ADVANCES IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE
Year:2009 | Volume:11 | Issue:3 (43)|Papers Count:13

Objective: This research was carried out to assess the role of cognitive variables, metacognitive dimensions and emotions in substance abuse behaviors among subjects referred to the addiction treatment center in the city of Bandar-Abbas, and to compare them with a normal group. Method: This is a case-control study in which 100 substance abusers and 100 normal individuals who were selected using convenience sampling, and matched by certain demographic factors, were compared with each other. Data were gathered using a demographic questionnaire, clinical interview, Metacognition (MCQ- 30), dysfunctional attitudes scale (DAS), and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale DASS. Data were analyzed via descriptive statistic method, T-Test, and Pearson correlation coefficient.Results: Results indicated that two dimensions of metacognition (negative beliefs about uncontrollability of thoughts and beliefs about cognitive confidence) were significantly associated with substance abuse. Also, substance abusers had experienced more anxiety, depression, and stress and a higher percentage of them in comparison with the normal group, showed dysfunctional attitudes from a cognitive perspective. Conclusion: From a metacognitive standpoint, substance abuse is an effective means of rapidly modifying cognitive events such as feelings, thought or memories. Therefore, it is likely that the relationship between emotion and substance abuse is mediated through metacognition. These results seem to suggest that the use of metacognitive theory could be helpful in the understanding and treatment of substance abuse.

Objective: The purpose of this research was to examine the reliability and validity of the Persian version of Counterfactual Thinking for Negative Events Scale (CTNES). Methods: To this end, 265 students from Isfahan University were selected using a random clustering procedure, and completed the Persian version of the Counterfactual Thinking for Negative Events Scale. Results: The factorial structural or construct validity of the CTNES by principal components analysis (PCA) with a Varimax rotation resulted in 4 factors which corresponded to 58.42% of the total variance. The factors included the following: 1) self-referent upward 2) non-referent downward 3) other-referent upward and 4) non-referent upward. The reliability of the Persian version of this scale as well as the four factors were calculated using Cronbach’s alpha and test-retest, and were all found to be satisfactory. Conclusion: The findings of the present study indicate that for measuring counterfactual thinking for negative events in Iran, the Persian version of Counterfactual Thinking for Negative Events Scale can be used as a valid and reliable test.

Objective: The goal of the present study is to assess the question of whether linguistic capabilities in the mind, are independent and distinguishable from other cognitive capabilities, or are there relationships between linguistic capabilities and non-linguistic cognitive capabilities. Methods: To this end, we measured the relationship between the capability of syntactic comprehension and the capability of processing cognitive sequences in Broca aphasia patients. This was a comparative-descriptive study. Ten Broca aphasia patients were selected via goal-directed approach from public speech-therapy centers in the city of Tehran. Caplan et al.’s test for syntactic comprehension and Lelekov’s process of cognitive sequences were administered to the subjects and the results of the two tests were compared. Results: Findings indicated a direct relationship between the comprehension of some syntactic structures and the ability of processing cognitive sequences (r=o.5). The inability of Broca patients to correctly affiliate semantic roles, is related to a more general cognitive disorder due to impairment in neural structures, common between the process of linguistic comprehension and cognitive sequences. Conclusion: contrary to the modularity theory of language, linguistic capabilities of humans could not be limited to an independent faculty in the mind; and it should be accepted that linguistic capabilities and non-linguistic cognitive capabilities interact with each other.

Objective: The goal of the present study was to investigate the effect of gender and emotional content on the function of explicit and implicit memory. Methods: This study was conducted on 90 undergraduate engineering students using random cluster sampling. Texts with positive, negative and neutral content were used as tasks of implicit memory. Participants were timed while reading passages aloud as quickly as possible, but not so quickly that they could not understand. The Explicit tasks were administered at the end of implicit memory testing, and consisted of multiple choice questions (recognition) regarding the passages. Results: In both explicit and implicit memories the highest performance in the male group was related to positive tasks. However, females performed generally better than males in explicit memory. An additional finding was related to the speed of reading, in which women performed better than all other groups in neutral texts. Conclusion: The functions of explicit and implicit memories in both genders were different with regard to the tasks. For both memories, men and women showed the highest performance in positive and negative tasks respectively.

Objective: The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of stress on selective and focused attention according to the personality factor of agreeableness. Methods: The sample group consisted of 60 male university students who were selected via multi-session random sampling with respect to neuropsychological control variables. The subjects were divided into two experimental and one control groups (20 subjects each). After administering cognitive stressful tasks, the visual selective and focused attention of subjects in the experimental groups were assessed. The visual selective and focused attention of the subjects in the control group was assessed without administering the aforementioned tasks. Sum of errors in counting and classification errors designated the visual attention indexes. Results: Results indicated that stress leads to significant increase in counting and classification errors (p<0.001). In addition, agreeableness further increased the counting error (p<0.001) and classification error (p<0.001). Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed that stress reduces the visual selective and focused attention on neutral stimuli and factor A intensifies this negative effect.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of language proficiency in the severity of dysfluency in Kurdish-Persian bilingual stutterers. Methods: In the analytical study, 31 Kurdish-Persian stuttered students with a mean age of 10 years and nine months were selected using convenience sampling. Language proficiency and the severity of dysfluency in the two languages with regard to indexes of language complexity, lexical diversity and Stuttering-like Dysfluencies Scale, were obtained using analysis of spontaneous speech, and were compared together. Results: Language complexity in Persian, (including Mean Length of Utterances, length of five long sentences, number of verbs in the sentence, and number ofdependent clauses in the sentence) were higher than in Kurdish significantly. Also, lexical diversity was higher in Persian than in Kurdish, but the difference was not significant. Participants stuttered in both languages, and the severity of dysfluency was higher in Persian than in Kurdish. Conclusion: The dominant language was Persian, due to incessant and compacted training of the language to students. Lack of teaching the mother tongue to these students at school, had weakened their learning, and brought about unequal conditions for learning both languages. The severity of dysfluency was higher in the dominant language (Persian), due to psychosocial factors (such as the participants' viewpoints on Persian culture and language, and their motivation for learning it). Probably due to the provision of courses in Persian, the participants' negative experiences regarding this language were higher and they had a more severe stuttering in this language for the same reason. A positive emotional relationship with the mother tongue could also be one reason for this condition.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of training socialcognitive problem-solving on improvement of interpersonal relationships and the recognition of self-efficacy in children with learning disabilities, which was carried out through an experimental method using pre-test post-test and control group follow-up. Method: The study sample comprised 30 female and male students presenting to the center for learning disabilities in the city of Isfahan. These subjects were identified by authorities of elementary schools who had been familiarized with signs of learning disabilities, and referred by them to the center thereafter. These students were selected for participation in the study by a team comprising two psychologists, two psychiatrists, two learning disability experts, and one speech therapy expert, based on IQ score in Wechsler’s test, deviation of class mean, learning disability checklist, DSMIV, and informal tests on the areas of reading, writing, and mathematics. From among the 30 subjects 15 subjects were randomly allocated to the experimental group and 15 subjects were placed in the control group. However, no intervention was carried out for the control group. Results: Analysis of covariance showed that cognition and emotion training and cognitive social problem-solving significantly improves the function of students with learning disabilities in increase in social problem solving (p<0.001), decrease in inappropriate aggressive behavior (p<0.001), withdrawal (p<0.001), and changing social goals (p<0.001). Results also indicate improvement in students’ judgment and an increase in their social autonomy in compatibility and increase in friendly behavior (p<0.001). Conclusion: Since students with learning disability experience depression and loneliness in addition to educational problems, and have lower self esteem in comparison with normal students, the aforementioned intervention can help them improve their interpersonal relationships.