Differences in numeric,verbal, and spatial reasoning between engineering and literature students through a neurocognitive lens

This study used electroencephalography to investigate the brain activations of college students of various disciplines when they responded to questions in numeric, verbal, and spatial reasoning tasks. In total, 15 engineering students and 15 literature students were recruited in this experiment and were asked to respond to 12 intelligence test questions. The results were as follows: (i) the participants’ brain activations increased in the frontoparietal network during the numeric reasoning task, and the spectral power in the right anterior temporal cortex was generally higher in the literature students than in the engineering students. (ii) Activations of the language network were observed during the verbal reasoning task, and the spectral power in the right-biased posterior frontal cortex was generally higher in the literature students than in the engineering students; by contrast, the spectral power in the left lateral frontal cortex was generally higher in the engineering students than in the literature students. (iii) The participants’ brain activations increased in the spatial processing network during the spatial reasoning task, and the spectral power in the right posterior temporal cortex was generally higher in the literature students than in the engineering students.     

Temperament moderates the effect of the verbal threat information pathway on children's heart rate responses to novel animals

Temperamental variables such as trait anxiety are risk factors in children for the development of anxiety disorders. This experiment aimed to test whether temperament moderates the effect of verbal threat information on the physiological component of the fear emotion. An experiment is reported in which 6-10 year old children's (N = 54) fear beliefs about novel animals were measured. They were then given threat, positive or no verbal information about these animals following which their heart rate was recorded while they placed their hands in boxes that they believed these animals inhabited. Children also completed a questionnaire measure of trait anxiety. Child-reported temperament moderated the effect that threat information has on the physiological component of the fear emotion. Fear information is, therefore, a possible mechanism through which temperament leads children to acquire animal fears.     

The relationships among verbal short-term memory, phonological awareness, and new word learning: evidence from typical development and Down syndrome

This study examined the correlates of new word learning in a sample of 64 typically developing children between 5 and 8 years of age and a group of 22 teenagers and young adults with Down syndrome. Verbal short-term memory and phonological awareness skills were assessed to determine whether learning new words involved accurately representing phonological information in memory. Results showed a relationship between verbal short-term memory measures and typically developing individuals’ ability to learn the phonological form of novel words but not their ability to learn the physical referent of new words. Similarly, individuals with Down syndrome showed impaired verbal short-term memory and impaired form but not referent learning. Together, these findings specify the circumstances in which an accurate phonological representation within short-term memory is required for new word learning.     

The fractionation of working memory maps onto different components of intelligence

One hundred thirty-eight sixth form students, aged 16–17, took tests of vocabulary, mental rotation, and abstract reasoning as markers of Gc, Gv, and Gf and also three working memory tests, one verbal, one spatial, and one numerical (mental counters). Consistent with a number of earlier results, we found that verbal working memory correlated with the vocabulary test and spatial working memory with the mental rotation test, but there was only a weak relationship between these two domains. Performance on the reasoning test was associated most strongly with the mental counters working memory test but was also related to performance on both verbal and spatial tests. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a three-factor solution of these data, with one ability test and one working memory test loading onto each factor. This suggests that although working memory may be partly general, it is also at least in part domain-specific with three of these domains corresponding to Gc, Gv, and Gf.     

Language and executive function in self-reported impulsive aggression

The present study employed a battery of verbal tests that included a broad range of executive demands to demonstrate the differential contributions of language and executive function to the performance decrement observed in individuals who display impulsive aggressive (IA) outbursts. A profile analysis revealed that despite not differing on tasks requiring limited verbal output, the IAs deviated further from nonaggressive controls as the tasks required increasing spontaneous organization. Results suggest that language ability per se is not impaired in IAs; rather inefficient executive functioning is responsible for their significantly poorer performance on complex verbal tasks.     

Associative independence revisited: competition between conflicting associations can be resolved or even reversed in one trial

In one type of association-memory paradigm, after studying pairs of the form AB, AC, participants must recall both B and C in response to A. Counterintuitively, yet often replicated, recall probabilities of B and C are typically uncorrelated (“associative independence”). This face-value independence is now understood to reflect a negative correlation due to AB and AC competing, approximately offset by a positive correlation produced by subject- and item-variability. The outcome might vary with stimulus material; for noun-pairs, and with a single study trial per pair, AB and AC have been found to be positively correlated. We replicated the positive correlation between AB and AC for noun-pairs, but this did not differ from the correlation expected for independent memory tests, suggesting that for noun pairs, AB and AC are independent on average. In Experiment 2, participants instructed to form separate images for AB and AC again produced an independence pattern, but participants instructed to combine AB and AC into an integrative image produced a facilitation pattern. Thus, the relationship between AB and AC varies, and can be influenced by study strategy. Association-memory models may need to accommodate a diverse range of AB–AC relationships, and studies that build on AB/AC learning may need to consider whether AB/AC start out with a competitive, facilitatory or independent relationship.     

Increased distractibility in schizotypy: Independent of individual differences in working memory capacity?

Individuals with schizophrenia typically show increased levels of distractibility. This has been attributed to impaired working memory capacity (WMC), since lower WMC is typically associated with higher distractibility, and schizophrenia is typically associated with impoverished WMC. Here, participants performed verbal and spatial serial recall tasks that were accompanied by to-be-ignored speech tokens. For the few trials wherein one speech token was replaced with a different token, impairment was produced to task scores (a deviation effect). Participants subsequently completed a schizotypy questionnaire and a WMC measure. Higher schizotypy scores were associated with lower WMC (as measured with operation span, OSPAN), but WMC and schizotypy scores explained unique variance in relation to the mean magnitude of the deviation effect. These results suggest that schizotypy is associated with heightened domain-general distractibility, but that this is independent of its relationship with WMC.     

Directed forgetting of negative performed actions is difficult: A behavioural study

Strong evidence suggests that both performing actions and emotional stimuli can enhance memory by capturing attention. However, the synergetic effect of the two factors on directed forgetting has not been assessed. In this study, we used an item-method directed forgetting paradigm to examine the forgetting of emotional materials depending on whether actions were performed. The results showed that action performance influenced the directed forgetting of emotional words. Specifically, when actions were performed there was a directed forgetting effect for neutral and positive words but not for negative words. In comparison, for verbal tasks, directed forgetting was observed for all words. The elaborative encoding prior to the remember/forget instructions and the influence of negative emotion on attentional inhibition after the presentation of the instructions together suggest that it is more difficult to intentionally forget negative performed actions.     

Communicative functions of directional verbal probabilities: Speaker’s choice,listener’s inference,and reference points

Verbal probabilities have directional communicative functions, and most can be categorized as positive (e.g., “it is likely”) or negative (e.g., “it is doubtful”). We examined the communicative functions of verbal probabilities based on the reference point hypothesis According to this hypothesis, listeners are sensitive to and can infer a speaker’s reference points based on the speaker’s selected directionality. In four experiments (two of which examined speakers’ choice of directionality and two of which examined listeners’ inferences about a speaker’s reference point), we found that listeners could make inferences about speakers’ reference points based on the stated directionality of verbal probability. Thus, the directionality of verbal probabilities serves the communicative function of conveying information about a speaker’s reference point.     

Comparison of prompting procedures to teach internet skills to older adults

The Internet and information and communications technologies (ICTs) have been found to produce meaningful social interactions and greater social support among older adults (White et al., 2002 ). Despite these benefits, the Internet and ICTs are not widely used among the older‐adult population (Cresci, Yarandi, & Morrell, 2010 ). The purpose of the current study was to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of video prompting and text‐based instructions on the acquisition of three tablet‐based tasks: emailing, video calling (FaceTime® application), and searching for a YouTube? video. Both video prompting and text‐based instructions were effective for all three participants, with text‐based instructions being slightly more efficient for one participant and video prompting being more efficient for two participants, suggesting that both prompting procedures can be used to teach older adults Internet and ICT skills.