Primate Cognition: Introduction to the Issue

I introduce the special issue by: (1) outlining something of the relationship between mainstream cognitive science and the study of nonhuman primate cognition; (2) providing a brief overview of the scientific study of primate cognition and how the papers of this special issue fit into that scientific paradigm; and (3) explicating my own views about the relationship between nonhuman primate cognition and human cognition.     

Mapping Cognition to the Brain Through Neural Interactions

Brain imaging methods, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), provide a unique opportunity to study the neurobiology of human memory. As these methods can measure most of the brain, it is possible to examine the operations of large-scale neural systems and their relation to cognition. Two neuroimaging studies, one concerning working memory and the other episodic memory retrieval, serve as examples of application of two analytic methods that are optimised for the quantification of neural systems, structural equation modelling, and partial least squares. Structural equation modelling was used to explore shifting prefrontal and limbic interactions from the right to the left hemisphere in a delayed match-to-sample task for faces. A feature of the functional network for short delays was strong right hemisphere interactions between hippocampus, inferior prefrontal, and anterior cingulate cortices. At longer delays, these same three areas were strongly linked, but in the left hemisphere, which was interpreted as reflecting change in task strategy from perceptual to elaborate encoding with increasing delay. The primary manipulation in the memory retrieval study was different levels of retrieval success. The partial least squares method was used to determine whether the image-wide pattern of covariances of Brodmann areas 10 and 45/47 in right prefrontal cortex (RPFC) and the left hippocampus (LGH) could be mapped on to retrieval levels. Area 10 and LGH showed an opposite pattern of functional connectivity with a large expanse of bilateral limbic cortices that was equivalent for all levels of retrieval as well as the baseline task. However, only during high retrieval was area 45/47 included in this pattern. The results suggest that activity in portions of the RPFC can reflect either memory retrieval mode or retrieval success depending on other brain regions to which it is functionally linked, and imply that regional activity must be evaluated within the neural context in which it occurs. The general hypothesis that learning and memory are emergent properties of large-scale neural network interactions is discussed, emphasising that a region can play a different role across many functions and that role is governed by its interactions with anatomically related regions.     

Contributions of the Insula to Cognition and Emotion

Historically, the insula was considered primary gustatory cortex. Now it is known to play a more comprehensive role in the processing of sensory information, including acting as primary cortex for interoceptive information, including autonomic nervous system mediated changes. As such, it is critical for emotional feeling in accord with the James-Lange theory, a role previously ascribed to the limbic system. Neuroimaged abnormal grey matter volumes or activity levels in the insula have been associated with schizophrenia, eating disorders, anxiety and mood disorders, conduct disorder, autism, addiction, and chronic pain. The significance of these abnormal activity patterns remains theoretical. Neuropsychological studies have linked dominant insula injury with various symptoms of aphasia, but its exact role in language processing remains uncertain as most cases involve lesions that extend into perisylvian language zones. Functional neuroimaging studies have found insula hyper-activations, typically in conjunction with anterior cingulate cortex, for all manner of experimental tasks including those involving perception, intentional action, and consciousness. Such neuroimaged activity is unlikely to be task-specific, but rather reflective of generic changes in autonomic activity in response to salience, homeostatic incongruence, or cognitive challenge.     

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Considering the Relationship Between Language,Culture and Cognition to Scrutinize the Lexical Influences on Cognition

In this paper, we examine the interrelationships among language, culture, and cognition. The central notion that individuals with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds think differently is not far from our everyday experience. If you have had the opportunity to engage in a conversation with a person whose native language is not English, you may have found that communication breaks down at times and that some concepts are not easily translated into another language. Or if you happen to be a fluent bilingual or multilingual, you may agree with those bilinguals or multilinguals who mention that they think differently in each of their language. A number of intriguing questions arise here. Is there a particular style of thinking that is natural for speakers of each language? If so, is it possible for a person to think in a different way, one that is not natural for that individual? Is this style of thinking imparted by the language, the culture, or both? These and lots of other questions have engaged the attention of anthropologists, linguists and psychologists, but the point that we are going to explore is the lexical influences on cognition considering the relationship between language, culture and cognition.     

Self-directedness: A Process Approach to Cognition

Standard approaches to cognition emphasise structures (representations and rules) much more than processes, in part because this appears to be necessary to capture the normative features of cognition. However the resultant models are inflexible and face the problem of computational intractability. I argue that the ability of real world cognition to cope with complexity results from deep and subtle coupling between cognitive and non-cognitive processes. In order to capture this, theories of cognition must shift from a structural rule-defined conception of cognition to a thoroughgoing embedded process approach.     

Contributions of Functional Neuroimaging to the Study of Social Cognition

ABSTRACT— Increasingly, researchers have been applying the methods of cognitive neuroscience—especially functional neuroimaging—to address questions about how humans make inferences about the mental states of others. At the same time, a number of critics have warned against the use of these new techniques by suggesting that functional neuroimaging has been unable to provide novel insights into the nature of social cognition. Addressing these critiques, this article briefly describes some of the ways in which functional neuroimaging has indeed redirected the study of the social mind, reviewing not only the novel data these techniques have provided but also the ways in which cognitive neuroscience has prompted researchers to consider entirely new questions about the organization of human social cognition. Such questions include whether or not there are cognitive processes dedicated for social thought; what the constituent parts of our social-cognitive system might be; how social cognition overlaps with other mental processes in previously unanticipated ways; and whether social cognition might play a privileged role in the human cognitive repertoire.     

Cognition to genes via the brain in the study of conduct disorder

Although a single diagnostic label, conduct disorder, is currently applied to children exhibiting antisocial behaviour, multiple routes to the same behavioural phenomena exist. Morton and Frith's (1995) causal modelling has been fundamentally important in influencing models of cognitive/affective and associated neural differences between callous-unemotional (CU) and reactive/threat-based antisocial behaviour. Current behavioural genetic research is still catching up with the developmental cognitive neuroscience, and very few genetically informative studies differentiate between these two subtypes of antisocial behaviour. Our own work with preadolescent twins suggests that while the CU subtype is genetically vulnerable to antisocial behaviour, the non-CU subtype manifests a primarily environmental aetiology to their antisocial behaviour. Molecular genetic work to date has not differentiated between these two subtypes, and we highlight why it might be of interest to do so. Finally, we discuss how the novel approach of imaging genetics could be harnessed to study genes to cognition pathways for different subtypes of conduct disorder. Uta Frith's contributions to articulating research strategies for developmental disorders are important in conducting and interpreting this work.     

Cognition and mood in relation to the performance of squash tasks

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the role of cognition and mood in the performance of squash tasks, with particular reference to attention and self-reported arousal and stress. Volunteer male subjects (n = 40), divided into three ability groups, 'skilled', 'average' and 'novice', were required to perform two squash tasks with different degrees of difficulty. Order of presentation of the tasks was controlled. Results indicated that subjects completing the easier squash task first performed better on the subsequent difficult task than those subjects who completed the more difficult task first. No differences in scores across tasks were found for subjects completing the tasks in reverse order. Performance was related to level of skill. Furthermore, significant differences in attentional style were revealed when average subjects were compared with skilled and novice players. Skilled players were also found to exhibit significantly different personality characteristics from novice players. Specifically, skilled players exhibited higher levels of extraversion and appeared less neurotic. For the average and novice groups, reports of high levels of stress accompanied those of high levels of arousal and these remained constant throughout the experiment. By contrast, for the skilled group low levels of stress accompanied high levels of arousal. The results are discussed in terms of the effects of these cognitive and mood factors on performance and a suggested direction for future research is offered.     

Situating Emotions: From Embodied Cognition to Mindreading

In this article we analyze the strengths and weaknesses of mindreading versus embodied cognition approaches to emotion understanding. In the first part of the article we argue that mindreading explanations of how we understand the emotions of others (TT, ST or hybrid) face a version of the frame problem, i.e. the problem of how to limit the scope of the information that is relevant to mindreading. Also, we show that embodied cognition explanations are able to by-pass this problem because they provide a characterization of social understanding as being essentially situated. However, embodied cognition explanations seem to be limited in scope insofar as they do not target the more sophisticated forms of emotion understanding that have traditionally been the main focus of mindreading explanations. In the second part of the article we discuss Goldie’s account of emotion understanding as a possible way to complement embodied cognition approaches without re-introducing the frame problem. We offer two suggestions that might further the integration of Goldie’s account of emotion understanding within the framework of embodied cognition.     

Extending Dynamical Systems Theory to Model Embodied Cognition

We define a mathematical formalism based on the concept of an ‘‘open dynamical system” and show how it can be used to model embodied cognition. This formalism extends classical dynamical systems theory by distinguishing a ‘‘total system’’ (which models an agent in an environment) and an ‘‘agent system’’ (which models an agent by itself), and it includes tools for analyzing the collections of overlapping paths that occur in an embedded agent's state space. To illustrate the way this formalism can be applied, several neural network models are embedded in a simple model environment. Such phenomena as masking, perceptual ambiguity, and priming are then observed. We also use this formalism to reinterpret examples from the embodiment literature, arguing that it provides for a more thorough analysis of the relevant phenomena.     

漫画认知发展特点的研究

对小学三年级至大学一年级五个年级的200名被试进行了测验,以考查被试的漫画认知的发展特点.研究结果表明:(1)各年级被试对漫画的认知具有明显的年龄特征,存在两个快速发展期,即三至五年级(9—12岁),初二至高二(14—18岁);(2)漫画认知在性别上略有差异,但就各年级而言差异不显著.     

老年人日常认知研究评述

日常认知一直是临床心理学家和老年心理学家关注的重点之一, 日常认知的研究主要集中于概念、评估方法和工具、日常认知与智力和执行功能的关系以及相关的干预训练等方面。日常认知概念的深化和相应评估工具的出现, 推动了日常认知研究的深入发展：一方面研究者通过寻找对日常认知有重要作用的基本认知变量, 探究日常认知与智力的关系; 另一方面, 与日常认知有关的训练项目的开发也一直是研究者和老年群体关注的话题, 现有的训练研究提供了很多有启发性的结果。日常认知是老年人身心健康的重要影响因素, 对于保持或提高老年人的生活质量非常重要。     

Demarcating the Realm of Cognition

The Extended Mind Hypothesis has given rise to stimulating philosophical debates about the boundaries of the realm of the cognitive. This paper first investigates the usefulness of a “mark of the cognitive,” and then focuses on two accounts that aim to provide such a mark, put forward by Fred Adams and Rebecca Garrison on one side and Mark Rowlands on the other. The paper provides a critical assessment of these accounts and uses empirical work on emotion regulation in infants to unearth some crucial challenges that any attempt at offering a mark of the cognitive should address.     

Cognition in the bisection task

Bisecting a visually presented stimulus is a sensitive test for attentional and motor biases in both healthy and brain-damaged participants. There are, in addition, perceptual effects on performance and several idiosyncratic biases. Experiments that manipulated the stimulus attributes have suggested that higher-level cognitive processes can also influence bisection accuracy. These observations encourage a wider diagnostic use of the bisection procedure.