Basic Cognitive Processes Research Articles

ORCA: A picture database of object-scene arrangements for cross-cultural and aging research.

In recent years, cross-cultural research on the modulation of basic cognitive processes by culture has intensified - also from an aging perspective. Despite this increased research interest, only a few cross-culturally normed non-verbal stimulus sets are available to support cross-cultural cognitive research in younger and older adults. Here we present the ORCA (Official Rating of Complex Arrangements) picture database, which includes a total of 720 object-scene compositions sorted into 180 quadruples (e.g., two different helmets placed in two different deserts). Each quadruple contains visually and semantically matched pairs of objects and pairs of scenes with varying degrees of semantic fit between objects and scenes. A total of 95 younger and older German and Chinese adults rated every object-scene pair on object familiarity and semantic fit between object and scene. While the ratings were significantly correlated between cultures and age groups, small but significant culture and age differences emerged. Object familiarity was higher for older adults than younger adults and for German participants than for Chinese participants. Semantic fit was rated lower by German older adults and Chinese younger adults as compared to German younger adults and Chinese older adults. Due to the large number of stimuli, our database is particularly well suited for cognitive and neuroscientific research on cross-cultural and age-related differences in perception, attention, and memory.

The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing, Second Edition: Measurement Invariance for Dual Language Learners

The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing, 2nd Edition (CTOPP-2; Wagner et al., 2013) is commonly used in k-12 public schools to assess basic cognitive processing skills foundational for reading achievement. Psychometric support for its use with dual language learners (DLLs), a group representing over 10% of the school-aged population in the United States, is critical. This study tested the metric and scaler invariance of CTOPP-2 scores among school-aged children ( n = 242; 41.3% Spanish-speaking DLL). Results indicate that the CTOPP-2’s three-factor (i.e., Phonological Awareness, Phonological Memory, and Rapid Automatic Naming) measurement structure displays metric and scalar invariance for DLLs. Model fit was improved when the Phonological Awareness and Phonological Memory factors were combined. Implications for future research and the practice of psychoeducational diagnostic assessment with DLLs are discussed.

Self-concept clarity and processing self-relevant information: An event-related potential study

ABSTRACT Self-concept clarity (SCC) refers to the extent to which self-beliefs are clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent, and stable. While there is an abundance of research showing an association between SCC, well-being, and effective self-regulation, there is little knowledge about how SCC relates to basic cognitive processes such as attention and memory. Drawing on the attentional function theory of cognitive control, we hypothesized that low SCC is associated with greater attentional control during a trait assessment task. We also expected that low SCC individuals retrieve self-related information from semantic memory less efficiently compared to high SCC individuals. Fifty participants took part in the ERP study. The P300 and N400 components were measured as electrophysiological indices of attentional and semantic processing. The results showed that individuals with low SCC had larger P300 amplitude in response to positive versus negative words, and marginally larger P300 amplitude in response to positive words compared to high SCC individuals. These results suggest greater attentional involvement in the processing of positive self-related information in people with low SCC. There were no significant differences between groups in N400 amplitude. The results are discussed in the context of the relationship of SCC to self-esteem and self-motive theory.

Science Denial

Abstract: Science denial has adverse consequences at individual and societal levels and even for the future of our planet. The present article aimed to answer the question: What leads people to deny even the strongest evidence and distrust the scientific method? The article provides a narrative review of research on the underpinnings of science denial, with the main focus on climate change denial. Perspectives that are commonly studied separately are integrated. We review key findings on the roles of disinformation and basic cognitive processes, motivated reasoning (focusing on ideology and populism), and emotion regulation in potentially shaping (or not shaping) views on science and scientific topics. We also include research on youth, a group in an important transition phase in life that is the future decision-makers but less commonly focused on in the research field. In sum, we describe how the manifestations of denial can stem from cognitive biases, motivating efforts to find seemingly rational support for desirable conclusions, or attempts to regulate emotions when feeling threatened or powerless. To foster future research agendas and mindful applications of the results, we identify some research gaps (most importantly related to cross-cultural considerations) and examine the unique features or science denial as an object of psychological research. Based on the review, we make recommendations on measurement, science communication, and education.

Effectiveness of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Behavioral and Cognitive Aspects of Executive Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: Despite their high effectiveness, rehabilitation therapies can reduce the number of families with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) visiting clinics due to the number of treatment sessions and the long duration of treatment. The use of technological methods, such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as one of the therapeutic interventions to improve cognitive function in rehabilitation clinics, can help reduce the duration of treatment for these children. Objectives: The present study was carried out to examine the effectiveness of tDCS in behavioral and cognitive aspects of executive functions in children with ASD. Methods: A pretest and posttest design with follow-up were used in this study. The subjects were children with high-functioning ASD aged 8 - 11 years who were selected by the convenience sampling method from occupational therapy clinics in Tehran, Iran. A total of 20 eligible candidates were included in the study according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups (10 subjects in each group). The intervention group received tDCS during 12 sessions of 20 minutes in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex area, with an electrode size of 35 cm2 for 3 weeks (four sessions per week). The control group received common cognitive interventions used in occupational therapy clinics in 12 sessions of 60 minutes (one hour) for 6 weeks (two sessions per week). Follow-up was performed one month after the end of the interventions. The research instruments included the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function and computer-based tests, such as the Tower of London, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and Stroop test. Results: The results demonstrated that tDCS, similar to cognitive rehabilitation, could affect the cognitive functions of the brain, such as executive functions, and several basic cognitive processes, such as inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and mental planning. Conclusions: The findings recommended using tDCS as a new intervention method to improve the cognitive function of individuals with ASD. This is due to the lasting effect of the results of this intervention as a technological instrument with faster results than other clinical interventions.

Cetacean responses to violation of expectation paradigm in a free-swim context.

The investigation of individual responses to unexpected stimuli or outcomes provides insights into basic cognitive processes, such as mental representations, emotional states of surprise, and detections of anomalies. Three experiments using a violation of expectation paradigm were conducted with 12 belugas and 17 bottlenose dolphins in managed care to test two classes of stimuli (humans and objects) in manipulated sequences of familiar and unfamiliar humans (Study 1, trainers and strangers), familiar and unfamiliar objects (Study 2, typical enrichment devices and new objects), and finally objects and humans (Study 3). Gaze durations were assessed for each condition in a given study during free-swim contexts. The results supported previous findings that visual stimuli, regardless of class, were stimulating and intriguing for both belugas and bottlenose dolphins. Belugas were more likely to gaze longer at human and object stimuli and tended to gaze longer at unexpected experiences than control or expected experiences. Bottlenose dolphins showed similar trends except when objects were involved. Individual variability was present for both species with some individuals showing stronger patterns of responses for expected experiences than others. After 2years of intermittent experiments, belugas and bottlenose dolphins in managed care maintained their curiosity about visual stimuli, for which they received no primary reinforcement. Investigating responses to unexpected stimuli with animals in managed care may provide insight into how these animals respond to biologically relevant conditions, such as boat presence, predators, and unfamiliar conspecifics.

SUBSTANTIATION OF MECHANISMS OF SIGNIFICANT POSITIVE INFLUENCE OF CHECKERS/DRAUGHTS TRAINING ACCORDING TO THE AUTHOR'S METHODOLOGY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADOLESCENTS' IMAGINATION AND THINKING

The article is prepared against the background of actualizing the problem of modern scientific and methodological support of youth sports schools specializing in the training of sportsmen in intellectual games. This article is devoted to the issues of reviewing checkers/draughts as a possible means of developing cognitive psychic processes of adolescents, which can be of great importance in the context of planning and organizing the process of psychological training of young checkers/draughts players. The author analyzed in detail the mechanisms of checkers/draughts' influence on the development of cognitive processes of adolescents' imagination and thinking, given that imagination and thinking are among the basic cognitive psychic processes that have their own patterns of development in adolescence. The significant influence of checkers/draughts training on the development of cognitive process of imagination, its complexity and flexibility, on strengthening the creative component of adolescents' imagination, as well as on the development of their thinking, including the analytical nature of inductive thinking and increasing the speed of its process has been experimentally identified and confirmed. Regular checkers/draughts training has a significant positive influence on the development of adolescents' imagination and thinking, which is manifesting through the action of various psychic mechanisms. The statements, results of experimental research and conclusions presented in the article are an integral part of the development of a new curriculum for training of checkers/draughts players for youth sports schools. They can be used in the planning and organization of educational work, the development of new models and technologies of teaching and education in secondary and youth sports schools, in the practice of individual educational work of practical psychologists and teachers with adolescents.

The Theoretical Model of Decision-Making Behaviour Geospatial Analysis Using Data Obtained from the Games of Chess.

The game of chess offers a conducive setting to explore basic cognitive processes, including decision-making. The game exercises analytical cause-and-effect thinking skills regardless of the level of play. Moreover, chess portals provide information on the chess games played and serve as a vast database. The numbers of games played thus have the potential to be analyzed comprehensively, including for purposes other than analyzing chess matches only. The primary objective of this study is to develop a methodology for using information obtained from chess games for geospatial social analysis. The assumption is that the methodology will allow for general geographical variation in personality inference in the future, relying on big data from chess databases. Future large-scale studies of the geographical differentiation of personality traits using the developed methodology may be applicable in a number of ways. The results can be used wherever cross-sectional social analyses are needed in the context of personality traits (decision-making) to better understand their geographical background. In turn, the geographical distribution of these traits is accompanied by a range of important social, educational, health, political and economic implications.

The Supernatural after the Neuro-Turn edited by Pieter F. Craffert, John R. Baker, Michael J. Winkelman

In the book chapter "Neurocognitive processes and supernatural beliefs," Andrew Newberg and David Yaden describe a basic cognitive process they call the "binary process." According to their model, this should contribute to the development of supernatural beliefs in addition to other processes. They understand this to be a general structuring process that organizes objects and abstract ideas into into dyads; that is, into relations of two, e.g., good and bad, happy and sad, natural and supernatural, right and wrong. The latter dyad points precisely to a problem I have with large parts of the book. The texts of the authors involved—all of whom are men—are almost universally characterized by such a binary thought structure. One of the editors, Pieter Craffert, a neuroanthropologist who teaches in South Africa, puts it succinctly in Chapter, “The supernatural: A range of neurocultural phenomena,” when he writes:
 If transcendental theorists are correct, there is not only a whole range of entities and phenomena with powerful influences on the world that beg explanation, but the scientific enterprise as we know it needs radical transformation. If non-transcendental theorists are correct, their theories pose a challenge to nearly all religions as well as local and cultural explanations of the phenomena. (p. 24)
 All authors of the book represent non-transcendental positions and attribute the category of the supernatural to “this-worldly” causes. It is not clear to me whether Craffert is aware that he leaves the area of scientific argumentation with the statement quoted above. With this escalation, there is only an either-or: Either they or we are right. It does not seem to occur to the authors that many of the non-transcendental explanations for supernatural interpretations of events and the arising of corresponding beliefs may be plausible and, in many cases, sufficient, but still do not capture the full picture. At least a more modest and reflective attitude that allows for this possibility is not reflected in the texts—with few exceptions.

Biased confabulation in risky choice

When people make risky decisions based on past experience, they must rely on memory. The nature of the memory representations that support these decisions is not yet well understood. A key question concerns the extent to which people recall specific past episodes or whether they have learned a more abstract rule from their past experience. To address this question, we examined the precision of the memories used in risky decisions-from-experience. In three pre-registered experiments, we presented people with risky options, where the outcomes were drawn from continuous ranges (e.g., 100–190 or 500–590), and then assessed their memories for the outcomes experienced. In two preferential tasks, people were more risk seeking for high-value than low-value options, choosing as though they overweighted the outcomes from more extreme ranges. Moreover, in two preferential tasks and a parallel evaluation task, people were very poor at recalling the exact outcomes encountered, but rather confabulated outcomes that were consistent with the outcomes they had seen and were biased towards the more extreme ranges encountered. This common pattern suggests that the observed decision bias in the preferential task reflects a basic cognitive process to overweight extreme outcomes in memory. These results highlight the importance of the edges of the distribution in providing the encoding context for memory recall. They also suggest that episodic memory influences decision-making through gist memory and not through direct recall of specific instances.

Transformative learning - a valuable resource for practice independent thinking of formables

This article addresses transformative learning as a valuable resource for practicing the type of independent thinking of trainees in academia. In this context, a series of arguments are presented that denote the value and impact of transformative learning on the development of independent thinking. The epistemological basis of the concept of independent thinking is determined and illustrated, with a brief indication of the contribution of different researchers regarding the studied phenomenon. The significance of basic cognitive operations and, implicitly, of metacognition in the manifestation of independent thinking and obtaining progress in the process of going through the phases of transformative learning is highlighted

The association between non-symbolic number comparison and mathematical abilities depends on fluency.

Numerous studies have explored the correlation between non-symbolic number comparison and mathematical abilities in children, but the results have been inconsistent. The underlying mental processing featuring fluency may affect the correlation. The current study tested the fluency hypothesis that non-symbolic number comparison is associated with mathematical fluency in the development of mathematical ability. Non-symbolic number comparison, arithmetic computation, mathematical reasoning, non-symbolic number estimation, symbolic number comparison, and a series of basic cognitive processing tasks, including mental rotation, non-verbal matrix reasoning, and choice reaction time, were administered to 1072 first- to fourth-grade children. The results show that non-symbolic number comparison (measured via numerosity comparison) was the only independent predictor of arithmetic computation in higher grades, even after controlled for age, gender, basic cognitive processing, non-symbolic number estimation (measured via numerosity estimation), and symbolic number comparison (measured via digit comparison). However, it did not correlate with mathematical reasoning in any grade. These findings support the fluency hypothesis for developmental correlation between non-symbolic number comparison and mathematical abilities. That is, non-symbolic number comparison correlates with mathematical ability featuring fluency.

Changes during the sleep onset process on EEG activity and the components of attention.

The sleep onset process (SOP) happens every time a person falls asleep, regardless of the time of day or if they are doing an activity. Basic cognitive processes, such as attention, differ between wakefulness and sleep. The components of attention - tonic alertness, phasic alertness, selective, and sustained attention - are known to decrease during sleep, however they have not been analyzed during the sleep onset process. This study analyses the state of three of the four components of attention during the sleep onset process through electroencephalographic (EEG) activity and task performance in young people. Nine undergraduate students (18.54±1.24 years old) underwent a control session which was compared to the average of four sleep-inducing sessions. During all sessions, the EEG activity of the subjects was recorded to assess the effect of the SOP on electroencephalographic activity while they answered a continuous performance task (CPT) to assess the effect of the SOP on the components of attention. Comparisons of the EEG recordings of the control and the sleep inducing sessions demonstrated that there is lower activity in fast beta, as well as a higher theta and delta activity right before the sleep onset. There was a decrease in tonic alertness, phasic alertness, and selective attention. This study shows that there is an increase in EEG slow activity and a decrease in fast activity, as well as in attentional capacity during the SOP. This decrease can become a safety hazard since it could happen while performing daily activities.

The ABCD Study: Brain Heterogeneity in Intelligence During a Neurodevelopmental Transition Stage.

A complex curvilinear relationship exists between intelligence and age during the neurodevelopment of cortical thickness. To parse out a more fine-grained relationship between intelligence and cortical thickness and surface area, we used a large-scale data set focusing on a critical transition juncture in neurodevelopment in preadolescence. Cortical thickness was derived from T1-weighted structural magnetic resonance images of a large sample of 9- and 11-year-old children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. The NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery composite scores, which included fluid, crystallized, and total scores, were used to assess intelligence. Using a double generalized linear model, we assessed the independent association between the mean and dispersion of cortical thickness/surface area and intelligence. Higher intelligence in preadolescents was associated with higher mean cortical thickness in orbitofrontal and primary sensory cortices but with lower thickness in the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortex and particularly in the rostral anterior cingulate. The rostral anterior cingulate findings were particularly evident across all subscales of intelligence. Higher intelligence was also associated with greater interindividual similarity in the rostral cingulate. Intelligence during this key transition juncture in preadolescence appears to reflect a dissociation between the cortical development of basic cognitive processes and higher-order executive and motivational processes.

A Decision Support Model for Predicting Avoidable Re-Hospitalization of Breast Cancer Patients in Kenyatta National Hospital

This study aimed to develop a clinical Decision Support Model (DSM) which is software that provides physicians and other healthcare stakeholders with patient-specific assessments and recommendation in aiding clinical decision-making while discharging Breast cancer patient since the diagnostics and discharge problem is often overwhelming for a clinician to process at the point of care or in urgent situations. The model incorporates Breast cancer patient-specific data that are well-structured having been attained from a prestudy’s administered questionnaires and current evidence-based guidelines. Obtained dataset of the prestudy’s questionnaires is processed via data mining techniques to generate an optimal clinical decision tree classifier model which serves physicians in enhancing their decision-making process while discharging a breast cancer patient on basic cognitive processes involved in medical thinking hence new, better-formed, and superior outcomes. The model also improves the quality of assessments by constructing predictive discharging models from code attributes enabling timely detection of deterioration in the quality of health of a breast cancer patient upon discharge. The outcome of implementing this study is a decision support model that bridges the gap occasioned by less informed clinical Breast cancer discharge that is based merely on experts’ opinions which is insufficiently reinforced for better treatment outcomes. The reinforced discharge decision for better treatment outcomes is through timely deployment of the decision support model to work hand in hand with the expertise in deriving an integrative discharge decision and has been an agreed strategy to eliminate the foreseeable deteriorating quality of health for a discharged breast cancer patients and surging rates of mortality blamed on mistrusted discharge decisions. In this paper, we will discuss breast cancer clinical knowledge, data mining techniques, the classifying model accuracy, and the Python web-based decision support model that predicts avoidable re-hospitalization of a breast cancer patient through an informed clinical discharging support model.

Increased gaze cueing of attention during COVID-19 lockdown

SummaryAffiliation with others is a basic human need. The lockdown implemented for counteracting the COVID-19 pandemic has determined an unprecedented situation of social deprivation, forcing individuals to dramatically reduce face-to-face interactions. This, in turn, has caused relevant consequences on psychological well-being. However, the impact of lockdown-related social isolation on basic cognitive processes is still largely unknown. Here, we focus on social attention and address gaze cueing, namely the ability to shift attention in response to the gaze of others. This is a hard-wired cognitive mechanism critically supporting the establishment of social interactions and pervasive relationships among individuals. Our results show a stronger gaze-cueing effect during, rather than after, the lockdown, whose magnitude was positively correlated with social isolation distress. These findings indicate that, in a condition of prolonged social deprivation, orienting of attention may be shaped by hypersensitivity to social cues, likely due to the strive to reconnect with others.

Особенности развития семантической стороны речи младших школьников с умственной отсталостью

The article discusses the problem of education of children with disabilities, which is relevant today due to the objective difficulties of social functioning and the child's entry into society. It is known that the basis of a person's speech organization is vocabulary, the shortcomings of which significantly complicate the process of social adaptation. The features of the intellectual and speech development of students with mental retardation limit the ability of these children to understand the speech of others, to adequately express their own thoughts and lead to an inferiority of social and everyday orientation. Consequently, one of the urgent areas of work with children with mental retardation should be the formation and development of vocabulary, characterized by sufficiency and usefulness, in terms of the volume of vocabulary, semantics and syntagmatic characteristics. The solution of this practical problem will allow primary schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities to expand their vocabulary, to form their basic cognitive processes, in the structure of which speech occupies one of the basic positions. To study the level of formation of the semantic side of speech of children with intellectual underdevelopment at the present stage, we conducted a psychological and pedagogical study, in which 1376 schoolchildren from Kaluga and Obninsk, Kaluga region, took part. The diagnostic results made it possible to reveal the fact that with mental retardation, operations and levels of speech utterance generation (semantic, linguistic, sensorimotor levels) are impaired to varying degrees. The most underdeveloped are highly organized, complex levels (semantic, linguistic), requiring a high degree of formation of the operations of analysis, synthesis, generalization, the sensorimotor level of speech in these children suffers in different ways. The study showed that the symptomatology and mechanism of speech disorders in these children are determined not only by the presence of a general underdevelopment of the cerebral systems, which causes systemic speech impairment, but also local pathology on the part of systems directly related to speech, which further complicates the picture of speech impairments in mentally retarded children.

Training with an auditory perceptual learning game transfers to speech in competition

Understanding speech in the presence of acoustical competition is a major complaint of those with hearing difficulties. Here, a novel perceptual learning game was tested for its effectiveness in reducing difficulties with hearing speech in competition. The game was designed to train a mixture of auditory processing skills thought to underlie speech in competition, such as spectral-temporal processing, sound localization, and auditory working memory. Training on these skills occurred both in quiet and in competition with noise. Thirty college-aged participants without any known hearing difficulties were assigned either to this mixed-training condition or an active control consisting of frequency discrimination training within the same gamified setting. To assess training effectiveness, tests of speech in competition (primary outcome), as well as basic supra-threshold auditory processing and cognitive processing abilities (secondary outcomes) were administered before and after training. Results suggest modest improvements on speech in competition tests in the mixed-training compared to the frequency-discrimination control condition (Cohen’s d = 0.68). While the sample is small, and in normally hearing individuals, these data suggest promise of future study in populations with hearing difficulties.

School (Un)readiness of Children Born Very Prematurely and Its Relation to the Attentional System: Evidence from the Posner Cuing Paradigm Study

ABSTRACT Research Findings: For early prevention of academic difficulties, it is crucial to identify developmental trajectories of preterm children with focus on the efficiency of basic cognitive processes. Thus, the aim of this study was to characterize school readiness of children born before 32 weeks of gestation and to investigate its potential relationship with the efficiency of attentional system. Thirty-four children born very prematurely, and 37 full-term children took part in the two-stage study. Both groups were recruited from the same urban area and children were of Polish nationality. They were tested twice: at 5th year of age (the efficiency of attentional system) and at 6th year of age (school readiness). The analyses revealed that at the age of 5 children born very prematurely exhibit less efficient attentional alerting and orienting. Further, the efficiency of attentional orienting of very preterm children was found to be a significant predictor of their auditory, language and visuo-spatial functions, and their socio-emotional development. Whereas the efficiency of the attentional orienting together with the executive aspect of attentional system predicted fine motor skills in this cohort. Practice or Policy: School readiness of very preterm children can be explained by these children’s efficiency of orienting and executive attentional mechanisms. Early interventions to improve attentional capabilities may strengthen school skills and positivelyimpact academic achievements of very preterm children.

Can We "Brain-Train" Emotional Intelligence? A Narrative Review on the Features and Approaches Used in Ability EI Training Studies.

Recent studies had demonstrated that specific emotional intelligence (EI) abilities (as measured using the MSCEIT) were related to better performance on cognitive tasks that involved emotional information but not on their non-emotional counterparts. These findings suggest that cognitive control and other executive functioning processes (e.g., working memory) contribute to EI abilities. A well-functioning EI ability is crucial for a number of everyday activities and life outcomes. However, the evidence for training ability EI remains vague as to how these improvements occur. The purpose of this narrative review was to synthesize findings from past EI training research, specifically focusing on their methodology. This was to identify key aspects of the interventions used, to determine the prototypical features between them, as well as to propose a compelling research agenda for future EI training studies. Based on the features found in these studies, we identified two possible approaches in which EI improvements occurred. The first approach was through increasing emotional knowledge and related competencies through teaching and practice. These features were found in the majority of training interventions using a workshop-style training format, reflections, role-plays, and practice with other participants. The second approach used brain-training principles to improve basic cognitive processes, such as executive control or emotional inhibition. Using a cognitive training approach to EI training can provide several advantages, such as allowing researchers to examine EI improvements using the theories of (1) transfer; (2) plasticity; and (3) process-specific changes.