Article: The Brain Reimagined in Mind-Illuminating Portraits

The Brain Reimagined in Mind-Illuminating Portraits
https://www.braindecoder.com/the-brain-shines-in-new-artworks-1365894971.html

Related topics: The Brain, Neuroscience, Life Sciences

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Mental Imagery: Functional Mechanisms and Clinical Applications via BrowZine

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Mental Imagery: Functional Mechanisms and Clinical Applications
Pearson, Joel; Naselaris, Thomas; Holmes, Emily A.; Kosslyn, Stephen M.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 19 Issue 10 – 2015: 590 - 602

10.1016/j.tics.2015.08.003

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Sharing From Brain Maps to Cognitive Ontologies: Informatics and the Search for Mental Structure via BrowZine

From Brain Maps to Cognitive Ontologies: Informatics and the Search for Mental Structure
Poldrack, Russell A.; Yarkoni, Tal
Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 67 Issue 1 – 2016:

10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033729

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WISC-V expanded index scores: Verbal Expanded Crystallized (Gc) and Expanded Fluid (Gf) index scores and tables

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Somehow I seemed to have missed this development on my research literature monitoring radar.  More comments and a link to the technical report can be found at Joel Schneider's excellent blog.

Working memory and math achievement: A new meta-analysis

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A quantitative research integration that continues to support the importance of working memory (Gwm) and school achievement—mathematics.  Caution……an average correlation of .35, although significant, still indicates that working memory and math achievement measures share only approximately 12 %  common variance.  The current findings probably have more relevance to the extant research that has suggested that the real impact of working memory is its indirect effect mediated through fluid reasoning/intelligence (Gf)

Research Byte: Children's working memory stability is frequently fluctuating across tasks, time within a day, and across days

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This study that is a good reminder to us who engage in cognitive testing.  What we may find during 1-1 clinical testing may not generalize 100% to real world.  In this study, varying trait stability of working memory during normal school days was found to be significant, with more variability (lack of stability) for some individuals.  I think teachers see this all the time.  This could also suggest that maybe brain-based working memory training programs should be targeted at those children who show the most time-to-time variability in working memory.

Research Byte: Potential implications of performance on the WJ IV Oral Reading test in word reading and reading comprehension--indirect mediated effect of prosody

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The WJ IV Achievement test battery includes a new reading test (Oral Reading) that contributes to the Reading Fluency cluster.  It is a measure of oral reading skill (story reading accuracy and prosody).  Briefly, prosody, in reading, refers to the expressiveness with which a student reads.  Why?  Because, fluent readers must be accurate readers.  The Oral Reading tests is a measure of fluency of oral expression in connected discourse. Fluent reading of the passages requires attention to the grammatical structure of prose. 

 

The recent study noted above may be relevant to the interpretation of the Oral Reading test.  This study suggests that prosody (prosodic sensitivity) does not have a direct causal effect on word reading or reading comprehension.  Rather, prosodic sensitivity may have an indirect impact on word reading via the mediating abilities of phonological and morphological awareness and an indirect impact on reading comprehension via word reading and listening comprehension.

 

This study suggests that the WJ IV phonological awareness tests (Phonetic Coding cluster; Oral Language tests of Segmentation and Sound Blending) should receive special attention when interpreting the impact of prosody (Oral Reading test) on the WJ IV Letter-Word Identification test (word reading).  In the case of performance on the WJ IV reading comprehension tests, the study suggests that special attention should be paid attention to prosody (Oral Reading) as mediated through a person's word reading (Letter-Word Identification) and listening comprehension (WJ IV Listening Comprehension cluster tests).

Conflict of interest disclosure.  I am a coauthor of the WJ IV.

Article: New Agendas for New Goals of the Prefrontal Cortex

New Agendas for New Goals of the Prefrontal Cortex
http://scitechconnect.elsevier.com/new-agendas-prefrontal-cortex/?sf12419160=1

Related topics: The Brain, Life Sciences, Neuroscience

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Sharing The structure of multidimensional self-esteem across age and gender via BrowZine

The structure of multidimensional self-esteem across age and gender
Rentzsch, Katrin; Wenzler, Michael P.; Schütz, Astrid
Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 88 – 2016: 139 - 147

10.1016/j.paid.2015.09.012

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#ISIR15 gets underway [feedly]

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#ISIR15 gets underway
// Psychological comments

Naturally, the habit of putting especially bright people into New Mexico began in 1939 at Los Alamos. The High School is said to still have excellent grade point scores, and probably not because of any particular teaching methods.
Here is Roberto giving his keynote lecture:
Understanding Human Intelligence: The Brain Connection
Professor Roberto Colom, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid,
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Roberto_Colom
http://robertocolom.blogspot.co.uk/

Roberto echoes Buz Hunt, who in 2011 said: "Ultimately, everything is in the brain (…) every expression of intelligence is due to actions of the brain". He argues that the engines of a BMW M5 and a Renault Scenic posses essentially the same components. However, the first vehicle goes faster on the highway because its components have distinct qualities. Human intelligence ranges between the equivalent performances of those sorts of vehicles. He adds an immediate cautionary note:
"There are so many differences in the specific brain areas various individuals use to do different tasks that no one specific area stands out for (cognitive) performance on any given task at the group level".
In terms of what can be concluded from the study of cortical lesions, the fronto-parietal regions of the left hemisphere are of particular relevance for g (general intelligence) perhaps because it has an essentially integrative function.

 

If you look at fluid intelligence, then the right hemisphere comes into play.
As regards cortical thickness, Roberto argues that brain development varies according to the initial intellectual level of the child, and proposes that developmental brain indices must take that into account.
Roberto feels that it is the connections (structural efficiency) made by the brain (revealed when carrying out a task) which seem to have explanatory power. There are particularly strong results when studying working memory, with less good fit with fluid intelligence and mental speed.

Finally, Roberto sums up his N-back mental training work by saying that the best results are for those with lower intelligence (within the range of his mostly student subjects.
Here is his abstract:
The Brain Connection' designates the fact that genetic and non-genetic factors influencing intelligence play on the brain. Understanding this psychological factor requires deep knowledge regarding brain structure and function. Psychometrics and cognitive neuroscience should work in tandem to find the most likely biological foundations of individual differences in human intelligence. This keynote discusses (1) the reproducibility of brain-intelligence relationships,
(2) the relevance of the measured phenotype,
(3) lessons derived from large-scale lesion studies,
(4) the relationship between intellectual ability and cortical development,
(5) the connectome and intelligence, and
(6) how can we improve our brains.
The brain is a general-purpose, highly dynamic, device. We, scientists, should focus our research resources on the brain, asking how it produces intelligence. Technological devices still unavailable will be of great help for that main purpose. hese tech advances will contribute to overcome our current lack of knowledge regarding human intelligence.

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Future US intelligence [feedly]

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Future US intelligence
// Psychological comments

 

FUTURE US INTELLIGENCE: IQ PREDICTION UNTIL 2060 BASED ON NAEP Heiner Rindermann and Stefan Pichelmann1

1 Technische Universität Chemnitz, heiner.rindermann@psychologie.tu-chemnitz.de.

US National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) measures cognitive competences in reading and mathematics of US students (last 2012 survey N=50,000). The long-term development based on results from 1971 to 2012 allows a prediction of future cognitive trends. For predicting US averages, also demographic trends have to be considered. We want to answer the following questions: (1) Will the Flynn effect be continued? (2) Will there be a decrease or increase in gaps between ethnic and racial groups? (3) What effect has the rising share of minorities? (4) What effect has gap reduction on society's average ability level? (5) What effect has national ability development on GDP?

The White average 1978/80 set at M=100 and SD=15 was used as a benchmark. Based on two past NAEP development periods for 17-year-old students, 1978/80 to 2012 (more optimistic) and 1992 to 2012 (more pessimistic), and demographic projections from the US Census Bureau, cognitive trends until 2060 for Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and the entire age cohort were estimated.

Estimated population averages for 2060 are 103 (optimistic) or 102 (pessimistic). White-Black gaps from currently 11 IQ decrease to 6 IQ (op.) or 7 IQ (pe.), White-Hispanic from 9 IQ to 4 IQ (op.) or 3 IQ (pe.), Asian-White gaps increase from currently 3 IQ to 9 IQ (op.) or 12 IQ (pe.) resulting in a distinctive top Asian group at around 114 IQ.

The catch-up of minorities (their faster ability growth) contributes around 2 IQ to the general rise of 3 IQ; however, their larger demographic increase reduces the general rise at about the similar amount (-1.4 IQ). Because minorities with faster ability growth also rise in their population proportion the interactive term is positive (around 1 IQ). Consequences for economic and societal development are discussed. Based on past NAEP trends and population estimations US future IQ is predicted.

For the US in 2060 an average IQ of 102-103 points is predicted. General FLynn effects contribute positively to IQ development. Minority catch-ups contribute positively to IQ development. Non-Asian minority population increases contribute negatively to IQ development.

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Study: Neonatal MRI scans of preterm children can help predict cognitive and academic problems, and guide early interventions [feedly]

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Study: Neonatal MRI scans of preterm children can help predict cognitive and academic problems, and guide early interventions
// SharpBrains

Predicting future cognition in preterm children with MRI (Oxford University Press blog):
"In the wake of the development of advanced neonatal intensive medical care, more and more children born preterm manage to beat the previously tough odds…While this is one of the success stories of modern medicine, long-term follow-up of premature-born pediatric cohorts show that…Many children will experience cognitive problems that will impede their performance when they start school…
One question that remains to be answered is the biological underpinnings of the cognitive difficulties experienced by preterm children…the brain alterations causing difficulties in school must be assumed to be already present when the children have gone through the neonatal period, long before they manifest in school difficulties. Our recently published study in Brain aimed to bring advanced analyses of MRI data to address the question of hidden predictors in preterm children…Not only could cognitive ability at five and seven years of age be predicted from the neonatal MRI, the effect also persisted after taking into account all clinical factors during the neonatal period that we previously know affect the prognosis of preterm children. The results illustrate how neonatal MRI of preterm children can be of practical benefit as it opens up a time window for interventions before the children start school."
Study: Neonatal MRI is associated with future cognition and academic achievement in preterm children (Brain). From the summary:

• School-age children born preterm are particularly at risk for low mathematical achievement, associated with reduced working memory and number skills. Early identification of preterm children at risk for future impairments using brain markers might assist in referral for early intervention. This study aimed to examine the use of neonatal magnetic resonance imaging measures derived from automated methods to predict skills important for mathematical achievement (working memory, early mathematical skills) at 5 and 7 years in a cohort of preterm children …Neonatal fractional anisotropy was positively associated with working memory and early mathematics at 5 years…In summary, we identified, in the preterm brain, regions around the insula and putamen using neonatal deformation-based morphometry, and brain microstructural organization using neonatal diffusion tensor imaging, associated with skills important for childhood mathematical achievement. Results contribute to the growing evidence for the clinical utility of neonatal magnetic resonance imaging for early identification of preterm infants at risk for childhood cognitive and academic impairment.

Learn more:

• What are cognitive abilities and skills, and how to boost them?

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Article: Who are the most eminent psychologists of the modern era?

Who are the most eminent psychologists of the modern era?
http://digest.bps.org.uk/2014/11/who-are-most-eminent-psychologists-of.html

Related topics: Psychology, Daniel Kahneman, Sigmund Freud

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Sharing The attentional cost of receiving a cell phone notification. via BrowZine

The attentional cost of receiving a cell phone notification.
Stothart, Cary; Mitchum, Ainsley; Yehnert, Courtney
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol. 41 Issue 4 – 2015: 893 - 897

10.1037/xhp0000100

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Sharing The Multidimensional Influence of Acculturation on Digit Symbol-Coding and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in Hispanics via BrowZine

The Multidimensional Influence of Acculturation on Digit Symbol-Coding and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in Hispanics
Krch, Denise; Lequerica, Anthony; Arango-Lasprilla, Juan Carlos; Rogers, Heather L.; DeLuca, John; Chiaravalloti, Nancy D.
The Clinical Neuropsychologist, Vol. 29 Issue 5 – 2015: 624 - 638

10.1080/13854046.2015.1063696

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www.themindhum.com
*********************************************

Sharing Interindividual differences in general cognitive ability from age 18 to age 65years are extremely stable and strongly associated with working memory capacity via BrowZine

Interindividual differences in general cognitive ability from age 18 to age 65years are extremely stable and strongly associated with working memory capacity
Rönnlund, Michael; Sundström, Anna; Nilsson, Lars-Göran
Intelligence, Vol. 53 – 2015: 59 - 64

10.1016/j.intell.2015.08.011

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Sharing A model of department chairs' social intelligence and faculty members' turnover intention via BrowZine

A model of department chairs' social intelligence and faculty members' turnover intention
Afzalur Rahim, M.; Civelek, Ismail; Liang, Feng Helen
Intelligence, Vol. 53 – 2015: 65 - 71

10.1016/j.intell.2015.09.001

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Article: Creative People Are...

Creative People Are...
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/creative-people-are/

Related topics: Intuition, Personality

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Sharing What is stupid? via BrowZine

What is stupid?
Aczel, Balazs; Palfi, Bence; Kekecs, Zoltan
Intelligence, Vol. 53 – 2015: 51 - 58

10.1016/j.intell.2015.08.010

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Article: WISC-V Expanded Composite Scores

WISC-V Expanded Composite Scores
https://assessingpsyche.wordpress.com/2015/09/09/wisc-v-expanded-composite-scores/

Related topics: Programming

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Executive function of "peacekeeping" has a role in fluid intelligence (Gf)

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Article: Monitoring & Enhancing Brain Health in the Pervasive Neurotechnology Era (November 17-19th, 2015)

Monitoring & Enhancing Brain Health in the Pervasive Neurotechnology Era (November 17-19th, 2015)
http://sharpbrains.com/summit-2015/

Related topics: The Brain, Life Sciences, Neuroscience

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Article: How Does a Gymnast, or Even a Fitness Walker, Keep from Falling?

How Does a Gymnast, or Even a Fitness Walker, Keep from Falling?
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/talking-back/how-does-a-gymnast-or-even-a-fitness-walker-keep-from-falling/

Related topics: The Brain, Exercise Science, Exercise

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