Cognition

Titluri inspirationale de la care sa pornim, avand si o baza de cercetare:

Memory for general knowledge information (03/12/13). Researchers: Radka Jersakova & Richard Allen, University of Leeds Meet my Memory (includes prize draw) (03/11/13). Researchers: Katharine Mackenzie & Roshan Das Nair, University of Nottingham Memory game (02/26/13). Researchers: Mara Mather & Michiko Sakaki, University of Southern California Association Strength Rating (02/26/13). Researcher: Shao-Min (Sean) Hung, DukeNUS Graduate Medical School Subjective Experiences in Others Memories (01/28/13). Researcher: Helen Williams, University of Victoria Experiences of Memory 2 (01/22/13). Researchers: Radka Jersakova & Akira O'Connor, University of St Andrews Season of birth, personality, and cognition (12/07/12). Researchers: Davide Bruno, Philippe Chassy & Minna Lyons, Liverpool Hope University Speech Perception in Noise (11/28/12). Researchers: Trevor Cox, Bruno Fazenda, Francis Li, Paul Kendrick, & Iain Jackson. University of Salford Ignore That! (11/15/12). Researcher: Joshua Hartshorne, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Exploring the Uncanny Valley: Emotion and Expression (10/29/12). Researcher: Stephanie Lay, The Open University Decision making: Planning about the future (09/20/12). Researcher: Lora Adair, Kansas State University o Please participate in only one of the studies below: Decision making: Planning about the future and social influences Decision making: Planning about the future and your early home environment Cognitive styles, assessment and feedback preferences (08/21/12). Researcher: Lauren Hurley, Curtin University Legal Reasoning Experiment (about 5-10 minutes) (08/10/12). Researcher: Anne Hsu, University College London Brief Assessment of Subjective Cognition (BASC) (08/07/12). Researcher: Wendy Heath, Rider University Experiences of Memory (07/30/12). Researcher: Radka Jersakova & Akira O'Connor, University of St Andrews Individual thinking styles in relation to decision making and spontaneous or pre-planned behaviour (06/29/12). Researchers: Marek Sinason & Alan Wing, Birmingham University Migraines and Synaesthesia (06/20/12). Researcher: Ruth Maybank, University of St Andrews

How convinced are you? This study looks at how convincing you find people's arguments (about 5-10 minutes) (04/18/12). Researchers: Anne Hsu, Adam Harris & Jens Koed Madsen, University College London Complex classification task; Natural and Artificial NN competition (03/30/12). Researcher: Tadeusz Wibig, University of Lodz Sgt PCMan Experiment Game (01/18/12). Researcher: Steven Glautier, Southampton University Web Experimental Psychology Lab. A web site to participate in learning and cognition experiments. Researcher: Ulf-D Reips, Psychologisches Institut der Universitt Tbingen

Age differences and schema effects in memory for crime information. Overman AA, Wiseman KD, Allison M, Stephens JD. Source a Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program , Elon University , Elon , North Carolina , USA. Abstract Background/Study Context: This study investigated age-related differences in memory for crime information. Older adults have been found to rely more than young adults on schema- and stereotype-based processing in memory, and such age differences may have implications in the criminal justice system. Some prior research has examined schema-based processing among older adults in legal settings, but no studies have tested for schema effects on older adults' memory for specific details of a crime. Methods: Older adults (N = 56, ages 65-93) and young adults (N = 52, ages 18-22) read a passage about a criminal suspect's "bad" or "good" childhood, and then read a crime report containing incriminating, exonerating, and neutral details with regard to the suspect. Participants were subsequently tested on recognition of accurate versus altered details from the crime report. Participants also rated the suspect"s guilt, and completed a battery of neuropsychological tests. Correct and false recognition rates were analyzed with ANOVA to compare means across age group, evidence type, and background type, and guilt ratings were analyzed with linear regression using neuropsychological scores as predictors. Results: Among older adults, an interaction was found between evidence type (incriminating/exonerating) and suspect's background (good/bad childhood) in false recognition of altered details from the crime report, supporting the hypothesis that schema-based processing influenced older adult memory from crime information. Additionally, although guilt ratings were not related to the suspect's background for either age group, they were predicted by older adults' short-delay recall ( = -.37), suggesting that cognitive decline may play a role in older adults' interpretations of evidence. Conclusion: The findings suggest reduced cognitive capacity in older adults increases schema-based processing in memory for crime information, and are consistent with research in other domains that has demonstrated greater schema effects in memory with aging. The results may have implications for criminal justice, and open up

possibilities for further research on how young and older adults may differ in memory for specific types of crime information. Aici avem nevoie de aprobare pentru spitalul Obreja. Mi-ar placea tare mult sa mergem in spital, sa aplicam teste cognitive- de memorie, atentie pe schizofrenici. De asemenea, am putea sa mergem si in azilele de batrani, sa vedem diferentele MSD intre batrani si tineri. Inca ceva!!! ADHD si atentia Mi se pare genial. Effects of cigarette smoking on neuropsychological performance in mood disorders: a comparison between smoking and nonsmoking inpatients. Caldirola D, Dacc S, Grassi M, Citterio A, Menotti R, Cavedini P, Girardi P, Perna G. Source Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Villa San Benedetto Menni, Hermanas Hospitalarias, FoRiPsi, Albese con Cassano, Como, Italy. Abstract OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of cigarette smoking on neuropsychological performance in patients with mood disorders. METHOD: One hundred depressed patients with DSM-IV-TR-defined major depressive disorder (n = 61) or bipolar disorder (n = 39), hospitalized for a 4-week psychiatric rehabilitation program, were included. Forty-five were active regular smokers, and 55 were nonsmokers who had never smoked in their lifetime. At the beginning and the end of the hospitalization, patients were administered a comprehensive neuropsychological battery (evaluation of verbal and visual memory, working memory, attention, visual-constructive ability, language fluency, and comprehension) as primary outcome measures and psychometric scales (evaluation of depression and illness severity). Smoking status was assessed by personal interviews. Investigators were blind to the results of neuropsychological tests and to the smoking status of the patients. Data were collected from February 2011 to January 2012. RESULTS: At the beginning of the hospitalization, smokers showed significantly better performance in verbal memory, language fluency, and workingmemory (all P values < .01) than nonsmokers. No interaction between smoking and diagnosis was found. At the end of the hospitalization, the whole group of patients significantly improved in several cognitive domains, with smokers maintaining significantly better performance in verbal memory, language fluency, and working memory (all P values < .01) than nonsmokers. CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary results indicate a better performance by smokers in verbal memory and working memory domains than by nonsmokers, suggesting that a cognitive enhancement may be associated with nicotine use in depressed patients with MDD or bipolar disorder. Smoking may

be a form of cognitive self-medication mediating the association between smoking and mood disorders. Further studies with larger samples are needed.

Memory loss is a natural process in aging. One study investigated whether or not there were deficits in short-term memory in older adults. This was a previous study which compiled normative French data for three short-term memory tasks (Verbal, visual and spatial). They found impairments present in participants between the ages of 55 and 85 years of age.[27] Alzheimers disease Memory distortion in Alzheimers disease is a very common disorder found in older adults. Performance of patients with mild to moderate Alzheimers disease was compared with the performance of age matched healthy adults.[28] Researchers concluded the study with findings that showed reduced short-term memory recall for Alzheimers patients. Episodic memory and semantic abilities deteriorate early in Alzheimers disease. Since the cognitive system includes interconnected and reciprocally influenced neuronal networks, one study hypothesized that stimulation of lexical-semantic abilities may benefit semantically structured episodic memory.[29] They found that with Lexical-Semantic stimulation treatment may improve episodic memory in Alzheimers Disease patients. It could also be regarded as a clinical option to counteract the cognitive decline typical of the disease Aphasia Aphasias are also seen in many elder adults. Aphasias are responsible for many sentence comprehension deficits.[30][full citation needed] Many language-impaired patients make several complaints about short-term memory deficits. Several family members confirming that patients have trouble recalling previously known names and events. The opinion is supported by many studies showing that many aphasics also have trouble with visual-memory required tasks.[31] Schizophrenia Core symptoms of Schizophrenia patients have been linked to cognitive deficits. One neglected factor that contributes to those deficits is the comprehension of time.[32] In this study, results confirm that cognitive dysfunctions are a major deficit in patients with schizophrenia. The study provided evidence that patients with schizophrenia process temporal information inefficiently. Advanced age Advanced age is associated with decrements in episodic memory. The associative deficit is in which age differences in recognition memory reflect difficulty in binding components of a memory episode and bound units.[33] A previous study used mixed and blocked test designs to examine deficits in short-term memory of older adults and found there was an associative deficit for older adults.[34] This study along with many other previous studies, continue to build evidence of deficits found in older adults short-term memory. Even when neurological diseases and disorders are not present, there is a progressive and gradual loss of some intellectual functions that become evident in later years. There are several tests used to examine the psychophysical characteristics of the elderly and of them, a well suitable test would be the functional reach (FR) test, and the minimental state examination (MMSE). The

FR test is an index of the aptitude to maintain balance in an upright position and the MMSE test is a global index of cognitive abilities. These tests were both used by [35] to evaluate the psychophysical characteristics of older adults. They found a loss of physical performance (FR, related to height) as well as a loss of cognitive abilities (MMSE). Posttraumatic stress disorder Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with altered processing of emotional material with a strong attentional bias toward trauma-related information and interferes with congnitive processing. Aside from trauma processing specificities, a wide range of cognitive impairments have been related to PTSD state with predominant attention and verbal memory deficits. Short-term memory and intelligence There have been few studies done on the relationship between short-term memory and intelligence in PTSD. However,[37] examined whether people with PTSD had equivalent levels of short-term, non-verbal memory on the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT), and whether they had equivalent levels of intelligence on the Raven standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM). They found that people with PTSD had worse short-term, non-verbal memory on the BVRT, despite having comparable levels of intelligence on the RSPM, concluding impairments in memory influence intelligence assessments in the subjects.