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Results for “MENTAL PROCESSES”

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At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

Is integer arithmetic fundamental to mental processing?: the mind's secret arithmetic.

Unlike the ability to acquire our native language, we struggle to learn multiplication and division. It may then come as a surprise that the mental machinery for performing lightning-fast integer arithmetic calculations could be within us all even though it cannot be readily accessed, nor do we have any idea of its primary function. We are led to this provocative hypothesis by analysing the extraordinary skills of autistic savants. In our view such individuals have privileged access to lower levels of information not normally available through introspection.

Art↗
PubMed2001

Rethinking maternal sensitivity: mothers' comments on infants' mental processes predict security of attachment at 12 months.

This study investigated predictors of attachment security in a play context using a sample of 71 mothers and their 6-month-old infants. We sought to rethink the concept of maternal sensitivity by focusing on mothers' ability accurately to read the mental states governing infant behaviour. Five categories were devised to assess this ability, four of which were dependent on maternal responses to infant behaviours, such as object-directed activity. The fifth, mothers' Appropriate minded-related comments, assessed individual differences in mothers' proclivity to comment appropriately on their infants' mental states and processes. Higher scores in this fifth category related to a secure attachment relationship at 12 months. Maternal sensitivity and Appropriate mind-related comments were independent predictors of attachment security at 12 months, respectively accounting for 6.5% and 12.7% of its variance. We suggest that these findings are in line with current theorising on internal working models of attachment, and may help to explain security-related differences in mentalising abilities.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

The effect of intentional expectancy on mental processing: a chronopsychophysiological investigation.

Expected events are processed faster than unexpected ones. Previously, we have reported evidence that passive expectancies determined by the preceding event sequence mainly affected the duration of motoric processes. Here we examined the effects of instructed, intentional expectancies in a two-choice reaction time (RT) task. As predicted, RTs were shorter for expected than unexpected events. Onset of the lateralized readiness potential as an index of selective response activation, and the latency of the P300 component of the event-related potential, reflecting the duration of perceptual processing, indicated that intentional expectancy affected the time demands for central processing but did not influence the duration of early perceptual or motoric processes. Together the present and our previous results provide evidence that different kinds of expectancy can be distinguished by their locus of action within the information processing system.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Light, vitamin D and psychiatry. Role of 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 (soltriol) in etiology and therapy of seasonal affective disorder and other mental processes.

This is a review and a prospectus of effects of vitamin D on the brain. Effects of sunlight and equivalent artificial light on physiological and behavioral processes are probably mediated, in large part, through the skin-vitamin D-endocrine system. Experimental evidence from our laboratory reveals sites of action and concomitant direct effects of 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D3 (soltriol) on brain, spinal cord, pituitary and other endocrine tissues. This appears relevant for the activation and modulation of mental and endocrine processes, particularly related to seasonal and daily biorhythms. Effects of sunlight and corresponding artificial light are likely to be mediated through direct actions of soltriol on brain and endocrine tissues that are independent of its effect on calcium levels. Those direct actions are receptor mediated and appear to be dose related as they depend on intensity of light and length of exposure, considering light (photons) as a drug. A role for soltriol, the steroid hormone of sunlight, in the etiology and helio- or phototherapy of affective disorders with cyclic seasonal onset (seasonal affective disorder) is discussed and the significance of research in the new frontier of vitamin D and brain relationships is noted.

Calcitriol↗
PubMed1990

[Lead exposure and mental processes. Contribution to the discussion on dose-response relationships following short-term exposure].

Effects of exposure to lead during 6-9 months are investigated in 33 workers. They are divided into groups of 21 exposed workers (greater than 2.88 mumol/l PbB) and 12 exposed workers (1.92-2.88 mumol/l PbB). 14 workers were tested as references. We observed significant differences of some sensomotor and mental function between exposed and nonexposed workers. Errors in choice-reaction are correlated with increased levels of the lead exposure (delta-ALA-U, PbB). It is remarkably having established differences between the groups investigated and the correlations already after a duration of exposure shorter than one year. After 18 months without exposure to lead in 11 workers we found tendencies of improving of the results in testing psychic functions.

Dose-Response Relationship, Drug↗
PubMed1992

Electrophysiological evidence for temporal overlap among contingent mental processes.

A series of studies assessed perceptual-motor transmission of stimulus information by measuring lateralization of movement-related brain potentials in a choice reaction task with no-go trials. When stimuli varied in shape and size, lateralized potentials on no-go trials suggested that easily recognized shape information was used to initiate motor preparation and that this preparation was aborted when size analysis signified that the response should be withheld. This indicates that movement preparation can begin once partial perceptual information about a stimulus becomes available, contrary to an assumption of fully discrete models of information processing. By contrast, when stimuli varied only in size, no evidence for preliminary response preparation was obtained, contrary to an assumption of fully continuous models but consistent with asynchronous discrete coding models (Miller, 1982, 1988).

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Inferring the mental processes of other minds.

In 4 experiments, the authors examined how several variables influence the quality and quantity of information that people use to make judgments about other people. The results showed that when possible, participants consistently responded appropriately to variables that influenced information that they used to make inferences about other minds. The results also suggested that under circumstances with no opportunity to contrast behavior in different situations, people might not be sensitive to the quality and quantity of information present. The authors interpreted results to mean that under most circumstances, people make inferences in a way that efficiently uses information about the causes of behavior.

Cognition↗