فصلنامه تازه های علوم شناختی
سال بیست و یکم شماره 3 (پیاپی 83، پاییز 1398)

The avoidance of inequality means that individuals like to ignore some of their capital not to receive less or more than their social partners. This variable is a key factor in establishing fairness. The present study aimed to investigate the neural correlates of inequality avoidance and the effect of group membership on this behavior among 6-year-old children

The population of this research included healthy 6-year-old children from Tehran in 2018-2019. Hence, 15 children (4 girls and 11 boys) residing in Tehran were selected. In the ultimatum game, the children were presented by (un)fair offers from either in-group or out-group members. Also, in order to record brain waves’ data 32-channel EEG8 device were used.

The results showed that the children accepted significantly equal offers than advantageous and disadvantageous inequal offers (P=0.001) and offers presented by their in-group members than out-group members (P=0.041). Besides, the FRN wavelength in response to unfair offers was more than fair offers; this effect was observed in connection with the offers presented by their in-group members. Morover, the P-300 amplitude in exposure to equal and advantagous inequal offers was more when they were opposed from their in-group members.

The results attained in this study are indicative of the fact that early emotional and cognitive late brain waves in response to perceived equality and inequality are identified by children.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of working memory, processing speed, and problem-solving in the cognitive distinction of students with a special learning disorder and learning problem.

In this causal-comparative study, the participants constituted 100 students with specific learning disorder and 100 students with learning problems who were matched based on age, gender, grade and IQ. The major evaluation tools in this study included The Learning Disability Evaluation Scale-Renormed Second Edition (LDES-R2), Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV (WISC-IV), Behavioral Rating Scale of Executive Functions (BRIEF) and Tower of London test. The data were analyzed using the multivariate analysis of variances (MANOVA).

specific learning disorder in working memory, processing speed and problem-solving were significantly weaker than students with learning difficulties (P<0.001). Thus, based on mentioned variables, it can be distinguished the group of students with specific learning disorder from the group of students with learning difficulties.

According to the results of this study, attention to the executive functions such as working memory, processing speed and problem solving in education as well as rehabilitation of students with a specific learning disorder and learning problem can lead to effective results.

The procrastination is a common failure in self-regulation. Students who consider themselves efficient, use cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies more and make more effort to do their assignments. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies on academic procrastination and self-efficacy of students.

The research method was semi-experimental and its design was pretest, post-test with control group and follow-up stage. The statistical population comprised all middle school students in the city of Khorramabad, in the academic year of 2015-2016, among whom 30 students having academic procrastination (score≥30) were selected through the step random sampling method. Then, with semi-experimental method, the students were divided into two groups: exprimental (15 students) and control (15 students). The students in exprimental group received the training of cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies for 90-min eight sessions (once a week). The data were obtained by using the Savari Academic Procrastination Questionnaire and Sherer and Maddox General Self-efficacy Scale and the multi-variable covariance analysis (MANCOVA) was applied to analyze the data.

The results showed that cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies training reduced significantly academic procrastination and increased self-efficacyy in the exprimental group towards the control group (P>0.001). Also, this effect continued until the follow-up phase.

Based on the research results, it can be said the training of the cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies has a beneficial effect on decreasing academic procrastination and increasing self-efficacy among female students.

Sequential learning is an inseparable part of language development. Children who have difficulty to perform sequential motor tasks are poorer in the language skills as well. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of sequential motor training on language development of children with the cochlear implant.

This study was quasi-experimental kind with pretest-posttest design, in which 22 children (9 girls and 13 boys) aged 4 to 8 years who were randomly selected and assigned into two groups of experimental and control. The experimental group underwent a twelve-week sequential motor training of taekwondo. Phonological awareness, reading and dyslexia tests (NEMA) were used to collect data on phonological awareness and reading performance, respectively. The data were analyzed using analysis of covariance.

The results showed that, after the twelve weeks of taekwondo training, the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in phonological awareness and reading performance.

According to the obtained results, there seems to be a strong relationship between language and motor systems, and sequential motor training, in the case of taekwondo training, which can be an effective exercise method to improve language skills of children with the cochlear implant

Visual impairment affects all aspect of individual's life and its family, as well as cognitive and neuropsychological skills; however, the use of sensory processing training has been associated with desirable outcomes. The present research aimed to investigate of the effectiveness of sensory processing training on some neuropsychology skills of attention, working memory and executive functions of students with visual impairment.

The present study was a single-subject study with the base line, intervention and follow up design. The participants included elementary students with visual impairment in Isfahan city, among whom 5 students who had problems in neuropsychological skills and with visual impairment were selected using convenient sampling method. In total, 10 sessions, three sessions per week of 45-minutes sensory processing training were administrated to sample group. The instrument used in the present research was Connors neuropsychological questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed using visual analysis.

The results showed that sensory processing training led to improve attention, working memory and executive functioning neuropsychology skills of students with visual impairment.

Consequently, with paying attention to the obtained results of the present research, recommend that along with the other educational and rehabilitation methods for children with visual impairment, applied sensory processing training can be taken into account.

Ginkgo is one of the essential plants for improving memory and preventing age-related or secondary amnesia. Although it has been appeared that Ginkgo alone does not seem to increase memory, it is important to reduce amnesia. Ritalin, On the other hand, is medicine used to treat attention deficit disorder, the abuse of which harms the brain and causes dependency. This study aimed to determine the effect of Ginkgo biloba extract on Ritalin-treated rats’ memory.

This experimental study was performed on 36 rats Wistar male rats, divided into 6 groups (n=6). The dosages used for Ritalin were 10mg/kg, and Ginkgo was 90mg/kg, and 40mg/kg. Prescriptions in gavage form administrated in 10 days. The shuttle box was used to measure the amount of avoidance learning. Data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and SPSS-23 software.

The results revealed that the shuttle box test in the Ginkgo group 90mg/kg outperformed than the control group. The Ginkgo consumer group at the dose of 90mg/kg and plus Ritalin had a significant difference with control (P<0.05).

The findings showed that Ginkgo intake of 90 mg/kg causes elevated levels of step-through latency (STL). Overall, the results of this study indicate a positive effect of Ginkgo dosages alone and with Ritalin on the avoidance learning of Ritalin-treated rats.

Asperger’s syndrome is generally known as a neurodevelopmental disorder. The main features of this syndrome are the lack of social interaction, non-verbal communication, unusual repetitive behavior, restricted interests, and may have an inherent talent such as mathematics, music, etc. Nonetheless, their brain structural and functional variations as compared to healthy individuals require to be well understood.

This study intends to identify differences of the task-free fMRI data in Asperger’s syndrome as compared to healthy individuals using the graph-theoretical approach. In this approach, graph local and global measures are calculated from the functional network, which estimated through taking the correlation between activities in different parts of the brain. Subsequently, the differential pattern of local and global measures in Asperger’s syndrome as compared to healthy control group is investigated. Two groups of the subjects are matched in terms of age, gender, handedness, and IQ scores.

Results revealed the significant differences in local measures at temporal, amygdala, thalamus, and heschl regions. Classification of the tf-fMRI data based on the identified measures shows an accuracy of 84% to discriminate Asperger's individuals from the healthy group.

Accordingly, local measures extracted from the graph of the task-free functional connectivity network have a good potential for screening of Asperger's syndrome that can be used as an automatically-diagnosed method of this disorder.

Investigating how individuals' decision-making is influenced by other cognitive elements and using computational modeling of decision can help us to better appreciate this cognitive function, as well as better decision-making quality.  Thepresent study aimed to present a new cognitive model in the field of decision-making and to examine the model’s efficacy in predicting the decisions of those participating in the Iowa decision test compared to other classical decision- making models.

In this study, 56 subjects, including 20 men and 36 womenwith an average age of 43.52, were asked to participate in the Iowa gambling task. The results of the model used were then compared with the results of the three well-known decision- making models, including expected value, expected utility, and prospect model.. The flexibility of this model by calculating the impact factor of each concept for each individual, allows us to model each person's decision-making individually and identify the concepts, which are most effective in each individual's decision-making.

The obtained results revealed that the expected value, expected utility, prospect, and the proposed cognitive connectionist models predicted 36.04%, 42.46%, 49.18%, and 73.02% of subjects’ decisions, respectively.

As a result, it can be argued that the proposed cognitive connectionist model has more potential for modeling examinee’s behavior in the Iowa test. It also provided a reasonable way to study the essential cognitive elements that can affect the participant’s decisions.

Cognitive readiness is one of the emerging issues in the field of cognitive science that has been raised in response to the complex condition, changing, and unpredictable at the United States Department of Defense for more than a decade. The present study aimed to investigate the cognitive readiness of university presidents due to the complexity of the university environment and the unpredictability of its events and developments.

To do the research, the meta-synthesis qualitative research method based on seven stages of Sandelowski and Barroso (2007) was used to design a tentative model to measure the cognitive readiness of university presidents through the interview with cognitive science and higher education management experts for pattern validation.

The results of the research consisted of effective factors (including environmental and organizational factors) on cognitive readiness of university presidents, and the components of their cognitive readiness including individual cognitive readiness (meta-cognition, critical-analytical thinking, creative thinking, systematic thinking, situation awareness, sensemaking, adaptability), team cognitive readiness (cognitive ability and work-team interactions), learning readiness (learning mental agility), and socio-emotional readiness (social-emotional intelligence, stress management), which presented and validated as a conceptual model, and the relialibility of the model measured.

Cognitive readiness is a complex and multidimensional structure acquired as the result of interaction between environmental, organizational factors and its components, which would have major impacts on the success of university presidents, accordingly.

Psychologists and behavioral science experts have always tried to increase the level of adjustment of individuals in different age groups by various developing educational programs. Therefore, the review of the results of studies in the field of social cognition illustrates that a significant part of the cognitive social maltreatment of adolescents is related to the deficiency of their skill treasury. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of cognitive social skills training in positive relationships with others and adjustment of adolescents.

In this quesi-experimental research with pretest-posttest nonequivalent-group design with two month follow-up, a population of 148 female students of the 8th grade, 58 students were selected by convenience sampling method and then divided into two groups. All the participants in the two groups responded to the scale of the positive relationship with others and Student Adjustment before and after the experiment. The students of the experimental group received cognitive social skills training for 10 weeks, (2 hours per week). Finally, the obtained results were analyzed by univariate and multivariate covariance analysis using SPSS software.

The results of the multivariate covariance analysis for determining the effect of the group on student's adjustment was significant in the post-test and follow up (P<0.05). As well as the results of univariate covariance analysis to determine the effect of the group on the level of positive relationships with others in the post-test and follow up was statistically significant (P<0.05). Also, the findings indicated that the intervention effect on the variables in the follow up stage was invariant.

The results of this study indicated that the cognitive social skills training program was experimentally effective in cognitive restructuring, cognitive impairment and causal bias, as well as the enhancement of interpersonal skills in enhancing the skills of the students.

The processing of metaphors in comparison with literal sentences has attracted many scholars from various fields, including linguistics, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. The present research, aimed to investigate the processing of literal sentences and metaphors (conventional and novel) in Persian language.

A reaction time task used to determine how literal sentences and metaphors are processed. For this purpose, four hundred sentences sentences in four types of expression: conventional and novel metaphors, anomalous, and literal sentences (each contains one sentences) were constructed. Reading the sentences, subjects were asked to determine the comprehending amount of meaning of the sentences (from 0 to 3) by pressing the corresponding key on the keyboard. The answers were recorded by EEGLAB. The reaction time data were analyzed using repeated measurement (ANOVA) and the pair-wise comparison method in four expressions.

The pair-wise comparison of the response time showed that literal sentences faster than conventional metaphors and conventional metaphors faster than novel metaphors are processed.

According to the obtained findings, it can be concluded that different mechanisms are involved in the processing of literal sentences and metaphors. Conventional and novel metaphors can be processed through a continuum of a single mechanism like conceptual mapping. In this mechanism, novel metaphors through analogy and conventional metaphors through categorization are understood. The processing of literal sentences, conventional and novel metaphors can also be explained through a continuum of saliency and expectancy.

Motivation in general and moral motivation, in particular, has been highly-discussed subject among psychologists and philosophers. The question of what mental states necessarily lead to moral behaviors has received various answers. Motivational internalists about moral judgement have argued that moral judgements necessitate moral behaviors. Among them, sensationalists take moral judgements to be expressions of emotions, whereas internalists about moral beliefs entertain the thought that moral judgements are expressions of moral beliefs. On the contrary, motivational externalists about moral beliefs speak of the conceivability of an individual who has a moral belief but due to a lack of desire to act morally, individual is not motivated to act upon her/his belief (the case of amoralist). Furthermore, motivational internalists hold that amoralism is more than a mere intellectual possibility; they take the case of “psychopathy” as a realization of this abstract possibility. They claim that empirical findings of Blair’s studies on psychopath prisoners provide counter-evidence to the externalist thought that psychopaths are threats to internalism. Among advocates of motivational internalism, Sinnott-Armstrong has used Blair’s empirical findings along with a philosophical argument (argument from an analogy between morality and art) to establish that psychopathy is not a threat to internalism. The present study is an attempt to reveal that (a) Sinnott- Armstrong’s argument is not effective, and (b) motivational internalism relies on a false premise.