Advances in Cognitive Sciences
Year:2020 | Volume:21 | Issue:4 |Papers Count:15

Introduction: Impulsivity is one of the features of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Rapid response impulsivity and choice impulsivity encompass two different structures of impulsivity, which take place due to the deficiency in response inhibition and inhibition of immediate execution of a strong desire, respectively. Studying the existing differences in these structures between two groups with and without this disorder is clinically crucial. Therefore, the present study aimed to compare the rapid response impulsivity and choice impulsivity between children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and normal children. Methods: This research was conducted with a causal-comparative method on 19 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and 19 normal children (at the age of 8 to 10 years) who selected, based on the purposive sampling method. The participants were evaluated using Structured Diagnostic Interview, Raven IQ test, and Conners’ Parent and Teacher Rating Scales-revised (short form), and they were then grouped. The performance of the groups has determined using the second version of the Continuous Performance Test (CPT-II) and Real-time Discounting Task. Data have been analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and SPSS-20 software. Results: The results obtained from the current research indicated a significant difference between groups in the rapid response impulsivity (P<0. 017), while there is no significant difference between groups in the choice impulsivity (P>0. 017). Based on the obtained results, children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder performed poorly in the rapid response impulsivity task. Conclusion: According to the results of this research, there is a significant difference in rapid response impulsivity between two groups but there is no significant difference in choice impulsivity between them. Thus, rapid response impulsivity may be more important than choice impulsivity in the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Introduction: For many years, it has been emphasized on the role of attentional bias in addiction-related disorders, including its role in craving and relapse. This reseasrch aimed to investigate, the effectiveness of attentional bias modification on attention bias, pre-attentional bias and craving in abstinent addicts. Methods: Three groups (control, attentional bias modification and attentional bias modification with reinforcement and punishment) in three phases (pre-test, post-test, and follow up) assessed in attentional bias, pre-attentional bias, and craving. During the pretest and post-test, the control group received placebo training, while the second group received attentional bias modification training, and the third group received attentional bias modification training with reinforcement and punishment, respectively. To measure attentional bias, pre-attentional bias, and interventions, and to measure craving Dotprobe task test and Brief Substance Craving Scale were used respectively. Results: The results indicated that there was a significant difference between three groups in attentional bias in post-test and follow-up, the pre-attentional bias in post-test, and craving in the post-test. The control group obtained a higher score in pre-attentional bias than two experimental groups in the pre-attentional bias in follow up and attentional bias modification with reinforcement and punishment group obtained a lower score in craving than two other groups in craving in follow up. Conclusion: It seems that adding reinforcement and punishment to the classical intervention of attentional bias modification can lead to improving the effectiveness of this intervention. Besides, interventions based on attention bias modification are efficient interventions.

Introduction: This study aims to investigate autobiographical memory and identity styles in Afghan immigrant adolescent with post– traumatic stress disorder. Methods: There are three groups in this causal-comparative study (18 control subjects, 14 Non-PTSD, and 16 PTSD subjects). Subjects were recruited by using Semi-Structural Interview for PTSD, The Impact of Event Scale– Revised, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Children Depression Scale, Autobiographical Memory Test, and Berzonsky’ s Identity Style Inventory To analyze data, one-way covariance and one-way variance analysis were used. Results: There was a significant difference between autobiographical memory among immigrant adolescents with PTSD, Non-PTSD and control group. Beside, these groups had a significant difference in depression and anxiety levels. But there was no significant relation between identity and autobiographical memory. Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that performance of Afghan immigrant adolescents with PTSD in special retrieval of autobiographical memory items is weaker than control and Non-PTSD groups. However, the variance analyze have shown that there was no significant difference in terms of identity style among these three groups. Problems in retrieving autobiographical memory information were not related to identifying style in this group of Afghan immigrant adolescents.

Introduction: The major depressive disorder is a long-lasting disorder that results in major functional and social disorders. According to the World Health Organization, the major depressive disorder will become the second leading cause of disease worldwide in 2020. The purpose of the present study was to present a second-orderer nonlinear dynamic model underlying depression disorder using computational modeling that can justify the conditions of occurrence and recurrence of depression. Methods: In this model, two mathematical equations were presented which consisted of several effective quantities in the generation of major depressive disorder such as the volume of the hippocampus, serotonin levels, amygdala volume, psychological external factors and unpredictable processes and the history of previous periods of the patient were considered. The data were analyzed on the 1002 depressed people periods, over a 64-year normal life span. Results: The results of the presented model show that in the dynamic model, the duration curve of depression in patients under the antidepressant drugs and the third wave cognitive behavioral therapy was widespread, with an average of 1019 days. Conclusion: The study developed a mathematical framework, which will eventually lead to the development of more detailed models for a major depressive disorder and a better perception of the major depressive disorder and its effects on cognitive processes.

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to compare the cognitive processes and abilities of two groups of students by using and analyzing event-related potentials (ERPs) during solving problems on interpretation of the graph of functions. Methods: The research method was quantitative and quasi-experimental. The participants of this study were 177 male undergrad engineering students. By the researcher-made mathematics test, participants were divided into two groups of deep conceptual and procedural knowledge (DK) group and superficial conceptual and procedural knowledge (SK) group. Fourteen students were randomly chosen from each group and taken the task and ERPs recording experiment. Results: The DK group responded more accurately than the SK group. However, the reaction time of the two groups did not show significant variations. The ERP findings demonstrated that the amplitude of the P300 component for the SK group was considerably higher than that of the DK group over central, centro-parietal and parietal brain areas at the question window. Conclusion: Although behavioral data in the reaction time of between two groups was almost identical, electrophysiological data indicated that doing the interpretation tasks in the SK group would have higher demands and activated further processing brain resources. Also, according to ERPs data, it was determined that the difference between the cognitive processing of the two groups occurs in the first stage and after seeing the graph of the function. These results point to the crucial role of cognitive neuroscientific technics in providing information on the differences in the cognitive performance of different individuals.

Introduction: The present study is an attempt to explain the components of the teacher education curriculum based on the situated cognition theory. This theory, with a new attitude to the cognition and learning, believes that these two categories have been applied in specific situations. Therefore, people need to be involved in real-world situations to gain authentic knowledge. Methods: Based on the perspective of situated cognition theory, the four main components of the teacher education curriculum, including teaching-learning opportunities, learning strategies, and evaluation were explained using theoretical inquiry. A prescriptive model of teacher education curriculum was presented in the form of teaching and learning strategies. This prescriptive model underlies the two concepts of cognitive apprenticeship and community of practice using learning opportunities to achieve the goals of the curriculum. The hidden evaluation component in the prescriptive model carried out to assess the process and output results. Results: The findings of the present study were discussed in terms of components such as goals, teaching-learning opportunities, learning strategies, and evaluation. In the goals section, four goals were focused on transferring well-appointed and applied knowledge to learners, social construction of meaning, training efficient and productive professional teachers, and shaping learners’ professional identities. Learning opportunities have focused on doing authentic practices, discourse, narrative writing, scenario building, design, and visualization of their professional perceptions. Learning opportunities at the heart of two learning strategies, including cognitive apprenticeship, and communities of practice will accomplish the mentioned goals. Finally, the validated and authentic evaluation was proposed to evaluate the designed curriculum. Conclusion: Researchers believe that the application of the curriculum framework based on the situated cognition theory in teacher education contributes to reducing the gap between theoretical and practical knowledge, and as a result, between theory and practice.

Introduction: PASS cognitive processes dysfunction is considered as a common feature of autism spectrum disorders. It seems likely that any breakdown in this capacity might impact on the capacity for future thinking in this group. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between PASS cognitive processes and future thinking in children with autism spectrum disorder in the city of Isfahan. Methods: The research design was descriptive and correlational. The study population included all children 6-8 years old with a high-functioning autism spectrum disorder in Isfahan. The sample included 15 students with high-functioning autism who were selected by convenience sampling method. The Cognitive Assessment System, Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire, and Trip Task were used to collect data. Results: The statistical results showed that the correlation coefficients between future thinking and PASS cognitive processes (planning, attention, simultaneous and successive) were significant at the (P≤ 0. 05). Conclusion: These findings provided evidence regarding cognitive mechanisms that may be related to the defects of future thinking in autism spectrum disorder. Besides, obtained results could have crucial implications in the clinical and theoretical level.

Introduction: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairment in social communication and repetitive and stereotyped behaviors. It has been shown that a diuretic drug named bumetanide had a considerable influence on improving social communication in these patients. One of the important features in making social communication is eye contact; this research aimed to evaluate the efficacy of this medication on improving pattern of eye contact and the other parts of the face in children and adolescents with ASD. Methods: This single group clinical trial research is conducted on 20 children and adolescents aged from 7 to 15 years old with high function Autism Spectrum Disorder. After discontinuing the previously taking medications, Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Kiddie-Schedule for Affective and Schizophrenia (KSADS), Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), and Children-Revised Form (WISC-R) were administered to each participant. A dose of 1 mg Bumetanide (0. 5 mg in the morning and 0. 5 mg in the evening) during 90 Days was given to the participants. Eye tracking evaluation administered while the participants were looking at the pictures of faces before and after the intervention. The number and duration of fixation to each area in each image as the variables recorded. Results: A comparison of pre and post-intervention showed no significant differences in terms of the eye tracking variables. Conclusion: Using Bumetanide did not have any significant effect on the amount of looking at the eyes in children and adolescents with ASD, despite improved symptoms and severity of autism and some behavioral problems.

Introduction: The present study aimed at studying the effect of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on the locus of control and achievement motivation in students with learning problems. Methods: This research method is a semi-experimental with pretest-posttest and control group design. The population was all Tehran’ s first restrict middle school girl students. Research samples consisted of 30 students who selected to participate in the study according to the convenience judgmental sampling method. After taking identical test of Rotter’ s Locus of Control Scale, Herman’ s achievement motivation questionnaire (HAMQ), and Colorado Learning Difficulties Questionnaire (CLDQ), Participants were then divided randomly into experimental and control groups (each group=15). The eexperimental group received mindfulness-based cognitive therapy of 20 sessions, but control group did not receive any intervention. Follow-up assessment performed three months after ending sessions. Data was analyzed through covariance analysis (ANCOVA). Results: Research findings indicated that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy changes the locus of control from external to internal. mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is an effective method to enhance internal locus of control and self-esteem. Besides, findings indicated that Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy increases achievement motivation. This intervention method was also an effective method to enhance achievement motivation. Conclusion: Research results suggest that trainers, teachers, and psychologists administer these intervention methods for personal and educational improvement in the learning of disabled students.

Introduction: Neuron revolution in linguistic theory has opened a new window to the understanding nature and function of brain and mind and their connection to the body based on the cognitive theory. Space words, which include spatial prepositions as well, stem from image schema in different languages. Therefore, of the objective of the present study was to understand and state spatial prepositions compared with non-spatial prepositions in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and healthy children (HC). Methods: The subjects consisted of eight Persian children with SLI aged 5-8 years, who were compared with the control group (eight HC peers). The children were investigated using a researcher-made test of comprehension and application of simple prepositions; the reliability and validity of the test were computed through a pretest of 60 normal 5 to 8-year old Persian children. Finally, the data were analyzed by SPSS using t-test Results: The results showed that the amount of comprehension and application of spatial prepositions among SLI children was lower than that in HC peers. Also, the amount of comprehension and application of non-spatial prepositions among SLI children was lower than that in HC peers. Conclusion: Since spatial prepositions are space words and stem from image schema, thus, based on cognitive linguistics in confirmation of the non-modular function of the brain, SLI children demonstrated lower deficits in comprehension and production of spatial prepositions than non-spatial ones.

Introduction: Multimodal emotion recognition due to receiving information from different sensory resources (modalities) from a video has a lot of challenges and has attracted many researchers as a new method of human computer interaction. The purpose of this paper was to automatically recognize emotion from emotional speech and facial expression based on the neural mechanisms of the brain. Therefore, based on studies on brain-inspired models, a general framework for bimodal emotion recognition inspired by the functionality of the auditory and visual cortics and brain limbic system is presented. Methods: The hybrid and hierarchical proposed model consisted of two learning phases. The first step: the deep learning models for the representation of visual and auditory features, and the second step: a Mixture of Brain Emotional Learning (MoBEL) model, obtained from the previous stage, for fusion of audio-visual information. For visual feature representation, 3D-convolutional neural network (3D-CNN) was used to learn the spatial relationship between pixels and the temporal relationship between the video frames. Also, for audio feature representation, the speech signal was first converted to the log Mel-spectrogram image and then fed to the CNN. Finally, the information obtained from the two above streams was given to the MoBEL neural network model to improve the efficiency of the emotional recognition system by considering the correlation between visual and auditory and fusion of information at the feature level. Results: The accuracy rate of emotion recognition in video in the eNterface’ 05 database using the proposed method was on average of 82%. Conclusion: The experimental results in the database show that the performance of the proposed method is better than the hand-crafted feature extraction methods and other fusion models in the emotion recognition.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of TREZ training on philosophical mentality and metacognitive strategies in female students. Methods: This quasi-experimental research was a pre-test, post-test design and follow-up with the control group. The statistical population of the study consisted of all third-grade female students in the second grade secondary school of Khorramabad in the academic year of 2017-2018. The 60 of them were selected by multi-stage random cluster sampling and then randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (each group=30 subjects). The 6-session of 90-minute TREZ training conducted for the experimental group and one month after the end of the sessions, post-test and follow-up stages were performed. To collect data, philosophical subjective questionnaire and metacognitive strategies were used. Results: The findings revealed the effectiveness of TREZ training on philosophical mentality and metacognitive strategies in female students in post-test and follow up stages. Conclusion: Consequently, the method has influenced the philosophical mentality and metacognitive strategies of female students. Therefore, it is suggested that teachers provide students with creativity and teaching methods during the training period.