Cognitive Theory Research Articles

Social cognition, psychosocial development and well-being in galactosemia

BackgroundClassic galactosemia is a rare inherited metabolic disease with long-term complications, particularly in the psychosocial domain. Patients report a lower quality of social life, difficulties in interactions and social relationships, and a lower mental health. We hypothesised that social cognition deficits could partially explain this psychological symptomatology. Eleven adults with galactosemia and 31 control adults participated in the study. We measured social cognition skills in cognitive and affective theory of Mind, and in basic and complex emotion recognition. We explored psychosocial development and mental well-being.ResultsWe found significant deficits on all 4 social cognition measures. Compared to controls, participants with galactosemia were impaired in the 2nd-order cognitive theory of mind, in affective theory of mind, and in basic and complex emotion recognition. Participants with galactosemia had a significant delay in their psychosexual development, but we found no delay in social development and no significant decrease in mental health.ConclusionSocial cognition processes seem impaired among our participants with galactosemia. We discuss the future path research may follow. More research is needed to replicate and strengthen these results and establish the links between psychosocial complications and deficits in social cognition.

Promoting Physical Activity Among Health Professional Students, Faculty, and Staff Members: A Competition-Based Intervention

This program review presents data for the Deans’ Fit Family Challenge (DFFC) and proposes future directions for improvement, informed by the Social Cognitive Theory. The DFFC is a multi-week physical activity competition held annually between three health professional programs, focusing on the development of self-efficacy, self-regulation, and social support of health-related fitness. Participants competed in teams of two and tracked their activity minutes weekly using the ChallengeRunner app or through manual entry. Weekly winners were announced, and the winning college was determined from a composite score of active minutes and weight loss. Since 2019, 1164 participants reported an average of 217.1 weekly minutes of physical activity during the DFFC. An average of 94.0% of participants reported minutes in week 1, compared to 56.3% in week 8. The DFFC is an important initiative to potentially promote physical activity levels among participating programs. While motivational strategies are being incorporated and executed in the DFFC, there is a need for ongoing exploration and improvement to enhance future competition-based interventions among health professional students, faculty, and staff.

A smart system for student performance assessment (SPA)

The proposed smart system for Student Performance Assessment (SPA) is a system that evaluates students' knowledge and skill attainment in a specific course by measuring their achievements of the Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs). The instructor defines the aspects, weights, and rating scale used by SPA to analyze each course. The system calculates the average of students' marks in each learning outcome and compares them with the CLO targets and scores to determine the effectiveness of the teaching and learning methods used. The system uses facts and rules extracted from the course syllabus and Bloom's Taxonomy to build its knowledge base. This paper presents the development of the SPA inference engine, which is used to find CLO targets based on the course level. The inference engine uses efficient procedures and a prediction process to determine the correct target and score, providing a reliable and understandable methodology for reasoning about the information in the knowledge base and formulating conclusions. SPA is a highly responsive and intelligent system that can be a valuable tool for measuring students' achievements. Its characteristics include high performance, reliability, and intelligibility, and its combination of cognitive systems and cognitive theory has led to remarkable progress in measuring student performance. Limitations include dependency on accurate course content and initial setup time, potential bias in CLO weight assignments, challenges in integrating SPA with existing institutional databases, the need for continuous updates to the knowledge base to reflect curriculum changes, and potential resistance from educators to adopt new technologies. Future improvements could involve adaptive learning integrations, enhanced user interfaces, and broader applicability across diverse educational settings.

Developing and validating a framework to explain cruise travel intention in the United States: a crisis management perspective

PurposeThis study aims to extend the cognitive appraisal theory by developing and validating a conceptual framework to illustrate how travelers' behavioral intention is generated via a multi-stage evaluation of health-related variables.Design/methodology/approachSEM and moderator analysis were conducted to examine the theoretical framework (post-intervention event travel intention) and to investigate how the appraisal process differs across travelers with various attitudes toward vaccination.FindingsThis study found that cruise travel intention was positively influenced by the perceived hedonic value and perceived trustworthiness and negatively influenced by perceived infection risk. Furthermore, whereas perceived hedonic value, perceived trustworthiness and perceived risk of infection were all predicted by crisis management, the dimensions of crisis management operated differently. In addition, vaccination attitudes amplified the unfavorable effect of perceived risk on intention.Originality/valueDrawing on the CAT, this study developed and validated a conceptual framework to integrate crisis management with customers' behavioral intentions. This study extends existing cruise travel intention theory by demonstrating how post-pandemic travelers' behavioral intention is generated via a multi-stage appraisal-reappraisal process based on the evaluations of infection risks and cruise line crisis management.

From spectatorship to loyalty: Unraveling the influence of game streaming watch and gaming-related social connectivity on MOBA gamers

Online gaming is quickly gaining popularity, but the effects of game streaming and social connections on player loyalty remain under-explored. This study aimed to investigate the effects of watching game streaming and game-related social connections on player loyalty in MOBA games based on social cognitive theory and social capital theory. Game streaming watching was hypothesized to have a positive effect on personal skills and cooperative game knowledge, and game-related social connections had a positive effect on cooperative game knowledge. In addition, the study examined the effects of these factors on player loyalty. The study was conducted by constructing structural equation modeling and administering questionnaires to 415 MOBA gamers. Specifically, watching game streams significantly improves individual skill and cooperative game knowledge, which in turn positively affects game loyalty. Game-related social connections also significantly increase cooperative game knowledge and directly contribute to higher game loyalty. Furthermore, both individual skill and game cooperation knowledge positively mediated the relationship between game streaming watch and game loyalty. This study provides valuable insights for stakeholders and game industry practitioners by elucidating the mechanisms behind MOBA game loyalty, and promotes greater engagement among MOBA gamers.

Economic growth versus the environment: government spending, trust, and citizen support for environmental protection

ABSTRACT Support for sustainability activities among citizens will also increase the probability of more sustainable choices being made by governments. In this study, we investigate the relationship between prioritization of environmental protection over economic growth and government spending on environmental protection in 27 OECD countries and more than 65 000 respondents. Drawing on the perspectives of the thermostatic model, complex belief systems and cognitive dissonance theory, we hypothesize that government spending and attitudes towards environmental protection are related. We further argue that this relationship will be moderated by trust in government. To investigate our hypotheses, we employ OECD statistics on government spending in combination with survey data from WVS and EVS from the years 1995 to 2019. Our findings show that increasing government spending on environmental protection is related to attitudes in favor of economic growth at the expense of environmental concerns, a relationship which is significantly strengthened by having low trust in government.

The effect of cumulative eye movements’ guidance of experts on transition from novice to expert

AbstractBased on the assumptions of cognitive load theory, this study aims to utilize the eye movement data collected from multiple experts to scaffold novice graphic designers. The study has two main stages. In the first stage, eye tracking was used to record the eye movements of 7 experts, who covered eight topics explaining how to use Photoshop. The areas of interest and fixation durations were analyzed for each topic to extract the common patterns. Instructional videos were produced with the guidance of both eye movement patterns and multimedia design principles. In the second stage of this study, those videos were delivered to 30 university students. The experiment group watched the guided videos, whereas the control group watched straight videos, i.e., content without guidance. The guidance elements were reduced (faded) as students got familiar with the interface. All participants were assigned to perform tasks as soon as they completed the videos. The findings showed that the knowledge scores did not significantly differ between groups. Still, the average performance scores of the experiment group were considerably higher than that of the control group. Considering the transition process, the experiment group outperformed the others. The topics in which experts’ eye movements highly matched each other resulted in high-performance gaps among groups.

The relationship between college students' learning engagement and academic self-efficacy: a moderated mediation model.

Despite the return of college students to campus in the post-pandemic era, the deep influence of COVID-19 on learning approaches persists. Existing research has explored fewer mechanisms underlying academic self-efficacy and learning engagement. In line with social cognitive theory, the psychological resilience framework, and vocational socialization theory, this research investigated academic self-efficacy, professional commitment, psychological resilience, and academic engagement among college students in the post-pandemic era. In this research, the focus was on understanding the impact of academic self-efficacy on learning engagement, taking into account gender as a moderator and psychological resilience and professional commitment as mediators. We conducted a survey with 1,032 college students in Henan Province, China, utilizing the Psychological Resilience Scale, Academic Self-Efficacy Scale, College Student Learning Engagement Questionnaire, and College Student Professional Commitment Scale. SPSS and the Process plugin were used to assess mediating and moderating effects. Academic self-efficacy significantly and positively correlates with college students' commitment to learning. The positive anticipation of learning engagement facilitated by academic self-efficacy exerts its effect through the fully parallel mediation of psychological resilience and professional commitment. Notably, the mediation effect of professional commitment was greater than that of psychological resilience. Further research found that the mediation of professional commitment was moderated by gender, with female students demonstrating stronger perceptions of professional commitment associated with elevated levels of learning engagement. Gender did not exhibit a significant moderating effect on psychological resilience. College students' academic self-efficacy, professional commitment, and psychological resilience must be addressed to enhance their learning engagement.

Bridging oral health and nutrition: Assessing produce prescription programs in pediatric dental clinics serving low-income communities.

This study assesses the needs and feasibility of conducting a produce prescription (produce Rx) program in a pediatric dental clinic setting serving low-income patients. We conducted a cross-sectional quantitative survey examining several household characteristics including demographics, benefits received, fruit and vegetable intake patterns, food security, feasibility of a produce Rx program, and respondents' answers to questions based on social cognitive theory constructs. The survey was administered at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) pediatric dental clinic, a pediatric dental residency clinical training site. One hundred adult respondents with low income completed a 36-item questionnaire during their child's dental appointment. Almost half of respondents reported experiencing food insecurity (45%). Respondents who were food insecure experienced higher levels of nutrition insecurity (p = 0.012), less confidence in choosing fruits and vegetables (FVs) (p = 0.026), difficulty in purchasing FVs in their neighborhood (p = 0.012), and more concern that FVs cost too much (p < 0.001) when compared to respondents who were food secure. Notwithstanding the barriers they face, almost all respondents reported that they eat FVs because of health benefits (95%) and to set a good example for their family (91%). Additionally, most respondents expressed an interest in produce Rx programs (80%) and nutrition education activities (81%). This study demonstrated the potential for produce Rx program uptake in a pediatric dental clinic setting through positive caregiver-reported need and interest. Future studies should explore how produce Rx programs can be adapted most effectively in this novel setting.

Effectiveness of Play-Based Learning Method in Promotion of Early Literacy Skills Among Early Childhood Development Education Children

Literacy skills for children in their early years are critical to their cognitive development and future success in primary, secondary and higher education levels. Children acquire literacy skills early through listening and interacting through play-based activities both at home and school with their teachers, colleagues and parents. This paper looks at the effectiveness of play-based learning in promotion of early literacy skills among children in early childhood development education level. Specifically, the paper analyses the conceptual and theoretical perspectives of play-based learning and literacy skills acquisition by children through the theories of Maria Montessori, Vygotsky social constructivism theory and Jean Piaget cognitive theories. The study uses secondary sources of information for analysis based on the following objectives; types of play-based approaches used by teachers in ECD setting, teachers’ role in the implementation of play-based learning and effect of play-based learning approaches towards promotion of early literacy skills by ECD pupils in schools. The paper has found out that acquisition of early literacy skills by learners was dependent on the degree to which teachers were utilising play-based learning methods in classroom. The review of studies has shown that majority of teachers are not using play-based teaching methods and hence promotion of early literacy skills for children was significantly affected. Further, time allocated for play-based learning processes was inadequate and majority of public ECD centres were found not to have adequate infrastructure and materials to support play-based learning. The paper recommends that teachers need to be supported in implementation of play-based learning through attendance of in-service training programmes and benchmarking sessions in other schools, schools to upgrade the infrastructure and instructional materials required to support play-based learning and education officials to conduct supervision of implementation of play-based learning in schools

Psychometric Testing of an Instrument Assessing Family Knowledge, Contemplation, Confidence and Readiness for Engaging in Early Mobilisation of Critically Ill Patients: A Multi-Site Cross-Sectional Design.

Early mobilisation is beneficial to support recovery among critically ill patients. The literature highlights the benefits of family engagement in early mobilisation, yet this practice remains underutilised. Effective implementation depends on understanding the key antecedents that influence family engagement in early mobilisation, specifically families' knowledge, contemplation, confidence and readiness. However, no measurement tools currently exist to assess these. Therefore, developing a psychometrically supported instrument is essential to understanding and enhancing families' factors influencing their engagement in early mobilisation. To develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of an instrument to assess families' knowledge, contemplation, confidence and readiness to engage in early mobilisation. A multi-site cross-sectional survey design. Based on established psychological theory (Social Cognitive Theories and Behaviour Change Theories), an item pool was developed to assess families' knowledge, contemplation, confidence and readiness to participate in early mobilisation. To psychometrically evaluate the new tool, a multi-site cross-sectional survey was undertaken from May 2020 to June 2022 across five intensive care units in Australia. Data from 370 families of critically ill patients were used to evaluate the structural, convergent and discriminant validity as well as the reliability of the new instrument. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated good model fit, supporting the proposed structure. All items displayed high standardised factor loadings except one, which improved upon freeing an error covariance. Positive inter-factor correlations were moderate to strong and were substantially lower than the square root of the average variance extracted, supporting both convergent and discriminant validity, respectively. Additionally, all subscales demonstrated well to excellent reliability. The findings provide preliminary support for the multiple types of validity evidence and the reliability of the instrument. This new instrument is suitable for use in clinical and research applications to assess families' knowledge, contemplation, confidence and readiness for their engagement in early mobilisation. Family engagement in early mobilisation activities may have multiple benefits but it is not commonly implemented in the ICU. Factors influencing family engagement in early mobilisation are poorly understood. Influential psychological theories highlight the likely importance of knowledge, contemplation, confidence and readiness. A readily available instrument designed to assess these constructs among family members is needed to deepen research understanding and guide clinical practice. The proposed instrument is designed to measure factors influencing family engagement in early mobilisation, which may support healthcare professionals and health services to identify and tailor strategies to support family engagement in early mobilisation. Recommendations for reporting the results of studies of instrument and scale development and testing was followed to report this study. Family members of adult critically ill patients participated in this study, and they provided the data through the survey.

Prayers for Sickness: What do people pray for and how do they deal with unanswered prayer?

Background This paper focuses upon prayer for sickness. What do individuals suffering from illness, their families and the wider community pray for? How do they deal with unanswered prayer? Do they pray for cure, to guide medical professionals or to cope with their sickness? What rationalisations do they proffer for unanswered prayer? Methods Based on a critical literature review and deploying secondary data from the Twenty First Century Evangelical research programme, the data suggest that prayers for guiding medical professionals and coping are more common than for cure, at least in Global North countries such as the UK and US. But why do those who believe in miracles not ask God for divine healing? Furthermore, unanswered prayer can conflict with Christian views of God as omnipotent and all loving. Results Respondents use a number of theodical rationalisations to resolve this conflict. Conclusions The results are discussed in relation to cognitive dissonance theory, learned helplessness, the need to conserve a relationship with the Divine, and desire to manage risk of disappointment and reduce consequent emotional pain.

Leveraging social media capabilities and digital fluency to foster employee green innovation behavior: from a social cognitive theory perspective

Leveraging social media capabilities and digital fluency to foster employee green innovation behavior: from a social cognitive theory perspective

Gender Differences and Similarities in Reading Motivation from the Perspective of Social Cognitive Theory

The pertinent literature lacks a comprehensive theoretical framework to explain gender differences and similarities in reading motivation. Research on the role of gender in reading motivation has yielded inconclusive results with no consensus. Additionally, theoretical research to interpret the mixed results in reading motivation are scarce, especially from the perspective of social cognitive theory (SCT). This study aimed to clarify these mixed results by providing a theoretical explanation covering the broad range of gender differences and similarities in reading motivation from the SCT perspective. This analysis of the manifestation of gender roles through observational model learning and the triadic reciprocal interaction between personal, behavioural, and environmental processes provided new insights into the nuanced complexities of gender roles in reading motivation.

Understanding academic women’s silence in Poland: exploring with social cognitive theory

Understanding academic women’s silence in Poland: exploring with social cognitive theory

Does voice endorsement by supervisors enhance or constrain voicer's personal initiative? Countervailing effects via feeling pride and feeling envied.

While the previous research has examined antecedents of supervisors' voice endorsement, it has generally overlooked its effects on voicers' affective and behavioral reactions, probably because of the underlying assumption that supervisors' voice endorsement is inherently beneficial and likely to encourage more proactive behaviors in the future. In this research, we offer a theoretical model of the double-edged effects of supervisors' voice endorsement on voicers' subsequent personal initiative. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory and related research, we proposed that supervisors' voice endorsement prompts two different cognitive appraisal processes in voicers that evoke two distinct emotional experiences-feeling pride and feeling envied-with countervailing effects on voicers' subsequent personal initiative. Specifically, voice endorsement results in voicers not only feeling pride, which enhances their subsequent personal initiative, but also in their feeling envied, which reduces their later personal initiative. Moreover, we extend the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion from a social constructionist approach by incorporating coworker support-an important relational context-as a contingent factor shaping the effects of voice endorsement on feeling pride and feeling envied and on voicers' subsequent personal initiative. The results from two field studies-a weekly experience sampling study with 574 observations from 119 employees and an event-based daily experience sampling study with 787 observations from 180 employees-largely support our theoretical model. This research suggests the importance of considering the perspectives of all the stakeholders in the proactivity triad (i.e., the focal employee, the supervisor, and coworkers) in order to sustain employee proactivity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Social and general cognition are uniquely associated with social connectedness in later life.

The mechanisms by which older adults maintain large, complex social networks are not well understood. Prior work has primarily focused on general cognitive ability (e.g., executive function, episodic memory), largely overlooking social cognition-the ability to process, store, and remember social information. Because social cognition plays a key role in navigating social interactions and is distinct from general cognition, we examined whether general and social cognition uniquely predicted the nature of older adults' personal social networks. Our study leveraged comprehensive measures of general cognition (executive function, episodic memory), social cognition (face memory and dynamic measures of cognitive and affective theory of mind), and a rigorous measure of personal social networks from 143 community-dwelling older adults. We found that, when modeled together and controlling for sociodemographic variables, only executive function and dynamic cognitive theory of mind positively predicted having social networks with relatively unfamiliar, loosely connected others, accounting for 17% of the unique variance in older adults' social connectedness. Interestingly, having a social network comprised primarily of close, tightly knit relationships was negatively associated with affective theory of mind performance. Findings are discussed in the context of the social-cognitive resource framework-which suggests that social cognition may be more engaged in relatively unfamiliar, versus close, interactions. Specifically, our results show that social-cognitive processes may be relatively automatic for individuals whose primary social relationships are very close but may be more strongly engaged for individuals whose interactions include at least some relatively less close relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

How to Help Students Make Informed Assessments of Cognitive Load: Examining the Role of Training Interventions

ABSTRACTMeasuring cognitive load and its different types is a significant challenge that is closely related to the development of cognitive load theory (CLT). Previous research has shown that students have difficulty assessing cognitive load after learning or problem‐solving. Accordingly, they may not reliably differentiate between the different types of cognitive load. Moreover, students may not consider the entire problem‐solving process in their overall cognitive load assessment. The purpose of this work was to examine two training interventions designed to assist students in making informed cognitive load assessments. Study 1 (N = 99) included pre‐training with a theoretical introduction to CLT to improve differentiation between cognitive load types. Study 2 (N = 80) implemented post‐training by instructing students to consider all impressions during problem‐solving for the overall load assessment. As both interventions were unsuccessful, further research is needed to assist students in assessing cognitive load in an informed manner.

Determining the optimal environmental information for training computational models of lexical semantics and lexical organization.

Experiential theories of cognition propose that the external environment shapes cognitive processing, shifting emphasis from internal mechanisms to the learning of environmental structure. Computational modelling, particularly distributional models of lexical semantics (e.g., Landauer & Dumais, 1997) and models of lexical organization (e.g., Johns, 2021a), exemplifies this, highlights the influence of language experience on cognitive representations. While these models have been successful, comparatively less attention has been paid to the training materials used to train these models. Recent research has explored the role of social/communicatively oriented training materials on models of lexical semantics and organization (Johns, 2021a, 2021b, 2023, 2024), introducing discourse- and user-centred text training materials. However, determining the optimal training materials for these two model types remains an open question. This article addresses this problem by using experiential optimization (Johns, Jones, & Mewhort, 2019), which selects the materials that maximize model performance. This study will use experiential optimization to compare user-based and discourse-based corpora in optimizing models of lexical organization and semantics, offering insight into pathways towards integrating cognitive models in these areas. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Education program and experiential learning in Chinese entrepreneurship education: A year-long social cognitive theory intervention's impact on self-efficacy and intention's impact on self-efficacy and intention

Entrepreneurship education helps young people create their first job, typically through either experiential learning or education programs. Our study evaluated the effect of integrating both methods in a single intervention involving 40 people aged 18 to 25.Our research intervention was grounded in social cognitive theory. We assessed its impact via ANCOVA analyses. We looked for shifts in entrepreneurial self-efficacy (across six subdimensions) and intentions of 20 intervention participants compared with an equal number of control participants. The results indicated statistically significant changes in all the measures except initiating investor relationships and building an innovative environment.To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to examine the effect of delivering entrepreneurial education in non-formal Chinese settings. It also pioneers exploring the impact of education programs and experiential learning in a single intervention. Finally, it assesses this impact over one year, sharply contrasting with the more typical exploring of relationships at a single time point.Our findings contribute to the ongoing discourse on the efficacy of entrepreneurship education programs in China, providing support for offering such programs outside formal education. Our results also emphasize the significance of comprehending the surroundings in which the programs are being delivered and the potential external forces that participants may be exposed to.