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Cognitive views claim that ethnic, national, and racial communities are malleable and constantly transforming, while more structural accounts consider these collective communities highly static. This article considers communal transformations at the population level, combines aspects of cognitive and structural perspectives, and uses path dependence to explain why collective communities are transformative in some instances but much more rigid in others. It claims that communal boundaries are usually relatively static because communal structures reinforce them through three main mechanism of reproduction, all of which can reproduce communal frameworks through inclusion and exclusion: cost, power, and socialization. In turn, the article describes how two types of critical juncture create openings for more punctuated and extensive communal transformations. Constructive critical junctures occur prior to the existence of powerful mechanisms of communal reproduction and make possible the construction of new communal frameworks. Alternatively, transformative critical junctures are openings for change that result from the weakening or breakdown of extant mechanisms of reproduction and generally promote transformations in preexisting communal frameworks. To clarify and support the argument, the article provides a variety of examples and an analysis of transformations in the Quebecois collective community. Key Words: ethnicity; nation; race; transformation; path dependence Les perspectives cognitives affrment que les communautes ethniques, nationales et raciales sont malleables et en constante transformation, tandis que des recits plus structurels considerent ces communautes collectives comme beaucoup plus statiques. Cet article considere les transformations communautaires au niveau de la population, combine des aspects des perspectives cognitives et structurelles et utilise la dependance du sentier pour expliquer pourquoi les communautes collectives sont transformatrices dans certains cas mais beaucoup plus rigides dans d'autres. L'article pretend que les frontieres communautaires sont relativement statiques parce que les structures communautaires les renforcent par trois mecanismes de reproduction qui peuvent tous reproduire des cadres communautaires par l'inclusion et l'exclusion: le cout, le pouvoir et la socialisation. A son tour, l'article decrit comment deux types de jonction critique creent des ouvertures pour des transformations communautaires plus ponctuees et etendues. Les jonctions critiques constructives se produisent avant l'existence de mecanismes puissants de reproduction communautaire et rendent possible la construction de nouveaux cadres communautaires. Alternativement, les jonctions critiques transformatrices sont des ouvertures pour le changement qui resultent de l'affaiblissement ou de la rupture des mecanismes de reproduction existants et favorisent generalement les transformations dans les cadres communautaires preexistants. Pour clarifer et etayer l'argumentation, l'article propose une variete d'exemples et une analyse des transformations de la communaute collective quebecoise. Mots Cles: ethnicite; nation; race; transformation; dependance du sentier, Over the last two decades, cognitive and constructivist perspectives have dominated the study of ethnicity, nation, and race. Contrary to earlier structural conceptualizations, most scholars now emphasize that these types [...]

The presence of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with worse cognitive control. Children with ASD and ADHD often respond poorly to medications, thus we need alternative treatments. We examined the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of Project Evo-a digital treatment. Nineteen children with ASD and co-occurring ADHD symptoms completed this app-based treatment that targets multi-tasking through gameplay versus a comparison educational treatment. Children had a high engagement with both treatments, and parents and children reported high acceptability. Within-group analyses suggest the multi-tasking but not the educational treatment may improve cognitive control. This multi-tasking treatment is feasible, acceptable, and possibly efficacious for cognitive control impairments in children with ASD and ADHD., Author(s): Benjamin E. Yerys [sup.1] [sup.2] , Jennifer R. Bertollo [sup.1] , Lauren Kenworthy [sup.3] [sup.4] , Geraldine Dawson [sup.5] , Elysa J. Marco [sup.6] , Robert T. Schultz [sup.1] [...]

This paper explores the relationship between cognitive abilities and team performance in a start-up setting. We argue that performance in this setting hinges on three tasks: opportunity recognition, problem solving, and implementation. We theorize that cognitive ability at the individual level has a positive effect on opportunity recognition and problem solving but no clear effect on implementation. Within teams, a combination of higher and lower cognitive ability levels may be productive insofar as some individuals can be assigned to mundane tasks (that are often involved in implementation), while others can be assigned to tasks that impose a greater cognitive load (problem solving or opportunity recognition). We present the results of a field experiment in which 573 students in 49 teams started up and managed real companies. We ensured exogenous variation in--otherwise random--team composition by assigning students to teams based on their measured cognitive abilities. Each team performed a variety of tasks, often involving complex decision making. The key result of the experiment is that the performance of start-up teams first increases and then decreases with ability dispersion. Strikingly, average team ability is not related to team performance. Keywords: ability dispersion * team performance * field experiment * entrepreneurship, 1. Introduction Teams play a major role within modern organizations. An extensive literature documents the importance of team composition for organizational performance (for meta-analyses, see Bowers et al. 2000, Devine [...]

Theories of natural thought processes have traditionally served as foundations for philosophies of science. The source of all knowledge is passively received observations; these are combined to produce certain knowledge. After David Hume showed that this was not possible, deductivist alternatives, that is, theories that find a source of knowledge in ideas not derived from observations, from Immanuel Kant to William Whewell in the mid-19th century, were introduced. In response, traditional associationist and inductivist views were refurbished; a deductivist alternative was developed by the Wurzburg School. Much later Karl Popper in philosophy and Donald! Campbell in psychology integrated this view with evolutionary theory. Campbell wanted thereby to find a justificationist view, which would reduce philosophy of science to cognitive psychology; Popper rejected both justificationism and the reduction of philosophy of science to psychology. Campbell thought all rational processes were innate psychological processes; Popper thought psychological processes were used to develop various rational processes. Campbell could not show that all rational thought was reducible to innate psychological processes, nor how some justification of scientific theories was possible. Popper could not show how evolutionary theory contributed to our knowledge of psychological thought processes. Both failed to observe that cognitive processes are social; people have learned how to think by learning how to interact in social groups seeking understanding. When innate thought processes are studied as social characteristics, evolutionary theory can contribute to both cognitive psychology and the theory of rationality, as both Popper and Campbell wanted it to do. KEYWORDS: cognitive psychology, evolutionary theory, philosophy of science, thought processes, Wurzburg school, Why Is the Relationship of Evolutionary Theory, Cognitive Psychology, and Philosophy of Science of Interest Today? Any randomly chosen psychological trait is a product of evolution, even literacy. And explanations [...]

Conscientiousness reliably predicts health behavioral patterns, and the same is true of executive function. However, few investigations have examined their relative predictive power, or probed for possible indirect effects and age-moderated effects. In the current study, we examined the predictive validity of all Big Five personality traits, executive function and IQ in relation to an index of health behaviors in an age-stratified community sample. Results indicated that conscientiousness, neuroticism and executive function were significant predictors of health behavior in age-corrected regression analyses. Using bootstrapping methods, we found that executive function partially explains the relationship between both personality dimensions and health behavior. Moderational analyses revealed that effects of personality traits on health behavior were uniformly modest across the age span, whereas the predictive power of executive function became more amplified with increasing age. Both conscientiousness and neuroticism predict health behavior patterns, though their magnitude of association is significantly weaker than executive function and some of their effects are explained by executive function. Keywords Executive function * Cognition * Personality * Inhibition * Health behavior, Introduction Individual differences are potentially important determinants of health behavior trajectories. Personality factors and cognitive abilities are two types of individual difference variable that have been the focus of recent [...]

Impairments in cognitive flexibility have been used to characterize the neuropsychological presentation of persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Previous studies have yielded mixed results. Our objective was to systematically review the sensitivity of cognitive flexibility measures in ASD using quantitative methods employed by meta-analytic statistical techniques. Seventy-two studies met inclusion criteria for analysis and included a total of 2,137 individuals with ASD and 2,185 healthy controls. Our findings demonstrate that while the shift sub-scale of the self-report version of the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) showed approximate absolute discriminability, of all the performance measures that were systematically reviewed and evaluated, none could reliably differentiate between individuals with ASD and controls; this is not surprising given that cognitive flexibility is not a core deficit of ASD. Our findings suggest that while the shift sub-scale of the self-report version of the BRIEF is a promising clinical marker, clinical performance measures of cognitive flexibility may lack ecological validity and lastly, reinforces that impairments in cognitive flexibility do not uniformly characterize all persons with ASD. Keywords Cognitive flexibility * Autism spectrum disorders * ASD * Set-shifting * Meta-analysis, Introduction Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders for which the diagnostic criteria are qualitative impairments in social communication and social interaction across contexts as well as [...]

It has been suggested that children with nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) or Asperger's Syndrome (AS) may show difficulties with executive functioning. There were 3 groups in this study who completed a neuropsychological battery of visual-spatial, executive functioning, and reasoning tasks; AS (n = 37), NLD (n = 31), and controls (n = 40). Results indicated that children in both clinical groups scored within average limits on measures of spatial reasoning and verbal ability. Fluid reasoning was also found to be within average ranges for all groups. The AS group experienced significant problems with cognitive flexibility compared to the other two groups. In contrast the NLD group showed fewer difficulties with cognitive flexibility but more problems with visual sequencing. These findings suggest that performance on executive function measures for children with AS or NLD is remarkably similar with subtle differences present. Keywords High functioning autism * Nonverbal learning disability * Executive function * Visual sequencing * Cognitive flexibility, Introduction It has been suggested by several researchers that children with autism (ASD) or nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) may show difficulties with executive functioning (EF) (Corbett and Constantine 2006; Forrest [...]

Generally accepted as universal, the construct of adaptive behavior differs in its manifestations across different cultures and settings. The Vineland-II (Sparrow et al. in Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Second edn. AGS Publishing, Circle Pines, MN, 2005) was translated into Chitonga and adapted to the setting of rural Southern Province, Zambia. This version was administered to the parents/caregivers of 114 children (grades 3-7, mean age = 12.94, SD = 2.34). The relationships between these children's adaptive behavior, academic achievement and cognitive ability indicators are compared to those usually observed in US samples. Results reflect no association between adaptive behavior and cognitive ability indicators, but a strong relationship between high adaptive behavior and reading-related measures. Six case studies of children with high and low scores on the Vineland-II are presented to illustrate the possible factors affecting these outcomes. Keywords Adaptive behavior * Reading * Zambia, Introduction Adaptive behavior is the performance of an individual in daily activities pertaining to personal and social functioning. An important aspect essential to its definition and assessment is that it [...]

Sex differences were examined in 3-year-olds with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) ascertained from a high-risk cohort, and high- and low-risk comparison groups. Participants included 319 high-risk siblings and 129 low-risk controls. Eighty-five siblings were diagnosed with ASD, including 57 of 176 boys (32.4%) and 28 of 143 girls (19.6%), implying a relative odds of ASD of 1.65 in boys versus girls. There were modest sex differences on cognitive and adaptive skills and ASD symptom severity at age 3, but differences between boys and girls with ASD mirrored those in the non-ASD groups. The lower than expected male-to-female ratio, and the relatively high cognitive level among diagnosed children, suggest that we have identified an unanticipated number of higher-functioning girls with ASD. Keywords Autism * Early diagnosis * Sex differences * Infants * Longitudinal study, Introduction Despite changes in diagnostic classification systems over time to broader and more inclusive definitions of autism and the 'autism spectrum', the preponderance of males with the diagnosis has remained [...]

Professor Delprato's review focuses on comparisons of Mind and Its Evolution: A Dual-Coding Theoretical Approach with Kantor's and Skinner's behavioristic analyses of 'mentalistic' phenomena, touching as well on other cognitive [...]

PAIVIO, ALLAN (2007) Mind and Its Evolution: A Dual Coding Theoretical Approach Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Pp. xii + 517. ISBNs 0-978-0-8058-52-2, 0-8058-5259-X (cloth) This book's title, hereafter referred to as [...]

The relationship of similarity may be the most universal relationship that exists between every two objects in either the material world or the mental world. Although similarity modeling has been the focus of cognitive science for decades, many theoretical and realistic issues are still under controversy. In this paper, a new theoretical framework that conforms to the nature of similarity and incorporates the current similarity models into a universal model is presented. The new model, i.e., the systematic similarity model, which is inspired by the contrast model of similarity and structure mapping theory in cognitive psychology, is the universal similarity measurement that has many potential applications in text, image, or video retrieval. The text relevance ranking experiments undertaken in this research tentatively show the validity of the new model. Index Terms--Matching objects pair, structure mapping theory, systematic similarity, systematic similarity measurement criterion, systematic similarity model (SSM).

Effects of cognitive activities on walking variability are poorly understood. We parametrically manipulated working-memory load by using an n-back task in 32 younger adults and 32 older adults walking on a treadmill at self-selected speed. We found no dual-task costs for cognitive performance. Stride-to-stride variability was lower when participants performed an easy working-memory task than when they walked without cognitive tasks. Increasing working-memory load from 1-back to 4-back produced decreasing variability of stride time and stride length in younger but not in older adults. Extending the 2006 dual-process account proposed by Huxhold, Li, Schmiedek, and Lindenberger, we conclude that normal aging alters the trade-off between the effects of focus of attention and resource competition on walking variability. Key Words: Dual-task cost--Resource Competition--Walking variability.

In this work I aim at extending current knowledge on the terminal decline hypothesis by applying a joint multivariate longitudinal--survival analysis to the cognitive data of the Swiss Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study on the Oldest Old. (In that study, 529 individuals between 79 and 85 years of age at study inception were assessed up to five times on a task of perceptual speed and one of verbal fluency.) I simultaneously estimated a multivariate, multilevel longitudinal model and a Weibull survival model to test whether individual performance and change in speed and fluency predict survival, controlling for retest effects, initial age, gender, overall health, socioeconomic status, and sensory functioning. Results revealed that age and performance level in fluency predicted survival, whereas level in speed and change in both cognitive variables did not. I discuss the relevance of fluency tasks in predicting mortality. Key Words: Terminal decline--Change in cognitive performance and survival--Joint multivariate longitudinal-survival mode.

A study was conducted using the sources of inter-individual differences in current events knowledge conducted in two sessions. It was seen that structural equation modeling showed positive effects of both ability and non-ability factors on prior knowledge.

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children - Second Edition that was used to investigate sex differences in cognitive abilities of children and adolescents is discussed. Results showed that girls scored higher on the latent, higher-order g factor at all ages and boys had a higher mean advantage on the latent visual-spatial ability factor.

A cross-sectional study that was conducted on twins to assess inspection time and psychometric tests of many cognitive abilities in children from 1 to 17 years is presented. Results showed that there were substantial correlations between cognitive abilities and inspection time.

A study that was conducted to find out Flynn effects on forms of declarative memory and visuospatial ability in time-sequential analyses of data that was collected for Swedish adult samples assessed on four occasions. Results revealed that the differences in body height, education and sibsize helped in predicting virtually all of the time-related differences in cognitive performance.

The emergence of applied cognitive psychology (ACP) as a normative psychology is examined. Three nonstandard ways of understanding ACP as normative are discussed.

The article evaluates the present day scientific knowledge about intuition processing and its application for future works. The concept of intuition has found scientific applications in the fields of developmental, social, educational, health and organizational psychology.

This study was designed to examine hypothesized differences between sex offending and nonoffending Roman Catholic clergy on cognitive mediation abilities as measured by the Rorschach Inkblot Test (H. Rorschach, 1921/1942). This study compared 78 priest pedophiles and 77 priest ephebophiles with 80 nonoffending priest controls on the Inkblot test using J. E. Exner's (2003) Comprehensive System. The three groups were compared on seven variables that constitute Exner's Cognitive Mediation cluster. Additionally, the groups' coping styles were compared to examine the interaction of coping style and cognitive mediational abilities. We found interactions between coping style and offending status across most of the cognitive variables indicating impairment in the mild to pathological ranges. Moreover, significantly higher unusual thinking styles (Xu%) and significantly lower conventional thinking styles (X+%) in offenders compared to nonoffenders. Those with an Extratensive style (n= 31) showed significantly higher distorted thinking when compared to the Introversive (n = 81), Ambitent (n = 73), and Avoidant (n = 50) coping styles. This study suggests that offenders display significantly higher distorted thinking styles than do nonoffenders. Possible reasons for these discrepancies and the role of coping styles in abusive behaviors were discussed. Keywords: pedophilia; ephebophilia; Roman Catholic clergy; Rorschach; coping style

Little is known about potential longitudinal relationships between participation in social, physical, and intellectual activities and later cognitive performance. Data from the Victoria Longitudinal Study (n = 530) were used to test whether baseline and change in lifestyle engagement were related to corresponding indicators of cognitive speed (measured by mean-level and intraindividual variability). Regressions based on random effects model estimates showed that cross-sectional activity participation predicted corresponding values of both mean-level and intraindividual variability, but few longitudinal relationships were significant. Overall, a higher frequency of participation in cognitively complex activities was related to faster response times and lower intraindividual variability. Findings suggest that activity level at one point in time may be a more important predictor of cognition than an individual's changes in activity level.

The effects of out come based advertising on consumer choices, using regulatory focus theory, are presented.

The reasons for repeated consumption of same product by consumers, using cognitive lock-in theory, are presented.

We used an experience sampling design to investigate the influence of dysphoria on positive and negative cognitive reactivity. Participants recorded their thoughts and mood four times per day on PDA devices for one week. We hypothesized that those higher in dysphoria would demonstrate a greater increase in negative thinking in response to negative mood, and a weaker increase in positive cognitions in response to positive mood. These hypotheses were largely supported. For those participants who reported higher initial dysphoria, there was a stronger association between negative mood and thinking and a weaker link between positive mood and thinking. Regression analyses indicated that positive and negative cognitive reactivity were independently related to dysphoria, suggesting that they represent distinct processes. Our results highlight the importance of understanding levels of both negative and positive cognitive reactivity and underscore the benefits of assessing mood and cognition with repeated measurements in 'real-time,' in order to better understand the antecedent effects of mood on thinking. Keywords: Depression; Dysphoria; Cognitive reactivity; Experience sampling; Ecological momentary assessment

A study examines the effect of ignoring the possibility of contracting HIV infection by men who have sex with men.

Developmental neuropsychology is concerned with uncovering the underlying basis of developmental disorders such as specific language impairment (SLI), developmental dyslexia, and autistic disorder. Twin and family studies indicate that genetic influences play an important part in the aeriology of all of these disorders, yet progress in identifying genes has been slow. One way forward is to cut loose from conventional clinical criteria for diagnosing disorders and to focus instead on measures of underlying cognitive mechanisms. Psychology can inform generics by clarifying what the key dimensions are for heritable phenotypes. However, it is not a one-way street. By using genetically informative designs, one can gain insights about causal relationships between different cognitive deficits. For instance, it has been suggested that low-level auditory deficits cause phonological problems in SLI. However, a twin study showed that, although both types of deficit occur in SLI, they have quite different origins, with environmental factors more important for auditory deficit, and genes more important for deficient phonological short-term memory. Another study found that morphosyntactic deficits in SLI are also highly heritable, but have different genetic origins from impairments of phonological short-term memory. A genetic perspective shows that a search for the underlying cause of developmental disorders may be misguided, because they are complex and heterogeneous and are associated with multiple risk factors that only cause serious disability when they occur in combination.

A series of five experiments was conducted to investigate whether visual tracking mechanisms utilize prediction when recovering multiple reappearing objects. When all objects disappeared and reappeared in ways that implicated the presence of an occluder, tracking was not predictive, and performance deteriorated with increased displacement.

A series of dual-task experiments were conducted with different input and output modality pairings. Contrary to the dominant models of dual-task performance it was proposed that central interference between tasks depends not just on the duration of central operations or just strategic adaptation but also on the content of those operations.

The methodological lessons Gricean charity gleans from psychologists' work in conversational pragmatics are outlined. It is argued that it is not the primary aim of Gricean charity to rationalize subject responses but rather to impose evidential requirements on psychological studies in order to gain a more correct picture of the way in which evidence is weighed, inferences drawn and choices made.

A study is conducted on the dynamics of attempting to access two spatial memories simultaneously and its implications for the accuracy of the recall. Considering accuracy of recall, three main theoretical positions are identified with which the interaction and possible combination of two memory traces are described.

Explicit information-seeking is needed to evaluate alternative actions in problem-solving tasks. It is proposed that suboptional performance is an emergent property of the dynamic interaction between cognition and the environment.

An attempt is made to understand developmental aspects of children's conflict appraisals. It is revealed that appraisals of interparental conflict can be reliably measured at relatively young ages and suggested that perception of threat and self- blame function similarly in 7- to 9-year-olds as they do in older children.

The spatial microgenesis of individuals is studied by individually driving persons along different routes in a previously unfamiliar neighborhood over weekly sessions. It is observed that some participants' knowledge improves fairly continuously over the sessions, but most participants either manifest accurate metric knowledge from the first session or never manifest accurate metric knowledge.

This essay employs cognitive neuroscience to discuss The Last Chronicle of Barset. Josiah Crawley's inability to remember how he obtained a cheque--a crux of the plot--is linked with his ruminative [...]