59,368 research outputs found
The relationship between Cognitive Reserve and Math Abilities
Cognitive Reserve is the capital of knowledge and experiences that an individual acquires over their life-span. Cognitive Reserve is strictly related to Brain Reserve, which is the ability of the brain to cope with damage. These two concepts could explain many phenomena such as the modality of onset in dementia or the different degree of impairment in cognitive abilities in aging. The aim of this study is to verify the effect of Cognitive Reserve, as measured by a questionnaire, on a variety of numerical abilities (number comprehension, reading and writing numbers, rules and principles, mental calculations and written calculations), in a group of healthy older people (aged 65-98 years). Sixty older individuals were interviewed with the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire (CRIq), and assessed with the Numerical Activities of Daily Living battery (NADL), which included formal tasks on math abilities, an informal test on math, one interview with the participant, and one interview with a relative on the perceived math abilities. We also took into account the years of education, as another proxy for Cognitive Reserve. In the multiple regression analyses on all formal tests, CRIq scores did not significantly predict math performance. Other variables, i.e., years of education and Mini-Mental State Examination score, accounted better for math performance on NADL. Only a subsection of CRIq, CRIq-Working-activity, was found to predict performance on a NADL subtest assessing informal use of math in daily life. These results show that education might better explain abstract math functions in late life than other aspects related to Cognitive Reserve, such as lifestyle or occupational attainment
Explaining individual differences in linguistic proficiency
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International Perspectives on Early Years Mathematics
In recent decades the development of mathematical proficiency has been recognised as a key issue for children and their education. The purpose of this paper is to identify key international perspectives that influence Australian mathematics education in the early years especially those that are in a similar state of technological development to Australia. There are four key trends deserving of discussion (1) development in the early years, (2) mathematical proficiency in the early years, (3) mathematics policy and curriculum designed for young children, and (4) the existing research evidence-base
Character and theory of mind: an integrative approach
Traditionally, theories of mindreading have focused on the representation of beliefs and desires. However, decades of social psychology and social neuroscience have shown that, in addition to reasoning about beliefs and desires, human beings also use representations of character traits to predict and interpret behavior. While a few recent accounts have attempted to accommodate these findings, they have not succeeded in explaining the relation between trait attribution and belief-desire reasoning. On my account, character-trait attribution is part of a hierarchical system for action prediction, and serves to inform hypotheses about agents’ beliefs and desires, which are in turn used to predict and interpret behavior
Tracing a Route and Finding a Shortcut: The Working Memory, Motivational, and Personality Factors Involved
Wayfinding (WF) is the ability to move around efficiently and find the way from a starting point to a destination. It is a component of spatial navigation, a coordinate and goal-directed movement of one\u2019s self through the environment. In the present study, the relationship between WF tasks (route tracing and shortcut finding) and individual factors were explored with the hypothesis that WF tasks would be predicted by different types of cognitive, affective, motivational variables, and personality factors. A group of 116 university students (88 F.) were conducted along a route in a virtual environment and then asked first to trace the same route again, and then to find a shortcut between the start and end points. Several instruments assessing visuospatial working memory, mental rotation ability, self-efficacy, spatial anxiety, positive attitude to exploring, and personality traits were administered. The results showed that a latent spatial ability factor (measured with the visuospatial working memory and mental rotations tests) \u2013 controlled for gender \u2013 predicted route-tracing performance, while self-report measures of anxiety, efficacy, and pleasure in exploring, and some personality traits were more likely to predict shortcut-finding performance. We concluded that both personality and cognitive abilities affect WF performance, but differently, depending on the requirements of the task
A critical assessment of how effective the criminal courts are when examining the child
The paper suggests that a different approach to the child should be undertaken in the legal system. Children should be viewed as a group who hold their own rights separately to those of the adult and should be acknowledged as underdeveloped in their logic, reasoning and conclusive thinking abilities. If those children were assessed on their own developed abilities, it is argued that the correct administration of justice should ensue
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Factors and processes in children's transitive deductions
Transitive tasks are important for understanding how children develop socio-cognitively. However, developmental research has been restricted largely to questions surrounding maturation. We asked 6-, 7- and 8-year-olds (N = 117) to solve a composite of five different transitive tasks. Tasks included conditions asking about item-C (associated with the marked relation) in addition to the usual case of asking only about item-A (associated with the unmarked relation). Here, children found resolving item-C much easier than resolving item-A, a finding running counter to long-standing assumptions about transitive reasoning. Considering gender perhaps for the first time, boys exhibited higher transitive scores than girls overall. Finally, analysing in the context of one recent and well-specified theory of spatial transitive reasoning, we generated the prediction that reporting the full series should be easier than deducing any one item from that series. This prediction was not upheld. We discuss amendments necessary to accommodate all our earlier findings
Two Kinds of Concept: Implicit and Explicit
In his refreshing and thought-provoking book, Edouard Machery (2009) argues that people possess different kinds of concept. This is probably true and important. Before I get to that, I will briefly disagree on two other points
Free will, neuroscience, and choice: towards a decisional capacity model for insanity defense evaluations
Il libero arbitrio è stato spesso considerato una tematica centrale nella dottrina della responsabilità criminale. Ciononostante,
il concetto stesso di libero arbitrio presenta intrinseche problematiche nella sua definizione teorica e applicazione pratica in un contesto clinico/
forense ed è intensamente dibattuto. Nello specifico, l’esistenza stessa del libero arbitrio è stata recentemente posta in discussione anche
sulla base di alcune evidenze sperimentali neuroscientifiche. Questo dibattito ha implicazioni significative in quei campi in cui l’associazione
tra libertà di scelta è comportamento costituisce il focus di interesse, quali la psichiatria forense. Esiste inoltre una sorta di conflittualità
tra la centralità e concezione teorica del libero arbitrio (free will) e il suo status e applicazione pratica. Questo problema ha bisogno di
essere affrontato, specialmente all’interno della psichiatria forense, dal momento che risulta rilevante per l’effettiva valutazione dell’infermità
di mente. Nel presente articolo cercheremo di rendere operativo il concetto del “libero arbitrio” utilizzando il modello a quattro dimensioni
utilizzato per la capacità decisionale, che può essere impiegato nella valutazione forense dell’infermità di mente. Descriveremo i
suoi vantaggi e applicazioni per guidare la valutazione dell’infermità di mente. Mentre il libero arbitrio è spesso considerato problematico
dal punto di vista delle neuroscienze, questo modello, a nostro avviso, è compatibile con le neuroscienze; inoltre, le valutazioni che utilizzino
questo modello possono anche essere arricchite e rafforzate dalle scoperte neuro scientifiche, per esempio riguardo il controllo inibitorioFree will has often been considered central to criminal responsibility. Yet, the concept of free will is also difficult to define and
operationalize, and, moreover, it is intensely debated. In particular, the very existence of free will has been denied based on recent neuroscience
findings. This debate has significant implications on those fields in which the link between free will and behaviour is the main focus
of interest, such as forensic psychiatry. In fact, a tension is often experienced between the centrality of the notion of free will on the one hand,
and its controversial status on the other. This tension needs to be addressed, especially in forensic psychiatry, since it is relevant for actual assessments
of legal insanity. In the present paper we will try to operationalize “free will” using a fourpartite decision-making capacity model,
which can be used in forensic assessment of insanity. We will describe its advantages and application to guide mental insanity assessments.
Whereas free will is often considered problematic from a neuroscience perspective, this model, we argue, is compatible with neuroscience;
moreover, evaluations using this model can also be informed and strengthened by neuroscientific findings, for example regarding inhibitory
control
Attention and empirical studies of grammar
How is the generation of a grammatical sentence implemented by the human brain? A starting place for such an inquiry lies in linguistic theory. Unfortunately, linguistic theories illuminate only abstract knowledge representations and do not indicate how these representations interact with cognitive architecture to produce discourse. We examine tightly constrained empirical methods to study how grammar interacts with one part of the cognitive architecture, namely attention. Finally, we show that understanding attention as a neural network can link grammatical choice to underlying brain systems. Overall, our commentary supports a multilevel empirical approach that clarifies and expands the connections between cognitive science and linguistics thus advancing the interdisciplinary agenda outlined by Jackendoff
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