Valence-dependent dopaminergic modulation during reversal learning in Parkinson's disease: A neurocomputational approach.

Reinforcement learning, crucial for behavior in dynamic environments, is driven by rewards and punishments, modulated by dopamine (DA) changes. This study explores the dopaminergic system's influence on learning, particularly in Parkinson's disease (PD), where medication leads to impaired adaptability. Highlighting the role of tonic DA in signaling the valence of actions, this research investigates how DA affects response vigor and decision-making in PD. DA not only influences reward and punishment learning but also indicates the cognitive effort level and risk propensity in actions, which are essential for understanding and managing PD symptoms. In this work, we adapt our existing neurocomputational model of basal ganglia (BG) to simulate two reversal learning tasks proposed by Cools et al. We first optimized a Hebb rule for both probabilistic and deterministic reversal learning, conducted a sensitivity analysis (SA) on parameters related to DA effect, and compared performances between three groups: PD-ON, PD-OFF, and control subjects. In our deterministic task simulation, we explored switch error rates after unexpected task switches and found a U-shaped relationship between tonic DA levels and switch error frequency. Through SA, we classify these three groups. Then, assuming that the valence of the stimulus affects the tonic levels of DA, we were able to reproduce the results by Cools et al. As for the probabilistic task simulation, our results are in line with clinical data, showing similar trends with PD-ON, characterized by higher tonic DA levels that are correlated with increased difficulty in both acquisition and reversal tasks. Our study proposes a new hypothesis: valence, signaled by tonic DA levels, influences learning in PD, confirming the uncorrelation between phasic and tonic DA changes. This hypothesis challenges existing paradigms and opens new avenues for understanding cognitive processes in PD, particularly in reversal learning tasks.

Comparison of executive functions in people with high and low resilience.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the present study was to compare executive functions in people with high and low resilience. METHODS: Based on the results of a structured clinical interview and Connor- Davidson resilience Scale (CD-RISC), a total of 140 adults were assigned to high resilience (n = 70) and low resilience (n = 70) groups. Working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility were assessed by N-Back, Go/No-Go and Wisconsin Card Sorting task, respectively. RESULT: The results showed that individuals with high resilience compared to individuals with low resilience scored significantly higher on inhibition and cognitive flexibility, but there were no significant differences on working memory. CONCLUSION: The current findings suggest a role of high-level cognitive processes in resilience, which in turn may contribute to mental health. Also, the results of this research may be important in the design of therapeutic interventions based on executive functions.

Sex-dependent differences in the ability of nicotine to modulate discrimination learning and cognitive flexibility in mice.

Nicotine, an addictive compound found in tobacco, functions as an agonist of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in the brain. Interestingly, nicotine has been reported to act as a cognitive enhancer in both human subjects and experimental animals. However, its effects in animal studies have not always been consistent, and sex differences have been identified in the effects of nicotine on several behaviors. Specifically, the role that sex plays in modulating the effects of nicotine on discrimination learning and cognitive flexibility in rodents is still unclear. Here, we evaluated sex-dependent differences in the effect of daily nicotine intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration at various doses (0.125, 0.25, and 0.5 mg/kg) on visual discrimination (VD) learning and reversal (VDR) learning in mice. In male mice, 0.5 mg/kg nicotine significantly improved performance in the VDR, but not the VD, task, while 0.5 mg/kg nicotine significantly worsened performance in the VD, but not VDR task in female mice. Furthermore, 0.25 mg/kg nicotine significantly worsened performance in the VD and VDR task only in female mice. Next, to investigate the cellular mechanisms that underlie the sex difference in the effects of nicotine on cognition, transcriptomic analyses were performed focusing on the medial prefrontal cortex tissue samples from male and female mice that had received continuous administration of nicotine for 3 or 18 days. As a result of pathway enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction analysis using gene sets of differentially expressed genes, decreased expression of postsynaptic-related genes in males and increased expression of innate immunity-related genes in females were identified as possible molecular mechanisms related to sex differences in the effects of nicotine on cognition in discrimination learning and cognitive flexibility. Our result suggests that nicotine modulates cognitive function in a sex-dependent manner by alternating the expression of specific gene sets in the medial prefrontal cortex.

Effects of chronic social defeat stress on social behavior and cognitive flexibility for early and late adolescent.

This study investigated the risk to social behavior and cognitive flexibility induced by chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) during early and late adolescence (EA and LA). Utilizing the "resident-intruder" stress paradigm, adolescent male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to CSDS during either EA (postnatal days 29-38) or LA (postnatal days 39-48) to explore how social defeat at different stages of adolescence affects behavioral and cognitive symptoms commonly associated with psychiatric disorders. After stress exposure, the rats were assessed for anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus maze, social interaction, and cognitive flexibility through set-shifting and reversal-learning tasks under immediate and delayed reward conditions. The results showed that CSDS during EA, but not LA, led to impaired cognitive flexibility in adulthood, as evidenced by increased perseverative and regressive errors in the set-shifting and reversal-learning tasks, particularly under the delayed reward condition. This suggests that the timing of stress exposure during development has a significant impact on the long-term consequences for behavioral and cognitive function. The findings highlight the vulnerability of the prefrontal cortex, which undergoes critical maturation during early adolescence, to the effects of social stress. Overall, this study demonstrates that the timing of social stressors during adolescence can differentially shape the developmental trajectory of cognitive flexibility, with important implications for understanding the link between childhood/adolescent adversity and the emergence of psychiatric disorders.

Executive Functions are Independently Associated with Cognitive Dispersion in HIV Disease.

OBJECTIVE: People with HIV (PWH) can demonstrate elevated cognitive intraindividual variability (IIV-dispersion) that is associated with everyday functioning problems. Higher IIV-dispersion is theorized to reflect lapses in executive aspects of cognitive control, but few studies have directly evaluated this possibility. METHOD: 72 PWH completed the Cogstate and clinical measures of executive functions, psychomotor speed, and episodic memory. IIV-dispersion was calculated with the coefficient of variation (CoV) from six age-adjusted Cogstate subtest scores. RESULTS: Multiple regression showed that the three domain-level cognitive predictors explained 8% of the variance in Cogstate CoV (p = .03). Within this model, poorer executive functions were moderately associated with higher Cogstate CoV (p = .01), but the psychomotor and episodic memory domains were not (ps > .05). CONCLUSIONS: Findings align with cognitive theory in demonstrating IIV-dispersion is uniquely associated with independent measures of executive functions among PWH. Future experimental and mechanistic studies are needed to determine the precise executive aspects of IIV-dispersion.

Neuropsychological and Health Literacy Correlates of Science Knowledge Among Older and Younger Healthy Adults.

Science knowledge refers to the depth and breadth of facts acquired within the life, social, and earth sciences, and it has implications for both public and personal health. Drawing from cognitive aging theory, we examine whether levels of science knowledge are associated with age, neuropsychological functioning, and personal health literacy. Fifty-two younger and fifty older healthy adults completed our telephone-based study that included a commonly used test of science knowledge, as well as measures of neuropsychological functioning, health literacy, and relevant descriptives (e.g., mood). Adjusting for other demographics and neuropsychological functioning, older adults had significantly lower science knowledge test scores than younger adults. In the full sample, lower science knowledge showed medium-to-large associations with episodic memory, executive functions, and health literacy, independent of years of education. These results suggest that older adults' science knowledge falls slightly below that of their younger counterparts and is independently associated with higher order neuropsychological functions and aspects of personal health, which may have implications for accessing, understanding, and using relevant public health information across the lifespan.

Neuropsychological Functioning Among Patients with OCD in Asian Countries: A Systematic Review.

Objective: This systematic review aimed to identify the effect of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) on cognitive processes, such as memory, executive functioning, and cognitive flexibility, among the adult populations of Asian countries. Methods: The systematic review progressed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. It is comprised of articles sourced from Asian countries published from 2018 to 2022, and literature about deficits in memory, executive functioning, and cognitive flexibility in the OCD population was gathered from five electronic databases, including Google Scholar, PubMed, Research Gate, Science Direct, and Wiley Online Library. Full-text impact factor articles in the English language were considered in this study. Results: This study screened 44 articles; five were included based on the eligibility criteria for the present systematic review. Four articles found cognitive deficits in the domains of executive functioning, memory, and cognitive flexibility among patients with OCD, whereas results of one article showed normal cognitive performance of the patients. Demographic variables showed no significant differences between patients with OCD and healthy controls. Conclusion: This systematic review indicated deficits specifically in the cognitive functioning and flexibility of patients with OCD. Despite a noticeable prevalence of OCD in Asian countries, the literature on correlates and neurological functioning is scarce. Further studies are required to examine the effects on the larger population and provide knowledge in those countries and areas where people are suffering because of minimal knowledge regarding OCD.

University students' cognitive flexibility and critical thinking dispositions.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether there are differences in critical thinking dispositions and cognitive flexibility among university students based on gender, grade level, and faculty. Additionally, the study will investigate the relationship between these two concepts and their predictive power. The study was conducted using a relational survey model and included 366 university students selected through maximum diversity sampling. The study involved university students from various faculties and grade levels. Data was collected through a personal information form, cognitive flexibility inventory, and critical thinking disposition scale. The data was analyzed using the SPSS 25 program. The results indicate that university students exhibit relatively high levels of cognitive flexibility and critical thinking tendencies. Above the medium level, there was a significant positive relationship between cognitive flexibility and critical thinking tendency. Cognitive flexibility was found to be a significant predictor of critical thinking dispositions, positively and significantly predicting critical thinking disposition and explaining 40% of it. Individuals with critical thinking tendencies exhibit cognitive flexibility, which is also associated with thinking critically. Therefore, cognitive flexibility and critical thinking are interrelated characteristics.

Development of the Flexibility in Daily Life scale to measure multidimensional cognitive and behavioural flexibility in health and disease.

OBJECTIVES: Inflexibility of thought and behaviour is a transdiagnostic feature of many neuropsychiatric disorders and presents several empirical measurement challenges. Here, we developed and validated the Flexibility in Daily Life scale (FIDL); a novel, self-report questionnaire, which captures expressions of cognitive and behavioural flexibility in daily life and is sensitive to natural shifts in these processes across the adult lifespan. METHODS: The FIDL was developed using a deductive scale development approach, which aimed to capture common themes within the flexibility literature and across diagnoses (e.g. insistence on sameness, preference for routines). Following multidisciplinary consensus, an initial 37-item questionnaire was submitted for validation in an online sample of 295 healthy adult participants (19-78 years). RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis produced a revised 21-item version comprising five factors, labelled: Repetition, Switching, Predictability/Control, Routine, and Thoughts/Beliefs. Internal consistency reliability was good-to-strong for the total FIDL score and moderate-to-strong for individual subscales. Convergent validity was established between the FIDL and an existing measure of cognitive flexibility. Critically, the FIDL total score evinced a U-shaped relationship with age, whereby flexibility was lower at the younger and older tails of the lifespan and greater in middle age. The same U-shaped trajectory emerged for the Repetition, Routine, and Thoughts/Beliefs factors. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the FIDL is a valid and reliable multidimensional measure of flexibility, which upholds a clearly defined factor structure and good psychometric properties. It promises to be a valuable clinical and research tool to assess the natural fluctuations in flexibility across the lifespan and departures thereof.

Various modalities of resistance exercise promote similar acute cognitive improvements and hemodynamic increases in young, healthy adults.

The aim was to examine the effects of modalities of acute resistance exercise (RE) on cognition and hemodynamics including internal carotid artery (ICA) blood flow (BF). Twenty adults completed familiarization and experimental visits. One-repetition maximum (1RM) for bilateral leg extension was quantified, and baseline executive functioning was determined from three run-in visits. Subsequent visits included three randomized, volume-equated, acute exercise bouts of 30 %1RM+blood flow restriction (BFR), 30 %1RM, and 70 %1RM. Both 30 %1RM trials completed four sets of exercise (1 × 30, 3 × 15), and the 70 %1RM condition completed four sets of 8 repetitions. BFR was induced with 40 % of the pressure to occlude the femoral arteries. 11 min following each exercise, participants completed the Stroop and Shifting Attention Tests. Baseline and post-exercise values were used to calculate change scores. The resulting mean change scores were evaluated with mixed factorial ANOVAs. A p≤0.05 was considered significant. All measured outcome variables increased in response to exercise. The ANOVAs for cognitive scores indicated no significant (p>0.05) interactions. For cognitive flexibility and executive function index, there were main effects of Sex. Change scores of the females were significantly greater than the males for cognitive flexibility (7.6 ± 5.9 vs. -2.6 ± 8.4 au; p=0.007) and executive function index (7.4 ± 4.6 vs. -2.5 ± 6.5 au; p=0.001). For ICA BF, there was no significant interaction or any main effect. The females exhibited a smaller exercise-induced increase in blood pressure compared to the males (17.7 ± 5.9 vs. 11.0 ± 4.1 mmHg; p=0.010). Each RE modality yielded acute improvements in cognition, but only for females. There were no cognitive improvements related to BFR such that each RE bout yielded similar results.

Comparison of executive functions in Russian and Japanese preschoolers.

This study analyzed differences in level of main executive function (EF) components (such as inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility) among Russian and Japanese preschoolers. The study involved 102 children of 5-6.9 years old: 51 child from Russia and 51 child from Japan. Out of 102 children 48 were boys and 54 girls. It was found that the cognitive flexibility level in Russian children is higher and inhibition level is lower than in Japanese children. The results of the boys' EF comparison showed that boys from Russia have lower cognitive and physical inhibition levels than boys from Japan. Also it was shown that cognitive flexibility in Russian girls is significantly higher and cognitive inhibition is lower than in Japanese girls. The results obtained are discussed from the point of view of possible cultural differences in the two countries studied, which are manifested in the expectations of adults from children.

The relationship between openness to experience and humor production: Exploring the mediating roles of cognitive flexibility and ambiguity tolerance.

The purpose of this study was to examine how individual openness to experience influences humor production and to explore the underlying psychological mechanisms of this relationship, specifically focusing on cognitive flexibility (the cognitive path) and ambiguity tolerance (the motivational path). To comprehensively evaluate individuals' humor production ability, Study 1 employed a subjective self-report questionnaire on sense of humor, while Study 2 used an objective humor dialogue generation task. The results of Study 1 indicated that openness to experience did not directly impact sense of humor; instead, the relationship between openness to experience and sense of humor was fully mediated by cognitive flexibility. In Study 2, findings showed that openness to experience positively predicted humor production ability, with ambiguity tolerance partially mediating this effect. These results suggest that individuals with higher levels of openness to experience have a greater capacity for generating humorous perspectives. Moreover, the study identified two psychological pathways-cognition and motivation-in the process of generating funny ideas. The specific pathway influenced by the measurement method used for humor production further highlights the importance of both cognitive flexibility and ambiguity tolerance in understanding how openness to experience contributes to humor production.

Unilateral vs. bilateral DLPFC rTMS: comparative effects on depression, visual-spatial memory, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility in major depressive disorder.

Background: Exciting left DLPFC activity with high frequency and inhibiting right DLPFC with low frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has shown antidepressant effects in major depressive disorder (MDD) and executive functions. However, few studies have directly compared unilateral and bilateral protocols. Methods: Forty-seven individuals with treatment-resistant MDD underwent 10 sessions of rTMS over left DLPFC (20 Hz), bilateral DLPFC (left 20 Hz, right 1 Hz), or sham stimulation. Outcomes were depression (Beck Depression Inventory-II), visual-spatial memory (Corsi Block Test), response inhibition (Go/No-Go task), and cognitive flexibility (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test) assessed before and after treatment. Results: Both unilateral and bilateral rTMS significantly reduced depression levels versus sham controls based on BDI-II scores. While bilateral stimulation did not improve Corsi Test performance, unilateral protocol enhanced visual-spatial memory. On the Go/No-Go task, accuracy was higher in both active stimulation groups compared to sham, with no response time differences. Neither unilateral nor bilateral rTMS had significant effects on cognitive flexibility per the WCST. Conclusions: Despite comparable antidepressant effects, unilateral stimulation had some cognitive advantages over bilateral rTMS, potentially due to greater left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex excitation. Further research on parameter optimization is warranted.

The effect of psychodrama-based intervention on therapeutic communication skills and cognitive flexibility among nursing students: A 12-month follow-up study.

AIM: This research aimed to evaluate the effect of the psychodrama-based intervention used in the communication course of 2nd year nursing students on their therapeutic communication skills and cognitive flexibility. BACKGROUND: Psychodrama has been defined as a way of practicing living without being punished for making mistakes. The psychodrama-based interventions can be used as a novel teaching method to improve therapeutic communication skills and cognitive flexibility in education by allowing students to learn from their trials and errors before going into clinical practice and communicating one-on-one with the patient. DESIGN: A single group, pretest-posttest with a follow-up quasi-experimental design was adopted. METHOD: The participants were a convenience sample of 24 s-year undergraduate nursing students. Students attended a one-day in-a-week psychodrama-based communication course for 14 weeks. The data of the study were collected with the Demographic Information Form, the Therapeutic Communication Skills Scale and the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory. Outcomes were measured on the first day (baseline), at the end of the course and 6 and 12 months after completing the course. Outcomes were analyzed using descriptive and repeated measures analysis of variance, Friedman and Dunn tests. RESULTS: It was determined that the nontherapeutic communication scores were significantly lower at the post-test, 6 months and 12 months than at baseline in participants. Therapeutic-one scores were significantly increased at the post-test compared with baseline in participants. Therapeutic-two scores were significantly increased at 6 months compared with baseline. There was no statistical difference in any measure in the cognitive flexibility inventory. CONCLUSION: The psychodrama-based intervention in communication course significantly improved nursing students' therapeutic communication skills. It is also recommended to conduct studies with larger samples of nursing students from different institutions and also randomized controlled studies with control groups and qualitative studies. It is recommended to conduct studies evaluating an intervention that includes subheadings more related to cognitive flexibility which is an important nursing competency, as well as new studies that evaluate cognitive flexibility with different measurement tools.

Ablation of Iron Regulatory Protein 2 produces a neurological disorder characterized by motor, somatosensory, and executive dysfunction in mice.

Iron is an important cofactor for many proteins and is used to create Fe-S clusters and heme prosthetic groups that enzymes use to catalyze enzymatic reactions. Proteins involved in the import, export, and sequestration of iron are regulated by Iron Regulatory Proteins (IRPs). Recently, a patient with bi-allelic loss of function mutations in IREB2 leading to the absence of IRP2 protein was discovered. The patient failed to achieve developmental milestones and was diagnosed with dystonic cerebral palsy, epilepsy, microcytic hypochromic anemia, and frontal lobe atrophy. Several more IREB2 deficient patients subsequently identified manifested similar neurological problems. To better understand the manifestations of this novel neurological disease, we subjected an Irp2-null mouse model to extensive behavioral testing. Irp2-null mice had a significant motor deficit demonstrated by reduced performance on rotarod and hanging wire tests. Somatosensory function was also compromised in hot and cold plate assays. Their spatial search strategy was impaired in the Barnes maze and they exhibited a difficulty in flexibly adapting their response in the operant touchscreen reversal learning task. The latter is a cognitive behavior known to require an intact prefrontal cortex. These results suggest that loss of Irp2 in mice causes motor and behavioral deficits that faithfully reflect the IREB2 patient's neurodegenerative disorder.

Executive functioning profiles and mathematical and reading achievement in Grades 2, 6, and 10.

Using a person-centered approach, we aimed to identify different executive functioning profiles to assess heterogeneity across individuals within the same school grade through latent profile analysis. A sample of 150 Grade 2 (7-8 years old), 150 Grade 6 (11-12 years old), and 150 Grade 10 (15-16 years old) children and adolescents were assessed on 11 different executive tasks representative of the three main executive functioning subcomponents (i.e., inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory), fluid intelligence, processing speed, problem-solving, and reading comprehension. Three different executive functioning profiles of different patterns of interactions based on inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory within and between grades were identified. Moreover, these profiles were differentially related to reading comprehension and mathematical achievement. Second, as expected, we did not find these profiles to be associated with sociodemographic variables such as chronological age or sex. Still, fluid intelligence and processing speed were differentially related to the different profiles at each grade. We also found that the executive functioning profiles interacted with each cognitive skill (i.e., fluid intelligence and processing speed) in predicting reading comprehension and math achievement. These findings provide valuable insights for developing preventive and intervention strategies in education.

Contextual control demands determine whether stability and flexibility trade off against each other.

Cognitive stability, the ability to focus on a current task, and cognitive flexibility, the ability to switch between different tasks, are traditionally conceptualized as opposing end-points on a one-dimensional continuum. This assumption obligates a stability-flexibility trade-off - greater stability equates to less flexibility, and vice versa. In contrast, a recent cued task-switching study suggested that stability and flexibility can be regulated independently, evoking a two-dimensional perspective where trade-offs are optional (Geddert & Egner, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151, 3009-3027, 2022). This raises the question of under what circumstances trade-offs occur. We here tested the hypothesis that trade-offs are guided by cost-of-control considerations whereby stability and flexibility trade off in contexts that selectively promote stability or flexibility, but not when neither or both are promoted. This proposal was probed by analyzing whether a trial-level metric of a stability-flexibility trade-off, an interaction between task-rule congruency and task sequence, varied as a function of a broader block-level context that independently varied demands on stability or flexibility by manipulating the proportion of incongruent and switch trials, respectively. In Experiment 1, we reanalyzed data from Geddert and Egner, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151, 3009-3027, (2022); Experiment 2 was a conceptual replication with a design tweak that controlled for potential confounds due to local trial history effects. The experiments produced robust evidence for independent stability and flexibility adaptation, and for a context-dependent expression of trial-level stability-flexibility trade-offs that generally conformed to the cost-of-control predictions. The current study thus documents that stability-flexibility trade-offs are not obligatory but arise in contexts where either stability or flexibility are selectively encouraged.

Examining the relationship between functional connectivity and broader autistic traits in non-autistic children.

In the current study, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine functional connectivity (FC) in relation to measures of cognitive flexibility and autistic features in non-autistic children. Previous research suggests that disruptions in FC between brain regions may underlie the cognitive and behavioral traits of autism. Moreover, research has identified a broader autistic phenotype (BAP), which refers to a set of behavioral traits that fall along a continuum of behaviors typical for autism but which do not cross a clinically relevant threshold. Thus, by examining FC in relation to the BAP in non-autistic children, we can better understand the spectrum of behaviors related to this condition and their neural basis. Results indicated age-related differences in performance across three measures of cognitive flexibility, as expected given the rapid development of this skill within this time period. Additionally, results showed that across the flexibility tasks, measures of autistic traits were associated with weaker FC along the executive control network, though task performance was not associated with FC. These results suggest that behavioral scores may be less sensitive than neural measures to autistic traits. Further, these results corroborate the use of broader autistic traits and the BAP to better understand disruptions to neural function associated with autism.

Predicting Learning: Understanding the Role of Executive Functions in Children's Belief Revision Using Bayesian Models.

Recent studies suggest that learners who are asked to predict the outcome of an event learn more than learners who are asked to evaluate it retrospectively or not at all. One possible explanation for this "prediction boost" is that it helps learners engage metacognitive reasoning skills that may not be spontaneously leveraged, especially for individuals with still-developing executive functions. In this paper, we combined multiple analytic approaches to investigate the potential role of executive functions in elementary school-aged children's science learning. We performed an experiment that investigates children's science learning during a water displacement task where a "prediction boost" had previously been observed-children either made an explicit prediction or evaluated an event post hoc (i.e., postdiction). We then considered the relation of executive function measures and learning, which were collected following the main experiment. Via mixed effects regression models, we found that stronger executive function skills (i.e., stronger inhibition and switching scores) were associated with higher accuracy in Postdiction but not in the Prediction Condition. Using a theory-based Bayesian model, we simulated children's individual performance on the learning task (capturing "belief flexibility"), and compared this "flexibility" to the other measures to understand the relationship between belief revision, executive function, and prediction. Children in the Prediction Condition showed near-ceiling "belief flexibility" scores, which were significantly higher than among children in the Postdiction Condition. We also found a significant correlation between children's executive function measures to our "belief flexibility" parameter, but only for children in the Postdiction Condition. These results indicate that when children provided responses post hoc, they may have required stronger executive function capacities to navigate the learning task. Additionally, these results suggest that the "prediction boost" in children's science learning could be explained by increased metacognitive flexibility in the belief revision process.

Decoding Cognitive Control and Cognitive Flexibility as Concomitants for Experiential Avoidance in Social Anxiety.

Background and objectives: Avoidance is regarded as a central hallmark of social anxiety. Experiential avoidance is perilous for social anxiety, specifically among university students (young adults). Additionally, cognitive control and cognitive flexibility are crucial components of executive functions for a fulfilling and healthy lifestyle. The current research is a modest attempt to understand how cognitive flexibility and cognitive control affect the emergence of experiential avoidance in social anxiety in young adults. Methods: Using an ex-post facto design, the Social Phobia Inventory was employed to screen university students with social anxiety based on which one hundred and ninety-five were identified. Thereafter, participants completed the standardized measures on experiential avoidance, cognitive control and cognitive flexibility. Results: A stepwise multiple regression analysis was computed wherein the cognitive control predicts an amount of 5% of variance towards experiential avoidance, whereas a 10% of additional variance has been contributed by cognitive flexibility. Interpretation and Conclusions: The statistical outcome indicated that cognitive control is positively associated with experiential avoidance which is a negative correlate to cognitive flexibility among university students. Both also emerged as significant predictors of experiential avoidance and add a cumulative variance of 15% towards the same. This conclusion supports the need for improved and efficient management techniques in counseling and clinical settings.