Cognitive Processing最新文献

Evidence indicates that personal relative deprivation (PRD) can lead to various impulsive behaviors. Given that impulsive behaviors are usually caused by a failure to exert cognitive control, the purpose of this study was to explore whether PRD affects the ability to exert cognitive control on behavior. Forty-six healthy participants were randomly assigned to PRD or non-PRD group. Participants of the PRD group were told their income would lie below the Chinese average. While their electrophysiological responses were recorded, they underwent a Go/No-Go task simultaneously assessing the ability to detect response conflict and inhibit the predominant response. We found that the individuals with induced PRD show diminished ability to inhibit predominant response. We suggest this is because PRD-related concerns consume cognitive resources, leaving less for other tasks. However, we also found that individuals with induced PRD show enhanced ability to detect conflict. This might be because that individuals with induced PRD were sensitive to potentially threatening information (high-conflict No-Go trials) and they can detect conflict with less cognitive resources. These findings may facilitate future attempts to design interventions for relatively deprived individuals to manage their impulsive behavior.

Attachment is a prominent area of psychological research, with its relevance linked to executive functions, mindfulness, and emotional regulation. The purpose of this study is to examine this relationship among these aforementioned four constructs and propose a model to be tested in the future. Based on the current trends using the Interpersonal Neurobiology approach, which assumes prefrontal cortex functions to include other socioemotional resources such as empathy, morality, insight, behavior, and body regulation. Our study included prefrontal cortical functions alongside executive functions. The assessment instruments used were Attachment-Based Cognitive Representations Scale, Prefrontal Cortex Functions Scale, Webexec, Five Facet Mindfulness Scale, and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. We hypothesized that attachment would be the strongest predictor of emotional regulation. The participants in the study were 539 college students (mean = 20.21; sd = 1.57); (68% female and 32%, male). Our a priori research hypothesis was supported, with an additional finding that trait mindfulness was also a significant predictor. The strongest correlations with attachment styles were with trait mindfulness and emotional regulation. We conducted path analyses of two different models for secure and insecure attachment. The path analyses showed that secure attachment scores were negatively related, and insecure attachment scores were positively related to difficulties in emotional regulation scores. Furthermore, trait mindfulness and prefrontal cortex functions also mediated this relationship. However, there was no significant relationship between executive functions and difficulties in emotional regulation scores, even though it was significantly related to attachment. Results and implications are discussed.

Deontic norms are expected to impose individuals' control over their behavior. In this paper, we address such norms presented in traffic signs and test their influence over executive control functions. For Experiment 1, we develop a traffic flanker task in which the typical neutral arrows are replaced with traffic prohibition/obligation signs. Experiment 2 isolated the deontic aspect of the signs using simple arrows on red, blue, and green backgrounds and either primed them to be interpreted as traffic signs or as elements of a gaming console controller. Results in both studies show evidence of controlling context interferences more efficiently when dealing with deontic (traffic) signs than with simple arrows (Experiment 1) or with similar perceptive targets when primed with a deontic context than with a gaming context (Experiment 2). In both studies, obligation/blue signs mitigate flanker effects less than prohibition/red signs. Stimuli color affects the alertness of the cognitive system, with the color red being, by itself, a cue for increased control. Based on temporal analysis, we further discuss these results as evidence of an increase in proactive control that aims to prevent the occurrence of undesirable influence.

The Framing Effect (FE) demonstrated that the way two alternatives are displayed affects people's inclination to make a specific choice, showing a risk aversion when alternatives are displayed on positive frames and risk seeking in negative frames. Risk seeking in negative frames is closely linked to loss aversion. Moreover, classical research and the salience-of-losses hypothesis argues that stress may enhance the FE and loss aversion. Recent studies also suggest that the trait interoception and alexithymia could interact and moderate the framing susceptibility. However, experimental paradigms on stress could ignore variables such as threat perception. In this sense, COVID-19 pandemic has become a powerful real-life stressor in many countries. We aimed to study how real-life stressors influence decision-making under risk. A total of 97 participants were divided into a control (n = 48) and an experimental group (n = 49). The experimental group were exposed to a stressor manipulation, a 5 min COVID-19 lockdown documentary. Our results show that COVID-19-related stressors significantly decreased bet acceptance regardless of the frame, also reducing loss aversion. Moreover, interoception was a significant predictor of loss aversion under stress conditions. Our results do not support classical research on stress and FE.

The relationship between self-reported sleep and cognitive function is complex; it is unclear whether self-reported sleep is a robust correlate of people's cognitive function. We address this gap by using a comprehensive large-scale dataset (N = 1054) coupled with a novel modeling approach, specification curve analysis (SCA), to test the association between self-reported sleep and cognitive function. The results of the SCA showed robust correlations between self-reported sleep and cognitive function, with poorer sleep associated with worse cognitive function. Furthermore, the correlations between sleep components and cognitive function were heterogeneous, with differences emerging across cognitive measures and domains. Specifically, daytime dysfunction was associated with the strongest effect on subjective cognitive function, whereas sleep duration and sleep efficiency had the strongest effect on objective cognitive function. Therefore, the relationship between self-reported sleep and cognition depends largely on what and how cognitive function is measured. Our findings guide measurement and domain selection for future research on the role of sleep in cognitive function.

Language is one of the fascinating abilities of the human species. The beauty of language becomes intriguing when we examine language processing among bilinguals. This work attempted to study the effects of language dominance among native Hindi speakers who were either Hindi dominant, English dominant, or balanced bilingual in a language switching task. The task required the participants to read aloud the number-words that were presented singly on the computer screen. The findings support the inhibitory control model's predictions as the results were indicative of asymmetrical switch cost for both the Hindi and English dominant bilinguals. In both the language dominance condition, moving back to the dominant language from a non-dominant language required more time than vice versa. The results also indicated overall reduced reaction time in the reading task performance for balanced bilinguals, further demonstrating the benefits of balanced bilingualism.

While the message emanating from physiological and psychological research has extolled the general advantages of exercise in physical and cognitive health, the social distancing and the impossibility of group exercises have revealed more complex conditions. Therefore, we performed an experimental study comparing the effect of individual and group cognitive-motor training on reconstructing subjective well-being (SWB) and quality of life (QOL) in older males who recovered from COVID-19. The study's design is a single-blind, randomized controlled trial (RCT). The participants, 36 older men (65-80 yrs.) recovering from COVID-19, were randomly divided into (1) Group A (cognitive-motor training, G-CMT); (2) Group B (individual cognitive-motor training, I-CMT); and (3) Group C (control). Both training interventions involved performing a training protocol (cognitive-motor training) twice a week for four weeks. The outcomes included an assessment of the SWB and QOL of participants by SWB scale and world health organization QOL scale at baseline and two weeks after interventions. Except for the effect of age and number of children variables on QOL, other demographic variables had no significant effect on the results of SWB or WHOQOL of participants (P > 0.05). The SWB results in G-CMT were better than I-CMT and control groups in emotional and social well-being domains. Also, WHOQOL test results in G-CMT were better than control groups in domains of psychological and social relationships, whereas I-CMT performed better than G-CMT and control groups in domains of cognitive well-being, physical health, and environment. The results revealed that the mean test scores of SWB and WHOQOL in G-CMT and I-CMT were better than the control group (P ≤ 0.001). The positive effects of cognitive-motor training on reconstructing SWB and QOL are associated with the synchronicity of cognitive and motor components in these exercises. We suggest that the emotional, social, and psychological benefits of cognitive-motor training override cognitive, physical, and environmental changes. The future line of the present study will include pathophysiology and further clinical aspect of recovering from COVID-19.

Previous research on language switching has debated whether high-proficient bilinguals exhibit symmetrical costs and one underlying reason for which may be the potential influence of cross-linguistic characteristics. The previous conflicting findings suggest their impact on language switching needs to be further investigated. In this study, we recruited 36 high-proficient Chinese-English bilinguals and investigated the effect of cross-linguistic similarity on the switching of quantifier expressions under three switch conditions. The results showed that switch costs were significantly greater when the quantifier expression was similar between Chinese and English than when it was different. Larger switch costs were found in the alternate switch condition than those in the non-switch or random switch conditions. In addition, participants exhibited larger switch costs when switching to the first language than when switching to the second language. The results suggest that the similarity of quantifier expressions between the first language and the second language would create more competition and thus induce larger switch costs in phrase-level language switching, which may be derived from the inner word recognition system of the mental lexicon. This study further improves the relevant theories on the origin of switch costs by supporting the Language Non-Specific Selection Hypothesis.

The gradual emergence of syntax has been claimed to be engaged in a feedback loop with Human Self-Domestication (HSD), both processes resulting from, and contributing to, enhanced connectivity in selected cortico-striatal networks, which is the mechanism for attenuating reactive aggression, the hallmark of HSD, but also the mechanism of cross-modality, relevant for syntax. Here, we aim to bridge the gap between these brain changes and further changes facilitated by the gradual complexification of grammars. We propose that increased cross-modality would have enabled and supported, more specifically, a feedback loop between categorization abilities relevant for vocabulary building and the gradual emergence of syntactic structure, including Merge. In brief, an enhanced categorization ability not only brings about more distinct categories, but also a critical number of tokens in each category necessary for Merge to take off in a systematic and productive fashion; in turn, the benefits of expressive capabilities brought about by productive Merge encourage more items to be categorized, and more categories to be formed, thus further potentiating categorization abilities, and with it, syntax again. We support our hypothesis with evidence from the domains of language development and animal communication, but also from biology, neuroscience, paleoanthropology, and clinical linguistics.

The processing of emotional facial expressions helps people to adjust to the physical and social environment. Furthermore, mental disorders such as anxiety have been linked to attentional biases in the processing of this type of information. Nevertheless, there are still contradictory results that might be due to the methodology used and to individual differences in the manifestation of anxiety. Our research goal was to use 24 facial priming sequences to analyse attentional biases in the detection of facial expressions of fear, considering the levels and the ways in which individuals express anxiety. With higher levels of cognitive anxiety and general trait anxiety, those sequences that began in the upper half (vs. lower half) elicited a speedier response in the detection of fear. The results are discussed within the context of other techniques and disorders that prompt a deficit in the processing of facial information.