Fundamental Cognitive Mechanisms Research Articles

Specialised language varieties: When a cognitive framework can explain semantic changes

The aim of this paper is to explore the role of semantic change in the creation and development of scientific, and the interaction between this and common everyday language. To this end, the theoretical tenets of Dik Geraeerts’s Diachronic Prototype Semantics plus ideas on the influence of cognitive linguistics (George Lakoff) on semantic change as developed by Gyori Gabor have been taken into account. The analysis of terms found in astronomy and history texts from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries reveals that metaphor is the fundamental cognitive mechanism involved in meaning shifts from scientific to common core vocabulary use.

Sadness increases distraction by auditory deviant stimuli.

Research shows that attention is ineluctably captured away from a focal visual task by rare and unexpected changes (deviants) in an otherwise repeated stream of task-irrelevant auditory distractors (standards). The fundamental cognitive mechanisms underlying this effect have been the object of an increasing number of studies but their sensitivity to mood and emotions remains relatively unexplored despite suggestion of greater distractibility in negative emotional contexts. In this study, we examined the effect of sadness, a widespread form of emotional distress and a symptom of many disorders, on distraction by deviant sounds. Participants received either a sadness induction or a neutral mood induction by means of a mixed procedure based on music and autobiographical recall prior to taking part in an auditory-visual oddball task in which they categorized visual digits while ignoring task-irrelevant sounds. The results showed that although all participants exhibited significantly longer response times in the visual categorization task following the presentation of rare and unexpected deviant sounds relative to that of the standard sound, this distraction effect was significantly greater in participants who had received the sadness induction (a twofold increase). The residual distraction on the subsequent trial (postdeviance distraction) was equivalent in both groups, suggesting that sadness interfered with the disengagement of attention from the deviant sound and back toward the target stimulus. We propose that this disengagement impairment reflected the monopolization of cognitive resources by sadness and/or associated ruminations. Our findings suggest that sadness can increase distraction even when distractors are emotionally neutral.

The Concepts of Implicit and Non-Institutional Religion

If man is an animal religiosum this suggests that religion is rooted in evolved cognitive and emotional structures of the human brain and mind. Although obviously a cultural system, which takes extraordinarily varied form across different cultures, the application of evolutionary theory and evolutionary psychology to the understanding and explanation of religion, which has become increasingly prevalent in the last decade or so, is potentially a fruitful line of investigation. Rather than religion involving the transcending of our biological nature, as Luckmann argued, this approach would see religion as rooted in that biological nature. There are two rather different stances within evolutionary psychology, namely that which sees religion as a by-product of otherwise adaptive traits, and that which sees religion as itself adaptive, either at the individual or at the social level. These may have rather different implications for the concepts of implicit and non-institutional religion. These concepts might seem to relate more closely to more fundamental cognitive proclivities, rather than to socially adaptive and, consequently, institutionalized forms. The study of implicit and non-institutional forms of religion might thus throw considerable light on such deeply rooted factors. Here a number of fundamental cognitive mechanisms that may be relevant for the concepts of implicit and non-institutionalized religion are briefly examined. From this it is concluded that it may be time to discard a unitary definition of religion as such and concentrate instead on those diverse aspects of what has for so long inevitably defied attempts at coherent definition.

Cognition and the Evolution of Music: Pitfalls and Prospects

What was the role of music in the evolutionary history of human beings? We address this question from the point of view that musicality can be defined as a cognitive trait. Although it has been argued that we will never know how cognitive traits evolved (Lewontin, 1998), we argue that we may know the evolution of music by investigating the fundamental cognitive mechanisms of musicality, for example, relative pitch, tonal encoding of pitch, and beat induction. In addition, we show that a nomological network of evidence (Schmitt & Pilcher, 2004) can be built around the hypothesis that musicality is a cognitive adaptation. Within this network, different modes of evidence are gathered to support a specific evolutionary hypothesis. We show that the combination of psychological, medical, physiological, genetic, phylogenetic, hunter-gatherer, and cross-cultural evidence indicates that musicality is a cognitive adaptation.

Without it no music: beat induction as a fundamental musical trait

Beat induction (BI) is the cognitive skill that allows us to hear a regular pulse in music to which we can then synchronize. Perceiving this regularity in music allows us to dance and make music together. As such, it can be considered a fundamental musical trait that, arguably, played a decisive role in the origins of music. Furthermore, BI might be considered a spontaneously developing, domain-specific, and species-specific skill. Although both learning and perception/action coupling were shown to be relevant in its development, at least one study showed that the auditory system of a newborn is able to detect the periodicities induced by a varying rhythm. A related study with adults suggested that hierarchical representations for rhythms (meter induction) are formed automatically in the human auditory system. We will reconsider these empirical findings in the light of the question whether beat and meter induction are fundamental cognitive mechanisms.

Trait anxiety and dynamic adjustments in conflict processing

Recently, it has been assumed that high- and low-trait-anxious subjects differ in the way they use fundamental cognitive control mechanisms. The present study was designed to further elucidate this topic by focusing on trial-to-trial adjustments in neuronal correlates of conflict processing. An electroencephalogram was recorded while subjects (N = 71) performed a gender discrimination version of the Stroop task. The conflict-related N400 of the ERP was influenced by an interaction between trait anxiety and previous trial context: An additional negative-going deflection in the N400 range was observed when the target-distractor pairing of the directly preceding trial was incongruent, but only in highly anxious subjects. Thus, highly anxious subjects appear to more strongly engage neuronal modules involved in conflict monitoring when previously exposed to a high stimulus-response conflict. These results indicate that trait anxiety is crucially linked to the way the cognitive system dynamically adapts to recent demands.

Patients' Health Literacy and Experience With Instructions

We developed a pharmacist-based patient education intervention to improve older adults' adherence to chronic heart failure (CHF) medications, which included written patient-centered instructions. The study evaluated these instructions by examining whether patients preferred them to standard pharmacy instructions. Elders diagnosed with CHF participated in the randomized controlled trial (83 in the intervention; 153 in usual care control group). Instruction preferences were collected after 6 months of participation. Patient-centered instructions were preferred for learning about adherence information (e.g., schedule) and standard instructions for learning about drug interactions. Preference for the patient-centered instructions was greater for intervention versus control participants and for participants with lower health literacy. Literacy no longer predicted preferences with patients' cognitive abilities controlled, suggesting literacy reflected more fundamental cognitive mechanisms. The finding that preferences varied with patients' experience using the instructions and cognitive abilities suggests instructions should accommodate diverse patient needs and abilities.

Self-Assessment in the Health Professions: A Reformulation and Research Agenda

Many researchers and educators have identified self-assessment as a vital aspect of professional self-regulation.1,2,3 This rationale has been the expressed motivation for a large number of studies of self-assessment ability in medical education, health professional education, and professions educat

Why do providers contribute to disparities and what can be done about it?

This paper applies social cognition research to understanding and ameliorating the provider contribution to racial/ethnic disparities in health care. We discuss how fundamental cognitive mechanisms such as automatic, unconscious processes (e.g., stereotyping) can help explain provider bias. Even well-intentioned providers who are motivated to be nonprejudiced may stereotype racial/ethnic minority members, particularly under conditions of that diminish cognitive capacity. These conditions-time pressure, fatigue, and information overload-are frequently found in health care settings. We conclude with implications of the social-cognitive perspective for developing interventions to reduce provider bias.

The hippocampus, episodic memory, declarative memory, spatial memory…where does it all come together?

It is widely accepted that the hippocampus and related brain areas mediate declarative memory in humans. However, little is known about the fundamental cognitive mechanisms of hippocampal-dependent memory or about the nature of hippocampal neural representations that underlie properties of declarative memory. Here it is proposed that the hippocampus plays a critical role in two ways: first in representing experiences as a series of events and the places where they occur, and second in linking episodic representations to one another by common events. This organization of linked episodic memories supports a capacity for flexible, inferential memory expression. A growing body of data from ablation and recording studies supports this characterization of hippocampal memory processing as a fundamental property of declarative memory.

The hippocampus and declarative memory: cognitive mechanisms and neural codes

It is widely accepted that the hippocampus and related brain areas mediate declarative (or explicit) memory in humans. However, little is known about the fundamental cognitive mechanisms of hippocampal dependent memory or about the nature of hippocampal neural representations that underlie properties of declarative memory. Here, it is proposed that the hippocampus plays a critical role, when distinct personal experiences must be encoded in relation to one another and linked within an organization that supports flexible, inferential memory expression. This set of fundamental cognitive mechanisms is consistent with key properties of declarative memory as observed in humans. Furthermore, emerging evidence from recordings of hippocampal neural activity shows that hippocampal networks encode episodic memories as sequences of events and the places, where they occur. In addition, hippocampal neuronal networks encode events and places that are common across related episodes. This combination of coding properties suggests that the hippocampus contributes to declarative memory by mediating the construction of a ‘memory space’ composed of a network of linked episodic representations.

The hippocampus and mechanisms of declarative memory

The hippocampus is critical to declarative memory in humans and spatial memory in rodents. This review attempts to bridge between these two characterizations of hippocampal dependent memory, and in doing so reveal fundamental cognitive and neural coding mechanisms that are common to both. Evidence is presented that the hippocampus and its connections are critical to the establishment of a systematic organization of memories and to flexible expression of memory outside repetition of the training experience. In addition, evidence is presented that hippocampal neurons encode a broad range of experience and that these codings may be organized as representations of episodes in memory. It is suggested that these episodic codings are linked by common elements to construct an organized representation of acquired knowledge.