Cognition-based Approach Research Articles

Exploring Undergraduate Biochemistry Students' Gesture Production Through an Embodied Framework.

Interpreting three-dimensional models of biological macromolecules is a key skill in biochemistry, closely tied to students' visuospatial abilities. As students interact with these models and explain biochemical concepts, they often use gesture to complement verbal descriptions. Here, we utilize an embodied cognition-based approach to characterize undergraduate students' gesture production as they described and interpreted an augmented reality (AR) model of potassium channel structure and function. Our analysis uncovered two emergent patterns of gesture production employed by students, as well as common sets of gestures linked across categories of biochemistry content. Additionally, we present three cases that highlight changes in gesture production following interaction with a 3D AR visualization. Together, these observations highlight the importance of attending to gesture in learner-centered pedagogies in undergraduate biochemistry education.

The impact of a cause–effect elaboration procedure on information security risk perceptions: a construal fit perspective

Abstract Cybersecurity breaches are on the rise. Extant literature in the development of strategies to enhance IT users’ online protective behaviours has neglected users’ cognitive processing of cybersecurity risk information. This study demonstrates a cause–effect elaboration procedure based on the concept of construal fit to influence online users’ cybersecurity risk perceptions. Using online experiments (N = 534), the construal fit between elaboration of causes vs effects of cybersecurity risks and perceived temporal distance (distant vs near) was manipulated. The results revealed that a construal fit between the elaboration of ‘effects’ (vs ‘causes’) and temporally ‘near’ (vs ‘distant’) cybersecurity risks enhanced users’ risk perceptions, which in turn predicted protective behavioural intentions. Ensuring construal fit is a novel, cognition-based approach to safeguard IT users against online threats. Our findings enrich existing staged theories used to investigate cybersecurity risk perceptions and suggest to practitioners that heightened cyber risk perception can effectively be induced by simultaneously enhancing the concreteness of IT users’ construal of cybersecurity incidents and emphasizing on its negative consequences (vs causes).

Persuasion and management support for IT projects

This study assesses the effectiveness of an IT project team's direct persuasion behaviors in obtaining management support. The literature typically suggests that obtaining management support is critical for IT project success. The literature also generally prescribes cognition-based approaches to obtaining such support, ignoring the potential effect of emotion on influencing management. We employ organizational influence theory to identify direct persuasion strategies and posit that both cognitive involvement and emotional involvement mediate the effectiveness of influence strategies on management support. Our argument was tested on a survey of non-MIS managers who recently undertook large IT projects. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of two persuasion behaviors applied by the project team to obtain management support. Both persuasion behaviors encourage management support by increasing management's cognitive and emotional involvement in the project. We find that emotional involvement has a stronger effect than cognitive involvement on management support. Important implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Cognitive shifting and externalising problem behaviour in intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder.

Behavioural problems are frequently reported in residential care for people with an intellectual disability (ID) in particular when they are additionally diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). There are indications that impairment in cognitive shifting may be associated with problem behaviour. The objectives of this study were (1) to examine the relationship of cognitive shifting and severity of ASD symptoms with externalising problem behaviour in individuals with ID, with and without ASD, and (2) to examine whether a diagnosis based on shifting impairment is more predictive of externalising problem behaviour than an ASD diagnosis. Participants consisted of adolescents and young adults with mild ID, with and without ASD (n = 41). Pearson intercorrelations were computed to explore the relationship between shifting impairment and severity of ASD symptoms on the one hand and ratings of externalising problem behaviour on the other hand. t-Tests were performed to analyse differences in externalising problem behaviour. Unlike ASD symptom severity, shifting scores were found to be associated with externalising problem behaviour, but only if shifting was measured using rating scales and not when using neuropsychological tasks. Externalising problem behaviour scores significantly differed when groups were classified according to shifting impairment (impaired vs. non-impaired) but not when they were classified according to ID and ASD diagnoses. It is proposed to use a cognition-based approach when analysing problem behaviour, thus concentrating not so much on ID and ASD diagnosis and their corresponding symptoms, but rather placing the focus on cognitive symptoms.

Cognitive Rehabilitation of Dementia

Cognitive rehabilitation refers to the cognition-based approaches that aim to induce people with cognitive impairment to achieve or maintain an optimal level of psychological and social functioning. Many models and definitions of cognitive rehabilitation exist. In this review, cognitive rehabilitation would be briefly reviewed as three categories; cognitive stimulation, cognitive training and cognitive rehabilitation. Cognitive stimulation is a range of group activities and discussions targeting general enhancement of cognitive and social functioning. Cognitive training is guided practice of standardized cognitive task-sets according to the individual levels. Cognitive rehabilitation is an individual approach using rehabilitation strategy for cognitively disabled person. Goal-setting is essential and emphasis is on improving performance in everyday life. (Brain & NeuroRehabilitation 2015; 8: 29-33)

On Situated Cognition-Based Approaches to Flash Educational Gaming Design

Based on the Situated Cognition, the article makes an attempt to propose four principles for Flash educational gaming designs. It is pointed out that these designs are supposed to apply instruction assistance-oriented, reasonable instructional design, motivation inspiration-targeted, and natural integration of education and entertainment principles. Moreover, on the basis of the theory, the mutual relations and connotations of the relevant five designing elements of situations, rules, tasks, roles, and emotions are to be analyzed respectively. With the purpose to balance education and entertainment in the games, an original Flash educational gaming model will be accordingly constructed; meanwhile, new ideas for the design and development of educational games will be also expected.

Procedural Rationality and Institutions: The Production of Norms by Means of Norms

This paper deals with a cognitivist approach to the problem of how social and economic institutions are formed. The economic framework I use is Simon's model of procedural rationality, integrating a cognitivist approach into a game structure. In game theory norms are seen as conventions, but not all institutions can be explained by game theory models. In cognition-based approaches, the creation and maintenance of institutions is the outcome of a search for satisficing norms. According to Simon and Newell (1972), agents faced with problems to solve visualise a problem as an area of potential situations to examine in order to establish analogical problem structures. In my approach, a norm can be defined within a system of norms that form in a historical-evolutionary dimension, suggesting a path in norm-forming processes.

When-questions in second language acquisition

It has been observed that when-questions are one of the last wh-questions produced by children learning English either as a first language (L1) or as a second language (L2). Explanations proposed for the late appearance of when-questions in L1 acquisition have been mostly based on cognitive factors. However, the cognition-based approach to when-questions faces problems in explaining L2 acquisition data, which show that L2 children who are cognitively more mature than L1 children follow the same developmental sequence. In this paper, I propose a possible explanation based on internal linguistic factors. According to Enç (1987), tense is a referential expression and temporal adverbials are antecedents of tense. I develop Enç's theory further and propose that in a when-question, tense is a bound variable, which is bound by the quantificational interrogative when. Thus, in order to produce when-questions, children must be at a stage where they understand bound variable readings. According to Roeper and de Villiers (1991), English-speaking children learn a bound variable reading approximately after 36 months, and the learning continues through the kindergarten years. The age at which a bound variable reading first appears corresponds to the point at which when-questions begin to occur. I propose that the complexity of the interaction between the quantificational when and tense, a bound variable, causes the delayed production of when-questions in developing grammars.