No description available.

Today, many school districts are mandating tests to measure student performance and to hold individual schools and school systems accountable for that performance in order to meet the standards set forth in the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004). The focus of this study was to examine the relationship among cognitive ability as measured by the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) and measures of achievement, specifically, standardized achievement scores on the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK) and school grades. The current study investigated archival data of 452 seventh grade students enrolled in a large, suburban public school district during the 2007-2008 school year. Scores on the CogAT and NJ ASK were collected from grades 3, 5, and 7. Final grades in the subject areas of Reading, Writing, Math, Social Studies and Science were collected from report cards from the end of seventh grade of the 2007-2008 school year. Pearson correlations found significant relationships between: (1) cognitive ability and standardized achievement scores in grades 3, 5, and 7, (2) third grade cognitive ability and grade seven grades, and (3) third grade standardized achievement scores and grade seven grades. Further, out of the five cluster scores on the grade 3 CogAT and NJ ASK, the NJ ASK Language Arts score was the best predictor of grades in Reading and Writing and the NJ ASK Mathematics score was the best predictor of grades in Math, Science, and Social Studies. Finally, third grade NJ ASK Language Arts, NJ ASK Mathematics and CogAT Verbal scores were the best predictors of special education classification in grade 7, accounting for a combined 22% of the variance. Limitations to the study and implications for future research and practice are discussed. / School Psychology

The aim of this dissertation was to address a theoretical debate on belief bias. Belief bias is the tendency for people to be influenced by their prior beliefs when engaged in deductive reasoning. Deduction is the act of drawing necessary conclusions from premises which are meant to be assumed as true. Given that the logical validity of an argument is independent of its content, being influenced by your prior beliefs in such content is considered a bias. Traditional theories posit there are two belief bias components. Motivated reasoning is the tendency to reason better for arguments with unbelievable conclusions relative to arguments with believable conclusions. Response bias is the tendency to accept believable arguments and to reject unbelievable arguments. Dube et al. (2010) pointed out critical methodological problems that undermine evidence for traditional theories. Using signal detection theory (SDT), they found evidence for response bias only. We adopted the SDT method to compare the viability of the traditional and the response bias accounts. In Chapter 1 the relevant literature is reviewed. In Chapter 2 four experiments which employed a novel SDT-based forced choice reasoning method are presented, showing evidence compatible with motivated reasoning. In Chapter 3 four experiments which used the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) method are presented. Crucially, cognitive ability turned out to be linked to motivated reasoning. In Chapter 4 three experiments are presented in which we investigated the impact of cognitive ability and analytic cognitive style on belief bias, concluding that cognitive style mediated the effects of cognitive ability on motivated reasoning. In Chapter 5 we discuss our findings in light of a novel individual differences account of belief bias. We conclude that using the appropriate measurement method and taking individual differences into account are two key elements to furthering our understanding of belief bias, human reasoning, and cognitive psychology in general.

The Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML) is a relatively new instrument used in the assessment of memory in children. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the WRAML by comparing the performance of children on both the WRAML and the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability- Revised (WJTCA-R). Subjects for the study were children in treatment for a brain tumor at a regional children's medical center. Fifty children participated in the study ranging from ages 6 to 17. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine which of four selected clusters from the WJTCA-R would have the highest correlation with the Verbal Memory Index (VERI) from the WRAML. The Short-Term Memory (GSM) cluster had the highest correlation ( r = .82) as predicted. A Pearson's product-moment correlational analysis was conducted between the Visual Processing (GV) cluster from the WJTCA-R and the Visual Memory Index (VISI) from the WRAML. GV was found to have a high positive correlation ( r = .63) with VISI. A similar analysis was conducted between the Long-Term Retrieval (GLR) cluster from the WJTCA-R and the Learning Index (LRNI) from the WRAML. GLR was found to have a high positive correlation ( r = .81) with LRNI. Finally, a correlational analysis was conducted between the Broad Cognitive Ability (BCA) scale from the WJTCA-R and the General Memory Index (GENI) from the WRAML. A high positive correlation ( r = .87) was found between these most global measures from the two batteries. The observed correlation between BCA and GENI was much higher than anticipated. The author concluded that neurological impairment had affected subject memory and intellectual functioning in similar ways. The results do not generalize to children who have not had similar decrements in cognitive functioning. Future research should establish a baseline correlation between the two instruments with a non-impaired population.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:28:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RAUNI JANDE ROAMA ALVES.pdf: 1597487 bytes, checksum: 2c5fc0e1ecfc2b3e4750ae14cfbd068e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-13 / Pontif?cia Universidade Cat?lica de Campinas / Dyslexia is a disorder resulting from neuropsychological dysfunction and mostly causes difficulties in learning to read. International studies speculate that this framework does not only involve deficient cognitive skills, but also well developed, such as creativity. Starting from this hypothesis, the present study aimed to compare the creativity of children with dyslexia (GC) with children without difficulties in reading and writing (GN). It was also investigated how the intelligence is related to that performance in both groups. The GC was recruited at the Clinical Hospital of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and the GN in a regular school of the state of S?o Paulo. It was investigated 13 children in each group, ranging in age from eight years to 11 years and eight months (GC: M=10,92+1,03; GN: M=10,61+0,50), with five females and eight males in group GC and nine females and four males in group GN. To survey the creativity was used the "Test of Figural Creativity for Children (TCFI) and for intelligence was administered the test "Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices (MPCR)", "Human Figure Drawing (DFH)" and "Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - third version (WISC-III)", the latter two only in GC. For the selection of the GN was used a questionnaire for parents and a semistructured interview for teachers to eliminate diagnostic criteria for dyslexia, besides the "Academic Performance Test", with the aim of selecting children with reading and writing performance expected for age and grade. The results showed no statistically significant differences between both groups in creativity. However, the GC had a lower average than the GN in the total TCFI, while also showed higher scores for 18 of the 31 characteristics evaluated by it. High correlation was observed between the MPCR and the TCFI in both groups and no significant correlations between the DFH and the WISC-III with the TCFI in GC. Some hypotheses have been formulated: the existence of possible relationships between creativity and executive functions, the latter being to the detriment of individuals with dyslexia, which could explain the result of the total TCFI; the influence of emotional and possibly aspects of personality that are characteristic of dyslexia, which could explain the better performance in the majority of the characteristics evaluated in TCFI. There was no pattern in the correlations between measures of intelligence and creativity in both investigated groups, as found in the literature. It is concluded that this study provided important findings for early clarification on a possible relationship between creativity and dyslexia, however, considering the complexity of both constructs, studies involving the investigation of their relations with other psychological variables as well as expansion and diversification of the sample are needed. / A dislexia ? um transtorno decorrente de disfun??es neuropsicol?gicas e acarreta principalmente dificuldades no aprendizado da leitura. Estudos internacionais especulam que esse quadro n?o somente envolveria habilidades cognitivas deficit?rias, mas tamb?m bem desenvolvidas, como a criatividade. Partindo-se dessa hip?tese, o presente estudo objetivou comparar a criatividade de crian?as com dislexia (GC) com o de crian?as sem dificuldades em leitura e escrita (GN). Tamb?m se investigou a rela??o entre criatividade e intelig?ncia em ambos os grupos. O GC foi recrutado no Hospital de Cl?nicas da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) e o GN em uma escola de ensino regular de uma cidade do interior de S?o Paulo. Foram investigadas 13 crian?as em cada grupo, com faixa et?ria de oito anos a 11 anos e oito meses (GC: M=10,92+1,03; GN: M=10,61+0,50), sendo cinco do sexo feminino e oito do masculino no GC e nove do sexo feminino e quatro do masculino no GN. Para a avalia??o da criatividade foi utilizado o Teste de Criatividade Figural Infantil (TCFI) e para intelig?ncia foram administrados os testes Matrizes Progressivas Coloridas de Raven (MPCR) , Desenho da Figura Humana (DFH) e Escala de Intelig?ncia Wechsler para crian?as (WISC-III) , sendo os dois ?ltimos somente no GC. Para a sele??o do GN foi utilizado um question?rio para os pais e uma entrevista semiestruturada para os professores a fim de eliminar crit?rios diagn?sticos para dislexia, al?m do Teste de Desempenho Escolar , com o objetivo de selecionar somente aquelas crian?as que apresentassem desempenho em leitura e em escrita esperado para a idade e s?rie. Os resultados encontrados n?o evidenciaram diferen?as estat?sticas significativas entre ambos os grupos na medida de criatividade. No entanto, o GC apresentou menor m?dia em rela??o ao GN no total do TCFI, ao mesmo tempo em que tamb?m apresentou m?dias mais altas em 18 das 31 caracter?sticas avaliadas por esse mesmo teste. Foi verificada alta correla??o entre os testes MPCR e o TCFI em ambos os grupos e correla??es n?o significativas entre o DFH e o WISC-III com o TCFI no GC. Algumas hip?teses foram elaboradas: a exist?ncia de poss?veis rela??es entre criatividade e fun??es executivas, sendo essas ?ltimas em preju?zo em sujeitos com dislexia, que poderia explicar o resultado obtido no total do TCFI; a influ?ncia de aspectos emocionais e possivelmente de personalidade, caracter?sticos a dislexia, que poderiam explicar o melhor desempenho obtido na maioria das caracter?sticas avaliadas no TCFI. N?o foi verificado um padr?o nas correla??es entre as medidas de intelig?ncia e de criatividade em ambos os grupos investigados, assim como encontrado na literatura. Conclui-se que o presente estudo forneceu achados importantes para o in?cio do esclarecimento sobre uma poss?vel rela??o entre criatividade e dislexia, no entanto, considerando a complexidade de ambos os constructos, estudos que envolvam a investiga??o de suas rela??es com outras vari?veis psicol?gicas bem como amplia??o e diversifica??o da amostra se fazem necess?rios.

The distinction between technical and contextual performance is widely recognized in the Industrial/Organization Psychology literature (Sackett & Lievens, 2008). Less well-understood are the causal antecedents of performance in these domains and how those antecedents relate to each other. Motowidlo, Borman, and Schmit (1997) proposed that technical performance is determined largely by cognitive ability, which acts through the mediator technical knowledge to influence technical performance. They also proposed that contextual performance is mainly determined by personality traits and that these traits influence contextual performance via the mediating variable contextual knowledge. Although prior research has examined some of the causal antecedents proposed by Motowidlo et al. (1997), no study has examined these four variables simultaneously, in addition to gathering information about performance criteria in the two domains. This study examined these six variables in a sample of medical students. In keeping with the verbiage used in the medical literature, students' contextual knowledge is referred to as professional knowledge and their contextual performance is referred to as professional performance. Medical students (N = 209) beginning their third year at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston completed measures of professional knowledge and the Big Five personality traits and consented to have their MCAT scores (a proxy for cognitive ability) and their first- and second-year course grades (grade point average; a measure of their technical knowledge) gathered for this investigation. Performance criteria consisted of attending physicians' ratings of students' professional and technical performance during their clinical rotations. Rotations were grouped according to whether they fell into the domain of Primary Care or the Specialties. Notable findings are summarized by a path analytic model. Agreeableness exerted a causal influence on professional knowledge (β = .38) and Primary Care professional performance (β = .14). Extraversion causally affected professional knowledge (β = -.22). Professional knowledge accounted for variance in Primary Care professional (β = .19) and technical performance (β = .22). Openness to experience and conscientiousness influenced technical knowledge (β's -.19 and .25). Cognitive ability was directly related to technical knowledge (β = .43) and Specialties professional (β = -.21) and technical performance (β = -.19). Technical knowledge was related to Primary Care professional (β = .32) and technical performance (β = .42) and also Specialties professional (β = .46) and technical performance (β = .57). Results generally suggest that separate causal paths underlie performance in Primary Care and the Specialties, respectively.

台灣目前已邁入高齡化社會，因高齡人口持續攀升，面對中高齡者認知能力衰退，我們提議利用遊戲的方式進行注意力訓練。相較於一般以娛樂為主要目的的遊戲，悅趣化學習遊戲(Serious Game)是在遊戲設計除時以娛樂為目的外，另附加學習目標，這種遊戲設計方式常廣泛運用於教育、軍事、健康、都市規劃、宗教、工程與政治等領域上，以達成某種訓練或觀察目的。我們以心理學理論為基礎，透過悅趣化學習遊戲在平板電腦上設計了一個系統，邀請年長者分為兩組來擔任此一系統的受試者，並觀察使用我們所設計的遊戲系統前後其注意力變化的狀況。我們在此系統上進行了視覺搜尋(Visual Search)和注意力網絡作業(Attention Network Task, ANT)的前後測驗，並加入了自適應性(Adaptive)及導入干擾(Interference)以觀察受試者排除干擾的狀態。我們觀察此系統是否能影響測試者的認知能力與其影響的程度，並比較受試者之注意力在實驗前後變化是否因遊戲系統而改變。而經過實驗後共有21位高齡受試者完成所有實驗流程，實驗組的受試者經過分析後發現他們在視覺搜尋的在正確率以及在注意力網絡作業中的正確率、警覺性分數和導向性分數皆有顯著的改變，而在實驗後透過問卷調查另可發現高齡受試者對於遊戲學習亦是給予正面的回饋且有意願繼續使用。因此我們認為我們所設計的悅趣化學習遊戲系統能提升高齡受試者的使用意願並進而有效提升其注意力。 / Since the last decade, Taiwan has entered the aging society. However, the proportion of the elderly population has continued to increase in recent years. Our primary purpose is to use serious game as a means of training the attention of the elderly and delay the decline of cognition. Serious game has a primary purpose other than pure entertainment and has been used in the past for various applications such as national defense, education, scientific exploration, healthcare, emergency management, city planning, engineering, religion, and politics. Our goal in this work is to design a customizable serious game based on cognition psychology on the Android tablet PC platform for the elderly. We invited 21 elderly subjects to play the game and perform tests done before and after the playing. In the pre- and pro-tests, we adopted a Visual Search task and the Attention Network Task (ANT) tests to study how the proposed serious game can affect the cognition abilities, especially attention, of a subject. The experimental results reveal that the accuracy of visual search, accuracy of attention network test, scores of alerting and orienting of the participants in the experiment group have significantly improved after the trainings on the serious game system. We also have received positive feedback on the gameplay from the participants, which shows that the proposed system is well accepted and can serve as an effective means for cognition training.

This Ph.D. thesis in Economics consists of five self-contained chapters that investigate the role of gender and family background in generating socioeconomic inequality. Occupational segregation by sex: The role of intergenerational transmission studies the persistence of the occupational sex segregation by investigating intergenerational associations in the sex composition of occupations. Gender differences in initiation of negotiation: Does the gender of the negotiation counterpart matter? experimentally examines how the gender difference in the willingness to enter a negotiation is affected by the gender of the counterpart in the negotiation. The importance of family background and neighborhood effects as determinants of crime estimates sibling and neighborhood correlations in criminal convictions and incarceration. IQ and family background: Are associations strong or weak? examines sibling and intergenerational correlations in IQ. Gender and inequality of opportunity in Sweden explores to what extent income inequality is due to factors beyond individuals' control, such as gender and parental income. / <p>Diss. Stockholm :  Stockholm School of Economics, 2014. Introduction together with 5 papers.</p>

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine whether across-trials inconsistency in reaction time (RT), in addition to level of cognitive performance, is predictive of older adults’ performance on a measure of everyday problem solving through a series of three investigations. A sample of community dwelling non-demented older adults, ranging in age from 62 to 92, completed the Everyday Problems Test (EPT), a measure of everyday problem solving that indexes instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). Performance on the EPT varied according to age, cognitive status, and education, and was significantly predicted by measures of global cognitive status, cognitive decline, and various basic cognitive abilities (i.e., speed of processing, fluid abilities, episodic memory, crystallized abilities). Both inconsistency and mean latencies on measures of RT were found to be significantly associated with concurrent EPT performance, such that slower and more inconsistent RTs were associated with poorer everyday problem solving abilities. Finally, inconsistency in RT made a unique contribution in predicting performance on the EPT two years later, over and above age, education, and various basic cognitive abilities. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that the relationship between inconsistency in RT and future EPT performance was mediated by fluid and crystallized abilities. Neither inconsistency nor cognitive functioning were significantly associated with changes in EPT performance across two years. Examination of the relationships between IADL functioning, as assessed through self- and informant-report, and inconsistency and basic cognitive abilities demonstrated that everyday problem solving and measures of IADLs tap into related but distinct constructs. The overall pattern of results obtained lends support to the idea that inconsistency in RT represents a behavioural marker of neurological dysfunction. In addition, the present investigation is the first to suggest a relationship between inconsistency in RT and real-world outcomes, such as everyday problem solving and IADL functioning.

I used annual killifish Nothobranchius orthonotus to investigate two separate questions related to behavioural aspects of their life history. The first study focused on spatial cognitive ability of two N. orthonotus populations that originated from temporary pools that varied in their expected duration due to differences in annual precipitation patterns (dry and humid region). Test of cognition was based on the ability to learn to find food in a dichotomous test. It was assumed that learning ability differs between populations when tested in young and old age along with their difference in captive lifespan. Additionally, association between cognitive ability and other life history traits was tested. It was found that: (1) there was no difference in the ability to learn spatial task between populations; (2) both populations had similar lifespan with no cognitive decay in older age, and older fish from dry region population had committed even less errors in the learning task than they did as young fish; (3) fish were able to effectively learn the task but (4) solitary fish had lower learning ability than group-reared fish; (5) longer- living fish were quicker learners; (6) high resting metabolic rate was associated with more effective learning; (7) hesitant fish found the food reward in learning task...