Intelligence and negation biases on the Conditional Inference Task: a dual-processes analysis

We examined a large set of conditional inference data compiled from several previous studies and asked three questions: How is normative performance related to intelligence? Does negative conclusion bias stem from Type 1 or Type 2 processing? Does implicit negation bias stem from Type 1 or Type 2 processing? Our analysis demonstrated that rejecting denial of the antecedent and affirmation of the consequent inferences was positively correlated with intelligence, while endorsing modus tollens inferences was not; that the occurrence of negative conclusion bias was related to the extent of Type 2 processing; and that the occurrence of implicit negation bias was not related to the extent of Type 2 processing. We conclude that negative conclusion bias is, at least in part, a product of Type 2 processing, while implicit negation bias is not

Investigating the role of attention in the identification of associativity shortcuts using a microgenetic measure of implicit shortcut use

Many mathematics problems can be solved in different ways or by using different strategies. Good knowledge of arithmetic principles is important for identifying and using strategies that are more sophisticated. For example, the problem ‘6 + 38 − 35’ can be solved through a shortcut strategy where the subtraction ‘38 − 35’ is performed before the addition ‘3 + 6 = 9’, a strategy which is derived from the arithmetic principle of associativity. However, both children and adults make infrequent use of this shortcut and the reasons for this are currently unknown. To uncover these reasons, new sensitive measures of strategy identification and use must first be developed, which was one goal of our research. We built a novel method to detect the time-point when individuals first identify an arithmetic strategy, based on a trial-by-trial response time data. Our second goal was to use this measure to investigate the contribution of one particular factor, attention, in the identification of the associativity shortcut. In two studies, we found that manipulating visual attention made no difference to the number of people who identified the shortcut, the trial number on which they first identified it, or their accuracy and response time for solving shortcut problems. We discuss the theoretical and methodological contribution of our findings, and argue that the origin of people’s difficulty with associativity shortcuts may lie beyond attention.</div

The effect of pain on task switching: pain reduces accuracy and increases reaction times across multiple switching paradigms

Pain disrupts attention, which may have negative consequences for daily life for people with acute or chronic pain. It has been suggested that switching between tasks may leave us particularly susceptible to pain-related attentional disruption, because we need to disengage our attention from one task before shifting it onto another. Switching tasks typically elicit lower accuracies and/or longer reaction times when participants switch to a new task compared to repeating the same task, and pain may exacerbate this effect. We present three studies to test this hypothesis. In Study 1, participants completed two versions of an alternating runs switching task under pain free and thermal pain induction conditions. Pain did not affect performance on either task. In Studies 2 and 3, we examined seven versions of the switching task using large general population samples, experiencing a variety of naturally-occurring pain conditions, recruited and tested on the internet. On all tasks, participants with pain had longer reaction times on both switch and repeat trials compared to participants without pain, but pain did not increase switch costs. In Studies 2 and 3, we also investigated the effects of type of pain, duration of pain, and analgesics on task performance. We conclude that pain has a small dampening effect on performance overall on switching tasks. This suggests that pain interrupts attention even when participants are engaged in a trial, not only when attention has been disengaged for shifting to a new task set

The development of reasoning skills during compulsory 16 to 18 mathematics education

The belief that studying mathematics improves reasoning skills, known as the Theory of Formal Discipline (TFD), has been held since the time of Plato. Research evidence supports this idea, at least in the context of students who had chosen to study post-compulsory mathematics. Here we examined the development of reasoning skills in 16- to 18-year-old Cypriot students, who are required to study mathematics until age 18. One hundred and eighty-eight students, studying high- or low-intensity mathematics, completed the abstract Conditional Inference Task and the contextual Belief Bias Syllogisms task at ages 16, 17 and 18. While the high-intensity group improved on the conditional inference task and showed a reduction in belief bias, the low-intensity group did not change on either measure. This is promising for the TFD, but suggests that a certain level of mathematical study may be necessary for students' general reasoning skills to develop

Non-verbal number acuity correlates with symbolic mathematics achievement: but only in children

The process by which adults develop competence in symbolic mathematics tasks is poorly understood. Nonhuman animals, human infants, and human adults all form nonverbal representations of the approximate numerosity of arrays of dots and are capable of using these representations to perform basic mathematical operations. Several researchers have speculated that individual differences in the acuity of such nonverbal number representations provide the basis for individual differences in symbolic mathematical competence. Specifically, prior research has found that 14-year-old children’s ability to rapidly compare the numerosities of two sets of colored dots is correlated with their mathematics achievements at ages 5–11. In the present study, we demonstrated that although when measured concurrently the same relationship holds in children, it does not hold in adults. We conclude that the association between nonverbal number acuity and mathematics achievement changes with age and that nonverbal number representations do not hold the key to explaining the wide variety of mathematical performance levels in adults

Achievement and behaviour in undergraduate mathematics: personality is a better predictor than gender

We investigated two factors that predict students' achievement and behaviour in undergraduate mathematics: gender and personality. We found that gender predicted students' achievement and behaviour when considered in isolation, but ceased to be predictive when personality profiles were taken into account. Furthermore, personality accounted for significantly more variance in undergraduates' achievement and behaviour than did gender, but the converse was not the case. We therefore argue that personality provides the more productive lens through which to understand the behaviour of undergraduate mathematics students. We relate this finding to recent research emphasising gender differences in mathematics education, and suggest that researchers wishing to promote equity in participation at and beyond the undergraduate level should consider shifting their focus to individual differences in personality

The disruptive effects of pain on n-back task performance in a large general population sample

Pain captures attention, displaces current concerns, and prioritizes escape and repair. This attentional capture can be measured by its effects on general cognition. Studies on induced pain, naturally occurring acute pain and chronic pain all demonstrate a detrimental effect on specific tasks of attention, especially those that involve working memory. However, studies to date have relied on relatively small samples, and/or one type of pain, thus restricting our ability to generalize to wider populations. We investigated the effect of pain on an n-back task in a large heterogeneous sample of 1318 adults. Participants were recruited from the general population and tested via the internet. Despite the heterogeneity of pain conditions, participant characteristics and testing environments, we found a performance decrement on the n-back task for those with pain, compared to those without: there were significantly more false alarms on non-target trials. Furthermore we also found an effect of pain intensity: performance was poorer in participants with higher intensity compared with lower intensity pain. We suggest that the effects of pain on attention found in the laboratory occur in more naturalistic settings. Pain is common in the general population and such interruption may have important, as yet uninvestigated, consequences for tasks of everyday cognition that involve working memory, such as concentration, reasoning, motor planning, and prospective memory

Commentary on Karsdorp et al.

Commentary on Karsdorp et al

Interventions for attentional disruption in pain: cognition-general, mechanism-specific, or exercise-based?

Interventions for attentional disruption in pain: cognition-general, mechanism-specific, or exercise-based

Conceptual knowledge of the associativity principle: a review of the literature and an agenda for future research

Individuals use diverse strategies to solve mathematical problems, which can reflect their knowledge of arithmetic principles and predict mathematical expertise. For example, ‘6 + 38 − 35’ can be solved via ‘38 − 35 = 3’ and then ‘3 + 6 = 9’, which is a shortcut-strategy derived from the associativity principle. The shortcut may be critical for understanding algebra, however approximately 50% of adults fail to use it. We review the research to consider why the associativity principle is challenging and highlight an important distinction between shortcut identification and execution. We also discuss how domain-specific skills and domain-general skills might play an important role in shortcut identification and execution, and provide an agenda for future research