Mental time travel in animals?

Are humans alone in their ability to reminisce about the past and imagine the future? Recent evidence suggests that food-storing birds (scrub jays) have access to information about what they have stored where and when. This has raised the possibility of mental time travel (MTT) in animals and sparked similar research with other species. Here we caution that such data do not provide convincing evidence for MTT. Examination of characteristics of human MTT (e.g. non-verbal declaration, generativity, developmental prerequisites) points to other avenues as to how a case for animal MTT could be made. In light of the current lack of evidence, however, we maintain that MTT is a uniquely human characteristic.

Emergence of joint attention: Relationships between gaze following, social referencing, imitation, and naming in infancy

The authors investigated the extent to which the joint-attention behaviors of gaze following, social referencing, and object-directed imitation were related to each other and to infants vocabulary development in a sample of 60 infants between the ages of 8 and 14 months. Joint-attention skills and vocabulary development were assessed in a laboratory setting. Split-half reliability analyses on the joint-attention measures indicated that the tasks reliably assessed infants' capabilities. In the main analysis, no significant correlations were found among the joint-attention behaviors except for a significant relationship between gaze following and the number of names in infants' productive vocabularies. The overall pattern of results did not replicate results of previous studies (e.g., M. Carpenter, K. Nagell, & M. Tomasello, 1998) that found relationships between various emerging joint-attention behaviors.

Students' engagement in schools : differentiation and promotion

The objective of this work is to present elements of the project Student engagement in Schools (SES). The team consists of 10 researchers from six Universities. Student engagement in schools is a multidimensional construct that unites affective, behavioural, and cognitive dimensions of student adaptation in the school and has influence on students’outcomes. The team of researchers conceptualized two major studies, a differential study to analyze the relations between SES and contextual factors, personal factors, student’s outcomes, and a quasi-experimental study to analyze the effects on SES of a specific intervention programmes. In study 1, the sample size is around 600 students (150 6th graders, 150 7th graders, 150 9th graders, and 150 10th graders). We shall focus on years of school transition, with rural and urban populations, on different regions of the country, and on students with different family background. We shall conduct questionnaires with national and international scales. The study 2 will involve students in 7th and 9th grade, from four classes, two of the experimental group and two of the control group. Patterns of verbal communication between a teacher and students can influence the classroom environment and SES. This model of communication would result in more effective student management and more time on-task for learning.

Numerical and experimental study of tensile strength of single and double-strap repairs

Adhesive bonding as a joining or repair method has a wide application in many industries. Repairs with bonded patches are often carried out to re-establish the stiffness at critical regions or spots of corrosion and/or fatigue cracks. Single and double-strap repairs (SS and DS, respectively) are a viable option for repairing. For the SS repairs, a patch is adhesively-bonded on one of the structure faces. SS repairs are easy to execute, but the load eccentricity leads to peel peak stresses at the overlap edges. DS repairs involve the use of two patches, one on each face of the structure. These are more efficient than SS repairs, due to the doubling of the bonding area and suppression of the transverse deflection of the adherends. Shear stresses also become more uniform as a result of smaller differential straining. The experimental and Finite Element (FE) study presented here for strength prediction and design optimization of bonded repairs includes SS and DS solutions with different values of overlap length (LO). The examined values of LO include 10, 20 and 30 mm. The failure strengths of the SS and DS repairs were compared with FE results by using the Abaqus® FE software. A Cohesive Zone Model (CZM) with a triangular shape in pure tensile and shear modes, including the mixed-mode possibility for crack growth, was used to simulate fracture of the adhesive layer. A good agreement was found between the experiments and the FE simulations on the failure modes, elastic stiffness and strength of the repairs, showing the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed FE technique in predicting strength of bonded repairs. Furthermore, some optimization principles were proposed to repair structures with adhesively-bonded patches that will allow repair designers to effectively design bonded repairs.

Strength prediction and experimental validation of adhesive joints including polyethylene, carbon-epoxy and aluminium adherends

Polyolefins are especially difficult to bond due to their non-polar, non-porous and chemically inert surfaces. Acrylic adhesives used in industry are particularly suited to bond these materials, including many grades of polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE), without special surface preparation. In this work, the tensile strength of single-lap PE and mixed joints bonded with an acrylic adhesive was investigated. The mixed joints included PE with aluminium (AL) or carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) substrates. The PE substrates were only cleaned with isopropanol, which assured cohesive failures. For the PE CFRP joints, three different surfaces preparations were employed for the CFRP substrates: cleaning with acetone, abrasion with 100 grit sand paper and peel-ply finishing. In the PE AL joints, the AL bonding surfaces were prepared by the following methods: cleaning with acetone, abrasion with 180 and 320 grit sand papers, grit blasting and chemical etching with chromic acid. After abrasion of the CFRP and AL substrates, the surfaces were always cleaned with acetone. The tensile strengths were compared with numerical results from ABAQUS® and a mixed mode (I+II) cohesive damage model. A good agreement was found between the experimental and numerical results, except for the PE AL joints, since the AL surface treatments were not found to be effective.

System Level Simulation and Radio Resource Management for Distributed Antenna Systems with Cognitive Radio and Multi-Cell Cooperation

4th International Conference on Future Generation Communication Technologies (FGCT 2015), Luton, United Kingdom.

Development of cognitive abilities of children infected with helminths through health education

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of health education in learning and cognitive development of children infected, previously treated in an endemic area for helminthiasis. METHODS: It is a longitudinal, experimental, with random allocation of participants. The study included 87 children of both sexes enrolled in the school hall of Maranhão, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and divided into two groups: intervention and control. Initially the children were submitted to the parasitological fecal examination for infection diagnosis and, when positive, they were treated. For the data collection, a structured questionnaire and the psychological tests Raven, Wisc-III and DAP III were applied, before and after the educational intervention. For the group comparison, the Mann Whitney test was used, and established significance level of 5%. RESULTS: It was found that previously infected children who received the educational intervention, children showed higher performance than the control group in strutured questionnaire (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: It is acceptable to suppose the positive influence and the importance in the use of educational interventions in the cognitive recovery and learning of children previously treated with anthelmintics.

Predictors of dropout in a controlled clinical trial of psychotherapy for moderate depression

A significant number of psychotherapy clients remain untreated, and dropping out is one of the main reasons. Still, the literature around this subject is incoherent. The present study explores potential pre-treatment predictors of dropout in a sample of clients who took part in a clinical trial designed to test the efficacy of narrative therapy for major depressive disorder compared to cognitive-behavioral therapy. Logistic regression analysis showed that: (1) treatment assignment did not predict dropout, (2) clients taking psychiatric medication at intake were 80% less likely to drop out from therapy, compared to clients who were not taking medication, and (3) clients presenting anxious comorbidity at intake were 82% less likely to dropout compared to those clients not presenting anxious comorbidity. Results suggest that clinicians should pay attention to depressed clients who are not taking psychiatric medication or have no comorbid anxiety. More research is needed in order to understand this relationship.

Cognitive functioning and efficacy of cognitive intervention in Multiple Sclerosis

Tese de Doutoramento em Psicologia Clínica / Psicologia

Cognitive processes affect the gait of subjects with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease in dual tasks

Objective To investigate the relation between gait parameters and cognitive impairments in subjects with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) during the performance of dual tasks. Methods This was a cross-sectional study involving 126 subjects divided into three groups: Parkinson group (n = 43), Alzheimer group (n = 38), and control group (n = 45). The subjects were evaluated using the Timed Up and Go test administered with motor and cognitive distracters. Gait analyses consisted of cadence and speed measurements, with cognitive functions being assessed by the Brief Cognitive Screening Battery and the Clock Drawing Test. Statistical procedures included mixed-design analyses of variance to observe the gait patterns between groups and tasks and the linear regression model to investigate the influence of cognitive functions in this process. A 5% significant level was adopted. Results Regarding the subjects’ speed, the data show a significant difference between group vs task interaction (p = 0.009), with worse performance of subjects with PD in motor dual task and of subjects with AD in cognitive dual task. With respect to cadence, no statistical differences was seen between group vs task interaction (p = 0.105), showing low interference of the clinical conditions on such parameter. The linear regression model showed that up to 45.79%, of the variance in gait can be explained by the interference of cognitive processes. Conclusion Dual task activities affect gait pattern in subjects with PD and AD. Differences between groups reflect peculiarities of each disease and show a direct interference of cognitive processes on complex tasks.

Representations and the Corruption of Goods

The traditional view of the economic agent is of an individual who is self-interested, rational and perceives the world “correctly”. However, there is a lot of experimental and other evidence that undermines this view of agents. It is argued that an attempt to model these agents properly requires the cognitive science idea of a mental representation- a mental state with content. It is shown that this idea gives economists resources to discuss critiques of economics by Sandel (2012) and Grant (2012). In particular, it allows us to think clearly about the notion of goods being “corrupted” by a change in context from a non-market to a market situation.

Generating controlled image sets in cognitive neuroscience research.

The investigation of perceptual and cognitive functions with non-invasive brain imaging methods critically depends on the careful selection of stimuli for use in experiments. For example, it must be verified that any observed effects follow from the parameter of interest (e.g. semantic category) rather than other low-level physical features (e.g. luminance, or spectral properties). Otherwise, interpretation of results is confounded. Often, researchers circumvent this issue by including additional control conditions or tasks, both of which are flawed and also prolong experiments. Here, we present some new approaches for controlling classes of stimuli intended for use in cognitive neuroscience, however these methods can be readily extrapolated to other applications and stimulus modalities. Our approach is comprised of two levels. The first level aims at equalizing individual stimuli in terms of their mean luminance. Each data point in the stimulus is adjusted to a standardized value based on a standard value across the stimulus battery. The second level analyzes two populations of stimuli along their spectral properties (i.e. spatial frequency) using a dissimilarity metric that equals the root mean square of the distance between two populations of objects as a function of spatial frequency along x- and y-dimensions of the image. Randomized permutations are used to obtain a minimal value between the populations to minimize, in a completely data-driven manner, the spectral differences between image sets. While another paper in this issue applies these methods in the case of acoustic stimuli (Aeschlimann et al., Brain Topogr 2008), we illustrate this approach here in detail for complex visual stimuli.

Improvements in readiness to change and drinking in primary care patients with unhealthy alcohol use: a prospective study.

BACKGROUND: The course of alcohol consumption and cognitive dimensions of behavior change (readiness to change, importance of changing and confidence in ability to change) in primary care patients are not well described. The objective of the study was to determine changes in readiness, importance and confidence after a primary care visit, and 6-month improvements in both drinking and cognitive dimensions of behavior change, in patients with unhealthy alcohol use. METHODS: Prospective cohort study of patients with unhealthy alcohol use visiting primary care physicians, with repeated assessments of readiness, importance, and confidence (visual analogue scale (VAS), score range 1-10 points). Improvements 6 months later were defined as no unhealthy alcohol use or any increase in readiness, importance, or confidence. Regression models accounted for clustering by physician and adjusted for demographics, alcohol consumption and related problems, and discussion with the physician about alcohol. RESULTS: From before to immediately after the primary care physician visit, patients (n = 173) had increases in readiness (mean +1.0 point), importance (+0.2), and confidence (+0.5) (all p < 0.002). In adjusted models, discussion with the physician about alcohol was associated with increased readiness (+0.8, p = 0.04). At 6 months, many participants had improvements in drinking or readiness (62%), drinking or importance (58%), or drinking or confidence (56%). CONCLUSION: Readiness, importance and confidence improve in many patients with unhealthy alcohol use immediately after a primary care visit. Six months after a visit, most patients have improvements in either drinking or these cognitive dimensions of behavior change.