can be extended by an agency premise induce the use of a conditional method. To demonstrate this, we carried out two experiments. Experiment 1 provided evidence that this type of syllogism leads participants to draw the predicted conditional conclusions, in contrast with control content syllogisms. In Experiment 2, we demonstrated that the drawing of conditional conclusions is based on a causal conditional to an agent representation of the syllogism premises. These results support the role of content as inducing a particular strategy for syllogistic resolution. The implications of these results are discussed.

Students' Academic Performance and Various Cognitive Processes of Learning: An Integrative Framework and Empirical Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phan, Huy Phuong

2010-01-01

The main aim of this study is to test a conceptualised framework that involved the integration of achievement goals, self-efficacy and self-esteem beliefs, and study-processing strategies. Two hundred and ninety (178 females, 112 males) first-year university students were administered a number of Likert-scale inventories in tutorial classes. Data…

Developing Rational-Empirical Views of Intelligent Adaptive Behavior

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-08-01

biological frame to the information processing model and outline our understanding of intentions and beliefs that co-exist with rational and...notion that the evolution of cognition has produced memory/ knowledge systems that specialize in the processing of particular types of information ...1 PERMIS 2004 Developing Rational-Empirical Views of Intelligent Adaptive Behavior Gary Berg-Cross, Knowledge Strategies Potomac, Maryland

Conceptual change strategies in teaching genetics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Batzli, Laura Elizabeth

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of utilizing conceptual change strategies when teaching high school genetics. The study examined the effects of structuring instruction to provide students with cognitive situations which promote conceptual change, specifically instruction was structured to elicit students' prior knowledge. The goal of the study was that the students would not only be able to solve genetics problems and define basic terminology but they would also have constructed more scientific schemas of the actual processes involved in inheritance. This study is based on the constructivist theory of learning and conceptual change research which suggest that students are actively involved in the process of relating new information to prior knowledge as they construct new knowledge. Two sections of biology II classes received inquiry based instruction and participated in structured cooperative learning groups. However, the unique difference in the treatment group's instruction was the use of structured thought time and the resulting social interaction between the students. The treatment group students' instructional design allowed students to socially construct their cognitive knowledge after elicitation of their prior knowledge. In contrast, the instructional design for the control group students allowed them to socially construct their cognitive knowledge of genetics without the individually structured thought time. The results indicated that the conceptual change strategies with individually structured thought time improved the students' scientific mastery of genetics concepts and they maintained fewer post instructional alternative conceptions. Although all students gained the ability to correctly solve genetics problems, the treatment group students were able to explain the processes involved in terms of meiosis. The treatment group students were also able to better apply their knowledge to novel genetic situations. The implications for genetics instruction from these results were discussed.

Challenges of Making a Diagnosis in the Outpatient Setting: A Multi-Site Survey of Primary Care Physicians

PubMed Central

Sarkar, Urmimala; Bonacum, Doug; Strull, William; Spitzmueller, Christiane; Jin, Nancy; Lopez, Andrea; Giardina, Traber Davis; Meyer, Ashley N.D.; Singh, Hardeep

2013-01-01

Background Although misdiagnosis in the outpatient setting leads to significant patient harm and wasted resources, it is not well studied. We surveyed primary care physicians (PCPs) about barriers to timely diagnosis in the outpatient setting and assessed their perceptions of diagnostic difficulty. Methods We conducted a survey of general internists and family physicians practicing in an integrated health system across 10 geographically dispersed states in 2005. The survey elicited information on key cognitive failures (such as in clinical knowledge or judgment) for a specific case, and solicited strategies for reducing diagnostic delays. Content analysis was used to categorize cognitive failures and strategies for improvement. We examined the extent and predictors of diagnostic difficulty, defined as reporting >5% patients difficult to diagnose. Results Of 1817 physicians surveyed, 1054 (58%) responded; 848 (80%) respondents primarily practiced in outpatient settings and had an assigned patient panel (inclusion sample). Inadequate knowledge (19.9%) was the most commonly reported cognitive factor. Half reported >5% of their patients were difficult to diagnose; more experienced physicians reported less diagnostic difficulty. In adjusted analyses, problems with information processing (information availability and time to review it) and the referral process, were associated with greater diagnostic difficulty. Strategies for improvement most commonly involved workload issues (panel size, non-visit tasks). Conclusions PCPs report a variety of reasons for diagnostic difficulties in primary care practice. In our study, knowledge gaps appear to be a prominent concern. Interventions that address these gaps as well as practice level issues such as time to process diagnostic information and better subspecialty input may reduce diagnostic difficulties in primary care. PMID:22626738

Affective Cognition and its Disruption in Mood Disorders

PubMed Central

Elliott, Rebecca; Zahn, Roland; Deakin, J F William; Anderson, Ian M

2011-01-01

In this review, we consider affective cognition, responses to emotional stimuli occurring in the context of cognitive evaluation. In particular, we discuss emotion categorization, biasing of memory and attention, as well as social/moral emotion. We discuss limited neuropsychological evidence suggesting that affective cognition depends critically on the amygdala, ventromedial frontal cortex, and the connections between them. We then consider neuroimaging studies of affective cognition in healthy volunteers, which have led to the development of more sophisticated neural models of these processes. Disturbances of affective cognition are a core and specific feature of mood disorders, and we discuss the evidence supporting this claim, both from behavioral and neuroimaging perspectives. Serotonin is considered to be a key neurotransmitter involved in depression, and there is a considerable body of research exploring whether serotonin may mediate disturbances of affective cognition. The final section presents an overview of this literature and considers implications for understanding the pathophysiology of mood disorder as well as developing and evaluating new treatment strategies. PMID:20571485

The effects of mother-child mediated learning strategies on psychological resilience and cognitive modifiability of boys with learning disability.

PubMed

Tzuriel, David; Shomron, Vered

2018-06-01

The theoretical framework of the current study is based on mediated learning experience (MLE) theory, which is similar to the scaffolding concept. The main question of the current study was to what extent mother-child MLE strategies affect psychological resilience and cognitive modifiability of boys with learning disability (LD). Secondary questions were to what extent the home environment, severity of boy's LD, and mother's attitude towards her child's LD affect her MLE strategies and consequently the child's psychological resilience and cognitive modifiability. The main objectives of this study were the following: (a) to investigate the effects of mother-child MLE strategies on psychological resilience and cognitive modifiability among 7- to 10-year-old boys with LD, (b) to study the causal effects of distal factors (i.e., socio-economic status [SES], home environment, severity of child's LD, mother's attitude towards LD) and proximal factors (i.e., MLE strategies) on psychological resilience and cognitive modifiability. A sample of mother-child dyads (n = 100) were videotaped during a short teaching interaction. All children were boys diagnosed as children with LD. The interaction was analysed for MLE strategies by the Observation of Mediation Interaction scale. Children were administered psychological resilience tests and their cognitive modifiability was measured by dynamic assessment using the Analogies subtest from the Cognitive Modifiability Battery. Home environment was rated by the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME), and mothers answered a questionnaire of attitudes towards child's LD. The findings showed that mother-child MLE strategies, HOME, and socio-economic level contributed significantly to prediction of psychological resilience (78%) and cognitive modifiability (51%). Psychological resilience was positively correlated with cognitive modifiability (Rc = 0.67). Structural equation modelling analysis supported, in general, the hypotheses about the causal effects of distal and proximal factors of psychological resilience and cognitive modifiability. The findings validate and extend the MLE theory by showing that mother-child MLE strategies significantly predict psychological resilience and cognitive modifiability among boys with LD. Significant correlation between psychological resilience and cognitive modifiability calls for further research exploring the role of MLE strategies in development of both. © 2018 The British Psychological Society.

Emotion regulation strategies mediate the associations of positive and negative affect to upper extremity physical function.

PubMed

Talaei-Khoei, Mojtaba; Nemati-Rezvani, Hora; Fischerauer, Stefan F; Ring, David; Chen, Neal; Vranceanu, Ana-Maria

2017-05-01

The Gross process model of emotion regulation holds that emotion-eliciting situations (e.g. musculoskeletal illness) can be strategically regulated to determine the final emotional and behavioral response. Also, there is some evidence that innate emotional traits may predispose an individual to a particular regulating coping style. We enrolled 107 patients with upper extremity musculoskeletal illness in this cross-sectional study. They completed self-report measures of positive and negative affect, emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression), upper extremity physical function, pain intensity, and demographics. We used Preacher and Hayes' bootstrapping approach to process analysis to infer the direct effect of positive and negative affect on physical function as well as their indirect effects through activation of emotion regulation strategies. Negative affect was associated with decreased physical function. The association was partly mediated by expressive suppression (b (SE)=-.10 (.05), 95% BCa CI [-.21, -.02]). Positive affect was associated with increased physical function. Cognitive reappraisal partially mediated this association (b (SE)=.11 (.05), 95% BCa CI [.03, .24]). After controlling for pain intensity, the ratio of the mediated effect to total effect grew even larger in controlled model comparing to uncontrolled model (33% vs. 26% for expressive suppression and 32% vs. 30% for cognitive reappraisal). The relationships between affect, emotion regulation strategies and physical function appear to be more dependent on the emotional response to an orthopedic condition rather than the intensity of the nociceptive stimulation of the pain. Findings support integration of emotion regulation training in skill-based psychotherapy in this population to mitigate the effect of negative affect and enhance the influence of positive affect on physical function. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Social information-processing and coping in adolescent females diagnosed with an eating disorder: toward a greater understanding of control.

PubMed

McFillin, Roger K; Cahn, Stacey C; Burks, Virginia Salzer; Levine, Martha Peaslee; Loney, Susan Lane; Levine, Richard L

2012-01-01

The objective of this study was to examine differences in social information-processing and coping strategies between adolescent females in treatment for an eating disorder and asymptomatic peers. Adolescent females in treatment for an eating disorder (n = 50) were compared to asymptomatic control participants (n = 59) on a measure of social information-processing. Participants were presented with 4 hypothetical, ambiguous social dilemmas in which the intent of a peer provocateur was unclear. Questions followed each dilemma assessing intent attributions, the participant's emotional reaction, the intensity of the emotion, and coping strategies. The participants in treatment for an eating disorder were significantly more likely to perceive hostile intent from a peer provocateur, reported a greater intensity of negative emotions, and identified a significantly greater number of avoidant coping strategies. Specifically, the eating disorder group identified significantly more intrapunitive avoidant coping strategies that reflect maladaptive and self-destructive means of coping with distressing events. Results indicate social cognitive processing biases and maladaptive coping strategies may be instrumental in perceived loss of control and influence the development/maintenance of eating disorders.

At the Mercy of Strategies: The Role of Motor Representations in Language Understanding

PubMed Central

Tomasino, Barbara; Rumiati, Raffaella Ida

2013-01-01

Classical cognitive theories hold that word representations in the brain are abstract and amodal, and are independent of the objects’ sensorimotor properties they refer to. An alternative hypothesis emphasizes the importance of bodily processes in cognition: the representation of a concept appears to be crucially dependent upon perceptual-motor processes that relate to it. Thus, understanding action-related words would rely upon the same motor structures that also support the execution of the same actions. In this context, motor simulation represents a key component. Our approach is to draw parallels between the literature on mental rotation and the literature on action verb/sentence processing. Here we will discuss recent studies on mental imagery, mental rotation, and language that clearly demonstrate how motor simulation is neither automatic nor necessary to language understanding. These studies have shown that motor representations can or cannot be activated depending on the type of strategy the participants adopt to perform tasks involving motor phrases. On the one hand, participants may imagine the movement with the body parts used to carry out the actions described by the verbs (i.e., motor strategy); on the other, individuals may solve the task without simulating the corresponding movements (i.e., visual strategy). While it is not surprising that the motor strategy is at work when participants process action-related verbs, it is however striking that sensorimotor activation has been reported also for imageable concrete words with no motor content, for “non-words” with regular phonology, for pseudo-verb stimuli, and also for negations. Based on the extant literature, we will argue that implicit motor imagery is not uniquely used when a body-related stimulus is encountered, and that it is not the type of stimulus that automatically triggers the motor simulation but the type of strategy. Finally, we will also comment on the view that sensorimotor activations are subjected to a top-down modulation. PMID:23382722

Occupation emerges in the process of therapy.

PubMed

Price, Pollie; Miner, Stephanie

2007-01-01

The current literature offers no cohesive definition of occupation-based practice. Current definitions emphasize intervention forms and contexts, which do not reflect the complexity of practice. This article demonstrates that the therapeutic relationship and the meanings that are created in the therapy process are central aspects of occupation-based practice. Occupation, as an idea that emerges in the therapeutic process, has aspects of both doing and becoming. The authors conducted observation sessions and interviews with an occupational therapist, Nancy, who used multiple therapeutic strategies with one child, Hannah, as they worked toward Hannah's goals of going to preschool and becoming a friend. Strategies include changing therapeutic conditions, using cognitive strategies, bridging the person-task-social context, pushing participation, and engaging in narrative micronegotiations. Occupation emerged in the therapeutic processes as the occupational therapist and client co-created meaning about the client moving toward or away from who she wanted to become.

Teaching Melodic Dictation in Advanced Placement Music Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paney, Andrew S.; Buonviri, Nathan O.

2014-01-01

In this study approaches to teaching melodic dictation skills used by Advanced Placement (AP) Music Theory teachers were examined. Twelve high school teachers from four states were interviewed. Four themes emerged from the interview transcripts: cognitive frameworks, processing strategies, rhythm, and course design. Participants generally…

A Cognitive Strategy Instruction to Improve Math Calculation for Children with ADHD and LD: A Randomized Controlled Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iseman, Jackie S.; Naglieri, Jack A.

2011-01-01

The authors examined the effectiveness of cognitive strategy instruction based on PASS (Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, Successive) given by special education teachers to students with ADHD randomly assigned by classroom. Students in the experimental group were exposed to a brief cognitive strategy instruction for 10 days, which was designed to…

Comparative Effect of Memory and Cognitive Strategies Training on EFL Intermediate Learners' Vocabulary Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banisaeid, Maryam

2013-01-01

The present study was conducted to compare the effect of memory and cognitive strategies training on vocabulary learning of intermediate proficiency group of Iranian learners of English as a foreign language. It is to check how memory and cognitive strategies training affect word learning of EFL intermediate learners (N = 60) who were homogenized…

Web-based unfolding cases: a strategy to enhance and evaluate clinical reasoning skills.

PubMed

Johnson, Gail; Flagler, Susan

2013-10-01

Clinical reasoning involves the use of both analytical and nonanalytical intuitive cognitive processes. Fostering student development of clinical reasoning skills and evaluating student performance in this cognitive arena can challenge educators. The use of Web-based unfolding cases is proposed as a strategy to address these challenges. Unfolding cases mimic real-life clinical situations by presenting only partial clinical information in sequential segments. Students receive immediate feedback after submitting a response to a given segment. The student's comparison of the desired and submitted responses provides information to enhance the development of clinical reasoning skills. Each student's set of case responses are saved for the instructor in an individual-student electronic file, providing a record of the student's knowledge and thinking processes for faculty evaluation. For the example case given, the approaches used to evaluate individual components of clinical reasoning are provided. Possible future uses of Web-based unfolding cases are described. Copyright 2013, SLACK Incorporated.

Human place and response learning: navigation strategy selection, pupil size and gaze behavior.

PubMed

de Condappa, Olivier; Wiener, Jan M

2016-01-01

In this study, we examined the cognitive processes and ocular behavior associated with on-going navigation strategy choice using a route learning paradigm that distinguishes between three different wayfinding strategies: an allocentric place strategy, and the egocentric associative cue and beacon response strategies. Participants approached intersections of a known route from a variety of directions, and were asked to indicate the direction in which the original route continued. Their responses in a subset of these test trials allowed the assessment of strategy choice over the course of six experimental blocks. The behavioral data revealed an initial maladaptive bias for a beacon response strategy, with shifts in favor of the optimal configuration place strategy occurring over the course of the experiment. Response time analysis suggests that the configuration strategy relied on spatial transformations applied to a viewpoint-dependent spatial representation, rather than direct access to an allocentric representation. Furthermore, pupillary measures reflected the employment of place and response strategies throughout the experiment, with increasing use of the more cognitively demanding configuration strategy associated with increases in pupil dilation. During test trials in which known intersections were approached from different directions, visual attention was directed to the landmark encoded during learning as well as the intended movement direction. Interestingly, the encoded landmark did not differ between the three navigation strategies, which is discussed in the context of initial strategy choice and the parallel acquisition of place and response knowledge.

Disorders of emotional processing in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

PubMed

Sedda, Anna

2014-12-01

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a degenerative brain disease characterized by motor, behavioural and cognitive deficits. Only recently, emotional processing disorders have been shown in this disease. The interest in affective processing in ALS is growing given that basic emotion impairments could impact copying strategies and mood. Studies explore both basic emotion recognition and social cognition. Results are congruent on arousal and valence detection impairments, independently from the stimulus modality (verbal or visual). Further, recognition of facial expressions of anger, sadness and disgust is impaired in ALS, even when cognition is preserved. Clinical features such as type of onset and severity of the disease could be the cause of the heterogeneity in emotional deficits profiles between patients. Finally, a study employing diffusion tensor imaging showed that emotional dysfunctions in ALS are related to right hemispheric connective bundles impairments, involving the inferior longitudinal fasciculus and the inferior frontal occipital fasciculus. Research on emotional processing in ALS is still in its infancy and results are mixed. Future research including more detailed clinical profiles of patients and measures of brain connectivity will provide useful information to understand heterogeneity of results in ALS.

Serious games for elderly continuous monitoring.

PubMed

Lemus-Zúñiga, Lenin-G; Navarro-Pardo, Esperanza; Moret-Tatay, Carmen; Pocinho, Ricardo

2015-01-01

Information technology (IT) and serious games allow older population to remain independent for longer. Hence, when designing technology for this population, developmental changes, such as attention and/or perception, should be considered. For instance, a crucial developmental change has been related to cognitive speed in terms of reaction time (RT). However, this variable presents a skewed distribution that difficult data analysis. An alternative strategy is to characterize the data to an ex-Gaussian function. Furthermore, this procedure provides different parameters that have been related to underlying cognitive processes in the literature. Another issue to be considered is the optimal data recording, storing and processing. For that purpose mobile devices (smart phones and tablets) are a good option for targeting serious games where valuable information can be stored (time spent in the application, reaction time, frequency of use, and a long etcetera). The data stored inside the smartphones and tablets can be sent to a central computer (cloud storage) in order to store the data collected to not only fill the distribution of reaction times to mathematical functions, but also to estimate parameters which may reflect cognitive processes underlying language, aging, and decisional process.

Cognitive Offloading Does Not Prevent but Rather Promotes Cognitive Development

PubMed Central

Nolfi, Stefano

2016-01-01

We investigate the relation between the development of reactive and cognitive capabilities. In particular we investigate whether the development of reactive capabilities prevents or promotes the development of cognitive capabilities in a population of evolving robots that have to solve a time-delay navigation task in a double T-Maze environment. Analysis of the experiments reveals that the evolving robots always select reactive strategies that rely on cognitive offloading, i.e., the possibility of acting so as to encode onto the relation between the agent and the environment the states that can be used later to regulate the agent’s behavior. The discovery of these strategies does not prevent, but rather facilitates, the development of cognitive strategies that also rely on the extraction and use of internal states. Detailed analysis of the results obtained in the different experimental conditions provides evidence that helps clarify why, contrary to expectations, reactive and cognitive strategies tend to have synergetic relationships. PMID:27505162

You can go your own way: Effectiveness of participant-driven versus experimenter-driven processing strategies in memory training and transfer

PubMed Central

Flegal, Kristin E.; Lustig, Cindy

2016-01-01

Cognitive training programs that instruct specific strategies frequently show limited transfer. Open-ended approaches can achieve greater transfer, but may fail to benefit many older adults due to age deficits in self-initiated processing. We examined whether a compromise that encourages effort at encoding without an experimenter-prescribed strategy might yield better results. Older adults completed memory training under conditions that either 1) mandated a specific strategy to increase deep, associative encoding, 2) attempted to suppress such encoding by mandating rote rehearsal, or 3) encouraged time and effort towards encoding but allowed for strategy choice. The experimenter-enforced associative encoding strategy succeeded in creating integrated representations of studied items, but training-task progress was related to pre-existing ability. Independent of condition assignment, self-reported deep encoding was associated with positive training and transfer effects, suggesting that the most beneficial outcomes occur when environmental support guiding effort is provided but participants generate their own strategies. PMID:26549616

You can go your own way: effectiveness of participant-driven versus experimenter-driven processing strategies in memory training and transfer.

PubMed

Flegal, Kristin E; Lustig, Cindy

2016-07-01

Cognitive training programs that instruct specific strategies frequently show limited transfer. Open-ended approaches can achieve greater transfer, but may fail to benefit many older adults due to age deficits in self-initiated processing. We examined whether a compromise that encourages effort at encoding without an experimenter-prescribed strategy might yield better results. Older adults completed memory training under conditions that either (1) mandated a specific strategy to increase deep, associative encoding, (2) attempted to suppress such encoding by mandating rote rehearsal, or (3) encouraged time and effort toward encoding but allowed for strategy choice. The experimenter-enforced associative encoding strategy succeeded in creating integrated representations of studied items, but training-task progress was related to pre-existing ability. Independent of condition assignment, self-reported deep encoding was associated with positive training and transfer effects, suggesting that the most beneficial outcomes occur when environmental support guiding effort is provided but participants generate their own strategies.

Using Video Game Telemetry Data to Research Motor Chunking, Action Latencies, and Complex Cognitive-Motor Skill Learning.

PubMed

Thompson, Joseph J; McColeman, C M; Stepanova, Ekaterina R; Blair, Mark R

2017-04-01

Many theories of complex cognitive-motor skill learning are built on the notion that basic cognitive processes group actions into easy-to-perform sequences. The present work examines predictions derived from laboratory-based studies of motor chunking and motor preparation using data collected from the real-time strategy video game StarCraft 2. We examined 996,163 action sequences in the telemetry data of 3,317 players across seven levels of skill. As predicted, the latency to the first action (thought to be the beginning of a chunked sequence) is delayed relative to the other actions in the group. Other predictions, inspired by the memory drum theory of Henry and Rogers, received only weak support. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Strengths and weaknesses in the cognitive profile of youngsters with Prader-Willi syndrome.

PubMed

Curfs, L M; Wiegers, A M; Sommers, J R; Borghgraef, M; Fryns, J P

1991-12-01

In this report we present the results of a study of the intellectual functioning and cognitive profile of 26 Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) patients. The mean IQ score was 62.3 (range 39-96). In 13 patients a significant difference between verbal and performance IQ was found. In 10 of them the performance IQ was higher than the verbal. The results of subtest analysis indicate that cognitive strengths are more visible than cognitive weaknesses. Highest scores were noted especially in the performance scale, i.e. Block Design (9 children) and Coding or Mazes (5 children). Analysis of all available data indicates that PWS patients score better on visual motor discrimination skills than on auditory verbal processing skills. These results are promising for intervention programs and education strategies.

Adolescents Caught between Fires: Cognitive Emotion Regulation in Response to War Experiences in Northern Uganda

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amone-P'Olak, Kennedy; Garnefski, Nadia; Kraaij, Vivian

2007-01-01

This study aimed to assess the prevalence of war experiences and the use of specific cognitive emotion regulation strategies in response to these experiences among 294 formerly abducted adolescents at three rehabilitation centres in Uganda. Cognitive strategies were measured by Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ). Symptoms of…

The Application of Cognitive-Developmental or Mediated Cognitive Learning Strategies in Online College Coursework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pruitt, Richard A.

2011-01-01

This research article explores the active use of cognitive-developmental or mediated cognitive learning strategies in undergraduate online courses. Examples and applications are drawn from two online sessions integrating online interaction, essay and discussion assignments, as well as a variety of multimedia components conducted during the spring…

Is clinical cognition binary or continuous?

PubMed

Norman, Geoffrey; Monteiro, Sandra; Sherbino, Jonathan

2013-08-01

A dominant theory of clinical reasoning is the so-called "dual processing theory," in which the diagnostic process may proceed through a rapid, unconscious, intuitive process (System 1) or a slow, conceptual, analytical process (System 2). Diagnostic errors are thought to arise primarily from cognitive biases originating in System 1. In this issue, Custers points out that this model is unnecessarily restrictive and that it is more likely that diagnostic tasks may proceed through a variety of mental strategies ranging from "analytical" to "intuitive."The authors of this commentary agree that the notion that System 1 and System 2 processes are somehow in competition and will necessarily lead to different conclusions is unnecessarily restrictive. On the other hand, they argue that there is substantial evidence in support of a dual processing model, and that most objections to dual processing theory can be easily accommodated by simply presuming that both processes operate in concertand that solving any task may rely to varying degrees on both processes.

The neurobiology of emotion–cognition interactions: fundamental questions and strategies for future research

PubMed Central

Okon-Singer, Hadas; Hendler, Talma; Pessoa, Luiz; Shackman, Alexander J.

2015-01-01

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of powerful new tools for assaying the brain and a remarkable acceleration of research focused on the interplay of emotion and cognition. This work has begun to yield new insights into fundamental questions about the nature of the mind and important clues about the origins of mental illness. In particular, this research demonstrates that stress, anxiety, and other kinds of emotion can profoundly influence key elements of cognition, including selective attention, working memory, and cognitive control. Often, this influence persists beyond the duration of transient emotional challenges, partially reflecting the slower molecular dynamics of catecholamine and hormonal neurochemistry. In turn, circuits involved in attention, executive control, and working memory contribute to the regulation of emotion. The distinction between the ‘emotional’ and the ‘cognitive’ brain is fuzzy and context-dependent. Indeed, there is compelling evidence that brain territories and psychological processes commonly associated with cognition, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and working memory, play a central role in emotion. Furthermore, putatively emotional and cognitive regions influence one another via a complex web of connections in ways that jointly contribute to adaptive and maladaptive behavior. This work demonstrates that emotion and cognition are deeply interwoven in the fabric of the brain, suggesting that widely held beliefs about the key constituents of ‘the emotional brain’ and ‘the cognitive brain’ are fundamentally flawed. We conclude by outlining several strategies for enhancing future research. Developing a deeper understanding of the emotional-cognitive brain is important, not just for understanding the mind but also for elucidating the root causes of its disorders. PMID:25774129

A Case Report Examining the Feasibility of Meta-Cognitive Strategy Training in Acute Inpatient Stroke Rehabilitation

PubMed Central

Skidmore, Elizabeth R.; Holm, Margo B.; Whyte, Ellen M.; Dew, Mary Amanda; Dawson, Deirdre; Becker, James T.

2011-01-01

Meta-cognitive strategy training may be used to augment inpatient rehabilitation to promote active engagement and subsequent benefit for individuals with cognitive impairments after stroke. We examined the feasibility of administering a form of meta-cognitive strategy training, Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance, during inpatient rehabilitation. We trained an individual with cognitive impairments after right hemisphere stroke to identify performance problems, set self-selected goals, develop plans to address goals, and evaluate performance improvements. To assess feasibility, we examined the number of meta-cognitive training sessions attended, the number of self-selected goals, and changes in goal-related performance. We also examined changes in rehabilitation engagement and disability. The participant used the meta-cognitive strategy to set 8 goals addressing physically-oriented, instrumental, and work-related activities. Mean improvement in Canadian Occupational Performance Measure Performance Scale scores was 6.1. Pittsburgh Rehabilitation Participation Scale scores (measuring rehabilitation engagement) improved from 3.2 at admission to 4.9 at discharge. Functional Independence Measure scores (measuring disability) improved from 68 at admission, to 97 at discharge. Performance Assessment of Self-care Skills scores improved from 1.1 at admission to 2.9 at discharge. The results indicate that meta-cognitive strategy training was feasible during inpatient rehabilitation and warrants further evaluation to determine its effectiveness. PMID:21391121

The architecture and dynamics of developing mind: experiential structuralism as a frame for unifying cognitive developmental theories.

PubMed

Demetriou, A; Efklides, A; Platsidou, M

1993-01-01

This Monograph presents a theory of cognitive development. The theory argues that the mind develops across three fronts. The first refers to a general processing system that defines the general potentials of mind to develop cognitive strategies and skills. The second refers to a hypercognitive system that governs self-understanding and self-regulation. The third involves a set of specialized structural systems (SSSs) that are responsible for the representation and processing of different reality domains. There are specific forces that are responsible for this organization of mind. These are expressed in the Monograph in terms of a set of five organizational principles. The developmental course of the major systems is outlined. Developmental change is ascribed by the theory to the interaction between the various systems. Different types of development require different change mechanisms. Five studies are presented that provide empirical support for these postulates. Study 1 demonstrated the organizational power of principles and SSSs. Study 2 showed that the SSSs constrain the effect of learning. Study 3 established that the hypercognitive system does function as the interface between tasks and SSS-specific processes or between SSSs and general cognitive functions such as attention and memory. Study 4 investigated the relations between one of the components of the processing system, storage, and two different SSSs expressed via two different symbolic systems, namely, the numeric and the imaginal. Finally, Study 5 examined the interaction between the components of the processing system and the relations between each of these components and one SSS, namely, the quantitative-relational SSS. The theoretical implications of these studies with regard to general issues, such as the nature of representation, the causation of cognitive change, and individual differences in cognitive development, are discussed in the concluding chapter.

Age-related changes in strategic variations during arithmetic problem solving: The role of executive control.

PubMed

Hinault, T; Lemaire, P

2016-01-01

In this review, we provide an overview of how age-related changes in executive control influence aging effects in arithmetic processing. More specifically, we consider the role of executive control in strategic variations with age during arithmetic problem solving. Previous studies found that age-related differences in arithmetic performance are associated with strategic variations. That is, when they accomplish arithmetic problem-solving tasks, older adults use fewer strategies than young adults, use strategies in different proportions, and select and execute strategies less efficiently. Here, we review recent evidence, suggesting that age-related changes in inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory processes underlie age-related changes in strategic variations during arithmetic problem solving. We discuss both behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying age-related changes in these executive control processes. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language experience differentiates prefrontal and subcortical activation of the cognitive control network in novel word learning

PubMed Central

King, Kelly E.; Hernandez, Arturo E.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the cognitive control mechanisms in adult English speaking monolinguals compared to early sequential Spanish-English bilinguals during the initial stages of novel word learning. Functional magnetic resonance imaging during a lexico-semantic task after only two hours of exposure to novel German vocabulary flashcards showed that monolinguals activated a broader set of cortical control regions associated with higher-level cognitive processes, including the supplementary motor area (SMA), anterior cingulate (ACC), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), as well as the caudate, implicated in cognitive control of language. However, bilinguals recruited a more localized subcortical network that included the putamen, associated more with motor control of language. These results suggest that experience managing multiple languages may differentiate the learning strategy and subsequent neural mechanisms of cognitive control used by bilinguals compared to monolinguals in the early stages of novel word learning. PMID:23194816

Taoist Tai Chi® and Memory Intervention for Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

PubMed

Fogarty, Jennifer N; Murphy, Kelly J; McFarlane, Bruce; Montero-Odasso, Manuel; Wells, Jennie; Troyer, Angela K; Trinh, Daniel; Gutmanis, Iris; Hansen, Kevin T

2016-04-01

It was hypothesized that a combined Taoist Tai Chi (TTC) and a memory intervention program (MIP) would be superior to a MIP alone in improving everyday memory behaviors in individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). A secondary hypothesis was that TTC would improve cognition, self-reported health status, gait, and balance. A total of 48 individuals were randomly assigned to take part in MIP + TTC or MIP alone. The TTC intervention consisted of twenty 90 min sessions. Outcome measures were given at baseline, and after 10 and 22 weeks. Both groups significantly increased their memory strategy knowledge and use, ratings of physical health, processing speed, everyday memory, and visual attention. No preferential benefit was found for individuals in the MIP + TTC group on cognition, gait, or balance measures. Contrary to expectations, TTC exercise did not specifically improve cognition or physical mobility. Explanations for null findings are explored.

Clinical decision-making: heuristics and cognitive biases for the ophthalmologist.

PubMed

Hussain, Ahsen; Oestreicher, James

Diagnostic errors have a significant impact on health care outcomes and patient care. The underlying causes and development of diagnostic error are complex with flaws in health care systems, as well as human error, playing a role. Cognitive biases and a failure of decision-making shortcuts (heuristics) are human factors that can compromise the diagnostic process. We describe these mechanisms, their role with the clinician, and provide clinical scenarios to highlight the various points at which biases may emerge. We discuss strategies to modify the development and influence of these processes and the vulnerability of heuristics to provide insight and improve clinical outcomes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Emotional intensity influences pre-implementation and implementation of distraction and reappraisal

PubMed Central

Shafir, Roni; Schwartz, Naama; Blechert, Jens

2015-01-01

Although emotional intensity powerfully challenges regulatory strategies, its influence remains largely unexplored in affective-neuroscience. Accordingly, the present study addressed the moderating role of emotional intensity in two regulatory stages—implementation (during regulation) and pre-implementation (prior to regulation), of two major cognitive regulatory strategies—distraction and reappraisal. According to our framework, because distraction implementation involves early attentional disengagement from emotional information before it gathers force, in high-intensity it should be more effective in the short-term, relative to reappraisal, which modulates emotional processing only at a late semantic meaning phase. Supporting findings showed that in high (but not low) intensity, distraction implementation resulted in stronger modulation of negative experience, reduced neural emotional processing (centro-parietal late positive potential, LPP), with suggestive evidence for less cognitive effort (frontal-LPP), relative to reappraisal. Related pre-implementation findings confirmed that anticipating regulation of high-intensity stimuli resulted in distraction (over reappraisal) preference. In contrast, anticipating regulation of low-intensity stimuli resulted in reappraisal (over distraction) preference, which is most beneficial for long-term adaptation. Furthermore, anticipating cognitively demanding regulation, either in cases of regulating counter to these preferences or via the more effortful strategy of reappraisal, enhanced neural attentional resource allocation (Stimulus Preceding Negativity). Broad implications are discussed. PMID:25700568

The effects of video-game training on broad cognitive transfer in multiple sclerosis: A pilot randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Janssen, Alisha; Boster, Aaron; Lee, HyunKyu; Patterson, Beth; Prakash, Ruchika Shaurya

2015-01-01

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system that results in diffuse nerve damage and associated physical and cognitive impairments. Of the few comprehensive rehabilitation options that exist for populations with lower baseline cognitive functioning, those that have been successful at eliciting broad cognitive improvements have focused on a multimodal training approach, emphasizing complex cognitive processing that utilizes multiple domains simultaneously. The current study sought to determine the feasibility of an 8-week, hybrid-variable priority training (HVT) program, with a secondary aim to assess the success of this training paradigm at eliciting broad cognitive transfer effects. Capitalizing on the multimodal training modalities offered by the Space Fortress platform, we compared the HVT strategy-based intervention with a waitlist control group, to primarily assess skill acquisition and secondarily determine presence of cognitive transfer. Twenty-eight participants met inclusionary criteria for the study and were randomized to either training or waitlist control groups. To assess broad transfer effects, a battery of neuropsychological tests was administered pre- and post-intervention. The results indicated an overall improvement in skill acquisition and evidence for the feasibility of the intervention, but a lack of broad transfer to tasks of cognitive functioning. Participants in the training group, however, did show improvements on a measure of spatial short-term memory. The current investigation provided support for the feasibility of a multimodal training approach, using the HVT strategy, within the MS population, but lacked broad transfer to multiple domains of cognitive functioning. Future improvements to obtain greater cognitive transfer efficacy would include a larger sample size, a longer course of training to evoke greater game score improvement, the inclusion of only cognitively impaired individuals, and integration of subjective measures of improvement in addition to objective tests of cognitive performance.

Efficacy of ACA Strategies in Biography-Driven Science Teaching: An Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacDonald, Grizelda L.; Miller, Stuart S.; Murry, Kevin; Herrera, Socorro; Spears, Jacqueline D.

2013-01-01

This study explored the biography-driven approach to teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students in science education. Biography-driven instruction (BDI) embraces student diversity by incorporating students' sociocultural, linguistic, cognitive, and academic dimensions of their biographies into the learning process (Herrera in…

Motivational Effects on Self-Regulated Learning with Different Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vollmeyer, Regina; Rheinberg, Falko

2006-01-01

In our cognitive motivational process model (Vollmeyer & Rheinberg, "Zeitschrift fur Padagogische Psychologie," 12:11-23, 1998) we assume that initial motivation affects performance via motivation during learning and learning strategies. These variables are also central for self-regulation theories (e.g., M. Boekaerts, "European Psychologist,"…

Regulation of Cognitive Processes through Perceived Self-Efficacy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bandura, Albert

1989-01-01

Addresses issues concerning the extension of self-efficacy theory to memory functioning. Issues include perceived memory capabilities, memory self-appraisal, personal control over memory functioning, preservation of a favorable sense of memory self-efficacy, and strategies for generalizing the impact of training in memory skills. (RJC)

Investigating Learning with an Interactive Tutorial: A Mixed-Methods Strategy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Villiers, M. R.; Becker, Daphne

2017-01-01

From the perspective of parallel mixed-methods research, this paper describes interactivity research that employed usability-testing technology to analyse cognitive learning processes; personal learning styles and times; and errors-and-recovery of learners using an interactive e-learning tutorial called "Relations." "Relations"…

Integrating cognitive and peripheral factors in predicting hearing-aid processing effectiveness

PubMed Central

Kates, James M.; Arehart, Kathryn H.; Souza, Pamela E.

2013-01-01

Individual factors beyond the audiogram, such as age and cognitive abilities, can influence speech intelligibility and speech quality judgments. This paper develops a neural network framework for combining multiple subject factors into a single model that predicts speech intelligibility and quality for a nonlinear hearing-aid processing strategy. The nonlinear processing approach used in the paper is frequency compression, which is intended to improve the audibility of high-frequency speech sounds by shifting them to lower frequency regions where listeners with high-frequency loss have better hearing thresholds. An ensemble averaging approach is used for the neural network to avoid the problems associated with overfitting. Models are developed for two subject groups, one having nearly normal hearing and the other mild-to-moderate sloping losses. PMID:25669257

Dissociable cognitive mechanisms underlying human path integration.

PubMed

Wiener, Jan M; Berthoz, Alain; Wolbers, Thomas

2011-01-01

Path integration is a fundamental mechanism of spatial navigation. In non-human species, it is assumed to be an online process in which a homing vector is updated continuously during an outward journey. In contrast, human path integration has been conceptualized as a configural process in which travelers store working memory representations of path segments, with the computation of a homing vector only occurring when required. To resolve this apparent discrepancy, we tested whether humans can employ different path integration strategies in the same task. Using a triangle completion paradigm, participants were instructed either to continuously update the start position during locomotion (continuous strategy) or to remember the shape of the outbound path and to calculate home vectors on basis of this representation (configural strategy). While overall homing accuracy was superior in the configural condition, participants were quicker to respond during continuous updating, strongly suggesting that homing vectors were computed online. Corroborating these findings, we observed reliable differences in head orientation during the outbound path: when participants applied the continuous updating strategy, the head deviated significantly from straight ahead in direction of the start place, which can be interpreted as a continuous motor expression of the homing vector. Head orientation-a novel online measure for path integration-can thus inform about the underlying updating mechanism already during locomotion. In addition to demonstrating that humans can employ different cognitive strategies during path integration, our two-systems view helps to resolve recent controversies regarding the role of the medial temporal lobe in human path integration.

Tips for Teaching: Using Cognitive and Metacognitive Learning Strategies in the Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lambert, Monica A.

2000-01-01

This article describes three cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies for students with disabilities, including the CAST (character, action, setting, the end) reading strategy, the PLEASE writing strategy, and the LISTEN (look, idle your motor, sit up straight, turn to me, engage your brain, now.) social skills strategy. (Contains…

Intuition, deliberation, and the evolution of cooperation

PubMed Central

Bear, Adam; Rand, David G.

2016-01-01

Humans often cooperate with strangers, despite the costs involved. A long tradition of theoretical modeling has sought ultimate evolutionary explanations for this seemingly altruistic behavior. More recently, an entirely separate body of experimental work has begun to investigate cooperation’s proximate cognitive underpinnings using a dual-process framework: Is deliberative self-control necessary to reign in selfish impulses, or does self-interested deliberation restrain an intuitive desire to cooperate? Integrating these ultimate and proximate approaches, we introduce dual-process cognition into a formal game-theoretic model of the evolution of cooperation. Agents play prisoner’s dilemma games, some of which are one-shot and others of which involve reciprocity. They can either respond by using a generalized intuition, which is not sensitive to whether the game is one-shot or reciprocal, or pay a (stochastically varying) cost to deliberate and tailor their strategy to the type of game they are facing. We find that, depending on the level of reciprocity and assortment, selection favors one of two strategies: intuitive defectors who never deliberate, or dual-process agents who intuitively cooperate but sometimes use deliberation to defect in one-shot games. Critically, selection never favors agents who use deliberation to override selfish impulses: Deliberation only serves to undermine cooperation with strangers. Thus, by introducing a formal theoretical framework for exploring cooperation through a dual-process lens, we provide a clear answer regarding the role of deliberation in cooperation based on evolutionary modeling, help to organize a growing body of sometimes-conflicting empirical results, and shed light on the nature of human cognition and social decision making. PMID:26755603

Intuition, deliberation, and the evolution of cooperation.

PubMed

Bear, Adam; Rand, David G

2016-01-26

Humans often cooperate with strangers, despite the costs involved. A long tradition of theoretical modeling has sought ultimate evolutionary explanations for this seemingly altruistic behavior. More recently, an entirely separate body of experimental work has begun to investigate cooperation's proximate cognitive underpinnings using a dual-process framework: Is deliberative self-control necessary to reign in selfish impulses, or does self-interested deliberation restrain an intuitive desire to cooperate? Integrating these ultimate and proximate approaches, we introduce dual-process cognition into a formal game-theoretic model of the evolution of cooperation. Agents play prisoner's dilemma games, some of which are one-shot and others of which involve reciprocity. They can either respond by using a generalized intuition, which is not sensitive to whether the game is one-shot or reciprocal, or pay a (stochastically varying) cost to deliberate and tailor their strategy to the type of game they are facing. We find that, depending on the level of reciprocity and assortment, selection favors one of two strategies: intuitive defectors who never deliberate, or dual-process agents who intuitively cooperate but sometimes use deliberation to defect in one-shot games. Critically, selection never favors agents who use deliberation to override selfish impulses: Deliberation only serves to undermine cooperation with strangers. Thus, by introducing a formal theoretical framework for exploring cooperation through a dual-process lens, we provide a clear answer regarding the role of deliberation in cooperation based on evolutionary modeling, help to organize a growing body of sometimes-conflicting empirical results, and shed light on the nature of human cognition and social decision making.

Cognitive Coping Strategies and Stress in Parents of Children with Down Syndrome: A Prospective Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Veek, Shelley M. C.; Kraaij, Vivian; Garnefski, Nadia

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the cross-sectional and prospective relationships between cognitive coping strategies and parental stress in parents of children with Down syndrome. A total of 621 participants filled out questionnaires, including the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire to measure cognitive coping and the Nijmeegse…

Sleep deprivation alters choice strategy without altering uncertainty or loss aversion preferences

PubMed Central

Mullette-Gillman, O'Dhaniel A.; Kurnianingsih, Yoanna A.; Liu, Jean C. J.

2015-01-01

Sleep deprivation alters decision making; however, it is unclear what specific cognitive processes are modified to drive altered choices. In this manuscript, we examined how one night of total sleep deprivation (TSD) alters economic decision making. We specifically examined changes in uncertainty preferences dissociably from changes in the strategy with which participants engage with presented choice information. With high test-retest reliability, we show that TSD does not alter uncertainty preferences or loss aversion. Rather, TSD alters the information the participants rely upon to make their choices. Utilizing a choice strategy metric which contrasts the influence of maximizing and satisficing information on choice behavior, we find that TSD alters the relative reliance on maximizing information and satisficing information, in the gains domain. This alteration is the result of participants both decreasing their reliance on cognitively-complex maximizing information and a concomitant increase in the use of readily-available satisficing information. TSD did not result in a decrease in overall information use in either domain. These results show that sleep deprivation alters decision making by altering the informational strategies that participants employ, without altering their preferences. PMID:26500479

A functional model of sensemaking in a neurocognitive architecture.

PubMed

Lebiere, Christian; Pirolli, Peter; Thomson, Robert; Paik, Jaehyon; Rutledge-Taylor, Matthew; Staszewski, James; Anderson, John R

2013-01-01

Sensemaking is the active process of constructing a meaningful representation (i.e., making sense) of some complex aspect of the world. In relation to intelligence analysis, sensemaking is the act of finding and interpreting relevant facts amongst the sea of incoming reports, images, and intelligence. We present a cognitive model of core information-foraging and hypothesis-updating sensemaking processes applied to complex spatial probability estimation and decision-making tasks. While the model was developed in a hybrid symbolic-statistical cognitive architecture, its correspondence to neural frameworks in terms of both structure and mechanisms provided a direct bridge between rational and neural levels of description. Compared against data from two participant groups, the model correctly predicted both the presence and degree of four biases: confirmation, anchoring and adjustment, representativeness, and probability matching. It also favorably predicted human performance in generating probability distributions across categories, assigning resources based on these distributions, and selecting relevant features given a prior probability distribution. This model provides a constrained theoretical framework describing cognitive biases as arising from three interacting factors: the structure of the task environment, the mechanisms and limitations of the cognitive architecture, and the use of strategies to adapt to the dual constraints of cognition and the environment.

Lithium and cognition in those with bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Paterson, Amelia; Parker, Gordon

2017-03-01

Although a percentage of patients report cognitive side-effects when taking lithium, it can be difficult to determine from the literature whether any cognitive changes reflect lithium itself, the lithium serum level, residual mood symptoms, the underlying nature of bipolar disorder, or biological alterations such as hypothyroidism. This review was carried out to synthesize and evaluate relevant literature examining any cognitive impact of lithium in those with bipolar disorder. The effect of lithium in those with bipolar disorder was examined across the cognitive domains of attention, psychomotor speed, processing speed, working memory, intellectual functioning, verbal memory, visual memory, and executive functioning by reviewing the published empirical literature. Any impact of hypothyroidism and lithium toxicity was also examined. The literature supports the conclusion that lithium has a distinct impact on psychomotor speed in participants with bipolar disorder. In contrast, there appears to be no impact on attention. Any impact of lithium on memory in patients with bipolar disorder is unclear as the literature is contradictory and any such effect may be overshadowed by the greater impact of residual mood symptoms. The impact on processing speed, intellectual abilities, and executive functioning also remains unclear. Several clinical management strategies are recommended.

Cognitive Control Predicts Use of Model-Based Reinforcement-Learning

PubMed Central

Otto, A. Ross; Skatova, Anya; Madlon-Kay, Seth; Daw, Nathaniel D.

2015-01-01

Accounts of decision-making and its neural substrates have long posited the operation of separate, competing valuation systems in the control of choice behavior. Recent theoretical and experimental work suggest that this classic distinction between behaviorally and neurally dissociable systems for habitual and goal-directed (or more generally, automatic and controlled) choice may arise from two computational strategies for reinforcement learning (RL), called model-free and model-based RL, but the cognitive or computational processes by which one system may dominate over the other in the control of behavior is a matter of ongoing investigation. To elucidate this question, we leverage the theoretical framework of cognitive control, demonstrating that individual differences in utilization of goal-related contextual information—in the service of overcoming habitual, stimulus-driven responses—in established cognitive control paradigms predict model-based behavior in a separate, sequential choice task. The behavioral correspondence between cognitive control and model-based RL compellingly suggests that a common set of processes may underpin the two behaviors. In particular, computational mechanisms originally proposed to underlie controlled behavior may be applicable to understanding the interactions between model-based and model-free choice behavior. PMID:25170791

A Functional Model of Sensemaking in a Neurocognitive Architecture

PubMed Central

Lebiere, Christian; Paik, Jaehyon; Rutledge-Taylor, Matthew; Staszewski, James; Anderson, John R.

2013-01-01

Sensemaking is the active process of constructing a meaningful representation (i.e., making sense) of some complex aspect of the world. In relation to intelligence analysis, sensemaking is the act of finding and interpreting relevant facts amongst the sea of incoming reports, images, and intelligence. We present a cognitive model of core information-foraging and hypothesis-updating sensemaking processes applied to complex spatial probability estimation and decision-making tasks. While the model was developed in a hybrid symbolic-statistical cognitive architecture, its correspondence to neural frameworks in terms of both structure and mechanisms provided a direct bridge between rational and neural levels of description. Compared against data from two participant groups, the model correctly predicted both the presence and degree of four biases: confirmation, anchoring and adjustment, representativeness, and probability matching. It also favorably predicted human performance in generating probability distributions across categories, assigning resources based on these distributions, and selecting relevant features given a prior probability distribution. This model provides a constrained theoretical framework describing cognitive biases as arising from three interacting factors: the structure of the task environment, the mechanisms and limitations of the cognitive architecture, and the use of strategies to adapt to the dual constraints of cognition and the environment. PMID:24302930

Cognitive balanced model: a conceptual scheme of diagnostic decision making.

PubMed

Lucchiari, Claudio; Pravettoni, Gabriella

2012-02-01

Diagnostic reasoning is a critical aspect of clinical performance, having a high impact on quality and safety of care. Although diagnosis is fundamental in medicine, we still have a poor understanding of the factors that determine its course. According to traditional understanding, all information used in diagnostic reasoning is objective and logically driven. However, these conditions are not always met. Although we would be less likely to make an inaccurate diagnosis when following rational decision making, as described by normative models, the real diagnostic process works in a different way. Recent work has described the major cognitive biases in medicine as well as a number of strategies for reducing them, collectively called debiasing techniques. However, advances have encountered obstacles in achieving implementation into clinical practice. While traditional understanding of clinical reasoning has failed to consider contextual factors, most debiasing techniques seem to fail in raising sound and safer medical praxis. Technological solutions, being data driven, are fundamental in increasing care safety, but they need to consider human factors. Thus, balanced models, cognitive driven and technology based, are needed in day-to-day applications to actually improve the diagnostic process. The purpose of this article, then, is to provide insight into cognitive influences that have resulted in wrong, delayed or missed diagnosis. Using a cognitive approach, we describe the basis of medical error, with particular emphasis on diagnostic error. We then propose a conceptual scheme of the diagnostic process by the use of fuzzy cognitive maps. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Trauma-Focused CBT for Youth who Experience Ongoing Traumas

PubMed Central

Cohen, Judith A.; Mannarino, Anthony P.; Murray, Laura A.

2011-01-01

Many youth experience ongoing trauma exposure, such as domestic or community violence. Clinicians often ask whether evidence-based treatments containing exposure components to reduce learned fear responses to historical trauma are appropriate for these youth. Essentially the question is, if youth are desensitized to their trauma experiences, will this in some way impair their responding to current or ongoing trauma? The paper addresses practical strategies for implementing one evidence-based treatment, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) for youth with ongoing traumas. Collaboration with local therapists and families participating in TF-CBT community and international programs elucidated effective strategies for applying TF-CBT with these youth. These strategies included: 1) enhancing safety early in treatment; 2) effectively engaging parents who experience personal ongoing trauma; and 3) during the trauma narrative and processing component focusing on a) increasing parental awareness and acceptance of the extent of the youths’ ongoing trauma experiences; b) addressing youths’ maladaptive cognitions about ongoing traumas; and c) helping youth differentiate between real danger and generalized trauma reminders. Case examples illustrate how to use these strategies in diverse clinical situations. Through these strategies TF-CBT clinicians can effectively improve outcomes for youth experiencing ongoing traumas. PMID:21855140

Age Differences in Information Use While Making Decisions: Resource Limitations or Processing Differences?

PubMed

Jacobs-Lawson, Joy M; Schumacher, Mitzi M; Wackerbarth, Sarah B

2016-09-20

Recent research on the decision-making abilities of older adults has shown that they use less information than young adults. One explanation ascribes this age difference to reductions in cognitive abilities with age. The article includes three experimental studies that focused on determining the conditions in which older and young adults would display dissimilar information processing characteristics. Findings from Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that older adults are not necessarily at greater disadvantage than young adults in decision contexts that demand more information processing resources. Findings from Study 3 indicated that older adults when faced with decisions that require greater processing are likely to use a strategy that reduces the amount of information needed, whereas younger adults rely on strategies that utilize more resources. Combined the findings indicate that older adults change their decision-making strategies based on the context and information provided. Furthermore, support is provided for processing difference. © The Author(s) 2016.

Predictors of affect following treatment decision-making for prostate cancer: conversations, cognitive processing, and coping.

PubMed

Christie, Kysa M; Meyerowitz, Beth E; Giedzinska-Simons, Antoinette; Gross, Mitchell; Agus, David B

2009-05-01

Research suggests that cancer patients who are more involved in treatment decision-making (TDM) report better quality of life following treatment. This study examines the association and possible mechanisms between prostate cancer patient's discussions about TDM and affect following treatment. We predicted that the length of time patients spent discussing treatment options with social networks and physicians prior to treatment would predict emotional adjustment after treatment. We further predicted that cognitive processing, coping, and patient understanding of treatment options would mediate this association. Fifty-seven patients completed questionnaires prior to treatment and at 1 and 6 months following treatment completion. Findings from the present study suggest that discussing treatment options with others, prior to beginning treatment for prostate cancer, significantly contributed to improvements in affect 1 and 6 months following treatment. Residualized regression analyses indicated that discussing treatment options with patient's social networks predicted a decrease in negative affect 1 and 6 months following treatment, while discussions with physicians predicted an increase in positive affect 1 month following treatment. Patients who spent more time discussing treatment options with family and friends also reported greater pre-treatment social support and emotional expression. Mediation analyses indicated that these coping strategies facilitated cognitive processing (as measured by a decrease in intrusive thoughts) and that cognitive processing predicted improvement in affect. Greater time spent talking with family and friends about treatment options may provide opportunities for patients to cope with their cancer diagnosis and facilitate cognitive processing, which may improve patient distress over time. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Enhancing Teaching and Learning: How Cognitive Research Can Help

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowman, Margo; Frame, Debra L.; Kennette, Lynne N.

2013-01-01

Pedagogical considerations should be guided by empirical, brain-based research on the human information processing system. People build and organize knowledge into a network-like system that connects related information. As learning occurs, learners expand the network to accommodate new information. Instructional strategies can be used to maximize…

Schemata as a Reading Strategy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mustapha, Zaliha

Reading is a multileveled, interactive, and hypothesis-generating process in which readers construct a meaningful representation of text by using their knowledge of the world and of language. If reading involves grasping the significance of an input depending on the reader's mental cognitive-perceptual situation, then there is a form of background…

Neural Correlates of Machiavellian Strategies in a Social Dilemma Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bereczkei, Tamas; Deak, Anita; Papp, Peter; Perlaki, Gabor; Orsi, Gergely

2013-01-01

In spite of having deficits in various areas of social cognition, especially in mindreading, Machiavellian individuals are typically very successful in different tasks, including solving social dilemmas. We assume that a profound examination of neural structures associated with decision-making processes is needed to learn more about…

Reflective Practice: Creating Capacities for School Improvement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montie, Jo; York-Barr, Jennifer; Kronberg, Robi; Stevenson, Jane; Vallejo, Barb; Lunders, Cheri

This monograph addresses the importance of and strategies for improving education through reflective practice, defined as cognitive processes and an open perspective that involve conscious self-examination in order to gain understandings and improve the lives of students. Chapter 1 provides an overview and explains origins of reflective practice…

Student Characteristics and Motivational and Process Factors in Relation to Styles of Career Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lokan, Janice J.; Biggs, John B.

1982-01-01

Investigated student characteristics in relation to affective and cognitive aspects of adolescent career development. Questionnaire results indicated three styles of career development: intellective or deliberative; concerned and personally involved with high or low aspirations; and uncertain or confused. Suggests motives and strategies that might…

20 Ways To Promote Brain-Based Teaching and Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prigge, Debra J.

2002-01-01

Based on current knowledge about cognitive processes, this article presents strategies for preparing the learner, managing the environment to motivate students, gaining and keeping learner attention, and increasing memory and recall by making learning personally relevant to students. Resources are listed for brain-based teaching and learning. (CR)

Learning Analytics to Understand Cultural Impacts on Technology Enhanced Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mittelmeier, Jenna; Tempelaar, Dirk; Rienties, Bart; Nguyen, Quan

2016-01-01

In this empirical study, we investigate the role of national cultural dimensions as distal antecedents of the use intensity of e-tutorials, which constitute the digital component within a blended learning course. Profiting from the context of a dispositional learning analytics application, we investigate cognitive processing strategies and…

Top Ten Strategies for Teachers of Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miholic, Vincent, Comp.

2004-01-01

This volume presents a compilation of approaches, theory, processes, and experiences for teachers of writing and, by extension, student writers at all levels. The following mixture of theory and consistent applications amply answer this criticism and provide a generous blend of cognitive, metacognitive and affective realms of creativity as well as…

Spelling. English Language Arts Concept Paper Number 3.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mazzio, Frank

Noting research suggesting that something more than rote memorization is involved in the process of spelling, this paper describes effective instructional strategies to help students improve their spelling abilities. Following an introduction on the memorization/cognition camps in spelling research, the paper discusses current, but less effective,…

Overcoming Learning Barriers through Knowledge Management

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dror, Itiel E.; Makany, Tamas; Kemp, Jonathan

2011-01-01

The ability to learn highly depends on how knowledge is managed. Specifically, different techniques for note-taking utilize different cognitive processes and strategies. In this paper, we compared dyslexic and control participants when using linear and non-linear note-taking. All our participants were professionals working in the banking and…

Differences That Make a Difference: A Study in Collaborative Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Touchman, Stephanie

2012-01-01

Collaborative learning is a common teaching strategy in classrooms across age groups and content areas. It is important to measure and understand the cognitive process involved during collaboration to improve teaching methods involving interactive activities. This research attempted to answer the question: why do students learn more in…

Multiple-Reason Decision Making Based on Automatic Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glockner, Andreas; Betsch, Tilmann

2008-01-01

It has been repeatedly shown that in decisions under time constraints, individuals predominantly use noncompensatory strategies rather than complex compensatory ones. The authors argue that these findings might be due not to limitations of cognitive capacity but instead to limitations of information search imposed by the commonly used experimental…

Self-Regulation Competence in Music Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ludovico, Luca Andrea; Mangione, Giuseppina Rita

2014-01-01

This work starts from a systematic review about music education and self-regulation during learning processes. Then the paper identifies those meta-cognitive strategies that music students should adopt during their instrumental practice. The goal is applying such concepts in order to rethink the structure of a didactic e-book for instrumental…

Academic Maturation and Metacognitive Strategies in Academic Research and Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Filipovic, Jelena; Jovanovic, Ana

2016-01-01

This qualitative research aims at linking recent findings related to cognition and self-regulated learning with complexity-driven educational framework that promotes Teacher-Learner communities of practice, in which knowledge is generated and constructed through a complex process of reflection and negotiation. Building on the data that was…

Taking Charge: Adolescents with Learning Disabilities Assume Responsibility for Their Own Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hallenbeck, Mark J.

2002-01-01

A study examined how Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Writing (SCIW), helped enable four seventh-graders with learning disabilities to take over responsibility for their own writing performance and to scaffold one another's writing development. Teacher modeling and scaffolding, writing process collaboration, and structuring think-sheets enabled…

Psychological Determinants of University Students' Academic Performance: An Empirical Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gebka, Bartosz

2014-01-01

This study utilises an integrated conceptual model of academic performance which captures a series of psychological factors: cognitive style; self-theories such as self-esteem and self-efficacy; achievement goals such as mastery, performance, performance avoidance and work avoidance; study-processing strategies such as deep and surface learning;…

Creative Thinking: Processes, Strategies, and Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mumford, Michael D.; Medeiros, Kelsey E.; Partlow, Paul J.

2012-01-01

Creative achievements are the basis for progress in our world. Although creative achievement is influenced by many variables, the basis for creativity is held to lie in the generation of high-quality, original, and elegant solutions to complex, novel, ill-defined problems. In the present effort, we examine the cognitive capacities that make…

Relationships between Student Cognitions and Their Effects on Study Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferla, Johan; Valcke, Martin; Schuyten, Gilberte

2008-01-01

Using Vermunt's model [Vermunt, J. D. (1998). "The regulation of constructive learning processes". "British Journal of Educational Psychology", 68, 149-171] of self-regulated learning as a conceptual framework, this study aims to contribute to the development of finer grained models of higher education students' learning by (1) investigating…

Contemporary Issues in Cognitive Psychology: The Loyola Symposium.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solso, Robert L. , Ed.

Contributions in the first section of this volume are: "Learning to Identify Toy Block Structures" by Patrick Winston; "Beyond the Yellow-Volkswagen Detector and the Grandmother Cell: A General Strategy for the Exploration of Operations in Human Pattern Recognition" by Naomi Weisstein; "Visual Recognition in a Theory of Information Processing" by…

How Mind Works To Revise Compositions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Deh-nan

This study investigated cognitive processes involved in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students' correcting and revising drafts after receiving oral feedback from their teachers, noting factors that led to better written products and factors that did not improve student writing. The study examined what kinds of revision strategies students…

Using Relational Reasoning Strategies to Help Improve Clinical Reasoning Practice.

PubMed

Dumas, Denis; Torre, Dario M; Durning, Steven J

2018-05-01

Clinical reasoning-the steps up to and including establishing a diagnosis and/or therapy-is a fundamentally important mental process for physicians. Unfortunately, mounting evidence suggests that errors in clinical reasoning lead to substantial problems for medical professionals and patients alike, including suboptimal care, malpractice claims, and rising health care costs. For this reason, cognitive strategies by which clinical reasoning may be improved-and that many expert clinicians are already using-are highly relevant for all medical professionals, educators, and learners.In this Perspective, the authors introduce one group of cognitive strategies-termed relational reasoning strategies-that have been empirically shown, through limited educational and psychological research, to improve the accuracy of learners' reasoning both within and outside of the medical disciplines. The authors contend that relational reasoning strategies may help clinicians to be metacognitive about their own clinical reasoning; such strategies may also be particularly well suited for explicitly organizing clinical reasoning instruction for learners. Because the particular curricular efforts that may improve the relational reasoning of medical students are not known at this point, the authors describe the nature of previous research on relational reasoning strategies to encourage the future design, implementation, and evaluation of instructional interventions for relational reasoning within the medical education literature. The authors also call for continued research on using relational reasoning strategies and their role in clinical practice and medical education, with the long-term goal of improving diagnostic accuracy.

The effects of physical activity vignettes on physical activity-related social cognitions among people with spinal cord injury.

PubMed

Foulon, Brianne L; Ginis, Kathleen A Martin

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of informational portrait vignettes for enhancing physical activity-related psychosocial cognitions in adults with spinal cord injury (n = 90). Using the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA), participants were classified as being in the motivational or volitional phase of behavior change. Half of the participants were randomly allocated to read an experimental vignette, which described the physical activity behaviours, thoughts, and feelings of a character demographically similar to the reader. The remainder read a control vignette. Social cognitions were measured one-week before, and immediately after reading the vignette. Analyses revealed no significant effects of the vignettes on social cognitions (p > 0.05). Informational portrait vignettes describing a physically active person with SCI and targeting multiple HAPA-based social cognitions are not recommended as a physical activity promotional strategy for people with SCI. The effectiveness of other types of vignettes should be examined. Until further research is completed to determine whether social comparison strategies play a meditational role in accounting for the impact of a tailored informational portrait vignette to alter leisure time physical activity among those with spinal cord injury, these types of informational intervention should not be utilized in a rehabilitation, or real-world, setting. Although informational portrait vignettes may not be effective in altering leisure time physical activity social cognitions among those with spinal cord injury, different types of vignettes, such as composite vignettes, should be explored.

What cognitive strategies do orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) use to solve a trial-unique puzzle-tube task incorporating multiple obstacles?

PubMed

Tecwyn, Emma C; Thorpe, Susannah K S; Chappell, Jackie

2012-01-01

Apparently sophisticated behaviour during problem-solving is often the product of simple underlying mechanisms, such as associative learning or the use of procedural rules. These and other more parsimonious explanations need to be eliminated before higher-level cognitive processes such as causal reasoning or planning can be inferred. We presented three Bornean orangutans with 64 trial-unique configurations of a puzzle-tube to investigate whether they were able to consider multiple obstacles in two alternative paths, and subsequently choose the correct direction in which to move a reward in order to retrieve it. We were particularly interested in how subjects attempted to solve the task, namely which behavioural strategies they could have been using, as this is how we may begin to elucidate the cognitive mechanisms underpinning their choices. To explore this, we simulated performance outcomes across the 64 trials for various procedural rules and rule combinations that subjects may have been using based on the configuration of different obstacles. Two of the three subjects solved the task, suggesting that they were able to consider at least some of the obstacles in the puzzle-tube before executing action to retrieve the reward. This is impressive compared with the past performances of great apes on similar, arguably less complex tasks. Successful subjects may have been using a heuristic rule combination based on what they deemed to be the most relevant cue (the configuration of the puzzle-tube ends), which may be a cognitively economical strategy.

Motivational processes in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease: results from the Motivational Reserve in Alzheimer's (MoReA) study.

PubMed

Forstmeier, Simon; Maercker, Andreas

2015-11-17

Brain reserve, i.e., the ability of the brain to tolerate age- and disease-related changes in a way that cognitive function is still maintained, is assumed to be based on the lifelong training of various abilities. The Motivational Reserve in Alzheimer's (MoReA) is a longitudinal study that aims to examine motivational processes as a protective factor in mild Alzheimer's dementia (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This paper presents the results of motivational variables, frequency of diagnoses, and prediction of global cognition as well as depression in a one-year longitudinal study. The sample consists of 64 subjects with MCI and 47 subjects with mild AD at baseline. At baseline, the physical/neurological examinations, standard clinical assessment, neuropsychological testing, and assessment of motivational variables were performed. At follow-up (FU) one year later, neuropsychological testing including cognition, functional abilities, behavioral and affective symptoms, and global clinical assessments of severity have been repeated. AD cases have lower motivational capacities as measured with a midlife motivation-related occupational score and informant-reported present motivational processes, but do not differ with regard to delay of gratification (DoG) and self-reported motivational processes. DoG and delay discounting (DD) were relatively stable during the measurement interval. However, 20 % of the MCI cases converted to mild AD at FU, and 17 % of the mild AD cases converted to moderate AD. The rate of depression of Alzheimer's disease was 9 at baseline and 21 % at FU, and the rate of apathy was 7 and 14 %, respectively. Global cognition at FU was mainly predicted by baseline global cognition but also by one of the motivational variables (scenario test). Depression at FU was predicted mainly by two motivational variables (self-reported and informant-reported motivational processes). This research might inform motivation-related strategies for prevention and early intervention with older people or people at risk for AD.

Cognitive Fatigue Destabilizes Economic Decision Making Preferences and Strategies.

PubMed

Mullette-Gillman, O'Dhaniel A; Leong, Ruth L F; Kurnianingsih, Yoanna A

2015-01-01

It is common for individuals to engage in taxing cognitive activity for prolonged periods of time, resulting in cognitive fatigue that has the potential to produce significant effects in behaviour and decision making. We sought to examine whether cognitive fatigue modulates economic decision making. We employed a between-subject manipulation design, inducing fatigue through 60 to 90 minutes of taxing cognitive engagement against a control group that watched relaxing videos for a matched period of time. Both before and after the manipulation, participants engaged in two economic decision making tasks (one for gains and one for losses). The analyses focused on two areas of economic decision making--preferences and choice strategies. Uncertainty preferences (risk and ambiguity) were quantified as premium values, defined as the degree and direction in which participants alter the valuation of the gamble in comparison to the certain option. The strategies that each participant engaged in were quantified through a choice strategy metric, which contrasts the degree to which choice behaviour relies upon available satisficing or maximizing information. We separately examined these metrics for alterations within both the gains and losses domains, through the two choice tasks. The fatigue manipulation resulted in significantly greater levels of reported subjective fatigue, with correspondingly higher levels of reported effort during the cognitively taxing activity. Cognitive fatigue did not alter uncertainty preferences (risk or ambiguity) or informational strategies, in either the gains or losses domains. Rather, cognitive fatigue resulted in greater test-retest variability across most of our economic measures. These results indicate that cognitive fatigue destabilizes economic decision making, resulting in inconsistent preferences and informational strategies that may significantly reduce decision quality.

Cognitive Fatigue Destabilizes Economic Decision Making Preferences and Strategies

PubMed Central

Mullette-Gillman, O’Dhaniel A.; Leong, Ruth L. F.; Kurnianingsih, Yoanna A.

2015-01-01

Objective It is common for individuals to engage in taxing cognitive activity for prolonged periods of time, resulting in cognitive fatigue that has the potential to produce significant effects in behaviour and decision making. We sought to examine whether cognitive fatigue modulates economic decision making. Methods We employed a between-subject manipulation design, inducing fatigue through 60 to 90 minutes of taxing cognitive engagement against a control group that watched relaxing videos for a matched period of time. Both before and after the manipulation, participants engaged in two economic decision making tasks (one for gains and one for losses). The analyses focused on two areas of economic decision making—preferences and choice strategies. Uncertainty preferences (risk and ambiguity) were quantified as premium values, defined as the degree and direction in which participants alter the valuation of the gamble in comparison to the certain option. The strategies that each participant engaged in were quantified through a choice strategy metric, which contrasts the degree to which choice behaviour relies upon available satisficing or maximizing information. We separately examined these metrics for alterations within both the gains and losses domains, through the two choice tasks. Results The fatigue manipulation resulted in significantly greater levels of reported subjective fatigue, with correspondingly higher levels of reported effort during the cognitively taxing activity. Cognitive fatigue did not alter uncertainty preferences (risk or ambiguity) or informational strategies, in either the gains or losses domains. Rather, cognitive fatigue resulted in greater test-retest variability across most of our economic measures. These results indicate that cognitive fatigue destabilizes economic decision making, resulting in inconsistent preferences and informational strategies that may significantly reduce decision quality. PMID:26230404

A Cognitive Simulator for Learning the Nature of Human Problem Solving

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miwa, Kazuhisa

Problem solving is understood as a process through which states of problem solving are transferred from the initial state to the goal state by applying adequate operators. Within this framework, knowledge and strategies are given as operators for the search. One of the most important points of researchers' interest in the domain of problem solving is to explain the performance of problem solving behavior based on the knowledge and strategies that the problem solver has. We call the interplay between problem solvers' knowledge/strategies and their behavior the causal relation between mental operations and behavior. It is crucially important, we believe, for novice learners in this domain to understand the causal relation between mental operations and behavior. Based on this insight, we have constructed a learning system in which learners can control mental operations of a computational agent that solves a task, such as knowledge, heuristics, and cognitive capacity, and can observe its behavior. We also introduce this system to a university class, and discuss which findings were discovered by the participants.

Learning and using technology in intertwined processes: a study of people with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Rosenberg, Lena; Nygård, Louise

2014-09-01

People with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease are likely to be challenged by the multitude of everyday technology in today's society. The aim of this study was to explore how they try to prohibit, avoid or solve problems in everyday technology use, maintain skills, and learn to use new technology. To explore how the participants applied and reasoned about using everyday technology in real-life situations interviews were conducted while the participants used their own technology in their homes. Interviews were conducted with 20 participants with mild cognitive impairment (n = 10) or Alzheimer's disease (n = 10). The analyses were inspired from grounded theory and resulted in one core category and three sub-categories that represent sub-processes in the core. The core finding presents a continuous, intertwined process of learning and using everyday technology, highlighting how the context was interwoven in the processes. The participants used a rich variety of management strategies when approaching technology, including communication with the everyday technologies on different levels. The findings underscore that it is important to support continued use of everyday technology as long as it is valued and relevant to the person with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease. The intertwined process of learning and using everyday technology suggests how support could target different sub-processes. © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

Cognitive Niches: An Ecological Model of Strategy Selection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marewski, Julian N.; Schooler, Lael J.

2011-01-01

How do people select among different strategies to accomplish a given task? Across disciplines, the strategy selection problem represents a major challenge. We propose a quantitative model that predicts how selection emerges through the interplay among strategies, cognitive capacities, and the environment. This interplay carves out for each…

Improving Students' Science Text Comprehension through Metacognitive Self-Regulation When Applying Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leopold, Claudia; Leutner, Detlev

2015-01-01

In three experiments, students were trained to use strategies for learning from scientific texts: text highlighting (Experiment 1), knowledge mapping (Experiment 2), and visualizing (Experiment 3). Each experiment compared a control condition, cognitive strategy training, and a combined cognitive strategy plus metacognitive self-regulation…

Improving the Quality of Online Discussion: The Effects of Strategies Designed Based on Cognitive Load Theory Principles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Darabi, Aubteen; Jin, Li

2013-01-01

This article focuses on heavy cognitive load as the reason for the lack of quality associated with conventional online discussion. Using the principles of cognitive load theory, four online discussion strategies were designed specifically aiming at reducing the discussants' cognitive load and thus enhancing the quality of their online discussion.…

Can a Non-Cognitive Learning Companion Increase the Effectiveness of a Meta-Cognitive Learning Strategy?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

VanLehn, Kurt; Zhang, Lishan; Burleson, Winslow; Girard, Sylvie; Hidago-Pontet, Yoalli

2017-01-01

This project aimed to improve students' learning and task performance using a non-cognitive learning companion in the context of both a tutor and a meta-tutor. The tutor taught students how to construct models of dynamic systems and the meta-tutor taught students a learning strategy. The non-cognitive learning companion was designed to increase…

Students' Scientific Epistemic Beliefs, Online Evaluative Standards, and Online Searching Strategies for Science Information: The Moderating Role of Cognitive Load Experience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsieh, Ya-Hui; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2014-06-01

The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating role of cognitive load experience between students' scientific epistemic beliefs and information commitments, which refer to online evaluative standards and online searching strategies. A total of 344 science-related major students participated in this study. Three questionnaires were used to ascertain the students' scientific epistemic beliefs, information commitments, and cognitive load experience. Structural equation modeling was then used to analyze the moderating effect of cognitive load, with the results revealing its significant moderating effect. The relationships between sophisticated scientific epistemic beliefs and the advanced evaluative standards used by the students were significantly stronger for low than for high cognitive load students. Moreover, considering the searching strategies that the students used, the relationships between sophisticated scientific epistemic beliefs and advanced searching strategies were also stronger for low than for high cognitive load students. However, for the high cognitive load students, only one of the sophisticated scientific epistemic belief dimensions was found to positively associate with advanced evaluative standard dimensions.

Eating behaviour associated with differences in conflict adaptation for food pictures.

PubMed

Husted, Margaret; Banks, Adrian P; Seiss, Ellen

2016-10-01

The goal conflict model of eating (Stroebe, Mensink, Aarts, Schut, & Kruglanski, 2008) proposes differences in eating behaviour result from peoples' experience of holding conflicting goals of eating enjoyment and weight maintenance. However, little is understood about the relationship between eating behaviour and the cognitive processes involved in conflict. This study aims to investigate associations between eating behaviour traits and cognitive conflict processes, specifically the application of cognitive control when processing distracting food pictures. A flanker task using food and non-food pictures was used to examine individual differences in conflict adaptation. Participants responded to target pictures whilst ignoring distracting flanking pictures. Individual differences in eating behaviour traits, attention towards target pictures, and ability to apply cognitive control through adaptation to conflicting picture trials were analysed. Increased levels of external and emotional eating were related to slower responses to food pictures indicating food target avoidance. All participants showed greater distraction by food compared to non-food pictures. Of particular significance, increased levels of emotional eating were associated with greater conflict adaptation for conflicting food pictures only. Emotional eaters demonstrate greater application of cognitive control for conflicting food pictures as part of a food avoidance strategy. This could represent an attempt to inhibit their eating enjoyment goal in order for their weight maintenance goal to dominate. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neurofeedback and its possible relevance for the treatment of Tourette syndrome.

PubMed

Farkas, Aniko; Bluschke, Annet; Roessner, Veit; Beste, Christian

2015-04-01

Neurofeedback is an increasingly recognized therapeutic option in various neuropsychiatric disorders to treat dysfunctions in cognitive control as well as disorder-specific symptoms. In this review we propose that neurofeedback may also reflect a valuable therapeutic option to treat executive control functions in Gilles-de-la-Tourette syndrome (GTS). Deficits in executive control functions when ADHD symptoms appear in GTS likely reflect pathophysiological processes in cortico-thalamic-striatal circuits and may also underlie the motor symptoms in GTS. Such executive control deficits evident in comorbid GTS/ADHD depend on neurophysiological processes well-known to be modifiable by neurofeedback. However, so far efforts to use neurofeedback to treat cognitive dysfunctions are scarce. We outline why neurofeedback should be considered a promising treatment option, what forms of neurofeedback may prove to be most effective and how neurofeedback may be implemented in existing intervention strategies to treat comorbid GTS/ADHD and associated dysfunctions in cognitive control. As cognitive control deficits in GTS mostly appear in comorbid GTS/ADHD, neurofeedback may be most useful in this frequent combination of disorders. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Uncovering the requirements of cognitive work.

PubMed

Roth, Emilie M

2008-06-01

In this article, the author provides an overview of cognitive analysis methods and how they can be used to inform system analysis and design. Human factors has seen a shift toward modeling and support of cognitively intensive work (e.g., military command and control, medical planning and decision making, supervisory control of automated systems). Cognitive task analysis and cognitive work analysis methods extend traditional task analysis techniques to uncover the knowledge and thought processes that underlie performance in cognitively complex settings. The author reviews the multidisciplinary roots of cognitive analysis and the variety of cognitive task analysis and cognitive work analysis methods that have emerged. Cognitive analysis methods have been used successfully to guide system design, as well as development of function allocation, team structure, and training, so as to enhance performance and reduce the potential for error. A comprehensive characterization of cognitive work requires two mutually informing analyses: (a) examination of domain characteristics and constraints that define cognitive requirements and challenges and (b) examination of practitioner knowledge and strategies that underlie both expert and error-vulnerable performance. A variety of specific methods can be adapted to achieve these aims within the pragmatic constraints of particular projects. Cognitive analysis methods can be used effectively to anticipate cognitive performance problems and specify ways to improve individual and team cognitive performance (be it through new forms of training, user interfaces, or decision aids).

Effect of Aging on ERP Components of Cognitive Control

PubMed Central

Kropotov, Juri; Ponomarev, Valery; Tereshchenko, Ekaterina P.; Müller, Andreas; Jäncke, Lutz

2016-01-01

As people age, their performance on tasks requiring cognitive control often declines. Such a decline is frequently explained as either a general or specific decline in cognitive functioning with age. In the context of hypotheses suggesting a general decline, it is often proposed that processing speed generally declines with age. A further hypothesis is that an age-related compensation mechanism is associated with a specific cognitive decline. One prominent theory is the compensation hypothesis, which proposes that deteriorated functions are compensated for by higher performing functions. In this study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) in the context of a GO/NOGO task to examine the age-related changes observed during cognitive control in a large group of healthy subjects aged between 18 and 84 years. The main question we attempted to answer was whether we could find neurophysiological support for either a general decline in processing speed or a compensation strategy. The subjects performed a relatively demanding cued GO/NOGO task with similar omissions and reaction times across the five age groups. The ERP waves of cognitive control, such as N2, P3cue and CNV, were decomposed into latent components by means of a blind source separation method. Based on this decomposition, it was possible to more precisely delineate the different neurophysiological and psychological processes involved in cognitive control. These data support the processing speed hypothesis because the latencies of all cognitive control ERP components increased with age, by 8 ms per decade for the early components (<200 ms) and by 20 ms per decade for the late components. At the same time, the compensatory hypothesis of aging was also supported, as the amplitudes of the components localized in posterior brain areas decreased with age, while those localized in the prefrontal cortical areas increased with age in order to maintain performance on this simple task at a relatively stable level. PMID:27092074

Reasoning, cognitive control, and moral intuition

PubMed Central

Patterson, Richard; Rothstein, Jared; Barbey, Aron K.

2012-01-01

Recent Social Intuitionist work suggests that moral judgments are intuitive (not based on conscious deliberation or any significant chain of inference), and that the reasons we produce to explain or justify our judgments and actions are for the most part post hoc rationalizations rather than the actual source of those judgments. This is consistent with work on judgment and explanation in other domains, and it correctly challenges one-sidedly rationalistic accounts. We suggest that in fact reasoning has a great deal of influence on moral judgments and on intuitive judgments in general. This influence is not apparent from study of judgments simply in their immediate context, but it is crucial for the question of how cognition can help us avoid deleterious effects and enhance potentially beneficial effects of affect on judgment, action, and cognition itself. We begin with established work on several reactive strategies for cognitive control of affect (e.g., suppression, reappraisal), then give special attention to more complex sorts of conflict (“extended deliberation”) involving multiple interacting factors, both affective and reflective. These situations are especially difficult to study in a controlled way, but we propose some possible experimental approaches. We then review proactive strategies for control, including avoidance of temptation and mindfulness meditation (Froeliger et al., 2012, this issue). We give special attention to the role of slow or “cool” cognitive processes (e.g., deliberation, planning, and executive control) in the inculcation of long-term dispositions, traits, intuitions, skills, or habits. The latter are critical because they in turn give rise to a great many of our fast, intuitive judgments. The reasoning processes involved here are distinct from post hoc rationalizations and have a very real impact on countless intuitive judgments in concrete situations. This calls for a substantial enlargement of research on cognitive control, drawing on work in developmental psychology, automatization, educational theory, and other fields. PMID:23264763

Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies Associated With the DSM-5 Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Criteria.

PubMed

Kaczkurkin, Antonia N; Zang, Yinyin; Gay, Natalie G; Peterson, Alan L; Yarvis, Jeffrey S; Borah, Elisa V; Dondanville, Katherine A; Hembree, Elizabeth A; Litz, Brett T; Mintz, Jim; Young-McCaughan, Stacey; Foa, Edna B

2017-08-01

Maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies have been proposed to contribute to the maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Prior work has focused on the relationship between these strategies and PTSD as a whole, rather than on how they are related to each PTSD symptom cluster. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether cognitive emotion regulation strategies are predictive of certain PTSD symptom clusters under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th ed. (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) criteria (intrusive thoughts, avoidance, negative alterations in cognitions and mood, and hyperarousal). Participants included 365 treatment-seeking, active-duty military personnel with PTSD. The negative alterations in cognitions and mood cluster were associated with dysfunctional cognitions: greater negative cognitions about the self, negative cognitions about the world, and self-blame, as well as catastrophizing (Rc2 = .519). The negative alterations in cognitions and mood cluster did not show a strong relationship with blaming others, possibly due to the complex nature of self- and other-blame in this primarily deployment-related PTSD sample. Finally, the intrusive thoughts cluster was associated with catastrophizing (Rc2 = .211), suggesting an association between frequent intrusive memories and excessively negative interpretation of those memories. Copyright © 2017 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

Reduced cognitive capacity impairs the malleability of older adults' negative attitudes to stigmatized individuals.

PubMed

Krendl, Anne C

2018-05-21

Although engaging explicit regulatory strategies may reduce negative bias toward outgroup members, these strategies are cognitively demanding and thus may not be effective for older adults (OA) who have reduced cognitive resources. The current study therefore examines whether individual differences in cognitive capacity disrupt OA' ability to explicitly regulate their bias to stigmatized individuals. Young and OA were instructed to explicitly regulate their negative bias toward stigmatized individuals by using an explicit reappraisal strategy. Regulatory success was assessed as a function of age and individual differences in cognitive capacity (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, the role of executive function in implementing cognitive reappraisal strategies was examined by using a divided attention manipulation. Results from Experiment 1 revealed that individual differences in OA' cognitive capacity disrupted their ability to regulate their negative emotional response to stigma. In Experiment 2, it was found that dividing attention in young adults (YA) significantly reduced their regulatory success as compared to YA' regulatory capacity in the full attention condition. As expected, dividing YA' attention made their performance similar to OA with relatively preserved cognitive capacity. Together, the results from this study demonstrated that individual differences in cognitive capacity predicted OA' ability to explicitly regulate their negative bias to a range of stigmatized individuals.

Unbending mind: Individuals with hoarding disorder do not modify decision strategy in response to feedback under risk.

PubMed

Pushkarskaya, Helen; Tolin, David F; Henick, Daniel; Levy, Ifat; Pittenger, Christopher

2018-01-01

Cognitive-behavioral models of hoarding disorder emphasize impairments in information processing and decision making in the genesis of hoarding symptomology. We propose and test the novel hypothesis that individuals with hoarding are maladaptively biased towards a deliberative decision style. While deliberative strategies are often considered normative, they are not always adaptable to the limitations imposed by many real-world decision contexts. We examined decision-making patterns in 19 individuals with hoarding and 19 healthy controls, using a behavioral task that quantifies selection of decision strategies in a novel environment with known probabilities (risk) in response to feedback. Consistent with prior literature, we found that healthy individuals tend to explore different decision strategies in the beginning of the experiment, but later, in response to feedback, they shift towards a compound strategy that balances expected values and risks. In contrast, individuals with hoarding follow a simple, deliberative, risk-neutral, value-based strategy from the beginning to the end of the task, irrespective of the feedback. This seemingly rational approach was not ecologically rational: individuals with hoarding and healthy individuals earned about the same amount of money, but it took individuals with hoarding a lot longer to do it: additional cognitive costs did not lead to additional benefits. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cognitive training of self-initiation of semantic encoding strategies in schizophrenia: A pilot study.

PubMed

Guimond, Synthia; Lepage, Martin

2016-01-01

Available cognitive remediation interventions have a significant but relatively small to moderate impact on episodic memory in schizophrenia. The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of a brief novel episodic memory training targeting the self-initiation of semantic encoding strategies. To select patients with such deficits, 28 participants with schizophrenia performed our Semantic Encoding Memory Task (SEMT) that provides a measure of self-initiated semantic encoding strategies. This task identified a deficit in 13 participants who were then offered two 60-minute training sessions one week apart. After the training, patients performed an alternate version of the SEMT. The CVLT-II (a standardised measure of semantic encoding strategies) and the BVMT-R (a control spatial memory task) were used to quantify memory pre- and post-training. After the training, participants were significantly better at self-initiating semantic encoding strategies in the SEMT (p = .004) and in the CVLT-II (p = .002). No significant differences were found in the BVMT-R. The current study demonstrates that a brief and specific training in memory strategies can help patients to improve a deficient memory process in schizophrenia. Future studies will need to test this intervention further using a randomised controlled trial, and to explore its functional impact.

Combined Cognitive Training vs. Memory Strategy Training in Healthy Older Adults.

PubMed

Li, Bing; Zhu, Xinyi; Hou, Jianhua; Chen, Tingji; Wang, Pengyun; Li, Juan

2016-01-01

As mnemonic utilization deficit in older adults associates with age-related decline in executive function, we hypothesized that memory strategy training combined with executive function training might induce larger training effect in memory and broader training effects in non-memory outcomes than pure memory training. The present study compared the effects of combined cognitive training (executive function training plus memory strategy training) to pure memory strategy training. Forty healthy older adults were randomly assigned to a combined cognitive training group or a memory strategy training group. A control group receiving no training was also included. Combined cognitive training group received 16 sessions of training (eight sessions of executive function training followed by eight sessions of memory strategy training). Memory training group received 16 sessions of memory strategy training. The results partly supported our hypothesis in that indeed improved performance on executive function was only found in combined training group, whereas memory performance increased less in combined training compared to memory strategy group. Results suggest that combined cognitive training may be less efficient than pure memory training in memory outcomes, though the influences from insufficient training time and less closeness between trained executive function and working memory could not be excluded; however it has broader training effects in non-memory outcomes. www.chictr.org.cn, identifier ChiCTR-OON-16007793.

A pilot study of an online cognitive rehabilitation program for executive function skills in children with cancer-related brain injury

PubMed Central

Kesler, Shelli R.; Lacayo, Norman J.; Jo, Booil

2011-01-01

Primary objectives Children with a history of cancer are at increased risk for cognitive impairments, particularly in executive and memory domains. Traditional, in-person cognitive rehabilitation strategies may be unavailable and/or impractical for many of these children given difficulties related to resources and health status. The feasibility and efficacy of implementing a computerized, home-based cognitive rehabilitation curriculum designed to improve executive function skills was examined in these children. Methods A one-arm open trial pilot study of an original executive function cognitive rehabilitation curriculum was conducted with 23 paediatric cancer survivors aged 7–19. Results Compliance with the cognitive rehabilitation program was 83%, similar to that of many traditional programs. Following the cognitive intervention, participants showed significantly increased processing speed, cognitive flexibility, verbal and visual declarative memory scores as well as significantly increased pre-frontal cortex activation compared to baseline. Conclusions These results suggest that a program of computerized cognitive exercises can be successfully implemented at home in young children with cancer. These exercises may be effective for improving executive and memory skills in this group, with concurrent changes in neurobiologic status. PMID:21142826

[Reason and emotion: integration of cognitive-behavioural and experiential interventions in the treatment of long evolution food disorders].

PubMed

Vilariño Besteiro, M P; Pérez Franco, C; Gallego Morales, L; Calvo Sagardoy, R; García de Lorenzo, A

2009-01-01

This paper intends to show the combination of therapeutical strategies in the treatment of long evolution food disorders. This fashion of work entitled "Modelo Santa Cristina" is based on several theoretical paradigms: Enabling Model, Action Control Model, Change Process Transtheoretical Model and Cognitive-Behavioural Model (Cognitive Restructuring and Learning Theories). Furthermore, Gestalt, Systemic and Psychodrama Orientation Techniques. The purpose of the treatment is both the normalization of food patterns and the increase in self-knowledge, self-acceptance and self-efficacy of patients. The exploration of ambivalence to change, the discovery of the functions of symptoms and the search for alternative behaviours, the normalization of food patterns, bodily image, cognitive restructuring, decision taking, communication skills and elaboration of traumatic experiences are among the main areas of intervention.

Changes in reading strategies in school-age children.

PubMed

Sanabria Díaz, Gretel; Torres, María del Rosario; Iglesias, Jorge; Mosquera, Raysil; Reigosa, Vivian; Santos, Elsa; Lage, Agustín; Estévez, Nancy; Galán, Lidice

2009-11-01

Learning to read is one of the most important cognitive milestones in the human social environment. One of the most accepted models explaining such process is the Double-Route Cascaded Model. It suggests the existence of two reading strategies: lexical and sublexical. In the Spanish language there are some contradictions about how these strategies are applied for reading. In addition, there are only a few studies dealing with the analysis of shifts between them, achieving a fluent reading process. In this paper we use a reading task including words and pseudowords for characterizing the cost of shifting between reading strategies in children with developmental dyslexia and normal controls. Our results suggest the presence of both strategies in these two experimental groups. In controls, both strategies become more efficient in correspondence to the increased exposition to written material. However, in children with developmental dyslexia only the lexical strategy exhibits such improvement. Their also point to a low cost for shifting between strategies in controls and a much more significant one in children with developmental dyslexia, differentiating subgroups with distinct shifting patterns.

Verbal suppression and strategy use: a role for the right lateral prefrontal cortex?

PubMed

Robinson, Gail A; Cipolotti, Lisa; Walker, David G; Biggs, Vivien; Bozzali, Marco; Shallice, Tim

2015-04-01

Verbal initiation, suppression and strategy generation/use are cognitive processes widely held to be supported by the frontal cortex. The Hayling Test was designed to tap these cognitive processes within the same sentence completion task. There are few studies specifically investigating the neural correlates of the Hayling Test but it has been primarily used to detect frontal lobe damage. This study investigates the components of the Hayling Test in a large sample of patients with unselected focal frontal (n = 60) and posterior (n = 30) lesions. Patients and controls (n = 40) matched for education, age and sex were administered the Hayling Test as well as background cognitive tests. The standard Hayling Test clinical measures (initiation response time, suppression response time, suppression errors and overall score), composite errors scores and strategy-based responses were calculated. Lesions were analysed by classical frontal/posterior subdivisions as well as a finer-grained frontal localization method and a specific contrast method that is somewhat analogous to voxel-based lesion mapping methods. Thus, patients with right lateral, left lateral and superior medial lesions were compared to controls and patients with right lateral lesions were compared to all other patients. The results show that all four standard Hayling Test clinical measures are sensitive to frontal lobe damage although only the suppression error and overall scores were specific to the frontal region. Although all frontal patients produced blatant suppression errors, a specific right lateral frontal effect was revealed for producing errors that were subtly wrong. In addition, frontal patients overall produced fewer correct responses indicative of developing an appropriate strategy but only the right lateral group showed a significant deficit. This problem in strategy attainment and implementation could explain, at least in part, the suppression error impairment. Contrary to previous studies there was no specific frontal effect for verbal initiation. Overall, our results support a role for the right lateral frontal region in verbal suppression and, for the first time, in strategy generation/use. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The Effects of Embedding Generative Cognitive Strategies in Science Software.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barba, Robertta H.; Merchant, Linda J.

1990-01-01

Discussed is whether embedding generative cognitive strategies in microcomputer courseware improves student performance on cognitive assessment measures and on insect classification tasks. The effects of transactional software on students' knowledge of insect anatomy and principles of insect classification were also investigated. (KR)

WWC Review of the Report "The Effects of Cognitive Strategy Instruction on Math Problem Solving of Middle School Students of Varying Ability." What Works Clearinghouse Single Study Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2014

2014-01-01

A recent study, "The Effects of Cognitive Strategy Instruction on Math Problem Solving of Middle School Students of Varying Ability," examined the effectiveness of "Solve It!," a program intended to improve the problem-solving skills of seventh-grade math students. During the program, students are taught cognitive strategies of…

Developing Interventions for Cancer-Related Cognitive Dysfunction in Childhood Cancer Survivors

PubMed Central

Ullrich, Nicole J.; Whelen, Megan J.; Lange, Beverly J.

2014-01-01

Survivors of childhood cancer frequently experience cancer-related cognitive dysfunction, commonly months to years after treatment for pediatric brain tumors, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), or tumors involving the head and neck. Risk factors for cancer-related cognitive dysfunction include young age at diagnosis, treatment with cranial irradiation, use of parenteral or intrathecal methotrexate, female sex, and pre-existing comorbidities. Limiting use and reducing doses and volume of cranial irradiation while intensifying chemotherapy have improved survival and reduced the severity of cognitive dysfunction, especially in leukemia. Nonetheless, problems in core functional domains of attention, processing speed, working memory and visual-motor integration continue to compromise quality of life and performance. We review the epidemiology, pathophysiology and assessment of cancer-related cognitive dysfunction, the impact of treatment changes for prevention, and the broad strategies for educational and pharmacological interventions to remediate established cognitive dysfunction following childhood cancer. The increased years of life saved after childhood cancer warrants continued study toward the prevention and remediation of cancer-related cognitive dysfunction, using uniform assessments anchored in functional outcomes. PMID:25080574

Learning Strategy Preferences, Decision-Making Styles, Ways of Knowing, and Cultural Awareness of Members of the National Academic Advising Association

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trout, Donna K.

2009-01-01

Academic advisors help students with the process of decision making, of making sense of their world, of understanding how they go about learning, and of understanding how to appreciate diversity in their world. If advisors are to help students in these areas, academic advisors should be aware of the cognitive processes of how they make sense of…

Learning to choose: Cognitive aging and strategy selection learning in decision making.

PubMed

Mata, Rui; von Helversen, Bettina; Rieskamp, Jörg

2010-06-01

Decision makers often have to learn from experience. In these situations, people must use the available feedback to select the appropriate decision strategy. How does the ability to select decision strategies on the basis of experience change with age? We examined younger and older adults' strategy selection learning in a probabilistic inference task using a computational model of strategy selection learning. Older adults showed poorer decision performance compared with younger adults. In particular, older adults performed poorly in an environment favoring the use of a more cognitively demanding strategy. The results suggest that the impact of cognitive aging on strategy selection learning depends on the structure of the decision environment. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved