Educational attainment and trajectories of cognitive decline during four decades—The Glostrup 1914 cohort

Background The potential association between level of education and age-related cognitive decline remains an open question, partly because of a lack of studies including large subsamples with low education and follow-up intervals covering a substantial part of the adult lifespan. Objectives To examine cognitive decline assessed by a comprehensive clinical test of intelligence over a 35-year period of follow-up from ages 50 to 85 and to analyze the effect of education on trajectories of cognitive decline, including the effects of selective attrition. Methods A longitudinal cohort study with a 35-year follow-up of community dwelling members of the Glostrup 1914 cohort. The study sample comprised 697 men and women at the 50-year baseline assessment and additional participants recruited at later follow-ups. Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQs were assessed using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale at ages 50, 60, 70, 80, and 85. To be able to track cognitive changes between successive WAIS assessments, all IQs were based on the Danish 50-year norms. Information on school education was self-reported. The association between education and cognitive decline over time was examined in growth curve models. Selective attrition was investigated in subsamples of participants who dropped out at early or later follow-ups. Results The trajectories for Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQ showed higher initial cognitive performance, but also revealed steeper decline among participants with a formal school exam compared to participants without a formal exam. Verbal IQ showed the largest difference in level between the two educational groups, whereas the interaction between education and age was stronger for Performance IQ than for Verbal IQ. In spite of the difference in trajectories, higher mean IQ was observed among participants with a formal school exam compared to those without across all ages, including the 85-year follow-up. Further analyses revealed that early dropout was associated with steeper decline, but that this effect was unrelated to education. Conclusion Comprehensive cognitive assessment over a 35-year period suggests that higher education is associated with steeper decline in IQ, but also higher mean IQ at all follow-ups. These findings are unlikely to reflect regression towards the mean, other characteristics of the employed test battery or associations between educational level and study dropout.

Vocal Harmony in Zaid Bin Ali Reading: الانسجام الصوتي في قراءة زيد بن علي

The Quran readings are considered to be a source of Arab linguistic heritage where they represent various linguistic phenomena characterized by many functional vocal ones. There is no doubt that Zaid Bin Ali contains several vocal phenomena that needs to be thought over deeply. Therefore, the importance of the study emerges where the vocal phenomena whose function was vocal harmony will be dealt by study and analysis to identify their types and influence on the structure of the word. It was followed by a number of results, the most important of which are: The dominant feature of the verbal performance of the reading of Zaid bin Ali is vocal harmony and lightness.

ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКА ЕМОЦІЙНОЇ СКЛАДОВОЇ ФРЕЙМОВОЇ МОДЕЛІ КОНЦЕПТУ ЛОКДАУН

Some attempts to create an emotional characteristic by the linguistic description of the concept LOCKDOWN are accomplished in this article. To reach the aim of this research the frame analysis of a written text was applied as one of the basic methods of analysis concerning mechanisms of interaction in verbal and cognitive structures. Having analyzed a verbal performance, the conclusion was made that the concept LOCKDOWN has got the following emotional characteristic: FEAR as a dominant emotion (fear of uncertainty; fear of illness; fear for life; fear for the nearest and dearest; fear of losing a job (you/parents); fear of losing contacts; fear of staying without a rest); SATISFACTION (satisfaction from not getting early; satisfaction from studying at home; satisfaction from communicating with family/domestic animals). Overall, the emotive characteristic of the concept LOCKDOWN is a combination of dominant destructive (80%) and constructive (20%) emotions.

Verbal-Performance Activities for Optimizing Foreign Language Education

The modern world, characterized by dynamic changes, rapid development of ICT and globalization processes sets new challenges to present-day education. This research aims at investigating the influence of applying verbal-performance activities in foreign language education. A pedagogical experiment was conducted in authentic environment with the participation of 99 pupils aged 10 to 11 who formed an experimental and a control group. The study combined qualitative and quantitative approach. It measured pupils’ entry and exit levels of practical English knowledge and communicative skills and also traced the effect of the experimental education on the pupils from the experimental group. The interpretative analyses of the results revealed that applying verbal-performance activities in foreign language education led to higher achievements in terms of knowledge and communicative competence for the pupils from the experimental group compared to the progress of the children from the control group. A measurement of the attitude of the pupils from the experimental group towards applying verbal-performance activities in the educational process proved the potential of the method to increase children’s motivation for learning. The findings of this research confirm the need of further studies on the influence of applying verbal-performance activities in a broader context of school education.

Memory, Desire, and “Magic”: Smará in the Atharvaveda

This essay analyzes the interconnection between memory, desire, and verbal performance in the three so called “women’s love spells” in Atharvaveda 6.130–132. This study unpacks the many interconnected meanings of the term smará, which is used repeatedly in these poems, “memory”, “desire”, or “efficacious ritual speech”. I challenge the traditional definition of these texts as “magical” and argue that applying “magic” as an analytical category to ancient Hindu texts is deeply problematic. Instead, I propose that these poems are better understood in their historical and religious context as examples of ritual speech.

Head vs. Heart: Which Path do you Take? Self-Location Shapes Language Use, Indicating Rational and Experiential Thinking Styles

Self-location is a novel construct that identifies a bodily organ (head vs. heart) to represent self-concept. However, how self-location influences verbal performance is not well understood. This research investigates language use associated with self-location, an individual difference construct based on two different metaphoric concepts (use your head vs. follow your heart). Study 1 established the associations between self-location and verbal performance assessed by language variables in two writing tasks. Findings showed that self-location was related to specific language variables (nouns vs. verbs). In Study 2a, self-location was presented as a manipulation of the head-heart metaphor to predict language variables in a decision-making story recalled by participants. In Study 2b, a manipulation check was added, and the Heinz dilemma was used as a writing topic to control responses in different conditions. Studies 2a and 2b demonstrate that the metaphor could facilitate use of specific language variables. Implications of manipulating self-location are discussed.