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Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Dec 2023Although relations between morphological awareness, phonological awareness, and vocabulary have been widely observed, questions remain about their precise associations....
Although relations between morphological awareness, phonological awareness, and vocabulary have been widely observed, questions remain about their precise associations. The purpose of the present study was to explore the relations of morphological awareness with two highly related linguistic skills (phonological awareness and vocabulary) in a transparent orthography with rich morphology. The study sample consisted of 121 (58 males, Mean age = 93.94 months, SD = 3.32) 2 grade Greek-speaking children. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the three-factor model provided the best fit to the data, indicating that although morphological awareness, phonological awareness, and vocabulary are highly correlated, they represent distinct linguistic constructs. In addition, hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the bidirectional effects between the three linguistic skills. Results revealed that both phonological awareness and vocabulary significantly contributed to morphological awareness, with phonological awareness having a stronger effect. Conversely, morphological awareness significantly affected both phonological awareness and vocabulary. The effect size from phonological awareness and vocabulary to morphological awareness was similar to the effect size reported from morphological awareness to phonological awareness and vocabulary. These results suggest that morphological awareness is highly associated with phonological awareness and vocabulary, being though a distinct skill. In addition, it seems that these linguistic skills have bidirectional effects with each other in first grades.
Topics: Child; Male; Humans; Vocabulary; Greece; Reading; Phonetics; Language; Awareness
PubMed: 37698814
DOI: 10.1007/s10936-023-10006-z -
Animal Cognition Mar 2024We are said to experience insight when we suddenly and unexpectedly become aware of the solution to a problem that we previously took ourselves to be unable to solve. In...
We are said to experience insight when we suddenly and unexpectedly become aware of the solution to a problem that we previously took ourselves to be unable to solve. In the field of comparative cognition, there is rising interest in the question of whether non-human animals are capable of insightful problem-solving. Putative cases of animals demonstrating insight have generally attracted two types of criticism: first, that insight is being conflated with other cognitive capacities (e.g., causal cognition, or mental trial and error); and, second, that the relevant performances merely reflect associative learning-and on the received understanding of insight within comparative cognition, insight necessarily involves non-associative processes. I argue that even if we grant that some cases of animal insight do withstand these two criticisms, these cases of purported animal insight cannot shed light on the nature of insightful problem-solving in humans. For the phenomenon studied by cognitive psychologists under the heading of insight is fundamentally different from that studied in comparative cognition. In light of this impasse, I argue that the reinterpretation of the extant research on animal insight in terms of other high-level cognitive capacities (means-end reasoning in particular) can improve the prospect of a successful comparative research program.
Topics: Animals; Cognition; Problem Solving; Awareness; Conditioning, Classical
PubMed: 38429535
DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01844-y -
Advances in Experimental Medicine and... 2024To be aware of and to move one's body, the brain must maintain a coherent representation of the body. While the body and the brain are connected by dense ascending and...
To be aware of and to move one's body, the brain must maintain a coherent representation of the body. While the body and the brain are connected by dense ascending and descending sensory and motor pathways, representation of the body is not hardwired. This is demonstrated by the well-known rubber hand illusion in which a visible fake hand is erroneously felt as one's own hand when it is stroked in synchrony with the viewer's unseen actual hand. Thus, body representation in the brain is not mere maps of tactile and proprioceptive inputs, but a construct resulting from the interpretation and integration of inputs across sensory modalities.
Topics: Hand; Upper Extremity; Brain; Awareness; Emotions
PubMed: 38270854
DOI: 10.1007/978-981-99-7611-9_5 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Jan 2024Interoception-the perception of internal bodily signals-has emerged as an area of interest due to its implications in emotion and the prevalence of dysfunctional... (Review)
Review
Interoception-the perception of internal bodily signals-has emerged as an area of interest due to its implications in emotion and the prevalence of dysfunctional interoceptive processes across psychopathological conditions. Despite the importance of interoception in cognitive neuroscience and psychiatry, its experimental manipulation remains technically challenging. This is due to the invasive nature of existing methods, the limitation of self-report and unimodal measures of interoception, and the absence of standardized approaches across disparate fields. This article integrates diverse research efforts from psychology, physiology, psychiatry, and engineering to address this oversight. Following a general introduction to the neurophysiology of interoception as hierarchical predictive processing, we review the existing paradigms for manipulating interoception (e.g., interoceptive modulation), their underlying mechanisms (e.g., interoceptive conditioning), and clinical applications (e.g., interoceptive exposure). We suggest a classification for interoceptive technologies and discuss their potential for diagnosing and treating mental health disorders. Despite promising results, considerable work is still needed to develop standardized, validated measures of interoceptive function across domains and before these technologies can translate safely and effectively to clinical settings.
Topics: Humans; Emotions; Mental Disorders; Self Report; Interoception; Cognitive Neuroscience; Heart Rate; Awareness
PubMed: 38007168
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105478 -
BMC Research Notes Dec 2023How we express and describe emotion is shaped by sociocultural norms. These sociocultural norms may also affect emotional self-awareness, i.e., how we identify and make...
OBJECTIVE
How we express and describe emotion is shaped by sociocultural norms. These sociocultural norms may also affect emotional self-awareness, i.e., how we identify and make sense of our own emotions. Previous studies have found lower emotional self-awareness in East Asian compared to Western samples using self-report measures. However, studies using behavioural methods did not provide clear evidence of reduced emotional self-awareness in East Asian groups. This may be due to different measurement tools capturing different facets of emotional self-awareness.
RESULTS
To investigate this issue further, we compared the emotional self-awareness of Japanese (n = 29) and United Kingdom (UK) (n = 43) adults using the self-report Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), alongside two behavioural measures - the Emotional Consistency Task (EC-Task) and the Photo Emotion Differentiation Task (PED-Task). Japanese adults showed higher TAS-20 scores than UK participants, indicating greater self-reported difficulties with emotional self-awareness. Japanese participants also had lower EC-Task scores than UK adults, indicating a lower ability to differentiate between levels of emotional intensity. PED-Task performance did not show clear group differences. These findings suggest that cross-cultural differences in emotional self-awareness vary with the task used, because different tasks assess distinct aspects of this ability. Future research should attempt to capture these different aspects of emotional self-awareness.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Self Report; Japan; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Awareness; Emotions
PubMed: 38129883
DOI: 10.1186/s13104-023-06660-0 -
Menopause (New York, N.Y.) Oct 2023The objective of this study is to describe peri- and postmenopausal women's experiences of palpitations (quality, frequency, severity, distress, duration and temporal...
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study is to describe peri- and postmenopausal women's experiences of palpitations (quality, frequency, severity, distress, duration and temporal pattern, aura, associated symptoms, and aggravating/alleviating factors) and related healthcare experiences.
METHODS
Qualitative descriptive methods were used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with women who reported palpitations and were enrolled in a larger case-control pilot study comparing electrocardiographic results between women with and without palpitations. Authors analyzed women's narratives using standard content analytic procedures.
RESULTS
Fourteen participants (mean age, 54.5 y [SD = 4.8 y]; range, 46-62 y; 79% postmenopausal) completed interviews. The interviews revealed that women (a) often had difficulty describing their palpitations until prompted by the interviewer; (b) experienced noteworthy variations in the quality and other dimensions of their palpitations; (c) had a wide variety of healthcare experiences related to their palpitations, including not reporting their symptoms to providers, having providers dismiss their symptoms, and having providers be aware of their symptoms and provide diagnostic tests; and (d) at times, created worst case scenarios (downward shifts) under which they would seek treatment for their palpitations, thus enabling them to minimize their symptoms and avoid healthcare.
CONCLUSION
This study advances understanding of how women describe their palpitations and related healthcare experiences. Findings could have implications for building research and clinical tools to guide assessment, communication, and/or education for patients and/or providers about palpitations and for developing and testing behavioral interventions to address this poorly understood symptom in peri- and postmenopausal women.
Topics: Humans; Female; Middle Aged; Pilot Projects; Awareness; Behavior Therapy; Case-Control Studies; Communication
PubMed: 37643379
DOI: 10.1097/GME.0000000000002244 -
BMC Oral Health Aug 2023The timely and appropriate utilization of dental health care is essential to the prevention and accurate treatment of oral diseases. Therefore, it is crucial that... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
The timely and appropriate utilization of dental health care is essential to the prevention and accurate treatment of oral diseases. Therefore, it is crucial that managers, health professionals and healthcare providers be fully aware of the predictors encouraging the utilization of dental services and reduce social inequalities. In this scoping review, we aimed to analyze the published articles and reports to find out the factors associated with dental services utilization and the comprehensiveness of the applied models among general adult populations.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This scoping study was based on the 5-steps of Arksey and O'Malley framework. Keywords were selected under two main concepts: determinants of dental care utilization and the concept of the applied models. Searches were conducted in some electronic databses including PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus with variations, and a combination of the keywords under the two main afore-mentioned concepts. All the relevant articles reporting the utilization of dental care and its potential predictors among adult populations were chosen. No restrictions involving terms of study time, location or methodological aspects of oral health utilization were considered. Using tables and charts mapping, we tried to group the studies based on the year of their publication, geographic distribution, the range of included indices and the type of their measurement. Also, a directed content analysis method was used to investigate the comprehensiveness of the studies in regard to considering the determinant factors at different levels suggested by the Andesen model.
RESULTS
Fifty-two articles were included in the analysis. Thirty-six (69%) had been published between 2016 and 2020. The United States had conducted the most research in this scope. About 30% of studies had mentioned all three domains of demographics, social structure and beliefs, simultaneously. To evaluate the enabling factors, in 84.61% and 59.61% of studies, the income levels and insurance feature were assessed, respectively. 57.69% of the retrieved studies considered the perceived need features and 38.46% referred to the evaluated ones. The dental services utilization, in terms of the last visit during the "past 12 months", was assessed more commonly. Only 11.54% of studies did evaluate the contextual characteristics and about 71.15% of articles were relatively comprehensive.
CONCLUSION
Overall, it seems that in most of the studies, not all of the determinant factors at different levels of the Andersen model have been considered. In order to discover the conceptual linkages and feedback loops of the model, it is essential to conduct more comprehensive research in the future.
Topics: Humans; Adult; Awareness; Facilities and Services Utilization; Health Personnel; Dental Care
PubMed: 37635224
DOI: 10.1186/s12903-023-03323-1 -
Psychology and Aging Dec 2023Views of aging predict key developmental outcomes. Less is known, however, about the consequences of constellations of domain-specific perceived gains and losses across...
Views of aging predict key developmental outcomes. Less is known, however, about the consequences of constellations of domain-specific perceived gains and losses across the full adult lifespan. First, we explored levels of awareness of age-related gains (AARC-gains) and losses (AARC-losses) in five behavioral domains across adulthood. Second, we identified the number and types of profiles of AARC-gains and AARC-losses in young adulthood, midlife, young-old age, and old-old age. Third, we investigated whether the identified profiles differed in their associations with developmental correlates. Data came from the 2018 German Socio-Economic Panel Innovation Sample (SOEP-IS), comprising 403 young, 721 middle-aged, 260 young-old and 228 old-old individuals. We assessed AARC, physical and mental functioning, information processing speed, social relations, lifestyle, and engagement. At the sample level, AARC-losses were higher in old age, whereas AARC-gains did not differ across adulthood. Latent profile analyses revealed two distinguishable constellations of AARC-gains and AARC-losses that characterize young adulthood and old-old age, whereas four and three gains-to-losses constellations are needed to characterize midlife and young-old age, respectively. In middle, young-old, and old-old age, profiles with more AARC-losses were associated with poorer scores on all developmental correlates. Overall, study results suggest that age-related experiences are most diversified in midlife and young-old age. Asking individuals about their negative age-related experiences may help identify those individuals who are doing less well in important developmental correlates. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Humans; Young Adult; Adult; Middle Aged; Aging; Awareness; Longevity; Cognition
PubMed: 37902673
DOI: 10.1037/pag0000784 -
Scientific Reports May 2024Previous research on the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) in visual perception revealed an early event-related potential (ERP), the visual awareness negativity...
Previous research on the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) in visual perception revealed an early event-related potential (ERP), the visual awareness negativity (VAN), to be associated with stimulus awareness. However, due to the use of brief stimulus presentations in previous studies, it remains unclear whether awareness-related negativities represent a transient onset-related response or correspond to the duration of a conscious percept. Studies are required that allow prolonged stimulus presentation under aware and unaware conditions. The present ERP study aimed to tackle this challenge by using a novel stimulation design. Male and female human participants (n = 62) performed a visual task while task-irrelevant line stimuli were presented in the background for either 500 or 1000 ms. The line stimuli sometimes contained a face, which needed so-called visual one-shot learning to be seen. Half of the participants were informed about the presence of the face, resulting in faces being perceived by the informed but not by the uninformed participants. Comparing ERPs between the informed and uninformed group revealed an enhanced negativity over occipitotemporal electrodes that persisted for the entire duration of stimulus presentation. Our results suggest that sustained visual awareness negativities (SVAN) are associated with the duration of stimulus presentation.
Topics: Humans; Male; Female; Consciousness; Visual Perception; Adult; Young Adult; Electroencephalography; Evoked Potentials; Photic Stimulation; Awareness; Evoked Potentials, Visual
PubMed: 38719939
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-61281-2 -
Nature Communications Sep 2023Imagine being in a crowded room with a cacophony of speakers and having the ability to focus on or remove speech from a specific 2D region. This would require...
Imagine being in a crowded room with a cacophony of speakers and having the ability to focus on or remove speech from a specific 2D region. This would require understanding and manipulating an acoustic scene, isolating each speaker, and associating a 2D spatial context with each constituent speech. However, separating speech from a large number of concurrent speakers in a room into individual streams and identifying their precise 2D locations is challenging, even for the human brain. Here, we present the first acoustic swarm that demonstrates cooperative navigation with centimeter-resolution using sound, eliminating the need for cameras or external infrastructure. Our acoustic swarm forms a self-distributing wireless microphone array, which, along with our attention-based neural network framework, lets us separate and localize concurrent human speakers in the 2D space, enabling speech zones. Our evaluations showed that the acoustic swarm could localize and separate 3-5 concurrent speech sources in real-world unseen reverberant environments with median and 90-percentile 2D errors of 15 cm and 50 cm, respectively. Our system enables applications like mute zones (parts of the room where sounds are muted), active zones (regions where sounds are captured), multi-conversation separation and location-aware interaction.
Topics: Humans; Speech; Acoustics; Sound; Communication; Awareness
PubMed: 37735445
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40869-8