Cognitive Instrument Research Articles

Validity of the MemTrax Memory Test Compared to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment in the Detection of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia due to Alzheimer's Disease in a Chinese Cohort.

A valid, reliable, accessible, engaging, and affordable digital cognitive screen instrument for clinical use is in urgent demand. To assess the clinical utility of the MemTrax memory test for early detection of cognitive impairment in a Chinese cohort. The 2.5-minute MemTrax and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) were performed by 50 clinically diagnosed cognitively normal (CON), 50 mild cognitive impairment due to AD (MCI-AD), and 50 Alzheimer's disease (AD) volunteer participants. The percentage of correct responses (MTx-% C), the mean response time (MTx-RT), and the composite scores (MTx-Cp) of MemTrax and the MoCA scores were comparatively analyzed and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves generated. Multivariate linear regression analyses indicated MTx-% C, MTx-Cp, and the MoCA score were significantly lower in MCI-AD versus CON and in AD versus MCI-AD groups (all with p≤0.001). For the differentiation of MCI-AD from CON, an optimized MTx-% C cutoff of 81% had 72% sensitivity and 84% specificity with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.839, whereas the MoCA score of 23 had 54% sensitivity and 86% specificity with an AUC of 0.740. For the differentiation of AD from MCI-AD, MTx-Cp of 43.0 had 70% sensitivity and 82% specificity with an AUC of 0.799, whereas the MoCA score of 20 had 84% sensitivity and 62% specificity with an AUC of 0.767. MemTrax can effectively detect both clinically diagnosed MCI and AD with better accuracy as compared to the MoCA based on AUCs in a Chinese cohort.

Adults with autism spectrum disorder show atypical patterns of thoughts and feelings during rest.

Mind wandering constitutes a major part of everyday experience and is inherently related to how we feel and identify ourselves. Thus, probing the character and content of thoughts and feelings experienced during mind-wandering episodes could lead to a better understanding of the human mind in health and disease. How mind wandering and spontaneous thought processes are affected in disorders such as autism is poorly understood. Here, we used the eyes-closed rest condition to stimulate mind wandering and quantified the subjective experiences using the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire—which quantifies subjective psychological states of resting-state cognition across 10 domains—in 88 adults with autism spectrum disorder and 90 controls. We observed an atypical pattern of both thoughts and feelings in the autism spectrum disorder cohort, specifically in the domains of Theory of Mind, Comfort, and Discontinuity of Mind. We propose that the use of the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire as a standardized cognitive instrument could advance our understanding of thoughts and feelings in autism spectrum disorder as well as in a wide variety of other brain disorders and how these may change due to therapeutic interventions.Lay abstractEveryone knows the feeling of letting one’s mind wander freely in a quiet moment. The thoughts and feelings experienced in those moments have been shown to influence our well-being—and vice versa. In this study, we looked at which thoughts and feelings are being experienced by adults with autism spectrum disorder and compared them to adults without autism spectrum disorder. In total, 88 adults with autism spectrum disorder and 90 adults without autism spectrum disorder were asked to rest for 5 min with their eyes closed and let their mind wander. Directly after, they filled in the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire, which probes what participants were feeling and thinking during the period of rest. We found that adults with autism spectrum disorder tend to think less about others, felt less comfortable, and had more disrupted thoughts during the rest compared to adults without autism spectrum disorder. Interestingly, autism spectrum disorder participants reporting lower levels of comfort during the rest also reported more autism spectrum disorder symptoms, specifically in social behaviors and skills, attention switching, and imagination. We propose to use the eyes-closed rest condition in combination with the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire more widely to shed light on aberrant thoughts and feelings in brain disorders and to study the effect of therapeutic interventions.

Needs Assessment QR Code Combination with Google Form for Online Cognitive Assessment

This study aims 1) to develop online cognitive assessment instruments that meet instrument criteria such as validity, reliability, level of difficulty, different power, 2) develop online cognitive assessment instrument using a combination of qr code and Google forms. The research method refers to the Borg and gall R&D research method. The research subjects were students who were taking theoretical and practice courses on table tennis physical education and recreation education program IKIP Budi Utomo Malang Class of 2017. The results of the initial research of the needs analysis phase given to students and lecturers were 1) cognitive assessment instruments used were still have not met the eligibility criteria, 2) online media has not been used to conduct cognitive assessments, 3) students and lecturers agree if an online cognitive assessment instrument is developed in accordance with the instrument eligibility criteria and the media used a combination of qr code with Google forms.

Narrative as cognitive instrument

Narrative as cognitive instrument

Development of Integrated Natural Science Practicum Guide Integrated Inquiry Approach to Improve Student Learning Outcomes

This study aims to obtain a practicum guide for Integrated Natural Sciences in SMP integrated with guided inquiry approach. This research is a research and development research and experiment. The population in this study were all students of class VIII SMP Negeri 2 Padangsidimpuan. The instrument used was a feasibility questionnaire based on the National Education Standards Agency, a feasibility questionnaire based on conformity with the guided inquiry learning model, cognitive test instruments, critical thinking skills test instruments, and skills observation sheets. The research data were analyzed using independent sample T-test and correlation test with SPSS 21 for windows at a significance of 0.05 with tcount> ttable and rcount> rtable. The results showed that: the Integrated Natural Science book in schools still has shortcomings so that it needs to be developed, the practicum manual that has been developed in Integrated Natural Science learning class VIII semester I is feasible based on the National Education Standards Agency and is in accordance with the model Guided inquiry learning, students' skills are more developed than students using Integrated Natural Science books in schools, student learning outcomes are better than student learning outcomes using Integrated Natural Science books in schools, thinking ability level The critical thinking ability of students is higher than the critical thinking skills of students using the Integrated Natural Science book in schools, there is a significant relationship between skills and the improvement of student learning outcomes and there is a significant relationship between the level of critical thinking skills of students with an increase in student learning outcomes.

Эпистемология йогического восприятия: школа Дигнаги – Дхармакирти

One of the specific features of Indian philosophical thought in comparison with Western tradition is its addressing the subject of yogic and contemplative prac­tices. The article focuses on the interpretation of yogic experience in terms of Buddhist epistemology (pramāṇavāda – the teachings on the instrument of valid cognition). The concept of yogic perception (yogipratyaksha), which dates back to the Buddhist philosopher Dignāga, later becomes the subject of pan-Indian philosophical debates. The author analyzes the Buddha’s teachings on the Four Noble Truths as an object of yogic perception. If, according to Dignāga, yogic perception grasps its object directly, beyond its verbal elucidation by teachers, while the Noble Truths are transmitted through the Buddha’s word, the question arises as to how can they constitute the object of direct apprehension? The article proposes to understand yogic perception in the light of the three stages of under­standing in Buddhism: 1) śrutamayī (consisting in hearing) – the memorization from the words of teacher; 2) cintāmayī (consisting in reflection) – a critical ana­lytical discourse about the form and meaning of what was learned at the previous stage; and finally, 3) bhāvanāmayī (consisting in contemplation) – an individual appropriation of the ideas analyzed at the previous stage in meditation. The author argues that, according to this algorithm, only the intellectual mastering of Buddha’s teachings can shape a mindset that brings forth yogic liberating in­sight – the goal of the Buddhist soteriological aspirations

Predicting amyloid risk by machine learning algorithms based on the A4 screen data: Application to the Japanese Trial-Ready Cohort study.

BackgroundSelecting cognitively normal elderly individuals with higher risk of brain amyloid deposition is critical to the success of prevention trials for Alzheimer's disease (AD).MethodsBased on the Anti‐Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer's Disease study data, we built machine‐learning models and applied them to our ongoing Japanese Trial‐Ready Cohort (J‐TRC) webstudy participants registered within the first 9 months (n = 3081) of launch to predict standard uptake value ratio (SUVr) of amyloid positron emission tomography.ResultsAge, family history, online Cognitive Function Instrument and CogState scores were important predictors. In a subgroup of J‐TRC webstudy participants with known amyloid status (n = 37), the predicted SUVr corresponded well with the self‐reported amyloid test results (area under the curve = 0.806 [0.619–0.992]).DiscussionOur algorithms may be usable for automatic prioritization of candidate participants with higher amyloid risks to be preferentially recruited from the J‐TRC webstudy to in‐person study, maximizing efficiency for the identification of preclinical AD participants.

Cognitive dialogue as a factor of enhancing the quality of education in the conditions of international cooperation in the sphere of higher education

The relevance of the article is caused due to the need to define the role of a cognitive paradigm for enhancing the quality of higher education in the conditions of international cooperation contributing to the development of the subjects’ of educational process possessing the human-forming, semantic priorities. The purpose of article is to reveal the human-forming individual reserves and mechanisms of cognitive dialogue between the teacher and the students on the basis of social-cognitive approach as the theoretical-methodological strategy determining and developing humanistic semantic formations and personality’s value transformations. The article reveals the principles of social-cognitive approach: human-conformity and harmonious proportionality, and the rules for their realization; cognitive instruments of democratization and humanization of education are described on the basis of cognitive dialogue between the teacher and the students as an informative exchange of rational and emotional information. The author defines the importance of emotional intelligence as a link between development of humanistic meanings, value understanding, understanding and regulation of the subjects’ of education cognition and emotions in cognitive dialogue affecting success of their socio-cultural interaction. The developmental stages of dialogical self-knowledge in the course of cognitive dialogue are defined in the integral unity of logical and emotional, and value coordinates based on the material of art works. The article is intended for University-teachers and researchers in the field of international cooperation in the sphere of education.

Reliability of Telephone and Videoconference Methods of Cognitive Assessment in Older Adults with and without Dementia.

Telephone and videoconference administration of cognitive tests introduce additional sources of variance compared to in-person testing. Reviews of test-retest reliability have included mixed neurocognitive and psychiatric populations with limited consideration of methodological and statistical contributions. We reviewed reliability estimates from comparison studies of older adults with and without dementia, considering test-retest analyses and study methods. Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, and Web of Science were systematically searched from 1 January 2000 to 9 June 2020 for original articles comparing telephone or videoconference administered cognitive instruments to in-person administration in older adults with and without dementia or mild cognitive impairment. Of 4,125 articles, 23 were included: 11 telephone (N = 2 dementia cohorts) and 12 videoconference (N = 4 dementia cohorts). Telephone administered subtest scores trended in the same direction as in-person with comparable means. Person-level data were scarce. Data on dementia was only available for MMSE, with resulting subtle modality bias. MMSE, SMMSE, Letter Fluency, and HVLT-R in healthy to mild-moderate Alzheimer's disease were particularly reliable for videoconference administration. Other tests show promise but require more observations and comprehensive analyses. Most studies used high-speed stable videoconferencing hardware resulting in a lack of ecological validity for home administration. Remote administration is often consistent with in-person administration but variable and limited at the person/test level. Improved statistical design and inclusion of dementia related cohorts in telephone studies is recommended. Reliability evidence is stronger for videoconferencing but with limited applicability to home administration and severe dementia. Improved reporting of administrative procedures is recommended.

Стратегічні детермінанти формування конкурентних переваг інноваційного розвитку підприємства

The scientific article is aimed at defining and studying the basis of strategic determinants of the formation of competitive advantages of innovative development of enterprise. Using methods of analysis, systematization, generalization and synthesis, the works of domestic and foreign scholars on the peculiarities of ensuring strategic determinants of the formation of competitive advantages of innovative development of enterprise were studied. It is noted that the strategic determinants of innovative development of enterprise are the reasons, factors and conditions that encourage the management of enterprise towards activities, managerial decisions and development of business models that lead to the formation of innovative development strategies implemented through the use of modern innovative, digital, process-oriented and cognitive instruments designed to achieve long-term goals of the enterprise in ensuring competitive advantages. As a result of the research, the structural construction of strategic determinants of innovative development of enterprise in the conditions of achieving competitive advantages is formed and substantiated. The main tendencies of modern aspects of competitive advantages of innovative development of enterprises are identified. The peculiarities of formation of innovative development of competitive advantages of enterprise within terms of strategic determinants are considered. Prospects for further research in this direction are the definition of practical aspects of strategic determinants of the formation of competitive advantages of innovative development of enterprises in a crisis. Deepening the research is directed towards the use of competitive advantages of innovative development by enterprises in the field of management of economic potential.

Olfactory Signs as Objects of Verbalization

Human sensory experience has a fundamental role in conceptualizing the realities of the sur-rounding world and representing them in linguistic constructions. When it comes to olfactory information available to people, a significant part of the linguistic material consists of describing smells with the view of their classification and their ontological and evaluative characteristics. Also, linguistic objectification of situations of cognizing olfactory signs has pronounced patterns, and, as a mental construct reflected in the mind, the olfactory situation in-cludes a number of obligatory and optional components. By means of frame analysis of German olfactory language, the article demonstrates the interaction of static and dynamic knowledge about olfactory perception. The result of this research is a conceptual framework that describes the principles of organizing information about smells. The author sees the clas-sification frame as a storage format for static data: it has a categorical structure and stores knowledge about various types of smells. Its slots are filled with specific information based on identifying real or background objects that are sources of smells, as well as on quantitative or normative evaluations given by the subject. Analyzing linguistic explications of the olfactory situation, which are representations of the situational frame, shows the presence of re-peated categorical components (categorical nodes) in the linguistic material. They are associ-ated with ontological categories of human existence. Among them are the subject and the object of cognition, the subject’s action, the space-time frame of the situation, the instrument of cognition, and the result. It is obvious that the presence of obligatory components in the utterance (subject, object, cognitive action) is due to the need of the author to describe the ontological specifics of the process of cognition of an olfactory sign. The objectification of optional components in the utterance depends on the goals of communication. The comparison of formats for storing knowledge about the olfactory sign makes it possible to explain the relationship between the classification and situational frames as an interaction between something general and something particular. The resulting findings contribute to current discussions of issues related to structuring knowledge and general categorization of reality by individuals.

The Effectiveness of the Student Activity Sheet (SAS) on Teaching-Learning and Creativity (TLC) Model to Increase Creativity Competence

The purpose of this study explains the effectiveness of the student activity sheet model to enhance scientific creativity and student learning outcomes and student responses to the learning process. The research design used pre-experimental with one group pretest-posttest design. The study's subject was the student activity sheet (SAS) model and the implementation of primary teacher Education undergraduate students who programed a science introductory concept course during the 2019.1 registration at Open University. Data collected using test methods and questionnaires with product cognitive test instruments, cognitive process tests, scientific creativity tests and student questionnaire responses. Data analyzed by t-test and the proportions calculated. Normality test and homogeneity test are done before the t-test is applied. Increased creativity and student learning outcomes are calculated using normalized N-Gain. The results showed: 1) Improvement of students' scientific creativity after joining learning in the medium category. 2) Improving student learning outcomes after participating in learning in the good category. 3) Student responses to the learning process in the positive category. Based on the above, it can be concluded that the application of student activity sheet model used in learning activities to improve scientific creativity competency and student learning outcomes is effective.

The Columbia Behavior Scale for Dementia: Validity and Reliability in Long-Term Care Settings

Numerous neuropsychiatric inventories have been created for behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). These inventories are seldom used in long-term care (LTC) settings due to questionable psychometrics, lengthy administration, and reliance on knowledgeable informants. The Columbia Behavior Scale for Dementia (CBS) is a rapidly administered BPSD rating tool that was developed for LTC residents. The 11-item CBS can be completed in less <5 minutes independently, with nursing staff, or in conjunction with interdisciplinary care teams. LTC residents (N = 350) participated in a validation study in Maryland, USA (M age = 78.38, SD = 10.82). Internal consistency (⍺ = 0.75) and inter-rater reliability (r = 0.99) for the CBS were strong. CBS scores were not biased by informant type (p > 0.05): GNAs/CNSs (40.69%), nurses (36.10%), other facility staff (23.21%). Diagnostic validity was confirmed by significantly higher CBS scores (p < 0.001; large effect, d = .63) for LTC residents with dementia (n = 197, M = 4.63, SD = 4.58) versus those without dementia (n = 145, M = 2.17, SD = 2.87). Higher CBS scores were significantly associated with greater impairment on cognitive instruments (r range = -0.25, -.36) and increased mood dysfunction (r range = 0.20, 0.26), indicating convergent validity. Principal components analysis produced three CBS factors, psychosis, aggression, and non-aggressive motor disinhibition, which significantly identified LTC residents with greater odds for antipsychotic use. Results will be discussed in terms of right-sizing antipsychotic utilization, improving nonpharmacological behavior management, and enhancing the dementia literacy of nursing staff.

Assessing sleep quality in older adults: A comparison of three measurement approaches

Discrepancies between subjective and objective sleep measures have been reported for some time; however, it is critical to consider the implications of inaccurate or incomplete sleep assessment for frail older adults who are struggling to maintain independence. To compare sleep assessment methods, we collected objective sleep measurements (via wrist actigraphy), subjective measures via self-report sleep surveys (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; Insomnia Severity Index, Sleep Hygiene Index), and qualitative data through semi-structured audio-recorded interviews, from 8 older adults who self-reported sleep problems while living in a retirement community in southwestern US. Participants’ objective sleep (Total Sleep Time, Sleep Onset Latency, Wake After Sleep Onset, and Sleep Efficiency) and qualitative narratives were congruent, but self-report measures failed to capture several unique sleep problems identified in the sample. Disordered sleep in older adults has been linked to increased incidence of falls, depression and anxiety, cognitive impairment, institutionalization, and mortality, but traditional sleep assessment instruments, designed for the general adult population, fail to capture many of the experiences and causes that are unique to older adults. functioning. A sleep assessment tool designed to measure older people’s sleep experiences could provide more accurate and sensitive data.

Otherness, elsewhere, and the 'Ecology' of law's implications: The semiotic oceans surrounding legal signification and its discriminatory exteriority/objectivity

AbstractModern legal systems’ efficacy and self-consistency rely upon semantic/cultural conditions that they do not engender and are unable to maintain without resorting to the cognitive provisions gushing out from freedom—this is the preliminary assumption of this essay. Some factors play a generative role in this direction. The cornerstone of legal modernity is the ‘exteriority’ of law. This means that legal qualifications have to draw from the morphological appearances of human behaviors and relate to only their empirical/factual signification and consequences. The domain of intentions, the internal forum, is out of law’s cognitive reach. The whole grammar of modern liberties is somehow imbued with the idea that freedom can exist only insofar as a ‘zone’ of behavioral autonomy is granted by means of objectively determined rights and duties. The formal features of these rights and their pragmatic implications cannot therefore be opined just because their exterior significance allegedly assures a shelter for individual freedom. In a sense, freedom is considered as an epiphenomenon of the protection afforded by the past reification of rights. The ensuing silent assumption is that should freedom redefine the content and the objective behavioral implementations of those rights, it would annihilate itself. What this approach overwrites, however, is that the morphological appearances of gestures and things stem from cultural and inter-subjective-discursive activities—a kind of semantic social contract—that can never be considered accomplished once and for all. This is because the very molding of the shapes and features of morphological appearances implies that freedom, viz. anon-indifferent differingis at work. But freedom, in turn, is a ‘phenomenon’ the origin of which dwells in the individuals’ internal forum, their own experiences, including their mnestic environment and the semiotic crossroads that constitute their minds. Nevertheless, legal terminological apparatuses—as shown above—are treated/used as systems of signs that encapsulate a semantic discontinuity in their legitimacy, a setback in the definition not only of what it is to be, but also the factual dimension to which legal categorizations implicitly refer. This discontinuity is often passed off as an objectivity normatively granted and absorbed by legal language that includes not only the meanings of what ‘ought to be’ but—silently—even of what ‘is.’ The exteriority of modern law and the objectivity of the related morphological assumption make up, therefore, the lexicon of ‘an’ equality somehow immunizedagainstfreedom and its semantic-political differentiating significance. The equality of differencesbeforethe law, but notinsidethe law, is theKafkian liberticidaland mystifying outcome of the above Cartesian-fashioned misuse of law’s mythologized exteriority/objectivity and the epistemological sleight of hand for which such a binomial paves the way. The paper will analyze the extent to which the self-evidence bestowed upon morphological features encapsulated in official legal discourse epitomizes semiotic ideological assumptions and eases their instrumental/discriminatory use. Moreover, the normative and partisan misuses of the ‘cognitive’ will be explored to bring to the surface its function in the obscuring of the semio-ecological surroundings of human conduct and the resulting impairment of the relevance of ‘Otherness’ and ‘Elsewhere’ (including chronological remoteness) in the semantic construction of legal cases. Ultimately, the paper will examine how law’s exteriority—namely, an objective exteriority of facts and the related meanings under its lens—is often transformed into a (pseudo) cognitive instrument of power employed to deny freedom its constitutional-democratic role as an unremitting source of law.

Central Nervous System Involvement as Outcome Measure for Clinical Trials Efficacy in Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1.

Increasing evidences indicate that in Myotonic Dystrophy type 1 (DM1 or Steinert disease), an autosomal dominant multisystem disorder caused by a (CTG)n expansion in DMPK gene on chromosome 19q13. 3, is the most common form of inherited muscular dystrophy in adult patients with a global prevalence of 1/8000, and involvement of the central nervous system can be included within the core clinical manifestations of the disease. Variable in its severity and progression rate over time, likely due to the underlying causative molecular mechanisms; this component of the clinical picture presents with high heterogeneity involving cognitive and behavioral alterations, but also sensory-motor neural integration, and in any case, significantly contributing to the disease burden projected to either specific functional neuropsychological domains or quality of life as a whole. Principle manifestations include alterations of the frontal lobe function, which is more prominent in patients with an early onset, such as in congenital and childhood onset forms, here associated with severe intellectual disabilities, speech and language delay and reduced IQ-values, while in adult onset DM1 cognitive and neuropsychological findings are usually not so severe. Different methods to assess central nervous system involvement in DM1 have then recently been developed, these ranging from more classical psychometric and cognitive functional instruments to sophisticated psycophysic, neurophysiologic and especially computerized neuroimaging techniques, in order to better characterize this disease component, at the same time underlining the opportunity to consider it a suitable marker on which measuring putative effectiveness of therapeutic interventions. This is the reason why, as outlined in the conclusive section of this review, the Authors are lead to wonder, perhaps in a provocative and even paradoxical way to arise the question, whether or not the myologist, by now the popular figure in charge to care of a patient with the DM1, needs to remain himself a neurologist to better appreciate, evaluate and speculate on this important aspect of Steinert disease.

ROLE OF LEARNING SPACES IN LEARNING LANGUAGES

This article presents a literature review of selected studies devoted to the research of the features of learning spaces and their impact on the development of language competencies of teachers and students. The presented review is a part of a comprehensive project to develop a conceptual framework and conduct empirical research based on “English Only Space” (EOS) – an innovative learning space implemented at Atyrau State University. When designing EOS, the author used an approach that defines, under the learning space, or, according to the OECD Concept (2013), the physical environment of learning, “physical spaces (including formal and non-formal) in which teachers and students interact, content (content), equipment and technology.” Practical decisions in designing this learning space were based on a detailed analysis of the latest publications from different disciplines, comparing various authors’ views and determining new trends in a number of fields such as philology, applied linguistics, pedagogy, psychology, and ecology. Such approach allowed achieving conditions when language teaching and learning turns into an instrument of interdisciplinary cognition, and the physical environment provides affordances formanaging resources efficiently in order to achieve maximum learning outcome. At the same time, the present literature review served as a driver for an active start for further practice-oriented research in EOS based on two assumptions: the need to search and develop unique ways of learning English, exploring a wide range of influencing (environmental) factors; the fulfillment of the main purpose of the space if it promotes and supports experiences that promote learning and the achievement of learning outcomes.

PTSD and Depressive Symptoms as Potential Mediators of the Association between World Trade Center Exposure and Subjective Cognitive Concerns in Rescue/Recovery Workers.

We observed that World Trade Center (WTC) exposure, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and depressive symptoms were associated with subjective cognitive concerns in Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) rescue/recovery workers. This follow-up study examined whether PTSD symptoms and/or depressive symptoms mediate the observed association between WTC exposure and subjective cognitive concerns. We included WTC-exposed FDNY workers who completed the Cognitive Function Instrument (CFI), measuring self-perceived cognitive decline (N = 9516). PTSD symptoms and depressive symptoms were assessed using the PCL-S and CES-D, respectively. Multivariable linear regression estimated the association between WTC exposure and CFI score, adjusting for confounders. Mediation analyses followed the methods of Vanderweele (2014). Participants’ average age at CFI assessment was 56.6 ± 7.6 years. Higher-intensity WTC exposure was associated with worse CFI score, an effect that was entirely mediated by PTSD symptoms (%mediated: 110.9%; 95%CI: 83.1–138.9). When substituting depressive symptoms for PTSD symptoms, the WTC exposure–CFI association was largely mediated (%mediated: 82.1%; 95%CI: 60.6–103.7). Our findings that PTSD symptoms and depressive symptoms mediate the association between WTC exposure and subjective cognitive concerns indicate that in the absence of these symptoms, WTC exposure in rescue/recovery workers would not be associated with subjective cognition. Interventions targeting PTSD and depression may have additional value in mitigating cognitive decline in WTC-exposed populations.

Evaluating the validity, reliability and clinical utility of the Music therapy Sensory Instrument for Cognition, Consciousness and Awareness (MuSICCA): protocol of a validation study

IntroductionA growing number of children and young people are surviving severe acquired brain injuries due to advances in healthcare. However, many fail to emerge from coma and continue to live...

Critical Thinking Profiles of Junior High School Students in Solving Plane Geometry Problems Based on Cognitive Style and Gender

This study aimed to describe the students’ critical thinking processes in solving plane geometry problems based on cognitive styles and gender styles. This research used the descriptive qualitative method. The subjects of this study were four junior high school students selected based on differences in cognitive styles and gender styles. The instrument consisted of the main instruments are researchers and supporting instruments, namely problem-solving instruments, cognitive style instruments, and interview guidelines. The data were collected by means of tests and interviews. The results showed there is a significant difference in critical thinking based on students’ cognitive styles. Students with field independent cognitive style tend to go through critical thinking stages more fully than students with field dependent cognitive style. Besides that, gender differences also have an impact, although not as significant as the cognitive style.