Limited Cognitive Capacity Research Articles

Pessimistic expectations and poorer experiences: The role of (low) extraversion in anticipated and experienced enjoyment of social interaction.

Given research suggesting that social interactions are beneficial, it is unclear why individuals lower in extraversion engage less in social interactions. In this study, we test whether individuals lower in extraversion reap fewer hedonic rewards from social interactions and explore social psychological processes that explain their experiences. Before participants socialized, we measured extraversion, state positive affect, cognitive capacity, and expectations about the social interactions. After participants socialized with one another, we measured state positive affect and cognitive capacity again as well as fear of negative evaluation and belief in limited cognitive capacity. Participants also rated the social skillfulness of each interaction partner. We found that less extraverted individuals expect to feel worse after socializing. However, all but those extremely low in extraversion (17% of sample) actually experience an increase in positive affect after socializing. Surprisingly, those low in extraversion did not show reduced cognitive capacity after socializing. Although they are more likely to believe that cognitive capacity is limited and to be fearful of negative evaluation, these characteristics did not explain the social experience of those low in extraversion.

Dissociations of cognitive inhibition, response inhibition, and emotional interference: Voxelwise ALE meta-analyses of fMRI studies.

Inhibitory control is the stopping of a mental process with or without intention, conceptualized as mental suppression of competing information because of limited cognitive capacity. Inhibitory control dysfunction is a core characteristic of many major psychiatric disorders. Inhibition is generally thought to involve the prefrontal cortex; however, a single inhibitory mechanism is insufficient for interpreting the heterogeneous nature of human cognition. It remains unclear whether different dimensions of inhibitory processes-specifically cognitive inhibition, response inhibition, and emotional interference-rely on dissociated neural systems. We conducted systematic meta-analyses of fMRI studies in the BrainMap database supplemented by PubMed using whole-brain activation likelihood estimation. A total of 66 study experiments including 1,447 participants and 987 foci revealed that while the left anterior insula was concordant in all inhibitory dimensions, cognitive inhibition reliably activated specific dorsal frontal inhibitory system, engaging dorsal anterior cingulate, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and parietal areas, whereas emotional interference reliably implicated a ventral inhibitory system, involving the ventral surface of the inferior frontal gyrus and the amygdala. Response inhibition showed concordant clusters in the fronto-striatal system, including the dorsal anterior cingulate region and extended supplementary motor areas, the dorsal and ventral lateral prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia, midbrain regions, and parietal regions. We provide an empirically derived dimensional model of inhibition characterizing neural systems underlying different aspects of inhibitory mechanisms. This study offers a fundamental framework to advance current understanding of inhibition and provides new insights for future clinical research into disorders with different types of inhibition-related dysfunctions.

NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING IN HEALTHCARE

Natural language processing (NLP) refers to the process of using of computer algorithms to identify key elements in everyday language and extract meaning from unstructured spoken or written communication. Healthcare is the biggest user of the NLP tools. It is expected that NLP tools should be able to bridge the gap between the mountain of data generated daily and the limited cognitive capacity of the human mind. This paper provides a brief introduction on the use of NLP in healthcare.

Dual-task cost in people with multiple sclerosis: A case–control study

Introduction Limitations in fine motor functioning and cognitive performance are frequently reported in multiple sclerosis. Studies about dual-task costs in multiple sclerosis generally explore walking and postural performance. This study aims at exploring dual-task costs when simultaneously performing fine motor and cognitive tasks. Method Eighty people with multiple sclerosis and 80 matched controls performed the nine-hole peg test and the months backward test under single and dual-task conditions. Differences in performance over time were analysed with the paired t-test; differences in dual-task costs between groups were analysed with independent t-tests. Results People with multiple sclerosis and controls showed a significant decrease in fine motor and cognitive performance in dual-task conditions compared to single-task conditions ( P < 0.01). People with multiple sclerosis with limited hand capacity showed larger dual-task costs for cognitive performance compared to other hand capacity groups ( P < 0.05). Individuals with multiple sclerosis with lower cognitive capacity showed larger dual-task costs for fine motor performance ( P < 0.01). Conclusion Both people with multiple sclerosis and controls experience dual-task costs. People with multiple sclerosis with limited hand function showed an increased dual-task cost of cognitive performance and individuals with limited cognitive capacity showed a higher dual-task cost for fine motor performance. Therefore, occupational therapists should focus on cognitive or fine motor aspects during dual-task training dependent on individuals' capacities.

Predrasude u procesu odlučivanja i mogućnosti njihovog prevazilaženja

Starting from the normative approach, a decision as the outcome of the decision-making process should represent a rational choice made by a completely informed decision-maker. With the development of the behavioral perspective of the decision-making process, certain mistakes in decision-makers' behavior have been noticed, emerging as a consequence of their limited cognitive capacities and the information asymmetry. The application of heuristics as simplified mental strategies, as well as certain deformations in decision-makers' thinking and perception, leads to the different biases that affect their attitudes and approach to problem solving. The aim of the research study is reflected in identifying the biases that most often occur in the decision-making process, as well as their causes and consequences. The qualitative methodology of the research has been applied in parallel with the relevant methods of analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction. On the basis of the conducted empirical studies, the recommendations for overcoming biases have been defined, which represents the main result of the research study. The derived conclusions with respect to the possibilities of overcoming biases can help decision-makers to improve the decision-making process in real situations.

Investigating Application of Change Point Analysis in Monitoring Health Condition of Acute Coronary Syndrome Patients

This study investigated the application of Change Point Analysis (CPA) in monitoring the health condition of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) patients. In order to risk stratification and reduce the damage of the heart tissue, monitoring Troponin level of ACS patients and detecting subtle and potentially important changes as early as possible is critical during the diagnosis and treatment process. However, since humankind has fairly limited cognitive processing capacity, medical experts have been challenged to manually analyze each patient’s data, detect subtle changes and make a decision about next treatment steps as early as possible. For this reason, this paper proposes a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) by developing an automated way of monitoring the health condition of ACS patients using change point analysis. A time series data about Troponin test results of 461 ACS patients were collected from Almazov National Medical Research Centre. CPA was employed as a combination of Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) charts and bootstrapping to detect changes. As a result, single and multiple changes in the level of Troponin of ACS patients were detected with 95% confidence level.

Syntactic Enhancement: Bootstrapping for Second Language Reading

This paper aimed to identify factors that inhibit effective second language (L2) reading and to suggest technology-enhanced reading designed for providing L2 readers with bootstrapping resources. To this end, this paper also addresses the importance of syntactic and prosodic awareness in L2 reading, drawing on L2 reading theories and a number of empirical studies from a body of research related to L2 development. Syntactic and prosodic awareness contribute to L2 reading development as they are highly associated with fluent and accurate reading abilities. However, it is challenging for L2 learners to acquire syntactic and prosodic knowledge due to limited cognitive capacities related to L2 learning, limited prior linguistic knowledge that is usually gained from oral communication, and linguistic differences between native languages and a target language. Addressing these challenges, this paper reviews a potentially useful technological tool of text presentation technology that may help increase syntactic awareness. Although empirical studies that tested the usefulness of technology-enhanced reading tools produced mixed results, their findings imply a viable alternative way of reading and call for future research to validate it.

Cognitive load and issue engagement in congressional discourse

Like all human actors, politicians possess limited cognitive capacity. In ordinary interactions, this limitation discourages political decision-makers from addressing high-dimensional policy problems unless incentivized to do so by exogenous “focusing events.” Public policy researchers have documented this pattern extensively, and have argued that cognitive constraints help explain the “stick–slip” dynamics that characterize macro-level policymaking. However, data and measurement limitations have prevented these studies from examining individual-level information processing patterns.In this paper, I develop a text-based approach designed to measure diversity of attention at an individual level, which I apply to an original dataset of Congressional hearing transcripts surrounding the 2008–2009 Financial Crisis. I find that individual speakers engaged with a more diverse set of topics during the crisis than before its onset, and became more focused as the crisis subsided.

The construct of cognitive load in interpreting and its measurement

ABSTRACTThis article attempts to contribute to the study of cognitive load in interpreting by presenting an in-depth discussion of the construct and its measurement. Borrowing from mental workload and Cognitive Load Theory research, cognitive load in interpreting is defined as the portion of an interpreter’s limited cognitive capacity devoted to performing an interpreting task in a certain environment. The article then presents a methodological discussion on how to measure cognitive load, focusing on the major categories of cognitive load measures and a series of selection criteria. Considering that existing studies only focus on simultaneous interpreting, the article introduces some techniques that are potentially useful for measuring cognitive load in consecutive interpreting, including the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX), pen recording, and eye tracking.

Influence of age and cognitive performance on resting-state brain networks of older adults in a population-based cohort

Aging leads to global changes in brain structure and cognitive performance, with reorganization of functional brain networks. Importantly, these age-related changes show higher inter-individual variability in older subjects. To particularly address this variability is a challenge for studies on lifetime trajectories from early to late adulthood. The present study therefore had a dedicated focus on late adulthood to characterize the functional connectivity in resting-state networks (RSFC) in relation to age and cognitive performance in 711 older adults (55–85 years) from the 1000BRAINS project. The executive, left and right frontoparietal resting-state (RS) networks showed age-related increases in RSFC. However, older adults did not show changes in RSFC in the default mode network (DMN). Furthermore, lower performance in working memory (WM) was associated with higher RSFC in the left frontoparietal RS network. The results suggest age-related compensatory increases in RSFC which might help to maintain cognitive performance. Nevertheless, the negative correlation between RSFC and WM performance hints at limited cognitive reserve capacity in lower performing older adults. Consequently, the current results provide evidence for a functional reorganization of the brain until late adulthood that might additionally explain parts of the variability of cognitive abilities in older adults.

Distinct developmental trajectories for explicit and implicit timing

Adults and children aged 5 and 8years were given explicit and implicit timing tasks. These tasks were based on the same temporal representation (the temporal interval between two signals), but in the explicit task participants received overt instructions to judge the duration of the interval, whereas in the implicit task they did not receive any temporal instructions and were asked only to press as quickly as possible after the second signal. In addition, participants’ cognitive capacities were assessed with different neuropsychological tests. The results showed that temporal variability (i.e., the spread of performance around the reference interval) decreased as a function of age in the explicit task, being higher in the 5-year-olds than in the 8-year-olds and adults. The higher variability in the youngest children was directly linked to their limited cognitive capacity. By contrast, temporal variability in the implicit timing task remained constant across the different age groups and was unrelated to cognitive capacity. Processing of time, therefore, was independent of age in the implicit task but changed with age in the explicit task, thereby demonstrating distinct developmental trajectories for explicit and implicit timing.

The Underlying Mechanisms of Multiscreening Effects

Multiscreening, a relatively new form of media multitasking in which people use multiple screens simultaneously, has implications for the effects of persuasive messages due to limited cognitive capacities of people and concurrent modalities of the screens (i.e., both visual). The aim of the study is to examine underlying mechanisms (i.e., recognition, counterarguing, and enjoyment) of the effect of multiscreening on evaluative outcomes (i.e., brand attitude, message attitude, and purchase intention). The experiment (N = 182) showed that both recognition and counterarguing are underlying mechanisms of the effect of multiscreening on evaluative outcomes. Multiscreening has a negative effect on evaluative outcomes by recognition and a positive effect on evaluative outcomes by counterarguing.

The Rorschach Coping Deficit Index as an Indicator of Neurocognitive Dysfunction

Abstract. Despite a conceptual link between the Rorschach Coping Deficit Index (CDI) and a loss of cognitive and functional capacity, no published study has explored whether or how the CDI relates to these characteristics as measured by other neuropsychological test instruments. We examined the relationship between the CDI and neurocognitive abilities of language skills, perceptual organization, memory, and executive functioning separately in adolescent psychiatric inpatients (n = 267), as well as in adults with first episode schizophrenia or severe affective disorder (n = 117), and healthy adults (n = 94). We found a significant link between the CDI and limited cognitive capacity. Impaired comprehension predicted the elevated CDI in adolescents whereas perseveration tendency and impaired delayed memory in adult patients and impaired memory functions in healthy people predicted the elevated CDI. The CDI seems to include neurocognitive aspects, and may reflect persistent deterioration associated with neurocognitive dysfunction.

Non-Legal Insight for Optimal Norm Design – Exploring the Chain Between Norm Setting and Compliance

A simplified relationship between setting of a norm and an individual's compliance can be characterized by three distinct stages: norm comprehension and processing; the deliberate compliance decision of the individual; and non-deliberate decision-making. On each stage, there is insight from social sciences, experimental psychology and behavioural law and economics making different predictions about individual compliance behaviour. We study the implications of extra-juridical insight as well as normative constitutional requirements on the optimal design of norms. We find considerable variance in norm designs for improving compliance depending on the respective empirical insight. Regarding norm comprehension, there is ambiguity in the relationship between individual's limited cognitive processing capacity and the constitutional law imperative for norm specificity. The stage of deliberate decision-making relates to the rationality model of human behaviour allowing for economic, reciprocal, communicative human dispositions, each of which requires different law designs to induce individual's compliance. Homo oeconomicus responds to law design using costs as steering tool. Homo reciprocans can be directed through decentralized self-regulation, governance of small political units and belief management. And compliance of homo communicans can be induced when procedures are perceived as being fair and inclusive. Finally, the existence of non-deliberate decision-making may justify paternalistic legal measures. The findings may inform lawmakers in how to design and draft laws to optimize norm compliance.

Strategic sophistication and attention in games: An eye-tracking study

We used eye-tracking to measure the dynamic patterns of visual information acquisition in two-player normal-form games. Participants played one-shot games in which either, neither, or only one of the players had a dominant strategy. First, we performed a mixture models cluster analysis to group participants into types according to the pattern of visual information acquisition observed in a single class of games. Then, we predicted agents' choices in different classes of games and observed that patterns of visual information acquisition were game invariant. Our method allowed us to predict whether the decision process would lead to equilibrium choices or not, and to attribute out-of-equilibrium responses to limited cognitive capacities or social motives. Our results suggest the existence of individually heterogeneous-but-stable patterns of visual information acquisition based on subjective levels of strategic sophistication and social preferences.

Oral communication in individuals with hearing impairment-considerations regarding attentional, cognitive and social resources.

Traditionally, audiology research has focused primarily on hearing and related disorders. In recent years, however, growing interest and insight has developed into the interaction of hearing and cognition. This applies to a person’s listening and speech comprehension ability and the neural realization thereof. The present perspective extends this view to oral communication, when two or more people interact in social context. Specifically, the impact of hearing impairment and cognitive changes with age is discussed. In focus are executive functions, a group of top-down processes that guide attention, thought and action according to goals and intentions. The strategic allocation of the limited cognitive processing capacity among concurrent tasks is often effortful, especially under adverse communication conditions and in old age. Working memory, a sub-function extensively discussed in cognitive hearing science, is here put into the context of other executive and cognitive functions required for oral communication and speech comprehension. Finally, taking an ecological view on hearing impairment, activity limitations and participation restrictions are discussed regarding their psycho-social impact and third-party disability.

The Obligation to Know: Information and the Burdens of Citizenship

Contemporary persons are daily confronted with enormous quantities of information, some of which reveal causal connections between their actions and harm that is visited upon distant others. Given their limited cognitive and information processing capacities, persons cannot reasonably be expected to respond to every cry for help or call to action, but neither can they defensibly refuse to hear and reflect upon any of them. Persons have a limited obligation to know, I argue, which requires that they inform themselves and others about their role in harmful social practices, with a view toward challenging the norms that sustain such practices. In this paper, I explore this obligation to know, and the related idea of excusable ignorance, offering accounts of the epistemic burden that it entails for persons in their capacities as citizens and in the context of global climate change and of reproach as a potentially effective tool for rectifying rather than excusing ignorance.

Гайдеґерове «довільне» прочитання канта: подолання неокантіанства і темпоралізація трансцендентального схематизму

The paper examines the influence of Kant's theoretical philosophy on formation of phenomenological interpretation of temporal issues in Heidegger's thinking, both in terms of his positive perception of Kant's recent approaches (schematism of pure conceptions of understanding, transcendental faculty of imagination as a primary temporariness and as the essence of human being), as well as in terms of negative repulsion (proposition of ontological alternatives to Kant's Gnoseologism, criticism of his attempt to replace basically temporal transcendental faculty of imagination with atemporal understanding). The paper emphasizes specificity and even arbitrariness of Heidegger's interpretation of Kantian theoretical philosophizing. This interpretation fits into the strategy of destruction of Western metaphysics, but significantly differs the Neo-Kantianism interpretations in focusing not so much on limited cognitive capacity, but rather on the limitations of human existence as such. Finally, it is shown that Heidegger attempted to demonstrate the structuring of the sense of being via schematism of ecstatic-horizontal temporariness inspired by Kant's influence.

The Costs of Texting in the Classroom

Many college students seem to find it impossible to resist the temptation to text on electronic devices during class lectures and discussions. One common response of college professors is to yield to the inevitable and try to ignore student texting. However, research indicates that because of limited cognitive capacities, even simple texting can reduce comprehension of class material at a rate of 10–20%. We review that research and present our study of the effects of texting on comprehension. Proposed alternatives to ignoring texting or outright bans include using smartphones for classroom exercises, educating students about the dangers of multitasking, and the use of “technology breaks.”

Commitment time depends on both current and target nest value in Temnothorax albipennis ant colonies

Animals gather noisy information about the world and then process it to trigger appropriate behavioural responses. To identify the best action to take, both the costs and benefits associated with each action should be taken into account. Social insects are known to be good at solving such trade-offs, since they rely on the ‘wisdom of the crowd’. In other words, by pooling the decisions of many individuals, they can reach an optimal collective decision. However, this process can lead to the assumption that adaptive flexibility in decision-making resides entirely at the colony level, whereas decision-making by individuals is constrained by their limited cognitive capacities. Here, we show that ant colonies are able to respond flexibly and adaptively to their environment when making decisions and that this feature is accomplished by individuals also showing such flexibility. We presented Temnothorax albipennis colonies with the opportunity to move to a better home and measured how emigration dynamics were affected by varying the value of both current and target nests. Colonies take less time to commit to a new nest when the value difference between current and target nest is bigger, i.e. greater benefit. Furthermore, this is accomplished by individuals manipulating their recruitment speed either by moving faster or recruiting sooner. This observation indicates that, regardless of the degree of difficulty of the choice, an individual that has sufficient time and information can make good decisions that will ultimately confer its group the ability to solve more complicated dilemmas.