scholarly journals Music Modulates Cognitive Flexibility? An Investigation of the Benefits of Musical Training on Markers of Cognitive Flexibility

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 451
Author(s):  
Miriam Gade ◽  
Kathrin Schlemmer
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Task Sequence ◽  
Switch Costs ◽  
Classification Tasks ◽  
Professional Contexts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Task Sequences

Cognitive flexibility enables the rapid change in goals humans want to attain in everyday life as well as in professional contexts, e.g., as musicians. In the laboratory, cognitive flexibility is usually assessed using the task-switching paradigm. In this paradigm participants are given at least two classification tasks and are asked to switch between them based on valid cues or memorized task sequences. The mechanisms enabling cognitive flexibility are investigated through two empirical markers, namely switch costs and n-2 repetition costs. In this study, we assessed both effects in a pre-instructed task-sequence paradigm. Our aim was to assess the transfer of musical training to non-musical stimuli and tasks. To this end, we collected the data of 49 participants that differed in musical training assessed using the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index. We found switch costs that were not significantly influenced by the degree of musical training. N-2 repetition costs were small for all levels of musical training and not significant. Musical training did not influence performance to a remarkable degree and did not affect markers of mechanisms underlying cognitive flexibility, adding to the discrepancies of findings on the impact of musical training in non-music-specific tasks.

scholarly journals Task Switching Hurts Memory Encoding

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michèle C. Muhmenthaler ◽  
Beat Meier
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Task Switching ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Semantic Classification ◽  
Switch Costs ◽  
Classification Tasks ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Research consistently shows that task switching slows down performance on switch compared to repeat trials, but the consequences on memory are less clear. In the present study, we investigated the impact of task switching on subsequent memory performance. Participants had to switch between two semantic classification tasks. In Experiment 1, the stimuli were univalent; in Experiment 2, the stimuli were bivalent (relevant for both tasks). The aim was to disentangle the conflicts triggered by task switching and bivalency. In both experiments, recognition memory for switch and repeat stimuli was tested subsequently. During encoding, task switching produced switch costs. Critically, subsequent memory was lower for switch compared to repeat stimuli in both experiments, and this effect was increased in Experiment 2 with bivalent material. We suggest that the requirement to switch tasks hurts the encoding of task-relevant information and thus impairs subsequent memory performance.

The impact of a music education program on meta-musical awareness, logical-mathematical, and notational skills in preschoolers

2021 ◽  
pp. 025576142110272
Author(s):  
Oriana Incognito ◽  
Laura Scaccioni ◽  
Giuliana Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Transfer Of Knowledge ◽  
General Domain ◽  
Music Program ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Impact

A number of studies suggest a link between musical training and both specific and general cognitive abilities, but despite some positive results, there is disagreement about which abilities are improved. This study aims to investigate the effects of a music education program both on a domain-specific competence (meta-musical awareness), and on general domain competences, that is, cognitive abilities (logical-mathematical) and symbolic-linguistic abilities (notational). Twenty 4- to 6-year-old children participated in the research, divided into two groups (experimental and control) and the measures were administered at two different times, before and after a 6-month music program (for the experimental group) and after a sports training program (for the control group). Children performed meta-musical awareness tasks, logical-mathematical tasks, and emergent-alphabetization tasks. Non-parametric statistics show that a music program significantly improves the development of notational skills and meta-musical awareness while not the development of logical-mathematical skills. These results show that a musical program increases children’s meta-musical awareness, and their ability to acquire the notational ability involved in the invented writing of words and numbers. On the contrary, it does not affect the development of logical skills. The results are discussed in terms of transfer of knowledge processes and of specific versus general domain effects of a musical program.

scholarly journals Effects of Sport-Based Interventions on Children’s Executive Function: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 755
Author(s):  
Falonn Contreras-Osorio ◽  
Christian Campos-Jara ◽  
Cristian Martínez-Salazar ◽  
Luis Chirosa-Ríos ◽  
Darío Martínez-García
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Healthy Children ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
The Impact

One of the most studied aspects of children’s cognitive development is that of the development of the executive function, and research has shown that physical activity has been demonstrated as a key factor in its enhancement. This meta-analysis aims to assess the impact of specific sports interventions on the executive function of children and teenagers. A systematic review was carried out on 1 November 2020 to search for published scientific evidence that analysed different sports programs that possibly affected executive function in students. Longitudinal studies, which assessed the effects of sports interventions on subjects between 6 and 18 years old, were identified through a systematic search of the four principal electronic databases: Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and EBSCO. A total of eight studies, with 424 subjects overall, met the inclusion criteria and were classified based on one or more of the following categories: working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. The random-effects model for meta-analyses was performed with RevMan version 5.3 to facilitate the analysis of the studies. Large effect sizes were found in all categories: working memory (ES −1.25; 95% CI −1.70; −0.79; p < 0.0001); inhibitory control (ES −1.30; 95% CI −1.98; −0.63; p < 0.00001); and cognitive flexibility (ES −1.52; 95% CI −2.20; −0.83; p < 0.00001). Our analysis concluded that healthy children and teenagers should be encouraged to practice sports in order to improve their executive function at every stage of their development.

scholarly journals The Apocalyptic Interlude: Revealing Death in Kinshasa

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filip De Boeck
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Collective Imagination ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Point Of Reference

Abstract:Temporality in contemporary Kinshasa is of a very specific eschatological kind and takes its point of departure in the Bible, and more particularly in the Book of Revelation, which has become an omnipresent point of reference in Kinshasa's collective imagination. The lived-in time of everyday life in Kinshasa is projected against the canvas of the completion of everything, a completion which will be brought about by God. As such, the Book of Revelation is not only about doom and destruction, it is essentially also a book of hope. Yet the popular understanding of the Apocalypse very much centers on the omnipotent presence of evil. This article focuses on the impact of millennialism on the Congolese experience, in which daily reality is constantly translated into mythical and prophetic terms as apocalyptic interlude.

Asymptotically matched sheath and presheath in a dense plasma

1998 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
LINDSEY D. THORNHILL ◽  
PRATEEN V. DESAI
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Change ◽  
Debye Length ◽  
Mean Free Path ◽  
Boundary Region ◽  
Surface Erosion ◽  
Leading Order ◽  
Power Flux ◽  
Temperature Plasma ◽  
Recombination Length ◽  
The Impact

Asymptotically matched solutions for electron and ion density, electron and ion velocity, and electric potential are obtained in the boundary region of a dense low-temperature plasma adjacent to perfectly absorbing walls – walls that absorb, without reflection, incident electrons and ions. Leading-order composite solutions, valid throughout the boundary region, are constructed from solutions in three subdomains distinguished by different physical length scales: the geometric length, the ion mean free path and the Debye length. The composite solutions are used to assess the impact of electron–ion recombination in the ionization nonequilibrium region on sheath and presheath profiles, and on quantities evaluated at the wall. While, at leading order, the velocity profiles throughout the boundary region are not influenced by recombination, the density and potential profiles are significantly altered when recombination is included. These results show that the region of rapid change in these profiles lies closer to the wall when recombination is explicitly included in the model. The influence of recombination on the presheath potential, and consequently the wall potential, is found to scale as the natural logarithm of the recombination length. The broadening of the density profile results in a larger flux of ions accelerating through the sheath and impacting on the wall. The influence of recombination on the ion power flux to the wall is found to scale with the inverse recombination length. This scaling influences the prediction of surface erosion rates in technological applications that utilize these plasmas.

The impact of breast cancer on living an everyday life 4.5–5 years post-diagnosis – a qualitative prospective study of 39 women

2011 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pär Salander ◽  
Sara Lilliehorn ◽  
Katarina Hamberg ◽  
Anneli Kero
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Prospective Study ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
The Impact

Reflections on Preliminary Fieldwork: The Militarisation of Public Space in Srinagar and its Impact on Rhythms of Everyday Life

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arshita Nandan ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Jammu And Kashmir ◽  
Current Form ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This project focuses on the conflict in Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). This conflict is characterised by the militarised occupation of the region and resistance for self- determination by indigenous populations. In 2019, there were over 500,000 military and police force stationed in the state of J&K and over the years the forces have become a permanent fixture of the day-to-day life of people in the region. The use of civilian infrastructure by the military apparatus to control the rhythms of everyday life has evolved to its current form as an integral aspect of the conflict itself. This paper is focused on two interrelated aspects i.e., the impact of militarisation, magnified by Covid-19 pandemic on the fieldwork itself and its relationship to the larger impact of militarisation on everyday life in Srinagar. The methodology is inspired by rhythmanalysis which focuses on space of interaction. The rhythmanalysis is in two parts, it explores the rhythms as viewed and investigated by the researcher as opposed to the rhythms of everyday life for research participants. The aim here is to contextualise the questions of ethics and positionality as a researcher, conducting fieldwork during covid 19, in a militarised conflict region. Key Words: Military; Public Space; Rhythmanalysis; Resistance, Critical Architecture

scholarly journals Scientific and technical discoveries of the 1920s and Ukrainian emigrationin in the Interwar Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1939)

2021 ◽  
pp. 146-156
Author(s):  
Olha Zubko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Scientific Intelligence ◽  
Automobile Manufacturing ◽  
State History ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
History Of ◽  
Archival Documentation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Cultural Monuments ◽  
Research Analysis

This article informs about the impact of scientific and technological progress of the 1920s on everyday life of the Ukrainian emigration center in the interwar period of Czechoslovakia in 1918-1939. First of all, it is referred to technological novelties of the period in 1921-1929: cinematography, television, automobile manufacturing, fashion, medical industry, telegraph, and bank and post transfers. The proposed topic has not been submitted to the scientific audience yet, as far as the life of the Ukrainian emigration in the interwar of Czechoslovak Republic was considered mainly in the context of political and sociocultural work both emigrants themselves and the latest Ukrainian, Czech and Slovak historians. It is focused on two pointsin the proposed scientific intelligence: consideration of the everyday life of anti-Bolshevist emigration and of the lives of Ukrainian immigrants in Czechoslovakia which were arbitrarily distributed for four periods: 1918-1921, 1921-1925, 1925-1933, 1933-1939, all of which had its own specific features. Consideration of the Ukrainian everyday emigration life in the years 1921–1929 in the interwar of Czechoslovakia carried out with the help ofrecollection, memoirs, postal correspondence (letters) and archival documentation. Therefore, it implies the usage of general methods of the scientific research: analysis, analogy, historical and logical methods. The emigrational routine is a farsighted direction of the historical research, because it is the history of the small vivid worlds, peculiar alternative to the researches which are focused on global political and social processes and events.Everyday life is not minted in special decrees or laws;it is notrecorded in programs and speeches, as far as political and state history, and it is not honed by the financial gains in the economy, and by the cultural monuments, though it always exists like air, it goes unnoticed as time.

scholarly journals Environmental Conditions as a Factor of Influence on the Everyday Life of the Orthodox Population of Ukrainian Lands of the Second Half of the 16th-17th Centuries

2020 ◽  
pp. 9-17
Author(s):  
Inna Goncharenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Natural Conditions ◽  
Natural Factor ◽  
Production Practices ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Factor Of Influence

The purpose of this article is to analyze natural conditions as a significant factor of influence on everyday life, practices and strategies for the survival of the population of Ukrainian lands in the second half of the 16th – 17th centuries. The main task of the study is to reconstruct the environment of the second half of the 16th – 17th centuries and to identify the mutual influence of man and nature. Research methodology: the following methods were used: general scientific – historical and logical, analysis and synthesis, generalization; special – historical-systemic, historical reconstruction, which consists in drawing up a fairly complete picture of everyday life from disparate facts. Scientific novelty: the natural factor in the pre-industrial era is significantly underestimated in the studies of everyday life and is one of the most significant in the impact on human life, but it is ignored in modern historical works. Therefore, the analysis of the natural conditions of everyday life, especially in the early modern era, is relevant today. Conclusions. The analysis of the influence of natural conditions on everyday life of the population shows that a significant part of the population in one way or another was engaged in the transformation of nature in their production practices and was largely dependent on the environment. In the minds of the population, nature was seen as an endless resource for consumption. When assessing the influence of nature on everyday life in the second half of the 16th – 17th centuries, emphasis should be placed on the fact that during this period there was a combination of reproduction and appropriating forms of the economy in everyday production practices. The richness of natural resources, the fertility of the soil helped people to survive, but everyday survival was often due to the merciless exploitation of nature, especially in forests and wild animals. Parallel to this, there are attempts to protect resources from overuse by granting privileges to a limited number of consumers and legislative regulation. In general, the environmental circumstances of everyday life of the specified period cannot be characterized as stable due to the reduction of forest, plowing of virgin lands, excessive extermination of wild animals.

scholarly journals Methodology for studying the information space as an economic categories within the school curriculum

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.V. Mahova ◽  
A.V. Nelipa
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Information Space ◽  
School Students ◽  
The Impact

The materials of this article include methodological materials that form the basis for an optional course for secondary and high school students, which examines the issues, the nature and characteristics of the information space and the impact of its components on everyday life.

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