Attention Skills Research Articles

The effects of cognitive training on driving performance.

Driving is a complex task necessitating an intricate interplay of sensory, motor, and cognitive abilities. Extensive research has underscored the role of neurocognitive functions, including attention, memory, executive functions, and visuospatial skills, in driving safety and performance. Despite evidence suggesting cognitive training's potential in enhancing driving abilities, comprehensive cognitive training's impact on driving performance in young adult drivers remains unexplored. Our study aimed to fill this gap by implementing an intensive, 8-week, multidomain computerized cognitive training program and assessing its transfer effects on the driving performance of young adult drivers, using a high-fidelity simulator. The study employed a randomized controlled trial design, with passive control group. The mixed-design analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a notable interaction between the time of testing and the respective participant groups concerning driving performance. Post hoc analyses showed that, compared to the control group, participants undergoing cognitive training demonstrated significantly fewer traffic infractions in the post-training evaluation. These findings suggest that cognitive training could be a useful tool for enhancing driving safety and performance in young adult drivers. Further research should aim to address the limitations posed by the absence of an active control group.

Metalinguistic awareness in L2 Italian children with a migrant background: a trade-off between cognitive advantages and syntactic vulnerabilities

Metalinguistic awareness is a domain where bilingual advantages have been reported, with bilinguals outperforming monolinguals in tasks that require separating syntactic form from semantic content, demonstrating higher selective attention, interference suppression, and inhibition skills (Adesope et al., 2010). However, these cognitive advantages may be counterbalanced by weaknesses in specific linguistic domains, such as morphosyntactic processing. This study investigates the presence of such trade-offs in a Sentence-Judgment Task adapted fromBialystok (1986)in which monolinguals and bilinguals are compared in their ability to judge syntactically well-formed and ungrammatical utterances, regardless of their meaning.We assessed 80 school-aged children, including 36 Italian monolinguals and 44 bilinguals with Italian as a second language, using a task that involved 48 sentences varying in syntactic accuracy and semantic congruency across four conditions. Results from mixed-effects logistic regressions indicated that while both groups performed similarly when judging grammatical and semantically plausible sentences, bilinguals showed superior skills in evaluating syntactically correct but semantically anomalous sentences. Conversely, they underperformed in detecting grammatically incorrect but semantically plausible sentences, highlighting weaker morphosyntactic processing. These findings thussupportthe trade-off hypothesis (Leivada et al., 2023), revealing that while bilinguals display cognitive advantages in metalinguistic awareness, they also may face challenges in linguistic domains. Importantly, this study addressed bilingual children with a migrant backgrounds, a population less studied and potentially more vulnerable, ultimately underscoring the importance of maintaining the home language and providing rich, high-quality input to enhance both their cognitive and linguistic development.

Investigating Sensitivity to Auditory Cognition in Listening Effort Assessments: A Simultaneous EEG and Pupillometry Study.

It is still not fully explained what kind of cognitive sources the methods used in the assessment of listening effort are more sensitive to and how these measurement results are related to each other. The aim of the study is to ascertain which neural resources crucial for listening effort are most sensitive to objective measurement methods using differently degraded speech stimuli. A total of 49 individuals between the ages of 19 and 34 with normal hearing participated in the study. In the first stage, simultaneous pupillometry, electroencephalogram (EEG), and single-task paradigm reaction time (RT) measurements were made during the challenging listening and repetition task with noise-vocoded speech. Two speech reception thresholds (SRT) (50% and 80%) for two vocoding conditions (16 and 6 channels) were collected, resulting in 4 conditions. In the second stage, the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and the test of attention in listening (TAIL) were applied. Stepwise linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the predictors of listening effort measurements. A significant difference was found between 6 and 16 channel stimuli in both pupil dilation change and EEG alpha band power change. In the hardest listening condition, whereas RAVLT scores are significant predictors of pupil dilation change, TAIL scores are significant predictors of EEG alpha power. As the stimulus difficulty decreased, the factors that predicted both EEG and pupillometry results decreased. In the single-task paradigm, a significant regression model could not be obtained at all four difficulty levels. As a result of the study, it was found that the pupil dilation change was more sensitive to auditory memory skills and the EEG alpha power change was more sensitive to auditory attention skills. To our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the sensitivity of different listening effort measurement methods to auditory cognitive skills.

Directionality and Individual Differences in Consecutive Interpreting

This study aims to examine the students’ consecutive interpreting in English and Turkish. This study was carried out with 32 senior students who are native Turkish speakers at the Department of English Translation and Interpreting. The students were required to render the speeches chosen from the EU Speech Repository, a speech bank for interpreting studies, in the En-Tr and Tr-En directions, respectively. The students were audio-recorded. In addition, students’ working memory (WM) capacities were determined by conducting digit span and word span tests, and attention levels were determined by conducting monolingual and bilingual Stroop test. The data was assessed with the overall assessment score of consecutive interpreting performance, total duration, pauses, linguistic errors, participants’ individual differences (WM and attention level), and directionality. The recordings were transcribed and assessed by two experts. A detailed error analysis was performed using MAXQDA Analytics Pro Academic. Students with higher WM levels also have better performance in the En-Tr direction, yet this is not observed in the Tr-En. This can be explained by the fact that students have more difficulty and spend more time interpreting to L2 due to their language proficiency in translation (such as lack of vocabulary, difficulties related to structure, etc.). There was no significant relationship between students' attention skills and interpreting performance. Differences were also observed in the errors and strategies used by students depending on directionality. It is expected that this study will contribute to understanding the consecutive interpreting process, revealing the main difficulties, and thereby contributing to interpreter training.

Pre- and Post-Operative Cognitive Assessment in Patients Undergoing Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement: Insights from the PEARL Project

Background: Aortic valve stenosis (AVS) is a common valvular heart disease affecting millions of people worldwide. It leads to significant neurocognitive and neuropsychological impairments, impacting patients’ quality of life. Objective: The objective of this article is to identify and discuss the potential neurocognitive effects on patients with aortic stenosis before and after undergoing surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR). Method: Our study involved the assessment of 64 patients undergoing aortic valve replacement (SAVR) using a neurocognitive evaluation comprising a battery of 11 different cognitive tests. These tests were designed to analyze the patients’ overall cognitive functioning, executive abilities, short- and long-term memory, and attentional performance. The tests were administered to patients before the aortic valve surgery (T0) and after the surgery (T1). From a statistical perspective, numerical variables are presented as means (±standard deviation) and medians (IQR), while categorical variables are presented as counts and percentages. Normality was assessed using the Shapiro–Wilk test. T0 and T1 scores were compared with the Wilcoxon signed rank test, with p < 0.05 considered significant. Analyses were performed using SAS version 9.4. Results: Conducted as part of a fully financed Italian Ministry of Health project (RF-2016-02361069), the study found that most patients showed normal cognitive functioning at baseline. Cognitive assessments showed that executive functions, attention, language, and semantic knowledge were within the normal range for the majority of participants. After SAVR, cognitive outcomes remained stable or improved, particularly in executive functions and language. Notably, verbal episodic memory demonstrated significant improvement, with the percentage of patients scoring within the normal range on the BSRT increasing from 73.4% at T0 to 92.2% at T1 (p < 0.0001). However, visuospatial and visuoconstructive abilities showed stability or slight decline, while attentional skills remained relatively stable. The Clock Drawing Test indicated the maintenance of cognitive functions. Conclusions: The findings of our study indicate a global stability in cognitive status among patients after undergoing SAVR, with significant improvement noted in verbal episodic memory. While other cognitive domains did not demonstrate statistically significant changes, these insights are valuable for understanding the cognitive effects of SAVR and can guide future research and clinical practice in selecting the most effective surgical and rehabilitative options for patients. Monitoring cognitive outcomes in patients undergoing aortic valve replacement surgery remains crucial.

Teachers’ Motivational Skills In Primary Reading

Teachers’ motivational skills in primary reading are essential because they inspire primary learners, foster a love for learning, and contribute to academic success, laying the foundation for lifelong literacy and educational achievement. In this context, this study aimed to determine the level of teachers’ motivational skills at the primary level. The study was tested on 86 primary school teachers using a self-made questionnaire that passed stringent validity and reliability tests. The data were statistically analyzed using the mean, t-test, and analysis of variance. The results revealed that the level of teachers’ motivational skills in attention, confidence, and satisfaction was very high, while the areas of relevance were high. The level of teachers’ motivation skills, when grouped according to the variables above, was lowest in terms of relevance. Further, no significant differences emerged in teachers’ motivational skills when grouped and compared by their profile variables. Notably, the lower motivation in the relevance dimension prompts inquiry into underlying factors affecting its perception. It calls for tailored professional development interventions to address these issues, potentially leading to more effective teaching practices and learner outcomes. Keywords: Teachers’ Motivational Skills, Primary Learners, Education, Valencia, Negros Oriental.

A Component of Mindfulness: Attention

The use of mindfulness-based interventions in many areas is increasing day by day. Having knowledge of the components of mindfulness is also important to know the mechanisms in which mindfulness-based interventions are effective. This study has aimed to examine potential attentional mechanisms of mindfulness. In this context, mindfulness has been defined and attention and attention models have been briefly discussed in the study. Then, the relationship between mindfulness and attention has been examined, and previous research findings examining mindfulness and attention are included. The studies on attention and mindfulness seem to have more inconsistent results when conducted with adults, whereas the studies in adolescents and children seem to have more consistent results revealing that mindfulness-based interventions improve the attentional skills of the youth. Knowing the relationship between mindfulness and attention will aid to maximize the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions and it will be a crucial step in identifying the people that might benefit from mindfulness-based interventions

Catatonia and neurocognitive disorder in the context of schizophrenia spectrum disorders

Background. Currently, researchers are aiming to establish the relationship between neurocognitive disorder and other clinical manifestations of endogenous diseases and functional indicators of the patient’s adaptation to social life. According to some data, the development of cognitive disorders is associated with the severity of catatonic disorders in the clinical picture of various diseases, in particular the presence of catatonic symptoms determines the worst indicators of cognitive functioning in the case of schizophrenia.The aim. To study the clinical and psychopathological features of catatonic syndrome in connection with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, as well as its connection with neurocognitive disorder manifestations among patients with endogenous disorders.Methods. From September 2022 to March 2024, we conducted a prospective, multicenter study of patients (n = 69) suffering from paroxysmal schizophrenia with primary catatonic symptoms in the structure of attacks. Mental status, the severity of catatonic symptoms using Bush – Francis Catatonia Rating Scale, neurocognitive profile using a number of validated scales (Montreal Cognitive Scale, Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia, Frontal Assessment Battery) were assessed.Results. Neurocognitive disorder was revealed in all cases studied. It has been noted that, depending on the presence/absence of affective symptoms, various domains of the neurocognitive profile are affected. Thus, in patients without severe affective symptoms, auditory and verbal memory, attention, processing speed, and motor skills are impaired. In patients with pronounced affective disorders, processing speed, motor skills, and problem-solving behavior are affected.Conclusion. Based on the results of processing the material, it was revealed that the most pronounced neurocognitive disorders were found in case of the manifestation of paroxysmal paranoid schizophrenia in male patients with a relatively early onset of the disease and hypokinetic catatonic disorders. In the future, we are planning to compare these results with the results of control group of patients with endogenous diseases and without catatonia.

An Examination of the Attention and Psychological Skill Levels of Combat Athletes

An Examination of the Attention and Psychological Skill Levels of Combat Athletes

Implementation and Evaluations of Visual Scaffolding to Support Attentional Management Training

One approach to training is using scaffolding to assist the novice trainee in performing tasks while they develop fundamental skills. This paper describes the implementation and testing of visual scaffolding to support training of attentional management skills. The training tool was developed specifically for sensor operators of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to learn attentional skills associated with managing the competing demands of UAS operational tasks. A key part of the training included attentional scaffolding—visual highlighting that was used to guide the trainee’s attention. Three different evaluations were conducted to assess performance while leveraging scaffolding: Two were performed with U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) sensor operators, and one was performed in a human-in-the-loop (HITL) study. In this paper, we detail the Navy and USCG studies, summarize the HITL study, and synthesize findings across the evaluations.

Dancing Well with Mindfulness

ABSTRACT Mindfulness has recently flooded the health and wellness social media landscape. With roots in Buddhism, mindfulness is a skill of attention involving focusing on the present moment with curiosity and nonjudgment. Mindfulness practices, including meditation, have many benefits for busy young dance students, who often face a unique combination of stresses around social comparison, self-doubt, body image issues, performance anxiety, and increasingly overscheduled lifestyles. Many may lack an understanding of mindfulness or misperceive its components. Persistent stigmas around mental health may also keep students from openly experimenting with mindfulness practices. The purpose of this article is to concisely define mindfulness for dance students, its potential benefits, and considerations for how mindful practices, particularly meditation, can be integrated into dance students’ lives.

Effect of polyphenols on inflammation related to cognitive function: a systematic review and meta-analysis of human randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND: The decline of cognitive function could in part be caused by an increase in inflammation. Polyphenols have been widely investigated due to their anti-inflammatory property which may promote therapeutic effects on the brain and cognitive performance. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of polyphenols interventions on inflammation related to cognitive function in humans. METHODS: Three electronic databases: PubMed/Medline, Web of Science and PsycINFO were systematically searched until 30th May 2024 to find the study that have investigated the effect of polyphenols on both inflammatory response and cognitive function in human randomized controlled trials. The outcomes were pooled and calculated using inverse variance as mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for the inflammatory markers and standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% CI for cognitive domains. RESULTS: Ten studies (451 participants, aged 20–81 years) assessed inflammatory markers and cognitive standardized tests responding to polyphenols interventions were included in this review and meta-analysis. Supplementation with polyphenols demonstrated a significant improvement of verbal memory (SMD: 0.33, 95% CI: 0.12 to 0.54, P = 0.002), executive function (SMD: 0.38, 95% CI: 0.03 to 0.72, P = 0.03) and attenuation in blood interleukin-6 (MD: – 1.23 pg/ml, 95% CI: –2.34, to –0.12, P = 0.03). No significant differences were observed in working memory (SMD: 0.13, 95% CI: –0.18 to 0.44, P = 0.42), attention (SMD: –0.19, 95% CI: –0.84 to 0.46, P = 0.57), and psychomotor skill (SMD: 0.09, 95% CI: –0.32 to 0.50, P = 0.66) as well as in c-reactive protein (MD: –0.10 mg/l, 95% CI: –0.28 to 0.09, P = 0.30), and tumor necrosis factor-α (MD: 0.11 pg/ml, 95% CI: –1.25 to 1.47, P = 0.87). CONCLUSION: Polyphenols supplementation decreases blood IL-6 as well as enhances verbal memory and executive function. Regular polyphenols consumption might prevent inflammation related to cognitive decline.

The Impact of Horse-Assisted Therapy on Socio-Emotional Behaviors in Children with Autism

Animal-assisted therapy for children with autism (ASD) is a form of complementary therapy, integrating methods from various other types of therapy. AAT, or animal-assisted therapy, is a series of interventions that are based on the behavioral traits of animals, especially dogs and horses, which are the most common in this context. These interventions can be integrated into conventional treatments such as behavioral therapy, play therapy, music therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and art therapy, depending on the individual needs of patients. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of an already existing Equine Assisted Therapy (EAT) program on social communication skills, executive functions and motor skills in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. The research adopted an observational design to analyze how often certain behaviors occur in the presence or absence of horses in a group intervention program. This research included 16 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), aged between 9 and 14 years (12 boys and 4 girls), who were selected from an School Center for Inclusive Education. The conclusions drawn from our results showed that the horse-assisted therapy, implemented in our experiment, recorded a notable improvement in all the behavioral parameters analyzed. Improvements were observed in Attention in Activity (21.2%), Communication (18.3%) and Compliance (9.1%) during activities, Physical Movements, with a difference of 34.1%, Affective State (23.33%), Visual Control (45%), Functional Skills and Response to Command (46.66%), Social Attention (33.5%) and Dynamic Motor Skills (35.55%) during activities. And the biggest difference was observed in Vocalizations, with a difference of 53%. Our results strongly support the fact that complementary therapy of autism spectrum disorders with the help of horses is an effective form of intervention, which can bring substantial improvements in therapeutic outcomes.

Use of Virtual Reality in School-Aged Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder: A Novel Approach.

Virtual reality (VR) applications in paediatric rehabilitation are recent but promising. This brief report describes a VR rehabilitation program for a small sample of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). The program focused explicitly on executive functions, a key area of concern for this population. It was conducted over 11 weeks in the CARE Lab. This lab was designed with appropriate structural characteristics and sophisticated technology to provide a rehabilitative setting with recreational and semi-immersive features. Before and after the VR training, the children were evaluated in terms of visual attention, inhibition, planning abilities, and visual-motor coordination. The rehabilitation programs were customised according to the clinical needs and the functional profile of each patient, proposing different games with variable complexity levels. These preliminary results showed a global and clinically significant change in executive functions, especially visual attention and inhibition skills. These findings suggest interesting implications for clinical practice, providing new information for professionals regarding the application of VR in the field of paediatric rehabilitation.

Do auditory brainstem implants favor the development of sensory integration and cognitive functions?

Information about the development of cognitive skills and the effect of sensory integration in children using auditory brainstem implants (ABIs) is still limited. This study primarily aims to investigate the relationship between sensory processing skills and attention and memory abilities in children with ABI, and secondarily aims to examine the effects of implant duration on sensory processing and cognitive skills in these children. The study included 25 children between the ages of 6 and 10 years (mean age: 14 girls and 11 boys) with inner ear and/or auditory nerve anomalies using auditory brainstem implants. Visual-Aural Digit Span Test B, Marking Test, Dunn Sensory Profile Questionnaire were applied to all children. The sensory processing skills of children are statistically significant and positive, and moderately related to their cognitive skills. As the duration of implant use increases, better attention and memory performances have been observed (p<.05). The study demonstrated the positive impact of sensory processing on the development of memory and attention skills in children with ABI. It will contribute to evaluating the effectiveness of attention, memory, and sensory integration skills, and aiding in the development of more effective educational strategies for these children.

EDUCATION OF CODE, PROBLEM SOLVING, ALGORITHMICAL THINKING IN PRIMARY CLASS PUPILS

In this article, early learning classically includes reading, writing, and mathematics. The importance of addition in "counting" as a basic skill that every child should learn. The goal is development. Computational thinking does not come naturally and requires training and guidance. This study was conducted to determine the effects of coding education on elementary school pupils. It has a positive effect on elementary school pupils' attention, problem solving, and algorithmic thinking skills. In particular, the ideas of Turkish scientists about the concepts of coding education in primary grades should first be reflected in human thinking. The coding training used in this study contributed to the development of basic algorithmic skills in pupils, such as "when faced with any problem, they can easily write an algorithm for that problem or perform an algorithmic procedure when performing any task." happy In our country, the attention paid to elementary school textbooks and the impact of changes in them on the educational process is known to a significant extent. Topics in primary school textbooks are becoming more and more complex. As a result, the school assigns a more responsible task to primary school teachers.

Measuring the velocity of spatio-temporal attention waves

A sequence of visual or auditory events may be perceived as a single continuing sequence or as two or more separate sequences occurring in parallel. The latter percept occurs when the perceived distance between events is large, and the timing is fast, and is referred to as “streaming.” Several researchers have previously argued that streaming indicates a velocity constraint on the movement of attention. To test this hypothesis the present experiment measured tradeoffs between distance and timing for the onset or loss of streaming in a rectangular pattern of displayed lights. Two linear tradeoffs were found, one corresponding to the loss of streaming when the light pattern was slowed down, and one corresponding to the onset of streaming when the light pattern was sped up. The slopes of these linear relations are interpreted as integer multiples of the velocity of spatio-temporal attention waves. A process model postulates that participants adjust the wavelength of their spatio-temporal attentional traveling wave to match the height of the displayed rectangle. Streaming is assumed to occur when peaks in the attentional traveling wave coincide with the onsets of lights at the top and bottom of the displayed rectangle. Additional supporting evidence for temporal and spatial attention waves is reviewed. This model may be useful for understanding some forms of attentional deficits as well as expert attentional skills arising in musical performance, sports, meditation, and other tasks.

Effect of reciprocal teaching on comprehension, attention, rapid naming and working memory

This study aims to evaluate word callers attending the fourth grade of primary school in terms of rapid naming, verbal working memory, and attention skills, and to examine the effect of the reciprocal teaching approach on the development of word callers' reading comprehension skills. The study group consisted of 25 word callers and 21 independent readers. Fourth-grade students who are at the independent level in word recognition skills and at the level of frustration in reading comprehension skills are defined as word callers. On the other hand, students who are at the independent level in both word recognition and reading comprehension skills are defined as independent readers. According to the findings, difficulties in rapid naming, verbal working memory and attention skills are common characteristics of word callers. On the other hand, with the reciprocal teaching approach applied for 12 weeks, significant improvements were achieved in the reading comprehension skills of word callers. In this direction, it can be interpreted that the reciprocal teaching approach eliminated the difficulties experienced by word callers.

From Play to Concentration: The Effect of Digital Educational Games on Preschool Children’s Attention Skills

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of a digital educational game application on the attention skills of 5-6-year-old children. The research, planned with a quasi-experimental design and pre-test post-test control groups, measured children's attention skills using the ‘Concentration Test for Five-Year-Old Children’ (Frankfurter Test Für Funjahrige Konzentration–FTF-K). The study used the MentalUp application, a digital educational game designed to improve the attention skills of preschool children. Sixteen different types of mini-games supporting 13 different attention skills were included in the study. A total of 40 children aged 5-6 years were divided into two groups based on gender. The preschool children were instructed to complete the application in a quiet classroom environment following a pre-post-test design. The results indicated that the digital educational game application significantly improved the children's attention skills. While there was no significant change from pre- to post-test scores for the control group, the attention skills of the children in the experimental group were positively affected. The findings extend the current knowledge on attention skills in preschool children, highlighting the necessity of incorporating digital educational games into classroom practices to support attention skills at an early age. This study also provides valid evidence for the dissemination of digital educational games among preschool children.

Perceived Cognitive Function and Glycemic Variability: Baseline Results From a Cognitive Rehabilitation Intervention.

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between glucose variability, diabetes self-management, and cognitive function in participants enrolled in a cognitive rehabilitation intervention for people with type 2 diabetes. Baseline data from the Memory, Attention, and Problem-Solving Skills for Diabetes randomized controlled trial (n = 95; mean age 65.6 years, SD 5.99; 59.3% female; 59% non-Hispanic White) were analyzed and included scores from the PROMIS Cognitive Function version 2, a measure of perceived cognitive function; glucose variability measurements from continuous glucose monitors; and scores on the Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities Survey. Participants had higher levels of perceived cognitive dysfunction than the US average. Lower PROMIS scores were associated with higher levels of glucose variability. Better perceived cognitive health was related to better diabetes self-management. Glucose variability, measured by the coefficient of variation, was a significant predictor of perceived cognitive function. Perceived cognitive function was associated with diabetes self-management and glucose variability. Understanding this association can support the development of interventions to mitigate effects associated with glucose variability and changes in cognitive function. Including measurements of perceived cognitive function in assessments has the potential to alert health care providers about the need for additional support in diabetes management and the possibility of cognitive impairment that may need further objective assessment.