Noncognitive factors in high-road/low-road learning: I. Modes of abstraction in adulthood

Since the termscognition andcognitive are broadly used but not clearly defined, it may be helpful to clarify what is meant bynoncognitive factors. In cognitive science, the termscognition andcognitive generally describe mental processes that are informational insofar as they carry information about the organism's own body and the material world. Thus defined, there are three sorts of noncognitive organismic factors important in adult learning:affective processes, self-developmental processes, andhardware factors (i.e., noninformational, purely organismic constraints such as mental capacity/working memory limitations, gestaltist field factors, etc.). In this series of papers, we attempt to show how these noncognitive factors interact with cognitive factors to facilitate adult learning. We outline and give reference to a dialectical constructivist (neoPiagetian) model of the psychological organism that integrates noncognitive with cognitive factors and that can serve to explicate the findings of the literature and to process/task analyze adult learning. An important aim is the integration of the findings of decline and regression from the cognitive literature with the findings regarding the increase in self-directedness reported by adult education theorists. This is explicated through a process-analytic account of the will, particularly as it pertains to noncognitive factors. In Part II, we continue our explication of a dialectical model of the ego and conclude with a discussion of modes of learning/instruction in adulthood.     

The 'when' pathway of the right parietal lobe

The order of events, whether two events are seen as simultaneous or successive, sets the stage for the moment-to-moment interpretation of the visual world. Evidence from patients who have lesions to the parietal lobes and transcranial magnetic stimulation studies in normal subjects suggest that the right inferior parietal lobe underlies this analysis of event timing. Judgment of temporal order, simultaneity and high-level motion are all compromised following right parietal lesions and degraded after transcranial magnetic stimulation over the right parietal but not elsewhere. The results suggest that the right parietal lobe serves as part of a when pathway for both visual fields. We propose that the disruption of this mechanism is the underlying cause of a wide range of seemingly unrelated tasks being impaired in right parietal patients.     

Can we model organismic causes of working memory,efficiency and fluid intelligence? A meta-subjective perspective

I critically examine the target paper by Demetriou et al. (2013) noticing that their epistemological perspective is meta-empiricist (i.e., taking the viewpoint of an external observer). This viewpoint is contrasted with to a metasubjective perspective (i.e., that of the subject-matter itself — organismic processes). I explain working memory (whose key developmental determinant is mental – M – attention), as well as processing speed, and Gf from a metasubjective perspective; and I emphasize that difficulty of an item/task is relative to the trade-off level between its item/task mental–attentional demand and the participant's mental–attentional capacity. I list principles of measurement for proper assessment of mental/executive/endogenous attention (M-capacity) and explain some of the results of Demetriou et al. as resulting from inadequate control of this M-demand/M-capacity trade off in their tasks. Demetriou et al. have achieved clear demonstration that WM, Gf, and processing speed are distinct latent variables whose inter-relations change with age. To clarify further their organismic causal determinants they should make a “metasubjective turn” in their theorizing.     

Compounds,confounds, and models in developmental information processing: A reply to Trabasso and Foellinger

A point by point examination of Trabasso and Foellinger's paper shows their criticisms of my 1970 work to be based on errors of fact (regarding the data I reported) and errors of method (regarding proper procedures for model evaluation). Factual errors are refuted by summarizing crucial data reported in 1970 but ignored by my critics. Errors of method are refuted by contrasting my $\text{CSVI}\text{BE}$ model and data with Trabasso and Foellinger's model and data in the light of the scientific epistemology of model evaluation. The issues of “general” versus “local” models, their “empirical scope,” “number of empirical parameters,” and “simplifying assumptions” are examined. Five ways of evaluating models are distinguished, and in all five my 1970 model is shown to be superior to that of Trabasso and Foellinger. The 1970 data (in light of the controls built into the CSVI task) and new unreported data exhibiting developmental step functions confirm the model of a developmental growth of M (mental energy, working memory), which occurs concurrently with and independently from the growth of executive/control structures. Executive growth alone cannot explain the obtained results.     

Improved picture naming in chronic aphasia after TMS to part of right Broca's area: an open-protocol study

Functional imaging studies with nonfluent aphasia patients have observed "over-activation" in right (R) language homologues. This may represent a maladaptive strategy; suppression may result in language improvement. We applied slow, 1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to an anterior portion of R Broca's homologue daily, for 10 days in four aphasia patients who were 5-11 years poststroke. Significant improvement was observed in picture naming at 2 months post-rTMS, with lasting benefit at 8 months in three patients. This preliminary, open trial suggests that rTMS may provide a novel treatment approach for aphasia by possibly modulating the distributed, bi-hemispheric language network.     

La chaise vide en psychothérapie : origines et développements

Working with the empty chair or the two-chair dialogue techniques is used in experiential techniques. The latter are practiced in various psychotherapy forms. The present article demonstrates the origins of these techniques in the Gestalt and Person-centered models of psychotherapy, as well as presents their current developments in experiential psychotherapy approaches. The techniques presented are classified according to their objectives, namely: clarification and meaning construction, and modification of internal determinants of the presenting problem. The following techniques are briefly presented, illustrated with clinical examples and discussed: treatment of internal conflict split; treatment of self-interruptive process; unfinished business dialogue; self-soothing dialogue; cognitive elements in the one-person role-play; affective elements in the one-person role-play. We discuss the empirical evidence of these techniques, by referring to efficacy and effectiveness studies, as well as process studies, and conclude with a reflection on the differential indication of the techniques, in the context of novel clinical and research perspectives.     

TMS suppression of right pars triangularis, but not pars opercularis, improves naming in aphasia

This study sought to discover if an optimum 1 cm² area in the non-damaged right hemisphere (RH) was present, which could temporarily improve naming in chronic, nonfluent aphasia patients when suppressed with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Ten minutes of slow, 1 Hz rTMS was applied to suppress different RH ROIs in eight aphasia cases. Picture naming and response time (RT) were examined before, and immediately after rTMS. In aphasia patients, suppression of right pars triangularis (PTr) led to significant increase in pictures named, and significant decrease in RT. Suppression of right pars opercularis (POp), however, led to significant increase in RT, but no change in number of pictures named. Eight normals named all pictures correctly; similar to aphasia patients, RT significantly decreased following rTMS to suppress right PTr, versus right POp. Differential effects following suppression of right PTr versus right POp suggest different functional roles for these regions.