Search

The research seeks to explore some of the main assumptions made by cognitive linguistics in an attempt to find out how different mental processes can participate in producing meaning - in general, and connotations and concepts in this literary genre in particular - and receiving it, by studying the central concept apparent in the title of the research, a study that derives its data. The cognitive and methodological aspects of the cognitive-semantic approach (at the level of mental representations) with its multidisciplinary procedures based on the mental lexicon (in its linguistic dimension) and mental space theory in particular, combined with conceptual blending, in an attempt to approach how meaning is produced and interpreted within verbal processes and to understand interacting linguistic structures based on On this theory. The research concluded as a result of the cognitive approach that the most important thing that distinguishes the work of the human brain while receiving this literary genre is the presence of a period of silence in which the mind tries to fill the narrative gaps. This literary genre is located in a middle area between what the author wrote and the recipient’s “perception” and interpretation, and the dynamism of reception is represented by the interpretation based on the components of the cognitive process, while from the productive (creative) perspective, it represents the limitations of language and attempts to select words and structures, select images, accuracy, and fragmentation. Problematic for the producer, it is problematic but essential to the creative production process. By God Almighty, we ask for payment and success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Categorical search has been heavily investigated over the past decade, mostly using natural categories that leave the underlying category mental representation unknown. The categorization literature offers several theoretical accounts of category mental representations. One prominent account is that separate learning systems account for classification: an explicit learning system that relies on easily verbalized rules and an implicit learning system that relies on an associatively learned (nonverbalizable) information integration strategy. The current study assessed the contributions of these separate category learning systems in the context of categorical search using simple stimuli. Participants learned to classify sinusoidal grating stimuli according to explicit or implicit categorization strategies, followed by a categorical search task using these same stimulus categories. Computational modeling determined which participants used the appropriate classification strategy during training and search, and eye movements collected during categorical search were assessed. We found that the trained categorization strategies overwhelmingly transferred to the verification (classification response) phase of search. Implicit category learning led to faster search response and shorter target dwell times relative to explicit category learning, consistent with the notion that explicit rule classification relies on a more deliberative response strategy. Participants who transferred the correct category learning strategy to the search guidance phase produced stronger search guidance (defined as the proportion of trials on which the target was the first item fixated) with evidence of greater guidance in implicit-strategy learners. This demonstrates that both implicit and explicit categorization systems contribute to categorical search and produce dissociable patterns of data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Horizontal and vertical representations of time (past-left or down and future-right or top) have been demonstrated. However, only a few studies have investigated the existence of a spatial map of time, considering it as the interaction of different spatial dimensions in space. The aim of this study was to investigate the existence of a mental time representation along the diagonal axes, intended as the combination of the horizontal and the vertical dimensions. Seventy-nine Italian participants (85% females; mean age = 25.11 ± 4.86 years; 77 right-handed) performed an online temporal judgment task using 20 Italian temporal expressions presented either always in the center (Experiment 1) or in the four corners of the screen (Experiment 2) and two pairs of response keys ("C" and "U" for the positive diagonal; "R" and "N" for the negative diagonal). Results showed spatial-temporal associations in positive (i.e., time was represented from left-bottom to right-top) and negative (i.e., time was represented from left-top to right-bottom) diagonals, although in Experiment 2 these associations were weak for the negative diagonal. These spatial-temporal associations along both diagonals were confirmed even when participants were free to place different temporal stimuli along a diagonally drawn line, in a Time-to-Position task, indicating that the temporal expressions could be ordered linearly along the diagonal spaces. Finally, these data indicated that the horizontal information was mainly used for determining the spatial-temporal associations along both diagonals, whereas the vertical information was flexible with a bottom-to-top (for positive diagonal) and top-to-bottom (for negative diagonal) temporal representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Left-to-right readers classify faster past events with motor responses on the left side of space and future events with responses on the right side. This suggests a left-to-right spatial organization in the mental representation of time. Here, we show that the significance and reliability of this representation are linked to the joint use of temporal and spatial codes in the task at hand. In a first unimanual Go/No-Go Implicit Association Test (IAT), attending selectively to "past" or to "future" words did not activate corresponding "left" or "right" spatial concepts and vice versa. In a second IAT, attending to both temporal (i.e., "past" and "future") words and spatial targets (i.e., "left" and "right") pointing arrows produced faster responses for congruent rather than incongruent combinations of temporal and spatial concepts in task instructions (e.g., congruent = "Go with past words and left-pointing arrows"; incongruent = "Go with past words and right-pointing arrows"). This effect increased markedly in a STEARC task where spatial codes defined the selection between "left-side" and "right-side" button presses that were associated with "past" and "future" words. Two control experiments showed only partial or unreliable space–time congruency effects when (a) participants attended to superordinate semantic codes that included both spatial "left"/"right" or temporal "past/future" subordinate codes; (b) a primary speeded response was assigned to one dimension (e.g., "past vs. future") and a nonspeeded one to the other dimension (e.g., "left" vs. "right"). These results help to define the conditions that trigger a stable and reliable spatial representation of time-related concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary addresses the challenge of linking an individual‐grounded theory of concepts to a phenomenon that assumes conceptual conventions at population level (linguistic relativity). We distinguish I‐concepts (individual, interior, imagistic) from L‐concepts (linguistic, labeled, local) and see that quite different causal processes are often conflated under the term "concepts." I argue that the Grounded Cognition Model (GCM) entails linguistic relativity only to the extent that it imports L‐concepts into its scope, which it can hardly avoid doing given that practitioners require language to coordinate around their theory and findings. I conclude that what entails linguistic relativity is not the GCM but language itself. Grounded cognition links agents to environments while linguistic relativity links agents to conventions within populations of other agents. Grounded cognition models may appear to entail linguistic relativity, but this is because they seldom distinguish between I‐concepts (individual, interior, imagistic) and L‐concepts (linguistic, labelled, local). This commentary uses this distinction to argue that any model of grounded cognition must be integrated with a model of airborne/social cognition if it is to link mental representations and social conventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grid cells play a principal role in enabling cognitive representations of ambient environments. The key property of these cells—the regular arrangement of their firing fields—is commonly viewed as a means for establishing spatial scales or encoding specific locations. However, using grid cells' spiking outputs for deducing geometric orderliness proves to be a strenuous task due to fairly irregular activation patterns triggered by the animal's sporadic visits to the grid fields. This article addresses statistical mechanisms enabling emergent regularity of grid cell firing activity from the perspective of percolation theory. Using percolation phenomena for modeling the effect of the rat's moves through the lattices of firing fields sheds new light on the mechanisms of spatial information processing, spatial learning, path integration, and establishing spatial metrics. It is also shown that physiological parameters required for spiking percolation match the experimental range, including the characteristic 2/3 ratio between the grid fields' size and the grid spacing, pointing at a biological viability of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual working memory maintains both continuous-perceptual information and discrete-categorical information about memory items. Both types of information are represented in working memory, but the representation structure remains unknown. Continuous and categorical information about a single stimulus could be represented separately, in two different representations. Alternatively, continuous and categorical information could be represented jointly as a single representation. To investigate this, we fitted two different computational models to delayed estimation data assuming either separate or joint representations of continuous and categorical information in working memory, for three different, commonly used features (orientation, color, and shape). Across a set of nine experiments, model fits clearly show that feature identity drives the representation structure, with a joint-representation structure for orientation, but a separate-representations structure for color and shape. This pattern was remarkably invariant across a variety of task contexts. Existing models miss this distinction, leading to mischaracterization of memory precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion that the cerebellum is devoted exclusively to motor control has been replaced by a more sophisticated understanding of its role in neurological function, one that includes cognition and emotion. Early clinical reports, as well as physiological and behavioral studies in animal models, raised the possibility of a nonmotor role for the cerebellum. Anatomical studies demonstrate cerebellar connectivity with the distributed neural circuits linked with autonomic, sensorimotor, vestibular, associative and limbic/paralimbic brain areas. Identification of the cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome in adults and children underscored the clinical relevance of the role of the cerebellum in cognition and emotion. It opened new avenues of investigation into higher order deficits that accompany the ataxias and other cerebellar diseases, as well as the contribution of cerebellar dysfunction to neuropsychiatric and neurocognitive disorders. Brain imaging studies demonstrate the complexity of cerebellar functional topography, revealing a double representation of the sensorimotor cerebellum in the anterior lobe and lobule VIII and a triple cognitive representation in the cerebellar posterior lobe, as well as representation in the cerebellum of the intrinsic connectivity networks identified in the cerebral hemispheres. This paradigm shift in thinking about the cerebellum has been advanced by the theories of dysmetria of thought and the universal cerebellar transform, harmonizing the dual anatomic realities of homogeneously repeating cerebellar cortical microcircuitry set against the heterogeneous and topographically arranged cerebellar connections with extracerebellar structures. This new appreciation of the cerebellar incorporation into circuits that subserve cognition and emotion enables deeper understanding and improved care of our patients with cerebellar ataxias and novel cerebellar-based approaches to therapy in neuropsychiatry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What mental states guide the execution of our actions? It is generally agreed that the execution of an action is guided by the relevant knowledge state concerning how to perform that action. However, not all agree on which mental states underlie such a knowledge. Some suggest that knowing how to perform an action has mainly to do with the propositional representation about the way to execute that action. Those opposing this view stress the role of the motor, non-propositional representation as the mental state responsible for action performance. The aim of this article is to overcome this dichotomy by showing that an explanation of the cognitive processes underlying knowing how to perform an action needs both propositional and motor states. We defend this view by providing an account of the way in which our propositional knowledge about an action is constituted by the motor representation that guides the execution of that action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most words have multiple meanings, but there are foundationally distinct accounts for this. Categorical theories posit that humans maintain discrete entries for distinct word meanings, as in a dictionary. Continuous ones eschew discrete sense representations, arguing that word meanings are best characterized as trajectories through a continuous state space. Both kinds of approach face empirical challenges. In response, we introduce two novel "hybrid" theories, which reconcile discrete sense representations with a continuous view of word meaning. We then report on two behavioral experiments, pairing them with an analytical approach relying on neural language models to test these competing accounts. The experimental results are best explained by one of the novel hybrid accounts, which posits both distinct sense representations and a continuous meaning space. This hybrid account accommodates both the dynamic, context-dependent nature of word meaning, as well as the behavioral evidence for category-like structure in human lexical knowledge. We further develop and quantify the predictive power of several computational implementations of this hybrid account. These results raise questions for future research on lexical ambiguity, such as why and when discrete sense representations might emerge in the first place. They also connect to more general questions about the role of discrete versus gradient representations in cognitive processes and suggest that at least in this case, the best explanation is one that integrates both factors: Word meaning is both categorical and continuous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Dogs are part of our everyday lives. It is therefore important that descriptors and definitions used to label their emotional states are understood correctly. Are laypersons able to interpret basic dog behaviour and emotions correctly in order to prevent dangerous situations? This study compared whether descriptors, such as "fearful", could be matched to their correct definitions, e.g., "dog may try to flee, hide or freeze; ears back", by laypersons. To this end, two sets of descriptors—one for veterinary situations and one for shelter situations—were used. Matching was substantially above chance; nonetheless, the mean proportion of correct responses was only 50% (SD ± 16.6%) for the veterinary QBA set and 33% (SD ± 14.3%) for the shelter QBA set. Emotional terms describing dog behaviour need to be clearly defined to avoid misinterpretations. A basic understanding of dog behaviour and emotion is relevant not only for professionals, such as veterinary personnel or dog trainers, but also for dog owners and for people with little contact with dogs. Information about dog behaviour and emotions is mostly conveyed verbally. This study explores whether definitions of dog behaviour and emotion are understood in such a way that they can be allocated to a descriptor (i.e., a label such as "fearful"), even by people with low background knowledge. If people can match descriptors to definitions, this suggests that the definitions are distinct enough and elicit mental representations of behaviour that can fit the label. Good agreement on the definitions is a prerequisite for the validity of the descriptors used; however, no study to date has tested this. A sample of 236 adults was asked to match descriptors of Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QBA) for veterinary and shelter situations to their correct definitions, e.g., the descriptor "fearful" to its definition "dog may try to flee, hide or freeze; ears back". Matching was substantially above chance; nonetheless, the mean proportion of correct responses was only 50% (SD ± 16.6%) for the veterinary QBA set and 33% (SD ± 14.3%) for the shelter QBA set. Performance in the matching task was positively correlated with measures of experience with dogs. Taken together, the results suggest that descriptor–definition pairs used to describe dog behaviour need to be clearly defined to avoid misinterpretations when teaching laypeople how to interpret canine behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comprehension of academic texts is not reduced to the verbal aspect, but comprises the cognitive trinomial: language, mind and world. The objective was to determine the degree of association of meanings with lexical categories, processing of explicit and implicit information, and the degree of assignment of prototypical images to the lexical category. The methodological approach adopted was qualitative, the design corresponded to the descriptive type and the technique of text analysis was used. In this sense, the levels of confluence between the linguistic expression, the mental process and the representation of the world were established within the framework of the andean sociocultural diversity that influences the teaching-learning processes. The data were collected in three dimensions: the degree of association of meanings to lexical categories, the degree of explicit and implicit information processing, and the degree of assignment of prototypical images to lexical categories. And it was concluded that bilingual university students, in the process of understanding academic texts, mostly associate the meanings with the lexical categories in a partial way, recognize only the explicit information (not the implicit information) and assign prototypical images to the lexical categories in an intermediate degree, which weakens an effective understanding of the textual contents of the specialty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greater sensitivity to the cost of effortful engagement has long been implicated in the development of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The current study evaluated preferential choice to engage in demanding tasks, and did so in combination with computational methods to interrogate the process of choice. Children aged 8–12 with (n = 49) and without (n = 36) ADHD were administered the cognitive effort discounting paradigm (COG-ED, adapted from Westbrook et al., 2013). Diffusion modelling was subsequently applied to the choice data to allow for a better description of the process of affective decision making. All children showed evidence of effort discounting, but, contrary to theoretical expectations, there was no evidence that children with ADHD judged effortful tasks to be lower in subjective value, or that they maintained a bias towards less effortful tasks. However, children with ADHD developed a much less differentiated mental representation of demand than their non-ADHD counterparts even though familiarity with and exposure to the experience of effort was similar between groups. Thus, despite theoretical arguments to the contrary, and colloquial use of motivational constructs to explain ADHD-related behavior, our findings strongly argue against the presence of greater sensitivity to costs of effort or reduced sensitivity to rewards as an explanatory mechanism. Instead, there appears to be a more global weakness in the metacognitive monitoring of demand, which is a critical precursor for cost–benefit analyses that underlie decisions to engage cognitive control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abilitism is an approach to the metaphysics of concepts according to which each concept consists of a managing cognitive ability coordinating other abilities (cognitive and non‐cognitive) and a set of subordinate abilities associated with this managing ability. As I argue here, if we accept the abilitist approach, we can efficiently solve such puzzles in the metaphysics of concepts as the partial possession problem, the concept pluralism problem, etc. However, there are some possible objections to abilitism, concerning the abilitist explanation of compositional properties of concepts, knowledge‐that, an extension/intension of concepts, and the idea that concepts are constituents of thought. However, as I demonstrate here, these objections can be answered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that theoretical debates in biology and cognitive science often are based around differences in the posited locus of control for biological and cognitive phenomena. Internalists about locus of control posit that specific causal control over the phenomenon is exerted by factors internal (to the relevant subsystem) of an organism. Externalists posit that causally specific influence is due to external factors. In theoretical biology, we suggest, a minimal agreement has developed that the locus of control for heritable variation is distributed – that is, both internal and external factors exert specific, non-redundant causal influence on evolved traits. We suggest that debates in cognitive science, particularly surrounding “enactivism”, should also embrace a distributed locus of control. We show how both internal and external factors contribute non-redundantly to psychological capacities and behavior. We further suggest that embracing a distributed locus of control provides a basis for a revisionary, but substantive account of “mental representation”.

The text is a review of two books in the field of theology. The first book, "Corporeal Theology: Accommodating Theological Understanding to Embodied Thinkers" by Tobias Tanton, explores the relationship between Christian theology and embodied cognition. Tanton argues that accommodation is necessary for divine self-disclosure to humans, and he examines how the embodied cognition model can account for theological meaning and practices. The second book, "The Soul of Desire: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community" by Curt Thompson, combines theology and psychology to explore the impact of shame on relationships and proposes that humanity's purpose is to cooperate with God in creating beauty. Thompson also discusses how trauma can impair our ability to create beauty and how Christian community and therapy can facilitate healing. [Extracted from the article]

The simulation theory argues that physical execution, action observation, and imagery share similar underlying mechanisms. Accordingly, applying a high-level psychological variable (variability of practice) should have a similar effect on all three modes. To test this theory, a total of 90 right-handed students participated in this study and were randomly divided into variable versus constant groups in three practice conditions, including physical, observational, and imagery. After a pretest (10 random trials of the putting task), the participants completed 50 practice trials. The groups performed/observed/imagined the task in the variable (different distances to different goals) or constant (fixed distance and goal) practice conditions. Also, there was an extra variable group in the physical and observational conditions, deprived of watching the feedback from the action. The participants completed a retention test 24 hr after the training. The effect of practice variability was observed in physical and observational conditions, but was not seen in the imagery condition. The no-feedback groups did not perform significantly differently from the imagery groups. The reason could be the lack of actual visual feedback during imagery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to offer a unified account of Place as a central theoretical notion across different disciplines. We show that while psychology, geography and other sciences have been converging to a unified view of this notion, linguistics still offers a fragmented perspective. Consequently, place names lack a full-fledged analysis that connects this category to the psychological concept of place. We propose to overcome this impasse by introducing a multi-modal Discourse Representation Theory (DRT) account of place as a conceptual construct and place concepts as specific instances of this construct. We show that current variants of DRT permit us to model place names and their senses, i.e., the meaning(s) that individuals associate with Sydney. We then model non-linguistic place concepts, i.e., the mental representation(s) that individuals can have of the city carrying this name. We present a model of the relation between linguistic meaning and conceptual content via the notion of anchoring relations applied to place. We pair this formal treatment with a morpho-syntactic account of place names building on current generative syntax treatments of proper names. Once we have a morpho-syntactic and semantic model of place names, we use a frame semantics treatment to account for lexical relations among place names. We test the overarching model on a set of recalcitrant problems afflicting current linguistic and multi-disciplinary treatments of place. These are the grammatical complexity and lexical content of place names, place concepts and their networks, and inter-subjective, communicative models of place in discourse. By solving these problems, our account integrates several frameworks (DRT, conceptual analysis, generative syntax, frame semantics) and connects several disciplines (linguistics, psychology, geographic information science, communication models) via a novel, multi-modal account of place. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and empirical import of these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unexpected acute stressors may affect our co-representation with other coactors when completing the joint tasks. The present study adopted the emergent functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based hyperscanning method to explore the brain-to-brain synchrony when implementing the Joint Simon Task under acute stress induced in the laboratory. The behavioral results reported that the joint Simon effect (JSE) was found in both the stress group and the control group, but the joint Simon effect in the stress group was significantly lessened than the joint Simon effect in the control group, demonstrating that when completing the joint action task in the state of acute stress, women's ability to distinguishing self- from other-related mental representations was improved, and the strength of women's action co-representation was diminished. The fNIRS results showed that when completing the joint Simon task in the state of the acute stress, the brain-to-brain synchrony at the r-TPJ in the stress group was significantly higher than that in the control group, demonstrating that the increased brain-tobrain synchrony at the TPJ may be served as the critical brain-to-brain neural mechanism underlying the joint action task under acute stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For adaptive real-time behavior in real-world contexts, the brain needs to allow past information over multiple timescales to influence current processing for making choices that create the best outcome as a person goes about making choices in their everyday life. The neuroeconomics literature on value-based decision-making has formalized such choice through reinforcement learning models for two extreme strategies. These strategies are model-free (MF), which is an automatic, stimulus-response type of action, and model-based (MB), which bases choice on cognitive representations of the world and causal inference on environment-behavior structure. The emphasis of examining the neural substrates of value-based decision making has been on the striatum and prefrontal regions, especially with regards to the "here and now" decision-making. Yet, such a dichotomy does not embrace all the dynamic complexity involved. In addition, despite robust research on the role of the hippocampus in memory and spatial learning, its contribution to value-based decision making is just starting to be explored. This paper aims to better appreciate the role of the hippocampus in decision-making and advance the successor representation (SR) as a candidate mechanism for encoding state representations in the hippocampus, separate from reward representations. To this end, we review research that relates hippocampal sequences to SR models showing that the implementation of such sequences in reinforcement learning agents improves their performance. This also enables the agents to perform multiscale temporal processing in a biologically plausible manner. Altogether, we articulate a framework to advance current striatal and prefrontal-focused decision making to better account for multiscale mechanisms underlying various real-world time-related concepts such as the self that cumulates over a person's life course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how we recognize objects requires unravelling the variables that govern the way we think about objects and the neural organization of object representations. A tenable hypothesis is that the organization of object knowledge follows key object-related dimensions. Here, we explored, behaviorally and neurally, the multidimensionality of object processing. We focused on within-domain object information as a proxy for the decisions we typically engage in our daily lives – e.g., identifying a hammer in the context of other tools. We extracted object-related dimensions from subjective human judgments on a set of manipulable objects. We show that the extracted dimensions are cognitively interpretable and relevant – i.e., participants are able to consistently label them, and these dimensions can guide object categorization; and are important for the neural organization of knowledge – i.e., they predict neural signals elicited by manipulable objects. This shows that multidimensionality is a hallmark of the organization of manipulable object knowledge. By obtaining human subjective judgments on a large set of manipulable objects this study provides a set of object-related dimensions and demonstrates that these dimensions are important for the neural and mental representations we hold about objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental representations of our bodies are thought to influence how we interact with our surroundings. We can examine these mental representations through motor imagery, the imagination of movement using scalp EEG recordings. The visual modality of motor imagery emphasises 'seeing' the imagined movement and is associated with increased activity in the alpha rhythm (8–14 Hz) measured over the occipital regions. The kinaesthetic modality emphasises 'feeling' the movement and is associated with decreased activity in the mu rhythm (8–14 Hz) measured over the sensorimotor cortices. These two modalities can be engaged in isolation or together. We recorded EEG activity while 37 participants (17 left‐hand dominant) completed an objective hand motor imagery task. Left‐handers exhibited significant activity differences between occipital and motor regions only during imagery of right‐hand (non‐dominant‐hand) movements. This difference was primarily driven by less oscillatory activity in the mu rhythm, which may reflect a shift in imagery strategy wherein participants placed more effort into generating the kinaesthetic sensations of non‐dominant‐hand imagery. Spatial features of 8–14 Hz activity generated from principal component analysis (PCA) provide further support for a strategy shift. Right‐handers also exhibited significant differences between alpha and mu activity during imagery of non‐dominant movements. However, this difference was not primarily driven by either rhythm, and no differences were observed in the group's PCA results. Together, these findings indicate that individuals imagine movement differently when it involves their dominant versus non‐dominant hand, and left‐handers may be more flexible in their motor imagery strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how engineers formulate and evolve mental models holds the potential to inform the development of materials that benefit systems thinking. A first step toward realizing this benefit is measuring and assessing change in mental models following educational interventions. In this work, engineering students' mental models are elicited from common household products before and after learning functional modeling and are compared to the mental models of students who do not learn functional modeling. Results show statistically significant improvements in mental model representations on two of the three given systems after the functional modeling intervention, whereas no significant differences were found for students who did not learn function. Furthermore, results show statistical improvements in the identification of system components common to three systems and higher mental model scores for participants with prior experience disassembling the product. Taken together, these results suggest that functional modeling likely supports the ability to communicate knowledge, retrieve knowledge, and/or interpret existing mental models of engineered systems providing a foundation for systems understanding and communication. As we improve our understanding of how students form, change, and communicate their mental models of engineered systems, educators can shape curricula to facilitate the skills necessary for the comprehensive systems understanding that is important for professional engineers and designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An aspect of human responses to fires is perceiving changes in intensity. The nature of fires can make this challenging, as flames and smoke are dynamic and change with time. For developing fires, this is in addition to growth occurring vertically and sometimes horizontally, with the footprint of the fire either remaining the same or increasing in size. The present study investigated how precisely humans could visually detect differences in the intensities and growth rates of simulated fires. Using a similar approach to research with non-symbolic visual quantities, a series of experiments compared the precision of judgments regarding which of two simulated fires was greater in intensity or growing faster in intensity when the footprint was fixed or varied. In addition, participants reported what characteristics they used to make their judgments. Precision was significantly worse when comparing the growth rates versus the intensities of fires, and it was better when the fire footprint varied. This provides initial estimates of the precision of mental representations of fire intensity and growth. In addition, participants reported using multiple characteristics, including the size of flames and smoke produced. The present study indicates that humans can precisely detect differences in the intensities of fires using visual cues, but have difficulty when comparing growth rates. We discuss how this suggests that the growth rate may not be a reliable visual cue used by occupants when responding to fires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to recognize key causal models across situations is associated with expertise. The acquisition of schema-governed category knowledge of key causal models may underlie this ability. In an experimental study (n = 183), we investigated the effects of promoting the construction of schema-governed categories and how an enhanced ability to recognize the key causal models relates to performance in complex problem-solving tasks that are based on the key causal models. In a 2 × 2 design, we tested the effects of an adapted version of an intervention designed to build abstract mental representations of the key causal models and a tutorial designed to convey conceptual understanding of the key causal models and procedural knowledge. Participants who were enabled to recognize the underlying key causal models across situations as a result of the intervention and the tutorial (i.e., causal sorters) outperformed non-causal sorters in the subsequent complex problem-solving task. Causal sorters outperformed the control group, except for the subtask knowledge application in the experimental group that did not receive the tutorial and, hence, did not have the opportunity to elaborate their conceptual understanding of the key causal models. The findings highlight that being able to categorize novel situations according to their underlying key causal model alone is insufficient for enhancing the transfer of the according concept. Instead, for successful application, conceptual and procedural knowledge also seem to be necessary. By using a complex problem-solving task as the dependent variable for transfer, we extended the scope of the results to dynamic tasks that reflect some of the typical challenges of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive and affective impairments in processing body image have been observed in patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and may induce the hypercontrolled and regulative behaviors observed in this disorder. Here, we aimed to probe the link between activation of body representations and cognitive control by investigating the ability to resolve body-related representational conflicts in women with restrictive AN and matched healthy controls (HC). Participants performed a modified version of the Flanker task in which underweight and overweight body images were presented as targets and distractors; a classic version of the task, with letters, was also administered as a control. The findings indicated that performance was better among the HC group in the task with bodies compared to the task with letters; however, no such facilitation was observed in AN patients, whose overall performance was poorer than that of the HC group in both tasks. In the task with body stimuli, performance among patients with AN was the worst on trials presenting underweight targets with overweight bodies as flankers. These results may reflect a dysfunctional association between the processing of body-related representations and cognitive control mechanisms that may aid clinicians in the development of optimal individualized treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative teams pursue common goals, completing tasks and making decisions with various levels of interdependence. A shared mental model (SMM) is a foundational structure in high performing, production teams and aids humans in predicting their teammate's goals and intentions. Advice teams utilize a transactive memory system (TMS) that integrate sources of knowledge and the source's credibility. SMMs and TMSs elevate human performance when the nature of emergence complements the associated team type. However, project and action teams require both behavioral and knowledge integration. We present a hybrid cognitive model (HCM) for machine agents that unifies SMM and TMS characteristics. The HCM enables anytime selection over the two cognitive representations with the computational complexity of a single model. Furthermore, the pliant nature of credibility modeling in TMSs can represent expertise, thoroughness, or trust simultaneously in the team context. Results in a multi-agent project domain demonstrate the HCM's efficacy for machine agent teams and potential for applications in human–machine teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in artificial intelligence have raised a basic question about human intelligence: Is human reasoning best emulated by applying task‐specific knowledge acquired from a wealth of prior experience, or is it based on the domain‐general manipulation and comparison of mental representations? We address this question for the case of visual analogical reasoning. Using realistic images of familiar three‐dimensional objects (cars and their parts), we systematically manipulated viewpoints, part relations, and entity properties in visual analogy problems. We compared human performance to that of two recent deep learning models (Siamese Network and Relation Network) that were directly trained to solve these problems and to apply their task‐specific knowledge to analogical reasoning. We also developed a new model using part‐based comparison (PCM) by applying a domain‐general mapping procedure to learned representations of cars and their component parts. Across four‐term analogies (Experiment 1) and open‐ended analogies (Experiment 2), the domain‐general PCM model, but not the task‐specific deep learning models, generated performance similar in key aspects to that of human reasoners. These findings provide evidence that human‐like analogical reasoning is unlikely to be achieved by applying deep learning with big data to a specific type of analogy problem. Rather, humans do (and machines might) achieve analogical reasoning by learning representations that encode structural information useful for multiple tasks, coupled with efficient computation of relational similarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People prefer linguistic stimuli with an inward (e.g. BODIKA) over those with an outward articulation dynamic (e.g. KODIBA), a phenomenon known as the articulatory in-out effect. Despite its robustness across languages and contexts, the phenomenon is still poorly understood. To learn more about the effect's boundary conditions, mental representation, and origin, we crossed the in-out effect with evaluative conditioning research. In five experiments (N = 713, three experiments pre-registered), we systematically paired words containing inward versus outward dynamics with pictures of negative versus positive valence. Although this evaluative conditioning procedure reversed the preference for inward over outward words, this was the case only for words with the same consonant sequences as the conditioned words. For words with inward/outward dynamics but different consonant sequences than the conditioned ones, a regular in-out effect emerged. Also, no preference reversal at all emerged for the conditioned consonant sequences when the contingency between single consonants at specific positions and positive/negative valence was zero. Implications of these findings for the in-out effect and evaluative conditioning are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aphantasia and prosopagnosia are both rare conditions with impairments in visual cognition. While prosopagnosia refers to a face recognition deficit, aphantasics exhibit a lack of mental imagery. Current object recognition theories propose an interplay of perception and mental representations, making an association between recognition performance and visual imagery plausible. While the literature assumes a link between aphantasia and prosopagnosia, other impairments in aphantasia have been shown to be rather global. Therefore, we assumed that aphantasics do not solely exhibit impairments in face recognition but rather in general visual recognition performance, probably moderated by stimulus complexity. To test this hypothesis, 65 aphantasics were compared to 55 controls in a face recognition task, the Cambridge Face Memory Test, and a corresponding object recognition task, the Cambridge Car Memory Test. In both tasks, aphantasics performed worse than controls, indicating mild recognition deficits without face-specificity. Additional correlations between imagery vividness and performance in both tasks were found, suggesting that visual imagery influences visual recognition not only in imagery extremes. Stimulus complexity produced the expected moderation effect but only for the whole imagery-spectrum and only with face stimuli. Overall, the results imply that aphantasia is linked to a general but mild deficit in visual recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personality traits are considered the primary determinants of emotional and behavioral patterns of individuals within the built environment, influencing the experience of architectural space over their cognitive representation. Specifically, the dimension of extraversion within an individual's personality holds considerable predictive value in determining their attitudes toward the environment. Consequently, this study aims to investigate the influence of personality traits on color preference by comparing preferences for context‐free color samples and in‐context spatial colors among individuals exhibiting varying levels of extraversion. It also aims to ascertain the most accurate color‐construct scale for delineating individuals' preferences for in‐context spatial color. The study employed the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) representation of lexical factor markers for the Big‐Five structure. For the study, 11 colors, referred to as basic color terms, were selected as stimuli. Data on color preference were obtained through a rank order test for 11 context‐free color samples and 11 virtual images of in‐context spatial colors, as well as ratings of in‐context spatial colors based on 14 color‐construct scales. Findings reveal the relationship between extraversion personality trait and color preferences, revealing distinct patterns between context‐free and in‐context color preferences. They also suggest the possibility of divergent preferences for in‐context spatial colors among individuals with varying levels of extraversion, with certain colors eliciting significantly different ratings on color‐construct scales. The study's findings shed light on the importance of personality traits in predicting the relationship between architectural spaces and colors, depending on individuals' personalities, particularly within design disciplines such as interior architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sympathetic magic features strongly in virtually all religious traditions and in folk customs generally. Scholars agree that It is based on the association of ideas perceived as external, mind-independent causal realities, as connections mediating causal influence. Moreover, religious folk believe that this mediation involves forms of supernatural agency. From a psychological perspective, the key question revolves around the principles by which the cognitive system deems some of its content to reference the external world and other content to constitute internal mental forms of activity like thoughts, feelings and attitudes. The paper proposes that the critical factor has to do with the balance between two distinctly different kinds of cognitive content: representations of things (mentation arising in the form of something other than itself), as distinct from registrations referencing the intrinsic phenomenal properties of the mental state itself. The balance between these two determines whether content is perceived as external worldly event or a form of internal mental content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children actively construct their understanding of God in early childhood, an understanding that incorporates affect-laden mental representations often referred to as God images. To explore religious variations in children's association of positive and negative traits to God, 254 preschool-aged children from Protestant Christian, Catholic, Muslim, and Non-Affiliated religious backgrounds indicated their certainty that God scares them, punishes them, is angry at them, loves them, comforts them, and helps people. Parents indicated the frequency of children's religious engagement. Older children were more certain than younger children that God did not scare or punish them and that God loved and comforted them, and helped people. Moreover, religious affiliation differences emerged in children's attribution of both positively and negatively valenced properties to God, and more frequent religious engagement was related to a higher degree of certainty that God loves, comforts, helps, and becomes angry, but was unrelated to the certainty that God scares or punishes. The findings suggest that religious engagement plays an important role in children's developing God image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Efficient business process execution is an essential part of an organisation's success. It depends on good dynamic decision making of process actors that is guided by their mental models of business processes (MMBP). The study investigates the effect of MMBPs on process performance at two levels. At the level of individuals, the impact of MMBP accuracy on performance is analyzed, and at the level of a team, the effect of similarity of MMBPs of all team on performance is researched. At both levels, MMBPs are differentiated in a narrow part that focuses on the mental representations of process steps that precede or follow on the one conducted by the actor and a holistic model that captures the process as a whole. We use laboratory observations with 159 participants in 10 teams from a real effort loan processing role play. We obtain individual MMBP accuracy measures by using a process knowledge test and measure the process performance of teams with the outcome of the role play. Our study contributes in three ways to existing research. First, the measurement approach of individual MMBP accuracy and similarity is extended to the level of teams. Second, the study shows that the accuracy of both narrow and holistic MMBPs as well as similarity of holistic MMBPs positively impact team process performance. Third, by using an observable team process performance measures from a real-effort task, we increase the validity of our findings compared to other research relying on self-assessed performance measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a joint modeling framework of ordinal responses and response times (RTs) for the measurement of latent traits. We integrate cognitive theories of decision-making and confidence judgments with psychometric theories to model individual-level measurement processes. The model development starts with the sequential sampling framework which assumes that when an item is presented, a respondent accumulates noisy evidence over time to respond to the item. Several cognitive and psychometric theories are reviewed and integrated, leading us to three psychometric process models with different representations of the cognitive processes underlying the measurement. We provide simulation studies that examine parameter recovery and show the relationships between latent variables and data distributions. We further test the proposed models with empirical data measuring three traits related to motivation. The results show that all three models provide reasonably good descriptions of observed response proportions and RT distributions. Also, different traits favor different process models, which implies that psychological measurement processes may have heterogeneous structures across traits. Our process of model building and examination illustrates how cognitive theories can be incorporated into psychometric model development to shed light on the measurement process, which has had little attention in traditional psychometric models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coordination is the presumption that distinct representations have the same referential content. Philosophers have discussed ways in which the presence of coordination might bear on the metasemantic determination of content. One test case for exploring the relationship between coordination and content is the phenomenon of conflation—the situation in which representations are about distinct things but are nevertheless coordinated. In this paper, I use observations about conflation to develop an anaphoric metasemantics for some representations in which coordination plays an integral role. I also develop some novel remarks on the problem of misrepresentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In temporal extensions of Answer Set Programming (ASP) based on linear-time, the behaviour of dynamic systems is captured by sequences of states. While this representation reflects their relative order, it abstracts away the specific times associated with each state. In many applications, however, timing constraints are important like, for instance, when planning and scheduling go hand in hand. We address this by developing a metric extension of linear-time Dynamic Equilibrium Logic, in which dynamic operators are constrained by intervals over integers. The resulting Metric Dynamic Equilibrium Logic provides the foundation of an ASP-based approach for specifying qualitative and quantitative dynamic constraints. As such, it constitutes the most general among a whole spectrum of temporal extensions of Equilibrium Logic. In detail, we show that it encompasses Temporal, Dynamic, Metric and regular Equilibrium Logic, as well as its classic counterparts once the law of the excluded middle is added. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present-day competitive landscape, the importance of image has increased significantly, whether it is on an individual level, within organizations, or on a larger scale. Image refers to the overall impression that a person holds in their mind regarding a concept, object, person, group, organization, institution, geographical region, or country. This mental representation is shaped by their past experiences and sensations, and it greatly influences the choices individuals make. The research aims to provide a systematic literature review on image research to promote image research. This research was carried out with a systematic review approach. The data of the research were obtained from the image articles published in the field of education in the journals scanned in Web of Science (SCIE, SSCI, AHCI). In the analysis of the data, bibliometric analysis and descriptive analysis technique, one of the content analysis techniques, were used. 48 research articles from 2002 to 2022 were critically reviewed and analyzed by applying a systematic literature review approach. The results showed that image studies were grouped under three themes: concept image, teacher image, and organizational image. The results also revealed what the inputs and outputs of corporate image were. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motor imagery (MI) is the ability to engage in the mental representation of a task consciously or automatically without generating a voluntary movement. While the construct of MI and its various dimensions have been comprehensively studied in adults, research remains limited in children. Children as young as 5 years old can engage in MI, and this engagement is crucial to their motor development and skill acquisition. Further, the degree of skill achievement is directly linked to MI responsiveness. Clinicians and researchers often measure MI responsiveness in children to facilitate skill development and retention. However, few measures exist that can appropriately assess MI responsiveness in children. To date, a focused review examining the MI dimensions in children as well as comparing the characteristics of MI measures in children is lacking, and thus a research gap exists. This paper examines past and current research describing MI ability in children from the theoretical, developmental, and neurological lens and systematically analyzes the properties of three widely used operations -- the movement imagery questionnaire in children (MIQ-C), the Florida praxis imaginary questionnaire (FPIQ-C), and the mental chronometry paradigm (MCP) -- to measure MI and its dimensions in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent deep-learning techniques have made it possible to manipulate facial expressions in digital photographs or videos, however, these techniques still lack fine and personalized ways to control their creation. Moreover, current technologies are highly dependent on large labeled databases, which limits the range and complexity of expressions that can be modeled. Thus, these technologies cannot deal with non-basic emotions. In this paper, we propose a novel interdisciplinary approach combining the Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) with a technique inspired by cognitive sciences, psychophysical reverse correlation. Reverse correlation is a data-driven method able to extract an observer's 'mental representation' of what a given facial expression should look like. Our approach can generate 1) personalized facial expression prototypes, 2) of basic emotions, and non-basic emotions that are not available in existing databases, and 3) without the need for expertise. Personalized prototypes obtained with reverse correlation can then be applied to manipulate facial expressions. In addition, our system challenges the universality of facial expression prototypes by proposing the concepts of dominant and complementary action units to describe facial expression prototypes. The evaluations we conducted on a limited number of emotions validate the effectiveness of our proposed method. The code is available at https://github.com/yansen0508/Mental-Deep-Reverse-Engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Attachment influences the development and the formation of the self and subjectivity and, just as early adverse events, may be related to the occurrence of mental disorders, suicidal behavior, and self-harm throughout life. This study aimed to analyze the effect of mental representation of attachment in children on suicidal behavior and self-harm throughout childhood and adolescence, considering the mediating role of internalizing problems. Methods: Based on a cohort of 500 students (mean age 8 years, SD 1.2) sampled from public schools in a Brazilian southeastern metropolis, 316 children were followed for eight years in three waves (2006, 2008, 2012). The following data from the research baseline (2005) were used: family drawing, maternal and family variables, and sociodemographic data. The mental representation of attachment (independent variable) was measured by the Family Drawing Global Scale, discriminating between secure attachment and non-secure attachment. Suicidal behavior/self-harm (dependent variable) and internalizing problems were evaluated in three research waves through CBCL and YSR (ASEBA). Descriptive analysis, calculation of frequencies and p-values of the variables of interest, as well as modeling of structural equations, were performed. Results: The prevalence throughout the study was: 17.1% [CI 13.3–20.8] for suicidal ideation and 8.9% [CI 5.6 – 12.2] for self-harm; there was a recurrence at one time in 16.5% [IC 12.6 – 20.3] and in two or more moments in 4.1% [CI 2.0 – 6.3] of the sample. Female gender (p = 0.035), internalizing disorders (p < 0.01), and non-secure attachment (p = 0.035) were associated with the occurrence of suicidal behavior/self-harm. The modeling indicated that 92,2% of the total effect of attachment (p = 0.069) on suicidal behavior/self-harm was due to direct effect, the other 7,8% of the effect being mediated by internalizing problems, adjusted for the confounding variables sex, skin color/race, and social stratum. The total effect showed a positive value, which indicates an increase in suicidal behavior/self-harm when the non-secure attachment is present. The approximate OR of non-secure attachment on the total effect (direct + indirect) was 1.15, indicating that, when adjusting for confounding variables, there was a 15% increase in suicidal behavior/self-injury from non-secure attachment. Conclusions: The study supports the hypothesis that there is a relationship between disruptive attachment patterns (non-secure attachment) developed during infancy and suicidal and self-harm behavior during childhood and adolescence. These findings validate the concern about the first thousand days of childhood as a critical period for child growth and development, but also for the mental health of children and adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Stroke-related deficits often include motor impairments and gait dysfunction, leading to a limitation of social activities and consequently affecting the quality of life of stroke survivors. Neurorehabilitation takes advantage of the contribution of different techniques in order to achieve more benefits for patients. Robotic devices help to improve the outcomes of physical rehabilitation. Moreover, motor imagery seems to play a role in neurological rehabilitation since it leads to the activation of the same brain areas as actual movements. This study investigates the use of a combined physical and cognitive protocol for gait rehabilitation in stroke patients. Methods: Specifically, we tested the efficacy of a 5-week training program using a robotic orthosis (P.I.G.R.O.) in conjunction with motor imagery training. Twelve chronic stroke patients participated in the study. We evaluated balance and gait performance before and after the training. Six of them underwent fMRI examination before and after the training to assess the effects of the protocol on brain plasticity mechanisms in motor and imagery tasks. Results: Our results show that the rehabilitation protocol can effectively improve gait performance and balance and reduce the risk of falls in stroke patients. Furthermore, the fMRI results suggest that rehabilitation is associated with cerebral plastic changes in motor networks. Discussion: The present findings, if confirmed by future research, have the potential to advance the development of new, more effective rehabilitation approaches for stroke patients, improving their quality of life and reducing the burden of stroke-related disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Between‐session processes outside the therapy room and beyond the direct interaction between a therapist and client can play an important role in the psychotherapeutic process and outcome. These processes are called intersession experiences and can be seen as internalized mental representations of therapy and/or therapists. Due to the COVID‐19 pandemic, different digital forms of treatment have successfully been implemented and could be relevant even after the end of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Therefore, patients' internalized mental representations may become highly relevant in the future. Rationale: The aim of this study was to conceptually delineate the current state of research on internalized mental representations of therapy or therapists in the period between sessions and to provide an overview of the evidence. In addition, we aimed to identify research gaps to provide a baseline for further research. Methods: For this purpose, we conducted a scoping review to obtain a comprehensive overview of the evidence and to identify the relevant research gaps. We searched PsycArticles, Medline, PsycINFO, and PSYNDEX for publications on internalized mental representations. Results: The final sample comprised 30 publications published from 1989 to 2021. Based on the individual study results, it can be assumed that intersession experiences are of central importance for psychotherapeutic treatment. However, the scoping review showed that there was a large gap in knowledge in the research of intersession experiences. All previous research was barely comparable, and therefore, a generalized statement is not possible. Conclusion: Future research should provide sufficient information about relevant aspects, such as the setting, therapists, and patients, as these factors are likely to have a significant impact on the outcome. Furthermore, better measurements for the assessment of these processes should be developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We enable an autonomous agent (robot) to share its artificial mind, particularly its conscious content, with its audiences like humans or other agents. This effort is relying on the studies from cognitive modeling and supports the autonomous human robot interaction. LIDA is a biologically inspired systems-level cognitive model that explains and predicts how minds work. This model has been used in designing the controllers of intelligent autonomous agents. Here we propose to add a new description (sub) model into LIDA, allowing its agents to share their control structures, the artificial minds. We argue that the cognitive representations and processes introduced in LIDA may naturally serve as the source of the mind contents an agent can express out. We also proposed a type of description behavior based on LIDA's action modules, which support the interactions between the agent and its real-world environments including human audiences. Through this description model, an agent's mind will be more visible and accessible, so the agent's intelligence can be assessed from not only its outside appearance and behaviors, but also its mind. In addition, the agent's mind activities may associate with, so help explain certain behaviors it acted/acts. This helps the agent earn more understanding from its audiences so to being accepted by and engage to its living society better. Finally, as an agent's controller, LIDA is designed heavily relying on the hypotheses of human minds, so its agent's artificial mind contents are conceptually easy to understand to its human audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]