High-level Cognitive Abilities Research Articles

Divergent and Convergent Creativity Are Different Kinds of Foraging.

According to accounts of neural reuse and embodied cognition, higher-level cognitive abilities recycle evolutionarily ancient mechanisms for perception and action. Here, building on these accounts, we investigate whether creativity builds on our capacity to forage in space ("creativity as strategic foraging"). We report systematic connections between specific forms of creative thinking-divergent and convergent-and corresponding strategies for searching in space. U.S. American adults completed two tasks designed to measure creativity. Before each creativity trial, participants completed an unrelated search of a city map. Between subjects, we manipulated the search pattern, with some participants seeking multiple, dispersed spatial locations and others repeatedly converging on the same location. Participants who searched divergently in space were better at divergent thinking but worse at convergent thinking; this pattern reversed for participants who had converged repeatedly on a single location. These results demonstrate a targeted link between foraging and creativity, thus advancing our understanding of the origins and mechanisms of high-level cognition.

Smarter in the city? Lizards from urban and semi-natural habitats do not differ in a cognitive task in two syntopic species

Abstract Urbanization occurs at a global scale, imposing dramatic and abrupt environmental changes that lead to biodiversity loss. Yet, some animal species can handle these changes, and thrive in such artificial environments. One possible explanation is that urban individuals are equipped with better cognitive abilities, but most studies have focused on birds and mammals and yielded varied results. Reptiles have received much less attention, despite some lizard species being common city dwellers. The Italian wall lizard, Podarcis siculus, and the common wall lizard, Podarcis muralis, are two successful lizards in anthropogenic habitats that thrive in urban locations. To test for differences in a cognitive skill between urban and semi-natural environments, we investigated inhibitory control through a detour task in syntopic populations of the two species, across 249 lizards that were tested in partially artificial field settings. Sophisticated inhibitory control is considered essential for higher degrees of cognitive flexibility and other higher-level cognitive abilities. In this task, we confronted lizards with a transparent barrier, separating them from a desired shelter area that they could only reach by controlling their impulse to go straight and instead detour the barrier. We found no differences between lizards in urban and semi-natural environments, nor between species, but females overall performed better than males. Moreover, 48% of the lizards in our study did not perform a correct trial in any of the 5 trials, hinting at the difficulty of the task for these species. This study is among the first to address lizard cognition, through their inhibitory control, as a potential explanation for success in cities and highlights one should be careful with assuming that urban animals generally have enhanced cognitive performance, as it might be taxa, task, or condition dependent.

What does ‘super‐ageing’ mean to high‐functioning Australian older adults?

AbstractBackground‘Super‐ageing’ has been used to refer to older adults who maintain high level cognitive abilities into advanced age. However, there is no universally accepted definition of this phenomenon and it is unclear what older adults think of the term, how it is defined and what benefits studying such individuals may bring.MethodInterviews and focus groups were conducted using a combination of in‐person meetings and online video conferencing with 8 overtly high‐functioning older community members aged between 81 and 101 living in Australia. Interviews were transcribed and thematically analysed.ResultKey themes were independence, having enough cognitive ability to ‘manage yourself’ and ‘do all the things you want to do’ (such things would be different for each individual), contributing meaningfully to society and remaining engaged particularly with younger members of the community. For this group, it was important to not be physically incapacitated or in chronic pain but physical challenges could be coped with if cognition was intact. Longevity in itself was not important. Some elders emphasised broader concepts of valuing older individuals in society, the necessity of individuals and societies to prepare for the challenges of ageing and the notion of being a role model to younger adults.ConclusionSuper‐ageing is a highly individual construct to this small sample of high‐functioning older adults. Functional independence is central but lacking in most research definitions. Some elements that are very important for these older people, such as living a meaningful life or being socially engaged, have not been considered in existing definitions.

A large-scale neurocomputational model of spatial cognition integrating memory with vision

We introduce a large-scale neurocomputational model of spatial cognition called ’Spacecog’, which integrates recent findings from mechanistic models of visual and spatial perception. As a high-level cognitive ability, spatial cognition requires the processing of behaviourally relevant features in complex environments and, importantly, the updating of this information during processes of eye and body movement. The Spacecog model achieves this by interfacing spatial memory and imagery with mechanisms of object localisation, saccade execution, and attention through coordinate transformations in parietal areas of the brain. We evaluate the model in a realistic virtual environment where our neurocognitive model steers an agent to perform complex visuospatial tasks. Our modelling approach opens up new possibilities in the assessment of neuropsychological data and human spatial cognition.

Applications of Reciprocal Teaching in Flipped Classroom to Facilitate High Level of Cognition for Sustainable Learning Practices

In traditional engineering education, students usually have little training on project implementation. Therefore, students have few chances to cultivate and develop their high-level cognitive abilities for the sake of achieving sustainable learning practices. We carried out two consecutive studies to overcome this issue. In both studies, we incorporated a flipped classroom approach into the project-based engineering education curriculum. Twelve junior graduate students majoring in electrical engineering participated in Study 1, and ten junior graduate students participated in Study 2. They all took the Signal Processing of Power Quality Disturbances class and practiced their skills in a computer lab, using LabView software. After we found from the results of Study 1 that the learning activities placed a heavier load on students and their advanced cognitive skills were not developed well, the reciprocal teaching method was introduced to students in Study 2. We assumed that the reciprocal teaching method could improve these outcomes, as well as achieve sustainable learning practices. The results demonstrated that students’ load in Study 2 was reduced, and their high-level cognitive skills improved compared to those in Study 1. Based on these results, we conclude that the reciprocal teaching method can be incorporated into the flipped classroom during project-based engineering education, as it helps prevent students from becoming overloaded, facilitates cognitive abilities from basic to high, and ensures sustainable learning practices.

A memory system of a robot cognitive architecture and its implementation in ArmarX

Cognitive agents such as humans and robots perceive their environment through an abundance of sensors producing streams of data that need to be processed to generate intelligent behavior. A key question of cognition-enabled and AI-driven robotics is how to organize and manage such data and knowledge efficiently in a cognitive robot control architecture. We argue, that memory is a central active component of such architectures that mediates between semantic and sensorimotor representations, orchestrates the flow of data streams and events between different processes and provides the components of a cognitive architecture with data-driven services for learning semantics from sensorimotor data, the parametrization of symbolic plans for execution and prediction of action effects.Based on related work, and the experience gained in developing our ARMAR humanoid robot systems, we identified conceptual and technical requirements of a memory system as central component of cognitive robot control architecture that facilitate the realization of high-level cognitive abilities such as explaining, reasoning, prospection, simulation and augmentation. Conceptually, a memory should be active, support multi-modal data representations, associate knowledge, be introspective, and have an inherently episodic structure. Technically, the memory should support a distributed design, be access-efficient and capable of long-term data storage. We introduce the memory system for our cognitive robot control architecture and its implementation in the robot software framework ArmarX. We evaluate the efficiency of the memory system with respect to transfer speeds, compression, reproduction and prediction capabilities.

Landmark-based spatial navigation across the human lifespan.

Human spatial cognition has been mainly characterized in terms of egocentric (body-centered) and allocentric (world-centered) wayfinding bhavior. It was hypothesized that allocentric spatial coding, as a special high-level cognitive ability, develops later and deteriorates earlier than the egocentric one throughout lifetime. We challenged this hypothesis by testing the use of landmarks versus geometric cues in a cohort of 96 deeply phenotyped participants, who physically navigated an equiangular Y maze, surrounded by landmarks or an anisotropic one. The results show that an apparent allocentric deficit in children and aged navigators is caused specifically by difficulties in using landmarks for navigation while introducing a geometric polarization of space made these participants as efficient allocentric navigators as young adults. This finding suggests that allocentric behavior relies on two dissociable sensory processing systems that are differentially affected by human aging. Whereas landmark processing follows an inverted-U dependence on age, spatial geometry processing is conserved, highlighting its potential in improving navigation performance across the lifespan.

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy in Reading Texts in EFL/ESL Settings

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy in Reading Texts in EFL/ESL Settings

Multilevel Features Fusion of Intelligent Techniques for Brain Imaging Analysis

With the use of multi-level features fusion, this work provides a new method for recognizing cognitive brain activity, which we term the Improved Multi-modal cognitive brain-imaging method (IMCBI). Identifying brain areas and basing judgments on insights into intelligent cognitive behavior for babies and adolescents presents a number of methodological issues that the suggested approach seeks to address. In order to understand how the brain functions during various motor, perceptual, and cognitive tasks, IMCBI employs smart methods for fusing data at several levels. This technique employs functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to assess human behavioral activity in the brain while engaging in a variety of activities. It does so by combining an inter-subject retrieval strategy with deep neural networks (DNN). The research shows that the suggested method, which uses multi-level fusion of features, greatly raises the accuracy ratio to 95.63 percent, the sensitivity to 95.42 percent, and the specificity to 94.3 three point three percent. The findings demonstrate the method's efficacy in recognizing brain activity based on high-level cognitive ability, making it a useful tool for predicting clinical and behavioral responses.

THE EFFECT OF MOOD ON SELF-REPORTED COGNITION FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH HIV

Abstract Older adults with HIV may experience cognitive changes. The Patient Assessment of Own Functioning Inventory (PAOFI) is a self-report measure of cognitive abilities with memory, language, and cognitive/intellectual functions domains. Self-reported cognition can be influenced by many factors. This study examined the relationship between demographics, performance-based cognitive tests, mood, and self-reported cognition in a sample of 23 HIV-positive individuals (mean age=56.7). The PAOFI memory domain positively correlated with depression (PHQ-9; r=.64, p=.001) and anxiety (GAD-7; r=.48, p=.019), but not tests of cognition. The PAOFI cognitive/intellectual functions domain also positively correlated with the PHQ-9 (r=.65, p=.001) and the GAD-7 (r=.66, p=.001), but not cognitive tests. Regression analysis found similar models for both domains. Both models included education, race, anxiety, and delayed recall. Depression was the only unique variable in the memory model, F(5, 17)=4.09, p=.013, R2=.55, and word reading was unique to the cognitive/intellectual functions model, F(5, 15) = 6.91, p = .002, R2 = .70. In contrast, the language domain correlated negatively with four cognitive measures: word reading (r=-.46, p=.038), learning of a word list (r=-.47, p=-.024), delayed recall of a word list (r=-.51, p=.012), and verbal fluency (r=-.49, p=.045). Regression analysis found age, gender, depression, word reading, and delayed recall predict PAOFI language scores, F(5, 15)=6.27, p=.002, R2=.68. These findings suggest mood, demographics, and performance on cognitive tests are related to self-reported cognition. Mood is likely a better predictor of self-reported memory and higher-level cognitive abilities, and cognitive tests may better predict self-reported language abilities.

Flipped Learning 4.0. An extended flipped classroom model with Education 4.0 and organisational learning processes.

This article integrates two visions on the creation of knowledge by students: an academic vision where the person who creates knowledge uses high-level cognitive abilities and, therefore, acquires deeper learning, and an organisational learning vision, where the creation of knowledge adds value to the organisation and the individuals who work in this matter. It starts from a validated flipped classroom model and then adds procedures and cycles of knowledge that make it an active methodology, in such a way that it simultaneously supports organisational learning, using cooperative competencies characteristic of Education 4.0. This proposed hybrid model has been applied online during confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic and, subsequently, in dual mode (students partly in person and the rest online at the same time) and face-to-face mode. The evidence of this research shows that the creation of knowledge by the students, cooperatively and with an organisational learning perspective, has repercussions for improvements in their academic performance by producing deeper learning. In addition, the development of cooperative skills is observed to create and manage a large amount of helpful knowledge for them and other students in their learning process.

No statistical learning advantage in children over adults: Evidence from behaviour and neural entrainment

Explicit recognition measures of statistical learning (SL) suggest that children and adults have similar linguistic SL abilities. However, explicit tasks recruit additional cognitive processes that are not directly relevant for SL and may thus underestimate children’s true SL capacities. In contrast, implicit tasks and neural measures of SL should be less influenced by explicit, higher-level cognitive abilities and thus may be better suited to capturing developmental differences in SL. Here, we assessed SL to six minutes of an artificial language in English-speaking children (n = 56, 24 females, M = 9.98 years) and adults (n = 44; 31 females, M = 22.97 years), using explicit and implicit behavioural measures and an EEG measure of neural entrainment. With few exceptions, children and adults showed largely similar performance on the behavioural explicit and implicit tasks, replicating prior work. Children and adults also demonstrated robust neural entrainment to both words and syllables, with a similar time course of word-level entrainment, reflecting learning of the hidden word structure. These results demonstrate that children and adults have similar linguistic SL abilities, even when learning is assessed through implicit performance-based and neural measures.

Set-shifting and inhibition interplay affect the rule-matching bias occurrence during conditional reasoning task.

The rule-matching bias is a common error during conditional reasoning tasks, which refers to a tendency to match responses with the lexical context in the conditional rule and leads to incorrect responses. Conditional reasoning is one of the higher-level cognitive abilities affected by many cognitive skills. We aimed to determine whether inhibition and set-shifting skills with rule-matching bias occurrence could be related and, if so, to what quantitative, at a statistically significant level. A total of 30 healthy university students aged 18 to 30 participated in this study. We used the Wason's Selection Task (WST) to measure conditional reasoning and investigated their inhibition and set-shifting skills with the Stroop and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, respectively. Results showed a significant positive correlation between the number of correct responses to the Stroop test and the Wason Selection Card Test (p=0.614). There was a positive correlation between the number of correct responses to the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and the Wason Selection Card Test (p=0.423). Participants with higher inhibition and set-shifting abilities showed better performance in the conditional reasoning test and lower rule-matching bias errors.

ĐÁNH GIÁ KHUYẾT TẬT HỌC TẬP: XU THẾ HIỆN NAY VÀ ĐỊNH HƯỚNG TRÊN PHƯƠNG DIỆN NGHIÊN CỨU Ở VIỆT NAM

Learning disability assessment has an important role in the recognition, detection, intervention, and using support methods for learning disabilities. Assessment of learning disabilities is an integrated process of component assessments that includes main areas: Assessment of high-level neurological function, cognitive ability, learning ability, and assessment of behavior and development. Currently, there are a number of assessment tools available for learning disabilities in Vietnam. However, the interconnection of the tools, the general view of the evaluation results, the method of combining the evaluation results and the ability to update new standards of these tools, the standardized nature of tools is an issue that needs to be studied in the future.

Executive functioning deficits exacerbate posttraumatic stress symptoms: A longitudinal mediation model

Executive functioning (EF) consists of a set of related, but distinct, higher-level cognitive abilities that are used to organize and integrate lower-level processes in the service of engaging in goal-direct behavior. Evidence suggests that deficits in EF are a vulnerability factor for the development of posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms. Less understood, however, is the role that EF plays in symptom maintenance and exacerbation following trauma exposure. As such, the primary purpose of the present study was to determine whether EF deficits exacerbate PTS symptoms over the course of one year. A secondary aim of this study was to use a cross-lagged design to determine the directional relations among EF deficits and PTS. Trauma-exposed adults (N = 98) completed a clinical interview and self-report measures at an initial assessment session (Time 1 [T1]). Participants also completed self-report measures at 6- (Time 2 [T2]; n = 92) and 12-month (Time 3 [T3]; n = 91) follow-up sessions. As predicted, EF deficits at T2 mediated the relationship between PTS symptoms from T1 to T3, thus suggesting that EF deficits exacerbate PTS symptoms following trauma exposure. Results from a cross-lagged path analysis from T2 to T3 suggest that deficits in EF exert a stronger influence on the maintenance of PTS symptoms than vice versa. These results have implications for (a) identifying individuals that are at elevated risk for developing PTS symptoms, (b) developing precision medicine-based approaches for alleviating PTS symptoms, and (c) improving well-established PTSD treatments for those with relative deficits in EF.

Processing Speed Predicts Mean Performance in Task-Switching but Not Task-Switching Cost.

In several studies, it has been suggested that task-switching performance is linked to processing speed. Here we argue that the relation between processing speed and high-level cognitive ability found in previous studies may be due to confounded measurements of processing speed and task-switching ability. In the present study, we required participants to complete an inspection time (IT) task to probe their processing speed. We employed conventional task-switching paradigms but applied a linear integrated speed-accuracy score (LISAS) which combines latency and accuracy scores to express task-switching ability. The results of regression analyses show that IT predicted average performance in task-switching paradigms. However, IT did not relate to any specific effects common in the task-switching task, which contradicts previous results. Our results suggest independent mechanisms of processing speed and tasks that require a high level of cognitive flexibility and control.

Gradual Restraint Habituation for Awake Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Combined With a Sparse Imaging Paradigm Reduces Motion Artifacts and Stress Levels in Rodents.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging, as a non-invasive technique, offers unique opportunities to assess brain function and connectivity under a broad range of applications, ranging from passive sensory stimulation to high-level cognitive abilities, in awake animals. This approach is confounded, however, by the fact that physical restraint and loud unpredictable acoustic noise must inevitably accompany fMRI recordings. These factors induce marked stress in rodents, and stress-related elevations of corticosterone levels are known to alter information processing and cognition in the rodent. Here, we propose a habituation strategy that spans specific stages of adaptation to restraint, MRI noise, and confinement stress in awake rats and circumvents the need for surgical head restraint. This habituation protocol results in stress levels during awake fMRI that do not differ from pre-handling levels and enables stable image acquisition with very low motion artifacts. For this, rats were gradually trained over a period of three weeks and eighteen training sessions. Stress levels were assessed by analysis of fecal corticosterone metabolite levels and breathing rates. We observed significant drops in stress levels to below pre-handling levels at the end of the habituation procedure. During fMRI in awake rats, after the conclusion of habituation and using a non-invasive head-fixation device, breathing was stable and head motion artifacts were minimal. A task-based fMRI experiment, using acoustic stimulation, conducted 2 days after the end of habituation, resulted in precise whole brain mapping of BOLD signals in the brain, with clear delineation of the expected auditory-related structures. The active discrimination by the animals of the acoustic stimuli from the backdrop of scanner noise was corroborated by significant increases in BOLD signals in the thalamus and reticular formation. Taken together, these data show that effective habituation to awake fMRI can be achieved by gradual and incremental acclimatization to the experimental conditions. Subsequent BOLD recordings, even during superimposed acoustic stimulation, reflect low stress-levels, low motion and a corresponding high-quality image acquisition. Furthermore, BOLD signals obtained during fMRI indicate that effective habituation facilitates selective attention to sensory stimuli that can in turn support the discrimination of cognitive processes in the absence of stress confounds.

A comparative study of executive functions indices among children with different types of specific learning disabilities: Psychometric properties of BRIEF-2

Introduction: Executive functions are a set of high-level cognitive abilities that are related to the educational problems of children. Aim: This research aimed to investigate psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second Edition (BRIEF-2) and compare its indices among children with different types of specific learning disabilities (SLD). Method: This study was descriptive psychometric and causal-comparative research. The statistical population consisted of the 6-12-year-old-girls and boys with SLD, Isfahan city, in 2020-2021. A total of 346 students were selected using a convenience sampling method. The achievement tests were then taken, and BRIEF-2 was completed by their parents. The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, differentiation analysis, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, split-half reliability coefficient, and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) via SPSS.23.0 and AMOS.24.0 software. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis results showed that this scale has acceptable fit indices values (RMSEA=0.072), and construct validity and discriminant validity are confirmed (P<0.001). In addition, the results of Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.896) and split-half reliability coefficient (0.814) showed that the questionnaire has good reliability. Furthermore, MANOVA results indicated a significant difference between the indices of the BRIEF-2 and the type of learning disabilities (P<0.05). Conclusion: The BRIEF-2 has good psychometric properties to evaluate the executive functions in 6-12-year-old children with SLD. Considering the significant relationship between the indices of the BRIEF-2 and the type of learning disabilities, the weakness in the indices of executive functions may be probably associated with children' learning problems.

Relationships between apparent cortical thickness and working memory across the lifespan - Effects of genetics and socioeconomic status

Working memory (WM) supports several higher-level cognitive abilities, yet we know less about factors associated with development and decline in WM compared to other cognitive processes. Here, we investigated lifespan changes in WM capacity and their structural brain correlates, using a longitudinal sample including 2358 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and WM scores from 1656 participants (4.4–86.4 years, mean follow-up interval 4.3 years). 8764 participants (9.0–10.9 years) with MRI, WM scores and genetic information from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study were used for follow-up analyses. Results showed that both the information manipulation component and the storage component of WM improved during childhood and adolescence, but the age-decline could be fully explained by reductions in passive storage capacity alone. Greater WM function in development was related to apparent thinner cortex in both samples, also when general cognitive function was accounted for. The same WM-apparent thickness relationship was found for young adults. The WM-thickness relationships could not be explained by SNP-based co-heritability or by socioeconomic status. A larger sample with genetic information may be necessary to disentangle the true gene-environment effects. In conclusion, WM capacity changes greatly through life and has anatomically extended rather than function-specific structural cortical correlates.

Persistent Activity During Working Memory From Front to Back.

Working memory (WM) extends the duration over which information is available for processing. Given its importance in supporting a wide-array of high level cognitive abilities, uncovering the neural mechanisms that underlie WM has been a primary goal of neuroscience research over the past century. Here, we critically review what we consider the two major “arcs” of inquiry, with a specific focus on findings that were theoretically transformative. For the first arc, we briefly review classic studies that led to the canonical WM theory that cast the prefrontal cortex (PFC) as a central player utilizing persistent activity of neurons as a mechanism for memory storage. We then consider recent challenges to the theory regarding the role of persistent neural activity. The second arc, which evolved over the last decade, stemmed from sophisticated computational neuroimaging approaches enabling researchers to decode the contents of WM from the patterns of neural activity in many parts of the brain including early visual cortex. We summarize key findings from these studies, their implications for WM theory, and finally the challenges these findings pose. Our goal in doing so is to identify barriers to developing a comprehensive theory of WM that will require a unification of these two “arcs” of research.