Existing concepts can be a major barrier to learning new counterintuitive concepts that contradict pre-existing experience-based beliefs or misleading perceptual cues. When reasoning about ...counterintuitive concepts, inhibitory control is thought to enable the suppression of incorrect concepts. This study investigated the association between inhibitory control and counterintuitive science and maths reasoning in adolescents (N = 90, 11-15 years). Both response and semantic inhibition were associated with counterintuitive science and maths reasoning, when controlling for age, general cognitive ability, and performance in control science and maths trials. Better response inhibition was associated with longer reaction times in counterintuitive trials, while better semantic inhibition was associated with higher accuracy in counterintuitive trials. This novel finding suggests that different aspects of inhibitory control may offer unique contributions to counterintuitive reasoning during adolescence and provides further support for the hypothesis that inhibitory control plays a role in science and maths reasoning.
Reasoning about counterintuitive concepts in science and math is thought to require suppressing naive theories, prior knowledge, or misleading perceptual cues through inhibitory control. Neuroimaging ...research has shown recruitment of pFC regions during counterintuitive reasoning, which has been interpreted as evidence of inhibitory control processes. However, the results are inconsistent across studies and have not been directly compared with behavior or brain activity during inhibitory control tasks. In this fMRI study, 34 adolescents (aged 11–15 years) answered science and math problems and completed response inhibition tasks (simple and complex go/no-go) and an interference control task (numerical Stroop). Increased BOLD signal was observed in parietal (Brodmann's area 40) and prefrontal (Brodmann's area 8, 45/47) cortex regions in counterintuitive problems compared with control problems, where no counterintuitive reasoning was required, and in two parietal clusters when comparing correct counterintuitive reasoning to giving the incorrect intuitive response. There was partial overlap between increases in BOLD signal in the complex response inhibition and interference control tasks and the science and math contrasts. However, multivariate analyses suggested overlapping neural substrates in the parietal cortex only, in regions typically associated with working memory and visuospatial attentional demands rather than specific to inhibitory control. These results highlight the importance of using localizer tasks and a range of analytic approach to investigate to what extent common neural networks underlie performance of different cognitive tasks and suggests visuospatial attentional skills may support counterintuitive reasoning in science and math.
Critical thinking is frequently proposed as one of the most important learning outcomes of a university education. However, to date, it has been difficult to ascertain whether university students in ...low-income contexts are improving in their critical thinking skills, because the limited studies in this domain have relied on instruments developed in Western contexts, despite the clear dangers of such an approach. Cultural bias in assessment can best be overcome by explicitly developing tests for use in specific contexts. However, resource constraints often prevent this possibility. An alternative strategy is to adapt an existing instrument for use in a particular context. Although adaptation is the norm for high-stakes cross-cultural assessments, it is often not attempted for single country research studies. This may be due to an assumption that adaptation is excessively technical or will add significantly to a study timeline. In this article, which relies on data from a recent study in Rwanda, we present a methodology for adapting a performance-task-based assessment of critical thinking. Our experience with this methodology suggests that small teams can adapt instruments in a relatively short time frame, and that the benefits of doing so far outweigh any cost.
Background
Research has identified the core skills that predict success during primary school in reading and arithmetic, and this knowledge increasingly informs teaching. However, there has been no ...comparable work that pinpoints the core skills that underlie success in science.
Aims and method
The present paper attempts to redress this by examining candidate skills and considering what is known about the way in which they emerge, how they relate to each other and to other abilities, how they change with age, and how their growth may vary between topic areas.
Results
There is growing evidence that early‐emerging tacit awareness of causal associations is initially separated from language‐based causal knowledge, which is acquired in part from everyday conversation and shows inaccuracies not evident in tacit knowledge. Mapping of descriptive and explanatory language onto causal awareness appears therefore to be a key development, which promotes unified conceptual and procedural understanding.
Conclusions
This account suggests that the core components of initial science learning are (1) accurate observation, (2) the ability to extract and reason explicitly about causal connections, and (3) knowledge of mechanisms that explain these connections. Observational ability is educationally inaccessible until integrated with verbal description and explanation, for instance, via collaborative group work tasks that require explicit reasoning with respect to joint observations. Descriptive ability and explanatory ability are further promoted by managed exposure to scientific vocabulary and use of scientific language. Scientific reasoning and hypothesis testing are later acquisitions that depend on this integration of systems and improved executive control.
Accumulating evidence from behavioral studies and neuroscience suggests that motor and cognitive development are intrinsically intertwined. To explore the underlying mechanisms of this ...motor-cognition link, our study examined the longitudinal relationship of early motor skills and physical activity with later cognitive skills. The sample was 3188 children from the United Kingdom Millennium Cohort Study, followed at 9 months and 5, 7, and 11 years. Early motor skills were examined at 9 months. Children's daily physical activity level was measured using accelerometers at 7 years and a questionnaire was conducted at 11 years. Cognitive skills, including executive function and academic achievement, were measured at age 11. The results suggest that gross motor skills were positively associated with spatial working memory, whereas fine motor skills were predictive of good English and science outcomes. Moderate-to-vigorous activity was found to be negatively associated with English performance, although self-reported activity frequency was positively linked to math. Our results highlight the significant role of both gross and fine motor skills in cognitive development. This study also elucidates the limitations of using activity intensity to assess the impact of motor activity on children's cognitive development, suggesting that attention to the effects of specific types of physical activity would better elucidate the motor/cognition link.
Background
Prior longitudinal and correlational research with adults and adolescents indicates that spatial ability is a predictor of science learning and achievement. However, there is little ...research to date with primary‐school aged children that addresses this relationship. Understanding this association has the potential to inform curriculum design and support the development of early interventions.
Aims
This study examined the relationship between primary‐school children's spatial skills and their science achievement.
Method
Children aged 7–11 years (N = 123) completed a battery of five spatial tasks, based on a model of spatial ability in which skills fall along two dimensions: intrinsic–extrinsic; static–dynamic. Participants also completed a curriculum‐based science assessment.
Results
Controlling for verbal ability and age, mental folding (intrinsic–dynamic spatial ability), and spatial scaling (extrinsic–static spatial ability) each emerged as unique predictors of overall science scores, with mental folding a stronger predictor than spatial scaling. These spatial skills combined accounted for 8% of the variance in science scores. When considered by scientific discipline, mental folding uniquely predicted both physics and biology scores, and spatial scaling accounted for additional variance in biology and variance in chemistry scores. The children's embedded figures task (intrinsic–static spatial ability) only accounted for variance in chemistry scores. The patterns of association were consistent across the age range.
Conclusion
Spatial skills, particularly mental folding, spatial scaling, and disembedding, are predictive of 7‐ to 11‐year‐olds’ science achievement. These skills make a similar contribution to performance for each age group.
Past research has largely ignored children's ability to conjointly manipulate spatial and temporal information, but there are indications that the capacity to do so may provide important support for ...reasoning about causal processes. We hypothesised that spatial-temporal thinking is central to children's ability to identify the invisible mechanisms that tie cause and effect together in continuous casual processes, which are focal in primary school science and crucial to understanding of the natural world. We investigated this in two studies (N = 107, N = 124), employing two methodologies, one shorter, the other more in depth. Further tasks assessed spatial-temporal (flow of liquid, extrapolation of relative speed, distance-time-velocity), spatial (two mental rotation, paper folding), verbal (expressive vocabulary), and nonverbal (block design) ability. Age dependent patterns were detected for both causal and predictor tasks. Two spatial-temporal tasks were unique and central predictors of children's causal reasoning, especially inference of mechanism. Nonverbal ability predicted the simpler components of causal reasoning. One mental rotation task predicted only young children's causal thinking. Verbal ability became significant when the sample included children from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Causal reasoning about continuous processes, including inferences of causal mechanism, appears to be within the reach of children from school entry age, but mechanism inference is uncommon. Analytic forms of spatial-temporal capacity seem to be important requirements for children to progress to this rather than merely perceptual forms.
People with brain tumors, including those previously treated, are commonly affected by a range of neurocognitive impairments involving executive function, memory, attention, and social/emotional ...functioning. Several factors are postulated to underlie this relationship, but evidence relating to many of these factors is conflicting and does not fully explain the variation in cognitive outcomes seen in the literature and in clinical practice. To address this, we performed a systematic literature review to identify and describe the range of factors that can influence cognitive outcomes in adult patients with gliomas. A literature search was performed of Ovid MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and PsycTESTS from commencement until September 2021. Of 9,998 articles identified through the search strategy, and an additional 39 articles identified through other sources, 142 were included in our review. The results confirmed that multiple factors influence cognitive outcomes in patients with gliomas. The effects of tumor characteristics (including location) and treatments administered are some of the most studied variables but the evidence for these is conflicting, which may be the result of methodological and study population differences. Tumor location and laterality overall appear to influence cognitive outcomes, and detection of such an effect is contingent upon administration of appropriate cognitive tests. Surgery appears to have an overall initial deleterious effect on cognition with a recovery in most cases over several months. A large body of evidence supports the adverse effects of radiotherapy on cognition, but the role of chemotherapy is less clear. To contrast, baseline cognitive status appears to be a consistent factor that influences cognitive outcomes, with worse baseline cognition at diagnosis/pre-treatment correlated with worse long-term outcomes. Similarly, much evidence indicates that anti-epileptic drugs have a negative effect on cognition and genetics also appear to have a role. Evidence regarding the effect of age on cognitive outcomes in glioma patients is conflicting, and there is insufficient evidence for gender and fatigue. Cognitive reserve, brain reserve, socioeconomic status, and several other variables discussed in this review, and their influence on cognition and recovery, have not been well-studied in the context of gliomas and are areas for focus in future research.
Systematic Review Registration
https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/
, identifier CRD42017072976
Tobacco smoking is a priority public health concern, and a leading cause of death and disability globally. While the daily smoking prevalence in Canada is approximately 9.7%, the proportion of ...smokers among emergency department (ED) patients has been found to be significantly higher. The purpose of this survey study was to determine the smoking prevalence of adult ED patients presenting to three urban Canadian hospitals, and to determine whether there was an increased prevalence compared to the general public.
A verbal questionnaire was administered to adult patients aged 18 years and older presenting to Royal University Hospital, St. Paul's Hospital, and Saskatoon City Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. We compared patients' smoking habits to Fagerström tobacco dependence scores, readiness to quit smoking, chief complaints, Canadian Triage Acuity Scale scores, and willingness to partake in ED-specific cessation interventions.
A total of 1190 eligible patients were approached, and 1078 completed the questionnaire. Adult Saskatoon ED patients demonstrated a cigarette smoking prevalence of 19.6%, which is significantly higher than the adult Saskatchewan public at 14.65% (P<0.0001). Out of the smoking cohort, 51.4% indicated they wanted to quit smoking and would partake in ED-specific cessation counselling, if available. Of the proposed interventions, ED cessation counselling was most popular among patients (62.4%), followed by receiving a pamphlet (56.2%), and referral to a smokers' quit line (49.5%).
The higher smoking prevalence demonstrated among ED patients highlights the need for a targeted intervention program that is feasible for the fast-paced ED environment. Training ED staff to conduct brief cessation counselling and referral to community supports for follow-up could provide an initial point of contact for smokers not otherwise receiving cessation assistance.
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