Cognitive development: The origins of structured thought in the mind.

Linguistic syntax lets us communicate complex, structured thoughts, like whether a dog chased a man or vice versa. New work shows that seven-month-olds can entertain such structured thoughts even before acquiring their native language, revealing the origins of this sophisticated ability.

Thinking through the social world: Further exploring the direct, moderated, and mediated relationship between need for cognition and aggression.

Findings from a paucity of research suggest that need for cognition (NFC) is negatively correlated with trait aggression. The correlational nature of the data juxtaposed with the reliance on assessing trait aggression negates causal claims regarding this relationship. The objective of the current research to expand our understanding of the relationship between NFC and aggression in the following ways: (1) focus on state, rather than trait, aggressive behavior, (2) examine the role of provocation, and (3) test the mediating influence of state anger and revenge motives. Our study had US emerging adult participants randomly assigned to be provoked or not before completing measures of anger, revenge motives, and aggression. Results showed that only revenge motives mediated the relationship between NFC and aggression, which was found to be significant only for provoked participants. Results are discussed in theoretical and practical implications.

Competency in invasion science: addressing stagnation challenges by promoting innovation and creative thinking.

In today's ever-evolving scientific landscape, invasion science faces a plethora of challenges, such as terminological inconsistency and the rapidly growing literature corpus with few or incomplete syntheses of knowledge, which may be perceived as a stagnation in scientific progress. We explore the concept of 'competency', which is extensively debated across disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, and linguistics. Traditionally, it is associated with attributes that enable superior performance and continuous ingenuity. We propose that the concept of competency can be applied to invasion science as the ability to creatively and critically engage with global challenges. For example, competency may help develop innovative strategies for understanding and managing the multifaceted, unprecedented challenges posed by the spread and impacts of non-native species, as well as identifying novel avenues of inquiry for management. Despite notable advancements and the exponential increase in scholarly publications, invasion science still encounters obstacles such as insufficient interdisciplinary collaboration paralleled by a lack of groundbreaking or actionable scientific advancements. To enhance competency in invasion science, a paradigm shift is needed. This shift entails fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, nurturing creative and critical thinking, and establishing a stable and supportive environment for early career researchers, thereby promoting the emergence of competency and innovation. Embracing perspectives from practitioners and decision makers, alongside diverse disciplines beyond traditional ecological frameworks, can further add novel insights and innovative methodologies into invasion science. Invasion science must also address the ethical implications of its practices and engage the public in awareness and education programs. Such initiatives can encourage a more holistic understanding of invasions, attracting and cultivating competent minds capable of thinking beyond conventional paradigms and contributing to the advancement of the field in a rapidly changing world.

The recursive grammar of mental time travel.

One apparent feature of mental time travel is the ability to recursively embed temporal perspectives across different times: humans can remember how we anticipated the future and anticipate how we will remember the past. This recursive structure of mental time travel might be formalized in terms of a 'grammar' that is reflective of but more general than linguistic notions of absolute and relative tense. Here, I provide a foundation for this grammatical framework, emphasizing a bounded (rather than unbounded) recursive function that supports mental time travel to a limited temporal depth and to actual and possible scenarios. Anticipated counterfactual thinking, for instance, entails three levels of mental time travel to a possible scenario ('in the future, I will reflect on how my past self could have taken a different future action') and is centrally implicated in complex human decision-making. This perspective calls for further research into the mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny of recursive mental time travel, and revives the question of links with other recursive forms of thinking such as theory of mind. This article is part of the theme issue 'Elements of episodic memory: lessons from 40 years of research'.

Children's mental time travel into the future: a functional perspective.

Children's episodic future-thinking is typically assessed using experimental tasks that measure whether children select an item with future utility. Although these tasks-inspired by Tulving's seminal 'spoon test' (Tulving E. 2005 Episodic memory and autonoesis: uniquely human? In The missing link in cognition: origins of self-reflective consciousness [eds HS Terrace, J Metcalfe], pp. 3-56. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. [doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161564.001.0001])-are passed around age 4, they tell us little about the functional significance of children's episodic future-thinking in their day-to-day lives. We highlight how a naturalistic approach can shed light on this issue, and present a small study where we recruited mothers to report on their children's (N = 12, 3- and 4-year-olds and 6- and 7-year-olds) future-thinking over a 7-day period. We used a thematic analysis to understand why children express future thoughts and derived the following themes: (1) expressing future desires and/or intentions, (2) future-oriented information-seeking, (3) connecting present actions with future outcomes, and (4) predicting future mental/physiological states. We compare these themes with recent accounts of the functional significance of future-thinking in adults and conclude that children largely express their future-thinking verbally to request information or support from their parent-likely because they do not yet possess enough control/autonomy to independently act for their own future. Our findings both complement and extend an experimental approach and further elucidate the functional significance of mental time travel in children. This article is part of the theme issue 'Elements of episodic memory: lessons from 40 years of research'.

Beyond the episodic-semantic continuum: the multidimensional model of mental representations.

Tulving's concept of mental time travel (MTT), and the related distinction of episodic and semantic memory, have been highly influential contributions to memory research, resulting in a wealth of findings and a deeper understanding of the neurocognitive correlates of memory and future thinking. Many models have conceptualized episodic and semantic representations as existing on a continuum that can help to account for various hybrid forms. Nevertheless, in most theories, MTT remains distinctly associated with episodic representations. In this article, we review existing models of memory and future thinking, and critically evaluate whether episodic representations are distinct from other types of explicit representations, including whether MTT as a neurocognitive capacity is uniquely episodic. We conclude by proposing a new framework, the Multidimensional Model of Mental Representations (MMMR), which can parsimoniously account for the range of past, present and future representations the human mind is capable of creating. This article is part of the theme issue 'Elements of episodic memory: lessons from 40 years of research'.

Measuring episodic memory and mental time travel: crossing the species gap.

Mental time travel is the projection of the mind into the past or future, and relates to experiential aspects of episodic memory, and episodic future thinking. Framing episodic memory and future thinking in this way causes a challenge when studying memory in animals, where demonstration of this mental projection is prevented by the absence of language. However, there is good evidence that non-human animals pass tests of episodic memory that are based on behavioural criteria, meaning a better understanding needs to be had of the relationship between episodic memory and mental time travel. We argue that mental time travel and episodic memory are not synonymous, and that mental time travel is neither a requirement of, nor an irrelevance to, episodic memory. Mental time travel can allow improved behavioural choices based on episodic memory, and work in all species (including humans) should include careful consideration of the behavioural outputs being measured. This article is part of the theme issue 'Elements of episodic memory: lessons from 40 years of research'.

Reflections on Attacks on Linking and the Thinking-Function in the Writings of W. R. Bion.

This article revisits W. R. Bion's theory of thinking by highlighting how thinking and linking are attacked. The author's theoretical reflections and clinical vignettes draw attention to the fact that patients may attack the analyst's thinking-function in two particular states: when they experience the analyst as attacking them precisely when the analyst is able to create a link, but one that is too threatening, painful, unsettling and frustrating or in response to the analyst's failure to create the link the patient had been expecting. How the analyst deals with and reacts to the complexity of the analytic relationship and to these two kinds of attacks is what will be internalized. In turn, it will affect the methods of communication within the psyche and with the environment and the development of a patient's emotional thinking.

The neural signature of an erroneous thought.

The human brain detects errors in overt behavior fast and efficiently. However, little is known about how errors are monitored that emerge on a mental level. We investigate whether neural correlates of error monitoring can be found during inner speech and whether the involved neural processes differ between these non-motor responses and behavioral motor responses. Therefore, electroencephalographic data were collected while participants performed two versions of a decision task that only differed between these response modalities. Erroneous responses were identified based on participants' metacognitive judgments. Correlates of error monitoring in event-related potentials were analyzed by applying residue iteration decomposition on stimulus-locked activity. Non-motor responses elicited the same cascade of early error-related negativity and late error positivity as motor responses. An analysis of oscillatory brain activity showed a similar theta response for both error types. A multivariate pattern classifier trained on theta from the motor condition could decode theta from the non-motor condition, demonstrating the similarity of both neural responses. These results show that errors in inner speech are monitored and detected utilizing the same neural processes as behavioral errors, suggesting that goal-directed cognition and behavior are supported by a generic error-monitoring system.

The relationship and influencing factors of critical thinking and medical ethical decision-making among pediatric medical students.

Pediatric diseases possess unique characteristics, requiring pediatricians to have strong critical thinking skills and sound ethical decision-making abilities. This study aims to investigate and analyze the critical thinking dispositions of pediatric medical students and their impact on ethical decision-making levels, and to propose suggestions for improving teaching methods. A cross-sectional study design was adopted, using the Chinese version of the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI-CV) and an ethical decision-making questionnaire. An online survey was conducted among 240 pediatric medical students at Chongqing Medical University, collecting participants' basic demographic information. The study described the CCTDI-CV scores and ethical decision-making questionnaire scores (mean ±â€…standard deviation), with distribution and trend analyses performed using t tests and H-tests. Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between the 2, and regression analysis was conducted to explore factors influencing ethical decision-making abilities. A total of 229 students (95.4%) completed the survey. The overall average score of critical thinking disposition among pediatric medical students was 287.96 ±â€…39.09, with 139 students (60.70%) demonstrating positive or highly positive critical thinking dispositions. Ethical decision-making abilities were excellent in 85 students (37.12%). There was a significant positive correlation between critical thinking abilities and ethical decision-making abilities (R = 0.774, P < .001), particularly with analysis abilities, systematic abilities, and cognitive maturity showing higher correlations with total ethical decision-making scores. CCTDI-CV scores had a significant positive impact on ethical decision-making levels (P < .001), with factors such as family background and high school performance also significantly influencing ethical decision-making abilities (P < .001). Chinese pediatric medical students generally exhibit strong critical thinking and ethical decision-making abilities. Critical thinking plays a crucial role in medical ethical decision-making, with family background and high school performance being important influencing factors. Educators should focus more on developing multidimensional critical thinking skills to enhance students' ethical decision-making abilities, thereby improving overall healthcare service quality. The study results also provide new perspectives for international pediatric medical educators.

The effect of simulation-based training on problem-solving skills, critical thinking skills, and self-efficacy among nursing students in Vietnam: a before-and-after study.

PURPOSE: This study investigated the effect of simulation-based training on nursing students' problem-solving skills, critical thinking skills, and self-efficacy. METHODS: A single-group pretest and posttest study was conducted among 173 second-year nursing students at a public university in Vietnam from May 2021 to July 2022. Each student participated in the adult nursing preclinical practice course, which utilized a moderate-fidelity simulation teaching approach. Instruments including the Personal Problem-Solving Inventory Scale, Critical Thinking Skills Questionnaire, and General Self-Efficacy Questionnaire were employed to measure participants' problem-solving skills, critical thinking skills, and self-efficacy. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the paired-sample t-test with the significance level set at P<0.05. RESULTS: The mean score of the Personal Problem-Solving Inventory posttest (127.24±12.11) was lower than the pretest score (131.42±16.95), suggesting an improvement in the problem-solving skills of the participants (t172=2.55, P=0.011). There was no statistically significant difference in critical thinking skills between the pretest and posttest (P=0.854). Self-efficacy among nursing students showed a substantial increase from the pretest (27.91±5.26) to the posttest (28.71±3.81), with t172=-2.26 and P=0.025. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that simulation-based training can improve problem-solving skills and increase self-efficacy among nursing students. Therefore, the integration of simulation-based training in nursing education is recommended.

Collaborative AI-enhanced digital mind-mapping as a tool for stimulating creative thinking in inclusive education for students with neurodevelopmental disorders.

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, inclusive education is becoming an increasingly important method in the education of people with various types of disabilities. This study is aimed at investigating the effectiveness of utilizing collaborative digital mind-mapping techniques in the practical work of students in inclusive educational groups, as well as examining how the use of AI-provided prompts influences the development of creative skills. METHODS: The study involved 163 participants, among whom 28 had neurodevelopmental disorders. The application of the proposed methodology resulted in an improvement in the indicators of creative thinking as measured by the Torrance Figural Creativity Test, specifically in terms of Fluency, Originality, Elaboration, and overall creativity score; the observed increase was statistically significant according to the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (p = 0.05). RESULTS: This increase in indicators was observed both in students with neurodevelopmental disorders and in students without developmental disorders, with a notably stronger impact observed on students with neurodevelopmental disorders. Furthermore, a slightly higher effectiveness of the applied methodology was recorded when AI prompts were used for both categories of students. Students with neurodevelopmental disorders largely perceived the usefulness of the prompts they received subjectively. CONCLUSIONS: The present research may contribute to further study of various creativity development methodologies in inclusive education, as well as regarding the influence of AI utilization on creative skills. The obtained results can be utilized in the development of educational programs for students in higher education institutions that support inclusive forms of learning.

Development and validation of a Disorganised Thoughts Scale: a new measure to assess thinking difficulties in the general population.

BACKGROUND: Disordered thinking is a condition that can manifest in not only clinical cases (e.g., psychotic disorders), but also the wider general population. However, there is no current method to measure the specific cognitive processes experienced during such a condition. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a new self-report measure, the Disorganised Thoughts Scale (DTS), that can assess disorganised thinking in the general population. METHODS: To achieve this aim, a survey was developed and shared online with four independent samples, including a sample of Australians in the general population (N = 321) and three samples (N = 200 each) that were controlled for their substance use (i.e., frequent alcohol and cannabis use; non-frequent substance use). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and reliability analyses, were used to test the internal validity, whilst correlational analyses were implemented to examine the external validity. RESULTS: The exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure (10 items each) measuring Positive thought disorder (i.e., accelerated, uncontrollable, and incongruent thinking) and Negative thought disorder (i.e., inhibited, disjointed, and disorientated thinking). This internal structure was confirmed with subsequent confirmatory factor and reliability analyses (α = 0.90 to 0.97) in the three substance-controlled groups. Concurrent validity was also supported, as the DTS exhibited strong correlations with established measures of general cognitive difficulties, specific self-regulatory dysfunctions, and psychopathological symptomology. Finally, the measure was also shown to be significantly higher in cohorts who exhibited a higher degree of psychological distress and who frequently used substances (i.e., alcohol and cannabis). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this study provided preliminary evidence to suggest that the DTS is a sound measure of disorganised thought that is linked to psychopathology and substance use in non-clinical populations. The measure could be used in future research which seeks to better understand how thinking effects, and is affected by, various psychological conditions.

"(Not) knowing what you know": Exploring educators' perceptions of critical thinking in occupational therapy.

BACKGROUND: Critical thinking is key for responsible occupational therapy practice. However, the degree to which educators understand critical thinking and the conceptualizations of such concept in teaching remains unclear. AIM: This study aimed to describe occupational therapy educators' perceptions and experiences of teaching critical thinking. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Social constructivism underpins the study. Eight participants were included in three online synchronous focus groups. One participant was interviewed in person due to time constraints. Data were analysed using content analysis. RESULTS: This study reveals a considerable diversity of perceptions and experiences of ambiguity regarding educators' perceptions of what they know about and how to teach critical thinking. Most educators interpret critical thinking in ways that differs from their colleagues. Furthermore, educators encounter divergent expectations pertaining to their role as educators and the readiness of their students. CONCLUSIONS: This study reveal a paradox within the occupational therapy profession, where critical thinking is highly valued yet educators experience ambiguity, differing expectations of their role, time constraints, and lack of formal education to support students' development of critical thinking. SIGNIFICANCE: This study provides the foundation for further inquiry into the invisible effects and benefits of different understandings of critical thinking on occupational therapy practice.

Harnessing technology to measure individual differences in spatial thinking in early childhood from a relational developmental systems perspective.

According to the Relational Developmental Systems perspective, the development of individual differences in spatial thinking (e.g., mental rotation, spatial reorientation, and spatial language) are attributed to various psychological (e.g., children's cognitive strategies), biological (e.g., structure and function of hippocampus), and cultural systems (e.g., caregiver spatial language input). Yet, measuring the development of individual differences in spatial thinking in young children, as well as the psychological, biological, and cultural systems that influence the development of these abilities, presents unique challenges. The current paper outlines ways to harness available technology including eye-tracking, eye-blink conditioning, MRI, Zoom, and LENA technology, to study the development of individual differences in young children's spatial thinking. The technologies discussed offer ways to examine children's spatial thinking development from different levels of analyses (i.e., psychological, biological, cultural), thereby allowing us to advance the study of developmental theory. We conclude with a discussion of the use of artificial intelligence.

Life-Threatening Clinical Simulations for Nursing Students: Promoting Critical Thinking and Satisfaction.

BACKGROUND: Integrating life-threatening clinical simulations improves learning outcomes. This study assessed nursing students' critical thinking factors before and after simulation, evaluated nursing clinical reasoning ability and learning satisfaction at two time points, and explored relationships and predictions among critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and satisfaction before and after simulation. METHOD: Surveys and focus groups were used for this mixed-methods study. RESULTS: Quantitative findings revealed increased critical thinking scores for curiosity, skepticism, and systematicity; clinical reasoning; and satisfaction after simulation. Qualitative results supported these improvements and indicated enhanced curiosity for clinical knowledge and iterative phases of clinical reasoning. Students expressed satisfaction with the simulations. Objectivity significantly influenced clinical reasoning and satisfaction in nursing students following life-threatening simulations. CONCLUSION: Fostering a culture of critical thinking in life-threatening simulations is crucial. Educators must teach the importance of objectivity in clinical practice, encourage critical evaluation, and foster self-reflection in simulations. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(9):595-603.].

The Emergence of Edgar Morin's Complex Thinking.

Edgar Morin is more than 100 years old and has produced numerous original ideas. Complex Thinking is his approach to complexity and took almost thirty years to be written. He developed it based on many other thinkers but chiefly, we argue, on Wiener's Cybernetics, von Bertalanffy's General System Theory and Shannon's Information Theory. This article describes and discusses how those latter theories have been incorporated into Morin's thought, especially in La Méthode, his magnum opus, and presents, in a comparative fashion, his pros and contras on each of them. In our conclusion, we discuss how some of Morin's criticisms of the founding theories might be unjust and also present a summary of some judgmental appraisals of Complex Thinking.

The Inventory of Personality Organization-Reality Testing Subscale and Belief in Science Scale: Confirmatory factor and Rasch analysis of thinking style measures.

The Inventory of Personality Organization-Reality Testing Subscale (IPO-RT) and Belief in Science Scale (BIS) represent indirect, proxy measures of intuitive-experiential and analytical-rational thinking. However, a limited appraisal of factorial structure exists, and assessment of person-item functioning has not occurred. This study assessed the IPO-RT and BIS using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Rasch analysis with a sample of 1030 participants (465 males, 565 females). Correlation analysis revealed a negative, moderate relationship between the measures. CFA supported a bifactorial model of the IPO-RT with four bifactors (Auditory and Visual Hallucinations, Delusional Thinking, Social Deficits, and Confusion). A one-factor model best fitted the BIS. Satisfactory item/person reliability and unidimensionality was observed for both measures using Rasch analysis, and items generally exhibited gender invariance. However, IPO-RT items were challenging, whereas BIS items were relatively easy to endorse. Overall, results indicated that the IPO-RT and BIS are conceptually sound, indirect indices of intuitive-experiential and analytical-rational thinking. Acknowledging the breadth of these thinking styles, a useful future research focus includes evaluating the performance of IPO-RT and BIS alongside objective tests.