Cognition

With the insight into the process of education, in the relationship between education and culture and in the place of education in the socio-political context, this research led to the conclusion that education and evangelization are two powerful and inseparable processes of shaping human identity, because every information is at the same time formation. Therefore, it is essential for the Church to take part in educational processes and their creation. Caring for the truth and acquainting man with the truth about his origin, dignity, rights, and responsibilities, the Church is responsible for information that has the power of transformation, i.e. the formation of man’s identity and faculties. Caring for the truth implies care of information, which is the core of the process of evangelization and caring for human being, his identity and his face, and the way of the Church that Church should never abandon. Education is the fundamental charisma of the Church and a powerful form of evangelization.

Poor executive function (EF; pre-frontal cognitive control processes governing goal-directed behavior) and elevated hedonic hunger (i.e., preoccupation with palatable foods in the absence of physiological hunger) are theoretical risk and maintenance factors for binge eating (BE) distinct from general obesity. Recent theoretical models posit that dysregulated behavior such as BE may result from a combination of elevated appetitive drive (e.g., hedonic hunger) and decreased EF (e.g., inhibitory control and delayed discounting). The present study sought to test this model in distinguishing BE from general obesity by examining the independent and interactive associations of EF and hedonic hunger with BE group status (i.e., odds of categorization in BE group versus non-BE group). Treatment-seeking overweight and obese women with BE (n = 31) and without BE (OW group; n = 43) were assessed on measures of hedonic hunger and EF (inhibitory control and delay discounting). Elevated hedonic hunger increased the likelihood of categorization in the BE group, regardless of EF. When hedonic hunger was low, poor EF increased the likelihood of categorization in the BE group. Results indicate that the interplay of increased appetitive drives and decreased cognitive function may distinguish BE from overweight/obesity. Future longitudinal investigations of the combinatory effect of hedonic hunger and EF in increasing risk for developing BE are warranted, and may inform future treatment development to target these factors.

Weak central coherence-a tendency to process details at the expense of the gestalt-has been observed among adults with bulimia nervosa (BN) and is a potential candidate endophenotype for eating disorders (EDs). However, as BN behaviors typically onset during adolescence it is important to assess central coherence in this younger age group to determine whether the findings in adults are likely a result of BN or present earlier in the evolution of the disorder. This study examines whether the detail-oriented and fragmented cognitive inefficiency observed among adults with BN is observable among adolescents with shorter illness duration, relative to healthy controls. The Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (RCFT) was administered to a total of 47 adolescents with DSM5 BN, 42 with purging disorder (PD), and 25 healthy controls (HC). Performance on this measure was compared across the three groups. Those with BN and PD demonstrated significantly worse accuracy scores compared to controls in the copy and delayed recall condition with a moderate effect size. These findings were exacerbated when symptoms of BN increased. Poorer accuracy scores reflect a fragmented and piecemeal strategy that interferes with visual-spatial integration in BN spectrum disorders. This cognitive inefficiency likely contributes to broad difficulties in executive functioning in this population especially in the context of worsening bulimic symptoms. The findings of this study support the hypothesis that poor global integration may constitute a cognitive endophenotype for BN.

It was hypothesized that, rather than reflectingan effect of emotional valence, the impaired colornaming of body shape related words among anorexics is afunction of an associative priming effect. Anorexics (n = 34) and nonclinical controls (n = 39)color named a set of body shape words, and three sets ofaffectively neutral words, varying in associativestrength. It was found that, among nonclinical

We examined the replicability of the co-witness suggestibility effect originally reported by Garry et al. (2008) by testing participants from 10 countries (Brazil, Canada, Colombia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, total N = 486). Pairs of participants sat beside each other, viewing different versions of the same movie while believing that they viewed the same version. Later, participant pairs answered questions collaboratively, which guided them to discuss conflicting details. Finally, participants took a recognition test individually. Each of the 10 samples replicated the Garry et al. finding: Participants often reported on the final test a non-witnessed answer that their co-witness had stated during the collaboration phase. Such co-witness suggestibility errors were especially likely when the witness had not disputed the co-witness’s report during the collaboration phase. The results demonstrate the replicability and generalizability of the co-witness suggestibility effect.

As the population of older Latinos in the U.S. increases, availability of culturally adapted geriatric psychiatry services is becoming a growing concern. This issue is exacerbated for rural Latino populations. In this study, we assessed whether neurocognitive assessment via telepsychiatry (TP) using a Spanish-language battery would be comparable to in-person (IP) testing using the same battery in a sample of Spanish-speaking older adults in a rural setting. Patients (N = 22) received IP and TP testing 2 weeks apart. The order of IP and TP test administrations in individual subjects was determined randomly. Comparison of scores indicated that there were no significant differences between IP and TP test performance though both groups scored non-significantly higher at the second visit. This study demonstrates feasibility and utility of neurocognitive testing in Spanish using TP among older rural Latinos.

Five years ago, it was first demonstrated that there are considerable, stable individual differences in performance impairment due to sleep deprivation. The discovery of this new phenotype, which has been labeled 'trototype', led to a surge of research activity aiming to identify predictors. Genes involved in the adenosinergic and circadian regulation of sleep have been identified as candidate predictors of individuals' resistance or susceptibility to performance impairment resulting from sleep deprivation. Furthermore, brain regions potentially involved in the expression of individual differences in vulnerability to sleep loss have been found. This research has provided new insights into the mechanisms underlying sleep/wake regulation and responses to loss of sleep. To date, however, it remains unknown how much of the phenotypic variability is explained by any of the putative predictors of trototype. The existence of substantial, phenotypic individual differences in performance impairment consequent to sleep loss has important implications for fatigue risk management in operational settings and for the symptomology and treatment of sleep disorders, putting a premium on the discovery of reliable predictors.

This study is the first attempt in the literature to define the semantic prosody (contextual properties) of extended lexical units (ELUs) according to the psycholinguistic variables ‘valence’ (emotional positivity), ‘arousal’ (excitement, mood-enhancement), and ‘concreteness’. The object of investigation are the verbal phrases feel blue (unambiguous idiomatic ELU, without a literal counterpart) and see red (ambiguous ELU, idiomatic or literal).

Previous research has shown that the expression of implicit sequence learning is eliminated in a choice reaction time task when an explicit cue allows participants to accurately predict the next stimulus (Cleeremans, 1997), but that two contingencies predicting the same outcome can be learned and expressed simultaneously when both of them remain implicit (Jiménez & Méndez, 1999). Two experiments tested the hypothesis that it is the deliberate use of explicit knowledge that produces the inhibitory effects over the expression of implicit sequence learning. However, the results of these experiments do not support this hypothesis, rather showing that implicit learning is acquired and expressed regardless of the influence of explicit knowledge. These results are interpreted as reinforcing the thesis about the automatic nature of both the acquisition and the expression of implicit sequence learning. The contradictory results reported by Cleeremans are attributed to a floor effect derived from the use of a special type of explicit cue.

This study investigated the effects of selection demands on implicit sequence learning. Participants in a search condition looked for a target among seven distractors and responded on the target identity. The responses followed a deterministic sequence, and sequence learning was compared to that found in two control conditions in which the targets were presented alone, either at a central location or over a series of unpredictable locations. Sequence learning was obtained in all conditions, and it was equivalent for the two variable location conditions, regardless of the perceptual demands. Larger effects of learning were observed in the central location, both on the indirect measures and on the measures taken from a cued-generation task. The expression of learning decreased selectively in this condition when the sequence validity was reduced over a test block. These results are consistent with the claims that implicit and explicit learning are mixed in this central condition and that implicit learning is not affected by selection difficulty.

Sequence learning and contextual cueing explore different forms of implicit learning, arising from practice with a structured serial task, or with a search task with informative contexts. We assess whether these two learning effects arise simultaneously when both remain implicit. Experiments 1 and 2 confirm that a cueing effect can be observed under a continuous setting and that there is no interference between contextual cueing and sequence learning. Experiments 3a and 3b tested whether an interference arises specifically when the sequence becomes explicit. Results show that the expression of contextual cueing disappeared in those conditions but that context information is still acquired, and it affects performance when the sequence is removed. The results are discussed in relation to the current debates about the automaticity of implicit learning, and about the role of attention in the acquisition and expression of contextual cueing.

We deal with situations incongruent with our automatic response tendencies much better right after having done so on a previous trial than after having reacted to a congruent trial. The nature of the mechanisms responsible for these sequential congruency effects is currently a hot topic of debate. According to the conflict monitoring model these effects depend on the adjustment of control triggered by the detection of conflict on the preceding situation. We tested whether these conflict monitoring processes can operate implicitly in an implicit learning procedure, modulating the expression of knowledge of which participants are not aware. We reanalyze recently published data, and present an experiment with a probabilistic sequence learning procedure, both showing consistent effects of implicit sequence learning. Despite being implicit, the expression of learning was reduced or completely eliminated right after trials incongruent with the learned sequence, thus showing that sequential congruency effects can be obtained even when the source of congruency itself remains implicit.

Chunk learning (the process by which a sequence is learned and retrieved from memory in smaller, decomposed units of information) has been postulated as the main learning mechanism underlying sequence learning (Perruchet & Pacton, 2006). However, the evidence for chunk formation has been elusive in the continuous serial reaction-time task, whereas other continuous, statistical processes of learning account well for the results observed in this task. This article proposes a new index to capture segmentation in learning, based on the variance of responding to different parts of a sequence. We assess the validity of this measure by comparing performance in a control group with that of another group in which color codes were used to induce a uniform segmentation. Results showed that evidence of chunking was obtained when the color codes were consistently coupled to responses, but that chunking was not maintained after the colors were removed.

An examination of conceptual problems and rhetorical strategies in recent theological efforts to demonstrate the compatibility of traditional Christian beliefs and current scientific accounts of the natural world,. Theologian John Haught's  book, *Deeper than Darwin: The Prospect for Religion in the Age of Evolution,* serves as a central example.

The chapter also discusses recent theistic/theological responses to what I call the New Naturalism, that is, explanations of religious beliefs appealing to cognitive science and evolutionary theory.

Quercetin, an effective flavonol used as an antioxidant, was investigated for its anxiolytic and cognitive activities in male Wistar rats. Oral quercetin (300 mg/kg body weight/day) was compared with oral and intranasal quercetin liposomes (20 microg/day). Quercetin liposomes, in a mixture of egg phosphatidylcholine, cholesterol, and quercetin (2:1:1) and dispersed in 50% polyethylene glycol in water, were approximately 200 nm in mean particle diameter and negative surface charge with a range of encapsulation efficiency of 60% to 80%. Anxiolytic and cognitive-enhancing effects of quercetin, conventional and liposomal, were subjected to elevated plus maze and Morris water maze tests, respectively. Both conventional and quercetin liposomes showed anxiolytic and cognitive-enhancing effects. A lower dose and a faster rate were observed with intranasal quercetin liposomes when compared with oral quercetin, conventional and liposomal. The intranasal quercetin liposomes are effective in the delivery of quercetin to the central nervous system.