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The aim of this discussion paper is to explore factors and contexts that influence how nurses might conceptualise and assign personhood for people with altered consciousness, cognition and behaviours. While a biomedical framing is founded upon a dichotomy between the body and self, such that the body can be subjected to a medical and objectifying gaze, relational theories of self, multiculturalism and technological advances for life-sustaining interventions present new dilemmas which necessitate discussion about what constitutes personhood. The concept of personhood is dynamic and evolving: where historical constructs of rationality, agency, autonomy and a conscious mind once formed the basis for personhood, these ideas have been challenged to encompass embodied, relational, social and cultural paradigms of selfhood. Themes in this discussion include: the right to personhood, mind-body dualism versus the embodied self; personhood as consciousness, rationality and narratives of self; social relational contexts of personhood and cultural contexts of personhood. Patricia Benner's and Christine Tanner's clinical judgement model is then applied to consider the implications for nursing care that seeks to reflexively incorporate personhood. Nurse clinicians are able to move between conceptions of personhood and act to support the body, as well as presumed autonomy and relational, social and cultural personhood. In doing so, they use analytical, intuitive and narrative reasoning which prioritises autonomous constructions of self. They also incorporate relational and social contexts of the person receiving care within the possibilities of technological advances and constraints of contextual resources., (© 2024 The Author(s). Nursing Philosophy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The International Conference on Cognitive Modelling is dedicated to understanding how the complex processes of the mind can be explained in terms of detailed inner processing. In this issue, we present four representative papers of this field of research from our 20th meeting, ICCM 2022. This meeting was our first hybrid meeting, with a virtual version happening July 11-15, 2022, and an in-person event from July 23-27, 2022, held in Toronto, Canada. The four papers presented here were the top-ranked papers across both the virtual and in-person events. Three of the papers develop novel computational theories about low-level components within the mind and how those components result in high-level phenomena such as motivation, anhedonia, and attention. The final paper demonstrates the use of cognitive modeling to develop novel explanations of a paired associate learning task, and uses those insights to develop and explain human performance in a more complex version of that task., (© 2024 Cognitive Science Society LLC.)

Medical postgraduates are the new force of scientific research groups in China. However, the limitation of their English language ability restricts their publication of high-level Science Citation Index (SCI) papers to a large extent. Measures to improve students' SCI language ability from macro, intermediate and micro aspects were discussed through flipped classroom teaching mode, such as students' reading papers before class, students' practicing paper writing after class, and teacher's making comments in class. The feedback from the questionnaire showed that 96.65% of the students were satisfied with the teaching mode and 93.57% of them had improved their confidence in SCI writing. For the problems mentioned in the feedback, it was suggested that colleges and universities should formulate policies to encourage teachers to engage in medical English teaching, meanwhile teachers should constantly improve their professional quality, so as to help students improve their SCI language ability rapidly.

The International Conference on Cognitive Modeling brings together researchers from around the world whose main goal is to build computational systems that reflect the internal processes of the mind. In this issue, we present the five best representative papers on this work from our 19th meeting, ICCM 2021, which was held virtually from July 3 to July 9, 2021. Three of these papers provide new techniques for refining computational models, giving better methods for taking empirical data and producing accurate computational models of the cognitive systems that produce them. The other two papers focus on explanation: using models to elucidate the underlying processes affecting cognition in such diverse domains as logical reasoning and the effects of caffeine., (© 2022 Cognitive Science Society LLC.)

Background: One of the satisfactions of publishing a paper in an academic journal is seeing the process reach closure after potentially weeks or months of peer review and editorial processing. Typically, in the latter step, a proof is developed and the paper stays in press until the paper is assigned to a journal issue, in the case of a print journal. In some cases, it is possible to find papers that are in press for years., Aims: Although it is unclear why this is the case, when a paper stays in an "in limbo" status for so long, it almost defeats the purpose of rapid proof and online publication., Method: The date of the last "in press" article was manually extracted and compared in 23 medicine-related journals indexed in Elsevier's Science Direct., Results: Among the 23 journals, "in press" articles ranged from less than one month to almost 16 years., Conclusion: Editors and publishers should endeavor to publish all "in press" papers within a reasonable amount of time. If not, they should rethink their publication process so as not to leave the intellect of some academics in a perpetual state of publishing "limbo"., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.)

Introduction: Theory papers have been the most commonly employed method to assess learning outcomes in medical education. In these papers, both recall abilities and higher‑order cognitive functions need to be assessed giving proper weightage as per relevance. Hence it becomes necessary that valid assessment methods are employed to evaluate the required objectives/competencies. The objective of the study was to develop a method for analyzing postgraduate question papers of various specialties. Methodology: A rubric matrix was created with three broad objective criteria to assess framing and layout of the questions in each paper, analysis of different sets for same examination, and finally an overall assessment of all the papers for each subject. Results: A total of 28 specialty papers were available. A total number of papers analysed = 340. The overall mean score out of total 60 marks was 38.64 ± 4.5. It was seen that the majority (60%) of the departments have been graded as fair on analysis of the theory papers. None of the departments were graded as very good, while 7% of them were graded as good. Although a very minuscule percentage of the papers had grammatical errors and duplication of questions in the sets, only 57% of the departments had done a proper moderation and 21% had used higher domains of learning for assessment. Conclusion: Analysis of postgraduate question papers showed that the questions asked for postgraduates are more recall‑based instead of higher taxonomy of cognitive domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A core assumption in the current neurosemantic research is that meanings of concrete words (object nouns, action verbs) are at least partially grounded in modality-specific representations implemented by perceptual and motor cortices. Nevertheless, increasing evidence from the multisensory research suggests that extensive portions of what are traditionally considered modality-specific cortices are in fact supramodal in nature – that is, they can process specific information in multiple sensory modalities and in both normal and sensory-deprived individuals. My central argument in this paper is that the amount of data collected within the supramodal paradigm, although certainly not conclusive, is already robust enough to foster reflections about the role of modality-specificity in the semantic brain and to prompt considerations about the possibility of promoting a property-specific and modality-invariant turn in neurosemantics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research described different cognitive processes on how individuals process distributional information. Based on these processes, the current research uncovered a novel phenomenon in distribution perception: the Endpoint Leverage Effect. Subjective endpoints influence distribution estimations not only locally around the endpoint but also influence estimations across the whole value range of the distribution. The influence is largest close to the respective endpoint and decreases in size toward the opposite end of the value range. Three experiments investigate this phenomenon: Experiment 1 provides correlational evidence for the Endpoint Leverage Effect after presenting participants with a numerical distribution. Experiment 2 demonstrates the Endpoint Leverage Effect by manipulating the subjective endpoints of a numerical distribution directly. Experiment 3 generalizes the phenomenon by investigating a general population sample and estimations regarding a real-world income distribution. In addition, quantitative model analysis examines the cognitive processes underlying the effect. Overall, the novel Endpoint Leverage Effect is found in all three experiments, inspiring further research in a wide area of contexts., (© 2024 The Author(s). Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Cognitive Science Society (CSS).)

Introduction: Assessments direct students towards learning. There are three types of learning: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. While all three are interlinked, the cognitive domain, which covers knowledge and intellectuality, is foundational and can be assessed through theory examinations. Theory exams are the best way to test the cognitive domain of a learner, while practical exams can assess the psychomotor and affective domains. Since the question paper is the most important tool in theory exams, it is essential that the question paper covers relevant topics and tests all levels of cognitive learning, which encompass knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Aim: To assess the level of cognitive domains assessed and the weightage allocated to various topics in the undergraduate summative examination question paper of community medicine. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Department of Community Medicine, Pramukh Swami Medical College and Sri Krishna Hospital, Bhaikaka University, Karamsad, Anand, Gujarat, India in which the five-year question papers (2016-2020) from five Universities were analysed to assess the level of cognitive domains and the weightage assigned to various topics. Each question was categorised as recall, comprehension, or application based on the cognitive domain it assessed. Furthermore, each question was analysed to determine the topic it pertained to, and the marks allocated to that question were assigned to the corresponding topic. Results: The majority of marks in Universities 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were, respectively allocated as follows: 324 (80.62%), 459 (84.66%), 453 (75.5%), 895 (89.5%), and 379 (63.16%) for questions testing the recall ability of the learners. For questions assessing comprehension ability, the marks allotted were 20 (4.87%), 0, 81 (13.5%), 65 (6.5%), and 51 (8.15%). The fewest marks were assigned to questions testing application, synthesis, or evaluation abilities. Epidemiology had the highest weightage in all five Universities, with marks of 73 (18.25%), 75 (13.89%), 93 (15.5%), 141 (14.1%), and 83 (13.83%). Conclusion: The cognitive domains assessed in the subject across all five Universities were unsatisfactory. The weightage of marks allotted to topics varied, highlighting the need to develop a question paper plan that facilitates a systematic distribution based on different levels of cognitive domains and topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: When mathematical knowledge is expressed in general language, it is called verbalized mathematics. Previous studies on verbalized mathematics typically paid attention to mathematical vocabulary or educational practice. However, these studies did not exclude the role of symbolic mathematics ability, and almost no research has focused on verbalized mathematical principles., Aims: This study is aimed to investigate whether verbalized mathematics ability independently predicts mathematics achievement. The current study hypothesized that verbalized mathematics ability supports mathematics achievement independent of general language, related cognitive abilities and even symbolic mathematical ability., Sample: A sample of 241 undergraduates (136 males, 105 females, mean age = 21.95, SD = 2.38) in Beijing, China., Methods: A total of 12 tests were used, including a verbalized arithmetic principle test, a mathematics achievement test, and tests on general language (sentence completion test), symbolic mathematical ability (including symbolic arithmetic principles test, simple arithmetic computation and complex arithmetic computation), approximate number sense ability (numerosity comparison test) and several related cognitive covariates (including the non-verbal matrix reasoning, the syllogism reasoning, mental rotation, figure matching and choice reaction time)., Results: Results showed that the processing of verbalized arithmetic principles displayed a significant role in mathematics achievement after controlling for general language, related cognitive abilities, approximate number sense ability and symbolic mathematics ability., Conclusions: The results suggest that verbalized mathematics ability was an independent predictor and provided empirical evidence supporting the verbalized mathematics role on achievement as an independent component in three-component mathematics model., (© 2023 British Psychological Society.)

The study tested how the Recency Preference and Predicate Proximity model (Gibson et al. in Cognition 59(1):23-59, 1996, https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(88)90004-2 ) plays out by examining the attachment preferences of native Russian speakers when processing locally ambiguous participial relative clause sentences with three potential NP attachment sites in Russian. Using a self-paced reading task, reading times and noun phrase selection responses were collected. Results showed significantly shorter reading times at the disambiguating region and higher accuracy rate of selection in the high-attaching condition than in the middle- and low-attaching conditions. No significant differences were found between the middle- and low-attaching conditions. We argue that Predicate Proximity is a much stronger factor than Recency Preference in Russian., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Despite the importance of knowing the cognitive capabilities of children with neurodevelopmental conditions, less than one-third of children with cerebral palsy participate in standardized assessments. Globally, approximately 50% of people with cerebral palsy have an intellectual disability and there is significant risk for domain-specific cognitive impairments for the majority of people with cerebral palsy. However, standardized cognitive assessment tools are not accessible to many children with cerebral palsy, as they require manual manipulation of objects, verbal response and/or speeded response. As such, standardised assessment may result in an underestimation of abilities for children with significant motor and/or speech impairment. The overall aim of the project is to examine and compare the psychometric properties of standardised cognitive assessment tools that have been accommodated for use with either a switch device or eye-gaze control technologies, with the specific aims to: (1) Examine the psychometric properties (measurement agreement and validity) of accommodated assessment tools by comparing the performance of typically developing children on six cognitive assessment tools administered via standardised versus accommodated (switch or eye-gaze control) administration; (2) Describe and compare the performance and user experience of children with cerebral palsy on six accommodated cognitive assessments administered via switch or eye-gaze control technologies. Secondary aims are to: (1) Describe the completion rates and time to complete assessments of participants in each group; (2) Within the group with cerebral palsy, examine the effects of condition-specific characteristics (type of cerebral palsy, functional levels, and pain) and demographics (age, socio-demographic) on participation. This protocol paper describes a two-phase validation and acceptability study that utilizes a mixed-model design. This study will collect concurrent data from 80 typically developing children and 40 children with cerebral palsy, who use switch or eye-gaze control technology as alternate access communication methods. The set of instruments will measure receptive vocabulary, fluid reasoning, sustained attention, vision perception, visuospatial working memory and executive functions. Data analyses will be conducted using SPSS v. 25 and R v 4.1.0. SPSS Sample Power 3 was used for power computation and allows for a 10% drop out rate. Quantitative descriptive statistics, measurement agreement data plotting, bivariate and multiple regressions analysis will be conducted using appropriate methods.

In a large proportion of individuals with fronto-temporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), the underlying pathology is associated with the misfolding and aggregation of the microtubule associated protein tau (FTLD-tau). With disease progression, widespread protein accumulation throughout cortical and subcortical brain regions may be responsible for neurodegeneration. One of the syndromes of FTLD is the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), in which the underlying pathology is heterogenous, with half of the cases being related to FTLD-tau. Currently, there are no approved disease-modifying treatments for FTLD-tau, therefore representing a major unmet therapeutic need. These descriptive, preliminary findings of the phase 1 open-label trial provide data to support the potential of sodium selenate to halt the cognitive and behavioral decline, as well as to reduce tau levels in a small group of participants with bvFTD (N = 11). All participants were treated with sodium selenate over a period of 52 weeks. Cognition was assessed with the Neuropsychiatry Unit Cognitive Assessment Tool (NUCOG, total scores), social cognition with the Revised Self-Monitoring Scale (RSMS, total scores), behavior with the Cambridge Behavioral Inventory (CBI), and carer burden with the Caregiver Buden Scale (CBS). Fluid biomarker measures include cerebrospinal fluid of total tau (t-tau), phosphorylated tau (p-tau181), NfL, p-tau181/t-tau, t-tau/Aβ1–42, and p-tau181/Aβ1–42 levels. After treatment at follow-up, cognition and behavior showed further negative change (based on a reliable change criterion cut-off of annual NUCOG decline) in the “progressors,” but not in the “non-progressors.” “Non-progressors” also showed elevated baseline CSF tau levels and no increase after treatment, indicating underlying tau pathology and a positive response to sodium selenate treatment. Significant changes in MRI were not observed. The findings provide useful information for future clinical trials to systematically assess the disease-modifying treatment effects of sodium selenate in randomized controlled designs for bvFTD and FTLD-tau pathologies.

In order to understand consumers' perceptual cognition of Zhangpu paper-cut patterns and grasp the innovative application direction. The four design elements of paper-cut patterns were extracted by morphological analysis, and representative perceptual vocabulary were selected using Kansei engineering theory and factor analysis, then the design elements and perceptual evaluation scores of representative words are used as the input and output data of the GWO-BP neural network, respectively, to establish an intelligent model that can predict consumers' perceptual cognition of paper-cut patterns. To verify the superiority of the model, the predicted result of BP and FA-BP are compared with GWO-BP neural network. The results show that although the convergence speed of the GWO-BP model is slightly lower than that of the FA-BP model, its prediction accuracy is significantly better than other algorithms. Designers can use the model to quickly redesign the paper-cut pattern to better meet the aesthetic needs of modern consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I respond to eight commentaries on my target article called "Grounded cognition entails linguistic relativity: A neglected implication of a major semantic theory." The commentaries span a broad range of disciplines and perspectives. I have organized my response around the following topics: (1) an introductory synopsis of my main argument; (2) grounded versus amodal theories of concepts; (3) language-specific versus language-independent concepts; (4) language, culture, and cognition; (5) language itself as a source of conceptual grounding; (6) abstract concepts, linguistic relativity, and contextual and individual variability; (7) word meanings as language-specific predictions; and (8) some final remarks about the importance of cross-linguistic diversity., (© 2023 The Authors. Topics in Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Cognitive Science Society.)

Background: Utilizing information technology (IT) systems, for example in form of computerized cognitive screening or exergame-based (also called active videogames) training, has gained growing interest for supporting healthy aging and to detect, prevent and treat neurocognitive disorders (NCD). To ameliorate the effectiveness of exergaming, the neurobiological mechanisms as well as the most effective components for exergame-based training remain to be established. At the same time, it is important to account for the end-users’ capabilities, preferences, and therapeutic needs during the design and development process to foster the usability and acceptance of the resulting program in clinical practice. This will positively influence adherence to the resulting exergame-based training program, which, in turn, favors more distinct training-related neurobiological effects.Objectives and Methods: This methodological paper describes the design and development process of novel exergame-based training concepts guided by a recently proposed methodological framework: The ‘Multidisciplinary Iterative Design of Exergames (MIDE): A Framework for Supporting the Design, Development, and Evaluation of Exergames for Health’ (Li et al., 2020).Case Study: A step-by-step application of the MIDE-framework as a specific guidance in an ongoing project aiming to design, develop, and evaluate an exergame-based training concept with the aim to halt and/or reduce cognitive decline and improve quality of life in older adults with mild neurocognitive disorder (mNCD) is illustrated.Discussion and Conclusion: The development of novel exergame-based training concepts is greatly facilitated when it is based on a theoretical framework (e.g., the MIDE-framework). Applying this framework resulted in a structured, iterative, and evidence-based approach that led to the identification of multiple key requirements for the exergame design as well as the training components that otherwise may have been overlooked or neglected. This is expected to foster the usability and acceptance of the resulting exergame intervention in “real life” settings. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to implement a theoretical framework (e.g., the MIDE-framework) for future research projects in line with well-known checklists to improve completeness of reporting and replicability when serious games for motor-cognitive rehabilitation purposes are to be developed.

Introduction: Alpha-adrenergic antagonists are widely prescribed for lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), however there has been a report that their use is associated with dementia. Our objective was to investigate if new users of alpha-adrenergic antagonists with varying levels of cognitive impairment had an increased risk of cognitive decline compared to non-users., Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study, utilizing data from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) data set. After applying relevant exclusion criteria, 916 people who were newly using alpha-antagonist medications were matched with a propensity score to 916 who were not using these medications. The primary outcome was a clinically relevant cognitive decline measured by the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) Dementia Staging Instrument or the mini mental state examination (MMSE). Secondary outcomes included scores from other cognitive assessment tools., Results: The matched cohorts did not differ significantly in baseline characteristics. There were no statistically significant differences in baseline or follow-up cognitive scores between those exposed and nonexposed to alpha-adrenergic antagonists. Clinically significant cognitive decline (as defined by the CDR) occurred in 9.72% of the exposed group and 8.19% of the nonexposed group. There was no observed effect of alpha-adrenergic antagonists on cognitive decline, as measured with the CDR (odds ratio [OR] 1.34, p = 0.14) or the MMSE (OR 0.98, p = 0.92). Stratified analyses by cognitive status and apolipoprotein E genotype interaction assessment also demonstrated no significant associations., Conclusion: Alpha-adrenergic antagonists for LUTS do not appear to increase the risk of cognitive decline, offering reassurance to clinicians and patients., (© 2024 The Author(s). Neurourology and Urodynamics published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: Established evidences have demonstrated that hypertension was associated with the cognitive impairment. But the associations between the duration of hypertension exposure and cognitive performance are still inconclusive., Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the association between the duration of hypertension diagnosis and cognitive performance in older adults by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2011-2014)., Methods: To evaluate the relationship between the hypertension duration and cognitive performance, we conducted the logistic regression analysis. Furthermore, we also performed the Restricted cubic spline (RCS) analysis to assess the nonlinear relationship between the duration of exposure to hypertension and cognitive performance., Results: Initially, total 19,931 participants were included in this study, and 2928 individuals were enrolled. With the increase of hypertension duration, more risk of cognitive impairment was observed in the Digit Symbol Substitution test (DSST) (OR = 1.012, 1.006-1.019), and a similar trend was observed in Animal Fluency test (AFT) (OR = 1.009,1.003-1.016). The RCS results showed that the hypertension duration pattern was linear associated with the risk of cognitive impairment in DDST (P for non-linearity = 0.758). Meanwhile, subgroups analysis of midlife hypertension, we revealed that linear association with the risk of cognitive impairment in DSST (P for non-linearity = 0.391) and CERAD (P for non-linearity = 0.849) among hypertension diagnose < 55 years populations., Conclusion: Collectively, our finding indicates that longer duration of exposure to hypertension worsens the cognition performance, especially for middle-aged hypertension., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The study aimed to develop and validate a gamified cognitive flexibility task through brain imaging, and to investigate behavioral and brain activation differences between young and older adults during task performance. Thirty-one young adults (aged 18-35) and 31 older adults (aged 60-80) were included in the present study. All participants underwent fMRI scans while completing the gamified cognitive flexibility task. Results showed that young adults outperformed older adults on the task. The left inferior frontal junction (IFJ), a key region of cognitive flexibility, was significantly activated during the task in both older and young adults. Comparatively, the percent signal change in the left IFJ was stronger in older adults than in young adults. Moreover, older adults demonstrated more precise representations during the task in the left IFJ. Additionally, the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and superior parietal lobule in older adults and the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and inferior frontal gyrus in young adults were also activated during the task. Psychophysiological interaction analyses showed significant functional connectivity between the left IFJ and the left IPL, as well as the right precuneus in older adults. In young adults, significant functional connectivity was found between the left IFJ and the left MFG, as well as the right angular. The current study provides preliminary evidence for the validity of the gamified cognitive flexibility task through brain imaging. The findings suggest that this task could serve as a reliable tool for assessing cognitive flexibility and for exploring age-related differences of cognitive flexibility in both brain and behavior., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Recent studies have found associations between obstructive sleep apnea and cognitive decline. The underlying mechanisms are still unclear. Here, we investigate the associations between changes in micro-architecture, specifically sleep spindles, and cognitive function in community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults, some with obstructive sleep apnea, with a focus on sex differences. A total of 125 voluntary participants (mean age 66.0 ± 6.4 years, 64 females) from a larger cohort (participants of the Brain in Motion Studies I and II) underwent 1 night of in-home polysomnography and a neuropsychological battery (sleep and cognitive testing were conducted within 2 weeks of each other). A semi-automatic computerized algorithm was used to score polysomnography data and detect spindle characteristics in non-rapid eye movement Stages 2 and 3 in both frontal and central electrodes. Based on their apnea-hypopnea index, participants were divided into those with no obstructive sleep apnea (apnea-hypopnea index < 5 per hr, n = 21), mild obstructive sleep apnea (5 ≥ apnea-hypopnea index < 15, n = 47), moderate obstructive sleep apnea (15 ≥ apnea-hypopnea index < 30, n = 34) and severe obstructive sleep apnea (apnea-hypopnea index ≥ 30, n = 23). There were no significant differences in spindle characteristics between the four obstructive sleep apnea severity groups. Spindle density and percentage of fast spindles were positively associated with some verbal fluency measures on the cognitive testing. Sex might be linked with these associations. Biological sex could play a role in the associations between spindle characteristics and some verbal fluency measures. Obstructive sleep apnea severity was not found to be a contributing factor in this non-clinical community-dwelling cohort., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Sleep Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Sleep Research Society.)

Understanding the magnitudes represented by numerals is a core component of early mathematical development and is often assessed by accuracy in situating numerals and fractions on a number line. Performance on these measures is consistently related to performance in other mathematics domains, but the strength of these relations may be overestimated because general cognitive ability has not been fully controlled in prior studies. The first of two meta-analyses (162 studies, 33,101 participants) confirmed a relation between performance on whole number (r = 0.33) and fractions number (r = 0.41) lines and overall mathematics performance. These relations were generally consistent across content domains (e.g., algebra and computation) and other moderators. The second (71 studies, 14,543 participants) used meta-analytic structural equation modeling to confirm these relations while controlling general cognitive ability (defined by IQ and working memory measures) and, in one analysis, general mathematics competence. The relation between number line performance and general mathematics competence remained significant but reduced (β = 0.13). Controlling general cognitive ability, whole number line performance consistently predicted competence with fractions but not performance on numeracy or computations measures. The results suggest an understanding of the magnitudes represented by whole numbers might be particularly important for students' fractions learning. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Two meta-analyses examined the link between the number line and mathematics performance. The first revealed significant relations across domains (e.g., algebra and computation). The second controlled for general cognitive ability and resulted in reduced but still significant relations. The relation between number line and fractions performance was stronger than relations to other domains., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

In recent years, the establishment of a substantial amount of academic groups on scientific social network has brought new opportunities for the collaboration among researchers. In this situation, conducting paper recommendation to these academic groups is of terrific necessity in that it can further facilitate group activities. However, when producing group recommendation, existing methods fail to make full use of the abundant group information, from which a great deal of valuable information can be inferred to facilitate the recommendation performance. In addition, those methods tend to assign an equal weight to each group member when aggregating their recommendations, which is unreasonable in practice. Although some improvements have been made to remedy this problem by assigning different weights to group members, they fail to take into account the reliabilities of group members. Therefore, a group-oriented paper recommendation method based on probabilistic matrix factorization and evidential reasoning (GPMF_ER) is proposed in this article to tackle these problems. More specifically, the group and paper content information are integrated into the probabilistic matrix factorization model to enhance the accuracy of individual recommendation. Afterward, evidential reasoning rule is introduced in the aggregation step to consider both the weights and reliabilities of group members. Extensive experiments have been conducted on the real world CiteULike dataset and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The economic quagmire the entire world was engulfed in, due to the turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the subsequent political unrest experienced in the country, created a severe economic crisis in Sri Lanka in 2022. Hence, this concept paper envisions developing a theoretical model to assess the cognitive load and financial literacy on the investment decisions during a severe economic crisis. Design/methodology/approach: This paper while proposing a deductive approach under the positivist epistemological research philosophy, develops a theoretical model based on the Attribution Theory (AT) as the domain and the Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) as the choice of method, to make investment decisions during a severe economic crisis as the phenomenon. Findings: Based on the existing literature, it was theorized that the cognitive load in terms of the intrinsic, extraneous and germane load impact the financial literacy of investors. The financial literacy and economic uncertainty are classified as internal and external controls that affect the investment decisions as per the AT. Originality: This paper proposes a novel theoretical aspect on investment decision making, captivating the economic catastrophe that quivered all economic foundations in Sri Lanka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capacities for abstract thinking and problem-solving are central to human cognition. Processes of abstraction allow the transfer of experiences and knowledge between contexts helping us make informed decisions in new or changing contexts. While we are often inclined to relate such reasoning capacities to individual minds and brains, they may in fact be contingent on human-specific modes of collaboration, dialogue, and shared attention. In an experimental study, we test the hypothesis that social interaction enhances cognitive processes of rule-induction, which in turn improves problem-solving performance. Through three sessions of increasing complexity, individuals and groups were presented with a problem-solving task requiring them to categorize a set of visual stimuli. To assess the character of participants' problem representations, after each training session, they were presented with a transfer task involving stimuli that differed in appearance, but shared relations among features with the training set. Besides, we compared participants' categorization behaviors to simulated agents relying on exemplar learning. We found that groups performed superior to individuals and agents in the training sessions and were more likely to correctly generalize their observations in the transfer phase, especially in the high complexity session, suggesting that groups more effectively induced underlying categorization rules from the stimuli than individuals and agents. Crucially, variation in performance among groups was predicted by semantic diversity in members' dialogical contributions, suggesting a link between social interaction, cognitive diversity, and abstraction., (© 2023 The Authors. Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Cognitive Science Society (CSS).)

Mirror studies have uncovered evidence for self-awareness in several non-human animals; however, this approach has not been extended to invertebrates. Here, we examined mirror responses of Polistes paper wasps, insects with high social cognitive abilities. We used a highly replicated design, exposing wasps to mirror self-recognition (MSR) test stimuli (mirror, facial marking) and several control stimuli (non-reflective surfaces, invisible marks, and sham marks). We found that nest-founding queen wasps respond to mirrors with increases in antennation and touching over non-reflective surfaces. Visible marks also resulted in more exploratory behaviours (antennating and touching the mirror), but decreases in self-directed behaviours typically used as indicators of MSR. While this experiment does not support the notion that wasps possess self-awareness, it shows that wasps respond to subtle alterations in their visual environment and appearance with exploratory behaviour. This work thus increases our understanding of insects' cognitive abilities, suggesting high levels of perceptual richness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the ubiquitous nature of evidence accumulation models in cognitive and experimental psychology, there has been a comparatively limited uptake of such techniques in the applied literature. While quantifying latent cognitive processing properties has significant potential for applied domains such as adaptive work systems, accumulator models often fall short in practical applications. Two primary reasons for these shortcomings are the complexities and time needed for the application of cognitive models, and the failure of current models to capture systematic trial-to-trial variability in parameters. In this manuscript, we develop a novel, trial-varying extension of the shifted Wald model to address these concerns. By leveraging conjugate properties of the Wald distribution, we derive computationally efficient solutions for threshold and drift parameters which can be updated instantaneously with new data. The resulting model allows the quantification of systematic variation in latent cognitive parameters across trials and we demonstrate the utility of such analyses through simulations and an exemplar application to an existing data set. The analytic nature of our solutions opens the door for real-world applications, significantly extending the reach of computational models of behavioral responses., (© 2023. Crown.)

There are three main types of number used in modern, industrialized societies. Cardinals count sets (e.g., people, objects) and quantify elements of conventional scales (e.g., money, distance), ordinals index positions in ordered sequences (e.g., years, pages), and nominals serve as unique identifiers (e.g., telephone numbers, player numbers). Many studies that have cited number frequencies in support of claims about numerical cognition and mathematical cognition hinge on the assumption that most numbers analyzed are cardinal. This paper is the first to investigate the relative frequencies of different number types, presenting a corpus analysis of morphologically unmarked numbers (not, e.g., "eighth" or "21st") in which we manually annotated 3,600 concordances in the Corpus of Contemporary American English. Overall, cardinals are dominant-both pure cardinals (sets) and measurements (scales)-except in the range 1,000-10,000, which is dominated by ordinal years, like 1996 and 2004. Ordinals occur less often overall, and nominals even less so. Only for cardinals do round numbers, associated with approximation, dominate overall and increase with magnitude. In comparison with other registers, academic writing contains a lower proportion of measurements as well as a higher proportion of ordinals and, to some extent, nominals. In writing, pure cardinals and measurements are usually represented as number words, but measurements-especially larger, unround ones-are more likely to be numerals. Ordinals and nominals are mostly represented as numerals. Altogether, this paper reveals how numbers are used in American English, establishing an initial baseline for any analyses of number frequencies and shedding new light on the cognitive and psychological study of number., (© 2024 The Author(s). Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Cognitive Science Society (CSS).)

Background: Patients with schizophrenia often face challenges related to cognitive function, affecting their daily functioning and overall quality of life. The choice of antipsychotic treatment may play a crucial role in determining cognitive outcomes., Study Question: Our study aimed to investigate whether there was a difference in cognitive ability between the patients with schizophrenia receiving oral antipsychotics (OAP) versus long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAI-APs)., Study Design: We conducted a cross-sectional study using analytical methods between January 1, 2020, and January 1, 2022. Participants were divided into 2 groups: patients undergoing treatment with OAP and patients undergoing treatment with LAI-AP. All participants underwent version A of Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS)., Measures and Outcomes: The primary objective was to compare cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia treated with LAI antipsychotics versus OAP using BACS. Primary outcome measures include overall BACS score, with secondary measures focusing on specific cognitive domains. This study contributes to the understanding of the cognitive effects of different antipsychotic formulations in schizophrenia treatment., Results: Although there was a slightly higher intelligence quotient in the LAI-AP group (102.2 vs. 101.32, P = 0.5401), it was not statistically significant. Olanzapine was the most commonly prescribed antipsychotic, with 48% of patients in the LAI-AP group and 40% in the OAP group. The LAI-AP group outperformed in all BACS evaluations. The most notable difference was in the token motor task (57.78 ± 17.03 vs. 50.04 ± 18.82, P = 0.0335), while the Tower of London test showed the smallest difference (17.26 ± 2.61 vs. 15.48 ± 3.47, P = 0.0046). Regression analysis revealed no significant variance in intelligence quotient scores; however, a significant discrepancy in BACS scores was evident, favoring the LAI treatment for better cognitive outcomes., Conclusions: The use of long-acting antipsychotic treatment in individuals with schizophrenia offers promising advantages in preserving cognitive function., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

This paper aims to show that properties of cognitive/conceptual representations and formal-logical structures of linguistic meaning can be inter-translated, recast, transformed into one another, and so united together, even though cognitive/conceptual representations and formal-logical structures of linguistic meaning are apparently distinct in ontology and divergent in their form or character. While cognitive/conceptual representations are ultimately rooted in sensory-motor systems, formal-logical structures of linguistic meaning are abstractions detached from and independent of the actualized world. This paper sketches out the foundations of how representations of linguistic meaning in terms of cognitive/conceptual structures in Cognitive/Conceptual Semantics can be unified with those in terms of formal-logical structures in Formal Semantics. This is done by recasting cognitive/conceptual representations in terms of formal-logical structures of linguistic meaning and re-encoding formal-logical structures of linguistic meaning in terms of cognitive/conceptual representations. Then, these two types of semantic representations, thus shown representationally equivalent, will be related to a series of derivations across levels in neuronal networks and dynamics. The general discussion on unifying cognitive/conceptual representations of linguistic meaning with formal-logical structures is contextualized within the broader context of theorizing in cognitive science., (© 2024 Cognitive Science Society LLC.)

In the last 5 years, the intersection between psychology and human rights has become more evident, with influential international, national and local human rights institutions, including the American Psychological Association, issuing reports and resolutions on the topic. Within jurisprudence, human rights are less of a legalistic regulatory enactment and more of what social psychologists refer to as injunctive norms. We argue that conceptualising human rights as the social-psychological process of both creating and aligning injunctive and descriptive norms clarifies human rights and makes them more accessible to groups and individuals in society engaged in rights claiming. Rights claiming is a term we use to describe the moral cognitive process of people engaged in individual and/or collective behaviour aimed at securing their social identity within the public sphere where that identity is marginalised or the subject of discrimination. We argue that placing rights claiming at the centre of human rights psychology advances human rights. Focusing psychological research on social identity, the alignment of injunctive norms, deontic moral cognitions, human dignity, social dominance orientations and collective and individual behaviours forms part of securing a clear specialty in psychological science dedicated to human rights and advancing the American Psychological Association (APA)'s human rights mandate., (© 2023 The Authors. International Journal of Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Union of Psychological Science.)

Latent variable analyses of cognitive abilities are among the major means by which cognitive psychologists test theories regarding the structure of human cognition. Models are fit to observed variance-covariance structures, and the fit of those models are compared to assess the merits of competing theories. However, an often unconsidered and potentially important methodological issue is the precise sequence in which tasks are delivered to participants. Here we empirically tested whether differences in task sequences systematically affect the observed factor structure. A large sample (N = 587) completed a battery of 12 cognitive tasks measuring four constructs: working memory, long-term memory, attention control, and fluid intelligence. Participants were assigned to complete the assessment in one of three sequences: fixed and grouped by construct vs. fixed and interleaved across constructs vs. random by participant. We generated and tested two hypotheses: grouping task sequences by construct (i.e., administering clusters of tasks measuring a cognitive construct consecutively) would (1) systematically increase factor loadings and (2) systematically decrease interfactor correlations. Neither hypothesis was supported. The measurement models were largely invariant across the three conditions, suggesting that latent variable analyses are robust to such subtle methodological differences as task sequencing., (© 2023. The Psychonomic Society, Inc.)

Spatial representations play a fundamental role in navigation, decision-making, and overall interaction with our environments. Understanding how individuals construct and use them holds significant importance in spatial cognition research, and even bears practical implications for urban planning as it can explain how we interact with the spaces we inhabit. In large urban areas, transit maps stand as prominent visual aids, guiding people through public transportation systems. These maps, while designed for navigational purposes, may influence how individuals perceive and represent their cities. For instance, Vertesi (Social Studies of Science 38:09-35, 2008) showed through a series of interviews including a "sketch mapping" phase, that London Tube Map seems to structure residents' spatial representation of their city. However, thorough quantitative research on this subject have not been carried out yet. Two experimental studies have been conducted to demonstrate how residents' representations of metropolitan areas closely resemble the schematic representations of their public transport networks. First, we show that residents of Greater Paris-public and private transport users alike-plot city landmarks in a layout more closely resembling that of the Parisian transit map than the geographical map. Next, we asked Greater Berlin, London and Paris residents to place landmarks of their cities on different map backgrounds. A similar procedure was followed for landmarks from an unknown city, after a dedicated learning phase. For known cities, the sketch maps produced were closer to transit maps than to the geographical ones, although less so if the test map background presented topographical elements (e.g., rivers, etc.). For learnt cities, participants' sketch maps were almost exclusively dependent on the map provided during the learning phase. These results suggest that familiarity with transit maps has a direct impact on the metric properties of spatial representation in memory, a phenomenon we propose to call the 'schema effect'., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Around the middle of the last century, the prevailing psychological paradigm of behaviourism was challenged by what is now known as the cognitive revolution. Behaviourists viewed learning as changes in patterns of behaviour through reinforcement. By contrast, advocates of the cognitive approach argued that such behavioural changes were outward manifestations of computational operations on mental representations. Here we consider the current state of the cognitive revolution, focusing on the two most contentious issues in the debate: language and learning. The cognitive approach has proved to be extremely fruitful in both fields. Although contemporary learning theory has almost completely embraced the cognitive approach, the study of language has witnessed a clear empiricist trend to revert back to a kind of neo-behaviourism. Many contemporary authors contend that language is a means of communication that is learned solely through the observation of external events, and culturally transmitted to successive generations. Here, we argue that learning and language can only be properly understood from a cognitive perspective, where the mind is conceived of as a biologically underpinned computational system. As is the case in learning theory, there is abundant evidence showing that language is subserved by an autonomous cognitive system in the mind. We conclude that the cognitive revolution has fundamentally changed our understanding of the mind., (© 2023 The Authors. Biological Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Cambridge Philosophical Society.)