Evidence for a functional specialization of ventral anterior temporal lobe for language.

The controlled semantic cognition framework proposes that the ventral anterior temporal lobes (vATL) in the left and right hemisphere function as an integrated hub region supporting transmodal semantic representations. The clinical evidence for the transmodal function of vATL is largely based on studies of semantic dementia patients with severe anomia, who also show impaired performance on nonverbal tasks that involve the retrieval of knowledge about objects and their prototypical use, such as the production of tool use pantomimes. Yet, evidence from patients with apraxia and functional neuroimaging studies in healthy adults does not implicate vATL in pantomime production. We, therefore, compared semantic retrieval of object-action associations for overt verb and pantomime production from picture and word stimuli. Our results show that, independent of stimulus modality, the retrieval of object-action associations for verb, but not pantomime, production is related to activity in bilateral vATL. Bilateral vATL activation was also observed for meaningless verbal responses that did not require the retrieval of object-action associations. Taken together, our results suggest that bilateral vATL is not engaged in the retrieval of object-action associations per se, but rather supports semantic representations that are functionally specialized for language. These findings have implications for the semantic cognition framework and our understanding of the dependence of conceptual knowledge on language

Thinking Beyond COVID-19: How has the pandemic impacted future time horizons?

Data and analyses supporting Fynes-Clinton & Addis (2023) Full article available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10271815/ http://hdl.handle.net/1807/12770

The method of educational assessment affects children\u27s neural processing and performance: behavioural and fMRI Evidence

Standardised educational assessments are now widespread, yet their development has given comparatively more consideration to what to assess than how to optimally assess students\u27 competencies. Existing evidence from behavioural studies with children and neuroscience studies with adults suggest that the method of assessment may affect neural processing and performance, but current evidence remains limited. To investigate the impact of assessment methods on neural processing and performance in young children, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify and quantify the neural correlates during performance across a range of current approaches to standardised spelling assessment. Results indicated that children\u27s test performance declined as the cognitive load of assessment method increased. Activation of neural nodes associated with working memory further suggests that this performance decline may be a consequence of a higher cognitive load, rather than the complexity of the content. These findings provide insights into principles of assessment (re)design, to ensure assessment results are an accurate reflection of students\u27 true levels of competency

On quantifying schematicity of future narratives

Schemas are mental representations of common structures of our experience, and they are centrally important to human thinking and memory. Recently, it has been proposed that schemas also play an important role in structuring our imagination of the future. However, tools for automatically measuring the schematic content of written and spoken event narratives are underdeveloped. Here, we report a preliminary investigation into a set of metrics that may differentiate between more and less schematic narratives. Across two experiments, we find that written and spoken narratives that are schema-congruent are more associative, in that they contain words that are more strongly psychologically associated with one another. We discuss how this finding might contribute to the development of tools to automatically measure schematicity in future narratives

Are patterns of discounting choices stable over time?

Few studies have examined the stability of discounting responses over time. We examined delay and probabilistic discounting of losses at two time points, 13-16 months apart. We found that people do change over time in the frequency with which they select immediate and certain losses. These changes in discounting steepness for delayed and probabilistic losses were predicted by different profiles of state-dependent factors (i.e., local numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths, anxiety, and depression). We also identified subgroups of individuals with different loss response patterns, and although the tendency to switch between subgroups over time was below chance, it was not negligible, particularly for delay discounting. Further, subgroup changes for delay, but not probabilistic, discounting were influenced by age as well as instability of income and intolerance of uncertainty. Together, these findings indicate the importance of considering temporal stability and the role of state-dependent factors in discounting research

In their words: listening to teachers' perceptions about stress in the workplace and how to address it

Teacher stress remains a consistently reported issue nationally and internationally in both the mainstream media and academic fora. Understanding the source/s of stress, however, remains complex given the interplay of external and internal factors that have the potential to shape teachers' stress and resilience responses. This exploratory qualitative study sought to understand 74 teachers' perceptions of the main contributors to stress in the workplace, and to investigate their beliefs about strategies to help ameliorate these stressors. Applied Thematic Analysis revealed a range of systemic, organisational, relational, and intrapersonal stressors as the driving forces behind the experiences of teacher stress in the workplace. In light of these findings, teacher's beliefs around how to best alleviate these stressors are discussed. Conclusions highlight the need for better systems and support in building and sustaining teacher resilience to help protect against teacher burnout

Short-sighted decision-making by those not vaccinated against COVID-19

Abstract Widespread vaccination is necessary to minimize or halt the effects of many infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Stagnating vaccine uptake can prolong pandemics, raising the question of how we might predict, prevent, and correct vaccine hesitancy and unwillingness. In a multinational sample (N = 4,452) recruited from 13 countries that varied in pandemic severity and vaccine uptake (July 2021), we examined whether short-sighted decision-making as exemplified by steep delay discounting—choosing smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards—predicts COVID-19 vaccination status. Delay discounting was steeper in unvaccinated individuals and predicted vaccination status over and above demographics or mental health. The results suggest that delay discounting, a personal characteristic known to be modifiable through cognitive interventions, is a contributing cause of differences in vaccine compliance

Short-sighted decision-making by those not vaccinated against COVID-19

Widespread vaccination is necessary to minimize or halt the effects of many infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Stagnating vaccine uptake can prolong pandemics, raising the question of how we might predict, prevent, and correct vaccine hesitancy and unwillingness. In a multinational sample (N=4,452) recruited from 13 countries that varied in pandemic severity and vaccine uptake (July 2021), we examined whether short-sighted decision-making as exemplified by steep delay discounting—choosing smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards—predicts COVID-19 vaccination status. Delay discounting was steeper in unvaccinated individuals and predicted vaccination status over and above demographics or mental health. The results suggest that delay discounting, a personal characteristic known to be modifiable through cognitive interventions, is a contributing cause of differences in vaccine compliance