ADVANCES IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE
Year:2017 | Volume:19 | Issue:3 |Papers Count:8

Introduction: The study strived to investigate the effectiveness of "EMG biofeedback with relaxation training" on psychological symptoms in migraine patients in Isfahan.Method: To this end, two patients suffering chronic migraine were selected using purposeful sampling. This investigation used a single subject with A-B design. Intervention was started after determining the base- line. The "EMG biofeedback" was taught to each single participant for 24 sessions of 45-minute intervention sessions, and one month after the intervention period, the follow-up test was performed. The instrument used was "Stress, Anxiety and Depression Scales (DASS-21)".Results: Based on that, the results revealed that during the visual analysis of data graphs for "EMG biofeedback" on psychological symptoms, the intervention was significantly effective for both participants.Conclusion: This study showed that "EMG biofeedback with relaxation training" could reduce psychological symptoms (stress, anxiety) in migraine patients. As other studies have concluded, besides this treatment, taking medication could lead to improvement of common psychological symptoms in patients with chronic migraine and also prolong the time interval between attacks.

Introduction: This paper is concerned with the investigation of diachronic changes and synchronic differences of the verb 'Xatan' on the basis of grammaticalization process of basic event Schemas in the framework of cognitive Linguistics. Basic event schemas, are simple semantic units that consist of a predicate and associated variables. These schemas express general and basic notions that found grammatical structures in any language.Method: In this paper, one of these basic schemas, i.e. the ‘Volition’ schema ([X wants Y]) was brought under consideration and it was revealed that by applying this schema on Persian lexical verb 'Xatan', the basic notion ‘what one wants’ is expressed in Farsi.Results: It was revealed that by applying the process of grammaticalization on the volition schema, this schema transforms to a complex schema known as ‘serial schema’ ([X wants # [X] VERB Y]) with the meaning ‘what one wants to do’. The process of grammaticalization continues with the effect of transforming the serial schema to ‘Future schema’ ([X Y # want (to) VERB]). The final result of this process is changing the lexical verb ‘xatan’ to auxiliary verb ‘Xatan’ with the effect of expressing the actions that occur in future tense.Conclusion: The simultaneous investigation of diachronic and synchronic changes of the verb 'Xatan' and clarifying the point that grammaticalization applies not only on the lexical verb but also on the whole structure of the basic event schema are among the achievements of this paper.

Introduction: Music and melodious sounds are one of the most important and common communicative tools among nations and also one of the factors of healing personal disorders. As Alzheimer causes disorder in individuals’ lives.Method: this study aims to examine the effect of traditional Persian music on improving the working memory and cognitive function of 50-65 year-old females who suffered Alzheimer and referred to the Iran Alzheimer Association for help. This study was conducted in an experimental research method with pre-test and post-test designs allocated to an experimental group and to a control group. Through a convenience sampling procedure, a sample of 30 females, 50-65 years of age, sufferring from Alzheimer was selected to participate in this study and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups, 15 persons in each group. Two kinds of tests, the Luria- Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery test (LNNB-I) and the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) were used. After pre- test the experimental group were given a total of 10 sessions, 3 times a week of training music at home and practicing with CDs and Daff or tambourine (an Iranian traditional music instrument,). In order to analyze data, in addition to descriptive statistics method, covariance analyses in SPSS 18 statistical software were used.Results: According to one- way analyses of covariance (ANCOVA), there were differences among the experimental group before interaction and after the elimination of pre- test effect via covariance analyses procedure, the effect of interaction on the experimental group was significant.Conclusion: It is concluded that teaching traditional music to people suffering Alzheimer improves the performance of working memory (p=0.04), and the cognitive function (0.002). Moreover it causes the enhancement of central execution processes of music (p=0.002), speech (p=0.001), and visual (p=0.003), in females aged 50-65 suffering from Alzheimer.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to compare the mean scores of immediate visual memory, delayed visual memory, immediate auditory memory, delayed auditory memory, working memory, retrospective and prospective memory and autobiographical memory in amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment and healthy controls.Method: In this study, 40 patients with amnesic Mild Cognitive Impairment were selected and compared with 40 healthy controls. Wechsler Memory Scale, Autobiographical Memory Test and Retrospective-Prospective Memory test were administered and data was analyzed by ANOVA and Mann- withney U tests.Results: The results showed that there is a significant difference between the mean scores of immediate visual memory, delayed visual memory, immediate auditory memory, delayed auditory memory, working memory, retrospective and prospective memory between patients and healthy controls (P<0.05). But there was no significant difference in the scores of autobiographical memory between the two groups (P<0.05).Conclusion: The difference in brain structure and function between patients and healthy controls, considering mild cognitive impairment in dementia spectrum, can explain the difference in different memory dimensions.

Introduction: It is essential that education and learning be based on its natural way (brain) in order to fill the gap between the items which are learned by executive functions at school. Brain compatible learning considers how natural learning takes place. It seeks to change the frame to make an effective teaching based on the structure and functions of human brain. The main purpose of this study consisted of the determination of the effectiveness of brain compatible learning on cognitive flexibility and selective attention of executive functions elementary school students.Method: Type of the project was unequal control group design from quasi- experimental design. The target sample was chosen from 38 fourth grade students from the statistical society which consisted of all male students in a private elementary school in the district 5 of Tehran in the academic year of 2015-2016. Pre- test and post- test data were collected by using Stroop test and were analyzed by independent T test.Results: Data analysis showed that brain compatible learning has been effective on increased cognitive flexibility and selective attention of the fourth graders.Conclusion: Considering variant activities based on brain compatible learning, the students’ mind obtained the capacity for changing mind focus among different stimuli and the flexibility increased. Also smart instruction and smart learning which create the ground for selective attention in the learning process is the result of brain compatible learning for both teachers and students.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impacts of teaching metacognitive skills to teacher-students at Farhangian Teacher Training University.Method: The study was a semi- experimental using pre-test and post- test on two experimental and control groups of students. Using a questionnaire with 70 items, and a=0.94, the meta-cognitive skills of both groups were evaluated. Both experimental and control groups were composed of 12 fifth-semester students at Farhangian Teacher Training University. After assessment of metacognitive skills of all students, the experimental group participated in 8 sessions of metacognitive skills training, and then both groups were tested again.Results: As a result, the metacognitive skills of the experimental group was improved, compared to the control group. Metacognitive skills training had an impact of h2=0.360. Reviewing the changes, the three components of metacognitive skills were analyzed as follows: The cognitive knowledge of the experimental group was improved compared to the control group with an impact of h2=0.327 which was significant at a=0.01. The cognitive regulation of the experimental group compared to the control group was improved with an impact of h2=0.296 which was significant at a=0.01. Although the average score of cognitive beliefs was higher in the experimental group compared to the control group, the impact of metacognitive skills training on cognitive beliefs of students was not significant.Conclusion: The results showed that meta- cognitive skills training can lead to improved metacognitive skills, particularly to cognitive knowledge and cognitive regulation.

Introduction: To find principal factors which affect the development of enumeration, many recent researches have investigated the effect of visual characteristics on counting process. Here we have addressed the effect of arrangement on enumeration process.Method: 37 participants aged between 18 to 30 years old were evaluated. We examined counting speed in three different arrangements of dots in five magnitudes (8-12) which differed in regularity and imaginary lattices between their dots.Results: According to our results, enumeration speed is affected by both arrangement and the set of magnitudes (p<0.001) while irregularity and ambiguity of lattices caused slower enumeration. Furthermore, accuracy of responses was only affected by the number of dots (p<0.001).Conclusion: Taken together, these results show that lattice formation which facilitates groupitizing and subsequently subitizing, has considerable effect on enumeration speed. Meanwhile the more various strategies of groupitizing in arrangements will cause slower enumeration speed, but regularity of arrangements does not guarantee the accuracy of responses.

Introduction: This study examines the views of high-school students with different Multiple Intellingence about the English language and its learning.Method: To explore students’ views, interpretive phenomenology and qualitative research approach was used. Participants were purposefully selected from 33 third grade students of a high school. After obtaining their MIs profile through Armstrong’s questionnaire and McClellan and Conti’s (2008) Questionnaire, two students for each Intelligence type were selected. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and observations and then were analyzed using the Van- Manen method.Results: The students’ narratives were classified and described into five sections: the kind of motivation for learning English, the views on the social status of the English language, the views on English textbook contents and on the method of assessment and teaching.Conclusion: The results showed that there were some false conceptions among students that should change, some of which include: having grammar interest as the main parameter to learn a language, considering learning a language as a difficult action, having an unfair view about the social level of the English language and that of their own first language and culture. The findings of this study can be used for a better understanding of students and using more effective methods of teaching, learning and assessment.