Cognitive Processing Abilities Research Articles

Working memory training with tDCS improves behavioral and neurophysiological symptoms in pilot group with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and with poor working memory

This pilot study investigated the feasibility of treating people suffering from both post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and poor working memory by employing a combination of computerized working memory training and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). After treatment, all four participants showed clinically significant improvements on a range of cognitive and emotional performance measures. Moreover, these improvements were accompanied by theoretically significant neurophysiological changes between pre- and post-treatment electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings. Specifically, the P3a component of participants’ event related potentials (ERP) in response to novelty stimuli, characteristically abnormal in this clinical population, shifted significantly toward database norms. So, participants’ initially slow alpha peak frequency (APF), theorized to underlie impaired cognitive processing abilities, also increased in both frequency and amplitude as a result of treatment. On the basis of these promising results, more extensive controlled studies are warranted.

Effect of the Group Music Therapy on Brain Wave, Behavior, and Cognitive Function among Patients with Chronic Schizophrenia

The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of group music therapy on brain waves, behavior, and cognitive function among patients with chronic schizophrenia. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was used with nonequivalent control group. The potential participants were recruited from inpatients in a psychiatric facility in a metropolitan city, assigned either to the experimental group (n=28) or to the control group (n=27) according to their wards to avoid treatment contamination. The experimental group participated in the group music therapy for 13 sessions over 7 weeks while continuing their standard treatment. The control group only received a standard treatment provided in the hospitals. The outcome measures include brain wave by electroencephalography, behavior by Nurses' Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation, and cognitive function by Mini-Mental State Examination. After participating in 13 sessions of the group music therapy, alpha waves measured from eight different sites were consistently present for the experimental group (p=.006-.045) than the control group, revealing that the participants in the music therapy may have experienced more joyful emotions throughout the sessions. The experimental group also showed improved cognitive function (F=13.46, p=.001) and positive behavior (social competence, social interest & personal neatness) while their negative behaviors was significantly less than those of the control group (F=24.04, p<.001). The group music therapy used in this study was an effective intervention for improving emotional relaxation, cognitive processing abilities along with positive behavioral changes in patients with chronic schizophrenia. Our results can be useful for establishing intervention strategies toward psychiatric rehabilitation for those who suffer from chronic mental illnesses.

A theory-to-practice approach for teaching science with animations

Educational psychologists have for decades conducted research into the most efficient manner by which information can be assimilated through dynamic visualizations such as animations and video. As a result, a number of research-based guidelines have been formulated to guide the designer, teacher and learner regarding the layout, presentation and self-regulation of transient information. How to apply multimedia learning principles in a considered and creative manner when teaching or learning with dynamic information in a regular classroom situation? This article presents a practical and visual guide for dealing with some of the key issues, such as split attention, signaling, segmentation and strategic learner-control. Some classroom orientated suggestions are offered for the incorporation of these principles when using animations for teaching complex information. The overall objective is to organize the pacing and sequencing of the dynamic information in a manner that is optimally aligned with the students’ prior knowledge and cognitive processing ability.

How linguistic closure and verbal working memory relate to speech recognition in noise--a review.

The ability to recognize masked speech, commonly measured with a speech reception threshold (SRT) test, is associated with cognitive processing abilities. Two cognitive factors frequently assessed in speech recognition research are the capacity of working memory (WM), measured by means of a reading span (Rspan) or listening span (Lspan) test, and the ability to read masked text (linguistic closure), measured by the text reception threshold (TRT). The current article provides a review of recent hearing research that examined the relationship of TRT and WM span to SRTs in various maskers. Furthermore, modality differences in WM capacity assessed with the Rspan compared to the Lspan test were examined and related to speech recognition abilities in an experimental study with young adults with normal hearing (NH). Span scores were strongly associated with each other, but were higher in the auditory modality. The results of the reviewed studies suggest that TRT and WM span are related to each other, but differ in their relationships with SRT performance. In NH adults of middle age or older, both TRT and Rspan were associated with SRTs in speech maskers, whereas TRT better predicted speech recognition in fluctuating nonspeech maskers. The associations with SRTs in steady-state noise were inconclusive for both measures. WM span was positively related to benefit from contextual information in speech recognition, but better TRTs related to less interference from unrelated cues. Data for individuals with impaired hearing are limited, but larger WM span seems to give a general advantage in various listening situations.

The role of non-verbal working memory in pedestrian visual search

Visual search skills are important for safe pedestrian decision-making. Previous literature has used basic measures of attention-to-traffic and made some progress in linking cognition with pedestrian visual search. However, much remains to be discovered about what stimuli pedestrians actually attend to or which cognitive processing abilities are involved. We examined the unique contribution of spatial and visual working memory in pedestrian visual search. A sample of 21 undergraduates and 40 children participated in a spatial working memory task and computerized visual search task. Eye movements were recorded throughout the visual search task to obtain pedestrian scanning behaviors. Developmental differences were found in working memory and pedestrian visual search. Working memory also explained a significant amount of variance for a number of visual search indices. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed and future directions are suggested.

Cognitive control deficits in adolescents born with very low birth weight (≤ 1500 g): Evidence from dichotic listening

The objective of the paper is to explore bottom-up auditory and top-down cognitive processing abilities as part of long-term outcome assessment of preterm birth. Fifty-five adolescents (age 13-15) born with very low birth weight (VLBW) were compared to 80 matched controls born to term, using three consonant-vowel dichotic listening (DL) instruction conditions (non-forced, forced-right and forced-left). DL scores were correlated with cortical gray matter thickness derived from T1-weighted structural MRI volumes using FreeSurfer to examine group differences also in the neural correlates of higher cognitive processes. While showing normal bottom-up processing, VLBW adolescents displayed impaired top-down controlled conflict processing related to significant cortical thickness differences in left superior temporal gryus and anterior cingulate cortex. Preterm birth with VLBW induces fundamental changes in brain function and structure posing a risk for long-term neurocognitive impairments. Deficits emerge in situations of increasing cognitive conflict and can be related to measures of executive functions as well as morphology.

Service Brand Equity: Cross-Sectional Analysis of Four Service Schemes in Malaysia

It has been noted in the literature, service brand is considered to be one of the most discussed in the service industry. Because service is dominated by experience and credence attributes; therefore an extrinsic cue like brand may help to reduce customers’ purchase risk and optimize their cognitive processing abilities towards the service. One of the emerging service brand concepts that used extensively by marketing reseachers is service brand equity. However, there is limited interest looking at the broader application of service brand equity concept across different service categories. This is important to provide service marketers with useful and broader managerial insights in order to establish greater brand managerial sophistication in marketing the services. Hence, the aim of this research is to determine the dimensions of a successful branding strategy of services, to note each specific service sectors requirement, and its differences. The survey method is used in this study. The findings showed that different service category such as health service, retail, hotel and banking in Malaysia posited different dimension of service brand equity. This tends to suggest that, although service brand equity concept provides a significant description of how to brand a service; different services require different approach of branding process. Thus, this may help brand managers to prioritize and allocate which brand equity dimensions is suitable for their service. The principal contribution of the study is that it provides evidence for the validity of service brand equity used in various service contexts.

Audiovisual integration: an introduction to behavioral and neuro-cognitive methods

Audiovisual integration: an introduction to behavioral and neuro-cognitive methods

Electrophysiological Measures of Auditory Processing in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Previous studies demonstrated that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) experience more hearing loss than age-matched control subjects. Patients with MS also exhibit deficits processing auditory stimuli, including speech in a background of noise. These findings suggest that auditory deficits in the MS population can result from damage to central neural pathways in addition to peripheral hearing structures. To assess auditory processing functions in patients with MS, this study used auditory event-related potentials (AERPs)—specifically, the auditory brain stem response (ABR) and long-latency AERPs including the P300. AERPs recorded from 20 patients with MS were compared to AERPs from 20 healthy control subjects. When ABR stimuli (clicks) were presented monaurally, there were no significant differences between groups in component latencies or amplitudes for waves I through V. However, binaural presentation of the same stimuli elicited wave V ABR components significantly greater in amplitude for the control group compared with the MS group. Long-latency AERP results showed no significant differences between groups for N100 latency and amplitude or for P300 latency. P300 component amplitude was significantly greater for control subjects compared with patients with MS. It is probable that neural degeneration and impaired neural transmission within the MS group contributed to these AERP results. AERPs are useful tools that can be used to assess peripheral and central auditory functions as well as cognitive processing abilities in patients with MS. AERPs could be used to evaluate neural integrity, disease progression, and treatment efficacy in this population.

Cognitive processing skills in monolingual and bilingual South African children: Implications for assessment in linguistically diverse societies

Differences in cognitive processing skills between monolingual and bilingual children for assessment in linguistically diverse societies have become the focal point of recent research interest (Bialystok 2007). The performance of 30 monolingual, English-speaking and 30 bilingual, Afrikaans-English-speaking third grade children was compared on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC), a widely recognised test of cognitive processing ability with minimal language requirements. No significant differences were found on the simultaneous processing and sequential processing scales, but significant differences were found on two subtests, namely Hand Movements and Matrix Analogies. This latter finding is discussed in the context of possible differences in learning opportunities (language-based, linguistic background and educational setting) experienced by the two linguistic groups. The implications of this finding for assessment are discussed.

P02-111 - Volition inhibitory to emotional stimuli in depression: Evidence from the antisaccade tasks

IntroductionMost previous researches indicated that impaired inhibition to emotional stimuli could be one of the important cognitive characteristics of depression individuals. The antisaccade tasks which composed of prosaccade task (PS) and antisaccade task (AS) were often used to investigate response inhibition.AimsThis study aimed to investigate the volition inhibition toward emotional stimuli in depressed mood undergraduates (DM).MethodsSubjects were grouped as 21 DM and 25 non-depressed undergraduates (ND) on the Beck Depression Inventory and Self-rating Depression Scale. The antisaccade tasks were conducted to examine the inhibition abilities by varying the arousal level of volition (low and high) of the tasks, with happy, neutral and sad facial expressions as stimuli.ResultsThe results showed that at the low volition level in the AS condition, the correct saccade latency in the DM were significant slower than the ND; The DM had reliable higher direction error rates in response to emotional facial expressions, especially for sad expressions. However, all of the differences disappeared in the high volition level antisaccade tasks. The amplitude errors data were not influenced by emotional facial expressions, and there were no group differences across tasks.ConclusionsThese results indicated the DM showed slower speed of cognitive processing and impaired inhibition abilities toward emotional faces than the ND, particularly for sad faces, but these abilities will be repaired in the high arousal level of volition, which enlighten us that training the DM's volition level of inhibition could prove to be an effective strategy to alleviate depression.

Effects of a ‘Learn to Think’ intervention programme on primary school students

Methods for teaching thinking may be described as out-of-context or infusion. Both approaches have potential to raise students' general cognitive processing ability and so raise academic achievement, but each has disadvantages. To describe and evaluate a theory-based learn to think (LTT) curriculum for primary school students, which draws on the strengths of both out-of-context and infusion approaches. One-hundred and sixty-six students in three classes of Grade 1 (6+ years old), Grade 2 (7+ years old), and Grade 3 (8+ years old) in a primary school in Shanxi province, China, randomly ascribed to experimental (90) and control (76) groups. All students were pre-tested for non-verbal intelligence and academic achievement. Experimental students followed the LTT curriculum (one activity every 2 weeks) for 4 school years. All were post-tested on three occasions for thinking ability and four times for academic achievement. Grade 1 and Grade 2 students showed effects of LTT from 1 year after their start and increasing: on thinking ability d= .78-1.45; on Chinese d= .68-1.07; on maths .58-.87. Grade 3 students showed effects from 6 months after their start: on thinking ability .90-1.37; Chinese .77-1.32; maths .65-1.29. The effects were concentrated in students in the middle band of initial ability. A curriculum for teaching thinking based on a structured theoretical model that combines elements of out-of-context and infusion methods has been shown to have long-term far transfer effects on students' thinking ability and academic achievement. More work is needed to meet the needs of a wider range of abilities.

The Role of Central Auditory and Cognitive Processing Ability in Speech Perception for Elderly Listeners

Abstract The purpose of this article is to describe the factors that influence speech perception for elderly listeners. Factors included in the review are changes to the peripheral and central audi...

The comparison of attentional control between earthquake anxious and normal children

Objective To investigate the characteristics of attentional control between Wenchuan earthquake anxious and normal children. Methods Using Screening Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED), 18 earthquake anxious children were chosen as participants and 18 normal children were chosen as control group. They were asked to perform a visual search task. Results ( 1 ) The judgment accuracy of earthquake anxious children was lower than normal children's significantly ( ( 0.95 ± 0.01 ), ( 0. 98 ± 0. 01 ), P ＜0.01 ). ( 2 ) The reaction time of earthquake anxious children was significantly longer than normal children' s ((1664.5 ± 78.5 ) ms, ( 1110.7 ± 78.5 ) ms, P ＜ 0. 01 ). ( 3 ) There was significantly faster performance in the valid condition than in the neutral( ( 1304.7 ± 61.3 ) ms, ( 1382. 3 ± 47.4 ) ms, P ＜ 0. 05 ) and invalid condition ( ((1304.7 ± 61.3 )ms, (1475.8 ± 71.5 )ms; P ＜ 0. 05 ), as well as faster performance in the neutral than in the invalid condition ((1382.3 ± 47.4) ms, ( 1475.8 ± 71.5 ) ms, P ＜ 0.05 ) in all children. Conclusion The performance of earthquake anxious children on top-down attentional control task is less than normal children. It indicates that anxious emotion which is brought by traumatic incidents like earthquake influents earthquake anxious children' s cognitive processing ability. Key words: Wenchuan earthquake; Anxious children; Attentional control

Cognitive Processing Deficits and Students with Specific Learning Disabilities: A Selective Meta-Analysis of the Literature

Many practitioners and state education agency staff would likely agree that the accuracy and consistency of specific learning disability (SLD) eligibility decisions is in need of improvement. One component of the SLD definition particularly controversial in the identification procedures is the evaluation of cognitive processes, primarily due to a lack of information about the role they might play in informing an SLD diagnosis and eligibility for special education services. A meta-analysis of 32 studies was conducted to examine the cognitive processing differences between students with SLD and typically achieving peers. The analysis found moderately large to large effect sizes in cognitive processing differences between groups of students with SLD and typically achieving students. These differences are of sufficient magnitude to justify including measures of cognitive processing ability in the evaluation and identification of SLD.

PASS Processes and Early Mathematics Skills in Dutch and Italian Kindergarteners

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between early mathematical skills and cognitive processing abilities for two samples of children in Italy ( N = 40) and the Netherlands ( N = 59) who completed both a cognitive test that measures Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive (PASS) processing and an early mathematical skills test. Correlations between the PASS processes as measured by the Cognitive Assessment System and math tasks showed that Planning and Simultaneous processing were most related to early math skills. Simultaneous processing was most related to the Piagetian tasks and Planning to the counting tasks. Although some differences were found between the Italian and Dutch group on their scores on both tests, the relations between PASS processes and early math skills were comparable for both groups. The results may have implications for early identification of math learning difficulties.

Social Cognitive and Emotion Processing Abilities of Children With Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: A Comparison With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Although children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs) are at high risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), direct comparisons show distinct cognitive phenotypes in the 2 diagnoses. However, these groups have not been directly compared for social problems or social cognition, nor has social cognition been directly examined in FASDs. To compare FASDs and ADHD groups on social cognition tasks and determine whether deficient social cognition and emotion processing predict behavioral problems and social skills. Studied were 33 children with FASDs, 30 with ADHD, and 34 normal controls (NC). All received tasks of social cognition and emotion processing. Parents and teachers rated children on measures of completed questionnaires assessing child's behavioral problems and social skills using the Child Behavior Checklist, Teacher Report Form, and Social Skills Rating Scale. Children received 3 subtests from the Saltzman-Benaiah and Lalonde (2007) Theory of Mind Task as a measure of social cognition and 4 subtests from the Minnesota Test of Affective Processing (Lai et al., 1991) to assess emotion processing. Parents and teachers reported more behavior problems and poorer social skills in children in FASD and ADHD than NC groups. FASDs demonstrated significantly weaker social cognition and facial emotion processing ability than ADHD and NC groups. Regression analyses identified social cognition as a significant predictor of behavior problems and emotion processing as a significant predictor of social skills. Children with FASDs show a distinct behavioral profile from children with ADHD. Difficulties in social cognition and emotion processing in children with FASDs may contribute to their high incidence of social behavioral problems.

Environmental enrichment enhances spatial cognition in rats by reducing thigmotaxis (wall hugging) during testing

Rats, Rattus norvegicus, housed with ‘environmental enrichment’ do better in tests of spatial cognition than rats housed in barren cages. The leading hypothesis is that exposure to ‘social and inanimate complexity’ leads to better cognitive-processing abilities, which directly enhances performance in a spatial task. However, enrichment is associated with reduced stress responses and anxiety in novel or acutely stressful situations (cognitive tasks are typically both). Therefore, a plausible alternative hypothesis is that experience of enrichment indirectly enhances performance by reducing a rat's anxiety levels during cognitive testing. We found that, irrespective of sex, enriched rats outperformed barren-housed rats in the Morris water maze. However, after accounting for the effects of thigmotaxis (a behavioural anxiety measure during testing), there was no significant difference in performance between enriched and barren-housed rats. Enriched rats were simply less thigmotactic and this indirectly improved their performance. This was true for both males and females. We conclude that enrichment reduces anxiety outside the home cage, in a cognitive test situation, and, subsequently, the cognitive benefits of enrichment occur because enriched animals are less anxious during cognitive testing.

Event-Related Brain Oscillations

Neuroelectric oscillations provide important tools to study information processing in the brain. In this paper, major concepts and advantages of event-related oscillations (EROs) are considered, with a focus on their relevance for developmental research. Findings from previous studies in passive and oddball conditions are summarized to demonstrate that the age-dependent power decrease of theta (4–7 Hz) and alpha (8–14 Hz) EROs is accompanied by an increase in the synchronization of these oscillations. New data are presented to test whether this dissociation depends on processing demands in a frequency-specific manner. Results from an auditory serial learning task with working memory activation performed by 70 subjects (children from 6 to 10 years of age and adults) indicate that this effect was observed for theta and slow alpha oscillations, whereas an age-dependent decrease in event-related phase synchronization was found for fast alpha oscillations. It is concluded that phase synchronization of only the major theta and alpha EROs may reflect the neurobiological maturation of neural networks involved in perception. Phase synchronization of EROs, however, especially from faster frequency bands, essentially depends on the mode of network involvement and functional competence, which is associated with cognitive processing abilities or strategies in the course of development.

Creatine supplementation does not improve cognitive function in young adults

Creatine supplementation has been reported to improve certain aspects of cognitive and psychomotor function in older individuals and in young subjects following 24 and 36 h of sleep deprivation. However, the effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive processing and psychomotor performance in non-sleep deprived young adults have not been assessed with a comprehensive battery of neurocognitive tests. The primary objective of this study was to examine the effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive processing and psychomotor performance in young adults. Twenty-two subjects (21 ± 2 yr) ingested creatine (0.03 g/kg/day) or placebo for 6 weeks in a double-blind placebo-controlled fashion. Subjects completed a battery of neurocognitive tests pre- and post-supplementation, including: simple reaction time (RT), code substitution (CS), code substitution delayed (CSD), logical reasoning symbolic (LRS), mathematical processing (MP), running memory (RM), and Sternberg memory recall (MR). There were no significant effects of group, no significant effects of time, and no significant group by time interactions for RT, CS, CSD, LRS, MP, RM, and MR (all p > 0.05), indicating that there were no differences between creatine and placebo supplemented groups at any time. These results suggest that six weeks of creatine supplementation (0.03/g/kg/day) does not improve cognitive processing in non-sleep deprived young adults. Potentially, creatine supplementation only improves cognitive processing and psychomotor performance in individuals who have impaired cognitive processing abilities.