Magnetoencephalography resting-state correlates of executive and language components of verbal fluency

Verbal fluency (VF) is a heterogeneous cognitive function that requires executive as well as language abilities. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the specificity of the resting state MEG correlates of the executive and language components. To this end, we administered a VF test, another verbal test (Vocabulary), and another executive test (Trail Making Test), and we recorded 5-min eyes-open resting-state MEG data in 28 healthy participants. We used source-reconstructed spectral power estimates to compute correlation/anticorrelation MEG clusters with the performance at each test, as well as with the advantage in performance between tests, across individuals using cluster-level statistics in the standard frequency bands. By obtaining conjunction clusters between verbal fluency scores and factor loading obtained for verbal fluency and each of the two other tests, we showed a core of slow clusters (delta to beta) localized in the right hemisphere, in adjacent parts of the premotor, pre-central and post-central cortex in the mid-lateral regions related to executive monitoring. We also found slow parietal clusters bilaterally and a cluster in the gamma 2 and 3 bands in the left inferior frontal gyrus likely associated with phonological processing involved in verbal fluency.

Magnetoencephalography Resting-State Correlates of Executive and Language Components of Verbal Fluency

Verbal fluency (VF) is a heterogeneous test that requires executive functions as well as language abilities. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the specificity of the resting state MEG correlates of the executive and language components. To this end, we administered a VFtest, another verbal test (Vocabulary), and another executive test (Trail Making Test), and we recorded 5-min eyes-open resting-state MEG data in 28 healthy participants. We used source-reconstructed spectral power estimates to compute correlation/anticorrelation MEG clusters with the performance at each test, as well as with the advantage in performance between tests, across individuals using cluster-level statisticsin the standard frequency bands. By obtaining conjunction clusters between verbal fluency scores and factor loading obtained for verbal fluency and each of the two other tests, we showed a core of slow clusters (delta to beta) localized in the right hemisphere, in adjacent parts of the premotor, pre-central and post-central cortex in the mid-lateral regions related to executive monitoring. We also found slow parietal clusters bilaterally and a cluster in the gamma 2 and 3 bandsin the left inferior frontal gyrus likely associated with phonological processinginvolved in verbal fluency.

The influence of self-efficacy, interest, and stereotype threat on career intentions and choices related to math and science.

Women continue to be underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers/sectors. Concurrently, negative stereotypes about women’s abilities to perform in STEM persists. This research examined whether gender stereotypes influence women’s STEM-related intentions and choices and the mediating influence of cognitive predictors based on the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). In total, 194 women from Ryerson University were randomly assigned to a stereotype threat (n =65), stereotype nullification (n = 65), or control condition (n = 64). Participants completed questionnaires assessing math self-efficacy, math and science interests and intentions, and a math/verbal choice task. In support of SCCT, math self-efficacy and math/science interests predicted math/science intentions and choice on the math/verbal test. Furthermore, “math identified” participants in the stereotype threat condition reported lower math/science intentions. This research has implications for current interventions designed to increase women’s participation and retention in STEM.

The influence of self-efficacy, interest, and stereotype threat on career intentions and choices related to math and science.

Women continue to be underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers/sectors. Concurrently, negative stereotypes about women’s abilities to perform in STEM persists. This research examined whether gender stereotypes influence women’s STEM-related intentions and choices and the mediating influence of cognitive predictors based on the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). In total, 194 women from Ryerson University were randomly assigned to a stereotype threat (n =65), stereotype nullification (n = 65), or control condition (n = 64). Participants completed questionnaires assessing math self-efficacy, math and science interests and intentions, and a math/verbal choice task. In support of SCCT, math self-efficacy and math/science interests predicted math/science intentions and choice on the math/verbal test. Furthermore, “math identified” participants in the stereotype threat condition reported lower math/science intentions. This research has implications for current interventions designed to increase women’s participation and retention in STEM.

Comparing oculomotor efficiency and visual attention between drivers and non-drivers through the Adult Developmental Eye Movement (ADEM) test: A visual-verbal test

Objective The objective of this study was to assess and compare drivers’ and non-drivers’ outcomes in the Adult Developmental Eye Movement test (ADEM), a visual-verbal test that measures the time needed to read series of numbers in both a vertical and horizontal reading pattern. A set of driving parameters (i.e., experience, risk exposure, and day and night perceived difficulty) and demographic variables (i.e., age, gender, and academic level) were considered as potential predictors of the test performance. Methods For this cross-sectional study, 302 healthy subjects (age range 20 to 86 years old) completed a self-reported questionnaire aimed at retrieving data on the independent variables, and underwent the ADEM in order to obtain the dependent outcomes. 214 (70.9%) of the participants were drivers. Non-parametric analyses and multilevel linear regression were used to assess differences between the variables and a prediction model. Also, some correlations were evaluated through the Spearman test. Results Drivers showed significantly better test performance than non-drivers. The age, driving experience, and perceived difficulty in driving at night were obtained as potential predictors of the test performance with the applied linear regression model. Conclusion The ADEM may be a practical, non-expensive, easy-to-apply tool in the assessment of drivers, useful for obtaining or renewing the driving license. This test may help in the detection of impairments in the saccadic efficiency that could have a detrimental effect on the driving performance.

Associative relations of Serbian adjectives in the free association verbal test

Previous research on the associative relations of adjectives is not unanimous in terms of whether participants more often respond by using nouns or adjectives in free association tests. On the other hand, when it comes to paradigmatic associative relationships, researchers agree that native speakers respond to adjective stimuli mostly by associations of opposite meaning, but generally do not state the percentage, since conclusions are often made on the basis of the dominant associate, and not upon the entire associative field. Therefore, 45 associative fields of adjectives of the Serbian language are analyzed based on the material obtained from two associative dictionaries, prepared on the basis of the responses of 800 participants (ranging from 18 to 25 years of age) and 1,200 participants of different ages (groups of 5, 9, 13 and 17 years of age, each of which comprised 300 participants). The aim of this study is to examine the ratio of syntagmatic and paradigmatic associations of adjectives, as well as the paradigmatic type of relation between the adjective-type stimuli and their associates (the closeness and the oppositeness of meaning and other types of associative relations). The material was annotated according to parts of speech, as well as according to the types of associative relations. The quantitative results showed that the associations of examined adjectives are slightly more frequently syntagmatic (52%) than paradigmatic (44%), while the oppositeness of meaning proved to be the most common as well as the strongest associative relation of commonly used adjectives of the Serbian language.

Actions do not speak louder than words in an interactive false belief task

Traditionally, it had been assumed that meta-representational Theory of Mind (ToM) emerges around the age of 4 when children come to master standard false belief (FB) tasks. More recent research with various implicit measures, though, has documented much earlier competence and thus challenged the traditional picture. In interactive FB tasks, for instance, infants have been shown to track an interlocutor's false or true belief when interpreting her ambiguous communicative acts (Southgate et al . 2010 Dev. Sci. 13 , 907–912. ( doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00946.x )). However, several replication attempts so far have produced mixed findings (e.g. Dörrenberg et al . 2018 Cogn. Dev. 46 , 12–30. ( doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2018.01.001 ); Grosse Wiesmann et al. 2017 Dev. Sci. 20 , e12445. ( doi:10.1111/desc.12445 ); Király et al . 2018 Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115 , 11 477–11 482. ( doi:10.1073/pnas.1803505115 )). Therefore, we conducted a systematic replication study, across two laboratories, of an influential interactive FB task (the so-called ‘Sefo’ tasks by Southgate et al . 2010 Dev. Sci. 13 , 907–912. ( doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00946.x )). First, we implemented close direct replications with the original age group (17-month-olds) and compared their performance to those of 3-year-olds. Second, we designed conceptual replications with modifications and improvements regarding pragmatic ambiguities for 2-year-olds. Third, we validated the task with explicit verbal test versions in older children and adults. Results revealed the following: the original results could not be replicated, and there was no evidence for FB understanding measured by the Sefo task in any age group except for adults. Comparisons to explicit FB tasks suggest that the Sefo task may not be a sensitive measure of FB understanding in children and even underestimate their ToM abilities. The findings add to the growing replication crisis in implicit ToM research and highlight the challenge of developing sensitive, reliable and valid measures of early implicit social cognition.

Effects of Acute Exercise on Memory Performance in Middle-Aged and Older Adults

Numerous studies show that exercise benefits memory and some show that acute exercise prior to encoding has larger benefits than exercise after encoding. This study was designed to investigate the effects of acute exercise on memory in middle-aged and older adults (Mage = 64.71 years) and to explore the influence of the timing of the exercise on these effects. Using a within-subjects design, moderate-intensity exercise (20 min) was either not performed (control), performed before the task (exercise prior), or performed after the task (exercise post). Memory was assessed using the Rey Auditory Learning Verbal Test. For short- and long-term memory and learning, significantly more words were remembered in the exercise-prior condition than the others. For 24-hr recall, participants remembered significantly more words in the exercise-prior condition than exercise post, which was better than control. Exercise benefits memory for healthy middle-aged and older adults, with the greatest benefits when performed prior to encoding.

STUDY OF GENDER DIFFERENCE IN CREATIVITY IN RELATION TO MATHEMATICALLY GIFTED STUDENTS OF HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL

Education holds a prominent place in conditioning and shaping the personality of an individual. The purpose of education is to development of individual for solving various problem of day to day life. Descriptive survey method was used to study the creativity of the mathematically gifted students of higher secondary school. The nal samples after screening on the basis of total CGPA and grade consisted of 54 mathematically gifted students and 68 mathematically non-gifted students with the help of stratied random sampling. Verbal Test of Creative Thinking by Baquer Mehdi and mathematical gifted and non-gifted criterion used to collect data. Results of the study revealed that there is no statistically signicant gender difference exist between Boys and Girls in relation to giftedness in mathematics and in all the variables of verbal creativity.

Estimating New Quantities from Longitudinal Test Scores to Improve Forecasts of Future Performance

Psychometric models for longitudinal test scores typically estimate quantities associated with single-administration tests, like ability at each time-point. However, models for longitudinal tests have not considered opportunities to estimate new quantities that are unavailable from single-administration tests. Specifically, we discuss dynamic measurement models – which combine aspects of longitudinal IRT, nonlinear growth models, and dynamic assessment – to directly estimate capacity, defined as the expected future score once the construct has fully developed. After discussing the history and connecting these areas into a single framework, we apply the model to verbal test scores from the Berkeley Growth Study, which follows 494 people from 3 to 72 years old. The goal is to predict adult verbal scores (Age ≥ 34) from adolescent scores (Age ≤ 20). We held-out the adult data for prediction and compared predictions from traditional longitudinal IRT ability scores and proposed dynamic measurement capacity scores from models fit to the adolescent data. Results showed that the R2 from capacity scores were 2.5 times larger than the R2 from longitudinal IRT ability scores (43% vs. 16%), providing some evidence that exploring new quantities available from longitudinal testing could be worthwhile when an interest in testing is forecasting future performance.