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In the Name of God
the Compassionate the Merciful
Archives of
Iranian Medicine
A Monthly Peer-Reviewed Medical Journal
Founded in 1998 by the
Academy of Medical Sciences of the I.R. Iran
ISSN: Print 1029-2977, Online 1735-3947
Chairman: Iraj Fazel MD FACS
Editor-in-Chief: Reza Malekzadeh MD
Chairman of the Editorial Board: Karim Vessal MD
Associate Editors and Editorial Board
Shahin Akhondzadeh PhD
Mohammad-Hossein Azizi MD
Moslem Bahadori MD
Hasan Esfandbod MD
Arash Etemadi MD PhD
Hasan Farsam, PhD
Farshad Farzadfar MD, PhD
Sadegh Massarrat MD
Hossein Najmabadi PhD
Siavosh Nasseri-Moghaddam MD
Touraj Nayernouri MD
Siavoush Sehhat MD FACS
Ismail Yazdi DMD
Mohammad-Reza Zarrindast PhD
Editorial Office: P.O.Box: 19395-4655, Tehran, Iran
Web: http://www.aimjournal.ir
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Online Submission: http://www.aimjournal.ir:55/UI/
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liability can be accepted by the Academy and Editorial
Board for errors of commission or omission incurred
in the published material. Any reproduction or use of
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Board of Consultants Y. Aghighi MD
A. Ahmed MD (USA)
M. Akbarian MD
J. P. Allain MD PhD (England)
S. Asfar MD FACS (Kuwait)
F. Azizi MD
S. Bahram MD PhD (France)
M. Balali-Mood MD
B. Bastani MD (USA)
H. E. Blum MD (Germany)
S.H. Borghei MD
B. Boroumand MD
Y. Dowlati MD
G. H. Edrissian Pharm D
B. Eghtesad MD (USA)
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H. D. Fahimi PhD (Germany)
A. Fazel PhD
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N. Ghahramani MD (USA)
R. Gharib MD
R. Ghohestani MD PhD (USA)
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M.A.Haberal MD FACS(Turkey)
F. Habibzadeh MD
M. Haeryfar PhD (Canada)
M. Haghshenas MD
F. Ismail-Beigi MD (USA)
B. Jahangiri MD
K. Kalantarzadeh MD (USA)
N. Kamalian MD
A. Khaleghnejad MD
K. Khazaie PhD (USA)
S. Koochekpour MD PhD
H. Malekafzali MD PhD
A. Malekhosseini MD
A. Marandi MD
S. Masood MD (USA)
M. Matin MD
V. Mehrabi MD
F. Moattar PhD
K. Mohammad PhD
F. Motamedi PhD
A. Nadim MD PhD
B. Nikbin PhD
M. Nooraie PhD
N. Parsa MD PhD (USA)
D. Paydarfar MD (USA)
G. Pourmand MD
S. Rad MD
B. Z. Radpay MD
F. Rahimi MD
H. Rezvan PhD
M. H. Sanati PhD
M. R. Sedaghatian MD FAAP (UAE)
F. Saidi MD
H. Sajjadi MD (USA)
S. Shariat MD
F. Shokri PhD
M. Sotoodeh MD
E. Sotoodeh-Maram PhD
M. Ugurlucan MD (Germany)
A. Velayati MD
M. Vessal PhD
P. Vosugh MD
M. Zali MD
Editorial Statistical Advisors
Asieh Golozar MD MPH
Leila Ghalichi MD MPH
Amir Kasaeian MSc
Ahmad Reza Shamshiri MD MPH
Mehdi Yaseri PhD
Mohammad Ali Mansournia MD PhD
Mohsen Vahedi MSc
Editorial Staff
Neda Bayat MSc (internal reviewer)
Majid Boreiri MD (copy editor)
Shokoufeh Borzabadi MSc (copy editor, executive director)
Shima Ghoroghi MSc (copy editor)
Siamak KarimkhanZand (design and layout)
AmirEhsan Lashkari MSc (copy editor)
Saeideh Riazi (public relation)
Amir Sarbazi BA (web administrator)
Sama Rezasoltani MSc (manuscript handling)
Bahram Soleimani Amirabad (filling and posting publications)
Archives of Iranian Medicine
vol. 16/ Number 5/ Supplement 1/ May 2013
A Monthly Peer-Reviewed Medical Journal
Book of Abstracts
5th International Conference of Cognitive Science
7- 9 May 2013, Tehran - Iran
Editor:
Seyed Vahid Shariat, Phd
Co- Editors:
Pegga Alaii
Tahereh L. Ansari
Zahra Moradi
Disclaimer
The names, affiliations and personal information, appear as directly provided by the contributors. The organizers
of the conference or the institute for cognitive science studies bear no liabilities whatsoever as regard their validity.
Welcome Message
In the Name of God the Most Merciful
On behalf of the Institute of Cognitive Science Studies (ICSS) and Shahid Beheshti University (SBU), we welcome you to the 5th International Conference of Cognitive Science (ICCS). We hope you enjoy this scientific
program, which is a magnificent collection of speeches, group discussions, poster presentations, workshops, and
network meetings. We extend our very Persian welcome to our International contributors and participants, many
of whom endured long journeys to I. R. Iran.
The rapid growth in cognitive science and technology studies and research has allowed us to raise and formulate
novel questions and provide solutions, which can be relied on in scientific endeavors of scholars from this field
as well as other converging science and technology domains. Ultimately, our goal from inception at the ICCS has
been to increase our focus on the numerous studies and research in cognitive science. This goal has allowed the
ICCS to continue its efforts in making the biennial conference possible, and allow further scientific expansion and
collaboration in theoretical, empirical, applied, and technological work in cognitive science fields.
ICCS 2013 has been affluently enriched by 8 keynote speakers from all around the world. We had received more
than 500 submissions; however, we were only able to accommodate 276 contributions to be delivered in the form
of 55 oral and 221 poster presentations during this three-day event. There are a total of 13 countries represented at
ICCS 2013, including: Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, India, Iraq, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, Sweden,
Turkey, and the United Kingdom.
The conference owes its continued success to many individuals and organizations. We would like to extend our
sincerest gratitude to all of them, especially members of the Scientific and Organizing Committees and Mr. Nosrat,
Executive Chairman of the Committee. We would like to thank the National Council for Cognitive Science and
Technology (NCCT), Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC), and Center for Innovation and Technology
Corporation (CITC), for their invaluable loyalty and financial support. Finally, we would like to thank Dr. Kamal
Kharrazi, the Architecture of Cognitive Science in Iran, whose constant pursuit in helping to expand and evolve
cognitive science in Iran has been the driving force of the conference.
We wish you a pleasant stay in Tehran and hope that the connections you make here will open new windows for
future opportunities and collaborations.
Hamid Reza Pouretemad President of the Conference Vahid Shariat
Scientific Chairman of Conference
Book of Abstracts
5th International Conference of Cognitive Science
7- 9 May 2013, Tehran - Iran
Chairman: Pouretemad, Hamid Reza, Ph.D
Scientific Secretary: Shariat, Seyed Vahid, M.D
Executive Secretary: Nosrat, Hossein
Organizing Committee
Hadjizadeh, Sohrab
Moradi, Alireza
Nosrat, Hossein
Pouretemad, Hamid Reza
Shariat, Seyed Vahid
Conference Secretariat
Abolghasemi, Zahra
Azimi, Aslan
Ghadami, Akram Sadat
Kharrazi, Hesam
Mehrpour, Ali
Nabavi,Marjan
Noorian , Nahid
Sharifi, Hamidreza
Scientific Advisory Committee
Aguilar-Vafaie, Maria
Aghazadeh, Moharram
Aarabi, Babak
Bagherian, Fatemeh
Davaei, Mehdi
Family, Neilofar
Hadaeghi, Fatemeh
Hemmati Moghaddam, Ahmadreza
Karbasizadeh, Amir
Moghaddam, Alireza
Morvarid, Mahmood
Nasehi, Mohammad
Nejati, Vahid
Nilipour, Reza
Piri, Morteza
Raiesdana, Somayeh
Sadeghi Abdollahi, Bahar
Shariat, Seyed Vahid
Talkhabi, Mahmoud
Vahid, Hamid
Yavari, Fatemeh
Zarrindast, Mohammad Reza
Editor:
Seyed Vahid Shariat
Co- Editors:
Pegga Alaii
Tahereh L. Ansari
Zahra Moradi
Alaii, Pegga
Barkhan Khosh, Tayebe Tayebe
Keshvari, Fatmeh
Khosravi, Shahnaz
Moharreri, Marjan
Safarkhani, Maryam
Valadan, Ali
Abootalebi, Vahid
Ahmadi-Pajouh, Mohammad Ali
Bakouei, Fatemeh
Baghdadi, Golnaz
Delgoshai, Yalda
Ghassemi, Farnaz
Hatami, Javad
Kharrazi, Kamal
Moghtadaei, Motahareh
Moradi, Alireza
Naghavi, Hamidreza
Nazari, Mohammad Ali
Nematzadeh, Shahin
Nouri, Ali
Pouretemad, Hamid Reza
Razavi, Mohammad Reza
Sadeghi Marascht, Abdolhossein
Sheykh Rezaee, Hossein
Tehrani-doost, Mehdi
Younesi, Ali
content
The Engineering and Humanities University Students’ Critical Thinking Skills in Iranian EFL Context
Alemi, Minoo
2
Working Memory, Spiritual Intelligence and Academic Achievement in Monolingual and Bilingual
Female Students
Zahmatkesh, Zeinab
3
Cognitive Dysfunction, Need for Cognition and Self-Efficacy in Episodic Prospective Memory
Khan, Azizuddin
4
The Efficacy of Meta-cognitive Training and its Application in the Mutual Interactions of Parents with
Children Suffering from the Oppositional Defiant Disorder on the Reduction of the Symptoms of the
Oppositional Defiant of These Children
Asli Azad, Moslem
5
The Efficacy of Training to Apply Meta-cognitive Knowledge on the Reduction of Hyperactivity and
Increasing the Attention of the Kids with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder
Asli Azad, Moslem
6
Bilingual EFL Learners’ Metaphorical Conceptualizations
Akbari, Mohsen
7
Irrational Beliefs Relation with Alexithymia
Karami, Jahangir
8
Comparative Neurocognitive Functions of Schizophrenics and Patients with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
Fadaie, Fatemeh
9
Comparative Investigation of Mathematics Anxiety and Learning Mathematics in Male and Female
Students of Distance Education University
Homayouni, Alireza
10
Evolutionary Assessment in Emotional and Cognitive Empathy in Preschoolers and School-Age Children
Jalali, Maryam
11
The Study of the Relationship between Scrupulosity, Obsessive- Compulsive Symptoms, and Obsessive-Compulsive Related Cognitive Styles
Kaviani, Sara
12
Cognitive Director and Discourse Actor in the Language Film: An Analysis of How Background
Thoughts Shape Foreground Speeches for Specific Purposes
Weisl, Hiwa
13
The Effects of Racial Diversity on Critical Thinking Skills among Iranian EFL Learners
Alemi, Minoo
14
Investigating the Relationship of Irrational Beliefs with Anxiety and Their Effect in Two Different
Academic Systems in Iran
Saghafi, Fatemeh
15
Investigating the Relationships between Emotional Intelligence, Coping with Stress, and Problem Solving Skills
Mohammadi, Shahnaz
16
Zemestani, Mehdi
17
Khayer, Zahra
18
Mirshojaee, Seyyed Bagher
19
Abbassi, Ensie
20
New Results about the Sensitivity of Psycholinguistic Tasks to Foreign Language Proficiency
Ujma, Péter
21
A Neuro-Educational Explanation of Dialogic Learning as a Permanent Educational Strategy
Nouri, Ali
22
Simor, Péter
23
Alsadat Sadeghi, Mansoureh
24
A Socio-Cognitive Approach to Persian Scientific Terminograhy
Gholi Famian, Ali Reza
25
An Informational Argument against Strong Artificial Intelligence
Maleeh, Reza
26
Toward Agents with Switchable Emotion Understanding Ability
An Open Trial of a Brief Transdiagnostic Metacognitive Therapy for Depression and Anxiety
Impact Assessment of Stress Induction on the Visual Working Memory of Emotional and Non-emotional Stimuli among Male and Female University Students
Can the Brain Answer Why Learning Happens?
Processing of Words with Emotional Meaning in the Cerebral Hemispheres: Automatic n the Left and
Attentional in the Right
Increased Alpha Power Indicates Wake-Like EEG Oscillations during Different Sleep Stages in Nightmare Disorder
Differences of Features of Cognitive Concepts Categorization in Blind and Sighted Students
Kazemifard, Mohammad
27
Cross-Gender Differences in Using Hedges in Conclusion Section of Applied Linguistics Papers
Azarmi, Bagher
28
Cognitive Assessment in Elderly Admitted to Day Care Centers: The Relationship between the Abbreviated Mental Test and Sociodemographic Variables
Rashedi, Vahid
29
What is More Important in Predicting Academic Performance? Cognitive or Affective Aspects of SelfConcept
Abu-Hilal, Maher Mohammad
30
Alikhademi, Abbas
31
Radahmadi, Maryam
32
Fallahzadeh, Pardis
33
Concepts Acquisition: Epistemological and Metaphysical Approaches
The Effect of Stress Period Duration on Memory Deficit in Rats
Visual Long-Term Memory and Misremembering an Everyday Common Object: Poor Recall of Turkish One Lira Coin Features
I
Archives of Iranian Medicine, Volume 16, Number 5 (Suppl. 1), May 2013
content
Modification of Interpretation Bias in Patients with Social Anxiety
Psychometric Properties of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in Parkinson’s Disease Patients
A Cross-Cultural Study of Love Metaphors: When Love is Pain!
Analysis of the Cognitive Model of Anger in the Persian Language
Fatehhi, Mehri
34
Emsaki, Golita
35
Sorahi, Mohammad Amin
36
Hamedi Shirvan, Zahra
37
The Effects of Feedback on L2 Learners’ Listening Comprehension during Group Dynamic Assessment (G-DA)
Shabani, Karim
38
Language Non-selective Activation of Semantics in Hindi-English Bilinguals
Mishra, Ramesh
39
Spectral Analysis of Purkinje Cell Output
Abbasi, Samira
40
Case Study: The Effects of Poetry Therapy in Children with Autism, Dyspraxia and Split Brain
Maghsudloo, Mahdis
41
Effects of Motor-Perception Training on Phonics Performances of Elementary Students with Dyslexia
Zareei Mahmoodabadi, Hassan
42
Effectiveness of Executive Functions Training on Academic Performance of Children with Math
Learning Disability
Akbari Motlaq, Maryam
43
Case Study: The Effects of Social Stories Role-Playing on Social Maturity of High Function Autism
Child
Maghsudloo, Mahdis
44
Cannabinoids Modulate Aversive Memory in the Nucleus Accumbens
Rasekhi, Khalil
45
The Treatment Effect of Treadmill Running on Memory of Animal Model of Alzheimer
Hosseini, Nasrin
46
The Effect of Metacognitive Skills Training on Students’ Achievement Motivation and Reading Comprehension
Bidi, Fatemeh
47
Effect of two Methods of Structural and Cognitive-Behavioral on Self-esteem of Female Students
Bidi, Fatemeh
48
Neural Activation in the Rat Forebrain in Social Recognition
Haghgoo, Hojjat Allah
49
Problem-Solving Deficits in Iranians with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
Akbari Dehaghi, Ashraf
50
Effect of (rTMS) over Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex on Craving Intensity in Methamphetamine Users
Mansouriyeh, Nastaran
51
Does It Make a Significant Contribution? An Investigation into the Effect of Learners’ Psychological
Learning Process on Leaning Language via Mobile
Jalilifar, Ali Reza
52
The Role of GABA B Receptors in Morphine Self-administration
Ramshini, Effat
53
Facial Emotion Recognition in Adolescents with Bipolar Disorder
Bozorg, Bonnie
54
Successful Cognitive Learning Styles in Reading Comprehension: The Focus On Style and Reading
Strategy-Based Instructions (SRSBI)
Vanaee, Mehdi
55
Syntactic Representations in Bilinguals: The Role of Word Order in Cross-Linguistic Priming
Family, Neiloufar
56
Processing Subject and Object Relative Clauses in a Flexible Word Order Language: Evidence from
Greek.
Katsika, Kalliopi
57
Combination Effect of Social Isolation and 5-HT7 Receptor Agonist as 19 Induction on the Development of Neural Connections
Ahmadi, Milad
58
Beirami, Mansoor
59
Effectiveness of Rhythmic Movements of Karate Sport Training on Intelligence in Children with Special Learning Disabilities
Ghanaei Chaman Abad, Ali
60
Effect of Cognitive Fatigue on Aggression and Level of Aspiration in Mehr News Agency Employees
Abedinnejad, Masoumeh
61
Investigation of Neuropsychological Correlates of Different Dimensions of Insight toward Illness in
Psychotic Patients
Ostadghafour, Sarvenaz
62
Effects of Multi-session Attention Modification Programs for Threat on Symptoms of Social Anxiety
Ahmari, Mahsa
63
The Relation between Metacognition Components
(Metacognition Strategies, Objectivity, Beliefs, and Secure Behaviors) to Body Dysmorphic Disorder
Zareei Mahmoodabadi, Hassan
64
Metacognitive Processes and Learning Styles as Main Predictors of Mathematics Anxiety in University
Students
Homayouni, Alireza
65
The Role of GABAergic System of the Dorsal Hippocampus on Inhibitory Avoidance Memory in Rats
Khakpai, Fatemeh
66
Golfam, Arsalan
67
Nikmorad, Alireza
68
Effectiveness of Metacognitive Therapy in Reducing PTSD Symptoms in Adolescents
Cognitive Effects of Some Discourse Markers in Farsi Speech
Comparative Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing in Reducing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
II
content
The Comparison Executive Function in Prisoners with Antisocial Personality Disorder and Individuals
without Disorder
Zahmatbar, Samira
69
The Future of Artificial Intelligence: Super Intelligence and Its Ethical Challenges
Ramezani, Majid
70
Artificial Intelligence and Challenges of Human-Machine Simulation
Ramezani, Majid
71
Izadpanah, Parmis
72
Influence of Conceptual Mapping in Understanding Abstract Meanings of Words in Pre-school Children’s Language Development: A Cognitive Approach
Providing a Feasible Seizure Prediction Algorithm for Implantable Devices
Ghaderyan, Peyvand
73
Effect of Using Metaphor in Text on Comprehension and Recalling of High School Students
Rabiei Pour Salimi, Maysam
74
Is Willingness to Communicate (WTC) Self-Efficacy and Cognitive Specific? A Study of English Conversation Learning
Gooniband Shooshtari, Zohre
75
An Investigation into the Incorporation of Critical Thinking Skills in the Questions of University Entrance Exam
Alizadeh, Iman
76
Influence of N-Methyl D-Aspartate Receptor on ACPA Induced Amnesia in Mice Dorsal Hippocampus
Amin Yavari, Samaneh
77
Deep Brain Stimulation, Cognition, and Dementia in Advanced Parkinson’s Disease
Azizbeigi, Ronak
78
Davidson and Global Skepticism: A Response to Professor Otavio Bueno
Vaez Shahrestani,
Mohammad Reza
79
Compression of Social Information Processing and Emotional Intelligence of Normal Students and
Students with Physical Activity Aged between 9-11 Years in Tehran
Jafary, Simin
80
The Effect of Psychological Characteristics on Metaphor and Metonymy: A Survey Based on Bodily
Communication
Sharafzadeh,
Mohammad Hossein
81
Metaphorical Conceptualization of Sadness in Farsi: A Cognitive Study
Sharafzadeh,
Mohammad Hossein
82
Barouni Ebrahimi, Alireza
83
Unal, Gulten
84
The Role of RS 28597190 (5HT4 Receptor Antagonist) of BLA Area in Amnesia Induced by ACPA
Chegini, Hamidreza
85
Effects of External Focus of Attention on Written Spelling to Dictation in Dysgraphic Primary School
Students of 2nd and 3rd Grades in Tehran
Namvarpour, Zahra
86
Figural Creativity and Cognitive Inhibition
Rahimi, Mohaddese
87
Hanif, Amina
88
Kadkhoda, Mohammad
89
Mosanezhad Jeddi, Elnaz
90
Beliefs and Their Effects on Performance
The Development of Episodic Cognition and Mental Time Travel in Turkish Preschoolers: What,
Where, and When
Cognitive Dissonance and Familial Structure
Increase Organization Productivity: An S-Intelligence Solution
EEG Spectrum Weighted Frequency Changes after Neurofeedback Treatment in Reading Disabled
Children
A New Rehabilitation Method for Autistic Children
Azimirad, Vahid
91
Alimohammadi, Maryam
92
Interaction Modeling of Single Neuron and Carbon Nanotube
Hossienpoor, Mina
93
The Effect of Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Training on the Arousal of International Women Basketball Players
Azimipour, Fereshte
94
Mobini, Ghazale
95
Razavi Movahed, Samira
96
Chitsaz, Maziar
97
Raghibdust, Shahla
98
Khosravizadeh, Parvaneh
99
Yazdanbakhsh, Kamran
100
Askari, Saeid
101
Khalily, Muhammad
102
Fabrication and Implementation of Brain Machine Interface System
A Study of Emotion Metaphors in Persian language Based on Cognitive Linguistics Approach
Involvement of D1 Dopaminergic Antagonist upon Open-Arms Exploratory Behavior Induced by
NMDA in to Nucleus Accumbens Shell
Psychologism in Logic: Plausible or Implausible?
Developmental Patterns in the Comprehension and Production of Generic Noun Phrases in PersianSpeaking Children
Language Attrition from Various Perspectives
Effectiveness of Past Memories Mental Review Therapy on Social Adjustment of Retirees
Avoidance Component of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Relation to Psycho-Social Resources
The Occurrence of Neurological Symptoms in Currently Abstinent Misusers of Alcohol
III Archives of Iranian Medicine, Volume 16, Number 5 (Suppl. 1), May 2013
content
The Comparison of Metacognitives Beliefs in Patients with Epilepsy and Normal Group
Modification of Coding of Human Brain Data Based on Cognitive Method
Heidari, Rozita
103
Shirazi, Asma
104
Rahmani, Soudeh
105
Yaghoubi Karnami,
Mohammad Reza
106
Miri, Anvar
107
Comparison of Iranian and Non-Iranian Television Programs (Satellite and Foreign Cartoons) with
Aggression in Children
Pourmaveddat, Khatoon
108
Investigating the Relationship between Aggression and Social Skills
Pourmaveddat, Khatoon
109
Rahgoshay, Seyedeh Raheleh
110
NiaRoushan, Javad Hassan
111
Riazi, AmirHosein
112
Coaching: New Approach in Cognitive Behavioral Learning
Fazel, Pendar
113
Sex Differences in Farsi Past-Tense Formation in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease
Johari, Karim
114
Making Cognitive Process Happy through the Provision of Metaphors for Improving Grammatical
Accuracy
Sattarpour, Simin
115
Word Meaning Recognition through Textual vs. Pictorial Clues: A Study of Reaction Time (RT) in
Iranian EFL Learners
Hajihassani, Neda
116
Fayyazi, Maryam Sadat
117
Mental Phenomena from a Western and Islamic View
Shukri Nordin, Zaimuariffudin
118
Bilateral Eye Movements Influence Response Conflict
Personality and Health: The Mediating Role of Sensation Seeking
The Effect of Teachers’ Skills in Using Teaching Models on the Improvement of Students’ Learning and
Studying Strategies at Cognitive and Metcognitive Levels
Training Cognitive Strategies to Improve Spelling Disorder in Elementary School Students
The Relationship between Guessing as a Cognitive Strategy and the Complex Cognitive Ability of
Reading Comprehension in the Iranian Context
The Concept of Time and its Relation to the Subject of Identity: the Present Hole Model
Detection of Default Mode Network Abnormalities in Epilepsy by Fusion of fMRI and DTI Using
Combined CCA and Joint ICA
A Cognitive Approach with the Concept of Coordination in Contemporary Persian
Akbari Chermahini, Soghra
119
Semantic Analysis of Privacy in Persian: A Cognitive–Cultural Perspective
Afrashi, Azita
120
Language Profiles in ASD, with Neurolinguistic Perspective
Ghanaei, Ali
121
Momeniyanessari, Eisa
122
Investigating the Relationship between Metacognitive State and Academic Self-Concept with Learning
Math and English Language of Boy Students
Job Satisfaction, Stress, Work Load and Cognitive Errors in Relation to Subjective Fatigue
Khani Jazani, Reza
123
Category-Specific Semantic Impairment and Domain-Specific Syntactic Impairment in Aphasia: The
Case of Broca’s and Wernicke’s Aphasic Patients
Allami, Hamid
124
Effects of Experimentally Induced Failure on Problem Solving Performance: The Importance of Controllability Beliefs
Salehi, Javad
125
Cognitive Abilities and Personality among Lingual and Bi-lingual Students
Structural and Semantic Processing of Persian Idioms: A Study Based on ERPs
Assessment of Photo Aesthetics via Sparse Coding
Socio-Pragmatic Motivation of Conceptual Projection: A Cognitive Approach to Metaphor in Persian
TV Commercials
Peaking Performance: Sport Psychology and Embodied Cognition
Kotta, Chandraiah
126
Sadat Safavi, Molood
127
Nazemi, Amir
128
Rezaei, Hadaegh
129
Cappuccio, Massimiliano
130
The Effect of Individual Counseling of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Caused by War
Pouladei Rishehri, Ali
131
Investigation of the Influence of Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies on the Reading Comprehension and Problem Solving of Second Grade Students
132
Comparing the Effects of Psychological Interventions and Psychotropic Medication on Improvement
of Mental Health of Infertile Women
133
Cognitive Process through the Presentation of Complex Learner-Based and System-Based Multimedia
Contents
Naderi Shoorabi, Nasrin
134
Investigating the Influence of Cognitive and Meta-cognitive Strategies on the Reading Comprehension
and Problem Solving in Second-Grade Female Students in Guidance Schools
135
IV
content
Effects of Extremely Low Frequency Magnetic Field (50 Hz) on Motor Coordination in Mice
Is Anti-Individualism Based on Semantic Externalism?
Efficiency of Cognitive Model of Social Information Processing in Predicting Children’s Internalizing
Behavior Disorders
Relation between Phonological Awareness and Non-word Reading Speed in Deaf Children
Saba, Valiallah
136
Bikaraan Behesht, Hamed
137
Shamsi, Abdolhossein Hossein
138
Rezaei, Mohammad
139
Effects of Gender on Phonemic Verbal Fluency
Shamspar, Leila
140
Effectiveness of Brain Based Teaching in Memory Performance Improvement of Students’ with Mathematical Learning Disability in Fifth Grade Elementary School in Isfahan: A Single Subject Study
Samadi, Maryam
141
Auditory Impairments in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS): Role of Central Auditory Behavioural
Tests
Valadbeigi, Ayub
142
Corresponding Children’s Performance with Their Mental Representation and Working Memory Components
Elahi, Tahereh
143
Study and Comparison of Metacognitive Strategies in Gifted and Typical Students
Elahi, Tahereh
144
Ahmadzadeh, Maryam
145
Effect of Attention Games on Improvement in Working Memory Performance in Boys with Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Single-Subject Research
A Longitudinal Study of Assessing Spatial Ability in Williams Syndrome Child
Maghsudloo, Mahdis
146
Akbari Chermahini, Soghra
147
Humor Appreciation in Schizophrenic Patients
Khademi, Sedigheh
148
Case study: Assessing the Effects of Poem with Mimic in Word Generation by a Split-Brain Child
Maghsudloo, Mahdis
149
Cultural Neuro-Phenomenology Interdisciplinary Disciplined for Studying the Process of Consciousness in Humans
Mohammadi, Rizgar
150
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) for the Treatment of Neuropsychiatric Disorders:
A Review
Majidi, Ali
151
Impulsivity and Task Condition in Prospective Memory Performance: Converging Evidence from Experimental and Questionnaire Study
Khan, Azizuddin
152
Dysfunctional Integration of Frontal and Posterior Brain Regions among Autism Spectrum Disorder
(ASD): Quantitative EEG Analysis
Fauzan, Norsiah
153
On the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Listening Comprehension Ability of Elementary Learners with Mild Hearing Loss
Fazilatfar, Ali Mohammad
154
The Study of Teaching - Learning through Thinking Skills in the First Grade of Primary School
Talkhabi, Mahmoud
155
Relationship between Spatial Intelligence and Situational Model of Discourse Comprehension
Yaseri Moghadam, Sajad
156
A Performance of Young Children with Developmental Learning Disabilities in Neuropsychological
Test (NEPSY): Executive Function/Attention-Memory
Behruz, Monir
157
Studying the Personal Cognitive Construct System of Brand Regarding the Gender of Iranian Consumers within the Framework of George Kelly’s Theory and the Repertory Grid Technique
McKian, Somayeh Sadat
158
The Nicotinic Alpha7 Receptor Antagonist Methyllycaconitine Attenuates the Learning Impairment
Caused by the NMDA Glutamate Antagonist Dizocilpine in Rats
Heshmati, Pooneh
159
How to Manipulate Dreams: Sophisticated Evaluation of Possible Effect of Distinct Auditory Stimulation during REM Sleep on Dream Content
Rahimi, Sadegh
160
Antidepressant-like Effects of Elettaria Cardamomum Essential Oil in the Forced Swim Test and Tail
Suspension Test in Male Mice
Akhlaghi, Boshra
161
The Effect of Teaching Problem Solving and Decision Making on Anxiety of Acute Coronary Syndrome’s Patients
Rastbood, Zahra
162
Cognitive Control of Creativity
The Increase in Germane Cognitive Load in Students When Solving Problems
Cognitive Deficits in Crystallized Heroin Abusers before and after One Month Abstinence
The Effect of ACPA on Fear Memory Performance and Exploratory-like Behaviors
Connectivity Problems in Children with Intellectual Disabilities
Metaphor and Proverb Interpretations: Comparison of Schizophrenic Patients with Normal Individuals
V
Kavian Mobarake, Zahra
163
Hassani-Abharian, Peyman
164
Farrahizadeh, Maryam
165
Fauzan, Norsiah
166
Khademi, Sedigheh
167
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The Effect of Age Differences on Proverb Interpretation in Schizophrenic Patients and Normal Individuals
Investigation the Relationship between P100 Components of VEP with Dyslexia
Khademi, Sedigheh
168
Daemi, Mostafa
169
Shooshtary, Zoohre
170
Ability Hypotheses: A Defense
Zakeri, Mahdi
171
Inter-individual Differences in Perception of Maps
Šašinka, Čeněk
172
Graph Theoretical Approach to Functional Connectivity of Cognition via fNIRS
Einalou, Zahra
173
Effectiveness of Computer-Assisted Cognitive Rehabilitation (CACR) and Psycho-stimulant Drugs on
Executive Functions of Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Azami, Saeed
174
Functional near Infrared Spectroscopy Investigation of Functional Connectivity in Schizophrenia using
Mutual Information
Dadgostar, Mehrdad
175
Mild Treadmill Exercise Can Alleviate Stress-Induced Impairment in Cognitive Function
Rahmani, Ahmad
176
Perceptual – Cognitive Influence of the Physical Spaces of the Educational Environments on Students
Tabaeian, Marzieh
177
The Effect of Theory of Mind and Social Skills Training on the Expression of Emotions and Conversational Interaction in Children with Autism
Beyranvand, Ziba
178
The Interrelationships between Locus of Control and Willingness to Communicate
Effects of Subliminal Anxious, Happy and Sad Faces on Galvanic Skin Response (GSR)
Doustkam, Mohsen
179
Fariba Samadi, Masoumeh
180
Effects of Phonological Awareness Training on Visual and Audio Memory of Students with Spelling
Difficulties
Zohdi, Mohita
181
The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Life Quality in the Students of Midwifery and
Nursing Faculty of Qaen
Raeioon, Mohammad Reza
182
Comparing the Sensory Learning and Sensory Integration Programs on Reduction of Autistic Symptoms in Autistic Children
Rajabi Nasab, Mona
183
Hashemi, Mohammad Reza
184
Karimi, Farhad
185
Predicting Self-efficacy of Teachers by Professional Competence and Achievement Motivation
On the Brain’s Processing of Written Formulaic Sequences: An ERP Perspective
The Study of Major Components of Metacognition in Mathematic Word Problem Solving
Introduction of Thermo Organic, Based on Systematic Epistemology
Jalali, Mohammad Reza
186
Meaningfulness of Religious Language in the Light of Conceptual Metaphorical Use of Image Schema:
A Cognitive Semantics Approach
Taheri, Javad
187
Metaphor Illusion: How Not to Be Stranded in the Wrong Analysis of Language and the Misconception
of the Meaning Metaphorically
Abdi Ghavidel, Hadi
188
Effects of problem solving and anger control training on instructional methods and mental health of
preschool teachers
Shokoohi Yekta, Mohsen
189
Mahmoodi, Ali
190
Where Are You from? It Determines How You Make Decision
Effect of Smart Board on Reasoning, Problem Solving and Group Learning
Can We Predict Effect of Neurofeedback Training for ADHD Children?
Entrepreneurial Cognition: A Sense Making Approach
The Relationship between Marriage Satisfaction in Married Teachers in Paveh City with Study Achievement and Self-Regulation Learning of Their Children
Cognitive Science of Religion: An Epistemological View
Khani Kerdabadi, Mojtaba
191
Asadollahpour Kargar, Amin
192
Dastourian, Banafsheh
193
Nadery, Sara
194
Haghshenas, Roohollah
195
The Effect of Word Length and Font Type on Eye Movement While Reading Familiar and Unfamiliar
Passages
Nouri, Zohreh
196
Specific Training Using PAARYAD Package to Improve Sensory Motor Integration in ADHD: A Case
Report
Noori, Sana
197
Descriptive Writing of the Schizophrenics in Comparison with Normal Individuals: The Analysis of
Conjunctive Cohesive Devices
Khalili, Roya
198
Inhibitory Control Is Altered in Children with ADHD: An Event-Related Potential (ERP) Investigation
Azarang, Sahar
199
Research of Cognitive Processing of Cartographic Visualizations with Original Web Tool MuTeP
Šašinka, Čeněk
200
VI
content
Descriptive Speech in Schizophrenia: An Analysis of the Effect of gender on Structural Cohesive Devices in Schizophrenic Patients Compared to Normal Individuals
Fallahi, Mohammad Hadi
201
Cognitive Science of Free Will: From Compatibilism to Buddhism
Sohrabi, Ahmad
202
Processing of Non-Canonical Linguistic Constructions in Hearing Impaired Children
Teymouri, Robab
203
Effect of Neurofeedback in Cognitive Training with Integrated Visual Auditory Continuous Performance Test
Ofoghi, Zahra
204
The Relationship between Cognitive Intelligence with Math Anxiety Components in Secondary School
Students
Taghypourkaran, Hassan
205
The Role of Drawing Inferences in EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension and Recall of Short Stories
Smadi, Fatemeh
206
The Relationship between Metacognitive Components and Dysfunctional Attitudes in Opium Addicts
Doostian, Yoones
207
Effect of Human Computer Interaction on Iowa Gambling Task Performance
Shirvani Jouzdani, Ali
208
The Comparison of Dysfunctional Attitudes and Coping Responses in Drug Addicts and Healthy People
Aazami, Yoosef
209
Differentiation of Emotional Syndromes Based on Verbal/Imaginal Mental Processing
Elhamiasl, Mina
210
Foundation of Bilingualism: The Effects of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education
Toranj, Somaye
211
Whitesmoke TM is a good tool for automated essay scoring?
Toranj, Somaye
212
Impact of English Proficiency Level on Performance in Computerized English Version of D-KEFS
Color-Word Interference Test
Ghawami, Heshmat A.
213
Teaching Conversational Skills and Impact on the Development of Theory of Mind to Children with
Autism
Beiranvand, Ziba
214
Comparison of Reading Comprehension in Students with Hearing Impairment in Special and Mainstreamed Schools
Mohammadi, Nadjmeh
215
Exploring the Effect of Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy (DIRT) and Attention Reinforcement Techniques on the Attention of Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Babaei, Mahnaz
216
Comparison of Executive Functions in Students with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder
Mosavi, Tayebeh
217
Intra CA1 Microinjection of Naloxone Improves Learning and Memory Deficits Induced by Cholesterol in Male Adult Rats
Parsa, Hoda
218
Comprehension of Concrete and Abstract Nouns: A Cognitive Approach
Ameri, Hayat
219
Building Humor Ontology Using www.uncyclopedia.co
Moradi, Mehdi
220
An Assessment of the Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Cognition Development among the Students of Technical and Vocational Education (TVE)
Asghar, Muhammad
221
Eye Movements (Fixation, Mutation, Regression) during Reading Familiar and Unfamiliar Contents
when Read Aloud and Compare with Reading Silent
Nouri, Zohreh
222
Afzali-behbahani, Foozhan
223
Rahimian, Mahdi
224
Effects of a Subchronic Course of Treatment with a Benzodiazepine Drug on Memory Status in Y-maze
Task in Wistar rat
Mombeini, Tajmah
225
The impact of Number of Syllables on Phonological Awareness: Evidence from Persian Preschool
Children
Danaye Tous, Maryam
226
Effectiveness of Educational Cognitive - Behavioral Anxiety and Social Adjustment of High School
Students in the City of Chalus
Samdaliri, Afsaneh
227
Understanding Inference as a Source of Knowledge: A Cross-Cultural Study
Frequency and Vocabulary Acquisition in a Cognitive System
Clinical Assessment of Persian-Speaking Children with Language Impairment in Iran
Reacting to Learners’ Cognitive Behavior in English Language Classes
Levelt Theory of Lexical Access: Evidence from a Fluent Aphasic Patient
Neurocognitive Dysfunction in Adults with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
The Effect of Serotonergic System of Accumbense Shell Arena upon Amnesia Induced by ACPA
VII Archives of Iranian Medicine, Volume 16, Number 5 (Suppl. 1), May 2013
Kazemi, Yalda
228
Morady Moghaddam, Mostafa
229
Ghoreishi, Zahrasadat
230
Saremi, Ali
231
Keramati Nojedehsadat,
Marzieh
232
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The Impacts of Watching Animated Flash Stories with English Subtitle and without subtitle on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition of Elementary Iranian EFL Learners
Review of Theory of Mind (Intentionality) Studies Using the “Moving Shape Paradigm” in Iran
Mousavi, Fatemeh
233
Mohammadzadeh, Azar
234
Naming of Super-ordinate Category in School-aged Persian Speaking children with Specific Language
Impairment
Mohammadi, Mehri
235
Working Memory in Dyslexic Persian Children
Sima Shirazi, Tahere
236
Saleh, Monir
237
The Impact of Neuroscience and Cognition on Understanding and the Process of Creativity
Evaluation of Iranian Emblems Hand Gestures) in Native Adults
Age of Acquisition and Second Language Mental Lexicon Representation
Grammatical Deficits in Persian and English-Speaking Autistic Children: Similarities and Differences
Investigation of Magno, Parvo and Konio-Cellular Pathways Functioning in Children with Dyslexia
An ERP Study of Moral Judgment
Pouriliyaei, Sadaf
238
Momenian, Mohammad
239
Mahabadi, Sara
240
Pouretemad, Hamid R.
241
Ghassemi, Farnaz
242
Tense and Agreement in Autistic Children’s Speech in Minimalist Program
Zare, Ameneh
243
An Experimental Time-Based Prospective Memory Task in Current Tramadol Abusers
Azad, Morad
244
Melodic Intonation Therapy in the Persian Aphasia
A Cognitive Model for Self-Management System in IT Environment
The Effect of Social Skills Training on Perceived Competence of Female Adolescents Who Are Deaf
Influence of GABAergic System of CA1 on ACPA- Induced Conditioned Place Preference
How Are the Metaphorical Items in the Movies Absorbed by Educated People in Comparison to Nonmetaphorical Ones?
Ferdosi, Neda
245
Soleimani, Hanieh
246
Soleimanieh Naeini, Tahereh
247
Kamali Dolatabadi, Leila
248
Gili, Maryam
249
Archives of Iranian Medicine, Volume 16, Number 5 (Suppl. 1), May 2013 VIII
5th International Conference of Cognitive Sceince 7-9 May 2013, Tehran - Iran
The Engineering and Humanities University Students’ Critical
Thinking Skills in Iranian EFL Context
Minoo Alemi*, Roya Pashmforoosh
Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
The ability to think critically and to arrive at a sound judgment
is an integral part of any higher education program. As evidenced
by studies (Kuhn, 2005; Williams, Oliver, Stockdale, 2004; Williams, Worth, 2001), without a commitment to critical thinking,
there would be little progress or reform. Regarding a multidirectional view of education, the consistently valued learning outcome is the ability to possess higher-order intellectual skills to
gain control over the environment. English education, like any
other forms of education, requires critical thinking skills to equip
students with the ability to analyze and evaluate the new English
teaching materials. While other studies have predominantly focused on critical thinking ability in education, the ways in which
academic disciplines shape university students’ critical thinking
skills has gone unnoticed. This study is aimed to direct the trend
of research toward investigating the effect of Iranian university
students’ demographic profiles (i.e., major and gender) on their
critical thinking skills, composed of inference, recognition, deduction, interpretation, and evaluation. It is significant to bridge
the gap that so often deters curriculum designers and instructors
from fostering rigorous thinking conventions within students’
academic disciplines at the university level.
Methods
To this end, Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (1980)
was administered to 174 engineering and humanities undergraduates.
Results
he composite score for the five subsections indicated is a great
advantage for engineering students specifically for inference, recognition, and deduction. The results of this study suggest that the
two groups differed in terms of their formulation of hypotheses
and extension of arguments. Based on the findings, it appears
that students who possess mathematical thinking skills have
the ability to comprehend and interpret large quantities of data
in their daily life. In fact, they benefit from utilizing mathematics in simple daily tasks as well as complex ones. These analytical students possess flexible thinking abilities, a set of skills and
perceptions to overcome encountered difficulties. They possess
degree of mathematical thinking power, the knowhow, and the
application of scientific methods emphasized in an engineering
education. However, the reverse trend appears to be true for those
majoring in humanities and social sciences since they are skeptical of causal explanations and mindful of faulty assumptions.
Students in humanities are reluctant to use numbers and statistics
and do not easily accept them as correct. They actively look for
bias that motivates much reasoning and contaminate many arguments. More specifically, the performance of undergraduates in
humanities on measures of critical thinking are attributed to their
college experiences in looking beyond widely accepted truths and
questioning statements. However, students build their knowledge
quite similarly in terms of their interpretive and evaluative skills
outside their area of expertise. These complex and widely variant
issues across disciplines are important enough to merit general
recognition, despite the fact that curriculum designers and instructors are often ignorant of them. With regard to students’ gender,
males and females showed non-significant differences in the five
aspects of critical thinking.
Conclusion
In fact, there is a need to invite critical inquiry and interpretation
among engineering professionals. However, those who argue in
favor of humanities require more support in terms of the cognitive
components and analogic reasoning to formulate hypothesis and
build knowledge. The applications of critical thinking skills to the
development of individualized decision-making abilities address
concern about students’ variations across disciplines. Critical
thinking skills need to be taught, however a precursor to fostering
critical thinking is the incorporation of a domain-specific curriculum. Therefore, since there are differences among undergraduates
in different majors of study, curriculum designers and instructors
need to count for such differences when designing courses on
critical thinking.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: alemi@sharif.ir
S2 Archives of Iranian Medicine, Volume 16, Number 5 (Suppl. 1), May 2013
Working Memory, Spiritual Intelligence and Academic
Achievement in Monolingual and Bilingual Female Students
Zeinab Zahmatkesh*
Educational Organization, Bojnourd, Iran
Introduction
Results
This paper investigates the interrelationships between working memory, Spiritual intelligence and academic achievement
in monolingual (ml) and bilingual (bl) female students. Both
working memory capacity and Spiritual intelligence have been
found to independently affect the performance on school-type
tasks, but their effects in interaction have not been considered.
Methods
Monolingual (ML) and Bilingual (BL) groups were selected from the whole population by using multistage sampling.
The students were assessed on working memory and spiritual
intelligence using the Psycho-matrix Spirituality Inventory, a
4-point scaled, self-reported, 49-item questionnaire which covers seven spiritual factors (divinity, mindfulness, extrasensory
perception, community, intellectuality, trauma, and childhood
spirituality). Three high school courses (physic, English, and
Mathematic) were also used to assess academic achievement.
These tests were administered to 400 (200 ML and 200 BL)
high school female native Persian students.
There was a significant relationship among WM, Spiritual intelligence and academic achievement in both groups. But WM was the
best predictor for academic achievement. Moreover, the highest significant relationship did exist between WM and Spiritual intelligence
in BL group. Indirect path coefficient between WM and academic
achievement in MLs was also statistically significant. Furthermore,
comparative analyses of models using invariant method demonstrated
that BL yielded significantly higher scores than did ML group.
Conclusion
BLs had a significantly better performance in all variables
than ML peers. In this case, bilingualism does not appear to
have negative consequences for the development of academic
performance and Spiritual intelligence. Consequently BLs have
more flexibility in language implementation. This study may
contribute to a better understanding of the spiritual intelligence
profile in bilingual and monolingual student. This study has the
potential to be extended to some programs for improving student s’ spiritual development and working memory as well as
improving the quality of their academic achievement.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: yzahmatkesh@tahoo.com
S3
Cognitive Dysfunction, Need for Cognition and Self-Efficacy in
Episodic Prospective Memory
Azizuddin Khan*
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India
Introduction
Memory is a very complex, dynamic and multidimensional
construct. One of the characteristics of human beings is that most
of the behaviors are future oriented. Many of our action are goal
directed .The realization of future goals is as important as recalling past information. Prospective memory is memory for action
to be performed in the future like remembering to return the library books on due date, taking medicine on time. Meacham and
Leiman (1975) made a distinction between episodic and habitual
intentions. Episodic intentions are performed irregularly and infrequently, for example, going to receive somebody at airport. On
the other hand, habitual intentions are those that are performed
on a regular basis, such as brushing one’s teeth every morning.
Episodic intentions have been further categorized into single and
repeated intentions (Kvavilashvili, 1992b). Despite the recent increasing interests on prospective memory, it is still not clear how
cognitive failure, self-efficacy and need for cognition influence
episodic prospective memory. The present study was an attempt
to understand role of cognitive failure, need for cognition and
general self-efficacy on episodic prospective memory.
Methods
Two hundred and fifty two subjects (152 Female and 100 Male)
participated in this study. The mean age of the subjects was
M=33.28±11.84 with age range of 18 to 75 years of age. Cognitive Failure Questionnaire, need for Cognition Scale and General
Self-Efficacy Scale and Prospective Memory Questionnaire were
administered to the participants. Multivariate Analysis and regression analysis were conducted.
Results
Results revealed that there was a significant main effect of
cognitive failure, need for cognition and general self- efficacy.
However, none of the interaction was significant except between
cognitive failure and general self-efficacy on habitual prospective
memory. There was also a significant and positive correlation between errors in episodic prospective memory and cognitive failure and significant negative correlation with general self efficacy.
Apart from that, there was positive and significant relationship
between cognitive failure and errors in habitual prospective memory, and significant negative correlation between errors in habitual
prospective memory and need for cognition and general self-efficacy. Further, errors in internally cued prospective memory were
significantly and positively correlated with cognitive failure and
negatively related to need for cognition and general self-efficacy.
Moreover, the frequency of using various prospective memory
aiding strategies was significantly correlated with cognitive failure.
Conclusion
As these findings indicate, there was a significant linear relationship between the criterion variable and the entire set of predictor
variables. Thus, about 28% of the variance of the episodic prospective memory in the sample can be accounted for by cognitive
failure, need for cognition and general self-efficacy.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: khanaziz@iitb.ac.in
The Efficacy of Meta-cognitive Training and its Application in the
Mutual Interactions of Parents with Children Suffering from the
Oppositional Defiant Disorder on the Reduction of the Symptoms
of the Oppositional Defiant of These Children
Moslem Asli Azad*1, Tahereh Farhadi1, Mozhgan Arefi1, Abolfazl Hatami2
1. Isfahan University, Isfahan, Iran
2. Allame Tabatabie University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
There are many children with a severity of problems that require
the need of treatment. Though 80% of these cases don’t receive
suitable interferences, behavioral disorders lead to the deficiency
at school, education, family, and may finally lead to educational
fall down, firing from school, criminal behaviors, and it may be
the cause of many unpleasant consequences. One of the most
prevalent behavioral disorders of children at the primary school
level is the Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). This disorder
is one of the classified behavioral disorders for the treatment of
which various methods are applied. The present research aims to
study the efficacy of the meta-cognitive training and its application in mutual interactions to the parents of children afflicted with
ODD and the reduction of the oppositional defiant symptoms in
these children.
Methods
The statistical population of the present study includes the children referred by teachers to the consultant clinic. To do this study,
30 children with ODD were randomly selected. From among the
children with disorders, and through test-retest and the experimental method, the children were divided into the experimental
and control groups (15 in the experimental group and 15 in the
control group). The interventions related to the meta-cognitive
trainings and its application in mutual interactions with the children’s parents in the experimental group was done. The applied
tool was the behavioral index of the kids CBCL, the report form
by the teacher (TRF). The obtained data was analyzed by the statistical covariance method.
Results
The results of the present study showed that the meta-cognitive
educational interventions and its application in the mutual interaction with the parents of the kids afflicted with the ODD on the
reductions of the Oppositional Defiant symptoms and distractions
in children in the post testing stage p<.05, F(1,28)=2.03.
Conclusion
As one of the main reasons of ODD in children are related to
their relation with their parents or vice versa. Therefore, with
the amendment of the applied principles in the interaction of the
parents with their kids, one may help the improvement of the
behavioral and excitement function of the kids. Meta-cognition
is knowledge or a cognitive process in which there is an evaluation, supervision, or cognitive control. In this regard, metacognition can be regarded as a public aspect of cognition, which
has a role in all cognitive activities. As meta-cognition dominates
the cognition and thought, parents can apply meta-cognition in
challenging interaction with their children through the application of meta-cognition with the awareness of the weak and strong
points in their interaction and as a result of the organized relational method.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: azzad2020@gmail.com
S5
The Efficacy of Training to Apply Meta-cognitive Knowledge on
the Reduction of Hyperactivity and Increasing the Attention of the
Kids with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder
Moslem Asli Azad*1, Tahereh Farhadi1, Ahmad Yarmohammadian1, Rohallah Sheikhmohammadi2
2. Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is regarded as the most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder in children.
This disorder is regarded as a problem for psychiatrists, psychologists, parents, and teachers. A The child’s behavioral features
include deficiency in controlling movements, attention disorder,
learning deficiency, aggression, educational problems, anxiousness and basic aggression towards parents, peers, institutional
followers. ADHD also harms the mental talent processes, social,
emotional skills of children. There are various treatments to cure
this psychological interventional disorder. This research aims to
study the efficacy of training the application of meta-cognitive
knowledge on the reduction of hyperactivity and increasing the
attention of the kids with ADHD.
Methods
The statistical population of the present study includes children
referred to the consulting clinic of the 6th educational zone, Esfahan in 1390-91. These children were introduced by the teachers as
uneasy students disturbing the order of the class and not having
placing enough focus on their homework. To perform this study,
30 students with ADHD were randomly selected from among
children with the experimental plan. They were divided to experimental and control groups through test-retest method (15 kids
in the experimental group and 15 children in the control group).
The interventions related to the application of the metacognitive
knowledge on the experimental group were applied. The applied
means used involved the Connors Questionnaire for parents. The
obtained data was analyzed by the statistical method of covariance analysis.
Results
The findings of this study showed that the training intervention
of the application of the meta-cognitive knowledge on the reduction of attention of children with ADHD was effective at the post
test stage p<.05, F(1,28)=1.74.
Conclusion
Meta-cognition is a multi-dimensional concept. This concept
involves the knowledge of beliefs, processes and some approaches controlling and evaluating cognitive activity supervising and
controlling them. Besides the data derived from the supervision
of meta-cognition, this information is analyzed as the mental
feelings that can affect behavior. Therefore meta-cognition is a
knowledge in which the individuals follow their cognitive and
thinking processes whereas this is not apparent in children with
ADHD. Training these kids is a big step in decreasing the hyperactivity behavior and increasing the longer attention span to help
them with certain homework.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: azzad2020@gmail.com
Bilingual EFL Learners’ Metaphorical Conceptualizations
Mohsen Akbari*
Bakhtar Institute of Higher Education, Ilam, Iran
Introduction
With the ever-increasing interest in making use of metaphors as
a cognitive and reflective research tool, a wide variety of studies
in the field of language learning and teaching have been created
into metaphor analysis to provide better insights into learners’
complex concepts of beliefs, thoughts, values, as well as their
personal and cultural meanings about language learning, teaching, and its different components. Even with the frequency, which
language learning and teaching are treated metaphorically in various contexts, there have been inadequate previous systematic attempts to explore them in an Iranian bilingual context. In line with
this reasoning, the present preliminary study seeks to fill this void
by weighing up a choice of metaphorical images and conceptualizations brought into play by Iranian bilingual English-As-AForeign-Language (EFL) learners to unpack their beliefs about
language learning and teaching.
Methods
To derive the required concepts, a self-designed open-ended
metaphor elicitation questionnaire was administered to a sample
of 346 bilingual (Kurdish-Persian) EFL learners in a variety of
undergraduate programs studying at Bakhtar Institute of Higher
Education in Ilam in western Iran. This study focused on learners’
metaphors about EFL, EFL learning, and EFL learning teacher
roles via completion of metaphor prompts such as “The English
language is like …. because …..”, “English language learning
is like …. because ….”, “ An English language teacher is like
…. Because ….”, and “An English language learner is like ….
because …. “. Using content analysis, the metaphorical expressions used by the participants, such as “Learning English is like
mountain-climbing because it is so hard and takes a lot of effort”
were initially listed and then broken down into smaller parts to
identify recurring themes until they were structured into dominant
categories for further analysis. Themetaphors that did not fit any
category were discarded.
Results
The results of the current study showed that the metaphors provided by the bilingual EFL participants could be categorized under
certain headings such as nature metaphors, food stuff metaphors,
transportation metaphors and so on. The findings also revealed
that bilingual EFL learners’ metaphorical conceptualizations appeared to be in line with various theories of language pedagogy,
reflecting their cognitions, and generally stemming from their
personal and cultural concepts about EFL learning and teaching.
Conclusion
It was concluded that learners’ metaphors consist of either universally or culturally based conceptual frames and underline the
variations among groups of people. Since EFL learners hold beliefs about the language they are learning as well as the learnerteacher roles, creating metaphors helps EFL learners make their
beliefs clear and structure their experiences. There were important
implications for language education programs and ideas for further cognitive investigations.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mohsena719@yahoo.com
S7
Irrational Beliefs Relation with Alexithymia
Jahangir Karami*, Ali Zakiei
Kermanshah, Iran
Introduction
In an intellect-effective approach, human thought is effective on
sensation and behavior of Alexithymia. This can result in depression or anxiety and can influence chronic mental damages and
physical disorders. Alexithymia is associated with emotional
information processing disorder. The different parts of output
emotional processing needed to represent certain various forms.
The findings have shown that Alexithymia involves a deficiency
in emotional representation of active memory. We have to understand the nature, intensity, and assessment methods of Alexithymia. We have to place more attention into Alexithymia etiology in the cognitive format.
Methods
The present study was conducted to determine and identify the
relationship between Ellis Irrational Beliefs with Alexithymia in
medical students and Razi University students, in the 1390-1391
academic year. 300 individuals were selected randomly by classificatory method. To collect data, the Toronto Alexithymia Questionnaire and Jons Irrational Beliefs Questionnaire (based of Ellis
Theory) were used. For data analysis, SPSS, Pearson correlation,
and Regression analysis were used.
Results
Analysis results showed that there is a correlation coefficient of
0.23, 0.32, 0.17, and 0.15 with Alexithymia between individuals
that had the need to prove themselves to others, have high ex-
pectations, show frustration, and have perfectionism sub scales.
However, there is no observed significant relationship between
irrational beliefs and Alexithymia and between the total score of
irrational beliefs and the Alexithymia observed correlation coefficient 0.22 (p<0.05). The results of analysis regression showed
that only individuals that displayed the need to prove themselves,
and high individual expectations have sub scales that can predict
Alexithymia.
Conclusion
With these findings, we can say that individual beliefs have roles
in emotional regulation, and were based on a disorder not a personality trait. Our suggestion to future studies would be to focus
on the role of the Ellis Rational-Emotional Treatment and emotional regulation, and Alexithymia in experimental projects format. In addition, assessing the relationship between Alexithymia
and other cognitive factors in future studies shows that between
the need to prove to others, setting high expectations, reacting,
being frustrated, and perfectionism sub scales, there is a correlation coefficient of 0.23, 0.32, 0.17, and 0.15 with Alexithymia.
Given these results, we can say that personal beliefs have a role
in emotional regulation, which is based on a disorder not a personality trait. My suggestion is that studies focus on the role of
Ellis Rational – Emotional Treatment, emotional regulation, and
Alexithymia in experimental projects format. In addition, I also
suggest assessing the relationship between Alexithymia and other
cognitive factors in future studies. It can be concluded that personal beliefs have roles in emotional regulation, which is based
on a disorder not a personality trait.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: j.karami@ac.ir
Comparative Neurocognitive Functions of Schizophrenics and
Patients with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
Fatemeh Fadaie*, Mahmoud Dejkam, Homayoun Amini, Nahid Beladimoghadam, Jafar Mehvari Habibabadi
Seizure Department, Shefa Neuroscience, Khatamolanbia Hospital, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Result
The association between epilepsy and schizophrenia has attracted the attention of psychologists and psychiatrists since the
nineteenth century. But many aspects of this relationship still remain controversial. Recent developments in the understanding of
the neurobiology of epilepsy and schizophrenia prompted a reexamination of the association. The increased risk of psychosis in patients with epilepsy provides a theoretical basis based on the same
pathology’s hypothesis of these disorders. The clinical similarities
between epilepsy with chronic psychosis and schizophrenia led to
the suggestion that the overlapping psychotic phenomena maybe
associated with shared pathogenic features such as structural pathology that are not related to the seizure generation. Shared neuropathology leads to shared clinical features like neuropsychological
features for example. The aim of this study was to examine the
shared neuropathology hypothesis by means of comparing neuropsychological functions in these two patient groups.
Method
The present study consisted of 30 DSM_IV_TR schizophrenics
and 30 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy that were recruited
from Roozbeh, Razi, and Khatamolanbia Hospital in Tehran by a
convenient sampling method. SCID in schizophrenic group and
EEG in epileptic patients were taken in regard for diagnostic determination. Neuropsychological tests were taken later. Package
of neuropsychological tests consisted of Wisconsin Card Sorting
Test, Stroop Color-Word Test, Logic Memory, Visual Reproduction, and Digit Span subscales of Wechsler Memory Scale- Revised and Block Design, Vocabulary, and Symbol Digit subscales
of Wechsler Adult intelligence Scale- Revised.
There was no significant difference in the two groups of patients in regards to demographic (gender, age, occupation, marital estate and educational estate) and clinical (depression, premorbid function and duration) variables. MANOVA was taken to
compare two groups of patients in neuropsychological functions.
The results revealed no significant differences between schizophrenics and temporal lobe epileptic patients except for Symbol Digit subscale that was significantly lower in schizophrenic
group (p<0.05).
Conclusion
The present study shows that temporal lobe epilepsy can be
regarded as a proper model in explanation of neuropsychological
dysfunctions in schizophrenia. The result of this study is consistent with shared neuropathology hypothesis in schizophrenia
and temporal lobe epilepsy. Profile of neuropsychological functions in both groups was generalized and beyond temporal lobe.
Disconnection of the frontal-temporal pathway could lead to a
probable neuropathology pathway involved in neuropsychology
impairment of two diseases. In fact, it is probable that the dysfunction in schizophrenia originated from structural connectivity in the brain not a specific cortical area. Moreover it seems
that patients with temporal lobe epilepsy are also suffering from
neuropsychological dysfunction beyond temporal lobe in extratemporal areas. Whether these neurocognitive deficits are due to
seizure propagation or mild structural lesions in so-called areas is
the hypothesis and needs more evaluation.
*Corresponding author: E-mail address: fatemehfadaie@gmail.com
S9
Comparative Investigation of Mathematics Anxiety and
Learning Mathematics in Male and Female
Students of Distance Education University
Alireza Homayouni*1, Saadi Azizi2
1. Department of psychology, Islamic Azad University, Bandargaz, Iran
2. Behzisty Applied Sciences University of Mazandaran, Ghaemshahr, Iran
Introduction
Mathematics anxiety is defined as “feeling tension and apprehension surrounding the manipulation of numbers and the solving of mathematical problems in academic, private and social
settings”. There are many factors that can lead to math anxiety.
Gender is one of the most common factors that affect mathematics
anxiety. Math anxiety is a critical and common factor in elementary school through university. Math anxiety causes an “affective
drop”, a decline in performance when math is performed under
timed, high-stakes conditions, both in laboratory tests as well as
in educational settings. Math anxiety may hinder an individual’s
ability to manipulate numbers and solve problems in academic as
well as everyday life. This anxiety may negatively affect the person’s attitudes and amount of time spent in math related activities.
Aim: The research aimed is to investigate mathematics anxiety
and learning mathematics in male and female from the distance
education university.
Methods
Participants (118 men and 127 women) were randomly selected
from Mazandaran distance education university and responded to
Plake and Parker’s Mathematic Anxiety Rating Scale _ Revised
(PPMARSR). PPMARSR assesses learning math anxiety and assessment math anxiety dimensions. Also total scores of general
mathematics were used to assess learning mathematics.
Results
Findings showed there are differences between male and female
in math anxiety and learning mathematics. Males got more scores
in assessment math anxiety than females, and also males got more
scores in learning mathematics than females. Conclusion
Based on the results, it is concluded that the attention to gender
differences is an important id in academic settings. Mathematics
anxiety is an important and common phenomenon in students from
elementary through university levels. Mathematics anxiety is a more
important factor in the distance education university system, because
distance education system involves distance learning, and usually
without the face to face instruction of the professor. These universities should plan to increase a positive attitude towards mathematics
(especially with attention to gender differences) in order to improve
mathematics achievements and eliminate mathematics anxiety in the
educational setting. Understanding the effects of anxiety and being
able to help students reduce levels of mathematics anxiety results
in improvements in mathematics achievements. Students who leave
school with strong mathematical and problem-solving skills are better prepared to succeed and make positive contributions to society.
As professors (virtual and live) are faced with an increasingly diverse population of students that have a wide range of expectations,
there is a need to continually seek to understand what factors constitute excellent delivery when promoting effective learning.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: homaiony@gmail.com
Evolutionary Assessment in Emotional and Cognitive Empathy in
Preschoolers and School-Age Children
Maryam Jalali*, Javad Hatami, Mehdi Alizadeh, Bahar Sadeghi
Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Results
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the measure of empathy
in children, from preschool to the end of elementary school. And
comparing evolutionary pattern of emotional and cognitive empathy in these children
Methods
To implement this research, 104 children in age 4of preschool,
first, third and fifth years of elementary school were appraised.
Children were questioned with empathy and systemizing quotient
(EQ/SQ) (child) and reading the mind and the eyes test. Data was
analyzed with One-Way ANOVA.
The results of a one-way ANOVA showed that there wasn’t any
statistical difference between grades in scores of emotional empathy from preschool to fifth grade. But in cognitive empathy, there
was a significant difference between all grades, except between
third and fifth.
Conclusion
The results of this study have suggested no difference in emotional empathy between children from preschool until end of elementary school. It appears that emotional empathy is a consistent
part of the personality and does not have great variance as much
as there was in early childhood. On the contrary, cognitive empathy has widely grown in these years, and seems that cognitive
empathy increases with increment of other cognitive skills.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: fshm_1@yahoo.com
Archives of Iranian Medicine, Volume 16, Number 5 (Suppl. 1), May 2013 S11
The Study of the Relationship between Scrupulosity,
Obsessive- Compulsive Symptoms, and Obsessive-Compulsive
Related Cognitive Styles
Sara Kaviani*, Hosseon Eskandari, Soghra Ebrahhimi Ghavam
Allameh Tabatabaeei University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Scrupulosity (also known as religious obsessive-compulsive disorder) is a sub-group of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that
has not been well investigated internationally and in Iran. In recent
decades, scrupulosity has been the subject of interest for researchers, and relevant literature, mostly with a cognitive approach, has
had an increase. In this regard, investigators have tried to shed
light on different aspects of this concept by identifying constructs
that are mutually related to both obsessive-compulsive disorder
and scrupulosity. OCD related symptoms and cognitive styles are
among these constructs. Studies have shown that scrupulosity was
positively correlated with OCD in general, and with mental obsessions (Nelson et al., 2006; Olatunji et al., 2007; Witig, 2005; Warshowsky, 2006; Inzu et al., 2012), checking (Abramowitz et al.,
2002; Leckman et al., 1997) and neutralizing (Warshowsky, 2006)
in particular. With regard to OCD-related cognitive styles, studies
have demonstrated that scrupulosity was positively correlated with
obsessive beliefs (over-responsibility/over-estimation of threat,
over-importance of thoughts/control of thoughts, perfectionism/intolerance of uncertainty) (Witzig, 2005; Warshowsky, 2006; Inzu
et al., 2012) and Thought-Action Fusion (moral-TAF/probabilityTAF) (Nelson et al., 2006; Warshowsky, 2006). However, there
are inconsistencies in current findings that need to be addressed,
and it is necessary to investigate the above-mentioned relationships within Muslim populations. The objective of this research
was to study the relationship between scrupulosity, obsessivecompulsive symptoms, and obsessive-compulsive-related cognitive styles (Obsessive beliefs and thought-action fusion). Most of
the time people are not satisfied with their own learning and leave
learning processes undone or do not learn effectively. The brain’s
natural learning system proposed by Given (2002) stems from the
findings of educational neuroscience, which can offer solutions to
learning problems. The brain’s natural systems are of five types of
learning systems including emotional, social, cognitive, physical,
and reflective. These learning systems provide us with a passion
for learning, vision for seeing what is feasible, intention for knowledge and skills development, action for making our dreams come
to reality, and reflection for self-monitoring.
Methods
For sampling, 30 individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder were recruited from Shafa counseling center, Aramesh counseling center, and the Child and Family Clinic of Shahid Beheshti
University. In addition, 51 individuals with OCD were recruited
via internet and social networking. Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R) was used for screening. The Convenience
Technique was used as the sampling design. In order to collect
data, Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity (PIOS), Thought-Action Fusion Scale (TAF), Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21),
Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R), and Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire (OBQ) were administered. Pearson’s
Correlation Coefficient and Regression Analysis were used to
analyze the data. Results
The results showed that there is no significant relationship between scrupulosity and obsessive-compulsive symptoms total
score, but there is a significant relationship between scrupulosity and obsessive beliefs in one hand, and between scrupulosity
and thought-action fusion on the other hand. Results also showed
that the variation in scrupulosity scores could be best predicted
by obsessive symptoms, perfectionism/certainty, and probability
thought-action fusion for self. Conclusion
The results of the research were then discussed with regard to
the similarities to and differences with the findings of the comparable studies with Christian samples. The results were also explained according to Rachman’s (1997, 1998, 2003) and Salkovskis’s (1985) cognitive-behavioral theories, as well as Islamic
viewpoint. In addition, the theoretical and practical implications
of the study, as well as its limitations, were discussed. *Corresponding author. E-mail address: openheart.ka@gmail.com
Cognitive Director and Discourse Actor in the Language Film:
An Analysis of How Background Thoughts Shape Foreground
Speeches for Specific Purposes
Hiwa Weisl*, Amin Davoodi
Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
Introduction
Results
The importance of the cognitive mind has been usually investigated separately from discourse. However, these two important
aspects of language are interconnected and interrelated. That may
be due to their vast areas. However, the salient links between them
make it necessary to investigate their interactions. Cognition, as
an underlying feature of the human beings mind, shapes the discourse. In a different situation discourse of the same cognition
may change into different forms. The present study aims to analyze the role of cognition in shaping the discourse under different
circumstances and for different purposes.
Methods
The data comes from 20 semi-structured interviews by two different interviewers with the same participants in Kermanshah, Iran.
The first interviewer, affiliated with the Ministry of Education, asked
some questions regarding the quality of education in Iranian Public
Schools. He informed the participants that the results of the interviews would be addressed to a committee in the Ministry of Education. Secondly, they were asked similar questions about the same
topic while being interviewed by a university student. In the second
part of the interview, they became aware that the results of the interviews would be used for a university based research. Then, the interviews were transcribed and thematically coded. Also the “manipulative” strategies used in the interviews were analyzed using Critical
Discourse Analytic (CDA) approaches to manipulation.
The results of the study show that people express the same ideas
based on the same thoughts in different forms for different purposes. They used various “manipulative” strategies and hedging
devices while being interviewed with the first interviewer (for the
Ministry of Education). However, the use of manipulative strategies and hedging devices decreased sharply in the second part of
the interview (for the university based research). This indicates
people feel more comfortable and speak more confidently when
they are dealing with academicians rather than authorities and
officials. The difference is not limited to the choice of words or
structures; rather, it is also tangible in some paralinguistic features
(e.g. intonation, tone, voice, and kinesics) as well as the discourse
markers (e.g. hedging devices).
Conclusion
This study supports the idea that the role of cognition should be
taken into account when analyzing and interpreting discourse. By
the same token, cognition and discourse should be considered as
interconnected and interrelated aspects of language. Consequently, the researchers argue how cognitive strategies (like a director) control the discourse (as an actor) to achieve certain linguistic
purposes.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: hiwaweisl@hotmail.com
The Effects of Racial Diversity on Critical Thinking
Skills among Iranian EFL Learners
Minoo Alemi*, Amin Rajabi Kondlaji
Introduction
Critical thinking as a subcategory of thinking, is defined in
psychological studies as the set of skills that help one to understand, evaluate, analyze, question and react to what is heard,
read, or encountered. It goes without saying that Education is
also tied into this important cognitive factor in the sense that if
it is to liberate and equip students with critical thinking skills.
With regard to the significant role that critical thinking has in
both education and peoples’ lives, there have been several efforts to explore the relationship between critical thinking and its
affective factors such as gender and university majors both nationally and internationally. In multi-ethnic countries like Iran,
ethnicity and racial inferiority is known as a stereotype threat,
which may affect critical thinking skills. Ethnicity is the third
most important factor between relationships of which should
have been studied long ago, but very few studies have explored
the relationship between ethnicity and critical thinking. Considering the fact that all the ethnicities are treated the same both
in national educational programs and University Entrance Exams, there was a need to study whether ethnicity had any effect on critical thinking disposition or not. The present research
aimed to study the relationship between critical thinking and
ethnicity and if an ethnicity’s effect on critical thinking varies
across genders.
Methods
To this end, Honey (2004) Critical Thinking Appraisal was
used to measure three core critical thinking skills: comprehension, analysis, and evaluation. Two hundred undergraduate EFL
Learners from three major ethnicities in Iran, namely, Azeri,
Fars, and Kurdish participated in this study. The students were
chosen from Iran’s State universities, namely, Shahid Beheshti
University, Tabriz State University, Allame Tabataba’i University, and Kordestan University.
Results
The results indicated that neither ethnicity nor gender could
affect critical thinking skills among EFL learners from three
major races in Iran. In fact, the findings of this research disproved racial inferiority and stereotype threat. Therefore, this
research showed that there was no difference among the Azeri,
Kurdish, and Fars participants in terms of critical thinking skills
in Iran.
Conclusion
Based on the findings of this study, no significant variation
is needed in the course books and the teaching strategies are
aimed at developing students’ critical thinking skills for different ethnic groups both at general and higher Education levels.
Another logical implication of the finding may be the fact that
cultural setting does not affect critical thinking skills to the extent that other mentioned factors that is, university majors and
genders may do.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: minooalemi2000@yahoo.com
Investigating the Relationship of Irrational Beliefs with Anxiety
and Their Effect in Two Different Academic Systems in Iran
Mohammad Khaledian1, Fatemeh Saghafi*2
1. Faculty of psychology, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran
2. Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Irrational beliefs have a close relationship with anxiety and can
make the person more anxious and distort his perception or understanding. Beliefs, or in a broader sense, thoughts and cognition, have a key role in the manifestation of a person’s behavior.
Since humans react or respond to a stimulus, his or her reaction
is based on the interpretation of events. Therefore, a person’s beliefs/ thoughts have an impact on the way he or she responds to a
stimulus. This theory has been applied outside of Iran. So far, no
comparisons have been made between or among different societies. Ellis’ Rational-Emotive-Behavioral theory is one of the most
recognized cognitive methods that introduce various kinds of irrational beliefs as the main factor of human problems. The aim
of this study is to investigate the relationship of irrational beliefs
with anxiety in two different academic systems of Iranian college
students at an undergraduate (BA) level and its effects on their
achievement.
Methods
The statistical population of this research are undergraduate college students at a BA level in Azad and Payam Nour University
(PNU) of Ghorveh (Kurdish area of Iran), in the 2011 – 2012 academic year. The total number of students in the aforementioned
universities is 1100. There were 280 participants, 140 from Azad,
and 140 from Payam Nour, were chosen especially based on Krisi
and Morgan (1970). From each college there were 70 men and
70 women, totaling 140 men, and 140 women were randomly selected and a questionnaire was distributed among them. To carry
out the research, the questionnaire of irrational belief of Jones,
(including 100 questions), and Kattel anxiety (including 40 questions) were applied. For descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation
coefficient and T–test were used in analyzing.
Results
The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between irrational beliefs and anxiety among two different systems of Iranian college students to the effect that irrational beliefs and anxiety are more common among girls than boys.
Furthermore, the study suggests that irrational and anxiety has a
negative effect on students’ academic achievements. The data also
shows a significant difference between the mean score of anxiety in both successful and unsuccessful groups. This means that
the anxiety of academically unsuccessful students is significantly
more than that of successful students. The data shows a significant
difference between irrational beliefs of students in Azad and Payam Nour University. Conversely, the irrational beliefs of students
at Azad University are significantly different than that of Payam
Nour students. The data also shows that the levels of anxiety between students in Payam Nour are significantly greater than that
of Azad University students.
Conclusion
These results show two different systems and procedures of
teaching that help them to enhance the performance of teaching.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: minooalemi2000@yahoo.com
Investigating the Relationships between Emotional Intelligence,
Coping with Stress, and Problem Solving Skills
Shahnaz Mohammadi*, Kobra Jamshidi
Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
These days it is widely believed that if a person has a high emotional intelligence, they can adapt better with the problems and
challenges of everyday life and control their emotions more effectively. On the other hand, low emotional intelligence can be
a potential threatening factor for mental health. Emotional intelligence represents the ability to recognize, assess, and express
emotions accurately. In other words, emotional intelligence refers
to the intact processing of emotionally relevant information to
guide cognitive activities such as problem solving. The aim of
the present study is to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and different ways of coping with stress and
also problem solving skills among a group of Iranian female university students.
Methods
The present study is a correlation study in which the relationships between emotional intelligence and different ways of coping with stress and also problem solving skills are investigated.
Participants were recruited among freshman, sophomore, senior,
and junior female students in Tehran Teacher Training University.
One hundred participants were selected through stratified random
sampling from among the female students in five faculties, 20 participants from each faculty. Each participant responded to three
questionnaires: Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test
(SSEIT), Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS), and
Problem Solving Inventory (PSI). There was also a demographic
questionnaire to which the participants responded.
Results
Data analyses revealed that while there was positive and meaningful relationship between emotional intelligence and task-oriented coping, the relationship between emotional intelligence and
emotion-oriented coping and avoidant coping, was not statistically significant. Furthermore, there was no significant relationship between emotional intelligence and the participants’ overall
problem-solving skill.
Conclusion
It is necessary to train university students on various ways of
problem-solving and different approaches of coping with stress.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: smohammadi777@yahoo.com
An Open Trial of a Brief Transdiagnostic Metacognitive Therapy
for Depression and Anxiety
Mehdi Zemestani*1, Iran Davoodi2
1. Tabriz, Iran
2. Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran
Introduction
Transdiagnostic treatments are one approach with potential to
increase access to treatment for people with anxiety disorders
and depression (Barlow, Allen, Choate, 2004; Craske et al., 2009;
Wilamowska et al., 2010). The interest in this approach reflects
a growing recognition that the internalizing disorders are highly co-morbid, share similar symptoms, and respond to similar
treatments (Goldberg, 2010). Emotion regulation strategies are
recently considered as the transdiagnostic factors that have an
important role in the development or maintenance of psychopathology especially in depression and anxiety disorders (Aldao,
Nolen- Hoeksima, 2010; Ehring, Watkins, 2008; Norton, Hayes,
Springer, 2008). Recent meta-analyses of transdiagnostic treatments for anxiety and depressive disorders suggest that these
types of treatments may result in similar outcomes as opposed to
traditional disorder-specific treatments (McEvoy, Nathan, Norton,
2009; Norton, Price, 2007). Wells, Matthews (1994) in their early
exposition, argued for developing a single generic treatment that
might be applied as a first-line intervention for all emotional disorders. Metacognitive therapy (MCT) is a formulation-driven treatment grounded in the Wells and Matthews (1994) self-regulatory
model. According to the model, the maintenance of disturbance
is linked to the activation of a particular style of thinking called
the Cognitive-Attentional Syndrome (CAS). The CAS consists of
chains of verbal processing in the form of rumination and worry,
a pattern of attention called ‘threat-monitoring’, and other coping
and self regulatory behaviors that have ironic effects on emotion
regulation (Wells et al., 2012). There is growing empirical support for the metacognitive therapy. Nordahl (2009) compared a
transdiagnostic version of MCT with treatment as usual (CBT)
in a heterogenous sample of mixed anxiety-depression patients.
MCT was as effective as CBT in improving mood and more effective at reducing anxiety and worry but the study lacked followup. Wells et al (2012) conducted a platform trial study of MCT
in patients with treatment resistant depression. A baseline period
was followed by weekly sessions with follow-up post-treatment
assessments at 6 and 12 months. Large and statistically significant
improvements occurred in all symptomatic measures at post treatment and were maintained over follow-up. The aim of this study
was to examine the efficacy of metacognitive therapy (MCT) as
a transdiagnostic treatment on depression, anxiety, and cognitive
emotion regulation strategies.
Methods
The study included a pre-test, a post-test, and a follow-up. Participants were randomly assigned to either MCT (n=14), or a waitlist control group (n=14). The treatment group received 8-weekly
MCT sessions. Each session lasted approximately 90 min. MCT
was carried out on the basis of Wells’ manual and session treatment plans (Wells, 2009) and the concepts outlined in published
papers on the MCT model (cf. Wells et al., 2009; Wells et al.,
2012). The BDI, BAI, and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) were used as outcome measures.
Results
scores on each questionnaire (BDI, BAI, subscales of CERS)
were analyzed by a series of 2 x 3 General Linear Models (GLMs)
with Group (MCT vs. control) serving as the between-subjects
factor and Time (pre vs. post vs. follow up) serving as the repeated
within subjects factor. Gender and age served as covariates in all
the analyses. Results showed that MCT was effective for depression, anxiety symptoms, and emotion regulation, especially on
specific facets of emotion regulation such as Positive reappraisal
and Catastrophizing. Gains were maintained over 3-months follow up.
Conclusion
The results of this study suggest that brief MCT could be implemented as effective group transdiagnostic treatment for patients
with comorbid depression and anxiety.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: m.zemestan@gmail.com
Impact Assessment of Stress Induction on the Visual Working
Memory of Emotional and Non-emotional Stimuli among Male
and Female University Students
Zahra Khayer*, Vahid Nejati, Jalil Fathabadi
Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
In the study the effect of stress induction on visual working
memory using emotional (positive and negative) and none motional (neutral) pictures among male and female university students was under investigation.
Methods
Stress exerts a profound, yet complex, influence on learning
and memory and can enhance, impair or have no effect on these
processes. Here we have examined how the administration of
stress affects visual working memory for neutral and emotional
information. Sixty two male and female university students (Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran) randomly selected as an experimental or control group. First they filled out the demographic
questionnaire. Along with this test, students were asked to complete a data sheet that asked questions such as age and gender,
and also grades for the previous semester. Next, we measured
their basic physiologic signs (blood pressure and heart rate). By
using the Cold Pressor Test (CPT), we induced stress in which
they put least dominant hand on 0-2 centigrade’s water for three
minutes with video tapping. However, if a participant found the
water too painful, he or she was allowed to remove his or her hand
from the water and continue with the experiment and after ten
minutes we checked their physiologic signs for the second time
(in control groups we used 35-37 centigrade’s water without videotaping). Immediately we asked for the level of comprehensive
stress through a scale consisted of 100 points and we used an nback task to evaluate the visual working memory functions (such
as the number of true items, time reactions, and the number of
wrong items included, omitted, and commission scores through
emotional and non- emotional pictures). Finally, the participants’
mental attempt was evaluated by another scale. We selected the
pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS)
with different valence (ranging from pleasant to unpleasant) and
arousal (ranging from calm to excited). Mixed-model ANOVAs
were used to analyze the data. The between subjects factor was
stress, and the within-subjects factor was sex.
Results
The results showed that stress impaired the different visual
working memory functions (p<0.002 for true scores, p<0.001 for
reaction time, and p<0.002 for mistakes). Based on gender differences, male was better on true and reaction time scores, but female
had fewer mistakes (female mean score=13.02 and male mean
score=13.20). For true scores, participants answered negative pictures more than positive pictures, but for reaction time scores they
answered none motional pictures faster than emotional pictures.
Conclusion
Stress impaired the visual working memory functions for both
emotional and non-emotional pictures.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: z.khayer62@yahoo.com
Can the Brain Answer Why Learning Happens?
Seyyed Bagher Mirshojaee*
Sari Teacher Training University, Sari, Iran
Introduction
Most of the time people are not satisfied with their own learning
and leave learning processes undone, or they do not learn effectively. The brain’s natural learning systems proposed by Given
(2002) stemmed from the findings of educational neuroscience
that offers solutions to learning problems. The brain’s natural systems are of five types of learning systems including, emotional,
social learning, cognitive, physical, and reflective learning system, which respectively provides us with a passion for learning,
vision for seeing what is feasible, intention for knowledge and
skills development, action for making our dreams come to reality,
and reflection for self-monitoring.
Methods
This study investigates the legitimacy of the brain’s natural learning systems by hint of a mixed methods research combined with
metaphor analysis, questionnaires, and an interview to describe
how students and teachers think on how successful learning happens. First, all of the participants were given an open-ended unfinished statement to complete on their own which reads “a successful learner is one who ….”. Next the questionnaires were designed
on the basis of the brain’s natural learning system model and composed of 25 items. The questionnaires were in two versions for
high school teachers and high school students and answered by
100 teachers and 120 students. All teachers have 10-15 years of
experience and they have taught different content areas. Interviews
were conducted to delve into the five major learning systems more
deeply and to find the roots of learning problems from 10 students
and 10 teachers and recorded and analyzed to come to grips with
the participants’ understanding of the learning process.
Results
Metaphor analysis showed that both groups of students and
teachers prefer learning to be mostly emotional, followed by social, cognitive, physical, and reflective. The analysis of the questionnaires indicated the same idea in the case of the participants.
The interviews also lend support to the claim that priority for
learning is mostly moving from emotional to social, followed
by cognitive, physical, and lastly to reflective learning system
triggering.
Conclusion
Learning is mostly successful when teaching is in tune with
students’ emotional learning system, social learning system, cognitive learning system, physical learning system, and reflective
learning system. The order was verified by the statistical analyses
done on the metaphor analysis, questionnaires and interviews. All
of these systems are competing with one another in a learning
situation and competed against one another in the process of attracting more attention by the learners.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: s.b.mirshojaee.55@gmail.com
Processing of Words with Emotional Meaning in the Cerebral
Hemispheres: Automatic n the Left and Attentional in the Right
Ensie Abbassi*, Ana Ines Ansaldo, Yves Joanette
Centre de Recherche, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie (CRIUGM) and Université de Montréal, Montreal (QC), Canada
Introduction
In the past few decades, almost all studies involving the processing of emotional stimuli (i.e., facial, prosodic, and words) in
the cerebral hemispheres have interpreted their findings in light
of either the right hemisphere (RH) hypothesis or the valence
hypothesis. The RH hypothesis attributes processing of all emotional stimuli to the RH, whereas the valence hypothesis holds
that the left and right hemispheres are involved in the processing
of positive and negative emotions, respectively. Research results
in the field of emotional word processing, however, are mostly
inconsistent with the two hypotheses, probably because emotional
words are part of the semantic system for which the role of the
left hemisphere (LH) is critical. Recently based on an extensive
review on the studies that used emotional words as their stimuli,
we suggested a dual-process model for the processing of words
with emotional meaning in the cerebral hemispheres (Abbassi,
Kahlaoui, Wilson, & Joanette, 2011). This model claims that the
LH and RH are involved in an early automatic and later attentional processing of emotional words, that is, the time course of
activation of emotional words is shorter in the LH than in the RH.
The present study was an attempt to provide empirical support for
the dual-process model using a behavioral methodology. Therefore, in order to differentiate between the roles of the LH and RH
in the processing of emotional words, we investigated the time
course of activation of emotional words in the LH and RH using a
divided visual field priming paradigm.
Methods
Twenty-eight right-handed native English speakers with normal or corrected to normal vision participated in the study. A set
of 192 prime-target pairs with the same valence (i.e., congruent:
“crime- assault”) or opposite valence (i.e., incongruent: “profitcrisis”) were presented in four blocks, under four Stimulus Onset
Asynchrony (SOA) conditions of 0, 150, 300, and 750 ms, to the
right visual field (RVF: received by the LH) or left visual field
(LVF: received by the RH) and reaction times to pleasant/unpleasant decision for the target were measured.
Results
A 2 (congruency: congruent, incongruent) x 2 (visual field:
RVF-RVF, LVF-LVF) x 4 (SOA: 0 ms, 150 ms, 300 ms, and 750
ms) repeated measures ANOVA was performed. Data analysis revealed evidence of early priming (i.e., at short SOAs of 0 and 150
ms) in the RVF that shifted to the LVF later in processing (i.e., at
SOA of 750 ms). No priming was detected at the SOA of 300 ms
in either visual field. That is, priming that was restricted to the LH
at the short SOAs shifted to the RH at a longer SOA.
Conclusion
The results are consistent with the dual-process model and
seem to suggest that the pattern of activation of emotional words
deploys distinctively over time. Thus, both the LH and RH, not
merely the RH as claimed by the RH hypothesis, contribute to the
processing of words with emotional meaning. Not only does the
dual-process model not challenge the dominant role of the LH in
the processing of semantic information, but it suggests that the
processing abilities of both hemispheres combine for this part of
the semantic system (i.e., emotional words) for which the RH has
repeatedly been claimed to play a critical role.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: ensie.abbassi@umontreal.ca
New Results about the Sensitivity of Psycholinguistic Tasks to
Foreign Language Proficiency
Péter Ujma*
Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
Introduction
The author’s previous results (Ujma, 2011) supported the assumption (Philips et al., 2003; Cheung, Chen, 1998; Kotz, ElstonGüttler, 2004) that reaction times in psycholinguistic tasks in a
foreign language (L2) are generally longer than in an analogous
task in the native language (L1), and the magnitude of this difference decreased in more proficient speakers of L2. It was, however, a correlational relationship and it was undecided whether
this connection is directly present or it is mediated by other variables. Since IQ and language aptitude (the ability to learn new
languages) might influence both processing speed and language
proficiency, they were selected as control variables.
test scores in the lexical decision task, translation task, same-language, and cross-language categorical priming. No significant effect was found in the sentence completion and associative priming
tasks. This pattern did not change after controlling for RSPM and
MENYÉT scores. RSPM, language, and MENYÉT scores did
not correlate with each other at a significant level. A Multilayer
Perceptron Model (using 70% of subjects as a training sample
and 30% as a testing sample) with psycholinguistic task results as
predictors could produce modeled proficiency scores which had
a significant correlation coefficient of .716 of actual proficiency
scores. In a General Linear Model psycholinguistic task results
could explain 37% of the variance of language proficiency test
scores.
Conclusion
Methods
25 subjects completed a standard language proficiency test, a
lexical decision task, a two-way (L1-L2 and L2-L1) word translation task, a grammatical sentence completion task, a same language (L1-L1 and L2-L2), and a cross-language (L1-L2, L2-L1)
priming task (with both categorical and associative priming) in
both languages. This testing was supplemented with Raven’s
Standard Progressive Matrices and the Hungarian Language Aptitude Test (MENYÉT). For all tasks, RT differences of psycholinguistic tasks between languages were measured and correlated
with proficiency scores, controlling for RSPM and MENYÉT
scores.
Results
The size of RT disadvantage in L2 correlated negatively with
Results show that online performance in linguistic tasks is sensitive to language proficiency, and this is not due to higher IQ or
higher language aptitude in subjects with higher language proficiency scores. Higher processing speed in psycholinguistic tasks
accounts for much of the variance in language proficiency scores.
The fact that the relationship between language proficiency scores
and processing speed in psycholinguistic tasks does not change
after controlling for IQ and language aptitude supports the view
that these tasks are indeed sensitive to the actual level of foreign
language knowledge attained by an individual and not an underlying cognitive ability. This, together with the relatively strong connection between psycholinguistic measurements and proficiency
scores may warrant future research, especially in the direction
whether it is possible to reliably assess the language proficiency
of a person using psycholinguistic testing only.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: peteru88@gmail.com
A Neuro-Educational Explanation of Dialogic Learning as a
Permanent Educational Strategy
Ali Nouri*
Malayer University, Malayer, Iran
Introduction
Dialogic learning is a form of social learning, which has been
recognized as a powerful strategy of learning and thinking from
the time of Socrates to the present. Research into dialogic learning
is supported by a rich and interdisciplinary theoretical and empirical background and there is a range of various perspectives from
philosophy, psychology, and education focused on the importance
of dialogue as an indispensable component of the process of both
learning and knowing. Nevertheless, there has not been enough
attention paid to identify and describe the neuro-cognitive bases
of this educational strategy from a neuro-educational perspective.
By this in mind, the present paper takes into account to highlight
the importance of dialogic learning in light of new insights that
has emerged from the recent decades of neuroeducation research.
Such interpretation represents some facts about neuroscience of
dialogue that are necessary for a more comprehensive understanding of dialogic learning in educational contexts.
Methods
This study is a conventional content analysis. This method
was employed to identify and analyze the neuro-cognitive bases
of dialogic learning. Data were collected employing a snowball
sampling technique. As a result, a set of themes were identified
through a coming together of various evidences.
Results
An integrative review of relevant literature suggests that humans are biologically wired for dialogue and interaction with one
another and verifies the profound importance of social interaction
on human learning. The social nature of human learning means
that knowledge is socially constructed by individuals through interaction with their worlds. In this framework, learning and development takes place in socially and culturally shaped contexts.
This dynamic interdependence of social and cognitive processes
plays a critically important role in construction of knowledge and
cognitive development. Children therefore, are social learners
who actively construct meaning and knowledge as they interact
with their environment. It is also well established that social processing in the brain is strongly interrelated with the processing of
emotion and humans have individual mirror neurons that allow
them to regulate their social interactions. In this sense, dialogue
is a key element for emotional involvement. In dialogue with others, the learners get more immediate and more personal feedback,
which allows them to learn meaningfully. However, dialogue as
a unique feature of humans, can and should not be reduced to
verbal communication using spoken language; there are multiple
forms of representation in which humans naturally interact with
self, others, and their surrounding world.
Conclusion
It is concluded that, recent advances in neuroscience regarding the fundamental role of social interaction in learning confirm
and support using more dialogue-based and cooperative learning
opportunities for students. However, further studies are needed
to advance our understanding of neurobiological components that
link our learning brains to our social brains. There are many new
avenues of research lines for researchers to investigate the role of
dialogue in students’ mind and brain development. It is especially
suggested that, future studies need to be focused on comparative
brain studies in real learning settings to test whether children learn
better from dialogue or monologue.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: alinooripo@gmail.com
Increased Alpha Power Indicates Wake-Like EEG Oscillations
during Different Sleep Stages in Nightmare Disorder
Péter Simor*1, Péter Ujma2, Klára Horváth3, Róbert Bódizs1
1. Department of Cognitive Sciences, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary, Budapest, Hungary
2. Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
3. Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK
Introduction
Nightmare disorder affects 4-5 percent of the adult population and
is characterized by highly disturbing mental experiences that usually awaken the dreamer from late- night sleep. Even though nightmares are often co-morbid with a wide variety of mental complaints
(Levin, Nielsen, 2007), research indicates that frequent nightmares
are more appropriate to be conceptualized as a specific sleep disorder that are independent in its origins from waking psychopathological symptoms (Coolidge 2010; Spoormaker et al., 2006). Frequent
nightmares are related to impaired subjective sleep quality, as well as
altered sleep architecture (Simor, Horváth, Gombos, Takács, Bódizs,
2012). Accordingly, nightmare subjects (NMs) were reported to exhibit reduced slow wave sleep, as well as increased sleep fragmentation and enhanced micro-arousals especially during NREM sleep
(Simor et al., 2012; Simor, Horváth, Bódizs, Ferri, in press). Sleep
fragmentation and impaired sleep-regulation with increased sympathetic arousals suggest that NMs’ sleep is characterized by the presence of transient wake-like episodes during sleep. However, altered
sleep patterns in NMs were only investigated based on subjective
reports or visual scoring methods. Power spectral analysis provides
a fine-grained and sensitive examination of the electrophysiological
oscillations during sleep, which is an efficient tool to detect sleep
alterations in different pathological conditions. Therefore, our aim
was to examine the nature of neural oscillations in a group of NMs
(n=19) and healthy controls (n=21) using spectral power analyses.
periods separately and compared them in a binwise manner using
the Rüger area method to correct for multiple comparisons.
Results
NMs exhibited increased relative low alpha power (7.75-8.75)
in NREM sleep and increased high alpha power (10-13.5 Hz) in
REM sleep. Moreover, high alpha activity in NM subjects was
prominent in posterior sites. Enhanced low alpha power in NREM
and increased high alpha power in REM were strongly correlated
in the NMs group. While they were not associated in case of the
control subjects, which suggested that enhanced alpha power is a
peculiar characteristic in sleep pathophysiology of nightmare disorder; however, is modulated in a state-dependent manner.
Conclusion
We suggest that increased alpha activity during NREM and alpha oscillations incorporating higher frequencies in REM sleep
in NMs reflect transient “hybrid” states between sleep states and
wakefulness. We propose that the appearance of wake-like oscillations during sleep – especially during the enhanced cortical state
of REM sleep, might promote the intensification of sensorial, emotional, and cognitive processes shaping the oneiric experience and
result in perceptually vivid, realistic, and emotionally absorbing
dream images.
Methods
We computed the relative EEG spectral power based on the
second night polysomnographic recordings of REM and NREM
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: peteru88@gmail.com
Differences of Features of Cognitive Concepts Categorization in
Blind and Sighted Students
Mansoureh Alsadat Sadeghi*, Tahere Mahmoudi Ahmadabadi, Keivan Zahedi
Family Institute, Shahid Beheshti University (GC), Tehran. Iran
Introduction
categorization of concepts is one of the most basic productive
parts of human language and cognition. The principles which
govern categorization are affected by the structure of external
world. These principles are mainly rooted in human innate capabilities. The present research is intended to investigate the effects
of the loss of the most fundamental part of human perceptual system on the cognitive categories. In other words it tries to answer
this general question of “What are the features of categorization in
blind and semi- blind students compared to their sighted peers?”.
Method
Participants consisted of two groups of blind, semi-blind, as
well as sighted students. They were chosen from two provinces,
Qom and Yazd, and the cities of Qom, Yazd, Meybod, Ardakan,
Delijan and Rizwanshahr. Sampling method in this research was
purposive and specifically matched sampling method from the
mentioned population. The blind student groups were chosen first,
and then the sighted student group was selected accordingly based
on matched pair sampling method. Student from Sighted group
matched with the blind and semi-blind group in social factors,
educational status, social class, parent’s occupation, education,
residence, and economical status. All 160 students were studying
in primary school from preschool- fifth grade. 96 of these students
were sighted, 24 of them were semi- blind, and 40 of them were
blind.
Results
Data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Analysis
showed higher mean rank of sighted student group in concept categorization compared to their blind peers. Results of data analysis
highlight the fact that the sighted student pointed to the main and
the most distinctive features of categories. In Rosch’s words features mentioned by the sighted group has the higher cue validity
compared to that of the blind group. Also results of qualitative
analysis shows that features mentioned by the sighted groups are
of a diverse type compared to the features of blind groups. Features considered by the student of sighted group are the main and
most distinctive features of categories as well as their subsidiary
features.
Conclusion
Focus on the type of diverse answers mentioned by the sighted
group explores that while the blind and semi-blind group students mentioned typical speech their sighted peers are more aware
of the features of different categories. It seems that their knowledge of different categories is based on what they learned from
their textbook or what they perceived by other perceptual systems. So based on the results of this research, the impairment of
visual perception system will likely limit the range of questions
provoked by stimulating visual perception system if not cut their
connection with the environment.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: m_sadeghi@sbu.ac.ir
A Socio-Cognitive Approach to Persian Scientific Terminograhy
Ali Reza Gholi Famian*
Department of Linguistics and Foreign Languages, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Terminology is the study of terms and their use within a specific
domain of interest. It provides the theoretical and technical support to terminographers too. In effect, terminology of a specific
discipline is a body of concepts interrelated together through a
rich set of semantic relations including synonymy, hyponymy, etc.
Traditional terminology follows five basic principles: (1) terminology studies concepts before terms (the onomasiological perspective); (2) concepts are clear-cut and can be attributed to place
in a concept system; (3) concepts can be defined in an intensional
and/or extensional way; (4) a term is assigned permanently to a
concept; and (5) terms and concepts are studied synchronically.
Challenging all the above-mentioned principles, Temmerman
(2000) has introduced a socio-cognitive approach towards scientific terminology. Relying on a few instances in some scientific
domains, she has addressed the shortcomings of the traditional
model to justify the terminological work. She maintains that the
socio-cognitive terminology does not start from terms. Rather,
it starts from units of understanding that usually have prototype
structure. She argues that understanding is a structured event, and
a unit of understanding has intra-categorial as well as inter-categorial structure. According to the third principle introduced in the
socio-cognitive approach, there is no fixed framework for definition as the type of unit of understanding and the involved level
vary. Instead of defending the permanence of one-to-one correspondence between a term and its concept, the cognitive model
resorts to semantic relations such as synonymy, polysemy, etc.
And based on the fifth principle, a diachronic approach is promising as discovering a unit of concept may call for a historical
viewpoint. Furthermore, cognitive models such as metaphorical
cognitive models shed light on the reasons behind the development of new ideas and terms. Her work is qualitative, limiting to
a few texts in some specific disciplines.
Methods
The present study adopts a socio-cognitive, quantitative approach to the role of metaphor in scientific terms and their trans-
lation into Persian. The corpus of the study includes about 3000
scientific terms. The terms are published by the Persian Academy of Language and Literature accompanied by their Persian
equivalents. The Persian equivalents are discussed and officially
approved by the scientific committees of the academy and it is understood that much precision and technicality have been involved.
The corpus covers terms from a large number of disciplines, from
science (physics, biology, chemistry, etc.), to humanities (management, linguistics, etc.) to name a few. The study attempts to
answer three questions. (1) Are the Persian equivalents, proposed
and approved for English scientific terms matched with sociocognitive implications introduced by Temmerman (2000); (2)
Are there any meaningful variations over metaphor- based terminography in different scientific disciplines; (3) Which cognitiverelated theories or models should be taught to terminographers to
arrive at better practice in terminography?
Results
The pilot study on the corpus shows that a number of sociocognitive mechanisms are involved in Persian terminography.
Mostly there are three cases: (1) metaphoric English term with
non-metaphoric Persian equivalent (owl run: ,)‫برنامه شبانه اتوبوس‬
2() English non-metaphoric term with metaphoric Persian equivalent (Buddleja: ‫)دم موشی‬, and metaphoric terms in both English
and Persian (waterfall model: ‫)مدل آبشاری‬. Second, the scientific disciplines behave quite differently as far as the cognitive
models are concerned. Third, some socio-cognitive concepts and
theories, especially metaphor and frame would be informative
for terminographers.
Conclusion
The findings of the study are of importance in theory and practice. They would reveal the role of metaphor and a socially-oriented insight in developing and understanding scientific terms.
In addition, they can be used to develop a set of guidelines for
terminographers.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: famianali@yahoo.com
An Informational Argument against Strong Artificial Intelligence
Reza Maleeh*1, Mohsen Gholami2
1. University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
2. Esfahan, Iran
Introduction
In the last decades, remarkable advances have taken place in
the field of Artificial Intelligence and computational models of
thought. Church-Turing thesis centers the most effective ideas in
the realm of AI according to which, any step-by-step algorithmic
procedure can be modeled on a Turing machine. Any theory of a
natural phenomenon is computable if it can be represented algorithmically. Such a theory can be modeled on a computer. Strong
AI claims that the intelligence of a machine can successfully perform any intellectual task that a human being can. AI has been
subject to serious objections, some of the most famous of which
are: Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem, Frame Problems, Chinese
Room, Blockhead Argument.
Methods
The aim of this paper is to propose a new natural/informational
argument against Strong Artificial Intelligence. In regards to the
notion of information, we adopt Roederer’s interpretation of pragmatic information according to which every interaction occurring
in the universe is either physical or information-driven. The former happens only in natural non-living systems while the latter
involves both natural living systems and artifacts. The claim, then,
is that in the realm of information-driven interactions, artifacts reflect the information we put in them. Independently of us, artificial systems do not happen in nature or just happen by chance. In
the latter case, they don’t count as informational systems at all.
Results
To have given a clearer idea, compare two scenarios: the first
is that you are reading a book wherein you see the words “Jesus
Christ”. Reading such words in the context of the book gives you
some information and has meaning for you. The second scenario
is when by chance the combination of the smoke coming out of
the exhaust of an aircraft with wind makes a pattern like “Jesus
Christ”. Knowing that there has been no intentional agent behind
creating such a pattern we attribute no meaning to such a shape.
It contributes no information with regard to “Jesus Christ”. In the
first scenario there is a purposeful author who is aware of the correspondence of the pattern “Jesus Christ” with our mental patterns. In other words, the pattern “Jesus Christ” has the purpose
of eliciting its correspondent neural correlates in our mind which
are about Jesus Christ. The intentionality of the pattern “Jesus
Christ” in the book represents the author’s intentionality and this
is why it is meaningful and informational for us. Without such
intentionality, the pattern would be meaningless. That is the case
in the second scenario. The relationship between the author and
the words “Jesus Christ” corresponds to the relationship between
living systems as original, intentional, information processing
systems, and artifacts. We claim that the information in the latter
just represents the information that the former puts into it. Without
an intentional biological system, no information and information
processing would be at work.
Conclusion
To summarize, we will argue that it is natural to think that the
kind of information which gives rise to thinking and consciousness is the original information processed in living systems without which, artifacts would not happen or just happen by chance.
We will pose that artifacts just represent the computational aspect
of our minds as original information processing systems. There is
another aspect which, is still informational, but solipsistic. This
aspect gives rise to consciousness and is not algorithmic.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: rezamaleeh@yahoo.com
Toward Agents with Switchable Emotion Understanding Ability
Mohammad Kazemifard*1, Tuncer Ören2
1. Department of Computer Engineering, Kermanshah, Iran
2. University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Introduction
According to the theory of emotional intelligence, four psychological abilities that enable humans to relate emotionally to one
another are: (1) emotion perception, (2) thought facilitation using
emotions, (3) emotion understanding, and (4) emotion management. This research focuses on improving emotion understanding, the cognitive activity of making inferences using emotional
knowledge about why an agent is in an emotional state (e.g., unfair treatment makes an individual angry) and, which actions are
associated with the emotional state (e.g., an angry individual attacks others). For better results in an emotion understanding system, agents should avoid misunderstanding. Considering an athlete is crying after winning a match, an intelligent agent may infer
that he feels extremely distressed instead of extremely joyful.
Situation awareness is an important cognitive skill for intelligent
agents. The failure to perceive a situation correctly –among other
factors– may lead to misunderstanding. Since emotion understanding in intelligent agents is a subset of machine understanding, we can use solutions of machine understanding to resolve
emotion misunderstanding problems.
Methods
Our approach is to use switchable understanding to enhance
emotion understanding ability and avoid emotion misunderstanding in intelligent agents. A multi-understanding system can have
more than one understanding of an entity. A switchable understanding is a multi-understanding system, which can explore different
possibilities to generate different understandings of an entity and
can select the understanding most appropriate fit for a context. In
this study, we propose a framework of emotion understanding that
combines psychological theories of episodic and semantic memories with the rich paradigm of switchable machine understanding. Our switchable emotion understanding framework consist of
(1) multiple meta-models: episodic memory, which stores details
of specific events and semantic memory, which stores “general
knowledge,” such as the similarity of emotions, (2) a perceptor to
percept emotions and agents, and (3) an evaluator, which switches
between these memories to result an understanding.
Results
We implemented our emotionally intelligent agents in an agent
system in which agents interact with each other with the aim of
making the other agents experience target emotions. Agents do not
have any experience at the beginning of the simulation, but some
had general knowledge (as semantic memory) about emotions.
They collected emotional knowledge during their interaction with
other agents. We compare single vision and switchable emotion
understanding in intelligent agents. Single vision understanding
is a type of machine understanding that is based on a single metamodel, single perception, and single evaluation. In this configuration, our framework uses only the episodic memory. We used
the precision, recall, and F-score in information retrieval science
for comparing single vision understanding and switchable understanding. Switchable understanding has better F1 and F2 scores,
but single vision understanding has better F0.5 score. This indicates that recall of switchable understanding is better than single
vision understanding but precision of single vision understanding
is better than switchable understanding. On the other hand failure
of understanding in switchable emotion understanding is lower.
Conclusion
In this paper, we compared single vision and switchable emotion
understanding in intelligent agents. Our comparison showed that
switchable emotion understanding has lower failing than single
vision emotion understanding. The switchable emotion understanding switched between an episodic memory and a semantic
memory when there is no understanding. But the single vision understanding only used an episodic memory and if it could not have
an understanding, it failed. For future work we are planning to investigate other types of machine understanding as well as avoidance of misunderstanding. Approximately 60 sources of machine
understanding and misunderstanding have already been identified.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: m.kazemifard@razi.ac.ir
Cross-Gender Differences in Using Hedges in Conclusion
Section of Applied Linguistics Papers
Bagher Azarmi*
Introduction
Metadiscourse conveys the idea that communication is more
than just the exchange of information, goods or services, but also
involves the personalities, attitudes, feelings, and assumptions of
those who are taking part in the communication process. Of metadiscourse devices, hedges would be considered very effective in
creating and also sustaining an interpersonal meaning in a written
discourse. In fact, a mitigating sense inferred by their use, makes
the text less imposing and hence less threatening. Also, they would
be interpreted as an indication of vacillation or at least a low level
of determination in claiming an idea. And, it was this last inference, which provided the incentive for doing current study.
Methods
The aim of this study was to understand the cross-gender preference in using hedging in the concluding section of research articles. So the null hypothesis was proposed as: there is no difference
between male and female authors in preferring hedges in the conclusion section of research papers. For that purpose a corpus of
about 38000 words for male authors and a corpus of about 46000
words for females were compiled from the field of applied linguistics. TESOL quarterly journals over the years 1997- 2008 were
taken into consideration. Finally a two-way group-independence
chi-square was conducted for estimating cross-gender differences
in using hedges in the conclusion section as a whole rather than
performing it for the individual subcategories (since most of the
cells in subcategories had expected frequency less than 5 violating
the underlying assumption of chi-square test).
Results
The result did not reveal any significant difference between the
two groups.
Conclusion
Research has demonstrated that the communicative purpose
of the different sections of research papers (i.e., abstracts, introductions, conclusions, etc.) affect the degree of tentativeness,
flexibility, and authorial engagement realized by various linguistic resources (Hopkins, Dudley-Evans, 1988; Salager-Meyer, 1994). In this study, we presented an overall cross-gender
picture of the frequency using hedges in the concluding section
of research articles. It was discovered that the most frequently
used category of hedges were modal auxiliaries whose preferences by male authors were more than females. The other categories showed somehow similar occurrence and there weren’t
any drastically notable variations across genders. However,
since this study was confined to the studies by applied linguists,
a need for exploring other areas of study is critical. Future studies, which would not necessarily be confined to this specific
metadiscourse devices of hedging is recommended. Moreover
other sections and genres are also considered necessary to be
scrutinized.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: bager.azarmi@gmail.com
Cognitive Assessment in Elderly Admitted to Day Care Centers:
The Relationship between the Abbreviated Mental Test and
Sociodemographic Variables
Vahid Rashedi*, Mohammad Rezaei
Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences & Health Services, Hamedan, Iran
Introduction
Results
Despite a worldwide increase in life expectancy, the negative
impact of the natural aging process may directly or indirectly affect the individual perception of the quality of additional
years of life due to increased longevity. Cognitive impairment
is common in elderly people and is associated with an increased
morbidity and mortality. Dementia increases the rate of longterm hospitalization and institutional care, and assessment of
cognitive function is one of the cornerstones of geriatric medicine. This study was performed to assess the cognitive state
in the elderly admitted to day care centers, and investigate the
relationship between the Abbreviated Mental Test and sociodemographic variables.
Methods
In this analytical-descriptive study, 212 elders admitted to
Hamedan’s day care centers were selected through random sampling method. To gather the data, Abbreviated Mental Test (AMT)
was used as well as a questionnaire containing sociodemographic
variables. The validity and reliability of research instruments were
assessed and confirmed before they have been used. The informed
consents were taken from the participants. To analyze the data,
Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Independent t-test, Pearsons Coefficient of Correlation and One-way ANOVA were used.
The sample consisted of 17.9% male and 82.1% female participants, 59.4% were married and the others single (including widow and divorced). The mean age of the sample was 67.11 years
(SD=6.49) and the mean years of admission in the centers was
1.61. 72.6% were illiterate, 23.6 % had finished guidance school,
and 3.8 % had their diploma. Results showed the mean AMT
score was 6.27±2.39 (range 1-10), and 112 elders (52.8%) were
cognitively impaired, as determined by an AMT score six or less.
Analytic findings disclosed that the AMT score was negatively
correlated with age (p=.03, r=-0.144). t-test indicated that the
AMT score was related to the gender (p=0.008, t=2.69). Results
of One-way ANOVA showed that there are significant relationships AMT score and marital status (p=0.026, F=3.73), occupation (p=0.011, F=6.52), family size (p<0.001, F=6.82) and education level (p<0.001, F=23.94).
Conclusion
For the AMT tests, mainly memory and orientation, and in elders admitted to the day care centers, the AMT gave predictive
information about the cognitive status. Cognitive impairment was
significantly higher in aged subjects admitted in day care centers;
providing educational programs and workshops to promote the
mental health of the elderly is recommended.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: vahidrashedi@yahoo.com
What is More Important in Predicting Academic Performance?
Cognitive or Affective Aspects of Self-Concept
Maher Mohammad Abu-Hilal*1, Hania Al Malki 2
1. SQU, Muscat, Oman
2. Ministry of Education, Muscat, Oman
Introduction
The frequently used construct that has been linked to self-concept (SC) is academic achievement. Marsh, Parker and Barnes
(1985) indicated that the substantial correlations between different areas of SC, academic ability, and performance measures provide evidence for the construct validity of SC. Marsh
(1986) presented the relationship between achievement and
SC in a novel and unique fashion with his phenomenal internal/external (I/E) frame of reference model. The I/E frame of
reference model has been considered as a major development
in self-perception theory. The model clarifies the cross-links
between math and verbal achievements and math and verbal
self-concepts. According to the I/E frame of reference model,
Marsh (1986, 1988) argued that math and verbal self-concepts
are influenced by internal and external comparisons.). “… Students based their academic self-concepts in particular subjects
on how their ability in that subject compares with other students
-external comparison- and how their ability in that particular
subject compares with their abilities in other subjects -internal
comparisons” (Marsh and Shavelson, 1985, p. 120). The internal comparison process predicts that good math skills lead to
lower English self-concept and good English skills lead to lower math self-concept. The external comparison process predicts
that good math skills lead to high math self-concept and good
English skills lead to high verbal self-concept. These predictions of the I/E model have received considerable support with
Western samples (e.g., Byrne & Shavelson, 1987; Chanal,, Sarrazin, Guay & Boiche, 2009; Marsh, 1986, 1988, 1994; Marsh,
Byrne & Shavelson, 1988; Marsh, Walker & Debus, 1991;
Marsh & Yeung, 1998), and partially, with some non-Western
samples (Abu-Hilal & Bahri, 2000). Arens, Yeung, Craven and
Hasselhorn (2011) stated “in contemporary self-concept theory,
it is a controversial question as to whether each separate domain of academic self-concept is further differentiable into a
cognitive and affective component” (p.971, 972). Irwing (1996)
proposed that self-concept has evaluative (cognitive) and affective components.
Methods
In the present study, 1061 Omani middle school students –
grades 7, 8 and 9 - (500 boys and 561 girls) responded to the
SDQ-I. In this study only two subscales (math and verbal) were
used. Each of the two subscales is made of two components:
cognitive and affective components. Each of the two components is measured by 4 items with a total of 16 items. The
alphas were 0.92 and 0.86 for the math and verbal subscales,
respectively. Again, I/E frame of reference model was partially
confirmed. We also tested models in which achievement was
predicted from self-concept. Self-concept was separated into
cognitive and affective components. The results showed that
cognitive component of self-concept positively predicted academic performance in matching domains (e.g., math) while
affective component was weakly or negatively linked to academic performance.
Results
The model was tested with AMOS 16 and the results revealed very good fit indexes (chi square (117)=379.69, CFI=.972,
TLI=.959, MSEA=.046). The model explained 33.6% and 26%
of the variance in math and verbal performance, respectively.
Conclusion
In conclusion, self-concept should be conceived of as having
two components, cognitive and affective. The present study
provides evidence to the construct validity of such conceptualization.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: m.hilal@yahoo.com
Concepts Acquisition: Epistemological
and Metaphysical Approaches
Abbas Alikhademi*
Tehran, Iran
Introduction
In this article, firstly, I reviewed a brief philosophical history of
the problem of “concepts acquisition” from Aristotle to contemporary philosophers and then I distinguished between two basic
approaches to this subject; Epistemological and Metaphysical. In
Philosophical background, this problem was basically introduced
by Aristotle and Plato, by distinguishing between “Particulars”
and “Universals”. The main question in this field is that how a
particular example of one thing (ex. “a particular cat”) can form a
universal concept of that kind (ex. “cat” or “animal”). In the other
words, how can we categorize objects into different groups? In
history of philosophy, the arguments about this problem developed and formed different types of views such as realism, conceptualism, and later entering through different fields of science
(such as linguistics, neurology, psychology, and AI) in this argument, the number of doctrines have been increased. But most of
these views can be classified in two basic categories mentioned
earlier; epistemological and metaphysical. As a case of study, I
focused on two philosophers and one cognitive scientist, David
Hume (1711-1776) and Jerry A. Fodor (1935), and Jean M. Mandler (1929). Basically, Hume was an empiricist and mostly has
built his doctrine based on the human’s perception. In the same
way, Mandler and other cognitive scientists with an epistemological overview on this topic and with a methodological approach
try to explain how different concepts can be obtained. On the opposite side, Fodor mostly believes in innate origins of concepts
and has exerted objections to cognitive science approaches in his
famous book “Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong”.
Fodor can be counted as an advocate of atomistic views of Frege,
Russell, and other atomists.
Methods
In order to draw a comparison between these different views,
I made an analogy between them and analyzed their objections
towards each other. In most cases these doctrines reject others by
finding contradictions in arguments or giving examples of violations. For instance, one of the most challenging arguments is referred to Fodor’s Puzzle in concepts acquisition which argues that
basic concepts cannot be learned and are innate in humans. This
article discuses such an argument and answers to them.
Results
After analyzing these doctrines I make a list of advantages and
disadvantages of each one and suggest a new approach to the
problem of concept’s formation and acquisition.
Conclusion
In conclusion I briefly discussed the importance of this subject
and its impact on other parts of philosophy and especially moral issues and ethics, and I show how a proper answer to the above question can solve or dissolve other questions in different fields of
philosophy.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: a.alikhademi@gmail.com
The Effect of Stress Period Duration on Memory Deficit in Rats
Maryam Radahmadi*, Hojjatallah Alaei, Mohammad Reza Sharifi, Ali Nasimi, Nasrin Hosseini
Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
Introduction
Stress not only affects many of the memory presses and cognitive functions of the brain, but also causes acute and chronic
changes in certain areas of the brain. Moreover, it can be a
potential risk factor in the development of different neuropsychological disease and can cause long-term damages. In addition, some researchers have indicated that chronic stress causes
neurobiological adaptations. Since there are different levels of
stress; there is a possibility of stress period duration being able
to affect cognitive function and memory deficit in behavioral
tasks. Hence, the evaluation of brain damage due to stress remains almost unclear. In this research, we have investigated the
effects of stress period duration (short, medium, and long term
stress) on memory deficit in order to determine the possible
causal links between them.
Methods
This experiment was investigated in male Wistar rats, with an
initial weight of 250–300 g. Restraint stress was applied by 6
h/day for 1, 7 and 21 days (because restraint stress is a kind of
powerful and emotional stress in rats), and then acute, medium
and chronic stresses (after 1 day, 7 and 21 days stress, respectively) were induced in rats. Memory function was evaluated
by the passive avoidance test in which the rats received a single
foot electrical shock before their stress period. This test is based
on negative reinforcement. Each rat had three trial sessions in
different intervals (1, 7, and 21 days after induced restraint
stress).
Results
The results showed that: (a) after 1 day stress (acute stress),
the latency to entrance in dark compartment significantly
(p<0.01) impaired memory compared to control group; (b) after 7 and 21 days repeated restraint stress (medium and chronic
stress, respectively); latencies showed significant (p<0.001 and
p<0.01, respectively) decreases compared to the control group;
(c) when all latencies (1 vs. 7 days, 7 vs. 21 days and 1 vs. 21
days after restraint stress) were investigated; there was a significant (p<0.01) decrease in all paired comparisons.
Conclusion
The data confirmed the probability of stress period duration
having a direct effect on memory deficit. Moreover, any adaptation happened underlying medium and chronic restraint
stress. Also, memory deficit on 7 days was more critical than
21 days with respect to the control group. This indicates that
the response to emotional stress nearly decreases with the passage of time. Therefore, we can conclude that repeated stress
has harmful effects on memory consolidation. It is also possible
that biological and structural changes happen in brain regions
involved with memory.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: m_radahmadi@yahoo.com
Visual Long-Term Memory and Misremembering an Everyday
Common Object: Poor Recall of Turkish One Lira Coin Features
Pardis Fallahzadeh*, Annette Hohenberger, Murat Perit Çakır
Universiteler Mahallesi, Turkey
Introduction
Results
Visual long-term memory stores visual information for a long
period of time. Nickerson & Adams (1979) took the first step in
order to evaluate different aspects of long-term memory for a
common object. They found that recall of features of common
objects such as coins, was surprisingly poor. Nickerson & Adams (1979) claimed those visual details that seem meaningless
to people will not retain in their memory precisely. The results
of their study were confirmed by various subsequent studies until Marmie & Healy (2004) claimed that the previous results of
Shepard, (1967),Nickerson, and Adams’ (1979) studies followed
from intentional and incidental initial encoding processes and not
from the differences in containing meaningless or meaningful details. In the present study, we investigate the memory of Turkish
vs. non-Turkish citizens of features of the Turkish one lira coin.
The research question is whether the former – having a life-long
experience with Turkish coins – produces and recognizes more
features correctly than the latter.
Methods
In our study, we carried out two different experiments, the first
one being a recall task of the Turkish one lira coin and the second
one a visual recognition task. In the first experiment, participants
were 12 adult Turkish citizens (8 female) as well as 10 foreign
students (4 female). They were supposed to recall and draw all
the features that are on the tail of the Turkish one lira coin. In the
second experiment, participants were 13 adult Turkish citizens
(9 female) as well as 10 foreign students (5 female). They were
supposed to recognize the correct image of one lira coin among
fifteen different images of it.
The results of the first experiment revealed a poor performance
for all participants in recall of the one lira coin’s features. There
was no significant effect of the recalled items between Turkish
(M=0.47, SD=0.09) and foreign (M=0.41, SD=0.19) students;
t(20)=0.92, p=0.37. There was no significant effect of the recalled
items between Turkish (M=0.88, SD=0.10) and foreign (M=0.83,
SD=0.09) students; t(21)=1.34, p=0.20. Moreover, there was a significant difference between recall (M=0.47, SD=0.09) and recognition (M=0.88, SD=0.10) tasks for the Turkish students; t(23)=11.10, p<0.001 such that they recognized features better than they
deliberately recalled them. In addition, the results showed that
even if the subjects were most likely to choose the correct image
of the coin, they were not sure to reject the incorrect ones. Lastly,
there was also a significant difference between recall (M=0.41,
SD=0.19) and recognition (M=0.83, SD=0.09) tasks for the foreign students; t(18)=-6.22, p<0.001.
Conclusion
First, the results of our study confirmed the findings of Nickerson
& Adams’ (1979) and Marmie and Healy’s (2004) studies in which
the participants had poor recall performance of the coin features.
Moreover, as they had reported, the performance in the recognition
task was significantly better than the recall task and this result was
also confirmed in our study of the Turkish one lira coin features.
Moreover, foreigners and Turkish participants did not differ much
in terms of their recall and recognition performance. Thus, it seems
that although the performance of the visual recognition memory
is very high in human beings, still many other factors can affect
our recall and recognition in remembering the features of common
objects – even if we are exposed to them our whole life.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: pardisfallahzadeh@gmail.com
Modification of Interpretation Bias in Patients with Social Anxiety
Mehri Fatehhi*
University of Shiraz
Introduction
Cognitive theories consider a central role for bias in information processing in etiology and maintenance of social anxiety.
It has been stated that a combination of interpretation bias and
memory bias leads to the maintenance of social anxiety disorder. Interpretation bias is the tendency to interpret ambiguous information of social environment in a threatening manner.
Memory bias (in encoding, storing and retrieval) toward social
faces means that people with social anxiety disorder remember
and recognize faces with negative emotions better and more often than faces with positive emotion. So, the purpose of this
study was to examine the effectiveness of modification of interpretation bias on memory bias in people with social anxiety. In
fact we wanted to assess whether modifying interpretation bias
leads to memory bias reduction in patients with social anxiety
disorder.
Method
For this purpose 60 individuals with social anxiety were
selected through accessible sampling and were randomly assigned to 3 groups with 20 individuals in each group. These
3 groups included: positive training, non-negative, and neutral
training group (control group). For assessing social anxiety
symptoms Liebowitz social anxiety scale (1987) was administered. Modification of interpretation bias and evaluating its effectiveness, the measure applied in the investigation of Murphy,
Hirsch, Mathews, Smith, and Clark (2007), was used. For assessing memory bias a computerized task involving emotional
photos was administered at the end, after the training program,
and in both phases of learning and recognition. 48 colored photos from 24 people (12 males and 12 females) in four emotional
states of happy, angry, hate, and neutral were represented to
the subjects of all three groups. Statistical methods were signal detection theory (SDT) so that according to 4 reactions that
each person could show in each photo, two scores of d’ and β
are calculated through relevant formula. Then, using analysis
of variance for repeated measures, analysis was done separately
on each component for each face and groups.
Results
The results showed that after the modification of interpretation bias there was no significant difference in none of d’ or
β component among the three groups. Modification of interpretation bias didn’t lead to reduction in memory bias toward
emotional faces.
Conclusion
It is probable that for reducing memory bias, several sessions
of modification were needed or since these cognitive biases are
rooted and presented from very early on in the disorder, a comprehensive and multidimensional treatment was necessary to
modify this bias completely.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mahshid_fatehi@yahoo.com
Psychometric Properties of Montreal Cognitive Assessment
(MoCA) in Parkinson’s Disease Patients
Golita Emsaki*, Karim Asgari, Hossein Molavi, Ahmad Chitsaz
University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Introduction
Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a screening tool for
the assessment of mild cognitive impairment. This test was developed by Nasreddin et al. (2005) and assesses cognitive functions
including executive functions (by an alternative trail making task,
verbal fluency and abstraction), visuospatial function (by drawing a clock and copying a cube), short term memory (by learning
5 items and remembering them after about 5 minutes), attention
(by vigilance, subtracting serial 7s from 100, and backward and
forward digit span), language (by naming 3 animals, sentence repetition and verbal fluency) and orientation (time and place). Since
patients with Parkinson’s disease suffer from different kinds of
cognitive disabilities, the purpose of this research was studying
the psychometric properties of Montreal Cognitive Assessment in
Parkinson’s disease patients of Esfahan.
Methods
criteria involves getting the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease by a
neurologist, knowing how to read and write, and not being severely depressed, anxious, or mentally retarded. 40 healthy individuals who had all the inclusion criteria except having Parkinson’s
disease, were selected randomly, and the scales were also administered on them. Cronbach’s alpha, Pearson’s correlation, and discriminant analysis were used for computing reliability, concurrent
validity, and diagnostic validity of the test respectively.
Results
Results showed the Cronbach’s alpha of 0.77, concurrent validity of 0.79, sensitivity of 0.85, and specificity of 0.90. It means
that this test can diagnose 85.7% of healthy people and 90% of
patients correctly. Finally by using the ROC table, 24 was selected
as the best cut-off point for MoCA.
Conclusion
First the questionnaire was translated from English to Farsi by
the researchers and its translation and facial validity was confirmed by two specialists in this field. Some of its items were also
modified to become more concordant with the Iranian culture
(e.g. church was changed to mosque). Then 35 patients with Parkinson’s disease who all had the inclusion criteria were referred to
researchers by the neurologist, where they answered the questions
of Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE), and demographic questionnaire. The inclusion
The results for psychometric properties of Montreal Cognitive
Assessment were consistent with previous investigations and
these results showed that Montreal Cognitive Assessment can be
a valid and reliable instrument for assessing cognitive defects in
Parkinson’s disease in the Iranian society. But since this research
was only done in Esfahan and with literate people, we should be
cautious when generalizing the results to other groups of patients
with Parkinson’s disease. Its normalization in other cities and with
different groups of patients is highly recommended.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: golitaemsaki@gmail.com
A Cross-Cultural Study of Love Metaphors: When Love is Pain!
Mohammad Amin Sorahi*1, Taherehbeigom Nazemi2
1- Islamic Azad University, Abadeh Branch, Abadeh, Iran
2- Fars Education Organization, Abadeh, Iran
Introduction
This study is an investigation of the use of the emotional concept of love and its relation to metaphors in Persian and English,
based on cognitive linguistics. By comparing and contrasting
these metaphors in contemporary Iranian Persian and American
English, the primary objective of this study is to explore the metaphorical role of emotional concepts in general, and the concept of
love particularly in these two languages and show how emotional
metaphors are linked to the use of a particular language, thought,
and culture.
Methods
This study primarily adopts the revised model of Kovecses
(2005), in which he treats metaphor as a cognitive-cultural phenomenon. Kovecses (2005) argues that although the theory of
conceptual metaphor was first developed by Lakoff and Johnson
(1980) it is still an inspiration to most anthropologists and linguists working on metaphor. The theory of conceptual metaphor
can’t meet their needs entirely due to certain reasons, the most
important of which are overemphasizing the universality of some
of the metaphors and ignoring the many cases of cultural diversity
in metaphorical thought. Thus, he has tried to propose a theory
of metaphor that can successfully handle both the potential universality of some of the metaphors on the one hand, and crosscultural and variations of other metaphors on the other. The rationale behind this study comes from the idea mentioned by Grady
(2007: 205) that comparative metaphor studies will contribute to a
better understanding of conceptual systems of people living in different societies and cultural environments. In order to gather the
data, at first a corpus of about five thousand spoken and written
expressions which are used to show the emotion of love was made
from a wide range of sources. Then, the metaphor identification
procedure as proposed by The Pragglejaz group (2007) was used
to identify the metaphorical expressions out of this corpus.
Results
The results of the study indicate some similarities and differences between love metaphors in Persian and English. The similarities are primarily attributed to either a kind of universal motivation for the metaphors deployed in these languages, or those
metaphors which entered into Persian through translation. The
differences found in these two languages, however, reveal much
more of a culture-specific nature.
Conclusion
In short, the current study reveals that emotion metaphors encompass an integrative system involving linguistic, conceptual,
neural-bodily, and sociocultural aspects of language use. It also
illustrates that the cause of universality and variation in metaphor
includes embodiment, social-cultural experience, and cognitive
processes.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: aminsorahi@hotmail.com
Analysis of the Cognitive Model of Anger in the
Persian Language
Zahra Hamedi Shirvan*, Shahla Sharifi
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Introduction
Lakoff and Kôvecses (1987) argue that, at first glance, the conventional expressions used to express anger seem so diverse that
finding any coherent system would seem impossible. They show
that there is a coherent conceptual organization underlying all
these expressions and that much of it is metaphorical and metonymical in nature.
Methods
This research describes the Cognitive Model of Anger (Lakoff,
Kôvecses, 1987) and analyses the ontological and epistemic correspondences of anger in the Persian Language (Farsi). The research corpus consists of Farsi expressions and idioms of anger
and also five stories from Shahnameh, the Persian epic masterpiece in which the presentation of anger was more apparent. These
stories are: Rostam and Esfandyar (1678 couplets), the story of
Siyavash (3684 couplets), Rostam and Sohrab (1058 couplets),
Rostam and Shaqad (230 couplets) and the story of Forud (1240
couplets). The authors, native Farsi speakers, have also used their
knowledge of the language to gather the data.
Results
It was found that the expressions which show anger are not a
random and unorganized collection, but they are organized on
the basis of a detailed cognitive model implicit in semantics of
language. This indicates that anger is not an amorphous feeling
but rather it has an elaborate cognitive structure. Another finding of the paper is that the prototype scenario given by Lakoff
and kôvecses including offending event, anger, attempt at control,
loss of control and act of retribution is true in Persian, but a few
other scenarios can also be presented in Persian or actually some
changes can be made in some scenarios; for example in the illness
scenario(offending event, anger, attempt at control, loss of control
and becoming ill) it can be seen that anger has affected the angry
person not the offending one. Another scenario of anger is offending event, anger, attempt at control, loss of control and spreading
the anger out .These other scenarios have been explained in detail
in the paper.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the emotional concepts are appeared
physically, that is the real content of the concepts are correspondent with physical experiences. This is especially important about
metaphorical concepts because there is a correspondence between
metaphor and physiology not directly between literal meaning and
physiology. So the claim of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) that cognitive metaphors are not just flights of fancy, but they are based on
physical experiences is confirmed in Persian too.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: hamedishirvan@gmail.com
The Effects of Feedback on L2 Learners’ Listening
Comprehension during Group Dynamic Assessment (G-DA)
Karim Shabani*
Allameh Mohaddes Noori Institute of Higher Education, Nour, Iran
Introduction
Response to learners’ errors has been researched in the fields
of language teaching and acquisition and cognitive psychology
under the terms ‘corrective feedback’, ‘negative evidence’, and
‘negative feedback’ respectively (El Tatawy, 2002). Nassaji and
Swain (2000) argue that Vygotsky’s sociocultural stance on error correction can provide new and important insights into the L2
learning process. In this vein, Lantolf and Poehner (2010) explain
that an extremely important point in error correction from a Vygotskian standpoint is that mediation should be adjusted to the
learner’s performance which entails “co-regulation whereby a
learner’s responsiveness to teacher mediation also regulates the
teacher and her subsequent attempts at assisting the learner” and
“ it is in this process of co-regulation that learner agency and autonomy emerge” (p.18). According to Poehner (2009), social mediation and interaction within the class context should be studied
under a new framework known as Group Dynamic Assessment
(G-DA).
Methods
This study aligned itself with an interactionist G-DA approach
and a microgenetic methodology - an SCT-based method – and it
followed a pretest-enrichment-posttest-transfer session format. A
qualitative study of Group Dynamic Assessment (G-DA) interactions is presented which aims to provide insight into learners’
dependent and independent listening performance through close
examination of different types of mediational strategies offered
during G-DA interactions with learners. 15 Undergraduate students of English major (age rang 20-25) from Allameh Mohaddes
Nouri College volunteered to participate in the program. They responded to an announcement, made before the start of term, about
a reinforcement course with an aim to improve students’ listening
comprehension and their ability to understand news broadcasts.
Results
The results reported here are part of a larger study that takes into
account the G-DA interactions collected during the pretest, posttest and TR sessions. The protocols have been mainly drawn from
the mediated portions of the assessment sessions that involved interaction and assistance; however, reports of independent performance (IP) are sometimes given wherever needed. Analysis of interactions resulted in the following inventory of mediational strategies: 1) Confirming/rejecting response, 2) Replaying; listening
to the entire portion, and listening to a segment from the portion
3) Putting words together 4) Repeating the erroneous guess with
a questioning tone 5) Offering contextual reminders 6) Offering
meta-linguistic reminders 7) Using a dictionary 8) Providing the
correct response and explanation, and9) Typology of mediational
strategies
Conclusion
The observations revealed how G-DA interactions could help establish a community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) in the social
space of the classroom and how the students could benefit from the
cooperative scaffolding provided by their classmates and teacher to
resolve their listening comprehension problems. In this study, the
teacher assigned one specific listening problem to the students and
asked them to provide their understanding, a technique which had
the function of creating an atmosphere of positive interdependence
of goal, role, reward, outside challenge and resource in the course of
which the students had an opportunity to trial their legitimate peripheral participation (McCafferty et al., 2006).
*Corresponding Author: E-mail address: shabanikarim@gmail.com
Language Non-selective Activation of Semantics in
Hindi-English Bilinguals
Ramesh Mishra*
Allahabad University, India
Introduction
Several Studies have shown that bilinguals activate lexical items
of their two languages during auditory and visual word recognition. However, currently there is consensus regarding the magnitude and nature of such activations. Further, very few studies
have found such language non-selective activations during spoken word processing and in low proficient bilinguals. The RHM
model predicts that only highly fluent and simultaneous bilinguals
will activate semantics in both language directions. However, it
is not known what happens with low proficient L2 learners. In
this presentation, data from three eye tracking studies will be presented that provide robust evidence of parallel lexical activation,
both in phonology and semantics, in non-balanced Hindi-English
bilinguals. Very few studies have found such activations in late
bilinguals to date. I will present data showing bilinguals activate
not only the phonology and semantics of the non-target lexicon
but also orthography of the other language.
Methods
We have used the visual world eye tracking methodology in all
these experiments. In this type of study, a participant listens to
a spoken word while simultaneously processing either an array
of pictures or written words. Crucially, one of the pictures of the
word is related to the spoken word in some manner. In our studies
the picture is a phonological cohort of the translation of the spoken word. The aim of such studies is to find orientation of visual
attention towards this competitor item compared to unrelated distracters. Analysis of proportion of fixations to this item suggests
automatic activation of conceptual information during spoken
word processing. In experiment one the items were pictures and
in experiment two the items were written words. Hindi-English
bilinguals were asked to listen to the spoken words and process
the visual information. These experiments generally do not have
any explicit task for the participant. Hindi-English do not have
any cognates therefore our critical items were non-cognates and
translation equivalents. Our intention was to see if these bilinguals
will activate the translation information automatically upon hearing words either in their L1 or L2. We were also interested in the
magnitude of such activations as a function of the language direction.
Results
Experiment one (with pictures) showed that Hindi-English bilinguals could automatically activate the translation equivalents
of spoken words during spoken word processing and such activation was similar in both language directions. Results of experiment two showed that these bilinguals could also activate the orthographic information associated with the other language during
spoken word processing. These findings do not support the classic
asymmetry which is often reported with low proficient bilinguals.
Conclusion
We conclude that language non-selective activation is a norm
with low proficient bilinguals and even these bilinguals, who have
acquired their L2 much later in life, activate translation equivalents automatically during listening of both L1 and L2 words.
These results support predictions of interactive models of word
processing and not the RHM model as we found almost similar
activation in both language directions. We discuss these results
in the context of the influence of reading and writing on lexical
activation in bilinguals and also on the bilingual discourse environment.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: rkmishra@cbcs.ac.in
Spectral Analysis of Purkinje Cell Output
Samira Abbasi*1, Ataollah Abbasi1, Yashar Sarbaz2
1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran
2. Department of Emerging Technology, School of Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
Introduction
Purkinje cells constitute the sole output cell of the cerebellar cortex. Electrophysiological dysfunction of Purkinje cells
can lead to cerebellar ataxia. Previous studies have proposed a
spectral model of the normal Purkinje cell output, as a combination of three inherent frequencies observed in its spectrum.
These frequencies are due to the sodium and calcium spikes and
the cells’ switching behavior (between quiescence and firing
modes). Hence, we also investigated the spectral model of the
firing activity of normal and ataxic Purkinje neurons to evaluate differences in power spectral density and in order to analyze
changes in the intrinsic properties due to cerebellar ataxia.
Methods
The current study used cell output data from 15 and 18 normal
and ataxic Purkinje cells (data published by Janahmadi et al.).
To identify frequency components of Purkinje cell output, the
power spectral density (PSD) of each 60s recorded signal was
computed. Based on a spectral model of Purkinje cell behavior,
frequencies of the peaks were collected for the spectrum of all
the cells and used to compare cells’ electrophysiological behavior and demonstrate electrophysiological changes in ataxic
Purkinje cells.
Results
The three characteristic frequencies – sodium, calcium and
switching, of normal Purkinje cells (expressed in mean±standard
deviation) occur in mean frequencies of 52.18±15.69,
14.74±9.61, and 0.35±0.22Hz, respectively. In cerebellar ataxia
conditions, these frequencies change to 58.49±26.75, 5.43±3.17
and 0.5 ±0.37 Hz, respectively.
Conclusion
We examined fundamental frequencies of normal and ataxic
Purkinje cells. Power spectra of normal and ataxic Purkinje cell
outputs were computed using signal processing analysis. Our
study found a significant difference in frequency components
of normal and ataxia groups. Specifically, evaluation of power
spectra in the two groups showed significant differences in the
main peak of switching and calcium bands. Switching and calcium frequencies were significantly higher and lower, respectively, in ataxia group while sodium frequency change in ataxia
group was not remarkable. This study proposes that a significant change in cerebellar ataxia is related to the calcium band.
The proposed analysis can be used to help clinicians diagnose
ataxia and this difference may be a good feature to discriminate
of these two groups.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: samira.abbasi@gmail.com
Case Study: The Effects of Poetry Therapy in Children with
Autism, Dyspraxia and Split Brain
Mahdis Maghsudloo*1, Mahboobe Abbasian2
1-Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
2- Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Poetry therapy is a form of expressive arts therapy that is being
used increasingly by psychologists and other mental health workers perhaps because of the healing value of its emotional expressiveness. Poetry therapy includes poetic and narrative techniques
that allow individuals to express emotion, validate feelings, define
ideas, put experiences in context, scrutinize assumptions, learn vicariously, connect with others, and become more aware of personal choices. The word psychology itself suggests the connection between poetry and emotional healing, with psyche meaning
soul, and logos meaning speech or word (Longo, 1996). In previous researches, poetry therapy was mostly used for treating drug
and alcohol abuse (Gillespie, 2001), grief (Mazza, 2001), sexual
abuse (DeMaria, 1991), depression in children and adolescents
(Bowman, 1992; Trevizu, 2002), terminal illnesses (Teucher,
2002), and domestic violence (Booker, 1999).
Methods
In this research 1 high function autism child, 1 dyspraxia child
and 1 split brain child have selected that all children had language
difficulty. They could produce a few sounds but their sounds had
no meaning and they couldn’t make a word. Poetry therapy had
been used on them 4 days a week in a 4 month period. Every session was about 45 minutes to an hour. Every session 4 to 5 poems
were used. Also therapists tried to fulfill the request of the child
with tonic mode.
Results
In the first month, the child just listened, and there were no
progress in making words, however, their use of sounds had increased. In the second month split brain child and apraxic child
began making a few words of poetry. In the third month the autistic child made 2 or 3 words, and words of the other children improved more and more. In the fourth month all the children were
able to make many words of poetry, and they were able to make
other words that there weren’t in poetry. After therapy per children
could say about 50-100 words or more.
Conclusion
Our results show that poetry therapy could be effective in the development of language. The reason is that emotions and feelings are associated with learning language, and children would have more interests in making words. Previous researches on emotional problems of
adolescents are in line with our results that poetry therapy is effective
in reducing their problems. Booker found that poetry therapy could be
effective in treating feelings related to abuse, thereby helping victimsurvivors connect with each other. There is a greater effect on children
and adults when emotions are accompanied with poetry.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: m.maghsudloo@gmail.com
Effects of Motor-Perception Training on Phonics Performances of
Elementary Students with Dyslexia
Hassan Zareei Mahmoodabadi*, Rahele Haqiqatzadeh
University of Yazd, Yazd, Iran
Introduction
Dyslexia is a common learning disability in children. It means
that they cannot fully recognize words or read and understand
them. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects
of motor-perception training on the phonics performances of dyslexic elementary students.
Methods
Participants, recruited from amongst students of various schools
in Isfahan, were in contact with the Learning Disorder Center
in Isfahan. We selected a total of 30 third-grade students (girls),
confirmed by their teachers as students with learning difficulty.
An intelligence test and the Wechsler form were conducted in
order to evaluate and determine whether or not participants’ intelligence level was within the ‘normal’ range. Participants were
assigned to control and experimental groups (n=15). First both
groups received the pre-training tests. Then the experimental
group was exposed to ten one-hour sessions of motor-perception
training; the control group received no special training or intervention.
Result
Covariance analyses revealed that there was a significant difference (p<0.001) between means of the post-tests of the experimental and control groups.
Conclusion
The overall results of the present study showed that motor-perception training influences phonics performance of students with
learning disabilities.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: zareei_h@yahoo.com
Effectiveness of Executive Functions Training on Academic
Performance of Children with Math Learning Disability
Maryam Akbari Motlaq*1, Mohsen Darake2, Hassan Azargoon1, Hassan Rezaei3
1. Payamenoor University Neshaboor Branch, Mashhad, Iran
2. Razi University of Kermanshah, Kermanshah, Iran
3. Payamenoor University of Songhor, Kermanshah, Iran
Introduction
Executive functions is a term for cognitive processes that regulate, control, and manage other cognitive processes, such as planning, working memory, attention, problem solving, verbal reasoning, inhibition, mental flexibility, task switching, and initiation
and monitoring of actions. Hence it controls and manages other
cognitive processes. It is responsible for processes that are sometimes referred to as executive functions, executive skills, supervisory attentional system, or cognitive control. The prefrontal areas of the frontal lobe are necessary but not sufficient for carrying
out these functions. It seems that Deficits in executive functions
is one of the most common disorders in children with mathematics learning disability so the aim of this study was to investigate
the efficacy of executive functions training (working memory and
response inhibition) on academic performances of students with
Math learning disability. The findings of this study has this study
has important implications for teachers as it offers a beneficial
tool to help improve students’ math performance.
Methods
30 fourth grade elementary students with mathematics learning
disability were selected through multistage random cluster sam-
pling. They were randomly assigned to three groups – two experimental groups and one control group (n=10). Experimental group
one received working memory training while experimental group
two received response inhibition training. The instruments used
included the NEPSY Test, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children- Revised (WISC-R), Dycalculia Diagnostic Test and a Clinical Interview. Data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance.
Results
Compared with the control group, Executive Functions Training in both experimental groups had significant effectiveness to
improve math performance of students with math Learning Disability, but there were no significant difference between these two
approaches. On the other hand, results of this study showed that
Executive Functions training on working memory and response
inhibition can improve math performance of students (p= 0.001,
d= 0.22).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the current study implies that Executive Functions training can be used as a beneficial method to improve math
performance of students with Math Learning Disability.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: akbari.mryam.ps@gmail.com
Case Study: The Effects of Social Stories Role-Playing on Social
Maturity of High Function Autism Child
Mahdis Maghsudloo*1, Mahboobeh Abbasian2
1. Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
2. Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Possessing social competence is fundamental to leading a normal healthy life. Autism is a neurodevelopment disorder that by
definition includes impairments in communication, social interaction, repetitive, and restricted patterns of interest. One important
feature of a child with autism is difficulty in communication and
interaction with others. Lacking in social skills may cause prevention of social situation, and preoccupation with unusual routines
and behavior. Role-playing is actually an excellent way to help
teach children with autism how to interact with their peers and
with others. This play involves the representational use of objects
– pretending one object represents another, for example, a sponge
representing a cracker, or imagining that dolls have personal attributes and abilities, such as a doll driving a car. Because these
skills are highly representational and abstract, their effects might
be profound. Social stories are brief narratives that describe situations in terms of social cues and appropriate responses. Stories
must be individualized to the needs and abilities of the child, can
be used to help children behave appropriately in social situations,
and to develop problem-solving skills. Role playing of these stories will help the child make use of his/her social skills in a real
situation. This also allows the therapists with assurance that the
child accessed these skills.
Methods
In this research social story role-playing was used for 1 high
function female autistic child. The child was assessed with Wineland Social Maturity Scale before intervention. This method was
used for 6 months and after that was assessed again with Wineland scale.
Results
There was a significant difference in the scores.
Conclusion
Applying this method provided a prominent effect on the child’s
social abilities. She was better able to communicate with others,
explain her request, adopt social behavior, and acquired more
knowledge of the social environment. Kasari (2006) in his article
explain that children who role-play show great diversity of play
(types) and more sophistication of play (play levels). Sigman and
Kussin (1999) noted that symbolic play skills and social relationships are related together. Williams (1995) used role-play for
teaching social skills to children with Asperger’s Syndrome and
confirmed that their ability improved after role-playing. Disalvo
(2002) used peer–mediated intervention to increase social ability for autism. Peers are like a model that an autistic child could
imitate and make social interactions. A child with autism needs
motivation to do an activity and role- play because it helps with
building creativity, motion, and emotional aspects and more importantly provides the child with a chance to participate and enjoy
these activities.
Cannabinoids Modulate Aversive Memory in
the Nucleus Accumbens
Khalil Rasekhi*, Shahrbanoo Oryan, Mohammad Reza Zarrindast, Mohammad Nasehi
Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Results
High density of cannabinoid receptors type 1 (CB1) in the brain
suggests that endocannabinoid system plays an important role
in the functioning of the central nervous system. CB1 is abundantly found in areas classically involved in learning and memory
(such as nucleus accumbens, NAc) and present at higher density
at presynaptic terminals. Natural and synthetic cannabinoids are
known to attenuate learning and memory processes. Besides its
involvement in reward memory, NAc also plays a role in negatively valenced motivation and affect, such as fear, pain, stress
and disgust. Thus considering the importance of CB1 system in
the NAC,and the fact that this brain structure is involved in the
memory processing of different behavioral tasks, we investigated
the involvement of the cannabinoid system in the fear-related inhibitory avoidance in nucleus accumbens.
Methods
An inhibitory (passive) avoidance task was used for memory assessment in male Wistar rats. After anesthetization, each animal
(250–290 g) was placed in a stereotaxic frame and bilaterally
implanted with stainless steel guide cannulae, 2 mm above the
NAc shell. Animals were trained in a step-through type inhibitory avoidance task by using a 0.3 mA foot shock, and immediately
received post-training microinjection of drugs. Animals were tested 24 hours after training to measure step-through latency.
Post-training intra-NAc administration of ACPA (selective CB1
agonist 6 ng/rat) impaired memory performance on the test day,
whereas administration of the CB1 receptor antagonist AM251
(CB1 receptor antagonist, 0.6, 6, and 60 ng/rat) did not have an
effect. Co-administration of an ineffective dose of AM251 (60 ng/
rat) with an effective dose of ACPA blocks the amnesic effect of
ACPA on memory consolidation.
Conclusion
Regardless of the molecular mechanism involved, these data indicate that activation of accumbal CB1 receptors early after training hampers consolidation of aversive memory. This observation
is important because it has been suggested that the accumbal
endocannabinoid system would be involved mainly with rewardmotivated learning and memory. However at the cellular and synaptic level, phenomena such as long-term depression (LTD) and
long-term potentiation (LTP) are two classical forms of synaptic
plasticity that have been proposed underlying the physiological
processes of learning and memory. In this regard, some researches
on cannabinoid modulation of synaptic efficacy revealed that activation of CB1 receptors inhibits both inhibitory and excitatory
synaptic transmission in the nucleus accumbens. For example
CB1 are localized at the excitatory afferents to the NAc where
exogenous cannabimimetics inhibit glutamatergic, leading to the
long-term depression.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: ra_biotech@yahoo.com
The Treatment Effect of Treadmill Running on Memory of Animal
Model of Alzheimer
Nasrin Hosseini*, Hojjatallah Alaei, Ali Nasimi, Parham Reisi, Maryam Radahmadi
Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
Introduction
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive and neurodegenerative
disorder. It causes dementia and other cognitive disorders in the
elderly. Alzheimer is characterized by severe neuronal loss in the
some regions of brain such as the nucleus basalis magnocellularis.
It plays an important role in brain functions such as learning and
memory. The loss of cholinergic neurons of the nucleus basalis
magnocellularis by ibotenic acid can be regarded as a suitable animal model of Alzheimer’s disease. Previous studies reported that
exercise training may retard the onset and progression of memory
deficit in some neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer
disease. This research evaluated the effects of treadmill running
on memory deficits after the nucleus basalis magnocellularis lesion. We investigated the effect of treadmill running on memory
function after the NBM lesions in male Wistar rats.
Methods
In this study, animals were randomly divided into four groups:
control (Co), sham operation (Sham), NBM lesion (L), and exercise after NBM lesion (L-E) groups. Lesion was induced by
5µg/µl bilateral injection of Ibotenic acid in the nucleus basalis
magnocellularis. Three weeks after operation and ibotenic acid
injection, animals were run on the treadmill for 1hour/day for 1,
7 and 21 days. Memory function was evaluated by passive avoidance learning test. Animals received a single foot electrical shock
before their exercise protocol and memory function evaluated in
three trials: 1 day after foot shock (1 day after treadmill running),
7 days aftershock (7 days after treadmill running) and 21 days
after foot shock (21 days after treadmill running).
Results
Our results showed that after 3 weeks, ibotenic acid induced NBM
lesion in rats. Animals showed memory impairment and signs of Alzheimer after 3 weeks of ibotenic acid injection. In the L group the
latency to enter dark chamber significantly decreased (P<0.001) and
memory function was impaired in this group after receiving electrical foot shock on 1, 7 and 21 days during the passive avoidance
test. While memory function in the E-L group was better than the L
group, 1, 7 and 21 days exercise did not provide significant treatment
effects in the E-L group. Therefore memory deteriorated 1, 7 and 21
days after electrical foot shock in this group.
Conclusion
Our results suggest that our exercise protocol could not repair
amnesia in an Alzheimer model of rat. Treadmill running for 1
day, 7 and 21 days could not contribute to improvement of cognitive decline in Alzheimeric animals. This effect may result from
the relatively short duration of the exercise protocol and it seems
that rats must continue to exercise for prolonged periods to show
compensatory effects of exercise.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: hosseini.n58@gmail.com
The Effect of Metacognitive Skills Training on
Students’ Achievement Motivation and Reading Comprehension
Fatemeh Bidi*1, Javad Salehi Fadardi2, Mahdi Namdari Pezhman3
1. Department Education, Bojnourd, North Khorasan, Iran
2. School of Education and Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
3. PhD Student Educational Management, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Results
Metacognitions are amongst the newest constructs in educational psychology, and have considerably been investigated by many
educational researchers. The aim of the present research was to
determine whether teaching metacognitive skills can improve the
students’ achievement motivation and reading comprehension.
Method
This project used a quasi-experimental design, because the groups
which were under study were made naturally .Two classes were selected randomly from the 2nd grade in Humanities high school in Esfarayen in 2011. One class was randomly assigned to experimental
group (N=32; Mean age=16.4; SD=1.2) and the other one to control
group (N=30; mean age=16.6; SD=1.1). Measures included Edwards
Achievement Motivations Questionnaire (α=0.81) and a researcher’s
compiled test for reading comprehension (α=0.82). During 15 training
sessions, the participants learned about 5 areas of metacognitive skills
(i.e., aim, planning, control, evaluation, and mistakes correction).
The results showed that learning the metacognitive skills had a
positive effect on the students’ achievement motivation and reading comprehension. Students who received training on cognitive
skills had better abilities to control and manage their minds and
actions. They were optimistic that they can have dominant control
over their environment and future so they had better motivations
to make progresses. Metacognitive training also increased students’ comprehension score.
Conclusion
The findings suggest that teachers can learn about and use the
metacognitive skills in order to enhance their students’ achievement motivation and learning outcomes. Based on findings of this
research we suggest that gaining metacognitive skills make students believe their success in learning.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addressbidi.fatemeh@gmail.com
Effect of two Methods of Structural and Cognitive-Behavioral on
Self-esteem of Female Students
Fatemeh Bidi*1, Gholamreza Jandaghi2, Aliakbar Soliemanian3
1. Department Education, Bojnourd, North Khorasan, Iran
2. Tehran University, Tehran, Iran
3. University of Boujnord, Boujnord, Iran
Introduction
The family is the factor of unity, reason for social health and the
main core and unit of society. It seems that the family is at the
heart of health or pathology of its own member. One social experience that can affect people is self-confidence or being valuable for
society. The quality of family relationships is critical for this. The
current study aimed to examine the effectiveness of two methods
of family education that is Structural and Cognitive-behavioral on
female students’ self-esteem.
Methods
Participants included female students in ‘guidance’ schools in
Esfarayen city who scored in the lower quartile in the Self Concept Test. 45 students from their parents were randomly selected
and assigned to two experimental groups and a control group
(n=15). Parents in the experimental groups were trained in family
education (ten sessions with structural training and five sessions
with cognitive-behavioral method) but the control group did not
receive any training. Then Cooper Smith Self-Confidence Test
(reliability 0.92) was conducted for children of parents in each of
the three groups.
Results
An analysis of covariance analysis (ANCOVA) showed that both
structural and cognitive-behavioral training methods increased
self-esteem significantly (p=0.001). This effect was greater with
cognitive-behavioral training. The result showed that there is a
significant difference between the two groups based on variety
of their self-confidence. This significant amount was 2.6. In general we can say that the group whose family received cognitivebehavioral training had more self-confidence compared with the
group that received structural training and this difference was significant.
Conclusion
Our results indicated that self-esteem of students whose parents received structural and cognitive-behavioral training increased significantly compared with control group. It seems that increasing girls’
self-esteem is affected by other factors and their interactive effects.
This finding has important implications indicating that authorities
and researchers should pay special attention to increase self-confidence in young girls who are potential mothers of the next generations and they can assure a healthy society for the future.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: bidi.fatemeh@yahoo.com
Neural Activation in the Rat Forebrain in Social Recognition
Hojjat Allah Haghgoo*1, Ruediger Veh2, Gregor Laube2
1. University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2. Berlin Medical University, Charite, Berlin, Germany
Introduction
Psychological disorders such as autism and schizophrenia disturb normal social interactions in sufferers. These interactions are
dependent on detection, memorization and recognizing processes.
Social interactions like mate selection, pair bond formation, intermale aggression, pup recognition, maternal care, territoriality,
and formation of dominance hierarchies require that the animal is
able to identify and remember the identity, sex and social status of
conspecifics. Therefore, individual recognition, the animal’s ability to recognize and differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar conspecific animals, plays a crucial role in the animal’s social
behaviours. Furthermore, emotions or the vital value of signals
play an important role in memorization and recognition of cues. In
rats, individual recognition is mediated by pheromonal signals. To
study the neural mechanisms underlying individual recognition,
the expression patterns of the IEG product proteins C-Fos, Egr.1
and Arc were investigated immunocytochemically in the brains of
socially stimulated rats.
Methods
Adult (4 months old, 350-400g) male Wistar rats were used. In
the juvenile stimulated group (JS), a given juvenile was introduced
into the home cage of the resident (n=10) for 4 minutes in a normally illuminated quiet room. In carvone stimulation, the subject
rats (n=5) were exposed to carvone, a monomolecular odour, for
4 minutes. A third group of rats (n=7) remained non-stimulated as
the control group. Two hours after the stimulation (social or carvone), the subjects were perfused, decapitated and brain sections
were developed and studied immunocytochemically. In order to
investigate the co-expression of C-Fos with glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) and/or vesicular glutamate transportes, (identifying the GABAergic or glutamatergic nature of C-Fos-ir neurons),
the distribution of mRNAs that encoded these proteins were studied in the activated areas (amygdaloid nuclei).
Results
The screening of the forebrain for areas specifically activated
during social recognition revealed a significantly increased expression of c-Fos, Egr.1, and Arc in the vomeronasal amygdala of
the JS group when compared to the control and carvone stimulated groups. A detailed analysis of the neural activity in individual
nuclei of the vomeronasal amygdale further revealed a significant
increase in C-Fos and Egr.1 expression in the MePD, MePV,
PMCo, and AHi nuclei of GS animals. An increased Arc expression was predominantly observed in PMCo and AHi of the JS
group. Double labeling studies revealed a differential pattern of cFos coexpression with riboprobes for GAD65 and 67 and vGlut1
and vGlut 2 in the medial amygdala. About 30% of the C-Fos-ir
neurons in the MePD and 18% in the MePV were GAD65 positive. Thirty-eight percent and 19%, respectively, of the C-Fos-ir
neurons in the MePD and MePV were expressing GAD87. Also,
26% of the C-Fos-positive neurons in the MePD and 23%in the
MePV were vGlUT2 positive. VGLUT1 expressing neurons were
not detected in this area of the amygdale.
Conclusion
The data presented here indicate an activation of the vomeronasal amygdale, the projection target of the accessory olfactory
bulb. Individual nuclei such as MePD, MePV, PMCo, and AHi
were shown to be activated by expressing immediate early genes
C-Fos, Egr.1, and Arc. Many of the C-Fos –ir neurons in the MeP
were GABAergic and about one-third of them were glutamatergic. Activated areas may indicate the integration place of the role
of emotions and desires in memory and social interaction.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: haghgooh@gmail.com
Problem-Solving Deficits in Iranians with Borderline Personality
Disorder (BPD)
Ashraf Akbari Dehaghi*1, Hossein Kaviani2, Shima Tamanaeefar1
1. Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
2. University of Bedfordshire, UK
Introduction
The present study compared inpatients and outpatients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and control group on problemsolving capabilities in an Iranian sample. To date, the problemsolving abilities of Iranian people with BPD have not been yet
studied. In this study, we used MEPS which has been used by
other groups and MEPS has been translated in Farsi and validated in Iranian participants, and used in studies in depressed patients with and without suicide ideation and also in parasuicide
patients. As the aim of this study was to investigate the problem
solving abilities of people who met diagnostic criteria for BPD,
it was hypothesized that participants with BPD produce less effective solutions; provide fewer number of means; provide more
irrelevant means, all compared with the performance of healthy
control group. All in all, it was hypothesized that patients with
BPD would have more deficiencies in this area. Interventions for
people suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD), such
as dialectical behaviour therapy, often include a problem-solving
component. However, there is an absence of published studies examining the problem solving abilities of this client group in Iran.
Methods
In this study fifteen female patients with BPD were compared
with fifteen health female participant in a cross-sectional study.
They were matched for age (±5 years), education, and marital status. Both groups were recruited from an accessible, convenient
sample. Using the DSM-IV Axis II Semi-Structured Clinical
Interview (SCID-II; American Psychiatric Association, 2000)
for personality disorders, a psychiatrist examined individuals to
ensure that they meet criteria for BPD. We used the means-ends
problem-solving task (MEPS) to measure problem-solving skills
in the patient and control group. A series of t-tests were performed
to compare group performance on different variables measured in
the problem-solving task. The BPD group reported less effective
problem-solving strategies than the healthy group.
Results
In line with our predictions, this study found that people with BPD
experience deficits in problem solving. They provide solutions that
contain fewer relevant means and are less effective than those provided by the control group. The present findings could potentially
support one of the underlying assumptions in Dialectical Behaviour
Therapy (DBT). Interventions for people suffering from borderline
personality disorder (BPD), such as DBT, often include a problemsolving component. However, there is an absence of published studies examining problem-solving abilities of this group in Iran. Also,
the findings support the idea that problem-solving interventions can
be efficiently applied either as a stand-alone therapy or in conjunction with other available psychotherapies to treat people with BPD.
The present study examined problem-solving capabilities in BPD
patients in an Iranian sample. To date, the problem-solving abilities
of Iranian patients with BPD had not been studied. We used a version of the MEPS that was translated in Farsi, validated in an Iranian
population, and previously used only in studies with depressed patients (with and without suicidal ideation) and parasuicide patients.
As the aim of this study was to investigate problem solving abilities
of people who meet diagnostic criteria for BPD, it was hypothesized
that participants with BPD produce less effective solutions, provide fewer number of means, and provide more irrelevant means,
all compared with the performance of healthy control group. Our
findings provide empirical support for the use of problem-solving
interventions in people suffering from BPD.
Conclusion
As predicted, this study found that people with BPD experience
deficits in problem-solving. They provide solutions that contain fewer
relevant means, with less effective than those provided by the control
group. The present findings have potential to empirically support one
of the underlying assumptions in dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT).
Also, the findings support this idea that a problem-solving intervention
can be efficiently applied either as a stand-alone therapy or in conjunction with other available psychotherapies to treat people with BPD.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: Akbarydehaghi@yahoo.com
Effect of (rTMS) over Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex on Craving
Intensity in Methamphetamine Users
Nastaran Mansouriyeh*, Majid Mahmoud Alilou, Reza Rostami, Touraj Hashemi
University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
Introduction
Addiction is a chronic disease that causes a wide variety of
biological, psychological and social effects. Available treatment
options for addictive behaviors remains limited while long-term
success rates are poor. Craving serves the most essential functionality in addiction. In some sense (from theoretical and empirical
perspectives) craving plays a special role in both drug abuse and
treatment. Among amphetamines, methamphetamine is the most
influential carrying a higher risk of dependence and mental disorders. Methamphetamine is a potent stimulus that intensively affects the central nervous system. The reward system of the brain
consists of fundamental neural pathways, which are involved
in motivation and rewarding experiences. In addition, impaired
function in the brain reward system is implicated in drug addiction. Research also suggests that stimulant drugs (such as cocaine
and amphetamines) induce a direct increase in dopamine levels
within the mesocorticolimbic circuitry. Previous research supports
the impact of high frequency repetitive Transcranial Magnetic
Stimulation (rTMS) in altering dopaminergic neurotransmission
as well as its rewarding/reinforcing effects on subcortical structures. Neurobiological studies also support associations between
increased neural activity in mesocorticolimbic dopamine system,
acute rewarding system and its impact on craving reinforcement
in methamphetamine users. TMS is a powerful, non-surgical
brain stimulation technique that can be employed by physicians
and psychiatrists for both research and therapeutic applications.
Furthermore, given the impact of rTMS (in which trains of several TMS pulses are delivered using various stimulation patterns)
on dopaminergic neurotransmission and cortical excitability, this
technique is a valuable tool for research and treatment purposes.
rTMS is applied to induce long lasting alterations, facilitation or
functional disruptions. The objective of the current study was to
examine the efficacy of rTMS in reducing craving in methamphetamine users.
Methods
Eight methamphetamine users were included in single subject
method with multiple baseline design. It compared fifteen days
of active versus sham stimulation, and control group. Outcome
measurements were effects of high frequency rTMS over left and
right DLPFC in four subjects (stimulation group). We assessed
responses on Heroine Craving Questionnaire (HCQ) and Visual
Analogue Scale (VAS) before, during and after 30 days of stimulation.
Results
Results showed that right DLPFC stimulation significantly reduced craving.
Conclusion
Our findings indicate that high frequency rTMS might be useful
for addiction treatment, specifically to reduce craving, in methamphetamine users.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: n.mansoreye1984@gmail.com
Does It Make a Significant Contribution? An Investigation into the
Effect of Learners’ Psychological Learning Process on Leaning
Language via Mobile
Ali Reza Jalilifar*, Saeed khazaie
Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran
Introduction
The working memory (WM) (Baddeley, 2003) initiates processing information in general, leading finally to long-term learning.
A filtering mechanism, WM is portrayed as being differently
responsive to different modalities of incoming input (Courtney,
1998). To cast light over the modality specific nature of WM, the
present study set out to discover what extent learners’ psychological learning process (PLP) is involved in when learning English
via modern technology. To achieve the goals, the effect of learners’ working memory (WM) on learning English as a foreign language via mobile was scrutinized. Due to recognition of the role
personality (extroverted vs. introverted) can play in information
processing and thus learning, the study also tried to illuminate
the moderating effect of personality on informal learning using
learners’ performance indirect observation and Coan and Cattell’s
(1966) Early School Personality questionnaire.
Methods
156 Iranian learners of English from ages 8-12 were placed
into four different WM ability groups using the learners’ cognitive models test (i.e., visual, & verbal WM ability tests) (Chen,
Hsieh, & Kinshuk, 2008). Then each ability group was divided
into two extroverted/introverted parts. Also, cell-phone based
vocabulary delivery with different annotations (i.e., pictorial
vs. written, representing visual vs. verbal modalities, respectively), was already adapted to the cell phone screen to be accessed by learners’ via multimedia messaging service (MMS)
application. Upon treatment, a cell-phone based vocabulary
delivery of 50 English word items with different annotations,
(pictorial vs. written, representing visual vs. verbal modalities,
respectively), were evaluated on their recognition and recall of
vocabulary items (Jones, 2004).
Results
The analysis indicated that WM (high visual and/or high verbal
abilities) accommodates the delivery of materials well with pictorial and/or written annotation(s), resulting in better vocabulary
learning on both recall and recognition tests. Low-visual and lowverbal ability groups showed better results under no annotation
condition. The two points confirm that WM aligns significantly
with the related modes of presentation. As to the personality
based analysis of results, clear differences were found between
the extraverts and introverts, namely it was revealed that extraverts are less easily distracted when operating from WM, namely,
they were better equipped physiologically to resist stress, and thus
have lower levels of language anxiety in the case of informal tasks
when learning English via mobile.
Conclusion
The results of the study point to the high relevance of WM to
learners’ personality in learning English as a foreign language
compared to the significance of presenting modes on processing
orientations. Overall, the results thus obtained seem to bear testimony to the claims that learners’ processing capabilities play a
better role in case the conditions provided for learning have got
the most congruity with their inherent abilities.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: ar.jalilifar@gmail.com
The Role of GABA B Receptors in Morphine Self-administration
Effat Ramshini*, Hojjatallah Alaei, Parham Reisi, Samaneh Alaei, Somaye Shahidani
Introduction
Although drug addictive mechanisms in humans are considerably more complex, animal models of addictive behavior have
been useful in predicting the abuse liability of new compounds, in
assessing the medication for the treatment of drug addiction, and
in investigating the underlying neuropharmacological and molecular mechanisms. Self-administration is one of most powerful
tools for investigating the manner in which neurochemical and
neuropharmacological process influence behaviors related to drug
reinforcement. Thus, the identification of new pharmacological
anti-craving treatments for use in prevention of opioids relapse is
a priority issue.
Methods
In this study 48 male wistar rats weighing 270-300 g at the beginning of the experiment were randomly selected. Rats were
anesthetized with chloral hydrate. A cannula was inserted in the
jugular vein and was guided subcutaneously up to the skull where
it was fixed to a curved metal tube and secured onto the skull with
small screws, fixed with dental acrylic cement. Then a cannula
was implanted in the CV region in order to injection GABAB
receptors agonist and antagonist. This study was performed in
four groups of rats: (1) Saline group, which received saline in the
self-administration session, (2) Morphine group, which received
morphine in saline solution in the self-administration session, (3)
Baclofen+Morphine group, which received baclofen 20 min before self- administration test and morphine in the self-administration session, (4) Phaclofen+Morphine group, which received phaclofen 20 min before self-administration session and morphine in
the self-administration session. The number of lever pressing and
self-infusion were recorded. After 5-7 days recovery and following a 24-hour food restriction, the rats were placed in the operant chambers where a lever filled with food pellets was available.
Animals were placed in the self-administration apparatus for 2
hours each day on an FR-1 schedule for 10 days. The number of
the reinforcement lever (RL) and non- reinforcement lever (NRL)
was recorded by a computer.
Results
In this study, the number of active lever presses and number of
infusions were regarded as a measure of the reinforcing action
of the drug. The number of self-infusion (SI), RL and NRL were
compared between and within groups. In the Morphine group
there was no significant difference in the number of SI during
the first 4 days but in the last 6 days the number of SI increased
significantly. The number of SI in Baclofen+Morphine group
decreased and in Phaclofen+Morphine group increased significantly during 5-10 days in comparison with the Morphine group.
The number of RL in the Morphine group increased significantly
in comparison with the control group except in the first 4 days
in which the animals had free access to food. But there was no
significant difference in the NRL between the two groups. Numbers of RL in the Baclofen+Morphine group decreased and in
Phaclofen+Morphine group increased significantly during 5-10
days. No significant difference in the NRL was observed between
the three groups.
Conclusion
It is possible that morphine participates by stimulation of muopioid receptors situated on inhibitory GABAergic interneuron.
Activation of these mu-opioid receptors hyperpolarizes GABAergic interneurons in turn increase firing rate and release of
DA in the reward pathway. The present results show that injection baclofen intra cranialventricle can have substantial effects on
morphine self-administration, also that the anti-craving effect of
GABAB receptor agonists may depend on their ability to stimulate GABAergic transmission by reducing the firing rate of DA
neurons. However our findings suggest GABAergic system plays
a predominant role in attenuating the reinforcing effects of opiates
via modulation of DA transmission.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: effat.ramshini@yahoo.com
Facial Emotion Recognition in Adolescents with Bipolar Disorder
Bonnie Bozorg*, Mehdi Tehrani-Doost, Ladan Fata, Zahra Shahrivar, Azar Mohamadzadeh
Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Bipolar disorder is associated with emotion processing including emotion recognition. These findings highlight the importance
of emotion recognition deficits in individuals with pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD). Additionally, the irritability associated with
PBD may be an important mechanism of this deficit and may thus
represent an important target for treatment. The ability to recognize facial emotional expressions is a fundamental skill that is
necessary for successful social interaction. It has been found that
individuals with mood disorder have some problems in detecting
emotions through faces. Previous studies examining this competency in patients with bipolar disorder have found mixed results. It
is not clear whether this impairment is persistent during the euthymic period. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the
emotion recognition ability in adolescents with bipolar disorder.
Methods
Thirty adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder (girls=16,
boys=14) aged between 12 and 18 and thirty adolescents
(control group) matched in age and gender participated in the
study. Confirmation of diagnosis was made using the Kiddie
schizophrenia and affective disorder semi structure interview
(K-SADS). Patients were excluded if they met criteria for neurological disorder, head trauma, mental retardation, and substance/drug abuse. Subjects’ mood was formally assessed using the Children Depression Inventory for Depression and the
Young Mania Rating Scale (Young et al., 1978). A cut-off score
of 20 was used on YMRS to define remitted phase. All the parents completed Conners Parental Rating Scale. Adolescents in
the control group were excluded from this study if their score
was above 65. Participants were evaluated using a computerized face emotion recognition task. They were instructed to recognize the emotions of happiness, sadness, and angriness by
taping the buttons while looking at emotional faces. Multivariate analysis was used to assess differences between control and
patient groups in terms of accuracy of and latency of emotion
recognition.
Results
Patients with bipolar disorder showed a robust deficit in discriminating angry facial expressions compared with normal adolescents (p<0.01). To explore latency to recognize different emotions in bipolar patients, MANOVA used the result showed that
the control group’s reaction to happy faces was faster than euthymic bipolar group (F=7.84, p<0.01).
Conclusion
The findings suggest that adolescents with bipolar disorder have
problems in recognizing angry faces. Moreover, they recognize
happy and neutral faces slower than controls. This finding is present in euthymic period so it could be considered as a trait in individuals with bipolar disorder and not a state.
1Corresponding author. E-mail address: bonnie.bozorg@yahoo.com
Successful Cognitive Learning Styles in Reading
Comprehension: The Focus On Style and Reading
Strategy-Based Instructions (SRSBI)
Mehdi Vanaee*
Malayer, Iran
Introduction
Cognitive styles are usually defined as an individual’s preferred
and habitual mode of perceiving, remembering, organizing, processing, and representing information. Learners have specific
learning styles, which allow them to learn differently when they
utilize the same tasks. Learners may sometimes face materials,
which are not revealed in a form that are suited to their learning
styles (Dornyei, 2005). Thus, they have to employ strategies that
provide them with the perfect learning skills and ability to deal
with learning problems. The significance of this study is that it
emphasizes the nature of style and reading strategy. Students were
explicitly taught certain reading strategies, which could be used to
facilitate reading comprehension. By Style and Reading StrategyBased Instruction (SRSBI), students plan the reading strategies that
will be used for an activity and self evaluate how they are using the
reading strategies. They can also, look at new ways to use reading
strategies in text, improve ways to train learners the more effective
use of strategic learning by encouraging learners’ strategy use, improving their learning style preference, and providing them with a
menu of styles and strategies. SRSBI informs learners about different learning strategies, understanding how to organize and use
strategies systematically and effectively (given their learning style
preferences) for reading comprehension. The following purposes
were posed: 1) To distinguish different reading test scores in two
dichotomous learning style preferences, 2) To determine the most
successful learning style preferences in reading comprehension
Based on SRSBI that refers to style, and reading strategy-based
instruction refers to the instruction of styles and reading strategies, this study is aimed to determine, which types of cognitive
learning styles were more successful in reading comprehension
after instruction.
Methods
One hundred intermediate EFL learners ranging in age from 1825 took part in this study. Data were gathered from participants by
using tests and learning style preference questionnaire. Two parallel reading comprehension test sections (TOEFL & TOEIC) were
given as a pre and post tests. A 30-items language learning style
questionnaire (Ehrman & Leaver, 2003) was given to identify different cognitive learning style preferences among participants.
The SRSBI included different reading tasks that were presented
to participants. The researcher compared the mean differences of
pre-post reading comprehension test scores between two dichotomous learning style preferences.
Results
The analysis of the data showed the following results: there was
a development in the mean scores among different learning style
after the instruction in their post-test scores. By comparing the
amount of increase in two dichotomous learning styles, the successful style in reading comprehension can be determined. In addition, the researcher analyzed the mean differences among different types of learning styles. Among different learning styles,
the reflective learners were the most successful and the impulsive learners were the least successful in developing their reading
comprehension ability after the instruction.
Conclusion
It was revealed that although the changes and variation of mean
scores were different, there was a direct effect of instruction on improving the reading comprehension scores. Overall, the research
findings revealed that style and strategy-based instruction have a
positive impact on reading comprehension ability. Moreover, the
findings of the present study indicated that learners preferred different learning styles. The reflective learning style was most successful and the impulsive was least in developing their reading
comprehension ability. Learners will learn more about different
learning styles, which can make their EFL reading comprehension
more effective.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mehdivanaee@yahoo.com
Syntactic Representations in Bilinguals: The Role of Word Order
in Cross-Linguistic Priming
Gunnar Jacob, Kalliopi Katsika, Neiloufar Family*, Mark Calley, Shanley Allen
Germany
Introduction
A central question in bilingualism research is whether syntactic
information is shared between two languages or stored separately
for each language. Monolingual priming studies show that exposure to a particular structure in one sentence (e.g., prepositional
object dative [PO], 1a) influences use of the same structure in the
next sentence, as compared to a different structure with identical
propositional content (e.g., double object dative [DO], 1b) (Bock,
1986). Similar studies with bilinguals show that priming can also
occur cross-linguistically (e.g., Loebell, Bock, 2003), thus indicating that syntactic representations are shared across languages
to at least some degree.
In order to further investigate the shared-representations hypothesis, we examined cross-linguistic priming of the dative alternation
from German to English. In both languages, the dative can be expressed using two alternate structures: PO (1a), DO (1b). Importantly, these structures share the same word order cross-linguistically in
the main clause but not in the subordinate clause (1c, 1d). Although
previous studies have looked at the effect of word order on cross-linguistic priming, no previous study has investigated German-English
cross-linguistic priming effects for PO/DO structures.
Methods
Twenty-nine advanced German (L1) learners of English (L2)
participated in an on-line sentence completion task with German
primes and English targets (1-3). (1) Primes: a. Main Clause, PO:
Der Botschafter sandte einen Brief an den Präsidenten. ‘The ambassador sent a letter to the president.’ b. Main Clause, DO: Der
Botschafter sandte dem Präsidenten einen Brief. ‘The ambassador
sent the president a letter.’ c. Subordinate Clause, PO: Der Autor erzählte, dass der Botschafter einen Brief an den Präsidenten
sandte. ‘The author said that the ambassador sent a letter to the
president.’ d. Subordinate Clause, DO: Der Autor erzählte, dass
der Botschafter dem Präsidenten einen Brief sandte. ‘The author
said that the ambassador sent the president a letter.’ (2) Ta r g e t ,
Main Clause: The patient sent _____. (3)
Target, Subordinate Clause: The doctor thought that the patient sent _____. On
the basis of previous evidence showing strong cross-linguistic
priming effects when word order is repeated (e.g. Loebell &
Bock, 2003), but no priming with different word orders, we predicted cross-linguistic priming in the main clauses, and no priming in subordinates (i.e., different word order between L1 and L2).
Results
Our results showed PO and DO priming from L1 (German) to
L2 (English) in the main clause condition. There was no effect of
priming, however, in subordinate clauses.
Conclusion
This suggests that word order is a very relevant factor in how
languages influence each other, and that abstract structural similarity is not enough to facilitate shared syntactic representations.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: family@rhrk.uni-kl.de
Processing Subject and Object Relative Clauses in a Flexible
Word Order Language: Evidence from Greek.
Kalliopi Katsika*, Shanley Allen
Germany
Introduction
The study of subject and object relative clause processing has so far
provided interesting insights into the strategies, which individuals
that comprehend, apply for the interpretation of incoming linguistic input. With the exception of one online study in Russian (Levy,
Fedorenko, Gibson, in press), the vast majority of studies has focused on languages with relatively rigid word order such as English
(e.g., King, Just, 1991), French (e.g., Cohen Mehler, 1996), German
(e.g., Konieszny, 2000), Spanish (Betancort, Carreiras, Sturt, 2009),
Chinese (e.g., Hsiao, Gibson, 2003), and Japanese (e.g., Nakatani,
Gibson, 2010). Most of these studies report an asymmetry in the processing difficulty between subject relative clauses (SRCs) and object
relative clauses (ORCs) with ORCs being the hardest to process.
Methods
In order to further explore this asymmetry between SRCs and
ORCs in a language with flexible word order, we conducted an
online self-paced listening task in Greek. The experimental sentences included subject-modifying RCs in which we manipulated
the RC extraction type (SRC versus ORC), the RC-internal word
order (canonical versus scrambled), and the RC introductory word
(relative pronoun versus complementizer).
Results
The results of the online self-paced listening task and the subsequent offline grammaticality judgment task showed that sentences
containing RCs with canonical word order were processed faster
and received higher grammaticality scores than the ones containing RCs with scrambled word order.
Conclusion
In accordance with results from previous studies, SRCs were
perceived as more grammatical and were processed faster in the
canonical word order condition. Interestingly, however, this preference was reversed in the non-canonical word order condition in
which ORCs received higher grammaticality scores and were processed faster than SRCs. These results are discussed in connection
to current theories of sentence parsing.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: family@rhrk.uni-kl.de
Combination Effect of Social Isolation and 5-HT7 Receptor
Agonist as 19 Induction on the Development of
Neural Connections
Milad Ahmadi*1, Ronak Azizbaigi2, Ahmadali Lotfinia1, Mahmoud Lotfinia3, Babak Khodaie1
1. Shefa Neuroscience Research Center, Tehran, Iran and Islamic Azad University Karaj Branch, Karaj, Iran
2. Islamic Azad University Sanandaj Branch, Sanandaj, Iran
3. Shefa Neuroscience Research Center, Tehran, Iran and Shahid-Beheshti University Medical School, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Neuroplasticity is the phenomenon by which functional or structural reorganization of neuronal connectivity takes place depending on the amount and pattern of neuronal activity. There
is evidence that a key effect of social isolation may be loss of
neuronal plasticity combined with change in the functional state
of various cortical and hippocampal neurotransmitters, including
glutamate, and serotonin. The 5-HT7 receptor is a member of the
GPCR super-family of cell surface receptors and is activated by
the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT). The
5-HT7 receptor is coupled to Gs (stimulates the production of the
intracellular signaling molecule cAMP) and is expressed in a variety of human tissues, particularly in the brain, the gastrointestinal
tract, and in various blood vessels. This receptor has been a drug
development target for the treatment of several clinical disorders.
The 5-HT7 receptor is encoded by the intron containing 5HTR7
gene, which in humans is transcribed into 3 different splice variants. This receptor gene is a candidate locus for involvement
in autistic disorders and other neuropsychiatric disorders. The
5-HT6 and 5-HT7 receptors are particularly interesting, which are
localized in brain areas involved in memory formation. Recently
selective 5-HT6 and 5-HT7 receptor agonists and antagonists
have become available. Previous evidence indicates that 5-HT6
or 5-HT7 receptors antagonists had no effects, improved memory
formation and/or reversed amnesia.
Methods
The present study was designed to investigate the effects of social environments and AS 19 on learning, memory, and neuroplas-
ticity. The positive role of 5-HT7 receptors during memory formation is already demonstrated. Post-training administration of
the potential 5-HT7 receptor agonist AS 19 enhanced memory formation. In humans, the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)) plays an important role in various cognitive
and behavioral functions. The serotonin receptor encoded by the
HTR7 gene belongs to the super-family of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). When the 5-HT7 receptor is activated by serotonin, it sets off a cascade of events starting with the release of
stimulatory G protein Gs from the GPCR complex. Gs in turn
activate adenylate cyclase, which increases intracellular levels of
the second messenger cAMP. The 5-HT7 receptor plays a role in
smooth muscle relaxation within the vasculature and gastrointestinal tract. The highest 5-HT7 receptor densities are in the thalamus and hypothalamus, and it is present at higher densities also
in the hippocampus and cortex. The 5-HT7 receptor is involved
in thermoregulation, circadian rhythm, learning and memory, and
sleep. It is also speculated that this receptor may be involved in
mood regulation, suggesting that it may be a useful target in the
treatment of depression.
Results
Our data indicated that the AS 19 Induction followed neuroplasticity has a high potency in completely omitting the adverse effect
of social isolation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, 5-HT7 receptor agonist neuroplasticity has a role
on omitting the adverse of social isolation.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: milad.ahmadi@shefaneuroscience.com
Effectiveness of Metacognitive Therapy in Reducing PTSD
Symptoms in Adolescents
Mansoor Beirami*, Atefeh Zarei
Tabriz university,Tabriz, Iran
Introduction
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe anxiety disorder
that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to
someone else, or to one’s own or someone else’s physical, sexual, or
psychological integrity, overwhelming the individual’s ability to cope.
As an effect of psychological trauma, PTSD is less frequent and more
enduring than the more commonly seen post traumatic stress (also
known as acute stress response). Diagnostic symptoms for PTSD
include re-experiencing the original trauma(s) through flashbacks
or nightmares, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, and
increased arousal—such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, anger,
and hypervigilance. Formal diagnostic criteria (both DSM-IV-TR
and ICD-10) require that the symptoms last more than one month
and cause significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. The use of self-punishment as a thought
control strategy in people with PTSD results in the persistency of
symptoms. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness
of metacognitive therapy in reducing self-punishment in adolescents
who developed PTSD following the earthquake in East Azerbaijan.
Methods
In this study, adolescents diagnosed with some symptoms of
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the earthquake in
East Azerbaijan were treated with metacognitive therapy (Wells
and Sembi). Treatment was based on a metacognitive theory of
mechanisms by which natural traumatic processing is enabled or
hindered by coping strategies. It suggests that elimination of worry/rumination, of maladaptive attention strategies, and enhancing metacognitive flexibility, will permit natural processing and
a return to normal cognition. Symptoms of self-punishment were
measured by TCQ questionnaire before and after the intervention.
After 8 treatment sessions, symptoms of self-punishment were
measured by the same questionnaire. Using paired samples t-test
the results were compared both before and after the intervention.
Results
Ten female adolescent earthquake survivors (means age 18
years) participated in the study. Findings showed that metacognitive therapy has a significant effect on reducing self-punishment
symptoms in our PTSD adolescent sample.
Conclusion
This study showed the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy
in reducing self-punishment in adolescents who developed PTSD
following the earthquake in East Azerbaijan.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: dr.beirami@yahoo.com
Effectiveness of Rhythmic Movements of Karate Sport Training
on Intelligence in Children with Special Learning Disabilities
Ali Ghanaei Chaman Abad*, Marziyeh Sarvi, Elahe Hajjar- Shourije
Introduction
Intelligence is a general mental capability that, among other
things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think
abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn
from experience. Intelligence is a component, which on the one
hand is affected by the environment and on the other is affecting interactions of the central nervous system. Movements caused
changes in the central nervous system, which resulted in psychological improvements. The movement can be used as a treatment
for many psychological disorders and even increase intelligence.
Thus, the purpose of this research, reviews impact of rhythmic
movements of karate sport training on the neuropsychological
function of intelligence in children with Special Learning Disabilities.
Methods
This research is part of the applied research and was conducted
by using semi-experimental with pre-test and post-test. All subjects of this study were (n=7) from children with Special Learning
Disabilities. Before beginning the study, all subjects were initially
evaluated with Wechsler Intelligence Scale of children (WISC).
Next, the sample group was trained Rhythmic movements of Karate sport in 6 months, 3 sessions in every week (a total of 72
sessions). At the end of the experimental period, all subjects were
re-tested by the aforementioned test. For data analysis, t-test for
paired samples with α=0.05 was used.
Results
Our results of statistical findings (t-test for paired samples), confirm the hypothesis, which indicated that rhythmic movements
of karate sport training is effective in increasing the intelligence
of children with Special Learning Disabilities, (p=-2.60, df=6,
t=0.04).
Conclusion
Rhythmic movements induce changes in brain regions critical to
learning and memory, which occur over several sessions of regular exercise. These changes are mediated by up-regulation of several growth factors, including insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and brain-derived
neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Also, rhythmic movements increase
regional cerebral blood volume (CBV) in a specific area of the
hippocampus in both mice and humans. This increased cerebral
blood volume is thought to be associated directly with angiogenesis, was shown to have a direct correlation of neurogenesis, and
predicted effortful memory performance in humans. In general,
we can conclude that with increased cerebral blood flow (CBF),
alterations in brain neurotransmitters, structural changes in the
central nervous system (CNS), and modified arousal levels by
rhythmic movements of karate sport training, can increase cognitive and intelligence quotient (IQ).
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: alighanaei@yahoo.com
Effect of Cognitive Fatigue on Aggression and Level of Aspiration
in Mehr News Agency Employees
Masoumeh Abedinnejad*, Neda Nazari
Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Cognitive fatigue is a form of learned hopelessness, which is
in an uncontrollable state when people try to solve a problem
but they cannot be successful. This situation in turn will lead to
negative behaviors and emotions. It can be important to consider
these factors to understand more about the causes of aggressive
behaviors (and negative emotions). Hence, cognitive fatigue as an
unstable cognitive factor did not affect levels of aspiration.
Methods
In the current study 60 participants (half female) were selected
from a pool of 200 Mehr News Agency employees using random
sampling. Participants were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups with equal numbers of men and women in each
group. In this study, we used Eysenck’s Aggression Questionnaire
in order to gain information about participants’ level of aggression while a Darts playing task was used to measure their level
of aspiration. In the first phase of the study, base rate of aggression and aspiration level of examinees in control and experimental groups were measured. At the second phase after three weeks,
participants in the control group were given a solvable assignment
that consisted of 8 trials. Participants in the experimental group
were given the same task but it consisted of 4 irresolvable tasks.
Immediately after solving the assignments, a cognitive test was
performed in order to make a comparison between the control
and experimental groups. This was followed by administration
again of Eyesenck’s Aggression Questionnaire and the Darts playing task. Two independent sample t-tests were performed on the
groups’ scores.
Results
The first hypothesis of this study was that cognitive fatigue will
impact aggression of levels of participants in the experimental
group. We found a significant difference (at p<0.05) between
mean scores of participants in the control and experimental group
in terms of the differential assignments. The results also suggested
that cognitive fatigue experienced by the experimental group (due
to the unsolvable assignments) caused a higher level of aggression
in comparison with the control group. The second hypothesis was
that cognitive fatigue will impact level of aspiration of participants in the experimental group. The results were not significant
(p>0.05).
Conclusion
This study was the first to examine the role of cognitive fatigue
on emerging aggression and decreased level of aspiration in Mehr
News Agencys staff. This result is consistent with Kurt Lewin’s
theory.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: malihe.abedin@gmail.com
Investigation of Neuropsychological Correlates of Different
Dimensions of Insight toward Illness in Psychotic Patients
Sarvenaz Ostadghafour *, Omid Rezaei, Roholah Hosseini
Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Impaired insight has been reported in a majority of people with
psychotic disorders, and may be related to poor treatment adherence. The diagnostic specificity of insight variables and their correlation is not known. On the other hand, cognitive impairment
has always been regarded as an important characteristic of psychotic disorders. Many domains of cognition are disrupted with
varying degrees of deficiencies in memory, attention, executive
functions, visuospatial function, psychomotor speed, and learning.
However, it has been recent that cognitive dysfunction has been
recognized as a primary and enduring core deficiency in schizophrenia, rather than previously focusing on positive and negative
symptoms). Based on previous findings, it was hypothesized that
neurocognitive functioning would be impaired in all three patient
groups (schizophrenic, bipolar, and drug abuse), and these groups
would be similarly impaired on all neuropsychological measures.
The present study aimed to investigate neuropsychological correlation of insight toward illness in psychotic patients.
Methods
This was a correlation study. 60 male patients with psychotic disorder (20 schizophrenic, 20 bipolar, and 20 drug abuse), who were
diagnosed by a psychiatrist, were selected from Razi Psychiatry
Hospital through available sampling method. After subjects had
reached stability level and showed a decrease in their signs, they
were examined by using Scale Unawareness of Mental Disorder
(SUMD), Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), and Wis-
consin Card Sorting Test (WCST). The data were analyzed using
Pearson correlation, one–way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and
multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).
Results
According to the results obtained, there was no correlation between general illness awareness and neuropsychological factors
(short-term and long-term memory, such as IQ, executive function, psychomotor speed, spatio-visual function in psychotic
disorders. Only one significant association was found between
awareness of thinking disorder (one dimension of insight) and total executive function errors in the WCST. No other associations
between other aspects of insight and neurocognition factors were
found. Furthermore, no differences were seen in insight scores between 3 diagnostic groups (schizophrenic, bipolar, and drug abuse
patients).
Conclusion
In general, current results show the lack of insight and neurocognition factors may be an unrelated phenomenon in psychosis.
These findings suggest that factors other than neuropsychological
correlation may have a greater impact on insight in patients with
psychotic disorders. Differences in general insight in psychotic
disorders may not be explained by cognitive dysfunction. The
results show that subcomponents of insight are influenced by different factors emphasizing the need to consider insight as being
multidimensional.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: sarvenazostadghafour@ymail.com
Effects of Multi-session Attention Modification Programs for
Threat on Symptoms of Social Anxiety
Mahsa Ahmari*, Javad Salehi Fadardi
Introduction
Methods
Socially anxious individuals exhibit an attentional bias for
threat in probe detection and probe discrimination paradigms.
This selective attention to threat may contribute to the persistence of social anxiety by facilitating preferential processing of
negative social information at the expense of clear and ambiguous valence cues. This attentional bias may result in heightened
anxiety, negatively skewed judgment of social events, and ultimately prevent disconfirmation of fear-related beliefs. Therefore,
altering attention mechanisms may effectively reduce pathological anxiety symptoms in individuals with social anxiety. For this
purpose, we used Attention training programs that is consist
of a probe detection task where pictures of faces with either a
threatening or neutral dynamic emotional expression cued different locations on computer screen. In the attention modification
programs (AMPs), participants responded to a probe that always
followed dynamic neutral faces when paired with a dynamic
threatening face, thereby directing attention away from threat. In
the attention control condition (ACC), the probe appeared with
equal frequency in the position of the dynamic threat and neutral
faces. The present study aimed to examine the effectiveness of
four sessions of computerized attention modification programs
for threat (AMPs) on reducing the attentional bias for threat and
social anxiety symptoms in a population of socially anxious individuals.
Volunteers (mean age=22.9; SD=2.1; N=30) with a high score
on Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) State Anxiety (Spielberger)
were randomly assigned into an experimental and a control group.
At pretest, participants completed a computerized attentional bias
for threat in dot-probe task using SMI RED250 eye-tracking device and social anxiety measures. The experimental group was
exposed to four sessions of neutral attentional training via AMPs
over four weeks. The control group was exposed to five sessions
of a placebo condition (i.e., attention control condition. At posttest and 6 weeks follow-up, all participants also completed the
measures of attentional biases for threat and social anxiety.
Results
Result indicated that compared with a placebo condition (ACC),
the Participants trained to attend to nonthreatening cues (AMPs),
demonstrated significantly greater reductions in attentional bias
toward socially threatening face and reductions in self-reported
measures of anxiety. Symptom reduction in the AMPs group was
maintained during a 6 week.
Conclusions
These findings suggest that using multi-session AMPs for facilitating disengagement from threat may have clinical implications
in treatment of social anxiety disorder.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mahsa.ah67@gmail.com
The Relation between Metacognition Components
(Metacognition Strategies, Objectivity, Beliefs, and Secure
Behaviors) to Body Dysmorphic Disorder
Hassan Zareei Mahmoodabadi*
Yazd University, Yazd, Iran
Introduction
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a relatively common disorder and it’s an essential issue for mental health professionals.
Instead of a psychological treatment, most of the people who have
this disorder prefer to be operated on. The main feature of body
dysmorphic disorder is preoccupation about the body or face. In
recent years, examining the role of thinking patterns in emotional
disorders, studying unwanted thoughts, and their effects on emotional disorders, has been considered by clinical researchers. By
reviewing researches, it is clear that the effects of thinking and
metacognition patterns on BDD are different from other disorders. Metacognition is therefore being conscious about thinking
and recognizing the factors which have an effect on thoughts.
Metacognition means any cognitive knowledge or process that
entails cognitive control or evaluation. From one point of view,
metacognition can be considered as a general aspect of cognition, which affects any cognitive activities. An important fact in
cognitive theories of emotional disorders is explored on the base
of metacognition theory. It shows itself in time consumption for:
looking in the mirror, comparing his/her appearance with others,
ultra-concealing (imperfections covering), skin twiddling, asking
for reassurance. These people usually avoid having a social position and friendship. According to the results of two studies, the
prevalence of BDD among the public is 7%. The highest percentage relates to teenagers and adults. The prevalence of BDD in
cosmetic surgery is about 5% and in skin surgery clinics is about
12%. Reports from BDD patients in psychiatric clinics showed
equal prevalence of these two. There are some similar charac-
teristics among the pathology of BDD, OCD and social phobia,
Sometimes BDD is conceptualized as an aspect of OCD because
of the strong similarities.
Methods
The purpose of this study was to study the relationship between
metacognition components and body dysmorphic disorder, and
its comparison between the BDD group and normal group. The
method of this research was correlation and causal-comparative.
The instrument of this research was Yale- Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale Modified for BDD (YBOCS-BDD), Body Meta
Cognition Questionnaire (MCQ), and clinical interviews. 20 patients with BDD and 20 normal people were selected by random
sampling.
Results
The finding of this research showed that there is a correlation
between
metacognition components and body dysmorphic disorder. The
total score of metacognition showed the body dysmorphic disorder.
Conclusion
MANOVA showed that metacognition components were different in two groups. However, there is no significance relation
between boys and girls in body dysmorphic disorder.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: zareei_h@yahoo.com
Metacognitive Processes and Learning Styles as Main Predictors
of Mathematics Anxiety in University Students
Alireza Homayouni*1, Gholamali Nikpour2
1. Islamic Azad University, Bandargaz, Iran
2. Allameh Tabatabaii University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Methods
Metacognition refers to higher order thinking that involves active control over the thinking processes involved in learning. Activities such as planning how to approach a given learning task,
monitoring comprehension, and evaluating progress toward the
completion of a task are metacognitive in nature. Because metacognition plays a critical role in successful learning it is important
for both students and teachers. Metacognition has been linked
with intelligence and it has been shown that those with greater
metacognitive abilities tend to be more successful thinkers. Most
definitions of metacognition include both knowledge and strategy
components. Knowledge is considered to be metacognitive if it
is actively used in a strategic manner to ensure that a goal is met.
Metacognition is often referred to as “thinking about thinking”
and can be used to help students “learn how to learn.” Cognitive
strategies are used to help achieve a particular goal while metacognitive strategies are used to ensure that the goal has been reached
(Livingston, 1997). Mathematics anxiety is one of the construct
that metacognition plays a main role in. Mathematics anxiety is an
important and common phenomenon in students from elementary
through to university levels. This anxiety may negatively affect
person’s attitudes and amount of time spent on math related activities. Mathematics anxiety is defined as “feeling tension and
apprehension surrounding the manipulation of numbers and the
solving of mathematical problems in academic, private and social
settings” (Richardson, Suinn, 1972). There are many factors that
can lead to math anxiety. The current study investigated two educationally important factors, namely metacognition process and
learning styles, in inducing maths anxiety.
Participants (n=100, 43 men) were randomly selected and completed Plake and Parker’s Mathematic Anxiety Rating Scale Revised
(PPMARSR), Kolb’s Learning Styles Inventory (LSI) and Karami’s
Metacognitive Learning Strategies Inventory (KMLSI). KMLSI assesses self-control knowledge and process control knowledge techniques; LSI assesses four learning modes (concrete experience, abstract conceptualization, reflective observation, active experimentation) based on experiential learning theory and PPMARSR assesses
learning and assessment math anxiety dimensions.
Results
Results showed that there is a significant negative correlation
between metacognitive components and math anxiety dimensions. In learning styles, there is a significant negative correlation between abstract conceptualization learning mode and math
anxiety dimensions. Also more analysis showed there is no difference between men and women in math anxiety and learning
styles, but our results suggest that women use more metacognitive
techniques than men.
Conclusion
Based on these results, we conclude that attention and emphasis on students’ metacognitive techniques and different learning
styles can improve mathematics achievement and positive attitudes towards mathematics and in turn eliminate math anxiety in
educational settings.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: homaiony@gmail.com
The Role of GABAergic System of the Dorsal Hippocampus on
Inhibitory Avoidance Memory in Rats
Fatemeh Khakpai*, Mohammad Reza Zarrindast, Mohammad Nasehi
Institute for Cognitive Sciences Studies (ICSS), Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Learning and memory, consisting of processes of acquisition,
consolidation and retrieval, are underlined by a complex set of
neural processes. Methodologically, studies assessing these aspects of memory and learning can be divided into those giving
drugs previous to training, whether they are examining effects
on acquisition, and those that give drugs after training. Therefore, memory formation is a complicated process that requires
different brain systems acting in coordination. The hippocampus
plays an important role in learning and memory. There is much
evidence suggesting that hippocampus is involved in the formation of memories. The hippocampus is thought to be necessary for
memory of events (to which one is exposed only once) but not for
the kind of memory required for learning a skill with repetition.
The hippocampus is a prominent neural substrate for memory in
mammals. γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an inhibitory amino
acid that serves as a neurotransmitter between different neuronal
populations. GABA receptor subtypes influence different behaviors such as motor function, reproduction, learning and memory,
and aggressive-defensive behaviors.
Methods
In the current study, the step-through inhibitory avoidance task
was used to measure memory in male Wistar rats. Male Wistar rats
from Institute of Cognitive Science, weighing 220-250g at the time
of surgery, were used. All experiments were performed between
09:00am and 13:00pm. Eight animals were used in each group of
experiments. The drug used in the present study was muscimol and
bicuculline. muscimol were dissolved in the sterile 0.9% saline;
bicuculline was dissolved in a drop of glacial acetic acid and made
up to volume of 5 ml with sterile 0.9% saline. Drugs were injected
into the intra-dorsal hippocamps (CA1) in a volume of 1 µl/ rat.
Results
Our results found that pre-training injection of muscimol and
bicuculline had a significant effect on retention tests score, muscimol (F(4,35)=7.9, p<0.001) and bicuculline (F(4,35)=3.21,
p<0.05) modified passive avoidance acquisition. Moreover, post
hoc analysis showed that muscimol at doses of 0.01 and 0.02 µg/
rat impaired the passive avoidance memory during the retrieval
test, while bicuculline at the dose 0.25 µg/rat improved memory acquisition during the retrieval test. Furthermore, the results
showed that muscimol (F(4,35)=1.147, p>0.05) while bicuculline
(F(4, 35)=0.333, p>0.05) had no effect on locomotor activity.
Conclusion
Taken together, it can be concluded that muscimol impaired
whereas bicuculline improved acquisition of memory formation
in the CA1. These results suggest that GABAergic receptors play
role on acquisition inhibitory avoidance memory in the CA1.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: khakpai@gmail.com
Cognitive Effects of Some Discourse Markers in Farsi Speech
Arsalan Golfam*1, Leila Karimi2
1. Department of Linguistics, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran
2. Science and Research University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
As in cognitive grammar in which existence of any element in an
utterance leads to a conceptual and semantic difference, presence
of Discourse Markers (DMs) in a sentence have been assumed
distinctively meaningful compared to the same utterance without
that. DMs are a pragmatic class of lexical expressions present in
most languages, that relate two sentences such as: ‘and’, ‘so’,
‘but’, ‘therefore’ etc, while others have utterance-initial usage
such as: ‘well’, ‘actually’, ‘oh’ etc. In the current study, a ‘Relevance’ approach was used to find examples of DMs in Farsi.
Methods
This was based on a literature review by Blakemore (2002) who argued that expressions help the listener to work out the implicit side of the utterance by a speaker, where linguistic decoding
would not be of much help- and based on views posed by other
such as Fraser (1999) and Sciffrin (1987). These expressions were
then interpreted with a cognitive perspective.
Results
Contrary to what Fraser (1999) concluded, DMs in Farsi are not
from the syntactic classes of conjunctions, adverbials or prepositional phrases. For example, the first of the following phrases
(which are difficult to translate exactly into English) represent
an asymmetry, containment schema feature in a literal, formal
style that would be recognized by the listener: - ‘arzam be hozure
mobâraketun ke ...’ (respectfully, I want to say that…) - ‘xedmate
sarvaram arz konam ke …’ (respectfully, I want to say that...).
But not ‘šomâ xedmat e man arz koni…’ (asymmetry feature)
‘xedmat’ and ‘hozur’ show the containment schema feature. - A: ‘Arzi dâram!’ B: ‘Amr’ befarmâeed!’ But not A:
‘amri dâram’. B: ‘arz befarmâeed!’ it shows the feature of
‘view point or ground/figure’. However, some others as follow,
besides their core meaning, are used even in informal contexts.
- ‘vâllâ…či begam!’ (‘vâllâ’ means: swear on Allâh ), Pragmatically used like ‘actually...,’ - ‘išâlla…’ (means: if Allâh
wants), Pragmatically used like ‘hopefully…’ (these last two
are borrowed phrases from Arabic and using them shows an
Islamic, religious attitude).
Conclusion
This article scrutinizes some DMs in spoken Farsi (i.e., those
rarely used in written form) that encode a type of cognitive or
procedural effect which not only signal the affective meaning in
a particular context (in a ‘relevance’ approach rather than ‘coherence’ approach), but they conceptualize meta-linguistically to signal literal, formal, or religious information to the listener from the
speaker.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: golfamar@yahoo.com
Comparative Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing in Reducing
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Alireza Nikmorad*,Hamidreza Vatankhah, Mohamad mehdi Badei
Department of Psychology, Islamic Azad University Tonekabon Branch, Tonekabon, Iran
Introduction
In stress disorder, after mental disorder, psychological symptoms appear following a horrible accident, which usually cause
mental damage and stands out in amongst an individual’s experiences. Although, some drugs can relieve symptoms to some
extent, drugs by themselves are not effective enough to improve
mental health problems in people with post-traumatic stress disorder. As a result, clinicians use techniques such as cognitive-behavioral therapy not only to resolve emotional issues, but also to
control one’s reactions to drug treatments. Cognitive-behavioral
therapy helps patients to recognize their distorted thoughts and
behavior patterns. In order to change these inefficient reactions,
regular discussions and organized behavioral tasks must take
place. In some aspects of treatment the behavioral dimension is
considered and the cognitive dimension is considered in another
dimension (Sidler, 2006). Another technique that can help to alleviate damages is desensitization through eye movement and desensitization reprocessing. In this regard, the present study investigates two methods of cognitive behavioral therapy and desensitization through eye movement, and desensitization reprocessing
in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Methods
In this study, 400 war veterans and the rest of the hospital Baghi-
atallah were studied. A current sample of 200 war veterans had
been selected and responded to the pcl questionnaire. 80 people
gained the score of more than 50 cut points and 45 people were
selected randomly in three groups, including two experimental
groups and one control group. The subjects in the experimental
group were provided with eight sessions of cognitive training,
eight sessions of behavioral therapy through eye movement desensitization reprocessing, and then the samples were tested again.
Results
Data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance and ANCOVA using SPSS software. Findings showed a significant difference between the intervention groups and the control group.
Conclusion
Our results showed that desensitization treating methods through
eye movement desensitization reprocessing and cognitive-behavioral method is effective in reducing symptoms of post-traumatic
stress disorder. Between these two methods, eye movement desensitization reprocessing method was more effective and consistent with the results gained by Narimani and Rajaby (1388),
Seidler and Vagnr (2006), Dybajnya, Zahyredyn, Moqaddasian,
Ghydar (2012), Soltani Nezhad (1390).
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: alinik524@yahoo.com
The Comparison Executive Function in Prisoners with Antisocial
Personality Disorder and Individuals without Disorder
Samira Zahmatbar*1, Parvin Rafienia1, Ishagh Rahimian Bougar1, Naseraddin Kazemi Haghighi2, Emran Asadi3
1. Department of Psychology, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran
2. Vice President of Iranian Council for Exceptional Children, Tehran, Iran
3. Department of Prison, Semnan, Iran
Introduction
One of the discussions about antisocial personality disorder is
executive function. The purpose of this research was to compare
executive function in prisoners with antisocial personality disorder and individuals without disorders.
Methods
With the help of reports from psychologists and psychiatrists,
Semnan prisoners who had antisocial personality disorder were
selected. By using SCID II structured interview, 30 men were
randomly selected as having antisocial personality disorder. The
prisoners completed the WCST test and 4 subtests of WISC-R. In
the control group, 30 individual were selected among men from
serviced and free jobs, based on participant inter criteria’s. Two
groups were categorized as age and education. The control group
completed WCST test and 4 WISC-R subtests. This study used
Multivariate Covariance Analysis for data analysis.
Results
The results showed that the individuals with antisocial personality disorder performed poorly than individuals without antisocial
personality disorder. Individuals with antisocial personality disorder showed more superficial errors and total errors in fewer categories than individuals without antisocial personality disorder.
The results show that there is a significant difference between the
two groups for the three indices of the WCST test.
Conclusion
Findings show that individuals with antisocial personality dis-
order have a poor executive function compared to individuals
without this disorder. This result was achieved when the effect
of intervening variables of intelligence on group differences in an
executive function were controlled. In other words, the effect of
verbal and performance intelligence on different executive functions in individuals afflicted with antisocial personality disorder
and those without this disorder was taken into account. The results indicate the difference of executive function between these
two groups. Individuals with antisocial personality disorder have
a poor executive function compared to those without this disorder.
It means that individuals with antisocial personality disorder are
different in terms of cognitive ability, abstract reasoning, decision
making, organization, cognitive flexibility, problem solving, and
response maintenance. To further explain, we can say that, since
individuals with antisocial personality disorder have more superficial errors than those without this disorder, antisocial individuals
cannot perceive and retain categorization criterion for each category, nor can they change this criterion in specific situations. In
other words, antisocial participants cannot perceive conceptual
organization based on feedbacks so that they can understand the
background criterion of each category based on the previously
provided stimulus. Not being able to use this feedback to correct
performance and keeping the existing strategy is caused by a deficiency in the working memory. Such individuals can’t retrieve
and retain information in the working memory. Deficiencies
in these processes are caused by cognitive inflexibility. Individuals with objective thinking who have lost their abstract thinking
aren’t able to perceive different states of mind, and choose one
among them. In other words cognitive deficiencies have negative
influence on daily behavior, activities, and other aspects of life as
well. Individuals that don’t have abstract thinking don’t receive
different situations. Therefore, having a cognitive deficiency has
an effect on behavior, daily performance, and other aspects of life.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: samira.zahmatbar@gmail.com
The Future of Artificial Intelligence: Super Intelligence and Its
Ethical Challenges
Majid Ramezani*1, Mohammad-Reza Feizi-Derakhshi2
1. Computer Department, University College of Nabi Akram, Tabriz, Iran
2. computer Department, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran
Introduction
Artificial intelligence, from the beginning, was searching for
simulating human behavior for machines, by following the human
pattern. With the increasing development in this field of science
and its success in simulation of some specific human behavior,
(even by removing some certain restrictions in the human pattern
like exhaustion, making mistakes, and having low computational
speed) the feasibility of simulating comprehensive human behavior, is increased and the emergence of a new generation of machines is predisposed. These new generations of machines, which
have human capabilities, comprehend, and act more intellectually
than humans, are referred to as “super intelligence”. Such super
intelligence wouldn’t just be another technological development;
it would be the most important invention ever made, and would
lead to explosive progress in all scientific and technological fields,
allowing research to be conducted with superhuman efficiency.
Meanwhile, more than anything else, what draws attention to
itself is the ethical issues associated with this phenomenon. In the
principal delegation of any task to an intelligent agent (an autonomous entity, which observes through sensors, acts upon an environment, and directs its activity towards achieving goals) needs to
declare some questions. These questions depend on choosing an
appropriate policy against machine ethics; like the degree of its
autonomy of action and decision, the degree of trust, which can be
vested in the outcome it achieves, and the location of responsibility for those outcomes. Undoubtedly, the idea of machine ethics
or artificial ethics should be investigated as one of the most important aspects of this progress. The intellectual superiority of this
machine is a decisive reason in order to consider its ethical issues.
Methods
In this paper after reviewing some published papers on machine
ethics, we will describe two classes of agents: situation-action
machines with rules specifying actions to perform in response
to particular stimuli, and choice machines, which possess utility
functions over outcomes, and can select actions that maximize
expected utility. Then we will argue which kinds of classes could
overcome the existing challenges.
Results
In order to show how to deal with these challenges, it would be
necessary to create architecture towards the choice machine end
of the spectrum, with values that fully reflect those of humanity.
This task is complicated further by our lack of introspective access to the causes of our moral intuitions.
Conclusion
The aim of this paper is to study the necessity of considering
machines ethical issues and related strategies. First, we will consider human ethics and machine ethics in detail. Second, we will
discuss “generality” as the lost important aspect of artificial intelligence and as the most important obstacle in order to achieve its
final goal (simulation of human behavior). Then we will introduce
super intelligence comprehensively and emphasize the necessity
of investigating its ethical issues, too. Finally, by studying the
ethical challenges of super intelligence, we will consider related
strategies.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: Sir.Ramezani@gmail.com
Artificial Intelligence and Challenges of
Human-Machine Simulation
Majid Ramezani*1, Mohammad-Mahdi Mirloo2
1. Computer Department, University College of Nabi Akram, Tabriz, Iran
2. Psychology Department, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran
Introduction
To construct the machines that are able to behave like humans,
has always occupied the human mind. Over centuries and during progresses in many areas, the legend of the robot has gradually acquired some aspects of reality. The change in orientation of
different systems from rational and scientific approach to an intelligence-driven approach and adopting technological solutions
(like expert systems) is very evident and undeniable. Accordingly,
computer systems are trying to take the great thinkers’ place. It
can be said that we are faced with an eccentric satire; computers
are going to be more like humans, even more logical and more
rational.
Methods
This article is a review of published articles in the past three decades regarding artificial intelligence and challenges of humanmachine simulation.
Results
Studies have shown that over several decades after the advent of
artificial intelligence, to achieve a multipurpose machine that can
be a good substitute for humans that can perform tasks without
human interference and can be capable of making decisions on
issues that it has not encountered yet, has occupied the human
mind. To say the last words in explaining the ultimate goal of ar-
tificial intelligence we should say that “human machine simulate”
is the ultimate goal of this pretentious science, making a machine
that is able to increase its own intelligence. For some people, it is
unexpected and impossible to believe that a machine can perform
human-like behaviors. The human being has many capabilities
and is able to perform lots of tasks. Most of the set tasks are multifactor and multiple factors are involved in their creation. Each of
these tasks in machines takes place by simulating the logical thinking of the basic factor. All of the artificial intelligence researchers
are in consensus in using “Artificial Global Intelligence” (AGI)
to denote real artificial intelligence. As the name implies, the consensus is that “generality” is the missing aspect. Current artificial
intelligence algorithms with human-equivalent or human-superior performance are characterized by a deliberately programmed
competence only in a single and restricted domain. So in order to
achieve the ultimate goal of artificial intelligence, this prominent
aspect should be considered.
Conclusion
In this paper, we will provide a definition of both natural and
artificial intelligence. Then, we will describe the goal of artificial
intelligence and clarify the available means to achieve this goal.
Finally, we will investigate the future of artificial intelligence and
the emergence of machine civilization and some of its aspects and
we will emphasis that although we have multiple instruments, artificial intelligence requires high level cognitive tools to achieve
its goals and this has not yet been achieved.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: Sir.ramezani@gmail.com
Influence of Conceptual Mapping in Understanding Abstract
Meanings of Words in Pre-school Children’s Language
Development: A Cognitive Approach
Parmis Izadpanah*
Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Cognitive development refers to the mind and how it works,
which involves how children think, how they see their world, how
they use what they learn, all mirrored by language, and how they
speak.
Methods
In 3 experiments, sixty 3-6 year old non-reading children of 3
bilingual kindergartens were asked to represent and explain abstract words such those mentioned above. There was a developmental trend toward appropriate apprehension of these concepts.
Several steps preceding mature comprehension were observed:
metonymic and primitive-metaphoric interpretations were frequent at age of 5-6, and the youngest children sometimes interpreted metaphors as descriptions of magical situations. But in
both cases conceptual mappings were the main key of understating the meaning.
Results
There are many new words pre-school children encounter in
their daily life the meaning of which is not clear for them. How
would they perceive them? As children observe events around
them, they ask questions, make predictions, and test possible solutions and start logical thinking. The way abstract concepts are
represented and understood is the main question of this research.
Through language development, children gain control over themselves and their world, but what elements of children’s mind help
them to understand meaning of words, such as Love, Happiness,
Grief, Fear, Birth, Death, God etc., which are not yet tangible and
concrete concepts for them. This research seeks to demonstrate
the relevance of semantics, unrestricted to vocabulary, and cognition and mappings based on that knowledge is a symbolic but
scientific way of understanding semantics. The author proposes
that concepts are coherent to the extent that they fit children’s
background knowledge and naive theories about the world. These
theories help to relate the concepts in a domain and to structure the
attributes that are internal to a concept. Evidence of the influence
of theories on various conceptual tasks is presented, and the possible importance of theories in cognitive development is discussed
Conclusion
The current research aimed to indicate how conceptual mappings in cognitive linguistics approach, may help pre-school
children conceptualize and represent symbols and words to gain
access to new world of information. Furthermore, that cognitive
metaphor functions as the main key in this process of understandings. Abstract vocabularies are linguistic notions whose overall
meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the constituent parts. Although we agree with the traditional view that there is
no complete predictability, we suggest that there is a great deal of
systematic conceptual motivation for the meaning of most these
words.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: Izadpanah.ling1386@gmail.com
Providing a Feasible Seizure Prediction Algorithm
for Implantable Devices
Peyvand Ghaderyan*, Ataollah Abbasi, Mohammad Hossein Sedaaghi
Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran
Introduction
Seizure is a sign of a neurological dysfunction manifested by
unexpected and recurrent seizures. While epilepsy affects approximately 50 million people worldwide, more than 30% of them suffer from medication-refractory epilepsy that restricts their lives.
In recent years, seizure prediction algorithms have received much
attention due to their potentials, which can improve life quality
of patients who cannot be treated with therapeutic strategies like
antiepileptic drugs and surgery. In order to suppress or abate seizures, these algorithms with some methods like stimulation or
focal cooling of cortex can be used for developing closed-loop
therapy systems in implantable devices. In spite of several claims
about the predictability of previous algorithms in seizure predictions, computational requirements, and reliabilities for using in
implantable devices have not yet sufficiently been considered
and no algorithm has been offered for practical applications. The
purpose of this research is to provide the framework for epileptic
seizure predictions with lower process time without affecting the
quality of distinguishing brain states.
Methods
In this article among several types of features that differentiate
between preictal (preceding a seizure) and interictal (between seizures) states, linear features have been selected because of their
low computational burden compared to nonlinear features. A 30
minute prediction horizon has been chosen for impeding seizures.
Several features such as statistical moments and power spectral
density in different frequency bands using moving window techniques with 20 seconds length and half overlap have been applied.
However, these features generate high dimensional feature space,
which can make problems in computational time and energy consumption. This problem has been solved by Principal Component
Analysis (PCA) as a dimensionality reduction technique. PCA
selects optimal features, which contain important information
from cerebral activity and consequently speeds up seizure prediction algorithms. Also, Support Vector Machine (SVM) has been
used for classification of brain states. SVM is a machine learning
method with a robust performance in biomedical applications. In
this study double cross validation has been used to test our method
with untouched sets in order to better assess the performance of
proposed algorithms. For this purpose, C and γ parameters of radial basis function has been optimized for each patient. In order
to omit noise in SVM outputs, a median filter has been applied as
post processing.
Results
In order to evaluate realistic performance of the proposed patient
specific seizure prediction algorithm, sensitivity and false prediction rate per hour on the 10 patients of Freiburg, dataset has been
examined and a high sensitivity of 89% and low false prediction
rate of 0.18 have been achieved.
Conclusion
This algorithm, by low computational requirements, can reliably
predict impeding seizures and can be beneficially used in implantable devices. This method provides a suitable tradeoff between
computational complexity and classification results with faster
steps useful for implantable devices.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: peyvand.ghaderyan@gmail.com
Effect of Using Metaphor in Text on Comprehension
and Recalling of High School Students
Maysam Rabiei Pour Salimi*, Fariborz Dortaj
Tehran, Iran
Introduction
For teaching intricate subjects, mappings from a familiar topic
to an unfamiliar topic can lead learners to conceive difficult relations, because learners can use their prior knowledge to construct new complex ideas. Recent researches show that conceptual metaphors can provide a schema-like structure for organizing information. This can assist learners in organizing new and
scattered information. According to structure-mapping theory, if a
structurally consistent match between the target and base domains
of metaphor has been found, further predicates from the base domain that are connected to the common system can be projected to
the target domain as candidate inferences. In previous researches
about metaphor, application of metaphors in diverse fields of science has not been evaluated widely. In this research, the effect of
using metaphor in text on comprehension and recalling of new
information in social science had been evaluated.
Methods
In this experiment, post-test only, control group design and cluster
sampling had been used. One high-school in Lahijan was randomly
selected. A total of 40 junior students participated in the study. Two
texts for two experimental and control groups had been constructed by the researcher. A pilot test with a group of 30 students had
been performed and inconsistent questions had been omitted. Texts
included an essay about the role of people in determining their own
position in society. Although, topic and concepts that were introduced in texts were comprehensible for the participants, students
were not familiar with them. Reliability of the comprehension test
(assessed using Cronbach’s alpha) was 0.78 and reliability of the
recalling test was 0.74. The test was implemented on December
11, 2011. First, students read metaphorical or literal texts. Instantly
after reading, two examinations had been conducted to measure
comprehension and recalling of the students. In texts, three theo-
ries about our freedom in decision making had been introduced.
Person oriented theorists, mostly concentrate on personal abilities and choices (a defender can try and score goals). Structural
theorists, concentrate on predefined conditions and structures (it is
very hard for a defender to score many goals in the future). Finally,
relativist theorists believe that there are some predefined positions,
but this position is transformative (although a defender is far from
scoring goals, but he can be promoted to a forward player).
Results
The results of the comprehension test indicated that students
who studied metaphorical text, earned significantly higher comprehension scores M(met)=4.1 and M(lit)=2.92, t=2.45, df=38,
MSE(met)=0.36563, MSE(lit)=0.31051, one tailed significance
level=0.0095 and nominal significance level=0.01. In the recalling test, however, mean of scores in metaphoric text (M=2.75)
was more than literal text (M=2.2), no significant difference was
found. This indicated that students in metaphorical group could
not earn significantly higher recalling scores. t=1.540, df=38,
MSE (met)=0.23924, MSE (lit)=0.26507, one tailed significance
level=0.066 and nominal significance level=0.01.
Conclusion
Findings of the comprehension test support the view that metaphorical mapping helps students transfer their knowledge from a topic to
a different, but structurally similar topic. In the metaphorical group,
students’ knowledge about rules and players’ intentions in football
games helped them transfer some concepts into real life situations. Results of the recalling test could be affected by the difficulty of texts for
students. It shows that this text was too hard for students. This could
affect results of the research. All in all, the results of this research show
that the significant effect of metaphorical mapping was helping learners perceive structure and function of different parts of the topic.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: maysamrps@yahoo.com
Is Willingness to Communicate (WTC) Self-Efficacy and
Cognitive Specific? A Study of English Conversation Learning
Zohre Gooniband Shooshtari *, Masoud Var Naseri, Saeed Khazaie,
Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran
Introduction
Self-efficacy (SE), or capability of English teachers as nonnative teachers of English and their beliefs toward themselves,
their capabilities to mobilize motivation, cognitive resources, and
courses of action necessary to meet situational demands (Wood,
Bandura, 1989; Bandura, 1995), seems to be a potent predictor of
non-English learners’ cognitive abilities (Paunonen, Hong, 2010).
In fact, what and how much learned is influenced by the learner’s
motivation. In turn, motivation to learn is influenced by the individual’s emotional states, beliefs, interests, goals, and thoughts.
To cast light over the modality specific nature of teachers’ SE,
this research is set to investigate the relationship of English as a
foreign language (EFL) teachers’ SE range and Iranian learners’
willingness to communicate (WTC) whether there’s a significant
relationship between EFL teachers’, SE, and students’ communication ability. Due to the recognition and effect communication
apprehension can play in information processing and thus communication (McCroskey, McCroskey, 1986), the study also tried
to illuminate the contingent effect of apprehension.
Methods
To carry out the research considering the influential role teachers
can play in the realm of education as a whole, the refined version of beliefs about language learning inventory questionnaire
(BALLI) (Horwitz, 1987) was already adapted to survey 10 Iranian EFL teachers’ beliefs about their ability in teaching language.
Also, their 186 L2 (English) learners (105 boys, 81 girls) in an Iranian educational institute from ages 14-17 years, taught conversation items from new Interchange series (pre-intermediated level)
(Richards with Hully, Proctor, 2005) for 18 sessions were asked
to fill out the questionnaire regarding their willingness to communicate (Hashimoto, 2002). After filling out the BALLI questionnaire, teachers were placed into two low and high SE groups.
Upon differentially delivered English conversation treatment, the
subjects were evaluated on their oral and written conversational
items taught.
Results
The analysis indicated that SE (high level) accommodated
teaching English conversational items well, resulting in a better
performance on both oral and written tests. In other words, learners whose teachers were with high-level of SE tend to be more
engaged in the course of foreign language learning and outperformed their counterparts with low-level SE teachers.
Conclusion
Learners of high-level SE teachers pursued the task of conversation learning with great eagerness. The two points clearly confirm
that SE aligns with the related modes of presentation. The results
of the study point to the high level relevance of SE to learners’
motivation learning English conversation.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: zshooshtari@yahoo.com
An Investigation into the Incorporation of Critical Thinking Skills
in the Questions of University Entrance Exam
Iman Alizadeh*
Allame Universiry, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Almost all new trends in education have invested in thinking and
in teaching learning process and do their best in training learners
who are reflective and thoughtful. Although there is controversy
over the exact definition of thinking, the fact that thinking provides the foundation for inventions, human growth, and development seems to be the common ground for the host of definitions
proposed. In this study, researchers have zoomed in on one of the
neglected dimensions of thinking in Iranian education, that is to
say, critical thinking. Critical thinking is one of the skills, which
all scholars in the field of education have emphasized its significant role in individuals’ life. Paul and Elder (2008) define critical
thinking as the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a
view to improving it. This study is aimed to investigate the extent
to which tests are administered to the candidates for the Master of
Arts degree in teaching English as a Foreign Language and as part
of the university entrance exam, which includes critical thinking
skills.
Methods
Ten series of questions administered to the MA candidates in
TEFL between 1380 and 1389 were pooled out. Next, a fifty sixitem critical thinking checklist based on Likert-scale and consisting of 12 skills; namely, comprehension, application, analysis,
synthesis, evaluation, deduction, induction, balanced-thinking,
multiple perspective-taking, creative thinking, community of
thinkers, and knowledge was developed. The skills on the checklist were mainly based on Bloom’s taxonomy and the related literature. The checklist was validated by the researchers themselves
and some experts in the field and the reliability coefficient was
also estimated as 0.86. Then, two raters did a content analysis and
rated the questions based on these skills.
Results
To analyze the collected data statistical procedures like Kruskal
Wallis and qui-square were employed. The findings of the study
revealed that the questions mainly tapped knowledge and analysis skills and failed to include other skills that are reported to be
of utmost importance for students’ academic success. The results
of the study have significant implications for test developers and
educational policy makers.
Conclusion
Having critical thinking in view, the paper also draws a comparison between standardized tests such as GRE, which are the tests
developed for university entrance exams, and discusses the reason
why Iranian students mainly fail tests such as SAT and GRE or
find them difficult. It also discusses the lack of critical thinking
in the classroom, the testing methods, and proposes some ways to
include more critical thinking skills in our tests.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: iman_alizadeh87@yahoo.com
Influence of N-Methyl D-Aspartate Receptor on ACPA Induced
Amnesia in Mice Dorsal Hippocampus
Samaneh Amin Yavari*1, Mohammad Nasehi2, Mohammad Reza Zarrindast3
1. Institute for Cognitive Science Studies, Tehran, Iran
2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Azad University, Garmsar, Iran
3. Department of Physiology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Cannabinoids have a high lipophilic nature and exert cellular actions through the inhibition of adenylyl cyclase. They have also
been found to have widespread and complex effects on higher
cognitive functions such as learning and memory and anxietyrelated behavior in mice. The agents exert their effects through
two different CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptor subtypes. The
CB1 receptors are mainly found in the central nervous system, but
they are also found in peripheral tissues. Cannabinoid receptors
are widely distributed in the hippocampus, cortex, basal ganglia,
and the cerebellum. There are high levels of expression of CB1
receptors in the hippocampus formation, especially in the dorsal
hippocampus, which is a structure essential both for memory,
long-term potentiation (LTP), and is rich in CB1 and NMDA receptors. Therefore, it may be hypothesized that NMDA receptor
may be involved in ACPA- induced amnesia. In this study, we
investigated effects of N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA) on ACPA
induced amnesia in mice. Step down inhibitory avoidance of
memory was used to examine the retrieval of memory. All drugs
were injected bilaterally into the dorsal hippocampus (intra-CA1)
of mice. Moreover, there is no comprehensive data concerning the
effects of NMDA receptor of CA1 on amnesia-induced by ACPA.
Methods
and tap water, except during limited periods of experiments. All
subjects were allowed to adapt to laboratory conditions for at
least 1 week before surgery. One-trial step-down and hole-board
paradigm were used for the assessment of memory retention and
exploratory behaviors on male NMRI mice. Animals implanted
with bilateral cannula at the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus were microinjected with agonists glutaminergic, NMDA, and
with intraperitoneal injection of CB1 receptor selective agonists,
ACPA.
Results
The data showed that administration of dose ACPA (0.01 mg/
kg) decreased the step down latency and exploratory behaviors.
The intra dorsal hippocampus (CA1) injection of dose NMDA
(0.0005 µg/mouse) by itself had no effect on memory retrieval
and exploratory behaviors, but injection of different doses NMDA
(0.001, 0.0125, 0.025 µg/mouse) improved memory impairment
and these doses were as anxiolytic. Finally sub threshold dose of
ACPA (0.0025 mg/kg) with doses of NMDA (0.001, 0.0125 µg/
mouse) increased amnesia impairment but the dose of NMDA
(0.025 µg/mouse) had no effect on memory retrieval and exploratory behaviors.
Conclusion
Male mice weighing 25-30 g were used in these experiments.
The subjects were housed as ten per cage, in a colony room with
a 12/12h light/dark cycle at 22±2ċ. They had free access to food
These results suggest that amnesia induced by intraperitoneal
administration of ACPA is at partly mediated through an NMDA
receptor in the CA1.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: samaneh.aminyavari@gmail.com
Deep Brain Stimulation, Cognition, and Dementia in Advanced
Parkinson’s Disease
Ronak Azizbeigi*1, Mohammad Sharif Sharifi2
1. Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran
2. Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Sydney, Australia
Introduction
Parkinson’s Disease (PD), which is the most common form of
progressive neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Approximately 10 million people are diagnosed by
PD worldwide and that does not reflect the millions of cases that
go undetected. Men are one and half times more likely to have
PD than women. As many factors contribute to prevalence and
incidence of PD, including gender, age, diagnostic criteria and
medical facilities; therefore, the comparison of PD prevalence and
incidence in different parts of the world has become very difficult.
Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) has been used on patients where
pharmacological treatments have offered them little or nothing.
DBS, has certainly improved locomotive ability and to some extent cognitions in patients with PD without dementia.
Methods
In DBS electrical stimulation pulses are continuously applied to
specific brain regions at high frequency by chronically implanted electrodes. These electrodes with lead extensions and a pulse
generator are implanted surgically. A transdermal programming
device is also used to allow different therapeutic options. Sub thalamic nucleus (STN) and the globus pallidus internus (GPI), are
thought to be over-activated in PD and they are the main target
of DBS. However, the ventralis intermedius nucleus of the thalamus is sometimes targeted, but STN is the most common target
of DBS. While the mechanism of DBS is not fully understood, it
appears to be due to modulation of neuronal activities, overriding
the abnormal patterns in the basal ganglia, replacing them with
less disturbing patterns.
Results
The early symptoms of PD are motor-related that slows down
the movement (bradykinesia), causes the resting tremor, muscular rigidity, shuffling, and flexed posture which are resulted from
the death of dopaminergic neurons of the Substantia Nigra pars
compacta (SNPc), a region of the midbrain with the appearance
of the intracellular inclusions known as Lewy bodies. In the later
stage of PD and sometimes during the early stage, a variety of
non-motor-symptoms, including autonomic, sensory, sleep, cognitive, and psychiatric disturbances and also dementia may arise.
The principle of neural stimulation is to restore the physiological
function/s of the nerves or muscles by targeted and controlled delivery of electrical stimulation to the affected areas.
Conclusion
DBS has provided an alternative treatment for neuronal diseases, in particular for those whom have been left with no other
options. It is widely used and known to greatly improve the symptoms of PD, including cognitive deficit to some extent, but not PD
with dementia. In this study the efficacy and the safety of DBS
as compared to existing pharmacological treatments has been reviewed and discussed. *Corresponding author. E-mail address: razizbeigi@yahoo.com
Davidson and Global Skepticism: A Response to
Professor Otavio Bueno
Mohammad Reza Vaez Shahrestani *
Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Results
In Professor Otavio Bueno’s article titled “Davidson and Skepticism: How Not to Respond to the Skeptic”, he demonstrates that
although Davidson’s theory of Coherence holds many attractions,
it does not entail a response to any kind of skepticism including
Global, Lottery, and Pyrrhonian. In this study, the goal is to criticize the work of Professor Bueno in connection with two criticisms he raised regarding Davidson’s anti-skepticism strategy.
Furthermore, by providing some reasons in favor of Davidson’s
anti-skepticism argument, it can be shown that neither the above
stated criticisms nor the global skepticism response could undermine the validity of anti-skepticism argument. Methods
Initially, it has been clarified what Davidson mean by skepticism. Referring to Davidson’s text, one can find that he was not
going to solve all kinds of skepticism, but only aimed at the issue
discussed by global skeptics. Thus, it’s unnecessary to search for
an argument that encompasses a response to two other kinds of
skepticism in Davidson’s text. In Section 4-1 of Bueno’s article,
the first criticism targets incoherence between two statements
presented by Davidson. These statements are as follows: (i) Each
belief can be false. (ii) It is not the case that all beliefs can be
false. He believes that by adopting classical first-order modal logic, the first statement can be expressed as follows: (i) ◊¬T(Pa)⊥
◊¬T(Pb)⊥ … ⊥ ◊¬T(Pn). He also formulates the second statement as follows: (ii) ¬ ◊ ⊥ x ¬T(Px). As a result, since Bueno believes that in the classical fist-order modal logic the negation of
(ii) follows from (i), he claims it as an incoherent view in Davidson’s argument.
From the author’s point of view, the first criticism has two problems: First, the translation of Statement (i) in the above stated
logical formulation is not correct because in the classical logic the
predicates ought to be logically independent of each other (as Bueno
says when rejecting the counter-example for his argument). Therefore, once Davidson says that “each belief can be false”, even in
this statement, the falsity of each belief is dependent on the truth
value of other beliefs. Indeed, in Davidson’s point of view, a belief
can be false once most of the other beliefs are true. This statement
is similar to the counter-example presented by Bueno and cannot be
formulated like (i) based on the classical first-order modal logic in
order to conclude the negation of (ii) followed by that. The second
problem of the Bueno’s first criticism refers to the structure of his
argument. Since, he formulates his argument as Davidson is going
to arrive from the statement (i) to anti-skepticism conclusion (ii). It
is whilst offering some reasons that Davidson firstly supposes most
of our beliefs are true and he mentions that there is a possibility for
each of our beliefs to be false. This means that the trend of Bueno’s
argument is exactly contrary to Davidson’s philosophical work. In
this paper, the latter criticism raised by Bueno over Davidson’s antiskepticism strategy is reviewed, and at the end Davidson’s argument
for his significant presupposition will be examined.
Conclusion
Finally, the global skepticism response to Davidson’s’ anti-skepticism
strategy is explained in section 4-2 of Bueno’s article and is investigated
and further concluded that even having skepticism, we need to assume
most of beliefs are true. If this is not the case, mankind suffers from an
absolute skepticism where the existence of any mental state including
skepticism about the knowledge of the world will be impossible. *Corresponding author. E-mail address: vaez.dawn1985@gmail.com
Compression of Social Information Processing and Emotional
Intelligence of Normal Students and Students with Physical
Activity Aged between 9-11 Years in Tehran
Simin Jafary*1, Zahedeh Rahmanian1, Parisa Pedram2
1. Imamreza University, Mashhad, Iran
Introduction
Social adjustment of children in recent years has been noted and
some factors involved in social adjustment are social information
processing and emotional intelligence in them. The purpose of
this study was to compare social information processing and the
emotional intelligence of students (girls and boys) with physical
activity and normal students. Moreover, this study was aimed to
investigate the relationship between social information processing
and emotional intelligence.
Methods
The statistical communities of this study were female and male
students in Tehran aged between 9-11 years during the 1387-1388
academic year. There were 172 boys and girls in total, (86 students with physical activity and 86 matched), aged between 9-11
years that were chosen by targeted sampling. The Social Information processing and Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire by
Brackett were applied in this study.
Results
One-way and two-way analysis of variance, Scheffe’s post hoc
test, and Pearson’s correlation test, showed a significant difference between normal children and children with physical activity
in information processing components and emotional intelligence
(p<0.05). Moreover, a significant relation was obtained between
most of the components of the information processing and emotional intelligence (p<0.01).
Conclusion
It can be concluded that students with physical activity have
higher information processing and emotional intelligence. Furthermore, the children using much more information processing
have higher emotional intelligence. Conversely, children with
lower information processing also have lower emotional intelligence.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: s.jafary@imamreza.ac.ir
The Effect of Psychological Characteristics on Metaphor and
Metonymy: A Survey Based on Bodily Communication
Mohammad Hossein Sharafzadeh*1, Ferdows Aghagolzadeh2, Azita Afrashi3, Shahla Raghibdoust4
1. Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Fars, Iran
2. Department of Linguistics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
3. Linguistics Department, Center for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran
4. Linguistics Department, Allame Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Human language is a complicated system, which reflects part of
cognitive realities. Discovering what happens in the human mind
has been the matter of interest for scholars of different fields, including cognitivists and cognitive linguists. Cognitive linguistics,
which studies the relationship between language and mind, makes
the use of different methods to uncover the complicated mental
realities. One of these complications is the formation of concepts
in the minds of different individuals with different, and sometimes
converse, personalities, and psychological characteristics. This research has surveyed the relationship between individuals’ personalities and their cognition, as well as part of the mind’s task, i.e.,
concept formation. One of the ways to discover the mind is using
bodily communication to depict cognitive mechanisms, which
seems to be related to individual’s personalities and their psychological characteristics. By bodily communication is meant that
non-verbal communication among people can be different from
person to person and from culture to culture.
Methods
In this research, 200 Persian speaking people who were homogeneous with respect to age and education (BA students) were
chosen by random sampling for the first stage of the research,
from the students at Islamic Azad University and the Fars science
and Research Branch, all of whom were between the ages of 18
and 23 and Farsi was their mother language. Psychological tests
were conducted by using Eysenck Personality Inventory, Spielberger State/Trait Anxiety Inventory, Eysenck Self-esteem Scale,
and Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices Test. The tests had
57, 40, 30, and 60 questions, and were used to test introversion
/extroversion, state-trait anxiety, self-esteem, and Intelligence
Quotient (IQ), respectively. 95 people were chosen by contrasting
sampling method to conduct bodily communication test. The selected subjects performed by using 30 words based on Ricci Bitti
and Poggi’s predicted strategies. These strategies were from the
referent’s typical actions, the representative’s typical actions, perceivable effects, negating the opposite concepts, and cultural representations. Using different metaphor and metonymy in bodily
communication and their relationship with different psychological characteristics were the main concerns of the research.
Results
The result indicated cognitive processes, i.e., metaphor and metonymy, which had varying effects on bodily communication. In
addition, metaphor and metonymy used in bodily communication
didn’t have an equal relationship with different psychological characteristics; the more these psychological characteristics were part of
more fixed characteristics in individuals’ personalities, the more effective they were in using metaphor and metonymy. Fixed characteristics are those, which are innate, social, and environmental factors
have less of an effect on them (such as, IQ and then introversion/
extroversion).
Conclusion
We can conclude that psychological characteristics are important
factors in forming different words in the mind; and metaphor and
metonymy are used to show that they are affected by these characteristics, although their influence is not equal on different words.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addressh.sharafzadeh@gmail.com
Metaphorical Conceptualization of Sadness in Farsi:
A Cognitive Study
Mohammad Hossein Sharafzadeh*, Amin Zare
Science and Research branch, Islamic Azad University, Fars, Iran
Introduction
Cognitive linguistics is considered to be one of the new viewpoints in linguistics. It deals with the relationship between mind
and language. Although, metaphor had been studied in literature,
philosophy, sociology, etc., in the past, one of the discussed subjects in cognitive linguistics is studying metaphor. Publishing
“Metaphors We Live by” by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) opened
new horizons to metaphor studies. In the book, it is said that metaphor is not only in literary texts, but in our everyday speeches.
Metaphor researches can also help to identify the relationships
among speech, thought, and actions (Lakoff, Johnson, 2003). In
addition, some researchers have been done in conceptual emotion
metaphors (see Barcelona, 1986; Lakoff, 1987; Kovecses, 1990,
2005; Yu, 1995; Esenova, 2011). We were attempting to describe
sadness metaphors in Farsi as an emotion metaphor from the cognitive linguistics point of view.
Methods
In this research, at first sadness metaphors were collected
through random contacts of written and spoken observations on
multimedia and people’s daily speeches. In order to avoid abnormal cases, no questionnaires or interviews were fulfilled. To study
the collected metaphors, Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT)
is utilized. In CMT, one domain is conceptualized with another
domain. Indeed “target domain is source domain” method was
applied to study the metaphors. Target domain is the one method
understood by the source domain and the derived phrase, (which
caught by the method) is called Conceptual Metaphor (CM). The
metaphors are classified by locating them in the CM group they
are related to. In the present research, there were previous attempts to clarify the mappings of the conceptual metaphors by
representing correspondences between the target and the source
domains. Mapping is the term, which refers to systematic metaphorical correspondence between closely related concepts. The
correspondences are presented in the research due to the CMs
they are categorized in.
Results
The results of the research confirm the use of metaphors in everyday speech. A list of CMs was given, representing the conceptualization in the sadness metaphors. In the mentioned list,
eight source domains were recognized, which also clarified the
productivity of the metaphorical concepts. Various mappings of
the sadness metaphors noticed by correspondences, indicated the
relationships between the speakers/writers’ thoughts, speeches,
and actions. People conceptualize the metaphorical concepts as
they think of sadness or react physiologically when confronted
in a sad situation. In fact, Farsi language speakers/writers make
metaphors based on their thoughts and physiological reactions
unconsciously. Furthermore, some cases related to Farsi speakers’
culture were noticed.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that sadness metaphors in Farsi has eight
source domains. Furthermore, people conceptualize the metaphorical concepts as they think of sadness or react physiologically
when confronted in a sad situation.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: h.sharafzadeh@gmail.com
Beliefs and Their Effects on Performance
Alireza Barouni Ebrahimi*
University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
Introduction
The role and importance of beliefs have been of a great interest for many scholars from diverse disciplines. Gabillon (2005)
indicates “in disciplines where human behavior and learning are
of a primary concern (namely, cognitive, educational, and social
psychology) beliefs are viewed as an important construct to be
investigated in relation to their subsequent impact on people’s behavior” (p.233). Learner beliefs are considered as an important
aspect of the learning process, as they are supposed to condition learner attitudes and behaviors, and they are assumed to be
a manifestation of learner’s conception of learning. Therefore, if
teachers wish to address and change these attitudes and behaviors,
they will first need to become familiar with these beliefs, and understand the similarities and differences from their own beliefs.
Methods
The present study collected learner and teacher beliefs about
the depth of vocabulary knowledge and their actual performance
on these aspects by one questionnaire and one receptive and productive test (RT & PT) to see if and to what extent their beliefs
and performance have a significant relationship with each other.
To construct the necessary questionnaire, Nation’s table of word
knowledge (2001) was used. This table divides the depth of vocabulary knowledge into three main aspects of form, meaning,
and use in both receptive and productive modes, which totaled 18.
RT and PT were designed to measure the productive and receptive skills of the participants, and the results were used to see if
there was any relationship between the participants’ performance
and beliefs on different items of the Nation’s table. In other words,
the tests were used to measure if there was any relationship between what participants rated as important regarding aspects of
word knowledge and what their actual performance or achievement on the tests was. Forty-two TEFL graduate students and
teachers received the word-knowledge questionnaire and the tests
respectively.
Results
Results show that the participants did not perform on reception
and production tests due to what they rated as important regarding
aspects of word knowledge in the reception and production questionnaires. Furthermore, the findings clearly show that the participants’ performance on the receptive and productive use items was
significantly worse.
Conclusion
In conclusion, learners and teachers beliefs were different from
their performance, and they especially had difficulty on how to
use the words in the context. Hopefully, the findings of this research study increases the general understanding of beliefs and
their effects on the educational system, helps learners and teachers become aware of each other beliefs, and increases the general
knowledge of what is involved in knowing a word among learners
and teachers.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: abarouni@uwo.ca
The Development of Episodic Cognition and Mental Time Travel
in Turkish Preschoolers: What, Where, and When
Gulten Unal*, Annette Hohenberger
Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
Introduction
Episodic memory (Tulving, 2002) is a type of declarative
memory that is used to recall specific information from our own
personal background. It can be assessed by using what, where,
when memory tasks in humans (Holland, Smulders, 2011). More
recently, episodic future thinking has been positioned as the future analog of episodic memory (Tulving, 2005). Altogether, they
form the broader concept of “episodic cognition”, or “chronesthesia”. A crucial aspect of episodic cognition is mental time travel,
i.e., the ability to mentally experience events in the future or in
the past (Suddendorf, Corballis, 2007). The development of episodic memory, episodic future thinking, and mental time travel
in children starts to develop between 3-5 years of age (Friedman,
2000; Busby, Suddendorf, 2005; Russell, Alexis, Clayton, 2010),
with past events being somewhat earlier and better understood
than future events. Episodic memory, episodic future thinking,
and mental time travel are typically tested with mental time-line
experiments where children have to imagine, discriminate, and
verbalize events in the near/far past or future, hide-and-seek tasks
that test for what, where, when aspects of episodic memory, and
future prediction tasks, where children have to predict items that
they would need in an imagined future event (Atance, Meltzoff,
2005; Russell, Alexis, Clayton, 2010). However, obvious relations between the episodic cognition system (including mental
time travel) and the episodic buffer component of Working Memory (2003) have not been explicitly investigated yet.
Methods
The goal of the present study is to investigate the development
of episodic cognition and mental time travel and their relation
with working memory (episodic buffer, central executive) and
counter-factual thinking in Turkish preschoolers aged from 3 to 5
years. In order to investigate these concepts, we have developed
7 tasks: (1) a what where when (www) memory task that tests
episodic memory of the past, (2) a future prediction task for testing episodic future thinking, (3) a story telling task, which measures the development of the usage of the future-tense, (4) Day
Night Stroop Task, (5) Corsi Block Tapping Task, (6) a counter
factual thinking task, and (7) a questionnaire asking incidental
episodic memory questions about the events related to the testing
session. Our aim in using the working memory tasks, counterfactual thinking task, and the episodic memory questionnaire is
for predicting children’s performance in the what, where, when,
and future prediction task.
Results
After the data has been collected, results will be available in
time for the conference. However, some of the hypotheses are as
follows: (1) the performances in the www task should increase
with age. (2) The “what” component of the www task should be
recalled at best, then the “where” and lastly the “when” component. (3) There might be an interaction between the age and the
www components. Correspondingly, the outcome of all other
tasks should increase with age according to other hypotheses.
Conclusion
We expect that all these concepts will increase with the children’s age.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addressgultenunal@gmail.com
The Role of RS 28597190 (5HT4 Receptor Antagonist) of BLA
Area in Amnesia Induced by ACPA
Hamidreza Chegini*, Mohammad Nasehi, Mohammadreza Zarrindast
Institute for Cognitive Sciences Studies , Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Cannabis sativa, also known as marijuana or hashish depending on the particular preparation, is both a widespread illegal drug of abuse and a well-recognized medicinal plant.
Two cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2, have been identified by molecular cloning and are unambiguously established
as mediators of the biological effects induced by cannabinoids,
either plant derived, synthetic, or endogenously produced.
The CB1 receptors are densely expressed in the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, hippocampus, and amygdale, and they mediate the physiological and behavioral actions of cannabinoids.
The cannabinoids have been shown to produce a unique syndrome
of effects on the behavior of humans and animals, which include
disruption of short-term memory, cognitive impairments, a sense
of time dilation, mood alterations, enhanced body awareness, a
reduced ability to focus, filtering out irrelevant information, discoordination, and sleepiness.
Cannabinoids have an important role in regulation of neurotransmitter releases. It has been reported that different neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, GABA, cholecystokinin, corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and opioids, may be involved in
the mechanisms by which cannabinoids modulate anxiety. It has
long been recognized that marijuana (Cannabis sativa) consumption in humans and laboratory animals produces disturbances in
various aspects of learning and memory in different regions of
the brains including the Basolateral Amygdaloid nucleous (BLA).
Moreover, cannabinoids play a role in regulating neurotransmitter releases such as serotonin. Serotonin is thought to be involved
in the process of memory consolidation. 5-HT4 receptors seem
to have differing effects on the different stages of memory pro-
cessing. Therefore, in this study we investigate the involvement
of RS 28597190 (5HT4 Receptor Antagonist) of the BLA area in
amnesia induced by ACPA (selective CB1 cannabinoid receptor
agonist).
Method
Male mice weighting 28-35g were used in these experiments.
The drug was injected into BLA (bilaterally) in a total volume of
1µl/mouse (0.5 µl in each side) over a 60s period in mice, meanwhile, ACPA was injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) in a volume of
1ml/kg. We used elevated plus maze for the assessment of memory formation.
Results
ACPA injected intraperitoneally (12.5, 25, 50 ng/mouse) did
not significantly alter memory behavior. Furthermore, intra-BLA
amygdala injection of RS 28597190 itself (20, 40 ng/mouse) was
injected 5 min before testing induced amnesia although a low
dose of RS had no effect. Moreover, injection subthreshold doses
of RS 28597190 (10ng/mouse) and ACPA (25mg/kg) in BLA induced amnesia.
Conclusion
The data showed while intra-BLA injection of low dose of RS
28597190 and ACPA on their own failed to induce amnesia in
experimental mice, our result indicated that co-administration of
the above two agents in the same site exerted amnesia.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: chegini.hr@gmail.com
Effects of External Focus of Attention on Written Spelling to
Dictation in Dysgraphic Primary School Students of
2nd and 3rd Grades in Tehran
Zahra Namvarpour*, Malahat Akbar Fahimi, Mahdi Alizade
Institute for Cognitive Science Studies, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Among the basic educational skills, writing has been called the
most tangible skill because it creates a written document. Recognizing the symptoms of dysgraphia and timely diagnosis and
treatment of this disorder will minimize its secondary undesirable consequence. The main cause of impaired and poorly legible handwriting and writing dictation disorders are: (1) attention
deficit disorder, (2) poor motor skill involved in writing, (3) disorder in cognitive ability and visual disorder related to letters and
words, (4) weak visual and auditory memories, (5) difficulty in
transferring information from one sense canal to other canal or
in a sensual relation, and (6) abstractness of the matter (Bashoeur
Lashgari, 2003). Therefore, since inattentiveness and lack of care
has been recognized as one of the most principal causes of disorder in dictation writing and since disability in creating and retaining concentrated attention in children suffering from learning
disorders, especially from dysgraphia, has been focused by many
experts (Tarver, 2004; Copeland, Wisniewski 2004; Facodetti,
2006), the researchers of this study decided to study the effects of
external focus of attention (stimulated by recommendations and
guidance) on the reinforcement of focused attention on written
dictation of dysgraphic students. This study is designed to assess
the effect of the external focus of attention on written spelling
to dictation in dysgraphic primary school students of 2nd and 3rd
grade in Tehran.
Methods
For the above mentioned purpose, 72 dysgraphic students ages
8-10, were selected from Special Learning Disability centers Nos.
1, 2, and 3 of Tehran, (36 for the experimental group and 36 for
the control group). In this study, Dictation Assessment Tests for
Primary Schools were used in two stages as pre and post-test (dictations Nos. 3 and 4 for second grade of primary education and
dictations Nos.5 and 6 for third grade). External focus of attention
was presented to the experimental group in the form of beforethe-post-test verbal guidance; however, the control group didn’t
receive it. The data were analyzed by paired t-test, independent
t-test, and variance analysis.
Results
The results showed that in both experimental and control groups
there was a significant difference between dictation grades and
the number of spelling errors caused by attention deficit disorder in post-test for dysgraphic students. Furthermore, a significant
difference was observed in subjects of the experimental group
between the variables studied in pre- and post-tests. No significant difference was reported for the control group. Multivariable
variance analysis also showed that the impact of group factor on
the number of the spelling errors originated from attention deficit
disorder and on dictation grades is significant.
Conclusion
The results indicate that in dysgraphic students, external focus
of attention has been effective on dictation grades and on numbers
of spelling errors caused by attention deficit disorder. Improving
the effectiveness of the intervention is indicated in comparing the
control group and when considering the previous grades of the
subjects who were members of the experimental group. It seems
that external focus of attention can be used on dysgraphic students
as a useful intervention.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:z.namvarpour@yahoo.com
Figural Creativity and Cognitive Inhibition
Mohaddese Rahimi*, Zahra Tabibi, Hossein Kareshki
Mashhsd, Khorasan Razavi, Iran
Introduction
Creativity is the creation of something novel and useful, which
involves complex, affective, and cognitive components. Originality, flexibility, fluency, elaboration, and novelty are some of the
cognitive components of creativity. On the other hand, there are
studies proposing the involvement of executive functions in creativity. Cognitive inhibition is one of the most challenging executive functions in the studies that tried to examine the relationship
of executive functions with creativity. The ability of cognitive
inhibition is required to inhibit a prepotent response or to protect
the contents of working memory. There are different conceptions
about how cognitive inhibition is related to creativity. Some studies have reported no significant correlation between creativity and
cognitive inhibition. While, there are studies reporting positive
or negative correlations. These studies have mainly conducted
on specific groups such as Schizophrenics, Bi-polar disorder or
ADHD. This may have resulted to contradicting findings. There
are few studies examining this relationship on the children. Also,
the research methods of these studies were mainly correlational.
Therefore, the current study aims to compare the ability of cognitive inhibition among two groups of elementary school children,
one creative and the other non-creative.
Methods
70 female elementary school children with age ranged between
8 and 12 years participated in the study. Children’s Figural Cre-
ativity was assessed using figural form of Torrance Thinking Creative Test (TTCT, 1974). Cognitive inhibition was assessed by the
computerized version of Classic Stroop Test. Then, children were
divided into two groups of Creative and Non-creative according
to their scores in TTCT. There were 22 students in each group.
Then, the obtained interference scores of Stroop test were compared between the two groups.
Results
Data analyzing by independent-samples T test indicated that
there is no significant difference in cognitive inhibition between
creative (mean=1.639) and non-creative (mean=1.509) (p>0.05)
groups of children.
Conclusion
As mentioned, there are different and conflicting results regarding the relationship between cognitive inhibition and creativity.
The results of this study are also consistent with those studies,
which showed that the high or low ability in cognitive inhibition
has no effect on the children’s creativity. However, this result may
be affected by the materials applied, the age of the participants or
the lack of control for variables such as intelligence coefficient.
Due to these findings, it may be necessary for new research and
studies to use various groups and materials. Future studies should
attempt to clarify the connection between creativity and cognitive
or executive functions.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: m.rahimi.b@hotmail.com
Cognitive Dissonance and Familial Structure
Amina Hanif*, Saiqa Amin
GC University, Lahore, Pakistan
Introduction
The present study was conducted to compare cognitive dissonance between people living in nuclear and extended families.
Cognitive Dissonance is an unlikable state, occurs because of
people’s consciousness of inconsistency among important beliefs, attitudes or actions. When attitudes, beliefs, and thoughts
become inconsistent with one another, this realization of inconsistency among beliefs and attitudes bring people in an uncomfortable state. According to cognitive dissonance theory, people have
a motivating force to lessen dissonance. The clash, which arises
by doing actions contrary to thoughts and beliefs, can be justified
by blaming, denying, and justifying those acts. It can also be reduced by changing one’s beliefs, attitudes, and actions. Cognitive
dissonance is greatly affected by socio-cultural factors. People
from individualistic cultures seem to face greater tension when
their attitudes are in conflict with one another than people from
collectivistic cultures. This may be because collectivistic culture
represents a preference for an interrelated social framework in
which individuals can expect their relatives or other members of
social group to look after in exchange for unquestioning loyalty
or love. In this cultural system people are integrated into a group,
not separate from another. Due to greater importance given to the
group aspiration, people in this culture prefer value, and more
likely have similarity and conformity instead of their internal attitudes and behavior. The current study is conducted to see the
effects of immediate family orientations on cognitive dissonance
experienced by men and women.
Methods
It was hypothesized that men and women of nuclear families
are more likely to experience cognitive dissonance as compared
to people living in extended families. The study also observed
gender differences in cognitive dissonance. The sample consisted
of 102 participants; 52 men (32 from joint families and 20 from
nuclear families) and 50 women (26 from joint families and 24
from nuclear families). The participants’ age ranged from 20 years
to 70 years. Cognitive dissonance was measured by direct self
report through Attitude Consistency Scale and through vignettes
where participants were asked whether the characters in stories
were right in their inconsistency of attitude and behavior. Statistical analysis was done by using chi square analysis and t-test for
independent sample.
Results
The results indicated that on two vignettes, there were significant difference in experiencing cognitive dissonance among
people living in nuclear families and people living in extended
families. The results also showed that there was a significant
difference in self reports of consistency of attitude and behavior
between men and women. Men had significantly high scores
on self report of consistency in their attitude and behavior than
women.
Conclusion
The study concludes that there are family environment and gender differences in cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance has
important implications for understanding how cognitive mechanism as attitudes and dissonance between conflicting attitudes are
influenced by social and cultural factors.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: amnah.tarar@gmail.com
Increase Organization Productivity: An S-Intelligence Solution
Mohammad Kadkhoda*, Hoorie Jahani
Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Spiritual intelligence (S-intelligence) is a new type of defined
intelligence that is now coming into organization contexts. Researchers have shown that there are many practical applications
of S-intelligence in the workplace. S-intelligence helps managers
to better manage an organization, which in turn helps employees
to work more effectively. Our purpose in this article is defining
a solution for education and reinforcement ability to applied Sintelligence in organization by managers and employees. When
we think of S-intelligence in the organization, we think less of
its application and its potential to solve organization problems or
increases its efficiency. The first discussion is how we can define
S-intelligence in organizations. In response to this question, we
know to access staff with more motivation, commitment, flexibility, and sensibility. An individual or an organization are required the deeper perception and meaning of themselves, others
and goals of organization, furthermore, everybody has a need for
something bigger in life than just making money and going to
work. This kind of perception requires intelligence, to which it
can solve deep problems related to the self.
Methods
Our methods are literature review, and two qualitative studies
about S-intelligence at organization and its growth. However,
there isn’t exactly a model for measurement and applied S-intelligence in the workplace, our work is addressed by a conceptual
framework that has been gathered from related models. In order
to present a possible model on how measurement S-intelligence
at work measure the stress one’s position in an organization, it
may be essential to first elaborate on the various dimensions involved in spiritual resource and applicable capacities under these
dimensions in the workplace, which are stated by various authors,
and underscored through qualitative research by the author of this
article: internal, external, integrated, and transcendent. We offer
an e-learning process for the mentor and learner within an organization that allows them to thrive on uncertainty, deal creatively
with rapid change, and realize the full potential of those who lead
or work with them.
Results
This article is arguing about connection of the resources, dimensions, and applicable capacity of S-intelligence in an organization, which some of them have realized before the research
had been conducted (Amram 2007; Sisk 2008; George 2006;
Wigglesworth 2004; King 2009), and proposed an S-intelligence
solution based on the knowledge management to increase organization productivity. Our solution used the mentor as instructor
applicable capacity of S-intelligence and a knowledge network of
spiritual experience of the learner that is monitored by the mentor of the organization. This model allows us to explore hidden
spiritual capacity in the workplace and realize the full potential
of operationalizing spirituality to increase organization productivity. We can assess people’s S-intelligence and can guide and
reinforce the spirituality within them. This plan could reinforce
an applicable aspect of S-intelligence because it predicts functioning and adaptation, offers capabilities that enable people to
solve meaning and value problems, and attain ultimate goals. In
this e-training system we developed Amram grounded theory of
S-intelligence based on an organization analysis of 41 interviews
conducted with subjects designated as spiritually intelligent by
their colleague.
Conclusion
We should conduct further studies on a broader sample of workers in diverse work environments to detect their opinions about
how they could apply S-intelligence power at work; elaborating
on possible linkages between workers’ emotional intelligence
and the establishment of spirituality at work. Suggestions for
future research: Applying a quantitative study on Islamic S-resource and capacity for Iran’s organizations. Understanding how
this emerging resource reflects on the behavior and experience of
the employee. We need to redefine the mentor of the organization
and his/her duties as a monitoring learner. The extension of S-IT
and redesign mentor program with high efficiently is our main
focus. *Corresponding author. E-mail address: kadkhoda@chmail.ir
EEG Spectrum Weighted Frequency Changes after
Neurofeedback Treatment in Reading Disabled Children
Elnaz Mosanezhad Jeddi*, Amin Asadollahpour
Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran
Introduction
Reading disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated
with EEG abnormalities and reading and cognitive problems regarding the intelligence, education, and age. Neurofeedback treatment tries to improve the behavioral and cognitive deficiencies in
children with reading disabilities via regulating EEG abnormalities, in which electrical brain activity is rewarded or repressed.
The EEG spectrum weighted frequency or brain rate can be considered as an integral state attribute correlated to brain electric
and mental activities. The aim of this study was to analyze QEEG
findings of reading disabled children before and after neurofeedback training and to calculate the EEG spectrum weighted frequency or brain rate as an indicator of general mental arousal in
these children.
Methods
In this multiple baseline single subject design, four children,
aged between 8 and 10 years, who had reading disorder and
no brain injury or psychiatric disorders, completed twenty 30
minute sessions of neurofeedback training. The training protocol was the decreasing delta (1-4 HZ) and theta (4-8 HZ) and
increasing beta (15-18 HZ) activities at T3. To evaluate the effectiveness of the neurofeedback, reading ability was assessed
at before and after the treatment by using the Reading Disability Test. We also examined QEEG changes in power, coherence
and absolute spectra power of the brain waves at pre and post
treatment.
Results
The results showed the improvement in reading disability. Visual inspections showed that the baseline levels remained relatively stable and the improvement is shown after the introduction of treatment. The participants also showed the least amount
of change at post treatment. Results for QEEG did not show any
changes in the power of the targeted bands (delta, theta, and beta
bands), but the coherence in theta band at T3-T4 was normalized
after neurofeedback treatment. Also, the total brain rate was increased from 7.15 to 7.30. The brain rate changes at T4 and T3
were more than other sites. It was calculated 7.22 at T4 and 7.66
at T3 that changed to 6.74 at T4 and to 7.88 at T3 after treatment.
Conclusion
Neurofeedback treatment seems to be a suitable way to remediate the disturbances in brain waves, brain electric and mental
activity, and also in behavioral deficiencies such as reading ability
as a consequence of normalization of brain electric disturbances.
However, further investigations are needed about the use of the
brain rate as an index of general mental arousal. The small numbers of cases also require cautious interpretation, and additional
replications with larger samples would be advantageous.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mosanejad@yahoo.com
A New Rehabilitation Method for Autistic Children
Vahid Azimirad*1, Habibeh Khodaei2, Rogayeh Nobari3, Mahammad Ali Nazari1, Hassan Shahrokhi1
1. University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
2. Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran
3. Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran
Introduction
Autism is a mental desire in which rehabilitation of autism occurs through improvement in social relation problems. Rehabilitation of autistic people is very effective in childhood as they are
able to accept their mental disability easily. One of the problems
in these children is to recognize the correct facial states of other
people, which is more difficult. Some previous software packages
are developed to increase the ability of autistic children in estimation of correct states of emotions like sadness and happiness.
Most of these software packages are presented through animation
as a game but they are not realistic. In this paper a new method of
rehabilitation based on a red picture of a patient is presented. The
effectiveness of this approach is verified experimentally.
Methods
This paper presents a virtual reality environment using the red
picture of the patient’s face. It needs a camera, computer, and interface software, which is developed in game engine packages.
The algorithm is as below: 1. Start; 2. Capture; 3. The picture
of patient by the webcam; 4. Interring to the virtual park, which
is designed in 3dmax; 4. Selecting the virtual section to play; 5.
Getting ticket from virtual ticket man with the face of patient; 6.
Going towards play station according to designed pathl; 7. Waiting for play; 8. Playing with the toy; 9. End. The main idea of this
method is that the child plays the leading role. To study the effectiveness of this procedure 5 autistic children with ages ranging
from 3.5-6 years old were selected, and some photos were taken.
Then the virtual reality, were applied on these photos. Finally the
behaviors of children were studied.
Results
The effect of picture feedback on the autistic children is investigated through this method. The main problem of these children,
which is lack of ability to connect with other people, is improved.
A virtual reality environment is designed using the red photo of
the autistic child, which is playing the game. As the child is playing the lead role of the game, it results in concentration of the
game. Applying a simple version of the game on 5 autistic children provided the results below: 1- 80% of them were able to recognize their faces. 2- All the children who were able to recognize
themselves behaved well in social reactions.
Conclusion
In this paper a new method for rehabilitation of autistic children
is presented. The scenario is that they go to the virtual park as
they are playing computers game, which is designed in 3Dmax,
Open Gl, and Direct X. The main point of this game is that they
are playing the lead role of the game. The effectiveness of the
proposed method was verified through applying it on five autistic
children. It is observed that 80% of children were able to recognize themselves in the virtual reality game and according to social
behaviors; they reacted better in comparison with other children.
Hence the results of this research could be useful in the future
production of games for autistic children.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: v.azimirad@gmail.com
Fabrication and Implementation of Brain Machine Interface System
Maryam Alimohammadi*, Vahid Azimirad, Saleh Razavi Khosroshahi, Ebrahim Mottaghi
Introduction
Brain machine interface (BMI) is the entrance of new words,
which allows for capability of mind engineering. In this approach,
simple and low cost systems are very useful, as they provide the application of BMI in relative science e.g. cognition, medicine, and etc.
Non invasive methods for detecting brain activities could be applied
on any human without any health problems. Electroencephalography (EEG) facilities in hospitals are not cost effective and portable.
On the other hand some commercial portable devices are presented.
But they couldn’t be used for accurate works e.g. interacting with
a robot. In this paper a new method for brain machine interface is
proposed based on EEG. Brain signal gathered by EEG electrode is
conveyed to the computer through an I/O card. The interface software written in Visual Studio C++ is used for data processing and
noise filtering. Then the refined data is sent to a robot.
Methods
The method contains three steps: 1-Getting data from the brain
by electroencephalography electrodes and I/O card; 2-Programming in C++ for processing and filtering; 3-Delivering the data
to the robot. EEG signals all gathered from C3 and C4 parts of
brain which are related to the motion of hands as input, a 1710
HGU IO card, which is produced by Advantech and used to pre
filter, magnify, and convert the signals to digitals. The pseudo
code of program is as below (lines are replaced with slashes): Get
data C to file/Include library/Setup parameter/Function to write
data to files as output streams/Void plot (channel and gain)/{Setup
and read data from I/O card. Read voltage. Convert data double
to chart if (new voltage is bigger than previews)/{Setup motor’s
PWM to move upper}/ else if(new voltage is smaller than previews)/{Setup motor’s PWM to move lower}/else if(voltage is
equal)/{Setup motor’s PWM to move upper}/Write data to file/
Draw EEG plot/}/int main()/{If (can’t open file){Get one character and close }/Initializes the graph package/Devicesetting/Plot
EEG signal/Close device}
Results
Implementing the proposed algorithm on the brain-machine
system results as below: 1. One is able to move the robot by only
thinking. 2. The EEG signals are available on the monitor of the
computer. 3 .The processing methods contains below characteristics: Robot is run based on EEG amplitude processing. It is simple
processing method for showing how the system works. Comparison between new and last amplitude is used. If the next amplitude
is bigger than the preview, robot arm go to up and robot go down
if next amplitude is smaller than preview.
Conclusion
In this paper, a powerful low cost basic system for brain machine
in connection is introduced, and the design and fabrication processes are presented. It contains EEG electrodes, a high gain analog to digital convertor I/O card, a computer, a digital I/O card, and
a 2 degree of freedom robot. The interface software is produced in
Visual Studio C++ and EEG amplitude processing is used for running robot. Robot is worked based on Comparison amplitude. This
system is simple, low cost, and good for BCI setup.
Interaction Modeling of Single Neuron and Carbon Nanotube
Mina Hossienpoor*, Vahid Azimirad, Parviz Shahabi, Homeyra Hatami
Introduction
Electrical excitation of neurons is one of most interesting research areas in neuroscience. On the other hand, developing new
branches in nano engineering such as producing carbon nanotubes
(CNT), humans are able to fulfill their dreams in manipulating
neurons. Some previous works are done in studying toxicity of
CNT, and biocompatibility of them. Some other presented a general study on interaction of CNTs and neurons. But none of them
consider the detail interface of nanotubes and neural systems. In
this paper the mathematical modeling of a single neuron as well
as a carbon nanotube to be an interface of electrode is modeled.
Then the behavior is simulated. Simulation results are presented
and discussed.
Methods
Conductivity of carbon nanotube is determined by authors through
some experimental test. The type used is multiwall CNT with outer
diameter of 10-20 nm and inner diameter of 5-10 nm. The excitation source is light, which has a wavelength of 690 nm, a power
light of 1, frequency of 10Hz, and bias voltage of 1v. Electrical
behavior of a single neuron is modeled according to HodgkinHuxley’s method. Next, the electrical behavior of CNT is modeled.
Finally the interactions of these elements are simulated, which leads
to some ordinary differential equations. They are shown as Eq. 1: the
equations are solved by a mathematical software package.
Results
The results obtained from solving the equations show that carbon nanotubes produce a current with value of μA when it is posed
in front of a light source. Hence, it could stimulate a single neuron
and generate membrane potential from the resting potential mode
of the neuron with a value of -65mv. It should be mentioned that
action potential is about +50mv. After that, the membrane potential again returns back to the resting potential. The total time for
generation action potential in neuron and again returning back to
the resting potential is about 15 ms.
Conclusion
In this paper the interaction of a single neuron and carbon nanotubes are studied. The full model of a single neuron through Hodgkin-Huxley’s method is derived. Furthermore, the mathematical
behavior of carbon nanotube is modeled. The interaction of these
two systems using some ordinary differential equations are studied and simulated. Changes in action potential of membrane in
single neuron and its propagation are studied. Simulation results
show that the electrical current, (which is about 10 μA) produced
by carbon nanotubes is able to excite the neuron and generate the
action potential about +70mv. According to these results, carbon
nanotubes are a powerful candidate in excitation of the brain and
use in neuroscience.
The Effect of Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Training on the
Arousal of International Women Basketball Players
Fereshte Azimipour*, Bita Divsarvnaz
Paarand Specialized Center for Human Enhancement, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Coaches, athletes, and sport psychologists agree that the manifestation of excessive stress and tension before and/or during
competition are major threats to the ability of the athlete to meet
or exceed their performance goals. Athletes with greater psychophysiological self-regulation over somatic (physical) and cognitive (mental) components of anxiety have a greater sense of
personal control over their performance, and cope better with the
stress of competition. Responses to stress are observed in multiple
psycho-physiological systems, with linkages between the nervous
system, the endocrine system, and the immune system, all of
which form the collective heart of the stress response. Intervening
at the level of the nervous system through the use of biofeedback
and neurofeedback assessment and training can enhance an athlete’s competitive advantage. The purpose of this research was to
study heart rate variability biofeedback training, which effects on
self-regulation of physiological states, such as sympathetic arousal. The use of peripheral biofeedback is growing rapidly in sport
psychology. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of
heart rate variability biofeedback training in decreasing competition stress, anxiety, and muscle tension.
resonant frequency through a pacing stimulus; and spectrum analysis biofeedback training. During such interventions, the athletes
learn to decrease their respiration rate to (4-7 breath per minute)
and increase the total power of resonance frequency and shift the
maximum power to 0.1 (HZ) frequency (low frequency). The effect of this training was explored by the wireless physiological
monitoring and feedback system (a Pro Comp and Biograp system).
Results
The results of the study suggest that biofeedback training may
help to train stressed athletes acquire a control over their psychophysiological processes, thus helping an athlete to perform maximally. Also they developed self-regulation techniques to decrease
their sympathetic arousal. The results showed that all the subjects
can decrease the respiration rate and increase the total power of
HRV resonance, and they learned how to shift to LF range in spectral analysis and increase low frequency/high frequency LF/HF
ratio as a measure of sympathetic and parasympathetic systems.
Conclusion
Methods
The athletes can enhance their sport performance because it
gives them new tools for stress managing, arousal and anxiety
In this research 10 elite athletes (6 men, 4 women, mean regulation (according to the result). Research in the field of Bioage=24.5) with experience at the international level, received feedback training provides credible information to athletes, as
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Biofeedback training for 10 consec- well as coaches, sport psychologists, and other support staff workutive days for 20 minutes that included breathing at individual’s ing with the athletes.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: azimipour@paarand.org
A Study of Emotion Metaphors in Persian language Based on
Cognitive Linguistics Approach
Ghazale Mobini*, Behrooz Mahmoodi-Bakhtiari
Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Methods
Cognitive linguistics is an approach in which the language is
viewed as an instrument for discovering the structure of a human
being’s cognitive system. It also views the language as a representation of the imaginary structure of mind. This approach that was
first introduced by Lakoff (1987) changed the concept of meaning. According to it, meaning is a concept that is constructed in
our mind as the result of the usage of a linguistic form and the
objective or sensual experience of a situation. This imagination
is projected in the structures of the language. In a word, the categorizations of the individual’s mind are formed by the experiences. In this approach, different conceptualizations, including
metaphor, are formed by various experiences. Metaphor plays an
important role in cognitive linguistics and is considered an essential characteristic of language. Indeed through the advent of cognitive approach in linguistics, the concept of traditional metaphor
was changed and reconceptualized. In regards to the importance
of cognition of mind processes and its projection in language
as well as application of metaphor in everyday language usage,
rather than merely using it in the literature domain and different orientation of metaphor from cultures to cultures, this essay
tried to investigate which metaphorical pattern was introduced
by Lakoff (1980, 1992). The emotions in the Persian language
are represented, and indeed this was done in order to consider the
emotion metaphors in Persian based on the cognitive linguistics
approach. Before this study, two researches had been completed
by Sandstörm (2006) and Kövecses, which focused on emotion.
In his paper, Kövecses discusses “Metaphor and Emotion”, and
he expressed the concept of emotion metonymy and metaphor
and their relationships with each other. Then he determined that
emotion metaphors are not universal because the source domains
may vary from cultures to culture. Sandstörm’s paper “when motion becomes emotion”, considered emotion metaphors that were
produced by verbs of motion. He said that the abstract emotion,
were expressed in terms of the concrete motion. However, it is the
first time that emotion metaphors in the Persian language have
been studied.
The study was conducted with the means of collecting colloquial statements expressing emotion from “Najafi’s colloquial
idiomatic dictionary” corpus
Results
It was concluded that metonymy and metaphor should be discriminated in the study of emotions. This means that emotion
metonymies are based on behavioral reactions or psychological
effects. The metaphor is based on the simile and connection between source and target domain which confirms that metonymy
works based on one domain. In other words, there are no similes
in metonymies and we produce and understand them as the result of the cognition of behavioral and psychological reactions to
emotional situations. Therefore, these experiences are projected
in our statements, but when we produce emotion metaphors, we
connect two things or domains, for example “ye gule atæ odæn”,
we imagine anger as fire or as a hot substance. Another metaphor
in Persian is “æz kure dar ræftæn” we imagine the emotion anger
as motion.(sandstorm,2006:10). Emotions are expressed in different ways, some emotions are expressed metaphorically and the
others metonymically. We’ve listed the samples as emotion metonymies and the others as emotion metaphors. The conclusions
revealed some agreements with Sandstörm’s research (2006) that
discriminated emotion metaphor and metonymy focused on verbs
of motion. However, our consideration focused on the different
samples of emotion metaphors, not only the metaphors produced
by verbs of motion.
Conclusion
1. Metaphors are different from metonymy. 2. All emotions
aren’t expressed by metaphors; therefore, emotion metaphors
should be discriminated with emotion metonymy. 3. The most
emotion metaphors in the Persian language are structural and ontological.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mobnig@yahoo.com
Involvement of D1 Dopaminergic Antagonist upon Open-Arms
Exploratory Behavior Induced by NMDA in to
Nucleus Accumbens Shell
Samira Razavi Movahed*1, Mohammad Nasehi2, Mohammad Reza Zarrindast3
1. Science and research Branch, Azad University,Tehran, Iran
2. Faculty of Basic Sciences, Azad University, Garmsar Branch, Semnan, Iran
3. Institute for Cognitive Science Studies (ICSS), Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Glutamatergic system stimulation in some parts of the brain
may affect anxiety-related behaviors and aversive learning and
memory. This system has many interactions with dopaminergic
neurotransmission in the brain. One of the main nuclei in the limbic system, which received a rich amount of dopaminergic system
and has an important role in the regulation of many physiological cognitive and non-cognitive behaviors, is nucleus accumbens
(NAc). Based on solid evidence, it has been shown that NAc dopaminergic system has a pivotal role in the modulation of learning,
memory, and anxiety-like behaviors. We have studied the effect of
Glutamatergic system activation in the inside shell of nucleus accumbens on anxiety-related behaviors and aversive learning and
memory in adult male Wistar rats using the NMDA receptor agonist, NMDA. Furthermore, the possible involvement of dopamine
D1receptors antagonist, SCH23390, of the shell of nucleus accumbens in NMDA induced effects, has been evaluated.
Methods
Male Wistar rats weighting 250 – 280 g at the time of surgery
were used. The animals were housed in a colony maintained at (22
 2 C) a 12-h light/12-h dark cycle and were allowed free access to food and water inside cages. All surgical procedures were
conducted under ketamine–xylazine anesthesia. Stainless steel,
22-gauge guide cannulaes were implanted over the right and left
NAc regions according to the atlas of Paxinos and Watson. All
animals were allowed one week to recover from surgery. For drug
infusion, the stylets were removed from the guide cannulae and
replaced by 27-gauge injection needles. Each injection unit was
connected by polyethylene tubing to 1 µl Hamilton syringe. The
elevated plus-maze task was used to assess the effects of drugs
on anxiety, learning, and memory concomitantly in the rats. The
number of open- arms entries (OAE) and enclosed-arms entries
(EAE), as well as the time spent in open- and enclosed-arms
(OAT-EAT) were measured for both test/re-test days. Raw data
were used to calculate the percentage of time spent in open-arms
{%OAT; [(time in open-arms/300)100]}, %OAE (open arms entries/ open arms entries + enclosed-arms entries).This latter response is categorized as risk assessment, and has also been considered closed related to anxiety. The total arm entries were measured as a relative pure index of locomotor activity.
Results
NMDA increases the %OAT (0.25 and 0.5 μg/rat), %OAE (0.25
and 0.5 μg/rat) and decreased locomotor activity not-significantly,
indicating an anxiolytic-like response to NMDA. The re-test data
suggest that NMDA increases the %OAT (0.25 and 0.5 μg/rat)
and %OAE (0.25 and 0.5 μg/rat), while this does not alter the
locomotor activity upon re-test as compared to the control group,
indicating an impairment of the aversive memory acquisition by
NMDA. The NMDA anxiolytic-like effect may also be linked to
the impairment in further avoidance acquisition. Furthermore,
inhibition of dopaminergic system probably via SCH23390 increases the %OAT (0.25 μg/rat), %OAE (0.25 and 0.5 μg/rat) and
decreased the locomotor activity (0.5 μg/rat) upon test, indicating
that SCH 23390 may induce an anxiolytic-like response. Moreover, the data revealed that, SCH 23390 increases the %OAT
(0.5 μg/rat), %OAE (0.25 and 0.5 μg/rat) and doesn’t alter the
locomotor activity on the re-test day as compared to the control
group, which indicated that SCH 23390-treated rats had their
aversive memory to open-arm exploration negatively affected as
compared to the control group. Moreover, intra NAc microinjection of SCH23390 the sub-threshold dose of SCH23390 (0.125
μg/rat) prior to NMDA, reversed the anxiolytic-like effect and
blocked the aversive memory impairment induced by intra NAc
shell NMDA.
Conclusion
Our results suggested a modulatory effect of the NAc shell dopaminergic system on the effects induced by NMDA.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addresss.razavimovahed@gmail.com
Psychologism in Logic: Plausible or Implausible?
Maziar Chitsaz*
Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Psychologism is an approach in philosophy, which claims many
notions of philosophy can be reduced to empirical facts of psychology. This paper focuses on logical psychologism. Logical
psychologism claims that laws of logic can be reduced to our
mental process of reasoning. This thesis is as old as Mill’s writings. Psychologism was accepted by nineteen century philosophers, but in twentieth century after some objections (especially
by Frege and Husserl); it has been neglected for many years. But
it seems that those objections are not as convincing as it appears.
Methods
Our defense method of psychologism is an analysis of Frege and
Husserl’s argument against psychologism. Generally, arguments
against psychologism can be summarized as follows: a) Logic is
exact; psychology is inexact. This objection says that empirical
and statistical nature of psychology prevents logical laws to be
reduced to psychological laws or entities. We are not claiming that
syntax of logical laws can be reduced to psychological entities;
rather we claim that the justification of semantics of logic can be
analyzed according to statistical study of our mind’s process. b)
Logic is a priori; psychology is a posteriori. This objection does
not necessarily refute psychologism. There are two lines of defense here: 1) if logic is a priori, then some part of psychology is a
priori too. 2) There is not a priori logical law or truth at all; every
logical law or truth must be justified as a posteriori. c) Logic is
prescriptive; psychology is descriptive. This objection says that
logic is not mere description of how we reason, but prescribes
how we ought to reason. But psychology as an empirical science,
just describe how our mind works. But there is wrong presupposition about sciences here: none of the empirical sciences are purely
descriptive. Mechanical and biological laws not only describe
how the world and our body works, but prescribe how we must
act “correctly” to build a bridge and survive. d) Logic is universal; psychology is human species-specific. How do we know that
there can’t be other types of logical laws or truths? Have we ever
studied the minds of aliens? In fact, diversity of logical systems
(higher order logic, fuzzy logic, free logic, paraconsistent logic,
quantum logic, etc.) show that there is not a “universal” law of
logic. Even most obvious laws of standard logic, such as the Law
of Non-Contradiction, have been challenged. e) Logic is presupposed by any theory, including psychology. This doesn’t necessarily mean that logic can’t be reduced to psychology; it simply implies that some part of psychology must come before other parts.
Perhaps this part of psychology is necessary for every other theory
of science. f) Logic is objective; psychology is subjective. There
is slight confusion between what is subjective and the studies of
psychology, such as the mental process of reasoning. However,
the results ‌of this study are surely objective. Psychology discovers
objective facts about our minds (and therefore about our world).
Results
None of main objections to psychologism are conclusive. It appears that authority of Frege and Husserl as two great philosophers
of two different traditions caused others to neglect and strengthen
their arguments.
Conclusion
Logic is not a branch of psychology, however it could explain
why logical laws seem a priori, and why there are many systems
of logic. Moreover, it does not necessarily render logic a descriptive discipline. Psychologism as a philosophy of logic is completely plausible.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: maziar_chitsaz@yahoo.com
Developmental Patterns in the Comprehension and Production of
Generic Noun Phrases in Persian-Speaking Children
Shahla Raghibdust*, shohre Sadeghi, Elahe Taheri Ghaleno
Allame University Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Generic nouns play an important role in the conceptual development of chidren language. A Generic noun phrase conveys generalizations about an entire category, and represents properties applying to all members of a category. Every language has its own
particular morphosyntactic capacity to refer to generic nouns.
For example, generic noun phrases are expressed in English with
multiple formal devices, including bare plurals, definite singulars,
and indefinite articles (Gelman, 2004). In Persian, generic noun
phrases are expressed via multiple grammatical devices, including singular noun phrases (e.g., “Giyah be ab niyaz darad”), plural
noun phrases (e.g., “Giyah be ab niyaz darand”), and hӕr/hič +
indefinite noun phrases (e.g., “har giyahi be ab niyaz darad” “hičh
giyahi be ab niyaz nadarad”). What all these expressions have in
common is a conceptual basis. They refer to a kind as a whole
(Gelman, 2004: 2). Generic nouns help children in inductive inferences and play a crucial role in the developmental trend of their
conceptual processing. This issue has been the topic of interest to
various researchers in different languages and in particular English (Star, et al., 2002; Gelman et al., 2003; Gelman and Raman,
2003; Gelman, 2004; Gelman and Bloom, 2007; Hollander, 2007;
Cimpian and Markman, 2008; Cimpian et al., 2011; and Gelman
and Nayer (2011). The present research aims to examine the developmental patterns of generic processing in Persian-speaking
children. To achieve this goal, we have tested their level of sensitivity to different morphosyntactic cues in the production and
comprehension of generics.
Methods
All children were normal Persian monolinguals recruited from
kindergartens in Tehran. They all came from middle and uppermiddle class families, and were selected from three age groups
of 3-4, 4-5, and 5-6. For the purpose of the study, one experiment
was conducted to determine whether the children were able to
interpret singular and plural noun phrases as generic using dif-
ferent tasks. The children were shown 10 pictures of objects, and
the experimenter asked them some questions about the atypical
properties of the objects. Half of the questions consisted of indefinite noun phrases, and half included definite ones. The responses
were coded and analyzed according to the three types of generic
(category-wide), non-generic (specific) and irrelevant responses.
Results
We performed a data analysis on the subjects category-wide and
specific responses based on the (a) NP type (indefinite vs. definite)
and (b) age group as variables. The findings revealed that all three
age groups had an appropriate level of linguistic ability to process
the generic NPs proportionate to their ages. However, the oldest
group outperformed the two other ones. As predicted, the children
had significantly produced category-wide responses when they
heard questions with indefinite NPs as compared to when they
heard questions with definite NPs across the groups. The children
in the 3-4 age group performed correctly on 35% of the questions
containing indefinite NPs and they gave correct answers on 10%
of the questions containing definite NPs. The children in the 4-5
age group had a 60% correct response on the questions including
indefinite NPs and 25% correct responses on the questions involving definite NPs. The third group (5-6 years old) scored 70% and
37% scored correctly on the questions containing indefinite and
definite NPs.
Conclusion
This study provides strong evidence that children, even as young
as 3, are able to interpret indefinite singular NPs when referring
to a kind or generic concept. However, an intergroup data analysis indicated a progressive developmental pattern of performance.
This confirms that our Persian-speaking subjects were able to use
the morphosyntactic cues of the language properly to recognize
generic/ non-generic status of the noun phrases.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: neishabour@hotmail.com
Language Attrition from Various Perspectives
Parvaneh Khosravizadeh*, Mohammad Meisam Safarzadeh
Introduction
Results
The notion of attrition has been defined by scholars from various perspectives in fields such as linguistics, psycholinguistics,
neurolinguistics or sociolinguistics. Depending on their perspective, researchers study forms of language loss in various cases
including aphasia, dementia, healthy aging, bilingual and multilingual speakers. Attrition was primarily studied from a pathological (neurotic) perspective in people with aphasia but was later
extended to cover the non-pathological cases of language loss.
From a non-pathological perspective, primary language attrition
refers loss of language abilities of non-disordered individuals in
an L2 environment (Altenberg and Vago, 2004). Language attrition is widespread in situations where two languages come into
contact with each other. The idea of investigating the loss of language initially came from foreign language students who spent
an enormous amount of time learning a second language; however, later forgotten as time passed. Language loss investigation
has been researched from various but complementary linguists,
sociolinguists, neurolinguists, and psycholinguists. More recently,
it has been proposed that attrition may not be such an extreme
or discrete phenomenon (Schmid and Kopke 2007). Drawing a
line which separates the attriter from the non-attriter has proven a
daunting task in the past (Kopke and Schmid, 2004), which might
indicate that L2 influence on L1 is a natural consequence of the
competition of more than one linguistic system in the same mind/
brain. In situations where L2 is used more extensively than L1
over a long period of time, these influences may only be more
pronounced and more clearly observed. The goal of this paper is
to shed light on this phenomenon, and study language attrition
from different perspectives.
Methods
This paper is the outcome of library research, conducted in order to re-interpret the idea of language attrition based on various
theories related to this phenomenon.
This paper considers different reasons of language attrition by
comparing frameworks of regression hypothesis, UG perspective,
linguistic feature hypothesis, psycholinguistic aspects of attrition,
critical period hypothesis, and cognitive maturity view.
Conclusion
The most important conclusion that has been drawn, and to which
the growing interest in attrition over the last decade has contributed
significantly to, is that language competence is not stable. A better
understanding of language decline in healthy subjects is essential for
a better understanding of language problems in pathological cases.
The overall picture of attrition, which can be drawn from the current findings, illustrates that it is most likely that an individual’s
language attrition is governed by processes that have their roots
in the overall cognitive nature of memory. Growingly converging evidence supports the fact that L1 attrition in adults, being
fundamentally psycho-, or having neurolinguistic issues related to
the brain, and behavioral constraints. This conception of attrition
is best demonstrated by a definition given by de Bot (2002): “L1
language attrition is both a decline of the retrievability of declarative linguistic knowledge and deproceduralization of linguistic
knowledge in L1, and an increase of competition by L2 knowledge.” Accordingly, one of the most important conclusions that
can be drawn after decades of attrition research is that the most
important extralinguistic factors revealed to influence L1 attrition
have their psycholinguistic equivalents. For instance the frequency of use has a direct consequence on the activation levels and
consequently influences the balance between the two languages.
Language loss has been studied from several different perspectives, linguists, sociolinguists, neurolinguists, and psycholinguists. Based on findings from these various but complementary
perspectives, sets of reasons for language attrition are indicated
which illustrates a need for further research.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: khosravizadeh@sharif.edu
Effectiveness of Past Memories Mental Review Therapy on Social
Adjustment of Retirees
Kamran Yazdanbakhsh*, Saeid Askari
Introduction
One of the groups that are at risk of social conflict is retirees and
the elderly. Today, adjustments are increasing in people who are
impaired in some way after retirement and have lost their ability
to provide an effective behavior in adapting to a new situation
after retirement. A range of interventions exist for retirees with
adjustment problems and one of them is life review therapy (past
memories mental review therapy). The logic of this treatment is
that the maladjusted person should be engaged in a melioration
process of consideration asthenia of his life and rid himself of inconsistency and constant rumination.
Method
The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of using
life review techniques to increase social adjustment in the life of
retired people. In this study, which was experimental, 30 retired
persons interested in participating in the study, which according to
the Bell Adjustment Questionnaire (BAQ) had an under average
adjustment score, were replaced randomly in experimental and
control groups. The experimental group that was treated with life
review therapy consisted of 12 sessions of individual counseling,
which turned out to be more than an hour each session.
Results
Analysis of covariance was used to assess the differences in both
groups and with pretest effect control. It can be revealed that two
groups have significant differences in the adjustment post-test
(F=91.01, p<0.001). So, with 99% confidence, the maladjustment
average in life review therapy group is less than the control group.
And 93 percent of the variance in the differences between the two
groups can be explained by means of the adjusted post-test scores
of adjustment.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be mentioned that the experimental intervention has had an effect and an improvement on the adjustment of retired people. It appears that life review therapy, with
mental restoration of experiences and past conflicts, causes their
re-evaluation, resolves conflicts, re-summates them, and results
in mental integrity. During the life review process, an individual
reveals unknown characteristics and untold experiences of his life
to family. These manifestations change the quality of relationships
and forms new intimacies. Also, this experience increases insight,
self-understanding, and creates a positive behavioral, cognitive,
and emotional change.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: kamran@hotmail.fr
Avoidance Component of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in
Relation to Psycho-Social Resources
Saeid Askari*, Kamran Yazdanbakhsh
Introduction
The world was affected during the catastrophe of the holy defense war between Iran and Iraq, which lasted eight years (19801988), and ended with Iran succeeding in defending itself. Stress
researchers are interested in regard to stressors, such that Iran
faced during the war. It is obvious that one of the important outcomes of the war is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In the
light of some earlier studies, the three main components of PTSD
are: avoidance, intrusion, and hyperarousal. It was of great interest and significance to examine the effects of combat exposure,
locus of control, and social support on one of the most important
components of PTSD, which is avoidance. Avoidance refers to the
tendencies of psychic numbing, conscious denial of meaning and
consequences, behavioral inhabitation, or counterphobic activities related to the stressful life event. Thus, the present study was
designed to find out the effect of combat exposure, locus of control and social support on avoidance component of PTSD. Also,
we studied the effects of various interactional combinations of the
above mentioned factors on avoidance component of PTSD.
Methods
Participants included 320 Iranian males with experience of combat exposure during the eight year war between Iran and Iraq. The
impact of this event scale-revised (IES-R: Weiss, Marmar, 1995)
was used to measure the avoidance component of PTSD. The
combat exposure scale (CES) was used for combat exposure measure. The Rotter’s Internal-External Scale (I-E Scale) was used
for measure of locus control. The Social Support Questionnaire
(SSQ) was used to measure social support satisfaction. Thus, as a
result of scoring different tests, 4 measures were obtained. Multivariate analysis of variance involving combat exposure, locus of
control, and social support was applied to ascertain the effects on
avoidance component of PTSD.
Results
Findings revealed that the main effects of combat exposure, locus of control, and social support have emerged to be significant
in the case of avoidance symptoms of PTSD, which were derived
from the avoidance subscale of the IES-R. All three second-order
interaction effects as well as the third-order interaction effect have
turned out to be insignificant. Furthermore, for the avoidance component of PTSD, F-Values for combat exposure [F(1,312)=9.72
, p<0.002], locus of control [F(1,312)=5.65, p<0.01], and social
support [F(1, 312)=4.44, p<0.03], have all been found to be significant.
Conclusion
Thus, the results of the current study demonstrated that combat exposure has potential long-lasting effects that leave persons
emotionally vulnerable, resulting in avoidance symptoms of
PTSD. Therefore, associations were found between the amount
of combat stress and avoidance symptoms of PTSD intensity. The
results regarding social support are consistent with earlier findings about the positive effects of social support on components
of PTSD. High levels of perceived social support appeared insignificant minimized in comparison to symptoms of PTSD. The
findings also revealed the importance of locus of control in the
development of avoidance component of PTSD.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: Dri.saeidaskari@yahoo.com
The Occurrence of Neurological Symptoms in Currently Abstinent
Misusers of Alcohol
Muhammad Khalily*
Department of Psychology International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan
Introduction
Alcohol misuse and dependence are associated with significant psychiatric and physical morbidity. Significant neurological
symptoms may be overlooked because of the traditional view that
the non-Korsakoff’s psychosis, middle aged alcoholic misuser is
neurologically preserved. This study is aimed to investigate the
presence of neurological symptoms in individuals with misuse
or dependence on alcohol, who were abstinent for at least one
month. Therefore, in this study we wanted to evaluate neurological symptoms in individuals with alcohol dependence and misuse
who are currently abstinent (for greater than one month). We also
wanted to ascertain the prevalence of other health difficulties in
this population and ascertain the persistence of symptoms post
alcohol cessation.
Methods
We used two scales from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) to ascertain the presence of both neurological symptoms (HEA-2) and symptoms of general health concern
(HEA-3) in 70 individuals who had a diagnosis of alcohol misuse
or dependence, who were abstinent for greater than one month.
Results
Individuals reported more neurological symptoms than general
health difficulties (p=0.001). We detected neurological symptoms,
unlike general health difficulties, in individuals who were abstinent from alcohol for 12 months. When we examined diagnostic
subgroups, general health difficulties were most present in individuals with anxiety disorders; however, neurological difficulties
were present across diagnostic groups.
Conclusion
In this study, we ascertained that neurological symptoms were
common in individuals with alcohol dependence or misuse, who
were abstinent from alcohol for periods of up to two years. Clinicians should enquire and carry out neurological examinations on
individuals with a history of alcohol problems due to the treatability of many neurological symptoms. In addition to detailed
clinical examinations, future studies in this population would benefit from including both the HEA-2 scale and other psychometric
measures, such as the Repetitive Battery for the assessment of
neuropsychological status (RBANS) and the Quick Neurological
Screening Test (QNST), therefore allowing investigators to delineate neurological symptoms and compare the sensitivity and
specificity of each psychometric instrument.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: khalily64@gmail.com
The Comparison of Metacognitives Beliefs in Patients with
Epilepsy and Normal Group
Rozita Heidari*
Payam Nour University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Metacognition Questionnaire (MCQ-30).
Theory and research in metacognition evolved in the areas of
developmental and cognitive psychology and has recently been
developed as a basis for understanding and treating psychological
disorders. Metacognition refers to cognition applied to cognition,
and may be defined as any knowledge or cognitive process that
is involved in the appraisal, control, and monitoring of thinking.
Psychiatric aspects of epilepsy have been extensively reviewed in
the past. Epilepsy is a chronic disorder carrying a severe burden
on affected people. Patients with epilepsy are at greater risk of
psychopathology, anxiety, depression, and suicide than the general public. The individual with epilepsy has positive metacognitive beliefs about the use of worrying as a means of coping, but
also has negative metacognitions concerning its uncontrollability
and potential harmful effects. This leads to unhelpful patterns of
metacognitive regulation causing pathological worrying and anxiety. Common cognitive defects in people with epilepsy are, intellectual decline, reduced information processing speed, reduced
reaction time, attentional defects, and memory impairments. This
study explored differences in metacognitive beliefs between patients with and without epilepsy.
Methods
In this case-control setting, 20 males with epilepsy ages 22
– 30 years referred to hospitals of Shiraz using the convenience
sampling method. All the participants filled the Scale List of the
Results
Results indicated a significant difference between the metacognitive beliefs in patients and normal groups. Regarding the MCQ
sub-scales (positive worry beliefs, beliefs about uncontrollability and danger of thoughts, cognitive competence, beliefs about
need to control thoughts, and cognitive self –consciousness), there
was a significant difference between patient and normal groups in
beliefs about uncontrollability and danger of thoughts, cognitive
competence, and beliefs about the need to control thoughts.
Conclusion
Cognitive and behavioral functioning have been found to predict
social competence in people with epilepsy, particularly in relation to social activities and interpersonal relations. Studies have
revealed that patients with epilepsy who utilize coping strategies
and who have high self efficacy and more positive attitudes towards their disorder are less likely to experience psychosocial
problems. Cognitive behavioral therapy may be a particularly
useful intervention to increase self efficacy and promote more
positive attitudes. Self efficacy beliefs and active coping strategies may be crucial in improving employability in people with
epilepsy, which may also help people with epilepsy to adapt and
accept having epilepsy. Applications, implications, and some suggestions for further studies are presented.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: rozita.heidari@ymail.com
Modification of Coding of Human Brain Data Based
on Cognitive Method
Asma Shirazi*1, Ataollah Abbasi2
1. Department of Mechatronics, Islamic Azad University, Ahar, Tabriz, Iran
2. Computational Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Biomedical engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran.
Introduction
Information in neural systems is conveyed by way of phase and
rate codes. Neuronal signals are processed through transformative
biophysical mechanisms at the cellular and network levels. Neural coding transformations can be exhibited mathematically in a
device called the cognitive rhythm generator (CRG). In this study,
the CRG model was used. This model simulated hippocampal
brain function. In this paper, parameters of the model were modified using genetic algorithm. Results showed that these modifications caused the model regenerate a more realistic output, and
reduced the error of the model.
Methods
The CRG model has complicated non-linear calculations. In
this study non-linear calculations were eliminated by substituting
compact non-linear model with linear network model. Also, by
using of genetic algorithm, results of linear networks and nonlinear CRGs were closed to each other and coupling strengths were
optimized.
Results
Various modes were tested. In one mode all coupling strengths
were used as input for genetic algorithms. In other modes, some
of them had not participated in genetic algorithms for modification. Using this way we could study the role of each parameter
on the output of networks. Results of inhibitory and excitatory
network are demonstrated below. Inhibitory network had 3 parameters (x1, x2, and x3); by modification the combination of x1, x2,
and x3 the value of error was 0.0501. By modification of only one
parameter, the value of error was 1.2320, 1.4428, and 1.4429 for
change x1, x2, and x3 respectively. By modification of two parameters, the value of error was 1.1327, 1.1371, 1.4396 for change
in x1 along with x2, x1 along with x3, and x2 along with x3 respectively. Results showed that all parameters affected on the output.
Excitatory network has 5 parameters (x1, x2, x3, x4, and x5). By
modifying only one parameter the value of error was 0.00541.
By modifying a combination of parameters, which included: x3,
x4, and x5; x1 and x4; x1, x2, and x3, the value of error was 0.0644,
0.0092, and 0.0942.. Results indicated that parameters x1, x4, and
x5 had more effect on output.
Conclusion
Coupling strengths play an important role in the behavior of
networks. Various behaviors across different regions of the hippocampus can be investigated by changing these parameters. In this
research we studied the effect of these parameters on the output
of CRG model, and showed that error of the output decreased by
modification of these parameters.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: shirazi_asma@yahoo.com
Personality and Health: The Mediating Role of Sensation Seeking
Soudeh Rahmani*1, Masoud Gholamali Lavasani2, Zahra Tanha3
1. Member of Educational Science Group of ACECR, Tehran, Iran
3. Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
There has been an interest for psychologist to have better understanding of the relationships between personality and health.
This interest has been raised during the past three decades (Watson, Hubbard, 1996). This reemergence was due largely in part to
the growing status of health psychology and behavioral medicine
as separate disciplines and advances in methodology of research,
such as proposing structural equation modeling (Korotkov, Hannah, 2002). Despite several studies that examined these relationships, many concerns remained in this field. In earlier research
there was only focus on single personality factor on health, while
in newer studies the relationships between the big five factors
of personality on health have been examined. More recently, research has gone further by trying to examine mediators between
personality traits and health (Johnson, Holdsworth, 2009). The
purpose of this study was to investigate the role of sensation seeking as a mediator of the paths between the big five personality
factors (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness, neuroticism) and general health in university students.
Methods
Research design of the current study is non-experimental and a
correlational study. 171 undergraduate students (106 female and
65 male) were selected from the University of Tehran using cluster
sampling. The NEO-PI-R Questionnaire (Costa, McCrae, 1992),
Sensation Seeking Scale form V (Zuckerman, 1978) and GHQ
Questionnaire (Goldberg, Hiller, 1979) were used as instruments.
Collected data were analyzed with structural equation modeling
using LISREL 8.5 software. Structural equation modeling and
mediation analyses, demonstrated as hypothesized, that sensation
seeking mediated the paths between personality and health.
Results
Based on the results, the initial model showed only fitness in
some indicators. Therefore, modified model was used to explain
the results. Results according to modified model indicated the direct effect of age, neuroticism, and conscientiousness on health.
Furthermore, sensation seeking mediated the indirect effect of
agreeableness and conscientiousness on academic achievement.
Neuroticism factor had the greatest role in explaining general
health variance. Eventually, the results showed that the model adequately fit the data.
Conclusion
This study, just like every research conducted, had some limitations. The students from the University of Tehran were only included in the study, therefore the results should be generalized
with caution. Moreover, data were based on students’ self-reported questionnaires, which may have affected the results. Further
research is required with more objective measures, especially for
general health. There are many individual and environmental factors that affect general health. The variables we discussed, and the
variance of general health in this study were individual factors
therefore, we suggest further research by entering effective environmental factors on the model to fulfill this vacancy and provide
a better estimate of students’ general health.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: srahmani@tmu.ac.ir
The Effect of Teachers’ Skills in Using Teaching Models on
the Improvement of Students’ Learning and Studying Strategies at
Cognitive and Metcognitive Levels
Mohammad Reza Yaghoubi Karnami*1, Mohammad Taghi Motamedi Talavuki2
1. Farhangian University, Sari, Iran
2. Azad University, Sari, Iran
Introduction
Throughout history, human beings are constantly attempting
to pass down the experiences and knowledge they achieve from
generation to generation, and the need for teaching and learning
causes the human societies to maintain their existence and sustain their development. No one can deny the teacher’s role in this
process of learning and teaching. However, in recent perspectives
on teaching, the teachers’ role is shifting from the ‘feeder’ to the
‘facilitator’. In other words, Instead of merely loading the learners’ head with knowledge and information, they should provide
them with some strategies of learning and studying, in order to
help them become “autonomous” learners. One way that helps
teachers facilitate the learner’s autonomy is, according to some
research, the development of strategies of learning and studying
in the learners by using teaching models. Therefore, the present
study aims at investigating the impact of teachers’ skills in using teaching models on the improvement of Iranian high school
students’ learning and studying strategies at cognitive and metacognitive levels.
Methods
In terms of purpose, it is an applied research, and in terms of
method, regarding the unequal control group and the pre and
post- test administered on the two groups, experimental and control, it is regarded a quasi–experimental research. The population
includes 6230 high school students from the city of Sari, out of
which, 364 students were chosen, 184 girls and 180 boys were
chosen. Based on Kerjecie and Morgan’s table and stratified random sampling, as the subjects of the investigation. Then, they
were divided into two groups: the experimental group (consisting
of 8 classes) and the control group (also consisting of 8 classes).
The instruments consist of, a 40-item questionnaire composed of
cognitive and metacognitive learning and studying strategies, the
validity of which, was verified by a few professors of psychology
and some experts working as the heads of the educational groups
in the Mazandaran Educational Office. It was further shown, in
the pilot study, which is based on the Keronback alpha reliability
method, this questionnaire enjoys a reliability index of 0.87.
Results
The results achieved from parametric independent and dependent t-tests indicated that the teachers’ skill in using teaching
models in the experimental groups was significantly effective
in the improvement of learning and studying strategies, cognitive as well as metacognitive strategies. No significant difference
was found among boys and girls. However, the improvement in
metacognitive strategies was significantly better in comparison to
cognitive strategies.
Conclusion
The overall findings of this study suggest that teachers’ skills
in using the teaching models can help incorporate the impacts of
those models in students’ minds and make acquired learning and
studying strategies as part of their procedural knowledge. Implications can be drawn for the teachers, teacher education practitioners, educationalists, material developers, as well as the students
studying cognitive sciences. *Corresponding author. E-mail address: yaghoobimr@yahoo.com
Training Cognitive Strategies to Improve Spelling Disorder
in Elementary School Students
Anvar Miri*1, Shillan Qureshi1 Edalat Karimian2
1. Boukan, Iran
2. Saqez, Iran
Introduction
Interference in the process of writing from 1960 was discussed.
Problems in writing at the beginning of school and other educational activities are likely to impact a child’s academic success,
career, and social risks for him. There was failure in providing
written activities so that problems would be avoided when teaching all the students. The writing process is complex and depends
on the skills and abilities necessary to understand the different patterns of symbolic writing. An ability to communicate well through
writing is a prerequisite for success in school. Usually students
with learning difficulties have a difficult time in school and spend
hours writing. Among the basic academic skills, writing skills has
been called the most visible, but many children can’t take advantage of the skill of writing by hand.
Methods
This experimental study involved pre-testing and post-testing in
both groups. The independent and dependent variables of learning difficulties for spelling is teaching cognitive strategies. There
were 30 students selected with random sampling, who were enrolled in the 92-91 school year with a learning disability in the
elementary school spelling city of Saghez. The students were randomly divided into control and experimental groups. The experimental group lasted for 10 sessions (1) hour per week teaching
cognitive strategies, which received two sessions of training lasting about one month. The data was collected in order to test the
spelling disorders. To show the differences between the groups,
the mean and standard deviation were calculated, and then the test
and control groups for final analysis was performed using analysis
of covariance.
Results
In view of the pre-test scores as a variable auxiliary intervention,
cognitive strategies led to a significant difference between control and experimental groups (p=0.001). Cognitive strategies were
used in order to help students with spelling difficulties improve.
Conclusion
A test is a test recall and accuracy in recall for spelling tests
involves a two-step process. Information must be received very
carefully, which requires attention and help with decoding the information provided. Those who are easily distracted at this stage
will experience a problem. In the next stage, the data subject must
recall correctly while considering the sequence of information.
People who probably can’t receive data correctly may be impaired
at this stage, due to not being able to reject tracing the memory.
Teaching cognitive strategies could improve students’ problem.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: aanoo56@yahoo.com
Comparison of Iranian and Non-Iranian Television Programs
(Satellite and Foreign Cartoons) with Aggression in Children
Khatoon Pourmaveddat*, Marzeyah Azadeh, Esmaiel Sheikhmohseni, Hasan Pouladiy, Hamidh Abounasriy
Payam Noor University, Burazjan, Iran
Introduction
Early childhood aggression can be problematic for parents,
teachers and childhood peers and sometimes predicts a more serious behavioral problem to come, such as juvenile delinquency,
adulthood violence, and criminal behavior (Grohol, 2009). The
media has significant influence on the growth of social behavior
or the behavioral disorders, but we should pay attention to the
role of the cultural differences on producing the content of these
programs. The aim of this study was to compare Iranian and nonIranian television programs on children’s aggression.
Methods
In the study 43 boy students and 50 girl students in fifth grade
were selected by a random cluster method, and they were tested
by Shahim Aggression Scale (2007). Also a questionnaire was
used to determine the type of TV programs (Iranian and non- Iranian satellite programs) that children watch and the average hours
of television watched in a week. The questionnaire was completed
by parents. It was reported the average hours of television watched
was 2 to 8 hours in a week.
Results
Independent t-test indicated that there is a significant difference
between overt (t=-2.29, p<.02), reactive-proactive (t=-2.3, p<.02)
and total aggression (t=-2.3, p<.02) between children who watch
foreign TV programs and who only watch Iranian TV programs.
Also, Pearson Correlation showed that there is a significant difference between the mean of Overt (r=.44, p<.01), reactive-proactive
(r=.24, p<.05) and total aggression (r=.30, p<.01) and variable
hours of watching TV. Conclusion
The results showed that the amount of aggression is increased
by increasing the time of watching TV whether Iranian or non-Iranian programs. Regression analysis also showed that the time of
watching TV is a good predictor for aggression. The study shows
that the content of children’s programs and cartoons that are made
in Iran are less aggressive than the programs which are produced
in other countries. These programs teach proper good social behaviors. Other studies have shown similar results to this research.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: payam_51@yahoo.com
Investigating the Relationship between
Aggression and Social Skills
Khatoon Pourmaveddat*, Vahideh Salah, Marziyh Naserir Bonari, Farnaz Kashef1, Sakeineh Avazzadeh
Payam Noor University, Borazjan, Iran
Introduction
Social problem solving skills are one of the most important factors in the development of children’s mental health, which help
them face problems in the future. More psychological disorders
can be affected by coping with social issues. Having skills in appropriate social relationships with others, empathy, bravery, confidence, jealousy, and kindness can affect aggression. Studies show
that if a person has difficulty in social skills, his personal life, profession, and social work are endangered and he fails. In addition,
there are some factors that cause bias and failure in social skills
such as aggression and hostility, which play a crucial role.
Methods
This is a descriptive and correlation study. The participants of
this study were 300 high school students (155 girls and 145 boys,
aged 13 - 17 years old), that were selected based on random cluster
sampling method in order to investigate the relationship between
aggression and social skills. The study was evaluated by using
Bass and Mery’s aggression scale and Matson’s social skills scale.
Results
data analysis. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between dimension of aggressions, (physical, verbal,
hostility, and anger), and social skills including, assertiveness,
confidence, rebellion, jealousy, and socially appropriate behavior, (p<0.01, p<0.05). Also F coefficient in regression analysis of
investigating the effect of aggression on social skills was 13/07,
which was significant in the 0.05. R2 indicates that 15% of social
skills’ variance is explained by aggression and Anger and Hostility are strong predictors for social skills.
Conclusion
We can conclude that anger, hostility, and aggression are threatening components for students’ social skills. In addition, significant differences were found between boys and girls in the components of social skills (appropriate social relationships with others,
empathy, bravery, confidence, and jealousy), and physical and total aggression. Girls showed less aggression and had better social
skills than boys. Other studies show that people who can solve
their social problems competently and establish good social relationships show less aggressive behaviors than others. Also other
studies on gender differences suggest that girls perform better
than boys (Dadsetan et al., 1388).
Regression analysis and analysis of variance were used for
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: payame_51@yahoo.com
The Relationship between Guessing as a Cognitive Strategy and
the Complex Cognitive Ability of Reading Comprehension
in the Iranian Context
Seyedeh Raheleh Rahgoshay*
Farhangian University, Sari, Iran
Introduction
Recently, there is an interest in understanding foreign language
readers’ cognitive strategies. Many researchers have shown their
enthusiasm to perceive how readers interact with the written material and in what way their cognitive strategies are associated with
text comprehension. Since reading as the most prominent skill
especially for FL learners has been viewed as a complex cognitive ability, much research has generally focused on cognitive factors to find out whether they can have a positive effect on reading
comprehension. Due to the importance of this issue, the present
paper reports a study that investigated the relationship between
“guessing” as a cognitive strategy and the reading comprehension
ability of Iranian EFL learners.
Methods
In order to reach the purpose of this study, a total of thirty Seniors majoring in English, were randomly selected from Mazandaran University and Azad University of Qaemshar, participated
in the study. In the first phase, to make sure that the students
weren’t able to guess the meanings of already known vocabulary, a questionnaire containing sixty words derived from sixty
different TOEFL reading comprehension tests, was distributed
among the college students, and based on their answers, the most
frequent unfamiliar words were determined. In the next phase,
twenty words of this list, which were more likely to be unknown,
had been chosen. Consequently, their corresponding reading comprehension tests were utilized for the final assessment. Based on
these unfamiliar words, an item appraising the guessing ability of
the subjects was included in each reading comprehension test. At
last, these guessing and reading comprehension tests were administered to all the thirty participants who had already received
questionnaires.
Results
After collecting the data, an attempt was made to find, firstly
whether there was any correlation between each student’s score
on guessing ability and the score obtained from the whole questions of reading comprehension tests, and secondly, whether the
performance of the participants from the two variables showed
any relationship or not. So, a correlation analysis and a matched
t- test were conducted, and the result indicated that not only were
the scores on guessing and reading comprehension tests positively
correlated, but there was also a significant relationship between
the Iranian EFL learners’ “guessing ability” and their performance
on reading comprehension tests.
Conclusion
The study corroborated the efficacy of “guessing” as an influential cognitive strategy to enhance reading comprehension, which
is a complex process including a combination of perceptual, psycholinguistic, and cognitive abilities. The findings were very
much in line with those of Dole, Roehler, Pearson, Hamdan, and
Anastasiou. Implications can be drawn from the findings for language learners and instructors as well. The results would benefit
both students and lecturers suggesting that the use of cognitive
strategies particularly guessing strategies, would pave the way to
a better reading comprehension.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: r_rahgoshay@yahoo.com
The Concept of Time and its Relation to the Subject of Identity:
the Present Hole Model
Javad Hassan NiaRoushan*, Ghasem Rostaminia
Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran
Introduction
Methods
To achieve a definition of time, which shows the importance
of subject identity being considered, is a problem that in some
important concepts of cognitive sciences like: mind, consciousness, language, and perception shows the effect and relationship
with the subject identity. Considering this effect, by representing
a model that shows the relationship between the concept of time
and subject identity, allows for systematic descriptive-commentary capacities. What is time? What is the relationship between
“present time”, subject identity, and the concept of time? Our
knowledge about the concept of time has undergone some evolutions in historical range, which has responded to some human
needs. These revolutions have taken place in different branches
of sciences like: physics, biology, and metaphysics (philosophy).
Reviewing the most important revolution that were, mainly in
physics and consisting of the Newtonian concept of linear time
and the special relativity theory (imaginary time), this problem is
discussed in comparison with physics that the space-time model
is efficient to justify the physical phenomenon. Is it possible to
achieve subject identity- time model in order to justify and explain
the psychological phenomenon in cognitive sciences? What is the
place of “subject identity” in our definition about the concept of
time? What is the role of concept of “present time” in relation to
“subject identity” and its relationship with time?
Using logical inference, on the basis of fuzzy theory, theorems,
and mathematical relations, we have explained the present hole
model.
Results
We show that there is no moment that can be considered as an
absolute time. So, we map a continuous time line to a circle with a
discontinuous point and according to this problem, we connected
the concept of the time to subject identity and were led to the definition of time-subject identity and it’s relation to physical time.
According to this model, the subject identity is always set as timeless in the present time hole and its presence causes psychological
time to appear.
Conclusion
The power set of the mental time in the present time hole (the
set of all subset of mental time’s quantized space) has led us to
a definition of the concept of mental time’s quanta space. And
finally, it seems that the concept of subject identity time has more
coordination with psychological phenomenon.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: arman_roshan13@yahoo.com
Detection of Default Mode Network Abnormalities in Epilepsy by
Fusion of fMRI and DTI Using Combined CCA and Joint ICA
AmirHosein Riazi*, Fatemeh Mokhtari, Hamid Soltanian-Zadeh, Gholam AliHossein- Zadeh
University of Tehran, Iran
Introduction
In recent years, there has been an increased interest in neuroimaging studies that include multiple modalities. These studies usually investigate disease or task-related changes in different modalities either separately or jointly. Functional Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (fMRI) is based on the variation of blood flow and also
yields information about gray matter integrity. Diffusion Tensor
Imaging (DTI) provides information about white matter integrity.
A major challenge in combined analysis is to use systematic approaches for fusing these different types of data and find relevant
patterns of change in multiple modalities. According to previous
studies, there are some degrees of correlation between decomposed components from each modality and their mixing profiles
among subjects. Among the existing joint analysis models, joint
independent component analysis (jICA) is able to decompose distinct source maps in neuroimaging data across a group, but it allows only one mixing matrix for all modalities. On the other hand,
canonical correlation analysis (CCA) links two datasets by maximizing correlation of the mixing profiles. Although CCA allows
a specific mixing matrix for each modality, the source maps may
not be significantly different in some cases. Hence, the combination of these complementary approaches may improve the performance of joint analysis of fMRI and DTI.
Methods
For joint analysis, dimensions of the datasets must be the same.
Here, we have a 4 dimensional data of resting state fMRI time
series and a 3 dimensional data for DTI maps. Thus, we apply
a feature extraction method to reduce dimension of the fMRI
data. Lastly, we use amplitude of the low frequency (0.01-0.08
Hz) fluctuation (ALFF) for fMRI and fractional anisotropy (FA)
for DTI as the most informative features. CCA is based on linear
mixture model. It calculates associated components simultaneously for each data type so that canonical variants have maximum
correlation. Then, associated components are concatenated to prepare an observation matrix of ICA. This necessitates separating
sources of data types at the end of the calculations.
Results
The proposed method is applied to the data of 10 subjects including 5 epilepsy patients and 5 healthy controls, acquired at Henry
Ford Health System, Detroit, MI, USA. MDL estimates six components for each feature of resting state fMRI and DTI data. The
differences between healthy control and epilepsy groups in spatial
maps are obtained after back reconstruction and using two sample
t-test (|T|>3.5). Only the fifth component demonstrates significant
differences between the two groups. In addition, functional differences are mostly in medial temporal lobe and precuneus (PCUN),
and structural changes are mostly in corpus callosum.
Conclusion
Results of combining DTI and fMRI reveal changes of structural and functional connectivity in epilepsy patients. Although
changes in posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) are not significant,
structural and functional connections of bilateral medial temporal lobes (mTLs) and PCC/PCUN reduce and those of precuneus
(PCUN) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) increases in patients. Reduced structural connectivity may be a reason for reduced functional connectivity.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: amir_riazi@ut.ac.ir
Coaching: New Approach in Cognitive Behavioral Learning
Pendar Fazel*
Tehran, Iran
Introduction
According to cognitive science, knowledge consists of all forms
of knowing, beliefs, and tendencies. Therefore, contrary to traditional views, which limits learning to knowledge in the sense of
knowing and principally ignores the place of skill and tendency in
the learning, the new approach (integrated) uses all forms of the
above mentioned knowledge in the learning process. In fact, in
this approach effectiveness of teaching and learning is improved
by including skills and tendencies in the education process. On the
other hand, we face different cognitive and behavioral educational
theories in the educational field. Both cognitive and behavioral
theorists use scientific methods in exploring the learning process,
but they are different in assumptions, principles, purposes, and
their methods. Generally, cognitive theorists rely on the information, which is derived from cognition, insight, and notion, but the
behaviorist limits their research to the cases that are achieved directly from observation and evaluation. Generally, each of these
approaches is trying to provide a model for boosting the quality
of education. Methods such as mentoring and coaching are modern approaches and up to date in helping to improve the persons’
ability and competency. Inter alia coaching, as a target-oriented
approach due to integration of different views into an operational
one, is ideal in the present century and has been shown that it
will be effective in converting knowledge into skill, and leads to
transformative learning if it is used efficiently. A coach is a person
who facilitates experiential learning that results in future-oriented
abilities, helps people to integrate their unique mental and physi-
cal characteristics, uses them to improve their ability and self-confidence, perform their duties with more internal satisfaction and
more responsibility, and creates a suitable and required situation
to help achieve their goal.
Methods
In this article we are trying to show the effectiveness of coaching in improving the quality of education. Through comparisons
of approved theories in the field of education with coaching principles and showing how effectively coaching can boost education
by integration, making operational and different approaches, and
theories in the field of education.
Results
First, we are going to show that coaching as a new approach
complied with scientific principles. Secondly, we are going to
show how coaching can improve learning with integrating and
operating different views and theories.
Conclusion
We initially tried to consider cognitive and behavioral theories
and show their relevance with coaching and clarified relevant patterns. We have shown how coaching, which includes different
cognitive and behavioral aspects, can lead to the improvement of
educational levels.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: pendarfazel@yahoo.com
Sex Differences in Farsi Past-Tense Formation in
Patients with Parkinson’s Disease
Karim Johari*1 Matthew Walenski2, Mostaf Daemi1, Farzad Ashrafi3, Michael- T. Ullman4
1. Tabriz University of Medical Science, Tabriz, Iran
2. University of California San Diego, United States
3. Shahid Behshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
4. Georgetown University, Washington DC, United States
Introduction
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with the dysfunction of frontal/basal-ganglia circuits. Although PD is characterized by motor impairments, these circuits
also underline language, specifically grammar: the rule-governed
composition of complex forms (e.g., walk + -ed). Indeed, English-speaking PD patients seem to be impaired at producing pasttenses of regular verbs (e.g., walk, walked) and novel verbs (e.g.,
plug plugged), but relatively spared at irregular verbs (e.g., dig,
dug) (Ullman et al., 1997). However, some evidence suggests that
this pattern is only found in male PD patients, with female PD
patients showing impairments just at novel verbs. This finding is
consistent with independent evidence indicating that rather than
composing regulars, females tend to store them alongside irregulars, whereas they cannot have memorized novel forms (Ullman,
Miranda, and Travers, 2008). Here we examine sex differences in
native-Farsi speaking patients with PD. In Farsi, regular past-tenses are formed by adding a default affix to a verb stem (e.g., kesh
“stretch” adds -”id” to form keshid “he/she stretched”) whereas
irregular past tenses are formed unpredictably (e.g., paz “cook”
changes to pokht “he/she cooked”).
Methods
We recruited 36 patients (20 male, 16 female) with idiopathic
PD from the Movement Disorder Clinic in Shohadiee Tajrish,
Tehran. Patients were right-handed monolingual native-speakers
of Farsi. Male and female patients were matched on age, disease
stage (Hoehn and Yahr scale), mini-mental state exam scores, and
years of education. Patients were tested off levodopa medication.
The control subjects are currently being tested, and are not reported here. Subjects were given an elicit production task (e.g., “U
alan mikeshad”, “Dirooz u _____.” “He/she right-now stretches.
“Yesterday he/she _____.”), to encourage past-tense production
(e.g., keshid “stretched”). The task included 23 regular and 23 ir-
regular verbs, which matched on past-tense and stem frequency,
number of syllables, and number of letters, as well as 23 novel
verbs that were not phonologically similar to any existing verbs.
Results
The preliminary analysis of correct responses (out of 23) revealed that male patients were significantly worse at producing
the past-tenses of regular than irregular verbs (means: 16.4 vs.
19.5; t(19)=2.24, p=0.04). Males were also worse at novel verbs
(mean=14.7) than both irregulars (t(19)=3.47, p=0.003) and regulars (t(19)=2.17, p=0.04). Female patients showed a different pattern, producing fewer correct responses for irregulars (mean=13.5)
than both regulars (mean=21.2; t(15)=5.2, p<0.001) and novel
verbs (mean=16.7; t(15)=2.85, p=0.01). Like the males however,
females produced fewer correct responses to novel than regular
verbs (t(15)=4.37, p=0.001). Comparing between the sexes, women performed better than men at regulars (t(34)=-2.4, p=0.02),
whereas men were better at irregulars (t(34)=2.7, p=0.009). Men
and women did not differ at novel verbs (t(34)=0.9, p=0.36).
Conclusion
The male PD patients produced a pattern consistent with findings from English, with a worse performance at regular and particularly novel past-tenses as compared to irregulars. Females did
not differ from males at novel verbs, but showed better performance at regulars. Interestingly, females showed impairments at
irregulars. In the absence of comparisons with healthy control
subjects, these data must be interpreted with caution. Nonetheless,
they are consistent with novel past-tenses being composed in both
sexes by a system that depends on frontal/basal-ganglia circuits,
whereas regulars are composed by males yet stored by females.
Although irregular past-tenses must be stored, it remains unclear
why females showed particular trouble with these forms. Future
studies may elicit this issue.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: joharyk@gmail.com
Making Cognitive Process Happy through the Provision
of Metaphors for Improving Grammatical Accuracy
Simin Sattarpour*1, Hadi Abdi Ghavidel2
1. Tabriz, Iran
2. Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Humanity can live without food but metaphorical rhythm in its
life. It is commonly perceived that metaphors are nothing but the
sweet stuff of songs and poems, yet in fact all of us speak, write,
and think in metaphors when dealing with everyday situations. It
was Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 1999) who greatly contributed
to establishing the importance of metaphors as a framework for
thinking in language. We believe metaphorical expressions are
good stimuli to gain knowledge and help cognitive and metacognitive processes of knowledge formation increase in a facilitating
manner.
Methods
In the current paper, this idea will be bolstered through investigating whether metaphorically-oriented instructions produced
any differential effects on the acquisition of some English grammatical structures by adult EFL learners. With pre-test–immediate, post-test–delayed, and post-test design, 60 pre-intermediate
English learners were studied. The participants were randomly
assigned to two groups, one experimental group (n=30) and one
control group (n=30). The control group was taught the structure
of English simple present, simple past and simple future through
traditional instruction, whereas those in the experimental group
received the instruction of the same structures through a metaphorically-oriented approach. Prior to starting the treatment sessions, the participants were given a pre-test of the targeted structures in order to ensure their homogeneity and to measure their
proficiency in use of the targeted grammatical structures at the
beginning of the study. Immediately after the treatment sessions,
which lasted about 3 weeks, a post-test was given to the partici-
pants. Additionally, a delayed post-test, one week after the immediate post-test, was administered to confirm the long-term and
established effects of the treatments. Furthermore, at the end of
the study 6 participants from experimental groups were selected
randomly in order to be interviewed; they were asked to reflect
upon the instruction they were provided with.
Results
The statistical results conducted on the driven data, revealed that
the experimental group did better than the control group in terms
of accurate use of the targeted structures in both immediate and
delayed post-tests. Also, in comparison to the performance of the
participants on the pre-test at the beginning of the study, the experimental group proved more accuracy in the long term than the
control group. Finally, analyzing the interview results indicated
that the overwhelming response of the participants, and the questions that were asked indirectly about the effect of the metaphorical-oriented instruction on their performance on the tests, was that
metaphorical examples that were provided during the treatment
sessions acted as reminders of the appropriate structures.
Conclusion
This highlights the implications that EFL learners indicate better performance even in learning the grammatical structures when
they are taught with metaphorical examples by the teacher. As
this study indicated, teachers should feel confident that providing
metaphorical examples while teaching grammar at least on the
targeted structures in the present study, is more effective and helps
learners to better improve in the accurate use of these features.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: s.sattarpour@yahoo.com
Word Meaning Recognition through Textual vs. Pictorial Clues:
A Study of Reaction Time (RT) in Iranian EFL Learners
Neda Hajihassani*1, Ramin Rahimy2
1. Department of English Language, Rasht (Science and Research) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran
2. Department of English Language, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, Iran
Introduction
The present study was an attempt to investigate the reaction time
of recognizing word meanings in the Iranian EFL learners. The
questions this study tried to answer were: 1) would Iranian EFL
learners’ time of reaction to the meaning of the words differ while
recognizing them through text vs. picture? And 2) is there any
difference in the time of reaction to the meaning of the words in
participants’ L2 vs. L1?
Methods
To answer the aforementioned questions, 30 junior B.A. translator trainees from the Islamic Azad University at Tonekabon
were selected via administering an OPT (for homogeneity), and
were divided randomly into three groups of 10: two experimental
groups and one control group. In experiment 1 of the study, the
first experimental group was provided with 10 concrete words
along with four synonym choices in the form of pictures. The second experimental group was provided with the 10 concrete words,
but along with four synonym choices in the form of text+pictures,
and finally, the control group of the study was provided with the
same 10 concrete words along with four choices in the form of
text. In experiment 2 of the study, the steps were repeated but in
the participants’ native language (Farsi). The data were analyzed
via applying two One-Way ANOVAs between the three group
scores in each experiment.
Results
The results indicated that Iranian EFL learners recognized English word meanings in less reaction time when in the form of
text+picture. In addition, the time of reaction to words meaning
was less in the participants’ L1 than in their L2.
Conclusion
Generally, it was concluded that firstly, the Iranian participants’
time of reaction to words meaning differ while recognizing them
through text versus picture. Since the results indicated a better
performance when they used pictures as well as texts, it can be
concluded that the visual property of the traits to be recognized
could result in a facilitated sort of recognition of the meanings
of the words. In addition, it was concluded that there was a difference in the time of reaction to the meanings of the words in
participants’ L2 vs. L1. The participants performed better in the
L1 word- recognition test, perhaps because the visual/textual processing occurred more speedily in the participants’ L1 than their
L2. The findings of the current study seem to be applicable to
English language teachers, experts in language testing to devise
new generation of tests, and finally material designers to develop
more visual/textual-based textbooks or other materials, which
may contribute to teaching English to students of other languages.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: hajihassani_n@yahoo.com
A Cognitive Approach with the Concept of
Coordination in Contemporary Persian
Maryam Sadat Fayyazi*
Introduction
One of the fundamental hypotheses of cognitive linguistics is
that, in Langacker’s words (1987), “semantics is conceptualization”. Situations can be framed in different ways, and these ways
convey the different conceptualizations of the situation being described to the listener. All aspects of the grammatical expression
of a situation involve conceptualization in one way or another,
including even the basic parts of speech. The term “coordination”
refers to the combination of like or similar syntactic units into
some larger group of the same category or statue, typically involving the use of the coordinating conjunction, “and”. The majority
of the studies has already focused on the syntactic considerations
and consequently emphasize on the “equality” or “similarity” of
the constituents. Langacker (2009) believes that in a coordinate
structure the conjuncts are “parallel” and “co-equal”. He also
states that one aspect of parallelism is that conjuncts belong to
the same grammatical category. From the Cognitive standpoint,
common category membership is just one kind of semantic parallelism, and not only the kind that matters. So, here we want to
propose a new theoretical construct in cognitive linguistics, which
imposes a conceptualization of experience, namely coordination
criteria.
Methods
This paper is aimed particularly to explore the semantic features
of coordinate structure in contemporary Persian. In this regard, selecting the informal and written style of contemporary Persian, we
had adopted a synchronic approach. However, the article included
two basic questions on the relevant topic. The first question was
whether the constituent coordination in Persian is conditioned
to some specific semantic criteria or not. The next question was
whether the conjuncts have a categorical or schematic relationship
in coordination. Coming up with plausible answers, the needed
data were gathered by both field study, including interview with
elders and youths, and attributive method. Then the data were
studied with descriptive-analytical method.
Results
The research findings pointed to the meaningful selection of
conjuncts. Regarding the first question, the results revealed that
some criteria such as “animacy”, “size”, “temporal sequence”,
“objectivity/subjectivity”, “markedness”, “opposition”, “collocation”, and “metaphorical relationship” play a crucial role in coordination. Addressing the second question, it showed that in addition to the schematic relationship, the categorical one had a key
role in coordination. At the final point, by distributing questionnaires, we tested the efficiency of our theoretical findings besides
presenting an explanation of coordination in Persian as well as
clarifying how this process works.
Conclusion
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: msfayyaz@gmail.com
Mental Phenomena from a Western and Islamic View
Zaimuariffudin Shukri Nordin*
Kuching Sarawak, Malaysia
Introduction
We always discuss the mental phenomena in the philosophy of
the mind. Anger, joy, seeing, sadness, emotions, intentions, and
all sorts of feelings come from mental phenomena, intelligent,
thought, consciousness, and sensation. Mental phenomena can be
seen through behavior, as discussed by Gilbert Ryle in his book
“The Concept of Mind”. It requires a scientific method to investigate the science of behaviorism to prove mind and its content
(Ryle, 1990). Mental phenomena coming from inside can be visible through the outside. This makes the uniqueness of mental phenomena. For example, people can pretend to do something to hide
their insight, lust, or intention. Philosophers, such as Descartes,
discuss the mind and explain it as intangible, invisible, and untouchable, however, they are never able to explain the connection.
Methods
According to Muslim philosophers, intention, lust, or anything
associated with mental phenomena must start from reason or intent. It might be from previously planning or maybe spontaneously deciding within a few split seconds, where people decide
their action through response. Avicenna, for example, explains
how mental phenomena are like “The Flying Machine” inside our
body. This paper discusses how philosophers in the Islamic tradition unveil ideas about the intention of mental phenomena. The
idea of mental phenomena is scrutinized from the view of western
philosophers such as Descartes, Ryle, and Turing, from dualism to
behaviorism and functionalism. Comparative ideas are discussed
from the view of Islamic philosophers in their work. Document
analysis explains the idea, for and against the argument in this
paper.
Results
The previous study highlights synchronizing mind and body
problems in the philosophy of the traditional mind. Attempt was
made by Descartes to discuss dualism, but he fell short in explaining it. Avicenna one of the Islamic philosophers, gave an idea
about the importance of the rational soul, which makes humans
different from animals and the vegetative soul.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the question about mental phenomena can be explained through western and Islamic tradition, in order to encourage a better understanding of two great schools of thought. Mental
phenomena, which are intangible, invisible, cannot be measured,
and weighted, are something complex because of their “place”
and how they perform. Therefore, these mental phenomena can
lead to the free will of mind. However, this can be disputed by
Islamic views, which argues that a mental phenomenon is not an
impromptu event, but a ready plan event. It can be said mental
phenomena requires long term planning or a spontaneous decision
to create decisions.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: nzaim@fcs.unimas.my
Bilateral Eye Movements Influence Response Conflict
Soghra Akbari Chermahini*, Mohsen Rafiei
Arak University, Arak, Iran
Introduction
Methods
We investigated the effects of increased inter-hemispheric interaction (IHI) on conflict response with focus on Simon effect.
According to the information-processing models, there are three
stages in the process of decision making: stimulus identification,
response selection, and response execution. It has been suggested
(cf. Hommel, 1993) that the Simon effect generally refers back to
the interference that occurs in the response-selection stage of decision making. Simon task was used in this research as a purest
assessment of response conflict (Hommel, 2011; Kornblum et al.,
1990). In this task, the participants’ responded to a non-spatial feature of commonly visual stimuli by pressing left and right buttons.
More importantly, the location of the stimulus varied randomly and
was either corresponding sometimes with the location of the correct response (the compatible condition) or it wasn’t corresponding
(the incompatible condition). As one might expect, performance is
better with a compatible than with an incompatible relationship between stimulus location and response – the Simon effect (Simon,
Small, 1969). We expected that the Simon effect would be smaller
if being primed by increased inter-hemispheric interaction (IHI).
It has been hypothesized that execution of bilateral eye movement
would increase the inter-hemispheric transfer due to alternate activation of right-left saccades. There is strong evidence that saccades
eye movements are tightly coupled with attention processes (Zhao
et al., 2012). In this study, we hypothesized that rapidly alternating activation of the two hemispheres, which is associated with
the series of left–right eye movements, boosts the visual attention
mechanism and enhances a faster reaction (press key) to the incompatible stimulus, and this results in an improved performance
in response conflict to the Simon interference task.
IHI was directly manipulated by the central (control group or
eye fix group) and bilateral viewing conditions of a 30 s eye
movement task (EM). Twenty-eight university students participated in this study. They were randomly assigned in two groups
to counterbalance the order of conditions. They were asked at first
to perform the Simon task (pre-test) then either look at a central
point (control condition) then again perform Simon task, or look
at the two points alternatively (eye movement condition) for 30
s, and then perform the Simon task (post-test). All of the participants attended to both conditions with a short gap in between.
Results
Results of a two-way ANOVA indicate that there was a reliable
main effect of compatibility in RTs, F(1, 26)=6.3, p=0.012, showing faster responses in compatible than incompatible condition
(442 vs. 470 ms). While the compatibility was reliable for both
type of conditions (eye fix and eye movement), the Simon effect
was reduced in eye movement condition compared to eye fix condition.
Conclusion
The results suggest that greater IHI can facilitate response-selection and lead to less conflict.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: soghraakbari@gmail.com
Semantic Analysis of Privacy in Persian:
A Cognitive–Cultural Perspective
Azita Afrashi*, Seyyed Sajjad Samet Jukandan
Linguistics Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
“Privacy” is a cultural construct. The untranslatability of the
English word “privacy”, in many languages, shows cultural values and how cultural practices shape and create this concept. If a
culture does not emphasize linguistic categories such as privacy
to guide everyday interactions, then such categories may not be a
critical part of the everyday social reality, however, they are not
necessarily incomprehensible by those who live in that culture and
language community. It appears that within the Persian culture a
word has not inherently been assigned to the concept of privacy.
Methods
Inspired by the book Communicating across Cultures (1999) by
Stella Ting-Toomy, authors of the present paper try to describe
privacy in terms of temporal and spatial regulations. In this sense,
time and space as two essential cognitive categories function
as the basis of the formation of the concept of privacy. Privacy
has various cultural interpretations; for example Mcdougall and
Hansson (2002) deal with Chinese concepts of Privacy, Garvey
(2005) explores Domestic Boundaries in Norwegian culture and
Ting-Toomy (1999) treats it as part of social identity in the Arabic culture. In order to reach a description of privacy in Persian,
a field research is performed in which participants are provided
with a questionnaire on the translatability of the word privacy in
the context. Participants are both male and female Persian native
speakers with a high level of proficiency in English. To present a
cognitive – cultural description of privacy in Persian, the authors
of the present article chose the Natural Semantic Meta-language
put forward by Wierzbicka (1996) and Goddard (2011), as the
theoretical framework, in which universal semantic primes are
employed to explicate the meaning of cultural constructs.
Results
Our main research hypothesis is as follows: privacy is conceptualized in Persian, through spatial and temporal metaphors. Other
hypotheses, which need to be evaluated are: privacy is a gender
bound concept; and privacy is a culture bound concept.
Conclusion
While Newmark (2003) considered privacy untranslatable to
many languages, Neubert (2003) showed how contextualization
of the concept may render different forms of equivalents. The research results showed that in line with what Neubert has claimed,
equivalents for Privacy in Persian are shaped through contextualization. On the basis of the present study, the concept of privacy is
a constructed concept in the Persian culture, whose metaphorical
conceptualization is shaped by the concepts of time and space.
Accordingly, our main proposal confirms the function of basic
cognitive categories such as time and space in shaping cultural
constructs.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: a.afrashi.ling@gmail.com
Language Profiles in ASD, with Neurolinguistic Perspective
Ali Ghanaei*, Shahla Sharifi, Hamideh Rabie Vaziri
Introduction
Pragmatic language use refers to a broad array of social linguistic skills. Hence, pragmatic difficulties can be present in the
domain of the communicative intention, presupposition, or discourse management. Children with ASD are characterized by
communication impairments, social impairments and restricted,
stereotypical patterns of behavior and interests. The focus of the
current paper is on the communication difficulties in children with
ASD.
Methods
30 autistic children (6-12 years old) were randomly selected.
The children must meet the following criteria: 1) a diagnosis of
ASD by a child’s psychiatrist; 2) being a native Farsi speaker; 3)
no hearing impairment; 4) no mental retardation; 5) no extreme
language deprivation. The communicative abilities of this group
were measured using Children’s Communication Checklist-2
(CCC-2, Bishop 2003). The CCC-2 was developed to measure
various aspects of communicative impairment. The questionnaire
covers (besides language structure skills) mainly pragmatic skills,
which are necessary in social communication. The CCC-2 contains 70 items that are grouped in 10 scales with 7 items/scale: (A)
speech; (B) syntax; (C) semantics; (D) coherence; (E) inappropriate initiation; (F) stereotyped language; (G) use of context; (H)
nonverbal communication; (I) social relationship; (J) interests. In
addition, a general communication composite (GenComC) was
calculated. This is an overall measure of communication skills
and consists of the sum of the scores on scales A-H. The second
composite score was the social intervention deviance score (SocIDS) which is a difference between the sum of scales E, H, I, and
J and the sum of scales A, B, C, and D. The third composite score
was the general pragmatics score (GenPragS) that is the sum of
the scores on scales D-H. This composite score gives an overall
impression of the pragmatic abilities. Items were scored on a fourpoint scale (less than once a week [or never], at least once a week,
but not every day, once or twice a day, and several times [more
than twice] a day [or always]). Of each of the scale, five items are
difficulty items (negatively formulated items) and two items are
strength items (positively formulated items). The higher the score
on the CCC-2, the more impaired the child is.
Results
The results indicated that ASD children had relatively more difficulties with pragmatics than with structural language aspects.
Preschoolers with ASD showed the opposite pattern i.e., having
relatively more difficulties with structural aspects than with pragmatics.
Conclusion
The study showed that pragmatic language impairment in autistic children are not limited to structural language difficulties.
Some recommendations on clinical application of the Children’s
Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2, Bishop 2003) are proposed.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: alighanaei@yahoo.com
Investigating the Relationship between Metacognitive State and
Academic Self-Concept with Learning Math and
English Language of Boy Students
Eisa Momeniyanessari*1, Alireza Homayouni2, Mohammdreza Tajik3, Ali Ahmadi Nasrabadi3
1. Learning Disabilities Nongovernmental Center, Gorgan, Iran
2. Department of Psychology, Bandargaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandargaz, Iran
3. Gorgan Ministery of Education, Gorgan, Iran
Introduction
Learning is acquiring new, or modifying existing, knowledge,
behaviors, skills, values, preferences, and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machines. Progress over
time tends to follow learning curves. Learning is not compulsory;
it is contextual. It doesn’t happen all at once, but builds upon, and
is shaped by what we already know. Therefore, learning may be
viewed as a process, rather than a collection of factual and procedural knowledge. Human learning may occur as part of education,
personal development, schooling, or training. It may be goal-oriented and may be aided by motivation. The study of how learning occurs is part of neuropsychology, educational psychology,
learning theory, and pedagogy. Learning may occur as a result of
habituation or classical conditioning, seen in many animal species, or as a result of more complex activities such as play, which
is only in relatively intelligent animals. Learning can occur consciously or without conscious awareness. There is evidence for
human behavioral learning prenatally, in which habituation has
been observed as early as 32 weeks into gestation, indicating that
the central nervous system is sufficiently developed and primed
for learning and memory to occur very early on in development
(Sandman, Wadhwa, Hetrick, Porto, Peeke, 1997). One of the
most important factors in learning is metacognition. Metacognition is an individuals` awareness to recognition process and strategies. Many of the educational successes and failures originate
from general imaginations of individuals and their own ability in
relationship with educational learning. Current research was con-
ducted with the aim of investigating state metacognition and academic self-concept relationship by learning math and the English
Language of male students.
Methods
In this descriptive study, 110 students who were studying in
secondary level from state schools of Gorgan County during the
2011-2012 academic year, were chosen in random multi-level
sampling and the research questionnaires were conducted (performed) on them. In order to gather data, factors like students`
state metacognition questionnaires, school self-concept, and math
and English Language were used. In order to analyze data, the
Spearman Correlation Coefficient was used.
Results
Current research results showed that there is a positive and
meaningful relationship between state metacognition and all the
minor scales with English and math grades. But no meaningful
relationship was observed between educational self-concept and
English and math grades.
Conclusion
Since the relationship between metacognition and grades in
English and math was meaningful, it seems that training cognitive and metacognitive to individuals causes improvement of their
performance in their homework, especially math and English.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: aliresah2000@yahoo.com
Job Satisfaction, Stress, Work Load and Cognitive
Errors in Relation to Subjective Fatigue
Reza Khani Jazani*1, Mahnaz Saremi1, Amir Kavousi1, Hadi Shirzad2, Tara Rezapour1
1. Faculty of HSE, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
2. Industrial Research Center of NAJA, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Results
Fatigue can be defined as a subjective state of imbalance in
the availability of inner resources needed to perform physical or
mental activities. Studies suggested several factors including sociodemographic characteristics (such as age, sex…), occupational
conditions (such as job demand, work motivation…) and environmental stressors (such as air and noise pollution) that contribute to
the experience of this symptom in healthy peoples. Fatigue is an
important issue, which can affect several aspects of daily life and
can have a marked negative impact on quality of life in general. It
can diminish the ability of the individuals to perform a particular
task by altering alertness, vigilance, and motivation. The aim of
the present study was to investigate the relationship between job
satisfaction, stress and workload and errors with different dimensions of fatigue.
Methods
A random sample of 250 traffic police officers were asked to
complete the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory‌(MFI-20)
Questionnaire, comprised five subscales: general fatigue, physical
fatigue, mental fatigue, reduced activity, and reduced motivation.
Also an extra questionnaire was designed to collect socio-demographic and work related information.
The general fatigue and physical fatigue scales showed the highest fatigue levels while the reduced activity scale showed the lowest level. Job satisfaction and cognitive errors were found to be
the significant predictors for general, physical and mental scales
of fatigue (p=0.001) as well as for reduced activity (p≤0.05). This
means that the more satisfied the policemen were with their job,
the less likely they were to make errors, to feel general, physical
and mental fatigue. Indeed, higher self- reported errors were associated with reduced motivation (p≤ 0.05) while higher stress was
associated with increased mental fatigue (p≤0.05). Mental fatigue
and reduced activity were also predicted by workload (p≤ 0.05).
Conclusion
In the present study, we used the multiple regression analysis
with an interpretable intercept regard to five dimensions of fatigue
as dependent variables and job satisfaction, stress, work load and
cognitive errors as possible predictors. Our results revealed that
subjective fatigue can be modulated by psychosocial and job related factors. It is therefore recommended to adopt appropriate
strategies to reduce stress, workload and errors and increase job
satisfaction and motivation among policemen.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: jazani@hse.ac.ir
Category-Specific Semantic Impairment and Domain-Specific
Syntactic Impairment in Aphasia: The Case of
Broca’s and Wernicke’s Aphasic Patients
Hamid Allami*, Farzaneh Emadian Neini
Introduction
Although, a lesion based approach for the study of linguistic
impairments in aphasia unveils some ambiguities concerning the
brain-behavior relations, it has not been adequately developed in
Iranian context. This vague relationship between brain and language has inspired an interest in carrying out a research in order
to investigate how the performance of two major kinds of aphasic patients, namely Broca’s aphasics and Wernicke’s aphasics, is
different when confronting naming category- specific words (animate vs. inanimate) and domain-specific words (noun vs. verb).
Methods
Eight subjects comprising of 4 Broca’s aphasic and 4 Wernicke’s
aphasic native speakers of Persian, who had normal language
functioning prior to sustaining brain injury, participated in this
study. The participants were divided into the mentioned groups
based on the results of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),
which were used to determine the exact area of the lesion. In order
to collect the required data, three instruments were used: the Persian aphasia test (Nilipour, 1987) to assess the subjects’ linguistic impairment), Farsi aphasia naming stimuli (Nilipour, 2006) to
assess the participants’ ability on confrontation naming of nouns
related to two different categories, and lastly, picture verb naming
test developed by Mehri, Kord and Ghaemi (2010) to determine
the participants’ ability on confrontation naming verbs. The obtained data was analyzed, compared, and discussed based on the
domain-dependent model (Ingram, 2007). It should be mentioned
that three models have been offered to explain the category specific semantic impairment: The sensory functional theory (S/FT)
(Warrington, Shallice, 1984; cited in Ingram, 2007), the correlated
feature theory (CFT), which is also referred to as the organized
unitary content hypothesis (OUCH: Caramazza, Hillis, Rapp, Romani, 1970; Capitani et al., 2003; cited in Ingram, 2007) and the
domain-dependent (DD) hypothesis. This study benefited from
the domain-dependent (DD) hypothesis to explain category-specific semantic impairment and domain-specific syntactic impairment. The rationale behind using this model is that it can predict
both patterns of category-specific semantic impairments as well
as domain-specific impairments; however, this is not the case in
the other two models.
Results
The results of the present study revealed that the performance
of Broca’s aphasics was different from that of Wernicke’s aphasics on confrontation naming of category-specific words and domain-specific words. The results also indicate that the difference
in behavioral response of these two groups of aphasic patients
stemmed from the different types of lesions they had.
Conclusion
It can be inferred from this study that each part of the left hemisphere of the human brain is responsible for a specific linguistic
function.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: hamid_allami@yahoo.com
Effects of Experimentally Induced Failure on Problem Solving
Performance: The Importance of Controllability Beliefs
Javad Salehi*, Tahereh Elahi
University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran
Introduction
The previous effects of failure on performance have been subject
to a number of studies for quite some time. While some researchers have found that experiencing failure weakens subsequent performance, others have focused on its encouraging consequences.
Learned helplessness researchers suggest that performance decrements are a consequence of uncontrollable failures. Repeated failures in a series of tasks are assumed to decrease control expectations on subsequent tasks. An individual’s attributional style was
found to be useful in explaining why some individuals, who are
exposed to failure events, develop impaired performance, while
others do not. Especially, individual differences in the interpretation of controllability of experienced failures have been assumed
as a moderator to this effect. Failure often encourages rumination,
which, as a cognitive load, interferes with cognitive processes essential to effective problem solving. Previous research shows that
rumination results in lesser preparation towards a new task. This
may be due to the fact that more rumination was associated with
updating poorer working memory. Being preoccupied with ruminative thoughts (repeated recall of negative events) may make
one less attentive and less able to update working memory. The
reason for this could be that rumination absorbs working memory
resources, leaving less accessible resources for the task at hand.
Expectations of controllability can decrease rumination through
cognitive reappraisal of the situation, distraction, reward planning/activity scheduling, and rational responding to failure. The
present study was designed to examine the effects of experimental
induction of failure on performance in cognitive problem solving,
and the moderating role of controllability expectations.
Methods
negative expectations, of controllability toward bad events were
selected utilizing the “attributional style questionnaire” (Peterson
et al., 1982). This instrument asks participants to offer a causal explanation for each of six positive and six negative situations. Using a 2*2 randomized blocked factorial design, half of each group
solved 20 math problems with a level of low difficulty, in which
they solved them all, and the other half solved the same number
of problems with a high level, which they mainly failed. Upon
completion of these tasks, all participants were provided with another math test that had a level of moderate difficulty to solve.
Results
Two-way between-groups analysis of variance revealed that
previous failure in cognitive tasks could lead to impaired performance, only in individuals with expectations of uncontrollability
for bad events (F(1, 76)=5.94, p=.017). The eta squared statistic
(.073) indicated a medium effect size.
Conclusion
The findings of this study suggest that, in general, people with
expectations of uncontrollability about failure do indeed display
more performance shortcomings after failure than people with
expectations of controllability who don’t engage in ruminative
thoughts. This result reveals the insidious effects of rumination on
cognitive functioning. More specifically, rumination is associated
with impaired task preparation. High rumination is correlated with
poorer working memory updating. Repeated recall of negative
events is one component of rumination, which as a maladaptive
cognitive process that interferes with effective problem solving.
Forty high school students with positive and forty students with
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: jv_salehi@yahoo.com
Cognitive Abilities and Personality among
Lingual and Bi-lingual Students
Chandraiah Kotta*, Hari Pakanati
SV University, Tirupathi, India,
Introduction
A bi-lingual person, in a broad definition, is one who can communicate in more than one language, be it actively (through
speaking, writing, or signing) or passively (through listening,
reading, or perceiving). More specifically, the terms bilingual and
trilingual are used to describe comparable situations in which two
or three languages are involved. A multilingual person is generally referred to as a polyglot. Poly (Greek) means “many”, glot
(Greek) means “language”. Bilinguals who are highly proficient
in two or more languages are reported to have enhanced executive function and are better at some aspects of language learning
compared to monolinguals. There is also a phenomenon known
as distractive bilingualism or semilingualism. When acquisition
of the first language is interrupted and insufficient or unstructured
language input follows from the second language, as sometimes
happens with immigrant children, the speaker can end up with
two languages both mastered below the monolingual standard.
Literacy plays an important role in the development of language
in these immigrant children. Those who were literate in their first
language before arriving, and who have support to maintain that
literacy, are at the very least able to maintain and master their first
language. A large body of evidence suggests that school achievement is related not only to major personality dimensions such as
locus of control, but also to lower-order personality traits (see
Ackerman, Heggestad, 1997; Chamorro-Premuzic, Furnham,
2005). It is possible to identify various ‘‘classes” of factors associated with school performance (Johnson, McGue, Iacono, 2006)
including, for example, intelligence, family factors, peers, motivational factors and others, locus of control on academic performance of lingual and bilingual high school students.
Methods
The study consists of 200 (100 male and 100 female) high school
students located in and around Tirupati City of Andhra Pradesh
have participated in a study which predicted positive impact of
cognitive ability and self-belief variables like self-esteem, and I-E
locus of control on academic performance of the high school students. A well developed and used in Indian context verbal ability
and numerical ability tests Self-esteem and locus of control scale
developed by Rotter (1969) was used. These variables have predicted higher academic performance in high school students; selfesteem was a less consistent predictor of academic performance.
Results
The findings of the study revealed significant differences between gender (male and female) domicile (rural and urban) and
lingual and bilingual high school students. . The results suggest
that cognitive ability; self-beliefs play a unique role in predicting
academic performance in high school students.
Conclusion
1. Cognitive abilities have positive impact on academic achievement of high school students. The bi-lingual students have better cognitive abilities than the lingual students 2. Self-esteem has
positive impact on academic achievement among high school
students. The bilingual students have better self-esteem than the
lingual students.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: chandraiah2002@yahoo.co.uk
Structural and Semantic Processing of Persian Idioms:
A Study Based on ERPs
Molood Sadat Safavi*, Shahla Raghibdoost, Anahita Khorrami
Department of Linguistics, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Recent electrophysiological evidence shows that there are differences in structural and semantic processing of different languages.
It seems that they place emphasis differently on structure versus
on meaning. Such typological differences have significant implications for cognitive representation and neural processing of languages. However, the relationship between structure and meaning in Persian regarding the cognitive-neuropsychological effects
haven’t been investigated so far. Since idiomatic expressions play
a vital role in Persian culture, research in this field can bring about
interesting results and it’s a new step toward modeling language.
The current research investigates the time of processing idioms
and reaction of the brain towards idiomatic sentences versus nonidiomatic ones. We based our research on finding the difference
between these two groups of materials, regarding Event-Related
Potentials components.
Methods
In the current research, we have studied the mental processing of
idiomatic and non-idiomatic sentences in 22 normal monolingual
Persian-speaking individuals (11 males and 11 females) based on
the Event-Related Brain Potentials technique. The subjects were
all right-handed, university-educated, and in the 25-35 year age
range. The experimental stimuli consisted of three categories: (a)
60 idioms, (b) 60 non-idioms, which were grammatically and semantically correct Persian sentences, and differed from the corresponding idioms in only one word (the target word), and (c)
60 fillers, which were the sequences of unrelated concrete words.
All the stimuli included 3-5 words with the mean of 4.2. The idioms were matched in terms of their familiarity, frequency, and
predictability features, rated by two homogeneous groups (40
individuals in each). Electrophysiological data were recorded using a 32-channel cap. The electrodes were located according to
the extended 10-20 system and referenced the left mastoid. Also,
half the value of P8 was subtracted, so they were referenced according to that scale as well. Both horizontal and vertical EOG
(electro-oculogram was also used in order to monitor and remove
the artifacts caused by eye-movement. Besides, the impedance
was below 5 kU.
Results
The results indicate that the mental processing of the Persian idioms differs from that of non-idioms in terms of ERP components.
The effect of P600 was the same across the structurally similar
idioms and non-idioms, suggesting that their syntactic processing
approximately involved the same amount of time. However, the
amplitudes of N400 ERP component (320–440 ms) were more
negative for idioms as compared to non-idioms. Further analysis
of the data revealed that male and female participants showed no
significant difference regarding the linguistic ERP components.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the mental processing of the Persian figurative
language (idioms to be specific), is significantly different from
that of the non-figurative language. Further studies are needed to
be done in the Persian language to see the impact of the linguistic materials such as orthographical, phonological, and syllabic
features, so that one can design an accurate mental model of this
language and apply the result to the other interdisciplinary areas
of linguistics.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: farnoosh2000ir@yahoo.com
Assessment of Photo Aesthetics via Sparse Coding
Amir Nazemi*, Zohreh Azimifar
Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
Introduction
In aesthetics, the world of art and photography refers to the fundamental law of nature and appreciation of beauty. The famous
quote about beauty says “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder“,
while we can claim that “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder“,
i.e., the aesthetic rules are voted by beholders. Inspired by the
various literatures of art theory, psychology, cognitive science,
and philosophy, the artificial intelligence has, in recent years,
made rapid advances in the computation of art, music, poetry, and
lifestyle. Recently, computer scientists have attempted to model
the aesthetic value of a photo, which helps photography websites
or search engines to automatically classify and label their input
photos. Such models use some hand designed feature extraction
methods to extract aesthetic features from the input photo and
use these features to train models. The hand designed features
are based on some photography rules, such as the rule of third,
the depth of filed, opposing colors, and illumination. Kuo-Yen
Lo et al. proposed some aesthetic features with high efficiency
to compute the aesthetic values of photos. Marchesotti et al. proposed generic image descriptors to assess aesthetic quality. Both
the above methods propose an automatic feature learning method
independent of photography rules. In this paper, we aim to use the
sparse coding to extract features from the photos and then make
a model to predict the aesthetic value of each input photo. Our
extracted features are independent of aforementioned photography rules and our method learns aesthetic rules from training data
automatically.
Methods
Barlow perceived, neurons at deeper stages are mostly less active (sparse representation) than those at former stages of processing. For instance, neurons in the retina, respond to every contrast
in the space, while neurons in the cortex respond to some special
configuration (something like edges) in space and they are sparse.
Field has shown that the receptive field properties of simple-cells
in the primary visual cortex (V1) are well fit to the structure of
making sparse representations. Sparse coding is a neurotically inspired algorithm that was first proposed by Olshausen and Field
to simulate the V1 area of human visual cortex. Sparse Coding
encodes the input in term of its learned basis set. In this paper, we
first transferred each input photo to a HSV color map. This color
space stands for hue, saturation, and value. On some cases, we
transferred each image into binary and gray image followed by
some pre-processing steps. On the other hand, we convert each
image to some channels or parts and extract some low level features from each channel. We can use some appearance-based local
descriptors, such as some variation of SIFT (Scale Invariant Feature Transform) and some descriptor-based on shape like HOG
(Histogram of Oriented Gradients). Next, we trained a sparse
coding on each feature set. We used locality on some cases to
improve the performance of sparse coding. In testing, we used
the explained pipeline to extract features from each input image.
After extracting features, we use some classifiers like Neural Networks or SVMs (Support Vector Machines) to get trained by the
features extracted automatically.
Results
This paper presents parts of an ongoing research being conducted in our research group. Complete results will be delivered at the
time of conference.
Conclusion
Sparse Coding is an unsupervised feature learning algorithm and
has recently become extremely popular in computer vision. In this
paper we use sparse coding to automatically extract features from
the photos and make a model to predict the aesthetic value of each
input photo.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: Amir.Nazemi.edu@gmail.com
Socio-Pragmatic Motivation of Conceptual Projection:
A Cognitive Approach to Metaphor in Persian TV Commercials
Hadaegh Rezaei*, Zahra Ghane’
Isfahan University, Isfahan, Iran
Introduction
Methods
The language of TV commercials has been the center of focus
in many different fields. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many
semiotic analyses existed, which among the linguistic ones were
Bolinger (1980) and Hughes (1988). In recent decades, different
cognitive studies have been done on metaphor in advertisements;
one of the most important ones is Forceville’s. Forceville (1996)
is the first focused on pictorial metaphor in advertising from a
cognitive perspective that is based on Black’s (1962) interaction
theory. Dabrowski (2000), concerns with how the advertising text
is structured by conceptual metaphor and concludes that many ads
are more or less based on conventional conceptual metaphors. Unlike the previous two studies, Ungerer (2000) deals with metaphor
in advertising in a form of meta-level by describing the psychological process underlying ads. Unlike Sopory and Dillard (2002),
who think the use of metaphor has no effect on persuading the
viewer, Maalej (2003), emphasizes the persuasive effect of conceptual metaphor in ads. But, none focus their attention on TV
commercials, which aim at telling the viewer about a product and
persuading them to buy it. These commercials are, therefore, communicative in nature and their target is to encourage the addressees to perform an act in favor of the advertisers. Such persuading
process can become more complex and alluring by using different
linguistic tools.The present study is, then, attempting to explain
the cognitive role of metaphor in personal hygiene- products of
TV commercials in Iranian state TV. To put it differently, the study
attempts to examine the various ways advertisers benefit from conceptual metaphors in Iranian TV using commercials for personal
hygienic products. We study the metaphorical conceptualization
in this kind of advertisement based on the Conceptual Metaphor
Theory (Lakoff, Johnson, 1980). In a sense, this study is seeking to
answer two specific questions: 1. how does the conceptual metaphor in Iranian TV Personal- hygiene- product commercials help
advertisers appease their persuasive needs? 2. What are the effects
of socio-cultural and pragmatic factors in conceptual projections?
Twenty 2010 TV personal hygiene product commercials containing conceptual metaphor, broadcasted from the state television of Iran were analyzed based on the theory of conceptual
metaphor, which finds metaphor as “A is B” in which A is the
target domain and B the source domain, followed by mapping
characteristics from domain B to domain A. What is regarded as
normal in this conceptual structure is that the source domain is the
more concrete subject and the target domain is the abstract one.
Results
The results show conceptual metaphor is broadly used in Iranian
personal hygiene product commercials. It was also noticed that
the concepts of flowers or other natural elements of environment
are selected as the source domain. Moreover, the results depict
that just some aspects and features of the source domains are highlighted and mapped onto the corresponding aspects of the target
domains and there is no one- to- one correspondence between the
elements of the domains.
Conclusion
The findings pave the way to conclude the high frequency of
conceptual metaphors in TV commercials studied here is another
support for Maalej (2003), which emphasizes the role of conceptual metaphors in appeasing the persuasive needs of advertisers.
It also becomes justifiable in light of the findings, that the selection of the source domains and nomination of the features to be
projected in conceptual metaphors, are directly under the control
of pragmatic and sociocultural factors. In other words, it seems
socio-cultural and pragmatic motivations play an important role
in conceptual projections.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: hadaegh2@yahoo.com
Peaking Performance: Sport Psychology and Embodied Cognition
Massimiliano Cappuccio*
UAE University, Al Ain, Milano, Italy
Introduction
In sport psychology, the ‘choking effect’ designates the paradox
that concentrating on the importance of best performances systematically leads to below-standard performances, as typically
experienced by athletes in pressure-filled competitions. Interdisciplinary research is currently devoted to determine what phenomenological, psychological, and neuro-cognitive factors may trigger
the choking effect, and what measures can be taken to reduce it.
The dominant view (e.g., Beilock in sport psychology; Dreyfus
in the parallel philosophical theorization) maintains that skillful
performances are not normal by local rules and prescriptive representations, but by flexibly adaptive dispositions and holistic responsiveness to practical contexts. Skillful performances are disrupted when analyzed into their component processes. Choking
is caused by the disturbance of automatized motor routines when
attention is prompted by expert athletes for explicitly monitoring
the component processes of their performed actions.
Methods
My paper will discuss the explanatory validity of the functional
model of choking (assessing both extension and precision of its
predictions and post analysis), analyze its theoretical premises,
and offer critical tools to evaluate the efficacy of the correlated
training methods. Adopting a phenomenological and empirically
oriented approach to philosophy of mind and cognition, I will
target a problem that is currently under the spotlight of various
experimental or applied disciplines: sport psychology, cognitive
neuroscience, and psychomotricity. A promising research trend
integrates these disciplines to achieve at once a theoretical and a
practical goal: increasing the knowledge of the cognitive systems
that underlie complex motor skills helps improve athletic performances through appropriate training aimed at preventing chok-
ing; new training methods, in turn, highlight specific experimental
tasks that are relevant to understand how choking occurs in various circumstances, disentangling different causal factors.
Results
A critical discussion of the major philosophical and scientific
models of un-reflective action, absorbed coping, and sensitivity
to context, suggests a re-interpretation of the empirical data. In
particular, a minimally representational model of skillful performances seems promising and has been gaining attention in today’s trends of philosophy of mind and embodied cognitive science. This model explains why the cognitive processing of expert
motor skills is not necessarily pre-reflective in nature, but compatible with reflective self-awareness and attentive monitoring of
one’s own actions. Only this model, not the dominant one, can
account for recent data showing that expert athletes are not always
mindless during their performances, and mindful athletes are not
always disadvantaged.
Conclusion
Why and when are skillful performances damaged by self-monitoring? In order to answer we need to sketch a new definition of
the concept of embodied skill, one that integrates the notion of
“action-oriented representations”: a skill can’t just be a passive
disposition to implement automatized routines in ideal circumstances. On the contrary, self-monitoring can be embedded in a
controlled experience of awareness, or in an on-line problem-solving practice dealing with puzzling, rapidly changing, or unusual
circumstances. My working hypothesis is that explicit monitoring
hinders execution only when it targets the practical components
of a familiar routine, while benefiting expert performances when
prompted by atypical situations.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: m.lorenzo@uaeu.ac.ae
The Effect of Individual Counseling of Cognitive-Behavioral
Therapy of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Caused by War
Ali Pouladei Rishehri*, Maryam Rezaei, Ebrahim Soleimani
Payam Noor University, Bushehr, Iran
Introduction
During the war between Iran and Iraq, post-traumatic stress disorder was usually a major psychological disorder in some veterans. This disorder was caused by a severe stressor. So far various methods to treat patients with post-traumatic stress disorder
have been proposed. The purpose of this study was to consider
the effect of individual counseling of cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) on post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the war.
CBT can help us change how we think (“Cognitive”) and what
we do (“Behaviour)”. These changes can help us feel better. Unlike some of the other mentioned treatments, CBT focuses on the
“here and now” problems and difficulties. Whilst it is often useful
to discuss the past and understand how our pasts have influenced
our lives and how problems have arisen, CBT mostly focuses on
looking for ways to improve our mental wellbeing now. CBT
doesn’t regard the event which causes our emotions, but how we
interpret that event, what we think, and the meaning we give that
event or situation.
Methods
The study designed quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test.
The population studied included the military and those who are
affected by war-related posttraumatic stress disorder. In the study
of psychiatric diagnosis, sampling has been made. Subjects were
divided into two groups: experimental group and control group.
Subjects in the experimental group were replaced (n=7), and oth-
ers in the control group (n=7). Problems of non-randomly selected
participants through the pre-test were improved. There was failure to find significant differences between the two groups in test
matches before the start of the experiment was confirmed. Individual counseling and cognitive behavioral groups formed. This
study used two types of questionnaires, depression (Beck, 1961),
and the anxiety questionnaire (Eshpilbuerger, 1970). Data was analyzed using SPSS statistical program and the experimental group
was compared with the control group.
Results
The findings of this study show that individual counseling with
the techniques of cognitive-behavioral treatment is effective in the
treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder from war. In addition,
this therapy significantly reduced depression and anxiety in the
experimental group in comparison with the control group.
Conclusion
Cognitive approach believes that the assumptions underlying the
collapse of violent incidents impact people and increase their vulnerability. On the other hand drug therapy alone in the treatment
of post-traumatic stress disorder rarely allows for a full recovery.
The results of this study indicate that, individual counseling with a
cognitive-behaviour approach, as a positive experience, is impressive in patients prepping to participate in group therapy.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: alipoladei@yahoo.com
Investigation of the Influence of Cognitive and Metacognitive
Strategies on the Reading Comprehension and Problem
Solving of Second Grade Students
Ali Pouladei Rishehri*1, Mosa Golestaneh2, Eazat Deireh3, Maryam Rezaei2, Zahra Jamiry
1- Payam Noor University, Bushehr, Iran
2- Persian Gulf University, Bushehr, Iran
3- Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, Iran
Introduction
The new theory of psychology believes an important part of the
cognitive functions that constitute intelligent behavior. It is important that new approaches insist on the belief that unlike natural
ability of the hereditary and immutable, cognitive functions are
learned and modified and thus intelligently applied in teaching
and learning. Pupils with good metacognitive skills are flexible in
their approaches to learning. They possess a number of strategies
on how to best cope with the information they need for interaction,
and can assess which ones to use at the most appropriate times.
Engagement with metacognitive learning techniques, encourages
pupils to see learning as a process, and one in which they can have
input. The learner is at the center of the activity, directing it, rather
than standing on the sidelines. What is cognition? Cognition is the
scientific term referring to the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension, including thinking, knowing,
remembering, judging ,and problem solving. What is metacognition? Metacognition is knowledge and understanding of our own
cognitive processes and abilities, those of others, as well as regulation of these processes(planning, monitoring, and evaluation).
The goal of this study was to investigate the influence of cognitive
and metacognitive strategies on reading comprehension and problem solving of second grade female students in guidance schools.
Methods
The subjects consisted of 40 female students from guidance
schools in Genaveh, who had been selected on the basis of random
cluster sampling. The design of the study consisted of a pre-test
and post-test design. In order to study the influence of teaching
metacognitive strategies on the subjects’ reading comprehension
and problem solving, reading comprehension tests and problem
solving scales were administered as pre-tests and post-tests. Of
course, these pre-tests and post-tests had the same level of difficulty. Then the results of the study were compared by using different statistical analyses such as multivariate analysis of covariance
(MANCOVA) and univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).
Results
The analyses of the results showed that metacognitive strategies
had a positive influence on the students’ reading comprehension
and problem solving in experimental group. The mean score of
the experimental group in the post-test had a noticeable difference
from the mean score in the pre-test, especially in reading comprehension. However, the mean scores of the pre-test and pos-test in
control group didn’t show any noticeable difference; instead, the
post-test results had even indicated a weaker performance.
Conclusion
The noticeable difference between the results of pre-test and
post-test in experimental group shows that teaching cognitive and
metacognitive strategies as a complementary teaching program
will have a significant influence on students’ academic achievement. Knowing about metacognition and its potential benefits
greatly supports pupils when applied to learning situations.
Comparing the Effects of Psychological Interventions and
Psychotropic Medication on Improvement of Mental Health
of Infertile Women
Ali Pouladei Rishehri*1, Ahmad Alipour2
1. Payam Noor University, Bushehr, Iran
2. Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Results
Infertility has been shown to cause a form of chronic stress
that can give rise to various psychological difficulties. Although
several studies have suggested an important pathogenic role for
psychosocial factors such as depression, anxiety in functional infertility, there is a lack of knowledge on the efficiency of related
psychological interventions. The goal of this study was to compare the effects of psychological interventions with psychotropic
medication on improvement of mental health of infertile women.
Methods
About 120 infertile women who had following criteria took part
in this study: duration of infertility more than 2 years, failed IVF at
least 1 time, age under 45 years and a score 10-29 on the Beck Depression Inventory. Women with severe depression (a score <29)
were excluded from the study. 80 participants were remained in the
study. Participants assigned randomly into four group of intervention including: 10-session group Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy
(CBT), a standard psychotropic medication with antidepressive
drug, psychotropic medication with placebo, and a routine care
control group. Participants in CBT group received relaxation training, cognitive restricting and methods for emotional expression
for 10 sessions. Participants in the psychotropic medication took
20mg fluoxetine (or placebo) daily for 90 days. All participants
filled Beck Depression Inventory, Cattle Anxiety Scale, and General Health Questionnaire before and after the interventions.
After three month intervention, the rate of depression which was
treated in four experimental groups was: fluoxetine %45, placebo
%25, CBT %90 and control %20. Although both CBT and psychotropic medication decreased depression, treatment of depression
with CBT method was 2 times as effective as fluoxetine and 3times
as effective as placebo. Depression treatment with fluoxetine was
not significantly higher than both placebo group and control group.
Among four group interventions only cognitive behavioral therapy
reduced patient’s anxiety. Also, CBT method reduced the mean
score of anxiety more significantly than both placebo and control.
Both cognitive-behavioral therapy and psychotropic medication
improved general health in infertile women, especially their social functioning. Cognitive - behavioral therapy improved general
health better than both placebo and control group.
Conclusion
Among three treatment intervention methods to reduce anxiety
and depression of infertile women, cognitive behavioral therapy
was the most efficient method. Also, general health was improved
in infertile women who received CBT. These findings suggest that
psychological intervention could improve mental health in infertile women.
Cognitive Process through the Presentation of Complex
Learner-Based and System-Based Multimedia Contents
Nasrin Naderi Shoorabi*, Hamidreza Hassanabadi, Zahra Kavian Mobarake
kharazmi university, Tehran,Iran
Introduction
The emergence of technology, especially with computers, has
paved the way for the development and increase in the use of multimedia learning environments in learning. The most important
objective of these environments is establishing meaningful learning in learners. The present study aims to investigate the effect of
various forms of presentation formats on the cognitive load, which
affects the working memory during learning. Despite plentitude
of evidence for greater effectiveness of multimedia environments
than that of traditional instructional environments, research findings related to the effectiveness of animation learning, remains
inconsistent and don’t have the same level of efficiency. All conscious cognitive activities of learners happen in a structure, which
seems to pose limitations for all conscious cognitive activities,
except for the most essential processes. Hence, any instructional
design ignoring working memory limitations is usually deficient.
To prevent redundancy resulting from the need to simultaneously
retain and process current input and associated previous learning,
some designing measures have been proposed, including learner
interaction with the system that has two goals of active learner engagement with learning content and control over the speed of content presentation. Numerous studies have affirmed the efficiency
of using this interaction between the learner and the system in
increasing learning outputs and decreasing cognitive load (Mayer,
Chandler, 2001; Evanz, Gibbons, 2007; Tabbers, Koeijer, 2009).
But along these studies, which got positive results with interactive effect, some other researchers got reverse results (Valdez,
Moreno, 2005; Wouters, 2010). The question posed here, should
learners devote a part of their cognitive processing capacity to using keys used in the instructional program? Will this factor itself
cause cognitive load redundancy and the emergence of split attention effect especially for low-knowledge learners?
Methods
mentally independent sample t-test. In order for this, university
students (n=40, 20 female and 20 male) were presented with
lightning formation animation. Learners’ previous knowledge
was evaluated though a 7-item self-assessment questionnaire and
a 6-option checklist, and low prior knowledge learners were selected. Participants were assigned to one of groups randomly. The
first group received the animation sequentially and with system
speed and the second group received the content in the form of
interactive segments, which enabled learners to control content
presentation speed via pause and play keys. After content presentation, questionnaires for the evaluation of the extent of cognitive
load in the form of mental effort and difficulty while educating
learners were given. After the evaluation of learning outputs, including retention and transfer test, cognitive load questionnaires
were used to evaluate mental effort and difficulty during the test.
Results: The interactive group outperformed the continuous
group in the retention test (p<0/05) revealing interaction effect.
Results did not show any meaningful differences between learning groups in the amount of imposed cognitive load, cognitive
load test (p>0.05).
Results
The use of animations involved in learner interaction with the
system and increasing learning in learners. The use of interactive
animations does not create any significant differences in transfer
outputs of learners-speed compared with system-speed animations. The use of interactive animations does not create any significant differences in the amount of the cognitive load imposed
on the working memory compared with continuous animations.
Conclusion
The results obtained were explained on the basis of interactivity
principle in multimedia learning.
The study was conducted in the form of a completely experi*Corresponding author. E-mail address: nasrin.naderi@yahoo.com
Investigating the Influence of Cognitive and Meta-cognitive
Strategies on the Reading Comprehension and Problem Solving in
Second-Grade Female Students in Guidance Schools
Ali Pouladei Rishehri*1, Mosa Golestaneh2, Eazat Deireh3, Maryam Rezaei2, Zahra Jamiry
1- Payam Noor University, Bushehr, Iran
2- Persian Gulf University, Bushehr, Iran
3- Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, Iran
Introduction
Cognitive functions are learned and modified during the life
span, and thus could intelligently applied to teaching and learning. Pupils with good meta-cognitive skills are flexible in their
approaches to learning. They possess number of strategies to cope
with the information they need to interact with, and can assess
which ones to use at the most appropriate times. Engagement with
meta-cognitive learning techniques encourages pupils to see learning as a process, and one in which they can have input. The learner
is at the center of the activity, directing it, rather than standing
on the sidelines. Meta-cognition is knowledge and understanding
of our own cognitive processes and abilities and those of others,
as well as regulation of these processes (Planning, Monitoring,
Evaluation).The goal of this study was to investigate the influence
of cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies on the reading comprehension and problem solving of second-grade female students in
guidance schools.
Methods
The subjects consisted of 40 female students of guidance schools
in Genaveh who had been selected on the basis of random clus-
ter sampling. The study was conducted as a pre-test and post-test
design. Reading comprehension tests and problem solving scales
were administered as pre-tests and post-tests with the same level
of difficulty.
Results
The analyses of the results showed that meta-cognitive strategies
had a positive influence on the students’ reading comprehension
and problem solving in experimental group. The mean score of
the experimental group in the post-test was significantly different
from their mean score in the pre-test especially in reading comprehension. However, the mean scores of the pre-test and post-test
in control group didn’t show any significant difference; instead,
the post-test results even indicated a weaker performance.
Conclusion
The significant difference between the results of pre-test and
post-test in experimental group shows that teaching cognitive and
meta-cognitive strategies as a complementary teaching program
will have a very great influence on students’ academic achievement.
Effects of Extremely Low Frequency Magnetic Field (50 Hz)
on Motor Coordination in Mice
Valiallah Saba*, Ali Garibi
AJA University of Medical sciences, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Nowadays, human populations are exposed to extremely low
frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) in daily life. These magnetic
fields, whether they exist in the home or work environment, are
generated by electric power distribution systems or electronic devices, and therefore greater than ever due to recent technological
developments. Although it has been decades since the industrial
application of electrical energy, our knowledge is still scarce about
the effects of the ELF-EMF in different aspects of human life. The
electromagnetic fields (EMF) have various behavioral and biological effects on human body. There are growing concerns about the
consequences of exposure to EMF. However, some studies have
shown beneficial effects of these waves on human. In this paper,
we study the effect of exposure to 50 Hz, 0.1 mT and 0.5mT magnetic fields (MF) on the motor coordination in mice.
Methods
16 mice with a weight of 25±2 g are used and divided into two
groups. There are eight mice in the first group, which were exposed to MF with 50 Hz and 0.1 mT for 2 hours (acute). The
second group was used as a control group. In order to study the
effect of sub acute exposure on motor coordination, 16 mice with
a weight of 35±2 g are used and divided into two groups. Eight
mice in the first group were exposed to MF with 50 Hz and 0.5
mT for 7 days and 2 hours per day (sub acute). The second group
was used as a control group. The performance of the motor coordination was evaluated using a chimney test. The mice were
put in a tube, measuring 30 cm in length and a diameter of 3 cm.
The time required to get the mice completely out of the tube in a
backward movement is also measured.
Results
In the acute exposure there was significant difference between
the exposed and control group (p value=0.05). The difference between the exposed and control group in the sub acute exposure
was also meaningful (p value=0.023).
Conclusion
The experimental results indicate that ELF exposure could significantly affect motor coordination. The result of chimney test appears to be dependent on the different factors such as mice weight,
tube diameter, and operator skills. We tried to reduce the effects
of these elements and the experiment results as low as possible.
However, studying the ELF effects on motor coordination using
other tests such as rotarod and grid walking test, is recommended.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: vsaba@aut.ac.ir
Is Anti-Individualism Based on Semantic Externalism?
Hamed Bikaraan Behesht*
Karaj,Iran
Introduction
Some philosophers, including Davidson, have simply inferred
content externalism (as a theory about mental content) from Putnam’s semantic externalism (as a theory about meaning). But,
Burge has suggested his anti-individualism, a kind of content externalism, without appealing to semantic externalism, even though
he has performed when Putnam had proposed his semantic externalism. Burge believes that his thought experiments supporting
his view do not depend on any inference about general principles
of meaning to his conclusions about propositional attitudes. Accordingly, it can be said that he believes that anti-individualism
is not based on semantic externalism as a theory about meaning.
Here, I will argue that Burge’s arthritis thought experiment depends on a general principle about extension. After that, I will
show that the principles of extension are a theory (or at least part
of a theory) about meaning; i.e., Putnam’s semantic externalism.
Methods
The current work can be regarded as a critical analysis of a
theory in analytic philosophy. Its method includes analysis of the
targeted theory toward finding its actual underlying premises, using thought experiments to show a possibility, and alleging logical
arguments to support the criticism.
Results
Burge considered the concept “extension” in his thought experiment as an intuitional concept, but it is in fact a theoretical one.
However, because of special example of Burge in his thought
experiment (the extension of ‘arthritis’ in actual and counterfactual cases) this fact remained unnoticed. It will be shown that by
changing Burge’s thought experiment, we can find out how it de-
pends on a principle about extension. If we change the disease
of the protagonist of Burge’s thought experiment – call him Bert
– Burge can no longer presuppose the extension of ‘arthritis’ in
counterfactual situation as intuitively as he did. We can change the
story saying that Bert has arthritis in his wrists, but he has been infected by osteoarthritis in his knees. Then, in counterfactual situation, it does not seem much intuitive to suppose that the extension
of the word ‘arthritis’ includes both arthritis and osteoarthritis. Because although these two diseases have some similar signs (like
pain) and they affect the same regions of the body (joints) and
even one might cause another, they are totally different diseases
and have different mechanisms. Thus, it does not seem intuitive
to give them a common name. Also, if we change the thought
experiment such that it becomes similar to Putnam’s twin earth
thought experiment, the point would be more evident. So, Burge
tacitly used a principle about extension in his thought experiment;
the principle that members of the extension of a – natural-kind
– term should have common nature (a similar principle can be introduced for non-natural-kind terms). Moreover, I will show that
the principle about extension is in fact a theory (or at least part of a
theory) about meaning. This is because, as Putnam put it forward,
there is a principle that “the meaning of a term determines its extension”, and – as will be shown – it entails the principle that the
way of determining the extension of a term is part of its meaning.
Conclusion
Eventually, the notion of “extension” in Burge’s thought experiment is not an intuitional notion, but it is theoretical and Burge’s
thought experiment depends on a principle about extension. In
addition, that principle is a theory (or at least part of a theory)
about meaning, and then, Burge’s thought experiment is based on
a theory about meaning that seems to be Putnam’s semantic externalism.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addressh.bikaraanbehesht@yahoo.com.
Efficiency of Cognitive Model of Social Information Processing in
Predicting Children’s Internalizing Behavior Disorders
Abdolhossein Hossein Shamsi*, Ahmad Abedi, Ahmad Yarmohamadin, Amir Ghamarani
Introduction
One of the updated of cognitive models in domain of interaction between individuals, is cognitive model of social information
processing. Kirk and Dodge first proposed this model. According
to this model, when children see themselves in social situations
and when faced with a difficult situation, first encode and interpret
social clues information, then the information will be available to
their cognitive resources. Later decision making and reacting to
such situations are based on such information. Dodge model in regard to social interaction has cognitive basis. Social status is based
on the information-processing model. This model through social
interaction has been able to assess the causes and prevention of
Emotional- behavior problems in children and adolescents. Emotional-behavior disorders are common disorders among children
and adolescents. Among such disorders, internalizing behavior
disorders like depression, anxiety, and withdrawn are common.
These disorders have negative effect on children’s academic performance and raise the risk of other disorders in the next period of
development. The purpose of this research was to study Efficiency of social information processing model in predicting children’s
internalizing behavior problems.
Methods
200 elementary students were selected form of multi-stage cluster randomly sampling from different areas of the Isfahan. Research tools include Behavior Problems Inventory, Achenbach
and Social Stories (Brayan, Turkasya).
Results
The results showed that the model of social information processing can significantly predict Depression, Anxiety and Withdrawn of children (p≤0/001). In other words, Students who have
obtained lower scores in social information processing showed a
higher rate of internalizing behavior disorders.
Conclusion
The results of this study showed that cognitive models are capable of explaining and predicting the behavioral problems. So it
can be concluded that the defect in the processing of social information may lead to internalizing behavior problems. Overall, the
results of this research confirmed efficiency of Social information
processing model in predicting internalizing behavioral problems.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: h.shamsi915@yahoo.com
Relation between Phonological Awareness and Non-word Reading
Speed in Deaf Children
Mohammad Rezaei*, Vahid Rashedi, Farzad Weisi, Gohar Lotfi
Hamedan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Hamedan, Iran
Introduction
Speech and language development and cognitive skills related to
the normal hearing. Reading is one of the human’s communicative skills that based on spoken language. Phonological awareness
is the ability to recognize that words are made up of a variety of
sound units. A child with strong phonological awareness should
be able to recognize and use rhyme, break words into syllables,
blend phonemes into syllables and words, identify the beginning
and ending sounds in a syllable and see smaller words within larger words. It improves students’ word reading and comprehension.
Research suggests that there is a relation between phonological
awareness and reading achievement in normal children. Studies have shown that children can use visual route for real word
reading and phonological route for non word reading. Surveying
relation between phonological awareness and non word reading
speed in deaf children is the aim of this study.
Methods
In this cross-sectional study, 16 fifth grade deaf students (7 male,
9 female) were selected at random from Tehran schools. They
were normal in IQ and visual status and had no concomitant problems. Phonological awareness (including: phoneme segmentation,
blending and deletion) and non-word reading subtests of reading
and writing test for school students were used for data gathering.
Data analysis was done through Pearson correlation test.
Results
The findings indicated that Pearson correlation coefficient between phoneme blending (0.682) and phoneme deletion (0.573)
with non-word reading was direct. Also there was no significant
relation between phoneme segmentation and non word reading in
deaf group (p=0.02).
Conclusion
The results of this research revealed that in deaf children like
normal ones there is a relation between phonological awareness
and non-word reading speed and Phonological awareness is a predictor of non-word reading. These results indicate that deaf children do indeed show an advantage for the phonological route to
reading. The deaf children for reading can Segment words into
phonemes. They can also correspond phoneme to grapheme and
recognize relation between sounds and letters. This sound-letter
relationship is base of written language acquisition. We can inform parents, speech and language pathologists and professionals
who deal with deaf children about the finding of this study. Since
reading learning is very important in academic achievement and
life quality of deaf persons, so more investigations are needed in
this area. It is suggested to be examined relation between phonological awareness and real word and text reading in future studies.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: m_r_st@yahoo.com
Effects of Gender on Phonemic Verbal Fluency
Leila Shamspar*, Samira Mazaheri, Mohammad Rezaei
Hamedan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Hamedan, Iran
Introduction
Phonemic verbal fluency, as measured by an individual’s ability to generate words beginning with a specific letter (e.g., FAS
and CFL), have played a prominent role in neuropsychological
research and can be used to evaluate executive functions and language. The category test can be used to evaluate semantic memory. A number of versions of the category test based on letter and
semantic categories have been used. The most extensive experience has been obtained with FAS (oral fluency by letters F, A and
S) and the animal category. The category fluency test seems to be
more sensitive than the phonological test. Our main hypothesis
was that gender may have an important influence on the phonemic
fluency and the specific aim of this study is to investigate the effects of gender on verbal fluency by letters.
Methods
In this cross-sectional analytic study, 290 students (144 male,
146 female) were selected randomly from high schools and secondary schools of Tehran. They were normal in IQ and including
selection criteria was normal visual, hearing, psychological and
physical status. 3 tasks are used in this study; the total number of
words generated in 1 minute for the letters F, A and S was obtained
from all participants (before the test the letter M was exampled).
Participants were instructed that proper nouns and multiple words
using the same stem with a different suffix were not acceptable.
Data analysis was done through independent t-test.
Results
According to data analysis, a significant difference have seen between the mean scores of phonemic verbal fluency performance
in both genders (p<0.001). There were similar significant difference in the average number of phonological switching (p<0.001).
Conclusion
In the present study, phonemic fluency was associated with gender. Female subjects generated more items than males in terms of
total scores number of clusters. Similar findings were reported by
other studies that have seen better performance by women in phonemic verbal fluency. The present investigation is the first study
in Persian language. These findings indicate that gender is a predictor of phonemic fluency scores in Persian language. The result
of this survey can be resource criteria for future studies in normal
and other groups with speech and language disorder. The major
clinical utility of these norms is that they will increase the ability
of neuropsychologists to determine more precisely the degree to
which verbal fluency is impaired in patients of varying gender.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: lili4573@yahoo.com
Effectiveness of Brain Based Teaching in Memory Performance
Improvement of Students’ with Mathematical Learning Disability in
Fifth Grade Elementary School in Isfahan: A Single Subject Study
Maryam Samadi*, Salar Faramarzi, Ahmad Yarmohamadian
Faculty of Educational Science and Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Introduction
Methods
In recent years, advances in cognitive neuroscience and the relationship between neuroscience and education have opened new
doors in the field of teaching and learning. The field of education
has benefited greatly from brain-related research in learning. This
research has provided new information about human learning and
enabled us to design more effective learning programs for individuals of all ages (Blakemore, 2005; translated by Kharrazi, 2009).
Brain-based learning is an approach that takes into consideration
how the brain receives, processes, and interprets information and
how it makes connections, and stores and remembers the messages (Greenleaf, 2003). In other words, learning in accordance
with the way that the brain is naturally designed to learn. Different
parts of the brain seem to work together to provide meaningful
learning. Thus, it can be said that the brain learns best when it
processes cognitive, affective, and psychomotor information simultaneously.On the other hand, several studies have shown that
various skill, such as math, are accomplished via involvement of
several areas of the brain (Obrzut, 1991; Benson, 2003). Therefore it is necessary that both brain hemispheres develop to gain
access to functions of both hemispheres. Given the above and
the importance of individual differences and preferred learning
styles in teaching individuals with learning disorder, the present
study aimed to investigate the efficacy of Brain-based teaching
on memory improvements in primary school students with math
learning disability.
The statistical population of the study was fifth grade students
of a primary school in Isfahan. To conduct the research, 5 students
with mathematic learning disability were selected through purposive sampling. A single-subject method with MBD design was
employed. The instruments of the research included Raven Intelligence Test, the Mathematic Disability Diagnosis Test and Conner’s Neurophysiology Test. The intervention started right after
the baseline condition and was followed by 16 individual training
in ‘brain-based teaching’ sessions.
Results
The results of the memory data analysis, based on descriptive
statistics’ and visual analysis revealed that the intervention was
effective in the five participants (p≤0.001).
Conclusion
Our findings suggest that brain-based teaching can reduce the
rate of memory performance. Therefore, brain-based teaching
reduces rate of memory performance and thus improves performance in students with mathematic learning disability. The
findings supported the notion that brain-based teaching could be
employed in teaching mathematics to students. As other studies concluded, too, the educational system should try to utilize
knowledge of brain functioning in teaching in primary schools in
order to improve students’ learning ability.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mansoreh1988@yahoo.com
Auditory Impairments in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS):
Role of Central Auditory Behavioural Tests
Ayub Valadbeigi*, Atta Heidari, Farzad Weisi, Mohammad Rezaei, Vahid Rashedi
Hamedan University of Medical Sciences & Health Services, Hamedan, Iran
Introduction
Many Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients with normal pure tone
thresholds complain of difficulty in their hearing, especially perception of speech in background noise. Temporal and order processing are two of the critical features in central auditory processing system. Many tests for evaluation of this dysfunction have
been developed but two of the best tests that are applied for evaluating the ability of individual to process and categorize brief, rapid
changes in auditory stimuli are Gap in Noise (GIN) and Duration
Pattern Sequence Tests (DPST). Accordingly, the purpose of this
study was comparison between MS and normal 18-40 year-old
participants utilizing GIN and DPST.
Methods
This cross-sectional cohort study was conducted on 20 patients with relapsing-remitting MS (mean age 28.9 years) and 26
healthy normal hearing participants (mean age of 27.7 years) in
the age range 18-40 years. The approximate threshold and percent
of corrected answers in GIN and percent of corrected answers in
DPST test in the groups was evaluated using t-tests. Results
Results showed an increase in gap detection and decrease in
percent of corrected responses in GIN and reduction of percent
of corrected answers in DPST within MS patients in comparison
with the normal group (p<0.05). Other findings indicated that
with increasing disease duration, function in people with MS in
the right ear test GIN is worse. Furthermore, the findings revealed
that with increasing duration of the disease, patients with MS
signified poorer performance in DPST test in both ear and there
were 78% correlation between increasing disease duration and approximate threshold and 82% in corrected responses in (DPST),
respectively (p<0.0001).
Conclusion
Many MS patients with normal pure tone thresholds complain
of difficulty in hearing, especially perception of speech in background noise. Standard audiological tests have focused on disorders of peripheral system, and do not show the dysfunction of the
central nervous system exactly. Based on the findings, it seems
that people with MS might be suffering from some degree of disorder in duration and temporal resolution, which may be due to
the involvement of the central nervous system, and also deficits
in central auditory processing. Therefore, for evaluating temporal
resolution and temporal ordering in people with MS, one can use
GIN and DPST tests. Using these tests along with other behavioral and electrophysiological tests can be good for monitoring
effectiveness of drug treatment and rehabilitation (as well as other
related protocols), and for obtaining an index of temporal and ordering temporal by behavioral responses to sound stimuli, and diagnosis of MS patients who have problems in central processing.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: ayub_audio27@yahoo.com
Corresponding Children’s Performance with Their Mental
Representation and Working Memory Components
Tahereh Elahi*
Psychology Department, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran
Introduction
memory components.
Cognitive theorists believe that children before the age of 7 represent their environment with pictorial codes; about 7 years and
afterwards, their mental representation changes gradually to propositional coding. Accordingly, the question that arises is whether
it can be expected that younger children’s performance on nonverbal problems would be better than verbal and there wouldn’t
be any difference in older children’s performance on those problems. Because the method to present nonverbal problems activates pictorial representation, then children before 7 years must
be successful in this. However, if children older than 7 years are
to use the propositional representation and can recode visual input information to verbal codes, no differences in performance of
verbal and nonverbal problems should exist. On the other hand,
dominant representations of various age groups can involve working memory components differently. Working memory is a system used for short-term storage and manipulation of information
required for diverse cognitive tasks. Working memory consists
of three main subsystems: the visual- spatial sketchpad for holding and manipulating visual- spatial information, the phonological loop for maintaining and rehearsing verbal information, and
the central executive, an attention controlling system involved in
the coordination of performance on separate tasks, selective attention, set shifting, and inhibition. We hypothesize that pictorial
representation requires visual- spatial working memory on the assumption that children must store and manipulate internal tokens
that are analogous to external objects. If children use pictorial
representation, they should be able to perform on nonverbal problems better than verbal ones and rely heavily upon visual –spatial
sketchpad. In contrast, older children perform well on both verbal
and nonverbal problems, presumably because they are able to represent and code both kinds of problems verbally and solve them
without resorting to a pictorial model; therefore, they should rely
even more on phonological loop. The aim of the current research
was to test hypothesis about concordance of changes in children’s
mental representation with their performance, and explore the relation between mental representation and engagement of working
Methods
90 children in the age groups of 5, 6, and 7 who were in 100-115
IQ ranges were selected randomly. All subjects were tested with
simple arithmetic problems and measures of working memory.
Arithmetic problems presented verbally or nonverbally. In verbal
method, problems were read to children and they had to respond
verbally. In nonverbal presentations, problems were shown to
children using cubes and children had to respond nonverbally using cubes.
Results
Data analysis with t-test indicated 5 and 6 year-old children
performed better on non-verbal problems. In 7 year-old children,
there was no difference in performance of verbal and nonverbal
problems. This result confirmed that the children’s performance
was in accordance with the expected representation in each group
(pictorial and propositional before and after 7 year-old respectively). On verbal problems, the role of phonological loop was
pointed out. Visual- spatial sketchpad role was not confirmed in
none of the age groups. It is confirmed that central executive role
in cognitive actions such as verbal and nonverbal calculation in all
age groups is more important.
Conclusion
The expected representation for younger children is pictorial.
This topic confirmed with superior performance on nonverbal
problems so their performance was in concordance with their
mental representations. None of the differences in the older children’s performance on verbal and nonverbal is in concordance
with their mental representation, namely propositional representation. Therefore, using teaching methods that are well-proportioned
with children’s representations can help them to be proficient.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: elahi.tahereh558@gmail.com
Study and Comparison of Metacognitive Strategies in Gifted and
Typical Students
Tahereh Elahi*, Leila Tavvabi
Department of Psychology, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran
Introduction
Numerous research studies have employed IQ to understand
individual differences in academic performance. Although IQ
predicts an individual’s academic achievement (e.g., Gaultney,
Bjorklund, Goldstein, 1996; Roberts, 2007) it does not inform
in detail why high IQ individuals perform well. In fact, an individual’s performance may vary depending on his/her cognition
and metacognition characteristics. Metacognition is an ability to
understand, regulate, and use one’s cognitive processes in a constructive manner (Flavell, 1979). Metacognitive strategies are a
complex set of abilities employed by people to control their behavior and learning to reach desirable goals (Zimmerman, Schunk, 2011). It is widely viewed as a critical hallmark of expert
performance in that experts organize greater amounts of knowledge in a more effective manner, use more appropriate strategies,
and regulate their thinking and performance more effectively than
non-experts. Some researchers in the field of gifted education
have hypothesized that gifted individuals think like experts (Carr,
Aasoobshirazi, 2008). Sternberg (2001) conceptualized giftedness
as developing expertise in which gifted students acquire expertise
at a more rapid rate than typical students. As such, gifted individuals should frequently use metacognitive strategies as compared
to their typical peers. The purpose of the current research was to
evaluate metacognitive strategies in gifted and typical female high
school students and draw comparisons between them.
Methods
100 gifted students in their sophomore and junior years of high
school were selected by availability sampling and matched against
100 typical students in the same grade levels. Metacognition was
measured using student self-reports of Metacognitive Awareness
of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI).
Results
Data analysis indicated the gifted and typical students differ in utilizing metacognitive strategies and 75% of variance of global strategy was explained using the intelligence variable. Also, this research
finding showed field of study couldn’t have an effective role in explaining metacognitive strategies variance. Moreover, the findings
demonstrated that mean scores of global strategy on students studying science and placed in the gifted group was better than typical
students in the same field of study. Therefore, intelligence explains
77% and below of variance for global strategy account for about
35% of the problem solving strategy in this group. The amount of
variance explained by the difference in intelligence between scores
of gifted and typical students in mathematics for global strategy was
72%, while the score for problem- solving strategy was 29%. Intelligence couldn’t explain a significant account of variance for supportive strategy on any group including in the field of science and
mathematics for neither gifted nor typical students.
Conclusion
Metacognition has been indicated as a key component of agency in cognition approach and has been increasingly regarded as
one of the facilitating factors of self-regulated learning, as it helps
people transfer skills, knowledge, and strategies across contexts
and situations (Azevedo, Witherspoon, 2009; Schraw, 2000; Van
Hout- Wolters, Afflerbach, 2006). Gifted students develop their
thinking using metacognitive knowledge, methods, and strategies. They clear their mind in their environment and try hard by
thinking about numerous responses and opinions. Overall cognitive and metacognitive strategies make a person appropriately encounter problems and enjoy a superior performance in academic
situations. Hence improving effective metacognitive strategies in
gifted students and forming, educating, and improving these strategies on typical students can be a fundamental step for increasing
the quality of learning processes.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: elahi.tahereh558@gmail.com
Effect of Attention Games on Improvement in Working Memory
Performance in Boys with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD): Single-Subject Research
Maryam Ahmadzadeh*, Salar Faramarzi, Ahmad Abedi
Introduction
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a psychological and neurological syndrome associated with executive activity
deficiency in the prefrontal cortex (Balestrion et al., 2008). Characteristics that are seen in these children include: hyperactivity,
motor-perceptual impairment, emotional instability, lack of general coordination, attention deficit, impulsive behavior (acting before thinking, irritability), memory and thinking disorders, learning disabilities, speech and hearing disorders, and neurological
symptoms (Kaplan & Sadock, 2008). Due to deficits in attention,
these children do note process a lot of information (Bush, 2010)
and so lose the opportunity to save and recall data, resulting in
them experiencing faults in memory. Memory is one of the higher
cognitive processes in humans that while associated with perception and attention, is involved in problem solving and thinking.
These children due to inhibition deficit, experience deficiencies
in working memory that normal children not experience (Trainy
et al., 2011). Working memory is defined as a temporary storage
area where manipulation and storage of information occurs (Seidman, 2006). Play therapy is one of treatment techniques used to
improve children’s disorders. In play therapy, children’s need for
physical activity is key. During play, children use up their energy;
they are ready for the responsibilities of life and achieving the
difficult goals. They have contact with other children and learn
adjustment with others (Davarpanah, 1390). Attention Games
are games that teach children to pay attention. The present study
aimed to investigate the efficacy of attention games on working
memory performance in school students (boys) with ADHD.
Methods
The participants of this study were three school students (boys)
diagnosed as having ADHD, who were selected purposely. To
collect data, we used Conner’s rating scale (parent and teacher
forms) and Conner’s neurophysiology test. A single-subject method with MBD design research methodology was used as well. The
intervention started right after the baseline condition and 15 individual sessions of attention games was given to them afterwards.
Results
The results of the working memory data chart analysis based
on descriptive statistics and visual analysis indices revealed
that the intervention has been effective on the three participants
(p≤0/0001).
Conclusion
The results of the present study show that working memory performance is improved through the attention games.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: maryamahmadzadeh1988@ymail.com
A Longitudinal Study of Assessing Spatial Ability in Williams
Syndrome Child
Mahdis Maghsudloo*
Introduction
The aim of this study is to provide in depth, a description of spatial ability of Williams syndrome in a 30 month aged child. Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic disorder associated with mental
retardation, which predisposes individuals to a pattern of characteristics such as strengths and weaknesses in mental functioning.
It has been proven that children with this disorder have impaired
spatial ability. A possible candidate for the background mechanism of this cognitive architecture is a dissociative impaired working memory system. Spatial ability refers to the skill of perceiving
the visual world, transforming and modifying initial perceptions,
and mentally recreating spatial aspects of one’s visual experience
without the relevant stimuli. Designing this research will help to
understand more about Williams syndrome and planning a better
intervention program for those affected with this genetic disorder.
Methods
The method of research is descriptive. Longitudinal study has
been done for 6 months on one child diagnosed with Williams syndrome. Objects can relate to one another in different ways. An object can be contained, supported, attached, encircled, or covered by
another object. These tasks have been used for spatial assessments.
Tasks have been done with the child every day for six months. In
each trial if the child could perform the task correctly, she got 1 and
if she could not, she got 0. Every task had been done with three
different shaped objects. So the total scores in all tasks was 15.
Results
At first step, to know the child’s ability, a pretest had been done.
During the pretest, the child got 2 out of 15. The child was constantly being taught these tasks. After 6 months of being taught,
she got 11 out of 15. There was a significant difference in her ability before and after learning the tasks.
Conclusion
Earlier research has found impaired spatial ability in Williams
syndrome. These studies showed that subjects with Williams syndrome show a seriously impaired performance on a wide range
of visuo-spatial tasks involving simple orientation, size judging
abilities, and also on more complex spatial constructive and learning skills (Bellugi et al., 1988, 1994; Wang et al., 1995). Subjects
showed an impaired performance in long-term learning of repetitive spatial information and their spatial learning performance
strongly correlated with their spatial working memory capacity. In
contrast with past research, our results showed this ability could
develop with constant education in Williams children. Maybe
these differences are related to the age of children and other environmental aspects of intervention. In conclusion, working with
children in this aspect will allow children to get a better school
education, job performance, and so on.
Cognitive Control of Creativity
Soghra Akbari Chermahini*1, Bernhard Hommel2, Lorenza Colzato 2
1. Arak University, Arak, Iran
2. Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
Introduction
The aim of the present study was to characterize a cognitivecontrol state that participants establish when carrying out a creativity task by searching for after-effects of divergent-thinking
and convergent-thinking on Simon task as a common, which is a
reasonably well understood cognitive task and known as the purest assessment of response conflict (Hommel, 2011; Kornblum
et al., 1990). It has been suggested (cf. Hommel, 1993) that the
Simon effect generally refers back to the interference that occurs
in the response-selection stage of decision making. The creativity
tasks served as primes that were expected to exert specific effects
on cognitive control in others; unrelated probe task. Our experiment was based on the assumption that priming between tasks is
facilitative, and that overlap between the cognitive-control configurations in the priming task and in the probe task would be
expected to improve performance in the latter. We anticipated that
the Simon effect would be affected if being primed by creativity
tasks.
Methods
19 young healthy, university students, served as subjects in the
study in order and received partial fulfillment of course credit in
turn for participating. Participants served in two sessions separated by one week. In one session they constantly switched between
performing the Remote Association Task (based on Mednick,
1962) for two minutes to induce convergent thinking (the prime
task) and completing a block of Simon as a probe task. In the
other session they constantly switched between carrying out the
Alternative Use Task (Guilford, 1967) for two minutes to induce
divergent thinking (the prime task) and performing a block of the
Simon task. The order of these two types of sessions was counterbalanced across participants.
Results
Participants showed a good performance in the Remote Association Task (M=7.7 and SD=2.9) and the Alternate Uses Task
(M=33 and SD=7.04). Mean RTs and proportions of errors from
the Simon task were analyzed as a function of priming task (convergent vs. divergent thinking) and compatibility (compatible vs.
incompatible). There was reliable main effect of compatibility in
RTs, showing faster responses in compatible than incompatible
conditions. Importantly, compatibility interacted with priming
task. While the compatibility was reliable for both types of priming, the Simon effect was reduced by the convergent-thinking
prime. Findings suggest that the control state implemented in
the convergent-thinking task is more compatible with the control
state than the functional is for performing the Simon task, and also
more than the control state implemented in the divergent-thinking
task is.
Conclusion
As the results shown convergent thinking benefited performance
in the Simon task more than divergent thinking did. This task is
suspected to induce conflict between response codes, which suggests that the cognitive-control state underlying convergent thinking is well-suited to reduce cognitive conflict. This might be because this control state is characterized by a relatively strong topdown support of task-relevant information.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: soghraakbari@gmail.com
Humor Appreciation in Schizophrenic Patients
Sedigheh Khademi*, Mohammad Hadi Falahi, Ghasem Naziri, Farah Ghoreshi
Science & Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Fars, Iran
Introduction
Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder and a brain-based
disease which affects 1% of the world’s adult population. This
psychiatric illness affects a wide range of functional domains such
as perception, emotion, thinking and language. Cognitive deficits
and language disturbances are considered as core characteristics
of schizophrenia. The primary language disorders in schizophrenia have been considered as pragmatic impairments. Pragmatics,
the relationship between language and context and the way people
use language in natural settings, is the level of language most obviously disordered in schizophrenia. Many studies have examined
discourse and pragmatic aspects of language in schizophrenic patients such as metaphor, prosody, humor, irony, etc. Humor is a
complex cognitive process and an aspect of pragmatics. Humor,
sarcasm and irony are language functions which require the listener to evaluate multiple meanings and discern which meaning
best reflect a speaker’s communicative intent. For interpreting and
comprehending jokes and humor, the listener or/and reader needs
to go beyond the formal structure of a language and to use contextual information and extra-linguistic knowledge. Based on the
hypothesis that schizophrenic patients have deficits in pragmatics
and have disorders in appreciating humor, this study investigated
humor appreciation in schizophrenic patients and compared their
functions with normal subjects.
Methods
A total 120 subjects, sixty schizophrenic patients (45 males and
15 females) diagnosed with a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of schizophrenia and sixty healthy controls (45 males and 15 females) were
compared. Both groups were matched for age, gender and educational level. Humor Appreciation Task was designed and its validity and reliability was examined. The task was administered in
order to compare both groups’ humor appreciation functions. The
task was included 10 question sentences followed by a punch line.
Punch lines provided either funny or not funny (logical) replies to
joke questions. The subjects were asked to read the joke questions
and the punch lines and choose funny items. The scores were calculated and the data were analyzed with Kolmogorov-Smirnov,
Chi-square test and ANOVA.
Results
The comparison of humor appreciation scores in schizophrenic patients and healthy controls showed the mean score of 8.83
for controls and 6.63 for patients. The result of Chi-square test
between schizophrenic patients and healthy individuals was significant (p-value=0.00) and indicated humor appreciation deficits in schizophrenic patients in comparison with healthy control
group. No significant difference between men and women was
found in humor appreciation. The results of ANOVA, showed pvalue=0.025 for normal subjects and p-value=0.899 for schizophrenic patients in age variable which suggests a significant difference between different groups of age in healthy subjects but no
significant difference between different groups of age in patients.
No significant difference observed between subjects’ educational
level and humor appreciation.
Conclusion
Schizophrenic patients have difficulty in appreciating and comprehending humor which is an aspect of pragmatics and non-literal language use. Age, gender and educational level have no effect
on humor appreciation in schizophrenic patients. Compared with
controls, schizophrenic patients show poor functions in humor appreciation. Thus, our findings support the hypothesis that schizophrenic patients have disorders in humor appreciation which is an
aspect of pragmatics.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: sedi.khademi@yahoo.com
Case study: Assessing the Effects of Poem with Mimic in Word
Generation by a Split-Brain Child
Mahdis Maghsudloo*1, Mahboobeh Abbasian2, Ebrahim Pishyareh3
3. Olum Behzisti University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
The term split-brain refers to complete callosotomy. Congenital absence of the corpus callosum is one cause of split brain. It
is, for the most part, not accompanied by disconnection signs, a
surprising fact believed to reflect early plasticity and reorganization of subcallosal channels. Hemispheric specialization means
that one side of the brain is more adept than the other. It does not
necessarily mean that the other side cannot perform a function at
all or is not routinely involved in a particular activity. Specializations tend to be for skills that are much more specific and circumscribed than ‘language’ or ‘perception’ as a whole. Split-brain
studies have shown that the right hemisphere has some language
comprehension abilities. This may be especially true in females.
Furthermore, the right hemisphere may routinely be involved in
aspects of speech comprehension, such as decoding the meaning
of the changes in tone of voice that occur during normal speaking
meanwhile the left hemisphere is known as language hemisphere.
With time, split-brain patients acquire a variety of extracallosal
transfer mechanisms. Numerous studies of split-brain patients
have shown evidence for continued interhemispheric transfer –
albeit degraded – in the absence of cerebral commissures. The
aim of this study was to assess the effects of poem with mimic in
word generation by a split-brain child. As noted earlier, the right
hemisphere has abilities in speech so we used this ability as tone
of speech and mimic of the face with poem words that is associ-
ated with the left hemisphere, to make speech ability in a 3 years
split brain girl that had no word. Methods
A 3 year old girl had been selected and educated 3 days a week
for 4 month. 7 poems had been used in every session. The amount
of words that she had used each session had been written.
Results
Results show that there was a significant difference in the
amount of words that she could use at first and at the end of the
program. She had no words at the first session but in the last session she could say about 150 words.
Conclusion
According to past research split brain people could achieve language. In childhood, because of the flexibility of the brain, the
readiness of hemispheres to acquire each other’s role will be easier than in adulthood. Usage of tasks that activate two hemispheres
synchronically will cause the faster development of that ability.
Split brain child with no words not only can use two hemispheres
with poem by mimicry but also can accompany other factors like
emotions that make the task more attractive.
Cultural Neuro-Phenomenology Interdisciplinary Disciplined for
Studying the Process of Consciousness in Humans
Rizgar Mohammadi*, Zakiya Shabrandi
Sarwabad, Iran
Introduction
Cultural neuro-phenomenology is an interdisciplinary theory,
integrating research in anthropology, psychology, neuroscience,
and phenomenology. The theory provides a single perspective
and language for addressing such issues as evolution of consciousness, cultural conditioning, and transcendence of cultural
conditioning of consciousness. Cultural neuro-phenomenology
is an interdisciplinary theory, integrating research in anthropology, psychology, neuroscience, and phenomenology. The theory provides a single perspective and language for addressing
such issues as evolution of consciousness, cultural conditioning, transcendence of cultural conditioning of consciousness,
and interdisciplinary structure in the Cultural neuro-phenomenology.
Methods
The research design of review articles are paired to introduce
the most recent Research Articles investigate.
Results
Culture neuro-phenomenology works Biogenetic structuralism groups. Biogenetic structuralism is a body of theory that
integrates our understanding of consciousness, culture, and
nervous system in a single perspective. The theory is simultaneously neurobiological, phenomenological and sociocultural,
incorporating all avenues of scientific research relevant to the
study of consciousness, with a particular emphasis upon ethnographic and neuro-phenomenological methodologies. Because
biogenetic structuralism incorporates an ethnological frame
and also reduced and built neuro-anthropological accounts of
a number of sociocultural phenomena. Biogenetic structural
theory has been very much a group endeavor (thanks primarily
to Ivan Brady, Gene d’Aquili, John McManus, Sheila Richardson, Robert Rubinstein, and more recently Robbie Davis-Floyd
and C. Jason Throop) and has continued to develop over the last
quarter century. Biogenetic structuralism takes the view that the
structures producing universal patterns in culture - i.e., universal
patterns in socially conditioned beliefs, behaviors, techniques,
images, thoughts, feelings, perceptions, experiences, etc. -- are
in fact neuro-physiological organizations (or “entrainments”)
that develop during the course of an individual’s life, and that
have their developmental origin in initial, genetically predisposed “neuro-gnostic models” (or simply “neurognosis”). Cultural neuro-phenomenology is the view that the most productive research strategy for discovering the invariant properties
of consciousness is trained introspection. After all, they argue,
our own experience and awareness are the only ones we have
direct access to. Anti-introspectionist positions in science are
claimed by its adherents to be primarily due to pre-scientific
cultural hangovers from Church rulings against direct spiritual
exploration—stemming historically from the so-called Gnostic
heresy. They consider behaviorist reaction to Wilhelm Wundt’s
introspectionism in psychology to be merely a legitimation of
these cultural attitudes.
Conclusion
Cultural neuro-phenomenology offers five basic existential
properties operating within the interaction between experience
and extra-mental reality for people everywhere: an inherent
sense of the real (the brain ‘‘wired’’ to know reality), the qualities of obduracy–affordance, a feed-forward cognitive perceptual-activity loop that operates as a test of the truth, the recognition of hidden causation or forces behind observed events, and
an inherent sense of inter-subjectivity.
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) for the
Treatment of Neuropsychiatric Disorders: A Review Ali Majidi*1, Hadi Shirzad2, Tara Rezapour3, Shahab Bagheri4, Shafi Bagheri5
1. Police Force Medicine, Tehran, Iran.
2. Industrial Research Center of NAJA, Tehran, Iran.
3. Faculty of HSE, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran.
4. Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran.
5. Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
Introduction
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) refers to a
non-invasive technique that stimulates the human brain in vivo
using very strong, pulsed magnetic fields. During rTMS the magnetic pulses pass through a hand-held stimulating coil applied
directly to the head and induce an electrical current in the underlying tissue, which in turn is able to depolarize neurons. Due to
its long lasting effects, rTMS has often been used to study the
influence on a variety of cerebral functions. This article provides a
review of rTMS studies‌of patients suffering from neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders such as Depression, Schizophrenia,
Alzheimer and Parkinson for better understanding the potential of
this method for treatment.
Methods
We investigated this issue through a comprehensive literature
search for published articles from 2005 through 2012 in MEDLINE, PUBMED and other databases, looking for main therapeutic results of rTMS on neuropsychiatric disorders. A great range
of search terms were used: ‘Repetitive transcranial magnetic
stimulation’, ‘rTMS’, ‘cognition’, ‘cognitive disorders’, ‘depressive disorders’, ‘Alzheimer’s’, ‘Parkinson’s’ and ‘Schizophrenia’.
Studies were considered only if they had been published in English language and described adequately the sample, the applica-
tion procedure and the trial design. We considered both high (>1
Hz) and low frequency (≤1 Hz) stimulations. All studies fulfilling our predefined selection criteria were taken into account and
evaluated according to their relative cognitive outcome. Results
In the literature search we realized that although rTMS has been
found to be useful in the treatment of depression, there has been
some inconsistency in the evidence. In other neuropsychiatric disorders such as Schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, it has been found to be useful but there is a need for thorough
randomized and controlled studies involving large numbers of patients - because most of the studies, were of low methodological
quality and used small sample sizes.
Conclusion
rTMS is a non-invasive and relatively painless tool that has been
used to study various cognitive functions as well as to understand
the brain–behavior relationship in normal individuals and in those
with various neuropsychiatric disorders. The present study performs a comprehensive review of existing scientific evidences to
identify the state of the current knowledge about the effectiveness
of rTMS in treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders and also to
determine the future direction for further researches. *Corresponding author. E-mail address: hadi_shirzad@yahoo.com
Impulsivity and Task Condition in Prospective Memory
Performance: Converging Evidence from Experimental and
Questionnaire Study
Azizuddin Khan*
Psychophysiology Laboratory, Department of HSS, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Introduction
Prospective memory involves forming an intention and then
realizing it at some appropriate time or in response to some
external cue in the future. A questionnaire and experimental
study was conducted on 182 adult participants to investigate
the role of metamemory and task condition in prospective and
retrospective memory (paradigm). Cuing (self or environmental) and term (short term and long term) were also involved as
independent variables. The mean age of the participants was
21.49 years (SD=2.55). Out of 182 participants, 99 were low,
while 83 were high on metamemory.
Methods
Experiement 1 employed task condition (event vs. time-based
prospective memory: between subjects) and cognitive load
(low vs. high: within subjects) as independent variable and accuracy in prospective memory as the dependent variable. The
design of the first experiment was 2*2 mixed factorial design.
The second experiment utilized three questionnaires to collect
data: “Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire”
(PRMQ) developed by Smith, Della Sala, Logie and Maylor
(2000), NEO Five-Factor Inventory (Costa, McCrae, 1989). In
the second study, metamemory (high vs. low), was employed
as between subject factors. On the other hand, paradigm (prospective vs. retrospective), cue (self vs. environment) and term
(short-term vs. long-term) were utilized as within subject factors. Thus, the design of the study was 2*2*2*2 mix factorial
design.
Results
Analysis of variance and regression analysis were used to
analyze the data. All the main effects of the first study were
significant. Some interactions were also found to be significant. There was a negative and significant relationship between
prospective memory and neuroticism, which showed a positive and significant relationship between prospective memory
and extroversion, and prospective memory and conscientiousness. Furthermore, prospective as well as retrospective memories were found to increase with metamemory as revealed by
significant correlation coefficient (r) between metamemory and
prospective memory and between metamemory and retrospective memory. However, analysis of variance as well as correlation analysis revealed that metamemory is a better indicator of
prospective memory than retrospective memory.
Conclusion
Results also revealed that time-based task is more error prone
in realization of intention as compared to an event-based task.
Since neuroticism is characterized by anxiety, moodiness, and
worry, it is quite possible that the individual will be unable to
formulate future course of action. Instead, individual’s attention is directed towards the present. Consequently, prospective memory performance will deteriorate. Conscientious and
extrovert individuals focus on the future and as a result their
performance on prospective memory is better. The results are
discussed in light of existing theories and findings.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: khanaziz@iitb.ac.in
Dysfunctional Integration of Frontal and Posterior Brain Regions
among Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD):
Quantitative EEG Analysis
Norsiah Fauzan*, Nur Hurunain Amran
UNIMAS, Kuching, Malaysia
Introduction
Autism Spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neuro-developmental
disorder associated with deficits in executive function, language,
emotions, and social communication (Coben et al., 2008). In this
current investigation, the main purpose was to analyze the brain
electrical activity frequency in children with ASD and normal individuals (without evident neurological disorders) and compare
the recurring patterns in ASD and normal individuals. The specific objective is to investigate the difference in quantitative EEG
findings in ten individuals diagnosed with ASD and ten normal
individuals. Robert Coben and his colleagues have been able to
distinguish autistic children from neurotypical children by looking at the quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) alone, with
a success rate of 88%.4 (Rondeau, 2005, 2010). Through qEEG,
or brain mapping, we are able to measure (quantify) the electrical
activity summation in a given region of the brain to localize the
area of dysfunction.
Methods
The process begins when the EEG data were recorded by means
of the Mitsar amplifier from 19 electrodes (Fp1, Fp2, F7, F3, Fz,
F4, F8, T3, C3, Cz, C4, T4, T5, P3, Pz, P4, T6, O1, O2 sites in the
International 10-20 system) with 250 Hz sampling rate in 0.3–70
Hz frequency range in the resting eyes opened (EO) conditions.
During the recording, participants sat comfortably on a reclining
leather sofa. The duration of the recording session was approximately from 10-30 minutes. The EEG is then stored on a computer. The qEEG process is first to remove artifact (movement, interference, noise, etc) and convert the waveforms into a quantitative
measurement, which is very often displayed as a topographical
“map”. Topographical differences in cerebral functioning were
examined using estimates of absolute, and total power, as well as
intrahemispheric and interhemispheric connectivity. Ten participants diagnosed with ASD and ten normal participants were selected for the present study. The ASD group composed of ten male
participants recruited from Kuching Autism Association Sarawak
ASD; six male participants and four female were normal. The
normal individuals had no history of neurological disorders, such
as epileptic seizures or encephalitis and reduced mental capacity.
Results
Findings included group difference in power, and presence of
excessive slow wave activity (delta and theta) at the prefrontal
lobe and frontal lobe, or roughly regions Fp1, Fp2, F7 and F8,
and O2 or right posterior regions. The findings showed an insufficient range of theta and alpha brainwaves that might explain the
associated attention and anxiety state of the ASD children. There
was insufficient presence of beta in most of the regions such as
T3, T4, O1 and O2, which indicated no connections of frontal
and posterior regions. More significantly, there was a pattern of
underconnectivity in autistics compared to normal participants.
Finally, there were low presence of delta, theta, alpha, and beta
waves across posterior regions. Results from paired sample t-test
were converted into Effect sizes (d) and the effect sizes d=1.69
(between ASD Frontal-Normal Frontal), d=0.20 (ASD MidlineNormal Midline) and d=-1.041 suggesting group difference in
power interhemispherically (Frontal and Posterior), but with
higher values for alpha and theta bands in normal individuals
compared to autistics.
Conclusion
These results suggest faulty neural integration of frontal and
posterior brain regions in autistics along with a pattern of neural
underconnectivity. This is consistent with other research in EEG,
such as Coben and Mckeon (2009), Coben and Padolsky (2007),
and Coben et al., (2008) suggesting that neural connectivity
anomalies are a major deficit leading to autistic symptomatology.
This paper reports consistencies in the study of EEG power and
connectivity or coherence during a resting state Eyes opened (EO)
conditions in children suffering autism spectrum disorder.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: nursiahfauzan@gmail.com
On the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Listening
Comprehension Ability of Elementary Learners
with Mild Hearing Loss Ali Mohammad Fazilatfar*, Zeinab Sadat Nasseri
Introduction
Although listening in a second language is one of the most important prerequisites for language learning, language teachers
and students tend to overlook its importance. Moreover, hearing
loss in children is a silent and hidden handicap (Northen, Down,
1991). Furthermore, success in educational institution has been
claimed by almost all to be a high correlate of high IQ (Intelligence Quotient); however, a small body of empirical research
has been conducted to trace the possible association of EQ (Emotional Intelligence) which is categorized as an effective factor in
the listening process with academic achievement especially in the
context of second language learning. Therefore, the enigmatic nature of this association has inspired an interest to carry out this
research to explore the relationship between the emotional intelligence and elementary learners’ performance in a pictorial test of
listening comprehension.
Methods
To this end, 30 elementary Persian learners of English, both male
and female, were chosen via audiometer by an audiologist. The researcher dealt with two groups. The first group was called normal
hearing participants and the second group was called participants
with mild hearing loss (15-25 db HL). Participants were asked to
complete the Emotional Intelligence Inventory (EQ-i) developed
by Bar-on (1980). Subsequently, EQ-i data were matched with the
students’ score in a pictorial test. The role of gender as a variable
was also marginally studied. The obtained data were subjected to
correlation formula.
Results
We found a significant difference between the two groups regarding the relationship between emotional intelligence and their
performance in a pictorial test of listening comprehension. Moreover, in the case of learners with mild hearing loss, a highly significant positive correlation was found between their degree of
emotional intelligence and scores on the listening comprehension
test. Conclusion
English learners of both groups in the study who possess higher
Emotional Intelligence (EI), referring to their ability to manage
their emotions were capable of making better decisions, communicating more effectively and experiencing less stress in spite of
their mild hearing loss. The results of this study provide a clear answer to some of the unanswered questions concerning emotional
intelligence, which is presently at the beginning of its curve of
growth. Furthermore, the findings of this study can help teachers
of English as a second or foreign language to design the listening
tests by considering the students’ capacity to manage emotional
states, which can be considered as an influential factor in their
performance.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: afazilatfar@yahoo.com
The Study of Teaching - Learning through Thinking Skills in the
First Grade of Primary School
Mahmoud Talkhabi*
Farhangin University and Institute for Cognitive Science Studies, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
In cognitive education, thinking skills have a major role in improving teaching-learning process. The thesis statement is that
using thinking skills can improve cognitive functions of students
such as problem solving, transition of learning, and creation of
knowledge. The goal of this study is to improve teaching-learning
through encouragement of students’ thinking skills. The objectives are to explain the social process of learning activities, modifications, identifying effective teaching acts, as well as thinking
types that are used by students while performing learning tasks.
Methods
The research method is a lesson study in which creating learning
situations within teachers’ lesson plans is verified. The case study
selected first graders of nongovernmental primary school (Mehr-e
Hashtom). The participants consisted of two major teachers with
two teacher’s assistants, educating 11 boys from six to seven years
old. The qualitative data include dialogues, teachers’ comments,
videos of the teaching process, and thinking skills used by the
students.
Results
The findings indicate that thinking skills such as reasoning, information processing, and inquiry plays an essential role in improving the teaching-learning process. A key element of planning
the lessons involves connecting the thinking skills with the subject matters, which should be taken into account when designing
learning activities. Hence, in this study we decided to lay rea-
soning as a core skill in math class, inquiry in science class, and
information process in Persian language class. We realized that
correcting teacher’s practice in any steps of teaching that direct
the thinking process of students, will likely improve their learning while performing the tasks. Examples of how a lesson study
can support students’ thinking and learning are as follows: For
involving students to question the science teacher regarding lessons of soil, how to predict the consequence of the experiment; or
in lessons of the development of science, and to show how we will
lighten our homes in the future by painting. For intern students
in regards to information processing, the language teacher asked
them to categorize pictures that have the same phonics. To influence students towards using reasoning, the math teacher asked
them to draw a butterfly using the line of symmetry, however, before starting this task, they had to explain how to find the line of
symmetry.
Conclusion
Such a study requires a mental and social space in which the
teachers are cooperative and flexible for changing their own ideas
and methods. What we gathered from this study were relations
and interactions that occurred in the mental and social space of
the school. We perceived that “education” should be generally
considered as “culture”, and without such a consideration, one
can’t apply improving programs. Another important issue was the
remark towards teachers’ concerns. What is created by the lesson
study is the condition in which the process of research never intended to indentify weaknesses and strengths of teaching; rather it
focused on how social endeavors improve lesson plans based on
collective wisdom.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: talkhabi@iricss.org
Relationship between Spatial Intelligence and Situational Model of
Discourse Comprehension
Sajad Yaseri Moghadam*, Zahra Fotovotnia2, Maryam Esmaili3
1. Abdanan, Ilam, Iran
2. Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, Isfahan, Iran
Introduction
Reading is one of the most important skills in any language class
and is highly emphasized in our country both at college and high
school levels. As Carrel (1988) noted, effective reading is crucial
for at least three groups of students: those in EFL contexts, those
at advanced levels of proficiency, and those who need English for
academic purposes. Furthermore, reading is included in almost
any language proficiency as well as teacher made test. However,
reading comprehension seems to be influenced by a few factors,
one of which is students’ traits. The importance of reading comprehension and its inclusion in English language tests motivate
researchers to find out if there is a relationship between reading
comprehension and spatial intelligence, which is supposed to
have a relationship with the ability to create mental maps of situational descriptions during reading. In addition, level of spatial
intelligence and reading comprehension may have a relationship
with the reader’s gender. The present study was designed to investigate the aforementioned issues.
Methods
The study was conducted with a sample of 60 Iranian university
students studying English as their major at the B.A. level. There
were equal numbers of male and female participants with the age
range of 21-35, who were native speaker of Persian. They received
the Rybacow Spatial Intelligence test and one reading comprehen-
sion test consisted of 3 survey descriptions. The participants were
asked to create mental maps while reading the materials and answer multiple choice questions written based on the texts. Learners’ reaction times were recorded by a software installed on the
computer. The scores of the participants on the reading comprehension tests and the Rybacow Spatial intelligence test, as well as
their reaction times were measured and analyzed.
Results
The results reveal a strong positive relationship between spatial
intelligence and situational model of discourse comprehension
for males, but no relationship between these two variables was
found for females. Also, a strong positive relationship was found
between reaction times and reading comprehension scores for females. This shows that girls who spent more time on their reading
comprehension test got better scores.
Conclusion
The results of this study can be helpful for English language
teachers who would like to understand the factors that might affect reading comprehension, who would like to improve their students’ reading comprehension of this special kind of texts, and
who would like to encourage the use of mental map creation as a
strategy for situational model of discourse comprehension.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: sajady.moghadam@yahoo.com
A Performance of Young Children with Developmental Learning
Disabilities in Neuropsychological Test (NEPSY):
Executive Function/Attention-Memory
Monir Behruz*1, Ahmad Abedi2, Javad Hatami1
Introduction
Explanations for the diagnosis and early intervention to help preschool children with neuropsychological/developmental learning
disabilities (Semrud-Clikeman, 2005). Therefore many studies on
the neuropsychological features of such children have been carried
out in recent years. One important neuropsychological characteristic of young children with neuropsychological/developmental
learning disabilities is inability regarding attention/executive functions (Denckla, 2003; Semrud-clikeman, 2005). Executive functions control behavior output and generally include stimulator
control and inhibition, pragmatic memory, open cognition, planning, and organization (Denckla, 1991, 1996). The analysis of the
related factors has established four factors of executive function:
response hindrance, pragmatic memory, self regulation, and interrelational control (Miyake, Friedman, Emerson, Witzki, Howerter,
2000). Broadly speaking the majority of scholars consider executive functions are self-regulating; they show the child’s ability for
hindrance, self-change, planning, organization, the use of pragmatic memory, problem solving, and targeting tasks (Pennington
& Ozonoff, 1996; Seidman, 2006). Attention is a series of complex
mental functions, which include focusing or objective involvement, constancy or endurance, and awareness over a long period
of time, decoding of stimulative features, and the change of focus
from one objective to another (Denckla, 2003; Seidman, 2006). A
large body of research has shown the relatively low ability in executive functions and attention of young children with neuropsychological/developmental learning disabilities. Another feature related
to children with neuropsychological/developmental learning disabilities is “memory and learning” (Korkman, Kirk, Kemp, 1998).
In a large number of studies, it has been shown that small children
with neuropsychological/developmental learning disabilities in
neuropsychological tests including immediate memory for words,
naming memory, memory of faces, pragmatic memory, and learning index had significantly lower performance in comparison with
their normal peers (Aram, Ekelman, Nation, 1984; Wilson, 1992,
Siegel, Ryan, 1989; Korkman, Pesonen, 1994; Korkman, Hakkinen-Rihu, 1994; Wang, Bellugi, 1994; Steele, 2004; Dowker, 2005;
Gersten, Jordan, Flojo, 2005; Semrud-clikeman, 2005; Swanson,
Jerman, 2007; Seidman, 2006; Valera, Seidman, 2006; Gartland,
Strosnider, 2007). Therefore what can be concluded from the ex-
isting literature is that children with neuropsychological/developmental learning disabilities are in some ways different. The aim
of the present study is to survey and compare the neuropsychological features of pre-school children with neuropsychological/
developmental learning disabilities with normal pre-school children (without neuropsychological learning disabilities). 1. There
is a difference between the attention/executive functions of children with neuropsychological/developmental learning disabilities
and of young normal children. 2. There is a difference between the
learning and memory of children with neuropsychological/developmental learning disabilities and of young normal children.
Methods
The study was causative-comparative based. The study sample
was a group of twenty children aged 4-6 years with neuropsychological/developmental learning disabilities and twenty 4-6 years
old normal children (without neuropsychological/developmental
disability). All children were pre-schoolers from Isfahan, (a major city in Iran), and were chosen after two stages of sampling
by random multi-stage-performance cluster-sampling recognition
test method. The study instruments were the NEPSY neuropsychological test, The Wechsler pre-school and primary scale of
intelligence (WPPSI), and the index of neuropsychological/developmental learning disability symptoms for pre-school children
Results
The resulting data was analyzed using the multi-variable variance analysis statistical method (MANOVA). The results showed
that there was a significant difference between neuropsychological aspects of Attention/Executive Functions, Memory and Learning, of children with neuropsychological/developmental learning
disabilities, and the children without such disabilities:
Conclusion
Young pre-school children with learning disabilities have neuropsychological deficits which should be diagnosed at an early
stage with reliable means of diagnosis, in order to initiate timely
action for the child’s recovery.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mo.behruz@yahoo.com
Studying the Personal Cognitive Construct System of Brand
Regarding the Gender of Iranian Consumers within the Framework
of George Kelly’s Theory and the Repertory Grid Technique
Somayeh Sadat McKian*
Tehran-Iran
Introduction
According to personal construct psychology, individuals create
informal theories about themselves, other people, their health,
and so on. Their response to events is mediated by this interpretation. The construct system would be formed by a number of
bipolar cognitive constructs that are distinctions drawn from the
perception of similarities and differences in their experience and
then incorporated into the cognitive construct system to anticipate
future events. The main assessment instrument used by personal
construct researchers is the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT). In
this article, the role of cognitive factors in consumer behavior is
studied using the consumers’ personal constructs measured by the
RGT. This study takes into account the role of personal and cognitive constructs in the behavior of consumers of different brands
and introduces the theory of George Kelly and Role Repertory
Grid test. This study also aims to examine the relationship between personal and cognitive complicated structures of consumers regarding different brands of cell phones and their genders
analyzing the cognitive content of personal constructs related to
the different brands of cell phones.
Methods
Participants in this study were 60 undergraduate students (half
were female) recruited using random cluster sampling. Seven
brands of cell phones (Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Apple,
Blackberry, HTC, and LG) were provided to the participants. Data
relating to personal and cognitive complicatedness of each brand
of cell phone was measured using the Rep test. This data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test and Mann-Whitney as well
as by qualitative methods (in terms of the cognitive structures and
the named brands).
Results
A significant difference was found between the personal constructs of female vs. male consumers, but there was no significant
difference between their cognitive complicatedness. Findings of
the content analysis indicated a difference between the cognitive
structures of these two groups relating to the mentioned brands.
Furthermore, subject classification of personal and cognitive constructs of the participants in relation to the brands was determined.
Conclusion
Since the cognitive structures related to one brand and also the
subject of the constructs of its consumers is considered as the basis of their consumption behavior, the significant relation between
the genders, number, and classification of cognitive structures indicate that effective management of the brand and consumer behavior is related to the gender and cognitive structures and their
personal constructs in relation to the brand.
* Corresponding author. E-mail address: s_makian@yahoo.com
The Nicotinic Alpha7 Receptor Antagonist Methyllycaconitine
Attenuates the Learning Impairment Caused by the NMDA
Glutamate Antagonist Dizocilpine in Rats
Pooneh Heshmati*1, Edward Levin2
1. Institute for Cognitive Sciences Studies (ICSS), Iran
2. Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
Introduction
Nicotinic receptor systems have been shown by a variety of
studies to be critically involved in cognitive function. An inherent property of nicotinic receptors is to become desensitized after
activation. The relative role of nicotinic receptor activation vs. net
receptor inactivation by desensitization remains to be fully understood. Given that nicotinic agonists also cause nicotinic receptors to be desensitized and that the known desensitizing agents
also have some agonist effects, we tested the actions of blocking
nicotinic receptors on cognitive function to explore the role of
decreased activation of nicotinic receptors on cognitive function.
Methods
In the current study, we tested the effect of the alpha7 nicotinic
receptor antagonist methyllycaconitine (MLA) on learning in
a repeated acquisition test. Adult female Sprague-Dawley rats
(N=12) were trained on a repeated acquisition learning procedure
in an 8-arm radial maze. Each day each rat was presented with a
different array of three arms, which were rewarded with a food
pellet for the first entry. The other five arms were not reinforced. The rats were tested for five trials per day to determine their learning of the new daily problem. Training continued until the rats
reliable showed a learning curve when each daily new problem
was presented. This took approximately 21 training sessions.
Then, in a repeated measures counter-balanced design with different dose sequences for each rat, a range of MLA doses (0, 1, 2,
and 4 mg/kg) were administered either alone or together with the
NMDA glutamate antagonist dizocilpine (0, 0.05, and 0.10 mg/
kg) s.c. 20 minutes before the beginning of the test. The vehicle
saline was used as the control. Dizocilpine is known to impair
learning and was used to determine if MLA would interact with
the learning deficit caused by dizocilpine. The linear function of
improved performance (fewer errors) over the course of the five
trials per session was used as the index of learning. There was a
significant (p<0.005) interactive effect of MLA and dizocilpine
on learning in the repeated acquisition test. Tests of the simple
main effects comparing the treatments showed that as expected
dizocilpine (0.10 mg/kg) caused a significant (p<0.01) learning
impairment relative to control. With this dose of dizocilpine there
was no evidence of learning over the five-trial session. The addition of MLA (1 or 4 mg/kg) significantly (p<0.005) counteracted
the learning impairment caused by dizocilpine. The middle MLA
dose of 2 mg/kg provided a more modest improvement in learning
but a significant effect with this dose was not seen. When given
alone, none of the MLA doses significantly affected learning rate
relative to control.
Results
This study provides evidence that a net decrease in alpha 7 nicotinic receptor activity can improve learning by attenuating learning impairment induced by NMDA glutamate blockade. This adds
to other evidence by Levin and colleagues with tests of learning,
memory and attention and others that nicotinic antagonists can
improve cognitive function.
Conclusion
This suggests that the improvements seen with nicotinic agonists
may at least in part be due to the receptor desensitizing effects of
these drugs.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:heshmatimd@yahoo.com
How to Manipulate Dreams: Sophisticated Evaluation of Possible
Effect of Distinct Auditory Stimulation during
REM Sleep on Dream Content
Sadegh Rahimi*, Seyedeh Maryam Naghibi, Naghmeh Mokhber, HadiAssadpour, Habib Allah Nemati
Mashhad University of Medical Science, Mashhad, Iran
Introduction
Although reactivity to external stimuli is reduced during sleep,
behavioral responses are not completely absent. The ability to
perceive auditory stimuli during sleep is generally accepted to be
present in human beings (of all ages) as well as other primates.
However, the specificity of this discriminatory ability has never
been fully apprehended. In previous studies, the effect of different stimuli on dream content has produced different ratings by
participants; ranging from 87% reported by pressure cuff on the
leg to 5% by sinus tone. Although, a fair number of studies have
focused on sleep and auditory stimuli, employing pure tone voice
in lots of the studies has prevented specific dream content being
shaped. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate how auditory stimulation can affect dream content using a sophisticated
methodological procedure.
Methods
Fifteen healthy male volunteers, who were examined for having
normal auditory sensation, slept for two consecutive nights in our
sleep laboratory and were monitored by a polysomnography device. Subjects were not informed of the content and time in which
the sound was played. Traffic ambience sound (40-60 decibel for
1 minute) was played during the second Rapid Eye Movement
(REM) sleep during the experimental (second) night. A dream report, written by the participant, was collected after the second and
fourth REM sleep on both nights. Sound was not played at the 4th
REM phase to help us examine the effect of auditory stimulus on
the current REM phase and on subsequent ones. Therefore, we
played the sound once and collected 4 dream reports from each
individual. Dream reports were coded by two independent raters using the ‘Hall and de castle’ coding rule. Travel (Hall and
de castle coding symbol: TR), Streets (Hall and de castle coding symbol: ST) and the activity of “hearing” are things evaluated in their dreams. The raters compared elements of the second
night’s dream to the first night’s dream to prevent all possible social, emotional and other personal issues to interrupt the study.
TR and ST were evaluated in terms of the percentage of objects
that were seen in the dream while hearing activity was defined as
“activity of hearing something” according to Hall and de castle
coding rules.
Results
Length of sleep was normally distributed between subjects.
No significant change was found between the first night and the
experimental night (p=0.237, Paired sample t-test) and the word
count in all dream reports showed no significant difference between the first and second night dream reports (p>0.05, General
Linear Model). Dreaming something related to traffic sound (according to coding rules) was reported significantly more in dream
reports of second REM of the experimental night (in which sound
was played) in comparison to the dream reports of second REM of
the control night(p=0.033). Direct incorporation of traffic sound
(reporting something like “I participate in car racing”, “My family and I go to a trip with a car”) was reported in 75% of subjects.
Conclusion
Our finding revealed that information processing of auditory
stimuli continues during sleep and can affect dream content, much
more than previously estimated. The results of the present study
might be useful in treatment of sleep disorder, especially in case
of nightmare, as use of positive tones can change the dream content and improve patient’s quality of sleep. To better understand
how to manipulate the contents of dreams, we recommend more
studies in this field to clear the exact effect of various external
stimuli on dream content. Finally, the evaluation of a possible correlation between EEG markers and the point when the dream has
been affected by an external auditory stimulus is needed in future
research.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: rahimi_email@yahoo.com
Antidepressant-like Effects of Elettaria Cardamomum Essential Oil
in the Forced Swim Test and Tail Suspension Test in Male Mice
Boshra Akhlaghi*1, Saeid Abbasi Maleki2
1. Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2. Islamic Azad University, Urmia, Iran
Introduction
Depression is a chronic, recurring and potentially life-threatening illness that affects up to 20% of the population across the
globe. It is one of the top ten causes of morbidity and mortality
worldwide based on a survey by the World Health Organization.
A growing number of herbal medicines are being introduced for
treatment of serve depression and anxiety disorders and many of
which have comparable efficacy to prescription medications with
lower side effects. The present study was designed to evaluate
the antidepressant effects of Elettaria Cardamomum essential oil
in the forced swim test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST) in
male mice.
Methods
Male NMRI mice (20-30g) were used in this study. Treatment
groups received different doses of Elettaria Cardamomum essential oil (10, 20, and 40 mg/kg, i.p.). Control groups received vehicle (normal saline plus Sweet Almond oil, 10 ml/kg, i.p.) instead
of these drugs. In the FST, each animal was placed individually in
a 5 liter glass beakers, filled with water up to a height of 15 cm and
were observed for a duration of 6 minutes. The duration of immobility was recorded during the last 4 minutes of the observation
period. The mouse was considered immobile when it floated motionlessly or made only those moments necessary to keep its head
above the water surface. The water was changed after each test.
In the TST, The animals were hung by the tail on a plastic string
75 cm above the surface with the help of an adhesive tape. The
duration of immobility was observed for a period of 6 minutes.
The duration of immobility was recorded during the last 4 minutes
of the observation period. Mice were considered to be immobile
only when they hung passively and were completely motionless.
Results
Our results showed that Elettaria Cardamomum essential oil
(20 and 40 mg/kg, i.p.) in both FST and TST significantly and
dose-dependently reduced the duration of immobility time
(99.65±9.11 and 57.68±11.05; p<0.01 and p<0.001; 91.88±7.99
and 67.54±5.05; p<0.01 and p<0.001 respectively) but not so in
the control groups (162.14±12.96 and 141±8.08; respectively).
All doses of the essential oil significantly and dose-dependently increased swimming time (95.9±8.29, 134.81±9.06 and
159.44±6.28; respectively, p<0.001) without significant change in
climbing time (p>0.05).
Conclusion
In conclusion, our findings indicate that serotonergic system is
involved in the antidepressant-like effect of the Elettaria Cardamomum essential oil. However, to better understand this interaction, future studies are needed.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: boshra_akhlaghi@yahoo.com
The Effect of Teaching Problem Solving and Decision Making on
Anxiety of Acute Coronary Syndrome’s Patients
Zahra Rastbood*, Mitra Moslehi Joybari, Saeed Moslehi Joybari
Qaemshahr, Iran
Introduction
There is evidence indicating that the physiological factors as
well as psychological factors have influence on the mental and
physical health of acute coronary syndrome’s patients. The aim of
this study is to investigate the effect of teaching problem solving
and decision making on the anxiety of acute coronary syndrome’s
patients. Anxiety manifests itself as an interruption of an individual’s emotional state, leading to a sudden subversion of one’s emotional equilibrium. High levels of anxiety are particularly unpleasant, disturbing, and can even be painful to the point of inducing
the person to engage in adaptive behavior aimed at ending these
sensations. Problem-solving treatment is a brief psychological intervention that has been shown to be effective in the treatment of
major depression and for patients with a broad range of emotional
disorders that have not resolved with simple measures. The treatment derives from cognitive–behavioral principles. The problemsolving treatment is a brief, structured psychological intervention.
The treatment of major depression is aimed for patients with a
broad range of emotional disorders, which have not been resolved
using simple measures. The treatment is derived from cognitive–
behavioral principles. The Problem-solving treatment is a brief,
structured psychological intervention. An early small study of
group problem-solving therapy (eight 90-minute sessions) for students with depression, indicated that problem solving therapy was
more effective than a waiting list control (Nezu, 1986). Five studies (Ciechanowski et al., 2004), (Mynors-Wallis, Davies, Gray,
Barbour, Gath, 1997), (Williams et al., 2000), (Wood, MynorsWallis, 1997) used a multifaceted intervention to test PST on reducing older adult depression, which has been proven to be effective.
Methods
This research was an experimental research using pre-test and
post-test with control group. Among 112 patients diagnosed with
acute coronary syndrome in Fatemeh Zahra Hospital in 2011,
Sari, 30 patients were selected randomly for sampling. Spielberger Anxiety Questionnaire was used for data collection. For data
analysis descriptive statistics and ANOVA were used.
Results
Hypnosis: Problem solving and decision making skills leads to
a decrease in anxiety in patients with acute coronary syndrome. F
ratios obtained (F=75.33) for the group, with a significance level
(Sig<0.001) is smaller than 0.05, and this indicates the significant
effect of problem solving and decision making skills on anxiety of
patients with acute coronary syndrome in the experimental group.
Conclusion
The present study investigated the effects of teaching problem
solving and decision-making on anxiety in patients with acute
coronary syndrome. The results have shown that teaching problem solving and decision making leads to a reduction in anxiety
in patients with an acute coronary syndrome. This study is consistent with Gellis, Kenaly, and Bony (2008) study. They have used
training problem solving as a treatment for adults dealing with
depression. This paper describes the miraculous effects of teaching problem solving in the treatment of depression and anxiety.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: Mitra.moslehi@yahoo.com
The Increase in Germane Cognitive Load in Students
When Solving Problems
Zahra Kavian Mobarake*, Hamidreza Hassan Abadi2, Nasrin Naderi Shoorabi
1. Tehran, Iran
2. Tarbiat Moalem Tehran University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
load and performance of high-knowledge learners.
Cognitive load theory has become an effective and influential
theory in the field of educational psychology and instructional design in the last two decades. This theory tries to provide guidance
as to the way information should be presented to the learners to
encourage them to have optimum logical performance. It distinguishes between three sources of cognitive load, i.e. intrinsic, extraneous and germane cognitive loads, and proposes mechanisms
to decrease intrinsic and extraneous cognitive loads and increase
germane load. In this direction a multitude of techniques and issues are relevant. Self-explanation, as one of the ways to increase
germane load, helps learners develop their deep understanding
of complex phenomena and guarantees learners’ use of cognitive processes beyond their initial understanding (Roy, Chi, 2005;
Anisworth, Burcham, 2007). Although self-explanation had been
recognized as a useful form to enhance understanding of complex
issues, there exist numerous questions about its different aspects,
e.g. its effects in different ways of collecting self-explanation and
on learners with different characteristics in the study. For example,
prior basic knowledge is one of the most important characteristics
of learners that has a significant effect on instructional efficiency
and in connection with this, researchers have pointed to the expertise reversal effect in the use of some techniques including selfexplanation in explaining conflicting results of its effectiveness
(Kalyuga, 2008; Moreno, 2006). At the same time, it is claimed
that closed self-explanation as one of the new ways of collecting self-explanation not only instructs learners to produce more
complete, more concise and more useful explanations, but also
leads to better learning efficaciousness compared to open self-explanation (Yeh, Chen, Hung, Hwang, 2010). Hence this study was
designed to investigate the effect of the role of prior knowledge
on the usefulness of self-explanation and investigate the use of
the new way of collecting self-explanation. This study aimed to
measure the effect of (closed) self-explanation on the cognitive
Methods
For this study female students at the first grade in high school
with high scores in mathematics and Pythagorean Theorem were
chosen and given a 7-grade self-assessment questionnaire. They
were asked to determine the level of their knowledge of Pythagorean Theorem. After the answers to the questionnaires were reviewed 40 students who marked their knowledge level as very
high or high were selected to do the test. They were randomly
assigned to two groups. Then they were taught the Pythagorean
Theorem again. Students in the first group were simply asked to
solve transform tests after they study the material, while the selfexplaining groups were asked to solve the problems and complete
some incomplete sentences about fundamental concepts necessary to solve the problem. Information gathering instruments were
near-transform test and far-transform test and cognitive load assessment sheets at three levels; during studying, after near-transform test and after far-transform test.
Results
Results showed that self-explanation in the form of completing incomplete sentences neither increased germane cognitive
load nor did it improve high-knowledge learners’ performance in
mathematics (p>0.05).
Conclusion
Necessary explanations with a view to cognitive load assumptions and existing structures in self-explanation were given, including a reference to the creative nature of self-explanation and
learners’ relative mastery over metacognitive techniques at the
age of 15.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: zahrakavian@yahoo.com
Cognitive Deficits in Crystallized Heroin Abusers before and after
One Month Abstinence
Peyman Hassani-Abharian*, Hamed Ekhtiari, Azarakhsh Mokri
Institute for Cognitive Sciences Studies, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Drug addiction could be defined as the narrowing of a person’s goals to pursue rewards by obtaining, using and recovering from drugs of abuse, despite its undesirable consequences.
Cognitive deficits are common in individuals using these drugs.
Different types of drugs have acute and chronic effects on attention, memory and executive function impairments. These
impairments might be more intensive with chronic drug abuse.
The most common cognitive deficits in the field of opiate dependence include impaired shifting of attention, response inhibition, and decision making. Reduction of the intensity of cognitive deficits could be considered an index for the success of
drug dependence treatments. To our best knowledge, there are
no studies that compare these deficits before and after heroin
abstinent-base treatments. Hence this study aims to compare
the intensity of these important cognitive deficits before and
after one-month abstinence to observe how these abstinent subjects perform on executive tasks after this period. Methods
Twenty five male subjects (mean age=31.98 years, SD=4.56)
meeting DSM-IV criteria for heroin-dependence participated
in this study. All subjects were currently crystallized heroin
abusers, at least once daily for more than six months (mean
duration of addiction=4.07 years, SD=3.10). They were asked
to perform three types of computer-based cognitive evaluation
tasks, namely a Go-NoGo task, Addiction Modified Stroop task
(AMST) and Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), prior to and at the end
of a one-month in-patient abstinence period. These tasks were
used to assess subjects’ attention shifting, response inhibition,
distortion of attention and risky decision-making. Data from the
pre and post-abstinence sessions were compared within subject
using SPSS 16. Results
After a one-month abstinence, reaction time to drug-related
and non-related words in the Stroop task were significantly reduced (p=.002 and .011). Moreover, scores on non drug-related
words was significantly reduced (p=.007) but not so with drugrelated words. Regarding response inhibition, reaction time to
Go and NoGo stimuli did not change significantly, although Go
scores were significantly lower (p=.005) and NoGo scores were
significantly higher (p=.002). Regarding risky decision-making
in the Iowa gambling task, we found that risk tacking was significantly lower (p=.013 and .005) and effective decision-making
was significantly higher (p=.005).
Conclusion
Overall our findings suggest that although most of the evaluated cognitive deficits were significantly reduced in crystallized
heroin abusers after the one-month abstinence, our findings
suggest that these subjects act more conservatively after this
period of abstinence.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addressabharian1972@yahoo.com
The Effect of ACPA on Fear Memory Performance and
Exploratory-like Behaviors
Maryam Farrahizadeh*, Mohammad Nasehi, Mohammad Reza Zarrindast
Introduction
One of the best cognitive behaviors that did not completely
clearing in the brain is fear. Fear plays a prominent role, either
directly or indirectly, in a variety of psychiatric conditions,
understanding its neural basis is of great importance. The term
fear refers to a subjective feeling state and to the behavioral and
physiological responses that occur in response to threatening
environmental situations. Some of investigations postulated
that cannabinoid agents produce these effects by driving the
brain’s endogenous cannabinoid and different neurotransmitter
systems in the variety of brain regions such as hippocampus,
amygdala and prefrontal cortex inasmuch as induced many
cognitive and non-cognitive behaviors deficits including fear
and emotional processes. Cannabinoids are analgesic drugs
that produce potent antinociceptive effects through activation
of CB1, CB2 and CB3 (non-CB1 and CB2) receptors in the
peripheral, spinal and supraspinal sites. Cannabinoids are
thought to affect mood, memory, cognition and pain perception
by activation of the presynaptic cannabinoid CB1 receptor,
which is expressed at high levels in many brain regions and
finally decreased neurotransmitter release into synaptic cleft.
Methods
(Arachidonylcyclopropylamide) (as selective CB1 receptor
agonist) was injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) in different doses
(0.01, 0.05 and 0.1 mg/kg) in a volume of 1ml/kg. We used
fear conditioning and Hole-board tasks for assessment of fear
memory formation and exploratory-like behaviors respectively.
Results
The results showed that intraperitoneal administration of
ACPA at doses of 0.01 and 0.05 mg/kg did not significantly
alter contextual or cued fear conditioning, while at highest dose
(0.1 mg/kg) decrease both theses phenomenon. Moreover, all
doses used did not alter exploratory-like behaviors, showing
uniformity of data on fear memory performance.
Conclusion
The findings demonstrate that CB1 receptor activation by
ACPA decreased fear memory formation in the higher dose.
On the other hand, the bodies of studies have been showing
that different of neurotransmitter systems involved in cognitive
behaviors induced by cannabinoid, thus other efforts are need
for clearing actual mechanisms of this drug.
Male mice weighing 23-27 g used in these experiments. ACPA
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: maryam.farrahizadeh@ymail.com
Connectivity Problems in Children with Intellectual Disabilities
Norsiah Fauzan*, Nur Hurunain Amran, Siti Naqiah Shahidan
UNIMAS, Sarawak, Malaysia
Introduction
This article highlights the importance of understanding the
neurological basis of children with intellectual disabilities (ID)
by analyzing their brain wave frequencies obtained from EEG
recordings. The mild intellectual disability children tend to have
more of a delayed development in academic, social, and adaptive
skills as reflected in low achievement across content and skill areas as well as lower scores on measures of intelligence and adaptive behavior. The brain topography was obtained from Quantitative Electroencephalograph (QEEG), which was used as a tool
to record the electrical activity within the brain channel and to
look at the dynamic changes taking place throughout the brain.
The brainwave depicted in the electrical activities of the brain
produced electrical pattern known as brainwave pattern. These
patterns indicate whether the area of the brain functions properly
and efficiently and also looks at the hypo-connectivity and hyperconnectivity in various areas of the brain.
Methods
In this research, two participants with mild intellectual disabilities were purposely selected for analysis of brain topography acquired from QEEG. Both participants volunteered for the Neurofeedback Training and thereafter QEEG was conducted before the
application of the suggested protocol by the expert. The informed
consent and relevant information related to their medical history
and cognitive performance were obtained from their parents.
Results
Findings and discussion of the following two cases of ID
children provide exemplars on the use of QEEG to analyze the
connectivity problems and brain functioning of mild ID chil-
dren. Case 1. The EEG data were artifacted (muscles, eyes, and
other artifacts). These artifacts were removed from the data sets
with digital filtering. Analyses were performed and converted
into topographical maps for visual display purposes. From the
brain topography, the subject was detected to have excessive presence of Delta wave activity at the occipital lope and left prefrontal lobe or roughly correlating with O1, O2 and FP1 based on
the International ten twenty system (Jasper, 1958). Most of the
point showed low frequency of Beta and Gamma wave activity. There was an insufficient presence of beta in most of the regions.
Case 2. The brain topography showed an excessive delta wave at
FP1 – Fp2. This indicates the focal lesion in the area that might
result in hypo-function (decreased function) or constellations of
other cognitive impairment. Excess delta at FP1-FP2 is associated
with the participant’s inability to focus, and cannot sustain attention while given the cognitive task such as block design or mathematics exercise. The participant’s brain mapping showed insufficient presence of Alpha in most of the regions such as frontal,
temporal, and parietal. Alpha thus represents non- arousal ranges
from 8-12 Hz.
Conclusion
QEEG provides digital reading from the scalp based on electrical patterns of the cortex (Gerald, 2006). Generally the two participants show insufficient range of Beta and Alpha wave, which
shows less connectivity between the different regions of the brain.
The significance of the report shows the connectivity problems in
children with ID problems as displayed by the brain topography.
There were increases in delta frequencies at the frontal lobe (FP1Fp2) and decreases in Alpha and Beta frequencies at the posterior
regions. It is crucial that the individuals need to normalize the
abnormal EEG frequencies to address the connectivity problems.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: nursiahfauzan@gmail.com
Metaphor and Proverb Interpretations: Comparison of
Schizophrenic Patients with Normal Individuals
Sedigheh Khademi*1, Mohammad Hadi Falahi1, Ghasem Naziri1, Farah Ghoreishi2
1. Islamic Azad University, Fars, Iran
2. University of Medical Science, Shiraz, Fars, Iran
Introduction
Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric and mental disorder characterized by recurrent hallucinations and delusions as well as
thought, language and communication dysfunctions. Language
disorders and cognitive deficits are core characteristics of this illness. The primary language disorders in schizophrenia have been
considered as pragmatic impairments. Pragmatics is the interpretation of linguistic meaning in context. Some studies have examined discourse and pragmatic aspects of language in schizophrenic patients such as metaphor, prosody, proverb, humor, irony, etc.
A metaphor is a word or expression, which is used to talk about an
entity or quality other than that referred to by its core meaning. A
proverb is a well-known phrase or sentence stating a general truth
or piece of advice. Metaphors and proverbs are kinds of non-literal language in which the listener or reader should go beyond its
literal meaning to interpret them. Understanding metaphors and
proverbs require sensitivity to non-literal meanings. It is thought
that schizophrenic patients have great difficulty in discriminating
non-literal meanings and they have a tendency to make literal interpretations rather than figurative ones. Based on the hypothesis
that schizophrenic patients have difficulty in interpreting figurative expressions and have deficits in pragmatics, this study investigated metaphor and proverb interpretation in schizophrenic
patients and compared their functions with normal subjects.
Methods
Sixty schizophrenic patients (45 were males), diagnosed using a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of schizophrenia, and sixty healthy
controls (45 males) were compared on the Metaphor Interpretation Test and the Proverb Interpretation Test. Both groups were
matched for age, gender and education level. Metaphor Interpre-
tation Test includes 10 sentences, each consisting of one common
metaphor. Proverb Interpretation Test includes 10 common proverbs. Participants were required to read the sentences and produce
the meaning of the metaphors and proverbs. Their answers were
recorded, scored and analyzed with SPSS.
Results
Comparison of the two groups in terms of Metaphor Interpretation Test performance (Z=-7.47, p<0.01) and Proverb Interpretation Test performance (Z=-8.73, p<0.01) yielded significant
results. The results of these Mann-Whitney U tests indicated
metaphor and proverb interpretation deficits in schizophrenic
patients in comparison with the healthy controls. Gender-related
difference between the groups was not statistically significant in
neither metaphor nor proverb interpretation. Comparison of men
and women in the healthy control group showed significant differences in metaphor interpretation (Z=-2/30, p=0.021) but not
within the schizophrenic group.
Conclusion
There were no significant differences in either group between
men and women on Proverb Interpretation. Our results suggest
that schizophrenic patients have difficulty interpreting metaphors
and proverbs and they produce incorrect and literal interpretations
more so than correct ones. Compared with controls, schizophrenic patients show deficits in interpreting metaphors and proverbs.
Thus, these findings support previous studies that indicated metaphor and proverb interpretation impairments in schizophrenic patients. Gender has no effect on metaphor and proverb interpretations in schizophrenic patients.
The Effect of Age Differences on Proverb Interpretation in
Schizophrenic Patients and Normal Individuals
Sedigheh Khademi*1, Mohammad Falahi1, Ghasem Naziri1, Farah Ghoreishi2
1. Department of Linguistics, Science & Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Fars, Iran
2. Department of Psychiatry, Shiraz University of Medical Science, Fars, Iran
Introduction
Schizophrenic patients experience a wide range of cognitive
deficits. Language abnormalities are considered as diagnostic
characteristics in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a complex mental illness which affects both men and women equally. Auditory
hallucinations, bizarre delusions, disorganized speech and thinking accompanied by social dysfunction are main symptoms of
schizophrenia. Pragmatic abilities like comprehension of figurative language have been found to be impaired in schizophrenic
patients. Proverbs, metaphors, ironies, etc. are kinds of figurative
language (phrases or expressions in which the intended meaning
is not directly computable from the literal meaning of the constituent elements). Proverb is a well-known phrase or sentence stating
a general truth or piece of advice. In order to arrive at a correct interpretation of a proverb, the proverb must be analyzed, abstracted, and applied to everyday life. Some studies have indicated that
schizophrenic patients have deficits in interpreting non-literal
meanings and they tend to interpret figurative language literally.
Based on this hypothesis that interpreting non-literal language
such as proverbs has been impaired in schizophrenic patients, this
study compared proverb interpretation in schizophrenic patients
with normal individuals based on the age variable.
Methods
60 schizophrenic patients diagnosed with a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of schizophrenia and 60 healthy individuals were compared
with Proverb Interpretation Test. Both groups were matched for
age, gender and educational level. Based on age variable, the sub-
jects grouped into 4 categories (20-30, 30-50, 50-65, more than
65 years old). Proverb Interpretation Test was administered which
included 10 common proverbs and the subject read each proverb
and produced its meaning. The answers recorded, scored and analyzed with SPSS.
Results
The result of Mann-Whitney U test between schizophrenic patients and healthy individuals in Proverb Interpretation Test was
significant and indicated proverb interpretation deficits in schizophrenic patients. The results of 2-way ANOVA indicated no significant difference between aging and illness factor interaction
(p-value=0.819). But there was significant difference between
20-30 group and 30-50 group (p-value=0.006) and between 2030 group and 50-65 group (p-value=0.013) in proverb interpretation. The results of Kruskal-Wallis test showed no significant
differences between different groups of age in normal individuals
(p-value=0.238) and also no significant differences between different groups of age in schizophrenic patients (p-value=0.693) in
proverb interpretation.
Conclusion
Schizophrenic patients have deficits in proverb interpretation.
Between patients and normal individuals, just between 20-30 and
30-50 groups and also between 20-30 and 50-65 groups the differences were significant in proverb interpretation and age factor
have no effect on proverb interpretation in schizophrenic patients.
Investigation the Relationship between P100 Components of VEP
with Dyslexia
Mostafa Daemi*1, Bijan Shafiei2, Mohammad Sa’adat Nia2
1. Hamedan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Hamedan, Iran
2. Medical University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Introduction
Reading is a complex task that requires a wide range of cognitive competences. It is mentioned as decoding skill of written
language that is taught during childhood and proficiency for them
happens after several years of training. Reading is highly related
to intelligence but surprisingly some children show reading problems in despite of their normal or even higher level of IQ developmental dyslexia is defined as reading and writing disorder without
any intellectual, educational or emotional problems. Despite its
critical effects on individual and social living aspects of dyslexics
such as withdrawal behaviors, low self-esteem, school avoidance
and anxiety disorder no distinct etiology or biological diagnosis
is found. As dyslexia appears through school age, early diagnosis
based on anatomical and functional differences of brain during
various tasks that are related to or essential for reading, is noteworthy today. It is showed that visual processing deficits might be
an account for reading problems in dyslexic children. One of the
most debating hypotheses blames Magnocellular and or Parvocellular dysfunctions as cause of reading disabilities in children with
dyslexia. The purpose of this study is to compare amplitudes of
P100 component of pattern-reversal VEP results between dyslexics and non-dyslexic school-age children through various visual
stimulations for diagnostic use.
Methods
This present study is a cross-sectional analytic one. 20 dyslexics
and 20 non-dyslexic school age children were selected randomly.
All of them were tested by pattern-reversal VEP and then amplitude of P100 component through low and high contrast and
velocity of visual stimulation in four variant states were recorded
and analyzed, including; low velocity (3 Hz) and high contrast
(100%), high velocity (15 Hz) and high contrast (100%), low velocity (3 Hz) and low contrast (50%), high velocity (15 Hz) and
low contrast (50%). The hypothesis of this study was based on
the hindering effect of high velocity and low contrast on visual
processing. The effect of these two variables were measured separated and in combination.
Results
Increasing the stimulation velocity resulted in significant decrease of P100 amplitude in two groups almost equally. Then although raising velocity led to more difficult visual processing but
this is not a distinctive effect to differentiate dyslexics and nondyslexics. Reduced stimulation contrast resulted in increasing the
amplitudes in dyslexic group. This change caused to nearly significant difference between the groups.
Conclusion
Changes in P100 amplitude by reduced stimulation contrast
through VEP recordings seems to be an indicator for dyslexia diagnosis. However, this entails more studies. This research does
not support normal parvocellular visual pathway activity in dyslexics.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: daemist@yahoo.com
The Interrelationships between Locus of Control and Willingness
to Communicate
Zoohre Shooshtary*, Masoud Varnasseri
Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran
Introduction
The search for means of improving the low participation of students in communicative activities of English classes have made
it imperative for researchers to explore the psychological bases
of willingness to communicate (WTC), among which is locus of
control (LC).
Methods
Locus of control is a theory in personality psychology referring
to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control
events that affect them (Rotter, 1976). The construct is applicable
to fields such as educational psychology. A person’s LC is conceptualized as either internal or external, internal LC refers to the
situation in which the person believes he/she can control his/her
life and external LC means that person believes the decisions and
life are controlled by environmental factors, which he/she cannot
influence. On the other hand, willingness to communicate is the
most basic orientation toward communication. Almost anyone is
likely to respond to a direct question, but many will not continue
or initiate interaction. “Willingness to communicate” is defined as
“the intention to initiate communication in a given choice” (Macintyre, 2001). It is a complex construct, which is influenced by
the number of different individual factors, such as communication
anxiety, LC, and perceived behavioral control. Macintyre et al.
(1998) conceptualized WTC in an L2 theoretical model in which
social and individual context, affective cognitive context, motiva-
tional propensities, situated antecedents, and behavioral intention
are interrelated in influencing WTC in L2 and in L2 use. WTC
is a means and an end at the same time (Dornyei, 2005). WTC
is emerging as a concept to account for individual first language
(L1) and second language (L2) communication.
Results
The main goal of the present paper is studying the influence of
locus of control on WTC for second language learners. Fifty junior students of Masjed-Solyman University were asked to complete two questionnaires: Rotter’s locus of control questionnaire
(1980) and McCroskey’s WTC scale (1992), which is based on
Burgoon’s (1976) unwillingness to communicate scale, except the
construct is worded in positive terms and assumes the respondent
is self aware of his/her own approach/avoidance tendencies. Data
were analyzed, using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and
t-test.
Conclusion
The results of the correlational study indicated that there was a
significant relationship between LC and WTC. To further analyze
the data, regression analysis was run, which indicated that LC was
a predicator of WTC. Based on these findings, it is recommended
that teachers of English should factor learner’s locus of control
into their instructional programs in order to improve the performance of their learners.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mardavij1387@gmail.com
Ability Hypotheses: A Defense
Mahdi Zakeri*, Majid Ghasemi
University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Frank Jackson’s knowledge argument against physicalism in
the philosophy of mind has been criticized by Laurence Nemirow
and David Lewis in their Ability Hypothesis. According to their
criticism, what Mary lacked when she was in her black and white
room was a set of abilities; she did not know how to recognize
or imagine certain types of experience from a first-person perspective. According to them, Mary’s subsequent discovery is a
discovery of new abilities rather than new facts. That is, her discovery of what it is like to experience redness consists merely in
her acquiring new knowledge of how to do certain things, and not
in her gaining new knowledge that so-and-so is the case. It is new
knowledge-how but not new knowledge-that. Thus, according to
Nemirow and Lewis, the fact that Mary makes a genuine discovery when she first experiences redness does not threaten physicalism; for her making such a discovery is perfectly consistent with
the claim that while she was in her room, her exhaustive knowledge of the physical afforded her a complete factual knowledge
of all that then existed, including the experiences undergone by
others when they viewed red things. Paul Raymont argued against
this view, on the grounds that the knowledge of what an experience is like cannot be equated with the possession of any set of
abilities. In relation to recognition abilities, he claims that by appealing to Molyneux’s Test we can show that one can possess the
ability to recognize a given sort of experience without also knowing what it is like to undergo it. Molyneux asked us to suppose
that a congenitally blind man (known as Al), who can distinguish
cubes from spheres by touch, suddenly gains his sight. We place
before him a sphere and a cube and ask him to tell us which of
the two objects is a cube without touching them. He is to arrive at
his judgment simply by looking at the shapes. If he can pass the
test (and he can), this raises a serious difficulty for any attempt to
understand the knowledge of what it is like to have a certain sort
of experience in terms of the possession of the relevant recognition ability.
Methods
Analytic
Results
We can defend the Ability hypotheses against Reymant’s view
by showing that in the case of Molyneux’s Question (AI) the visual recognition abilities depend upon previous tactile experiences.
Conclusion
Ability hypotheses can be defended against Reymant’s criticism.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: zaker@ut.ac.ir
Inter-individual Differences in Perception of Maps
Čeněk Šašinka*
Brno, Czech Republic
Introduction
The interdisciplinary psychological-cartographic issues of perception and interpretation of maps are elaborated in the paper. Our
study focuses on differences in the process of perception of alternative methods for cartographic visualization in the context of
user’s cognitive style. There were two independent experiments
introduced, which were realized online in the electronic environment on the platform MuTeP. The first experiment concerns the
issue of representation of information about the risk of avalanche,
and its uncertainty. Two alternative methods of cartographic visualization are compared (intrinsic and extrinsic method) in relation to the performance of participants in the psychological test of
cognitive style resp. and its holistic and analytic dimension. The
second experiment focused on the influence of the graphic design
of map symbols on perceptual structure. The secondary objective
of the experiment focused on exploring achievements on various
symbol sets with regards to the cognitive style resp. spatial and
object imagery.
Methods
Experiment 1: Two particularly modified experiments were realized successively on different populations. The same maps of
risk of avalanche were used in both studies, which differed in the
number of presented items and also in the type of tasks. Participants searched for the required values of risk of avalanche and
its uncertainty in the maps and in the other types of tasks they
interpreted for the situation represented in the map. The variation
of the Navon hierarchical test was administrated subsequently.
Experiment 2: Two different sets of map symbols were presented
on identical topographic background. Each of the symbol sets (A
and B) varied in size, color, structure, and shade. At first participants (68 geography students, 20-26 year old) had to search for
particular map symbols on the presented maps. The next task was
to search for information of topographic background when map
symbols were acting as distracters. The cognitive style of the participants was measured by QSIQ.
Results
Experiment 1: In the case of the cartography students, we found
a significant positive correlation between the achievements in the
local letter subtest, and in the tasks with an intrinsic method of
cartographic visualization. We also found out a significant positive correlation between achievements in the global letter subtest
and in the tasks with the extrinsic method. No significant correlations were found in the case of the psychology students. At the
same time we found out that ca. 80% of students correctly interpreted the situation in more complex tasks by the use of extrinsic
method and only 34%, resp. 40% answered correctly by the use
of intrinsic map. Experiment 2: The participants achieved significantly lower reaction times by using symbol set A in both subtests.
We also discovered the significant negative correlation between
achievements in the cartographic tasks symbols set A and preferences for spatial imagery.
Conclusion
Experiment 1: The findings indicate that the form of representation influences the process of perception and interpretation of
information. Preferences also exist between individuals with different cognitive styles for different methods of cartographic visualization. We suppose that there is a higher level of difficulty of
cartographic tasks in the case of psychology student’s resp. and
their lower level of cartographic literacy may explain the absence
of the relationship between achievements in the psychological
and cartographic test. Experiment 2: The primary objective of the
study was to verify gestalt principle on the specific stimulation
material. Thematic maps are constructed on figure/background
principle, and the findings indicate that the more iconic, robust,
and expressive symbols are set A, which plays a more effective
role of the figure by acquiring information from the background.
At the same time the graphical character of symbol sets A negatively influences the achievements of the spatial imagers who prefer more schematic forms of representations.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: ceneksasinka@gmail.com
Graph Theoretical Approach to Functional Connectivity of
Cognition via fNIRS
Zahra Einalou*1, Keivan Maghooli1, Mehrdad Dadgostar1, Kamaledin Setarehdan2, Ata Akin3
1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
3. Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey
Introduction
In this study, we aimed to investigate the change in the global
efficiency of the functional connectivity patterns in the prefrontal
cortex (PFC) emerging during a modified version of the colorword matching Stroop task. This task consists of three different
stimulus conditions: Neutral (N), Congruent (C) and Incongruent
(IC). Connectivity patterns obtained from hemodynamic response
to each stimulus is expected to be different because of the contribution of partially different neural networks. A continuous wave
16 channels functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) device
(ARGES Cerebro, Hemosoft Inc., Turkey) was used to measure
the changes of HbO2 concentrations from 12 healthy volunteers.
The probe was placed on the forehead with approximate cortical
sampling regions.
Methods
Wavelet based partial correlation (WPC) analysis allows us to
observe the functional similarity between PFC regions based on
activity in a defined frequency interval in each stimulus. WPC
was computed for the frequency interval of [0.003 to 0.08] Hz.
Graph-based network analysis represents the state-of the-art
methodology in brain connectivity. We considered the channels as
a set of vertices V and computed the WPC between each pair of
channels. WPC coefficients were assigned as weights on the set of
edges E, leading to an undirected complete weighted graph G=(V,
E). Global Efficiency (GE) can be evaluated for wide range of
networks, including weighted. The formal definition is as follows:
Where N is the number of nodes in the network, Lij is the shortest
path length between nodes i and j.
Results
We have considered 10% of strongest connections in each network. GE values were computed for each stimulus condition. Path
length is inversely related to the GE of a network for the transfer
of information between nodes by multiple parallel paths, and that
GE is easier to estimate than path length when studying sparse
networks. GE decreased as the stimulus type became more difficult (F(2,33)=3.46, p=0.043) as seen in Figure 1(b) (GEN> GEC>
GEIC)
Conclusion
The major finding of this study is that a graph theoretical approach to fNIRS derived parameters (WPC) can be used to quantify the neural network efficiency during a cognitive task. The
presented approach was able to identify the differences in functional connectivity patterns elicited by Stroop task and can also be
applied to a large class of different experimental tasks in humans.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: zahra_einalou@yahoo.com
Effectiveness of Computer-Assisted Cognitive Rehabilitation
(CACR) and Psycho-stimulant Drugs on Executive Functions of
Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Saeed Azami*1, Alireza Moghadas2, Mahdiyeh Mirmohammad3, Saeedeh Khari4, Parya Hamzepour2
1. Semnan University, Semnan, Iran
2. Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran
4. Al Zahra University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the
most prevalent chronic developmental disorders characterized by
developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention, hyperactivity,
and impulsivity, which is associated with significant psychiatric
comorbidities and mental health problems in adult life. ADHD
is a widely accepted clinical diagnosis but it remains among the
most controversial disorders. The current research aimed to compare effectiveness of computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation
(CACR) and Psycho-stimulant drugs in improvement of impulsivity and sustained attention of children with ADHD.
Methods
The present study was a prospective research of pretest–posttest–follow-up type with two experimental groups. The subjects
comprised 23 students from second to fifth grade in boys’ public
elementary schools of the 9th region of Tehran, who met DSM-IVTR criteria for ADHD according to the results of clinical observation, clinical interview with parents, and based on the diagnosis of
the project psychiatrist. They were recruited through convenience
sampling taking into account the inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Screened children were matched based on the severity of their
impairment and randomly assigned into two experimental groups
of computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation (CACR, n=12) and
Psycho stimulant drug (n=11), after informed parental consents.
The computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation (CACR) interven-
tion included 20 sessions (1 hour per session), which were held
3 times per week and in each session participants completed an
average of 90 attempts. In contrast, participants in the Psychostimulant drug group took 2 to 3 tablets of 10ml Ritalin (methylphenidate with immediate release) daily under the prescription of
the project psychiatrist. The research tools included the Continues
Performance Test (CPT), Stroop test, Persian version of SNAP-IV
scale, the short form of WISC-R and Child Syndrome Inventory
(CSI-4).
Results
Data were analyzed using RM-MANOVA, mixed design
MANOVA. The computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation
(CACR) had a significant effect on executive functioning in
ADHD children but not on reaction time or on interference control. Computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation in comparison to
drug therapy had a greater and more enduring improvement effect
on response inhibition and sustained attention.
Conclusion
Taken together our results suggest that both treatments are effective in improving response inhibition and sustained attention.
Therefore, computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation can be used
as an alternation intervention to psycho-stimulant drugs in treatment of ADHD.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: sa.azamy@gmail.com
Functional near Infrared Spectroscopy Investigation of Functional
Connectivity in Schizophrenia using Mutual Information
Mehrdad Dadgostar*1, Zahra Einalou1, Kamaledin Setarehdan2, Ata Akin3
1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran
3. Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey
Introduction
Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disease where neuronal interaction is disturbed. Hence a deviation of functional connectivity
(FC) is expected due to abnormal neurochemistry and neuroanatomy. In this study, we aimed to investigate FC in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during a modified version of the color-word
matching Stroop task among schizophrenia patients and healthy
persons. A continuous wave 16 channel functional near-infrared
spectroscopy (fNIRS) device (ARGES Cerebro, Hemosoft Inc.,
Turkey) was used to measure the changes in HbO2 concentrations
in 5 schizophrenia patients and 5 healthy persons.
major MI change for the controls in the interhemispheric pair for
channel number 7 and 13 with F(2,12)=3.91, p=0.04. In contrast,
the major significant MI change for schizophrenia subjects were
found in three pairs of channels that reside only on the right hemisphere: 10th and 12th with F(2,12)=4.77, p=0.02, 10th and 15th
with F(2,12)=5.08, p=0.02 and 12th and 15th with F(2,12)=5.12,
p=0.02.
We found that MI values were increasing in healthy subjects
with respect to stimulus difficulty (MIN<MIC<MIIC) but in
schizophrenia patients MI values were decreasing, as shown in
the following figures:
Methods
fNIRS data were band-pass filtered using a wavelet algorithm
with frequency range of 0.003-0.08Hz. Mutual Information (MI)
values between each channel pair were computed for three different stimulus types (Neutral, Congruent and Incongruent). The MI
between the random variables x and y is defined as,
Where H(x)=−E [lnp(x)] is the entropy of x and H(x|y) is the
conditional entropy of x given y and x=[x1(t), x2(t), … x16(t)] and
y=[y1(t), y2(t), … y16(t)] are fNIRS signals from different channels for different stimulus type. The MI is zero when xi and yj are
independent and obtains its maximal value when xi and yj are completely dependent.
Results
Since the group variances were different, ANOVA was used
to test the statistical significance between groups. We found the
a
b
Figures 1: Mutual information in (a) Healthy,
(b) schizophrenia subjects
Conclusion
Two very important findings of this study indicate that: 1) MI
as a measure of FC strength during increasing cognitive load,
behaves in an opposite manner in schizophrenia compared to
controls, and 2) there is no interhemispheric FC in schizophrenia
which might explain their poor performance.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mehrdad.dadgostar@gmail.com
Mild Treadmill Exercise Can Alleviate Stress-Induced Impairment
in Cognitive Function
Ahmad Rahmani*1, Naser Naghdi2
1. University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran
2. Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Chronic stress can increase levels of adrenal glucocorticoids
resulting in changes in cognitive functioning. Literary results
display that although some degrees of stress can be helpful, in
term of its type, intensity, and duration, it can also cause some
negative effects on learning and memory. The hippocampus, a
critical structure for spatial learning and memory, is particularly
vulnerable to stress-induced glucocorticoid damage, reflected as
a deficiency in the spatial memory tasks and synaptic plasticity.
Excessive exposure to glucocorticoids can induce neuronal damages, particularly in the hippocampus, a region enriched with corticosteroid receptors. On the other hand, exercise has been considered as a factor to relieve stress side effects. But, variation in
exercise protocols (forced vs. voluntary) and intensities have had
different results. In the present study we evaluate the hypothesis
that immobilization stress can affect learning and memory, and
mild exercise can protect against stress-induced function deficit.
Methods
Adult male albino Wistar rats (2300–250 g) obtained from Pasteur Institute of Iran were housed in a (25±2 ◦C) temperature and
in a humidity-controlled room. The animals were maintained under a 12:12 h light/dark cycle, with lights off at 7:00 p.m. Food
and water were provided ad libitum. All experimental procedures
were in accordance with the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of
Laboratory Animals. The animals were randomly assigned into
the immobilization stress, exercise-stress, exercise, and control
groups (11 in each). All tests were carried out during the light
phase. Subjects underwent immobilization stress (2 h per day×7
day), mild intensity treadmill exercise (30 min/day×7 day), or no
interventions. The statistical analysis of the data was carried out
by a one-way and repeated measure of ANOVA, and unpaired ttest. In all comparisons, p≤0.05 was considered significant.
Results
Serum corticosterone levels were measured in the rats at baseline (11:00 h) and immediately following the immobilization
treatment (13:00 h) on the first and last days of the stress treatment. As was expected, Stressed rats had significantly elevated
levels of corticosterone at the post-stress time (p<0.001). On the
other hand, exercise had a significant effect on the decrement of
corticosterone levels (p<0.001). Chronic immobilization stress
significantly impaired learning (p<0.01) and memory (p<0.05)
compared to unstressed animals. There was no significant difference in the swimming speed between these groups. In nonstressed rats, despite the lack of difference between sham and
exercise groups, in acquisition stage, treadmill exercise enhanced
performance in recall (p<0.05).
Conclusion
Stress can impair cognitive function. While, mild exercise had
a protective effect on stress-induced learning and memory loss.
Corticosterone may be a major mediator in the protective effect
of exercise against stress-induced cognitive impairment. In addition, the beneficial effects of exercise on cognitive performance
continued to evolve even after exercise had ended.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: rahmani203@gmail.com
Perceptual – Cognitive Influence of the Physical Spaces of the
Educational Environments on Students
Marzieh Tabaeian*, Fatemeh Imani
Department of Architecture, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Shiraz, Iran
Introduction
Results
This study is a starting point of scientific and practical research
in the field of cognitive and behavioral science of architecture.
Actually, this paper is a research on recognizing environmental
aspects in educational spaces. Educational space is an environment in which learning takes place, therefore there are no boundaries. A part of this environment has been designed primarily for
the education sector, called educational space. Educational spaces
should be designed in order to play a positive role in flourishing
students’ talents in various aspects. Moreover, considering different effects of the environment on the intellectual development of
students is necessary to create spaces that meet their needs.
Methods
This study is considered as an applied study. It is an experimental research and in terms of research design, it used a post-event
method. In this study, researchers attempt to describe key design
variables. Thus, the correlation strategy has been used so that patterns between cognitive and perceptual environments are characterized. The statistical population consisted of all girl high schools
in Isfahan (whether favorable or unfavorable) in which among a
list of desirable and undesirable schools, four high schools were
randomly selected. A total of 208 questionnaires were obtained
from the selected schools. In this research, a questionnaire of educational spaces design assessment was used as a self report questionnaire on a Likert scale. For preparation of this questionnaire,
two questionnaires “preliminary assessment of design scale” and
“assessment of students’ comments” were used. Obtained Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was higher than 0.7 and was considered
desirable. Statistical analysis of the raw data was performed with
SPSS 16 software. By using the multivariate analysis of variance
(MANOVA) and t-test, differences between the groups for the inferential statistics section were studied.
There were differences between the mean scores of how to access various educational spaces in the two groups of appropriate and inappropriate schools. Results of multivariate analysis of
variance (MANOVA) indicated that there was a significant difference between the two groups in the method of access (p<0.0001).
Also, the effect size of 0.406 indicated that the 40.6% difference
between the two groups could be explained by the access index.
A statistical power of one and probability level close to zero indicated that sample size was adequate. There was also a difference
between the mean scores of the movement routes design in both
desirable and undesirable schools. Results of multivariate analysis
of variance (MANOVA) indicated that there was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of the movement routes
design (p<0.0001). Moreover, the effect size of 0.398 indicated
that a 39% difference between two groups can be explained by
the movement routes design index. Statistical power of one and
probability level close to zero indicated that sample size was adequate. A difference of %19.7 was between sense of space and
ease of movement in educational space of desirable and undesirable schools.
Conclusion
The relationship between physical spaces of educational environments carries important messages to students and affects their
cognition of the environment. In other words, visual- cognitive
information helps students in the detection of environmental cues
and it also influences them in a successful way finding in the spaces. Also, these physical features, such as corridors, size, and color
of the walls affect children’ and adolescents’ cognition. The type
of materials used in the walls and corridors influences students’
cognition. Therefore, it is attempted in studying different samples
of this research to find students spatial cognition and their attitude
towards educational spaces architecture.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: marzieh.tabaeian1@gmail.com
The Effect of Theory of Mind and Social Skills Training on the
Expression of Emotions and Conversational Interaction in
Children with Autism
Ziba Beyranvand*1, Hashem Farhangdoost2
1. Zehne Ziba Rehabilitation Group, Tehran, Iran.
2. Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Department of Speech Therapy, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Social impairment is often seen as the primary symptom of autism. The inability of children with autism to interpret emotional
communications and others’ inner states has been attributed to
their lack of Theory of Mind (ToM), which limits their ability
to interact with others. ToM is a prerequisite for understanding
the social environment and it is necessary for getting involved
in competitive social behaviors. Development of ToM, demonstrating the ability to conceive mental states in oneself and others, is critical in successful social, emotional and communicative
relationships with others. ToM usually appears naturally during
preschool years, whereas children with autism experience significant delays in its acquisition. These delays are especially seen
in the area of finding strategies with respect to the individual’s
ability to interpret social situations from another person’s point of
view. Children with autism, due to the difficulties in understanding thoughts and emotions of others, often encounter deficiencies
in appropriate social interactions. During the last decade, numerous studies have shown that ToM can be developed in children
with autism. Although, these studies have indicated that after ToM
training, children with autism learn to pass the standard ToM tests
but they could not generalize their learned tasks to the daily communication skills and general social competence. The lack of generalization to novel ToM tasks or social interactions in children
with autism indicates that these children face difficulties in the
transfer of the learned skills to other tasks. Therefore, training for
children with autism should be carefully structured. In the present study, educational instruments that are in accordance with Iranian culture have been used together with appropriate learning
procedures in an attempt to provide a comprehensive program for
children with autism. So, firstly ToM could be trained as a prerequisite. Then, by training social skills directly, we could attempt to
generalize the learned concepts to the social environment of these
children resulting in their expression of emotions and conversational interaction. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of ToM and social skills training onthe expression
of emotions and on conversational interaction of high-function
children with autism.
Methods
It was a quasi-experimental study (no control group). Participants consisted of 5 children with autism (7-11 years old) who
were receiving supplementary services in a Rehabilitation Center
in Tehran. Each subject participated in 30 sessions, both one-toone and small-group training (three sessions per week, lasting
40 minutes each). Statistical methods used in this study included
descriptive (to calculate the mean, median, etc.) and inferential
(ANOVA) statistics. Pre-test, post-test and follow-up data were
collected using tests of Theory of Mind and checklist of social
skills.
Results
The result of the ANOVA found significant differences between
post-test scores and the follow-up compared to the pre-test.
Conclusion
This study suggesting that the ToM and social skills training
program was influential on expression of emotions and conversational interaction of high-function autistic children. Furthermore,
this training program led to generalization of the learned skills to
the children’s social environments.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: zbbeiranvand@gmai.com
Effects of Subliminal Anxious, Happy and Sad Faces on Galvanic
Skin Response (GSR)
Mohsen Doustkam*,SepidehPourheydari, JavadBahadorkhan, MalihehShahrestani, SajadAliqanavati
ShahidChamran University, Mashhad, Iran
Introduction
Subliminal perception is to perceive a stimulus without awareness. The present research investigates the effects of mood induction using priming emotional subliminal faces. Many studies (Sato & Aoki, 2006; Wilkowski& Robinson, 2007;Doustkam, Pourheydari, Heydari&Shahidi, 2010) have previously
examined priming influences on behavior, cognition, and
emotion modalities. In contrast to some previous studies, the
current research evaluated subliminal effects using a physical
measurement as apposed to a paper test. Skin conductance or
GSR is a biofeedback measure of the electrical conductance of
the skin, which varies with the skin’s moisture level. Basically,
sweat glands of skin are controlled by the sympathetic nervous
system, so skin conductance can be used as an indication of
psychological or physiological arousal. The current research is
semi-experimental with pretest-posttest and control group. It
was predicted that subliminal emotional faces (happy, sad, anxious), compared with neutral faces,wouldchange the Galvanic
Skin Response (GSR) index of body.
Methods
60 undergraduate students fromShahidBeheshti University
were recruited and randomly divided into 4 groups: Happy,
Anxious, Sad mood and Neutral. Base rate of each subject`s
GSR for 2:14:200 was registered in the laboratory. Then each
group was presented with 20 male emotionalfaces subliminally
using computer software (duration each image was 40ms, totally 2:14:200). Simultaneously, the GSR index of subjects was
registered. A schematic of an example trial is presented below:
Results
Average group scores on base rate of GSR were analyzed using an ANOVA and group scores on the experimental design by
an ANCOVA. Pretest scores were significantly different (Sig:
.532, F: .4). Differences in group scores on the experimental
design were also significant (Sig: 0.22 F: 5.85).Subliminally
perceived sad faces compared with neutral faces decrease GSR
rate while subliminally perceived anxious faces compared with
neutral faces increase GSR rate. Although subliminally perceived happy faces compared with neutral faces had no significant effect on GSR rate.
Conclusion
These findings suggest that the subliminal perception of faces
can affect mood in the laboratory. Also these findings are in line
with the Lang (1995) theory, which claimsthat emotions can be
placed on a spectrum of arousal. As a result, we can categorize
sad mood as having low arousing and anxious mood as having high arousing level. Lang suggests that happy mood can be
place on a high level of spectrum, although we found no empirical support for this. These results are useful to clinical area of
mood disorders spatially depression.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:mohsen_doustkam@yahoo.com
Predicting Self-efficacy of Teachers by Professional Competence
and Achievement Motivation
Masoumeh Fariba Samadi*1, Mehdi Davaee2
1. Department of Research and Planning, Ministry of Education, Tehran, Iran
2. Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Self-efficacy is a key variable that has been regarded as a function of many factors, the most important of which are professional competence and motivational achievement. According to
Bandura (1994), self-efficacy is “the belief in one’s capabilities
to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations.” In other words, self-efficacy is a
person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation. Bandura described these beliefs as determinants of how
people think, behave and feel. Teacher professional competence
means having the knowledge and skills necessary for teaching
in schools and the ability to put these to action (Collins, 2000).
Motivation achievement has an important role in the tendency
and enthusiasm to acquire success (Yusuf, 2011). Hence, the
aim of the current research was to examine the relationship between professional competence and motivation achievement
and self-efficacy in teachers of middle schools in Tehran. The
study also aimed to determine the predictive power of professional competence and motivation achievement in predicting
self-efficacy in teachers.
Methods
The target population was teachers of middle schools in Tehran. 360 teachers were selected by multiple clustering methods. Correlation data were collected using three instruments:
Teachers of Professional Skills Questionnaire (Collins, 2000),
Motivation Achievement Inventory (Hermans, 1977) and SelfEfficacy Questionnaire (Bandura, 1996). Content validity of the
instruments was determined by specialists and reliability of the
instruments were determined by Cronbach’s alpha Coefficient.
Data was analyzed suing Pearson correlation and multiple regression analyses.
Results
Results of the Pearson correlation analysis found significant relationships between all the variables. The multiple regression analysis also showed that teachers’ professional competency and achievement motivation is predictive of their selfefficacy. Strongest predictor was professional competency. The
predictive power of this variable in predicting self-efficacy of
teachers was 27/58 percentile. Of course, professional competency of teacher and motivation achievement all together 36/26
percentile predicted self-efficacy.
Conclusion
Our findings suggest that professional competence of teacher
and motivational achievement are essential factors that can predict self-efficacy. Hence, to promote self-efficacy in teachers,
educational establishments and politicians must plan based on
these factors and help to develop these characteristics in teachers.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: msamadi81@yahoo.com
Effects of Phonological Awareness Training on Visual and Audio
Memory of Students with Spelling Difficulties
Mohita Zohdi*, Mitra Moslehi Jouybari
Qaemshahr, Iran
Introduction
Phonemic awareness consists of the ability to focus on and manipulate phonemes in spoken words. Many researchers demonstrated substantial relationships between phonological awareness,
spelling problems, and processing skills. Phonological awareness
plays a crucial role for learners to succeed in various spelling
problems and tasks. The aim of this study was to determine the
effectiveness of phonological awareness instruction on improving
spelling problems for primary school third grade students with a
writing dictation disorder.
Methods
An experimental method using pre-test and post-test with control group was employed. The statistical population consisted
of third grade primary school students in Sari. Twenty students
with a writing dictation disorder were identified by using the
Wechsler Intelligence test. Using multiple stage cluster sampling,
they were randomly divided into two groups (one experimental
group and one control group). After performing pretests in both
groups, the experimental group was educated through phonological awareness in 10 sessions for 30 minutes. The control group
did not receive any intervention. Visual memory and auditory
memory as pre-tests were administered immediately at the start of
the last intervention session. Visual memory and auditory memory as post-tests were administered immediately at the end of the
last intervention session to both groups. The same tests were administered three months later in order to gather follow up data. Data was analyzed using repeated measurement analyses.
Results
Data was analyzed using repeated measurement analyses. Data
analysis indicated that the difference between the visual memory scores of the experimental group and the control group was
significant.
Conclusion
Results showed that auditory memory scores in the experimental group and control group was not significant. Results showed
that phonological awareness instruction helped on improving visual memory for spelling problems of primary school third grade
students with writing dictation disorder.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mitra.moslehi@yahoo.com
The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Life Quality
in the Students of Midwifery and Nursing Faculty of Qaen
Mohammad Reza Raeioon*, Mohammad HassanpourFard, Gholam Reza Sharifzadeh, Elham Taghizadeh
Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran
Introduction
Emotional intelligence refers to a set of social cognitive abilities specifically related to emotions. It is defined as the ability to
comprehend sophisticated information processing about one’s
own and others’ emotions and the ability to use this information
as a guide to thinking and behavior. The principal goal of mental
health is prevention of inconveniences incidence and maintaining
mental safety. Studies on this topic show that mental intelligence
and its components play a basic role in different life aspects such
as; educational progress, marriage, job and social relationships.
There is a belief that emotionally intelligent people can better dissolve life problems and control emotions. These two factors have
a major role in maintaining mental health. Emotional intelligence
contributes to and enhances the overall quality of life. The present
survey was carried out on students of Qaen Midwifery and Nursing Faculty of Birjand University of Medical Sciences in order
to determine the relationship between the rate of emotional intelligence and quality of life.
Methods
This cross-sectional analytical descriptive study was carried out
on students of Qaen midwifery and nursing faculty of Birjand
University of Medical Sciences during the year 2012. Systematic
randomized sampling was used for selecting the students which
39% of them were boy. The demographic characteristics, Bar-on
emotional intelligence and also quality of life questionnaires containing 36 questions were used for collecting the data. The analysis of data was performed by Pearson correlation coefficient and t
test with the use of SPSS software.
Results
The age average of students was 20.9 ±2.9 and six percent of
them have cigarette addiction. The means of life quality and emotional intelligence scores were 10211.4± out of 180 and 96.115.4±
out of 165 respectively. There was a statistically significant relationship between the scores of life quality and emotional intelligence (p<0.001) but between quality of life and emotional intelligence according to age and addiction situation no significant
relationship (p>0.05) was observed.
Conclusion
Emotional intelligence can increase success, welfare, health and
happiness. Individuals with high emotional intelligence are aware
of their emotions and emotional relationships with others as well
as having the ability in managing their mood and psychological
situation. These factors are signs of individual’s health that can
have positive effect on quality of life directly and indirectly.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: rezaghaderi@yahoo.com
Comparing the Sensory Learning and Sensory Integration
Programs on Reduction of Autistic Symptoms in Autistic Children
Mona Rajabi Nasab*
Tehran, Iran
Introduction
The objective of this semi experimental study was to compare
SLP -sensory learning program- and SI -sensory integration- treatment programs on reduction of autistic symptoms in children with
autism. Sensory learning program is a new treatment method that
stimulates visual, acoustic and vestibular senses at the same time.
It is used to reduce autistic symptoms or other pervasive developmental disorders symptoms such as ADHD, learning and behavioral disorders and also few psychological disorders symptoms.
Methods
In this study 30 children (Aged between 6-10 years old) were
selected from a rehabilitation center in Tehran and randomly assigned to 3 groups (two experimental and one control). The first
experimental group received SLP intervention for 30 consecutive
days (2 session a day and 30 minutes for each session). The second experimental group received SI for 30 days. The ADIR was
used as a pre test post - test tool before and after the programs.
Acquired data analyzed with MANCOVA showed differences between results.
Results
The ADI-R (Autism Discrimination Interview-Revised) test
performed for each child separately before and after the treatment program execution. The analysis of pre-test results did not
show any significant difference between test and control groups.
The post-test results for the SLP group showed improvement in
all three main fields including abnormal social interactions, abnormal communication and stereotypic behaviors. The post-test
results for the SI group showed improvement in all three main
fields including abnormal social interactions, abnormal communication and stereotypic behaviors. The post-test results of control
group did not show any improvement in any field. The analysis of
the acquired data showed there is a significant difference between
SLP group post-test results and control group post-test results as
well; the analysis showed significant difference between SI and
control groups’ post-test results. The comparison of SLP and SI
post-test results showed that there were significant differences.
The Sensory learning program (SLP) was more effective on
treatment of the social communication and stereotype behaviors
symptoms. Moreover, the analysis showed that the sensory learning was more effective on communication symptoms.
Conclusion
Both Sensory Learning and Sensory Integration interventions
were effective on treatment of autistic symptoms but as the results showed the Sensory Integration method was more effective
treatment program for decreasing verbal and nonverbal communication problem, but the Sensory Learning Program method was
more effective for treatment of the social communication and stereotypic behaviors symptoms in children with autism.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mrajabin@yahoo.com
On the Brain’s Processing of Written Formulaic Sequences:
An ERP Perspective
Mohammad Reza Hashemi*1, Ali Yoonesi2, Saeedeh Shamsaee1
1. Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
2. Tehran Medical University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
This study aimed to investigate an Iranian language learner’
perception of English written formulaic sequences using eventrelated potentials. Formulaic sequences are ready-made linguistic
chunks with specific rhetoric functions. Although various theories
have been presented about their learning and use, it is not yet clear
if these sequences are processed holistically or analytically by the
brain. Event-related potentials can be used to analyze brain signals when one encounters formulaic sequences. It is assumed that
the learner’ brain reaction to syntactic and semantic anomalies in
these sequences can shed more light on their processing. While
semantically anomalous phrases elicit the N400, syntactically
violations elicit P600. According to Osterhout, Mclaughlin, and
Piktanen (2006), if L2 learners perceive formulaic sequences as
unanalyzed chunks, then unfamiliar combinations of the elements
included in these sequences should produce larger N400s than familiar ones. On the other hand, if they decompose the sequences
into their elements, the use of wrong lexical items in the sequence
should produce a p600 effect.
Methods
The participants were subjected to three forms of 30 formulaic
sequences namely original, syntactically anomalous, and semantically anomalous. The features of N400 and P600 components
were recorded and analyzed to find evidence for holistic or analytic processing.
Results
The results show that there is range of formulaic sequences regarding the processing in the brain. It seems that a number of factors including learning strategy (implicit vs. explicit), frequency
of use, and similarity to L1 can determine the type of processing when it comes to formulaic sequences. Those formulaic sequences which were explicitly learned seem to be more prone to
analytic processing. More frequent use of these sequences makes
them more susceptible to holistic processing. In addition, similarity to L1 can work both ways and contribute to analytic or holistic
processing of formulaic sequences given the type of similarity.
While structural similarity increases the possibility of analytic
processing, functional similarity between the use of L2 formulaic
sequences and their L1 equivalents enhances the chance of holistic processing.
Conclusion
The results of this study might benefits English teachers and
SLA researchers. Teachers can teach formulaic sequences much
more efficiently. These findings can also contribute to the longlasting debate regarding the nature of formulaic sequences in
second language acquisition research. Future research can focus
on formal, semantic, and functional features contributing to the
processing of formulaic sequences.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: neoshamsaee@yahoo.com
The Study of Major Components of Metacognition in Mathematic
Word Problem Solving
Farhad Karimi*, Alireza Moradi, Parwin Kadiwar, Reza Nouri
Research Institute for education-RIE, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
The concept of metacognition has been used with different
Meanings. Sometimes is used to refer to knowledge about one’s
own and others’ cognitive process and sometimes is used in the
sense of regulating one’s cognitive process. These two kinds of
metacognitive processes (knowledge and regulation) may be
closely related to one another. But it is still important to distinguish
between metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation.
Simons (1996) argued that a third kind or concept of metacognition could be defined as metacognitive beliefs. However, there are
some debates about this. Some scientists argued that metacognitive beliefs are not a distinct component of metacognition and discussed it in the framework of metacognitive knowledge. The goal
of this research is to explore the components of metacognition
and determine principle aspects of metacognition in word math
problem solving.
Methods
450 students from first and third grades of middle schools of
Tehran (districts 3 and 18) were selected and answered the questions of three measures: word problem solving metacognitive
knowledge questionnaire, metacognitive monitoring test and
questionnaire of metacognitive beliefs about math word problem
solving. Data were analyzed by exploratory factor analysis (principal component analysis).
Results
After varmix rotation in 5 iterations, 3 factors were emerged
that account for % 57/27 of total variance of samples. All of the
7 subscales of “metacognitive beliefs questionnaire” were loaded
under first factor that could be named it as beliefs factor. All of
the 4 subtests of “metacognitive monitoring test” loaded under
second factor, and all of the 3 categories of “metacognitive knowledge questionnaire” subsumed under respectively monitoring and
knowledge factors.
Conclusion
These results indicated that metacognition of math word problem solving is based on three components (beliefs, knowledge and
monitoring) and measures that designed in this research for assessment of word problem solving metacognition, have favorable
factorial structure and fit into theoretical models such as Simons
(1996), Shoenfield, (1985, 2007) Desoete, Roeyers and Boysse
(2001).
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: fkarimi@rie.ir
Introduction of Thermo Organic, Based on
Systematic Epistemology
Mohammad Reza Jalali*
Payam Noor University, Delijan, Iran
Introduction
One of the issues that people face in their perceptions of existence is polar, stereotypical and non-systematic attitudes. Based
on their cognitive experience and development, humans use a
polar view and way of thinking to better understand phenomena (e.g., size and form, content and composition, particles and
waves, matter and energy, cause and effect). This type of polar
vision in understanding phenomena has caused people to forget
that human cognition turns to understanding when it can pass a
cognitive process in a systematic and hierarchical manner.
Methods
This is the model for the process of evolution of human cognition and phenomena and it shows how and through what mechanism people could turn from a polar and linear way of thinking
to a systematic one. It can be said that in phenomena of epistemology, people have been trying to identify the system input and
output and not the phenomena itself (e.g. birth as input and death
as output). Also, polarized attitudes such as day and night, love
and hate, hot and cold etc. all take us away from a systematic approach to understanding phenomena. In this paper, we introduce
and emphasis on thermo organic theory and try to provide a model
to describe, explain and analyze phenomena with a systematic vision and an emphasis on the evolution of information and communication. We also attempt to show that the mechanisms in the
model are the same in system of human cognition and in person/
phenomena-external systems. In this model, ‘thermo’ refers to the
energy, attitude, impulse, wave etc. that fit with each system while
‘organic’ refers to the material, structure, capacity, particle etc.
that fit each system.
Results
In this model, there are four stages in recognizing and understanding a phenomenon. We believe that every phenomenon is a
system and every system a phenomenon, and any and all systems
must pass through these four steps. These four steps (or rules) are:
Contrast, Interaction, Balance and Evolution. The processes never
stop; when a system completes the stage of evolution, it returns
again to contrast.
Conclusion
In this model, the points swirl; these movements and rotations
are required, not permanent. Therefore, we can only see and understand the phases of the process and not the whole system simultaneously. These stages are features of quantities, qualities
and capacities place in a part of information and communication
and we understand these phases according to our cognitive capacities. Each phase is a system or organism with its own mechanism
so there are infinite phases and infinite thermo organic rotational
cycle. The four steps of the model are in a twisting and sinusoidal
motion. No phase is created unless it passes the previous stage
and completes it. Thermo organic represents the transition from
following stages in the human cognitive evolution process in phenomena understanding: Physics, Mechanics, Dynamics and Cybernetic, which can also be used in intelligent systems. This and
more model cases will be described in the full paper.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: omid_oah@yahoo.com
Meaningfulness of Religious Language in the Light of Conceptual
Metaphorical Use of Image Schema: A Cognitive
Semantics Approach
Javad Taheri*, Mahshid Alvandi
Hamadan, Iran
Introduction
It is a commonplace trend in modern religious studies that religions are rooted in certain metaphorical representations. The
aim of this study is to address and reply to the question: whether
the conceptual metaphoric use of image schemas in religious expressions can make religious language meaningful? Cognitive
semantics consider meanings as conceptualizations. According
to cognitive semantics as a branch of the cognitive linguistics,
semantic structure is conceptual structure. In cognitive linguistics there are three territories that must be differentiated namely,
subjective world, conceptual world, and objective world. Words,
propositions and expressions are representations of conceptual
territory. Language reflects objective world indirectly through the
process of meaning construction (conceptualization) which mediates subjective and objective worlds. So the meaningfulness of
a language must be elaborated in terms of conceptual territory.
Meanings viewed by cognitive semantics are not references of objective world but they are functions of cognitive feature of human
mind. Cognitive semantics enterprise pursues elementary concepts (image-schematic concepts) such as Power, Container and
Path, which are inherently meaningful because they stem from
human pre-conceptual experience. They are embodied abstractions derived from the sensory-perceptual experiences. Complex
concepts can be structured from these image-schematic concepts.
Embodiment that makes our experience, meaningful is the basis
of our fundamental concepts. According to cognitive semantics,
metaphor has a conceptual structure and is not just a formal feature of language in contrast to the Formal Linguistics that considers metaphor as deviances from formal rules of language. Hence
metaphor has a cognitive basis. We cannot understand abstract
concepts without them. Conceptual structure of metaphor is prepared by cross domain mappings or correspondences between
Target domain and Source domain.
Methods
Here, issues will be discussed in a theoretical research methodology which uses library materials for collecting data. So the
cognitive semantic theories of some scholars such as Mark Johnson, Jean Mandler, Lakoff will be discussed for accomplishment
of the paper’s goals.
Results
Findings are as follows: 1. Image schemas are inherently meaningful and they can bear the meaningfulness to the language. 2.
Metaphor that employs some concepts in source domain, prepares
the basis for understanding religious expressions in target domain.
3. Image schemas as embodied experiences can be used in source
domain of metaphorical practice.
Conclusion
Finally, It would be claimed that the presence of image schemas in religious expressions by which conceptual metaphors can
conceptualize meanings through trajecting from source domain
(examples of image schemas) to target domain (intended or discovered religious meanings) can make at least some parts (metaphorical image-schematic fragments) of religious language meaningful.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: javadtaheri1982@gmail.com
Metaphor Illusion: How Not to Be Stranded in the Wrong Analysis
of Language and the Misconception of the Meaning Metaphorically
Hadi Abdi Ghavidel*, Bahram Vazirnezhad
Introduction
Life feels nonsense without metaphor. In everyday speech even
in the smallest greetings, the metaphorical sense plays a part to
save the social interaction; in other words, the very essence of
the cooperative principles (Grice, 1975) is sheltered thoroughly
by this phenomenon. However, the meaning should not go astray
by illusively construing it metaphorically. It is to be conceptualized precisely and logically in our cognitive system. Also, mind
whether natural or artificial should stick to the happy choice while
resolving the clause into meaningful segments and understands it
successfully. The purpose of the current research was to address
how to hunt the metaphors successfully through cognitive modeling and not to be stranded in the wrong analysis of it.
Methods
The first level of the current research builds a generalized algorithmic thinking model. To fulfill this aim of the study, we extracted ranked most important words occurring in the sentences
from Bijan-Khan (2004) corpus using tf-idf measurement. Then
among them, 50 sentences able to be construed either natural or
metaphorical were selected. In the next step, these sentences were
offered to the 3 groups of males and three groups of females in
the 20-26 age range from the same social strata and ethnic background. Firstly, their immediate reflections on the sentences were
recorded and then their algorithmic reasoning was put beside
them. Their overall characteristics were also recorded through a
questionnaire. The questionnaire was written on reviewing the
interests to tell the over-artistic characteristics from the neutral
ones. Here, over-artistic ones refer to the people exaggeratedly
viewing the facts in an artistic manner. For developing a thinking
algorithm of the meaning understood, we classified the subjects
according to their characteristics and then visualize their way of
thinking trough cognitive modeling. In the next step, this model
was tested on the automatic understanding process of the meaning
by machine. The precision and recall of the system was measured.
Finally, the problems were construed analytically and the solutions offered.
Results
The results show that the mind of the person woven by artistic characteristics shows strong and sometimes exaggerated bias
towards understanding meaning metaphorically. This could be
fallen into direct (Gibbs, 1994) and pragmatic view (Gibbs, 2001)
of understanding metaphors. Artistic characteristics’ views are exaggeratedly direct. On the other hand, Neutral ones are distant and
trying to logically thinking about the context, frequency of occurring, collocation and even discoursed and pragmatic behavior of
every segments of the meaning. Also, a portion of neutrals could
never think metaphorically and most of the time label the metaphorical sentences anomalous and reject them all. To solve the
problem and balance the event, the prescriptive properties of the
reflection of a mind on metaphors were discussed in terms of logic
and emotion and the logical features of the algorithms reviewed
linguistically and cognitive linguistically.
Conclusion
In the present paper, we introduced a kind of illusion taking place
while trying to understand meaning. This illusion was about metaphors. The aim of this research was to show there is no need to
generalize the anomalous sentences as bare metaphorical meaning. We succeeded in developing this “not to” by examining a
number of native speakers of Persian with a number of sentences
by modeling their cognitive process and discussed the generalized
solutions for any language. The findings is a base for machine to
lead it successfully both in detecting and disambiguating anomalous concepts if metaphor.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: hadi_stlt@yahoo.com
Effects of problem solving and anger control training on
instructional methods and mental health of preschool teachers
Mohsen Shokoohi Yekta*, Saeid Akbari Zardkhaneh, Fahimeh Ghahvechi
College of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Results
The aim of this study was to investigate effectiveness of Problem solving and anger management training on parenting styles,
aggression and mental health of preschool teachers.
Methods
This study used a quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest single
group design. 48 preschool teachers in Tehran volunteered to participate in this research. They completed Teaching Styles Scale,
Buss and Perry Aggression Questionnaire, and Depression, Anxiety Stress Scale. Then, they were trained on problem-solving and
anger management.
Findings showed significant differences between pre test and
posttest scores on all subscales of Parenting Styles Scale. Results
on Buss and Perry Aggression Questionnaire demonstrated significant difference between pre and post-test scores only for resentment. There were also significance differences between pre
and post test scores of all subscales of Depression, Anxiety and
Stress Scale.
Conclusion
Problem solving and anger management trainings can be used
to improve mental wellbeing and parenting styles, as well as to
reduce aggression in preschool teachers.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addressostadroozbeh@yahoo.com
Where Are You from? It Determines How You Make Decision
Ali Mahmoodi*, Majid Ahmadabadi, Bahador Bahrami
Tehran University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Little is known about how people learn to contribute to joint
decisions or to take into account others’ opinions. Members of
a group share their judgments about a common observation and
employ a decision combination method to exploit their judgments
for collective decision making. Indeed, to come to a joint decision
one should evaluate value of its own uncertain information and
uncertain judgments of its teammates to make her/his decision. It
means that collective decision making takes place in a social environment. That is, personal judgments and decision combination
methods are influenced by social norms and habits.
Methods
Here we compare this ability of decision evaluation and combination between participants from Denmark and Iran. We tested
dyads in a simple visual discrimination task to first report numeric
confidence of their individual decisions and in case of disagreement one of them randomly with or without any verbal communication announces their joint decision. Also we calculated the
metacognition skills of participants. Metacognition is the ability
to discriminate correct from incorrect. For example a metacognitive person report low confidence when is incorrect and report
high confidence when is correct. We calculated metacognitive
ability using method proposed by Fleming et al., 2010.
Results
Our results show that when participants exchange confidences
visually and interacted verbally there is no difference between
two countries in terms of group performance. But, when they are
not allowed to interact verbally, contrary to Denmark, group performance in Iran does not exceed individuals’ performance. We
found that people in Iran are more confident about their personal
judgments and are inclined toward announcing their own decision as group decision. Our results shows that people in Iran are
less metacognitive compared to participants of Denmark in both
conditions (i.e., either in presence or in absence of verbal communication).
Conclusion
Our results show that people in Iran are more confident and less
cooperative. It shows that people in Iran are less metacognitive. It
means that they don’t know that they don’t know or vice versa. It
causes them to be less cooperative and less successful in collective decision making. We found that since metacognitive ability
is related to brain structure, maybe there is a difference between
brain structure of participants in Iran and Denmark. It also implies
that in presence of verbal communication participants of Iran can
achieve collective benefit but in absence of verbal communication
they tend to be less cooperative and do not achieve any collective
benefit.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: ali.mahmoodi1367@gmail.com
Effect of Smart Board on Reasoning, Problem Solving
and Group Learning
Mojtaba Khani Kerdabadi*, Mohammad Ghasemi Bagherabadi
Isfahan, Iran
Introduction
Cognitive learning emphasizes cognitive processes over behavior. In this approach to learning, cognitive processes play an effective role in analyzing information and finding logical solutions or
clarifying ambiguities. Learning and teaching in collaborative and
interactive condition will lead to better results. Many classes are
using computer assisted language teaching such as Smart board.
Smart board is a piece of hardware connected to a computer and a
data projector. The process of teaching can be digitally recorded,
saved and developed. Interactive and collaborative activities such
as demonstration, integration etc, can be made easier and faster
by the capabilities of smart boards. Studies on the role of smart
boards in teaching have been done but its role in improving cognitive ability of students is not fully investigated. Smart boards have
many capabilities so it is assumed that the smart board would be
of great help in facilitating group learning, reasoning and problem
solving.
Methods
This study was conducted to understand whether the use of
smart board would stimulate and facilitate productive cognitive
strategies by cognitive tasks offered in the 6th grade elementary
textbook. This textbook has been taught in Iranian 6th grade elementary schools since 2012 aiming to develop cognitive strategies within students. The book tries to help teachers develop students’ cognitive ability in four different types of tasks, namely
introductory tasks, selective tasks, optional tasks, and self-assessment. Some of these activities are movies or stories, which are
supposed to stimulate cognitive strategies. Participants were two
groups of 6th grade elementary students enrolled at local schools
in Isfahan. They were observed during a 4-month period. An intervention group of 35 students had access to smart board and the
teacher used it in his teaching extensively, while a comparison
group of 35 students did not have access to a and the teacher used
conventional methods of oral presentation.
Results
The result showed that differences between the two groups in
the knowledge test and reasoning ability were not significant. Significant differences, though, were observed in problem solving
and group learning between students using the smart board and
the comparison group.
Conclusion
These results suggest that the smart board is of great help in facilitating and developing most of the cognitive tasks offered in
this textbook. The trend of using cognitive approach to teaching is
new in Iranian textbooks and there are more concepts in the field
of cognitive science to be explored. For example strategies such
as categorization, conceptualization, and imagination should be
taken into account. Hence, further investigations are required in
this area.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mojtabakhani@gmail.com
Can We Predict Effect of Neurofeedback Training
for ADHD Children?
Amin Asadollahpour Kargar*, Zahra Bahadori, Elnaz Mosanezhad, Abbas Bakhshipour
CYBER Psychology and Neurofeedback Center, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
Introduction
Neurofeedback is a safe method of operant conditioning to alter ones brain waves for treatment. It is useful for most -but not
all- ADHD children but it takes about 10 to 15 sessions to show
effects. The important question is that who will be responsive to
this treatment? Or can we predict change of a child behavior after
15 sessions thorough his/her frequency band’s amplitude at first
session of training?
Methods
14 children with ADHD disorder aged between 6-14 years old
completed thirty 30-min sessions of neurofeedback treatment
using beta1 (15-18 Hz) amplitude rewarding and theta (4-8 Hz)
amplitude inhibiting protocol at FCz site. Because of children’s
hyper activity and lots of artifacts in their script, amplitudes of
frequency bands were extracted of their first treatment session after automatic artifact removing and having at least two minutes
artifact-free waves. Frequencies were in 10 Fourier transformed
bands (Delta: 1-4 Hz; Theta: 4-8 Hz; Alpha: 8-12 Hz; SMR: 12-15
Hz; Beta1: 15-18 Hz; Beta2: 18-22 Hz; Beta3: 22-26 Hz; Beta4:
26-30 Hz; Beta5: 30-38 Hz and Gamma: 38-42 Hz) getting from
a Procomp2 amplifier (Thought Technology Ltd, 2011). To evaluate behavioral symptoms, parents performed behavioral assessment using ADHD subscale of Children Symptom Index (CSI-4)
at first and 15th sessions. Scores of change in AD and HD are calculated separately by subtracting the score of 15th session from the
score of first session. Stepwise multivariate regression has been
used to get the best predictors of change in AD and HD.
Results
Results showed that the amplitude of Beta2 (18-22 Hz) can predict 51.3% of variance of change in attention deficit at 15th session
(R2=0.513; p<0.01). None of variables could predict hyper activity changes.
Conclusion
These results showed that we can predict change of attention
deficit score and also progress of treatment based on first session
data of brain. This could be useful for clinicians and parents to
regulate their expectations of therapy. But the interesting fact is
that the strong predictor is amplitude of beta2 (18-22 Hz) while
beta1 and theta are interventional bands. This means that despite
the protocol has to be used in ADHD, there is another important
band which can even predict the outcome of therapy. So we suggest new studies on ADHD protocols and more attention on Beta2
frequency band to test whether or not it could be part of protocol.
Finally, this study needs to replicate with a larger sample and providing new explanations.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: Amin.Psychologist@gmail.com
Entrepreneurial Cognition: A Sense Making Approach
Banafsheh Dastourian*, Pouria Nouri, Abdolah Ahmadi Kafehsnai
Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Entrepreneurial cognition can be defined as a cognitive process by which entrepreneurs acquire, store, transform, and use
information to identify and exploit opportunities. Entrepreneurial cognitions are knowledge structures by which entrepreneurs
make assessments, judgments and decisions regarding the different aspects of their enterprises. Cognitions play a major role in
all entrepreneurial activities, from identifying an entrepreneurial
opportunity, to the cognitive properties necessary to exploit it.
So, research that contributes to a better understanding of entrepreneurial cognition plays an important role in the development
of the entrepreneurship literature. Apart from that, entrepreneurs
mostly act under reverse circumstances characterized by high
novelty, environmental uncertainty, high time pressure and information overload; and there is a huge body of cognition literature
to address these problems.
Methods
We outline the scholarly potential of viewing entrepreneurial
cognition from a sense making perspective and argue that entrepreneurs need to have sophisticated sense making capability. Karl
Weick (1975) defined sense making as a process through which
people give meanings to their experiences. Weick also introduced
sense making as one of the most important cognitive fields, especially in organizational studies, and Brenda Dervin (2003) elaborated sense making from an informational approach. Although
sense making have been studies in various fields, it has not been
granted sufficient attention in entrepreneurial studies. We hypoth-
esize that sense making is of great importance for entrepreneurs in
two respects: Detecting signals, discovering environmental signs
and enacting them so to make better decisions and cope with reverse market and environmental circumstances. Discovering and
exploiting profitable opportunities, this is of crucial importance
for entrepreneurs to gain competitive advantages. We tried to
study entrepreneurial cognition from a sense making view point
with Multiple Case Study methodology.
Results
We conducted a comprehensive review of the available literature and investigated two medium businesses as cases in Iran. Finally we reached to the conclusion that: There is a strong connection between entrepreneurial cognition and entrepreneurial sense
making capability. The stronger cognitive ability leads to the more
sophisticated sense making capability in entrepreneurs to detect
signals and react to the environmental changes as much as discover and exploit opportunities.
Conclusion
In first stage we concluded that sense making approach can be
fruitful in studying entrepreneurial cognition and provide important clues about how entrepreneurs might perceive and construct
their opportunities. In second stage we tried to develop an instrument for exploring sense making in entrepreneurship field with
studying two businesses and finally we present a sense making
model for some businesses as an instrument of entrepreneurial
cognition.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: b.dastourian@yahoo.com
The Relationship between Marriage Satisfaction in Married
Teachers in Paveh City with Study Achievement and
Self-Regulation Learning of Their Children
Sara Nadery*, Zahra Bahrami
Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Self-regulation refers to several complicated processes that allow children to appropriately respond to their environment. In
many ways, human self-regulation is like a thermostat. A thermostat senses and measures temperature, and compares its reading to
a preset threshold. Self-regulation is clearly not an isolated skill.
Children must translate what they experience into information
they can use to regulate thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Selfregulation skills develop gradually, so it is important that adults
hold developmentally appropriate expectations for children’s
behavior. One of the other initial concepts for learning is study
achievement. Study achievement is important for all of student
because it will help person in the future life. This study was conducted to assess the relationship between marriage satisfaction in
married teachers of Paveh with study achievement and self-regulation learning of their children and also to determine the contribution of each of the predicting variables.
Methods
married teachers, who were selected through cluster sampling
participated in this research. All subjects completed Erich Marriage Satisfaction Questionnaire and Learning Self-Regulation
Questionnaire (SRQ-L).
Results
Pearson correlation and stepwise multiple regression analysis
was used for statistical analysis. A positive significant correlation
was seen between marriage satisfaction and study achievement
(0.31), (p<0.01) and self-regulation learning (0.36), (p<0.01). In
addition, the results showed that marriage satisfaction could predict study achievement (p<0.09).
Conclusion
The findings indicated that marriage satisfaction of parents is
important and fundamental in promoting their children’s achievement in school.
This research is a descriptive-correlation study. 100 (45 males)
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: sara.naderi90@yahoo.com.
Cognitive Science of Religion: An Epistemological View
Roohollah Haghshenas*1, Mohammad Sadegh Zahedi2, Mohsen OftadehHal1
1. Tehran, Iran
2. Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran
Introduction
Results
Cognitive science of religion (CSR) is an inter-disciplinary approach that applies a set of methods to study the religious life of
human beings. These methods pursue the cognitive structures that
are needed –in the view of this approach- to represent and acquire
the religious concepts, beliefs and feelings and the actions that
institutionalize these structures. Two questions in this paper are
considered. First, this paper studies the sub-fields that construct
mutually cognitive science of religion. As we know religious aspects of mankind are special phenomena, we try to check whether
CSR and its sub fields are organized in the same way that cognitive science is structured with all its sub-fields or not? The second
question that we considered in this paper was to look through CSR
epistemologically. The question here is to examine which school
in epistemology has the best perspective to understand CSR, traditional or naturalized epistemology. The answer to this question
determines the philosophical problem(s) that emerge(s) for CSR.
Methods
In this paper cognitive science of religion is introduced with a
general report of cognitive science and considering its philosophical bases. After this we try to give a broad outlook to its approach
to religion through its sub-disciplines, depending on the role of
each of them in constructing the cognitive science of religion. So
we can compare CSR with cognitive science when studies perceptual phenomena like color, distance, etc. The philosophical bases
of CSR lead us to find the consonant epistemological view with it
and the problems that are proposed by each view.
We found that there are some major differences between general cognitive science and CSR in terms of organization; while
cognitive anthropology is in a secondary level of general cognitive science, it has had the most important role to construct CSR.
Cognitive psychology and specifically developmental cognitive
psychology is in the second place after cognitive anthropology.
Naturalistic foundations of pragmatism have the most influential role in constructing the theoretical bases of CSR. So it is not
surprising when we show that naturalized epistemology proposes
better view to CSR. We show in this paper that consistency between CSR and naturalized epistemology is so high that we can
call CSR, naturalized religious epistemology. But as naturalized
epistemology is apparently a descriptive approach, the problem
of normativity emerges because there are some “normative tasks”
that are expected from epistemology.
Conclusion
The CSR goals are pursued through the process of change and
evolution that supernatural concepts had been undergone during
the historical life of mankind and also during the growth of any
individual. Attending to CSR has this advantage for cognitive science that expands its scope to other aspects to human life and
another advantage for scientific study of religion that proposes a
multi-disciplinary approach that reduces the risk of methodological reductionism in the study of religion. CSR also has this advantage for philosophy of religion that fills the lack of an empirical
school in its rationalistic tradition. Of course if we increase our
expectation from CSR to naturalized religious epistemology, we
face with the problem of normativity.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: r.haghshenas@ut.ac.ir
The Effect of Word Length and Font Type on Eye Movement While
Reading Familiar and Unfamiliar Passages
Zohreh Nouri*, Masood Sharify
Tehran, Iran
Introduction
In today’s world of science, lots of information is obtained from
reading, which is used as a tool to transfer data from the past to the
present. Reading is the ability to extract visual information from
paper and understand its meaning. Some researchers have found
that readers read predictable words more quickly than unpredictable words. Predictable words are more likely to be skipped over
than unpredictable words. The main purpose of this essay is to
determine the effect of word length and font type on eye movement (fixation, saccade, regression) while reading familiar and
unfamiliar passages. We study the effect of word length and font
type on eye movement (fixation, saccade, regression) while reading familiar and unfamiliar passages on two groups of psychology
and physics student of Shahid Beheshti University.
Methods
This study is a fundamental research, a methodological point of
view, and is semi-experimental. In this essay, we chose 15 students from the Faculty of Counseling and Educational Science
of Shahid Beheshti University, and the remaining 15 students
were selected from the Physics Faculty of Shahid Beheshti attending their first semester during the 2011- 2012 academic year.
Research methods used in this essay include quasi-experimental
design and repeated measures design. Data was gathered using,
eye tracking system, which is an instrument for measuring eye
positions and eye movements. This system carefully records the
eye movements of the subjects, such as fixing up a number of
times. Furthermore, we used four different passages. A passage on
psychology written in two different fonts and a passage on physics also written in two different fonts were selected for the study.
Results
The analysis of variance (between subjects) shows that the
word length has a significant effect on eye movement (fixation,
saccade) and font type has no significant effect on eye movement (fixation, saccade, regression). Also, the types of passages
(familiar and unfamiliar passages) has a significant effect on eye
movement (fixation, saccade, regression), and interaction among
word length variable, font type variable, and passages type have a
significant effect on eye movement. The findings show that word
length variable, font type variable, and passage type variable have
a significant impact on eye movement.
Conclusion
The results concerning the effect of word length, and print type,
for eye movements during reading both familiar and unfamiliar
passages are significant. Also word length has a significant effect on the number of fixation and regression. In the case of font
print, there was no significant effect on eye movements, fixation,
and regression. Finally, interactive effects between text and font,
and font and word length, and font on eye movement, is not significant.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: znourii@yahoo.com
Specific Training Using PAARYAD Package to Improve Sensory
Motor Integration in ADHD: A Case Report
Sana Noori*, Sahar Azarang
Introduction
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness
of learning specific package (PAARYAAD) techniques combined
with neurofeedback on a child with Attention Deficient Hyper
Activity Disorder (ADHD). This package is designed according
to the brain’s neuroplasticity principles using the techniques of
balance/vestibular therapy and sensory integration. Paaryaad can
be used for children older than 5 years in different places such
as home or school. The package is transferable and easy to learn
even for not educated parents.
Methods
Twelve years old child participated in this case study. She has
ADHD and was underwent neurofeedback training for 30 sessions after that Training with learning package started. Before the
first session, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children performed.
The training consists of a collection of motor exercises with
simple tools including instruction CD, Guideline Manual, and
several different tools including balance board, bin bags, scaled
stick, pendulum ball, target cube, target stand, specific balls and
gradient board. All PAARYAAD exercises must have done on the
balance board. Subject should stand at the middle of the board and
do all the exercises according to the instruction. Under the surface
of the board, two rockers are placed. The level of the difficulty of
the maintaining balance is controllable by adjusting the angle of
the rockers relative to the body posture. The participant performed
the exercises 5 days over a week during 12 weeks period (two 6
week sets). She practiced once for about 20 minutes under the
supervision of professional occupational therapist. Each day exer-
cise differed from other days in a same week but they repeat in the
next week in more difficult level.
Results
Using such a multidimensional package enhanced problem
solving abilities and reaction time. Practice or training in PAARYAAD visual perceptual tasks substantially improvedparticipant’s
performance in school based on the scores and reports from teacher and parents. On the other hand, PAARYAAD package training
affects the participant’s score in performance subtest -arithmetic
and block design score- of Wechsler. According to our case report,
attention deficient/hyper activity disorder and learning disabilities
are proper target patients group for package. At the same time,
normal children especially students, athletes and artists can be
trained by learning specified package to improve their problem
solving, divergent thinking, sequencing skills, binocular teaming
and proprioception.
Conclusion
This paper gives a case study of usage PAARYAAD exercises,
which is designed to develop learning abilities and individual’s
sensory motor integration. The preliminary pilot evaluation of this
package indicated that it might enhance the efficacy of brain activity and the harmony between left and right hemisphere. Empirical
outcomes show that PAARYAAD package may be a promising
learning package which could be used in clinical settings and
home for enhancing cognitive and physical functions. We suggest
studying the effect of PAARYAAD training on cognitive performance in more controlled research designs.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: noori@paarand.org
Descriptive Writing of the Schizophrenics in Comparison with
Normal Individuals: The Analysis of Conjunctive Cohesive Devices
Roya Khalili*, Mohammad Fallahi, Farah Qoreshi
Fars Science and Research University, Shiraz, Iran
Introduction
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder with the symptoms of delusion, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavior, affecting flattening, alogia and avolition. Its origin comes from two
Greek words: “schizo” means to split and “phrenia” means mind.
Schizophrenia is characterized by a breakdown of thought process
and by poor emotional and behavioral responsiveness. Comprising a subset of the language disturbance found in individuals with
schizophrenia, formal thought disorder can cause considerable
communicative challenge to these patients and their interlocutors. In fact, formal thought disorder is manifested as a language
disorder. Language disorder and deficits in language performance
are reported as the main symptoms of schizophrenia. The written
and spoken language, as a result, reflects disorganized thoughts
as opposed to thought content. Using the bizarre forms of letters,
nonsense lexical and incomprehensive writing is the significant
feature of the schizophrenics’ writing. In sentences these patients produce, words and phrases are individually meaningful,
but might make no sense altogether. Disorganized speech known
as “word salad” is the main characteristic of the schizophrenics’
spoken and written language problem. Although there are a lot of
studies carried out on schizophrenia, most of them are focused
on psychiatric aspects of the disease and just a few ones pay attention to linguistic or psycholinguistic considerations. This is
an interdisciplinary research which considers both linguistic and
psycholinguistic aspects. The present research aims at examining
the conjunctive cohesive devices in the writing of patients with
schizophrenia in comparison with those in normal individuals.
Methods
of 60 healthy individuals (56 males and 14 females) were matched
with 60 literate inpatients schizophrenics (56 males and 14 females). All the schizophrenic subjects were diagnosed psychiatrically according to DSM-IV-TR criteria by two psychologists.
The subjects were all right-handed. The sample of the patients
was treated with Haloperidol and Risperidone and they were in
the active phase of the disease. The subjects were given a part of
the Persian Bilingual Aphasia Test (Nilipour, 1366) and they were
asked to describe it. The patients’ writing was meticulously analyzed and compared to the individuals’ writing in terms of their
uses of conjunctive cohesive devices based on Halliday and Hassan’s Model of Cohesion (1976).
Results
The results are discussed by a statistic expert through the SPSS
various tests including Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (KS), t-test and
U Man-Whitney. The mean of the use of the devices was considered and compared. To fulfill this, the normality of the test distribution was distinguished. Therefore, KS was applied, and then for
the normal distribution t-test was used and U Man-Witney was
employed for the abnormal one.
Conclusion
Data analysis indicated that there was a sharp contrast between
the schizophrenic patients’ writing in comparison with the normal
Individuals’ in terms of using the conjunctive cohesive devices,
i.e., addition, result, time and sequence, contrast, condition, reformulation ,exemplification and concession.
There were 120 people took part in this study. A control group
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: royakhalili@hotmail.com
Inhibitory Control Is Altered in Children with ADHD:
An Event-Related Potential (ERP) Investigation
Sahar Azarang*, Zahra Ofoghi
Introduction
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a childhood
onset neurodevelopmental disorder, which frequently persists into
adulthood with approximately 15% individuals meeting full criteria for ADHD by the age of 25. The main symptoms of ADHD
include inattention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior. One
of the most influential theoretical models of ADHD posits that
deficits in inhibitory control are at the core of ADHD symptoms.
Other theoretical models emphasize deficits in cognitive control
mechanisms, including both conflict monitoring and error processing. Neural mechanisms underlying inhibitory processes can
be studied with a high degree of temporal resolution using eventrelated potential (ERP) measures of the brain’s electrical activity.
Methods
In the current study we compared ADHD children with healthy
controls (n=15). Written consent was obtained from parents of
ADHD children. We used a 19-channel EEG to derive ERPs
while participants carried out an emotional Go/NoGo task. In this
task, we presented images of faces (in three blocks of 60 trials)
with three different emotions, namely angry, happy and neutral.
Images were taken form the NimStim Face database. Instructions
were presented prior to each block. Participants were required to
respond to the emotional face (Go trials; 70% of the trials) and
ignore others (NoGo trials; 30%). The presentation order of trials
was randomized. Each trial began with a central fixation cross and
was followed by an emotional face. Ten practice trials were ad-
ministered before the real task. Behavioral measures of accuracy
and reaction time were compared between the two groups. Also,
correlation between these stimuli and brain activity were observed
and analyzed in ERPs.
Results
Compared to the controls, the ADHD group made more errors
and their reaction time was significantly longer. Furthermore, significant group differences in the ERPs were observed between
the two groups. Specifically, ADHD group displayed unique abnormalities in frontal N200. NoGo-P3 abnormalities were also
present in the ADHD while P3 peak latencies were longer in this
group. Impaired early response inhibition mechanisms, indexed
by the frontal N200, appeared in the ADHD group. Our results
indicate that conflict monitoring and early error processing are
abnormal in children with ADHD.
Conclusion
The use of ERPs in the present study provides unique clues
about the timing and stage of information processing. Successful
outcomes in the emotional Go/NoGo task require the involvement
of prefrontal regions for emotion processing. Analysis of the P3
component, which is thought to be primarily related to cognitive
preparation, may help researchers to clarify aspects of normal and
abnormal functional organization of inhibitory control and error
processing in children with ADHD compared with healthy children.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: azarang@paarand.org
Research of Cognitive Processing of Cartographic Visualizations
with Original Web Tool MuTeP
Čeněk Šašinka*1, Markéta Jankovská, Zbyněk Štěrba
Brno, Czech Republic
Introduction
This paper is focused on the introduction of research design and
the results of the study are occupied by user contextual suitability
of principles of cartography. We used the new research software
– Multivariate Testing Program (MuTeP), which was developed
for the purpose of objective experimental exploration and evaluation of cartographic products in the perspective of the personality of the users. The primary goal was explored of cognitive
processes involved in working with electronic maps. Emphasis
was placed on variability and range of software usability. The researcher is able to effectively explore the content (i.e. different
maps). MuTeP enables to combine the software features, which
allow for exploring different types of operations or cognitive processes. Software MuTeP is installed on server and preparation as
well as administration of the test battery is allowed online. MuTeP
enables administration of psychological tests (including i.e., performative psychological tests). Currently, existing psychological
paper/pencil tests (e.g. EFT, Frame-line test) can be effectively
adapted for the electronic environment. The research goal was to
explore the usability of principles of contextual cartography.
Methods
Options and width of using the web tool are presented on the
example of the realized experiment, which was focused on the
comparison of three variants of topographic data for GIS in the
operating centers of HZS CR (firefighters). The research searched
the effect of the transition from one type of visualization (basetopo) to another (orthophoto). Total 137 student volunteers (110
women and 27 men, had an average age of 22 years) were selected
from the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University to participate in
this experiment.
Results
We explored the relationship between reaction times in the cartographic test, which was monitored by a rollover from one visualization to another, with performances in psychological tasks,
measured the dependence of the individual on the context. We
applied Pearson’s correlation and found there was no relationship
between the cognitive style of the individual and the efficiency of
his/her work on the map.
Conclusion
There was no confirmed hypothesis that individuals who are
more influenced by context, experienced greater difficulties in
the transition from one type of visualization to another. It is possible to believe that the character of the individual tasks in the
cartography portion was too simple from this perspective. The
aim of this paper is to present the study, which tried to validate
the research design of the research of maps. We highlighted the
methodological challenges and difficulties in the research of cartographic products and pointed out the use SW platform MuTEP
in both psychological and cartographic research, and the field of
psychological assessment. We performed the same administration
in compliance with the original process of the administration of
psychological tests but now using MuTeP instead of paper and
pencil. We suppose that administration of psychological tests with
MuTEP achieved greater efficiency both in terms of accuracy
evaluation (avoiding errors due to measurement) and also in terms
of reducing the burden imposed on the administrator (automatic
evaluation, group data collection).
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: ceneksasinka@gmail.com
Descriptive Speech in Schizophrenia: An Analysis of the Effect of
gender on Structural Cohesive Devices in Schizophrenic Patients
Compared to Normal Individuals
Mohammad Hadi Fallahi*, Sima Ajdadi, Ghasem Naziri, Farah Ghoreishi
Fars Science and Research, Islamic Azad University, Fars, Iran
Introduction
Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder in which the patient does
not consider him or herself to be psychotic and is severely influenced by hallucinations and delusions. Furthermore, the patient’s
emotional response seems to be a disconnected and irrelevant
flow of obscure associations. Specifically, “word salad” is one of
the prominent descriptions of schizophrenic speech highlighting
discourse incompetency in these individuals. Mainstream discourse analysis focuses on the description and interpretation of
speech in a special context. Text linguistics deals with the structural integrity of text, i.e. it studies the text as a unit that is bigger than a sentence. The limitation of a sentence is shown by full
stops, while in a text we use some devices in order to link the
sentences together. Linguists have determined seven criteria for
considering a group of sentences as text. Cohesion is among the
most important links. Since discourse analysis of schizophrenic
patients’ speech has been neglected to some extent, especially in
the Persian language, this study could be beneficial.
Methods
gender, right-handedness and educational level. Each person was
supposed to describe a picture. By the use of Halliday and Hassan’s ‘Cohesion Model’ (1976), the structural cohesive devices in
both groups’ speech were counted. The data were analyzed using
chi-squared test and paired t-test. The main independent variable
of interest in this paper was this paper was gender.
Results
The comparison of the effect of gender on structural cohesive
devices in schizophrenic patients and healthy controls showed
that the patients used the mean score of 9.97 structural cohesive
devices in 17.85 sentences compared to normal individuals who
used the mean score of 8.2 in 8.42 sentences. The chi-squared test
showed a degree of freedom of 50. In the case of gender, women
used the mean score of 6.95 structural devices in 12.45 sentences
with a 55.82 percentage density while men had the mean score of
9.97 structural devices in 13.42 sentences with a 74.29 percentage
density.
Conclusion
A sample of 35 schizophrenia inpatients, diagnosed using DSMIV-TR and treated with haloperidol and risperidone, and 35 control subjects (age range: 19-64) were all given a linguistic task
based on the ‘Farsi Aphasia Test’. Both groups were matched for
These results show that healthy individuals use more structural
cohesive devices compared with schizophrenic patients. It also
revealed that gender has no effect on the usage of structural cohesive devices in neither patients nor healthy individuals.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: hfalahi2@yahoo.com
Cognitive Science of Free Will: From Compatibilism to Buddhism
Ahmad Sohrabi*
University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran
Introduction
The feeling of having free will is closely related to other subjective experiences such as consciousness, mental causation, and
self-perception. Free will or volition is an age-old concept and
has been discussed among philosophers for a long time, and even
among psychologists until the emergence of behaviorism. By the
emergence of cognitive revolution, psychologists and neuroscientists accepted volition as a central topic in their studies.
Methods
There are two important empirical paradigms developed by
Benjamin Libet and Daniel Wegner on conscious will that closely
relate to the two well known philosophical schools of thought,
libertarianism and compatibilism, respectively. As will be explained in detail in the following sections, while Libet believed in
the causal role of free will, Wegner argues that free will is an illusion but has an important role in human life. Here, these empirical
findings and related theories are discussed, and then the main issues about both views are noted. Finally, a new approach by Wallace, based on Buddhism, is reviewed, to examine its implications
for the mentioned debates.
Results
role of free will, Wegner argues that free will is an illusion but has
an important role in human life. Although these two theories are
promising to some degree, they do not cover the whole process
involved in volition. Libet’s theory is mainly about the primary
origination and the canceling of a simple action. Wegner’s theory
is also mainly about authorship and priming of simple actions.
Therefore, they seem to be based on the actions that are not dependent on decision-making and active control of choice behaviour.
A main dilemma in all such studies is the homunculus problem.
This problem has long been around in cognitive psychology and
cognitive science.
Conclusion
Free will, despite many controversies, remains as a major topic
in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Dennett believed
that homunculus could be decomposed into neural process. On
the other hand, Wallace argued that his view goes beyond determinism and indeterminism by suggesting that deep consciousness
acquired through Buddhist practices is a source for ultimate freedom. He, like Dennett, maintains that ‘self’ needs a decomposition by going beyond the mind-body problem, and instead seeing
the self as a dynamic process. This, he asserts, is to be attained
practically through Buddhist practice to the point of ‘no-self’, but
I shed light on the issue to see if his proposal solves the free will
dilemma and ends this old age debate.
As will be explained in details, while Libet believes in the causal
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: sohrabya@gmail.com
Processing of Non-Canonical Linguistic
Constructions in Hearing Impaired Children
Robab Teymouri*1, Shahla Raghibdoust2, Fereshteh Teymouri3, Sahel Hemmati1
1. Pediatric Neurorehabilitation Research Center, University of Social Welfare & Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2.Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran
3. Health Network of Bijar, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Bijar, Iran
Introduction
Results
Hearing impairment certainly affects the normal development
of speech and language comprehension, because of intensely reduced linguistic input accessible to the hearing impaired people.
It seems that they are unable to desirably understand the different
kinds of linguistic structures, such as non-canonical sentences.
The purpose of this article is to study the processing of non-canonical structures in children with hearing impairment.
Methods
In this case-control research, twenty children with severe to
profound hearing impairment, aged 8-12 years, and twenty normal children, aged 6-7 years were selected in a simple random
sampling from exceptional schools for hearing impaired children,
and normal kindergartens and schools for normal children. They
didn’t have any neurological disorders or confirmed diseases, except having hearing impairment in children with hearing loss. To
determine the degree and kind of hearing loss, the children’s aural
records and also the confirmation of the audiologist in the exceptional schools for hearing impaired children, were considered.
The comprehension of non-canonical sentences was tested by using a researcher-made task called sentence-picture matching task.
At first, the content validity of the comprehension test was determined and then the reliability was confirmed with Cronbach’s
alpha test. Data were analyzed by statistical tests such as Independent Samples t-test, U Mann-Whitney test, and using SPSS
software.
The results of this study showed that comprehension of the hearing-impaired group was significantly different from that of the
hearing control group (p<0.05). The hearing-impaired children
failed to understand non-canonical structures. Comprehension
of the hearing-impaired group on structures with canonical word
order was better than on non-canonical structures. Also children
whose hearing was impaired before learning the language, had
better function in the area of non-canonical constructions, compared to children with congenital hearing loss.
Conclusion
Incorrect answers of the children with hearing impairment for
the sentence -picture matching task allude to the incomplete comprehension of structures derived by syntactic movement. In this
group, the processing of simple linguistic constructions is easier
than complex ones. In contrast, calculation of non-canonical linguistic constructions imposes an extra load on processing analysis. Thus, in the first months of life, children have to deal with natural language to create the foundations for healthy and complete
growth of syntax. If language input is not rich and available during the critical period for acquiring a first language, the syntactic
competence cannot grow naturally. Therefore, early identification
and early intervention will be the main predictors for comprehension and processing of non-canonical linguistic structures.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: robab.teymouri@yahoo.com
Effect of Neurofeedback in Cognitive Training with Integrated
Visual Auditory Continuous Performance Test
Zahra Ofoghi*, Parisa Pedram, Azad Sabet
Introduction
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention, impulsivity
and motor hyperactivity. Examining the effect of neurofeedback
cognitive training, we investigated the possibility that training
ADHD children would specifically influence a particular aspect
of Integrated Auditory Visual Continuous Performance Test (IVACPT). We aimed to determine whether or not neurofeedback
would be appropriate for treatment of auditory and visual components of this disorder.
Methods
In this context, the present study is a single experimental group
study investigating the effect of NFT on visual and auditory functions in children with ADHD. Eighteen ADHD children, not taking any psychostimulant drugs and without co-morbidity, participated in the study. The Integrated Visual and Auditory (IVA+Plus)
Continuous Performance Task is a 13-minute test of visual and
auditory attention and impulse control, designed primarily to help
in the diagnosis and quantification of the ADHD symptoms for
children aged 6 and over. Following the diagnostic criteria outlined in the DSM-IV, IVA+Plus provides a wealth of data to help
clinicians diagnose and differentiate between the four sub-types of
ADHD and ADD. Participants included eighteen ADHD children
(8 were boys), mean age (M=10/17, S=3/4), three of who were
hyperactive, eleven combined types and the rest were inattentive.
The protocol involved 20 Fz-Pz Beta and C3-C4 SMR training
in each session. Also children were trained using an n-back task
during neurofeedback training to enhance their working memory.
Results
Paired t-test was administered to analyze the six composite quotients of IVA-CPT. Response Control Quotient including visual
and auditory components showed highly significant differences
between pre-to post-training effects. Full-scale Attention Quotient and Auditory Attention quotients did not change significantly
while Visual Auditory Quotient improved significantly.
Conclusion
These results together suggest that neurofeedback training can
influence the neural substrates of selective attention in children
with ADHD. In other words, neurofeedback training has the capacity to normalize the functioning of the ACC - the key neural
substrate of selective attention, in ADHD children. These results
support the idea that there is a partially independent neuronal circuit that controls inhibition and divided attention in ADHD. Since
right prefrontal cortex seems to be crucial in controlling response
inhibition while left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex seems important in modulating divided attention. Further research with IVA
will help to identify the mechanisms by which neurofeedback and
cognitive training can be useful to treat attention or response control dysfunctions in ADHD children.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: research@paarand.org
The Relationship between Cognitive Intelligence with Math Anxiety
Components in Secondary School Students
Hassan Taghypourkaran*1, Alireza Homayouni2, Freshteh Rezapourdrvish1
1. Ministry of Education, Tehran, Iran
2.Bandargaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandargaz, Iran
Introduction
Math anxiety is a psychological condition that arises when exposed to the content of mathematics in learning situations, learning, math problem solving, and math assessment behavior in
people. Math anxiety is a phenomenon that is often considered
when examining students’ problems in mathematics. It can also
be called Math Phobia. Ashcraft (2002) defined math anxiety as
“a feeling of tension, apprehension, or fear that interferes with
math performance”. Math anxiety is the feel, fear, and tension of
working with numbers and problems and solving mathematics
in different situations in life. Review of studies on cognitive and
emotional factors affecting achievement in mathematics indicate
that 50 percent of the variance in math performance is characterized by cognitive variable and math anxiety is determined by
emotional intelligence. There is a destructive avoidance behavior
of mathematical functions and duties of the individual in the area.
The main purpose of this article is to study and investigate the relationship between cognitive intelligence and math anxiety components, math learning anxiety and math test anxiety. The main
focus of this study is to understand the significant relationship
between cognitive intelligence, general math anxiety, sub-scales
measuring math anxiety, math learning anxiety, and math testing
anxiety.
Methods
The population statistics of this study includes all secondary
school students in Gorgan. The sample of this study includes the
90 students that were selected as examples of available method.
The data was collected by using Cattell cognitive Intelligence test
and math anxiety scale, which consisted of two subscales (the
process of learning mathematics and numbers, and anxiety in the
location of mathematics and statistics assessment). Data was analyzed by the mean, standard deviation, and Pearson correlation
test in meaningful level p<0.01.
Results
The findings indicate that, 1. There is a significant negative correlation between cognitive intelligence and math anxiety (sig=0.01
r=-0.73) 2. Significant negative correlation between cognitive intelligence and math learning anxiety (sig=0.01 r=-0.70) 3. Significant negative correlation between cognitive intelligence and math
test anxiety (sig=0.01 r=-0.61).
Conclusion
One of the major topics in cognition psychology is cognitive
intelligence and a founding faculty change is the most important
in science life. Students can be urged to have a thorough adoption
of the appropriate educational practices and institutional strengthening of intelligence activities, such as reasoning, judgment, and
logical thinking. In order to conduct targeted operations based on
correct assumptions and methods, it’s important to have a right
state of mind to deal effectively with issues of the class and environment in order to reduce the anxiety associated with the aforementioned components. In this content, a new approach is recommended to measure attitudes toward mathematics (combining of
quantitative and qualitative method).
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: arsalankho@gmail.com
The Role of Drawing Inferences in EFL Learners’ Reading
Comprehension and Recall of Short Stories
Fatemeh Smadi*1, Fatemeh Azizmohamadi1, Somayeh Samadi2, Mehdi Mohammadi1
1.Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran
2.Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
Introduction
A “strategy” is a plan developed by a reader to assist in comprehending and thinking about texts, when reading the words
alone does not give the reader a sense of the meaning of a text.
In recent years, reading comprehension strategy instruction
has come to the fore in reading instruction at all age and grade
levels. By helping students understand how these flexible tools
work, teachers enable readers to tackle challenging texts with
greater independence. Drawing inference is one of seven strategies in reading comprehension. Proficient readers use their prior
knowledge about a topic and the information they have gleaned
in the text thus far to make predictions about what might happen next. When teachers demonstrate or model their reading
processes for students through think aloud, they often stop and
predict what will happen next to show how inferring is essential
for comprehending text (Brenda Power, 2013).
Methods
In this study, two fairly homogeneous groups of EFL learners
were selected (N=30) in Arak University. They were studying
in English translation .First the researchers have taken background questionnaire about participants age, gender, their par-
ents economical state .after taking a reading comprehension
test to ensure that their reading comprehension differences are
not significant, were randomly assigned to attend a short-story
course in two different sections, one serving as the experimental
and the other as the control group, both studying the same short
stories, and both being taught by the researcher as their instructor of the course. The experimental group was instructed how
to inference the end of short story .The control group, however,
did not receive any training with respect to drawing inferences
and was not told to practice as the experimental group did.
Results
By using t-test and ANOVA, the researchers found that there
is significant difference between two groups in reading comprehensions scores.
Conclusion
The results of a reading comprehension test on the short stories that had been discussed in both classes, and also a recall
test, administered one week later, indicated that the learners
who can make drawing inferences significantly outperformed
the other learners in reading comprehension test.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: f.samadi1984@yahoo.com
The Relationship between Metacognitive Components and
Dysfunctional Attitudes in Opium Addicts
Yoones Doostian*1, Bahman Bahmani2, Yoosef Aazami1
1. Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran
2. University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
The present study investigates the relationship between metacognition and inefficient attitudes in opium addicts. Inefficient
attitudes refer to those attitudes and beliefs that predispose the
person to depression or in general to psychological distress. From
Beck’s point of view, these beliefs, which are acquired through
experience of the self and of the world, prepare the person to interpret themselves in specific circumstances as too negative and
inefficient, are inflexible and perfectionist attitudes people use
for judging about themselves and others. Since these attitudes
are inflexible, radical and resistant to change, they are considered
inefficient or infertile. Among the factors that can have impact
on inefficient attitudes is the metacognition. Billrow et al. define
metacognition as “our knowledge about our own cognitive processes and how to make optimal use of them in order to achieve
considered aims”.
Methods
This study is causal–comparative. The statistical population of
the research included all addicts referring to addiction treatment
centers of Tehran’s Baharestan city. The chosen sample covers
210 individuals selected using random cluster sampling. They attempted to complete the questionnaire of metacognition and inefficient attitudes scale.
Results
metacognition and its components have a significant and positive
relationship with inefficient attitudes (p<0.05, r=0.28). Also, the
results of multiple regression analysis suggested that the components of negative beliefs predict inefficient attitudes compared to
uncontrollability, danger, and belief to control thoughts, respectively (p<0.05, r2=0.35, 0.29). These two factors showed the most
significant and positive relationship with components of affectability, vulnerability, and perfectionism in scale of inefficient attitudes. The components of positive belief regarding worry, beliefs
related to cognitive confidence, and beliefs concerning cognitive
self-awareness, didn’t indicate any significant contribution in predicting the variable of measure and its components.
Conclusion
In total, the results of this study suggest that disorder in higher
levels of cognition increases the inefficient attitudes of opium addicts. Also, the findings of this study show that patients with substance abuse impairment of metacognition, schema, dysfunctional
attitudes, and cognitive impairment are inclined to suffer more.
These defects lead to the loss of cognitive function and emotional
distress and can be increased in these patients. The meta-cognitive learning strategies can prevent the emotional turmoil and is
important in older addicts. Another finding of the study was to
evaluate the contribution of each component of metacognition in
dysfunctional attitudes anticipate how drug addict patients deal.
The results of this study indicate that the component of negative
beliefs about uncontrollability and danger in the prediction of a
stake in these patients is a dysfunctional attitude.
The results of the Pearson correlation coefficient indicated that
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: dostian2438@yahoo.com
Effect of Human Computer Interaction on Iowa Gambling
Task Performance
Ali Shirvani Jouzdani*1, Payam Piray1, Gholam-Ali Hossein-Zadeh1, Majid Nili Ahmadabadi2
1. Faculty of Engineering Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2. University of Tehran and School of Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Framing effect is a cognitive bias that affects human decision
making. Iowa gambling task (IGT) was created to assess human
decision making in the laboratory. There is a significant difference in subjects’ performance observed when subjects play a different representation of IGT. Previous results show that the participants’ performance in the computerized gambling task is significantly lower compared to playing with real cards. Providing
the participants with pen and paper drastically intensifies the performance drop to a random decision making level. By designing
a new variant of IGT we investigate the effect of human-computer
interaction on participants’ performance in more details.
Methods
In the previous study participants play three different IGT with
same gain/loss function. These three variation are: real card IGT
(R-IGT), computer based IGT (CB-IGT), and computer based
IGT that participants provided with pen and paper (CBPP-IGT).
For Our new variant of IGT called WR-IGT, participants play
real card games on the computer. IGT decks and participants
are in separated rooms. The IGT deck is shown to participants
via a camera and participants select decks via keyboard. The experiment is informed of the participant’s selection via a computer
network. After a participant selects a deck, the experimenter in
another room turns the top card of the selected deck in front of
the camera and keeps it for 3 seconds and then removes the card
from the selected deck and the participant continues playing. 101
participants played four previously mentioned variations of IGT.
In order to remove subjects who randomly played, we added some
random generated behavior to each game variation and clustered
data in that game variation. After clustering, subjects with the best
performance selected from each variation are selected and their
performances are statistically compared across game variations.
Results
Bhattacharyya distance is used to measure similarity between
WR-IGT and other three variants. The most similar game variant
to WR-IGT was R-IGT (0.01621746), the next most similar was
CB-IGT (0.1113272) and CBPP-IGT (0.3416822) was the most
dissimilar one.
Conclusion
In the present study, we found that participants’ performances
while playing IGT with real cards are similar in both variations
(R-IGT and WR-IGT), however highly differ from CB-IGT and
CBPP-IGT. It indicates that the presence of the computer is not
the main source of difference observed between R-IGT and CBIGT. The results may indicate that motor system in playing IGT
is not the source of difference between R-IGT and CB-IGT. In
addition, seeing real cards even via a human-computer interface
removes the hypothetically existing bias of playing with computers. This result may hint at the necessity of using a mixture of
virtual-reality and reality to remove the seemingly existing bias
induced by playing with computers.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: a.shirvani@ut.ac.ir
The Comparison of Dysfunctional Attitudes and Coping
Responses in Drug Addicts and Healthy People
Yoosef Aazami*, Abdollah Moatamedi, Yoones Doostian
Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
This study was carried out with the aim of comparing inefficient attitudes and the kinds of copping styles in drug addicts and
healthy people. Copping measures and attitudes also have a psychologically significant influence on people’s tendency to highrisk behavior, such as drugs. In fact, people’s attitudes towards
important and stressful events in life and coping with these responses to these events can be influential in people’s attitude to
drug use. Inefficient attitudes refer to those attitudes and beliefs
that predispose people to depression or in general to psychological
distress. These beliefs, which are acquired through experience of
the self and of the world, prepare people to interpret their specific
circumstances as being too negative and inefficient. On the other
hand, faced with stressful situations, they use three coping methods. They adopt problem-oriented approaches, emotion-focused
approaches, and avoidance methods in some circumstances. They
believe that each one of these methods can be adaptive or maladaptive, given the appropriate stressors.
Methods
The present research was casual-comparative. The sample included 100 randomly selected addicts referring to addiction treatment centers of Robat Karim city, and 100 stratified randomly
selected normal people. To collect data, questionnaires of inefficient attitudes and coping responses were employed. Data were
examined using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) at
a significant level (p<0.05).
Results
Matching is done statistically, which showed significant differences between the two groups in terms of demographic variables,
however, findings suggested that there was a significant difference
(p<0.05) between the two groups in terms of inefficient attitudes,
variables, problem-oriented, and emotion-focused coping styles.
Addicts had higher inefficient attitudes and emotion-focused
coping, and healthy people used more problem-oriented coping
approaches. Inefficient attitudes had the most contribution in explaining the tendency to use drugs, followed by problem-oriented
and emotion-oriented coping approaches.
Conclusion
The present study indicated that the degree of inefficient attitudes in addicted people is more than that in non-addicted individuals. It seems that people’s attitudes toward themselves and
towards the surrounding environment is influential in creating and
understanding tension. Therefore, by providing suitable psychological interventions and coping responses, more favorable results
can be obtained in the treatment of drug addicts. An evaluation
of the events related to each individual, depends on their beliefs,
perception, and interpretation of the situations encountered.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: yaazami@yahoo.com
Differentiation of Emotional Syndromes Based on
Verbal/Imaginal Mental Processing
Mina Elhamiasl*1, Mahdi Karimi2, Mahmood Dejkam2, Abbas Bakhshipour Roodsari2
1. Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
2. Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran
Introduction
In recent years, psychologists have utilized advances in neuroscience to more accurately categorize psychopathologies.
Emotional disorders –such as depression and anxiety, have been
considered as one of the most important subjects of these neuropsychopathological studies. Examining verbal and imaginal brain
processing enables neuropsychologist to explain differences between emotional disorders and helps them identify and categorize these disorders. Previous research indicates that, while verbal
processing has a notable role in depression, dysthymia and generalized anxiety disorders, imaginal processing is related to panic,
agoraphobia, social and specific phobia disorders. The current
study aims to differentiate depression, dysthymia and generalized
anxiety, panic, agoraphobia, social and specific phobia syndromes
using factor analysis.
Methods
A sample of 739 undergraduate students of Shahid Beheshti
University of Medical Science selected by multi-level clustering
method, were asked to complete the second edition of Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), General Behavior Inventory (GBI),
4th edition of GAD Questionnaire (GADQ-IV), Social Phobia
Inventory (SPIN), Phobic Stimuli Response Scale (PSRS) and
Albany Panic and Phobia Questionnaire (APPQ). Data were analyzed using SPSS 19. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation were analyzed. In addition, relations between variables were
analyzed using Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) in order to
study differentiation more deeply.
Results
Correlation analysis showed that depression, dysthymia and
generalized anxiety were more correlated with each other while
there was a strong association between panic, agoraphobia, social
and specific phobia. Also, EFA divided emotional syndromes into
two categories; depression, dysthymia and generalized anxiety
were categorized together and panic, agoraphobia, social and specific phobia constitute the other group.
Conclusion
These results were completely congruent with the theory of distinguishing emotional disorders based on verbal/imaginal mental
processing. Dugas and Robichaud (2005) argue that people suffering from depression and generalized anxiety disorders have more
verbal mental processing while people with panic and phobia disorders have more imaginal mental processing. Krueger (1999) using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) reported that dysthymia,
major depression and generalized anxiety disorders constitute a
common factor and social and specific phobia, panic and agoraphobia disorders build the second common factor. These results
are also in line with other studies that have modeled emotional
disorders based on fear and distress (see Kendler, Prescott, Myers
& Neale, 2003).
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: minaelhamiasl@yahoo.com
Foundation of Bilingualism: The Effects of Information
Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education
Somaye Toranj*
Hafshejan, Iran
Introduction
Globalization and technological change —processes that have
accelerated in tandem over the past fifteen years— have created a
new global economy “powered by technology, fueled by information and driven by knowledge.” The emergence of this new global
economy has serious implications for the nature and purpose of
educational institutions. As the half-life of information continues
to shrink and access to information continues to grow exponentially, schools cannot remain mere venues for the transmission
of a prescribed set of information from teacher to student over a
fixed period of time. Information and communication technologies (ICTs)—which include radio and television, as well as newer
digital technologies such as computers and the Internet—have
been touted as potentially powerful tools for educational change
and reform. When used appropriately, different ICTs are said to
help expand access to education, strengthen the relevance of education to the increasingly digital workplace, and raise educational
quality by, among others, helping make teaching and learning an
engaging active process connected to real life. What is e-learning? Although most commonly associated with higher education
and corporate training, e-learning encompasses learning at all levels, both formal and informal, and uses an information network,
such as the Internet, an intranet (LAN) or an extranet (WAN),
whether wholly or in part, for course delivery, interaction and/or
facilitation. What is blended learning? Another term that is gaining currency. It refers to learning models that combine traditional
classroom practice with e-learning solutions. What is open and
distance learning? The Commonwealth of Learning definition is
“a way of providing learning opportunities that is characterized by
the separation of teacher and learner in time or place, or both time
and place; learning that is certified in some way by an institution
or agency; the use of a variety of media, including print and elec-
tronic; two-way communications that allow learners and tutors to
interact; the possibility of occasional face-to-face meetings; and
a specialized division of labor in the production and delivery of
courses.”
Methods
The current study aimed to determine the appropriate role for
information technologies in a bilingual instructional environment.
How can computer, audio and video-based instructional devices
and software enhance the program? Ninety Iranian elementary
EFL students participated in this study. CD player and e-cards
were used in this study. We provided bilingual educators with a
set of guiding principles upon which to construct a program, including: 1) to maintain and utilize the native language in content
instruction; 2) to achieve an effective balance between languages
in the bilingual curricula, 3) to utilize the strong relationship between language and culture, and 4) to recognize the relationship
between bilingualism and academic achievement.
Results
Statistical analyses of the results reveal that ICT tools can yield
significant improvements in L2 learners’ achievement. Questionnaire results showed that students ware favor about using ICT
tools. Finally, the results support the conclusion that the ICT tools
correlate well with traditional methods.
Conclusion
ICT tool results in significant improvement in L2 learners’
achievement.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: m2ehdi@hotmail.com
Whitesmoke TM is a good tool for automated essay scoring?
Somaye Toranj *
Hafshejan, Iran
Introduction
Writing is one of the most important skills that students need to
develop, and the ability to teach writing is central to the proficiency of a well-trained language teacher (Hyland, 2003). New technologies have played an important role in the teaching of writing;
writing teachers are often faced with these technologies. Writing
always needs some kinds of application of technology - whether
pencil, typewriter, or printing press, and each innovation involves
new skills applied in new ways (Lankshear & Snyder, 2000). An
effective teacher would make the best decisions about methods,
materials, and procedures used in classroom. New technologies
offer opportunities for learners to engage with the creative process of construction and for teachers to help them to make their
writing processes more effective. Technology is not a method but
a resource that can support a variety of approaches (Warschauer,
2002). Using technology can change student-writing behaviors. According to Warschauer and Kern (2000), the use of computers in language teaching reflects a move from structural through
cognitive to sociocognitive orientations to teaching. Writing assessments and providing feedback to students is often seen as one
of the teachers’ most important tasks. Feedback allows students
to see how others respond to their work and to learn from the responses. Assessment is not simply a matter of setting exams and
giving grades. Scores and evaluative feedback contribute enormously to the development of an effective and responsive writing
course. In recent years, computers have opened up new opportunities for providing feedback on writing and it offers teachers
greater flexibility in education. Computerized feedback has been
investigated in studies as an alternative for enhancing the effectiveness of feedback. Researchers have found problems with the
quality of feedback given by teachers; because of lack of time and
large classes, teachers sometimes fail to give timely and precise
feedback. In spite of the ample positive effects of feedback, these
issues can critically and seriously limit the benefits of feedback.
Understanding this problem, researchers and educators began to
pay serious attention to the automated essay scoring system be-
cause of its potential as a mechanism for consistent and prompt
feedback and essay grading.
Methods
A correlational research design was used to answer the first research question; correlations between AES performance and human raters’ performance were examined. To answer the second
research question a questionnaire was prepared. Third research
question was analyzed using independent samples t-test. This
study produced a number of key findings in relation to the aim
of the survey.
Results
Results based on the correlational data analyses showed no statistically significant correlation between WhitesmokeTM scoring
and human scoring in terms of overall holistic scores. This finding
did not corroborate most previous studies conducted using AES
systems, which reported strong correlations between AES and human scoring for overall ratings. But there are some exceptions,
like Wang and Brown studies (2007, 2008).
Conclusion
Findings of the current study could help teachers ease their big
teaching loads in some way and this method could help students
to improve their writing. Furthermore, it could be helpful to believe that automated essay scoring could be used as an educational
tool in classes. Based on the results of the study, writing teachers
need to be equipped with more recent developments in the field of
e-rating. They should be aware of new methods of teaching writing to lead students to creativity in writing. Good writing skills
are increasingly seen as vital to equip learners for success in this
century. The ability to communicate ideas and information effectively through the global digital network is crucially dependent on
good writing skills.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: m2ehdi@hotmail.com
Impact of English Proficiency Level on Performance in
Computerized English Version of D-KEFS
Color-Word Interference Test
Heshmat A. Ghawami*, Mahvash Raghibi, Mostafa Daryadar
Department of Psychology, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran
Introduction
The Stroop Test is an outstanding task in cognitive science,
which in addition to its use as a valid measure of the Executive
Function Inhibition, various emotional versions of it have in recent years been used to examine automatic pathological concerns
(such as Addiction CWITs). Ridley Stroop (1935) reported that
because of “marked interference effects” from the words-colour
combinations, naming incongruent ink colors took 74% longer than naming the solid-color squares. Stroop’s findings have
been replicated by other researchers (e.g., Macleod, 1986) and
this effect became known as the ‘Color-Word Interference effect’
and various theories were proposed to explain the effect. Bulky
amount of literature emphasize involuntary, automatic processing of the words and based on this automaticity approach many
studies have been conducted to reveal the stronger automaticity
and interference of dominant language systems of bilinguals with
color naming on various language versions of the task. This perspective suggests that the greater the proficiency, automaticity
and skill in a specific language, the greater the interference effect
for words of that language. Therefore, the main objective of this
investigation was to evaluate the impact of ‘proficiency level in
English’ on ‘interference’ using the classic English version of the
test. Operationally, our hypothesis states that high proficient English learners will have longer latencies on the Inhibition condition
of D-KEFS CWIT.
Methods
A sample of 60 individuals (mean age=24.93, StD=3.88, 32
were male) were recruited from University of Zahedan (USB)
and licensed English Language institutions in Zahedan. There
were divided into two groups; 1) thirty high-proficient English
students (having at least Bachelor in English or at the teaching/
advanced level in institutions who also rated their own mastery in
English ‘above average to excellent’ on a 9-point Likert-Scale), 2)
thirty low-proficient students (having neither academic degrees in
English nor attended language courses, who also rated their own
mastery in English ‘lower than average to very poor’). After completing a demographic questionnaire, participants responded to a
computerized English version of D-KEFS CWI Stroop test. The
computerized version was designed by the SLpro4.0 software and
superseded paper-pencil versions in pilot studies in order to control the effect of fluent expressive skill of the proficient group, as
well as to minimize inter-language (English-Persian) processing
effects (by substituting the non-verbal, motor response for oral
naming). Using the SL and CDV software, subjects’ performance
(RTs) in four conditions was extracted with a precision of hundredths of milliseconds. Next, the data was analyzed by SPSS19
using independent samples t-test.
Results
As expected, in the inhibition condition (responding to incongruent colors of English color words), reaction time was significantly
longer for high-proficient group than low-proficient one (p=0.04).
There were no significant differences between the groups in the
other conditions. In order to exclude the impact of differences in
response/motor speed, Contrast Measures were derived. Again,
significant differences for contrast measures of ‘inhibition vs.
color-naming’ and ‘inhibition vs. word reading’ were observed
between the two groups (respectively, p=0.002 and p>0.001). No
effects for other variables such as age, gender, educational levels,
etc. were observed.
Conclusion
According to these findings and previous studies, greater proficiency on second language for bilinguals causes stronger interference effects for words belonging to that language. It is likely that
this automaticity is not due directly to the effects of differential
practice/training rather it results from the dominance of the context and system of the language. These findings might also point
to the differential validity of the task.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: hghawami@mail.usb.ac.ir
Teaching Conversational Skills and Impact on the Development of
Theory of Mind to Children with Autism
Ziba Beiranvand*, Tahereh Soleimanieh Naeini
Pediatric Neuro-Rehabilitation Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Most individuals with autism use language to serve a limited
range of communicative functions. They seldom use language for
a social function, like gaining attention, commenting, questioning,
and informing others. They have a triad of deficits involving echolalia, lack of spontaneity in speech, unusual intonation, surface
impression of language, imperceptions of allusion, and the use
of reverse pronouns. Also, they have problems with turn-taking,
continuing, and maintenance of conversation topic. Listening and
speaking in a conversation would be difficult for them because
they show deficiencies in attributing and understanding the mental states of themselves and others, and therefore, lack the ability
to take another person’s perspective. Theory of Mind (ToM) is
evident when a person is able to make assumptions about the full
range of mental states (e.g., knowledge, intentions, beliefs, and
desires) and then use those beliefs to explain and predict another
person’s behavior. In a conversation, the speaker and listener need
to adopt each other’s perspectives to effectively interact with one
another. This is necessary for a conversation to even occur. Without this ability, it follows that individuals with autism may talk
endlessly about a topic that interests them, thinking that this topic
interests their conversation partner as well. They fail to understand what they are keen on and may bore or even irritate the
listener, thus making the communicative exchange one-sided
and restricted. This research assessed whether teaching conversational skills to children with autism resulted in improvement in
their communicative behavior and examined whether this led to
changes in standard tests of ToM.
Methods
Three high-functioning children with autism (aged 6 to 7 years)
participated in a multiple baseline across the participants design.
The children were taught how to have joint attention, change responses appropriately to the context of the conversation topic, and
maintain a conversation topic. Training sessions were conducted
twice a week for forty five minutes. The children were tested for
ToM using False Belief tasks before and after training sessions.
Results
Results indicate that the amount of conversational skills exhibited by the children with autism during a conversation with
their therapist increased during training sessions. The children
also made more responses that were appropriate to the context of
the conversation. The children’s performance on the False Belief
tasks remained constant throughout the study.
Conclusion
The findings revealed that in addition to teaching conversational
skills, false belief tasks as a separate and specific training program
for development of ToM in children with autism be taught.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: zbbeiranvand@gmail.com
Comparison of Reading Comprehension in Students with Hearing
Impairment in Special and Mainstreamed Schools
Nadjmeh Mohammadi*1, Farnaz Keshavarzi Arshadi2, Elaheh Mohammad Esmail1, Tahereh Soleimanieh Naeini3
1. Ministry of Education I.R. Iran, Tehran, Iran
2. Islamic Azad University- Central Tehran, Tehran, Iran
3. Pediatric Neuro-Rehabilitation Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Reading is essential for making achievements in school, being an informed citizen, succeeding in one’s career, and experiencing personal fulfillment. The act of reading involves the
recognition of an individual word and the integration of the
meanings of those words for text comprehension. Undoubtedly,
the central purpose of reading is comprehension. Reading comprehension (RC) is a complex process that involves accessing
previous knowledge, understanding vocabulary and concepts,
making inferences, and integrating the key ideas of particular
sentences in order to arrive at the message conveyed by the
read text. Without proficient reading skills, students are at risk
of academic failure, and as a consequence, may also show
poor social adjustment. Most of students who are deaf, graduate from high school with reading comprehension skills at the
fourth grade level. The fact that the RC of such individuals plateaus at such a basic level becomes a serious disadvantage as
they seek satisfactory social and professional integration. The
aim of this study was to compare reading comprehension of
female students with hearing impairments that attend special
and mainstreamed schools.
Methods
The ex post facto design was used to perform this study. Reading comprehension was assessed by the Reading and Dyslexia
Test (Kormi-Nouri, Moradi, 2008) in two methods: 1. Text read
by the teacher and, 2. Text read by the students. Eighty seven
female adolescents with hearing impairments in grade 6 to 8
were selected for the study. Forty seven adolescents from special schools and forty from mainstreamed schools, with moderate to severe hearing impairments, were randomly selected in
Tehran in 2010-2011. They were aged from eleven to seventeen
years. The questionnaires were completed by students. Inclusion criteria were having hearing loss 41 dB in the better ear,
history of three consecutive years of education in special and
mainstreamed schools, and having hearing impairment before
three years old. Exclusion criteria were history of epilepsy, seizure, brain trauma, as well as using assistive listening devices
except hearing aid such as cochlear implant. Data were analyzed using MANOVA test.
Results
The results of this study indicated that there were significant
differences between reading comprehension scores of adolescents with hearing impairment (grades 6, 7, and 8) in special
and mainstreamed schools (p<0.01, p<0.05). Also, there were
significant differences between reading comprehension scores
of adolescents with hearing impairment in mainstreamed
schools in 7th, which compared with other grades in both methods (p<0.001, p=0.001).
Conclusion
The outcomes of this study can support the vital needs of children with hearing impairments for the educational integration
in this country.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: nmohammadi@yahoo.com
Exploring the Effect of Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy (DIRT)
and Attention Reinforcement Techniques on the Attention of
Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Mahnaz Babaei*
Gorgan, Iran
Introduction
Cognitive problems in OCD patients has been confirmed by numerous research. This study investigated the effect of Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy (DIRT) and the techniques of attention
enhancement on the attention of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Methods
Six hundred female bachelor and master students aged between
22 and 28 participated in this study. Based on scores on Maudsley
Obsessive-Compulsive inventory, 12 participants were diagnosed
with washing compulsion. Consequently, they were assigned
into either the control or the experimental groups. Both groups
performed Stroop test, before the intervention. The experimental
group received two weekly sessions of DIRT for ten weeks.
Results
The experimental group showed a significant improvement (p <
0.01) on Stroop test immediately after the treatment, as well as in
the follow-up.
Conclusion
Our results are consistent with the previous studies suggesting
that the combination of DIRT and attention reinforcement techniques improves attention in OCD patients. This method of therapy appears to be more efficient than current treatments, including
medication (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) and psychotherapy (exposure and response prevention).
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: dr.mbabaei2@gmail.com
Comparison of Executive Functions in Students with and
without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and
Attention Deficit Disorder
Tayebeh Mosavi*1, Tahereh Soleimanieh Naeini1, Hassan Ashayeri2, Mahnaz Esteki3
1. Pediatric Neuro-rehabilitation Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2. Tehran Rehabilitation University, Tehran, Iran
3. Islamic Azad University- Central, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Executive functions play a fundamental role in conduction and
controlling range of behaviors. Among the most important executive functions are organizing action, maintained and shifted attention, decision making, working memory, motor control and action
planning. Any deficit in the development of executive functions
can cause attention deficit Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which
is accompanied by impaired planning for the start and completion of homework, memory and learning deficits. The aim of this
research was to investigate executive functions including working
memory, planning and attention and to compare these in students
with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), attention
deficit disorder (ADD) and normal students.
Methods
An ex post facto design using Andre Rey Test (Andre-Rey, 1942),
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and three subtests of Wechsler Intelligence Scale (Wechsler, 1949) (mathematics, digit span and Decoding) compared executive functions of three groups. Baseline
diagnoses of ADHD and ADD were established using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for children IV-Parent Version (Schaf-
fer et al., 1994) and semi-structured clinical interview conducted
by a child psychiatric or psychologist. Inclusion criteria were children of both genders, ages 7 to 10 years old and educated in regular schools in Tehran. An exclusion criterion was current evidence
of multiple disabilities. Data were analyzed using ANOCVA test.
Results
Sixty-five participants consisted of twenty-three students with
ADHD; twenty-two students with ADD and twenty normal students were selected by multistage cluster sampling in Tehran in
2010-2011. Students with ADHD and ADD demonstrated statistically significant differences in executive functions in comparison to normal children. Working memory scores of students with
ADHD was lower than students with ADD and normal students.
Planning and attention scores of students with ADD were lower
than students with ADHD and normal students.
Conclusion
The outcomes of this study provide a stronger research base,
which is necessary for informed planning and expansion of future
treatments in solving deficits in executive functions.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addressmosavit26@yahoo.com
Intra CA1 Microinjection of Naloxone Improves Learning
and Memory Deficits Induced by Cholesterol in Male Adult Rats
Hoda Parsa*, Ahmad Ali Moazedi, Lotfolah Khajehpour, Mehdi Pourmehdi
Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz, Iran
Introduction
Learning and memory are basic mental processes. The hippocampus is involved in various memory tasks including reference
memory and working memory. The CA1 region of hippocampus
is one of the major centers of learning and memory and it has
extensive distribution of opioid receptors including mu, delta and
kappa. A number of neurotransmitter systems such as cholinergic,
glutamatergic, GABAergic, serotonergic, histaminergic and opioid peptides are involved in the formation and retrieval of memory traces. Opiate peptides affect learning and memory. Cholesterol
plays an essential role in membrane organization, dynamics, and
function and its levels are highly controlled through synthesis,
storage, transport, and degradation. It has been shown that brain
lipid content is influenced by dietary lipid intake. Hypercholesterolemia is an important risk factor in memory impairment. In
this study the interference CA1 opioid receptors and cholesterol
in memory process was investigated.
Methods
In this study, the animals weighting 200-220 g were used. They
were cannulated in the left CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampi
by stereotaxic instrument, After one week resting all animals were
injected intrahippocampally post training naloxone (0.5 and 1.5
µg/rat) or saline (1 µl/rat), dietary cholesterol (10%) during rest
time and co administration group (naloxone 0.5 cholesterol 10%).
They were tested 24 hours after training session for assessment
of long-term memory by recording step-through latency to enter
dark compartment (STL) and time-spent in dark compartment
(DT).
Results
Results showed that naloxone 0.5 µg/rat don’t affect learning
and memory neither STL nor DT, naloxone 1.5 µg/rat increased
STL and decreased DT, cholesterol 10% decreased STL and increased DT, and in co administration group STL was increased
and DT was decreased.
Conclusion
It has been reported that the endogenous opioid system in the
CNS could significantly impair learning and memory. Morphine
inhibits acetylcholine release from the cerebral cortex which is
prevented by naloxone. Additionally naloxone increases LTP in
CA1 region in rats. High serum cholesterol may contribute to the
development of memory impairment via hypoperfusion of the
brain leading to elevated production of amyloid beta (Aβ). Some
studies demonstrated that a decrease in neuronal cholesterol levels inhibit Aβ formation. On the other hand naloxone injection
elevates LH release that causes more cholesterol consumption as
this hormone precursor. It has been shown that there is a relation
between hippocampus and HPA which is also a way to control
steroid hormone secretion. According to our results it seems that
naloxone increases learning and memory and reverses harmful effects of cholesterol.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addressparsa.h2012@yahoo.com
Comprehension of Concrete and Abstract Nouns:
A Cognitive Approach
Gholam-hosein Karimi-Doostan1, Hayat Ameri*2, Parinaz Dadras1
Introduction
In Concreteness Effects, it is believed that comprehension
of concrete words is easier and faster than abstract words in
healthy participants as well as aphasic, semantic dementia
and other brain-injured patients. Developing abstract concepts
based on concrete concepts is one of the fundamentals in cognitive linguistics. At least two of some reasons mentioned for
such a priority include: 1. dual coding (Paivio, 1971, 1986,
1991) and 2. greater contextual availability (Schwanenflugel &
Shoben 1983). Much research in Psycholinguistics, Cognitive
linguistics, Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and Neurolinguistics has been dedicated to these subjects. The significance
of understanding language provokes the need to help multiple
cognitive domains such as verbal recall, recognition, reading,
and lexical decision (e.g., Brown 1957; Gentner 1982; James
1975; Marshall & Newcombe 1973; Paivio 1971). Moreover,
educational systems and any other issues related to comprehension measurement necessitate these kinds of research.
Methods
In this study, 58 female school students (eight years old), chosen randomly from the 11th district in Tehran, were examined to
study comprehension of concrete and abstract nouns in a cognitive framework. They were required to choose an item out
of three for 24 target nouns (12 concrete and 12 abstract). The
tasks were carried out in two versions (picture-word/definitionword matching). The materials of both versions were provided
parallel to each other. The whole process was recorded for
subsequent examinations and the data were processed in SPSS
(version 11.5).
Results
Our results showed that the participants performed more
accurately on the concrete nouns than the abstract nouns.
The picture-word (PW) format of the tasks led to more correct responses: Pearson correlation between concrete PW and
definition-word matching (r=0.346, p<0.01) and abstract PW/
definition-word matching (r=0.525, p<0.01) were statistically
significant.
Conclusion
These results support concreteness effects (Paivio 1971, 1986,
1991; Schwanenflugel et al., 1988 etc.). Paivio’s dual coding
theory, based on dual processing system (visual & verbal) could
cause the processing of the concrete words to be easier and
more accurate in comparison to the abstract ones. Regarding
the duality of the testing materials (visual vs. verbal) in this
research, we can conclude that the pictorial version resulted in
better performance; therefore, it supports Paivio’s explanation.
Whether the real reason is due to the quantitative differences of
Paivio’s dual coding of the processing system, Schwanenflugel
and Shoben’s context availability or some qualitative differences needs additional studies.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addressh.ameri@modares.ac.ir
Building Humor Ontology Using www.uncyclopedia.co
Mehdi Moradi*, Paria Jamshidlou
Introduction
Humor is an integral part of our daily communication of which
generation and understanding demands one’s intellectual behavior. Consequently, every smart natural language’s generating and
understanding system is expected to understand and generate such
types of sentences in order to enhance the performance of systems
that interact between humans and machines. This also allows for
user-friendly systems, increases a deeper understanding of texts,
and improves programs that help teach a second language. The
purpose of this project was to introduce a website named www.
uncyclpedia.co for the first time. This website is considered to
be a rich source to build humor ontology. We extracted 120,000
entities and 400,000 relations from www.uncyclopedia.co. The
extracted relations include both the hierarchal and semantic relations holding between entities. These relations are extracted from
various parts of articles such as, the initial sentences of each paragraph, the sentences written below each photo, as well as the infobox section by natural language processing toolkits. The result
demonstrates 80% of accuracy for the extracted relations.
Methods
Pervious work: Computational study of humor is a broad and
challenging field. Researchers have studied computational humor
from different points of view. Classification techniques have been
used (Mihalcea, Strapparava, 2006) to recognize humor in text.
Heuristics based method to identify that “knock-knock” jokes
have been proposed (Taylor, Mazlack, 2004) and some researchers studied computational detection of humor form ontological
semantics views (Taylor, J. M, 2009) Materials and methods: We
have proposed and developed an approach to automatically ex-
tract humorous entities and the relationships between them forms
Uncyclopedia articles. After searching this site and grabbing all
articles, the pre-processing was performed in order to remove html
tags and normalize the text. Being normalized, sentences were
tagged automatically with POS-tagger. Then regular expressions
indicating linguistic patterns were used to match the semantics of
the relationship of entities in sentences. Next by post-processing,
the extracted knowledge was represented in formal web ontology
language (OWL) in order to be used in others application. Five
extracted relations from Uncyclopedia: 1 Is A; 2 Defined As; 3 Location Of; 4 Part Of; 5 Made Of Results
We extracted 120,000 entities and 400,000 relations. In order to
evaluate our methods, 100 extracted assertions from each aforementioned relation in table1 were tested by 3 human judges. The
initial results demonstrated an average of 80%accuracy for the
extracted relations.
Conclusion
The Holy Grail for most natural language understanding and
generating systems is human like performance, a main challenge
that is required to access deep conceptual knowledge about human life like humorous language knowledge. In this study we
tried to build humor ontology from first introducing www.uncyclopedia.co. In this study, we have demonstrated that it is feasible
to use www.uncyclopedia.com as a reliable source for extraction
and building humor ontology. As part of future research, we plan
to extract other relations by adding extra regular expressions to
our algorithm.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: meh_mor2003@yahoo.com
An Assessment of the Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on
Entrepreneurial Cognition Development among the Students of
Technical and Vocational Education (TVE)
Muhammad Asghar*1, Arfi Saeed2, Muhammad Waseem2
1. University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
2. Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority, Punjab, Pakistan
Introduction
Entrepreneurship plays a vital role for socio-economic development of the society. Entrepreneurship education can promote innovation, creation and entrepreneurship in society by producing
graduates with “job producer mind set instead of job seeker”. It’ll
help to eliminate the problem of unemployment among the TVE
graduates.Research Aimwas to adapt a curriculum and effective
pedagogical skills for the entrepreneurial cognition development
of the technical and vocational education students. The current
research specifically sought to answer the question of “What is
the impact of entrepreneurship education on the entrepreneurial
cognition development of TVE students?” Research Objective
that is based upon research question is as following; to assess the
impact of entrepreneurial knowledge; skills; and values on the attitude; perceived behavioral control; and subjective norms of the
learner’s towards entrepreneurial intentions which leads to the
behavioral formation of the learners. Theoretical Framework the
study is based upon Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)
which has been derived from Shapero’s theory of Event and Bundura’s theory of self-efficacy. The research is broadly based upon
basic philosophy of social learning theory and philosophically
pragmatic approach of Jhon Dewey (1932).
Methods
cational Training Authority (TEVTA) Punjab will be trained for
the implementation of a pilot curriculum Know About Business
(KAB) to enhance entrepreneurial mind set of the students. Teachers of Technology Colleges will also be trained for effective entrepreneurial pedagogical skills to deliver KAB curriculum. PHASE
II Entrepreneurship education sessions will be conducted by the
teachers (participated training) in selected technology colleges of
the Punjab. KAB will be applied as pilot curriculum for students.
Research AnalysisQualitative interviews will be analysis using
Nvivo software. The quantitative survey will be analysis using
SPSS and AMOS software. T-test, correlation and regression will
be applied for analysis. Structural Equation Model (SEM) will
also be applied.
Results
The study will give an understanding of student’s mind set development in Pakistani context. It’ll also help to design teacher
training programs for effective pedagogical skills enhancement
among TVE teachers. The study will be helpful for TVE administrators, institutions, policy makers and curriculum developers for
the development of programs to enhance entrepreneurial mind set
of the students.
Conclusion
It was a mixed type of research; both qualitative and quantitative
research methods were applied. Population and Sampling Qualitative interviews were conducted from entrepreneurship education (n=2), pedagogy experts (n=2) and entrepreneurs (n=2) to develop a pilot curriculum and training manuals. Hypothesis of the
study will also be driven from open-ended interviews. Entrepreneurial intention questionnaire was used for quantitative survey.
PHASE I: Principals and managerial staff of Technical and Vo-
The study will conclude the impact of entrepreneurship education to develop entrepreneurial intentions among TVET students.
It will also verify Theory of Planned Behaviour by Ajzen to study
the relation of intentions and its antecedents. This study will provide a base for conducting research on the characteristics of an
effective entrepreneurial curriculum that will enhance entrepreneurial cognition of the students of different levels at school, colleges and universities.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addresschancellor.zaheer@gmail.com
Eye Movements (Fixation, Mutation, Regression)
during Reading Familiar and Unfamiliar Contents when Read
Aloud and Compare with Reading Silent
Zohreh Nouri*, Masood Sharifi
Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Eye tracking is a technique that allows scientists to determine
fixation, mutation and regression during reading. Speed of reading, average number of fixation, mutation and regression varies
depending on the content of reading. This study investigated eye
movements (fixation, mutation, regression) during reading familiar and unfamiliar passages when read aloud compare with when
reading silent.
Methods
We chose 15 students of Faculty of counseling and educational
science of Shahid Beheshty University and other 15 students from
Physics faculty of Shahid Beheshty. Research methods that were
used in this experiment include quasi-experimental design and repeated measures design. We recorded subjects’ eye movements
during reading four different passages: One psychological passage in 2 different fonts, and one passage about Physics science
in 2 fonts.
Results
Analysis of variance (between subjects) shows that word length
has significant effect on eye movement (fixation, saccade) and
font type has no significant effect on eye movement (fixation,
saccade, regression). Also, passages type (familiar and unfamiliar
Passages) has significant effect on eye movement (fixation, saccade, regression). The interaction between word length, font type
variable, and passages type has significant effect on eye movement. Also during aloud reading, participants made more fixation
and regression compared with reading silent. Furthermore mutation in reading aloud was less than reading silent.
Conclusion
Overall, these findings show that word length, font type, and
passages type have significant impact on eye movement. Our
results suggest that readers probably skip cursory of unfamiliar
words when they read in silence.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: znourii@yahoo.com
Understanding Inference as a Source of Knowledge:
A Cross-Cultural Study
Foozhan Afzali-behbahani*
Introduction
The researches indicated that by 6 years of age children begin
to understand that knowledge can be acquired through deductive
inference. On the other hand, context cultural context can influence cognitive development .Therefore, in the present study, I investigated the understanding of inference in a sample of Iranian
preschoolers. I also examined the hypotheses that children’s understanding of inference might be informed by first-person experience of their inferential activity.
Methods
Sixteen 4-year-olds and sixteen 6-year-olds participated in this
study. The experimenter interviewed with each child in a single
session .At the beginning of the session, the child was introduced
to an observer (an adult female whose name was Yegane). Then,
each child received four trials. On each trial, the child and the
observer were shown a pair of toys and asked them to name the
color of each toy. The experimenter then hid one toy in each of
the plastic cans. At that point, either child or the observer looked
into one of cans. Then the child was reminded that he (or she)
and the observer knew the premises concerning the toys’ colors;
for example, “Yegane and you know that there are two cars, a
red car and a green car, just like in this picture”. After reminding
these, the child was asked some questions. On two trials in which
the child looked into one of the cans, the experimenter asked two
questions concerning the color of the toy in another cans (hiding
place). For example, “Do you know what color the flower is in
hiding place?” After the child responded, the experimenter pointed to hiding place and asked “Why do you think the flower in here
is red?”. On other trials, the observer (but not the child) looked
into one of the can. After looking into one of the can, the observer
made a statement about the color of toy hidden in another can.
Then, the experimenter pointed to hiding place and asked “why
does Yegane think the car in here is green?”
Results
All children were able to make a deductive inference about the
color of a hidden object. In addition, the children’s explanations
about the origins of both their own and the observer’s knowledge
about the hidden object’s color, were reliably coded by two independent judges (Cohen’s Kappa=.79). References to either one
of the premises (that formed the basis for inferring the object’s
color) or integration of these premises were scored as appropriate responses. Therefore, based on this criterion, both the 4-yearolds and the 6-year-olds could explain the inferential source of
their own knowledge. However, on trials in which the children
were asked to identify the source of the observer’s knowledge,
the 6-year-olds performed significantly better than did the 4-yearolds.
Conclusion
The current findings indicated that by age of 6 children began to
understand the inferential origin of another observer’s knowledge.
Therefore, there was no difference between Iranian and American
preschoolers in age at which they acquired a concept of inference
as a source of knowledge. Moreover, although 4-year-olds in the
present study had difficulty in explaining the observer’s inferences, they could explain their own inferences. In other words
children’s ability to identify the inferential sources of their own
knowledge develops earlier than their ability to identify the inferential origins of the observer’s knowledge. This finding confirms
the hypothesis that children’s understanding of inference might be
informed by first-person experience of their inferential activity.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addressfoafzali@yahoo.com
Frequency and Vocabulary Acquisition in a Cognitive System
Mahdi Rahimian*
Department of Linguistics University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Canada
Introduction
Vocabulary acquisition in a language is the main focus of this
paper. Specifically, experimental views of vocabulary acquisition
are used to discuss how vocabulary is acquired and how a cognitive system is developed. In other words, ties between vocabulary
acquisition and cognitive development are sought and elaborated
on. The developmental procedure involved in vocabulary acquisition is explored trying to explain cognition. Ideas related to cognitive development are discussed through literature by trying to
shed light on the type of unitary or multiple cognitive system(s).
It is also discussed that a unitary cognitive system is more favored
regarding vocabulary acquisition. Finally, a model of cognitive
system in language perception regarding vocabulary and vocabulary development is proposed, which is supported by experimental findings in vocabulary acquisition research.
Methods
After discussing different cognitive system views, word acquisition is explored through the view of a unitary cognitive system.
Neural and cognitive research results are used to support the
model proposed for cognitive system. In this paper, the following questions are addressed: 1. Do we have a unitary cognitive
system? Or do we have multiple cognitive systems? 2. How is
our cognitive system developed? 3. How can frequency of a word
in the input data contribute to word acquisition from a cognitive
point of view?
Results
In this paper a cognitive model was proposed based on the effects of experience to explain lexical acquisition. Evidence from
the literature in phonology and cognitive sciences were used frequently to support the model. Cognition in general might not be
an easy task to tackle. In fact different factors might affect our
definition of cognition. It is also possible that people’s views and
perspectives might have affected the way they regard cognitive
system. An analogy, which might be beneficial, is that the cognitive system is like a tree. As the tree grows older, its tiny branches
get stronger and stronger by receiving appropriate materials including water, fertilizers, sun shine, etc. At the very beginning, the
branches are fragile and flexible, so pruning them can shape their
future shape. As time passes by, the tree branches get thicker and
thicker, thus becoming less flexible. Still, there would be smaller branches growing from the primary ones, and the story goes
on and on. Using that analogy in our discussion, we can assume
the tree as the cognitive system, and neural commitment as the
growth of the branches. Then frequency would be either sunshine
or water, which helps the branches and the tree as a whole form
as well as strengthen. Thus, the new branches would be less flexible. If at an early stage, a mild and continuous wind can bend and
form a branch. When the branch gets stronger and older, such a
wind will have no permanent effect on that. Finally, other factors
might be influential on lexical acquisition. For example, Estes et
al. (2007) have shown that “prior segmentation opportunities, but
not mere frequency of exposure, facilitated infants’ learning of
object labels” (Estes et al., 2007, p. 254). These and other factors
also need to be taken into consideration when testing and evaluating models related to language acquisition.
Conclusion
In conclusion, other factors might be influential on lexical acquisition. For example, Estes et al. (2007) has shown that “prior
segmentation opportunities, but not mere frequency of exposure,
facilitated infants’ learning of object labels” (Estes et al., 2007, p.
254). These other factors also need to be considered into account
when testing and evaluating models related to language acquisition.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: rahimiam@cc.umanitoba.ca
Effects of a Subchronic Course of Treatment with a
Benzodiazepine Drug on Memory Status in Y-maze
Task in Wistar rat
Tajmah Mombeini*, Mohammad Kamalinejad
University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
There are numerous literatures indicating that benzodiazepines
family has adverse effects on different paradigms of learning and
memory. Spatial working memory is the ability of animal to remember the location in which something is perceived, and to recall a series of visited locations. In the present study effects of
diazepam on spatial working memory of rats were evaluated.
Methods
In the present study, two-trial Y-maze test was used to evaluate effects of diazepam on spatial working memory. Twenty three
adult male Wistar rats weighing around 200 g were used in this
study. Animals were housed in animal room (21±2 ºC) on a 12-h
dark/12-h light cycle for at least 1 week before experimentation.
Then, rats were randomly assigned to receive either isotonic saline (0.9%), or 1.2 mg/kg of diazepam hydrochloride (dissolved
in saline), in equal volumes daily for five consecutive days (n=12,
n=11; respectively). The Y-maze apparatus was made of opaque
plexiglas, with three arms (each was 25×15×80) placed symmetrically at a 120 degree angle from one another. During training trials,
entrance to the novel arm was blocked. Each arm had special cues
on the walls and floor, so the rat could distinct different arms from
each other. As previously described the task was a two trial spatial
recognition memory test and was designed based on the fact that
rat tends to explore new environments. The test consisted of two
trials with a 1 h interval. Twenty four hours after last injection,
in the first trial i.e. training trial; the mouse was placed at the end
of the start arm (defined as the closest arm to the experimenter),
receiving access to 2 arms of the maze (start and the other arm)
for 10 min (the novel arm was blocked during the training trial).
After the training trial, the mouse was removed from the maze and
put in its cage for the 1 h interval. In the second trial (retention/
novelty preference test), the mouse was placed back in the start
arm of the maze, now allowed to explore all three arms (the previously explored start and the other arm, and the previously blocked
novel arm) for 8 min. The time spent in each arm, and proportion
of the number of arm entries was recorded by ethovision software.
In order to determine whether the locomotor activity and motility changes would interfere with the parameters of learning and
memory or not, we calculated the number of arm entries as an
indicator of locomotor activity. Furthermore, with the purpose of
avoiding olfactory trials, we cleaned the maze arms in between
tests. Injections, training and testing were performed between
9.00 and 15.00 h. More entering the novel arm and spending more
time in it than the familiar arms, is an evidence for recognition of
the unfamiliar novel arm, thus the exploratory behavior of animal.
Results
We found that in the first trial, there was no difference in frequency and time spent in start arm and other arm between diazepam- and saline-treated groups. But, in second trial diazepam
treated rats spent more time in novel arm (p<0.05) and showed a
significant increase in alteration behavior compared with salinetreated (control) rats. There was no difference in locomotor activity between groups during each trial of Y-maze test.
Conclusion
The results of the present study suggest that subchronic administration of benzodiazepines might have a memory enhancing effect
on short-term memory of Y-maze task in rat.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addresst.mombeini@gmail.com
The impact of Number of Syllables on Phonological Awareness:
Evidence from Persian Preschool Children
Maryam Danaye Tous*, Soheila Amiri Moghaddam
University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
Introduction
Phonological awareness is a kind of metacognitive ability that
requires conscious thinking. It is the individual’s ability to manipulate syllabic, intrasyllabic and phonemic units of words.
Studies have shown that there are mutual relationship between
phonological awareness and reading ability. Previous studies have
measured the degree of reading ability with measuring children’s
phonological awareness. Recent studies in Persian population,
tried to consider children’s phonological awareness with respect
to age and intelligence and were based on learning and cognitive
disorders .However, there are very few studies on the impact of
linguistic variables on Persian children’s phonological awareness.
Because the words could have wide range of phonological, semantic, morphological and syntactic features and in order to control the cofounder variable, this research dealt with the impact of
number of words’ syllables on phonological awareness in Persian
Preschool children. We sought the answer to two main questions:
Is the number of syllables of a word affects preschool children’s
phonological awareness? Is there any difference between boys
and girls in this regard?
Methods
In this quasi-experimental research a series of phonological
awareness tests for preschool children were used as research
instrument. Participants were 80 Persian preschool children (40
girls and 40 boys -mean age=5 years old) of Ramiyan city (Golestan Provincen). The test was consisted of three levels of syllabic,
intra-syllabic and phonemic. The sample was selected using simple random sampling method. They were controlled according to
IQ, listening ability, language and behavior.
Results
The results showed that the number of syllables had statistically
significant impact on syllabic awareness sub-tests. In other words,
number of syllables just affected children’s syllabic awareness
(not their intra-syllabic and phonemic awareness). There was also
significant main effect of the gender. Girls’ overall performance
was better than boys. Moreover, there was a significant interaction between the number of syllables and gender, just in syllabic
awareness sub-tests. In other words, in these sub-tests, girls’ performance was better than boys on both two-syllable and threesyllable words.
Conclusion
Findings indicated that probably preschool children could not
develop the required phonological awareness at intra-syllabic and
phonemic levels. The implications of the findings on children’s
later reading ability would be discussed.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addressmaryam.dana@gmail.com
Effectiveness of Educational Cognitive - Behavioral Anxiety and
Social Adjustment of High School Students in the City of Chalus
Afsaneh Samdaliri*, Hoseinali Taghipor, Mohammad Ghafari
Islamic Azad Univercity, Chalous, Iran
Introduction
Results
This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive
training on reducing anxiety in secondary school students in city
of Chalus. Study population consisted of 274 secondary school
students from 16 classes in city of Chalus. A sample of two classes
of 25 students in the control and experimental group, were randomly selected from the total 274 secondary schools in Chalus.
Methods
Our results suggest that cognitive-behavioral training had significant effect on students’ anxiety. The findings of the descriptive
statistics showed that the pre-test averages of anxiety and adjustment were 16.50 and 16.30, respectively. Also, the post-test means
of anxiety and adjustment were 16.86 and 17.13, respectively. The
means indicated that the tests have been beneficial.
Conclusion
Information collected in this survey questionnaire contained 17
questions about the effect of cognitive behavioral training on anxiety. The data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire based on 5-point Likert scale. Participants expressed their
agreement to each question on a 5-level rating scale.
The results supported predictions of the inconsistent pattern of
cognitive criteria. In other words, this pattern could explain contradictions between new perspectives about dissonance. So, it is
possible to present assignment including personal criteria with
normative based on the level of students’ self-esteem in the situations of dissonance and to provide the background of reducing
dissonance and resolving conflicts arising from it.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addresssamira.neli@yahoo.com
Clinical Assessment of Persian-Speaking Children
with Language Impairment in Iran
Yalda Kazemi*, Thomas Klee, Helen Stringer
Introduction
The qualified SLTs in Iran (just over 1000 registered SLTs/over
75 million people in 2011) had access to very limited evidencebased assessment methods in diagnosing children with primary
language impairment (PLI). This study aims to (1) explore the
case definitions and diagnostic criteria employed by SLTs working in Iran for defining childhood language impairment, and (2)
examine the diagnostic potential of language sample measures
(LSMs) based on Persian-speaking children.
Methods
Study 1: Case definitions and diagnostic criteria. The criteria
currently used by Iranian SLTs to assess and diagnose Persianspeaking children with PLI were explored in a qualitative-quantitative study. Thirty SLTs completed questionnaires in which
respondents were asked to describe their approach to evaluating
preschool children with language impairments, including the
role of language sample analysis in the assessment process. Two
groups of SLTs (n=9) were then interviewed within the context of
focus groups to clarify several issues arising from the questionnaires. Personally-defined diagnostic procedures, based on the
results of the questionnaires, and focus groups were summarized
to obtain a general picture of decision-making methods in identifying Iranian children with PLI. Study 2: Involved a diagnostic
study of language sample measures with Persian-speaking children. The assessment potential of language sample measures in
Persian was examined using the framework suggested by Sackett
and Haynes (2002) for conducting diagnostic research and included phrases I and II studies. A total of 27 children with typicallydeveloping language (TDL) and 24 children with PLI, aged 42
to 54 months, were recruited. Children with TDL were randomly
selected from all registered day cares in Isfahan and children with
PLI were referred by the SLTs working in the same city. Language
samples were recorded as each mother played with her child for
20 minutes with a standard set of toys and then analyzed using
a new version of the SALT computer program developed for
this project (Miller & Iglesias, 2012), which was used in order
to accommodate the prefix-rich features of Persian – a morphologically rich, free word-order language. A Persian Transcription
Conventions Protocol (PTCP) was developed to supplement the
set of standard SALT conventions (Kazemi, 2011). The LSMs examined were based on those that are commonly employed with
English speaking children (e.g. mean length of utterance in words
and morphemes, number of different words, and number of total
words). Other measures included errors in producing Persian-specific measures (e.g. direct object marker/case marking ra, plural
marker /ha, progressive tense marker mi\, addition sign /e-Ezafe,
and objective clitics) as well as some composite measures that
were created out of the combination of several LSMs.
Results
Study 1: The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) was used as an organizing framework for
establishing a consensus as to what constitutes language impairment, since no commonly accepted reference standard currently
exists in Iranian clinical practice. Study 2: Performance on most
LSMs was significantly higher in the TDL group compared to the
PLI group, providing evidence of their ability to differentiate children at the group level (phase I). Phase II investigated the relevant
diagnostic accuracies (e.g., sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood
ratios) across LSMs.
Conclusion
A reference standard for defining PLI is proposed based on the
outcome of the first study. The results of the phase I study are consistent with such accounts as extended optional infinitive (Rice,
Wexler, Cleave, 1995), Direct Activation (Rispoli, Hadley, Holt,
2012), and surface hypothesis (Leonard et al., 1992). The process
of examining the diagnostic accuracy of the measures at the level
of the individual child (phase II) documented composite measures
as the most capable measure in terms of sensitivity, specificity,
and likelihood ratios.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: y.kazemi@hotmail.com
Reacting to Learners’ Cognitive Behavior in
English Language Classes
Mostafa Morady Moghaddam*, Valeh Gholami
Introduction
Results
The concept of learning in general and language learning in
particular carry with them an everlasting complexity, which are
tried to be decoded by so many scholastic arguments. Throughout the history of SLA, various theories of second language acquisition have been proposed. Structural linguists and behavioral
psychologists were the pioneers who applied a scientific observation toward human languages (Brown, 2007). They claimed that
language learning like other kinds of learning is a process of habit
formation irrespective of the creativity and variability observable
in language learning. In 1960s, a new perspective emerged as
the result of Chomsky’s generative-transformational linguistics.
Chomsky (1959) rejected the S→R hypothesis and mentioned
that child’s environment is too poor to explain how a child learns
a language. This is referred to as the logical problem of language
acquisition (White, 2003). With the advent of cognitive psychology, the underlying structures of human behavior were emphasized
in which explanatory adequacy took utmost attention (Mitchell,
Myles, 2004).
Methods
This qualitative study took place in ten EFL institutes in Mashhad, Iran, which were randomly selected as the place of research.
From these institutes 152 children (99 females and 53 males),
and 43 teachers (31 females and 12 males) were chosen to be
observed. Since the researchers were not able to rearrange the
classes, the design of the research is quasi-experimental. Thus,
in each institute some classes were randomly chosen, but the
teachers and children were not rearranged. Children were aged
between eight and eleven, while were attending private language
institutes in the spring term. The background language of the participants was Persian and they were from different social status
since participants were from various institutes in different areas
of the city. Moreover, managers of the institutes were interviewed
to gain some information about the economical and social status
of children.
Through a couple of sessions, researchers became familiarized
with learners and their proficiency level. The first purpose of this
study was to find learners’ characteristics in order to categorize
their cognitive features and the second purpose of this study was
to find out the quality of interactions between teachers and successful and the least successful learners. The criteria to consider
children as being proficient were their grades and their language
proficiency in the class. It took a couple of sessions for the researchers to get some information about the children as well as
the teachers. During the observations, the manner in which the
teachers reacted to children and their discourse, were carefully
analyzed and audio-recorded for further investigation. Moreover,
children’s specific characteristics regarding their cognitive features were outlined and were categorized. The following are common themes specified in two groups of children.
Conclusion
The children’s cognitive characteristics were investigated and
six major categories were found. The most common characteristics are: classroom participation, learning aspects, interfering factors, practicing, facilitative factors, and managing input. According to Piaget and neo-Piagetian scholars, child development happens in a sequence of stages. The first stage, which extends from
18 months to 7 years of age (Muñoz, 2007) is called “concrete
operations”. The first stage is divided into preconceptual and intuitive thoughts (Piaget, 1970). According to developmental cognitive perspectives, during the concrete operational period, learners become self-conscious and as a result, critical self-evaluations
increases, which are likely to reduce self-esteem (Muñoz, 2007).
Therefore, children are so sensitive about the environment and
they may get upset when their sense of self-esteem is at danger.
Table 2 reveals that less-proficient learners are usually exposed to
destructive affective feedback, which may have negative effects
on their self-esteem.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mostafa_morady@yahoo.com
Levelt Theory of Lexical Access: Evidence from
a Fluent Aphasic Patient
Zahrasadat Ghoreishi*, Anahita Khorrami Banaraki, Parvane Farhadbeigi
University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
According to levelt theory, lexical access deficit is one of the
most common problems in aphasic patients. There are at least
three steps in word production: processing of conceptual information, processing of syntactic word information (lemma) and processing of word form information (lexeme). Pause, paraphasia,
circumlocution, perseveration and neologism are some symptoms
of word finding problems in aphasia. There are many ways to test
levelt theory, such as assessing speech error in normal subject,
designing special task for each step and using neuroimaging study
to analyze paraphasia and other lexical deficit in aphasic patient.
The aim of the present study was to analyze speech errors of one
fluent aphasic patient according to levelt theory.
Methods
In this case study we assessed a right-handed 58-year-old man,
with lesion on left parietal, temporal and BG. He had a CVA 6
months before the first assessment. We used Persian version of
WAB (Western Aphasia Battery), Lexical Access Test and analyzed his spontaneous speech.
Results
According to WAB results ourpatient, scored 3 in content, 6 in
fluency, 6 in auditory comprehension, 7 in command comprehen-
sion, 2.5 in naming and 5.5 in repetition (all of scores were out of
ten). His Aphasia Quotient (AQ) was 50 percent. In Lexical Access Test he scored 1.5 in semantic verbal fluency and scored 1 in
phonological verbal fluency, in picture naming he couldn’t name
any picture correctly, he had neologism, verbal paraphasia and
perseveration while he named pictures. His spontaneous speech
(free and descriptive speech) was full of circumlocution and perseveration. His attempts at describing events contained many neologisms and some verbal paraphasias.
Conclusion
These findings showed that main problem of this fluent aphasic
patient was lexical access, both in picture naming and spontaneous
speech. His most common symptoms of anomia was neologism,
verbal paraphasia, perseveration and circumlocution. Analysis of
the neologisms of this fluent patient with lesion on left temporoparietal and BG determined that his grammatical ability was intact.
When we asked him to describe an action picture, he used another
verb (verbal paraphasia) or neologic verb. The results showed the
appropriate use of noun and verb grammatically (lemma), but not
semantically (concept) and phonologically (lexeme). This patient
had intact lemma that confirms processing of syntactical information in anterior part of brain, because this patient did not have any
lesion in frontal lobe. This is consistent with levelt theory about
existence of different stages in word finding process.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addresszahraqoreishi@yahoo.com
Neurocognitive Dysfunction in Adults with
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Ali Saremi*1, Seyed Vahid Shariat1,2, Mohammad Nazari3, Behrooz Dolatshahi4
2. Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
4. University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder (OCD) represents one of the
most frequent neuropsychiatric disorders. Neuroscientific studies
support two cortical–subcortical pathways on OCD pathogenesis:
(a) the frontostriatal loop (dorsolateral-caudate–striatum–thalamus), which is responsible for impairments of behavioral inhibition; and (b) the orbitofrontal loop (orbitofrontal, medial prefrontal and cingulate), which is responsible for impairments with cognitive inhibitory processes. These failures in both cognitive and
motor inhibitory systems may mediate several neuropsychological deficits in these patients, namely memory, attention, planning,
and decision-making. OCD is clinically heterogeneous. Neurocognitive deficiencies reported in previous studies have indicated
brain dysfunction, particularly a fronto-striatal dysfunction in the
pathogenesis of obsessive-compulsive disorder. OCD is highly
associated with cognitive function impairments, however considering that it is difficult to assess cognitive function clinically. This
study aims to study the neurocognitive dysfunction in OCD patients, compared to controls; to study the variations in neurocognitive deficiencies with duration of illness, as well as the severity
of the disease.
Methods
Eighty subjects participated in this study. Forty DSM-IV-diagnosed OCD, and 40 healthy individuals (control group) were
evaluated with Neuropsychological Tests: Stroop Color Word
Test (SCWT), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Go-NoGo
Task, Memory and cognitive confidence scale (MACCS), digits
forward (DF), digits backward (DB), and Yale Brown Obsessive –
Compulsive Scale Self-Report (Y-BOCS-SR). OCD did not differ
from the control group on socio-demographic variables or IQ.
Results
Neurocognitive deficiencies reported in previous studies have
indicated a brain dysfunction, particularly a fronto-striatal dysfunction in the pathogenesis of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Thus, neurocognitive dysfunction is an important aspect of the
disorder. Cognitive impairments are common in obsessive-compulsive disorder in executive functions, decision-making, working memory, implicit learning, cognitive flexibility (intentional
set shifting, simple reversal, and probabilistic and reversal learning), inhibitory control (motor inhibition and cognitive inhibition)
processing speed, non-verbal memory, and visual-spatial abilities.
Patients with OCD performed poorly on all the neurocognitive
parameters as compared to controls. Patients suffering from OCD
showed less confidence in cognitive and memory than a nonclinical control group. In addition, some neuropsychological measures
were correlated with the severity of the illness.
Conclusion
The results suggest that OCD patients perform significantly
worse on cognitive measures than controls. Our results suggest
that obsessive-compulsive patients experience difficulties in confidence in their memory, possibly related to anxiety rather than
primary memory deficiencies. Individuals with OCD have negative beliefs regarding their memory and thinking capabilities, for
example, they may have reduced confidence in memory or general cognition.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: a_saremi@iricss.org
The Effect of Serotonergic System of Accumbense Shell Arena
upon Amnesia Induced by ACPA
Marzieh Keramati Nojedehsadat*, Shahrbano Oryan, Mohammad Reza Zarrindast, Vahhabe Babapor, Mohammad Nasehi
Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Cannabinoids induce diverse responses on anxiety- and fearrelated behaviors. Generally, low doses tend to induce anxiolytic-like effects, whereas high doses often cause the opposite. The
CB1 receptor is known for its mediating effects primarily on
memory and cognitive functioning. Serotonin receptor subtypes
that have been demonstrated occur in brain regions capable of
playing a role in learning and memory. 5-HT synapses are more
abundant and have a greater number of synaptic contacts in the
Accumbanse shell (AcbShell) than in the core. The present study
investigated the role of serotonin (5-HT1) receptors of AcbShell
as well as the interaction of AcbShell activity in both structures in
a test-retest elevated plus-maze (EPM) assessment in male Wistar
rats.
Methods
Bilateral guide cannulae were surgically implanted in rats
weighing 250–300g.Taking bregma as the reference point, the
coordinates for the AcbShell were AP=+1.7mm, ML=±0.8mm
and DV=5.9mm, according to the atlas of Paxinos and Watson. To
allow microinjection of ACPA (Arachidonoyl cyclopropamide),
Antagonist 5-HT1 receptor (GR127935 HCl) alone and interaction GR127935 HCl of with ACPA
Results
The data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANO-
VA) for test and re-test sessions. Post hoc Tukey test was performed when significant F-values were obtained in the ANOVA.
Values of p<0.05 were considered to be statistically significant.
Our data suggest the possible involvement of Antagonist 5-HT1
receptor in serotonergic system interaction of AcbShell regulating
anxiety-related behaviors and EPM aversive memory.
Conclusion
Pre-test AcbShell infusion of ACPA at doses of 0.0002μg/rat,
0.002, 0.02, and 0.2 μg/rat increased the percentage of open-arms
time (%OAT) but did not dose 0.0002 µg/rat. In EPM re-test, 24h
later (no injection), intra-AcbShell treated rats showed reduced
and extended anxiolytic behavioral profile as compared to control groups, suggesting an aversive memory impairment. Pre-test
AcbShell infusion of GR127935 HCl at doses of 5, 0.5, and 0.05
ng/rat, increased the percentage of open-arms time (%OAT) at
dose 5ng/rat and was not effected at others doses, which indicated
an anxiolytic-like response at 5ng/rat. In EPM re-test, 24h later
(no injection), intra-AcbShell treated rats showed an increase
and extended anxiolytic behavioral profile (5 ng/rat) and reduced
other doses as compared to control groups. Moreover, showing 5ng/rat induced EPM aversive memory impairment. In addition, concurrent intra- AcbShell microinjection of GR127935
HCl sub-threshold dose and ACPA doses, improved anxiolyticlike behavior profile induced by intra-AcbShell in both sessions.
Furthermore, concurrent microinjection of sub-threshold dose of
GR127935 HCl into site potentiated %OAT during both sessions
and resulted in aversive memory impairment.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mk.sadat@gmail.com
The Impacts of Watching Animated Flash Stories with English
Subtitle and without subtitle on Incidental Vocabulary
Acquisition of Elementary Iranian EFL Learners
Fatemeh Mousavi*, Javad Gholami
Urmia University, West Azarbaijan, Iran
Introduction
In recent years, with the rapid development of media technologies, such as video, audio and computer software and endless use
of English in science, technology, and media, people have been
motivated for acquisition of English language, but the traditional
approaches of English language teaching which are focused on intentional learning, memorizing isolated vocabulary list, and paying little attention to everyday language use are not considered by
new generation. Thus, according to Purushotma (2005), plenty of
attempts must be done to develop “edutainment” titles that seek
to integrate educational goals with entertainment content. So that
educators can apply methods and materials which lead to incidental acquisition instead of intentional learning.
Methods
19 English language conversation learners were selected randomly, and divided into two groups of 10 and 9 based on their
scores on English placement test. In group A. learners were exposed to watch animated flash stories with English-subtitle and in
Group B, learners were exposed to watch animated flash stories
without subtitle. Before watching flash stories with or without
subtitle, all learners were oriented to the task of watching flash
stories for the purpose of subsequently answering true-false questions and cloze-test. There was no mention of the vocabulary acquisition focus of the study. These tasks were administered first to
ensure that the learners concentrated on understanding the content
of story. Immediately afterward, the learners were involved in
storytelling activities while they were visually supported. For collecting data, a 5-point vocabulary knowledge scale with 30 target
words was used. Participants were given the same pre- and posttest before and after fulfillment of the intervention.
Results
Two paired samples t-test was used to investigate the development in each group. Results demonstrated that there was an
improvement in each group. And also, one way analysis of covariance was used to compare the progress of two experimental
groups. The results show that there was not a significant difference in incidental vocabulary acquisition between two groups.
According to the findings of the present study, both groups A and
B had significant improvement from pre-test to post-test. When
the progress of two groups compared, participants in Group B,
who watched flash stories without subtitle, were found out to improve a bit more than those in Group A, who watched with subtitle
(group A=-47.90 Group B=-49.22). However, there was no significant difference between groups in terms of gains.
Conclusion
We conclude that the progress of learners in vocabulary acquisition was due to the effectiveness of flash stories, not incorporation
of subtitles into them. Therefore, it might be discussed that flash
stories increased the vocabulary acquisition of learners.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: fa.mousavi2010@gmail.com
Review of Theory of Mind (Intentionality) Studies Using the
“Moving Shape Paradigm” in Iran
Azar Mohammadzadeh*, Anahita khorrami Banaraki, Mehdi Tehranidoost
Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
The ability to understand other’s mental states is called theory
of mind (TOM). This ability enables individuals to predict other’s
behaviors according to own and others’ mental states. One of the
main aspects of theory of mind is intentionality which refers to
people’s intention in their behaviors. There are different ways to
understand theory of mind and evaluate intentionality. The central
goal of the current review is to explain Theory of mind with regard to The Moving Shapes Paradigms as a new methods based
on social attribution theories.
Methods
Theory of mind related with so many of brain cognitive functions, but the kind of relationship between TOM and executive
functions is on the hard debates. The authors carefully summarize
current research on the relationship between theory of mind and
executive functions in attention deficit –hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) children with use of moving shapes task. Although, numerous studies have highlighted the relation between language
ability and theory of mind, in this paper we explain that this spe-
cific task does not rely on language ability. Therefore assessing
theory of mind with the animation paradigms is more appropriate
in children who have some deficits in their language development.
Results
Several studies suggest that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder have some impairment on TOM tasks. There
is no evidence addressing the issue of intentionality in children
with these disorders. In this review we report just some evidence
addressing the issue of intentionality and social attribution tasks
in children with ADHD.
Conclusion
Taken all these together, one might conclude that ADHD children seem to be deficient in processing others’ mental states,
ideas and intentionality which can partly explain their weak performance in emotional and social responses. Furthermore, due to
the difficulty in emotion- regulation among ADHD patients, the
problematic process of emotional and mentalizing perceptions
compromises their executive function.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: Mohamadzadeh.azar@yahoo.com
Naming of Super-ordinate Category in School-aged Persian
Speaking children with Specific Language Impairment
Mehri Mohammadi*, Reza Nilipour, Sima Shirazi
Introduction
Perception and expression of word categories is a cognitive and
linguistic skill gradually attained during the development and
completed within school years. Regarding the children with specific language impairment (SLI) are vulnerable in some linguistic
areas, particularly in grammar and a relative delay in vocabulary,
it is questioned that whether the order, degree and extent of access
to the super-ordinates could be influenced. The purpose of this
study was to investigate their ability in expression of super-ordinate categories which was estimated by formal word definition.
Methods
The subjects consisted of 16 SLI and 16 normal Persian speaking children from first to third grade of school, selected from
Special educational centers and ordinary schools respectively.
SLI children were screened based on more than 12 scores discrepancies between their verbal and non-verbal performance on
WISC-R. Accordingly, their mean of IQ scores are as followed,
M. full IQ=92.87 (SD=8.58), M. verbal IQ=82.56 (SD=7.04)
and M. performance IQ=104.31 (SD=11.10). Control group
were children whose verbal and nonverbal scores obtaining the
IQ test, made them eligible to enter the regular school and were
successful in school work. Linguistic behavior of the two groups
was assessed using SLI local test developed for Persian children.
The categorization task was a word definition test consisted of
14 high frequency nouns from seven different categories (fruits,
animals, jobs, places, eating utensils, vehicles, and body organs). Both groups participated in the task and their behavioral data were
compared.
Results
The most frequent expressed super-ordinate category in SLI
Children was “place” with 41 % and for TD ones were “animal”
and “fruit” with 71.87%. The SLI group was not able to name
the titles (super-ordinates) such as “vehicles”, “body organs”, and
“eating utensil” in the definition of their related sub-categories,
while the lack of aimed response in TD children was bound in
“eating utensil”. The overall behavior in the application of the
category for different word definitions in SLI children was 15%
while in their peers was more than twice (36%).
Conclusion
The findings indicated that the order of the access to the categories in both group was not the same. Indeed, the two groups
were different in the degree and extent of the category expression.
However, it seems that more comprehensive studies need to examine the ability of SLI children in the categorical labeling.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mehrimohammadi.st@gmail.com
Working Memory in Dyslexic Persian Children
Tahere Sima Shirazi*, Abdollah Moossavi, Laya Gholami Tehrani, Nikta Hatamizadeh, Mehdi Rahgozar
Introduction
Several studies have demonstrated deficiencies in working
memory in dyslexic readers; however, there are some debates
about the extent of deficiencies in the various sections of working
memory. This study was intended to survey working memory in
dyslexic Persian children. We use Baddeley’s model of working
memory in this research.
Methods
In this cross-sectional, descriptive, and analytical study, 2nd grade
students, both dyslexic and normal readers, were divided into
groups based on their reading accuracy, which was assessed by
Diagnostic Reading Test and Reading and Dyslexia Test. Twentyone dyslexic and thirty-two normal reading students were selected
by simple random sampling. Participants had normal intelligence
(IQ≥85) and were selected from primary school students in the
city of Tehran. Normal reading children were 7.7 to 8.7 years
old (mean=7.6) and dyslexic children were 7.8 to 9.4 years old
(mean=8.1). They completed sub-tests of phonological loop (nonword repetition, direct digit span, direct one syllabic words span,
and direct three syllabic words span), visuo-spatial sketchpad
(visual n-back), and central executive (reverse digit span, reverse
one syllabic words span, and reverse three syllabic words span). Z
scores, independent t-test, Mann-Whitney, multivariate analysis,
Fisher and Chi-square were used for data analysis.
sketchpad, and central executive (p<0.01). Fifty five percent of
dyslexic cases and 0% of normal reading students showed problems in phonological loop, 67% of dyslexics, 14% of normal reading students had problems in visuo-spatial sketchpad, 38% of dyslexics, and 3% of normal reading students had impaired central
executive. In all sections, the percentage of dyslexics who showed
problems were significantly more than normal reading students
(p<0.05). Altogether, 20% of normal reading students and 80% of
dyslexics had problems in working memory. There weren’t any
working memory problems in 20% percent of dyslexics. Fiftyfive percent of dyslexics suffered from a combination of problems in 2 or 3 sections, while none of the normal reading students
showed a combination in deficiencies.
Conclusion
Dyslexic children showed both Phonological loop impairments
and central executive problems, although the percentage of dyslexics who showed phonological loop impairments was more than
the percentage of dyslexics who had central executive problems.
More than half of dyslexic cases had problems in visuo-spatial
sketchpad that means working memory deficiencies in dyslexic
children were not limited to verbal working memory. In total more
than 2/3 of dyslexic cases had an apparent deficiency in working
memory, which showed the importance of detail assessment and
careful treatment of working memory in dyslexics.
Results
Dyslexic students performed poorly compared to normal reading students on all subtests of phonological loop, visuo-spatial
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: sm_shirazi@yahoo.com
The Impact of Neuroscience and Cognition on
Understanding and the Process of Creativity
Monir Saleh*, Mehdi Davaee
Tehran, Iran
Introduction
This study has explored whether the process of the creativity
act is the same as cognitive problem-solving, which only requires
contemplation, or is completely neural in brain activity and investigated by reductive and mechanistic assumption, or are different
entities involved in the understanding and process of creativity.
The ultimate goal of psychological sciences in studying the nature
of creativity act is to understand how the brain activity turns matter into imagination, and how the neural network allows a person
to create something beautiful, meaningful, genuine, and applicable. This empirical study attempts to find a connection between
the creative act, cognition, and neural activity. Cognitive science
explains the process of creativity as an act of facing a problem and
trying to find a solution for it. However, the ambiguous and multidimensional nature of creativity has caused controversial and paradoxical assertions and assumptions varying from supernatural
intervention to socio-cultural influence, personality traits, evolutionary law, reductive and mechanistic neurobiological explanation and mental processes, neural network, connectionist model,
and the most recent neuro-aesthetics and neuro-psychoanalytic
findings of understanding creativity.
Methods
A 40 minute Tangram Puzzle Making, assigned as the main task,
was given to the randomly selected participants whom were artists and non-artists (artists, n=32; and non-artists n=31) to assess
the participants’ cognitive problem solving procedure or their
creative imagination. Other tools were used in this study were
Khayyam-Pascal Triangle and Anagram word puzzle as the distractor means to provide cognitive, or a break for both groups to
observe whether contemplation as a break is effective for artists
to create, or have a break by using distractors. They were asked
to solve each puzzle for 10 minutes. During the first 4 minutes
they were stopped and provided with either 2 minutes to break using distractors (doing Khayyam-Pascal Triangle), or contemplate
before returning to the main task for another 4 minutes in order to
complete the experiment.
Results
Findings of this study indicates that problem solving contemplation (break) for non-artists (41.9%) helped solving problem in
cognitive sense (doing the puzzle), whereas 34.9% of the creative
artist group could solve the problem (solve the puzzle) after contemplation. From the obtained results it can be inferred that, in
an artistic creativity process, producing something genuine and
novel requires divergent thinking, which is not cognitive contemplation, but requires the integrations of other entities and phenomenon, procedures, and ideas.
Conclusion
Cognitive sciences, neural based, mental processing, and connectionist models are important but have a partial role in understanding the nature and process of creativity. Further studies are
required for an integrated model to find ways in exploring the nature of this mysterious phenomenon, the existence of creativity.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: monirsaleh1@gmail.com
Evaluation of Iranian Emblems Hand Gestures) in Native Adults
Sadaf Pouriliyaei*1, Anahita Khorrami Banaraki2, Zoha Deldar1, Nastaran Aliazizi1
2. Firoozgar Hospital Neuroscience Research Group, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
People from all cultures and walks of life use hand gestures
while speaking. These hand movements are so commonly used
in daily interactions that it seems impossible to communicate
without them. Why are gestures so important? Can they provide
insights into cognitive development? Providing answers for
such questions requires having access to reliable data bases.
The need for such a comprehensive data base is highly felt
in the Iranian culture. No attempts have been made in this
regard so far, except for an inventory of emblems collected
by Carol Sparhawk in 1974. Emblems are one category of
gestures that are culture-specific, and can have a direct verbal
translation, though may also be accompanied by speech.
Sparhawk presented the contrastive-identificational features
of Persian gestures in comparison to Stokoe’s analysis of the
American Sign Language (ASL) of the Deaf. However, in our
study we examined her inventory from a different standpoint,
which considers Iranian gestures by their meanings rather than
their contrastive (morphological) features. We evaluated the
Iranian emblems after a lapse of almost 40 years in a bid to
provide a comprehensive data base, which will have numerous
applications in developmental and educational domains.
Methods
A sample of 60 native Iranian adults aged 18- 53, were selected
via convenience sampling. Informed consent was obtained
prior to the study. Making use of the MATLAB, we developed
a behavioral task, which consisted of 70 emblems presented
randomly, each lasting for 6 seconds with a 35-second pause
between each emblem. During the pause, the participants had
to (a) write down the message conveyed by each emblem in the
form of a word, phrase, or sentence; (b) evaluate, on a scale of
1-10, how much the message conveyed by each emblem was
similar to answers in Sparhawk’s original collection. A brief
training was conducted prior to the study.
Results
Only 38% of the gestures conveyed an exact or nearly similar
message as mentioned in Sparhawk’s study. And, there were
eight gestures to which at least 70% of the subjects gave an exact
or nearly similar message provided by Sparhawk’s respondents.
Conclusion
This reveals that after a lapse of nearly 40 years, Iranian adults
process emblems different than before, maybe due to factors
such as social status, education, and watching foreign movies.
There were also errors due to the limitations of Sparhawk’s
study, which should be taken into consideration when compiling
an up-to-date database for Iranian emblems.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:silia_s@iricss.org
Age of Acquisition and Second Language Mental
Lexicon Representation
Mohammad Momenian*1, Reza Nilipour2
1. Tarbiat Modares University
2. University of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences
Introduction
In this study we report the effect of age of acquisition (AOA) on
lexical decision latencies in a group of Persian-English bilinguals.
Methods
Forty freshman university students were requested to perform the lexical decision task in a counterbalanced design using
DMDX software on laptop. Forty five English words and several
pseudowords as fillers were selected for the stimuli. The stimuli
were selected based on 3 different levels of AOA and checked
against Persian version of Snodgrass and Vanderwart Naming
Battery (Bakhtiar, Nilipour, Weekes, 2012). Thirty words were
matched in their AoA in both Persian and English and then divided into early acquired (group 1) and late acquired words (group
2). A third group consisted of 15 words which were late acquired
in Persian but early acquired in English. In so doing, we wanted
to explore whether processing of L2 words was dependant on first
language AoA of the same words or not.
age of acquisition of words in Persian. The means of RTs of both
groups (1 and 3) pertaining to early acquired words in English
were significantly lower than the late acquired group (2); thus, implying that perhaps L2 mental lexicon has its own system of representation and processing in beginner bilinguals contrary to the
majority of models on L2 mental lexicon (De Bot, 1992; Kroll,
1993; Kroll & De Groot, 1997; Costa, & Caramazza, 1999; Levelt, & Meyer, 1999; Jiang, 2000; Kroll & Tokowicz, 2005) and
theories supporting a critical period in learning a second language
(Oyama, 1976; Johnson & Newport, 1989; DeKeyser & LarsonHall, 2005).
Conclusion
It is believed that models and theories on mental lexicon should
pay special attention to AoA as one of most influential determinants of bilingual mental lexicon representation. The findings of
this study have implications for form-meaning interface as well
as dissociation of declarative vs. procedural memory in bilingual
mental lexicon research and second language teaching.
Results
The findings revealed that second language (L2) age of acquisition had an effect on lexical decision latencies regardless of the
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: momenian21@yahoo.com
Grammatical Deficits in Persian and English-Speaking Autistic
Children: Similarities and Differences
Sara Mahabadi*1, Naghmeh Taghva2, Hamid Reza Pouretemad
1. Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Shiraz University and The Center for the Treatment of Autistic Disorders (CTAD)
2. Department of psychology, Tarbiat Modarres University, and The Center for the Treatment of Autistic Disorders (CTAD)
3. Department of Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, and Institute for Cognitive Science Studies (ICSS)
Introduction
A common feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is language impairment. But the existing similarities and differences
of language impairment among autistic children have not been
thoroughly analyzed worldwide. Recognizing such similarities
and differences may help to interventions designed for autistic
children to target their specific language deficits and help them to
communicate more efficiently. This study is an attempt to explore
language functioning among Persian speaking autistic children as
compared with English language speakers
Methods
this study started with a review of research, which was conducted mainly among English-speaking children and proceeded
with a qualitative research (including semi-structured interviews
and focus groups with specialists as well as children’s mothers)
conducted in Center for The Treatment of Autistic Disorders
(CTAD), Tehran, Iran. The participants in this qualitative research
were comprised of ten autistic children, six of whom were male.
Results
The result reveals that Persian-speaking autistic children like
English-speaking ones suffer from grammatical, pragmatic and
verbal-sematic deficits, but certain differences can be noticed due
to the linguistic differences between languages. The existing differences are specifically in the realm of grammatical deficit which
itself is comprised of tense problems, subject/verb agreement
problems and misuse of diectic terms.
Conclusion
regardless of the native language, certain issues, specifically
in areas such as grammatical, pragmatic, and verbal-semantic
deficits, were discovered to be common areas of problem among
autistic children. However, three distinct areas including tense
problem, subject/verb agreement problems, and misuse of deictic
terms proved to be different in Persian and English. Regarding the
tense problem, when recounting a past event, both Persian and
English autistic children did have problems; in the meantime it
was also discovered that such a problem is more complicated in
Persians than English since the concept of past simple involves
not only making changes to the verb but also conjugating it. In the
second area, subject/verb agreement, it is to be noted that Persian
is a pro-drop language in which subject pronouns can be omitted without impairing the meaning of the utterances. Therefore,
the whole process of omitting a suffix which requires additional
competence can complicate sentence comprehension further for
the listeners. The reason why this category is a more significant
problem among Persian speaking autistic children is that Persian
has a different grammatical structure; for instance, the verbs in
Persian are all conjugated, and when a suffix is added to a verb,
it is hard for a Persian speaking autistic child to acquire the rules
to construct grammatically correct sentences. Persian possessive
adjectives were also observed to be a problematic area which is
evidence proving the third area of difficulty, the deictic terms use.
One issue to be taken into account is that in Persian a possessive
adjective is added to the end of the word and functions very much
like a suffix, while in English this is accomplished by making use
of a separate word. These three areas are further elaborated via
relevant examples.
*Corresponding author. E-mail addres:.
Investigation of Magno, Parvo and Konio-Cellular
Pathways Functioning in Children with Dyslexia
Khazar Ahmadi1, Hamid R. Pouretemad*1,2,3, Jahangir Esfandiari2 ,Ali Yoonessi2,3
1. Department of Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
2. Institute for Cognitive Science Studies, Tehran, Iran.
3. Institute for Cognitive &Brain Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
4. School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Purpose
The magnocellular deficit hypothesis of dyslexia remains controversial. Current study was designed to explore any possible
deficiency of magnocellular, as compared with parvocellular and
koniocellular function using images of natural scenes.
Methods
13 children with dyslexia and 13 sex and age matched control
group performed three psychophysical tasks. During the first task,
children were instructed to match luminance and color contrast of
the images activating the magno and parvocellular sub-systems
respectively. The second task was designed to detect the isoluminant point (the point at which luminance of two colors are perceived equally) of red-green pictures related to the function of the
parvocellular pathway. Finally, reaction time and number of the
accurate responses were recorded to identify a target in 4 types of
the images involving 3 pathways with displaying original images.
Results
Results indicated that dyslexic group had elevated luminance
and color contrast thresholds. No difference was observed in detection of the isoluminant point. In addition, reaction times to 4 series of the pictures were similar in both groups while the number
of accurate responses to the image series activating koniocellular
pathway was significantly less in dyslexic children in comparison
to control group.
Conclusion
These results suggest evidence for magnocellular deficit and
provide indirect support for partial impairment of the parvocellular and koniocellular pathways. As a consequence, we suggest
that dyslexia is associated with deficits in all 3 visual pathways.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: h.pouretemad@yahoo.com
An ERP Study of Moral Judgment
Fatemeh, Keshvari1, Sepideh, Sadegi,2 Ehsan, Darestani, 3Hamid Reza, Pouretemad,1,4 Farnaz, Ghassemi, 3,2*
1. Department of Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, G.C., Tehran, Iran
2. Institute for Cognitive Sciences Studies (ICSS), Tehran, Iran
3. Biomedical Engineering Faculty, Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT), Tehran, Iran
4. Institute for Cognitive and Brain Studies, Shahid Beheshti University, G.C. Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Moral judgment is the evaluation of actions with respect to the
norms and values of any given society. Several lines of investigation using lesion, functional neuroimaging, or psychophysics procedures have explored neural substrates of moral judgment. The
aim of this study is to explore neural activities related to moral
judgment using Event Related Potentials (ERP).
Methods
Eleven right-handed undergraduate female students, aged 19-24
years (M=23.7, SD=1.9), free from neurologic disease, psychiatric illness, or recent psychoactive drug use, participated in the
experiment. Three participants were excluded from further analyses. All participants were presented a computerized moral judgment task, contained four types of dilemmas (control, low-conflict
personal, high-conflict personal, impersonal), each one was randomly presented 30 times (overall 120 trails). Each dilemma was
followed by a question asking the participant “what should you do
in such a condition?” The dilemma and the relevant question were
still on the screen, in order to give enough time to the participants
to read and respond using the keyboard. They have been told that
somebody else is doing the same task next door while monitoring
their responses; and the participant could also see his/her response
just after giving their own responses via computer. This procedure
was adopted to enhance social pressure effects on people’s moral
decisions. If the participant’s and computer’s response were the
same, we called it similar response. If the two responses were not
the same, we called it dissimilar. To make sure that the participant attended to the task, the computer response appeared on the
monitor following a fixation “+” presented in the center of the
monitor for 400 ms. If the answer was in accord with the participant’s answer she/he would press the yes key once more. The
inter-trial interval was 400 ms, during which the screen remained
blank. Electrophysiological data was recorded from the scalp using a 32-channel ASA lab recording system (version 4.7), which
complied with the international 10–20 system, recorded continuous EEG referenced to ears. The impedance of each electrode
was below 15 KΩ. The EEG was amplified (band-pass filtered at
0.01-100 Hz), sampled at 512 Hz and extracted for 1250 epochs,
starting 250 ms prior to the onset of the stimulus. Segmented data
were filtered with a 30 Hz low-pass filter. Data were then baseline
corrected based on 100 ms before stimulus from each epoch. Epochs containing large drifts or amplifier blockings, in which the
voltage exceeded +/- 100 µV at any electrode site, and epochs
containing EOG with voltage exceeded +/- 80 µV at EOG electrodes, were also excluded. The remaining clean data was then
processed within MATLAB® and EEGLAB.
Results
N1 and P2 were observed in both groups (similar and dissimilar). There was a strict difference between the similar and dissimilar group after 300ms. In similar responses larger amplitudes
could be seen in comparison with the other responses.
Conclusion
The findings of the study imply that moral judgment as a complex cognitive process is associated with a longer latency response. The larger amplitude of dissimilar responses after 300ms
could be due to a higher brain activity.
*Corresponding author. Email Address: ghassemi@aut.ac.ir
Tense and Agreement in Autistic Children’s
Speech in Minimalist Program
Ameneh Zare*, Elham Zare
Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran
Introduction
The term “autism” or “autistic” means to become pensive, to
captivate yourself, and lack attention to the world. This term refers to children who have limited communications in real world
contexts as they are characterized by having good memory, ability for doing activities, and healthy hearing and vision ability.
Children with autism begin to develop normal speech, but then
suddenly lose the acquired speech and fail to progress linguistically. Disappearance of acquired speech usually occurs between
18 and 30 months of age. Some autistic children may be unable to
speak, whereas others may have a rich vocabulary and are able to
talk about topics of interest in great depth. Despite this variation,
the majority of autistic individuals have little or no problem with
pronunciation. Most have difficulty effectively using language.
Some researchers tested children with autism and they found that
some autistic children have normal language skills whereas others
performed significantly below their chronological age expectations. Omission of certain morphemes in obligatory contexts was
more frequent among children with autism, particularly articles
(a, the), auxiliary and copula verbs, and children with autism were
significantly less likely to mark past tense than were matched
controls with children having Down Syndrome. Although autistic
speech was described as being grammatically correct, it was often
reported that use of syntax was primitive and limited in forms.
This is highlighted by evidence that at high mean length of utterance (MLUs) is an over estimation of index of productive syntax
(IPS) as autistic grammatical constructs. Autism is a social disor-
der, meaning that a child with autism may be highly intelligent
academically, but will always suffer difficulties in social environment.
Methods
The subjects of this study were three autistic children groups
with ages 6-12 (mean age 9) who were being treated and trained in
a special center for autistic children. The diagnosis was based on
the autism diagnostic interview-revised and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule and confirmed by an expert clinician.
Two standardized language tests were administered, including the
PPVT, and Picture Sentence Completion Task.
Results
The present study discusses the description of autistic children’s
speech focusing on the verbal inflectional morphology. Finding
shows tense inflection is approximately intact but agreement is
severely impaired.
Conclusion
Autistic children’s speech seems to be impaired in only a subclass of functional syntactic category. The pruning of the syntactic
phrase marker in their utterance is the consequence of this deficiency, which impairs performance from the impaired node and
higher.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: a86.zare@yahoo.com
An Experimental Time-Based Prospective Memory Task
in Current Tramadol Abusers
Morad Azad*1, Negisa Bashkar2, Samrand Salehi3, Foad Saed Moucheshi4, Samad Dastgiri5
1. Shahid Beheshti University of Medicine Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2. Clinical Psychology Group, Taleghani Hospital, Tehran, Iran
3. University of Bookan, Bookan, Iran
5. Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz, Iran
Introduction
Tramadol hydrochloride is a drug used for medical use, but unfortunately, recent years Iranian students are abusing it to improve
their memory performance, experience more pleasure during sex,
and also its androgenic opiate effects and its prevalence grew into
opiate abuse in university students (Ghanbari Hashem-Abadi,
Rasouli-Azad, 2010). Previous studies investigated different substance abuse and dependency effects on prospective memory and
reported some deficiencies and impairments. The aim of this study
was to compare a tramadol abuser group, which had no history of
other substance abuse, with a group of individuals who were not
abusing tramadol or other substances. This study was performed
in an experimental time-based prospective memory task.
Methods
Fifteen Kharazmi University students with DSM-IV substance
abuse disorders, specifically using tramadol during 6 months prior
with no history of other substance abuse, and fifteen university
students with no history of tramadol or other substance abuse,
were selected. Two groups did not differ significantly with regard
to their age, IQ, anxiety, and depression symptoms. All 30 participants had nicotine dependency criteria and the tramadol abusers
group had a higher cigarette smoking rate (mean of cigarettes in
day=14.7, SD=3.8). Foster and Foster (2003) designed a DMDX
software to evaluate TBPM. The PM task of this experiment required participants to click one of two buttons at 5-min intervals.
5minutes after the start of the multiple choice test, participants
were to click the button labeled “1”. Five minutes later, participants were to touch the button labeled “2” and 5 minutes after that,
button “1” for a total of pressing eight buttons (40 min). For time
monitoring purposes, a clock icon was present in the upper right
hand corner. Participants needed to click the clock icon to see the
time. This prospective memory task gives three scores (PM task,
on time click on the correct choice; PM error, clicking on the correct choice at the wrong time; and Retrospective Memory (RM)
error, clicking the wrong choice). The equality of variance in the
groups and distribution normality in independent variables isn’t
assumed and data were analyzed using non-parametric U ManWhitney test with two independent groups.
Results
Tramadol abusers showed reduced performance on TBPM when
compared to the non- substance abuse group. Experimental PM
impairments should be correlated with intensive smoking in tramadol abusers and its effects on prospective memory. It seems
that students’ attitude to tramadol effects on memory should be
changed and they must be aware of the long term – effects of
tramadol abuse.
Conclusion
Tramadol abusers group showed more Retrospective Memory
errors than other substance abusers group. Non-tramadol abusers
(p<0.01) and non-tramadol groups had more performance in PM
tasks (p<0.01). There were no differences in PM errors between
the two groups. On the other hand, individuals with tramadol
abuse didn’t remember events they did in the past and thereby had
lower performance in TBPM.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mrasoliazad@yahoo.com
Melodic Intonation Therapy in the Persian Aphasia
Neda Ferdosi*1, Hasan Ashayeri2, Reza Nilipour2
1. Department of Linguistics & Foreign Languages. Payam-e Noor University, Tehran
2. Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences. .Tehran, Iran.
3. University of Welfare & Rehabilitation Sciences. Tehran, Iran.
Introduction
Aphasia is a language deficiency or a communication disorder
which occurs after brain damage. Aphasiology is a subdivision of
psycholinguistics or psychology of language which is the study
of psychological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. This article describes the state of
the art of Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT), a structured aphasia
therapy program using the melodic aspects of language (intonation, rhythm, and stress) to regain the ability to encode thoughts
into units of functional verbal communication and the recovery of
propositional language.MIT based on Sparks et al. model (1973)
is a rehabilitation method of non-fluent (Broca’s) aphasia and
characterized by short, intoned phrases, presented in a hierarchically program (4 levels) and developed only on spoken prosody of
verbal utterances and is different from singing of popular songs.
Sparks, Holland (1976) emphasized on the right hemisphere dominance for music and speech prosody. MIT is based on the 3 elements of spoken prosody; the melodic line or variation of pitch,
the tempo and rhythm of the utterance and the point of stress for
emphasis. Some exaggeration of the three elements of a spoken
prosody model occurs when that utterance is intoned. First, tempo is lengthened to a more lyrical utterance. Second, the varying
pitch of speech is reduced stylize into a melodic pattern. Third, the
rhythm and degree of stress is exaggerated for purpose of emphasis and finally the fading of melodic intonation and return to spoken prosody occurs in sprechgesang or spoken song technique.
This method stimulates activity in the right hemisphere of the
brain in order to assist in speech production. However, recent evidence suggests that it may not be singing itself that aids speech
production and speech recovery in non-fluent aphasic patients,
but rhythm and formulaic language. Only one published study
were located in Iran that included medical information on the
characteristics and consequences of this method in the Persian
aphasic patients (Eftekharzadeh; Bonakdarpur; Ashayeri, 2000)
but the existing research is the first one which is investigated this
method from the linguistic point of view.
Methods
An applied and easy version of MIT was designed by researcher,
based on Persian prosodic features and musical characteristics of
the Persian music and its effects have investigated on 4 Broca
aphasic, right-handed, Persian-speaking patients after 36 sessions
(12 weeks). Speech sounds were recorded in a natural linguistic
context such as free conversations and some assessments were
accomplished as pre-test and post-test based on Farsi Aphasia
Test (FAT; Nilipour, 1993) which used for assessing the speech
and expressive language skills. A detailed assessment of MLU
(Mean Length of Utterance), speech rate, listening and reading
comprehension, writing and verbal language was accomplished
after phonetic transcription.
Results
The results of the analysis could be presented as follows; Based
on the assessment by Farsi Aphasia Test; There was a statistically
significant increase in the connected speech features such as 30%
increase in mean length of utterance (MLU), 30% increase in
speech rate, 20% increase in listening comprehension, 15% increase in reading comprehension (words), 42.5% increase in verbal language and 10% increase in writing skills such as dictation
(words) and copying.
Conclusion
There is convincing evidence of the positive effects of melodic
intonation therapy on Persian aphasic patients. So it is strongly
recommended as a supplementary method in the rehabilitation of
Broca aphasic patients’ speech but it is suggested that the other
surveys should be accomplished with more statistical samples in
the Persian language and also it could be verified by fMRI study
in order to reach greater achievements.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: n.ferd2000@gmail.com
A Cognitive Model for Self-Management System in IT Environment
Hanieh Soleimani*, Touraj Banirostam, Mehdi N. Fesharaki
Iauec, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Nowadays, the large number of tasks, which have to be performed in computing systems, is growing faster than ever. As a
response to the increasing complexity of computing systems and
information systems proposing to make structures able to autonomously manage their complexity. Autonomous computing (AC)
is the solution to cope with these complexities in order to save
time and reduce cost. The goal of autonomic computing in the
design of distributed systems is creating self-managed computing
systems, which are more reliable and have robust aims to decrease
human intervention. The term “autonomic” comes from biology.
In the human body, the brain is the most complex structure and
considered as the autonomic nervous system in taking care of our
unconscious reflexes such as the size of pupils, the digestive function for the stomach and intestines, involuntary activities such as
regulating blood sugar, and breathing and heart rate, which don’t
require our attention.
Methods
The proposed model for solving complexity in IT structures is
a cognitive model, which is used for dynamic structure and it’s
made of a set of distributed cognitive autonomous agent. The
model is based on The IBM Autonomous Computing model, also
called MAPE-k (Monitor, Analyze, Plan, Execute, and Knowledge) and in accordance to the OODA model. Through the cognitive process, agents can sense the environment, plan for current
and future situation, make a proper decision, and act. So the networks based on cognitive agents could think, learn, and memorize. Autonomous systems are self-managed and self-adaptive and
they should be aware of the changes in their environment, also
agents can interact with each other and cooperate to achieve their
goals. These goals are usually used for event-condition-action
(ECA) policies. They need to learn how to perform even when
their operating conditions change. Rather than being centrally
managed the components of an autonomous computing can sense
their environment and make their own decision. Autonomic elements should be self-CHOP (Configuring, Healing, Optimizing,
and Protecting) in a cognitive way. Cognitive skills suppose that
they are aware of their own cognitive activity i.e. learning activity and self-adjustment mechanisms, which consisted of cognitive
controls (rules, procedures, strategies) and operate without the direct intervention of human beings or others.
Results
A self-management model is proposed for the IT environment,
which intends to reduce the overhead of the central node in traditional systems and increase the efficiency of IT systems. The
proposed model is used to reduce the complexity. Each autonomous element causes decreasing dependence of the complex to
the central element in dynamic environment because the agent is
an independent entity, which has autonomy and behavioral independence during decision making. Reducing tasks of the central
node through the neighborhood approach, agents first ask their
neighbors, not the central node, for their needs. All these result
in management system with little or no human intervention. In
addition to self-manage objective and complexity, these systems
are able to improve themselves, error coverage, adaption with environmental changes, and keep the functionality of the system in
its optional situation.
Conclusion
Inspired by biology autonomic computing creates self-managed
system to overcome the complexity and improve efficiency and
decreasing human involvement. Because of reducing process and
traffic load of IT systems, utilizing this model result in decreasing
costs. In addition, self-management objectives and complexity
reduction allow these systems to improve themselves, have error
coverage, adapt with environmental changes, and keep the functionality of the system in its optimal situation. The agent in the
model should constantly learn by observing their own behavior
and adapt it to their individual requirements. The characteristic of
a cognitive system is its ability to evolve and adapt to unknown
situations and it has been used for function optimization.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: mrasoliazad@yahoo.com
The Effect of Social Skills Training on Perceived Competence of
Female Adolescents Who Are Deaf
Tahereh Soleimanieh Naeini*1, Farnaz Keshavarzi Arshadi2, Nikta Hatamizadeh1, Enayatollah Bakhshi1
1. University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2. Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Acquisition and maintenance of social skills play an important
role in providing daily relationships to children and adolescents
due to the noticeable effects on adaptive and academic performance, overall quality of life, facilitate acquiring independence in
life, and adapting to different situations. Students who are deaf encounter social-emotional difficulties and perform poorly in their
academics. There is emphasis on facilitating the promotion of social skills, which has received increasing attention from clinical
and developmental psychologists in recent years. Although there
are considerable researches on the effectiveness of social skills
training, little information is available on the effects of such training on perceived competence of deaf adolescents. This study was
conducted in special school settings to determine the effects of
social skills training on the perceived competence of deaf female
adolescents.
Methods
A pre-post quasi-experimental design used to perform the study.
Sixty nine adolescents, who were severely and profoundly deaf
and were enrolled in four different secondary schools in Tehran, participated in this research as an intervention and control
group. They were eleven to twenty one years old (Mean=15.43;
SD=1.89). The intervention group (33 adolescents) participated
in twelve 60-minutes bi-weekly sessions. Inclusion criterion was
having hearing loss more than 55 dB in the better ear. Pre-test
and post-test data were collected using the Perceived Competence
Profile (PCP). This profile consisted of 28 items and asked students about their feelings toward their own competence in domains of cognitive, physical, socio-emotional, communication
competence, and school adjustment. The questionnaires were
completed by an interviewer. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient
for the instrument was 0.80.
Results
The results of this study indicated that the intervention led to
significant improvement in the total perceived competence of
deaf adolescents (p<0.001) as well as in three domains of socioemotional competence (p=0.003), communication competence
(p<0.001) and school adjustment (p=0.02). However there were
no significant differences between interventional and control
groups in the other two domains of cognitive and physical competence following the intervention. There were significant changes,
which occurred in perceived competence following intervention,
and were examined by using analysis of covariance test for data
analysis.
Conclusion
It is likely that improving social skills in adolescents who are
deaf would help them have a better sense of competence, and
therefore positively affect their emotional well being. For achieving more prominent results, it seems that further research on designing more effective training programs would need to be conducted.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: taherehpsy@yahoo.com
Influence of GABAergic System of CA1 on
ACPA- Induced Conditioned Place Preference
Leila Kamali Dolatabadi*, Mohammad Nasehi, Mohammad Reza Zarrindast
Institute for Cognitive Sciences Studies ,Tehran, Iran
Introduction
Interactions between cannabinoid and GABAergic systems have
been reported in many studies. In the present study, the effects
of bilateral intra-hippocampal CA1 (intra-CA1) injections of GABAa receptor agonist and/or antagonist on the acquisition and
expression of Arachidonyl Cyclopropylamide or ACPA-induced
place preference in male NMRI mouse have been investigated.
In this study, ACPA has been used as a cannabinoid due to reward
and Conditioned Place Preference (CPP) is used to evaluate rewarding (or aversion) effects of drugs.
Methods
10-12 male NMRI mouse were used throughout the study for
each experiment. The drugs used in the study were ACPA, muscimol, and bicuculline. Right before the experiment, all drugs
were dissolved in sterile 0.9% saline, except for bicuculline,
which was dissolved in 1 drop of glacial acetic acid. All surgical procedures were conducted under 50 mg/kg ketamine—5 mg/
kg xylazine anesthesia. Stainless steel, 22-gauge guide cannulae
were implanted 1 mm above the intended site of injection according to the atlas of Paxinos and Watson. Stereotaxic coordinates
for the CA1 regions of the dorsal hippocampi were: -2 mm anterior to bregma, +_1/6mm lateral to the midline and _1/5mm
ventral of the dorsal surface of the skull. All animals were allowed to recover for 1 week from surgery and using a clear anesthetic. For drug infusion, the animals were gently restrained
by hand; the stylets were removed from the guide cannulae and
replaced by 27-gauge injection needles. Each injection unit was
connected by polyethylene tubing to1μl Hamilton syringe. The
left and right CA1 regions were infused with a 0.5 μl solution
on each side, over a 60-s period. The three-compartment conditioned place preference apparatus, which was made of wood and
based on the design of Carr and White (1983), was used. Conditioning place preference (CPP) was conducted using an unbiased procedure according to the method of De Fonseca et al.
(1995). It consisted of a 6-day schedule with three distinct phases:
Familiarization, preconditioning, conditioning, and testing. The
ground area of the CPP compartments was divided into four equal
sized squares. Locomotion was measured as the number of crossings from one square to another during 15 min. After completion
of the experimental sessions, animals were killed with chloroform.
The animals received bilateral intra-CA1 injection of ink (a 0.5Al/side; 1% aquatic methylene blue solution). The brains were
then removed and fixed in a 10% formalin solution for 10 days before sectioning. Sections were examined to determine the location
of the cannulae aimed for the CA1. Comparisons between groups
were made with one or two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)
followed by the Tukey test.
Results
The conditioning treatments with (I.P) injections of different
doses of ACPA (0.01-0.02-0.04 mg/kg) produced a dose-dependent CPP. By using a 3day schedule of conditioning, it was found
that Intra-CA1 administration of the GABAa receptor agonist,
muscimol (0.125-0.25-0.5 μg/mouse) or GABAa receptor antagonist, bicuculline (0.0625-0.125-0.5 μg/mouse), didn’t exhibit the
ACPA-induced CPP (0.01-0.02-0.04mg/kg, IP). However, muscimol or bicuculline by themselves did not elicit any effect on place
conditioning. Furthermore, the muscimol-induced elicit of ACPA
response was attenuated by administering bicuculline (0.125 μg/
mouse, intra-CA1). On the other hand, the bilateral intra-CA1 injections of muscimol (0.5 μg/mouse) significantly increased the
expression of ACPA-induced CPP (0.01 mg/kg) and bicuculline
(0.125 μg/mouse) significantly decreased the expression of ACPA-induced CPP (0.02mg/kg). Intra-CA1 administration of muscimol and bicuculline (0.25 μg/mouse) had an effect on locomotor
activity in the testing phase.
Conclusion
Our data indicated that the GABAa receptors of the hippocampal
CA1 regions may play an important role in the reward of ACPA.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: Leili_Kamali@yahoo.com
How Are the Metaphorical Items in the Movies Absorbed by
Educated People in Comparison to Non-metaphorical Ones?
Maryam Gili*, Hadi Abdi Ghavidel
Introduction
Art is filled with the tools to create emotional response through
defamiliarization. These tools are simile, metaphor, metonymy,
allusion and etc. The most prominent one of these is metaphor. It
is common in our daily views whose most active ones are movies. How these metaphors are stuck to our minds after watching
them and how much they influence on the remembrance of the
movie details is a topic of the current research to be investigated.
The results of the measurement shows how much metaphorical
the feedbacks or the reflections of the watchers are immediately
after watching it.
Methods
Firstly, we analyzed the sub-title of a movie and tagged the
metaphorical concepts based on the target (also called topic or
tenor in linguistics literature) and the source (also called vehicle).
We monitored 6 groups of people each consists of 15 participants.
The movie was questioned not to be ever seen before. Each group
watched it and had their reflection at the end of the movie. The first
complete sentence was the criterion. The sentences were gathered
and measured for the similarity upon the metaphorical sentences
occurring in the movie. The similarity measurement criterion was
based on degree: exact copy, paraphrase copy and summarization
copy. It was done manually and computationally. The computational method used here is cosine similarity. It is the measurement
of similarity between two sentences of an inner product space that
measures the cosine of the angle between them. The cosine of the
angle between two vectors thus determines whether two sentences
are pointing or not
Results
After analysis of the sentences, the frequency of occurrence
of metaphorical sentences was calculated based on the degree
mentioned. Distributional frequencies show varieties among the
speakers. These varieties were related to the characteristics of the
subjects. It depended wholly on the concrete and abstract way of
thinking of those people or the management of their emotional
intelligence if the over-exaggeration of the feeling revealed in
their reflections. In the normal balance, 90% of the sentences are
metaphorical and the rest are some house-hold expressions linked
to the immediate words occurred in the talking of the participants
either with their friends or acquaintances.
Conclusion
In the current paper, we measured the metaphorical feedback of
the people after watching a movie for the first time. The degree
their feedbacks reflects the metaphors came along the movie was
measured on the exact, paraphrasing and summarizing similarity.
We showed that the 90% was distributed fairly among the three
degree bases and the varieties were related to the characteristic of
the subjects, how concretely or abstractly they perceived about
the matters and saved it and then stuck to the ideas they had about
the same matter.
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: maryam_gili@mehr.sharif.ir

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