Search results for "thinking"
showing 10 items of 437 documents
The effects of wage flexibility on activity and employment in Spain
2018
Abstract In this paper we estimate the macroeconomic effects of the greater wage and firms’ internal flexibility promoted by the economic policies implemented since 2012, which changed markedly Spanish labour regulations. To do so, we propose a structural VAR that allows us to break down changes in main macroeconomic variables into different structural shocks. From a policy perspective, the estimation of the structural shocks allows us to simulate a counterfactual scenario, whereby we conclude that the effects of less rigid labour market are positive and significant. Our results suggest that, if these policies were implemented at the beginning of the crisis, they could have avoided a signif…
Episodic future thinking together with observational learning benefits prospective memory in high-functioning Korsakoff's syndrome patients
2020
Contains fulltext : 219555.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Objective: Patients with Korsakoff's syndrome (KS) have difficulty carrying out tasks which rely on prospective memory (PM). Since remembering to carry out an action in the future is crucial for living independently, it is of primary interest to develop strategies that improve PM performance in KS patients. Design: The study employed a computer categorization task as an ongoing activity into which a PM task was embedded. We included episodic future thinking (EFT) and observational learning (Experiment 2) to boost PM. Methods: Experiment 1 evaluated the efficacy of EFT following written PM task instructions in ten KS patient…
Reading comprehension: think and know verbs.
2004
Verbs such as think, know, remember, and guess play a pivotal role in understanding, monitoring, and transformation of internal states. We focus on the specific words as think and know, polysemous cognitive verbs that show hierarchical organization and high frequency of use in children's and adults' lexicons. According to Booth and Hall's model, think and know present a conceptual organization that involves low conceptual levels (perception, memory, comprehension) and high conceptual levels (evaluation, metacognition, planning). The aim of this research was to study the relationship between children's comprehension of text processing and the conceptual levels of the above-described verbs. …
Wellbeing, resilience, and coping: Are there differences between healthy older adults, adults with mild cognitive impairment, and adults with Alzheim…
2018
The changes that occur with cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease could affect psychological aspects unrelated to memory. The purpose of this study is to compare 32 healthy older adults, 31 amnestic mild cognitively impaired (aMCI) adults, and 32 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD), in order to determine whether there are differences in their psychological wellbeing, resilience, and coping strategies. Unifactorial MANOVAS and ANOVAS were performed to analyze the between-group differences. The results reveal that the AD group showed lower levels of resilience and orientation toward problem-solving and greater use of religious strategies. In addition, they had significantl…
Idle minds are the devil's tools? Coping, depressed mood and divergent thinking in older adults.
2017
The main aim was to test a causal relations model of the problem-focused and emotion-focused coping styles, depressed mood, and divergent thinking (DT) in older adults. It was hypothesized that both forms of coping would have a significant effect on predicting depressed mood, and that problem-focused coping and depressed mood would have a significant effect on DT.Participants were 135 subjects with ages ranging between 55 and 84 years old, who took part in a personal interview and filled out several questionnaires. The statistical analysis included structural equations models (SEM).The initial model led to a final model endorsed by the goodness of fit, composite reliability, and discriminan…
Positive Beliefs about Rumination Are Associated with Ruminative Thinking and Affect in Daily Life: Evidence for a Metacognitive View on Depression
2013
Background: Self-regulatory executive function theory (Wells and Matthews, 1994; Wells, 2008) stresses the role of metacognitions in the development of emotional disorders. Within this metacognitive model, positive beliefs about ruminative thinking are thought to be a risk factor for engaging in rumination and subsequently for depression. However, most of the existing research relies on retrospective self-report trait measures. Aims: The aim of the present study was to examine the theory's predictions with an Ecological Momentary Assessment approach capturing rumination as it occurs in daily life. Method: Non-clinical participants (N = 93) were equipped with electronic diaries and completed…
Composing only by thought: Novel application of the P300 brain-computer interface.
2017
The P300 event-related potential is a well-known pattern in the electroencephalogram (EEG). This kind of brain signal is used for many different brain-computer interface (BCI) applications, e.g., spellers, environmental controllers, web browsers, or for painting. In recent times, BCI systems are mature enough to leave the laboratories to be used by the end-users, namely severely disabled people. Therefore, new challenges arise and the systems should be implemented and evaluated according to user-centered design (USD) guidelines. We developed and implemented a new system that utilizes the P300 pattern to compose music. Our Brain Composing system consists of three parts: the EEG acquisition d…
Stable same-sex friendships with higher achieving partners promote mathematical reasoning in lower achieving primary school children
2015
This study is designed to investigate friend influence over mathematical reasoning in a sample of 374 children in 187 same-sex friend dyads (184 girls in 92 friendships; 190 boys in 95 friendships). Participants completed surveys that measured mathematical reasoning in the 3rd grade (approximately 9 years old) and one year later in the 4th grade (approximately 10 years old). Analyses designed for dyadic data (i.e., longitudinal Actor-Partner Interdependence Models) indicated that higher achieving friends influenced the mathematical reasoning of lower achieving friends, but not the reverse. Specifically, greater initial levels of mathematical reasoning among higher achieving partners in the …
Titchener's T with flanks.
2018
Abstract Flanks were added to Titchener's (1901) T-illusion figure to test its susceptibility to context stimuli. The addition of a second divided line yielded H-type figures, and the addition of a second undivided line, +-type figures. The lengths of the Ts' undivided lines was expected to be overestimated relative to the lengths of the divided lines, when all lines were about equally long, and the illusion was expected to become smaller when one or two gaps had been introduced between the lines. Results conformed to the predictions. The amount of illusion was larger for the no-gap H than the T, and was almost annihilated with the two-gaps H, with 3 out of 14 observers showing an inverse r…
Training strategic thinking: Experimental evidence
2014
Abstract Strategic behavior is crucial for strong firm performance, especially in competitive environments. Thus, designing a good strategy is a key issue for firms. Designing a strategy requires a combination of strategic thinking—which involves analyzing a firm's strategic environment, defining a vision of its future, and devising new ideas to out-think competitors – and strategic planning – which implies using these ideas to formulate a business plan. Although many firms excel at strategic planning, few devote enough resources to strategic thinking, which results in strategic insanity (i.e., firms repeatedly applying the same strategies with the expectation of different outcomes). To fos…