Cognitive Abilities

RESUMEN: Este experimento se basa en como los niveles de azúcar inciden en nuestra memoria, concentración e identificación de colores o formas. Lo cual se obtiene a través de un glucómetro y variadas pruebas que miden las diferentes habilidades cognitivas de una persona. La información recopilada ayudará a saber cómo se encuentra la glicemia en adolecentes de 17-18 años y si el azúcar ayuda a los individuos a tener una mayor capacidad de concentración. ABSTRAC: This experiment is based in how sugar levels affect our memory, concentration and the identification of colors and shapes. This is obtained through a glucometer and different tests that can measure various cognitive abilities in a human been. The recompilation of the information will be used to see how the glycemia in teenagers besides is to probe if the blood sugar helps to have a better concentration.

We investigated Gardner's "Theory of Multiple Intelligences" in a sample of 200 adults. For each of the hypothesized eight "intelligence" domains-Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Spatial, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Musical, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Naturalistic-we selected two tests based on Gardner's description of its content. Factor analysis revealed a large g factor having substantial loadings for tests assessing purely cognitive abilities-Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Spatial, Naturalistic, Interpersonal-but lower loadings for tests of other abilities, especially Bodily-Kinesthetic. Within most domains, the two tests showed some (weak) non-g associations, thus providing modest support for the coherence of those domains, which resemble the group factors of hierarchical models of intelligence. Results support previous findings that highly diverse tests of purely cognitive abilities share strong loadings on a factor of general intelligence, and that abilities involving sensory, motor, or personality influences are less strongly g-loaded. (B.A. Visser), [email protected] (M.C. Ashton), [email protected] (P.A. Vernon).

One factor in the debate surrounding the underrepresentation of women in science technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) involves male-female mathematical ability differences in the extreme right tail (top 1% in ability). The present study provides male-female ability ratios from over 1.6 million 7th grade students in the right tail (top 5% in ability) across 30 years (1981-2010) using multiple measures of math, verbal, and writing ability and science reasoning from the SAT and ACT. Male-female ratios in mathematical reasoning are substantially lower than 30 years ago, but have been stable over the last 20 years and still favor males. Over the last two decades males showed a stable or slightly increasing advantage in science reasoning. However, more females scored in the extreme right tail of verbal reasoning and writing ability tests. The potential role of sociocultural factors on changes in the male-female ability ratios is discussed and the introduction of science reasoning as a potential new factor in the debate is proposed. The implications of continued sex differences in math and science reasoning is discussed within the context of the many important interlocking factors surrounding the debate on the underrepresentation of women in STEM.

This paper seeks to address omissions in previous research by identifying a future competency profile for design engineers. A three-phase methodology using both quantitative and qualitative methods was employed. A competency profile for the future design engineer, 10 years hence, was generated. The profile consisted of 42 competencies divided into the following six competency groups (in descending order of criticality): personal attributes, project management, cognitive strategies, cognitive abilities, technical ability, and communication. Furthermore, non-technical competencies were forecast to become increasingly important in the future. Results were discussed with reference to their implications for the design engineering industry.

The relationship between second language acquisition and cognitive abilities (IQ) has long been the focus of research in the West, yet none had been conducted in Arabic speaking parts of the world. This study gathered data from female high school students in Saudi Arabia to explore the relationship between second language acquisition and IQ. An analysis of covariance revealed a difference between the two language acquisition groups in Raven’s total raw scores, with bilingual students attaining statistically significant and practically significant (i.e., moderate effect size) higher raw scores, on average than their monolingual peers. Analysis of scaled scores revealed statistically significant differences in all Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fourth Edition IQ scale subtests (Similarities, Picture Completion, Digital Span, Symbol Search, and Arithmetic). Speaking more than 1 language has linguistic benefits and, as this research confirms, general cognitive benefits. The findings support the benefits of bilingual education programs.

Smart textile technologies integrate computer functionality into textiles. Since a few years, smart clothing has been coming up in the sport and health sector and is increasingly implemented in everyday objects within private spaces. Especially the use of textiles for medical reasons and their potential use within Ambient Assisted Living-Concepts (AAL) make it necessary to understand users' perspectives on these technologies and the willingness to use them. Today, the understanding in which way individual attitudes and emotional and cognitive abilities, may impact the acceptance of pervasive health care technologies, is restricted. This research is focused on the users' hopes and fears towards smart clothing and examines perceived benefits and barriers. As women have a higher life expectancy and will dominate the group of old people in the future -gender was chosen as one central factor of interest. As the second factor we examined technical experience in order to learn if the acceptance for smart clothing is connected to the degree of users previous experience with technology. Outcomes revealed both factors --gender and technical experience --to be decisive factors for the acceptance of smart clothing. Generally, women and persons with low technical experience show considerable caveats towards the usage of smart clothing technologies what becomes most evident in the perceived barriers and fears connected to the usage of this new technology.

In the world of today’s telecommunication and internet based digital business economy, mobile banking is a milestone for banking sector. Like other developing countries, the service firms like mobile banking services of Pakistan are very much conscious about the importance of customer satisfaction. This study attempts to empirically analysis the effect of mobile banking on customer satisfaction in the Pakistani banking sector. Study is based on 111 samples collected through self administrated survey. It is concluded that perceived usefulness, ease of use, credibility and customer attitude have significant influence on determination of customer satisfaction in banking sector. Study recommended that the Bank management should strive for providing more value added services in their mobile banking apps and design more user friendly m-banking apps to enhance customer experience so that more people can transact and fulfill their essential banking needs through mobile Banking

BAT-7 is a new psychometric tool for assessing three intellectual domains, general factor (g), fluid intelligence (Gf) and crystallized intelligence (Gc), and eight cognitive abilities: Verbal (V), Spatial (E), Attention (A) and Concentration (CON), Reasoning (R), Numerical (N), Mechanical (M) and Orthography (O). It consists of three forms of increasing difficulty (E, M and S) and it is focused on the assessment of school and college students, as well as adults with different educational background. The present study aims to provide a description of the BAT-7 development and the main features of it, and a summary of its psychometric properties, mainly its reliability and validity. BAT-7 was administered to a Spanish standardization sample of 4,263 students (age between 12 and 18) and 1,507 adults. Reliability was studied with ordinal alpha, Cronbach's alpha and tests information functions. Validity was explored by multigroup CFA. 3P IRT model showed a statistical fit for all items. Ordinal alpha ranged from .79 to .91 for test scores and from .91 to .97 for composite scores. The model based on CHC theory showed a good fit to the observed data (RMSEA=.034; SRMR=.026; CFI=.981). The results, in terms of TRI model fitting, reliability and validity, suggest that the BAT-7 is a useful, flexible and highly reliable test for assessing the cognitive abilities, and provide evidences supporting the use of the battery for the assessment of intellectual abilities in children and adults. An estimate of general ability (g), fluid intelligence (Gf) and crystallized intelligence (Gc) also can be obtained by applying the BAT-7.

Several recent studies have shown that deficits of visual temporal processing are associated with poor mathematical skills in school-aged children. Here, we replicate and extend this finding in a large sample (n = 958) of university-educated adults. As part of the PERGENIC study, we measured psychophysical sensitivity to coherent motion (CM) and to Gabors of low spatial and high temporal frequency (GS), as well as obtaining self-report measures of ability in mathematics and science (MS) and arts and literature (AL). We found that participants with low MS were significantly less sensitive than those with high MS for both CM (Cohen’s d = 0.58) and GS (d = 0.38). Furthermore, MS was positively correlated with CM (Spearman’s ρ = .20) and GS (ρ = .14) across the full sample. In contrast, participants with low AL were significantly more sensitive than those with high AL for GS (d = 0.34), though the two groups did not differ on CM; and AL was negatively correlated with both CM (ρ = −.10) and GS (ρ = −.11) across the full sample. We discuss our findings in the context of magnocellular and dorsal stream theories of cognitive developmental disorders.

Publishing, broadcasting, narrowcasting technologies are developed and mobile publishing, broadcasting, narrowcasting has implemented in the world. More than half of the current human population has used or using mobile communication devices. However mobile content and publications, broadcasted audio visual material, still used less than other conventional media. Voice is the most consumed content in mobile medium; other contents are less consumed than voice. Users prefer mobile content that is economical, location and context based, user friendly and possible to personalise. Publishers and broadcasters wants to send and let their targeted users read, listen, watch, play, write and interact their contents whenever and wherever they are available. Mobile content and mobile publishing, broadcasting, narrowcasting is better than conventional media technologies in terms of accomplishing both sides desires. Appropriate business model for publishers and expensive mobile content for users are two important obstacles. ?Permission based individual marketing in the mobile content and publishing, broadcasting, narrowcasting? model, namely, for a user to be able to read, watch, use, interact, play a mobile content in exchange of his or her profile, is the solution. Within the frame of individual rights and ethics rules, publishers, broadcasters and advertisers, must choose permission based individual marketing in the mobile content and publishing. However other business models also be used. In this study, after observation, literature review and case studies, a model developed, in-depth interviews conducted for research purposes with mobile publishing, hardware, software, operator, marketing specialists and decision makers, and a survey conducted for general mobile communication device users.

Emotional intelligence (EI) involves the ability to carry out accurate reasoning about emotions and the ability to use emotions and emotional knowledge to enhance thought. We discuss the origins of the EI concept, define EI, and describe the scope of the field today. We review three approaches taken to date from both a theoretical and methodological perspective. We find that Specific-Ability and Integrative-Model approaches adequately conceptualize and measure EI. Pivotal in this review are those studies that address the relation between EI measures and meaningful criteria including social outcomes, performance, and psychological and physical well-being. The Discussion section is followed by a list of summary points and recommended issues for future research. 507 Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2008.59:507-536. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org by 64.105.207.65 on 01/07/08. For personal use only.

In the present study we analyzed sexual differences in cognitive abilities and their relationship in regard to the academic performance in beginner students from the Universidad Empresarial Siglo 21. For this purpose, we applied five subtests from the Differential Aptitude Tests (DAT) to 1529 students (713 males and 816 females) between 1998 and 2000. We assessed academic performance using the average grades obtained by the students during the first three years of theirs careers. We found a significant statistical difference between males and females in the tests and in performance. Also, we found average and high correlations between the tests combinations and the criterion performance. The test criterion relationships were higher in females than in males.

The paper contains a sample of archetypal mathematical prob-
lems, very elementary, but at the same time re°ecting the principal paradigms of mathematical thinking. The aim of our exercise is to give a flavour of what we would expect from sixth form leavers who might be interested and able to pursue a professional career involving serious mathematics -- not necessarily within the narrow domain of mathematics itself.

Human cognitive abilities are extraordinary. Our large brains are significantly modified from those of our closest relatives, suggesting a history of intense natural selection. The conditions favoring the evolution of human cognitive adaptations, however, remain an enigma. Hypotheses based on traditional ecological demands, such as hunting or climatic variability, have not provided satisfying explanations. Recent models based on social problem solving linked with ecological conditions offer more convincing scenarios. But it has proven difficult to identify a set of selective pressures that would have been sufficiently unique to the hominin lineage. What was so special about the evolutionary environments of our ancestors that caused them, and them alone, to diverge in such astonishing ways from their close relatives and all other life forms? Richard Alexander proposed a comprehensive integrated explanation. He argued that as our hominin ancestors became increasing able to master the traditional “hostile forces of nature,” selective pressures resulting from competition among conspecifics became increasingly important, particularly in regard to social competencies. Given the precondition of competition among kin- and reciprocity-based coalitions (shared with chimpanzees), an autocatalytic social arms race was initiated, which eventually resulted in the unusual collection of traits characteristic of the human species, such as concealed ovulation, extensive biparental care, complex sociality, and an extraordinary collection of cognitive abilities. We term this scenario the “ecological dominance–social competition” (EDSC) model and assess the feasibility of this model in light of recent developments in paleoanthropology, cognitive psychology, and neurobiology. We conclude that although strong or direct tests are difficult with current data, Alexander's model provides a far-reaching and integrative explanation for the evolution of human cognitive abilities that is consistent with evidence from a wide range of disciplines.

Appropriate preparation of personnel is crucial to the effective performance of the duties in the work contexts, especially in the case of the security sector in one country. Given the specifics of the tasks and the hierarchical organizational structure in which primacy is reached in the army, management personnel as direct participants in the decision making process dictate the effectiveness of the personnel in the defense system, in general. In addition, appropriate education and training of military leaders is a key link for readiness and successfully performing of their military duties, which directly affect the security of the country, and which actually is the main task of the Military Academy in Skopje, as a part of the Ministry of Defense in the Republic of Macedonia. Therefore, the Military Academy program is of interest to the security managers, which indicates a need for more serious approach to its construction and permanent monitoring. On the other hand, the demands of the contemporary challenges impose reforms aimed at harmonization with the European credit transfer system from one, and the principles of modern warfare and security challenges on the other side. Most thoroughly to all this can respond science by setting a system of evaluation in a scientific way, as an opportunity to scan the situation, providing objective indicators for monitoring changes and their effects, in order to answer the classic dilemmas-relations of academic and professional education, military sciences on the contrary of other sciences, the connection between theory and practice, etc.

The purpose of this study is to meta-analyze the published studies that measure the performance differences in mental chronometric tasks using a behavioral genetic research design. Because chronometric tasks are so simple, individual differences in the time it takes to complete them are largely due to underlying biological and physiological mechanisms. The publications that come from these studies show trends, but they also show much heterogeneity, which makes it difficult to draw clear conclusions. Statistically integrating them through metaanalysis is a way to provide a clearer, more comprehensive picture of the magnitude of genetic influence involved in mental processing speed. Analyses from this study show that heritability is somewhat dependent on task difficulty, with performance on more complex tasks having a higher heritability than less difficult tasks. Implications of this study are twofold: (a) mental processing speed is partially heritable (h 2 estimates from .298 to .521); and (b) as chronometric task complexity increases, so does the heritability. D

Case that I used in organizational behavior in the segment on Individual Differences and Behaviors. Subject covered in this case are skills, abilities, and job satisfaction.

If you are an instructor and would like to obtain a copy of solutions to the discussion questions, please write to me directly at starling at qatar dot cmu dot edu

Abstract
Assessment of learning potential in children with specific language impairment. Although the term Specific Language Impairment (SLI) has been questioned, especially due to the specific component, the reality is that its current use is widespread, even though sometimes people resort to
other denominations, such as developmental language disorder. The main purpose of this study is to determine the profile of two groups of children with SLI and evaluate their learning potential. This article describes a study in which a scale to assess learning potential is used, which is applied
to 20 preschool children with specific language impairment, named by their teachers and used as a control group, and 32 with specific language impairment that receive the assessment procedure for learning potential (experimental group). The results showed that there were no significant
differences in the pretest situation between the two groups in all of the subscales, and regarding the second aim we saw that the experimental group improved significantly in visual memory, sequential pattern completion, verbal planning and perspective taking, whereas in the control group there
were no significant differences.

There is an increasing number of studies claiming that the sex differences in general intelligence are "real." The empirical evidence is based on the summation of the standardized sex differences in several cognitive batteries. However, the scientific construct of general ability rests on the correlations among test scores, rather than on their summation. The latter (ability in general) is an arbitrary variable, not a scientific construct. General ability is not a function of any particular cognitive test, but a source of variance evidenced by the correlation between several diverse tests, each of which reflects general ability (g) to some extent, but also group factors and test specificity. Because there are important educational, economic, and social consequences of a group difference in general ability, it is especially germane to evaluate the possibility of an average sex difference in its proxy measures, such as IQ. The Spanish standardization of the WAIS-III is analy...

The notion of general cognitive ability (or ‘intelligence’) is explored and why the time might now be ripe for educators to re-consider the power offered by a general intellectual capacity which is itself amenable to educational influence. We review existing knowledge concerning general intelligence, including the cohabitation of general and special abilities, cognitive modules, development, and evidence for plasticity of

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo comprobar si el entrenamiento en el mantenimiento de la atención con distractores de tipo visual y auditivo mejora la efectividad en el rendimiento deportivo, en deportistas universitarios y de ligas de diferentes disciplinas deportivas del departamento de Boyacá (Colombia). Se trabaja en un diseño cuasi-experimental pre-test post-test con dos grupos experimentales y un grupo control; los procesos de atención fueron evaluados mediante el test de Caras, el Toulouse Piéron y el Stroop. Los resultados no permiten explicar las diferencias encontradas en las pruebas atencionales a partir de los programas de entrenamiento, pero sí el rendimiento deportivo el cual mejoró signifi cativamente en los dos grupos experimentales con respecto al grupo control.

Externalists about epistemic justification have long emphasized the connection between truth and justification, with this coupling finding explicit expression in process reliabilism.  Process reliabilism, however, faces a number of severe difficulties, leading disenchanted process reliabilists to find a new theoretical home.  The conceptual flag under which such epistemologists have preferred to gather is that of dispositions.  Just as reliabilism is determined by the frequency of a particular outcome, making it possible to characterize justification in terms of a particular relationship to truth, dispositions are accompanied by concrete, worldly manifestations.  By taking true beliefs as the result, not of certain processes but of particular dispositions, these epistemologists have attempted to respond to the numerous obstacles to reliablism.  Yet all this work has proceeded without regard to the wealth of contemporary work on the metaphysics of dispositions, making the new hope premature at best, ill-founded at worst.  Combining contemporary dispositional accounts of justification with extant analyses of dispositions reveals that the latter is the case.  The structural differences between epistemic justification and dispositions make it clear that not only should process reliabilism be abandoned, but the subsequent appeal to dispositions along with it.

Identifying the neural underpinnings of intelligence is one of the major goals of modern intelligence research.  However, few imaging studies explore the high extremes of intelligence, and most use only a single composite IQ score.  This study used quantitative EEG recordings to investigate correlations between the EEG variables of individual alpha peak frequency, relative power, and coherence, and scores on verbal and perceptual reasoning tests in participants with IQs from the low-average to exceptionally gifted ranges.  Overall, the results did not reveal any pattern of significant relationships between these EEG measures and the two psychometric tests.  Since this study had only a small sample, heavily skewed towards the high-IQ end of the scale, no definitive conclusions about the EEG measures and verbal and perceptual reasoning can be drawn.  Nevertheless, it reveals many opportunities for further research, and suggestions are made for progressing this topic in the future.

As humans, we are the only species that reflects consciously on our existence and how we came to be. Such musings have led us to formulate many different scenarios that see us as coming into existence through a creative act by forces outside of ordinary experience. However, within the domain of scientific reasoning, any appeal to such extraordinary forces is excluded.We therefore seek a natural account of how a species as complex as ours, capable of formulating and realizing the widely diverse forms of social systems that we know, could have arisen. Such an account must be embedded in the Darwinian paradigm for evolution, which has been fundamental to our understanding of the way in which biological reproduction can drive change from simpler to more complex biological forms.

People tend to recall more specific personal events from adolescence and early adulthood than from other lifetime periods, a finding known as the reminiscence bump. Several explanations have suggested that events from the reminiscence bump are especially emotional, important, or positive, but studies using cue words have not found support for these claims. An alternative account postulates that cognitive abilities function optimally in adolescence and early adulthood, which may cause more memories to be stored in those lifetime periods. Although other studies have previously discussed the cognitive abilities account as a possible explanation for the reminiscence bump, it was only recently shown that cognitive abilities are indeed related to autobiographical memory performance. When this recent finding is combined with previous findings that cognitive abilities as well as autobiographical memory function optimally in adolescence and early adulthood, they suggest that the cognitive abilities account is a promising explanation for the reminiscence bump in the temporal distribution of word-cued memories. However, because the account does not aim to explain the reminiscence bump in the distribution of highly significant events, it should be regarded as complementary to the existing accounts.

Introduction: Post-operative pain control in pediatric patients is often difficult to assess. Children often cannot verbalize their level of pain control. Pain control is often accomplished with various combinations of Tylenol, Ibuprofen, and Narcotics. Narcotic medications are commonly prescribed but have a variety of complications. We propose that treating pediatric patients with Tylenol and Motrin combination is a safe and effective way to control pain in most pediatric otolaryngology procedures.
Methods and Materials: Study approval was obtained from the IRB 194. patients, between the ages of 6 months and - 17 years, were evaluated. Some of the procedures that were performed were adenotonsillectomy, tympanostomy tubes, tympanoplasty, sinus surgery, congenital neck masses, and thyroidectomy. Patients were all started on Tylenol and Motrin following surgery. No narcotics were prescribed unless families called stating that pain control was inadequate. Parents filled out a validated survey at their first post-operative visit to assess pain control.
Results: 140/194 patients had post-operative pain that was adequately controlled by alternating Tylenol and Motrin. 27/137 required no pain medicine at all once arriving home. Nine patients requested additional pain control these include 6 adenotonsillectomies, 2 balloon dilation, and 1 PET/Adenoidectomy.
Conclusion: Alternating Tylenol and Motrin provides adequate pain control for commonly performed surgeries in the pediatric population. It is safe to wait and prescribe narcotic medications at a later point if pain control is not adequate. By decreasing reliance on narcotic medication we can reduce rates of complications associated with narcotic use.

Historically people with intellectual disabilities have not been offered or received cognitive behavioural interventions that have been shown to be effective for mental health and emotional problems experienced by those without such disabilities. This is despite many people with intellectual disabilities having life experiences that potentially result in them having an increased risk to such problems. This paper discusses whether such therapeutic disdain is justified based on the evidence that is available and emerging concerning the application of cognitive behavioural interventions for this population. Issues concerning access to services, the ability of people with intellectual disabilities to engage in and benefit from the cognitive components of CBT, and the effect of cognitive abilities and IQ level on treatment effectiveness are explored in relation to this question.

In Judgment and Agency, Ernest Sosa argues for a particular methodology -what he calls ‘metaphysical analysis’- whose aim is to provide a specific sort of explanation of knowledge -a metaphysical explanation-. As I read it, this revolutionary step points to the bulk of the ontological dispositional web that necessarily sustains a virtue epistemology, contributes to a proper understanding of accidentality in epistemology, and breaks the hold of Humean contingency. I will argue that Sosa’s account of the constitution of knowledge is not only able to rule out apparent counterexamples to a robust virtue epistemology, as well as to combine rational integration and knowledge explanation, but that also breaks the Pyrrhonian (and internalist) impasse. I will also argue that a principled distinction between cases of knowledge and cases of mimicking is prevented for anti-luck virtue epistemologists, so that they face a dilemma between their theory collapsing into a robust virtue epistemology or its collapsing into a form of nomic virtue epistemology. What binds anti-luck virtue epistemologies and nomic theories together is a common problem in binding, one that is absent from a theory, such as Sosa’s theory, that locates knowledge in the domain of higher-order competences and rational guidance.

KEYWORDS: Anti-luck virtue epistemology; dispositional directedness; Humean contingency; mimics; nomic necessities.

Illiterates represent a significant proportion of the world's population. Written language not only plays a role in mediating cognition, but also extends our knowledge of the world. Two major reasons for illiteracy can be distinguished, social (e.g., absence of schools), and personal (e.g., learning difficulties). Without written language, our knowledge of the external world is partially limited by immediate sensory information and concrete environmental conditions. Literacy is significantly associated with virtually all neuropsychological measures, even though the correlation between education and neuropsychological test scores depends on the specific test. The impact of literacy is reflected in different spheres of cognitive functioning. Learning to read reinforces and modifies certain fundamental abilities, such as verbal and visual memory, phonological awareness, and visuospatial and visuomotor skills. Functional imaging studies are now demonstrating that literacy and education influence the pathways used by the brain for problem-solving. The existence of partially specific neuronal networks as a probable consequence of the literacy level supports the hypothesis that education impacts not only the individual's day-to-day strategies, but also the brain networks. A review of the issues related to dementia in illiterates is presented, emphasizing that the association between the education level and age-related cognitive changes and education remains controversial. The analysis of the impact of illiteracy on neuropsychological test performance represents a crucial approach to understanding human cognition and its brain organization under normal and abnormal conditions.

The aim of the present essay is to argue that robust virtue epistemology is correct. That is, a complete account of knowledge is not in need for an additional modal criterion in order to account for knowledge-undermining epistemic luck. I begin by presenting the problems facing robust virtue epistemology by examining two prominent counterexamples—the Barney and ‘epistemic twin earth’ cases. After proposing a way in which virtue epistemology can explain away these two problematic cases, thereby, implying that cognitive abilities are also safe, I offer a naturalistic explanation in support of this last claim, inspired by evolutionary epistemology. Finally, I argue that naturalized epistemology should not be thought of as being exclusively descriptive. On the contrary, the evolutionary story I offer in support of the claim that reliability implies safety can provide us with a plausible epistemic norm.

Claims have been made that left-handedness often arises from pathological causes, and that owing to this underlying pathology, the presence of sinistrality may entail disadvantages for both the length and quality of life. A prime implication of these claims is that left-handers, as a group, should display signs of poorer fitness than right-handers. This poorer fitness might take the form of an increased incidence of illnesses and/or accidents. In addition, it might also be predicted that left-handers would experience a psychological and, perhaps, cognitive quality of life that is inferior to that of right-handers. In the present study, we measured a large sample (N = 1277) of older adults on four indexes of lateral preference (hand, foot, eye, and ear), on whether or not they experienced pressure to switch their preferred writing hand, and variables related to psychological well-being, physical health, and cognitive performance. The results revealed that the presence of left hand writing, in isolation, did not predict decreases in quality of life factors; however, in conjunction with left-handed writing, the presence of a hand preference switch report was shown to be important. In particular, one subset of left-handers-those who attempted to change their preferred writing hand but were unsuccessful-was found to have a lower quality of psychological and physical well-being on multiple measures.

The technological based economies need well-qualified and well-rounded human capital to increase strategically and systematically innovation: hence, the best universities are playing important and crucial roles in choosing right talents. However, after the graduation from the undergraduate and post-graduate studies, the new highly simulative job ecosystems should be needed foster innovation based economies. In that way, the technology parks, particularly those, which are close to the universities, have become very critical to attract talents and to sustain consistent development. Consequently, the policies and the strategies of higher education administration have become very important to attract new talents as brain gain or to lose talent as brain drain. In this study, how the policies and the strategies of higher education administration at different technology parks can affect on attracting or losing the talents is analyzed as a research question.
Therefore, the universities administration policies, strategies, and even roles at the technology parks as provocative environments are critically questioned on increasing innovation-based economies. Using a mixed-qualitative-method, this study aims at understanding how some technology parks are attracting talents, while some others are loosing due to the differences of the higher education policies, strategies, and roles. By analyzing critically the background of the three universities technology parks in Turkey comparing in the US, it is hoped to understand: (1) the existence situation of the higher education administration through the technology parks in order to gain the talent or vice versa, including individual earnings, (2) perceptions of key stakeholders (n=24) (e.g. higher education administration, technology parks executives, researchers, and graduate and undergraduate students). The best universities, seen even in the ranking list, have specific technology parks in which they attract attraction talents since they have well-developed ecosystems for innovation oriented research ecosystems. However, those which do not have well-organized relationship with the technology parks, particularly in incubation, they lose their talents. In this case, the income is not even among the first five reasons. The talents prefer to mobilize and circulate in those universities where the higher education policies, strategies, and roles are well structured with rich values, such
as entrepreneurship, visibility, accessibility, and affordability. The studies show that the background of the two universities technology parks in Turkey comparing in the US has the same
structure due to the fact that they have tried to use the same higher education management systems, particularly in accountability and transparency of the talents. On the other hand, one of them does not have any accountability and transparency criteria to follow up the talents’ performances. The perceptions of key stakeholders as higher education administration depend on
the values in the organizations. Those who have strategic models, planning, short-term and long-term policies have played better and proactive roles at the universities in choosing the right
talents and encouraging them in their careers, especially with the help of technology parks executives. So, the best talented researchers, graduate and undergraduate students choose the
right technology parks where they improve their capacities while building innovation capacity.

Complementing prior research on income and educational mobility, we examine the intergenerational transmission of cognitive abilities. We find that individuals’ cognitive skills are positively related to their parents’ abilities, despite controlling for educational attainment and family background. Differentiating between mothers’ and fathers’ IQ transmission, we find different effects on the cognition of sons and daughters. Cognitive skills that are based

Advanced signal processing in hearing aids is designed to enhance listening comfort and reduce listening effort, in addition to improving audibility and intelligibility. Listening effort may be proportional to the demand for cognitive processing resources. Sarampalis and colleagues (2009) showed that the Ephraim-Malah noise reduction algorithm (Ephraim & Malah, 1985) reduced the effort of listening in noise for people with normal hearing and, what is more, improved their memory for heard materials. However, improved memory as a result of noise reduction for people with hearing impairment has not been reported. In this study, we investigated the effects of noise and binary masking noise reduction in hearing aids (Wang et al, 2009) on the ability of listeners with hearing impairment to recall speech heard in noise. The presence of background noise, such as stationary noise and competing speech, makes speech understanding more effortful, especially for persons with hearing impairment (Rudner et al, 2011). For individuals with normal hearing, stationary noise may have a stronger masking effect than competing speech at the same signalto-noise ratio (SNR) due to the absence of the temporal fl uctuations found in speech which provide the opportunity to listen to the target speech in the dips in the background noise (Duquesnoy,1983). In other words, a competing speech background, which contains temporal fl uctuations, may give rise to release from masking of target speech (Festen & Plomp, 1990). However, the masking release in a competing speech background reduces as hearing loss increases and as signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improves. Linguistic information in competing speech causes distraction and adds to speech understanding diffi culties (S ö rqvist & R ö nnberg, 2012). Therefore, for persons with hearing impairment, competing speech may have a stronger masking effect on speech than stationary noise. Working memory, which involves simultaneous processing and storage of information, is limited, and its capacity varies across individuals (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980). Depending on the diffi culty of the listening conditions, the involvement of working memory in speech perception varies (Rudner et al, 2011). The ease of language understanding (ELU) model describes the role that working memory capacity plays in speech perception in challenging listening conditions (R ö nnberg, 2003; R ö nnberg et al, 2008). In favorable circumstances, language input is intact and this gives better access to phonologically based long-term representations in the mental lexicon. Under such circumstances, processing of language input is automatic and implicit. When the input is weak or distorted, a mismatch may arise. In this situation, explicit processing is needed to match the suboptimal input with representations in the long-term memory store. Thus, effi cient cognitive function and good cognitive capacity may support the effectiveness of remedial explicit processing.

For any taxonomic model of cognitive abilities to be complete, lower-order sensory processes must be incorporated within its scope. The current study sought to address the role of olfactory processes within the theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence, as this sensory modality appears to have remained uninvestigated. Evidence from within experimental cognitive psychology suggests that olfactory memory is distinct from memory in other sensory modalities. Thus, this issue was also explored from an individual differences perspective. Participants (N = 107) were tested on a battery of 12 psychometric tests, 4 putative cognitive olfactory tasks, and 1 olfactory discrimination measure. The resultant data set was subjected to exploratory factor analysis. Results indicate the likely existence of an olfactory memory ability that is structurally independent of established higher-order abilities and not related to simple olfactory sensitivity. The implication of this finding to models of human cognitive abilities is discussed. D

One factor in the debate surrounding the underrepresentation of women in science technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) involves male-female mathematical ability differences in the extreme right tail (top 1% in ability). The present study provides male-female ability ratios from over 1.6 million 7th grade students in the right tail (top 5% in ability) across 30 years (1981-2010) using multiple measures of math, verbal, and writing ability and science reasoning from the SAT and ACT. Male-female ratios in mathematical reasoning are substantially lower than 30 years ago, but have been stable over the last 20 years and still favor males. Over the last two decades males showed a stable or slightly increasing advantage in science reasoning. However, more females scored in the extreme right tail of verbal reasoning and writing ability tests. The potential role of sociocultural factors on changes in the male-female ability ratios is discussed and the introduction of science reasoning as a potential new factor in the debate is proposed. The implications of continued sex differences in math and science reasoning is discussed within the context of the many important interlocking factors surrounding the debate on the underrepresentation of women in STEM.