ADVANCES IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE
Year:2011 | Volume:13 | Issue:1 (49)|Papers Count:16

Objective: The purpose of conducting this research was to investigate the relationship between epistemological beliefs (simple/absolute knowledge and fast/fixed learning) and students' conceptions of learning (learning as: gaining information, understanding and remembering, personal change, a process not bound by time or place, the development of social competence), and identifying the relative contribution of each of them in predicting surface and deep learning approaches by students.Method: For this, 240 students from humanities and basic science of Tabriz Payame Noor University students (142 females and 98 males) were randomly selected using multiple-stage sampling, and completed the Epistemology Questionnaire (EQ), Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) and the Conceptions of Learning Inventory (COLI). Data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation test and standard or simultaneous multiple regression analysis.Results: Results indicated that personal change and development of social competence were the meaningful predicting factors of deep learning approached. Compared to the development of social competence, personal change had higher beta value. In the prediction of surface-learning approaches, epistemological beliefs of fast/ fixed learning and understanding and remembering conceptions of learning were statistically meaningful.Compared to fast/fixed learning epistemological beliefs, understanding and remembering conceptions of learning had higher beta value.

Objective: This study investigated the effects of concurrent cognitive tasks on right or left hemispheric dominant brains. Lateral Preference Inventory was administered on 787 girl students and, using purposive sampling method, 60 were selected as participants. After controlling participants' handedness and intelligence, they were divided into two groups of 30 with right or left hemispheric dominant brains, and were tested against dual cognitive task interference.Results: The independent t-test confirmed significant differences between the right and left hemispheric dominant brains' reaction times, when and only when SOA was 50ms.Conclusion: These findings supported the bottleneck theory of resolution of dual-task interference, and the difference between behavioral performance of right-and left-hemispheric dominant brains. They also suggested substantial impact of hemispheric dominance on cognitive functions, such as resolution of dual-task interference, instead of only control of handedness.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to explain the role of thought-action fusion in obsession symptoms.Method: The study is a correlation research. Its statistical universe comprised of all undergraduate students of the ages between 18 and 25, who were studying at the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences. Of them, 205 students were selected by Stratified Sampling. This study was conducted with thought- action fusion scale and Maudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (MOCI).Results: The findings show that there are positive correlations between TAF-total and obsession symptoms. Based on regression analysis among TAF subscales, Likelihood for Self and Morality significantly anticipated obsession symptoms.Conclusion: Obsession symptoms can be explained by thought-action fusion belief.

Objective: In this study mothers were trained to use a high-elaborative and emotion content conversational style, as its effectiveness on children's autobiographical memory and emotion knowledge was evaluated.Method: The research plan was semi-experimental. The sample consisted of 34 mothers and their children (13 girls, 21 boys) who were recruited from preschoolers. The dyads were divided on the basis of the children’s language scores, genders, and mothers' levels of education. They were randomly assigned to either experimental or control groups. To train the mothers in high elaborative and emotion content conversational style, they were instructed using five specific conversational techniques: wh-questions (when, where, why, who, what or how), associations, follow-ups, positive evaluation, and, talking about emotions and their causes.Results: Data were evaluated through repeated measure analysis and correlation. Results showed that dyads in training group used more high elaborative elements than those in control group. Mothers and children in the training group talked more frequently about emotions and their causes during post-training and follow-up assessments. In addition, training procedure did not affect children's emotion knowledge and memory.Conclusion: The effectiveness of the training mothers' elaborative and emotion rich conversational style is consist with previous research in this field, and it demonstrates new way of enhancing children skills via maternal training.

The purpose of this study is to survey the ability of retrieving specific memory materials from autobiographical memory among PTSD veterans' young children.Method: The sample contains 131 high school students in 3 groups: PTSD veterans' young children (n=31) as the target group, young children of veterans without PTSD (n=50), and young children of healthy persons (n=50), as comparison groups. Participants in all three groups are approximately matched in age, gender and academic achievement. Research instruments included: Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y) and Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT). Data analysis is done by the method of descriptive statistics, One Way Analysis of Variance, and Scheffe Fallow-up Test.Results: The results in dicate that PTSD veterans' children have lower performance in autobiographical memory task than healthy persons' children. In other words, PTSD veterans' children have lower ability for retrieving specific autobiographical memory materials from memory and retrieve less specific memories from memory. The research also indicates that the state of depression and anxiety in PTSD veterans' children is higher than healthy persons' children, while in these two components (autobiographical memory and anxiety) there are no significant differences between PTSD veterans' children and non-PTSD veterans' children. However, in the depression component there is a significant difference between them.Conclusion: research findings have shown that levels of anxiety in non-PTSD veterans' children were lower than healthy persons' children, but there was no significant difference between them in depression.

Objective: The present research aims to examine the behavior of a widely used preposition in Modern Persian (Farsi), namely ‹az› within the framework of cognitive semantics. The analysis is geared towards determining the prototypical and various distinct senses of this preposition and proposing a semantic network for it.Method: The nature of the research is descriptive- analytical and the type is corpus-based. The selected corpus is Farhang-e Sokhan (Sokhan Dictionary) and the tools applied are those of cognitive semantics e.g. categorization tools, prototype, cognitive schemas, semantic predominance, semantic network and protoscene.Conclusion: ‹Az› shows that it fits the criteria for the determination of the prototypical sense of a linguistic item e.g. highest frequency of occurrence and composite formation. The prototypical sense of ‹Az› constitutes the core sense within a semantic network, which is presented. This network makes it possible to establish and explain the differences between the concrete and the abstract (metaphorical) functions of the preposition under study.

Objective: In this study the effects of dopaminergic D1 receptor of dorsal hippocampus on anxiety-like behavior induced by stimulation or inhibition of NMDA receptors were investigated in male Wistar rats.Method: The elevated plus maze was used in the present study, which is an accepted model to examine anxiety-like behaviors in mice and rats.Results: The results indicate that intra-CA1injection of MK801 (2 mg/rat) induce anxiolytic effects. Intra-CA1 injection of SCH23390 (0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg/rat) by itself has no effect on anxiety-like behaviors, but administration of same doses of SCH23390 before MK801 (1 mg/rat, intra-CA1) potentiate anxiolytic effects of MK801. On the other hand, intra-CA1 injection of NMDA (0.3 and 0.6 mg/rat) or SKF 38393 (3 and 6 mg/rat) by itself induces anxiogenic effects. Injection of different doses of SKF38393 before NMDA potentiated anxiogenic effects of NMDA.Conclusion: These results show that both NMDA receptor and dopaminergic D1 receptor not only play a part in the modulation of anxiety in the dorsal hippocampus of rats but also have demonstrated a complex interaction as well.

Objective: Cerebral ischemic/reperfusion causes severe brain damage, especially in CA1 region of hippocampus. Nowadays, vasodilator drugs such as pentoxifylline are considered for their neuroprotective effects, but there is no study on possible neurotrophic effects of this drug and its effective dose on CA1 pyramidal cells of hippocampus in transient global ischemic/reperfusion on experimental models.Method: In this study male Wistar rats (n=30) in experimental groups 1, 2 and 3 were injected intraperitoneally by 200, 400 and 600 mg/kg pentoxifylline respectively one hour before and one hour after ischemia. Other groups were control, sham and vehicle (normal saline). Four days after ischemia, brains were removed and prepared for histological study (Nissl Method).Results: Our data showed that there was no significant difference between the number of viable pyramidal cells in CA1 region of hippocampus in control and 200 mg/kg pentoxifylline treated groups.Conclusion: It seems that the neuroprotective effect of 200 mg/kg pentoxifylline may be accompanied by a reduction of ischemic damage in CA1 region of hippocampus in rats that were subjected to transient global cerebral ischemia.