نشریه روانشناسی شناختی
سال هشتم شماره 3 (پیاپی 25، پاییز 1399)

Recent research has indicated the influence of bilingualism on many cognitive and emotional processes. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of bilingualism in processing anger in Turkish-Persian bilinguals’ first (L1) and second (L2) language. To achieve this goal, 18 Turkish-Persian sequential bilingual students with an average age of 26 from different universities in Tehran were selected with targeted sampling to participate in this quasi-experimental research. Participants completed the language history questionnaire, the General Health questionnaire, and the Positive and Negative affect schedule questionnaire, in addition to a computerized task designed to induce anger and determine the meaningfulness of Turkish and Persian words and non-words. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that the participants significantly spent more time on determining the meaningfulness of words when they were induced with anger in comparison to the normal condition. Moreover, they were significantly slower in selecting Turkish words compared to Persian ones. Regarding the comparison of the two languages in both conditions separately, paired comparison results demonstrated that participants’ reaction time to Turkish words in anger inducing conditions was significantly longer. Thus, it could be proposed that Turkish-Persian bilinguals are more involved in their first language in emotional states, specifically anger states, and the Turkish language has more and deeper emotional associations for them, hence their emotional involvement is stronger for their mother tongue than for their second language.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of age and swimmers’ levels of somersaults skills on mental rotation. This study was conducted as a comparative causal research with a one-stage and post-event design. Participants were female swimmers in Shiraz, who were trained in somersaults.  Sixty subjects were selected by the purposive sampling method and then divided into four groups (a group of 7 to 9-year-olds with low skills, a group of 7 to 9-year-olds with high skills, a group of 10 to 12-year-olds with low skills, and a group of 10 to 12-year-olds with high skills). The salto skill level was determined based on the average score of three judges. To measure mental rotation, the pen and image paper test (with a reliability of 0.75 by Cronbachchr('39')s alpha method) was used. The results showed that there was no significant difference in mental rotation scores between age groups (p = 0638). However, the scores of mental rotation showed a significant difference between the two groups of skill level (P = .0001). Moreover, mental rotation changed with different skill levels. Therefore, it is possible to change mental characteristics of athletes, including mental rotation by means of skill training.

Several studies have investigated wishful thinking or desirability bias in children and adults, while no research has been conducted for the evolution of wishful thinking during childhood and adolescence. The aim of the present research was to investigate the evolution of wishful thinking in Iranian children and adolescents aged from 7 to 14. This study was an evolutional one with a cross-sectional method. Participants were all students aged from 7 to 14 in public schools in the academic year of 2019-2020. The sample consisted of 240 individuals in 4 age groups and each group was made up of 30 females and 30 males selected by the convenience sampling method. The marked-card test, which has been designed as a web-based software, was used. The data were analyzed by a repeated measuring ANOVA. The results showed that wishful thinking among Iranian children did not decrease with age. Moreover, participants aged from 11 to 14 years indicated more severe bias than children from 7 to 10 years old in predicting unpleasant events, despite the perception of probabilities. Considering the effect of wishful thinking on the decision-making process, especially in predicting negative events and subsequently the occurrence of risky behaviors, further research would be necessary to find solutions for the awareness and balance of wishful thinking.

Unethical decision-making could be considered as both selfish and self-beneficial in addition to being aimed at benefiting others. The aim of this study was to investigate the differential relationship among the sense of power, the sense of status and status seeking styles (i.e., prestige and dominance) with two forms of unethical decision-making. Participants were 150 citizens of Tehran, who voluntary participated in this study. Data were gathered by the sense of power scale, the sense of status scale, the dominance-prestige scale, and the unethical decision-making questionnaire (self-beneficial and other-beneficial forms). The multiple regression analysis showed that dominance was positively and prestige was negatively associated with self-beneficial unethical decision-making, whereas dominance was positively associated with other-beneficial unethical decision-making. The relationship between the sense of power and the sense of status with two forms of unethical decision-making was not significant. The results of this study supported the conceptual distinction between two forms of unethical decision-making. It seems that the sense of power or the sense of status alone could not explain unethical decision-making, and status seeking styles (i.e., prestige and dominance) would be the main mental mechanisms which contribute to the tendency for unethical decision-making.

Computer-based cognitive games are new and exciting for kids and adolescents that can help them to improve their cognitive functions and creativity in addition to entertainment. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of computerised cognitive games on executive functions and creativity of preschool children. This study is a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test, and control group design. The sample consisted of 21 preschool female and male children, who were selected by convenience sampling in a preschool centre in Bushehr. Participants were matched on the basis of gender, age and intelligence and were allocated to three groups of seven children, i.e., two experimental groups and one control group. Before and after cognitive games, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), a simple Stroop software and the working memory Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) were used. The experimental groups played cognitive games such as Lomocyte and Tetris for 16 one-hour sessions, and the control group did not play any games during this time. The results showed that playing computerised cognitive games has a significant effect on creativity and working memory among preschool children. However, there is no significant effect on selective attention, cognitive flexibility, planning and organising. The results of this research have important theoretical and applied implications regarding the role of computerised cognitive games in promoting cognitive functions of preschool children.

One great ability of the brain is memory. Poor visual-auditory memory leads to dyslexia, dyscalculia and hyperactivity. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a test to determine the ability and accurate performance of memory. With this in mind, a test has been prepared using theoretical literature. This researcher-made memory test consists of four parts (numerical-verbal memory, visual memory, working memory and auditory-sentence memory) and its validity has been confirmed by professors of cognitive psychology and counselling in addition to using the random cluster sampling method on a sample of 308 elementary school students. The questions were analysed by relevant statistical methods and their validity, reliability and norm scores were determined. To evaluate the reliability of the test, three methods were used. The reliability coefficient was 0.83 using the internal consistency method and the Pearson correlation coefficient was determined to be r = 0.79 between the two halves of the questionnaire, which indicated that there was a high correlation between the two halves of the questionnaire. To determine the validity of the structure and components of the questionnaire, the principal component analysis method was used by rotation in the normalised Varimax method and to evaluate differential validity, an independent t-test was used. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of male and female students. (P < 0.001 and t (204) = 2.76). Based on the obtained reliability and validity, the audiovisual memory test is a tool that could be used by disorder and counselling centres. Moreover, it could be used as a tool for early assessment and diagnosis in the case of preschool students.

The importance of understanding the pathology, nature, and treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has always been emphasised throughout school. Children with ASD have difficulties in verbal and non-verbal social communication, which limit their ability regarding effective social communication and academic achievement. The purpose of this research was to compare learning strategies and executive functions among successful and non-successful autistic students in terms of academic achievement. For this purpose, 15 successful students with ASD and 15 non-successful students with ASD were recruited via the purposeful sampling method. The Autism-Spectrum Quotient Test, the executive functions and learning strategies questionnaires were used. Data was analysed with an independent t-test. Results showed that, successful students with ASD had a significant difference with the second group in all variables of learning strategies in addition to inhibition, emotional management, planning, organizing and attention shifting. It can be concluded that students with ASD who are successful in education use more learning strategies and have better executive functions compared with autistic students who are not successful in education.