Cognitive Psychology

Inter-subject variability in age-related brain changes may relate to educational attainment, as suggested by cognitive reserve theories. This voxel-based morphometry study investigated the impact of very low educational level on the relationship between regional gray matter (rGM) volumes and age in healthy elders. Magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired in elders with low educational attainment (less than 4 years) (n = 122) and high educational level (n = 66), pulling together individuals examined using either of three MRI scanners/acquisition protocols. Voxelwise group comparisons showed no rGM differences (p<0.05, family-wise error corrected for multiple comparisons). When within-group voxelwise patterns of linear correlation were compared between high and low education groups, there was one cluster of greater rGM loss with aging in low versus high education elders in the left anterior cingulate cortex (p<0.05, FWE-corrected), as well as a trend in the left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (p<0.10). These results provide preliminary indication that education might exert subtle protective effects against age-related brain changes in healthy subjects. The anterior cingulate cortex, critical to inhibitory control processes, may be particularly sensitive to such effects, possibly given its involvement in cognitive stimulating activities at school or later throughout life.

In their target article, summarise some of the crucial features and history of single case cognitive neuropsychology and its importance for the past and future of aphasiology. This is a timely topic for at least two reasons: First, it follows more general discussions on the role of single case versus case series approaches to neuropsychology (we refer the reader to these in-depth and thoughtful pieces, see

Background: Anomia refers to difficulties retrieving words and is 1 of the most common symptoms of aphasia and hence often the target of therapy. The principal aim of the present study was to explore, for the first time, whether it is possible to predict the responsiveness of individual words to naming therapy from the psycholinguistic properties of those words and from the length of the phonemic cue required to name them. The relationship between this form of cueing and the outcome of naming therapy is of particular interest given that cueing is an established research and clinical tool within aphasiology, and is commonly used to probe naming performance. Method: By amalgamating data from 3 previous studies, we were able to analyze data from 22 participants with chronic aphasia, yielding cueing and therapy data for 1080 target words. Cross-session changes in cueing and naming accuracy were collated for 298 target words. Results: The results demonstrated that items which were accurately named after therapy (both at 1wk and 5wk later) required a significantly shorter phonemic cue to prompt correct naming in assessments prior to therapy. Imageability was a significant predictor of the required cue level, whereas word age of acquisition and word frequency were not. Highly imageable words required less cueing and were more likely to be accurately named posttherapy. A novel analysis of cross-session accuracy revealed that, even though the required cue length reduced across the first 6 of 10 therapy sessions, the relationship between the required cue length and final posttherapy accuracy was present throughout therapy. Discussion: The findings are discussed in the context of their clinical implications for intervention, specifically for therapies that focus on accurate production of specific word targets. Themes for future related research are also considered.

In their target article, summarise some of the crucial features and history of single case cognitive neuropsychology and its importance for the past and future of aphasiology. This is a timely topic for at least two reasons: First, it follows more general discussions on the role of single case versus case series approaches to neuropsychology (we refer the reader to these in-depth and thoughtful pieces, see

Background: Anomia refers to difficulties retrieving words and is 1 of the most common symptoms of aphasia and hence often the target of therapy. The principal aim of the present study was to explore, for the first time, whether it is possible to predict the responsiveness of individual words to naming therapy from the psycholinguistic properties of those words and from the length of the phonemic cue required to name them. The relationship between this form of cueing and the outcome of naming therapy is of particular interest given that cueing is an established research and clinical tool within aphasiology, and is commonly used to probe naming performance. Method: By amalgamating data from 3 previous studies, we were able to analyze data from 22 participants with chronic aphasia, yielding cueing and therapy data for 1080 target words. Cross-session changes in cueing and naming accuracy were collated for 298 target words. Results: The results demonstrated that items which were accurately named after therapy (both at 1wk and 5wk later) required a significantly shorter phonemic cue to prompt correct naming in assessments prior to therapy. Imageability was a significant predictor of the required cue level, whereas word age of acquisition and word frequency were not. Highly imageable words required less cueing and were more likely to be accurately named posttherapy. A novel analysis of cross-session accuracy revealed that, even though the required cue length reduced across the first 6 of 10 therapy sessions, the relationship between the required cue length and final posttherapy accuracy was present throughout therapy. Discussion: The findings are discussed in the context of their clinical implications for intervention, specifically for therapies that focus on accurate production of specific word targets. Themes for future related research are also considered.

Three studies investigate how physiological emotional responses can be combined with symbolic information to predict preferences. The first study used a weighted proportional difference rule to combine explicitly quantified symbolic and emotional information. The proportion of emotion model was more predictive than a simple additive emotional (AE) combination in decisions about selecting dating partners. Study 2 showed that a simple proportion algorithm of emotionally derived weights and a simple AE model predicted preference equally well for decisions between equal expected value (EV) gambles. Study 3 provided additional evidence for decision mechanisms that combine physiological measures within symbolic trade‐off algorithms for choices between diamond rings. Self‐reported emotion measures proved to be better predictors than physiological measures. The results are discussed in the context of other major models of emotional influence on preference and provide a foundation for future...

The article presents the initial results of applying a multidimensional methodology to the sociological measurement of the level of Russian identity. The multidimensional approach to measuring the level of Russian identity was constructed based on a five-component model of in-group identification developed by K. Leach and colleagues. This methodology allows for the quantitative measurement of the degree of formation of components such as cohesion (psychological connection with other members of the community), emotional satisfaction with belonging to the community, salience (the significance of belonging to a particular community in the structure of a person&#39;s self-concept or &quot;I-concept&quot;), self-stereotyping (conviction of one&#39;s similarity to other members of the same community), and homogeneity (perception of the community as a whole). The empirical basis of the study was the data from a survey of residents of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) conducted in 2021-2022, ...

L'objectif de ce chapitre est de présenter l'état d'avancement d'une série de recherches originales développée depuis quatre années par les auteurs, dans le cadre de travaux sur la prise de décision. Ces auteurs se sont intéressés plus particulièrement à l'un des biais cognitifs les plus connus en sciences cognitives : l'effet de dotation. Ces recherches pluridisciplinaires se situent au carrefour de quatre disciplines : l'économie expérimentale, la psychologie cognitive et développementale, le droit et l'anthropologie. Après avoir brièvement rappelé ce qu'est l'effet de dotation et exposé les principales explications classiques, nous présenterons une nouvelle étayée sur la base d'une série d'études. Nous serons conduits à prendre en compte le droit et, plus spécifiquement, le droit coutumier. Il nous faudra également disposer d'une compréhension anthropologique fine pour comprendre la société dans laquelle ces études ont été conduites. C'est à Taller que l'on doit, à notre connaissance, la première définition de l'effet de dotation : « This pattern-the fact that people often demand much more to give up an object than they would be willing to pay to acquire it-is called the endowment effect » . En d'autres termes, les sujets vont accorder une valeur plus importante à un bien qu'ils possèdent qu'à un même bien qui ne leur appartient pas.

Introduction: Phonological awareness and working memory are two important factors in literacy acquisition. Since auditory system plays an essential role in phonological processing, we investigated such skills in deaf population in the present study. Materials and Methods: Twenty deaf children with severe and profound bilateral sensory-neural hearing loss and twenty healthy control subjects were examined in this cross-sectional study. Children were students in second grade of public elementary schools in Karaj city (Iran). All participants were given phonological awareness, reading comprehension, visual working memory and auditory-verbal memory tests. Between-groups data analysis was processed and the relationship between task scores was investigated in the deaf group. Results: Deaf children had significantly less scores in all tasks (p˂0.001) compared to their normal peers except for the visual working memory test. There was a positive correlation between reading comprehension and both the visual working memory and phonological awareness in the deaf group. Nevertheless no relationship was found between reading comprehension and auditory-verbal memory. Conclusion: Deaf children used both their phonological awareness and orthographic knowledge In the reading activity, requiring a good visual working memory. Although it seems that such children are reliant on their visual ability and not their auditory or kinetic senses in phonological acquisition.

Suasana interior kafe yang dapat memberikan pengalaman romantis diperlukan oleh pengunjung yang berpasangan. Pada penelitian sebelumnya, pengaruh dari variabel pendukung pengalaman romantis dijelaskan secara terpisah, untuk itu penelitian ini menguji kombinasi dari variabel warna meja, musik, dan pencahayaan terhadap persepsi pengalaman romantis. Dua puluh pasang responden dilibatkan untuk menilai kondisi dari kombinasi variabel yang paling efektif dalam mendukung suasana romantis di dalam kafe. Hasil penelitian yang didapat secara umum adalah warna merah pada meja dan jenis musik klasik lebih dapat menciptakan persepsi pengalaman romantis dibandingkan dengan warna ungu pada meja dan jenis musik jazz. Dalam mendukung stimulus atau variabel berupa warna dan musik digunakan pencahayaan dengan intensitas pencahayaan redup. Kesimpulan tersebut didasarkan pada respon persepsi yang diberikan subjek penelitian dimana variabel warna interior dengan warna merah memiliki nilai rata-rata yang lebih tinggi dibandingkan warna ungu. Hal yang sama terjadi pada pemilihan musik dimana jenis musik klasik mendapatkan nilai rata-rata yang lebih tinggi dibandingkan dengan jenis musik jazz.

Understanding the interplay between attachment style, emotional processing, and neural responses is crucial for comprehending the diverse ways individuals function socially and emotionally. While previous research has contributed to our knowledge of how attachment style influences emotional processing, there is still a gap in the literature when it comes to investigating emotional feedback using event-related potentials (ERPs) within a cognitive framework. This study aims to address this gap by examining the effects of attachment style and feedback valence on ERP components, specifically focusing on the P200 and P400. The findings reveal significant effects of attachment style and feedback valence on both components. In insecure attachment styles, noticeable shifts in relative energy are observed during the transition from negative to positive feedback for both the P200 and P400. Conversely, individuals with secure attachment styles exhibit minimal to moderate variations in relative energy, consistently maintaining a lower P200 energy level. Additionally, both secure and insecure individuals demonstrate heightened intensity in the P400 component in response to positive feedback. These findings underscore the influential role of attachment style in shaping emotional reactivity and regulation, emphasizing the significance of attachment theory in understanding individual differences in social and emotional functioning. This study provides novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying the influence of attachment style on emotional processing within the context of cognitive task performance. Future research should consider diverse participant samples, employ objective measures of attachment, and utilize longitudinal designs to further explore the neural processes associated with attachment.

1. CE ESTE PSIHOTERAPIA
2. ISTORIA PSIHOTERAPIEI
3. PSIHOTERAPIA IN VIZIUNEA POPULARA SI CEA STIINTIFICA
4. DESPRE EFICIENTA PSIHOTERAIEI
5. DE LA TEORIA MINTII EXTINSE LA TERAPIA PE INTERNET
6. DE CE MINTEA NOASTRA ZBOARA IN TIMP, IN AMINTIRI SAU IN MINTEA ALTORA
7. DE-MEDICALIZAREA DEPRESIEI – O ALTERNATIVA IN ABORDAREA
TERAPEUTICA A DEPRESIEI; ARGUMENT PENTRU TERAPIA DE ACTIVARE
COMPORTAMENTALA
8. DEZGUSTUL - DE LA O EMOTIE ORALA LA O EMOTIE MORALA
9. DESPRE UMILINTA – SEMNUL MATURITATII SPIRITUALE
TRIBULATIILE SELFULUI IN RELATIA DINTRE TERAPEUT SI PACIENT
10. PLEDOARIE PENTRU CARTILE “AJUTA-TE SINGUR” (“Self-Help”)
11. TERAPIA INTERPERSONALA SI DE RITM SOCIAL A TULBURARII AFECTIVE BIPOLARE
12.. INTRE A FI AUTENTIC SI A FI CONFORMIS

The indoor illumination levels affect emotional states, interpersonal impressions, and psychological distance between the self and others. In this study, we conducted experiment on the effect of the brightness of the room on face-to-face communication between participants as interviewee and the interviewer. Conducting a two-factor mixed analysis of variance on "illumination levels × pre-and post-evaluation," we observed that in dim conditions, the interpersonal distance between the participants and interviewer became significantly closer. The psychological distance to the interviewer was evaluated to be closer in the dim condition. In terms of the degree of satisfaction with the conversation, in the dim condition, the evaluation of two items-"conversation was friendly" and "conversation was valuable"-increased. These results indicate that the dim condition, such as the lowest allowable level of illuminance according to illumination design guidelines, may have a positive effect on the first face-to-face communication.

Near death experiences (NDEs) have been reported throughout time in essentially all cultures. The contents of modem NDEs is independent of gender, age, and profession. The frequency of occurrence is estimated to lie between 10 and 50 percent of all near-death situations. This frequency could be higher still, perhaps even 100 percent, were it not for the dreamlike and dissociative character of the experience and the amnesia-prone participation of the temporal lobe causing a clear tendency to forget the NDE. A number of similar elements are common to NDEs, such as an out-of-body experience (OBE) in which the physical body and its surroundings are observed from various external vantage points, often from above. Numerous cases exist in which the reality of the OBE-observation can be independently 'verified, by external conditions, situations, people, objects, etc. Even previously non-religious ND experiencers subsequently show a markedly decreased fear of death and a corresponding increase in belief in life after death. Certain elements of NDE-like experiences can be induced by, for example, electrical stimulation of the right temporal lobe or the use of hallucinogenic substances. It is possible that hallucinogenic transmitters (and endorphins) of the brain itself play a role in the NDE. Nevertheless, there are NDE-elements, such as the frequently reported life-review and certainly the acquisition of external, verifiable information concerning the physical surroundings during the experience, that cannot be explained by physiological causes. Wish-fulfillment, death-denial or other defense mechanisms of the brain are also not adequate explanations. The large body of NDE data now accumulated point to genuine evidence for a non-physical reality and paranormal capacities of the human being.

This comprehensive analysis delves into the evolution of Serbian foreign policy under the leadership of Aleksandar Vucic, elucidating the nation's endeavours to navigate the complex interplay of interests and alignments that define its relationships with both the European Union and Russia. The study examines the historical context, Vucic's rise to power, Serbia's interactions with the EU and Russia, and the challenges and opportunities associated with the nation's balancing act. It highlights the pragmatic, adaptive, and strategically autonomous approach to international relations that has characterized Vucic's foreign policy legacy, while also considering potential trajectories for Serbia's foreign policy in the post-Vucic era. In conclusion, the study offers recommendations for future research on Serbian foreign policy and international relations, emphasizing the need to explore the various factors that may influence the nation's future alignment with the EU or Russia, as well as the domestic political dynamics, regional geopolitics, economic imperatives, and security concerns that may impinge upon Serbia's strategic calculus.

Previous studies on projective techniques have investigated the effects of variation in stimulus features on individuals' response behavior. In particular, the influence of chromatic colors and form definition on the images elicited by the stimuli has been tested. Most studies have focused on the Rorschach and TAT and have examined effects in terms of variables such as reality testing and reactions to perceptual details. This is the first study to examine the effects of variation in visual stimuli as represented in features of the Object Relations Technique (ORT) cards on linguistic indicators of connection to emotional experience using measures of the referential process. The ORT was administered to 207 Italian non-clinical participants to explore effects of color, form and content variation on language style. The sample was stratified by age, gender, marital status and education to be representative of the Italian population. The stories told in response to the card images were rated using computerized linguistic measures, including the Weighted Referential Activity Dictionary-Italian version (IWRAD) which indicates the degree to which language is connected to nonverbal experience, and the Weighted Reflection/Reorganization List-Italian version (IWRRL) which detects a linguistic style of personal re-elaboration of emotional experience. The results provide support for the color-affect and form-reality testing hypotheses. Cards with better form definition, including color definition, and with fewer silhouettes of people elicited responses that were higher in IWRAD and lower in IWRRL, and also higher in the degree to which the two measures varied together. Implications of the results for use of ORT in clinical assessment and intervention are discussed.

This study compared Hispanic children (ages 7 to 11) with combined type (CT, n = 33) and inattentive type (IT, n = 21) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a control group (n = 25) on time-estimation and time-reproduction tasks. The ADHD groups showed larger errors in time reproduction but not in time estimation than the control group, and the groups did not differ from each other on their performance on this task. Individual differences could not be accounted for by oppositional-defiance ratings and low math or reading scores. Although various measures of executive functioning did not make significant unique contributions to time estimation performance, those of interference control and nonverbal working memory did so to the time-reproduction task. Findings suggest that ADHD is associated with a specific impairment in the capacity to reproduce rather than estimate time durations and that this may be related to the children's deficits in inhibition and working memory.

Many people believe that emotional memories (including those that arise in therapy) are particularly likely to represent true events because of their emotional content. But is emotional content a reliable indicator of memory accuracy? The current research assessed the emotional content of participants' preexisting (true) and manipulated (false) memories for childhood events. False memories for one of three emotional childhood events were planted using a suggestive manipulation and then compared, along several subjective dimensions, with other participants' true memories. On most emotional dimensions (e.g., how emotional was this event for you?), true and false memories were indistinguishable. On a few measures (e.g., intensity of feelings at the time of the event), true memories were more emotional than false memories in the aggregate, yet true and false memories were equally likely to be rated as uniformly emotional. These results suggest that even substantial emotional content may not reliably indicate memory accuracy.

We present an analytical study that puts forward a hypothesis about the role of analogy in thinking. The article presents a critique of the structural mapping hypothesis in analogy as an explanation of the analogical argument and will offer an alternative explanation-the functional hypothesis of the analogical argument. It will also be shown how such functions of thinking as recognition and memory, metaphor and syllogism, generalization and ontology, deduction and induction can be realized with the help of the analogy method developed by the author. The article puts forward a hypothesis that these different functions are nothing more than different manifestations of one mechanism for the dissemination of thinking patterns through analogy. In the previous article [1] we described the results of experiments on obtaining analogs of words based on the statistics of predicates extracted from texts by a simple parser. In this article, continuing the topic of analogy, we will analyze two aspects:-how similar expressions (analogous argument) are found when solving problems and learning-what is the role of analogy in thinking, namely, what thinking processes are realized with the help of analogy. The article critically examines the most well-known approaches to explaining and attempting to implement analogy. The authors propose another hypothesis, called functional analogy, which is distinguished by the simplicity of explaining the analogical argument, greater correspondence to examples of analogy, in the authors' opinion, and the possibility of programmatic implementation.

Background Human emotional expressions serve an important communicatory role allowing the rapid transmission of valence information among individuals. We aimed at exploring the neural networks mediating the recognition of and empathy with human facial expressions of emotion. Methods A principal component analysis was applied to event-related functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) data of 14 right-handed healthy volunteers (29 +/- 6 years). During scanning, subjects viewed happy, sad and neutral face expressions in the following conditions: emotion recognition, empathizing with emotion, and a control condition of simple object detection. Functionally relevant principal components (PCs) were identified by planned comparisons at an alpha level of p &lt; 0.001. Results Four PCs revealed significant differences in variance patterns of the conditions, thereby revealing distinct neural networks: mediating facial identification (PC 1), identification of an expressed emotion (PC 2), attention to...

IntroductionPunishment is a powerful drive that fosters aversive motivation and increases negative affect. Previous studies have reported that this drive has the propensity to improve cognitive control, as shown by improved conflict processing when it is used. However, whether aversive motivation per se or negative affect eventually drives this change remains unclear because in previous work, the specific contribution of these two components could not be isolated.MethodsTo address this question, we conducted two experiments where we administered the confound minimized Stroop task to a large group of participants each time (N = 50 and N = 47 for Experiment 1 and 2, respectively) and manipulated punishment and feedback contingency using a factorial design. These two experiments were similar except that in the second one, we also measured awareness of feedback contingency at the subjective level. We reasoned that cognitive control would improve the most when punishment would be used, a...

Aims: This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of test anxiety among pre-service teachers, considering its broader implications for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4. It investigated the manifestations, determinants, and coping mechanisms associated with test anxiety in this population of future educators who undergo critical evaluations that shape their professional abilities.

Along with increase in affective value of product, "bringing happiness to people" has become product designers' mission nowadays. Starting from viewpoint of emotional design, this study discusses rational and perceptual interactive relationship between human and products through pursuing "eudaimonia" philosophy, and utilizes multiple-perspective analysis to know perceptual connotation and design strategy of product eudaimonia perception. Three issues are explored: (1) The Chinese and western theories about "eudaimonia". (2) Experts and users' viewpoints of eudaimonia perception of a product. (3) The design communication of eudaimonia perception on products. Research results show that connotations of product eudaimonia perception include three aspects: physiological, psychological and spiritual, and this is in agreement with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. In addition, the generalized 9 dimensions and 20 design indicators of perceptive connotations also demonstrate key features of product eudaimonia perception design. Aimed at beautifying user's somatic and psychic environment as well as delivering optimistic and positive energy, product eudaimonia perception design hopes to construct happy ethics of product design by establishment of product eudaimonia design mode and make "eudaimonia" spread along with expanding of products.

Previous studies indicate that musical instrument training may improve the cognitive function of older adults. However, little is known about the neural origins of trainingrelated improvement in cognitive function. Here, we assessed the effects of instrumental training program on cognitive functions and neural efficiency in musically naïve older adults (61-85 years old). Participants were assigned to either the intervention group, which received a 4-month instrumental training program using keyboard harmonica, or a control group without any alternative training. Cognitive measurements and functional magnetic resonance imaging during visual working memory (VWM) task were administered before and after the intervention in both groups. Behavioral data revealed that the intervention group significantly improved memory performance on the test that measures verbal recall compared to the control group. Neuroimaging data revealed that brain activation in the right supplementary motor area, left precuneus, and bilateral posterior cingulate gyrus (PCgG) during the VWM task decreased after instrumental training only in the intervention group. Taskrelated functional connectivity (FC) analysis revealed that the intervention group showed decreased FC between the right PCgG and left middle temporal gyrus, and between the left putamen and right superior temporal gyrus (lPu-rSTG) during a VWM task after the intervention. Furthermore, a greater improvement in memory performance in the intervention group was associated with a larger reduction in lPu-rSTG FC, which might be interpreted as improved neural efficiency. Our results indicate that the musical instrument training program may contribute to improvements in verbal memory and neural efficiency in novice older adults.

Background: Poor delivery of childhood immunization with the interacting factors has been a significant public health challenge especially in the sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria has been presented as one the countries with the worst under-five mortality rates, and factors affecting childhood immunization including maternal factors are poorly understood. The study determined the influence of maternal characteristics and immunization status of under-five children in Ebonyi State. Methods: Data were collected using an Immunization Status Checklist (ISC). The population of the study was 572,955 under-five children in Ebonyi State from which 2865 was sampled. Data were analyzed using percentages and chi-square. The findings of the study revealed that 83.01% of under-5 children were fully immunized. The chi-square analysis shows a significant influence of mothers' parity at (p<0.05), mothers' occupation at (p<0.05) and mothers' use of antenatal services at (p<0.05). The study concluded that immunization status of under-five children in Ebonyi State was high and maternal characteristics had significant influence on immunization status of under-five children. Thus, recommended that government should provide tangible incentives to mothers who fully immunized their children and promulgate a law to prevent children without immunization cards showing full immunization from registering in public and private primary schools.

such a language should be truthful to the domain in reality it is supposed to represent. In the work presented in this thesis, we systematically study some of the relations between a modeling language and a set of real-world phenomena in a given domain. Thus, one of the questions which are addressed here is: how can we assess the ontology adequacy of a given modeling language? In simple terms, ontological adequacy is a measure of how close the models produced using a modeling language are to the situations in reality they are supposed to represent. In this thesis, we show how modeling languages can be evaluated and (re)designed with the purpose of improving their ontological adequacy, by proposing a systematic evaluation method for comparing a metamodel of the concepts underlying a language to a reference ontology of the corresponding domain in reality. However, unlike Levi, the languages in which we have interest here are not the ones of chemistry, but the general conceptual modeling languages that are used in computer science to create domain models in areas such as artificial intelligence, software engineering, domain engineering, database design and integration, enterprise modeling, information systems engineering, among many others. Accordingly, the reference ontology which is needed is not one of a specific domain such as chemistry, but a formal (i.e., domain independent) system of categories and their ties that can be used to construct models of specific domain in realities, i.e., a Foundational Ontology. Moreover, since conceptual modeling languages are intended to support human activities such as communication, domain learning and problem solving, this foundational ontology must be one that takes human cognition explicitly into account. The main objective of this work is, thus, to contribute to the theory of conceptual modeling by proposing a reference ontology that can be used to provide ontological foundations for general conceptual modeling concepts, and to analyze, (re) design and provide real-world semantics for general conceptual modeling languages. In particular, we focus here on structural conceptual models (also named domain models, information models, semantic data models). Consequently, the corresponding foundational ontology developed here is an ontology of endurants (objects), as opposed to perdurants (events, processes). More specifically, this ontology addresses issues such as: (i) the general notions of types and their instances; (ii) objects, their intrinsic properties and property-value spaces; (iii) the relation between identity and classification; (iii) distinctions among sorts of types (e.g., kinds, roles, phases, mixins) and their admissible relations; (iv) distinctions among sorts of relational properties; (v) Part-whole relations. This ontology has been developed by adapting and extending a number of theories coming from the areas of formal ontology in philosophy. The "The lines I trace with my feet walking to the museum are more important and more beautiful than the lines I find there hang up on the walls" Friedensreich Hundertwasser This thesis is about objects (things, endurants). However, I strongly believe that even more important than the produced object (the artifact), doing a PhD is about the process of becoming something else. There are several people that deserve my immense gratitude and appreciation for helping me in many possible ways in this transformation process of growing as a person and as a scientist that culminated with this thesis. I will start by thanking my promoter Chris Vissers for giving me the opportunity to develop the research reported in this PhD thesis. I am a great admirer of his seriousness towards science and his attitude with respect to understanding things in their essence. I also would like to thank my daily supervisors: Marten van Sinderen and Luís Ferreira Pires, who painstakingly read and commented almost every paragraph of the original monograph. Their comments played an essential role in improving the quality and accessibility of this dissertation. I have learned many things from them, and I have a deep respect for their commitment and loyalty to their research group. Two people played a fundamental role in the development of the ideas presented here: Gerd Wagner and Nicola Guarino. Gerd has been a great scientific mentor and I doubt I would have made this particular PhD thesis at all if it were not for him. I am indebted to his patience, commitment, encouragement, strategic guidance, and for the various fruitful and exciting discussions in Eindhoven or in countless phone meetings we had over the years. Nicola's pioneering work on the application of philosophical ontology XVI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS in computer science has inspired me for the past eight years. It was a great pleasure to meet and work with him since 2003. We have met in a very critical period of my PhD, and his immediate understanding and strong support for my ideas were of indescribable importance for giving me courage and desire for pursuing this specific thesis. These two people are among the best examples I know of how scientific excellence and kindness go very well together. I am grateful to Heinrich Herre for giving me the opportunity of an invaluable collaboration in the context of the GOL/GFO research project in Leipzig. I have a great admiration for how, despite all the obstacles, he has manage to lead one of the most interesting, serious and inspiring research efforts in the area of formal ontology nowadays. I am honoured to have Professor Peter Apers, Professor Heinrich Herre, Dr. Paul van der Vet, Professor Gerd Wagner and Professor Roel Wieringa in my committee. I am grateful to them for devoting their time to read my dissertation and to participate in my defense. In these years in the ASNA group in the University of Twente, I had the opportunity and pleasure to meet and interact with a number of interesting people that also had a positive influence on my work and my life. A nonexhaustive list of these people includes José Gonçalves

such a language should be truthful to the domain in reality it is supposed to represent. In the work presented in this thesis, we systematically study some of the relations between a modeling language and a set of real-world phenomena in a given domain. Thus, one of the questions which are addressed here is: how can we assess the ontology adequacy of a given modeling language? In simple terms, ontological adequacy is a measure of how close the models produced using a modeling language are to the situations in reality they are supposed to represent. In this thesis, we show how modeling languages can be evaluated and (re)designed with the purpose of improving their ontological adequacy, by proposing a systematic evaluation method for comparing a metamodel of the concepts underlying a language to a reference ontology of the corresponding domain in reality. However, unlike Levi, the languages in which we have interest here are not the ones of chemistry, but the general conceptual modeling languages that are used in computer science to create domain models in areas such as artificial intelligence, software engineering, domain engineering, database design and integration, enterprise modeling, information systems engineering, among many others. Accordingly, the reference ontology which is needed is not one of a specific domain such as chemistry, but a formal (i.e., domain independent) system of categories and their ties that can be used to construct models of specific domain in realities, i.e., a Foundational Ontology. Moreover, since conceptual modeling languages are intended to support human activities such as communication, domain learning and problem solving, this foundational ontology must be one that takes human cognition explicitly into account. The main objective of this work is, thus, to contribute to the theory of conceptual modeling by proposing a reference ontology that can be used to provide ontological foundations for general conceptual modeling concepts, and to analyze, (re) design and provide real-world semantics for general conceptual modeling languages. In particular, we focus here on structural conceptual models (also named domain models, information models, semantic data models). Consequently, the corresponding foundational ontology developed here is an ontology of endurants (objects), as opposed to perdurants (events, processes). More specifically, this ontology addresses issues such as: (i) the general notions of types and their instances; (ii) objects, their intrinsic properties and property-value spaces; (iii) the relation between identity and classification; (iii) distinctions among sorts of types (e.g., kinds, roles, phases, mixins) and their admissible relations; (iv) distinctions among sorts of relational properties; (v) Part-whole relations. This ontology has been developed by adapting and extending a number of theories coming from the areas of formal ontology in philosophy. The "The lines I trace with my feet walking to the museum are more important and more beautiful than the lines I find there hang up on the walls" Friedensreich Hundertwasser This thesis is about objects (things, endurants). However, I strongly believe that even more important than the produced object (the artifact), doing a PhD is about the process of becoming something else. There are several people that deserve my immense gratitude and appreciation for helping me in many possible ways in this transformation process of growing as a person and as a scientist that culminated with this thesis. I will start by thanking my promoter Chris Vissers for giving me the opportunity to develop the research reported in this PhD thesis. I am a great admirer of his seriousness towards science and his attitude with respect to understanding things in their essence. I also would like to thank my daily supervisors: Marten van Sinderen and Luís Ferreira Pires, who painstakingly read and commented almost every paragraph of the original monograph. Their comments played an essential role in improving the quality and accessibility of this dissertation. I have learned many things from them, and I have a deep respect for their commitment and loyalty to their research group. Two people played a fundamental role in the development of the ideas presented here: Gerd Wagner and Nicola Guarino. Gerd has been a great scientific mentor and I doubt I would have made this particular PhD thesis at all if it were not for him. I am indebted to his patience, commitment, encouragement, strategic guidance, and for the various fruitful and exciting discussions in Eindhoven or in countless phone meetings we had over the years. Nicola's pioneering work on the application of philosophical ontology XVI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS in computer science has inspired me for the past eight years. It was a great pleasure to meet and work with him since 2003. We have met in a very critical period of my PhD, and his immediate understanding and strong support for my ideas were of indescribable importance for giving me courage and desire for pursuing this specific thesis. These two people are among the best examples I know of how scientific excellence and kindness go very well together. I am grateful to Heinrich Herre for giving me the opportunity of an invaluable collaboration in the context of the GOL/GFO research project in Leipzig. I have a great admiration for how, despite all the obstacles, he has manage to lead one of the most interesting, serious and inspiring research efforts in the area of formal ontology nowadays. I am honoured to have Professor Peter Apers, Professor Heinrich Herre, Dr. Paul van der Vet, Professor Gerd Wagner and Professor Roel Wieringa in my committee. I am grateful to them for devoting their time to read my dissertation and to participate in my defense. In these years in the ASNA group in the University of Twente, I had the opportunity and pleasure to meet and interact with a number of interesting people that also had a positive influence on my work and my life. A nonexhaustive list of these people includes José Gonçalves

The present work is a part of educational research, which explores the applicability of Catastrophe Theory for testing nonlinear hypotheses in this field. This part is an extension of previous investigations and contributes to the understanding the nature of mental processes in- volved in problem solving. Research has shown that stu- dents&#x27; achievement in science education and particularly in problem solving is associated with some psychometric /cognitive variables, such as information processing ca- pacity (working memory capacity and/or mental capac- ity). The information processing however, interferes with other variables, such as cognitive style or logical thinking, which could act as inhibitory processes. That could lead to working memory overload and to students&#x27; failure. The present work adds to the previous research by examining the working memory overload hypothesis as a catastrophe effect and proposes a cusp model, which accounts for discontinuities in students&#...

О.М. Бабенко Сумський державний педагогічний університет імені А.С. Макаренка СТВОРЕННЯ ТА ВПРОВАДЖЕННЯ МІЖПРЕДМЕТНИХ КУРСІВ ЗА ВИБОРОМ У СТАРШІЙ ШКОЛІ У статті розглянуто особливості розробки та застосування в навчальному процесі старшої профільної школи курсів за вибором. Головна увага приділена міжпредметним курсам, метою яких є інтеграція знань учнів з навчальних предметів, що вивчаються ними на профільному рівні. Визначено основні вимоги до таких курсів, спрямовані на активізацію самостійної діяльності учнів. Постановка проблеми. У сучасній освіті гостро стоїть проблема формування в учнів дієвих знань, що є необхідною умовою їх функціональності та можливості бути застосованими не лише на уроках, але і в повсякденному житті. Важливою умовою формування системних і дієвих знань учнів є широке впровадження міжпредметних зв'язків у навчанні, зокрема при вивченні природничих наук. Предметом дослідження кожної з них (хімії, біології, фізики, географії) є одна зі сторін природи, проте між ними немає ані чіткого розмежування ані протиріч. Тому послідовне та систематичне здійснення міжпредметних зв'язків значно посилює ефективність навчально-виховного процесу, формує науковий спосіб мислення учнів, сприяє розвитку в учнів інтересу до навчання взагалі та до змісту матеріалу природничих наук зокрема. Переважна більшість вчителів визнає важливість забезпечення міжпредметних зв'язків у навчанні. Проте на практиці це обмежується лише нагадуванням деяких фактів, явищ або закономірностей з суміжних предметів, частковим введенням до змісту уроків міжпредметного навчального матеріалу та фрагментарним включенням школярів у самостійну роботу з застосування міжпредметних знань і умінь. Все вищесказане приводить до неспроможності школярів здійснювати перенос і синтез знань з суміжних предметів, нерозуміння цілісності живої природи, відсутності свідомого засвоєння знань. На нашу думку, позбавитися названих недоліків предметного навчання у старших класах можна шляхом включення до навчального плану міжпредметних курсів за вибором (факультативів, спецкурсів, спецсемінарів тощо). Названі види занять складають варіативну частину змісту загальної середньої освіти, що формується загальноосвітнім навчальним закладом з урахуванням особливостей регіону, типу закладу, інтересів і запитів учнів. Аналіз актуальних досліджень. Як відомо, варіативна частина Базового навчального плану передбачає навчальні години для реалізації шкільного освітнього компонента, який формується кожною школою окремо, самостійно на основі врахування спрямованості пізнавальних інтересів, освітніх запитів, життєвих планів, індивідуальних особливостей

Extensive behavioural, pharmacological, and neurological research reports stress effects on mammalian memory processes. While stress effects on memory quantity have been known for decades, the influence of stress on multiple memory systems and their distinct contributions to the learning process have only recently been described. In this paper, after summarizing the fundamental biological aspects of stress/emotional arousal and recapitulating functionally and anatomically distinct memory systems, we review recent animal and human studies exploring the effects of stress on multiple memory systems. Apart from discussing the interaction between distinct memory systems in stressful situations, we will also outline the fundamental role of the amygdala in mediating such stress effects. Additionally, based on the methods applied in the herein discussed studies, we will discuss how memory translates into behaviour.

Extensive behavioural, pharmacological, and neurological research reports stress effects on mammalian memory processes. While stress effects on memory quantity have been known for decades, the influence of stress on multiple memory systems and their distinct contributions to the learning process have only recently been described. In this paper, after summarizing the fundamental biological aspects of stress/emotional arousal and recapitulating functionally and anatomically distinct memory systems, we review recent animal and human studies exploring the effects of stress on multiple memory systems. Apart from discussing the interaction between distinct memory systems in stressful situations, we will also outline the fundamental role of the amygdala in mediating such stress effects. Additionally, based on the methods applied in the herein discussed studies, we will discuss how memory translates into behaviour.

Sleep restriction causes impaired cognitive performance that can result in adverse consequences in many occupational settings. Individuals may rely on self-perceived alertness to decide if they are able to adequately perform a task. It is therefore important to determine the relationship between an individual&#39;s self-assessed alertness and their objective performance, and how this relationship depends on circadian phase, hours since awakening, and cumulative lost hours of sleep. Healthy young adults (aged 18-34) completed an inpatient schedule that included forced desynchrony of sleep/wake and circadian rhythms with twelve 42.85-hour &quot;days&quot; and either a 1:2 (n = 8) or 1:3.3 (n = 9) ratio of sleep-opportunity:enforced-wakefulness. We investigated whether subjective alertness (visual analog scale), circadian phase (melatonin), hours since awakening, and cumulative sleep loss could predict objective performance on the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT), an Addition/Calculati...

The present state of forensic psychology and psychiatry requires a fresh assessment of the circumstances in which the justice system uses specialist knowledge of the principles and processes that underlie the human psyche and particularly mental health. The multidisciplinary and complementary approach to diagnosis, therapy and rehabilitation that is now standard practise when dealing with various mental disorders also requires the re-evaluation of the traditional criteria applied to the knowledge and skills of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists. while psychological and psychiatric knowledge is becoming increasingly more integrated, this trend is taking hold only slowly in forensic psychology and psychiatry. Given that the current legal provisions increasingly require the submission of complex psychiatric-psychological expert opinions, the issue appears worthy of further consideration. The complex approach to expert opinions has both advantages and drawbacks. There is a risk in preparing an interdisciplinary opinion of "mixing up" the concepts and terms used by experts in different specialisations and of encountering methodological difficulties. on the other hand, it would seem that drawing up complex expert opinions of interdisciplinary scope is now indispensable and a strong argument for the validity of the proposed approach may be made by referring to the positive experience with the DsM classification system. This paper analyses the principles and fields of psychiatric-psychological cooperation to produce expert opinions that arise from the provisions of the criminal and civil law. The issues involved are non-accountability, the imposition of preventive measures, prediction, assessing violence risk and certain civil law questions, such as incapacitation and declaration of will, which pose problems in preparing expert opinions. The model of psychiatricpsychological cooperation adopted by the legislator does not fully reflect the range of knowledge, skills and abilities involved in psychiatric and psychological practise and is not an internally coherent or consistent solution. Nevertheless, it does create the conditions for such cooperation to take place.

The present state of forensic psychology and psychiatry requires a fresh assessment of the circumstances in which the justice system uses specialist knowledge of the principles and processes that underlie the human psyche and particularly mental health. The multidisciplinary and complementary approach to diagnosis, therapy and rehabilitation that is now standard practise when dealing with various mental disorders also requires the re-evaluation of the traditional criteria applied to the knowledge and skills of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists. while psychological and psychiatric knowledge is becoming increasingly more integrated, this trend is taking hold only slowly in forensic psychology and psychiatry. Given that the current legal provisions increasingly require the submission of complex psychiatric-psychological expert opinions, the issue appears worthy of further consideration. The complex approach to expert opinions has both advantages and drawbacks. There is a risk in...

This paper proposes the robust Bayes Factor as a direct generalization of the conventional Bayes Factor for a special case of independent two-sample comparisons. Such comparisons are of great importance in psychological research, and more generally wherever the scientific endeavour is to ascertain a potential group effect. The conventional Bayes Factor as the ratio of the marginal likelihoods under two considered hypotheses demands for a precise, subjective specification of the prior distribution for the parameter of interest. Thus, it lacks the possibility of incorporating prior knowledge that is only available partially. Drawing on the theory of Imprecise Probabilities, the robust Bayes Factor is presented in view of lifting the restrictions on the specification of the prior distribution as being precise. In practice, the robust Bayes Factor approach enables an analyst to specify hyperparameter intervals, whose lengths correspond to the degree of subjective prior uncertainty. Base...

This study examines the potential vulnerability of short-term memory processes to distraction by spatial changes within to-be-ignored bimodal, vibratory, and auditory stimuli. Participants were asked to recall sequences of serially presented digits or locations of dots while being exposed to to-be-ignored stimuli. On unexpected occasions, the bimodal to-be-ignored sequence, vibratory to-be-ignored sequence, or auditory to-be-ignored sequence changed their spatial origin from one side of the body (e.g., ear and arm, arm only, ear only) to the other. It was expected that the bimodal stimuli would make the spatial change more salient compared to that of the uni-modal stimuli and that this, in turn, would yield an increase in distraction of serial short-term memory in both the verbal and spatial domains. Our results support this assumption as a disruptive effect of the spatial deviant was only observed when presented within the bimodal to-be-ignored sequence: uni-modal to-be-ignored sequences, whether vibratory: or auditory, had no impact on either verbal or spatial short-term memory. Implications for models of attention capture and the potential special attention capturing role of bimodal stimuli are discussed.

Automatic information processing has been and still is a debated topic. Traditionally, automatic processes are deemed to take place autonomously and independently of top-down cognitive control. For decades, the literature on reading has brought to the fore empirical phenomena such as Stroop and semantic priming effects that provide support for the assumption that semantic information can be accessed automatically. More recently, there has been growing evidence that semantic processing is in fact susceptible to higher level cognitive influences, suggesting that this form of processing is instead conditionally automatic. The purpose of the present study was to revisit this debate using a novel approach: the automatic access to the meaning of irrelevant auditory stimuli was tested through the assessment of their distractive power. More specifically, we aimed to examine whether a categorical change in the content of to-be-ignored auditory sequences composed of speech items that are personally non-significant to participants (e.g., a digit among letters) can disrupt an unrelated visual focal task. In seven experiments, we assessed this categorical deviation effect and its functional properties. We established that distraction by categorical deviation is non-contingent on the activated task set and appears resistant to topdown control manipulations. By suggesting not only that the semantic content of the irrelevant sound can be extracted preattentively, but also that such semantic activation is ineluctable during auditory distraction, these findings shed new light on the automatic nature of semantic processing.

Memory is facilitated by reflecting upon, or revisiting, the environment in which information was encoded. We investigated these "context reinstatement" (CR) techniques to improve the effectiveness of facial compositesvisual likenesses of a perpetrator's face constructed by eyewitnesses. Participant-constructors viewed a face and, after a one-day-delay, revisited (Physical CR) or recalled the environmental context (Mental/Detailed CR) before recalling the face and constructing an EvoFIT or a PRO-fit composite. Detailed CR increased correct naming of ensuing composites, but only when participant-constructors suitably encoded the environment. Detailed CR was also effective when combined with another interviewing technique (Holistic-Cognitive Interview), with focus on a target's character; it was no more effective prompting constructors to engage in greater environmental recall. Analyses indicate that the Detailed CR advantage was mediated by an increase in face recall. Results are applicable by forensic practitioners to aid eyewitness memory, thereby potentially increasing suspect identification and subsequent arrest rates.

People's belief that one or more environmentally friendly items that are added to a set of conventional items can reduce the total environmental impact of these items (the negative footprint illusion) could lead to unwanted environmental consequences. An averaging bias seems to underpin this illusion: people make their estimates based on the average of the environmental impact produced by the items rather than the accumulated sum. We report four studies that used various priming manipulations to explore whether people's preoccupation to think in terms of an average can be eliminated by fostering a summative mindset. The results demonstrate that participants avoid succumbing to the negative footprint illusion when the critical judgment task is preceded by tasks that engender a summation judgment. Our evidence indicates that the negative footprint illusion can be tempered when a primed concept (summation) is used adaptively on subsequent judgments, thereby correcting for bias in environmental judgments.

Auditory distraction during semantic processing: Data and a model Philip Beaman University of Reading John Marsh Cardiff University Dylan Jones Cardiff University, University of Western Australia Abstract: An experiment is reported demonstrating how free recall of visually-presented, categorically-related lists of words is disturbed by the presence of auditory distracters which subjects were instructed to ignore. Data show that auditory distracters from the same category as the to-be-recalled items produce the most disturbance to recall and result in the most intrusion errors. Additionally, the points at which these intrusion errors occur differ dependent upon whether recall is written or spoken. A variant of the SIMPLE (Scale Invariant Memory and Perceptual Learning) model (Brown, Neath & Chater, 2007) is fit to these data and the modifications necessary to achieve this fit are discussed. It is concluded that intrusion errors are not random but are dependent upon a weighted combina...

Irrelevant sounds can be very distracting, especially when trying to recall information according to its serial order. The irrelevant sound effect (ISE) has been studied in the literature for more than 40 years, yet many questions remain. One goal that has received little attention involves the discernment of a predictive factor, or individual difference characteristic, that would help to determine the size of the ISE. The current experiments were designed to replicate and extend prior work by Macken, Phelps, and Jones (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 139-144, 2009), who demonstrated a significant predictive relationship between the size of the ISE and a type of auditory processing called global pattern matching. The authors also found a relationship between auditory processing involving deliberate recoding of sounds and serial order recall performance in silence. Across two experiments, this dissociation was not replicated. Additionally, the two types of auditory processing were not significantly correlated with each other. The lack of a clear pattern of findings replicating the Macken et al. (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 139-144, 2009) study raises several questions regarding the need for future research on the characteristics of these auditory processing tasks, and the stability of the measurement of the ISE itself.

Bilinguals often show a disadvantage in lexical access on verbal fluency tasks wherein the criteria require the production of words from semantic categories. However, the pattern is more heterogeneous for letter (phonemic) fluency wherein the task is to produce words beginning with a given letter. Here, bilinguals often outperform monolinguals. One explanation for this is that phonemic fluency, as compared with semantic fluency, is more greatly underpinned by executive processes and that bilinguals exhibit better performance on phonemic fluency due to better executive functions. In this study, we re-analyzed phonemic fluency data from the Betula study, scoring outputs according to two measures that purportedly reflect executive processes: clustering and switching. Consistent with the notion that bilinguals have superior executive processes and that these can be used to offset a bilingual disadvantage in verbal fluency, bilinguals (35-65 years at baseline) demonstrated greater switching and clustering throughout the 15-year study period.

Background music has been claimed to enhance people's creativity. In three experiments, we investigated the impact of background music on performance of Compound Remote Associate Tasks (CRATs), which are widely thought to tap creativity. Background music with foreign (unfamiliar) lyrics (Experiment 1), instrumental music without lyrics (Experiment 2), and music with familiar lyrics (Experiment 3) all significantly impaired CRAT performance in comparison with quiet background conditions. Furthermore, Experiment 3 demonstrated that background music impaired CRAT performance regardless of whether the music induced a positive mood or whether participants typically studied in the presence of music. The findings challenge the view that background music enhances creativity and are discussed in terms of an auditory distraction account (interference-by-process) and the processing disfluency account.

The mere presence of task-irrelevant auditory stimuli is known to interfere with cognitive functioning. Disruption can be caused by changing auditory distractors (the changing-state effect) or by a sound that deviates from the auditory background (the deviation effect). The unitary account of auditory distraction explains both phenomena in terms of attentional capture whereas the duplex-mechanism account posits that they reflect two fundamentally different forms of distraction in which only the deviation effect is caused by attentional capture. To test these predictions, we exploited a physiological index of attention orienting: the pupillary dilation response (PDR). Participants performed visual serial recall while ignoring sequences of spoken letters. These sequences either comprised repeated or changing letters, and one letter could sometimes be replaced by pink noise (the deviant). Recall was poorer in both changing-state and deviant trials. Interestingly, the PDR was elicited by deviant sounds but not changing-state sounds. This physiological dissociation of the changing-state and the deviation effects suggests they are subtended by distinct mechanisms thereby procuring support for the duplex-mechanism account over the unitary account.