4 research outputs found
Systematic research is needed on the potential effects of lifelong technology experience on cognition: a mini-review and recommendations
Digital technology now occupies a fundamental space in human life. Increasingly sophisticated access to information and social interactions has enabled a sort of offloading of many aspects of cognition, and for many people, this technology use has been lifelong. While the global development of technologies advances exponentially as part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, researchers have not yet fully characterized the human effects of this technology-centric revolution at the same pace. In this mini-review, we consider three important higher-level cognitive functions: creativity, adaptability, and decision-making, and discuss their potential relationship to lifelong digital technology experience, which here includes both passive exposure and active use of electronic devices. We then articulate the gaps in related literature and knowledge, and outline general considerations, suggestions, and challenges for future research avenues. In general, we found that prior research has investigated uses of specific technology products on lower-level cognition (e.g., how does the use of online search engines affect memory?), but there is a lack of research assessing the overall effects of technology experience on cognitive functioning, particularly complex cognition
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Creation of Spatial Mental Models with Figural Stimuli:Validation of the Emoji-based Spatial Integration Task
The current study examined a new spatial integration (SI)task, based on figural rather than linguistic stimuli, tomeasure the construct of mental modeling ability.Previous tasks conflated linguistic ability with mentalmodeling ability by requiring sentence processing, whichmay have contributed to mixed findings with respect tothe relationship between mental model ability andworking memory capacity (WMC). The figural spatialintegration task produced the canonical continuity effect,such that discontinuous items had lower accuracy thancontinuous items. Furthermore, WMC and visuospatialability predicted SI task performance, and both werestronger predictors for the continuous condition. Theinteractions between predictors and task conditionssuggest reliance on heuristics and/or rehearsal duringperformance of the more difficult discontinuous items
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The Cognitive Underpinnings of Inductive Grammar Learning
The acquisition of the grammar of a second language requires
a variety of cognitive mechanisms, including inductive
reasoning. In the current study, we examine the cognitive
underpinnings of grammar learning with an explicit-inductive
(rule search) learning task, designed to capture more of the
complexity associated with grammar learning than purely
deductive tasks. Research in language aptitude has shown that
working memory capacity (WMC) is a key predictor of
grammar learning outcomes. Inductive reasoning and
grammatical sensitivity are other established aptitude factors.
The goal of the present study was to determine the degree to
which relevant variables predict learning on an explicit-
inductive grammar learning task. Our results indicate that both
WMC and inductive reasoning ability predict learning over
three days of grammar training
Emotions in Polish and Lithuanian Social Media
Teams of trained, native coders in Poland and Lithuania independently annotated 3,659 Polish and 1,946 Lithuanian Facebook posts (in-language and in-country) including all multimedia content but not the comments. These data were sampled from a larger dataset pulled from specific Polish and Lithuanian sociopolitical entities from 2015-2020. These annotations were on a 0 (none) to 100 (most frequent/intense) for each 23 emotions (and Positive and Negative Other) for each post. They were also rated for the personal reactions using the same emotion scheme for each post, but that data are not shared here. The annotators also coded each post for media type (e.g., text and what type vs. not, image vs. not), language, and primary and secondary topic, with topic coded using an adapted and expanded version of the Comparative Agenda’s Project’s scheme. These independent annotations went through a consensus process, and only the consensus numbers are deposited here. More detail about the sampling, consensus process, and other methodological details are available via emailing [email protected] for draft papers. This corpus also includes the number of Facebook shares and different Facebook reactions along with other useful information (e.g., name of account, link to post).We applied modern psychology theory of emotions and cross-cultural psychology methods to a range of issues surrounding emotions and social media. We developed an annotation guide for three languages and identified 365 Polish and 188 Lithuanian sociopolitical entities, and we developed a consensus annotated corpus for over 3,000 Polish and over 1,500 Lithuanian Facebook posts for emotional content, primary topic, post shares, and more. This corpus represents data we intend to have as sharable that was used in papers we hope to publish. More detail can be gained by reading the methodology description and by contacting the study PI, Susannah Paletz, at [email protected] of Naval Research / Minerva Research Initiative Grant number N00014-19-1-2506; Program Manager Dr. Rebecca Goolsb