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The present work approaches the paper of the musical games for the attention in the educational process of children the fourth year-old, starting from recommendations that insert in a system of musical games that promote the development of the musical hearing, when recognizing qualities of the sounds, to add infantile songs in its different goods and this way to wake up the ability to appreciate the music. Therefore, the objective is to diagnose the current state of ear development in boys and girls in their fourth (4th) year of life. To carry out the investigation methods of the theoretical and empiric level they were applied (analysis and - synthesis), among the methods of empiric level we have (observation, surveys, statistical mathematical). This allowed to corroborate the limitations that still persist in the educational process and to propose the solution roads. The music is a language and as such, half of expression and communication. The same as the language is structured and it organizes to transmit messages. It needs issuing agents and receivers. The codes that make significant the musical languages are the visual signs that make reference to the music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I present the importance of applying the perspective of the sociology of communication in studies about the influence of news in the sports press on the state of anxiety of high-performance athletes in the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee (PURNOC). For this purpose, I did a review of research studies conducted in Puerto Rico over the last two decades (2000-2020), focusing on those conducted with objective instruments to measure anxiety in high-performance athletes and the influence of the sports press on the emotional state of them in competitive events. I found eight papers related to the literature review. Five of them are focus on sports psychology and the emotional manifestations of high-performance athletes, while three papers pay attention to the influence of the media on the emotional state of athletes. This study recognizes the need to continue conducting research in Puerto Rico aimed to evaluate the relationship between the sports media, the state of anxiety of athletes and their performance in sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuropsychological assessment instruments must comply with several characteristics including ecological validity; thus, virtual reality seeks to satisfy the need to create instruments that are correlated with functioning in daily life. The objective of this work is to specify the type of virtual reality implemented in the generation of neuropsychological assessment platforms published during the period 2017-2021 on the Pubmed platform. A total of 14 papers are included: 71.4% of the published platforms used Immersive Virtual Reality and 28.6% use Non-Immersive Virtual Reality; 35.7% of the designed platforms seek to assess memory, followed by executive functions (21.4%), attention (21.4%) and the design of assessment batteries (21.4%). The feeling of immersion allows the assessment through these platforms to present more ecological validity due to its high cognitive demand and to its ability to generate different responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura has the authority to oversee the proper administration of justice in the Church. Among other things, this power includes the duty to monitor the ethical practices of lawyers and procurators. This paper explores the development of the relevant legislative rules and regulations up to the current law, paying particular attention to the specific characteristics of these norms and the corresponding disciplinary procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I aim to contribute to the discussion on the convergence between ecocriticism, especially in its new materialist strands, and affect studies, by focusing on their applicability to the study of poetry. Drawing on Jane Bennett, I set out to explore the potential of poetry to imagine the worlds beyond the anthropocentric, as well as to engender attentiveness to the nonhuman as proposed in new materialisms. I contend that Bennett's theorization of affect, vibrant matter, and her model of influx-and-efflux, can be fruitfully thought of in connection to what the writer and scholar Julia Fiedorczuk conceptualizes as ecopoetics. In particular, and addressing Fiedorczuk's ecocriticism and poetic practice, this paper will understand ecopoetics as a means of inducing «an aesthetic-affective openness to material vitality» (Bennett, 2010: x), and it will raise questions about how to write an «I» in a world of vibrant matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The constant use of mobile devices changed our lives dramatically during the past years and its usage increased over the years. Smartphone use is associated with isolation and interpersonal problems; its overuse can cause cognitive problems too (Matar Boumosleh & Jaalouk, 2017). Cognitive problems associated with smartphones in young people are reduction of sustained attention and working memory. Findings have been reported in which younger populations show deterioration in different components of care, highlighting the difficulty of walking and using the smartphone at the same time (Prupetkaew et al., 2019). It has been reported that the impulsivity associated with use of smartphone in silent mode interferes in memory tests unlike when it is in off mode in young populations (Canale et al., 2019). It is necessary to evaluate the effects of using a smartphone on young people because it is a population that uses it constantly to develop in work, academic, sports, and even socializing activities. The aim of this paper was to find out the differences in sustained attention in young university students with different levels of smartphone use. A sample of 94 adults, 34 men and 60 women between the ages of 18 and 23 (M = 19.34, SD = 1.09), who were students of the higher school of Actopan, Hidalgo-Mexico. The EDAS -Smartphone Dependency and Addiction Scale-was applied (Aranda-López et al., 2017). For the evaluation of attention, a Computerized Continuous Running Test (CPT), Test of Attentional Vigilance (TOAV) was applied using the Psychology Experimental Building Language PEBL-2 platform (Mueller & Pipper, 2014). The inclusion criteria were that the participants were between 18-23 years old, right-handed, with normal and/or corrected vision. They were excluded from the investigation if they had a history of psychiatric and/or neurological diseases, learning difficulties, chronic alcohol and/or drug use. A one-way ANOVA was performed, where the independent variable was the level of smartphone use (no dependence, dependence and addiction) and the dependent variable was the scores obtained in the TOAV. It was observed that there are statistically significant differences in the errors of omission of the second half of the test (p = .05), the differences were found between the groups of no dependence-dependence (p =.10) and without dependence-addiction (p = .24). The results showed that there are differences in the execution of a neuropsychological task, regarding the omission errors of the second part of the test. These differences could suggest that the level of sustained attention is diminished in the participants of the dependency and addiction group at the end of the task. On the other hand, it is also concluded that students with levels of dependence and smartphone addiction face attention difficulties when the task is longer and cognitive demand increases. This type of data must be analyzed taking into consideration variables such as sex, socioeconomic level, age, profile of use, quality of sleep, level of physical activity, among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I analyse the critique of psychologism advanced by Husserl in his Logical Investigations. In order to adequately rebuild the author's approach, I will link the central points of the argument against psychologism developed in the first volume with some analyses and theses introduced by Husserl in the second volume. These analyses and theses, although not explicitly presented as criticisms of psychologism, are clear contributions to overcoming a radical empiricist approach, closely linked to subjectivism and psychologism. I pay special attention to the critique of the theories of abstraction carried out in the Second Investigation, whose link with the critique of psychologism is not properly recognized. I also analyze the concept of ideal possibility, which is fundamental for the understanding of the Husserlian concept of species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"There is no such Revival. Around the Philosophical Disquisitions on Alienation in the late Twentieth Century". The following paper proposes to give arguments to relativize the extensive account that the concept of alienation lost theoretical attention in the field of philosophy during the eighties of the last century, and that a revival of the study of the concept occurred in the nineties. The conclusion is that there was no such loss of attention, but that furthermore, the presumed premises in the discussion concerning alienation from the nineties up to the present were delineated during the eighties. This conclusion has two supporters: the type of approach regarding alienation carried out by analytical Marxism and the philosophical incursions into the concept in the context of North American sociology. Based on this, the text offers a systematization of the history of the philosophical study of the concept in two sections or stages. And it concerns itself with two -and not three- stages because, for what was argued, philosophy did not stop talking about alienation in the eighties, although it did so to a much lesser extent than before (specifically, during the sixties and seventies, considered the boom in the philosophical treatment of alienation). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During 19th century the Royal Spanish Academy's orthography was made official, the education system was established and the genre of textbooks flourished. These events are directly related to the orthographies for learners published throughout this century which will be studied in this research. The following paper is the result of an analysis of the orthography textbooks written between 1800 and 1857 by authors unaffiliated with the Royal Spanish Academy. But first, an overview of the situation regarding education during this period will be provided, paying special attention to school policies, the Academy, and textbooks of the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper aims to characterize the neurocognitive performance focuses on attention, memory and executive function; 50 children and adolescents between 10 and 15 years old with and without internalizing symptoms prevalence, were sampled. Method: Positivist paradigm, quantitative design of descriptive-comparative, and cross-sectional study was conducted; for variables measurement, three instruments were used: 1. The SCARED to identify the anxiety symptoms; 2. The CDI for depressive symptoms; 3. The ENI to evaluate neuro-cognitive performance. Results: This research shows as a result that the levels of attention, memory and executive function were similar for groups with anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, or without symptoms. Findings of this research show relationship between the results for 2003 and 2011. Conclusions: This paper might be an important reference for neurocognitive performance development related to populations with or without internalizing symptoms in the future. It is necessary to promote the number of researches at Colombian Caribbean coast in order to establish possible relationship or differences between neurocognitive and emotional variables, as well as contributing for a theoretical discussion corresponding to the topic of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an approach to the study of the strategies used by some Catholic student groups in Uruguay in order to in order to influence within the university. From a historical and qualitative methodology, it identifies the continuities and ruptures of the forms used by these groups to reach a greater influence at Universidad de la República, the only university institution at the time, are identified. It seeks to contribute to the study of the recent past from an innovative approach that places attention on speeches and practices deployed by youth sectors of Catholicism from the specialized Catholic Action neglected by national researchers. In this way, it seeks to enrich the understanding of local processes by inserting them into broader contexts at the Latin American regional level and at a global level marked by the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looking at the development of early interaction allows us to see the fine grained ways children adapt their interventions while they take part in communicative encounters and reference recognition. This paper analyzes the type of adjustments made by children in different interlocutory situations to achieve the recognition of spatial referents and the type of expressions they mobilize for it. Between 23 to 29 months of age, children acquire extensive expressive resources that instantiate different locative frames: deictic, topological and nominal landmarks. They recruit these resources independently or in combination. In their referential displays they expose a constant updating of their attention to the changing dialogical conditions and the calibration of the informativeness of their expressions. They appeal to reiterations, fundamentally in conditions of confirmation or referential alignment, and combine locative expressions in sequences of informative progressivity in situations of clarification or controversy on a location. Overall, the work provides additional evidence of early childhood deployment of shared intentionality: support of communicative exchanges and foundation of human cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper seeks to interrogate the attentional dimension of human existence from the contributions made by Paul Ricoeur in his early phenomenological work. Along with this, we propose to complement the ethic of solicitude developed by him in his main work Soi-même comme un autre with a phenomenology of attention. In our opinion, this could allow to obtain an understanding rooted in the human experience which is lacking in the analysis of solicitude proposed by Ricoeur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Intergovernmental Relations are a constitutive factor of the majority of the public policies, also in case of the politics of the transport, and his analysis has allowed to integrate the institutional and territorial pluralism in the study of the processes of decision and implementation of public policies, in order to analyze the paper of the different actors and of his existing mechanisms of interaction and joint. The aim of this article is to analyze the reasons that influenced the creation of the Public Entity of the Transport and to evaluate his functioning to know the reasons that explain his disappearance paying particular attention to the influence of the Intergovernmental Relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive impairment is a core aspect of schizophrenia. Studies have postulated that it is the basis of the disease as evidenced by its independent and persistent quality and its relation to prognosis. Research on cognitive deficits in psychotic disorders has led to the development of intervention strategies for the cognitive rehabilitation of these patients. Attention, working memory, and executive functions are among the most widely affected functions and are closely related to the functionality of these patients. This work aims to study the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation targeting attention, executive functions, and working memory in people diagnosed with a psychotic disorder (mostly schizophrenia). An exhaustive search in PubMed and PsycINFO was conducted up to January 2016. All research papers that were included studied a therapeutic technique to improve one or more of the aforementioned functions in patients over age 16 years diagnosed with psychotic disorder. Studies with methodological diversity were included, which were afterwards organized by levels of evidence. Thirty-four papers were studied, from which we can conclude that cognitive rehabilitation of the aforementioned cognitive functions brings about improvements in cognition. As a result of the influence of cognitive rehabilitation on other variables such as social functioning and symptoms of the disease, the results are promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beneficial effects of mindfulness meditation (MM) have been observed in many studies, with attention to and awareness of the present moment possibly representing an essential variable. However, adhering to the meditation regimes is poor at times. As such, the effects of MM training on attention and awareness were examined here, and whether the means of recording the practice of MM – using paper (PP, n = 27) or through a mobile phone application (APP, n = 21) – produced any differences in terms of adherence to the training, or in attention and awareness. The results demonstrate that training enhances attention and awareness, irrespective of the format with which it was recorded. The APP reduced the rate of withdrawal from the training and it increased the time dedicated to the practice of MM each day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the vehicular mobility in 3 specific points of the municipalities of Riohacha and Maicao, La Guajira Colombia. Variables of vehicular flow such as queue arrival times, density, permanence, infractions and other implicit ones were used. Observation and description processes are carried out over four continuous months in critical hours; the flow variables that affected the selected points, causes and effects were identified and described, which are represented using influence diagrams. The whole process was simulated, using high performance software such as PTV Vissim 8 and Vensim PLE. It is recognized that the vehicular mobility in the studied points, the congested genres due to the high frequency of vehicles that transit and that the current traffic regulations are something that don't help enough to improve the flow. In addition to infractions, accidents and situations of intolerance, toxicity is generated in the environment by the emission of CO2 by vehicles waiting at each critical point, matters to which authorities still do not pay attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: One of the challenges posed by cancer to the health professionals is the communication of the diagnosis of the disease, because it is not a matter of protocol, but the first action that has an impact on the condition of the patients, therefore, it is necessary to review the way in which they are given information. Materials and methods: This is a reflective paper based on literature that addresses the relationship between communication and the course of treatment. Results: The silence and vagueness are common when professionals inform the patients. Discussion: This paper draws attention to the negative impact of the mentioned communication patterns in the course of the disease. Conclusions: The communication skills training should be strengthened so that communication becomes a tool to support the work of health professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byung-Chul Han describes the society of our times as a society of tiredness, of boredom, because of many current phenomena such as acceleration, hyperactivity, etc., which, at least, don't give place for interruption, for any pause. The socio-philosophical diagnosis made by Han, based on Arendt's or Agamben's thought, is understood as a thematization and interrogation of fatigue phenomenon itself, which is in my opinion not entirely clear in his work. Therefore, I propose a description of fatigue based on the resources provided by phenomenology. Thus, I will ask if fatigue is a phenomenon of openness, that gives us lucidity, or on the contrary, if it is a phenomenon of closure and opacity, that closes us to the experience of the world and of others. In order to clarify this problem, I will first interrogate the relationship between tiredness, wakefulness and attention, and at the end of this paper, I will then try to outline a fundamental distinction between fatigue and laziness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This research paper was conducted based on neuropsychology criteria applied to education. This research aims to analyze the relationship between creativity, attention (visual and auditory attention) and school performance. Method: It is a quantitative, experimental and correlational study. For data collection, 85 schoolchildren, aged 9 years or more, fourth and sixth grade students were sampled. In order to assess auditory and visual attention, subtests related to attention domain, through ENI battery was used; also, creativity was assessed through CREA test. Results: statistically, there were no a significant relationship between attention and academic performance, as well as creativity, differing in this way from Leon findings (2008), who proposes attention processes as academic performance predictors and also, from those ones such as: Corbalán, Martinez, Donolo, Alonso, Tejerina and Limiñana (2003), who consider that information and learning process are influenced by creative intelligence; however, these results may obey different variables associated with school performance. Conclusion: This study may be an important tool in order to recognize the value of the attention and creative processes. In addition, it suggests broader studies focus on the relationship between creativity and academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive neuroscience has provided a better understanding of the impact of media stimuli on cognitive and emotional processing. This article offers an exploratory bibliographic review on the contribution of neuroscience in the design of audiovisual content (N=57). This review was carried out in three stages: a) review of unstructured information; b) analysis, organization, and synthesis of content; c) conclusions. Likewise, interviews with experts in the television field, neuromarketing consultants, and neuroscientists (N=10), support the conclusions from the bibliographic review. Subsequently, the paper provides a set of scientifically endorsed guidelines for the efficient design of TV content for entertainment, education, and information, based on storytelling, edition, and the creation of new platforms. The bibliographic research reveals that emotion and attention are the key indicators of effectiveness for the design of television products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we describe the Intervention Programme on Psychological Abilities in Refereeing (PIHPA) with the participation of soccer referees from the third division Valencia and Basque Association of Referees. The programme consisted of 8 group sessions, complemented by other individual initiatives, where the following skills were developed: motivation, emotional control, self-confidence, concentration, and communication. The aims were as follows: to familiarize the referees with basic psychological skills, to help them learn how to use them, apply them in their work, and improve on them. In their evaluation of the programme, the referees that took part showed a high degree of overall satisfaction, perceiving the course content to be useful in the long run and acknowledging the need to continue with this type of training in the future. In the paper, a discussion is made of the most relevant contributions and the difficulties that were encountered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we checked the principal researches and theories to explain the attention system functioning. We are going to start reviewing along time about the concept of attention, from filter theories and resources distributor theories, to the current theories in which attention is conceived as a control system. From this last point of view, we will emphasize on the attentional networks theory of Posner, that proposes different systems to explain diverse aspects of attention, but they are related to each other. At last in this paper, we will mention experimental results that have been important to characterize the selective attentional mechanisms of the human visual system, using the attentional spotlight model for this aim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the degree of evolution of the capacity of attention and prosocial behavior in children in second grade by teaching music. For these purposes, a quasi-experimental design was adopted which had various tests that were developed in 7 sessions divided into three phases: pre-test, intervention and post-test, in which 24 children participated. The results obtained were consistent with the hypothesis to reflect a positive development that led us to conclude that music education promotes favorably the attention and prosocial behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenological conception of common sense inspired by James (1890) claims that attending is essentially a conscious mental phenomenon. The modal philosophical implications of this thesis regarding the nature of attention are clear. It is not possible to attend something without being conscious of that thing. On the basis of classical studies on visual pathologies such as blindsight and recent experiments with non-pathological subjects, this paper argues that the Jamesian philosophical conclusion regarding the metaphysics of attention is false. Evidence suggests that in fact it is possible to attend to objects without consciously experiencing them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satisfaction is a dimension of usability for which quantitative metrics cannot be calculated during user interactions. Measurement is subjective and depends on the ability to interpret questionnaires and on the memory of the user. This paper represents an attempt to develop an automatic quantitative metric of satisfaction, developed using a Brain Computer Interface to monitor the mental states (Attention/Meditation) of users. Based on these results, we are able to establish a correlation between the state of Attention and the users' level of satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the concept of function, basic in mathematical analysis, and, in particular, with its graphical representation. We focus our attention on plotting graphs of functions. We analyzed the graphical representations of functions found in mathematical notebooks of high school students. We encountered several deficiencies related to the concepts of function and asymptote, the use of scales in diagram axes and the characteristics of some functions. Besides, we discuss the technical limitations and the didactic and cognitive difficulties that may promote their emergence, and, make some didactic recommendations for teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to construct a scale to evaluate ethical conduct in nursing care, based on the three fundamental premises of Jean Watson's caring theory. The final version of the questionnaire consists of 13 Likert-type response categories that reflect the contents of the basic assumptions of that theory. The validity of the questionnaire was determined through factor analysis with principal component extraction and varimax rotation. The analysis suggested four factors that explain 64% of the variance. Three of the factorspertain to the basic premises of the theory, while the fourth is related to communication and empathy. Sampling adequacy for factor analysis was confirmed by means of the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin coefficient (KMO = 0.848), Bartlett's test of sphericity (p <0.001) and calculation of the determinant of the correlation matrix (0.006). The internal consistency reliability of the overall scale is high (α = 0.85). It was concluded the instrument is valid, reliable and represents a convenient way to assess the ethical behavior of nurses when providing care to hospitalized patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. The Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) is a widely used test for the evaluation of neurological disorders. Normative data have been published for this test in different populations, however there are no values regarding elderly persons residing in geriatric homes. This study has aimed to apply the SDMT on a sample made up of Spanish elderly people living in geriatrics home care residents to obtain normative values, considering gender, age and education level. Methodology. The standard pen and paper version of the SDMT was administered to 821 home care residents older than 55 years. Information regarding age, gender and education was obtained by means of personal health records provided by each institution. A descriptive analysis was made to generate tables including normative data. The final values were adjusted based on age and educational level of the participants and presented in weighted scales. Results. The SDMT was filled out by 321 participants. Final distribution of the sample made it possible to calculate normative values based on age. A negative correlation was observed between the SDMT mean score and age of the participants while education significantly affected the results obtained. Conclusions. The SDMT normative data obtained after the application of the SDMT in the elderly living in home care residents were found to be strongly influenced by age and education. Use of the oral version is recommended for future studies of this kind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although violence against women has gain attention, there is little evidence of studies about phycological violence against a partner. This paper uses data from Encuesta Nacional de Demografía y Salud (ENDS) to assess empirically models of violence against a partner. One of the main findings is that the higher the economic independence of the women, the lower the phycological violence against a partner. Some other results show that women with higher education level, belonging to a violent or low income family and living in cities different from Bogotá is correlated with higher probability of phycological violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. In recent years, reports of attentional deficits in schizophrenic patients and in their biological relatives have rapidly increased, including an important effort to search for the endophenotypes in order to link specific genes to this illness. Posner et al. developed a test, the Attention Network Test (ANT), to study the neural networks. This test provides a separate measure for each one of the three anatomically-defined attention networks (alerting, orienting and executive control). Methodology. In this paper, we investigate the attentional performance in 32 schizophrenic patients, 29 unaffected first degree relatives and 29 healthy controls using the ANT through a study of family association. We have studied the efficiency of the segregated executive control, alerting and orienting networks by measuring how response latencies (reaction time) were modified by the cue position and the flanking stimuli. We also studied the familial association of these attentional alterations. Results. The ANOVA revealed main effects of flanker and cue condition and a significant interaction effect between flanker and groups studied. The schizophrenic patients and their relatives had a longer median reaction time than the control group. The probands and their relatives significantly differed from the healthy controls in terms of their conflict resolution; however, the alerting network appeared to be conserved. Conclusions. Our results support the thesis of a specific attentional deficit in schizophrenia and show the segregation of the three attentional networks. The family association of these reported alterations supports the idea of a potential endophenotype in schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper Carlos Pereda's phenomenology of argumentative attention is discussed: it tries to show this phenomenology takes into account all aspects of argumentation, principally rules and epistemic virtues which serve to control that activity in an internal way and to avoid argumental vertigos; besides, not only studies determined or deductive arguments, but also subdetermined, because it upholds that they are an important part of emphatic reason and argumentative culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many studies have demonstrated that bipolar disorder (BD) is heritable, the disorder's genetic basis remains elusive despite the substantial evidence. Hence, indicators of processes mediating between genotype and phenotype, known as endophenotypes, may be necessary to provide more information about this issue. Given that endophenotypes could provide information for elucidating the genetic underpinnings of BD, many studies have focused on one class of endophenotypic marker, the neuropsychological measures. In order for a cognitive measure to be considered an endophenotype, it has to 1. be highly heritable, 2. be associated with the illness, 3. be independent of the clinical state and, 4. the impairment must co-segregate with the illness within a family, with non-affected family members showing impairment relative to general population. In this sense, failures in attention, executive functions and verbal memory are the most consistently reported deficits with the characteristics for endophenotypes. With these factors in mind, the primary interest of this paper was to review the existing literature on neurocognitive functioning in BD as possible endophenotypes. Studies were identified by searching the major databases (MEDLINE and PSYCINFO) from 1990 to 2007 with the following key words: endophenotype, neurocognitive assessment, bipolar disorder, attention, memory, executive functions, neuropsychological assessment and neuroimaging. The titles and abstracts of the articles identified were examined and those that appeared to fullfil our inclusion criteria were retrieved. Articles were included if they met the following criteria: 1. included adult patients (aged: 16-65), 2. included a psychiatric or normal comparison group, 3. used well-established diagnostic criteria to ascertain diagnosis (DSM, 3rd. and 4th. eds.), 4. provided information about the clinical status of the patients being assessmed and 5. cognitive assessment was based on standardized or well established cognitive tasks. Declarative memory has been studied in BD patients through tests that imply learning of words and stories to evaluate immediate memory, delayed recall and recognition, also considering the kind of strategies that the patients use to evoke verbal material. It seems that BD patients in depressive phase present deficits in immediate memory and delayed recall, but recognition memory is preserved. This impairment is due to difficulties in the planning and evoking strategies used, associated to prefrontal dysfunction. In manic phase, the patients make a lot of irrelevant associations because the failure in the system to control impulses. In the absence of the depressive and maniac symptoms, patients continue with anomalies in memory. Euthymic patient can use a similar semantic clustering strategy so that they can recall and recognize fewer words than controls, suggesting impaired encoding of verbal information and there is lack of rapid forgetting, which suggests a relative absence of a storage deficit. Results of studies in declarative memory impairment in BD suggests that the impairments are consistent with deficits in learning, but do not appear to be related to different organizational strategies during learning, and do not appear to be secondary to clinical state. Rather, they are associated with the underlying pathophysiology of the illness. Regarding executive functions, patients with BD have deficiencies related to planning, organizational strategies, lack of control in the action, conceptual formation and cognitive flexibility. In depressive phase, patients have problems with concept formation, meanwhile the deficit in verbal fluency is due because they use phonemic rather than semantic clues.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present the results of an experimental research, whose objective was to determine if split attention was explanatory for the variability of prospective time estimation. Theoretical models about prospective time estimation postulate that attentional resources of processing are divided between a temporary processor (timer), that counts and stores Subjective Temporal Units (STUs), and other activities of non temporary processing (Zakay, 1993). A sample of 36 university students was selected and were assigned randomly to each one of six experimental conditions determined by a 3 x 2 factorial design, whose basic factors were: amount of tasks (1, 2, 3) and complexity levels of material (low and high). We designed materials for the different tasks, as well as for the evaluation of memory (STM and LTM) and split attention aptitudes. The materials used for the simple tasks were: drawings that the individuals had to copy with nine cubes (similar to those in Weschler's Test) with previously demarcated limits; plastic circular cards that the individuals had to select according color; and a remote control toy car, whose route had to be observed by the individuals. The materials used for the complex tasks were: drawings to be copied with nine cubes, but without limits; a short story by Jorge LuisBorges that the individuals had to read; and a crossword puzzle that they had to complete. The instruments for the evaluation of memory aptitudes were two lists of 20 familiar words (one for short term memory and the other one for long term memory); and for the evaluation of split attention capacity the Subtest of Keys in Weschler's Test was used as follows: the individuals had to complete the subtest during one minute and during the following minute they continued filling it in while someone read a list of words (interference), and at the same time they had to make a mark whenever they heard a word from the feelings category. As regards to the procedure, for short term memory the individuals were asked to immediately recall a word of the list that was read. For split attention, the individuals were asked to complete the keys (without and with interference), and to measure long term memory, they were asked to recall the second list at the end of the experiment. The memory aptitudes were represented by the number of correct words recalled and the split attention was measured by the percentage of attention maintenance between the task without interference and the task with it. The experiment itself consisted in the accomplishment of one, two or three tasks, which could be simple or complex, according to experimental group assigned. In the instructions regarding the task, the individuals were told to stop the timer (it had begun to register time at the beginning of the task) once they thought that a period of 2 minutes 53 seconds was up. The measures of time were the differences between real time and estimated time. Data were analyzed by correlation analysis, discriminant analysis and bifactorial analysis of variance (ANOVA). The findings were that the capacity of split attention is correlated to prospective time estimation. Also, the capacity of split attention is a good way to predict the estimation time capacity of individuals, especially for over-estimators. The differences in memory aptitudes do not explain prospective estimations variability. We did not find statistically significant differences between different amount of tasks and between high or low complexity of tasks. These results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]