Limitations of working memory are proposed as a major determinant of problem difficulty in the THOG task. This task is a logical reasoning task which uses an exclusive disjunction and requires hypothetico-deductive reasoning. Four experiments with students of mathematics or psychology were used to test the hypotheses that, first, guiding participants' attention facilitates the task and, second, the use of paper and pencil as external problem representation reliefs working memory load. Focusing participants' attention upon a critical aspect of the task does not improve solution rates. Students of mathematics were better than students of psychology, but only if they were allowed to use paper and pencil or to work on the task repeatedly. These results partially support the working memory hypothesis. They point toward the importance of training and practice in relatively simple meta-cognitive skills in logical reasoning.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s004260100060 | DOI Listing |
Sci Rep
January 2025
Department of Psychological Sciences, Rice University, 6100 Main St, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.
Retirement has been associated with cognitive decline beyond normal age-related decline. However, there are many individual differences in retirement that can influence cognition. Subclinical depressive symptoms are common in late life and are associated with general memory decline and a bias towards remembering negative events (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Data
January 2025
Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering, Columbia University, New York, USA.
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and its follow-on (GRACE-FO) missions have provided estimates of Terrestrial Water Storage Anomalies (TWSA) since 2002, enabling the monitoring of global hydrological changes. However, temporal gaps within these datasets and the lack of TWSA observations prior to 2002 limit our understanding of long-term freshwater variability. In this study, we develop GRAiCE, a set of four global monthly TWSA reconstructions from 1984 to 2021 at 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain Res
January 2025
Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta Edmonton Alberta Canada; Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute Edmonton Alberta Canada; Canada Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) AI Chair, Canada.
Humans are excellent at modifying our behaviour depending on context. For example, humans will change how they explore when losses are possible compared to when they are not possible. However, it remains unclear what specific cognitive and neural processes are modulated when exploring in different contexts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Obstet Gynecol
January 2025
Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Background: Menstrual cycle characteristics are potential indicators of hormonal exposures and may also signal cardiovascular disease risk factors, both of which are relevant to cognitive health. However, there is scarce epidemiological evidence on the association between cycle characteristics and cognitive function.
Objectives: We studied the associations of menstrual cycle characteristics at three stages of a woman's reproductive lifespan with cognitive function in midlife.
Unlabelled: We investigated the impact of participation in post-secondary university education (PSE) on the academic knowledge of adult students with severe intellectual disability and extensive support needs (SIDESN) vs. a similar group of controls who did not participate in PSE. We also examined whether the PSE would result in a "near transfer" to basic crystallized (facts and information) and fluid (problems involving executive functions and working memory) cognitive abilities, the contribution of background characteristics and crystallized and fluid abilities to their academic knowledge, semantic fluency and temporal relations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!