Individual Differences In Cognition Research Articles

Derailment and depression in college: Tests of 3-year predictive capacity and moderation by self-reflection, brooding, perfectionism, and cognitive flexibility.

While rich with opportunities for self-exploration, the transition to and through college is stressful, often associated with the onset or exacerbation of mental illness. Attending to these characteristics, this preregistered study asked whether derailment-or difficulties reconciling perceived identity change-in freshman year predicts senior depressive symptoms, and how individual risks for depression relate to this association. Derailment and depressive symptoms evidenced significant 3-year stability, and these constructs had positive cross-sectional associations in both freshman and senior year. Freshman derailment failed to predict senior depressive symptoms for the average student, but individual differences in self-reflection moderated the association: freshman derailment positively predicted senior depression among those lowest in self-reflection. Together, this study suggests derailment and depressive symptoms are consistently related at critical points of transition, and some individual differences in cognition may help predict their long-term association. While useful for understanding nuances between derailment and depression, these findings also inform ways of attending to and supporting college students through periods of transition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of negative emotions and information perceived value on residents' risk perception during the COVID-19 pandemic: An empirical survey from China.

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly and heavily hit the globe, and the mutation and transmission speed of the coronavirus have accelerated so that the world is still in danger. Thus, this study aims to investigate the participants' risk perception and explore the associations of risk perception of COVID-19 with negative emotions, information value perception and other related dimensions. A cross-sectional, population-based online survey was conducted from April 4 to 15, 2020, in China. A total of 3,552 participants were included in this study. A descriptive measure of demographic information was used in this study. Multiple regression models and moderating effect analysis were used to estimate the effect of potential associations of risk perceptions. Those who showed negative emotions (depressed, helplessness, loneliness) and perceived video information in social media to be useful were positively correlated with risk perception, whereas individuals who perceived experts' advice to be useful, shared risk information with friends and thought that their community made adequate emergency preparation reported lower risk perception. The moderating effect of information perceived value (β = 0.020, p < 0.001) on the relationship between negative emotion and perception of risk was significant. Individual differences in risk cognition during the COVID-19 pandemic were observed in subgroups of age level. Furthermore, the role of negative emotional states, the perceived usefulness of risk information and the sense of security also contributed to improving the public's risk perception. It is crucial for authorities to focus on residents' negative emotions and to clarify misinformation in accessible and effective ways in a timely manner.

Hominoid-specific sulcal variability is related to face perception ability.

The relationship among brain structure, brain function, and behavior is of major interest in neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and psychology. This relationship is especially intriguing when considering hominoid-specific brain structures because they cannot be studied in widely examined models in neuroscience such as mice, marmosets, and macaques. The fusiform gyrus (FG) is a hominoid-specific structure critical for face processing that is abnormal in individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DPs)-individuals who have severe deficits recognizing the faces of familiar people in the absence of brain damage. While previous studies have found anatomical and functional differences in the FG between DPs and NTs, no study has examined the shallow tertiary sulcus (mid-fusiform sulcus, MFS) within the FG that is a microanatomical, macroanatomical, and functional landmark in humans, as well as was recently shown to be present in non-human hominoids. Here, we implemented pre-registered analyses of neuroanatomy and face perception in NTs and DPs. Results show that the MFS was shorter in DPs than NTs. Furthermore, individual differences in MFS length in the right, but not left, hemisphere predicted individual differences in face perception. These results support theories linking brain structure and function to perception, as well as indicate that individual differences in MFS length can predict individual differences in face processing. Finally, these findings add to growing evidence supporting a relationship between morphological variability of late developing, tertiary sulci and individual differences in cognition.

Early- to late-life environmental factors and late-life global cognition in septuagenarian and octogenarians: The SONIC study

This study aimed to evaluate cognitively stimulating environments throughout life and to examine direct and indirect associations between these environments and late-life cognition. Early-life education, three domains of work complexity (data, people, and things) based on the longest-held occupation, and engagement in late-life leisure activities (LAs) were assessed. A structural equation model was developed using cross-sectional data of 1721 Japanese older adults in 70 ± 1 and 80 ± 1 years. The model confirmed significant direct effects of work complexity with data and late-life LAs on late-life cognitive performance. The associations of education and work complexity with late-life cognition were mediated through the subsequent environment(s). However, the total effects of work complexity with people and things on late-life cognition were insignificant. The findings suggest that cognitively stimulating activities in adulthood and beyond may lead to individual differences in late-life global cognition. In addition, antecedent complex environments might make subsequent life environments more cognitively stimulating. The results are discussed from the perspectives of cognitive plasticity and environmental complexity.

Cognitive Diversity in the Classroom: An Inquiry through Individual Difference in Cognition

The purpose of this study is to explore the cognitive diversity in the classroom especially focusing on individual differences in cognition through different perspectives.Cognitive diversity plays an influential to form a diverse team to perform tasks requiring creativity. Every learners' has a unique and distinctive way of concept formation, problem-solving techniques, and shared meaning because of their diversity in terms of personality, ethnicity, economic status, gender, the ability of comprehension, personal values, attitudes, information-dispensation style, and most significantly how much learners' rely on various aspects of multiple intelligence such as visual-spatial, linguistic-verbal, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic intelligence. Individuals vary in their cognitive performance because of their cognitive differences. This qualitative research employed descriptive methodology and documentary analysis along with using relevant secondary sources for the claim, supporting reasons, and finally to develop argumentation. The finding of this study shows that every learner has a unique and distinctive approach in terms of concept formation, problem-solving, information-dissemination, and shared meaning. Cognitive diversity plays a crucial role to enhance academic performance, work efficiency, and to conceptualize the diverse cognitive traits each student brings to the learning environment. However, some studies point out the drawbacks of cognitive diversity as it invites conflict, stress, misunderstanding, lack of collaboration, and gratitude among team members. It is recommended that educators should keep thelearners' different intelligence profiles into consideration and design the activities accordingly.

The role of cognitive individual differences in digital versus pen-and-paper writing

It is unknown whether and to what extent cognitive individual differences may play different roles in paper versus computer-based second language (L2) writing. This exploratory study is a first attempt to explore this issue, focusing on the effects of working memory and language aptitude on the quality of paper versus computer-based L2 writing performance. Forty-two Spanish learners of L2 English performed a problem-solving task either digitally or on paper, took a working memory n-back test, and completed LLAMA tests to measure language aptitude. The quality of their L2 written texts was assessed in terms of complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF) measures. The results indicated that the role of cognitive individual differences may vary depending on the writing environment.

One size does not fit all: An individualized approach to understand heterogeneous cognitive performance in autistic adults.

Cognitive performances of autistic people vary widely. Therefore, previous group-based comparisons on cognitive aging in autistic adults might have overlooked those autistic adults that are particularly vulnerable for cognitive decline. Multivariate normative comparisons (MNC) statistically assess individual cognitive differences on the entire cognitive profile. Cognitive deviancy as indicated by MNC accurately predicts future cognitive decline, and is therefore sensitive in detecting meaningful cognitive differences. The current study aimed to (1) investigate the applicability of MNC to assess cognitive performance in autism individually, and (2) understand heterogeneous cognitive performance in autistic adults. As pre-registered, we performed MNC in a sample of 254 non-autistic adults, and two independent samples of respectively 118, and 86 autistic adults (20-85 years, mean: 50 years). Cognitive performance was measured on 11 outcomes in six domains (verbal/visual memory, working memory, verbal fluency, Theory of Mind, and psychomotor speed). Using MNC, about twice as many autistic individuals had a deviant cognitive profile (i.e., deviated statistically from the multivariate normspace) as compared to non-autistic individuals. Importantly, most autistic individuals (>80%) did not have a deviant cognitive profile. Having a deviant profile was significantly associated with higher levels of psychological distress in autistic adults specifically, showing the clinical relevance of this method. Therefore, MNC seem a useful tool to individually detect meaningful cognitive differences in autism. These results are consistent with previous cognitive studies suggesting that most autistic adults show fairly similar cognitive profiles to non-autistic adults, yet highlight the necessity for approaches reflecting the heterogeneity observed in autistic people.

Consistency - a novel account for individual differences in visual cognition

Consistency - a novel account for individual differences in visual cognition

Factors underlying Eyewitness Memory Accuracy: Individual Differences and Confidence

False memory, modulated by factors, such as emotion and semantic information about an event, can impede accurate suspect identification. Negative mood and semantic processing are found to create false memory by establishing associations between events. The associations include confounding the events’ order, mixing the events’ contents, and using schemas that sometimes deviate from the actual circumstances. The inconsistency of emotion while encoding and retrieving information can also cause the failure of recalling correct crime scene details. To increase the value of eyewitness testimony, this review discussed several factors that can impact eyewitness memory accuracy. Lab studies are largely based on individual cognitive differences, the level of confidence made with suspect identifications, and individual cross-cultural differences. High executive functional (EF) availability and high confidence level were found to corroborate higher accuracy of identification across tasks. Individuals from individualistic cultures were found to focus more on central details than those from collectivistic cultures. Additionally, eyewitness memory accuracy can be assessed by the response time of witnesses, which is another powerful indicator of eyewitness memory accuracy besides confidence. The difference in eyewitness memory accuracy between lab studies and reality is a gap in this field. It is recommended to use the two one-sided tests (TOST) to show that there is no statistical association between suspect identification accuracy and memory strength to minimise the gap. This review analysed several factors impacting eyewitness memory accuracy and provided insights into how the lab studies can be applied to the real world.

Functional connectome stability and optimality are markers of cognitive performance.

Patterns of whole-brain fMRI functional connectivity, or connectomes, are unique to individuals. Previous work has identified subsets of functional connections within these patterns whose strength predicts aspects of attention and cognition. However, overall features of these connectomes, such as how stable they are over time and how similar they are to a group-average (typical) or high-performance (optimal) connectivity pattern, may also reflect cognitive and attentional abilities. Here, we test whether individuals who express more stable, typical, optimal, and distinctive patterns of functional connectivity perform better on cognitive tasks using data from three independent samples. We find that individuals with more stable task-based functional connectivity patterns perform better on attention and working memory tasks, even when controlling for behavioral performance stability. Additionally, we find initial evidence that individuals with more typical and optimal patterns of functional connectivity also perform better on these tasks. These results demonstrate that functional connectome stability within individuals and similarity across individuals predicts individual differences in cognition.

The Contributions of Cognitive Individual Differences on EFL Productive Skills through Online Instruction

Although there is adequate research about learning style and motivation in face-to-face classes, there is still a scarceness of available studies exploring such individual differences in EFL online settings and to the best knowledge of the researcher, no previous studies even try to address their impacts on EFL learners' productive skill in online EFL classroom settings. To this end, this study which is one of the newest in this field aimed at increasing our understanding of the contribution of such cognitive individual differences on EFL productive skills through online instruction using concurrent triangulation design. The results demonstrated that out of the two cognitive individual differences, the strongest association was observed between the motivation variable and EFL productive skills. Nevertheless, unlike other studies the relation between learning style use and EFL productive skills proficiency was not significant. The implications of the study will instill new insights for EFL researchers and language learners to consider the recent pandemic as a blessing in disguise, acting as a foundation stone towards online EFL instruction advancement in the Iran. Also, since motivation impact language achievement significantly, building a learner-friendly and encouraging atmosphere in online settings is therefore vital.

The individuality of shape asymmetries of the human cerebral cortex.

Asymmetries of the cerebral cortex are found across diverse phyla and are particularly pronounced in humans, with important implications for brain function and disease. However, many prior studies have confounded asymmetries due to size with those due to shape. Here, we introduce a novel approach to characterize asymmetries of the whole cortical shape, independent of size, across different spatial frequencies using magnetic resonance imaging data in three independent datasets. We find that cortical shape asymmetry is highly individualized and robust, akin to a cortical fingerprint, and identifies individuals more accurately than size-based descriptors, such as cortical thickness and surface area, or measures of inter-regional functional coupling of brain activity. Individual identifiability is optimal at coarse spatial scales (~37 mm wavelength), and shape asymmetries show scale-specific associations with sex and cognition, but not handedness. While unihemispheric cortical shape shows significant heritability at coarse scales (~65 mm wavelength), shape asymmetries are determined primarily by subject-specific environmental effects. Thus, coarse-scale shape asymmetries are highly personalized, sexually dimorphic, linked to individual differences in cognition, and are primarily driven by stochastic environmental influences.

Protective effect of aerobic fitness on the detrimental influence of exhaustive exercise on information processing capacity

Although aerobic fitness has been thought to protect against the detrimental cognitive effects following exhaustive exercise, available evidence from studies using traditional mean behavioral measures remain somewhat equivocal. PurposeThis study aimed to reconcile this discrepancy by using a novel theory-driven diagnostic tool, the Systems Factorial Technology (SFT). MethodsSixty-six healthy young adults aged from 18 to 30 years old with different levels of aerobic fitness (n = 33 for the higher-fit and lower-fit groups) completed a go/nogo version of redundant-target task before and after a graded exercise test (GXT) until exhaustion. SFT was used to calculate the resilience capacity, which reflects the information processing capacity underlying inhibitory control. ResultsFollowing the GXT, both higher-fit and lower-fit groups showed faster responses while leaving accuracy unchanged as compared to the performance at the pretest. On the other hand, the resilience capacity decreased for the lower-fit group but was maintained for the higher-fit group. ConclusionThe present findings suggest that aerobic fitness may modulate the individual difference in decisional mechanism following exhaustive exercise. In sum, this study offers an alternative mechanistic explanation regarding cognitive individual differences in response to exhaustive exercise and provides novel insights into the significance of maintaining a state of high physical fitness for those who need to perform cognitively challenging tasks under physically stressful conditions (e.g., elite athletes).

Social Media News Use and COVID-19 Misinformation Engagement: Survey Study.

BackgroundSocial media is widely used as a source of news and information regarding COVID-19. However, the abundance of misinformation on social media platforms has raised concerns regarding the spreading infodemic. Accordingly, many have questioned the utility and impact of social media news use on users’ engagement with (mis)information.ObjectiveThis study offers a conceptual framework for how social media news use influences COVID-19 misinformation engagement. More specifically, we examined how news consumption on social media leads to COVID-19 misinformation sharing by inducing belief in such misinformation. We further explored if the effects of social media news use on COVID-19 misinformation engagement depend on individual differences in cognition and personality traits.MethodsWe used data from an online survey panel administered by a survey agency (Qualtrics) in Singapore. The survey was conducted in March 2022, and 500 respondents answered the survey. All participants were older than 21 years and provided consent before taking part in the study. We used linear regression, mediation, and moderated mediation analyses to explore the proposed relationships between social media news use, cognitive ability, personality traits, and COVID-19 misinformation belief and sharing intentions.ResultsThe results suggested that those who frequently used social media for news consumption were more likely to believe COVID-19 misinformation and share it on social media. Further probing the mechanism suggested that social media news use translated into sharing intent via the perceived accuracy of misinformation. Simply put, social media news users shared COVID-19 misinformation because they believed it to be accurate. We also found that those with high levels of extraversion than those with low levels were more likely to perceive the misinformation to be accurate and share it. Those with high levels of neuroticism and openness than those with low levels were also likely to perceive the misinformation to be accurate. Finally, it was observed that personality traits did not significantly influence misinformation sharing at higher levels of cognitive ability, but low cognitive users largely drove misinformation sharing across personality traits.ConclusionsThe reliance on social media platforms for news consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified, with dire consequences for misinformation sharing. This study shows that increased social media news consumption is associated with believing and sharing COVID-19 misinformation, with low cognitive users being the most vulnerable. We offer recommendations to newsmakers, social media moderators, and policymakers toward efforts in limiting COVID-19 misinformation propagation and safeguarding citizens.

The Effects of Augmented Reality Remapping on Individual Differences in Task Performance, Workload, and Error Frequency within ICU Nurses

Fast-paced environments require operators who perform in them to use their cognitive abilities such as perception and memory to complete tasks. Individual differences in ability can result in different outcomes. Previous research has shown that common errors in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) can be reduced if individual differences in cognition, such as attentional ability, are addressed. The goal of this research is to understand how cognitive aids in the form of Augmented Reality (AR) can reduce errors and perceived workload, as well as mitigate differences in performance and attentional ability between individuals.

Maybe I Can Do Better Myself: The Impact of Automation Levels on HRI

Although previous studies have developed scales to measure levels of robot autonomy and ways to quantify trust in human-robot teams, there is still much interest in determining how trust, individual differences, and levels of autonomy impact these teams. The primary objective of this study is to identify how pre-existing attitudes about robots, individual differences in normal cognition, and levels of robot autonomy affect performance, communication, and trust with a robot teammate. This study pairs participants with a robot teammate to compete against two robotic opponents in a simulated game of capture the flag. Game performance and interactions with the robot teammate will be collected as outcome measures. Subjective measures will include pre-existing negative attitudes toward robots (Nomura et al., 2006a) and trust (Schaefer, 2016).

A tale of two connectivities: intra- and inter-subject functional connectivity jointly enable better prediction of social abilities.

Naturalistic functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigms, such as movie viewing, are attracting increased attention, given their ability to mimic the real-world cognitive demands on attention and multimodal sensory integration. Moreover, naturalistic paradigms allow for characterizing brain network responses associated with dynamic social cognition in a model-free manner using inter-subject functional connectivity (ISFC). While intra-subject functional connectivity (FC) characterizes the individual’s brain functional architecture, ISFC characterizes the neural coupling driven by time-locked extrinsic dynamic stimuli across individuals. Here, we hypothesized that ISFC and FC provide distinct and complementary information about individual differences in social cognition. To test this hypothesis, we examined a public movie-viewing fMRI dataset with 32 healthy adults and 90 typically developing children. Building three partial least squares regression (PLS) models to predict social abilities using FC and/or ISFC, we compared predictive performance to determine whether combining two connectivity measures could improve the prediction accuracy of individuals’ social-cognitive abilities measured by a Theory of Mind (ToM) assessment. Our results indicated that the joint model (ISFC + FC) yielded the highest predictive accuracy and significantly predicted individuals’ social cognitive abilities (rho = 0.34, p < 0.001). We also confirmed that the improved accuracy was not due to the increased feature dimensionality. In conclusion, we demonstrated that intra-/inter-subject connectivity encodes unique information about social abilities, and a joint investigation could help us gain a more complete understanding of the complex processes supporting social cognition.

Capturing brain‐cognition relationship: Integrating task‐based fMRI across tasks markedly boosts prediction and test‐retest reliability

Capturing individual differences in cognition is central to human neuroscience. Yet our ability to estimate cognitive abilities via brain MRI is still poor in both prediction and reliability. Our study tested if this inability can be improved by integrating MRI signals across the whole brain and across modalities, including task-based functional MRI (tfMRI) of different tasks along with other non-task MRI modalities, such as structural MRI, resting-state functional connectivity. Using the Human Connectome Project (n = 873, 473 females, after quality control), we directly compared predictive models comprising different sets of MRI modalities (e.g., seven tasks vs. non-task modalities). We applied two approaches to integrate multimodal MRI, stacked vs. flat models, and implemented 16 combinations of machine-learning algorithms. The stacked model integrating all modalities via stacking Elastic Net provided the best prediction (r = 0.57), relatively to other models tested, as well as excellent test-retest reliability (ICC=∼.85) in capturing general cognitive abilities. Importantly, compared to the stacked model integrating across non-task modalities (r = 0.27), the stacked model integrating tfMRI across tasks led to significantly higher prediction (r = 0.56) while still providing excellent test-retest reliability (ICC=∼.83). The stacked model integrating tfMRI across tasks was driven by frontal and parietal areas and by tasks that are cognition-related (working-memory, relational processing, and language). This result is consistent with the parieto-frontal integration theory of intelligence. Accordingly, our results contradict the recently popular notion that tfMRI is not reliable enough to capture individual differences in cognition. Instead, our study suggests that tfMRI, when used appropriately (i.e., by drawing information across the whole brain and across tasks and by integrating with other modalities), provides predictive and reliable sources of information for individual differences in cognitive abilities, more so than non-task modalities.

Mapping brain mechanical property maturation from childhood to adulthood

Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is a phase contrast MRI technique which uses external palpation to create maps of brain mechanical properties noninvasively and in vivo. These mechanical properties are sensitive to tissue microstructure and reflect tissue integrity. MRE has been used extensively to study aging and neurodegeneration, and to assess individual cognitive differences in adults, but little is known about mechanical properties of the pediatric brain. Here we use high-resolution MRE imaging in participants of ages ranging from childhood to adulthood to understand brain mechanical properties across brain maturation. We find that brain mechanical properties differ considerably between childhood and adulthood, and that neuroanatomical subregions have differing maturational trajectories. Overall, we observe lower brain stiffness and greater brain damping ratio with increasing age from 5 to 35 years. Gray and white matter change differently during maturation, with larger changes occurring in gray matter for both stiffness and damping ratio. We also found that subregions of cortical and subcortical gray matter change differently, with the caudate and thalamus changing the most with age in both stiffness and damping ratio, while cortical subregions have different relationships with age, even between neighboring regions. Understanding how brain mechanical properties mature using high-resolution MRE will allow for a deeper understanding of the neural substrates supporting brain function at this age and can inform future studies of atypical maturation.

Structural insight into the individual variability architecture of the functional brain connectome

Human cognition and behaviors depend upon the brain's functional connectomes, which vary remarkably across individuals. However, whether and how the functional connectome individual variability architecture is structurally constrained remains largely unknown. Using tractography- and morphometry-based network models, we observed the spatial convergence of structural and functional connectome individual variability, with higher variability in heteromodal association regions and lower variability in primary regions. We demonstrated that functional variability is significantly predicted by a unifying structural variability pattern and that this prediction follows a primary-to-heteromodal hierarchical axis, with higher accuracy in primary regions and lower accuracy in heteromodal regions. We further decomposed group-level connectome variability patterns into individual unique contributions and uncovered the structural-functional correspondence that is associated with individual cognitive traits. These results advance our understanding of the structural basis of individual functional variability and suggest the importance of integrating multimodal connectome signatures for individual differences in cognition and behaviors.