Sunday, January 28, 2018

How does your brain follow music?



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Kevin McGrew, PhD
Educational Psychologist
Director, Institute for Applied Psychometrics
IAP
www.themindhub.com
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Research Byte: Psychological and Cognitive Aspects of Borderline Intellectual Functioning : A Systematic Review

Psychological and Cognitive Aspects of Borderline Intellectual Functioning: A Systematic Review

Contena, B., & Taddei, S. (2017). Psychological and Cognitive Aspects of Borderline Intellectual Functioning. European Psychologist. Article link.
 
Bastianina Contena and Stefano Taddei
 

Abstract:

Borderline Intellectual Functioning (BIF) refers to a global IQ ranging from 71 to 84, and it represents a condition of clinical attention for its association with other disorders and its influence on the outcomes of treatments and, in general, quality of life and adaptation. Furthermore, its definition has changed over time causing a relevant clinical impact. For this reason, a systematic review of the literature on this topic can promote an understanding of what has been studied, and can differentiate what is currently attributable to BIF from that which cannot be associated with this kind of intellectual functioning. Using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses( PRISMA) criteria, we have conducted a review of the literature about BIF. The results suggest that this condition is still associated with mental retardation, and only a few studies have focused specifically on this condition.
 
Keywords: borderline intellectual functioning, borderline mental retardation, intellectual disability, systematic review


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Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Neuroscientists Finally Put The Dubious Claims of 'Phrenology' to The Test



Neuroscientists Finally Put The Dubious Claims of 'Phrenology' to The Test

From Neurociencia, a Flipboard magazine by igaea

Nobody really believes that the shape of our heads are a window into our personalities anymore. This idea, known as…

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Kevin McGrew, PhD
Educational Psychologist
Director, Institute for Applied Psychometrics
IAP
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Monday, January 22, 2018

Intelligence in the Brain: Conversation With Neuroscientist Rogier Kievit

Excellent thoughts from and excellent researcher interviewed by an excellent psychologist and thought leader.


Intelligence in the Brain: Conversation With Neuroscientist Rogier Kievit

Neuroscientist Rogier Kievit discusses the neuroscience of intelligence.

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Sunday, January 21, 2018

Creative people have better-connected brains, research finds

I have previously posted an FYI about this research.  This summary by Jon Lieff is excellent.



Creative people have better-connected brains, research finds

From Twitter, a Flipboard magazine by Jon Lieff MD

Seemingly countless self-help books and seminars tell you to tap into the right side of your brain to stimulate creativity. But forget the…

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Read it on medicalxpress.com




Thursday, January 18, 2018

General, crystallized and fluid intelligence are not associated with functional global network efficiency: A replication study with the human conne... - PubMed



General, crystallized and fluid intelligence are not associated with functional global network efficiency: A replication study with the human conne... - PubMed

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Read it on ncbi.nlm.nih.gov




Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Myelin Facilitation of Whole Brain Neuroplasticity

An excellent summary article

Myelin Facilitation of Whole Brain Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticty is the way a brain makes lasting alterations of its own circuits when responding to experience. A vast array of mechanisms have been…

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Read it on jonlieffmd.com




Creative thinkers' brains show signature pattern of neural connectivity, new study finds



Creative thinkers' brains show signature pattern of neural connectivity, new study finds

From Science and Health, a Flipboard magazine by IBTimes UK

In case of creative thinkers, researchers noted a better connection between 3 crucial parts of the brain.…

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Read it on ibtimes.co.uk




Sunday, January 14, 2018

Research Byte: Cognitive Mediators of Reading Comprehension in Early Development

Cognitive Mediators of Reading Comprehension in Early Development

Scott L. Decker & Julia Englund Strait & Alycia M. Roberts & Emma Kate Wright.

Contemp School Psychol DOI 10.1007/s40688-017-0127-0

Abstract

Although the empirical relationship between general intelligence and academic achievement is well established, that between specific cognitive abilities and achievement is less so. This study investigated the rela-tionships between specific Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) cognitive abilities and reading comprehension across a large sample of children (N = 835) at different periods of reading development (grades 1–5). Results suggest se-lect cognitive variables predict reading comprehension above and beyond basic reading skills. However, the rel-ative importance of specific cognitive abilities in predicting reading comprehension differs across grade levels. Further analyses using mediation models found specific cognitive abilities mediated the effects of basic reading skills on reading comprehension. Implications for the important and dynamic role of cognitive abilities in predicting reading comprehension across development are discussed.

From discussion

The results from this study supported our general hypothesis that specific cognitive abilities are important for reading com-prehension and the predictors change across grade. Specifically, measures of fluid reasoning (Gf) and auditory processing (Ga) appear to be most important for predicting reading comprehension performance (as measured by the pas-sage comprehension subtest) in the early elementary grades, while long-term retrieval (Glr) appears as a significant predic-tor in grades 3–4. Crystallized knowledge (Gc) appears to be important across all five early grade levels, consistent with previous studies (e.g., Floyd et al. 2007; Hajovsky et al. 2014). Reading decoding skills (as measured by the Letter-Word ID subtest) predicted reading comprehension across all elementary grade levels, also consistent with previous studies (e.g., Floyd et al. 2012), and reading fluency (reading fluency subtest) predicted reading comprehension in grades 2–5.

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Friday, January 12, 2018

The Paradox of Intelligence: Heritability and Malleability Coexist in Hidden Gene-Environment Interplay



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The Paradox of Intelligence: Heritability and Malleability Coexist in Hidden Gene-Environment Interplay
// PSYCHOLOGICAL BULLETIN - Web of Knowledge

Title: The Paradox of Intelligence: Heritability and Malleability Coexist in Hidden Gene-Environment Interplay
Author(s): Sauce, Bruno; Matzel, Louis D.
Source: PSYCHOLOGICAL BULLETIN, 144 (1): 26-47 JAN 2018
IDS#: FR6GA. ISSN: 0033-2909
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Five Factor Model personality disorder scales: An introduction to a special section on assessment of maladaptive variants of the five factor model.



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Five Factor Model personality disorder scales: An introduction to a special section on assessment of maladaptive variants of the five factor model.
// Psychological Assessment - Vol 22, Iss 2

The Five-Factor Model (FFM) is a dimensional model of general personality structure, consisting of the domains of neuroticism (or emotional instability), extraversion versus introversion, openness (or unconventionality), agreeableness versus antagonism, and conscientiousness (or constraint). The FFM is arguably the most commonly researched dimensional model of general personality structure. However, a notable limitation of existing measures of the FFM has been a lack of coverage of its maladaptive variants. A series of self-report inventories has been developed to assess for the maladaptive personality traits that define Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fifth edition; DSM–5) Section II personality disorders (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013) from the perspective of the FFM. In this paper, we provide an introduction to this Special Section, presenting the rationale and empirical support for these measures and placing them in the historical context of the recent revision to the APA diagnostic manual. This introduction is followed by 5 papers that provide further empirical support for these measures and address current issues within the personality assessment literature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)
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Sunday, January 07, 2018

Research Byte: Non-g residuals of group factors predict ability tilt, college majors, and jobs: A non-g nexus

Some interesting research for all my “all there is is g” g-hadists in school psychology to chew on.

Article link.

Non-g residuals of group factors predict ability tilt, college majors, and jobs: A non-g nexus

Thomas R. Coyle

A B S T R A C T

This study examined the predictive power of non-g residuals of group factors (based on multiple tests) for diverse criteria (e.g., aptitude tests, college majors, occupations). Test scores were drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 1950). Four group factors (math, verbal, speed, shop/technical) were estimated using the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a diverse battery of 12 cognitive tests. The residuals of the group factors were estimated after removing g (variance common to all tests) and were correlated with aptitude test scores (SAT, ACT, PSAT), ability tilt (i.e., difference between math and verbal scores on the aptitude tests), and college majors and jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and the humanities. The math residuals correlated positively with math/STEM criteria and negatively with verbal/humanities criteria. In contrast, the verbal residuals showed the opposite pattern. The residuals of the two non-academic factors (speed and shop) generally correlated negligibly with all criteria. The results are the first to demonstrate the predictive power of group factor residuals for diverse criteria. The findings extend prior research on non-g factors for individual tests (SAT and ACT) and provide evidence of a non-g nexus involving group factors. The pattern of results supports investment theories, which predict that investment in one area (math) correlates positively with complementary criteria (math/STEM) but negatively with competing criteria (verbal/humanities).

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The Problem With Grit



The Problem With Grit

In recent years, Angela Duckworth's work around "grit" has been widely taken up in school reform circles as a way of thinking about building students "non-cognitive skills,"…

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Friday, January 05, 2018

Meta-analysis of action video game impact on perceptual, attentional, and cognitive skills.


Meta-analysis of action video game impact on perceptual, attentional, and cognitive skills.


Journal ArticleDatabase: PsycARTICLES


Bediou, Benoit Adams, Deanne M. Mayer, Richard E. Tipton, Elizabeth Green, C. Shawn Bavelier, Daphne

Citation

Bediou, B., Adams, D. M., Mayer, R. E., Tipton, E., Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2018). Meta-analysis of action video game impact on perceptual, attentional, and cognitive skills. Psychological Bulletin, 144(1), 77-110. 
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/bul0000130

Abstract

The ubiquity of video games in today's society has led to significant interest in their impact on the brain and behavior and in the possibility of harnessing games for good. The present meta-analyses focus on one specific game genre that has been of particular interest to the scientific community—action video games, and cover the period 2000–2015. To assess the long-lasting impact of action video game play on various domains of cognition, we first consider cross-sectional studies that inform us about the cognitive profile of habitual action video game players, and document a positive average effect of about half a standard deviation (g = 0.55). We then turn to long-term intervention studies that inform us about the possibility of causally inducing changes in cognition via playing action video games, and show a smaller average effect of a third of a standard deviation (g = 0.34). Because only intervention studies using other commercially available video game genres as controls were included, this latter result highlights the fact that not all games equally impact cognition. Moderator analyses indicated that action video game play robustly enhances the domains of top-down attention and spatial cognition, with encouraging signs for perception. Publication bias remains, however, a threat with average effects in the published literature estimated to be 30% larger than in the full literature. As a result, we encourage the field to conduct larger cohort studies and more intervention studies, especially those with more than 30 hours of training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)


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Kevin McGrew, PhD
Educational Psychologist
Director, Institute for Applied Psychometrics
IAP
******************************************************

A meta-analysis on the relation between reading and working memory.

A meta-analysis on the relation between reading and working memory.


Journal ArticleDatabase: PsycARTICLES


Peng, Peng Barnes, Marcia Wang, CuiCui Wang, Wei Li, Shan Swanson, H. Lee Dardick, William Tao, Sha

Citation

Peng, P., Barnes, M., Wang, C., Wang, W., Li, S., Swanson, H. L., . . . Tao, S. (2018). A meta-analysis on the relation between reading and working memory. Psychological Bulletin, 144(1), 48-76. 
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/bul0000124

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the relation between reading and working memory (WM) in the context of 3 major theories: the domain-specificity theory (debate) of WM, the intrinsic cognitive load theory, and the dual process theory. A meta-analysis of 197 studies with 2026 effect sizes found a significant moderate correlation between reading and WM, r = .29, 95% CI [.27, .31]. Moderation analyses indicated that after controlling for publication type, bilingual status, domains of WM, and grade level, the relation between WM and reading was not affected by types of reading. The effects of WM domains were associated with grade level: before 4th grade, different domains of WM were related to reading to a similar degree, whereas verbal WM showed the strongest relations with reading at or beyond 4th grade. Further, the effect of WM on reading comprehension was partialed out when decoding and vocabulary were controlled for. Taken together, the findings are generally compatible with aspects of the domain-specificity theory of WM and the dual process theory, but, importantly, add a developmental component that is not currently reflected in models of the relation between reading and WM. The findings suggest that the domain-general central executive of WM is implicated in early reading acquisition, and verbal WM is more strongly implicated in later reading performance as readers gain more experience with reading. The implications of these findings for reading instruction and WM training are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-48448-001



Monday, January 01, 2018

The Neuroscience of Intelligence: An Interview with Richard Haier



The Neuroscience of Intelligence: An Interview with Richard Haier

Richard Haier is a Professor Emeritus at the University of California Irvine and is the author of the Neuroscience of Intelligence…

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