Higher Cognitive Skills Research Articles

A natural history of the frontal cortex

The frontal cortex of mammals has been the site of significant reshuffles during the about 310 million years of mammalian evolution. The existence of the frontal lobe is linked to the emergence of major cognitive and motor abilities, from the elaboration of efficient problem-solving strategies to the use of language in human. However, presenting the frontal lobe of the human cortex in an evolutionary perspective is a real challenge, almost a wager lost in advance. Reasons are the following. Although present in all the mammalian species known so far, the frontal lobe, and especially its prefrontal domain, is one of the most variable brain regions among mammalian species, even among individuals. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) exhibits a lot of variations not only in size (from 35% of the total brain volume in human to less than 4% in the cat for example [1] ), but also in its connections, cell composition, branching pattern of neuronal processes, etc. Similar remarks can be made for other domains of the frontal cortex, including the motor and Broca's area for example. These variations do not fit with the phylogenetical position of the corresponding species, even in hominins, precluding any elaboration of a simple scenario of the evolution of the frontal cortex in mammals. Although disappointing at first glance, this observation points to the major influence of environment and lifestyle in shaping the functional anatomy of the frontal lobe during evolution. This has been rendered possible both by the extraordinary plasticity of the development of the frontal lobe, especially of the PFC, and by strong functional selection upon demanding environmental constraints. This is well exemplified by the discrepancies between overall brain volume and the size of the PFC in species like primates, cetaceans or carnivores [2] . Despite these large variations, some building principles seem to be at work to support the main functions of the frontal cortex. The frontal lobe includes the main motor area of the brain in all mammals, with different specializations. In contrast, the PFC is mostly an associative area receiving multimodal sensory cues and establishing connections with the basal ganglia , amygdala, insular and medial temporal cortex , all features conserved in mammals. Its orbito-frontal part is often defined by its afferent connections from the mediodorsal nucleus of thalamus. Then, it receives strong dopaminergic input from the mesocortical pathway , playing a crucial role in executive functions and motor planning. By definition, a PFC does not exist in species other than mammals, since only mammals have a six-layered cortical pallium. It is thus very striking that non-mammalian amniotes such as birds also display high cognitive flexibility and skills qualified as “intelligence”, and also often use languages in social communication, all functions that require a frontal cortex in mammals. In birds, and probably in other vertebrate species also, the same rules of functional organization of the pallium as those found for the mammalian cortex seem to operate and underlie similar sophisticated behaviors. In particular, the identification in some birds of a pallial structure exhibiting most of the main characteristics of the mammalian PFC is striking. Since this pallial structure is not homologous to the PFC in any respect, it strongly suggests that these executive structures have emerged independently during evolution [3] . Thus, very likely, similar functional constraints led the pallium of mammals and birds to converge on similar – yet independent – rules to build “executive” brain areas. Similar convergence holds true for the neural circuits underlying speech and languages, also in birds and primates. These types of convergences certainly exist in other groups of vertebrates such as teleost fishes. The frontal cortex is thus unique to mammals, but not the only one of its kind to have emerged during the evolution of the different vertebrate groups.

Identifying the Relationships Between Response Behaviors for Reading Comprehension Items and Student Characteristics

The study aimed to identify the students’ characteristics (perception of self-efficacy, resistance, persistence, taking responsibility and competence for their cognitive processes) that might affect the response behaviors of fifth grade students for open ended questions written in different cognitive levels. This study was designed as relational survey model research. Sample consisted of 392 5th grade students selected by purposeful sampling from Yenimahalle, Mamak and Cankaya districts in Ankara city. Data was collected with reading comprehension achievement test, response behaviors form and student information survey. Analysis was conducted with 366 students’ data after missing values were removed. MPlus package program was utilized to analyze data and structural equation modelling was used. The findings of the research revealed that response behaviors for open ended questions written in different cognitive levels in Turkish learning area were found to be predicted low and at a significant level by students’ perception of self-efficacy, persistence, resistance, taking responsibility and cognitive skills. It might be concluded that improving children’s perception for cognitive and metacognitive skills can enhance their thinking process, lead them to perform complex response behaviors and affect positively their higher order thinking process. In other words, students with high cognitive and metacognitive skills show higher level response behaviors such as putting themselves into author’s shoes, relating their own life to the event in the text or using imagination. Therefore, they can comprehend what they read easily and express it back.

Analysis of the Impact of Hours of Simulation on HESI Scores

Statement of problem: Undergraduate nursing programs are challenged to develop high cognitive skills in students and prepare them for practice readiness. Limited clinical placements that offer a narrow exposure to clinical experiences to prepare nursing students adequately to apply their knowledge are a growing concern. Simulation experiences allow students the opportunity to acquire competencies necessary to apply knowledge to practice. Is there a direct relationship between increased hours of simulation to students’ readiness for practice? Purpose: To determine if there is a relationship between hours of simulation received and student performance on HESI exam to better explain the relationship of simulation to student knowledge acquisition and application. Goals: Provide evidence of impact of simulation on nursing student knowledge. This study will provide information that may guide undergraduate nursing curriculum development specifically surrounding clinical hours. Objectives: To determine if there is a relationship between the number of hours of simulation received and student performance on a standardized exam. Plan: Challenges for clinical placements required innovative strategies to meet the clinical requirements within this organization. The use of simulation in place of clinical hours was being done, but cohorts were receiving different numbers of hours. A retrospective look at each of the cohorts was done to determine simulation hours received. Data was collected from each cohort’s HESI exam results and compared. Outcomes and Results: The analysis of data revealed that 6 hours of simulation is a minimum number of hours that will have a positive impact on student learning, and 12 hours showed the greatest impact on students within this study. The data does not appear to reach saturation one cannot prove that only 6 or 12 hours of simulation should be considered as all levels are statistically significant. One cannot prove that additional hours is a waste of time or that student learning has reached a plateau.

The flipped classroom in dental education - Learning beyond the four walls of the classroom

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Introduction: The 'Flipped Classroom' is a technology based approach, where the traditional class time and self-study activities are reversed or 'flipped'. In this model, low level cognitive skill like 'knowledge acquisition' are assigned to the students outside the classroom and activities that require higher cognitive skills like application and problem solving are done under the guidance of teacher in the classroom. We present a case study which was conducted at faculty of dentistry, Melaka Manipal Medical College to train year 3 dental students in prosthodontics using flipped model. Methods: The study was conducted at Faculty of Dentistry, Melaka Manipal Medical College, for the year 3 BDS students. We created four short videos, each of 15 minutes' duration, on the four cast partial denture topics. Reading materials and case examples were also provided to the students to go through before coming to class. For the classroom activity we chose real patient cases, with models and description. Students were asked to apply the principles and design a cast partial denture with justification to enhance critical thinking. Hands on experience on manipulation of impression materials was given to the students. We present a case study which was conducted at Faculty of Dentistry, Melaka-Manipal Medical College to train year 3 dental students in Prosthodontics using the flipped model. Results: Student reflections were collected and four main themes were generated which were qualitatively analyzed. Students highlighted that there was flexibility in learning and could revisit lectures whenever needed. They liked that the classroom activities were interactive and promoted collaborative and peer learning. Conclusion: The flipped classroom can enable students to be better prepared for the clinical experience and the teachers can expose them to problem solving and critical thinking components utilizing the teaching time allocated.

A Dynamic Model of Personality, Schooling, and Occupational Choice

This paper develops a dynamic model of schooling and occupational choices that incorporates personality traits, as measured by the so-called “big five” traits. The model is estimated using the HILDA dataset from Australia. Personality traits are found to play an important role in explaining education and occupation choices over the lifecycle. Results show that individuals with a comparative advantage in schooling and white-collar work have, on average, higher cognitive skills and higher personality trait scores. Allowing personality traits to evolve with age and with schooling proves to be important to capture the heterogeneity in how people respond to educational policies. The estimated model is used to evaluate two education policies: compulsory senior secondary school and a 50% college tuition subsidy. Both policies are effective in increasing educational attainment. They also affect personality traits.

More Women in Tech? Evidence from a Field Experiment Addressing Social Identity

This paper investigates whether social identity considerations-through beliefs and norms- drive women's occupational choices. We implement two field experiments with potential applicants to a five-month software-coding program offered to women from low-income backgrounds in Peru and Mexico. When we correct the perception that women cannot succeed in technology by providing role models, information on returns and access to a female network, application rates double and the self-selection patterns change. Analysis of those patterns suggests that identity considerations act as barriers to entering the technology sector and that some high-cognitive skill women do not apply because of their high identity costs.

Early life undernutrition and adult height: The Dutch famine of 1944–45

Current research shows strong associations between adult height and several positive outcomes such as higher cognitive skills, better earning capacity, increased chance of marriage and better health. It is therefore relevant to investigate the determinants of adult height. There is mixed evidence on the effects of undernutrition during early life on adult height. Therefore, our study aims at assessing the impact of undernutrition during gestation and at ages younger than 15 on adult height.We used data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Exposure to undernutrition was determined by place of residence during the Dutch famine during World War II. Included respondents were born between 15 May 1930 and 1 November 1945 and lived in the northern part of the Netherlands during the famine period (n=1008). Exposure data was collected using interviews and questionnaires and adult height was measured. Exposed and non-exposed respondents were classified in the age categories pregnancy- age 1 (n=85), age 1–5 (n=323), age 6–10 (n=326) or puberty (age 11–15, n=274). Linear regression analyses were used to test the associations of adult height with exposure. The robustness of the regression results was tested with sensitivity analyses.In the models adjusted for covariates (i.e., number of siblings, education level of parents, and year of birth) and stratified by gender, adult height was significantly shorter for females exposed at ages younger than 1 (−4.45cm [−7.44–−1.47]) or at ages younger than 2 (−4.08cm [−7.20–−0.94]). The results for males were only borderline significant for exposure under age 1 (−3.16 [−6.82–0.49]) and significant for exposure under age 2 (−4.09cm [−7.20–−0.96]). Exposure to the Dutch famine at other ages was not consistently significantly associated with adult height.In terms of public health relevance, the study’s results further underpin the importance of supporting pregnant women and young parents exposed to undernutrition.

Using visual processing training to enhance standard cognitive remediation outcomes in schizophrenia: A pilot study

Approaches to cognitive remediation (CR) that address sensory perceptual skills before higher cognitive skills, have been found to be effective in enhancing cognitive performance in schizophrenia. To date, however, most of the conducted trials have concentrated on auditory processing. The aim of this study was to explore whether the addition of visual processing training could enhance standard cognitive remediation outcomes in a schizophrenia population. Twenty participants were randomised to either receive 20h of computer-assisted cognitive remediation alone or 20h of visual processing training modules and cognitive remediation training. All participants were assessed at baseline and at the end of cognitive remediation training on cognitive and psychosocial (i.e. self-esteem, quality of life) measures. At the end of the study participants across both groups improved significantly in overall cognition and psychosocial functioning. No significant differences were observed between groups on any of the measures. Of potential interest, however, was that the Cohen's d assessing the between group difference in the rates of change were moderate/large for a greater improvement in Visual Learning, Working Memory and Social Cognition for the visual training plus cognitive remediation group. On the basis of our effect sizes on three domains of cognition, we recommend replicating this intervention with a larger sample.

Anchoring and Overconfidence: The Influence of Culture and Cognitive Abilities

Abstract Anchoring and overconfidence are some of the best-known biases in psychology and behavioral finance literature. While a number of studies have investigated the evidence of these biases and explored the motives and human factors that contribute to the one’s susceptibility to the effects, little is known about the cultural factors behind these heuristic biases. This paper aims to fill the research gap and shows the differences in proneness to the anchoring effect and overconfidence in two samples of students from Poland and India. The purpose of the study is twofold: to analyze susceptibility to behavioral effects relative to cultural background; and to consider the subjects’ cognitive abilities as a potential factor in their exposure to behavioral biases and confirm that subjects with higher cognitive skills, measured by the cognitive reflection test (CRT) display less susceptibility to the above heuristic biases.

Do Schools Reinforce or Reduce Learning Gaps between Advantaged and Disadvantaged Students? Evidence from Vietnam and Peru.

This paper examines - for two developing countries, Vietnam and Peru - whether disadvantaged children learn less than advantaged children when both types of children are enrolled in the same school. This is done by estimating education production functions that contain two school fixed effects for each school, one for advantaged children and one for disadvantaged children. The paper examines six different definitions of advantage, based on household wealth, cognitive skills at age 5, gender, ethnicity (Peru only), maternal education, and nutritional status. The results show no sign that schools are less effective for disadvantaged groups in Vietnam; indeed if anything one traditionally advantaged group, males, seems to do worse in school than the corresponding disadvantaged group, females. In contrast, in Peru ethnic minority students and students who enter primary school with low cognitive skills appear to learn less in school than ethnic majority students and students with relatively high cognitive skills, respectively, who are enrolled in the same school.

Recreational 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine or 'ecstasy': Current perspective and future research prospects.

The purpose of this article is to debate current understandings about the psychobiological effects of recreational 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or 'ecstasy'), and recommend theoretically-driven topics for future research. Recent empirical findings, especially those from novel topic areas were reviewed. Potential causes for the high variance often found in group findings were also examined. The first empirical reports into psychobiological and psychiatric aspects from the early 1990s concluded that regular users demonstrated some selective psychobiological deficits, for instance worse declarative memory, or heightened depression. More recent research has covered a far wider range of psychobiological functions, and deficits have emerged in aspects of vision, higher cognitive skill, neurohormonal functioning, and foetal developmental outcomes. However, variance levels are often high, indicating that while some recreational users develop problems, others are less affected. Potential reasons for this high variance are debated. An explanatory model based on multi-factorial causation is then proposed. A number of theoretically driven research topics are suggested, in order to empirically investigate the potential causes for these diverse psychobiological deficits. Future neuroimaging studies should study the practical implications of any serotonergic and/or neurohormonal changes, using a wide range of functional measures.

Does everyone use probabilities? The role of cognitive skills

What is the role of cognitive skills in decision making under uncertainty? We address this question by examining the relationship between responses to survey questions about subjective probabilities of stock market returns and stock holding decisions. Based on data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we find that for individuals with lower cognitive skills the association between measured probabilities and decisions is weaker than for individuals with higher cognitive skills. Additional evidence suggests that individuals with lower cognitive skills are more likely to give heuristic answers to questions about stock return probabilities. A likely explanation is that individuals with lower cognitive skills have a fuzzier mental representation of stock returns that cannot be captured by a unique well-defined probability distribution. In contrast, individuals with higher cognitive skills are more likely to act as if subjective probabilities are meaningful measures of uncertainty. We discuss whether or not the behavior of the latter can be seen as more “rational”.

Yielding Self-Perception in Robots Through Sensorimotor Contingencies

We address self-perception in robots as the key for world understanding and causality interpretation. We present a self-perception mechanism that enables a humanoid robot to understand certain sensory changes caused by naive actions during interaction with objects. Visual, proprioceptive and tactile cues are combined via artificial attention and probabilistic reasoning to permit the robot to discern between inbody and outbody sources in the scene. With that support and exploiting intermodal sensory contingencies, the robot can infer simple concepts such as discovering potential “usable” objects. Theoretically and through experimentation with a real humanoid robot, we show how self-perception is a backdrop ability for high order cognitive skills. Moreover, we present a novel model for self-detection, which does not need to track the body parts. Furthermore, results show that the proposed approach successfully discovers objects in the reaching space, improving scene understanding by discriminating real objects from visual artifacts.

Profiles of Social-Emotional Readiness for 4-Year-Old Kindergarten.

Children who are viewed as ready for kindergarten and/or first grade typically exhibit high attention, approach, and adaptability coupled with low activity and reactivity. These characteristics tend to be especially valued by teachers and describe a child who is “teachable,” or school ready. Since many children enter formal schooling earlier by attending pre-K for 4-year olds, often called 4-year-old kindergarten, there is a need to examine school readiness earlier than kindergarten, which may look very different developmentally. If we expect children to enter formal schooling at age 4, then it should be clear what we expect of them in order to succeed. We explored which temperament, behavior, and cognitive items teachers of 4-year-old kindergarten (N = 29) rated as highly characteristic versus uncharacteristic of ready 4-year-olds. This teacher-generated data identified five clusters of children who were deemed ready for 4-year-old kindergarten. Teachers noted high cognitive skills and following directions as salient in many of the clusters, which aligns with the readiness expectations for kindergarten and first grade. However, items that distinguished the five clusters from one another referenced differences in activity level, sociability, shyness, enthusiasm, and patience that were not expected based on the previous literature with slightly older children. Given that some of the children teachers identified as especially ready for 4-year-old kindergarten did not fit this static model of a “teachable” child, a single profile of school readiness at an early age may be inappropriate.

Professional nurses' understanding of clinical judgement: A contextual inquiry

Higher cognitive skills are essential competencies for nurses joining the technologically and increasingly complex health care environment to provide safe and effective nursing care. Educators and clinical facilitators have recognised that newly qualified nurses do not meet the expectations for entry level clinical judgement and are held accountable for finding adequate learning experiences as preparation for such practice demands. An explorative and descriptive qualitative design was followed in this study to reach an understanding of clinical judgement in the clinical nursing environment from the perspective of professional nurses. Eleven professional nurses (n = 11) working at primary health care clinics, public and private hospitals participated voluntarily. Data was collected by means of the “World Cafe” method, incorporating a combination of techniques such as interviewing, discussions, drawings, narratives and reflection. The focus was on professional nurses' knowledge of the meaning of clinical judgement and factors influencing the development of clinical judgement in the clinical environment. Qualitative thematic content analysis principles were applied during data analysis. The findings were integrated with the relevant literature to culminate in conclusions that should add to the knowledge base of clinical judgement as an essential skill for improving autonomous and accountable nursing care.

The impact of item-writing flaws and item complexity on examination item difficulty and discrimination value.

BackgroundFailure to adhere to standard item-writing guidelines may render examination questions easier or more difficult than intended. Item complexity describes the cognitive skill level required to obtain a correct answer. Higher cognitive examination items promote critical thinking and are recommended to prepare students for clinical training. This study evaluated faculty-authored examinations to determine the impact of item-writing flaws and item complexity on the difficulty and discrimination value of examination items used to assess third year veterinary students.MethodsThe impact of item-writing flaws and item complexity (cognitive level I-V) on examination item difficulty and discrimination value was evaluated on 1925 examination items prepared by clinical faculty for third year veterinary students.ResultsThe mean (± SE) percent correct (83.3 % ± 17.5) was consistent with target values in professional education, and the mean discrimination index (0.18 ± 0.17) was slightly lower than recommended (0.20). More than one item-writing flaw was identified in 37.3 % of questions. The most common item-writing flaws were awkward stem structure, implausible distractors, longest response is correct, and responses are series of true-false statements. Higher cognitive skills (complexity level III-IV) were required to correctly answer 38.4 % of examination items. As item complexity increased, item difficulty and discrimination values increased. The probability of writing discriminating, difficult examination items decreased when implausible distractors and all of the above were used, and increased if the distractors were comprised of a series of true/false statements. Items with four distractors were not more difficult or discriminating than items with three distractors.ConclusionPreparation of examination questions targeting higher cognitive levels will increase the likelihood of constructing discriminating items. Use of implausible distractors to complete a five-option multiple choice question does not strengthen the discrimination value.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-016-0773-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Professional nurses' understanding of clinical judgement: A contextual inquiry

Higher cognitive skills are essential competencies for nurses joining the technologically and increasingly complex health care environment to provide safe and effective nursing care. Educators and clinical facilitators have recognised that newly qualified nurses do not meet the expectations for entry level clinical judgement and are held accountable for finding adequate learning experiences as preparation for such practice demands. An explorative and descriptive qualitative design was followed in this study to reach an understanding of clinical judgement in the clinical nursing environment from the perspective of professional nurses. Eleven professional nurses (n = 11) working at primary health care clinics, public and private hospitals participated voluntarily. Data was collected by means of the “World Café” method, incorporating a combination of techniques such as interviewing, discussions, drawings, narratives and reflection. The focus was on professional nurses' knowledge of the meaning of clinical judgement and factors influencing the development of clinical judgement in the clinical environment. Qualitative thematic content analysis principles were applied during data analysis. The findings were integrated with the relevant literature to culminate in conclusions that should add to the knowledge base of clinical judgement as an essential skill for improving autonomous and accountable nursing care.

Not All Income Is the Same to Everyone: Cognitive Ability and the House Money Effect in Public Goods Games

The provision of public goods often suffers from a social dilemma generating too little contributions. Yet, it remains an open question how positive contributions materialise. Existing studies suggest that individuals' decisions on how much to contribute depend on cognitive skills. Furthermore, mental accounting research indicates that the source of income matters for economic decision making. I show experimentally that subjects' contributions in a one-shot linear public goods game depend on an interplay of the two factors. While a house money effect exists for subjects with low cognitive skills there is no such effect for those with high cognitive skills. My findings have important implications for taxation, redistribution, and voting behaviour, as well as past and future experiments.

Disentangling Two Causes of Biased Probability Judgment Cognitive Skills and Perception of Randomness

This experimental study investigates the interaction of two influential factors of biased probability judgments. Results provide new insights on the preconditions for an application of either the gambler’s fallacy or its exact opponent, the hot hand fallacy. The first factor is cognitive ability, measured in a cognitive reflection test. The second one is the level of perceived randomness in the observed outcomes. Probability judgments are found to vary significantly across salience of randomness treatments as well as across subgroups with high or low cognitive abilities. Like in previous research, subjects with higher cognitive skills are more likely to engage the gambler’s fallacy, yet only if perception of sequential randomness is low. In a setting where randomness is very salient the exact opposite can be observed. Similarly surprising insights are revealed when controlling for cognitive abilities in the analysis of salience treatments. Past results are only confirmed for a subgroup with lower cognitive skills, while their peers’ beliefs are completely opposite.

Inteligencia emocional y logros académicos: ¿influyen en el liderazgo?

Throughout the years, the higher levels of corporations management, have built a better understanding of the way in which the cognitive and emotional skills of their staff have been a sustainable source of success and durability of their organizations, considering leadership as means for goal achievement. Today, in their historical role as providers of knowledge, universities face the challenge of training professionals with high cognitive skills and a deep level of reflection. Therefore, the purpose of the academia has expanded to the training of professionals with high interpersonal communication skills. In order to develop these skills, they need to identify and strengthen the students’ competencies from the classrooms themselves; the goal is to guarantee high performance in the academic, professional, social and personal areas.