Advances in Cognitive Sciences
Year:2010 | Volume:12 | Issue:3 (47)|Papers Count:12

Objective: Brain areas related to moral judgment have been assessed in the field of ethics, and the causative role between brain damage and moral judgment has been assessed in the field of neuropsychology. However, the role of prefrontal cortex in morality has not been described. The aim of the present study is to examine damage in right prefrontal cortex (rPFC) and its effects on moral judgments.Method: Six patients with damage to rPFC and six normal individuals (matched by sex and age) participated in this study. The patients had encephalomalacia due to injury or tumor resection. The precise location of the damage was determined using MRI and based on Brodmann’s brain map. Subjects responded to moral dilemmas which had been translated for the first time in Iran. After the pilot study, the dilemmas were administered using the computer.Results: The patient and the normal group did not differ in the response time to dilemmas. Also, regarding the context of responses, even though the patient group had given less positive answers the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion:It seems that damage to right prefrontal cortex, especially the frontopolar cortex does not affect personal and impersonal moral judgments.

Objective: The investigation of rhythm processing in Iranian “Dastgah” music using fMRI.Method: 12 right handed musicians with the age range of 20-30 years listened to rhythmic and non-rhythmic pieces of Mahour Dastgah in a random order, and their brain activation was measured.Results: Pieces of rhythmic and non-rhythmic Mahour activated specific parts of the brain. The regions most activated during non-rhythmic Mahour pieces included right middle frontal gyrus, right planum temporal, and right superior temporal gyrus. Also, rhythmic Mahour pieces activated left Amygdala, left frontal pole, left orbitofrontal cortex, left middle temporal gyrus, and left primary motor cortex.Conclusion: Based on the findings of the present study, it could be concluded that laterality plays an important role in the appreciation of rhythm. The data can be also interpreted based on the hierarchical model, meaning that music possessing a higher level of complex factors such as rhythm, is processed in higher levels of the brain.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the attitude towards professional help seeking and its association with stigma for depressive disorders in a specific group of Iranian youth.Method: Students from four different faculties of Tehran University and Tehran University of Medical Sciences entered in this cross-sectional study. Level of Familiarity with Mental Illness Questionnaire, Attribution Questionnaire-27, and Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale were administered to the subjects. Based on the results of the mentioned tests, the relationship of attitude toward seeking professional help with different cognitive, emotional and behavioral factors of stigmatizing individuals with depressive disorder was assessed.Results: 407 students participated in this study. The highest level of familiarity with psychiatric disorders was observed in individual whose acquaintance with psychiatric disorders was through seeing movies depicting mentally disordered characters (30.7%). In comparison with women, men significantly considered depressive disorder patients as dangerous, and tended to believe that these patients should be isolated from the society. Women had a significantly higher positive attitude toward seeking professional help for the treatment of depression. There was a positive correlation between positive attitude towards seeking professional help and three dimensions of stigmatization: pity, inclination towards assistance and coercion.Conclusion: Three cognitive, emotional and behavioural factors of stigmatization towards patients with depressive disorder (i.e. pity, inclination towards assistance and coercion) are associated with more positive attitudes toward seeking treatment. A more comprehensive assessment of this relationship as well as discovering possible mediating factors could help to develop more effective strategies for removing stigmas and reducing obstacles of treatment seeking.

Objective:The purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship between motivational beliefs (self-efficacy, learning control, and test anxiety), cognitive and metacognitive strategies (critical thinking, metacognitive self- regulation, time and environment management and peer help seeking), and academic achievement in third grade high school female students of humanities, using causal model.Method: Multistage sampling was used in order to select the sample group. To this end, 250 students were selected from among third grade female high school students in Tehran in the educational year 1388-89. In order to assess all research variables, the motivational strategies for learning questionnaire was used. In this study the average of students’ scores in five specific subjects, was considered as their index of academic achievement. Data were analyzed using confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis and structural equations model, and for the assessment of causal relationships among research variables, two cognitive models were tested and compared.Results: Results indicated a better goodness of fit for the second model. In this model, self-efficacy and beliefs of control were considered as exogenous variables and critical thinking, cognitive self- regulation, time and environment management, peer help seeking and academic achievement were considered as endogenous variables. Nevertheless, both models indicated the presence of significant causal relationships between motivational beliefs, cognitive and metacognitive strategies and academic achievement.Conclusion: More successful students took advantage of a greater number of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, had a lower level of test anxiety, and therefore, showed greater academic achievement.

Objective: In this study, in order to develop a more thorough understanding of personality characteristics of creative people, the quantity and quality of defence mechanisms and their defensive style was studied.Method:258 female Master’s and PhD students in Tarbiat Modares University were selected via convenience sampling, and completed Abedi Creative Thinking Questionnaire. Thereafter, two groups of 30 subjects with the highest and lowest scores in the questionnaire were chosen as experimental groups to be compared. Defensive Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) was used to analyze defensive styles and mechanisms. Finally, the data were analyzed using t-test for the independent groups.Results: The results indicated that individuals with high or lower creative thinking showed no difference regarding the general use of defence mechanisms. Also, the findings showed that individuals with more creative thought and those with less creative thought make use of more mature defence style and less mature defence mechanisms respectively. In general the main defence characteristics of individuals with more creative thought in comparison with individuals with less creative thought is their frequent use of more mature defence mechanisms such as sublimation, humour and anticipation, and immature mechanisms such as rationalisation, dissociation and denial, however, the main defence characteristics of individuals with less creative thought was the frequent use of immature defence mechanisms such as projection, acting out, splitting, passive aggressive behaviour, fantasy, displacement and somatisation.Conclusion: The findings of the present study once again emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between two domains of creativity. In addition, in line with findings of previous studies, the results indicate that creative individuals are distinguished from individuals with less creativity due to their creative defensive styles.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of the kind of source problem processing on construction and transfer of the solution schema to the target problem in an analogical problem – solving situation.Method: For this purpose, using an experimental "post-test multiple group" a sample of 90 male undergraduate students of Zanjan University were first divided into three groups: verbal, theatrical, and painting. The participants all read the story of "General and Dictator" and recreated the story through their specific methods. Subsequently the members of the three groups attempted to solve the problem of the ray and the tumor, whose necessary schema was embedded in the primary story.Results: Results show that prior to indicating a structural similarity between the story of the general and the ray problem, the participants who had acted out the story, were more successful in solving the problem in comparison with participants who had recreated the story verbally or through drawing. This is despite the lack of difference between the three groups with regard to the quality of recalling the story of the general, and the fact that the quantitative difference was even worse in the acting group.Conclusion: Since the successful solving of the target problem in this study, required a kinesthetic schema, and as the possibility of forming these schemas is higher during executing active behavior (acting) in comparison with other situations, the participants in the acting group performed better than their counterparts in other groups. In general, results indicate that for a successful transfer of principles from resource to target, the richness of the formed schemas is not sufficient. To solve the target problem, the formed schema should be of the same source with the required schema.

Objective: Since the direct measurement of attention via brain signals is significantly effective in eliminating excessive interfaces and has special importance for researchers, this study investigated the relations between visual sustained attention and Event Related Potentials (ERPs) using morphological features.Method: Continuous Performance Test (CPT) was used to measure sustained attention. Signals were recorded using 32-channel Walter device with 19-channel electrode cap. Extracted epochs which were time-locked to stimuli onset in each group were averaged to calculate the ERPs. Four hundred morphological features in ERPs of different electrodes were computed in 51 subjects and Pearson correlation was calculated between these features and the result of the CPT.Results: The P3 peak on target stimuli (X) was clearly observed in comparison with non-target stimuli. Calculated correlations indicated that thirty three of these features had significant relation with the level of sustained attention.Conclusion: Based on the oddball paradigm, the resulted qualitative findings were in line with previous research with regard to P3 production. Most characteristics with significant relation with results of CPT, were related to the voltage of relative event dependent potentials (correctly responded X relative to non-X). In general, CPT results showed appropriate relation with brain signal parameters in many areas, which could be used for the assessment of level of sustained attention.

Objective: The present study investigates the effectiveness of using perceptual-motor skills on the decrease in behavioral disorders of five to eight year old children with ADHD.Method: In this quasi-experimental study, 26 five to eight year old children with ADHD referred to four occupational therapy centers were randomly divided into an experimental and a control group. Research instruments included Parents Rating Scale (CPRS-48), Child behavior check list (CBCL), Bruninks – Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOMT). After the intervention, which included a six week perceptual-motor practice, mothers were asked to fill out the behavioral checklists again. BOMT was used for post-intervention assessment.Results: At the end of the intervention period all motor component scores (gross movments, fine movements, upper limb speed and dexterity and total score) showed significant improvement. Behavioral disorders (anxiety, social problems, attention problems, aggressive behaviors and others) also showed significant improvement. In addition, children in the control group showed significant improvement in fine movement and BOMT total score, as well as a decrease in aggressive behaviors and anxiety.Conclusion: The improvement of motor skills in children in this study appears to have resulted in a feeling of competency as well as daily activities and academic situations. More success, less failure, and finally more positive evaluations led to a decrease in aggression, anxiety and other behavioral problems in general among the children in this study.