The Relationship of Handwriting Speed,Working Memory,Language Comprehension and Outlines to Lecture Note‐taking and Test‐taking among College Students

A previous investigation of the cognitive processes underlying note‐taking found that handwriting speed was the only significant predictor of notes, and notes were the only significant predictor of test performance. This investigation sought to extend these results by evaluating the effects of handwriting speed, language comprehension, two measures of working memory (complex span and executive attention) and an outline on note‐taking and test performance (written summary). Participants were randomly assigned to an outline or not no‐outline group (Group) to determine the effect of an outline on handwriting speed. Results from a path analysis indicated that handwriting speed, language comprehension and Group were significantly related to notes. The relationship between the independent variables and the written summary was not completely mediated by notes as in the previous investigation. Notes, Group and language comprehension were related to the written summary. The implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Are there control processes,and (if so) can they be studied?

Generally, so-called control processes are thought to be necessary when we must perform one out of several competing actions. Some examples include performance of a less well-practiced action instead of a well-practiced one (prepotency); learning a new action (novelty); and rapidly switching from one action to another (task-switching). While it certainly is difficult to perform the desired action in these circumstances, it is less clear that a separate set of processes (e.g., control processes) are necessary to explain the observed behavior. Another way to approach the study of control processes is to investigate physiological dependent measures (e.g., electrophysiological or neuroimaging measures). Although these offer another avenue of inquiry into control processes, they have yet to furnish unambiguous evidence that control processes exist. While this might suggest that there are no control processes, it is also possible that our methods are insufficiently sensitive to measure control processes. We have investigated this latter possibility using tasks that are neuroanatomically distinct, though within the same modality (vision). This approach did not yield evidence for a separable set of control processes. However, recent works using a task-switching paradigm in which subjects switch between a visual and an auditory task suggest that switching both task and modality may be importantly different than switching task within a given modality. This may represent a way forward in the study of control processes.     

Psychological skills and mindfulness training effects on the psychological wellbeing of undergraduate music students: An exploratory study

This study explored the efficacy of psychological skills and mindfulness training intervention on the psychological wellbeing of undergraduate music students. Participants were undergraduate music students (n = 36) from the Department of Music at a South African university, 21 of whom were elected to take the psychological skills and mindfulness training intervention. Data on their self-reported psychological wellbeing, psychological skills, mindfulness and performance anxiety levels were collected pre-and post-intervention. The analysis applied non-parametric procedures to determine changes in students’ psychological wellbeing after the seven-week intervention programme. Findings suggest improvements in psychological wellbeing, psychological skills, mindfulness and performance anxiety with training. Psychological skills and mindfulness training may have benefits to the psychological wellbeing of music students.