Search results for "PsyArXiv|Social and Behavioral Sciences|Cognitive Psychology"
showing 10 items of 2454 documents
Can Word Puzzles be Tailored to Improve Different Dimensions of Verbal Fluency? A Report of an Intervention Study
2016
Verbal fluency is commonly used as a proxy measure of executive functioning, as it involves cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control. Previous research has demonstrated that crosswords can be a useful means of improving verbal fluency, results consistent with the cognitive reserve hypothesis; the form of verbal fluency affected has, however, differed across studies. The present study sought to assess the extent to which it was possible to target phonemic (PVF) and semantic verbal fluency (SVF) separately through word puzzles designed to focus on semantic/thematic and structural clues respectively. Fifty-three university students were randomly assigned to one of three gr…
An integrated model of condom use in Sub-Saharan African youth: A meta-analysis.
2017
Objective: We tested an integrated social–cognitive model derived from multiple theories of the determinants of young people's condom use in Sub-Saharan Africa. The model comprised seven social–cognitive antecedents of condom use: Attitudes, norms, control, risk perceptions, barriers, intentions, and previous condom use. Method: We conducted a systematic search of studies including effects between at least one model construct and intended or actual condom use in young people from sub-Saharan African countries. Fifty-five studies comprising 72 independent data sets were included and subjected to random-effects meta-analysis. Demographic and methodological variables were coded as moderators. …
Ability for Voice Recognition Is a Marker for Dyslexia in Children
2014
A recent voice recognition experiment conducted by Perrachione, Del Tufo, and Gabrieli (2011) revealed that, in normal adult readers, the accuracy at identifying human voices was better in the participants’ mother tongue than in an unfamiliar language, while this difference was absent in a group of adults with dyslexia. This pattern favored a view of dyslexia as due to “fundamentally impoverished native-language phonological representations.” To further examine this issue, we conducted two voice recognition experiments, one with children with/without dyslexia, and the other with adults with/without dyslexia. Results revealed that children/adults with dyslexia were less accurate at identify…
A Slippery Slope: Estimated Slant of Hills Increases with Distance
2014
The slopes of hills tend to be greatly overestimated. Previous studies have found that slope estimates are significantly greater when estimated verbally than with a proprioceptive measure. It has yet to be determined whether these estimates are made for the entire extent of the slope, or whether the estimates in closest proximity are estimated using a different process. Since some parietal cortex neurons respond differently to objects within arm's reach, short-distance slope estimation may utilize these or analogous neurons. Alternatively, greater implied effort might make longer slopes seem steeper. We determined that both verbal and proprioceptive reports of slope are overestimates that …
Adaptive modes of rumination: the role of subjective anger.
2015
Rumination has been demonstrated to have negative consequences on affect, behaviour, and physiological markers. Recent studies, however, suggest that distinct "modes" of anger-associated rumination may lead to several positive consequences. Previous research primarily used recall procedures of anger episodes to elicit anger. By contrast, the present study focused on the effect of subjective anger on the process of rumination and tested its effects in a "staged" social interaction where a confederate provoked participants. Subsequently, participants engaged in rumination about the anger-eliciting event either in an abstract-distanced or a concrete-immersed rumination mode. Results showed an …
Effects of symmetry, texture, and monocular viewing on geographical slant estimation.
2018
Hills often appear to be steeper than they are. The unusual magnitude of this error has prompted extensive experimentation. The judgment mode, such as verbal vs. action-based measures, the state of the observer - whether exhausted or well rested - all can influence perceived geographical slant. We hold that slant perception is inherently shaky as soon as the slope in question is no longer palpable, that is if it is outside our personal space. To make this point, we have added symmetry, texture, and depression to the list of factors that might modulate slant perception. When the frontal slope of a hill is to be judged, it appears steeper when the side slopes are steep. We have used model hil…
The moderating effects of vigilance on other components of attentional functioning.
2018
Abstract Background Previous research suggested that vigilance may moderate the functioning of other attentional components. However, vigilance is usually neglected when comparing the attentional functioning between groups of clinical and/or healthy participants. New method We combined data from several studies using the Attention Network Test for Interactions and Vigilance (ANTI-V), which includes a vigilance measure plus phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control scores. We estimated, for the first time, the reliability of the vigilance performance indices in the ANTI-V, by analyzing split-half correlations of 10,000 permutations of the trials. In addition, we tested whether a dif…
Selecting one of two regular sound sequences : Perceptual and motor effects of tempo
2008
This study assessed the influence of tempo on selecting a sound sequence. In Exp. 1, synchronization with one of the two regular subsequences in a complex sequence was measured. 30 participants indicated a preference for the fastest subsequence when subsequences were in a slow tempo range (≥ 500 msec. IOI), and with the slower subsequence when they were in the fast tempo range (≤ 300 msec. IOI). These results were replicated using a perceptual task (Exp. 2 and 3) in which the 30 listeners had to detect a temporal irregularity in one of the two subsequences. Detection was better when the temporal irregularity was in the fastest subsequence than in the slowest one when the complex sequence w…
Executive and arousal vigilance decrement in the context of the attentional networks: The ANTI-Vea task
2018
Vigilance is generally understood as the ability to detect infrequent critical events through long time periods. In tasks like the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), participants tend to detect fewer events across time, a phenomenon known as vigilance decrement. However, vigilance might also involve sustaining a tonic arousal level. In the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT), the vigilance decrement corresponds to an increment across time in both mean and variability of reaction time. New Method: The present study aimed to develop a single task Attentional Networks Test for Interactions and Vigilance executive and arousal components (ANTI-Vea) to simultaneously assess both components…
Generalization gradients for fear and disgust in human associative learning
2021
AbstractPrevious research indicates that excessive fear is a critical feature in anxiety disorders; however, recent studies suggest that disgust may also contribute to the etiology and maintenance of some anxiety disorders. It remains unclear if differences exist between these two threat-related emotions in conditioning and generalization. Evaluating different patterns of fear and disgust learning would facilitate a deeper understanding of how anxiety disorders develop. In this study, 32 college students completed threat conditioning tasks, including conditioned stimuli paired with frightening or disgusting images. Fear and disgust were divided into two randomly ordered blocks to examine di…