Cognitive Processing最新文献

Executive functions (EF) are higher cognitive processes which are involved in new, complex tasks. EF are often subdivided into three components: updating of working memory representations, shifting between tasks or task rules, and inhibiting predominant reactions or interfering stimuli. Individual differences in EF are often used to predict academic performance. Although the temporal stability of a construct is a necessary condition for its use as a predictor, the stability of EF in children remains unclear. The present study aims to investigate the short-term stability of individual EF performance in N = 57 kindergarten children. They were tested eight times every 2-3 days with an n-back task to measure updating, a colour/shape sorting task to measure shifting, and a go/no-go task to measure inhibition. Four-week stabilities were high for inhibition and low to moderate for updating and shifting. In latent state-trait analyses, half of the variance in inhibition but very small amounts of variance in updating and shifting variance were explained by trait. Moderate to high amounts of variance in all three tasks were explained by state. The results are discussed in terms of the usefulness of the tasks for measuring stable EF in kindergarten age and for predicting later performance.

Scientific reasoning is essential for developing learners' higher-order thinking skills. Learners with different personality traits exhibit distinct behaviors and cognitive patterns in reasoning processes. However, school education often overlooks the cognitive patterns involved in scientific reasoning and rarely considers the impact of varying levels of personality traits on cognitive processes. This study aims to explore the impact of different personality traits on cognitive processes in scientific reasoning. We analyzed discussions from 70 university students during scientific reasoning tasks. Using ordered network analysis, we visualized epistemic networks to examine how personality traits shape cognitive processes during scientific reasoning. Significant differences emerged across the Big Five personality traits: For neuroticism, the low group adopted a bottom-up reasoning approach, beginning with concrete evidence before forming hypotheses, while the high group took a top-down, hypothesis-driven approach. For extraversion, the low group preferred independent problem-solving, whereas the high group actively engaged in social interactions to enhance reasoning. For openness, the low group showed a conservative style, contrasted by the high group's innovative thinking. For agreeableness, the low group was more independent, while the high group showed cooperation and attentiveness to others' views. Lastly, for conscientiousness, the low group exhibited a casual cognitive style, whereas the high group demonstrated goal-oriented thinking. These findings provide insights for incorporating personality factors into group formation, which is crucial for enhancing the effectiveness of collaborative learning.

The concept of gender stereotype is a well-established area of research in sports and social psychology. It has been suggested that the effect of negative gender stereotypes on motor performance may not be the same in two different cultures with varying levels of stereotype beliefs, however, no research explored this suggestion. The primary objective was to investigate the impact of negative gender stereotypes on motor performance. Two experiments, Experiment 1 (Exp. 1) conducted in Iran, a country with relatively strong stereotypical beliefs, and Experiment 2 (Exp. 2) conducted in the Czech Republic, a country with relatively less pronounced stereotypical beliefs, involved participants engaging in dart-throwing. In both experiments, motor performance and cognitive anxiety were assessed, while gaze behavior was additionally measured in Exp. 2 to investigate the underlying mechanisms of the impact of gender stereotypes on motor performance. The results of Exp. 1 showed that Iranian women in the stereotype condition exhibited lower dart-throwing performance and higher levels of cognitive anxiety, as compared with the neutral condition. Conversely, Exp. 2 demonstrated that among Czech women, there were no significant differences in dart-throwing performance, cognitive anxiety, or gaze behavior between the conditions. These findings were discussed within the cognitive and socio-cultural framework.

Short-term memory (STM) temporarily stores sensory information, critical for synaptic plasticity, memory, and learning, and is regulated by the glutamate-gated NMDA receptor. While the frontal and parieto-occipital cortices have been implicated in STM, the electrochemical dynamics of the right hemisphere under cognitive loads remain underexplored. Utilizing a novel fMRS-EEG approach, we concurrently investigated the metabolic and electrophysiological dynamics of STM for the first time. Fourteen healthy right-handed participants (mean age = 30.64 ± 4.49; 5 females) engaged in a modified Sternberg task with two, four, and six letters. We quantified Glutamate/total-creatine (Glu/tCr) in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and parieto-occipital regions using LCModel. Concurrently, EEG oscillatory activities were recorded over these areas, focusing on glutamate levels and related electrical activities. Increased Glu/tCr ratios were noted with higher memory loads in the DLPFC (25%, p = 0.018) and parieto-occipital cortex (29.6%, p = 0.046). Gamma activity rose with glutamate levels (DLPFC: F(3,39) = 5.93, p = 0.005; parieto-occipital: F(3,39) = 9.23, p < 0.001), while alpha power was suppressed in the parieto-occipital region (F(3,39) = 6.22, p = 0.022). Theta oscillations correlated positively with Glu/tCr in the DLPFC (r = 0.317, p = 0.017) and negatively in the parieto-occipital (r = - 0.576, p < 0.001). Our findings reveal a significant interplay between glutamate metabolism and neuronal oscillations during STM, emphasizing the roles of the right DLPFC and parieto-occipital regions, which may inform hypotheses about the mechanisms underlying learning. However, we did not measure consolidation, and causal claims about synaptic plasticity are not warranted.

The current study investigates performance differences between sensorimotor and emotional experiences when conceptualizing abstract concepts, focusing on two distinct embodied views between the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the Emotional Grounding Theory. Methodologically, this study employs the Visual Corpus Analysis approach to conduct an image-based empirical exploration of a dataset comprising 35,100 images. These images correspond to 11 Chinese basic color terms, 100 Chinese emotion words, 100 random Chinese words without any control of valence, arousal and concreteness ratings, 100 random Chinese words with normally distributed valence, arousal, and concreteness ratings, 20 abstract notions that are metaphorically associated with colors and are affectively distinguishable in the Chinese context, and 20 Chinese concrete words referring to food concepts. The study includes two key analyses: (i) a comparison of the re-representation quality of the target abstract and concrete concepts within four types of semantic vector spaces constructed based on the color terms, emotion words, non-controlled random words, and well-controlled random words; and (ii) an examination of potential factor(s) responsible for the functional (dis)similarities between color terms and emotion words in depicting semantic relations of the target abstract notions. Results reveal that the color-based vector space yields higher re-representation quality for the target notions compared to the emotion-based vector space, and the functional (dis)similarities between specific colors and emotions are significantly influenced by the brightness-valence congruency effect. These findings offer novel insights into the ongoing debate on the embodied groundings of abstract concepts within the field of embodied cognition.

In this study we introduce a new gaze-contingent visual foraging task in which participants searched through an environment by looking at trees displayed on a computer screen. If the looked-at tree contained a fruit item, the item became visible and was collected. In each trial, the participant's task was to forage for a defined number of fruit items. In two experiments, fruit items were either randomly distributed about the trees (dispersed condition) or organised in one large patch (patchy condition). In the second experiment, we addressed the role of memory for foraging by including a condition that did not require memorising which trees had already been visited by changing their appearance (tree fading). Foraging performance was superior in the patchy as compared to the dispersed condition and benefited from tree-fading. In addition, with further analyses on search behaviour, these results suggest (1) that participants were sensitive to the distribution of resources, (2) that they adapted their search/foraging strategy accordingly, and (3) that foraging behaviour is in line with predictions derived from foraging theories, specifically area-restricted search, developed for large scale spatial foraging. We therefore argue that the visual search task presented shares characteristics and cognitive mechanisms involved in successful large-scale search and foraging behaviour and can therefore be successfully employed to study these mechanisms.

Football spectators are in close and emotional interaction with teams and athletes. The sport team and the spectator are necessary to each other, and any play that has fewer spectators is less revenue. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interactive effect of team identity and play scenarios on football spectator's happiness and involvement. The research conducted by quasi-experimental method in which 120 football spectators responded to the 17-item questionnaire on a five-point Likert scale. To measure the interactive effect of play scenarios, four plays with scenarios (good play, good outcome), (bad play, good outcome), (good play, bad outcome), (bad play, bad outcome) were used. Multivariate analysis of variance used to test the data. Findings showed that the two levels of team identity (high identity, low identity) were different in spectator happiness (f(1,120) = 8.916, P = 0.003) and involvement (f(1,120) = 41.407, P = 0.001). Spectators with high team identity are happier and more engaged than spectators with low team identification when their favorite team wins or plays well. Levels of team identity and outcome of the play can be effective in the level of happiness and involvement of the sport spectators. Creating sport team identity in the spectators can play an essential role in their supportive behaviors of the team.

Cognitive functions such as attention and memory significantly impact performance in daily life and in various professions, including driving vehicles and providing healthcare services. Driven by the importance of understanding attention, early studies have explored the attentional theories and discovered the attentional boost effect (ABE). In experiments studying the ABE, participants are required to engage in two concurrent tasks: (1) memorising a sequence of briefly displayed stimuli (e.g. images or words) for a later memory test and (2) concurrently detecting a simultaneously presented target signal (e.g. pressing a button when seeing a target white square and taking no action for a distractor black square). Surprisingly, attending to a target boosts memory encoding for the concurrently presented information, contrary to the typical expectation of lowered performance owing to dual-task interference. This effect has been documented not only in behavioural experiments across different materials and modalities but also in neuroimaging investigations. This review paper is divided into several main sections, covering the behavioural evidence supporting the ABE, interpretations of the effect from neuroimaging studies, individual differences, consensus and controversies in ABE research as well as prospective future research in this area. The discussion in this review might also offer helpful insights to researchers for translating this phenomenon into real-world practical applications.

The findings on the effect of autistic traits on face recognition performance vary across previous studies. Even though people with higher autistic traits have difficulties identifying faces, the extent to which they have difficulties is unknown. Moreover, even though Autism Spectrum Disorder has sex differences in prevalence and symptoms, a limited number of studies consider sex differences in face recognition. The present study examined the relationship between face-change discrimination sensitivity and autistic traits considering sex differences. The participants included 82 females and 88 males in the general population. Face change blindness task using psychophysical method was used to evaluate the degree of sensitivity to faces in each participant. A psychometric function computed the Point of Subjective Equality (PSE) as the morphing level required to discriminate between faces. The Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) was also administered to participants. The results revealed a negative relationship between the total score of the AQ and the PSE in females but not males. This study suggests that sex differences should be considered when examining the relationship between autistic traits and other-face perception.

This feasibility pilot study examined whether the device type (tablet or smartphone) influences the effectiveness of a brain training program for older adults. Forty-four community-dwelling participants were randomly assigned to the tablet or smartphone group using a stratified block randomisation protocol based on age and sex. Each participant completed 12 supervised training sessions, each lasting approximately 40 min, over 3 to 4 months. Cognitive assessments included general intelligence, attention, memory, and executive function. Two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the effects of the device type and time (pre- vs. post-intervention). Of the 44 participants, 36 completed the program. No main or interaction effects were observed for device type. However, significant improvements over time were found in the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices, Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test, Frontal Assessment Battery, time required to complete Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices, visual cancellation, and Trail-Making Test Part A. These results suggest comparable near-transfer benefits in attention and executive functions across tablets and smartphones. However, neither device produced far-transfer gains in memory measures. These findings underscore the feasibility and potential cost-effectiveness of smartphone-based training interventions for supporting cognitive health in later life.Trial Registration: Registered in the University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trials Registry on October 15, 2020 (UMIN000042123).