Improvement of encoding and retrieval in normal and pathological aging with word–picture paradigm

[EN] Objectives: During the aging process, there is a progressive deficit in the encoding of new information and its retrieval. Different strategies are used in order to maintain, optimize or diminish these deficits in people with and without dementia. One of the classic techniques is paired-associate learning (PAL), which is based on improving the encoding of memories, but it has yet to be used to its full potential in people with dementia. In this study, our aim is to corroborate the importance of PAL tasks as instrumental tools for creating contextual cues, during both the encoding and retrieval phases of memory. Additionally, we aim to identify the most effective form of presenting the related items. Method: Pairs of stimuli were shown to healthy elderly people and to patients with moderate and mild Alzheimer’s disease. The encoding conditions were as follows: word/word, picture/picture, picture/word, and word/picture. Results: Associative cued recall of the second item in the pair shows that retrieval is higher for the Word/picture condition in the two groups of patients with dementia when compared to the other conditions, while word/word is the least effective in all cases. Conclusion: These results confirm that PAL is an effective tool for creating contextual cues during both the encoding and retrieval phases in people with dementia when the items are presented using the word/picture condItion. In this way, the encoding and retrieval deficit can be reduced in these people

Construcción de taxonomía de actividades metacognitivas para caracterizar el aprendizaje de la resolución problemas

This article documents the construction of a taxonomy of metacognitive activities that describes the metacognitive skills of university engineering students during problem-solving learning. The methodology used for the construction of the taxonomy was developed considering some requirements raised in the literature, the constant comparison method, and the execution of seven steps. The construction of the taxonomy was necessary given that the problem solving learning implies the participation of metacognitive skills and these are the set of activities that help the student to monitor and control their learning. Metacognitive skills must be evaluated to provide teachers with information to establish their instructing processes, considering the characteristics of the students. It is important to build a taxonomy of metacognitive activities to carry out an appropriate assessment of metacognitive skills that allows specifying the metacognitive behaviors of the students involved in the learning process. The constructed taxonomy contains detailed descriptions of metacognitive activities, facilitating that other investigations use this instrument. The document is written in such a way that it becomes a guide for future studies to have a reference on how to design a taxonomy of metacognitive activities.Este artículo documenta la construcción de la taxonomía de actividades metacognitivas que describe las habilidades metacognitivas de estudiantes universitarios de ingeniería durante el aprendizaje de la resolución de problemas. La metodología usada para la construcción de la taxonomía se desarrolló teniendo en cuenta algunos requisitos planteados en la literatura, el método de comparación constante y la realización de siete pasos. La construcción de la taxonomía fue necesaria dado que, el aprendizaje de la resolución de problemas implica la participación de las habilidades metacognitivas y estas son el conjunto de actividades que ayudan al estudiante a monitorear y controlar su aprendizaje. Las habilidades metacognitivas deben ser evaluadas con el fin de brindar a los docentes información para establecer sus procesos de enseñanza, considerando las características de los alumnos. Es importante construir una taxonomía de actividades metacognitivas para ejecutar una apropiada evaluación de las habilidades metacognitivas que permita especificar los comportamientos metacognitivos de los alumnos involucrados durante el aprendizaje. La taxonomía construida contiene descripciones detalladas de las actividades metacognitivas, lo que facilita que otras investigaciones la utilicen. El documento está redactado, de tal forma, que sea una guía para que futuros estudios posean un referente de cómo diseñar una taxonomía de actividades metacognitivas

Construcción de taxonomía de actividades metacognitivas para caracterizar el aprendizaje de la resolución problemas

This article documents the construction of a taxonomy of metacognitive activities that describes the metacognitive skills of university engineering students during problem-solving learning. The methodology used for the construction of the taxonomy was developed considering some requirements raised in the literature, the constant comparison method, and the execution of seven steps. The construction of the taxonomy was necessary given that the problem solving learning implies the participation of metacognitive skills and these are the set of activities that help the student to monitor and control their learning. Metacognitive skills must be evaluated to provide teachers with information to establish their instructing processes, considering the characteristics of the students. It is important to build a taxonomy of metacognitive activities to carry out an appropriate assessment of metacognitive skills that allows specifying the metacognitive behaviors of the students involved in the learning process. The constructed taxonomy contains detailed descriptions of metacognitive activities, facilitating that other investigations use this instrument. The document is written in such a way that it becomes a guide for future studies to have a reference on how to design a taxonomy of metacognitive activities.Este artículo documenta la construcción de la taxonomía de actividades metacognitivas que describe las habilidades metacognitivas de estudiantes universitarios de ingeniería durante el aprendizaje de la resolución de problemas. La metodología usada para la construcción de la taxonomía se desarrolló teniendo en cuenta algunos requisitos planteados en la literatura, el método de comparación constante y la realización de siete pasos. La construcción de la taxonomía fue necesaria dado que, el aprendizaje de la resolución de problemas implica la participación de las habilidades metacognitivas y estas son el conjunto de actividades que ayudan al estudiante a monitorear y controlar su aprendizaje. Las habilidades metacognitivas deben ser evaluadas con el fin de brindar a los docentes información para establecer sus procesos de enseñanza, considerando las características de los alumnos. Es importante construir una taxonomía de actividades metacognitivas para ejecutar una apropiada evaluación de las habilidades metacognitivas que permita especificar los comportamientos metacognitivos de los alumnos involucrados durante el aprendizaje. La taxonomía construida contiene descripciones detalladas de las actividades metacognitivas, lo que facilita que otras investigaciones la utilicen. El documento está redactado, de tal forma, que sea una guía para que futuros estudios posean un referente de cómo diseñar una taxonomía de actividades metacognitivas

Construcción de taxonomía de actividades metacognitivas para caracterizar el aprendizaje de la resolución problemas

This article documents the construction of a taxonomy of metacognitive activities that describes the metacognitive skills of university engineering students during problem-solving learning. The methodology used for the construction of the taxonomy was developed considering some requirements raised in the literature, the constant comparison method, and the execution of seven steps. The construction of the taxonomy was necessary given that the problem solving learning implies the participation of metacognitive skills and these are the set of activities that help the student to monitor and control their learning. Metacognitive skills must be evaluated to provide teachers with information to establish their instructing processes, considering the characteristics of the students. It is important to build a taxonomy of metacognitive activities to carry out an appropriate assessment of metacognitive skills that allows specifying the metacognitive behaviors of the students involved in the learning process. The constructed taxonomy contains detailed descriptions of metacognitive activities, facilitating that other investigations use this instrument. The document is written in such a way that it becomes a guide for future studies to have a reference on how to design a taxonomy of metacognitive activities.Este artículo documenta la construcción de la taxonomía de actividades metacognitivas que describe las habilidades metacognitivas de estudiantes universitarios de ingeniería durante el aprendizaje de la resolución de problemas. La metodología usada para la construcción de la taxonomía se desarrolló teniendo en cuenta algunos requisitos planteados en la literatura, el método de comparación constante y la realización de siete pasos. La construcción de la taxonomía fue necesaria dado que, el aprendizaje de la resolución de problemas implica la participación de las habilidades metacognitivas y estas son el conjunto de actividades que ayudan al estudiante a monitorear y controlar su aprendizaje. Las habilidades metacognitivas deben ser evaluadas con el fin de brindar a los docentes información para establecer sus procesos de enseñanza, considerando las características de los alumnos. Es importante construir una taxonomía de actividades metacognitivas para ejecutar una apropiada evaluación de las habilidades metacognitivas que permita especificar los comportamientos metacognitivos de los alumnos involucrados durante el aprendizaje. La taxonomía construida contiene descripciones detalladas de las actividades metacognitivas, lo que facilita que otras investigaciones la utilicen. El documento está redactado, de tal forma, que sea una guía para que futuros estudios posean un referente de cómo diseñar una taxonomía de actividades metacognitivas

Conceptual interaction between critical thinking and metacognition

El texto expone un esquema del pensamiento crítico (PC) y metacognición (MC); inicia esbozando conceptos de estos dos aspectos y la poca claridad que existe al desarrollarlos. El objetivo del documento es contribuir a clarificar la interacción conceptual del PC y la MC a través de una revisión bibliográfica de artículos científicos. Con este fin se estudió el marco para el desarrollo de habilidades metacognitivas (HM) y el modelo integrado del pensamiento crítico. Los autores concluyen que el PC es un proceso metacognitivo que facilita al individuo la interpretación de la información cognitiva y que el adecuado desarrollo del PC requiere de HMThe text presents a scheme of critical thinking (CT) and metacognition (MC). It starts by sketching concepts of these two aspects and the lack of clarity that exists when developing them. The purpose of this document is to contribute to clarify the conceptual interaction of CT and MC through a bibliographic review of scientific articles. To this end, the framework for the development of metacognitive skills (MS) and the integrated model of critical thinking were studied. The authors concluded that CT is a metacognitive process that facilitates the individual's interpretation of cognitive information and that the adequate development of CT requires M

Interacción conceptual entre el pensamiento crítico y metacognición

El texto expone un esquema del pensamiento crítico (PC) y metacognición (MC); inicia esbozando conceptos de estos dos aspectos y la poca claridad que existe al desarrollarlos. El objetivo del documento es contribuir a clarificar la interacción conceptual del PC y la MC a través de una revisión bibliográfica de artículos científicos. Con este fin se estudió el marco para el desarrollo de habilidades metacognitivas (HM) y el modelo integrado del pensamiento crítico. Los autores concluyen que el PC es un proceso metacognitivo que facilita al individuo la interpretación de la información cognitiva y que el adecuado desarrollo del PC requiere de H

Unveiling the Nature of Giant Ellipticals and their Stellar Halos with the VST

Observations of diffuse starlight in the outskirts of galaxies provide fundamental constraints on the cosmological context of galaxy assembly in the Lambda Cold Dark Matter model, which predicts that galaxies grow through a combination of in-situ star formation and accretion of stars from other galaxies. Accreted stars are expected to dominate in the outer parts of galaxies. Since dynamical timescales are longer in these regions, substructures related to accretion, such as streams and shells, can persist over many Gyr. In this work we use extremely deep g- and i-band images of six massive early- type galaxies (ETGs) from the VEGAS survey to constrain the properties of their accreted stellar components. The wide field of view of OmegaCAM on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) also allows us to investigate the properties of small stellar systems (such as globular clusters, ultra-compact dwarfs and satellite galaxies) in the halos of our galaxies. By fitting light profiles, and comparing the results to simulations of elliptical galaxy assembly, we have identified signatures of a transition between relaxed and unrelaxed accreted components and can constrain the balance between in-situ and accreted stars

VizieR Online Data Catalog: VEGAS: A VST Early-type GAlaxy Survey (Capaccioli+, 2015)

The VST Elliptical GAlaxies Survey (VEGAS) is a deep multiband (g,r,i) imaging survey of early-type galaxies in the southern hemisphere carried out with VST at the ESO Cerro Paranal Observatory (Chile). The large field of view (FOV) of the OmegaCAM mounted on VST (one square degree matched by pixels 0.21-arcsec wide), together with its high efficiency and spatial resolution (typically better than 1-arcsec; Kuijken, 2011Msngr.146....8K) allows us to map with a reasonable integration time the surface brightness of a galaxy out to isophotes encircling about 95% of the total light. Observations started in October 2011 (ESO Period 88), and since then, the survey has acquired exposures for about 20 bright galaxies (and for a wealth of companion objects in the field), for a totality of ~80h (up to Period 93). (1 data file). <P /

VizieR Online Data Catalog: VEGAS-SSS photometry of NGC3115 (Cantiello+, 2015)

We present g and i band photometry for ~47000 extended and point-like objects in the ~0.8 square degree area centred on NGC3115. For ~30000 object in the catalogue, structural parameters are also available. For each object equatorial coordinates, galactocentric distance from the photometric center of NGC3115, magnitudes in g and i bands (SDSS calibrated), colour, local extinction and sctructural parameters. (1 data file). <P /

La Técnica de los Loci: procesos rehabilitativos de los sujetos MCI mediante estrategias lingüísticas

Trabajo de Fin de Máster del Máster en Neurociencias, curso 2008-2009.[ES]La técnica de los Loci dentro de los procesos rehabilitativos aporta resultados significativos tanto en sujetos normales como en ancianos con problemas de memoria; en particular se ha mostrado útil en los problemas de memoria episódica; de dificultad en procesar de manera rápida las informaciones de problemas en la memoria de trabajo; en la fluidez del razonamiento;en la orientación espacial y en las habilidades verbales.[EN]The technique of Loci within the rehabilitative process provides significant results in both normal subjects and in elderly patients with memory problems, in particular has proved useful in episodic memory problems, difficulty in processing information quickly to problems working memory, in the flow of reasoning in spatial orientation and verbal skills