Basic Cognitive Skills Research Articles

Exploring the influence of basic cognitive skills on the relation between math performance and math anxiety

What causes math anxiety? According to a cognitive deficits view, early weaknesses in basic number and spatial skills lead to poor performance and hence negative affect. A strong version of this view suggests that the relation between math anxiety and math performance among adults will be explained by deficits in spatial and basic number skills. In the present research, we tested a model to account for the relations among math anxiety, math performance, and cognitive skills (i.e., working memory, basic number and spatial skills) among adults (N = 90). We replicated the modest correlations observed between math anxiety and these cognitive skills. However, we did not find a direct link between basic number and spatial skills and math anxiety; instead, these relations were mediated by complex math performance. We conclude by rejecting the hypothesis that math anxiety in adults is linked directly to individual differences in spatial and basic numerical skills and suggest instead that the present results are consistent with the alternative view in which even basic numerical tasks, under certain conditions may evoke an anxiety response and mask skill proficiency. Finally, we note that caution should be applied when extrapolating correlational results to make causal claims about whether cognitive skills may be precursors in the development of math anxiety.

Causal illusions in children when the outcome is frequent.

Causal illusions occur when people perceive a causal relation between two events that are actually unrelated. One factor that has been shown to promote these mistaken beliefs is the outcome probability. Thus, people tend to overestimate the strength of a causal relation when the potential consequence (i.e. the outcome) occurs with a high probability (outcome-density bias). Given that children and adults differ in several important features involved in causal judgment, including prior knowledge and basic cognitive skills, developmental studies can be considered an outstanding approach to detect and further explore the psychological processes and mechanisms underlying this bias. However, the outcome density bias has been mainly explored in adulthood, and no previous evidence for this bias has been reported in children. Thus, the purpose of this study was to extend outcome-density bias research to childhood. In two experiments, children between 6 and 8 years old were exposed to two similar setups, both showing a non-contingent relation between the potential cause and the outcome. These two scenarios differed only in the probability of the outcome, which could either be high or low. Children judged the relation between the two events to be stronger in the high probability of the outcome setting, revealing that, like adults, they develop causal illusions when the outcome is frequent.

Closing the gap: Efficacy of a tablet intervention to support the development of early mathematical skills in UK primary school children

The efficacy of a hand-held tablet technology intervention with learner-centred interactive software aimed at supporting the development of early maths skills was evaluated in four studies conducted in three UK primary schools. Immediate and sustained gains in mathematics were determined by comparing maths performance before, immediately after, and 5-months after the intervention. The impact of the child's first language, socio-economic status and basic cognitive skills (non-verbal intelligence, memory, processing speed and receptive vocabulary) on learning gains was also explored. In total, 133 pupils aged 4–7 years took part. Class teachers implemented the maths intervention for a specified period of time. Results showed significant immediate and sustained learning gains following the intervention, particularly for children identified as low-achievers. No significant effect of child's first language or socio-economic status was found but children with weaker memory skills demonstrated stronger learning gains. Overall, these findings indicate that tablet technology can provide a form of individualised effective support for early maths development, when software is age appropriate and grounded in a well-designed curriculum. Apps that incorporate repetitive and interactive features might help to reduce cognitive task demands, which could be particularly beneficial to low-achievers and could help to close the gap in early maths attainment from the start of primary school.

Appropriate Test-Taking Instructions for Students With Special Educational Needs

If children fail to understand test instructions, measurements of their competence may be unfair and invalid. This is especially relevant for students with special educational needs (SEN) because they face greater challenges in comprehending instructions. Two interventions were designed to facilitate the comprehension of test requirements by presenting intensified instructions and to enhance students’ attention by engaging them in physical activity before receiving the test instructions. Three-hundred forty-eight students with SEN aged 8–12 years were randomly assigned to an experimental condition or a control group. Even after controlling for relevant variables (reading speed, basic cognitive skills), students participating in the interventions performed better in a reading test than controls. As hypothesized, the intensified test instructions reduced the number of responses that were not compliant with instructions. In conclusion, this study shows the importance of adapting test instructions for students with SEN, and it proposes interventions that can be implemented in other assessments.

The Relationship between Expertise in Sports, Visuospatial, and Basic Cognitive Skills.

Team sports place high demands on visuospatial and other cognitive skills. However, there is a lack of research on visuospatial skills of elite athletes and there are heterogeneous results on basic cognitive skills of this population. Therefore, this series of studies tested different cognitive skills in elite team sports athletes. In Experiment 1, elite athletes were compared to recreational athletes, but no differences were observed between the groups in choice response time (CRT) and mental rotation (MR). To see if differences could be observed when the tested groups had a greater difference in expertise and more representative stimuli, in Experiment 2, we tested CRT and MR of elite athletes who had higher level of expertise, and we also used three-dimensional human stimuli. Overall, we still found no differences in MR; however, elite athletes did have shorter CRTs. In Experiment 3, instead of testing MR, we compared elite athletes’ and recreational athletes’ basic cognitive skills, such as processing speed, letter readout speed, memory span, and sustained attention. We found that elite athletes only performed better in sustained attention. Building on this data, in a supplementary analysis (Experiment 4) we tested whether MR and CRTs are correlated with basic cognitive skills. Results show that processing speed is the best predictor for MR, whereas letter readout speed explains most of the variance in CRTs. Finally, we discuss these findings against the backdrop of expertise and offer implications for future studies on mental rotation.

Image Correspondence Based on Interest Point Correlation in Difference Streams: Method and Applications to Mobile Robot Localization

[abstFig src='/00280002/14.jpg' width=""280"" text='Similarity map between image sequences' ]Visual recognition of previously visited places is a basic cognitive skill for a wide variety of living beings, including humans. This requires a method to extract relevant cues from visual input and successfully match them to memories of known locations, disregarding environmental variations such as lighting changes, viewer pose differences, moving objects and scene occlusion.Interest point correlationis a visual place recognition method inspired by results from neuroscience and psychology; specifically, it addresses those challenges by converting raw visual inputs to a low-variance representation, selecting regions-of-interest for representation matching, and identifying consistent matching trends. Real-world experiments employing a mobile robot demonstrate that interest point correlation is robust to visual changes, suggesting its founding principles are sound.

Employer Voices, Employer Demands, and Implications for Public Skills Development Policy Connecting the Labor and Education Sectors

Educators believe that they are adequately preparing youth for the labor market while at the same time employers lament the students' lack of skills. A possible source of the mismatch in perceptions is that employers and educators have different understandings of the types of skills valued in the labor market. Using economics and psychology literature to define four skills sets—socio-emotional, higher-order cognitive, basic cognitive, and technical—this paper reviews the literature that quantitatively measures employer skill demand, as reported in a preference survey. A sample of 27 studies reveals remarkable consistency across the world in the skills demanded by employers. While employers value all skill sets, there is a greater demand for socio-emotional skills and higher-order cognitive skills than for basic cognitive or technical skills. These results are robust across region, industry, occupation, and education level. Employers perceive that the greatest skills gaps are in socio-emotional and higher-order cognitive skills. These findings suggest the need to re-conceptualize the public sector's role in preparing children for a future labor market. Namely, technical training is not equivalent to job training; instead, a broad range of skills, many of which are best taught long before labor market entry, should be included in school curricula from the earliest ages. The skills most demanded by employers—higher-order cognitive skills and socio-emotional skills—are largely learned or refined in adolescence, arguing for a general education well into secondary school until these skills are formed. Finally, the public sector can provide programming and incentives to non-school actors, namely parents and employers, to encourage them to invest in the skills development process.

Introducing a forced-choice recognition task to the California Verbal Learning Test – Children’s Version

ABSTRACTThe importance of performance validity tests (PVTs) is increasingly recognized in pediatric neuropsychology. To date, research has focused on investigating whether PVTs designed for adults function similarly in children. The downward extension of adult cutoffs is counter-intuitive considering the robust effect of age-related changes in basic cognitive skills in children and adolescents. The purpose of this study was to examine the signal detection properties of a forced-choice recognition trial (FCR-C) for the California Verbal Learning Test – Children’s Version. A total of 72 children aged 6–15 years (M = 11.1 , SD = 2.6) completed the FCR-C as part of a larger neuropsychological assessment battery. Cross-validation analyses revealed that the FCR-C had good signal detection performance against reference PVTs. The first level of failure (≤14/15) produced the best combination of overall sensitivity (.31) and specificity (.87). A more conservative FCR-C cutoff (≤13) resulted in a predictable trade-off between sensitivity (.15) and specificity (.94), but also a net loss in discriminant power. Lowering the cutoff to ≤12 resulted in a slight improvement in specificity (.97) but further deterioration in sensitivity (.14). These preliminary findings suggest that the FCR-C has the potential to become the newest addition to a growing arsenal of pediatric PVTs.

Category-Related Brain Activation to Represent Semantic Organization

Background: Categorization is one of the basic cognitive skills in human beings. In fact, it can organize knowledge and arrange human behavior. Objectives: The present study deals with the organization of conceptual knowledge by investigating and studying the ways in which different semantic domains are categorized. Materials and Methods: In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) have been recorded from 12 healthy right-handed male university students, who performed a semantic judgment task using 100 animal and tool words. Results: The interesting results of this study show a significant difference between both conditions in all time-windows, with more negativity for the tool category. Also, more negativity for both conditions is noticed when moving from anterior to posterior regions. Conclusions: These results are in accordance with findings of previous stud ies in this field and may be explained on the basis of the feature-based account of semantic knowledge organization.

The Effectiveness of Melodic Intonation Therapy on English Speaking Adults with Expressive Aphasia

Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) has been a resource for working with adults with aphasia since 1973 when Albert, Helm and Sparks created this music-based intervention. MIT involves intoning short utterances while simultaneously using the left hand to tap the rhythm of syllables. This research project investigates the effectiveness of MIT intervention for an aphasic population. This was experimental research using a pre-test - post-test between subjects single design including two males presenting with aphasia (n=2). They participated in a controlled intervention during a 12 week period of cognitive therapy. The first six weeks of the intervention program consisted of language and cognition intervention only (LCI) while the second six weeks consisted of LCI with MIT (LCIM). Results revealed the post test for LCIM was the single factor that was moving towards significance as was indicated in the p of 0.07. MIT was somewhat effective in making a significant impact on more basic cognitive language skills, such as repetition, naming and word finding, when compared to higher functioning skills, such as spontaneous speech and auditory verbal comprehension. This was evident in patterns observed in growth of scores of formal and informal measures for the two participants in this research.

Biological Sensitivity to Family Income: Differential Effects on Early Executive Functioning.

The study examined how the interplay between children's cortisol response and family income is related to executive function (EF) skills. The sample included one hundred and two 5- to 6-year-olds (64% minority). EF skills were measured using laboratory tasks and observer ratings. Physiological reactivity was assessed via cortisol response during a laboratory visit. A consistent, positive association between family income and EF skills emerged only for children who showed high cortisol response, a marker of biological sensitivity to context. In contrast, family income was not related to EF skills in children who displayed low cortisol response. Follow-up analyses revealed a disordinal interaction, suggesting that differential susceptibility can be detected at the level of basic cognitive and self-regulatory skills that support adaptive functioning.

Toward a new definition of mental health.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health is “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community” (1). This definition, while representing a substantial progress with respect to moving away from the conceptualization of mental health as a state of absence of mental illness, raises several concerns and lends itself to potential misunderstandings when it identifies positive feelings and positive functioning as key factors for mental health. In fact, regarding well-being as a key aspect of mental health is difficult to reconcile with the many challenging life situations in which well-being may even be unhealthy: most people would consider as mentally unhealthy an individual experiencing a state of well-being while killing several persons during a war action, and would regard as healthy a person feeling desperate after being fired from his/her job in a situation in which occupational opportunities are scarce. People in good mental health are often sad, unwell, angry or unhappy, and this is part of a fully lived life for a human being. In spite of this, mental health has been often conceptualized as a purely positive affect, marked by feelings of happiness and sense of mastery over the environment (2–4). Concepts used in several papers on mental health include both key aspects of the WHO definition, i.e. positive emotions and positive functioning. Keyes (5,6) identifies three components of mental health: emotional well-being, psychological well-being and social well-being. Emotional well-being includes happiness, interest in life, and satisfaction; psychological well-being includes liking most parts of one's own personality, being good at managing the responsibilities of daily life, having good relationships with others, and being satisfied with one's own life; social well-being refers to positive functioning and involves having something to contribute to society (social contribution), feeling part of a community (social integration), believing that society is becoming a better place for all people (social actualization), and that the way society works makes sense to them (social coherence). However, such a perspective of mental health, influenced by hedonic and eudaimonic traditions, which champion positive emotions and excellence in functioning, respectively (7), risks excluding most adolescents, many of whom are somewhat shy, those who fight against perceived injustice and inequalities or are discouraged from doing so after years of useless efforts, as well as migrants and minorities experiencing rejection and discrimination. The concept of positive functioning is also translated by several definitions and theories about mental health into the ability to work productively (1,8), and may lead to the wrong conclusion that an individual at an age or in a physical condition preventing her/him from working productively is not by definition in good mental health. Working productively and fruitfully is often not possible for contextual reasons (e.g., for migrants or for discriminated people), which may prevent people from contributing to their community. Jahoda (9) subdivided mental health into three domains: self-realization, in that individuals are able to fully exploit their potential; sense of mastery over the environment; and sense of autonomy, i.e. ability to identify, confront, and solve problems. Murphy (10) argued that these ideas were laden with cultural values considered important by North Americans. However, even for a North American person, it is hard to imagine, for example, that a mentally healthy human being in the hands of terrorists, under the threat of beheading, can experience a sense of happiness and mastery over the environment. The definition of mental health is clearly influenced by the culture that defines it. However, as also advocated by Vaillant (11), common sense should prevail and certain elements that have a universal importance for mental health might be identified. For example, in spite of cultural differences in eating habits, the acknowledgement of the importance of vitamins and the four basic food groups is universal.

Effect of Multiple Intelligences-Based Reading Instruction on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking Skills

Reading comprehension (RC) and critical thinking (CT) are the two basic cognitive skills that should be developed through involving language learners in a carefully planned instruction. Multiple intelligences (MI) instruction may assist learners in developing RC and CT in L2 education. This study probed the effect of MI-based reading instruction on the Iranian EFL learners’ RC and CT skills. In so doing, it compared the effectiveness of an MI-based reading instruction with a traditional one. To this end, 4 intact classes from several English language institutes, comprising 56 Iranian intermediate-level EFL learners, were selected and randomly assigned to MI-based (experimental) and traditional (control) groups. A multiple* E-mail address: roohani-a@lit.sku.ac.ir Corresponding address: English Department, Faculty of Literature & Humanities, Shahrekord University, the 2 nd Kilometer of Saman Road, Shahrekord, Iran. D ow nl oa de d fr om ij la .k hu .a c. ir at 2 2: 57 IR D T o n W ed ne sd ay A pr il 5t h 20 17 168 Effect of Multiple Intelligences-Based Reading Instruction... choice RC test, a reading summary test, and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal test were used as the instrumentations to collect data on the participants’ RC and CT. Analysis of covariance revealed a significant effect for the MI-based reading instruction. Furthermore, the RC scores increased more significantly in the MI-based group in comparison to the traditional one. However, the CT scores did not significantly improve in both groups. There was also no statistically significant difference in the CT scores between the two groups after the treatments. Iranian EFL educators are, then, encouraged to develop MI-based lessons and activities for diverse students and take explicit instruction for the enhancement of CT skills in EFL reading courses.

Psychological and psychobiological stress in the relationship between basic cognitive function and school performance. [El estrés psicológico y psicobiológico en la relación entre funcionamiento cognitivo básico y rendimiento académico

This study analyses the role played by daily stress, assessed through self-report and at the psychobiological level, in relation to basic cognitive function when predicting school performance. The sample com- prised 100 schoolchildren (55 girls and 45 boys, age range 8 to 11 years) from a state school in the city of Malaga (Spain). Daily stress was assessed through the Childrens Daily Stress Inventory (IIEC in Spanish; Trianes et al., 2009). Psychobiological stress was measured through the corti- sol/DHEAS ratio, derived from saliva samples taken in the morning on two consecutive days. Basic cognitive skills were assessed by means of the Computerized Cognitive Assessment System (CDR battery; Wesnes et al., 2003, 2000). Finally, the measure of school performance was the mean val- ue of the final grades recorded in the childs school report. In addition to descriptive and correlational statistical analyses, multiple regression analyses were conducted in order to assess the model. The results show that chil- drens daily stress self-reported contributes to predict school performance, and has proven to be more influential than basic cognitive function when it comes to predict school performance. Therefore, in order to achieve good school performance, a pupil not only requires good basic cognitive func- tion, but must also present low levels of self-reported daily stress. These findings suggest a new way of explaining and predicting school failure.

Volume 85A, Number 8, August 2014 Cover Image

On the cover: Alzheimer‐s disease (AD) is an incurable and devastating mental illness that alters our basic cognitive skills and quality of life. Diagnosis is often made when AD is fully symptomatic and the only course of action is to manage the symptoms. Something as simple as a cheek swab can provide an early diagnostic and ensure preventive measures for people at high risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD before they strike. Read the accompanying paper by François et al. in this issue.Cover design by Bärbel Beran [www.beran‐design.de].

TWISTER MATEMÁTICO: UNA MANERA PRÁCTICA DE ENSEÑAR Y APRENDER A PARTIR DEL JUEGO

In 2010 a project was conducted to collaborate with teaching – learning of mathematics in preschool education by providing ideas that help and encourage working with school activities based on the game. A reflection about the project entitled the Mathematical Twister is introduced in this paper, which received a laureate qualification due to its innovative teaching strategy. The Mathematical Twister is intended to find an innovating way of teaching and learning processes. This idea attempts to link the basic processes of thought and logical-mathematical processes in children of transition degree in order to take them to acquire basic cognitive abilities or skills. This project has a qualitative method, specifically action research because it presents descriptive and specfic results, according to the theme to be worked. To the same extent, reality of the community was perceived under observation of their ways of thinking, feeling and acting through proposed strategies. Twister™ modification greatly benefited the community under study, and with this type of research, some needs of the community were observed, corrected and met by providing alternative solutions that contributed to the implementation of this proposal, which was widely welcome by the context in which it was applied.

Developing skills for employability at the secondary level: Effective models for Asia

Globally, enormous gains have been made towards the goal of universal primary education, leading to increased demands for secondary education. Consequently, more youth and young adults are now entering the formal and informal labour markets from the secondary level, which makes it important to ensure that secondary schools teach skills relevant to the world of work. This article reports on a Results for Development Institute (R4D) study that explored whether secondary education systems are adequately preparing young people for the workplace, and identified innovative models for delivering relevant skills at the secondary level. It found that employers are looking for three key types of skills: cognitive, non-cognitive, and technical. While technical and basic cognitive skills are still important in the workplace, transferrable and non-cognitive skills such as communication, problem-solving, punctuality, and flexibility are increasingly important, particularly for the informal economy. The article describes several innovative and effective models for skills development at the secondary level, and core principles for their success. These include innovative use of information and communications technology (ICT), multi-stakeholder partnerships, innovative financing mechanisms, and ensuring teacher and trainer preparedness. Moreover, a supportive policy environment is critical to ensure that such models are efficiently financed, effectively implemented, and sustainable over the long term.

Human psychobiology of MDMA or ‘Ecstasy’: an overview of 25 years of empirical research

This paper aimed to review how scientific knowledge about the human psychobiology of MDMA has developed over time. In this paper, the empirical findings from earlier and later studies will be reviewed. When MDMA was a 'novel psychoactive substance', it was not seen as a drug of abuse, as it displayed loss of efficacy. However, recreational users display a unique pattern of increasing doses, deteriorating cost-benefit ratios, and voluntary cessation. MDMA increases body temperature and thermal stress, with cortisol levels increased by 800% in dance clubbers. It can be extremely euphoric, although negative moods are also intensified. MDMA causes apoptosis (programmed cell death) and has been investigated for cancer therapy because of its anti-lymphoma properties. Recreational users show deficits in retrospective memory, prospective memory, higher cognition, problem solving, and social intelligence. Basic cognitive skills remain intact. Neuroimaging studies show reduced serotonin transporter levels across the cerebral cortex, which are associated with neurocognitive impairments. Deficits also occur in sleep architecture, sleep apnoea, complex vision, pain, neurohormones, and psychiatric status. Ecstasy/MDMA use during pregnancy leads to psychomotor impairments in the children. The damaging effects of Ecstasy/MDMA are far more widespread than was realized a few years ago, with new neuropsychobiological deficits still emerging.

PROMOTING BASIC COGNITIVE SKILLS THROUGH CONSTRUCTIVIST-BASED STRATEGIES IN A PHYSIOLOGY COURSE

One of the main purposes of education today is to develop student’s ability to think in a systemic, analytical and logical manner to become self-directed, critical thinkers. Hence, students need to be efficient in one or more basic cognitive skills (BCS), since they are the foundational skills for the continued growth of these and other intellectual higher level abilities. According to constructivist theorists, the development of students’ deep conceptual understanding takes place when they are engaged in learning tasks that explicitly makes them aware of their BCS, based on students’ previous knowledge and matter content. From this perspective, teachers can promote BCS in the classroom through the design of constructivist-based strategies. Therefore, the main purpose of the present study was to examine how the BCS of analysis and synthesis are attained in a university physiology course, examining differences in two groups of students from different classes using different learning methods: problem-based learning (PBL) and PBL plus diagrams. A self-report questionnaire was designed for this purpose. A knowledge exam was also applied to both groups at the end of the intervention to evaluate students’ basic knowledge attainment. Results indicate that there were no significant differences between the two groups in their BCS acquisition. Exam scores were not different between groups either. However, a significant relationship between BCS and basic knowledge attainment was found. Results are discussed in more detail within the document. Key words: basic knowledge, cognitive skills, constructivism, problem based learning

Colonoscopy core curriculum

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