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10.3233/PRM-190636

Journal of pediatric rehabilitation medicine

J Pediatr Rehabil Med

Multidisciplinary rehabilitation of a post-stroke pediatric patient considering the ICF perspective.

There is a general lack of evidence on the efficacy of rehabilitation training methods after childhood stroke. The aim of the current paper is to provide an example of a multidisciplinary assessment and intensive patient-centered rehabilitation program that was devised following the Clinical Guidelines for Childhood Stroke Diagnosis, Management and Rehabilitation, based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. The case of a 13-year-old teenager with physical, linguistic, cognitive and emotional impairments after acute ischemic stroke (AIS) in left middle cerebral artery territories is presented and his neurorehabilitation program is described. After an intensive and comprehensive rehabilitation period, the patient showed significant improvement involving language abilities, cognitive flexibility, logical reasoning and motor independence. A 6-month post-stroke follow-up evaluation showed further gains in spontaneous language, improved motivation and collaboration, reduction of impulsiveness and better general motor stability. This case highlights how an intensive, patient-centered, interdisciplinary rehabilitation approach can lead to good improvement across different domains, maximizing the spontaneous recovery in children and adolescents after AIS.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.jbi.2020.103495

Journal of biomedical informatics

J Biomed Inform

Medical idioms for clinical Bayesian network development.

Bayesian Networks (BNs) are graphical probabilistic models that have proven popular in medical applications. While numerous medical BNs have been published, most are presented fait accompli without explanation of how the network structure was developed or justification of why it represents the correct structure for the given medical application. This means that the process of building medical BNs from experts is typically ad hoc and offers little opportunity for methodological improvement. This paper proposes generally applicable and reusable medical reasoning patterns to aid those developing medical BNs. The proposed method complements and extends the idiom-based approach introduced by Neil, Fenton, and Nielsen in 2000. We propose instances of their generic idioms that are specific to medical BNs. We refer to the proposed medical reasoning patterns as medical idioms. In addition, we extend the use of idioms to represent interventional and counterfactual reasoning. We believe that the proposed medical idioms are logical reasoning patterns that can be combined, reused and applied generically to help develop medical BNs. All proposed medical idioms have been illustrated using medical examples on coronary artery disease. The method has also been applied to other ongoing BNs being developed with medical experts. Finally, we show that applying the proposed medical idioms to published BN models results in models with a clearer structure.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1007/s11682-020-00315-5

Brain imaging and behavior

Brain Imaging Behav

Age-related differences in structural and functional prefrontal networks during a logical reasoning task.

In logical reasoning, difficulties in inhibition of currently-held beliefs may lead to unwarranted conclusions, known as belief bias. Aging is associated with difficulties in inhibitory control, which may lead to deficits in inhibition of currently-held beliefs. No study to date, however, has investigated the underlying neural substrates of age-related differences in logical reasoning and the impact of belief load. The aim of the present study was to delineate age differences in brain activity during a syllogistic logical reasoning task while the believability load of logical inferences was manipulated. Twenty-nine, healthy, younger and thirty, healthy, older adults (males and females) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment in which they were asked to determine the logical validity of conclusions. Unlike younger adults, older adults engaged a large-scale network including anterior cingulate cortex and inferior frontal gyrus during conclusion stage. Our functional connectivity results suggest that while older adults engaged the anterior cingulate network to overcome their intuitive responses for believable inferences, the inferior frontal gyrus network contributed to higher control over responses during both believable and unbelievable conditions. Our functional results were further supported by structure-function-behavior analyses indicating the importance of cingulum bundle and uncinate fasciculus integrity in rejection of believable statements. These novel findings lend evidence for age-related differences in belief bias, with potentially important implications for decision making where currently-held beliefs and given assumptions are in conflict.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.2196/17915

Journal of medical Internet research

J Med Internet Res

Evidence Regarding Automatic Processing Computerized Tasks Designed For Health Interventions in Real-World Settings Among Adults: Systematic Scoping Review.

Dual process theories propose that the brain uses 2 types of thinking to influence behavior: automatic processing and reflective processing. Automatic processing is fast, immediate, nonconscious, and unintentional, whereas reflective processing focuses on logical reasoning, and it is slow, step by step, and intentional. Most digital psychological health interventions tend to solely target the reflective system, although the automatic processing pathway can have strong influences on behavior. Laboratory-based research has highlighted that automatic processing tasks can create behavior change; however, there are substantial gaps in the field on the design, implementation, and delivery of automatic processing tasks in real-world settings. It is important to identify and summarize the existing literature in this area to inform the translation of laboratory-based research to real-world settings. This scoping review aims to explore the effectiveness of automatic training tasks, types of training tasks commonly used, mode of delivery, and impacts of gamification on automatic processing tasks designed for digital psychological health interventions in real-world settings among adults. The scoping review methodology proposed by Arskey and O'Malley and Colquhoun was applied. A scoping review was chosen because of the novelty of the digital automatic processing field and to encompass a broad review of the existing evidence base. Electronic databases and gray literature databases were searched with the search terms "automatic processing," "computerised technologies," "health intervention," "real-world," and "adults" and synonyms of these words. The search was up to date until September 2018. A manual search was also completed on the reference lists of the included studies. A total of 14 studies met all inclusion criteria. There was a wide variety of health conditions targeted, with the most prevalent being alcohol abuse followed by social anxiety. Attention bias modification tasks were the most prevalent type of automatic processing task, and the majority of tasks were most commonly delivered over the web via a personal computer. Of the 14 studies included in the review, 8 demonstrated significant changes to automatic processes and 4 demonstrated significant behavioral changes as a result of changed automatic processes. This is the first review to synthesize the evidence on automatic processing tasks in real-world settings targeting adults. This review has highlighted promising, albeit limited, research demonstrating that automatic processing tasks may be used effectively in a real-world setting to influence behavior change.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3389/fnagi.2020.00111

Frontiers in aging neuroscience

Front Aging Neurosci

Role of the Hippocampus During Logical Reasoning and Belief Bias in Aging.

Reasoning requires initial encoding of the semantic association between premises or assumptions, retrieval of these semantic associations from memory, and recombination of information to draw a logical conclusion. Currently-held beliefs can interfere with the content of the assumptions if not congruent and inhibited. This study aimed to investigate the role of the hippocampus and hippocampal networks during logical reasoning tasks in which the congruence between currently-held beliefs and assumptions varies. Participants of younger and older age completed a series of syllogistic reasoning tasks in which two premises and one conclusion were presented and they were required to decide if the conclusion logically followed the premises. The belief load of premises was manipulated to be either congruent or incongruent with currently-held beliefs. Our whole-brain results showed that older adults recruited the hippocampus during the premise integration stage more than their younger counterparts. Functional connectivity using a hippocampal seed revealed that older, but not younger, adults recruited a hippocampal network that included anterior cingulate and inferior frontal regions when premises were believable. Importantly, this network contributed to better performance in believable inferences, only in older adults group. Further analyses suggested that, in older adults group, the integrity of the left cingulum bundle was associated with the higher rejection of believable premises more than unbelievable ones. Using multimodal imaging, this study highlights the importance of the hippocampus during premise integration and supports compensatory role of the hippocampal network during a logical reasoning task among older adults.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1002/hbm.25035

Human brain mapping

Hum Brain Mapp

EEG source-space synchrostate transitions and Markov modeling in the math-gifted brain during a long-chain reasoning task.

To reveal transition dynamics of global neuronal networks of math-gifted adolescents in handling long-chain reasoning, this study explores momentary phase-synchronized patterns, that is, electroencephalogram (EEG) synchrostates, of intracerebral sources sustained in successive 50 ms time windows during a reasoning task and non-task idle process. Through agglomerative hierarchical clustering for functional connectivity graphs and nested iterative cosine similarity tests, this study identifies seven general and one reasoning-specific prototypical functional connectivity patterns from all synchrostates. Markov modeling is performed for the time-sequential synchrostates of each trial to characterize the interstate transitions. The analysis reveals that default mode network, central executive network (CEN), dorsal attention network, cingulo-opercular network, left/right ventral frontoparietal network, and ventral visual network aperiodically recur over non-task or reasoning process, exhibiting high predictability in interactively reachable transitions. Compared to non-gifted subjects, math-gifted adolescents show higher fractional occupancy and mean duration in CEN and reasoning-triggered transient right frontotemporal network (rFTN) in the time course of the reasoning process. Statistical modeling of Markov chains reveals that there are more self-loops in CEN and rFTN of the math-gifted brain, suggesting robust state durability in temporally maintaining the topological structures. Besides, math-gifted subjects show higher probabilities in switching from the other types of synchrostates to CEN and rFTN, which represents more adaptive reconfiguration of connectivity pattern in the large-scale cortical network for focused task-related information processing, which underlies superior executive functions in controlling goal-directed persistence and high predictability of implementing imagination and creative thinking during long-chain reasoning.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.biopha.2020.110255

Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie

Biomed Pharmacother

The emerging roles of artificial intelligence in cancer drug development and precision therapy.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has strong logical reasoning ability and independent learning ability, which can simulate the thinking process of the human brain. AI technologies such as machine learning can profoundly optimize the existing mode of anticancer drug research. But at present AI also has its relative limitation. In this paper, the development of artificial intelligence technology such as deep learning and machine learning in anticancer drug research is reviewed. At the same time, we look forward to the future of AI.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.nlm.2020.107246

Neurobiology of learning and memory

Neurobiol Learn Mem

miRNA-324/-133a essential for recruiting new synapse innervations and associative memory cells in coactivated sensory cortices.

After the integrative storage of associated signals, a signal induces the recollection of its associated signal, or the other way around. This associative memory is essential to associative thinking, logical reasoning, imagination and computation. In terms of cellular mechanisms underlying associative memory, new mutual synapse innervations are formed among those coactivated neurons, so that they are recruited to be associative memory cells or associative memory neurons. These associative memory cells receive new synapse innervations alongside innate synapse inputs and encode signals carried by these inputs. We proposed to examine microRNAs as initiative factors for recruiting new synapse innervations and associative memory cells. In a mouse model of associative memory characterized as the reciprocal retrieval of associated whisker and odor signals, barrel and piriform cortical neurons gain their ability to encode whisker and odorant signals based on the newly formed synapse innervations between these coactivated cortices besides innate synapse inputs. miRNA-324 and miRNA-133a are required for recruiting these new synapse innervations and associative memory cells as well as sufficient for facilitating their recruitments, but not for innate synapse inputs. Therefore, the coactivation of sensory cortices through microRNA as initiative factor to recruit new mutual synapse innervations and associative memory cells for associative memory.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1515/jcim-2019-0238

Journal of complementary & integrative medicine

J Complement Integr Med

Effect of yoga practices on general mental ability in urban residential school children.

Introduction Mental ability of children represents functioning of brain in different aspects of competency including verbal, mathematical, logical reasoning and spatial, which is of prime importance for academic performance. Objective The objective of this study was to assess the effect of yoga on general mental ability of urban residential school children. Methods Sixty-six urban school children aged 11-15 years were selected as participants. All the selected participants were staying in a residential school in Pune District. A stratified random sampling method was used to divide the students into experimental and control groups. There were 32 students in experimental group and 29 students in control group. Both experimental and control groups were assessed for general mental ability by using standard questionnaire at the baseline and at the end of 12 weeks of yoga training. The study participants of experimental group underwent yoga training for 12 weeks, for 1 h in the morning for a period of 12 weeks. The control group did not undergo any yoga training during this time period. Results The experimental group participants showed significant improvement in general mental ability as compared to control group. Conclusion The findings of this study indicate that yoga practices could improve general mental ability of urban residential school children.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.33588/rn.7008.2019420

Revista de neurologia

Rev Neurol

[Exploratory analysis of the influence of cognitive reserve on the benefits of cognitive stimulation therapy in patients with sporadic late-onset Alzheimer's disease].

The main objective of cognitive stimulation therapies is to promote the plasticity and learning ability that the individual is still in possession of in old age and to delay the clinical manifestations of neurodegenerative processes such as Alzheimer-type dementia. There are variables that can mediate the benefits of the intervention, such as the cognitive reserve. To determine whether there is an interaction between the level of reserve and cognitive stimulation, and if it influences the cognitive performance of subjects with Alzheimer-type dementia. Twenty subjects (age: 66-89) with Alzheimer-type dementia who attend a day centre participated in the study. A pretest-posttest controlled design was used. The pilot group took part in the intervention for six months. Patients were classified into two levels of cognitive reserve (high and low) and then a broad neuropsychological battery was applied to perform a comprehensive analysis of cognition. Pre- and post-intervention differences were analysed through a two-factor ANOVA, one with repeated measures (pre- and post-intervention scores) and another with independent measures (level of cognitive reserve). Interaction was found in the scores on the picture arrangement subtests (WAIS-III), failure to maintain the category and the percentage of errors in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. The positive effect of the interaction on the executive function has been observed, specifically in the capacities for planning and sequencing, perceptual organisation, response inhibition, logical reasoning and mental flexibility.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1007/s13181-020-00769-5

Journal of medical toxicology : official journal of the American College of Medical Toxicology

J Med Toxicol

The Role and Promise of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Toxicology.

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to machines or software that process information and interact with the world as understanding beings. Examples of AI in medicine include the automated reading of chest X-rays and the detection of heart dysrhythmias from wearables. A key promise of AI is its potential to apply logical reasoning at the scale of data too vast for the human mind to comprehend. This scaling up of logical reasoning may allow clinicians to bring the entire breadth of current medical knowledge to bear on each patient in real time. It may also unearth otherwise unreachable knowledge in the attempt to integrate knowledge and research across disciplines. In this review, we discuss two complementary aspects of artificial intelligence: deep learning and knowledge representation. Deep learning recognizes and predicts patterns. Knowledge representation structures and interprets those patterns or predictions. We frame this review around how deep learning and knowledge representation might expand the reach of Poison Control Centers and enhance syndromic surveillance from social media.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1007/s00426-020-01317-0

Psychological research

Psychol Res

Human vs. machine: the psychological and behavioral consequences of being compared to an outperforming artificial agent.

While artificial agents (AA) such as Artificial Intelligence are being extensively developed, a popular belief that AA will someday surpass human intelligence is growing. The present research examined whether this common belief translates into negative psychological and behavioral consequences when individuals assess that an AA performs better than them on cognitive and intellectual tasks. In two studies, participants were led to believe that an AA performed better or less well than them on a cognitive inhibition task (Study 1) and on an intelligence task (Study 2). Results indicated that being outperformed by an AA increased subsequent participants' performance as long as they did not experience psychological discomfort towards the AA and self-threat. Psychological implications in terms of motivation and potential threat as well as the prerequisite for the future interactions of humans with AAs are further discussed.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1080/09297049.2020.1739259

Child neuropsychology : a journal on normal and abnormal development in childhood and adolescence

Child Neuropsychol

Development of early domain-specific and domain-general cognitive precursors of high and low math achievers in grade 6.

This study investigated from a longitudinal retrospective perspective what characterizes and predicts 6th graders (M = 12.95,  = 0.27) with low (LMA) or high (HMA) math achievement concerning the development of early domain-specific and domain-general cognitive abilities. They were examined and compared to average achievers ( = 88) at four-time points from kindergarten (M = 6.58,  = 0.36) to third grade (M = 9.53,  = 0.33). The LMA ( = 27) or HMA ( = 41) children exhibited persistent multi-weakness and multi-strength profiles, respectively, present already prior to formal schooling. The cognitive profiles of the two groups, and their development, were mostly qualitatively similar, but there were also important qualitative differences. Logistic regression analyzes showed that superior verbal arithmetic, logical reasoning, and executive functions are vital for developing superior mathematical skills while inferior verbal arithmetic, logical reasoning, and spatial processing ability constitute unique potential risk factors for low mathematical skills.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1002/mgg3.1206

Molecular genetics & genomic medicine

Mol Genet Genomic Med

Problems in variation interpretation guidelines and in their implementation in computational tools.

ACMG/AMP and AMP/ASCO/CAP have released guidelines for variation interpretation, and ESHG for diagnostic sequencing. These guidelines contain recommendations including the use of computational prediction methods. The guidelines per se and the way they are implemented cause some problems. Logical reasoning based on domain knowledge. According to the guidelines, several methods have to be used and they have to agree. This means that the methods with the poorest performance overrule the better ones. The choice of the prediction method(s) should be made by experts  based on systematic benchmarking studies reporting all the relevant performance measures. Currently variation interpretation methods have been applied mainly to amino acid substitutions and splice site variants; however, predictors for some other types of variations are available and there will be tools for new application areas in the near future. Common problems in prediction method usage are discussed. The number of features used for method training or the number of variation types predicted by a tool are not indicators of method performance. Many published gene, protein or disease-specific benchmark studies suffer from too small dataset rendering the results useless. In the case of binary predictors, equal number of positive and negative cases is beneficial for training, the imbalance has to be corrected for performance assessment. Predictors cannot be better than the data they are based on and used for training and testing. Minor allele frequency (MAF) can help to detect likely benign cases, but the recommended MAF threshold is apparently too high. The fact that many rare variants are disease-causing or -related does not mean that rare variants in general would be harmful. How large a portion of the tested variants a tool can predict (coverage) is not a quality measure. Methods used for variation interpretation have to be carefully selected. It should be possible to use only one predictor, with proven good performance or a limited number of complementary predictors with state-of-the-art performance. Bear in mind that diseases and pathogenicity have a continuum and variants are not dichotomic i.e. either pathogenic or benign, either.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.isci.2020.100849

iScience

iScience

Inferring Biochemical Reactions and Metabolite Structures to Understand Metabolic Pathway Drift.

Inferring genome-scale metabolic networks in emerging model organisms is challenged by incomplete biochemical knowledge and partial conservation of biochemical pathways during evolution. Therefore, specific bioinformatic tools are necessary to infer biochemical reactions and metabolic structures that can be checked experimentally. Using an integrative approach combining genomic and metabolomic data in the red algal model Chondrus crispus, we show that, even metabolic pathways considered as conserved, like sterols or mycosporine-like amino acid synthesis pathways, undergo substantial turnover. This phenomenon, here formally defined as "metabolic pathway drift," is consistent with findings from other areas of evolutionary biology, indicating that a given phenotype can be conserved even if the underlying molecular mechanisms are changing. We present a proof of concept with a methodological approach to formalize the logical reasoning necessary to infer reactions and molecular structures, abstracting molecular transformations based on previous biochemical knowledge.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02940

Frontiers in psychology

Front Psychol

Belief Bias Effect in Older Adults: Roles of Working Memory and Need for Cognition.

Belief bias is the tendency in syllogistic reasoning to rely on prior beliefs rather than to fully obey logical principles. Few studies have investigated the age effect on belief bias. Although several studies have recently begun to explore this topic, little is known about the psychological mechanisms underlying such an effect. Accordingly, we investigated belief bias in older and young adults and explored the roles of working memory (WM) and need for cognition (NFC) in the relationship between age and reasoning performance. We found that older adults showed a lower accuracy rate compared with young adults when conclusion believability and logical validity were incongruent. However, older adults showed a higher accuracy rate compared with young adults when conclusion believability and logical validity were congruent. The results indicated that in comparison with young adults, prior beliefs hampered logical reasoning more significantly in older adults under incongruent conditions and boosted logical reasoning more significantly under congruent conditions. Moreover, the logic index in older adults was significantly lower than in young adults, and the interaction index of believability and validity in older adults was significantly below zero. Furthermore, NFC mediated the age effect on reasoning performance under the two conditions. By contrast, WM mediated the age effect on reasoning performance only under incongruent conditions and did not act as a mediator under congruent conditions.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1371/journal.pone.0226981

PloS one

PLoS One

The role of narrative in collaborative reasoning and intelligence analysis: A case study.

This paper explores the significance of narrative in collaborative reasoning using a qualitative case study of two teams of intelligence analysts who took part in an exercise using an online collaborative platform. Digital ethnographic methods were used to analyze the chat transcripts of analysts as they reasoned with evidence provided in a difficult, fictional intelligence-type problem and produced a final intelligence report. These chat transcripts provided a powerful "microscope" into the reasoning processes and interactions involved in complex, collaborative reasoning. We found that Individuals and teams used narrative to solve the kinds of complex problems organizations and intelligence agencies face daily. We observed that team members generated what we term "micro-narratives", which provided a means for testing, assessing and weighing alternative hypotheses through mental simulation in the context of collaborative reasoning. The creation of micro-narratives assisted in the teams' reasoning with evidence, an integral part of collaborative reasoning and intelligence analysis. Micro-narratives were combined into, and compared with, an ideal or 'virtual' narrative which informed the judgements the team came to in their final intelligence report. The case study developed in this paper provides evidence that narrative thought processes play an important role in complex collaborative problem-solving, reasoning with evidence and problem-solving. This is contrary to a widespread perception that narrative thinking is fundamentally distinct from formal, logical reasoning.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1109/TNNLS.2019.2953177

IEEE transactions on neural networks and learning systems

IEEE Trans Neural Netw Learn Syst

The Cubic Dynamic Uncertain Causality Graph: A Methodology for Temporal Process Modeling and Diagnostic Logic Inference.

To meet the demand for dynamic and highly reliable real-time fault diagnosis for complex systems, we extend the dynamic uncertain causality graph (DUCG) by proposing novel temporal causality modeling and reasoning methods. A new methodology, the Cubic DUCG, is therefore developed. It exploits an efficient scheme for compactly representing and accurately reasoning about the dynamic causalities in the system fault-spreading process. The Cubic DUCG is characterized by: 1) continuous generation of a causality graph that allows for causal connections penetrating among any number of time slices and discards the restrictive assumptions (about the underlying graph structure) upon which the existing research commonly relies; 2) a modeling scheme of complex causalities that includes dynamic negative feedback loops in a natural and intuitive manner; 3) a rigorous and reliable inference algorithm based on complete causalities that reflect real-time fault situations rather than on the cumulative aggregation of static time slices; and 4) some solutions to causality simplification and reduction, graphical transformation, and logical reasoning, for the sake of reducing the reasoning complexity. A series of fault diagnosis experiments on a nuclear power plant simulator verifies the accuracy, robustness, and efficiency of the proposed methodology.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1017/sjp.2019.48

The Spanish journal of psychology

Span J Psychol

Perspectives on Correctness in Probabilistic Inference from Psychology.

Research into decision making has enabled us to appreciate that the notion of correctness is multifaceted. Different normative framework for correctness can lead to different insights about correct behavior. We illustrate the shifts for correctness insights with two tasks, the Wason selection task and the conjunction fallacy task; these tasks have had key roles in the development of logical reasoning and decision making research respectively. The Wason selection task arguably has played an important part in the transition from understanding correctness using classical logic to classical probability theory (and information theory). The conjunction fallacy has enabled a similar shift from baseline classical probability theory to quantum probability. The focus of this overview is the latter, as it represents a novel way for understanding probabilistic inference in psychology. We conclude with some of the current challenges concerning the application of quantum probability theory in psychology in general and specifically for the problem of understanding correctness in decision making.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3389/frobt.2019.00125

Frontiers in robotics and AI

Front Robot AI

Integrating Non-monotonic Logical Reasoning and Inductive Learning With Deep Learning for Explainable Visual Question Answering.

State of the art algorithms for many pattern recognition problems rely on data-driven deep network models. Training these models requires a large labeled dataset and considerable computational resources. Also, it is difficult to understand the working of these learned models, limiting their use in some critical applications. Toward addressing these limitations, our architecture draws inspiration from research in cognitive systems, and integrates the principles of commonsense logical reasoning, inductive learning, and deep learning. As a motivating example of a task that requires explainable reasoning and learning, we consider Visual Question Answering in which, given an image of a scene, the objective is to answer explanatory questions about objects in the scene, their relationships, or the outcome of executing actions on these objects. In this context, our architecture uses deep networks for extracting features from images and for generating answers to queries. Between these deep networks, it embeds components for non-monotonic logical reasoning with incomplete commonsense domain knowledge, and for decision tree induction. It also incrementally learns and reasons with previously unknown constraints governing the domain's states. We evaluated the architecture in the context of datasets of simulated and real-world images, and a simulated robot computing, executing, and providing explanatory descriptions of plans and experiences during plan execution. Experimental results indicate that in comparison with an "end to end" architecture of deep networks, our architecture provides better accuracy on classification problems when the training dataset is small, comparable accuracy with larger datasets, and more accurate answers to explanatory questions. Furthermore, incremental acquisition of previously unknown constraints improves the ability to answer explanatory questions, and extending non-monotonic logical reasoning to support planning and diagnostics improves the reliability and efficiency of computing and executing plans on a simulated robot.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02387

Frontiers in psychology

Front Psychol

Exploring the Correlation Between Multiple Latent Variables and Covariates in Hierarchical Data Based on the Multilevel Multidimensional IRT Model.

In many large-scale tests, it is very common that students are nested within classes or schools and that the test designers try to measure their multidimensional latent traits (e.g., logical reasoning ability and computational ability in the mathematics test). It is particularly important to explore the influences of covariates on multiple abilities for development and improvement of educational quality monitoring mechanism. In this study, motivated by a real dataset of a large-scale English achievement test, we will address how to construct an appropriate multilevel structural models to fit the data in many of multilevel models, and what are the effects of gender and socioeconomic-status differences on English multidimensional abilities at the individual level, and how does the teachers' satisfaction and school climate affect students' English abilities at the school level. A full Gibbs sampling algorithm within the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) framework is used for model estimation. Moreover, a unique form of the deviance information criterion (DIC) is used as a model comparison index. In order to verify the accuracy of the algorithm estimation, two simulations are considered in this paper. Simulation studies show that the Gibbs sampling algorithm works well in estimating all model parameters across a broad spectrum of scenarios, which can be used to guide the real data analysis. A brief discussion and suggestions for further research are shown in the concluding remarks.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1093/cercor/bhz182

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)

Cereb Cortex

Cognitive Enhancement via Network-Targeted Cortico-cortical Associative Brain Stimulation.

Fluid intelligence (gf) represents a crucial component of human cognition, as it correlates with academic achievement, successful aging, and longevity. However, it has strong resilience against enhancement interventions, making the identification of gf enhancement approaches a key unmet goal of cognitive neuroscience. Here, we applied a spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP)-inducing brain stimulation protocol, named cortico-cortical paired associative stimulation (cc-PAS), to modulate gf in 29 healthy young subjects (13 females-mean ± standard deviation, 25.43 years ± 3.69), based on dual-coil transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Pairs of neuronavigated TMS pulses (10-ms interval) were delivered over two frontoparietal nodes of the gf network, based on individual functional magnetic resonance imaging data and in accordance with cognitive models of information processing across the prefrontal and parietal lobe. cc-PAS enhanced accuracy at gf tasks, with parieto-frontal and fronto-parietal stimulation significantly increasing logical and relational reasoning, respectively. Results suggest the possibility of using SPTD-inducing TMS protocols to causally validate cognitive models by selectively engaging relevant networks and manipulating inter-regional temporal dynamics supporting specific cognitive functions.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3357/AMHP.5428.2019

Aerospace medicine and human performance

Aerosp Med Hum Perform

Cognitive Function in Simulated Paragliding Flight.

Paragliding is an emerging discipline of aviation, with recreational pilots flying distances over 100 km. It remains risky. Accidents typically relate to pilot error rather than equipment failure. We measured cognition and physiological responses during simulated flight, to investigate whether errors might be due to pilot impairment, rather than misjudgment. There were 10 male paraglider pilots (aged 19-58 yr) who undertook a simulated flight in an environmental chamber from sea level (0.209 Fo₂) to 1524 m (0.174 Fo₂), 2438 m (0.156 Fo₂), and 3658 m (0.133 Fo₂), over approximately 2 h. They experienced normobaric hypoxia, environmental cooling and headwind, completing logical reasoning, mannikin, mathematical processing, Stroop Color-Word and Tower Puzzle tasks; as well as measures of risk-taking (BART), mood (POMS), and subjective experience. Results were compared to ten controls, matched by age, sex, and flying experience. Physiological measures were oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, ventilation, heart rate, oxygen saturation, rectal and skin temperatures, blood glucose, blood lactate, and urine production. There were no significant differences between pilots and controls at any altitude. Results were heterogenous within and between individuals. As altitude increased, oxygen consumption and minute volume increased significantly, while oxygen saturations fell (98.3% [baseline] to 88.5% [peak]). Rectal temperatures fell by a statistically (but not clinically) significant amount (37.6°C to 37.3°C), while finger skin temperatures dropped steeply (32.2°C to 13.9°C). Results suggest cognitive impairment is unlikely to be a primary cause of pilot error during paragliding flights (of less than 2 h, below 3658 m), though hand protection requires improvement.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2019.05.006

Evolution and human behavior : official journal of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society

Evol Hum Behav

Rhesus macaques use probabilities to predict future events.

Humans can use an intuitive sense of statistics to make predictions about uncertain future events, a cognitive skill that underpins logical and mathematical reasoning. Recent research shows that some of these abilities for statistical inferences can emerge in preverbal infants and non-human primates such as apes and capuchins. An important question is therefore whether animals share the full complement of intuitive reasoning abilities demonstrated by humans, as well as what evolutionary contexts promote the emergence of such skills. Here, we examined whether free-ranging rhesus macaques () can use probability information to infer the most likely outcome of a random lottery, in the first test of whether primates can make such inferences in the absence of direct prior experience. We developed a novel expectancy-violation looking time task, adapted from prior studies of infants, in order to assess the monkeys' expectations. In Study 1, we confirmed that monkeys (n = 20) looked similarly at different sampled items if they had no prior knowledge about the population they were drawn from. In Study 2, monkeys (n = 80) saw a dynamic 'lottery' machine containing a mix of two types of fruit outcomes, and then saw either the more common fruit () or the relatively rare fruit () fall from the machine. We found that monkeys looked longer when they witnessed the unexpected outcome. In Study 3, we confirmed that this effect depended on the causal relationship between the sample and the population, not visual mismatch: monkeys (n = 80) looked equally at both outcomes if the experimenter pulled the sampled item from her pocket. These results reveal that rhesus monkeys spontaneously use information about probability to reason about likely outcomes, and show how comparative studies of nonhumans can disentangle the evolutionary history of logical reasoning capacities.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01929

Frontiers in psychology

Front Psychol

Logical Reasoning, Spatial Processing, and Verbal Working Memory: Longitudinal Predictors of Physics Achievement at Age 12-13 Years.

To date, few studies have tried to pinpoint the mechanisms supporting children's skills in science. This study investigated to what extent logical reasoning, spatial processing, and working memory, tapped at age 9-10 years, are predictive of physics skills at age 12-13 years. The study used a sample of 81 children (37 girls). Measures of arithmetic calculation and reading comprehension were also included in the study. The multiple regression model accounted for 24% of the variation in physics achievement. The model showed that spatial processing (4.6%) and verbal working memory (4.5%) accounted for a similar amount of unique variance, while logical reasoning accounted for 5.7% variance. The measures of arithmetic calculation and reading comprehension did not account for any unique variance. Nine percent of the accounted variance was shared variance. The results demonstrate that physics is a multivariate discipline that draws upon numerous cognitive resources. Logical reasoning ability is a key component in order for children to learn about abstract physics facts, concepts, theories, and applying complex scientific methods. Spatial processing is important as it may sub-serve the assembly of diverse sources of visual-spatial information into a spatial-schematic image. The working memory system provides a flexible and efficient mental workspace that can supervise, coordinate, and execute processes involved in physics problem-solving.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.shpsa.2018.09.010

Studies in history and philosophy of science

Stud Hist Philos Sci

Diagrams and alien ways of thinking.

The recent wave of data on exoplanets lends support to METI ventures (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), insofar as the more exoplanets we find, the more likely it is that "exominds" await our messages. Yet, despite these astronomical advances, there are presently no well-confirmed tests against which to check the design of interstellar messages. In the meantime, the best we can do is distance ourselves from terracentric assumptions. There is no reason, for example, to assume that all inferential abilities are language-like. With that in mind, I argue that logical reasoning does not have to be couched in symbolic notation. In diagrammatic reasoning, inferences are underwritten, not by rules, but by transformations of self-same qualitative signs. I use the Existential Graphs of C. S. Peirce to show this. Since diagrams are less dependent on convention and might even be generalized to cover non-visual senses, I argue that METI researchers should add some form of diagrammatic representations to their repertoire. Doing so can shed light, not just on alien minds, but on the deepest structures of reasoning itself.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.5688/ajpe7481

American journal of pharmaceutical education

Am J Pharm Educ

Encouraging Students to Challenge Assumptions.

Sound logical reasoning requires a critical examination of all available evidence and the willingness and ability to challenge key assumptions implicit in the conclusions we reach and the informed decisions we make. Student pharmacists should be encouraged to recognize and challenge assumptions that practicing pharmacists frequently make, which threaten patient safety.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.ajic.2019.05.010

American journal of infection control

Am J Infect Control

Bundles for the central sterile supply department.

Traditional resources, such as bundles, can help experts define essential steps of health product processing to prevent infections. The present study developed bundle content construction and validation criteria for central sterile supply departments (CSSDs). The present study employed a Delphi technique modified for content evaluation. Eleven professionals with at least 4 years of experience in sterilization were enlisted. Participants discussed main stages of the process virtually and compiled a list of items based on scientific references justified by law and/or logical reasoning. Agreement, disagreement, and/or suggestions on each step resulted in bundles for a CSSD. Items were then reassessed by experts using a Likert scale with a 90% approval criterion. Six bundles were developed: cleaning, inspection, preparation and packaging, sterilization, and storage resulting from 384 responses and 373 agreements (Interassessor coefficient = 97%). Items obtained from the criteria assessment received majority agreement from the first document. Agreement among varying professionals was achieved, and bundles were successfully developed to evaluate the processing of goods in CSSDs.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.brainres.2019.146333

Brain research

Brain Res

Coactivations of barrel and piriform cortices induce their mutual synapse innervations and recruit associative memory cells.

After associative learning, a signal induces the recall of its associated signal, or the other way around. This reciprocal retrieval of associated signals is essential for associative thinking and logical reasoning. For the cellular mechanism underlying this associative memory, we hypothesized that the formation of synapse innervations among coactivated sensory cortices and the recruitment of associative memory cells were involved in the integrative storage and reciprocal retrieval of associated signals. Our study indicated that the paired whisker and olfaction stimulations led to an odorant-induced whisker motion and a whisker-induced olfaction response, a reciprocal form of associative memory retrieval. In mice that showed the reciprocal retrieval of associated signals, their barrel and piriform cortical neurons became mutually innervated through their axon projection and new synapse formation. These piriform and barrel cortical neurons gained the ability to encode both whisker and olfaction signals based on synapse innervations from the innate input and the newly formed input. Therefore, the associated activation of sensory cortices by pairing input signals initiates their mutual synapse innervations, and the neurons innervated by new and innate synapses are recruited to be associative memory cells that encode these associated signals. Mutual synapse innervations among sensory cortices to recruit associative memory cells may compose the primary foundation for the integrative storage and reciprocal retrieval of associated signals. Our study also reveals that new synapses onto the neurons enable these neurons to encode memories to new specific signals.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1371/journal.pone.0218236

PloS one

PLoS One

Socio-affective and cognitive predictors of social adaptation in vulnerable contexts.

People living in vulnerable environments face a harder set of challenges adapting to their context. Nevertheless, an important number of them adapt successfully. However, which cognitive and socio-affective variables are specifically related to these variations in social adaptation in vulnerable contexts has not been fully understood nor directly addressed. Here we evaluated socio-affective variables (anxious attachment style, internal locus of control, self-esteem and stress) and cognitive variables (fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, working memory, numeracy, probabilistic reasoning and logical reasoning) to explain variations in social adaptation in a sample of 232 adults living in vulnerable contexts (M = 42.3, SD = 14.9, equal amount of men and women). Our results show that an important amount of variance in social adaptation can be explained by socio-affective variables, principally by self-esteem, while cognitive variables also contributed significantly. As far as we know, this is one of the first steps towards understanding the role of cognitive and socio-affective features on social adaptation. In the long run, this area of research could play an important role on the assignation of resources to ease people's integration into society. Our data and R analysis scripts can be found at: https://osf.io/egxy5/.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1037/neu0000567

Neuropsychology

Neuropsychology

Comprehension of social-legal exchanges in adults with and without traumatic brain injury.

To characterize comprehension of conditional social-legal rules and broader social reasoning in adults with and without traumatic brain injury (TBI). Participants were 20 adults with moderate-to-severe TBI (11 women) and 21 adults without TBI (13 women), ages 24 to 64 years. Participants completed the Wason task, a test of logical reasoning of conditional rules comprising precautionary rules, social-exchange rules, and legal social-exchange rules. Dependent variables were response accuracy and response time. Across rule categories, TBI group participants were significantly less accurate, F(1, 39) = 9.03, p < .01, semipartial R2 = 0.18, and slower, F(1, 39) = 7.32, p < .01, semipartial R2 = 0.16, than comparison peers. Rule category had no effect on accuracy, but for both groups legal social-exchange rules were associated with longer response times, F(1, 78) = 9.82, p < .01, semipartial R2 = 0.11. Processing speed test scores correlated with accuracy, F(1, 37) = 4.62, p < .05, semipartial R2 = 0.11, and response times, F(1, 78) = 4.45, p < .05, semipartial R2 = 0.14, in both groups. Adults with TBI underperformed their uninjured peers in both accuracy and speed of comprehending on precautionary rules, social-exchange rules, and legal social-exchange rules. These differences were attributable in part to differences in processing speed both within and between groups. Results highlight the potential costs of TBI-related cognitive problems in social-legal contexts, suggest the need to better accommodate individuals with TBI who are already involved in legal systems, and identify cognitive mechanisms for future study of social-legal rule comprehension in TBI and other populations with cognitive impairments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.05.076

NeuroImage

Neuroimage

Cognitive and neural architecture of decision making competence.

Although cognitive neuroscience has made remarkable progress in understanding the neural foundations of goal-directed behavior and decision making, neuroscience research on decision making competence, the capacity to resist biases in human judgment and decision making, remain to be established. Here, we investigated the cognitive and neural mechanisms of decision making competence in 283 healthy young adults. We administered the Adult Decision Making Competence battery to assess the respondent's capacity to resist standard biases in decision making, including: (1) resistance to framing, (2) recognizing social norms, (3) over/under confidence, (4) applying decision rules, (5) consistency in risk perception, and (6) resistance to sunk costs. Decision making competence was assessed in relation to core facets of intelligence, including measures of crystallized intelligence (Shipley Vocabulary), fluid intelligence (Figure Series), and logical reasoning (LSAT). Structural equation modeling was applied to examine the relationship(s) between each cognitive domain, followed by an investigation of their association with individual differences in cortical thickness, cortical surface area, and cortical gray matter volume as measured by high-resolution structural MRI. The results suggest that: (i) decision making competence is associated with cognitive operations for logical reasoning, and (ii) these convergent processes are associated with individual differences within cortical regions that are widely implicated in cognitive control (left dACC) and social decision making (right superior temporal sulcus; STS). Our findings motivate an integrative framework for understanding the neural mechanisms of decision making competence, suggesting that individual differences in the cortical surface area of left dACC and right STS are associated with the capacity to overcome decision biases and exhibit competence in decision making.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.2147/PRBM.S197945

Psychology research and behavior management

Psychol Res Behav Manag

Cardiorespiratory fitness as a mediator of the relationship between birth weight and cognition in school children.

To examine differences in cognition parameters by birth weight categories and to analyze whether the relationships between birth weight and cognitive functions are mediated by cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in schoolchildren. A cross-sectional study using a sample of 664 school children from the MOVI-Kids study. Variables: i) cognitive function measured by the Battery of General and Differential Aptitudes (BADyG); ii) birth weight, reported by parents; and iii) CRF (20-m shuttle run test). ANCOVA models were estimated to assess differences in cognitive function categories across birth weight and CRF categories. Mediation analysis was conducted with Hayes' PROCESS macro. CRF is a full mediator of the association between birth weight with the verbal and numerical factors, and general intelligence; and is a partial mediator when logical reasoning and the spatial factor were the dependent variables. The available data suggest that, in schoolchildren, the influence of birth weight on cognitive function is mediated by CRF. These findings highlight that children with lower birth weight values and lower fitness levels should be target subgroups to improve children's cognition, in which long-life physical activity interventions at early ages are a priority.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1098/rsbl.2019.0015

Biology letters

Biol Lett

Transitive inference in Polistes paper wasps.

Transitive inference (TI) is a form of logical reasoning that involves using known relationships to infer unknown relationships (A > B; B > C; then A > C). TI has been found in a wide range of vertebrates but not in insects. Here, we test whether Polistes dominula and Polistes metricus paper wasps can solve a TI problem. Wasps were trained to discriminate between five elements in series (AB-, BC-, CD-, DE-), then tested on novel, untrained pairs (B versus D). Consistent with TI, wasps chose B more frequently than D. Wasps organized the trained stimuli into an implicit hierarchy and used TI to choose between untrained pairs. Species that form social hierarchies like Polistes may be predisposed to spontaneously organize information along a common underlying dimension. This work contributes to a growing body of evidence that the miniature nervous system of insects does not limit sophisticated behaviours.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1080/13546783.2018.1481144

Thinking & reasoning

Think Reason

Developmental grey matter changes in superior parietal cortex accompany improved transitive reasoning.

The neural basis of developmental changes in transitive reasoning in parietal regions was examined, using voxel-based morphometry. Young adolescents and adults performed a transitive reasoning task, subsequent to undergoing anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans. Behaviorally, adults reasoned more accurately than did the young adolescents. Neural results showed (i) less grey matter density in superior parietal cortex in the adults than in the young adolescents, possibly due to a developmental period of synaptic pruning; (ii) improved performance in the reasoning task was negatively correlated with grey matter density in superior parietal cortex in the adolescents, but not in the adult group; and (iii) the latter results were driven by the more difficult trials, requiring greater spatial manipulation. Taken together, the results support the idea that during development, regions in superior parietal cortex are fine-tuned, to support more robust spatial manipulation, resulting in greater accuracy and efficiency in transitive reasoning.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.dib.2019.103823

Data in brief

Data Brief

Universal (meta-)logical reasoning: The Wise Men Puzzle (Isabelle/HOL dataset).

The authors universal (meta-)logical reasoning approach is demonstrated and assessed with a prominent riddle in epistemic reasoning: the Wise Men Puzzle. The presented solution puts a particular emphasis on the adequate modeling of common knowledge and it illustrates the elegance and the practical relevance of the shallow semantical embedding approach when utilized within modern proof assistant systems such as Isabelle/HOL. The contributed dataset provides supporting evidence for claims made in the article "Universal (meta-)logical reasoning: Recent successes" (Benzmüller, 2019).

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1097/01.NPR.0000554675.55073.5a

The Nurse practitioner

Nurse Pract

Elevating diagnostic skills with logical reasoning.

NPs can use the abductive, deductive, and inductive forms of reasoning to adopt a rational and consistent approach to transforming effective data into accurate diagnoses. A case example is used throughout the article to illustrate how these classic logical reasoning skills may be combined with knowledge and experience to address issues of diagnostic accuracy and decrease diagnostic errors.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1037/rev0000145

Psychological review

Psychol Rev

The construct-behavior gap revisited: Reply to Hertwig and Pleskac (2018).

The most eye-catching feature of Hertwig and Pleskac's (2018) comment is their virtual silence about Regenwetter and Robinson's (2017) core message. Regenwetter and Robinson warn of a logical disconnect between some psychological constructs and certain types of theoretical predictions about human behavior. Scientific "predictions" that do not actually follow from the underlying theory can, in turn, lead to completely uninformative behavioral measures. Regenwetter and Robinson trace this construct-behavior gap to logical reasoning fallacies that seem common in behavioral decision research. They also document how a logically flawed line of scientific reasoning is often immune to discovery by replication. Hence, 'successful' replication can perpetuate unwarranted conclusions and, consequently, obfuscate science. Hertwig and Pleskac's commentary is striking in that it says almost nothing about the construct-behavior gap, it barely touches on logical reasoning fallacies, and it ignores Regenwetter and Robinson's core warning that replication and repetition of unsubstantiated conclusions hinder science. In this reply, we also point out errors and misinterpretations in Hertwig and Pleskac's commentary, and we rebut alleged problems with Regenwetter and Robinson's approach and findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3346/jkms.2019.34.e18

Journal of Korean medical science

J Korean Med Sci

Critical Thinking and Scientific Writing Skills of Non-Anglophone Medical Students: a Model of Training Course.

There are currently very limited reports on the strengths and weaknesses of Japanese medical students in processing (i.e., searching, reading, synthesizing, writing, editing, refining) and presenting medical content based on scholarly journal articles. We developed and offered a 3-week group independent research course in English as a summer elective named "Improving Medical English Skills and Creating English Medical Content (PPT and video) Based on Medical Journal Articles" to our fourth-year Japanese medical students who follow a 6-year medical curriculum as the target audience. Herein, we describe the specific strengths and weaknesses of 6 students who chose and completed the course. Thereafter, we assessed the possible reasons underlying these weaknesses, pondered on the potential implications of such weaknesses on the critical thinking, logical reasoning, and communication skills of Japanese medical students, and suggested approaches to further enhance these skills. The assessments, implications, and suggestions given may provide medical educators new insights on how to newly organize educational and clinical programs to address such weaknesses, improve searching, reading, writing, editing, and presentation skills, enhance critical thinking and logical reasoning abilities, and gain in-depth knowledge essential for effectively appraising and communicating medical content.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001490

Pain

Pain

An investigation of the effect of experimental pain on logical reasoning.

Pain disrupts attention to prioritise avoidance of harm and promote analgesic behaviour. This could in turn have negative effects on higher-level cognitions, which rely on attention. In the current article, we examined the effect of thermal pain induction on 3 measures of reasoning: the Cognitive Reflection Test, Belief Bias Syllogisms task, and Conditional Inference task. In experiment 1, the thermal pain was set at each participant's pain threshold. In experiment 2, it was set to a minimum of 44°C or 7/10 on a visual analogue scale (whichever was higher). In experiment 3, performance was compared in no pain, low-intensity pain, and high-intensity pain conditions. We predicted that the experience of pain would reduce correct responding on the reasoning tasks. However, this was not supported in any of the 3 studies. We discuss possible interpretations of our failure to reject the null hypothesis and the importance of publishing null results.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1111/sms.13383

Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports

Scand J Med Sci Sports

Impact of a multicomponent physical activity intervention on cognitive performance: The MOVI-KIDS study.

This study examined the impact of a multicomponent physical activity (PA) intervention (MOVI-KIDS) on improving cognition in schoolchildren. This paper also analyzed the mediator role of motor fitness between MOVI-KIDS and cognition. Propensity score analysis of data from a cluster randomized controlled trial (MOVI-KIDS study). This analysis including 240 5-7 years old children from nine schools in the provinces of Cuenca and Ciudad Real, Spain. MOVI-KIDS program consisted of: (a) three weekly after-school sessions of recreational non-competitive PA lasting 60 minutes during one academic year, (b) educational materials for parents and teachers, and (c) school playground modifications. Changes in cognition (logical reasoning, verbal factor, numerical factor, spatial factor, and general intelligence) were measured. A propensity score cross-cluster matching procedure and mediation analysis (Hayes's PROCESS macro) were conducted. All cognitive variables pre-post mean changes were significantly higher (P ≤ 0.05) in children from intervention schools than those from control schools (effect size ranged from 0.33 to 1.48). The effect of the intervention on the spatial factor and general intelligence was partially mediated by motor fitness (indirect effect = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.36; 1.65; and indirect effect = 1.21, 95% CI: 0.06; 2.62, respectively). This study shows that a one-school-year multicomponent intervention consisting of a recreational non-competitive PA program, educational materials for parents and teachers, and school playground modifications improved the cognition of first-grade children. Further, our results suggest that the effect of the intervention on cognition was mediated by changes in motor fitness.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1038/s41539-018-0038-5

NPJ science of learning

NPJ Sci Learn

Improving analytical reasoning and argument understanding: a quasi-experimental field study of argument visualization.

The ability to analyze arguments is critical for higher-level reasoning, yet previous research suggests that standard university education provides only modest improvements in students' analytical-reasoning abilities. What pedagogical approaches are most effective for cultivating these skills? We investigated the effectiveness of a 12-week undergraduate seminar in which students practiced a software-based technique for visualizing the logical structures implicit in argumentative texts. Seminar students met weekly to analyze excerpts from contemporary analytic philosophy papers, completed argument visualization problem sets, and received individualized feedback on a weekly basis. We found that seminar students improved substantially more on LSAT Logical Reasoning test forms than did control students ( = 0.71, 95% CI: [0.37, 1.04],  < 0.001), suggesting that learning how to visualize arguments in the seminar led to large generalized improvements in students' analytical-reasoning skills. Moreover, blind scoring of final essays from seminar students and control students, drawn from a parallel lecture course, revealed large differences in favor of seminar students ( = 0.87, 95% CI: [0.26, 1.48],  = 0.005). Seminar students understood the arguments better, and their essays were more accurate and effectively structured. Taken together, these findings deepen our understanding of how visualizations support logical reasoning and provide a model for improving analytical-reasoning pedagogy.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1353/pbm.2018.0058

Perspectives in biology and medicine

Perspect Biol Med

The Tension Between Big Data and Theory in the "Omics" Era of Biomedical Research.

"Big data," a consequence of the "omics" technologies and its analysis by machine learning, have changed the climate of thought in biomedical sciences, shifting the demography of expertise and culminating in a new role: "data scientist." While historically the inquiry on the nature of organisms started with theories (logical reasoning) but no data, we now live in an era of data but no theory. A tacit assumption of modern data analytics is that correlations and clusters in the data constitute knowledge. Through support of technology and data collection, funding agencies promoted this attitude, while neglecting hypothesis-driven inquiry and theory. Data is, of course, an indispensable ingredient of knowledge, but it cannot be the endpoint of inquiry. This article provides key concepts for a fruitful discussion, examines the dualism between data and theory, and proposes how they synergize. Data scientists must learn to appreciate theory, but if the most value is to be extracted from data, theorists should not dismiss brute-force empirical pattern recognition in data. The patterns could motivate the erection of new theories, much as Kepler's law represented a formal "summary" of astronomic data on which Newton's laws could be tested.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.aprim.2018.09.007

Atencion primaria

Aten Primaria

[Analysis of the effect of a program of cognitive stimulation in elderly people with normal aging in primary care: Randomized clinical trial].

To provide evidence of the effectiveness of a community health intervention, that includes a cognitive stimulation program, to prevent the deterioration of cognitive abilities in our population of elderly people with normal cognition that are living in the community. Randomized clinical trial (CONSORT group norms) LOCATION: San José Norte-Centro Health Center and La Caridad Foundation (Zaragoza, Spain). 201 people aged 65 or older, with a MEC score of at least 28 points, which were randomized between the Intervention group (101) and the Control group (100). The intervention was applied in 10 sessions of 45minutes, one per week. It used materials designed by one of the authors, which addressed the following areas: memory, orientation, language, praxis, gnosis, calculation, perception, logical reasoning, attention-concentration and programming. The main outcome variables were MEC, Set-Test, Barthel and Lawton-Brody. Increases of the main result variables over their baseline level were analized. For MEC variable, the Intervention group obtained, on average, 1.58 points more than the Control group in the evaluation performed immediately after the intervention. After 6months, the improvement was 1.51 points and after a year, it was of 2.04 points. All these differences were statistically significant. For Set-Test, Barthel and Lawton-Brody variables, no statistically significant differences were observed between Intervention group and Control group. Cognitive stimulation with our program is effective to maintain or improve cognitive performance, measured with the variable MEC, our population of elderly people with normal cognition that are living in the community. There is no evidence that this improvement is transferred to the activities of daily life measured with Barthel and Lawton-Brody variables.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1186/s41983-018-0037-8

The Egyptian journal of neurology, psychiatry and neurosurgery

Egypt J Neurol Psychiatr Neurosurg

Effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on cognitive function in stroke patients.

Cognitive impairment after stroke is common and can cause disability with major impacts on quality of life and independence. Transcranial direct current stimulation may represent a promising tool for reconstitution of cognitive functions in stroke patients. This study aimed to investigate the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on cognitive functions in stroke patients. Forty male stroke patients were included. Patients were divided randomly into two equal groups (A and B). Group A received transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in combination with selected cognitive training program by RehaCom. Group B received sham transcranial direct current stimulation in combination with the same cognitive training program.Cognitive evaluation and functional independence measure (FIM) were done for all patients before and after treatment. There was a significant improvement in the scores of attention and concentration, figural memory, logical reasoning, reaction behavior, and FIM post treatment in both groups; the improvement was significantly higher in group A compared to group B. tDCS is a safe and effective neuro-rehabilitation modality that improves post stroke cognitive dysfunctions. Moreover, tDCS has a positive impact on performance of daily activities.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1080/02699931.2018.1535427

Cognition & emotion

Cogn Emot

Reasoning and concurrent timing: a study of the mechanisms underlying the effect of emotion on reasoning.

Negative emotions typically have an adverse effect on reasoning, especially analytic or logical reasoning. This effect can be explained using an attentional framework in which emotion detracts limited-capacity cognitive resources which are required for reasoning. Another possibility is that the effect of emotion on reasoning is mediated by arousal, as previous research has shown that physiological arousal can be associated with decreased reasoning performance. In this research, we used a dual-task paradigm combining a syllogistic reasoning task and a time production task. Prospective timing allows to disentangle the effects of attention and arousal: time productions should lengthen if emotion takes up cognitive resources that are therefore not available for timing, whereas time productions should shorten if emotional reasoning results from increased arousal. Results from two experiments confirm the adverse impact of emotion on logical reasoning performance. Reasoning about emotional contents led to lengthened time productions, which suggests that the capture of limited cognitive resources is the main factor accounting for the adverse effect of emotion on reasoning and not arousal.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1126/science.aav4136

Science (New York, N.Y.)

Science

Erratum for the Report "Precursors of logical reasoning in preverbal human infants" by N. Cesana-Arlotti, A. Martín, E. Téglás, L. Vorobyova, R. Cetnarski, L. L. Bonatti.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.07.062

NeuroImage

Neuroimage

Putting the pieces together: Generating a novel representational space through deductive reasoning.

How does the brain represent a newly-learned mental model? Representational similarity analysis (RSA) has revealed the neural basis of common representational spaces learned early in development, such as categories of natural kinds. This study uses RSA to examine the neural implementation of a newly-learned mental model-i.e., a representational space created through deductive reasoning-and study the structure of previously found parietal activity in reasoning tasks. Specifically, all the information in this mental model could only be obtained through abstract transitive reasoning, as there were no predictive differences between observable features in the stimuli, and stimuli were counterbalanced across participants. Participants were shown unfamiliar face portraits paired with names and asked to learn about the height of each person pictured in the portraits through comparison to other individuals in the set. Participants learned the relative heights only of adjacent pairs in the set and then used transitive reasoning to generate a linear ranking of heights (e.g., "Matthew is taller than Thomas; Thomas is taller than Andrew; therefore Matthew is taller than Andrew"). During fMRI, participants recalled the approximate height of each individual based on these inferences. Using a predictive model based on the relative heights of the set of individuals, RSA revealed three brain regions in the right hemisphere that encoded this newly-learned representational space, located within the intraparietal sulcus, precuneus, and inferior frontal gyrus. These findings demonstrate the value of RSA for analyzing structure within patterns of activity and support theories asserting that logical reasoning recruits spatial processing mechanisms.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1101/cshperspect.a032805

Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology

Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol

Careers in Core Facility Management.

The need for centralized shared core facilities and highly qualified core facility staff is becoming increasingly important in universities, research institutes, and commercial laboratories. With the continued advancement and sophistication of scientific equipment typically comes a larger price tag than can be handled by individual research laboratories. Moreover, the ever-increasing need for researchers to think and act in cross-disciplinary environments, coupled with the increasing sophistication of both the instrumentation and associated technologies, prevents most researchers from becoming "experts" in all areas.At all levels, core facility positions involve a love of technology, working with people, working on many diverse scientific questions, and days full of multitasking. Entry-level positions include basic and advanced technicians that require a BSc or MSc degree and some experience in the field. Midlevel management positions require experience in the field and an MSc or PhD degree. Management experience is a plus but not always required. Scientific directorship positions require a PhD and a keen interest in the technologies that are typically applied in the director's research program. Associate deans of core resources are often former core managers or scientific directors with a vision for the core and who are strong administrators.A career as a core facility staff member can be very rewarding. Successful managers and directors must be able to multitask, reassess priorities, and be adept at using logical reasoning to identify and solve issues as they arise. These positions will continue to be available over the long term with the increasing complexity and continued fast pace of technology development.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3389/frobt.2018.00086

Frontiers in robotics and AI

Front Robot AI

A Neural Network With Logical Reasoning Based on Auxiliary Inputs.

This paper describes a neural network design using auxiliary inputs, namely the indicators, that act as the to explain the predicted outcome through logical reasoning, mimicking the human behavior of deductive reasoning. Besides the original network input and output, we add an auxiliary input that reflects the specific logic of the data to formulate a reasoning process for cross-validation. We found that one can design either meaningful indicators, or even meaningless ones, when using such auxiliary inputs, upon which one can use as the basis of reasoning to explain the predicted outputs. As a result, one can formulate different reasonings to explain the predicted results by designing different sets of auxiliary inputs without the loss of trustworthiness of the outcome. This is similar to human explanation process where one can explain the same observation from different perspectives with reasons. We demonstrate our network concept by using the MNIST data with different sets of auxiliary inputs, where a series of design guidelines are concluded. Later, we validated our results by using a set of images taken from a robotic grasping platform. We found that our network enhanced the last 1-2% of the prediction accuracy while eliminating questionable predictions with self-conflicting logics. Future application of our network with auxiliary inputs can be applied to robotic detection problems such as autonomous object grasping, where the logical reasoning can be introduced to optimize robotic learning.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1007/s10072-018-3470-7

Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology

Neurol Sci

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease may complicate Alzheimer's disease: a comorbidity problem.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be associated with worsening of cognitive performance. We studied patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) with and without COPD, and we analyzed, in a retrospective way, clinical and neuropsychological variables to verify if COPD plays a pejorative role on cognitive or functional autonomy in patients with dementia. We enrolled 23 adult patients (AD-COPD) with probable AD and COPD and 23 with AD only (AD-only); they were matched for sex, age, educational level, and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) at the disease onset. Global cognitive status was estimated using MMSE at the first assessment and after 24 months. Memory, executive functions, praxia, and language were the other cognitive domains analyzed. The two groups were also compared for the presence of behavioral disorders (anxiety, depression). AD-COPD had worse results in executive functions screening than AD-only; no significant differences were found comparing other cognitive domains; moreover, there was no significant difference between the two groups considering the decrease in MMSE scores. AD-COPD also showed a higher presence of depression. COPD is known to be associated with the development of cognitive deficits, in particular, regarding for executive functions and attention, memory and logical reasoning. In this context, MMSE has a low diagnostic accuracy to underline effective cognitive impairment in AD-COPD. Our study shows a higher frequency of frontal deficits and behavioral disturbances in patients with AD and COPD than patients with AD-only. COPD could complicate the management of AD patients, thus necessitating a closer and multidisciplinary monitoring.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3389/fnins.2018.00335

Frontiers in neuroscience

Front Neurosci

Mental Insanity Assessment of Pedophilia: The Importance of the Trans-Disciplinary Approach. Reflections on Two Cases.

A 60 plus-year-old male was charged with pedophilia for forcing a child to touch him inappropriately near a primary school fence. In another case, a 70 plus-year-old male was charged with pedophilia for intimately touching a boy in a cinema. What led them to manifest this socially-inappropriate and legally-relevant behavior? Is there an explanation for the sexually-related behavioral changes emerging late in life of these two men? Indeed, a common point exists between the two men: both were found to suffer from highly-disabling neurological conditions, known to have a potential effect on social behavior. Specifically, a large right frontoparietal meningioma was found to have important influence on the first man's cognition and control inhibition, whereas frontotemporal dementia prevented the second man from understanding the moral disvalue of his sexually-inappropriate behavior and controlling his sexual impulses. In the current presentation, particular emphasis is placed on the logical reasoning supporting the conclusions that both the pedophiles should be considered not guilty by reason of insanity. Furthermore, experimental methods have been used to explore both cases, which rely on the existence of cognitive models for the phenomena under study, the integration of insights offered by different disciplines and the application of a variety of tools and approaches that follow the "convergence of evidence" principle, which could be safely used in court to support a mental insanity claim. Here, we describe how the use of the experimental method could become useful to reduce the uncertainty in mental insanity assessments. The use of a transdisciplinary, scientifically-grounded approach can help to change the way legal phenomena are interpreted. For instance, when assessing mental insanity, consultants should not only investigate the eventual existence of a diagnosis, but should assess the cognitive/affective abilities that are necessary to understand our own behavior and emotions as well as those of others. The criteria for responsibility should be symptoms-based and not diagnosis-based. Since pedophilia is among the most hideous behaviors condemned by society, a more comprehensive and transdisciplinary approach is recommended in court.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.05.014

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Differential roles of polar orbital prefrontal cortex and parietal lobes in logical reasoning with neutral and negative emotional content.

To answer the question of how brain pathology affects reasoning about negative emotional content, we administered a disjunctive logical reasoning task involving arguments with neutral content (e.g. Either there are tigers or women in NYC, but not both; There are no tigers in NYC; There are women in NYC) and emotionally laden content (e.g. Either there are pedophiles or politicians in Texas, but not both; There are politicians in Texas; There are no pedophiles in Texas) to 92 neurological patients with focal lesions to various parts of the brain. A Voxel Lesion Symptom Mapping (VLSM) analysis identified 16 patients, all with lesions to the orbital polar prefrontal cortex (BA 10 & 11), as being selectively impaired in the emotional reasoning condition. Another 17 patients, all with lesions to the parietal cortex, were identified as being impaired in the neutral content condition. The reasoning scores of these two patient groups, along with 23 matched normal controls, underwent additional analysis to explore the effect of belief bias. This analysis revealed that the differences identified above were largely driven by trials where there was an incongruency between the believability of the conclusion and the validity of the argument (i.e. valid argument/false conclusion or invalid argument/true conclusion). Patients with lesions to polar orbital prefrontal cortex underperformed in incongruent emotional content trials and over performed in incongruent neutral content trials (compared to both normal controls and patients with parietal lobe lesions). Patients with lesions to parietal lobes underperformed normal controls (at a trend level) in neutral trials where there was a congruency between the believability of the conclusion and the validity of the argument (i.e. valid argument/true conclusion or invalid argument/false conclusion). We conclude that lesions to the polar orbital prefrontal cortex (i) prevent these patients from enjoying any emotionally induced cognitive boost, and (ii) block the belief bias processing route in the neutral condition. Lesions to parietal lobes result in a generalized impairment in logical reasoning with neutral content.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00380

Frontiers in psychology

Front Psychol

Eye Movements and Cognitive Strategy in a Fluid Intelligence Test: Item Type Analysis.

Eye movements help to infer the cognitive strategy that a person uses in fluid intelligence tests. However, intelligence tests demand different relations/rules tokens to be solved, such as rule direction, which is the continuation, variation or overlay of geometric figures in the matrix of the intelligence test. The aim of this study was to understand whether eye movements could predict the outcome of an intelligence test and in the rule item groups. Furthermore, we sought to identify which measure is best for predicting intelligence test scores and to understand if the rule item groups use the same strategy. Accordingly, 34 adults completed a computerized intelligence test with an eye-tracking device. The toggling rate, that is, the number of toggles on each test item equalized by the item latency explained 45% of the variance of the test scores and a significant amount of the rule tokens item groups. The regression analyses also indicated toggling rate as the best measure for predicting the score and that all the rule tokens seem to respect the same strategy. No correlation or difference were found between baseline pupil size and fluid intelligence. was demonstrated to be a good instrument for the purpose of this study. Finally, the implications of these findings for an understanding of cognition are discussed.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1126/science.aao3539

Science (New York, N.Y.)

Science

Precursors of logical reasoning in preverbal human infants.

Infants are able to entertain hypotheses about complex events and to modify them rationally when faced with inconsistent evidence. These capacities suggest that infants can use elementary logical representations to frame and prune hypotheses. By presenting scenes containing ambiguities about the identity of an object, here we show that 12- and 19-month-old infants look longer at outcomes that are inconsistent with a logical inference necessary to resolve such ambiguities. At the moment of a potential deduction, infants' pupils dilated, and their eyes moved toward the ambiguous object when inferences could be computed, in contrast to transparent scenes not requiring inferences to identify the object. These oculomotor markers resembled those of adults inspecting similar scenes, suggesting that intuitive and stable logical structures involved in the interpretation of dynamic scenes may be part of the fabric of the human mind.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1111/bjop.12294

British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953)

Br J Psychol

Decision-makers are resilient in the face of social exclusion.

A growing body of evidence suggests that social exclusion impairs people's capacity for active deliberation and logical reasoning. Building on this finding and on the postulate from the dual-process theory that analytical thinking is essential in order to make good judgements and decisions, we hypothesized that social exclusion will alter judgement and choice behaviour. We tested this hypothesis in three experiments in which social exclusion was manipulated using the Cyberball paradigm, an online ball-tossing game in which participants either received the ball a fair number of times or were excluded by the other two players. We focused on a range of tasks designed to be sensitive to participants' ability to engage in analytical thinking and careful deliberation, including the cognitive reflection test (Experiment 1) and a set of anchoring, intertemporal preference, disjunction, and confidence tasks (experiments 2 and 3). Our results unanimously failed to support the hypothesis that social exclusion influences people's judgements and decision-making. We discuss the implications of our findings for social exclusion theory.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.12688/f1000research.13665.1

F1000Research

F1000Res

Associative memory cells and their working principle in the brain.

The acquisition, integration and storage of exogenous associated signals are termed as associative learning and memory. The consequences and processes of associative thinking and logical reasoning based on these stored exogenous signals can be memorized as endogenous signals, which are essential for decision making, intention, and planning. Associative memory cells recruited in these primary and secondary associative memories are presumably the foundation for the brain to fulfill cognition events and emotional reactions in life, though the plasticity of synaptic connectivity and neuronal activity has been believed to be involved in learning and memory. Current reports indicate that associative memory cells are recruited by their mutual synapse innervations among co-activated brain regions to fulfill the integration, storage and retrieval of associated signals. The activation of these associative memory cells initiates information recall in the mind, and the successful activation of their downstream neurons endorses memory presentations through behaviors and emotion reactions. In this review, we aim to draw a comprehensive diagram for associative memory cells, working principle and modulation, as well as propose their roles in cognition, emotion and behaviors.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1002/prot.25467

Proteins

Proteins

Investigating the effect of key mutations on the conformational dynamics of toll-like receptor dimers through molecular dynamics simulations and protein structure networks.

The Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are critical components of the innate immune system due to their ability to detect conserved pathogen-associated molecular patterns, present in bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms. Ligand detection by TLRs leads to a signaling cascade, mediated by interactions among TIR domains present in the receptors, the bridging adaptors and sorting adaptors. The BB loop is a highly conserved region present in the TIR domain and is crucial for mediating interactions among TIR domain-containing proteins. Mutations in the BB loop of the Toll-like receptors, such as the A795P mutation in TLR3 and the P712H mutation (Lps mutation) in TLR4, have been reported to disrupt or alter downstream signaling. While the phenotypic effect of these mutations is known, the underlying effect of these mutations on the structure, dynamics and interactions with other TIR domain-containing proteins is not well understood. Here, we have attempted to investigate the effect of the BB loop mutations on the dimer form of TLRs, using TLR2 and TLR3 as case studies. Our results based on molecular dynamics simulations, protein-protein interaction analyses and protein structure network analyses highlight significant differences between the dimer interfaces of the wild-type and mutant forms and provide a logical reasoning for the effect of these mutations on adaptor binding to TLRs. Furthermore, it also leads us to propose a hypothesis for the differential requirement of signaling and bridging adaptors by TLRs. This could aid in further understanding of the mechanisms governing such signaling pathways.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02249

Frontiers in psychology

Front Psychol

A Logic-Based Psychotherapy Approach to Treating Patients Which Focuses on Faultless Logical Functioning: A Case Study Method.

Many clinical patients present to mental health clinics with depressive symptoms, anxiety, psychosomatic complaints, and sleeping problems. These symptoms which originated may originate from marital problems, conflictual interpersonal relationships, problems in securing work, and housing issues, among many others. These issues might interfere which underlie the difficulties that with the ability of the patients face in maintaining faultless logical reasoning (FLR) and faultless logical functioning (FLF). FLR implies to assess correctly premises, rules, and conclusions. And FLF implies assessing not only FLR, but also the circumstances, life experience, personality, events that validate a conclusion. Almost always, the symptomatology is accompanied by intense emotional changes. Clinical experience shows that a logic-based psychotherapy (LBP) approach is not practiced, and that therapists' resort to psychopharmacotherapy or other types of psychotherapeutic approaches that are not focused on logical reasoning and, especially, logical functioning. Because of this, patients do not learn to overcome their reasoning and functioning errors. The aim of this work was to investigate how LBP works to improve the patients' ability to think and function in a faultless logical way. This work describes the case studies of three patients. For this purpose we described the treatment of three patients. With this psychotherapeutic approach, patients gain knowledge that can then be applied not only to the issues that led them to the consultation, but also to other problems they have experienced, thus creating a learning experience and helping to prevent such patients from becoming involved in similar problematic situations. This highlights that LBP is a way of treating symptoms that interfere on some level with daily functioning. This psychotherapeutic approach is relevant for improving patients' quality of life, and it fills a gap in the literature by describing original case analyses.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1111/desc.12644

Developmental science

Dev Sci

Is conditional reasoning related to mathematical problem solving?

The current study aimed to investigate the relation between conditional reasoning, which is a common type of logical reasoning, and children's mathematical problem solving. A sample of 124 fourth graders was tested for their conditional reasoning skills and their mathematical problem solving skills, as well as a list of control variables (e.g., IQ, working memory, reading) and potential mediators (number sentence construction and computation). The children's ability to make modus ponens (MP) inferences significantly predicted their mathematical problem solving skills, even after controlling for the potential confounding variables. The relation was mediated by the number sentence construction skills. The findings, in addition to supporting the link between conditional reasoning and mathematics, further indicate that the ability to process relations may be the mechanism underlying the relation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.autneu.2017.11.004

Autonomic neuroscience : basic & clinical

Auton Neurosci

Cold acclimation and cognitive performance: A review.

Athletes, occupational workers, and military personnel experience cold temperatures through cold air exposure or cold water immersion, both of which impair cognitive performance. Prior work has shown that neurophysiological pathways may be sensitive to the effects of temperature acclimation and, therefore, cold acclimation may be a potential strategy to attenuate cold-induced cognitive impairments for populations that are frequently exposed to cold environments. This review provides an overview of studies that examine repeated cold stress, cold acclimation, and measurements of cognitive performance to determine whether or not cold acclimation provides beneficial protection against cold-induced cognitive performance decrements. Studies included in this review assessed cognitive measures of reaction time, attention, logical reasoning, information processing, and memory. Repeated cold stress, with or without evidence of cold acclimation, appears to offer no added benefit of improving cognitive performance. However, research in this area is greatly lacking and, therefore, it is difficult to draw any definitive conclusions regarding the use of cold acclimation to improve cognitive performance during subsequent cold exposures. Given the current state of minimal knowledge on this topic, athletes, occupational workers, and military commands looking to specifically enhance cognitive performance in cold environments would likely not be advised to spend the time and effort required to become acclimated to cold. However, as more knowledge becomes available in this area, recommendations may change.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1093/cercor/bhx292

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)

Cereb Cortex

Barrel Cortical Neuron Integrates Triple Associated Signals for Their Memory Through Receiving Epigenetic-Mediated New Synapse Innervations.

Associative learning is common way for information acquisition. Associative memory is essential to logical reasoning and associative thinking. The storages of multiple associated signals in individual neurons facilitate their integration, expand memory volume, and strengthen cognition ability. Associative memory cells that encode multiple signals have been reported, however, the mechanisms underlying their recruitment and working principle remain to be addressed. We have examined the recruitment of associative memory cells that integrate and store triple sensory signals as well as the potential mechanism of their recruitment. Paired mouse whisker, olfaction, and tail stimulations lead to odorant-induced motion and tail-induced whisker motion. In mice of expressing this cross-modal response, their barrel cortical neurons become to encode odor and tail signals alongside whisker signal. These barrel cortical neurons receive new synapse innervations from piriform and S1-tail cortical neurons. The emergence of cross-modal responses as well as the recruitments of new synapse innervations and associative memory cells in the barrel cortex need miRNA-324 and miRNA-133a, which downregulate Ttbk1 and Tet3. The co-activations of sensory cortices recruit their mutual synapse innervations and associative memory cells that integrate and store multiple associated signals through epigenetic-mediated process.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3389/fncel.2017.00316

Frontiers in cellular neuroscience

Front Cell Neurosci

Synapse Innervation and Associative Memory Cell Are Recruited for Integrative Storage of Whisker and Odor Signals in the Barrel Cortex through miRNA-Mediated Processes.

Associative learning is a common way for information acquisition, and the integrative storage of multiple associated signals is essential for associative thinking and logical reasoning. In terms of the cellular mechanism for associative memory, our studies by behavioral task and cellular imaging demonstrate that paired whisker and odor stimulations lead to odorant-induced whisker motion and associative memory cell recruitment in the barrel cortex (BC), which is driven presumably by synapse innervation from co-activated sensory cortices. To confirm these associative memory cells and synapse innervations essential for associative memory and to examine their potential mechanisms, we studied a causal relationship between epigenetic process and memory cell/synapse recruitment by manipulating miRNAs and observing the changes from the recruitments of associative memory cells and synapse innervations to associative memory. Anti-miRNA-324 and anti-miRNA-133a in the BC significantly downregulate new synapse innervation, associative memory cell recruitment and odorant-induced whisker motion, where Tau-tubulin kinase-1 expression is increased. Therefore, the upregulated miRNA-324 in associative learning knocks down Ttbk1-mediated Tau phosphorylation and microtubule depolymerization, which drives the balance between polymerization and depolymerization toward the axon prolongation and spine stabilization to initiate new synapse innervations and to recruit associative memory cells.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3233/JAD-170638

Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD

J Alzheimers Dis

Damage to the Frontal Aslant Tract Accounts for Visuo-Constructive Deficits in Alzheimer's Disease.

The frontal aslant tract (FAT) has been described as a bundle connecting the Broca's area to the supplementary motor area (SMA) and the pre-SMA in both hemispheres. The functional properties of this tract and its role in degenerative dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), still need to be fully clarified. The aim of this study was to explore the microstructural integrity of the FAT in patients with AD and its potential relationship with cognitive functioning. Twenty-three patients with AD and 25 healthy subjects (HS) were enrolled. All subjects underwent cognitive and MRI examination. MRI, including diffusion sequences, was used for probabilistic tractography analysis. We reconstructed individual FATs bilaterally and assessed their microstructural integrity using fractional anisotropy (FA), computed as both mean tract value and voxel-wise using SPM-8. Mean FA values were then used to test for correlations with cognitive measures. Mean tract FA and voxel-wise analyses revealed that patients with AD, compared to HS, had decreased FA in the FAT bilaterally. In addition, positive associations were found between FA in the FATs and patients' performance at tests for constructional praxis and visuospatial logical reasoning. The present results reveal a bilateral damage of FAT in AD patients. The association between FATs' microscopic abnormalities and constructive abilities fits well with the knowledge of a functional involvement of SMA and pre-SMA in movement sequences when executing constructive praxis tasks. The FAT is an associative bundle critically involved in the network sub-serving constructional praxis in patients with AD.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01329

Frontiers in psychology

Front Psychol

Digital Learning As Enhanced Learning Processing? Cognitive Evidence for New insight of Smart Learning.

Large use of technology improved quality of life across aging and favoring the development of digital skills. Digital skills can be considered an enhancing to human cognitive activities. New research trend is about the impact of the technology in the elaboration information processing of the children. We wanted to analyze the influence of technology in early age evaluating the impact on cognition. We investigated the performance of a sample composed of n. 191 children in school age distributed in two groups as users: high digital users and low digital users. We measured the verbal and visuoperceptual cognitive performance of children by n. 8 standardized psychological tests and self-report questionnaire. Results have evidenced the influence of digital exposition on cognitive development: the cognitive performance is looked enhanced and better developed: high digital users performed better in naming, semantic, visual memory and logical reasoning tasks. Our finding confirms the data present in literature and suggests the strong impact of the technology using not only in the social, educational and quality of life of the people, but also it outlines the functionality and the effect of the digital exposition in early age; increased cognitive abilities of the children tailor digital skilled generation with enhanced cognitive processing toward to smart learning.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1136/archdischild-2016-310830

Archives of disease in childhood

Arch Dis Child

Population-based study of cognitive outcomes in congenital heart defects.

To characterise and compare cognitive outcomes in children with operated (open-heart surgery) and non-operated (catheter-based interventions only or no intervention) congenital heart defects (CHD) and to determine associated risk factors. This prospective population-based study reports outcomes of 3-year-old children with CHD with or without open-heart surgery. Standardised cognitive scores (mean scores and proportions below normative values) were assessed with the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children II. We analysed demographic, perinatal and operative variables as predictors of cognitive outcomes. 419 children participated (154 with open-heart surgery; 265 without surgery). Global cognitive scores did not differ between the groups. Compared with the non-operated group, children who underwent surgery obtained lower scores in expressive language (p=0.03) and logical reasoning (p=0.05). When compared with test norms, the frequency of global cognitive scores >1 SDs below the expected mean was higher in the surgical group (25% vs 16% in the general population) (p=0.03). A higher-than-expected proportion of children in the non-operated group scored >2 SDs below the expected mean (7% vs 2%) (p=0.05). Being small for gestational age (SGA) significantly increased the risk of cognitive impairment in the surgical group, after adjustments for multiple covariates including maternal education, complexity of the CHD and operative-related variables (adjusted OR=5.9; 95% CI (1.7 to 20.1)). Despite mean scores within the normative range, a high proportion of preschool children with CHD with or without surgery are at early cognitive risk. SGA is a strong predictor of the neurodevelopmental prognosis in CHD.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1111/cen.13441

Clinical endocrinology

Clin Endocrinol (Oxf)

Cognitive impairment in adolescents and adults with congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

Impaired cognition has been reported in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), although the findings have been conflicting. It has been hypothesized that the major causes of the deficits are prenatal hormonal imbalances and/or excessive glucocorticoid treatment. An observational study investigating cognition in patients with CAH. A total of 55 patients with CAH and 58 control subjects from the general population, aged 16-33 years. Nine CAH subjects had been treated prenatally with dexamethasone. Singel research institute. Standardized neuropsychological tests (Wechsler Scales and Stroop Interference Test) and questionnaires (Barkley Deficit in Executive Functioning Scale) were used. Compared to controls, patients with CAH had impaired performance in tests measuring verbal working memory (P = .024), visual-spatial working memory (P = .005 and P = .003) and inhibition (P = .002). In measures of fluid intelligence/nonverbal logical reasoning, males with CAH performed poorer than control males (P = .033). Patients with salt-wasting CAH performed equally compared to patients with simple virilizing CAH. However, patients with a null genotype performed poorer than patients with a non-null genotype and significantly worse on fluid intelligence/nonverbal logical reasoning (P = .042). Prenatally-treated women performed worse on most cognitive measures than women with CAH not treated prenatally. Patients with CAH had normal psychometric intelligence but impaired executive functions compared with population controls. A null CAH genotype was associated with poorer general cognitive capacity.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3389/fnagi.2017.00137

Frontiers in aging neuroscience

Front Aging Neurosci

tDCS Over the Motor Cortex Shows Differential Effects on Action and Object Words in Associative Word Learning in Healthy Aging.

Healthy aging is accompanied by a continuous decline in cognitive functions. For example, the ability to learn languages decreases with age, while the neurobiological underpinnings for the decline in learning abilities are not known exactly. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), in combination with appropriate experimental paradigms, is a well-established technique to investigate the mechanisms of learning. Based on previous results in young adults, we tested the suitability of an associative learning paradigm for the acquisition of action- and object-related words in a cohort of older participants. We applied tDCS to the motor cortex (MC) and hypothesized an involvement of the MC in learning action-related words. To test this, a cohort of 18 healthy, older participants (mean age 71) engaged in a computer-assisted associative word-learning paradigm, while tDCS stimulation (anodal, cathodal, sham) was applied to the left MC. Participants' task performance was quantified in a randomized, cross-over experimental design. Participants successfully learned novel words, correctly translating 39.22% of the words after 1 h of training under sham stimulation. Task performance correlated with scores for declarative verbal learning and logical reasoning. Overall, tDCS did not influence associative word learning, but a specific influence was observed of cathodal tDCS on learning of action-related words during the NMDA-dependent stimulation period. Successful learning of a novel lexicon with associative learning in older participants can only be achieved when the learning procedure is changed in several aspects, relative to young subjects. Learning success showed large inter-individual variance which was dependent on non-linguistic as well as linguistic cognitive functions. Intriguingly, cathodal tDCS influenced the acquisition of action-related words in the NMDA-dependent stimulation period. However, the effect was not specific for the associative learning principle, suggesting more neurobiological fragility of learning in healthy aging compared with young persons.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1007/978-1-4939-7046-9_15

Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)

Methods Mol Biol

Logical Reasoning (Inferencing) on MicroRNA Data.

Logical reasoning played an important role in artificial intelligence. Applying logical reasoning on microRNA data brings intelligence into data analysis. Here, we provide basic introduction about logic (especially propositional logic) and automated reasoning based on knowledge described in the form of logic rules. We also introduce tools that could be used for building automated reasoning systems with microRNA data.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3748/wjg.v23.i17.3142

World journal of gastroenterology

World J Gastroenterol

Consequences of metabolic syndrome on postoperative outcomes after pancreaticoduodenectomy.

To analyze immediate postoperative outcomes after pancreaticoduodenectomy regarding metabolic syndrome. In two academic centers, postoperative outcomes of patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy from 2002 to 2014 were prospectively recorded. Patients presenting with metabolic syndrome [defined as at least three criteria among overweight (BMI ≥ 28 kg/m²), diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension and dyslipidemia] were compared to patients without metabolic syndrome. Among 270 consecutive patients, 29 (11%) presented with metabolic syndrome. In univariable analysis, patients with metabolic syndrome were significantly older (69.4 years 62.5 years, = 0.003) and presented more frequently with soft pancreas (72% 22%, = 0.0001). In-hospital morbidity (83% 71%) and mortality (7% 6%) did not differ in the two groups so as pancreatic fistula rate (45% 30%, = 0.079) and severity of pancreatic fistula ( = 0.257). In multivariable analysis, soft pancreas texture ( = 0.001), pancreatic duct diameter < 3 mm ( = 0.025) and BMI > 30 kg/m² ( = 0.041) were identified as independent risk factors of pancreatic fistula after pancreaticoduodenectomy, but not metabolic syndrome. In spite of logical reasoning and appropriate methodology, present series suggests that metabolic syndrome does not jeopardize postoperative outcomes after pancreaticoduodenectomy. Therefore, definition of metabolic syndrome seems to be inappropriate and fatty pancreas needs to be assessed with an international consensual histopathological classification.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1177/0031512517698555

Perceptual and motor skills

Percept Mot Skills

Object-Spatial Imagery and Verbal Cognitive Styles in High School Students.

The present study investigated object-spatial imagery and verbal cognitive styles in high school students. We analyzed the relationships between cognitive styles, object imagery ability, spatial visualization ability, verbal-logical reasoning ability, and preferred modes of processing math information. Data were collected from 348 students at six high schools in two school districts. Spatial imagery style was not correlated with object imagery style and was negatively correlated with verbal style. Object imagery style did not correlate significantly with any cognitive ability measure, whereas spatial imagery style significantly correlated with object imagery ability, spatial visualization ability, and verbal-logical reasoning ability. Lastly, spatial imagery style and verbal-logical reasoning ability significantly predicted students' preference for efficient visual methods. The results support the cognitive style model, in which visualizers are characterized as two distinct groups who process visual-spatial information and graphic tasks in different ways.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.12688/f1000research.11096.2

F1000Research

F1000Res

Associative memory cells: Formation, function and perspective.

Associative learning and memory are common activities in life, and their cellular infrastructures constitute the basis of cognitive processes. Although neuronal plasticity emerges after memory formation, basic units and their working principles for the storage and retrieval of associated signals remain to be revealed. Current reports indicate that associative memory cells, through their mutual synapse innervations among the co-activated sensory cortices, are recruited to fulfill the integration, storage and retrieval of multiple associated signals, and serve associative thinking and logical reasoning. In this review, we aim to summarize associative memory cells in their formation, features and functional impacts.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.03.006

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Lesions to polar/orbital prefrontal cortex selectively impair reasoning about emotional material.

While it is widely accepted that lesions to orbital prefrontal cortex lead to emotion related disruptions and poor decision-making, there is very little patient data on this issue involving actual logical reasoning tasks. We tested patients with circumscribed, focal lesions largely confined to polar/orbital prefrontal cortex (BA 10 & 11) (N=17) on logical reasoning tasks involving neutral and emotional content, and compared their performance to that of an age and education-matched normal control group (N=22) and a posterior lesion control group (N=24). Our results revealed a significant group by content interaction driven by a selective impairment in the polar/orbital prefrontal cortex group compared to healthy normal controls and to the parietal patient group, in the emotional content reasoning trials. Subsequent analyses of congruent and incongruent reasoning trials indicated that this impairment was driven by the poor performance of patients with polar/orbital lesions in the incongruent trials. We conclude that the polar/orbital prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in filtering emotionally charged content from the material before it is passed on to the reasoning system in lateral/dorsal regions of prefrontal cortex. Where unfiltered content is passed to the reasoning engine, either as a result of pathology (as in the case of our patients) or as a result of individual differences, reasoning performance suffers.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1371/journal.pone.0169166

PloS one

PLoS One

People Like Logical Truth: Testing the Intuitive Detection of Logical Value in Basic Propositions.

Recent studies on logical reasoning have suggested that people are intuitively aware of the logical validity of syllogisms or that they intuitively detect conflict between heuristic responses and logical norms via slight changes in their feelings. According to logical intuition studies, logically valid or heuristic logic no-conflict reasoning is fluently processed and induces positive feelings without conscious awareness. One criticism states that such effects of logicality disappear when confounding factors such as the content of syllogisms are controlled. The present study used abstract propositions and tested whether people intuitively detect logical value. Experiment 1 presented four logical propositions (conjunctive, biconditional, conditional, and material implications) regarding a target case and asked the participants to rate the extent to which they liked the statement. Experiment 2 tested the effects of matching bias, as well as intuitive logic, on the reasoners' feelings by manipulating whether the antecedent or consequent (or both) of the conditional was affirmed or negated. The results showed that both logicality and matching bias affected the reasoners' feelings, and people preferred logically true targets over logically false ones for all forms of propositions. These results suggest that people intuitively detect what is true from what is false during abstract reasoning. Additionally, a Bayesian mixed model meta-analysis of conditionals indicated that people's intuitive interpretation of the conditional "if p then q" fits better with the conditional probability, q given p.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1080/00207144.2017.1246848

The International journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis

Int J Clin Exp Hypn

Is Primary-Process Cognition a Feature of Hypnosis?

The division of cognition into primary and secondary processes is an important part of contemporary psychoanalytic metapsychology. Whereas primary processes are most characteristic of unconscious thought and loose associations, secondary processes generally govern conscious thought and logical reasoning. It has been theorized that an induction into hypnosis is accompanied by a predomination of primary-process cognition over secondary-process cognition. The authors hypothesized that highly hypnotizable individuals would demonstrate more primary-process cognition as measured by a recently developed cognitive-perceptual task. This hypothesis was not supported. In fact, low hypnotizable participants demonstrated higher levels of primary-process cognition. Exploratory analyses suggested a more specific effect: felt connectedness to the hypnotist seemed to promote secondary-process cognition among low hypnotizable participants.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1055/s-0042-115409

Endoscopy international open

Endosc Int Open

Psychomotor and cognitive effects of 15-minute inhalation of methoxyflurane in healthy volunteers: implication for post-colonoscopy care.

Colonoscopy with portal inhaled methoxyflurane (Penthrox) is highly feasible with low sedation risk and allows earlier discharge. It is unclear if subjects can return to highly skilled psychomotor skill task shortly after Penthrox assisted colonoscopy. We evaluated the psychomotor and cognitive effects of 15-minute inhalation of Penthrox in adults. Sixty healthy volunteers (18 to 80 years) were studied on 2 occasions with either Penthrox or placebo in a randomized, double-blind fashion. On each occasion, the subject's psychomotor function was examined before, immediately, 30, 60, 120, 180 and 240 min after a 15-minute inhalation of studied drug, using validated psychomotor tests (Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST), auditory reaction time (ART), eye-hand coordination (EHC) test, trail making test (TMT) and logical reasoning test (LRT). Compared to placebo, a 15-minute Penthrox inhalation led to an immediate but small impairment of DSST ( < 0.001), ART ( < 0.001), EHC ( < 0.01), TMT ( = 0.02) and LRT ( = 0.04). In all subjects, the performance of all 5 tests normalized by 30 minutes after inhalation, and was comparable to that with placebo. Although increasing age was associated with a small deterioration in psychomotor testing performance, the magnitude of Penthrox effects remained comparable among all age groups. In all age groups, a 15-minute Penthrox inhalation induces acute but short-lasting impairment of psychomotor and cognitive performance, which returns to normal within 30 minutes , indicating that subjects who have colonoscopy with Penthrox can return to highly skilled psychomotor skills tasks such as driving and daily work the same day.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

Fiziologiia cheloveka

Fiziol Cheloveka

[Impairments of Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Decision-Making in Depression.]

A multidisciplinary clinical-psychological-neurophysiological study has been performed in 28 depressive patients (females, aged 18-56) and 50 healthy volunteers (females, aged 18-55) in order to analyze the relationships between the impairments of neurocognitive mechanisms of decision-making based on logics and considerations or on emotional experience (emotional learning) in uncertain situation and clinical and neurophysiological signs of depression. The severity of depression was assessed quantitatively using Hamilton's Depression Rating Scale (HDRS-17). Tests "10 words", Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) were used for quantitative assessment of cognitive functions. Multichannel resting EEG was recorded in all depressive patients in order to assess the brain functional state. Neurocognitive deficit was observed in all the patients; its pronounce correlated positively with the severity of depression. The ability to make decisions based on both logic and considerations (in WCST), which is associated with EEG signs of hypofrontality, and on emotional learning (in IGT) was impaired. Only in depressive patients reduced ability to make rational decisions based on logics and considerations resulttd in a compensatory shift towards decision-making based on emotions, which led to relatively higher results of emotional learning. The data suggests that hypofrontality causes difficulties in making decisions that requires logical reasoning and the disinhibition of subcortical (including hippocampal) brain structures, the activation of which provides better results of emotional learning.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.2196/jmir.6249

Journal of medical Internet research

J Med Internet Res

A Multimedia Child Developmental Screening Checklist: Design and Validation.

Identifying disability early in life confers long-term benefits for children. The Taipei City Child Development Screening tool, second version (Taipei II) provides checklists for 13 child age groups from 4 months to 6 years. However, the usability of a text-based screening tool largely depends on the literacy level and logical reasoning ability of the caregivers, as well as language barriers caused by increasing numbers of immigrants. The objectives of this study were to (1) design and develop a Web-based multimedia version of the current Taipei II developmental screening tool, and (2) investigate the measurement equivalence of this multimedia version to the original paper-based version. To develop the multimedia version of Taipei II, a team of experts created illustrations, translations, and dubbing of the original checklists. The developmental screening test was administered to a total of 390 primary caregivers of children aged between 4 months and 6 years. Psychometric testing revealed excellent agreement between the paper and multimedia versions of Taipei II. Good to excellent reliabilities were demonstrated for all age groups for both the cross-mode similarity (mode intraclass correlation range 0.85-0.96) and the test-retest reliability (r=.93). Regarding the usability, the mean score was 4.80 (SD 0.03), indicating that users were satisfied with their multimedia website experience. The multimedia tool produced essentially equivalent results to the paper-based tool. In addition, it had numerous advantages, such as it can facilitate active participation and promote early screening of target populations. Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02359591; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02359591 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6l21mmdNn).

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3758/s13421-016-0653-4

Memory & cognition

Mem Cognit

The capacity to generate alternative ideas is more important than inhibition for logical reasoning in preschool-age children.

There is little consensus about the nature of logical reasoning and, equally important, about how it develops. To address this, we looked at the early origins of deductive reasoning in preschool children. We examined the contribution of two factors to the reasoning ability of very young children: inhibitory capacity and the capacity to generate alternative ideas. In a first study, a total of 32 preschool children were all given generation, inhibition, and logical reasoning measures. Logical reasoning was measured using knowledge-based premises such as "All dogs have legs," and two different inferences: modus ponens and affirmation of the consequent. Results revealed that correctly reasoning with both inferences is not related to the measure of inhibition, but is rather related to the capacity to generate alternative ideas. In a second study, 32 preschool children were given either the generation or the inhibition task before the logical reasoning measure. Results showed that receiving the generation task beforehand significantly improved logical reasoning compared to the inhibition task given beforehand. Overall, these results provide evidence for the greater importance of idea generation in the early development of logical reasoning.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1186/s12909-016-0779-x

BMC medical education

BMC Med Educ

Selection into medical school: from tools to domains.

Most research into the validity of admissions tools focuses on the isolated correlations of individual tools with later outcomes. Instead, looking at how domains of attributes, rather than tools, predict later success is likely to be more generalizable. We aim to produce a blueprint for an admissions scheme that is broadly relevant across institutions. We broke down all measures used for admissions at one medical school into the smallest possible component scores. We grouped these into domains on the basis of a multicollinearity analysis, and conducted a regression analysis to determine the independent validity of each domain to predict outcomes of interest. We identified four broad domains: logical reasoning and problem solving, understanding people, communication skills, and biomedical science. Each was independently and significantly associated with performance in final medical school examinations. We identified two potential errors in the design of admissions schema that can undermine their validity: focusing on tools rather than outcomes, and including a wide range of measures without objectively evaluating the independent contribution of each. Both could be avoided by following a process of programmatic assessment for selection.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1590/1518-8345.1191.2785

Revista latino-americana de enfermagem

Rev Lat Am Enfermagem

Critical thinking: concept analysis from the perspective of Rodger's evolutionary method of concept analysis.

to analyze the concept of critical thinking (CT) in Rodger's evolutionary perspective. documentary research undertaken in the Cinahl, Lilacs, Bdenf and Dedalus databases, using the keywords of 'critical thinking' and 'Nursing', without limitation based on year of publication. The data were analyzed in accordance with the stages of Rodger's conceptual model. The following were included: books and articles in full, published in Portuguese, English or Spanish, which addressed CT in the teaching and practice of Nursing; articles which did not address aspects related to the concept of CT were excluded. the sample was made up of 42 works. As a substitute term, emphasis is placed on 'analytical thinking', and, as a related factor, decision-making. In order, the most frequent preceding and consequent attributes were: ability to analyze, training of the student nurse, and clinical decision-making. As the implications of CT, emphasis is placed on achieving effective results in care for the patient, family and community. CT is a cognitive skill which involves analysis, logical reasoning and clinical judgment, geared towards the resolution of problems, and standing out in the training and practice of the nurse with a view to accurate clinical decision-making and the achieving of effective results.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.bone.2016.08.009

Bone

Bone

Boning up on DPP4, DPP4 substrates, and DPP4-adipokine interactions: Logical reasoning and known facts about bone related effects of DPP4 inhibitors.

Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) is a conserved exopeptidase with an important function in protein regulation. The activity of DPP4, an enzyme which can either be anchored to the plasma membrane or circulate free in the extracellular compartment, affects the glucose metabolism, cellular signaling, migration and differentiation, oxidative stress and the immune system. DPP4 is also expressed on the surface of osteoblasts, osteoclasts and osteocytes, and was found to play a role in collagen metabolism. Many substrates of DPP4 have an established role in bone metabolism, among which are incretins, gastrointestinal peptides and neuropeptides. In general, their effects favor bone formation, but some effects are complex and have not been completely elucidated. DPP4 and some of its substrates are known to interact with adipokines, playing an essential role in the energy metabolism. The prolongation of the half-life of incretins through DPP4 inhibition led to the development of these inhibitors to improve glucose tolerance in diabetes. Current literature indicates that the inhibition of DPP4 activity might also result in a beneficial effect on the bone metabolism, but the long-term effect of DPP4 inhibition on fracture outcome has not been entirely established. Diabetic as well as postmenopausal osteoporosis is associated with an increased activity of DPP4, as well as a shift in the expression levels of DPP4 substrates, their receptors, and adipokines. The interactions between these factors and their relationship in bone metabolism are therefore an interesting field of study.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.7861/clinmedicine.16-4-343

Clinical medicine (London, England)

Clin Med (Lond)

The thinking doctor: clinical decision making in contemporary medicine.

Diagnostic errors are responsible for a significant number of adverse events. Logical reasoning and good decision-making skills are key factors in reducing such errors, but little emphasis has traditionally been placed on how these thought processes occur, and how errors could be minimised. In this article, we explore key cognitive ideas that underpin clinical decision making and suggest that by employing some simple strategies, physicians might be better able to understand how they make decisions and how the process might be optimised.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1038/srep30633

Scientific reports

Sci Rep

A Decentralized Approach to the Formulation of Hypotheses: A Hierarchical Structural Model for a Prion Self-Assembled System.

Innovation in hypotheses is a key transformative driver for scientific development. The conventional centralized hypothesis formulation approach, where a dominant hypothesis is typically derived from a primary phenomenon, can, inevitably, impose restriction on the range of conceivable experiments and legitimate hypotheses, and ultimately impede understanding of the system of interest. We report herein the proposal of a decentralized approach for the formulation of hypotheses, through initial preconception-free phenomenon accumulation and subsequent reticular logical reasoning processes. The two-step approach can provide an unbiased, panoramic view of the system and as such should enable the generation of a set of more coherent and therefore plausible hypotheses. As a proof-of-concept demonstration of the utility of this open-ended approach, a hierarchical model has been developed for a prion self-assembled system, allowing insight into hitherto elusive static and dynamic features associated with this intriguing structure.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1007/s10802-016-0191-3

Journal of abnormal child psychology

J Abnorm Child Psychol

Who Are the Children Most Vulnerable to Social Exclusion? The Moderating Role of Self-Esteem, Popularity, and Nonverbal Intelligence on Cognitive Performance Following Social Exclusion.

Social exclusion has a profound emotional impact on children. However, there is still limited and partly conflicting experimental evidence for the possible effect of social exclusion on children's cognitive performance. In the present study, we tested the possibility that some children are more vulnerable than others to the negative effects of social exclusion on cognitive performance. We selected 4 potential candidates that could moderate the effects of social exclusion: relational self-esteem, peer ratings of popularity, rejection sensitivity and nonverbal intelligence. Individual differences in these 4 potential moderating factors were first assessed in a sample of 318 children (45.6 % females; mean age = 9.92 years). Then, in a subsequent experimental session, the participants were either socially included or excluded using a typical manipulation (i.e., the Cyberball paradigm). Following the manipulation, the children's cognitive performance was assessed using a logical reasoning test. The results showed that the children with lower scores for relational self-esteem (the bottom 37.46 % of the sample), lower popularity (43.49 %) or weaker nonverbal intelligence (37.80 %) performed worse on the logical reasoning test following social exclusion. Moreover, children with combined low self-esteem, popularity and nonverbal intelligence were the most affected by social exclusion. This study identified factors that make some children more vulnerable to the negative effects of social exclusion. Overall, the present work underscores the value of considering basic cognitive and relational individual differences when developing interventions aimed at preventing the negative effects of social exclusion among children.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.pmedr.2016.04.006

Preventive medicine reports

Prev Med Rep

From 'D' to 'I': A critique of the current United States preventive services task force recommendation for testicular cancer screening.

In 2004, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) gave testicular cancer (TCa) screening a 'D' recommendation, discouraging the use of this preventive service. The USPSTF suggested that screening, inclusive of testicular self-examination (TSE) and clinician examination, does not reduce TCa mortality rates and that the high risk of false positives could serve as a detriment to patient quality of life. Others suggests that TCa screening is ineffective at detecting early-stage cases of TCa and readily highlights a lack of empirical evidence demonstrating said efficacy. These assertions, however, stand in stark contrast to the widely held support of TCa screening among practicing public health professionals, advocacy groups, and clinicians. In this present study, a review was conducted of the methods and processes used by the USPSTF in their 2011 reaffirmation of the 'D' grade recommendation. The evidence base and commentary offered as to why TSE, as part of the overall recommendation for TCa screening, was given a 'D' grade were analyzed for logical reasoning and methodological rigor. Considering the methodological flaws and the veritable lack of evidence needed to grant a conclusive recommendation, the question is raised if the current 'D' grade for TCa screening (i.e. discourage the use of said service) should be changed to an 'I' statement (i.e. the balance of benefits and harms is indeterminate). Therefore the purpose of this paper is to present the evidence of TCa screening in the context of efficacy and prevention in order for the field to reassess its relative value.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.5662/wjm.v6.i2.143

World journal of methodology

World J Methodol

Methodology in improving antibiotic implementation policies.

The basic requirements of antibiotic prescribing are components of methodology; knowledge, logical reasoning, and analysis. Antimicrobial drugs are valuable but limited resources, different from other drugs and they are among the most commonly prescribed drugs all over the world. They are the only drugs which do not intentionally affect the patient. They affect the pathogens which invade the host. The emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens are accelerated by heavy antibiotic usage. The effective antimicrobial stewardship and infection control program have been shown to limit the emergence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. In this respect, education for antibiotic prescribing could be designed by going through the steps of scientific methodology. A defined leadership and a coordinated multidisciplinary approach are necessary for optimizing the indication, selection, dosing, route of administration, and duration of antimicrobial therapy. In scenarios, knowledge is also as important as experience for critical decision making as is designated. In this setting, the prevalence and resistance mechanisms of antimicrobials, and their interactions with other drugs need to be observed. In this respect, infectious disease service should play an important role in improving antimicrobial use by giving advice on the appropriate use of antimicrobial agents, and implementing evidence-based guidelines.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1080/23279095.2016.1185425

Applied neuropsychology. Adult

Appl Neuropsychol Adult

The relationship between theory of mind and the executive functions: Evidence from patients with frontal lobe damage.

"Theory of mind" (ToM) refers to the ability to predict others' thoughts, intentions, beliefs, and feelings. Evidence from neuropsychology and functional imaging indicates that ToM is a domain-specific or modular architecture; however, research in development psychology has suggested that ToM is the full development of the executive functions in individuals. Therefore, the relationship between ToM and the executive functions needs to be clarified. Since the frontal lobe plays a critical role in the abilities of ToM and the executive functions, patients with frontal lobe damage were recruited for the present study. Assessments of ToM and the executive functions were performed on 23 patients with frontal lobe damage and 20 healthy controls. When controlling for the executive functions, significant differences between the patient and normal groups were found in the affective component of ToM, but not in the cognitive component. The present study suggests that in various social situations, executing ToM abilities requires logical reasoning processes provided by the executive functions. However, the reasoning processes of affective ToM are independent of executive functions.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1037/xlm0000291

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition

J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn

Logical reasoning versus information processing in the dual-strategy model of reasoning.

One of the major debates concerning the nature of inferential reasoning is between counterexample-based strategies such as mental model theory and statistical strategies underlying probabilistic models. The dual-strategy model, proposed by Verschueren, Schaeken, & d'Ydewalle (2005a, 2005b), which suggests that people might have access to both kinds of strategy has been supported by several recent studies. These have shown that statistical reasoners make inferences based on using information about premises in order to generate a likelihood estimate of conclusion probability. However, while results concerning counterexample reasoners are consistent with a counterexample detection model, these results could equally be interpreted as indicating a greater sensitivity to logical form. In order to distinguish these 2 interpretations, in Studies 1 and 2, we presented reasoners with Modus ponens (MP) inferences with statistical information about premise strength and in Studies 3 and 4, naturalistic MP inferences with premises having many disabling conditions. Statistical reasoners accepted the MP inference more often than counterexample reasoners in Studies 1 and 2, while the opposite pattern was observed in Studies 3 and 4. Results show that these strategies must be defined in terms of information processing, with no clear relations to "logical" reasoning. These results have additional implications for the underlying debate about the nature of human reasoning. (PsycINFO Database Record

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.nedt.2016.03.007

Nurse education today

Nurse Educ Today

Students who developed logical reasoning skills reported improved confidence in drug dose calculation: Feedback from remedial maths classes.

The safe administration of drugs is a focus of attention in healthcare. It is regarded as acceptable that a formula card or mnemonic can be used to find the correct dose and fill a prescription even though this removes any requirement for performing the underlying computation. Feedback and discussion in class reveal that confidence in arithmetic skills can be low even when students are able to pass the end of semester drug calculation exam. To see if confidence in the understanding and performance of arithmetic for drug calculations can be increased by emphasising student's innate powers of logical reasoning after reflection. Remedial classes offered for students who have declared a dislike or lack of confidence in arithmetic have been developed from student feedback adopting a reasoning by logical step methodology. Students who gave up two hours of their free learning time were observed to engage seriously with the learning methods, focussing on the innate ability to perform logical reasoning necessary for drug calculation problems. Working in small groups allowed some discussion of the route to the answer and this was followed by class discussion and reflection. The results were recorded as weekly self-assessment scores for confidence in calculation. A self-selecting group who successfully completed the end of semester drug calculation exam reported low to moderate confidence in arithmetic. After four weeks focussing on logical skills a significant increase in self-belief was measured. This continued to rise in students who remained in the classes. Many students hold a negative belief regarding their own mathematical abilities. This restricts the learning of arithmetic skills making alternate routes using mnemonics and memorised steps an attractive alternative. Practising stepwise logical reasoning skills consolidated by personal reflection has been effective in developing student's confidence and awareness of their innate powers of deduction supporting an increase in competence in drug administration.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1007/s11145-015-9613-9

Reading and writing

Read Writ

How logical reasoning mediates the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension.

The present study aimed to examine the role of logical reasoning in the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension in 146 fourth grade Dutch children. We assessed their standardized reading comprehension measure, along with their decoding efficiency and vocabulary as measures of lexical quality, syllogistic reasoning as measure of (verbal) logical reasoning, and nonverbal reasoning as a control measure. Syllogistic reasoning was divided into a measure tapping basic, coherence inferencing skill using logical syllogisms, and a measure tapping elaborative inferencing skill using indeterminate syllogisms. Results showed that both types of syllogisms partly mediated the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension, but also had a unique additional effect on reading comprehension. The indirect effect of lexical quality on reading comprehension via syllogisms was driven by vocabulary knowledge. It is concluded that measures of syllogistic reasoning account for higher-order thinking processes that are needed to make inferences in reading comprehension. The role of lexical quality appears to be pivotal in explaining the variation in reading comprehension both directly and indirectly via syllogistic reasoning.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3389/fneur.2016.00042

Frontiers in neurology

Front Neurol

Acute Tension-Type Headaches Are Associated with Impaired Cognitive Function and More Negative Mood.

Research has shown that migraine is often associated with memory problems. There have, however, been few studies of tension-type headache (TTH) and cognition. People who report frequent headaches often report high levels of negative affect. However, less is known about the acute effects of TTH on mood. To address these gaps in our knowledge, two studies examined the effects of acute TTH on -cognitive performance and mood. Both studies involved one group of participants completing a battery of tasks when they had a TTH and when they had no headache. Another group (the control) was headache free on both occasions. Duration of the headache was >30 min and <4 h. In the "no headache" condition, the participants were headache free for at least 24 h. In the first study, 12 participants (6 with TTH and 6 controls) completed a computerized battery measuring mood and aspects of cognition. In the second study, 22 participants (7 TTH, 5 after TTH, and 10 controls) completed paper and pencil mood and cognitive tasks. In the first study, having a headache was associated with an increase in negative affect both before and after the tasks. Three performance tasks showed impairments when the participants had headaches: logical reasoning was slower and less accurate; retrieval from semantic memory was slower; and reaction times in the categorical search task were slower. Results from the second study confirmed the global increase in negative affect when the person has a TTH. The results confirmed the impairments in the logical reasoning and semantic processing tasks, and also showed that those with a TTH had greater psychomotor slowing and were more easily distracted. Effects did not continue after the headache had gone. Two small-scale studies have shown that TTH is associated with negative affect and impaired cognitive function. It is now of interest to determine whether OTC treatment can remove these effects.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1080/21622965.2015.1119692

Applied neuropsychology. Child

Appl Neuropsychol Child

Neurocognitive mechanisms of mathematical giftedness: A literature review.

Mathematically gifted children/adolescents have demonstrated exceptional abilities and traits in logical reasoning, mental imagery, and creative thinking. In the field of cognitive neuroscience, the past studies on mathematically gifted brains have concentrated on investigating event-related brain activation regions, cerebral laterality of cognitive functions, functional specialization that is uniquely dedicated for specific cognitive purposes, and functional interactions among discrete brain regions. From structural and functional perspectives, these studies have witnessed both "general" and "unique" neural characteristics of mathematically gifted brains. In this article, the theoretical background, empirical studies, and neurocognitive mechanisms of mathematically gifted children/adolescents are reviewed. Based on the integration of the findings, some potential directions for the future research are identified and discussed.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1007/s11357-015-9866-x

Age (Dordrecht, Netherlands)

Age (Dordr)

Aging effects on discrimination learning, logical reasoning and memory in pet dogs.

In laboratory dogs, aging leads to a decline in various cognitive domains such as learning, memory and behavioural flexibility. However, much less is known about aging in pet dogs, i.e. dogs that are exposed to different home environments by their caregivers. We used tasks on a touchscreen apparatus to detect differences in various cognitive functions across pet Border Collies aged from 5 months to 13 years. Ninety-five dogs were divided into five age groups and tested in four tasks: (1) underwater photo versus drawing discrimination, (2) clip art picture discrimination, (3) inferential reasoning by exclusion and (4) a memory test with a retention interval of 6 months. The tasks were designed to test three cognitive abilities: visual discrimination learning, logical reasoning and memory. The total number of sessions to reach criterion and the number of correction trials needed in the two discrimination tasks were compared across age groups. The results showed that both measures increased linearly with age, with dogs aged over 13 years displaying slower learning and reduced flexibility in comparison to younger dogs. Inferential reasoning ability increased with age, but less than 10 % of dogs showed patterns of choice consistent with inference by exclusion. No age effect was found in the long-term memory test. In conclusion, the discrimination learning tests used are suitable to detect cognitive aging in pet dogs, which can serve as a basis for comparison to help diagnose cognition-related problems and as a tool to assist with the development of treatments to delay cognitive decline.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.cortex.2015.11.003

Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior

Cortex

Individual differences and specificity of prefrontal gamma frequency-tACS on fluid intelligence capabilities.

Emerging evidence suggests that transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is an effective, frequency-specific modulator of endogenous brain oscillations, with the potential to alter cognitive performance. Here, we show that reduction in response latencies to solve complex logic problem indexing fluid intelligence is obtained through 40 Hz-tACS (gamma band) applied to the prefrontal cortex. This improvement in human performance depends on individual ability, with slower performers at baseline receiving greater benefits. The effect could have not being explained by regression to the mean, and showed task and frequency specificity: it was not observed for trials not involving logical reasoning, as well as with the application of low frequency 5 Hz-tACS (theta band) or non-periodic high frequency random noise stimulation (101-640 Hz). Moreover, performance in a spatial working memory task was not affected by brain stimulation, excluding possible effects on fluid intelligence enhancement through an increase in memory performance. We suggest that such high-level cognitive functions are dissociable by frequency-specific neuromodulatory effects, possibly related to entrainment of specific brain rhythms. We conclude that individual differences in cognitive abilities, due to acquired or developmental origins, could be reduced during frequency-specific tACS, a finding that should be taken into account for future individual cognitive rehabilitation studies.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1016/j.talanta.2015.07.070

Talanta

Talanta

Lead isotope ratios for bullets, forensic evaluation in a Bayesian paradigm.

Forensic science is a discipline concerned with collection, examination and evaluation of physical evidence related to criminal cases. The results from the activities of the forensic scientist may ultimately be presented to the court in such a way that the triers of fact understand the implications of the data. Forensic science has been, and still is, driven by development of new technology, and in the last two decades evaluation of evidence based on logical reasoning and Bayesian statistic has reached some level of general acceptance within the forensic community. Tracing of lead fragments of unknown origin to a given source of ammunition is a task that might be of interest for the Court. Use of data from lead isotope ratios analysis interpreted within a Bayesian framework has shown to be suitable method to guide the Court to draw their conclusion for such task. In this work we have used isotopic composition of lead from small arms projectiles (cal. .22) and developed an approach based on Bayesian statistics and likelihood ratio calculation. The likelihood ratio is a single quantity that provides a measure of the value of evidence that can be used in the deliberation of the court.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1093/bioinformatics/btv712

Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)

Bioinformatics

Extending gene ontology with gene association networks.

Gene ontology (GO) is a widely used resource to describe the attributes for gene products. However, automatic GO maintenance remains to be difficult because of the complex logical reasoning and the need of biological knowledge that are not explicitly represented in the GO. The existing studies either construct whole GO based on network data or only infer the relations between existing GO terms. None is purposed to add new terms automatically to the existing GO. We proposed a new algorithm 'GOExtender' to efficiently identify all the connected gene pairs labeled by the same parent GO terms. GOExtender is used to predict new GO terms with biological network data, and connect them to the existing GO. Evaluation tests on biological process and cellular component categories of different GO releases showed that GOExtender can extend new GO terms automatically based on the biological network. Furthermore, we applied GOExtender to the recent release of GO and discovered new GO terms with strong support from literature. Software and supplementary document are available at www.msu.edu/%7Ejinchen/GOExtender [email protected] or [email protected] Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.1152/advan.00078.2015

Advances in physiology education

Adv Physiol Educ

On being examined: do students and faculty agree?

Students measure out their lives, not with coffee spoons, but with grades on examinations. But what exams mean and whether or not they are a bane or a boon is moot. Senior undergraduates (A. Perrella, J. Koenig, and H. Kwon) designed and administered a 15-item survey that explored the contrasting perceptions of both students (n = 526) and faculty members (n = 33) in a 4-yr undergraduate health sciences program. A series of statements gauged the level of agreement on a 10-point scale. Students and faculty members agreed on the value of assessing student learning with a variety of methods, finding new information to solve problems, assessing conceptual understanding and logical reasoning, having assessments with no single correct answer, and having comments on exams. Clear differences emerged between students and faculty members on specific matters: rubrics, student choice of exam format, assessing creativity, and transfer of learning to novel situations. A followup questionnaire allowed participants to clarify their interpretation of select statements, with responses from 71 students and 17 faculty members. All parties strongly agreed that exams should provide a good learning experience that would help them prepare for the future (students: 8.64 ± 1.71 and faculty members: 8.03 ± 2.34).

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

Zhongguo zhen jiu = Chinese acupuncture & moxibustion

Zhongguo Zhen Jiu

[Clinical efficacy on mental retardation in the children treated with JIN's three scalp needling therapy and the training for cognitive and perceptual disturbance].

To explore the impacts on the cognitive level of the children with mental retardation (MR) treated with JIN's three scalp needling therapy and the training for cognitive and perceptual disturbance so as to seek the more effective therapeutic method for the treatment of MR in children. Methods Sixty-six MR children were randomized into a head-point needle-retaining therapy + training group (group A) and a training after acupuncture group (group B). Seven cases and 12 cases were dropped in the two groups respectively. Twenty-six cases accomplished the treatment in the group A and 21 cases in the group B. In the group A, the points on the head were stimulated and the needles were retained (30 min after the general acupuncture, the needles on the body points were removed; and those on the head points were retained for 1 h, including Sishenzhen, Naosanzhen, Zhisanzhen and Niesanzhen). Simultaneously, the training for the cognitive perceptual disturbance was combined. In the group B, 1 h after needle retaining at the body points and head points, all the needles were removed; the training for the cognitive perceptual disturbance was followed. The treatment was given once a day, and the treatment for 3 months was required. Before and after treatment, the Wechsler intelligence scale for children (WISC) was used for evaluation and observation of verbal intelligence quotient (VIQ) , performance intelligence quotient (PIQ) and full-scale intelligence quotient (TFIQ) and score changes of 11 items such as information, picture vocabu; lary, arithmetic, picture generalization, comprehension, etc. After treatment, FIQ, VIQ and PIQ scores were different significantly as compared with those before treatment (all P<0. 01). In the group A, the results of picture vocabulary, animal egg laying, maze, block design and geometric figure were all improved significantly (all P<0. 05). In the group B, the results of information, comprehension, block design and geometric figure were all improved significantly (all P<0. 05). After treatment, concerning the value difference in FIQ and PIQ of the two groups; the changes in the group A were more significant (both P<0. 01). After treatment, the results of picture vocabulary and maze were improved significantly in the group A as compared with the group B (both P<. 01). The IQ categories changed apparently after treatment in the two groups, toward the higher level in tendency generally, but without significant difference (both P>0. 05). The simultaneous treatment with head point retaining of JIN's three needling therapy and the training for cognitive and perceptual disturbance obviously improves children patients' verbal comprehension, expression ability, hand-eye coordination ability, attention, logical reasoning ability and visual perception. The efficacy is better than that in the treatment of the training after acupuncture.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning

10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01447

Frontiers in psychology

Front Psychol

Quantum structure of negation and conjunction in human thought.

We analyze in this paper the data collected in a set of experiments investigating how people combine natural concepts. We study the mutual influence of conceptual conjunction and negation by measuring the membership weights of a list of exemplars with respect to two concepts, e.g., Fruits and Vegetables, and their conjunction Fruits And Vegetables, but also their conjunction when one or both concepts are negated, namely, Fruits And Not Vegetables, Not Fruits And Vegetables, and Not Fruits And Not Vegetables. Our findings sharpen and advance existing analysis on conceptual combinations, revealing systematic deviations from classical (fuzzy set) logic and probability theory. And, more important, our results give further considerable evidence to the validity of our quantum-theoretic framework for the combination of two concepts. Indeed, the representation of conceptual negation naturally arises from the general assumptions of our two-sector Fock space model, and this representation faithfully agrees with the collected data. In addition, we find a new significant and a priori unexpected deviation from classicality, which can exactly be explained by assuming that human reasoning is the superposition of an "emergent reasoning" and a "logical reasoning," and that these two processes are represented in a Fock space algebraic structure.

CognitiveConstruct

LogicalReasoning