فصلنامه روانشناسی شناختی

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The goal of the present study was to investigate the impact of the attention training on the visual search in normal adults and children. In this study, using purposive random sampling, 60 subjects (30 adults and 30 children) were selected. The tools used in this study were concentrated attention test, mini mental state examination and researcher made questionnaire which was used to control the variables. First, the pre-test (concentrated attention) was performed and then the adults has underwent five 35 minutes sessions of training for three weeks and the children has underwent ten 45 minutes sessions of training for five weeks, and finally post-test was performed for the two groups. Data was analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance. Analysis of the data showed the significant impactof the attention trainingon the rate of correct responding and the reaction time of visual search. Given the impact of the attention training on the visual search, the importance of these trainings in process shaping, correct cognitive processes, paying attention to the target stimuli and quick, accurate responding become more and more clear.
 

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The purpose of current study was to investigate the effect of Attention Training Technique (ATT) on the anxiety, self-focused attention and metacognitions in socially anxious adolescents. Of 200 participants, 34 participants were selected considering their scores in social anxiety scale (SAS), Beck Depression Scale and Structured Clinical Interview which was based on DSM-IV-TR. Finally, 16 participants were selected based on their high scores in Focus of Attention Questionnaire (FAQ) and metacognition questionnaire and after a social task in front of two adults then, these participants were randomly classified into experimental and control groups. Following the 4^th and 8^th sessions and following a month after the training, the two groups completed self-focused attention scale, metacognition questionnaire, cognitive-attentional syndrome scale and social anxiety questionnaire. According to the results of the study, resulting from analysis of variance with repeated measures, the experimental group showed significant reduction in self-focused attention, positive and negative metacognitive beliefs, cognitive control, cognitive attentional syndrome and social anxiety. The results of this study suggested that anxiety could be lastingly modified through a brief attention manipulation without the use of other cognitive behavioral techniques however, cogent decision making needs more studies

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The purpose of this research was to study the effectiveness of the self-consciousness and attention on the decrease of performance in female basketball players. 60 athletes, who were the members of different basketball team in Ahvaz city, were selected through simple random sampling and then were put in four groups: two experimental group for the self-consciousness (a group with high self-consciousness and a group with low self-consciousness) and two experimental group for the attention (a group with relevant attention and a group with irrelevant attention). Open and closed skills as well as self-consciousness questionnaire were considered as the measurement tools of the study. Results of multivariable regression analysis showed that the low self-consciousness and irrelevant attention groups were better than the other groups in the situations with high pressure. Generally, those with high-self consciousness were aroused more than the group with low self-consciousness. Individuals with high self-consciousness believed that they were in the target of the others’ observation. So, the findings of the study supported the distraction model. Skill failure and success depended on how the environment of performing affects the attention and on how much skill performance depends on the attention.  

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In this study was tested the effect of psychology pressures on the serial reaction time task. In this research served 75 right-handed participants, were randomly assigned to three experimental condition (each group consisted of 25 students), including the outcome pressure, monitoring pressure and control groups. First of all groups practice serial reaction time and then test stage was performed by applying pressure conditions for the group. Results repeated measures ANOVA showed that subjects in the monitoring pressure group had decrement performance higher than the other groups in the test phase. Skill failure and success depends in part on how the performance environment influences attention and the extent to which skill execution depends on explicit attentional control.

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The purpose of the present study was to compare effects of self-focused attention on memory bias in individuals with social anxiety. To do this, 45 male students in Tabriz University were selected to participate in the study who had higher scores in Connor social phobia inventory (SPIN) than its cut point. The sampling method was available. Participants were randomly divided into three groups: two experimental groups and one control group. All the subjects were presented the emotionally words to recall. During the experiment, one group received the false feedback of increased self-focused attention, and the other group received the false feedback of decreased self-focused attention. The control group received non-relevant feedback. Next, previous emotional words were presented with a series of other words for subjects to recognize. Using signal detection theory, response bias (ß) and response sensitivity (d'), were calculated for the recognition of emotional words. The data was analyzed by MANOVA. The results showed that there is significant difference in response sensitivity among three groups, but no significant difference in response bias was seen among the groups. Based on the findings, sensitivity of people with social anxiety in dealing with stressful situations and negative social and also individual memory bias were confirmed.  

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Abstract:

There has been substantial interest in mindfulness as an approach to reduce cognitive vulnerability to stress and emotional distress in recent years, and mindfulness meditation practices have been incorporated into several interventions that are now widely available in medical and mental health settings. However, thus far mindfulness has not been defined operationally. Among the important questions that can be studied is whether mindfulness should be described as a multifaceted construct and, if so, how the facets should be defined. Several current descriptions of mindfulness suggest a multidimensional nature. The aim of the present study was to investigate the factor structure and psychometric properties of Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) in Iran. 247 Iranian university student (188 women, 53 men and 6 undefined) filled following scales:  FFMQ (Baer, Smith, Hopkins, Krietemeyer, & Toney, 2006), Integrative Self-Knowledge (Ghorbani, Watson, & Hargis, 2008), BSCS(Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004) , Rumination Scale (Trapnell & Campbell, 1999), Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ; (Meyer, Miller, Metzger, & Borkovec, 1990), Vitality Scale (Ryan & Frederick, 1997), symptom checklist  (Bartone 1995), perceived stress(Cohen, Kamarack, & Mermelstein, 1983) & Anxiety and Depression Scale(Costello & Comrey, 1967).  The second order CFA showed that five-factor structure of FFMQ in first order and one-factor in second order did not fit the data well and EFA proved five-factor structure in first order and two-factor in second order of the scale that fit the data well. These results point toward conceptual distinction between facets of mindfulness. Mindfulness facets were shown to be differentially correlated in expected ways with several other constructs and to have convergent and divergent validity. Findings suggest that conceptualizing mindfulness as a multifaceted construct is helpful in understanding its components and its relationships with other variables, and suggested a need for reviewing the research and theory of mindfulness due to exposed facets.

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The aim of this research was to investigate the  visual-spatial attention and visual-manual dexterity skills in children with learning disorders and  normal children . this is on Expost study. To do so, of elementary  clinic of psychology  of mashhad chity 15 children with learning disorders and 20 elementary normal children. Tools  in research was include Corsi test and  Pursuit rotor test. Mean scores of students with LD and normal students, there are significant differences in test corsi and Pursuit rotor test. According to visual - spatial attention and Visual-manual dexterity  in children with  learning disorders poor than normal children, these problems should be assessed in order to plan appropriate interventions.
 

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The aim of this study was to determine the effect of attention training on the reading performance of students with dyslexia .This was an experimental study with pre-test, post-test and control group. The samples were randomly selected and consisted of 30 female students with dyslexia that were 11-9 years old. They were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental Group received 20 sessions (Three times per week, each lasting 45 minutes) of verbal attention training program while the control group received only conventional education in school. Before and after the intervention, Assessment of Reading and Dyslexia (NAMA) were completed by the two groups. Before the intervention Toulouse-Pieron test screening for dyslexic students who had attention deficit was applied. The data were analyzed using analysis of covariance. The results showed that attention training program Increased the reading Performance of excremental group in comparison to control group (p <0/0005). Also the scores of experimental group were enhancing after the training. Attention training had a positive effect on reading performance of students with dyslexia and can be used to enhance students' reading performance. This method can be applied by psychologists, teachers and educators of special schools, parents and all those who are in communication with these children.
 

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Obesity is one of the most important problems which threatens the global health. Healthcare organizations spend a
large amount of money to predict and treat obesity every year. The most common treatment for obesity is
concentrated on shaping a new lifestyle with more exercise and healthy diet. But a multitude of dieters fail. In this study, the role of cognitive processing in dieters` success or fail was investigated. Participants were
successful (N= 42) and unsuccessful (N= 45) dieters between 18 and 40 years old. Attentional bias, positive
implicit association, and working memory capacity were measured by dot-probe task, a modified
version of implicit association test (IAT), and N-Back task. Results indicated that unsuccessful dieters showed
greater attentional bias to (d= 0.69) and more food preferences for (d= 1.06) high-calorie food pictures.
Nevertheless, there was no significant difference in implicit associations for high calorie food and in working memory capacity between the groups. These results were congruent with some previous studies and they were discussed based on dual-processing model.
 

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In working memory (WM) tasks, performance can be boosted by directing attention to one memory object: When a retro-cue in the retention interval indicates which object will be tested, responding is faster and more accurate (theretro-cue benefit). This study tests explanations of the retro-cue benefits in 2 experiment desined by superlab software: Experiment 1, the effect of valid and invalid retro-cues compared with no-cues were tested before the  memory test. Experiment 2, We tested whether the retro-cue benefit in WM depends on sustained attention to the cued object by inserting an attention-demanding interruption task between the retro-cue and the memory test. In this quasi-experimental study, with a series of repeated measurements, 30 individual (15 for each test) from graduate students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad were selected by convenience sampling and were tested. Data analysis of variance with repeated measurements and t-test for paired samples were also analyzed. The result showed that valid retro-cue compared to the no-cue was better. Also, it was shown when visual interference was held constant, retro-cue benefits were still obtained whenever the retro-cue enabled retrieval of an object from VWM but delayed response selection. The results showed that retro-cue improved visual working memory performance.
 

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The aim of this study was to investigate the Improvement cognitive inhibition of children with attention deficit / hyperactivity in the context of emotional working memory training. The 20 children with attention deficit / hyperactivity were selected available sampling and using diagnostic tools (SCID-I and SNAF-IV) and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. The experimental group were trained in emotional working memory for 15 sessions of 40-30 minutes during 15 days, while the control group did not receive such training. Both groups were tested in pre-test and post-test by classic Stroop test. The results of multivariate analysis of covariance showed that emotional working memory training has leads to Improvement cognitive inhibition in the experimental groups in comparison with the control group. Thus, it can be concluded that that emotional working memory training can as a viable option for improvement cognitive inhibition in children with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder be regard to specialists and researchers

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Abstract
Working memory is the comprehensive cognitive system that embedded attentional and memorial mechanisms and therefore can be used in systematic research of cognitive problems. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to investigate the developmental changes of working memory capacity, and its components, including phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and central executive (inhibition and updating). A total of 356 children (8 and 12 years) recruited from primary school in Tehran were selected and tested. Digit Span, and the Kim Karad Visual Memory Test were used for measuring phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad. Working memory capacity was measured by Backward Digit Span, and finally, the Stroop Task, and the Keep Track task measured central executive. Data analyzing showed as child growth, working memory and its components become more effective. More skills in arithmetic abilities, more flexibility in storage and processing, more experience in academic achievement and more use of metacognitive strategies can be possible reasons for the results of this study.

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Depressed mood effects attention and its span. The present study aimed to compare the allocation of attention to relevant and irrelevant neutral stimuli in depressed and non-depressed participants. The studied populations include all the students from Azad university of Ahwaz and the undergraduate psychology students from Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. After completion of Beck Depression Inventory by participants, in two sessions with a minimum of 2 weeks interval and using structured clinical diagnostic interview, 52 participants were allocated in the non-depressed group and 41 to the depressed group.The focused attention of participants was measured by recognition of the Wechsler cube designs (focal task) and the defocused attention measured by recognition task of the irrelevant stimuli on the table. Mixed variance analysis of scores indicated that in allocating attention to relevant stimuli, there was no significant difference between two groups. However, attention to irrelevant stimuli for the depressed group was significantly greater than the non-depressed group. The results have been explained in line with the evolutionary framework of depression.
 

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of combined cognitive rehabilitation interventions (computer and manual) on improving the speed of information processing and improving the mental status variables (MMSE) in women with MS. This research was conducted with pre-test and post-test design with two month follow-up. Twenty two women with MS were selected by available sampling method and randomly assigned to two groups of 12, and the experimental group received cognitive rehabilitation training and the intervention group did not receive any intervention. All participants of the first and last sessions were evaluated by MMSE and Auditory Sequence Test (PASAT). The research was conducted in 21 sessions in Arak and data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance analysis with repeated measurements using SPSS-24 software.The findings showed that the main effect of the time factor (pre-test, post-test, follow-up) on the selected score was significant. Conclusion: Manual cognitive rehabilitation is effective in improving the selective attention of female patients with multiple sclerosis. It is recommended that these interventions be used to improve the information processing speed and the psychological state of women with MS.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation on the attention and problem solving of children with traumatic brain injury. The Method was A semi-experimental pre-test post-test study was performedwith a one month follow-up period. 30 children from 9 to 15 years old (12 girls and 18 boys) were selected by random sampling from all children with traumatic brain injury in the academic year of 2017-18 in Tehran, and divided into two groups of 15 subjects and control were distributed.To measure dependent variables, namely selective attention, sustained attention, and problem solving, Stroop software tests, continuous performance, and Tower of London have been used. The experimental group after the implementation of the cognitive empowerment (12 sessions 45 minutes) and dropping to 13 and the control group eventually decreased to 13 people. Data were analyzed by mixed analysis of variance (2×3) model with using SPSS-22 software.
The results of mixed analysis of variance (2×3) showed a significant difference between the means of namely selective attention, sustained attention, and problem solving in experimental and waiting- list control groups.
Moreover, the post-test and follow-up scores in the experimental group was not satistically different. So cognitive rehabilitation have significant effect on selective attention, sustained attention, and problem solving in children with traumatic brain injury and it can be used as an effective and helpful method to improve attention and problem solving of these patients.

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Treatment of attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder as the most common neurodevelopmental disorder has tended toward the use of computer-based technologies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of computer-based cognitive rehabilitation on the executive functions of children with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder. The study was a quasi-experimental with pretest posttest and 45 days follow up with control group. The statistical population consisted of all students with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder in Shiraz elementary school in winter of 2019. 32 students were selected as available sample and replaced in experimental and control groups. The Tower of London test, the Stroop test, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test were used. The experimental group received cognitive rehabilitation based on computer games three times a week (15 minutes per game for a total of 30 minutes) and the control group was placed on the waiting list. Data were analyzed by SPSS-24 software using repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANOVA). The results showed that computer-based rehabilitation had a significant effect on the executive functions of children with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (Sig <0.05). Experimental group showed improvement in cognitive function after intervention and planning, organization, inhibition and cognitive flexibility variables were observed after 45 days of intervention. Therefore, it can be said that cognitive rehabilitation is based on effective and sustained therapeutic computer games.

 
 

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The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation, on improving the executive functions of selective attention, inhibitory control and working mwmory in elderly people with mild cognitive impairment. This experimental study was a Single Subject of type A-B, which 6 elderly (4 women and 2 men) with an average age of 62 years old were selected via  purposeful convenience sampling and randomly assigned into two groups of control (n=3) and experimental (n=3). The evaluation of selective attention and inhibitory control was done using Stroop, Go/NO Go and N-back tests, and the "ARAM" rehabilitation program was presented in 10 one-hour personal sessions for each experimental group subjective. All subjective in both groups was evaluated 6 times (before, during, just after and 2 months following the intervention) and also control group were evaluated simultaneously without receiving any interventions. Using visual analysis, collected data revealed that the scores of both tests of executive functions in experimental group, were steadily increased all through intervention, while the control group scores’ did not make significant changes. Also, two-month follow-up evaluations showed a stable improvement in executive functions of the experimental group. Therefore, it can be concluded that cognitive rehabilitation based on ARAM program has improved the functions of selective attention, inhibitory control and working memory in elderly with mild cognitive impairment. As there are many documentaries suggesting possibility of leading mild cognitive impairment to more serious cognitive disabilities such as Alzheimer’s disease, such findings can confirm possibility of improving cognitive functions of elderly people with mild cognitive impairment with, with lower therapeutic costs applying the help of technology