فصلنامه تازه های علوم شناختی
سال هفدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 65، بهار 1394)

Cognitive dysfunctions are commonly seen in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The aim of this study was to compare the selective attention and information processing speed in MS patients versus non-patients considering their level of depression، anxiety and stress. This causal-comparative investigation recruited 108 participants (54 relapsing- remitting MS patients and 54 non-patients). DASS-2 questionnaire and computerized Stroop test were administered to all enrolled subjects. Results revealed a significant difference for selective attention and information processing-speed between the two groups. There were differences in cognitive function when considering the level of depression، anxiety and stress. Meanwhile، we observed no difference between male and female subjects. MS may potentially result in impaired selective attention and information processing-speed. Besides، depression، anxiety and stress can intensify such cognitive impairments.

Urban visual environment plays a significant part in the citizens’ lives and the impact of its quality on individual’s environmental experiences have been well attended to when designing urban environment from scratch. Meanwhile، the most important aspect in this context is to recognize and assess the main criteria of citizens’ preferences in urban spaces. Like other inter-individual differences in preferences (including the living environment، age، socio-economic status، ethnicity and income level)، gender has an impact on environmental perception and preference. This research examined the visual preference of female citizens for urban public spaces. Through a simple random sampling method، 250 respondents were recruited by which the most and the least visual preferred places in Tehran were determined. Respondents rated the environmental attributes of two sample spaces including Vali-Asr avenue and Enqelab square according to the predictor variables derived from literature review. The obtained data on rating (5-point Likert scale) were analyzed using the correlation and regression statistical techniques. Our findings revealed that attributes such as naturalness، typicality and mystery have the most mean-difference between the two selected spaces. Regression analyses showed that association، naturalness، upkeep، legibility، historical significance and coherence should be considered in planning and designing of Vali-Asr avenue to promote its preference. On the other hand، attributes such as mystery، association، typicality and legibility were considered as priorities for promoting women’s visual preferences for Enqelab square.

Pre-attentional bias happens when several stimuli compete to grasp attention in fraction of a second, and without a conscious experience one stimulus attracts the attention. The existing literature has emphasized on the importance of pre-attentional bias as a potential cue-related factor in the process of drug addiction when abuse and relapse take place. This investigation was an attempt to propose attentional bias modification as a tool to decrease pre-attentional bias and to generalize it to a new stimulus and task (stroop test) paradigm among cigarette smokers. Two groups of cigarette smokers (control and attentional bias modification) were enrolled to have their attentional bias (600 ms) as well as pre-attentional bias (200 ms) measured in response to the stimuli such as words and pictures using dot-probe and Stroop tasks. Between pre-test and post-test, the control group received a neutral training, while the attentional bias modification group subjected an attentional bias modification training. Findings indicated a significant difference between the two groups on post-test in terms of both attentional and pre-attentional bias when Stroop task was used upon attentional bias to novel cues in post-test and follow up. This study demonstrated the efficient generalization of attentional bias modification training in decreasing pre-attentional bias in a new stimulus and task paradigm. It seems the attentional bias modification training can potentially be generalized into the real life context.

Temporal experience is an absolutely abstract and internal perception. Unlike space experience، it cannot be perceived by any of our sensory modalities، while it is a real and common experience. This study proposes a new perspective on conceptualization of tenses in Persian language through cognitive linguistics perspectives and based on an idealized cognitive model. To this end، first we turned to a thorough consideration of the concept of time from philosophical and typological points of view. Then، the idealized cognitive model of time was introduced and thoroughly investigated. According to the Langacker’s theory on the new division of verb phrases، we came to the conclusion that Persian verb phrases are also divided into grounding predication and clausal head and these are the grounding predications that bear the notion of tense in Persian language clauses. The morphemes which stand for grounding predications in past، present and future tenses were determined and located in our idealized cognitive model. The grounding predications were found to be in complete alignment with the component parts of the idealized cognitive model.

Place attachment is one of the most important and effective meanings in human-environment communication which has attracted many designers. Place attachment has been studied as a multi-dimensional concept with its personal، psychological processes and spatial dimensions. Many studies on place attachment are conducted by the experts in various fields of designing، psychology، environmental psychology، sociology and communication which have investigated the environmental and humanistic dimensions of this concept. The aim of this study is to investigate place attachment process in urban studies through a cognitive psychology approach. This logical reasoning study used the content analysis in two fields of cognitive psychology and place attachment. The place attachment process possesses emotional، behavioral and cognitive elements. The cognitive process in cognitive psychology includes three stages of receiving، storage and retrieval of environmental information. The components of attention، conceptualization، mental imagery، cognitive map and association are introduced in this process. According to research core logic، research methods of cognitive psychology are based on interpretation، prediction and causal attribution. Results indicated that cognitive psychology as a scientific approach can be effective in the field of epistemology by defining the cognitive process in theoretical framework of place attachment and it can also be effective in the field of methodology by offering the research methods in the study of place attachment. The above approaches would potentially provide more comprehensive and deep views about the concept of place attachment.

Information about neurocognitive processing in borderline and schizotypal personality disorder patients (BPD and SPD) may contribute to conceptualization of congentive style pattens as well as the behavioral sequelae in these patients. Taking traits of BPD and SPD into consideration، these patients show a set of impairments in their neuropsychological function. Neurocognitive profile of episodic and semantic memory were compared in normal subject and disordered group to examine this hypothesis. Neurocognitive performance of 20 BPD and 16 SPD patients as well as 20 healthy subjects were assessed. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis demonstrated a significant difference in neuropsychology assessment scores associated with semantic memory domains in BPD and SPD patients as compared to the normal group. Our findings suggested a deficit memory domain of BPD and SPD patients. This study showed that although patients with BPD and SPD show defects in semantic memory performance، their intact function in other types of memory may enable us to consider them having comparable neuropsychology profiles.

Reassessing the effects of concreteness through comprehension of single words is the main purpose in the current study. Toward this objective، word comprehension tests، and comprehension of nouns from concrete and abstract concept perspectives were examined. 58 right-handed monolingual 6-year old female school students were randomly selected to enroll in two parallel language comprehension tests (picture-word/definition-word matching). Subjects were asked to select an item out of three for 24 (12 concrete and 12 abstract) target nouns. According to the results، participants performed more effectively on the concrete compared to abstract nouns. They obtained more correct responses on picture-word (PW) format of the tasks. The Pearson correlation between concrete PW/Def. W matching (r= 0. 444، p < 0. 01) was statistically significant while the correlation between abstract PW/Def. W matching (r = 0. 134، p < 0. 01) was not statistically significant showing 2. 04 higher mean for PW matching version of the test compared to Def. W matching test. This study has corroborated the effects of concreteness on semantic comprehension consistent with the cognitive growth. Although visual processing yielded a positive effect on comprehension of concrete and abstract nouns while abstract nouns are generally more difficult to grasp.