Metacognitive Development

Traditional developmental research in memory and reasoning, as well as current investigations in such disparate areas as theory of mind, epistemological understanding, knowledge acquisition, and problem solving, share the need to invoke a meta-level of cognition in explaining their respective phenomena. The increasingly influential construct of metacognition can be conceptualized in a developmental framework. Young children's dawning awareness of mental functions lies at one end of a developmental progression that eventuates in complex metaknowing capabilities that many adults do not master. During its extended developmental course, metacognition becomes more explicit, powerful, and effective, as it comes to operate increasingly under the individual's conscious control. Enhancing (a) metacognitive awareness of what one believes and how one knows and (b) metastrategic control in application of the strategies that process new information is an important developmental and educational goal.     

Perceived Fitness Predicts Daily Coping Better Than Physical Activity or Aerobic Fitness

This study sought to evaluate the association between perceived physical fitness, actual fitness measured by VO₂max, daily physical activity measured by an ambulatory activity monitor, and coping with daily stress. One hundred and thirty participants completed a series of questionnaires measuring perceived fitness as well as daily stress and coping levels each day for one week. Participants were also provided with a digital physical activity monitor (Yamax Digi-Walker SW 200) and instructed to wear it throughout the seven day assessment period. Upon completion of the week evaluation, participants then were evaluated for actual physical fitness by treadmill testing. Multiple regression and effect size analysis revealed that perceived fitness predicted daily coping better than actual fitness and daily physical activity. Coping was unrelated to age, gender,VO₂max, and physical activity. Results suggest that perceived fitness may be a better predictor of coping with daily stress than actual physical fitness or physical activity.     

A flexible latent trait model for response times in tests

Latent trait models for response times in tests have become popular recently. One challenge for response time modeling is the fact that the distribution of response times can differ considerably even in similar tests. In order to reduce the need for tailor-made models, a model is proposed that unifies two popular approaches to response time modeling: Proportional hazard models and the accelerated failure time model with log–normally distributed response times. This is accomplished by resorting to discrete time. The categorization of response time allows the formulation of a response time model within the framework of generalized linear models by using a flexible link function. Item parameters of the proposed model can be estimated with marginal maximum likelihood estimation. Applicability of the proposed approach is demonstrated with a simulation study and an empirical application. Additionally, means for the evaluation of model fit are suggested.     

Cognition in schizophrenia: core psychological and neural mechanisms

The challenge in understanding cognitive impairment in schizophrenia is that people with this illness have deficits in an array of domains. Here, we briefly review evidence regarding the pattern of deficits within three domains: context processing, working memory and episodic memory. We suggest that there may be a common mechanism driving deficits in these domains - an impairment in the ability to actively represent goal information in working memory to guide behavior, a function we refer to as proactive control. We suggest that such deficits in proactive control reflect impairments in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, its interactions with other brain regions, such as parietal cortex, thalamus and striatum, and the influence of neurotransmitter systems, such as dopamine, GABA and glutamate.     

Insights for treatment in Tourette syndrome from fMRI

In a recent American Journal of Psychiatry article, Wang and colleagues used functional MRI (fMRI) to examine cortico-striatal-thalamo-cortical circuitry in Tourette syndrome (TS), advancing the field's investigation of circuit level dysfunction in vivo in individuals with TS. Their results provide insight for interrogating neural mechanisms underlying different treatment methods.     

Candy and the brain: neural response to candy gains and losses

Incentive processing is a critical component of a host of cognitive processes, including attention, motivation, and learning. Neuroimaging studies have clarified the neural systems underlying processing of primary and secondary rewards in adults. However, current reward paradigms have hindered comparisons across these reward types as well as between age groups. To address methodological issues regarding the timing of incentive delivery (during scan vs. postscan) and the age-appropriateness of the incentive type, we utilized fMRI and a modified version of a card-guessing game (CGG), in which candy pieces delivered postscan served as the reinforcer, to investigate neural responses to incentives. Healthy young adults 22–26 years of age won and lost large and small amounts of candy on the basis of their ability to guess the number on a mystery card. BOLD activity was compared following candy gain (large/small), loss (large/small), and neutral feedback. During candy gains, adults recruited regions typically involved in response to monetary and other rewards, such as the caudate, putamen, and orbitofrontal cortex. During losses, they displayed greater deactivation in the hippocampus than in response to neutral and gain feedback. Additionally, individual-difference analyses suggested a negative relationship between reward sensitivity (assessed by the Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Activation Scales) and the difference between high- and low-magnitude losses in the caudate and lateral orbitofrontal cortex. Also within the striatum, greater punishment sensitivity was positively related to the difference in activity following high as compared to low gains. Overall, these results show strong overlap with those from previous monetary versions of the CGG and provide a baseline for future work with developmental populations.     

Classification accuracy and consistency of computerized adaptive testing

In this article, four item selection methods in computerized adaptive testing are examined in terms of classification accuracy and consistency, including two popular heuristics for constraint management, the maximum priority index (MPI) method and the weighted deviation modeling method, as well as the widely known maximum Fisher information method and randomized item selection as baselines. Results suggest that the MPI method is able to meet constraints and keep test overlap rate low. Among the four methods, it is the only one that manages to produce parallel forms in terms of content coverage and, consequently, the only method to which the idea of classification consistency applies. With tests as short as 12 items, the MPI method does fairly well in classifying examinees accurately and consistently. Its performance improves with longer tests. The effects of number of decision categories and cut score locations are also examined. Recommendations are made in the Discussion section.     

Effectiveness of child psychoanalytic psychotherapy in a clinical outpatient setting

The objective of this study was to evaluate the outcome of child psychoanalytic psychotherapy in a clinical outpatient setting in a city in southern Brazil. Three psychological tests (Rorschach, Bender and WISC III) were administered to 23 children, aged 6–11 years old, and the Child Behaviour Check List (CBCL) was completed by the parents. All testing was completed before the beginning of the individual psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The same measures were repeated after 12 months of intervention. The 23 children who received individual psychoanalytic psychotherapy were compared with a control group who did not receive any kind of intervention. In the clinical group, the results indicated a statistically significant reduction of anxiety symptoms (0.002) and school problems (0.031), improvement in interpersonal relationships (0.022), and positive change in the following CBCL scales: withdrawn (0.010), thought problems (0.022), anxiety and depression (0.017), internalising (0.008) and total (0.003). An effect size of 0.696 was calculated based on the CBCL total scale before and after the intervention. The results revealed that child psychoanalytical psychotherapy is mostly effective in the treatment of female children who present internalising disorders.     

Number sense or working memory? The effect of two computer-based trainings on mathematical skills in elementary school

Research on the improvement of elementary school mathematics has shown that computer-based training of number sense (e.g., processing magnitudes or locating numbers on the number line) can lead to substantial achievement gains in arithmetic skills. Recent studies, however, have highlighted that training domain-general cognitive abilities (e.g., working memory [WM]) may also improve mathematical achievement. This study addressed the question of whether a training of domain-specific number sense skills or domain-general WM abilities is more appropriate for improving mathematical abilities in elementary school. Fifty-nine children (M_age = 9 years, 32 girls and 27 boys) received either a computer-based, adaptive training of number sense (n = 20), WM skills (n = 19), or served as a control group (n = 20). The training duration was 20 min per day for 15 days. Before and after training, we measured mathematical ability using a curriculum-based math test, as well as spatial WM. For both training groups, we observed substantial increases in the math posttest compared to the control group (d = .54 for number sense skills training, d = .57 for WM training, respectively). Whereas the number sense group showed significant gains in arithmetical skills, the WM training group exhibited marginally significant gains in word problem solving. However, no training group showed significant posttest gains on the spatial WM task. Results indicate that a short training of either domain-specific or domain-general skills may result in reliable short-term training gains in math performance, although no stable training effects were found in the spatial WM task.