Cognitive Psychology Models Research Articles

The Effort Paradox: Effort is Both Costly and Valued

According to prominent models in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and economics, effort—be it physical or mental—is costly: when given a choice, humans and non-human animals alike tend to avoid effort. Here, we suggest that the opposite is also true and review extensive evidence that effort can also add value. Not only can the same outcomes be more rewarding if we apply more (not less) effort, sometimes we select options precisely because they require effort. Given the increasing recognition of effort’s role in motivation, cognitive control, and value-based decision-making, considering this neglected side of effort will not only improve formal computational models, but also provide clues about how to promote sustained mental effort across time.

What Are Dual Process Models? Implications for Cultural Analysis in Sociology

In this paper we introduce the idea of the dual process framework (DPF), an interdisciplinary approach to the study of learning, memory, thinking, and action. Departing from the successful reception of Vaisey (2009), we suggest that intradisciplinary debates in sociology regarding the merits of “dual process” formulations can benefit from a better understanding of the theoretical foundations of these models in cognitive and social psychology. We argue that the key is to distinguish the general DPF from more specific applications to particular domains, which we refer to as dual process models (DPMs). We show how different DPMs can be applied to a variety of analytically distinct issues of interest to cultural sociologists beyond specific issues related to morality, such as culture in learning, culture in memory, culture in thinking, and culture in acting processes. We close by outlining the implications of our argument for relevant work in cultural sociology.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE PSYCHO-COGNITIVE AND SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS IN THE PROCESS OF THE REALIZATION OF UNDERSTANDING IN READING

In the last two decades, we have observed a clear and growing interest in the didactics and assessment of meaningful reading as an indication of linguistic sub-competence. Many scholars have considered it as a complex and multidimensional process because understanding was considered in a large percentage the reason for a student’s success or failure and in many respects it constitutes the criterion for being considered a literate or educated person. This study is focused on the problems of implementing the teaching of meaningful reading as a psychological phenomenon. If the scholars agree on the definition of meaningful reading , the on-going instructional debate has to do with the finding of a kind of consensus on the realization of meaning in reading. It is difficult to achieve a full understanding of the meaning of the cognition and metacognition processes, due to their indeterminate nature. Nevertheless, the data from the research literature in the field of reading competence indicate that there exists a growing consensus concerning the effective teaching practices, in addition to the pedagogical models, and this is very promising for the improvement of meaningful reading skills. The aim of this study is to argue for the best psycho-pedagogical models, which constitute the basis of finding a growing consensus of the best practices of effectively teaching meaningful reading. The most representative models of the study of meaningful reading are divided into three main categories: Models of Cognitive Psychology, those of Socio-cultural Psychology and those of Social-cognitive Psychology. In the didactic practice of learning meaningful reading, certain interactive reading process models are used. These are oriented towards the mental processes of learning in a continuous exchange of information between the student and the text, as well as towards the social-cultural linguistic factors of the text (the functional grammar of the text) conditioned by the situational context of the communication. The holistic contemporary model of the meaningful reading process is built on the basis of these models. The problems raised have to do with two factors : first , is the teaching of meaningful reading mostly focused on the grammar of the text? Or second, on the activation of higher-order thinking skills which engage the learner’s critical thinking skills? Realization of the study: in order to study the didactic approaches and influences on meaningful reading (as a dependent variable), two independent variables have been determined: (a.) linguistic-social-cultural factors of the text (i.e. the functional grammar of the text ) conditioned by the social-cultural context of the communication. (b.) The reflective mental activities utilized to understand the meaning of the text (graphic organizers and Higher-order thinking ). This study will analyse the influence of the linguistic socio-cultural factors of the text and that of the Higher-order thinking skills of the student-reader on the development of critical thinking while reading, based on the didactic activities of teaching in the book of Albanian language 6-9. The method of research is the study of the relations between the factors as a cause and effect relationship type through the results of statistical processing of quantitative and qualitative data using the software SPSS (version 21). Article visualizations:

Use of Response Time for Measuring Cognitive Ability

The purpose of this paper is to review some of the key literature on response time as it has played a role in cognitive ability measurement, providing a historical perspective as well as covering current research. We discuss the speed-level distinction, dimensions of speed and level in cognitive abilities frameworks, speed–accuracy tradeoff, approaches to addressing speed–accuracy tradeoff, analysis methods, particularly item response theory-based, response time models from cognitive psychology (ex-Gaussian function, and the diffusion model), and other uses of response time in testing besides ability measurement. We discuss several new methods that can be used to provide greater insight into the speed and level aspects of cognitive ability and speed–accuracy tradeoff decisions. These include item-level time limits, the use of feedback (e.g., CUSUMs), explicit scoring rules that combine speed and accuracy information (e.g., count down timing), and cognitive psychology models. We also review some of the key psychometric advances in modeling speed and level, which combine speed and ability measurement, address speed–accuracy tradeoff, allow for distinctions between response times on items responded to correctly and incorrectly, and integrate psychometrics with information-processing modeling. We suggest that the application of these models and tools is likely to advance both the science and measurement of human abilities for theory and applications.

Conceptual Models and Guidelines for Clinical Assessment of Financial Capacity.

The ability to manage financial affairs is a life skill of critical importance, and neuropsychologists are increasingly asked to assess financial capacity across a variety of settings. Sound clinical assessment of financial capacity requires knowledge and appreciation of applicable clinical conceptual models and principles. However, the literature has presented relatively little conceptual guidance for clinicians concerning financial capacity and its assessment. This article seeks to address this gap. The article presents six clinical models of financial capacity : (1) the early gerontological IADL model of Lawton, (2) the clinical skills model and (3) related cognitive psychological model developed by Marson and colleagues, (4) a financial decision-making model adapting earlier decisional capacity work of Appelbaum and Grisso, (5) a person-centered model of financial decision-making developed by Lichtenberg and colleagues, and (6) a recent model of financial capacity in the real world developed through the Institute of Medicine. Accompanying presentation of the models is discussion of conceptual and practical perspectives they represent for clinician assessment. Based on the models, the article concludes by presenting a series of conceptually oriented guidelines for clinical assessment of financial capacity. In summary, sound assessment of financial capacity requires knowledge and appreciation of clinical conceptual models and principles. Awareness of such models, principles and guidelines will strengthen and advance clinical assessment of financial capacity.

Indicators of Informal and Formal Decision-making about a Socioscientific Issue

We propose two contrasting types of student decision-making based on social and cognitive psychology models of separate mental processes for problem solving. Informal decision-making uses intuitive reasoning and is subject to cognitive biases, whereas formal decision-making uses effortful, logical reasoning. We explored indicators of students’ formal decision-making in a socioscientific issue-focused general science post-secondary course that used a seven-step decision-making framework based in decision-science models. We found that students’ value orientations predicted students’ stance towards biofuels at the beginning but not at the end of the course, indicating some students’ post-survey opinions were less rooted in affective value-judgments. Themes in student personal reasoning about biofuels were primarily focused on environmental and economic dimensions of the issue and revealed a greater awareness of alternative options and potential consequences of biofuel use at the end of the course. We observed a decrease in students’ emotive arguments and an increase in students’ justificatory arguments about biofuel use. A formal decision-making framework may be a useful tool in supporting students’ formal, reasoned approach to deciding what we should do about complex socioscientific issues.

BECLA, a new assessment battery for acquired deficits of language: Normative data from Quebec-French healthy younger and older adults

Compared to English, for which there exist numerous tests and batteries for the assessment of acquired deficits of language, the tools available to assess French-speaking individuals are much more limited. The Batterie d'Évaluation Cognitive du Langage (BECLA) was purposely developed to fulfill the need for French assessment tools based on theoretical models of cognitive psychology. It comprises 19 tasks, designed to assess each of the components and routes involved in single word processing in order to identify the functional locus/loci of impairment. In this article, we describe the BECLA and we present normative data for individuals 18–94years of age (N=248). The sample was stratified by age, gender, and years of education, according to the Institut de la statistique du Québec, in order to be representative of the French-Quebec population. Percentile scores were provided for each BECLA task in order to show the relative rank of each raw score according to significant correlates. The BECLA is a new clinical, theoretically based assessment battery, useful for identifying and characterizing acquired deficits of language in younger and older adults.

How Do Our Students Learn? An Outline of a Cognitive Psychological Model for Information Literacy Instruction

Effective pedagogy requires understanding how students learn and tailoring our instruction accordingly. One key element of student-centered pedagogy involves understanding the cognitive psychological processes according to which students learn, and to structure our teaching with these processes in mind. This paper fills in a gap in the current literature, by applying empirically grounded lessons drawn from the cognitive science of learning, and discussing specific applications of these lessons for information literacy instruction. The paper outlines a framework for information literacy instruction, grounded in the educational and cognitive psychology literature, for facilitating student retention and transfer of information literacy skills, two classic measures of student learning. Five specific principles and several strategies for promoting retention and transfer within information literacy instruction are outlined. This article is an expansion of a presentation given at LOEX in May 2014.

Towards a method for measuring Absorptive Capacity in firms

Abstract Absorptive capacity (ACAP) is a consideration of how able the firm is to recognise the value of, acquire, internalise, and exploit external new knowledge. We propose a new approach to measuring ACAP drawing from cognitive psychology models of learning theory and test this against a sample of advanced engineering SME’s in the south-west of the United Kingdom.

Nietzsches Philosophie des Unbewussten

Nietzsches Philosophie des Unbewussten

Increased Attentional Bias towards Food Pictures in Overweight and Obese Children

Objective: Childhood overweight is related to higher sensitivity for external food cues and less responsiveness towards internal satiety signals. Thus, cognitive psychological models assume an enhanced food attention bias underlying overeating behavior. Nevertheless, this question has only been sparsely investigated so far in younger children and it remains open whether restrained eating behavior plays a correlative role. Methods: The present study investigated this specific information processing bias for food relevant stimuli in 34 overweight children between 6 and 10 years and 34 normal weight children matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status. Children completed a computerized Food Picture Interference task that assessed reaction time interference effects towards high and low calorie food pictures. Level of hunger and restrained eating were assessed via self-report. Results: Results indicated that while finding no group difference in general processing speed or hunger level before the task, overweight children showed a higher attentional bias to food pictures than normal weight children. No effect of caloric density was found. However, surprisingly, the interference effect was negatively related to restrained eating in the overweight group only. Conclusion: The found hypersensitivity for food cues independent of calorie content in overweight children appears to be related to dysfunctional eating, so that future research should consider strategies for attentional retraining.

Increased Attentional Bias towards Food Pictures in Overweight and Obese Children

Objective: Childhood overweight is related to higher sensitivity for external food cues and less responsiveness towards internal satiety signals. Thus, cognitive psychological models assume an enhanced food attention bias underlying overeating behavior. Nevertheless, this question has only been sparsely investigated so far in younger children and it remains open whether restrained eating behavior plays a correlative role. Methods: The present study investigated this specific information processing bias for food relevant stimuli in 34 overweight children between 6 and 10 years and 34 normal weight children matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status. Children completed a computerized Food Picture Interference task that assessed reaction time interference effects towards high and low calorie food pictures. Level of hunger and restrained eating were assessed via self-report. Results: Results indicated that while finding no group difference in general processing speed or hunger level before the task, overweight children showed a higher attentional bias to food pictures than normal weight children. No effect of caloric density was found. However, surprisingly, the interference effect was negatively related to restrained eating in the overweight group only. Conclusion: The found hypersensitivity for food cues independent of calorie content in overweight children appears to be related to dysfunctional eating, so that future research should consider strategies for attentional retraining.

Cognitive Psychological Process and Model of Pedestrian’s Road Crossing Behavior

Cognitive Psychological Process and Model of Pedestrian’s Road Crossing Behavior

Insights into failed lexical retrieval from network science

Previous network analyses of the phonological lexicon (Vitevitch, 2008) observed a web-like structure that exhibited assortative mixing by degree: words with dense phonological neighborhoods tend to have as neighbors words that also have dense phonological neighborhoods, and words with sparse phonological neighborhoods tend to have as neighbors words that also have sparse phonological neighborhoods. Given the role that assortative mixing by degree plays in network resilience, we examined instances of real and simulated lexical retrieval failures in computer simulations, analysis of a slips-of-the-ear corpus, and three psycholinguistic experiments for evidence of this network characteristic in human behavior. The results of the various analyses support the hypothesis that the structure of words in the mental lexicon influences lexical processing. The implications of network science for current models of spoken word recognition, language processing, and cognitive psychology more generally are discussed.

Psychological theory in an interdisciplinary context: psychological, demographic, health-related, social, and environmental correlates of physical activity in a representative cohort of community-dwelling older adults

BackgroundPhysical activity (PA) in older adults is influenced by a range of environmental, demographic, health-related, social, and psychological variables. Social cognitive psychological models assume that all influences on behaviour operate indirectly through the models constructs, i.e., via intention and self-efficacy. We evaluated direct, indirect, and moderating relationships of a broad range of external variables with physical activity levels alongside intention and self-efficacy.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional survey of a representative and stratified (65–80 and 80+ years; deprived and affluent) sample of 584 community-dwelling people, resident in Scotland. Objectively measured physical activity and questionnaire data were collected.ResultsSelf-efficacy showed unique relationships with physical activity, controlling for demographic, mental health, social, environmental, and weather variables separately, but the relationship was not significant when controlling for physical health. Overall, results indicating support for a mediation hypothesis, intention and self-efficacy statistically mediate the relationship of most domain variables with physical activity. Moderation analyses show that the relationship between social cognitions and physical activity was stronger for individuals with better physical health and lower levels of socio-economic deprivation.ConclusionsSocial cognitive variables reflect a range of known environmental, demographic, health-related and social correlates of physical activity, they mediate the relationships of those correlates with physical activity and account for additional variance in physical activity when external correlates are controlled for, except for the physical health domain. The finding that the social cognition-physical activity relationship is higher for participants with better health and higher levels of affluence raises issues for the applicability of social cognitive models to the most disadvantaged older people.

Sharing My Music with You: The Musical Presentation as a Tool for Exploring, Examining and Enhancing Self‐Awareness in a Group Setting

Musical presentation (MP) is a diagnostic and therapeutic music therapy tool which focuses on the participant's emotional exploration and awareness‐insight development. Using this tool people present themselves through music of their choice and subsequently receive feedback from their peers. This study investigates MP as a tool for enhancing self‐awareness in the context of a voluntary activity that was integrated in courses for undergraduate students in order to demonstrate its possible uses. Open‐ended in‐depth interviews with 15 MP presenters and focus‐group interviews with 41 MP peers who listened to the presentations were conducted. The Johari Window, which is a cognitive psychological model used to help people better understand their interpersonal communication and relationships, served as a conceptual framework for this study. Qualitative analysis of the data showed that presenters' self‐awareness was enhanced through the use of both music and words. As an accessible and creative tool, the MP can be used as a way for people in both therapeutic and non‐therapeutic settings to present themselves via their music to a group and increase their self‐awareness.

Giacomo Rizzolatti

Giacomo Rizzolatti

The Role of Working Memory in the Language-Learning Process of Children with Cochlear Implants

In some cases, language acquisition of children with a cochlear implant is observed as being suboptimal. Recent models of cognitive psychology assume that a crucial factor involved may be a functional impairment of the working memory. The best-known model of working memory is that by Baddeley et al. (1998). It incorporates two modality-specific subsystems for phonological and visual information processing as well as what is called an episodic buffer for information processing that transcends different modalities, all controlled by the central executive, which chiefly serves to facilitate attention control. We were interested in only one of these subsystems — the phonological loop, as this is most important for hearing. The idea is that speech input enters the phonological store where it is retained for around two seconds for analysis and processing before it is then, as a phonological representation of the new word, converted into a ‘new entry’, so to speak, that is registered in the memory. Where auditory input occurs over a lengthier period of time, the analysis of its phonological characteristics may be extended by a process of internal speech and repetition, thus also resulting in processing and retention. This mechanism is also referred to as subvocal rehearsal. There is a new explanatory approach that departs from what are termed ‘demographic factors’ and seeks causes in non-sensory aspects, i.e. not in ‘hearing earlier’, ‘hearing better’, or ‘hearing for longer’, but in the processing — and processing quality — of linguistic input by the child as they learn language.

Philosophical Issues in Neuroimaging

Functional neuroimaging (NI) technologies like Positron Emission Tomography and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) have revolutionized neuroscience, and provide crucial tools to link cognitive psychology and traditional neuroscientific models. A growing discipline of ‘neurophilosophy’ brings fMRI evidence to bear on traditional philosophical issues such as weakness of will, moral psychology, rational choice, social interaction, free will, and consciousness. NI has also attracted critical attention from psychologists and from philosophers of science. I review debates over the evidential status of fMRI, including the differences between brain scans and ordinary images, the legitimacy of forward inference and reverse inference, and deductive versus probabilistic accounts of NI evidence. I conclude with a discussion of fMRI as exploratory rather than confirmatory evidence, linking this debate to the growing literature on cognitive ontology.

Constructing model credibility in the context of policy appraisal

This paper focuses on an approach for constructing credibility in models used to evaluate environmental policies. Credibility is defined as adequacy relative to an intended use. The proposed approach is located within a broader policy assessment framework and is general enough to function in both scientific and policy assessment contexts. A model assessment framework is introduced and linked to current understanding of mental models in cognitive psychology to provide a possible explanation of how stakeholders come to view modeling results as credible. Since policy evaluation is about an unknown and unknowable future, data to assess model performance will be limited. A number of options are suggested for how credibility can be constructed in such situations. The argument presented depends primarily on i) the hierarchical levels of simulation models, ii) the ability to apply model assessment criteria specified across these hierarchical levels, and iii) the public nature of these criteria relative to the mental models of stakeholders enables debate about the adequacy of the criteria relative to the intended purpose of the policy appraisal. Taken together these aspects enables stakeholders to reach agreement on necessary and desirable performance criteria for the modeling results to be credible.