Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Is it possible to fine-tune the human brain clock?



I just made a guest blog post at the IM-Home blog with the above title. It is the fourth blog in my introductory series that explains why I am so interested in mental timing and brain-clock based neurotechnologies. You can find the new post here.

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Fourth Annual Neuroscience Boot Camp@neuroghetto, 11/30/11 5:07 AM

Indie Neuroblogs (@neuroghetto)
11/30/11 5:07 AM
Fourth Annual Neuroscience Boot Camp bit.ly/vF42IU


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Educational Psychologist

Research Byte: Drinking to distraction: Booze and attention in adults with ADHD

Citation

Database: PsycARTICLES
[ First Posting ]
Drinking to distraction: Does alcohol increase attentional bias in adults with ADHD?
Roberts, Walter; Fillmore, Mark T.; Milich, Richard
Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, Nov 28, 2011, No Pagination Specified. doi: 10.1037/a0026379

Abstract

  1. Previous research has shown that social drinkers continue to show attentional bias toward alcohol-related stimuli even after consuming a moderate dose of alcohol. In contrast, little is known about how alcohol acutely affects attentional bias in groups at risk to develop alcohol-related problems, such as adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Such individuals may show increased attentional bias following alcohol relative to nonclinical controls. The present study tested this hypothesis by examining acute alcohol effects on attentional bias in 20 social drinkers with ADHD and 20 social drinkers with no history of ADHD. Participants performed a visual-probe task after receiving the following doses of alcohol: 0.64g/kg, 0.32g/kg, and 0.0g/kg (placebo). Those in the ADHD group showed increased attentional bias under active alcohol doses, whereas attentional bias was similar across doses in the control group. Attentional bias predicted ad libitum alcohol consumption during a taste-rating session. This relation was observed only in the ADHD group. These findings indicate that an acute alcohol dose increases attentional bias in adults with ADHD. Further, attentional bias appears to be a predictor of ad libitum consumption in this group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)



Research bytes: two Psychology and Aging articles related to cognitive impairment and intervention

APA Journal alert for:
Psychology and Aging

The following articles have been published online this week before they appear in a final print and online issue of Psychology and Aging: 

Knowledge and use of memory strategies in amnestic mild cognitive impairment.
Hutchens, Rachel L.; Kinsella, Glynda J.; Ong, Ben; Pike, Kerryn E.; Parsons, Samuel; Storey, Elsdon; Ames, David; Saling, Michael M.; Mullaly, Elizabeth; Rand, Elizabeth; Clare, Linda



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Research brief: Dyslexia and perceptual speed


Citation

Database: PsycARTICLES
[ Journal Article ]
Visual temporal processing in dyslexia and the magnocellular deficit theory: The need for speed?
McLean, Gregor M. T.; Stuart, Geoffrey W.; Coltheart, Veronika; Castles, Anne
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol 37(6), Dec 2011, 1957-1975. doi:10.1037/a0024668

Abstract

  1. A controversial question in reading research is whether dyslexia is associated with impairments in the magnocellular system and, if so, how these low-level visual impairments might affect reading acquisition. This study used a novel chromatic flicker perception task to specifically explore temporal aspects of magnocellular functioning in 40 children with dyslexia and 42 age-matched controls (aged 7–11). The relationship between magnocellular temporal resolution and higher-level aspects of visual temporal processing including inspection time, single and dual-target (attentional blink) RSVP performance, go/no-go reaction time, and rapid naming was also assessed. The Dyslexia group exhibited significant deficits in magnocellular temporal resolution compared with controls, but the two groups did not differ in parvocellular temporal resolution. Despite the significant group differences, associations between magnocellular temporal resolution and reading ability were relatively weak, and links between low-level temporal resolution and reading ability did not appear specific to the magnocellular system. Factor analyses revealed that a collective Perceptual Speed factor, involving both low-level and higher-level visual temporal processing measures, accounted for unique variance in reading ability independently of phonological processing, rapid naming, and general ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)

Research byte: Deficits in attentional control and ADHD implications

Citation

Database: PsycARTICLES
[ Journal Article ]
Deficits in attentional control: Cholinergic mechanisms and circuitry-based treatment approaches.
Sarter, Martin; Paolone, Giovanna
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 125(6), Dec 2011, 825-835. doi: 10.1037/a0026227

Abstract

  1. The cognitive control of attention involves maintaining task rules in working memory (or "online"), monitoring reward and error rates, filtering distractors, and suppressing prepotent, and competitive responses. Weak attentional control increases distractibility and causes attentional lapses, impulsivity, and attentional fatigue. Levels of tonic cholinergic activity (changes over tens of seconds or minutes) modulate cortical circuitry as a function of the demands on cognitive control. Increased cholinergic modulation enhances the representation of cues, by augmenting cue-evoked activity in thalamic glutamatergic afferents, thereby increasing the rate of detection. Such cholinergic modulation is mediated primarily via α4β2* nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Animal experiments and clinical trials in adult patients with ADHD indicate that attentional symptoms and disorders may benefit from drugs that stimulate this receptor. Tonic cholinergic modulation of cue-evoked glutamatergic transients in prefrontal regions is an essential of the brain's executive circuitry. This circuitry model guides the development of treatments of deficits in attentional control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)component of the brain's executive circuitry. This circuitry model guides the development of treatments of deficits in attentional control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)



Research byte: What does the Mini-Mental State Exam measure?

Tim Salthouse does top notch psychometric research.  

Correlates of level and change in the Mini-Mental State Examination.
Page 811-818
Soubelet, Andrea; Salthouse, Timothy A.

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Book Nook: PsycCRITIQUES - Volume 56, Issue 48 is now available online

A few books related to the topics covered in this blog.

A new issue of PsycCRITIQUES is available online.



November 30, 2011
Volume 56, Issue 48


Book Reviews
1. Self-Regulation: Brain, Cognition, and Development
Author: Andrea Berger
Reviewers: Dima Amso and Julie Markant

2. Poisonous Parenting: Toxic Relationships Between Parents and Their Adult Children
Authors: Shea M. Dunham, Shannon B. Dermer, and Jon Carlson (Eds.)
Reviewers: J. Douglas Pettinelli, Katie M. Heiden Rootes, and Christine Schneider

3. The Resilience Builder Program for Children and Adolescents: Enhancing Social Competence and Self-Regulation—A Cognitive-Behavioral Group Approach
Authors: Mary Karapetian Alvord, Bonnie Zucker, and Judy Johnson Grados
Reviewers: Georgette Yetter and Catherine Laterza

4. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World
Author: Jane McGonigal
Reviewer: Christopher J. Ferguson

5. Ethical Conundrums, Quandaries, and Predicaments in Mental Health Practice: A Casebook From the Files of Experts
Authors: W. Brad Johnson and Gerald P. Koocher (Eds.)
Reviewer: Andrew M. Pomerantz

6. The Aging Intellect
Author: Douglas H. Powell
Reviewer: Michael J. Gilewski

7. Payback: Why We Retaliate, Redirect Aggression, and Take Revenge
Authors: David P. Barash and Judith Eve Lipton
Reviewers: Helen C. Harton and Zackary Lemka

8. Handbook of Trial Consulting
Authors: Richard L. Wiener and Brian H. Bornstein (Eds.)
Reviewer: Michel Sabourin

9. Heuristics: The Foundations of Adaptive Behavior
Authors: Gerd Gigerenzer, Ralph Hertwig, and Thorsten Pachur (Eds.)
Reviewer: John G. Benjafield

Film Review
10. Poetry
Director: Lee Chang-dong
Reviewer: Lauren S. Seifert



Tuesday, November 29, 2011

New Neuropsych blog

Dr. Fiorana Bardenhagen, a neuropsychologist I meet while presenting down under in Australia has started a new blog--the Neurospych Bookkworm. I am adding it to my blogroll and RSS feed reader. Looking forward to learning new stuff. Good luck Fiorana.

Halpern's 4th edition of Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities@psypress, 11/29/11 4:52 AM

Psychology Press (@psypress)
11/29/11 4:52 AM
For more check out her book Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities goo.gl/biqjv


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Educational Psychologist

Monday, November 28, 2011

Military brain testing program fails@StanfordCLB, 11/28/11 10:41 PM

Stanford CLB (@StanfordCLB)
11/28/11 10:41 PM
Pro Publica: Testing Program Fails Soldiers, Leaving Brain Injuries Undetected propublica.org/article/testin…


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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Basal ganglia and ADHD@NeurosciUpdate, 11/27/11 1:27 PM

Interesting  new research (see retweet below) implicating the role of the basal ganglia in ADHD.  The Brain Clock blog master finds this particularly interesting given the prominent role the basal ganglia plays in temporal processing (and the internal brain clock) and how mental timing has been linked to ADHD.

Check out timing related basal ganglia posts at this link.

http://www.brainclock.net/search/label/basal%20ganglia

Check out ADHD timing related posts at this link.

http://www.brainclock.net/search/label/ADHD


Neurosci Update (@NeurosciUpdate)
11/27/11 1:27 PM
Basal Ganglia Studies and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) - Decoded Science bit.ly/rEJQHl


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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Let the data speak. McGrew (2009) CHC intelligence article #6 most cited in journal Intelligence


I was just doing some fun web browsing at the journal web site for the most prestigious journal in the field of intelligence (Intelligence) and was pleasantly surprised to see that my 2009 invited editorial is currently among the most cited articles in the journal (#6), and was #12 in the most read articles. Damn....this makes my day. Thanks to all who have read and cited it. This will make my mom and dad proud.

CHC theory and the human cognitive abilities project: Standing on the shoulders of the giants of psychometric intelligence research. Intelligence, Volume 37, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 1-10, McGrew, K.S.

Abstract

During the past decade the Cattell-Horn Gf-Gc and Carroll Three-Stratum models have emerged as the consensus psychometric-based models for understanding the structure of human intelligence. Although the two models differ in a number of ways, the strong correspondence between the two models has resulted in the increased use of a broad umbrella term for a synthesis of the two models (Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory of cognitive abilities-CHC theory). The purpose of this editorial is three-fold. First, I will describe the CHC framework and recommend that intelligence researchers begin using the CHC taxonomy as a common nomenclature for describing research findings and a theoretical framework from which to test hypotheses regarding various aspects of human cognitive abilities. Second, I argue that the emergence of the CHC framework should not be viewed as the capstone to the psychometric era of factor analytic research. Rather, I recommend the CHC framework serve as the stepping stone to reinvigorate the investigation of the structure of human intelligence. Finally, the Woodcock-Muñoz Foundation Human Cognitive Abilities (HCA) project, which is an evolving, free, on-line electronic archive of the majority of datasets analyzed in Carroll's (1993) seminal treatise on factor analysis of human cognitive abilities, is introduced and described. Intelligence scholars are urged to access the Carroll HCA datasets to test and evaluate structural models of human intelligence with contemporary methods (confirmatory factor analysis). In addition, suggestions are offered for linking the analysis of contemporary data sets with the seminal work of Carroll. The emergence of a consensus CHC taxonomy and access to the original datasets analyzed by Carroll provides an unprecedented opportunity to extend and refine our understanding of human intelligence. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Working memory, speed and prefrontal cortex@BrainCosmos, 11/25/11 9:05 AM

Brain (@BrainCosmos)
11/25/11 9:05 AM
Capacity-Speed Relationships in Prefrontal Cortex :PLoS ONE, Neuroscience bit.ly/vAMi31


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Educational Psychologist

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Detterman's Bytes: On IQ test standardization

So true. Another Detterman's tidbit of expertise.

"As the saying goes, any fool can make a test and many do. The really important part of making a good test is the work done after the test has been devised. This is most often, but not always, done by commercial test producers. Producing an accurate, usable test can cost millions of dollars. Though it may be academics that develop the concept for tests, it is those who do the hard and often tedious work of standardizing the test that make it useful."

Salthouse on aging/intelligence paradox

"An intriguing discrepancy exists between the competencies of older adults, assumed on the basis of everyday observations, on the one hand, and their competencies inferred from laboratory results, on the other hand. The laboratory results tend to portray older adults as distinctly inferior to young adults on a number of presumably basic cognitive abilities, and yet we are all aware of competent, and even remarkable, accomplishments of people well into their 60s, 70s, and beyond. One is thus faced with the question of how to account for this apparent discrepancy between the rather pessimistic results of the laboratory and the more encouraging observations of daily life. (Salthouse 1987, p. 142)"

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Neuroscience advances@NIMHgov, 11/19/11 12:34 PM

Mental Health NIMH (@NIMHgov)
11/19/11 12:34 PM
Neuroscience Advances Showcased. New Director's Blog: 1.usa.gov/sqVuiw | #NIMHgov


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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

What limits working memory capacity? Evidence for modality-specific sources to the simultaneous stor

There is considerable debate on whether working memory (WM) storage is mediated by distinct subsystems for auditory and visual stimuli (Baddeley, 1986) or whether it is constrained by a single, central capacity-limited system (Cowan, 2006). Recent studies have addressed this issue by measuring the dual-task cost during the concurrent storage of auditory and visual arrays (e.g., Cocchini, Logie, Della Sala, MacPherson, & Baddeley, 2002; Fougnie & Marois, 2006; Saults & Cowan, 2007). However, studies have yielded widely different dual-task costs, which have been taken to support both modality-specific and central capacity-limit accounts of WM storage. Here, we demonstrate that the controversies regarding such costs mostly stem from how these costs are measured. Measures that compare combined dual-task capacity with the higher single-task capacity support a single, central WM store when there is a large disparity between the single-task capacities (Experiment 1) but not when the single-task capacities are well equated (Experiment 2). In contrast, measures of the dual-task cost that normalize for differences in single-task capacity reveal evidence for modality-specific stores, regardless of single-task performance. Moreover, these normalized measures indicate that dual-task cost is much smaller if the tasks do not involve maintaining bound feature representations in WM (Experiment 3). Taken together, these experiments not only resolve a discrepancy in the field and clarify how to assess the dual-task cost but also indicate that WM capacity can be constrained both by modality-specific and modality-independent sources of information processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)





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Can the focus of attention accommodate multiple, separate items?

Researchers of working memory currently debate capacity limits of the focus of attention, the proposed mental faculty in which items are most easily accessed. Cowan (1999) suggested that its capacity is about 4 chunks, whereas others have suggested that its capacity is only 1 chunk. Recently, Oberauer and Bialkova (2009) found evidence that 2 items could reside in the focus of attention, but only because they were combined into a single chunk. We modified their experimental procedure, which depends on a pattern of switch costs, to obtain a situation in which chunking was not likely to occur (i.e., each item remained a separate chunk) and still obtained results consistent with a capacity of at least 2 items. Therefore, either the focus of attention can hold multiple chunks or the switch cost logic must be reconsidered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)





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Educational Psychologist

Working memory, attention, and mathematical problem solving: A longitudinal study of elementary scho

The role of working memory (WM) in children's growth in mathematical problem solving was examined in a longitudinal study of children (N = 127). A battery of tests was administered that assessed problem solving, achievement, WM, and cognitive processing (inhibition, speed, phonological coding) in Grade 1 children, with follow-up testing in Grades 2 and 3. The results were that (a) Grade 1 predictors that contributed unique variance to Grade 3 word problem-solving performance were WM, naming speed, and inhibition and (b) growth in the executive component of WM was significantly related to growth in word problem-solving accuracy. The results support the notion that growth in the executive system of WM is an important predictor of growth in children's problem solving beyond the contribution of cognitive measures of inattention, inhibition, and processing speed as well as achievement measures related to calculation and reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)





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Educational Psychologist

Wendy Johnson: Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology.

Presents Wendy Johnson, the 2011 winner of the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology. "For innovative research explicating the nature, origin, and consequences of individual differences in intelligence and personality. With methodological rigor and theoretical incisiveness, Wendy Johnson has addressed some of the most vexing questions in the psychology of individual differences. She has shown how genetic and environmental factors jointly influence many important life outcomes, explicated the structure of cognitive abilities, and demonstrated how cognitive ability and personality contribute to gender differences in academic achievement. Her consummate mastery of research methodology, genetics, personality theory, and human abilities has enabled her to advance an integrative program of research that is having a fundamental impact on the field." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)





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Thinking..fast and slow: Dual process models of cognition/intelligence--hot topic

Dual cognitive process (sometimes called Type I/II processing) have increased in prominence the past five years.  Within the past few weeks the long anticipated book "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kaneham was released, and it is already near the top of most non-fiction best selling books.  I can't wait to get my copy, as it will put Malcom Gladwell's "Blink" in it's proper place.  This will give the layperson, and many professionals, a better understanding of these two general classes of cognitive processes.

My thinking about applied intelligence test development and interpretation has been incorporated this general dichotomy in the form of a working (evolving) test development/interpretation framework (see summary figure below).
[Double click on images to enlarge]

The most recent journal to devote a special issue to dual process models is Developmental Review.  Below are the key articles and a few intriguing model figures.















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Salthouse on age-related cognitive decline: Annual Review of Psychology article (2012 in press)

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Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN) and reading fluency: Annual Review of Psychology article (2012 in press)

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Baddely on working memory: Annual Review of Psych article (2012 in press)

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Gabby Giffords response to music therapy: Fine-tunning the brain clock via rhythm




Very interesting story and video regarding speech and language therapy progress for Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

The use of music therapy is consistent with rhythm-based intervention programs.  One of this class of interventions mentioned in the article is melodic intonation therapy (MIT).  MIT is one of a class of rhythm-based therapies that have demostrated significant progress not only for brain-injury related aphasia, but other clinical disorders.  The Brain Clock blog has made many posts regarding the importance of brain rhythm or timing, with the master internal brain clock possibly being the underlying cognitive/brain mechanism that may be being "fine tuned" by these therapies.





A recent white paper that reviewed the efficacy of 23 different rhythm-based therapies can be found here. I recently blogged about one of these neurotechnologies, namely Interactive Metronome, at the IM-Home web page blog.  My post can be found here.  In a post to be released any day, I touch on the above white paper that concluded:


"After a review of four different types of rhythm-based timing treatments, of which IM was just one, we concluded that:


we believe that collectively the preponderance of positive outcomes (across the 23 listed studies) indicates that rhythm-based mental-timing treatments have merit for clinical use and warrant increased clinical use and research attention…positive treatment outcomes were reported for all four forms of rhythm-based treatment.  Positive outcomes were also observed for normal subjects and, more importantly, across a variety of clinical disorders (e.g., aphasia, apraxia, coordination/movement disorders, TBI, CP, Parkinson's disease, stroke/CVA, Down's syndrome, ADHD)….One notable observation of interest is that 15 of the 23 studies (the RAS, AOS-RRT and SMT treatment studies) all employed some form of auditory-based metronome to pace or cue the subjects targeted rhtymic behavior.  In all other studies, rhythm-pacing used some form of manual tapping or beat sound (e.g., drum).  We conclude that the use of external metronome-based rhythm tools (tapping to a beat, metronome-based rhythmic pacing, rhythmic-cuing via timed pulses/beats) is a central tool to improving temporal processing and mental-timing.” 




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Saturday, November 12, 2011

Latest issue of journal "Intelligence" is now out

Below is the list of articles in the latest edition of the journal Intelligence, the official journal of ISIR.

Danner, D., Hagemann, D., Schankin, A., Hager, M., & Funke, J. (2011). Beyond IQ: A latent state-trait analysis of general intelligence, dynamic decision making, and implicit learning. Intelligence, 39(5), 323-334.

Facon, B., Magis, D., Nuchadee, M. L., & DeBoeck, P. (2011). Do Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices function in the same way in typical and clinical populations? Insights from the intellectual disability field. Intelligence, 39(5), 281-291.

Frey, M. C. (2011). The relationship between performance in near match-to-sample tasks and fluid intelligence. Intelligence, 39(5), 273-280.

Hassall, C., & Sherratt, T. N. (2011). Statistical inference and spatial patterns in correlates of IQ. Intelligence, 39(5), 303-310.

Hill, D., Saville, C. W. N., Kiely, S., Roberts, M. V., Boehm, S. G., Haenschel, C., & Klein, C. (2011). Early electro-cortical correlates of inspection time task performance. Intelligence, 39(5), 370-377.

Johnson, W. (2011). Correlation and explaining variance: To square or not to square? Intelligence, 39(5), 249-254.

Johnson, W., & Deary, I. J. (2011). Placing inspection time, reaction time, and perceptual speed in the broader context of cognitive ability: The VPR model in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936. Intelligence, 39(5), 405-417.

Kagitcibasi, C., & Biricik, D. (2011). Generational gains on the Draw-a-Person IQ scores: A three-decade comparison from Turkey. Intelligence, 39(5), 351-356.

Kan, K. J., Kievit, R. A., Dolan, C., & vanderMaas, H. (2011). On the interpretation of the CHC factor Gc. Intelligence, 39(5), 292-302.

Kaufman, S. B., DeYoung, C. G., Reis, D. L., & Gray, J. R. (2011). General intelligence predicts reasoning ability even for evolutionarily familiar content. Intelligence, 39(5), 311-322.

Keith, T. Z., Reynolds, M. R., Roberts, L. G., Winter, A. L., & Austin, C. A. (2011). Sex differences in latent cognitive abilities ages 5 to 17: Evidence from the Differential Ability Scales-Second Edition. Intelligence, 39(5), 389-404.

Major, J. T., Johnson, W., & Bouchard, T. J. (2011). The dependability of the general factor of intelligence: Why small, single-factor models do not adequately represent g. Intelligence, 39(5), 418-433.

Pesonen, A. K., Raikkonen, K., Kajantie, E., Heinonen, K., Henriksson, M., Leskinen, J., Osmond, C., Forsen, T., Barker, D. J. P., & Eriksson, J. G. (2011). Intellectual ability in young men separated temporarily from their parents in childhood. Intelligence, 39(5), 335-341.

Preckel, F., Wermer, C., & Spinath, F. M. (2011). The interrelationship between speeded and unspeeded divergent thinking and reasoning, and the role of mental speed. Intelligence, 39(5), 378-388.

Reeve, C. L., & Bonaccio, S. (2011). On the myth and the reality of the temporal validity degradation of general mental ability test scores. Intelligence, 39(5), 255-272.

Ruiz, P. E. (2011). Building and solving odd-one-out classification problems: A systematic approach. Intelligence, 39(5), 342-350.

Templer, D. I. (2011). Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations, by R. Lynn. Intelligence, 39(5), 434-435.

Vock, M., Preckel, F., & Rolling, H. (2011). Mental abilities and school achievement: A test of a mediation hypothesis. Intelligence, 39(5), 357-369.

Woodley, M. A. (2011). Problematic constructs and cultural-mediation: A comment on Heaven, Ciarrochi and Leeson (2011). Intelligence, 39(5), 245-248.

IQs Corner Recent Literature of Interest: 10-25 to 11-08-11

Due to the delay in an IOs bug update to my iPad BlogPress app, I have not been able to post like I want. I am going old school and making this post via Blogger on the web via my iPad. Hope it works.

I just uploaded three updates to IQs Corner Recent Literature of interest. The following are now available

10-25-11
11-06-11
11-08-11

Computational modeling of prefrontal cortex@BrainCosmos, 11/12/11 5:52 AM

Brain (@BrainCosmos)
11/12/11 5:52 AM
Computational modeling of the dynamical reorganization in the PFC j.mp/skUYP0


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Friday, November 11, 2011

USA TODAY: Brain experts weigh in on Perry's brain freeze incident during GOP debate

Real world incident that gives some insights into working memory and the frontal lobes


Check out this article that I saw in USA TODAY's iPad application.

Brain experts weigh in on Perry's brain freeze incident
http://usat.ly/tUrTME

To view the story, click the link or paste it into your browser.

To learn more about USA TODAY for iPad and download, visit: http://usatoday.com/ipad/


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Educational Psychologist

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Dr. Susan Gathercole explains working memory

Susan Gathercole is a cognitive psychologist at the University of York and has been involved with research about memory for over 25 years. ©2011 Cogmed Working Memory Training. All Rights Reserved..





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Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Blogging status: BlogPress on the fritz and IAP's blogs going pro

Regular readers may have noticed a significant decrease in blog posts the past few weeks.  Why? 

I had moved all my blogging to my iPad as I have found it a much more efficient method for posting.  However, a few weeks ago Apple released its new IOS5.0 operating system.  After updating my iPad, my BlogPress app would crash.  I visited the developers web page and they had a note indicating they were aware of the crash and had submitted a fix to Apple for review.  I have been checking daily for the app upate, but it is not showing up.  So, please be patient.  I may go "old school" and do some blogging from my PC.

Also, I am just starting work with a professional web development company to integrate my IAP web page and professional blogs into a single professional looking (andmore efficient) web portal..  I will be spending significant time working with the developer on this new internet portal and migration of materials to the new server.  I have no idea how long this will take.

In the end the work will be worth it......so be patient.  I will do what I can to get back "up" and blogging with more regularity.  As soon as BlogPress gets the new app, you should see an uptick in posts. 

Thanks for your patience

IQ's Corner: Coming out of the neurotech closet


[Note.  This post was originally written to be distributed to a number of professional listservs.  I then decided against that idea, and instead, produce it here as a blog post.  I will be sending brief FYI (with links to this post) to a number of professional listservs.  So, it sounds like a listserv post...which it originally was...but it is now a blog post.]

Anyone who has followed my blogs knows that during the past 5 years, aside from my IQ's Corner blog, I have nurtured a sister blog addressing mental timing research (the Brain Clock blog..previously nicknamed the IQ Brain Clock). 

My interest in the brain clock, and other brain training/fitness technology, piqued as a result of my involvement (very skeptical at first) in a study directed by Gordon Taub in 2004.  Taub, myself, and one of the best stat/methodologists in school psychology (Dr. Tim Keith) published an article in Psychology in the Schools (Taub, McGrew & Keith, 2007) that reported that Interactive Metronome (IM) training resulted in significant increases in the fluency of basic reading skills when compared to control group subjects (randomly assigned treatment and control groups).  The results floored me...as I had become a huge skeptic of non-academic interventions for academics...as I had many scars from the early LD "process remediation" treatment days of Frostig, ITPA psycholinguistic training, Doman-Delacato motor pattern retraining, etc.).  I thus set out on a 5 year mission to explore the brain clock/mental timing research literature, which I have posted portions of at the Brain Clock blog.  I needed to now why such an elegant neurotechnology could have positive impacts on such diverse domains as ADHD, golf, tennis, reading, and stroke rehab.  It had to be working on some kind of cognitive domain-general mechanism.

I have become convinced that this apparently simple (it is not so simple if you give it a try...it places huge demands on attentional control and executive functions) neurotechnology may be (my working hypotheses) fine tuning the resolution of the underlying human brain clock (or system of clocks), and might be increasing the resolution of neural oscillations as per Jensen's neural efficiency hypothesis.  The brain clock literature has huge overlaps with the contemporary g and executive functions literature, and especially exciting research by Rammsayer et al regarding "temporal g" (which appears more highly correlated with psychometric g than Jensen's reaction time g).  These parallel sets of research all focus on similar neuro constructs and brain networks (the central executive network and the salience/attentional networks...as per recent research on large scale brain networks....the other being the default mode network; see Bressler and Menon, 2010; Large-scale brain networks in cognition: Emerging methods and principles, Trends in Cognitive Science, Vol 14, Issue 6, pp 277-290).

I won't go into greater detail.  I am going to provide the detail via a series of blog posts at the IM Home web site ---  via the blog feature.  My blog posts will be written for the lay audience, and will contain links back to my Brain Clock blog for the harder science.  My first post is now up and availale (click here)


CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE - I am not an employee of IM but serve as a paid external consultant.  Also, any statements or positions I make do not reflect the views of the coauthors of the WJ III Battery, a battery of cognitive and achievement tests where I am a co-author.  This disclaimer also applies to Riverside Publishing, the publisher of the WJ III.



Thank you for reading

Kevin McGrew
Educational Psychologist
Director, Institute for Applied Psychometrics.

Monday, November 07, 2011

Brain Myths@TheBrainScience, 11/7/11 7:04 PM

Brain Science (@TheBrainScience)
11/7/11 7:04 PM
Myths about our minds sns.mx/Yse9y4


Sent from Kevin McGrew's iPad
Kevin McGrew, PhD
Educational Psychologist

FYiPOST: Psychometrika, Vol. 76, Issue 4 - New Issue Alert


For my psychometric quantoid readers


Monday, November 7

Dear Valued Customer,
We are pleased to deliver your requested table of contents alert for Psychometrika. Volume 76 Number 4 is now available on SpringerLink

Register for Springer's email services providing you with info on the latest books in your field. ... More!
In this issue:
Measuring Latent Quantities
Roderick P. McDonald
Abstract    Full text PDF

Exploratory Bi-Factor Analysis
Robert I. Jennrich & Peter M. Bentler
Abstract    Full text PDF

Picture of all Solutions of Successive 2-Block Maxbet Problems
Vartan Choulakian
Abstract    Full text PDF

On the Relation Between the Linear Factor Model and the Latent Profile Model
Peter F. Halpin, Conor V. Dolan, Raoul P. P. P. Grasman & Paul De Boeck
Abstract    Full text PDF

Optimization-Based Model Fitting for Latent Class and Latent Profile Analyses
Guan-Hua Huang, Su-Mei Wang & Chung-Chu Hsu
Abstract    Full text PDF

A Tabu-Search Heuristic for Deterministic Two-Mode Blockmodeling of Binary Network Matrices
Michael Brusco & Douglas Steinley
Abstract    Full text PDF

The Geometry of Enhancement in Multiple Regression
Niels G. Waller
Abstract    Full text PDF

A Geometric Analysis of When Fixed Weighting Schemes Will Outperform Ordinary Least Squares
Clintin P. Davis-Stober
Abstract    Full text PDF

Biases and Standard Errors of Standardized Regression Coefficients
Ke-Hai Yuan & Wai Chan
Abstract    Full text PDF

The K-INDSCAL Model for Heterogeneous Three-Way Dissimilarity Data
Laura Bocci & Maurizio Vichi
Abstract    Full text PDF

Book Review
A.A. RUPP, J.L. TEMPLIN, & R.A. HENSON (2010) Diagnostic Measurement: Theory, Methods, and Applications.
Ali Ünlü & Thomas Kiefer
Abstract    Full text PDF