فصلنامه تازه های علوم شناختی
سال چهاردهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 56، زمستان 1391)

There is a growing interest to understand the neural underlying mechanisms of moral judgment. Some evidence suggests that various areas of Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) such as right Dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) might be involved in moral judgment and that these areas can play an important role in cognitive control processes of utilitarian/nonutilitarian choices. Non-invasive brain stimulation techniques such transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) have opened new windows to explore the neural substrates of those cognitive functions. The possible regulatory effect of DLPFC on moral judgment elicited by personal (low conflict/high conflict) and impersonal moral delimmas has been investigated using tDCS. Two groups of university students (n=60, female=30) were enrolled in the current investigation. Two parallel moral judgment tasks were randomly presented to subjects when DLPFC was being stimulated (right anode/ left cathode or right cathode/left anode) or subjects were receiving sham tDCS. Each task series comprised personal, impersonal and non-moral dilemmas. Repeated measure analysis of variance indicated a significant interaction between dilemmas× gender × montage (F(116.699,2.084)= 4.346, P=0.014). Based on the results, while DLPFCtDCS induced different effects on moral judgment between two sexes, the differences between two types of stimulation were insignificant. This study extends the results of the previous investigations using anon-invasive brain stimulation technique to modulate utilitarian moral judgment with the effects being greater in women as compared tomen. Current insights support the notion that the effects of tDCS on moral utilitarianism (judgment) might be related to emotional integration of moral information conducted by the right DLPFC. Taken together, one may conclude that the disruption of DLPFC may influence moral utilitarianism possibly through modulating emotional cues rather than cognitive control of moral information alone in the face ofhigh conflict delimmas.

The aim of this study was to investigate Event- Related Potentials up on affective working-memory test in individuals with BAS and BIS personality (Behavioral Activation and Behavioral Inhibition System type) characteristics. 502 participants completed the self-reported BAS/BIS Scales (carver & white 1994) screening measure after which 18 subjects (10 in BAS and 8 in BIS category) were selected to enroll in the study. ERPs were measured when subjects completed aworking-memory task comprising positive and negative pictures. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was employed for data analysis. in response to positive pictures, BIS subjects showed longer P100 latency as compared to BAS subjects. On the other hand, BAS subjects exhibited larger N200 amplitude than those of BIS type individuals. For negative pictures, BIS subjects showed larger N200 amplitude than BAS cases, whileBAS subjects exhibited larger P300 amplitude than the other group. most of ourfindings confirmedthe Gray Affective Personality Theory (1987). The BIS personality type individuals were sensitive to negative pictures where as the BAS subjects showed a dominant response to affectively positive visual stimuli.

Hope as a cognitive-motivational construct is based on a reciprocallyderived sense of success and the pathways toward ones important goals. This study examined the cognitive correlates of hope that includes problem-solving performance, decision making and attention. This cross-sectional study recruited a convenience sample of 92 students fromTehran University (46 female and 45 male) whom were asked to independently complete the Missionaries and Cannibals (problem solving), Wisconsin (decision making), Tower of London (planning), sustained attention tests and the Hope Scale. Finding indicated a significant positive relationship between hope and the three dimensions of problem solving. Additionally,result revealeda relation between hope and preservation in Wisconsin test and the mean reaction time in sustained attention test and the time of planning during thetower of London task. Hopecan beconsidered as acomplexcognitiveconstructwhichrequ ires intuitiveinformationprocessing, the allocation ofattentionresourcestogoals, methodsfor achievingthe targets, and the ability forshifting attention from unsuitable situationstothe goal-directed ones.

A number of investigators believe that the contrast sensitivity, doubling frequency and temporal-spatial task deficits observed in patients with schizophrenia pertain to the abnormality in their magnocellular visual pathway. Nevertheless, whether this abnormality is perhaps a liability marker or due to the illness process per se, remains unclear. This study investigated the performanceof people with schizotypal characteristics in doubling frequency visual task to examine the possible traceable abnormality in magnocellular pathway in premorbid condition of schizophrenia. We examined the visual field in 30 cases of high schizotypy and 30 normal individuals using the advancedHumphrey automated perimetry equipment. The doubling frequency task scores of the two groups were compared using Student t-test analysis for independent groups. people with high schizotypy demonstrated lower performance in binocular doubling frequency visual task as compared to normal controls. Our findings indicated a deficit in magnocellular pathway in people with high schizotypy. Current results support the idea that magnocellular pathway dysfunction is a vulnerability trait independent of disease course, medication or the severity of symptom.

this study was conducted to comparativelyinvestigatethe responsibility and thought-action fusion (TAF) role in obsessive compulsive)OCD) and generalized anxiety (GAD) disorders. a convenience sample of 23 people wereenrolled in each group comprising OCD, GAD and normal subjects. Participants were asked to complete therevised TAF(TAF-R) and responsibility attitude questionnaires. covariance analysis results indicated thatwith the control of responsibility, TAF scores in OCD were significantly higherthan GADand normal groups,whilewith the control of TAF, thedifference between the responsibility scoreinOCD and GAD groups was insignificant. Our findings are in line with theRachman theory suggesting the moresignificantrole ofTAFas compared to responsibilityin psychopathology of OCD.

The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between mothers’ reminiscing style and children’s narrative coherence. The samples were 31 children aged 6 (16 boys and 15 girls) from various kindergartens and their mothers. After showing an animation, a conversation between mother and her child and also a semi- structured interview between the trainer and the child was held. Qualitative data collected were analyzed using content analysisand other statistical methods. show that narrative coherence of children is augmented by elaborative styles of mothers, whereas this elaboration is similar between girls and boys. On orienting component, boys have greater coherence while on emotion and explanation components both boys and girls are the same.The other finding is that mothers’ close-ended questions are greatly correlated with children’s narrative coherence. Mothers focused more on orienting aspects of the event, while paid less attention to evaluating ones, like emotions and make meanings. The other finding is that mothers’ close-ended questions are greatly correlated with child narrative coherence. Results could be applicable in the areas of parenting, communication styles of parents and their children, and preventive interventions.

This article discusses the mass-count distinction in Persian, in which counting is a truly productive and general phenomenon interchangeably applied to both mass and count nouns. This contradiction is what the present article aims to resolve. Previous efforts to resolve the above contradiction are subject to some shortcomings. The current analytical review tried to offer acognitive model of counting at the end. to sketch its cognitive model of counting, the present study derived its methodology from predicate logic, set theory, discrete functions, prototype theory, syntactic argumentation, and Idealized Cognitive Models (ICMs). We draw on exceptional uses of classifiers and numeral determiners primarily in Persian. These were put together with the observed prototypes of mass nouns being controversially counted in English. The traditional formal criteria for mass-count distinction turned out to be unable to explain the phenomena. The above-mentioned generality is claimed to be governed by metonymy in the literature, against which the authors argued and proposed the metaphor temporarily as a more efficient substitute. The permanent solution responsible for such a generality is introduced as “the delimitation function” which constructs the core of our present counting model. The mass-count distinction is determined to be primarily the result of a cognitive rather than a grammatical process. Having a proper use of grammar (which manifests the result of the process) one might feel free to introduce objects parallel to his own situational recognition about them.