To Think and Feel is to Learn: An Investigation of Brief Mindfulness Meditation Training on the Effects of Emotion Regulation and Learning Outcomes

This study investigates the theoretical links between academic stress, emotion regulation, and learning. Scholars conceptualize mindfulness as comprising two distinct features: focused attention on the present moment and nonjudgmental awareness. Research has found that mindfulness is associated with improved emotion regulation skills, cognitive, and academic performance (Bellinger, DeCaro, & Ralston, 2015; Brown, Ryan, & Creswell, 2007; Jha, Stanley, Kiyonaga, Wong, & Gelfand, 2010). Little past work has investigated the potential mechanisms underlying the cognitive benefits, especially related to learning. I tested the effects of a brief mindfulness training on rumination, stress appraisals, and learning outcomes following an academic stress induction in an experimental setting. Undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of three groups: mindfulness meditation (training on focused attention and nonjudgmental awareness); guided attention to music (training on focused attention but not on nonjudgmental awareness); or wakeful rest (no training on focused attention or on nonjudgmental awareness). To the degree that focused attention and nonjudgmental awareness are critical to learning under stress, I expected mindfulness training to have the strongest positive effects—followed by guided attention to music and, lastly, by wakeful rest—on rumination reduction, stress appraisals, and learning. After controlling for individual differences in mindfulness, emotional regulation, worry, math motivation, math anxiety, and prior knowledge, the results did not support these hypotheses. The present work will, thus, address a research agenda for the future that reconceptualizes stress appraisals, assessing individual differences and contextual factors and collecting data from target samples

The pattern and Loci of training-induced brain changes in healthy older adults are predicted by the nature of the intervention.

There is enormous interest in designing training methods for reducing cognitive decline in healthy older adults. Because it is impaired with aging, multitasking has often been targeted and has been shown to be malleable with appropriate training. Investigating the effects of cognitive training on functional brain activation might provide critical indication regarding the mechanisms that underlie those positive effects, as well as provide models for selecting appropriate training methods. The few studies that have looked at brain correlates of cognitive training indicate a variable pattern and location of brain changes - a result that might relate to differences in training formats. The goal of this study was to measure the neural substrates as a function of whether divided attentional training programs induced the use of alternative processes or whether it relied on repeated practice. Forty-eight older adults were randomly allocated to one of three training programs. In the SINGLE REPEATED training, participants practiced an alphanumeric equation and a visual detection task, each under focused attention. In the DIVIDED FIXED training, participants practiced combining verification and detection by divided attention, with equal attention allocated to both tasks. In the DIVIDED VARIABLE training, participants completed the task by divided attention, but were taught to vary the attentional priority allocated to each task. Brain activation was measured with fMRI pre- and post-training while completing each task individually and the two tasks combined. The three training programs resulted in markedly different brain changes. Practice on individual tasks in the SINGLE REPEATED training resulted in reduced brain activation whereas DIVIDED VARIABLE training resulted in a larger recruitment of the right superior and middle frontal gyrus, a region that has been involved in multitasking. The type of training is a critical factor in determining the pattern of brain activation

Effecten van een didactische interventie bij het leren in kleine groepen in de basisvorming.

This article reports on two intervention studies into the effects of a training in the use of social and/or cognitive strategies on the learning outcomes of students in secondary mathematics education. Special attention is given to differential effects for high- and low-achieving students. The studies were addressed to the following research question: What are the general and differential effects of training in the use of social and/or cognitive strategies on the results of learning in secondary mathematics? In the first study three instructional programs for co-operative learning were compared: (i) an experimental program with special instruction in the use of social strategies, (ii) an experimental program with special instruction in the use of cognitive strategies, and (iii) a control program without training in either cognitive or social strategies. The programs were identical with respect to mathematical content and general instructional settings (a combination of whole-class instruction, working in co-operative groups and individual work). The research was conducted in two schools for secondary education and in 21 classes, involving a total of 511 students. The design was a pretest-posttest control group design, using two experimental groups and one control group. The data were analysed from a multi-level perspective. The outcomes of the investigation clearly show the effects of the intervention. Teaching cognitive and social strategies has the expected, positive effects. In addition to this main effect, a compensatory effect for the low-achieving students was found. The low-achieving students in the experimental conditions outperformed their counterparts in the control group.In the experimental program of the second study students were trained in cognitive strategies and social strategies. To put it differently, the training involved mathematical problem solving and strategies for effective group work: social and cognitive strategies were integrated. As in the first study, students in the control group did not receive any strategy instruction. In general, the outcomes of the second study confirmed the positive results of the first study, however it turned out that low achieving students in the experimental program had about the same learning gains as their counterparts in the control program. The differences in outcomes concerning the low achieving students are discussed in detai

Cognitive remediation for depression vulnerability: Current challenges and new directions

It is increasingly acknowledged that cognitive impairment can play an important role in depression vulnerability. Therefore, cognitive remediation strategies, and cognitive control training (CCT) procedures have gained attention in recent years as possible interventions for depression. Recent studies suggest a small to medium effect on indicators of depression vulnerability. Despite initial evidence for the efficacy and effectiveness of CCT, several central questions remain. In this paper we consider the key challenges for the clinical implementation of CCT, including exploration of (1) potential working mechanisms and related to this, moderators of training effects, (2) necessary conditions under which CCT could be optimally administered, such as dose requirements and training schedules, and (3) how CCT could interact with or augment existing treatments of depression. Revisiting the CCT literature, we also reflect upon the possibilities to evolve toward a stratified medicine approach, in which individual differences could be taken into account and used to optimize prevention of depression

Cognitive training with casual video games: the effects of working memory and reasoning related games on the cognitive abilities of younger and older adults

Cognitive functioning can affect one’s performance at work, quality of life and the ability to live independently, hence there are theoretical and practical implications to understanding whether cognitive training is effective, and its effects across the adult lifespan and with individual differences. There is still mixed evidence to suggest that training on a set of tasks could improve or transfer to other tasks and affect cognitive abilities, in addition to methodological limitations that affect the interpretability of many training studies. In this study, we investigated whether 15 hours of training on casual video games can broadly improve cognition by measuring pre and post-training performance on tests of attention, episodic memory, perceptual speed, reasoning and working memory. Groups of younger (Baniqued et al., 2014) and older adults were trained with casual games that were correlated with working memory and reasoning abilities. Younger adults showed better overall performance and more gains for some games at the end of training compared to the older adults. While all participants improved on the trained games, the pattern of transfer was quite sparse and differed between the younger and older adults. The older adults, unlike the younger adults, did not show differential transfer, as a function of the experimental and an active control group, to a divided attention construct. The results provide evidence that while training gains were possible over the adult lifespan, the transfer to divided attention ability appears to be limited, within the limits of the present study (e.g. given training duration, and the constructs represented in the training games) to the younger adults

Probing and pushing potential genetics, development and training of cognitive functions

Capacities of cognitive functions increase considerably during childhood and adolescence. This development is of importance as poor development can predict lower performance on academic skills. Furthermore, severe impairment is related to symptoms of many neuropsychiatric disorders such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These observations have lead to a great interest within the research community to understand 1) underlying mechanisms that influence cognitive development, and 2) factors that can improve cognitive capacity. This thesis aims to increase understanding of these topics, focusing on two specific cognitive functions: working memory (WM) and non-verbal reasoning (NVR). Study I investigated the effects of polymorphisms within certain candidate genes on WM performance and also brain function and structure in a sample of typically developing children and adolescents. We found that a polymorphism within the SNAP25 gene was significantly associated with WM capacity, ADHD symptoms in males as well as activity and grey matter density within the posterior cingulate cortex. This brain activity in turn correlated with degree of ADHD symptoms. Brain activity significantly predicted ADHD symptoms two years later. Studies II and III investigated how reasoning ability and WM can be improved with training. Study II assessed a newly developed NVR training programme in combination with a previously studied WM training programme in a sample of typically developing 4-year-old children. Training NVR resulted in significant improvements in performance on a measure of fluid reasoning and training of WM significantly improved performance on WM measures. There was limited transfer between the two different functions. Study III assessed the same training programme in children with intellectual disability. In this group, there was a large variance in progress observed during training and we found that this variance was important for predicting improvements following training. Baseline capacities, gender, and co-morbidity with additional diagnoses predicted the degree to which the children with intellectual disability improved during training. The study findings highlight the importance of inter-individual differences for understanding the effects of cognitive training. Finally, Study IV showed that variations within a gene coding for dopamine transporters is associated with inter-individual differences in the degree of improvements observed after cognitive training. Together, these studies illustrate that the genetic variants we are born with influence the development of our brains and cognitive abilities, and that this development can be influenced by environment and experience such as cognitive training. Importantly, genes and environment interact, with our pre-determined genetic setup influencing our susceptibility to environmental influence

Strategy-adaptation memory training: predictors of older adults' training gains

AbstractOver the past decades, memory training interventions have been developed in an attempt to stabilize or enhance memory functioning in aging. Only recently has attention been paid to individual differences in training gains and consequently to predictors of such gains. The aim of the present study was to identify which specific cognitive mechanisms/processes or components of the intervention were responsible for the desired change and which individuals were more responsive to memory strategic training. Eighty-one older adults (aged 55 to 82) were involved in a four-session strategy-adaptation training based on a learner-oriented approach that has previously been found to be effective in improving memory performance in practiced and untrained tasks. Results showed that baseline performance in memory tasks predicted the gains in the practiced task. Baseline performance in memory tasks and other cognitive variables, such as working memory, processing speed, and verbal knowledge predicted transfer effects. Interestingly, we found that the magnitude of training gain on the associative memory practiced task predicted the gains in the transfer tasks, suggesting those who best implemented the targeted strategies during training realized greater transfer to other tasks. Our study shows that older adults with larger cognitive resources will benefit more from interventions focused on the generalization via active processes

Working Memory Capacity as a Predictor of Cognitive Training Efficacy in the Elderly Population

Aging is associated with a decline in a wide range of cognitive functions and working memory (WM) deterioration is considered a main factor contributing to this. Therefore, any attempt to counteract WM decline seems to have a potential benefit for older adults. However, determination of whether such methods like WM trainings are effective is a subject of a serious debate in the literature. Despite a substantial number of training studies and several meta-analyses, there is no agreement on the matter of their effectiveness. The other important and still not fully explored issue is the impact of the preexisting level of intellectual functioning on the training’s outcome. In our study we investigated the impact of WM training on variety of cognitive tasks performance among older adults and the impact of the initial WM capacity (WMC) on the training efficiency. 85 healthy older adults (55–81 years of age; 55 female, 30 males) received 5 weeks of training on adaptive dual N-back task (experimental group) or memory quiz (active controls). Cognitive performance was assessed before and after intervention with measures of WM, memory updating, inhibition, attention shifting, short-term memory (STM) and reasoning. We found post-intervention group independent improvements across all cognitive tests except for inhibition and STM. With multi-level analysis individual learning curves were modeled, which enabled examining of the intra-individual change in training and inter-individual differences in intra-individual changes. We observed a systematic and positive, but relatively small, learning trend with time. Moderator analyses with demographic characteristics as moderators showed no additional effects on learning curves. Only initial WMC level was a significant moderator of training effectiveness. Older adults with initially lower WMC improved less and reached lower levels of performance, compared to the group with higher WMC. Overall, our findings are in accordance with the research suggesting that post-training gains are within reach of older adults. Our data provide evidence supporting the presence of transfer after N-back training in older adults. More importantly, our findings suggest that it is more important to take into account an initial WMC level, rather than demographic characteristics when evaluating WM training in older adults

The neurocognitive fingerprint of simultaneous interpretation

The human brain is a dynamic organ which is molded throughout the lifespan by each individual\u2019s life experiences. Learning to juggle, speaking two languages, and playing the piano all number among experiences that leave an impression on the mind and brain. Little research, however, has examined one of the most demanding processes in human cognition, simultaneous interpretation (SI). In SI an individual must comprehend a stream of auditory material in one language and with a few seconds delay produce the same content in another language. This process, which is both a specialized form of bilingualism and a learned skill, similar to playing the piano, likely leaves its own distinct fingerprint on the mind and brain. The present work examines the neurocognition of professional and trainee simultaneous interpreters to better understand the process of simultaneous interpretation and the lasting impression it leaves. Bilingualism has been previously associated with advantages in cognitive control in both linguistic and non-linguistic domains. These benefits are posited to be due to bilinguals\u2019 extensive practice managing two languages. Simultaneous interpretation represents a process which requires a higher level of language management than most bilingual contexts. This increased experience may lead to quantitatively larger benefits in interpreters than in bilinguals. Additionally, interpreters may garner benefits which are unique to the interpreting experience, in particular the need to use two languages simultaneously. The first study addressed these possibilities in an examination of professional interpreters and matched multilinguals on three tasks of cognitive control. The two groups showed no differences on the color-word Stroop and Attention Network Test, tasks which have previously revealed an advantage for bilinguals. Results from a non-linguistic task-switching paradigm were mixed. Interpreters showed no additional advantage in switching costs, where bilingual benefits have previously been seen, but exhibited smaller mixing costs than the multilinguals. In comparison with previous literature, this benefit in mixing cost appears to be unique to simultaneous interpretation. Additionally, the interpreters had larger verbal and spatial memory spans than the multilinguals. The results suggest that professional interpreters do not have quantitatively larger bilingual benefits, but do possess benefits specific to experience with simultaneous interpretation As simultaneous interpretation is an acquired skill, these interpreter-specific advantages may have been gained through training in SI or represent innate differences that led individuals to the field. The second study examined students earning a Master in Conference Interpreting, and matched students in other disciplines, longitudinally to determine which cognitive abilities are innate and which are acquired through SI training. The results indicated improvements in verbal and spatial memory among the students of interpretation, but not among the students in other disciplines, suggesting that these abilities are acquired with training. An improvement in the mixing cost, however, was seen across the groups, leaving open the possibility of an influence of professional experience on this measure. Previous studies of skill acquisition have indicated that not only cognitive abilities, but also underlying brain structure is altered through the training period. To examine the effects of training in simultaneous interpretation on gray matter and white matter structure the above-mentioned groups additionally participated in neuroimaging sessions. Analysis of gray matter volume using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) revealed group differences in regions previously linked to spoken word learning, suggesting greater efficiency in these areas among students of interpretation. Additionally, changes in gray matter volume related to training in SI were evident in bilateral putamen and left superior temporal cortex, among other regions. Previous functional MRI studies of speech shadowing have found activation in these same regions, suggesting the changes may be related to the simultaneity of input and output during simultaneous interpretation. Moreover, analyses of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data revealed greater white matter integrity among the students of interpretation in tracts in the left hemisphere that underlie language. A subset of these tracts was further strengthened through training in SI. Finally, the mechanisms supporting the simultaneous use of two languages were considered, specifically addressing the possibility that interpreters apply less inhibition to the unused language. Students at various stages in their simultaneous interpretation training were tested on a three language switching paradigm. This paradigm affords a measure of inhibition of abandoned task sets through n-2 repetition costs. Though differences were found between the groups on n-2 repetition costs, these did not appear to be connected to SI training, but rather the predominant bilingual interactional context of the groups. Taken together these investigations begin to provide a picture of the effects that simultaneous interpretation has on cognitive abilities and brain structure. Specifically, interpreters appear to have a unique set of cognitive advantages that are related to the processes used during SI. Further, these advantages originate from a combination of innate and trained abilities

Comparison of Sleep Deprivation Effects in Student Athletes and Non-Athletes (Preliminary Results)

The effects of exercise and sleep in college athletes have been studied for the past 50yrs. (1). This study examined the effect of 24hrs sleep deprivation on reaction time (RT) and memory recall of words (MR) in student athletes and student non-athletes. Recent research has shown that collegiate athletes are at higher risk for lack of sleep and feelings of exhaustion than non-athletes (2). While 8-9hrs sleep per night is needed in young adults (21-30yrs old), the average sleep duration is only 6.7hrs/nt (3,4). Even a brief period of sleep deprivation can significantly affect cognitive performance, including attention-intensive performance such as omission errors, short term working memory, and learning capacity, as well as producing longer response times (4). Measurable impairment of cognitive responses occur with as little as 16hrs of sleep deprivation (4), and the level of impairment may increase to rival that of alcohol (5). Individual differences (genetic, learning) may also influence results, increasing variability (4,6). Normal sleep habits can have a significant detrimental effect on overall mood (4) and academic performance in college students, and this effect may be intensified in college athletes who must maintain demanding training and study schedules. Hypothesis: Sleep deprivation will produce different responses for RT and MR in college athletes compared with non-athletes