Mental models in propositional reasoning and working memory's central executive

We examine the role of working memory's central executive in the mental model explanation of propositional reasoning by using two working memory measures: the classical “reading span” test by Daneman and Carpenter (1980 Daneman, M. and Carpenter, P. A. 1980. Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19: 450–466. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and a new measure. This new “reasoning span” measure requires individuals to solve very simple anaphora problems, and store and remember the word solution in a growing series of inferential problems. We present one experiment in which we check the involvement of the central executive in conditional and disjunctive inference tasks and compare predictions of the new reasoning span test with those of the classical reading span test. The results of the experiment confirm that reasoning responses, which according to mental model theory require high cognitive work, are predicted by working memory measures. Results also show that some reasoning responses are probably obtained by means of superficial biases or strategies that do not load working memory. The reasoning span test, which involves the central executive to a greater degree, predicts reasoning performance better than the reading span test. The significance and possibilities of the new measure in studying reasoning are discussed.     

A set of high quality colour images with Spanish norms for seven relevant psycholinguistic variables: The Nombela naming test

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a new corpus of 140 high quality colour images belonging to 14 subcategories and covering a range of naming difficulty. One hundred and six Spanish speakers named the items and provided data for several psycholinguistic variables: age of acquisition, familiarity, manipulability, name agreement, typicality and visual complexity. Furthermore, we also present lexical frequency data derived internet search hits. Apart from the large number of variables evaluated, these stimuli present an important advantage with respect to other comparable image corpora in so far as naming performance in healthy individuals is less prone to ceiling effect problems. Reliability and validity indexes showed that our items display similar psycholinguistic characteristics to those of other corpora. In sum, this set of ecologically valid stimuli provides a useful tool for scientists engaged in cognitive and neuroscience-based research.     

Young Tennis Players’ Competitive Task Involvement and Performance: The Role of Goal Orientations,Contextual Motivational Climate,And Coach-Initiated Motivational Climate

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of situational and dispositional factors in contributing to competitive task involvement and performance in young tennis players. One hundred fifty-one adolescent tennis players and their coaches participated in the study. Participants responded to instruments measuring pre-game dispositional goal orientations and perceptions of the motivational climate and post-game task involvement in the competition by assessing concentration, loss of self-consciousness, and autotelic experience, perceptions of coach-initiated motivational climate in competition, and self-evaluation of game performance. In addition, coaches evaluated the players’ performance. Results showed that task involvement was predicted by players’ perceptions of a coach-initiated learning motivational climate in competition. Loss of self-consciousness was predicted by the players’ perceptions of a coach-initiated performance climate in competition. Finally, coaches’ and players’ assessment of performance were predicted by autotelic experience, concentration, and by perception of coach-initiated learning and performance orientation in competition.     

Performance of an Adapted Version of the Timed Up-and-Go Test in People with Cognitive Impairments

In clinical practice, older people with cognitive impairment may have difficulties to understand the instructions of the Timed Up-and-Go (TUGT) test and present a bad performance. The purpose of this study was to identify differences in the TUGT performance, in an adapted version, between older adults with preserved cognition (PC), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), and to identify the association between the adapted TUGT performance and cognition among groups. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 118 community-dwelling older adults divided in three groups: PC (n?=?40), MCI (n?=?40) and AD (n?=?38). The evaluation was composed by the adapted TUGT and cognitive assessment (Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination and Frontal Assessment Battery). Only the cadence of TUGT presented significant difference between groups, specifically between AD versus MCI and PC groups. The main correlations were found between time of TUGT with fluency domain and global cognitive function, especially in the AD Group. The findings contribute to the understanding of how cognition interferes on functional mobility in older people with MCI and AD. The adapted TUGT is easy to perform in clinical practice and can be useful when assessing mobility in people with cognitive impairment.     

The Impact of Abuse and Learning Difficulties on Emotion Understanding in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence

Children's affective experiences and cognitive abilities have an impact on emotion understanding. However, their relative contribution, as well as the possibility of an interaction between them, has rarely been examined. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of severe abuse and learning difficulties on simple and complex components of emotion understanding in late childhood and early adolescence. A total of 28 older children and young adolescents were selected for the study. Half of the participants had suffered from severe abuse, and half of these abused children additionally had learning disabilities. The remaining half of the sample had no history of abuse but were matched with the abused children on learning difficulties, age and gender. The participants’ emotion understanding was assessed with the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC). Results showed that (a) learning difficulties but not abuse had an impact on emotion understanding, (b) there was no interaction effect of abuse and learning difficulties on emotion understanding, and (b) the observed effects of learning difficulties were most apparent for the understanding of relatively complex components of emotion and not for simple components. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.     

Emotion Comprehension: The Impact of Nonverbal Intelligence

A substantial body of research has established that emotion understanding develops throughout early childhood and has identified three hierarchical developmental phases: external, mental, and reflexive. The authors analyzed nonverbal intelligence and its effect on children's improvement of emotion understanding and hypothesized that cognitive level is a consistent predictor of emotion comprehension. In all, 366 children (182 girls, 184 boys) between the ages of 3 and 10 years were tested using the Test of Emotion Comprehension and the Coloured Progressive Matrices. The data obtained by using the path analysis model revealed that nonverbal intelligence was statistically associated with the ability to recognize emotions in the 3 developmental phases. The use of this model showed the significant effect that cognitive aspect plays on the reflexive phase. The authors aim to contribute to the debate about the influence of cognitive factors on emotion understanding.     

What COP and Kinematic Parameters Better Characterize Postural Control in Standing Balance Tasks?

The authors’ aim was to determine which variables allow for the characterization of motor balance behavior. Traditional measures and nonlinear measures of center of pressure (COP; n = 30) and kinematics (n = 10) were tested in their absolute and relative consistency in a 30-s standing balance task protocol under stable and unstable conditions. Regarding COP variables, mean velocity (mVel), permutation entropy (PE) and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) exhibited high consistency between trials and ranked individuals more accurately compare with other metrics. In the kinematic signal mVel, PE and DFA had good intrasession reliability values in unstable conditions. Overall, the intrasession reliability values were better in the unstable condition than in the stable condition and the measures calculated using derived data had better intrasession reliability values. In conclusion, mVel, PE, and DFA allow for the good characterization of motor balance behavior in a simplified protocol where velocity time series are analyzed.     

A system for automatic recording and analysis of motor activity in rats

We describe the design and evaluation of an electronic system for the automatic recording of motor activity in rats. The device continually locates the position of a rat inside a transparent acrylic cube (50 cm/side) with infrared sensors arranged on its walls so as to correspond to the x-, y-, and z-axes. The system is governed by two microcontrollers. The raw data are saved in a text file within a secure digital memory card, and offline analyses are performed with a library of programs that automatically compute several parameters based on the sequence of coordinates and the time of occurrence of each movement. Four analyses can be made at specified time intervals: traveled distance (cm), movement speed (cm/s), time spent in vertical exploration (s), and thigmotaxis (%). In addition, three analyses are made for the total duration of the experiment: time spent at each x–y coordinate pair (min), time spent on vertical exploration at each x–y coordinate pair (s), and frequency distribution of vertical exploration episodes of distinct durations. User profiles of frequently analyzed parameters may be created and saved for future experimental analyses, thus obtaining a full set of analyses for a group of rats in a short time. The performance of the developed system was assessed by recording the spontaneous motor activity of six rats, while their behaviors were simultaneously videotaped for manual analysis by two trained observers. A high and significant correlation was found between the values measured by the electronic system and by the observers.     

The impact of mindfulness on well-being and performance in the workplace: an inclusive systematic review of the empirical literature

Work can be demanding, imposing challenges that can be detrimental to the physical and mental health of workers. Efforts are therefore underway to develop practices and initiatives that may improve occupational well-being. These include interventions based on mindfulness meditation. This paper offers a systematic review of empirical studies featuring analyses of mindfulness in occupational contexts. Databases were reviewed from the start of records to January 2016. Eligibility criteria included experimental and correlative studies of mindfulness conducted in work settings, with a variety of well-being and performance measures. A total of 153 papers met the eligibility criteria and were included in the systematic review, comprising 12,571 participants. Mindfulness was generally associated with positive outcomes in relation to most measures. However, the quality of the studies was inconsistent, so further research is needed, particularly involving high-quality randomized control trials.