Cognitive ProcessingPub Date : 2026-05-01Epub Date: 2026-01-09DOI: 10.1007/s10339-025-01325-1
Maede Bahri, Maryam Bahri, Ezzatollah Ahmadi
{"title":"Conscientiousness mediates females' life span differences in cognitive failures: a cross-sectional study.","authors":"Maede Bahri, Maryam Bahri, Ezzatollah Ahmadi","doi":"10.1007/s10339-025-01325-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10339-025-01325-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Evidence has shown that women experience increased cognitive failures in midlife. At the same time, changes in personality traits may occur with increasing age. This study determines which Big Five personality traits mediate age-related cognitive failures in females. We have adhered to the guidelines of the STROBE Checklist in presenting this research. A total of 215 women participated in the study. The participants were assigned to Early Adults (20-29 years old), Early Middle-Aged Adults(30-39 years of age), or Late Middle-Aged Adults (40-55 years old) groups, and completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and Cognitive Failures Questionnaire. Mediation analysis implied that conscientiousness negatively mediated the relationship between age and cognitive failures. This means that with increasing age, higher conscientiousness is associated with fewer cognitive failures. Understanding the role of Big Five personality traits as a mediating factor in the age-cognitive failures relationship could have important implications for interventions aimed at supporting women's cognitive health, well-being, and longevity.</p>","PeriodicalId":47638,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Processing","volume":" ","pages":"501-509"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145935723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive ProcessingPub Date : 2026-05-01Epub Date: 2025-12-04DOI: 10.1007/s10339-025-01323-3
Juexi Liu, Xueying Sai, Xi Wu, Jiadela Mulati, Lei Zhu
{"title":"Visuospatial or verbal-spatial codes? The different effect of two secondary tasks on the power-space associations during two explicit power judgment tasks.","authors":"Juexi Liu, Xueying Sai, Xi Wu, Jiadela Mulati, Lei Zhu","doi":"10.1007/s10339-025-01323-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10339-025-01323-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The power-space associations are widely discussed in the field of concept representations, with two coding systems proposed to explain this phenomenon: the verbal-spatial and visuospatial codes. However, it remains unclear whether these two coding systems are always activated in all situations, or whether they are context-dependent. To address these problems, the current study adopted two different explicit power judgment tasks, one visual and one verbal. In the visual task, all verbal cues were ruled out, and in the verbal task, all visual cues were ruled out. Each task was coupled with a secondary task-either visuospatial or verbal-spatial-to investigate the underlying activation mechanism. The results showed that both coding systems were sufficient to generate such associations separately. Most importantly, the activation of two different codes was context-dependent and interfered by the related secondary tasks.</p>","PeriodicalId":47638,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Processing","volume":" ","pages":"447-461"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145670196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive ProcessingPub Date : 2026-05-01Epub Date: 2025-11-25DOI: 10.1007/s10339-025-01321-5
Dilruba Sönmez, Timothy R Jordan
{"title":"Cognitive and affective empathy, executive functions, and the key role of personal distress: Why do autistic traits predict mental health symptoms in neurotypical adults?","authors":"Dilruba Sönmez, Timothy R Jordan","doi":"10.1007/s10339-025-01321-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10339-025-01321-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Individuals with elevated autistic traits often experience internalizing symptoms that affect their quality of life. However, the mechanisms underlying this process in neurotypical populations remain unclear. The present study investigated the mediating roles of executive functions (cognitive flexibility, working memory, inhibitory control) and social cognition (affective empathy, cognitive empathy) in this relationship. The mental health symptoms of 159 neurotypical adult participants (ranging 18-45) were assessed using the Autism Quotient, Depression Anxiety Stress-21, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and Generalized Anxiety Questionnaire-7. Within the same participants, executive functions were assessed using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, N-back Task, and Go/No-Go Task, while social cognition was assessed using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, the Eyes Test, and the Self-Assessment Manikin. Results indicated that autistic traits were positively associated with mental health symptoms. Among the examined variables, personal distress-a component of affective empathy-was the only factor showing a link between attention-switching difficulties and mental health symptoms. Neither cognitive empathy nor executive functions demonstrated significant associations. These findings suggest that heightened affective empathy may be related to greater emotional vulnerability in individuals with elevated autistic traits. The study contributes to a better understanding of the associations among autistic traits, affective empathy, and mental health, and underscores the importance of considering emotion-regulation processes in future research.</p>","PeriodicalId":47638,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Processing","volume":" ","pages":"327-341"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145606883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive ProcessingPub Date : 2026-05-01Epub Date: 2025-11-07DOI: 10.1007/s10339-025-01312-6
Gamze Yavuz Konokman, Burak Ayçiçek
{"title":"Prediction of creative thinking in music by emotional intelligence, cognitive control/flexibility.","authors":"Gamze Yavuz Konokman, Burak Ayçiçek","doi":"10.1007/s10339-025-01312-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10339-025-01312-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>While creativity is considered essential for students' academic and artistic development in music education, limited attention has been given to fundamental emotional and cognitive factors that shape creative thinking. Addressing this gap, the current study aims to investigate the relationship between creative thinking dispositions, emotional intelligence, cognitive control/flexibility among higher education students in music education. Using a relational survey model, data were collected from 152 higher education students studying in the Department of Music Education. The Marmara Creative Thinking Dispositions Scale, Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form, and Cognitive Control and Flexibility Questionnaire were used as data collection tools. Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to analyze data. The findings revealed that music students' creative thinking dispositions, emotional intelligence traits and cognitive control/ flexibility are above the moderate level. It is found that emotional intelligence and cognitive control/flexibility significantly contribute to creative thinking dispositions. These findings suggested that while both cognitive control/flexibility and emotional intelligence played crucial roles in enhancing musical creativity, cognitive control/flexibility emerged as the stronger predictor. Based on these, music education curricula should aim to create a balanced approach that supports both cognitive adaptability and emotional sensitivity, equipping students with the necessary skills for musical creativity and performance resilience.</p>","PeriodicalId":47638,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Processing","volume":" ","pages":"523-534"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145460237","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive ProcessingPub Date : 2026-05-01Epub Date: 2025-10-27DOI: 10.1007/s10339-025-01310-8
Jinmeng Dou, Tianqi He, Tong Chen
{"title":"Embodied grounding of abstract concepts: an image-based comparative analysis of sensorimotor and emotional experiences in Chinese.","authors":"Jinmeng Dou, Tianqi He, Tong Chen","doi":"10.1007/s10339-025-01310-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10339-025-01310-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The current study investigates performance differences between sensorimotor and emotional experiences when conceptualizing abstract concepts, focusing on two distinct embodied views between the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the Emotional Grounding Theory. Methodologically, this study employs the Visual Corpus Analysis approach to conduct an image-based empirical exploration of a dataset comprising 35,100 images. These images correspond to 11 Chinese basic color terms, 100 Chinese emotion words, 100 random Chinese words without any control of valence, arousal and concreteness ratings, 100 random Chinese words with normally distributed valence, arousal, and concreteness ratings, 20 abstract notions that are metaphorically associated with colors and are affectively distinguishable in the Chinese context, and 20 Chinese concrete words referring to food concepts. The study includes two key analyses: (i) a comparison of the re-representation quality of the target abstract and concrete concepts within four types of semantic vector spaces constructed based on the color terms, emotion words, non-controlled random words, and well-controlled random words; and (ii) an examination of potential factor(s) responsible for the functional (dis)similarities between color terms and emotion words in depicting semantic relations of the target abstract notions. Results reveal that the color-based vector space yields higher re-representation quality for the target notions compared to the emotion-based vector space, and the functional (dis)similarities between specific colors and emotions are significantly influenced by the brightness-valence congruency effect. These findings offer novel insights into the ongoing debate on the embodied groundings of abstract concepts within the field of embodied cognition.</p>","PeriodicalId":47638,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Processing","volume":" ","pages":"385-405"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145379480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive ProcessingPub Date : 2026-05-01Epub Date: 2026-01-09DOI: 10.1007/s10339-025-01324-2
Victor Francisco, Arnaud Decatoire, Olfa Ben Ahmed, Yannick Blandin, Christel Bidet-Ildei
{"title":"SmartDetector: a valid and affordable AI-based markerless motion capture system for psychological experiments.","authors":"Victor Francisco, Arnaud Decatoire, Olfa Ben Ahmed, Yannick Blandin, Christel Bidet-Ildei","doi":"10.1007/s10339-025-01324-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10339-025-01324-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this paper, we evaluate the validity of SmartDetector—a markerless motion capture device based on artificial intelligence—by comparing it to a conventional optoelectronic motion capture system (i.e., Qualisys) in the context of stimuli construction for psychological experiments. To this end, simultaneous motion capture recordings were performed using both the conventional system and the SmartDetector, enabling the creation of 2D kinematic data and the generation of two versions of point-light displays. Three perceptual experiments were then conducted to facilitate comparisons between the two systems: a recognition task, a detection task, and a discrimination task. Bayesian analysis was employed to test the null hypotheses regarding the stimuli generated by SmartDetector versus those produced by the conventional motion capture system. The results suggest that participants achieved comparable performance across both types of stimuli depending on the task with reduced processing time and lower costs for SmartDetector. These findings appear to validate SmartDetector as a reliable and accessible alternative for creating point-light displays, reducing processing time and costs, thus reinforcing its potential for widespread adoption by professionals in the field.</p>","PeriodicalId":47638,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Processing","volume":" ","pages":"487-500"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145935731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive ProcessingPub Date : 2026-05-01Epub Date: 2025-11-26DOI: 10.1007/s10339-025-01311-7
Carlos M Vera, Pedro R Montoro, Cristina Orgaz, María José Contreras
{"title":"Beyond mediation: the direct effect of expectations on the illusion of control.","authors":"Carlos M Vera, Pedro R Montoro, Cristina Orgaz, María José Contreras","doi":"10.1007/s10339-025-01311-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10339-025-01311-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>How do our prior beliefs influence our judgments (if at all)? This study uses an expectation-inducing task to assess the influence of prior expectations on efficacy judgments in an illusion of control task. The study was conducted online with 150 psychology undergraduate students. The experiment used a between-subjects design. Participants were assigned to one of two groups, with each group being exposed to either a low or high level of expected efficacy. Following the expectation-inducing task, participants performed a standard associative learning task often used to assess the illusion of control. Interestingly, the effect of group assignments influenced the contingency judgments provided by the participants in the standard task both directly and indirectly through impact on their behavior. Although the indirect effect had been reported in previous illusion of control research, the direct effect of expectations in contingency judgments using casual mediation assessments is a novel result.</p>","PeriodicalId":47638,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Processing","volume":" ","pages":"317-326"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145606951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive ProcessingPub Date : 2026-05-01Epub Date: 2025-10-31DOI: 10.1007/s10339-025-01317-1
Hossein Mohammadi, Shahriyar Jamshidi Zargaran, Hassan Khajehpour, Iman Adibi, Abbas Rahimiforoushani, Shaghayegh Karimi, Nasim Dadashi Serej, Nader Riyahi Alam
{"title":"Human short-term memory learning based on dynamic glutamate levels and oscillatory activities: concurrent metabolic and electrophysiological studies using event-related functional-MRS and EEG modalities.","authors":"Hossein Mohammadi, Shahriyar Jamshidi Zargaran, Hassan Khajehpour, Iman Adibi, Abbas Rahimiforoushani, Shaghayegh Karimi, Nasim Dadashi Serej, Nader Riyahi Alam","doi":"10.1007/s10339-025-01317-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10339-025-01317-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Short-term memory (STM) temporarily stores sensory information, critical for synaptic plasticity, memory, and learning, and is regulated by the glutamate-gated NMDA receptor. While the frontal and parieto-occipital cortices have been implicated in STM, the electrochemical dynamics of the right hemisphere under cognitive loads remain underexplored. Utilizing a novel fMRS-EEG approach, we concurrently investigated the metabolic and electrophysiological dynamics of STM for the first time. Fourteen healthy right-handed participants (mean age = 30.64 ± 4.49; 5 females) engaged in a modified Sternberg task with two, four, and six letters. We quantified Glutamate/total-creatine (Glu/tCr) in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and parieto-occipital regions using LCModel. Concurrently, EEG oscillatory activities were recorded over these areas, focusing on glutamate levels and related electrical activities. Increased Glu/tCr ratios were noted with higher memory loads in the DLPFC (25%, p = 0.018) and parieto-occipital cortex (29.6%, p = 0.046). Gamma activity rose with glutamate levels (DLPFC: F(3,39) = 5.93, p = 0.005; parieto-occipital: F(3,39) = 9.23, p < 0.001), while alpha power was suppressed in the parieto-occipital region (F(3,39) = 6.22, p = 0.022). Theta oscillations correlated positively with Glu/tCr in the DLPFC (r = 0.317, p = 0.017) and negatively in the parieto-occipital (r = - 0.576, p < 0.001). Our findings reveal a significant interplay between glutamate metabolism and neuronal oscillations during STM, emphasizing the roles of the right DLPFC and parieto-occipital regions, which may inform hypotheses about the mechanisms underlying learning. However, we did not measure consolidation, and causal claims about synaptic plasticity are not warranted.</p>","PeriodicalId":47638,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Processing","volume":" ","pages":"365-384"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145423278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive ProcessingPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-08-18DOI: 10.1007/s10339-025-01298-1
Chen Zhang, Ming Tang, Rajasirpi Subramaniyan, Yuewei Jiang, Yehua Sheng
{"title":"Bidimensional regression and order relations: evaluating sketch maps with various spatial knowledge and distortions.","authors":"Chen Zhang, Ming Tang, Rajasirpi Subramaniyan, Yuewei Jiang, Yehua Sheng","doi":"10.1007/s10339-025-01298-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10339-025-01298-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sketch maps are the external representations of people's cognition of the geographical environment. Previous research on extracting invariant information from sketch maps has proposed various spatial relation methods, encompassing both qualitative and quantitative relations. However, sketch maps can encode varieties of spatial knowledge and distortions. This paper summarizes the frequently occurring distortions in urban sketch maps, such as shape, scale, and position distortions. Building on our previous work, we analyzed the differences caused by various distortions on bidimensional regression and order relations (Point Algebra and coarse Interval Algebra), and summarized the characteristics of these methods. We evaluated the methods on a total of 30 sketch maps derived from landmark knowledge, route knowledge, and survey knowledge, and provided recommendations on the use of methods for different types of sketch maps. Furthermore, the experiment demonstrated that combining bidimensional regression and order relations allows for a better assessment of the sketch map accuracy. We believe that an in-depth analysis of various types of sketch maps and distortions can provide new insights for sketch map alignment.</p>","PeriodicalId":47638,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Processing","volume":" ","pages":"143-156"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144875997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cognitive ProcessingPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-10-08DOI: 10.1007/s10339-025-01305-5
Polina Rafailova, Aida Malikova, Justyne Ingwu, Rebecca Wintjen, Thomas G Hutcheon
{"title":"Face-like cues direct attention more narrowly than arrows.","authors":"Polina Rafailova, Aida Malikova, Justyne Ingwu, Rebecca Wintjen, Thomas G Hutcheon","doi":"10.1007/s10339-025-01305-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10339-025-01305-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous research has found that eye-gaze directs attention in a location-based manner. In contrast, arrows direct attention in an object-based manner. In the current set of experiments, we attempted to extend this basic finding in two ways. In Experiment 1, we tested whether these effects would be replicated using real-world stimuli. In Experiment 2, we tested whether the eye-gaze of a robot would direct attention in a location-based manner (like eye-gaze) or object-based manner (like arrows). Across two experiments, we replicated previous work that found eye-gaze directs attention in a location-based manner and extend this finding to the eye-gaze of a robot. However, our pattern of results for arrow cues was more complex. It appears that arrows prioritize specific locations (similar to eye-gaze) but in contrast to eye-gaze, this priority spreads to the rest of the cued object. These findings are important for understanding the role of social factors in the mechanisms underlying the gaze-cueing effect and have implications for how human-robot interactions should be designed.</p>","PeriodicalId":47638,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Processing","volume":" ","pages":"59-69"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145253344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}