Cognitive functioning: is it all or none?

Under various circumstances, the cognitive system operates in a global manner that is not very precise and barely discriminatory. This form of operating has been described via a general principal that Diamond (Developmental Psychology 45:130-138, 2009) has denominated the All or None Hypothesis. This author has described a set of corollaries derived from this hypothesis that make it possible to verify it in each one of these domains. Although there is evidence of the global and non-discriminate way in which the cognitive system operates in populations of children, to date, there are no studies that have examined whether this mode of operation is also present in populations of adults. Researchers have yet to determine whether these corollaries apply to middle-aged adults. For this reason, this is the current study's principal objective. A sample of 73 participants with ages ranging from 18 to 57 of both genders was evaluated. A modified version of the arrows test in Davidson et al. (Neuropsychologia 44:2037-2078, 2006) was used to analyze the three corollaries. The results obtained in this study can be interpreted as evidence in favor of the corollaries analyzed herein. Furthermore, they indicate that adult populations have a global response mode that is barely differentiated and that is activated by default in the face of problems and situations that demand behaviors and/or thoughts that are not very analytical and differentiated. However, in contexts that demand greater discrimination, this global mode is substituted by a controlled mode that requires greater cognitive effort and more differentiated processing.

Perceptual inhibition of emotional interference in children.

In daily life, when a bee approaches us while we are sitting in the garden, we must pay attention to that threatening stimulus and give an appropriate response. However, if this bee approaches us while riding a bike, we must inhibit that distractor to avoid an accident. In this case, avoiding the interference of an emotional stimuli and continuing with the task should be preferential. In general, perceptual inhibition is responsible for controlling and suppressing the environmental distractions that interrupt the course of the realization of a goal. In this study, 435 children performed a modified flanker task with entirely irrelevant emotional and neutral stimuli in order to assess perceptual inhibition in contexts with high and low emotional salience. The results showed that entirely irrelevant distractors affected performance, but that there were no significant differences according to whether these distractors were emotionally salient or neutral. These results constitute a first approach to the problem of emotional interference in children considering the multidimensional approach of inhibition.

El paradigma stop signal como medida de inhibición conductual / The Stop Signal Paradigm: a measure of behavioral inhibition

El Paradigma de la Señal de Parar, Stop Signal en inglés, es uno de los procedimientos más utilizados para medir el control inhibitorio. Su amplia difusión se explica por dos motivos: su extensa aplicación en el ámbito de la neuropsicología clínica y, porque aporta un índice -el tiempo de frenado- que no se obtiene con otros paradigmas o procedimientos. Esta medida, refiere al tiempo que necesita el individuo para inhibir una respuesta preponderante. El cálculo del índice deriva de un modelo clásico de inhibición, el "Modelo de Carrera de Caballos". Sin embargo, el modelo no ha sido suficientemente difundido en nuestro medio, debido a la complejidad de los análisis matemáticos de base y a que la bibliografía disponible en español en este tema es casi inexistente. Por ello, el objetivo de este trabajo es efectuar una revisión sobre este método y presentar algunas de sus aplicaciones en la neuropsicología clínica y de la psicopatología, tales como para el trabajo con pacientes con trastorno bsesivo compulsivo, adicciones, y trastorno de atención, entre otros. MÉD.UIS. 2014;27(3):89-98.

The Stop Signal Paradigm is one of the most used procedures for measuring the inhibitory control. Their widespread diffusion is due to two reasons: its extensive application in the field of clinical neuropsychology and because it provides an index-braking time-that is not accessible with other paradigms or procedures. This index is defined as the time required for inhibiting a dominant response. The method used to calculate this measure is based on a classical model of inhibition: the "Horse Race Model". However, their diffusion is limited in our environment because the available literature in Spanish is poor due to the complexity of mathematical analysis involved. Therefore, the aim of this work is to carry out a review of this method and present some of its applications in the field of clinical neuropsychology and psychopathology, such as working with patients with obsessive compulsive disorder, addictions, and attention disorder, among others. MÉD.UIS. 2014;27(3):89-98.

Función ejecutiva y uso de estrategias semánticas en niños / Executive function and use of semantic strategies in children

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el uso de estrategias semánticas en población infantil y el efecto del funcionamiento ejecutivo sobre la frecuencia de uso de estas estrategias. Se trabajó con una muestra de 185 niños escolarizados de escuelas de gestión privada divididos en 4 grupos en función del curso. Los niños realizaron 4 ensayos de aprendizaje analizándose la cantidad de estrategias utilizadas a lo largo de los ensayos así como las diferencias de ensayo a ensayo. Además, se utilizaron diferentes tareas e índices de evaluación de la función ejecutiva. En primer lugar, los resultados muestran que, en la medida que se incrementa el nivel de escolaridad, los niños tienden a implementar un número mayor de estrategias semánticas en tareas de aprendizaje y recuerdo. En segundo lugar, se realizó un análisis discriminado por curso de las curvas de aprendizaje de las estrategias semánticas. Se encontró que, cuando se controlan las variables de funcionamiento ejecutivo, sólo se obtiene un efecto significativo para el factor ensayos, y desaparece la significación estadística tanto en la adquisición y uso de estrategias entre los ensayos en los distintos cursos, como en las diferencias en el total de estrategias empleadas entre los cursos. De este modo, los resultados indican que el funcionamiento ejecutivo puede jugar un rol de importancia en el uso de estrategias de codificación de información en niños.

The aim of this study is to analyze the use of semantic strategies on child population as well as the effect of executive function on frequency use of these strategies. A sample of 185 schooled children in private schools divided in 4 groups according to the level participated in this study. Children performed 4 learning attempts, so the quantity of used strategies along assays as well as differences from assay to assay were analyzed. Moreover, different tasks and assessment indexes about executive function were used. First, results showed that as the school level increases children tend to apply a major number of semantic strategies in learning and memory tasks. Secondly, a discriminate analysis by course of the learning curves of semantic strategies was carried out. It was possible to find that when the executive function' variable is controlled, what is obtained is a significant effect for the assay factor, and the statistic significance disappears on both acquisition and used of strategies between assays in different courses, and on differences in all the strategies used between courses. As a matter of fact, results indicate that executive function can play a roll of importance in use of strategies of coding information in children.

Análisis de procesos de codificación y recuperación en pacientes conesclerosis múltiple (EM) / Analysis of codification and recovery processes in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

El objetivo principal de este trabajo fue el estudio exhaustivo de los procesos mnésicos en un grupo de pacientes con diagnóstico de esclerosis múltiple (EM). La teoría clásica sobre el tema considera que en esta patología se producen defectos en los procesos de recuperación de la memoria episódica. Estudios recientes aportan evidencia a favor de una hipótesis alternativa que atribuye el origen del trastorno mnésico a una alteración en los procesos de codificación y organización de la información. El tema es aún hoy objeto de discusión y debate. Por eso en este trabajo se estudió el funcionamiento de estos procesos de codificación y recuperación, para ello se utilizó un conjunto de diversos índices incluidos en el Test de Aprendizaje Verbal España Complutense (TAVEC). Se trabajó con un grupo de 36 pacientes con diagnóstico de EM y un grupo control de población normativa (n=36) emparejados por edad y nivel educacional. Los resultados obtenidos sugieren la existencia de alteraciones en los procesos de codificación y de recuperación mnésicos. Esto nos permite interpretar los defectos en los procesos de recuperación como una disfunción secundaria de la alteración en la codificación y organización de la información.

The primary target of this work was the exhaustive study of memory processes in a group of patients with diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The classic theory considers that in this pathology defects in the processes of recovery of the episodic memory take place. Recent studies contribute evidence in favor of an alternative hypothesis that it attributes the origin of the memory disorder to an alteration in the codification processes and organization of the information. The subject is still today in discussion. For that reason in this work we studied the operation of codification and recovery processes, for it was used the Test of Verbal Learning Spanish Complutense (TAVEC). One worked with a group of 36 patients with I diagnose of command post and a group control of healthy subjects matched up by age and educational level. The obtained results suggest the existence of alterations in the memory processes of codification and recovery. This allows us to interpret the defects in the processes of recovery like a secondary impairment of the alteration in the codification and organization of the information.