فصلنامه تازه های علوم شناختی
سال بیست و سوم شماره 2 (پیاپی 90، تابستان 1400)

Impaired Social interaction and communication, as well as the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests are known as the main symptoms of autism spectrum disorder. Infants communicate with the environment and others through the eyes. The first information containing social content is transmitted to the infant through the babychr eye contact with the eyes and face of the mother and other people. Studies have shown that this phenomenon is the background for the formation, development and evolution of neural networks and circuits related to social relationships during development of the human. Some studies have shown that there are significant differences between the eye movement patterns (saccade and fixation pattern) between people with autism and people with typical neural growth pattern. Studies of visual attention in people with autism spectrum disorder often lead to contradictory results. Some studies have found several differences in the visual attention patterns of people with autism compared to neurotypical individuals, and some studies have not found any differences between two groups. These contradictory results are due to the use of assumptions, consideration of limited properties, and limitation of the type of stimuli. In this study, an attempt has been made to investigate the visual attention patterns of people with autism through a comprehensive study by using eye tracking data analysis, as well as image processing tools and models.

In this study the eye tracking data of 28 subjects, with a mean age of 8 years (range 5-12 years) were initially processed. Then, 300 images of this study were analyzed, visually segmented, labeled and categorized Based on low level features (color, intensity and directions), higher level features (such as object size), and communication and social features, by using models such as Itti Koch Model and image processing tools such as LabelMe. Visual attention patterns among people with Autism were assessed by using statistical tests.
 

It was found that people with autism pay less attention to parts of the images that include semantic and communicative features. On the contrary, they spend more time on the parts that contain tools and equipment. They are also slower to pay attention to parts of the image that contain social features, and instead spend more time paying attention to the background parts of the image, which include repetitive patterns. In addition, they spend more time in each fixation in parts that lack semantic or social features.

These results and other results of this study show that the main signs and symptoms of autism spectrum disorder, impaired Social interaction and communication, as well as the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests, can be observed in the visual attention patterns of people with autism. These patterns can pave the way for further research and studies in cognitive neuroscience. By recognizing the parts or circuits in the brain that lead to such patterns, we can get a better view of how these parts or circuits of the brain work in the brain of people with autism. These patterns can also be used to design a low cost and fast autism screening tool based on eye-tracking technology.

The aim of this study was investigating Behavioral and electrophysiological changes as a result directing early attention on central attention limitations of dual tasks with in various difficulty levels.  

24 subjects were selected voluntarily and they were randomly assigned to two simple and selective groups.  A dual task paradigm with and without cue was incorporated in which the second task was either a detection or discrimination, and cue was presented before the first stimulus. The stimulus onset asynchrony between the first and second stimulus was 200,400, and 800 ms. The response time to the first and second stimulus and event related potential was recorded and analyzed.

The simple pattern had a faster response time than the combined pattern. Also, the response time of the target in the valid position was faster than the invalid position. The lowest response time was for the simple group and the highest for the selected group. The main effect of pattern, group, and time interval on primary sensory components P1 and N1 was significant.

 Facilitating the early sensory –perceptual by directing attention toward the cued location would reduce the dual task interference.

Social maladjustment, including aggression, is a prominent problem in childhood and later stages of life. A social- information processing model of Crick and Dodge developed to explain children’s aggression. Accordingly, children engage in the following six mental stages before behaving properly when they face a social situation:1- Encoding of external and internal cues, 2- interpretation and mental representation of those cues, 3- clarification or selection of a goal, 4- response access or construction, 5- response decision, and 6- behavioral enactment. During Steps 1 and 2, encoding and interpretation of social cues, it is hypothesized that children selectively attend to particular situational and internal cues, encode those cues, and then interpret them, During Step 3, after interpreting the situation, it is proposed that children select a goal or desired outcome for the situation or continue with a preexisting goal, Next, at Step 4, it is hypothesized that children access from memory possible responses to the situation, or, if the situation is novel, they may construct new behaviors in response to immediate social cues, At Step 5, it is hypothesized that children evaluate the previously accessed (or constructed) responses and select the most positively evaluated response for enactment, At Step 6, the chosen response is behaviorally enacted. According to previous studies, children’s aggression can affect all 6 stages of the social information processing model.Children with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) are strongly affected by aggressive behavior and negative emotions. DMDD is recently included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a mood disorder. It is characterized by two main symptoms, namely anger and irritability. A problem that these individuals are faced with is the tendency to misinterpret other people’s intentions, something which worsens aggression. These children find it much more difficult to experience sensory processing and perceptual behavior than normal children. Characterized by the aggressive behavioral component, children with DMDD pay too much attention to negative emotional stimuli such as anger. In addition, children with chronic irritability experience more problems in processing emotional stimuli and regulating emotions. This study aims to evaluate and compare early stages of  social information processing in children with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) and normal children based on the social cognitive model of Crick and Dodge.

This research was conducted with a causal-comparative method on 58 children with DMDD and 167 normal Boys, aged between 9 to 12 years, studying at elementary school in Booshehr. The participants were randomly selected using a cluster sampling technique, Anger and Irritability Questionnaire (AIQ), and clinical interview based on DSM-5. They were then compared using « Childrenchr Evaluation of Everyday Social Encounters Questionnaire (Bell, Luebbe, Swenson  and Allwood, 2009).  Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods such as mean, variance, and Multivariable Analyze of Variance (MANOVA) test by SPSS-19 software.

The results from the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed a significant difference between group in the stages of interpretation of social cues(F=5.5, P=.001, Partial Eta Squared=.128), clarification or selection of a goal(F=6.65, P=.001, Partial Eta Squared=.159), emotional processing(4.01, P=.004, Partial Eta Squared=.07), response access or construction(P=7.02, P=.001, Partial Eta Squared=.115).

The conducted studies showed that children with DMDD were more biased in an ambiguous social situation in the early stages of social information processing. They were also significantly less competent than their normal peers in internal positive causal attribution, external positive causal attribution (positive attribution to others’ behaviors), and positive interpretation of otherschr(chr('39')39chr('39')) intentions in a social situation. Children with DMDD were also more biased than their normal peers in their negative interpretation of others’ intentions. However, there was no significant difference between them in interpreting the causes of events in external negative attribution and internal negative attribution  in ambiguous social situations. DMDD children exhibited greater anger, worried or nervous, and sad or down in emotional processing and provided less happy processing. In terms of goal formation/clarification, children with DMDD mainly preferred anger- and avoidance-based goals and were less involved in the relationship- and dignity-centered goals. Moreover, children with DMDD produced fewer social responses and were more willing to provide ager-based and active avoidance responses, compared to their normal peers.  Various studies demonstrated that maladaptive social information processing can justify behavioral-emotional maladjustment in most children. Therefore, it is recommended to evaluate the effectiveness of interventional protocols based on the Dodge model in future studies in order to treat and mitigate the symptoms of disruptive dysregulation disorder.

Resilience is one of the personality traits that is related to peoplechr  success and helps them to perform their tasks. In the field of education, resilience plays an important role as a motivational-emotional variable and is a suitable mechanism to deal with stress and anxiety problems in the school and university environment. Research shows the effectiveness of learning strategies on academic variables. Metacognitive package (Metacognitive package) as one of the packages affecting academic variables, consists of three components of critical thinking (Problem Solving), problem solving (Problem Solving) and metacognition (Metacognition). The aim of this study was to develop an educational package on the cognitive components of critical thinking, problem solving and metacognition and its effect on studentschr  resilience.

The present study was applied in terms of purpose and experimental in terms of method with pre-test-post-test, follow-up and control group. The statistical population included all first grade female students in the second secondary school of Zanjan in the academic year of 2009-2010. The sampling method of the present study was a multi-stage cluster. Thus, from education districts 1 and 2 of Zanjan city, district 1, from the mentioned district, 1 school and from the selected school 4 classes and 12 people from each class were randomly selected. Then, considering the criteria for entering the study, the subjects were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups (20 people in each group). Inclusion criteria included first grade high school female students, low resilience score, commitment to attend all treatment sessions, and failure to receive individual counseling and psychological services during attendance at treatment sessions. Exclusion criteria include having a specific physical or mental illness; Absence from treatment sessions and unwillingness to continue participating in the study were considered. The research instrument included a 25-item resilience scale (CD-RIS). The psychological package for solving critical thinking and metacognition (using theoretical foundations and theories in this field, which were taught to students in 17 90-minute sessions) was considered for the experimental group, but for the control group No training provided. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance.

Findings showed that the educational package of cognitive components of critical thinking, problem solving and metacognition has an effect on studentschr resilience. In other words, the rate of resilience in people who participated in cognitive components training sessions increased significantly compared to the control group.

According to the results of this study, the educational package of cognitive components can be suggested as a facilitator in learning and an effective factor in increasing studentschr resilience. It is also suggested that due to the effect of this training in increasing studentschr resilience, the results of research conducted in this field be used in practice in counseling centers and medical centers, so that in these centers, workshops and courses Educational Cognitive components should be considered for school counselors and parents.

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is among the most common neurobehavioral disorders presenting for treatment in children and adolescents. The diagnosis of ADHD is clinically established by review of symptoms and impairment. Another common disorder in children is parasitic diseases. Infection with intestinal parasites is one of the health problems related to individual behaviors, social relations and economic level. Intestinal parasitic infection is one of the major childhood health problems in developing countries. Intestinal parasitic diseases, in addition to causing specific physical problems, causes cognitive deficits similar to children with ADHD. One of the most common issues in the treatment of children with  attention deficit and cognitive problems is receiving a diagnosis of attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder without definitive assessments and based solely on behavioral observations and clinical interviews with a psychiatrist or psychologist and their medication. Just as hyperactivity has a pattern of theta surges, intestinal parasite-related diseases can have similar symptoms. In fact, the symptoms of a person with intestinal parasites are very similar to the symptoms of a person with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder, which can lead to erroneous assessment and diagnosis if not examined more closely. Obviously, when the electroencephalographic waves of a child with intestinal parasitic disease are similar to those of a child with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder, the behavioral symptoms of the two disorders can overlap The aim of this study was to investigate the role of brain waves in differentiation of children with intestinal parasitic diseases and children with ADHD in Karaj.

The present study was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The statistical population consisted of all children referred to Radmin Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center of Karaj in spring 2020. Convenient sampling was performed on 120 children in groups of 40 healthy children, with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder and children with intestinal parasitic disease.Initially, all children who were diagnosed with Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder at a specified time were clinically interviewed. Then, these children underwent parasitic tests and finally brainwaves were recorded  . written consent was obtained from the childrenchr(chr(chr('39')39chr('39'))39chr(chr('39')39chr('39')))s parents to conduct the research. The research tools included diagnostic interview, Conners grading scale, brainwaves recorded by the two-channel Procamp biographer in the FCZ area and parasitic test. The data were analyzed by SPSS software version 23 using logistic regression and diagnostic analysis.

The results of logistic regression and diagnostic analysis showed that theta wave logistic coefficients were obtained in children with intestinal parasitic disease and active memory and attention retention in children with ADHD. Also healthy children and children with ADHD with 85% had the highest accuracy in predicting and children with intestinal parasitic disease with 52.5% had the second highest accuracy in predicting and based on the proposed model correctly classified. have become.

The research results showed that as hyperactivity has a pattern of theta surge, diseases associated with intestinal parasites can also have such symptoms. Obviously, when electroencephalographic waves of a child with an intestinal parasitic disease are similar to that of a child with ADHD, the behavioral symptoms that these two disorders exhibit can overlap and, if left unchecked, can Lead to errors in evaluation and diagnosis. Therefore, testing for intestinal parasitic disease before starting treatment for a child with the diagnosis of Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder can be useful and important.

Today, cosmetic surgery is one of the most common surgeries in the world and its use is increasing. Since cosmetic surgery is mostly done to change peoplechr appearance and increase their self-confidence, so it can be said that cosmetic surgery is the result of a certain psychological pattern. One of the possible psychological variables in cosmetic surgery applicants is negative body self-concept (including thoughts, feelings, tendencies and memories of the person in relation to the body). Given the ability to control and manage the low negative emotions of people seeking surgery, and the fact that people with low anxiety levels have difficulty regulating and controlling their emotions when exposed to stress, it may be possible to tolerate confusion (inability to fully embrace experience). He considered annoying and upsetting emotion as one of the possible variables in people applying for cosmetic surgery. The concept of consciousness (a quality of consciousness that is more precisely paying attention to a particular way, that is, purposeful, present and non-judgmental to the inner and outer world of the mind) is probably related to the structure of the body image or concern for body image and subsequent tendency. Be involved in cosmetic surgery. On the other hand, one of the new therapeutic approaches that is significantly related to the variables of the present study is mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on the components of anxiety tolerance, physical self-concept and well-being in women seeking cosmetic surgery.

The present study was applied in terms of purpose and experimental in terms of research method with pre-test design, post-test with control group. The statistical population of the study consists of all women applying for cosmetic surgery who referred to Shokoofeh Beauty Clinic in the first six months of 1399. Among them, 40 people (20 people for each of the experimental and control groups) were selected by purposive sampling method and then were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. nclusion criteria were: applicant for surgery, high score in physical self-concept, low score in consciousness and distress tolerance. Exclusion criteria were psychiatric comorbid disorders, drug use and absenteeism in more than three sessions of medical counseling sessions. The participants in the experimental group received cognitive therapy-based mindfulness training in eight ninety-minute sessions, and the participants in the control group did not receive training. Anxiety tolerance, physical self-concept and mindfulness questionnaires were used to collect data. After data collection, the collected data were analyzed by analysis of covariance in SPSS-24 statistical software.

The results showed that after the pretest control between the experimental and control groups in the distress tolerance variable; There is a significant difference between physical self-concept and mindfulness. That is, the mean scores of distress tolerance and consciousness of the experimental group compared to the control group increased significantly and the mean scores of physical self-concept of the experimental group compared to the control group decreased significantly.

According to the results of this study, it can be said that mindfulness-based interventions are a systematic and intensive approach that aims to acquire new types of control and wisdom based on internal capabilities for relaxation, attention, awareness and insight into work. goes. Also, due to the effect of this training in increasing the tolerance of distress and consciousness and reducing the negative physical self-concept of cosmetic surgery applicants, the results of research in this field can be used in practice in counseling centers and medical centers, so that in these centers, Workshops and training courses of mindfulness-based interventions should be considered for counselors and patients.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a mental disorder occurring in women twice as much as men. In both sexes, the average age of people with MDD is about 25 years. Family, twin, and epidemiological studies all point to the multifactorial and polygenetic characteristics of the psychiatric traits of major depressive disorder. In recent years, many efforts have been made to identify biomarkers for diagnosing, preventing, and treating depression. Bioinformatics is a new science that uses computers, computer software, and databases to try to answer biological questions, especially in the cellular and molecular fields, proteins, and genes. In this way, biological networks analysis is widely used to calculate and model intracellular interactions to identify cellular mechanisms. A biological network is any type of network that can depict a biological system. Biological networks can be used at three levels of the genome, transcriptome and proteome, to identify biological markers associated with various diseases. In the present study, expression data related to major depressive disorder were extracted and used to identify key genes of the disease, gene networks, and related metabolic pathways of major depressive disorder by bioinformatics.

By referring to the GEO database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo) and searching for the expression profile of MDD-related data, the data were extracted with the access number GSE98793 and the platform number GPL570 (Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array) in CEL format. The DEGs were determined by using Affymetrix Transcriptome Analysis Console (TAC), following the software guidelines. The adjusted P-values (adj. P) and Benjamini and Hochberg false discovery rate were applied to balance between discoveries of statistically significant genes. Two hundred twenty-three different genes (DEGs) were expressed by comparing female patient samples with controls by TAC software. LogFC (fold change) >2 and adj. P-value <0.05 were considered statistically significant.
In order to obtain the biological function and signaling pathways of DEGs, EnrichR (http://david.ncifcrf.gov) was used to GO annotation and KEGG pathways enrichment of DEGs. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. The top 100 genes of DEGs were used for gene set enrichment analysis. EnrichR is a web-based gene function enrichment analysis software. It can provide a comprehensive set of functional annotation information of genes and proteins. GO annotation is a main bioinformatics tool to annotate genes and analyze the biological process of DEGs. KEGG is a database resource for understanding high-level functions and biological systems from large-scale molecular datasets generated by high-throughput experimental technologies.
The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using the STRING (Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes http://string-db.org) online database alongside Cytoscape software, followed by identifying hub genes.
The STRING database was used to obtain the predicted interactions to gain the interaction between DEGs. The STRING database constructed the PPI network of DEGs in the current study. The interaction with a combined score >0.7 was considered statistically significant. The visualization of the PPI network was used by Cytoscape software and Gephi. Besides, Cytoscape software (version 3.6.1), which can display molecular interaction networks, is an open-source bioinformatics software platform. Accordingly, protein-protein interaction networks of key hub genes were obtained from Gephi software.

According to the obtained results, comparing female patients with control of 103 genes showed increased expression, and 120 genes identified as decreased expression. In women with depressive disorder, ATM, IGF1R, BCBP2, VHL, and EIF4G2 genes were highly expressed hub genes of a gene network, GMPS, PPP2R1A LCK, and HSP90AB1 gene was as hub genes of low-expressed genes network. The results of KEGG and panther pathway enrichment analysis comparing female patient samples with control showed that DEGs are mainly in the HIF-1 signaling pathway, FOXO signaling pathway, Th-17 cell differentiation pathway, pathway PI3K-Akt signaling, programmed cell death pathway (Ferptosis), and purine synthesis pathway were important.

According to the specific study of women with depression with healthy women and finding different differential genes and different pathways in this group, it can be concluded that for women with this disease, IGFIR and ATM gene with increased expression and GMPS gene. IGF1R gene encodes the insulin-like growth factor receptor. Increased expression of insulin-like growth factors has a direct effect on the development of major depression. The ATM gene is involved in the p53 signaling pathway. Due to the function of this gene in apoptosis, it can be indirectly associated with depression. GMP signaling cascade is also expressed in the brain. The activity of this pathway is involved in learning and memory processes. Further studies have shown that the cGMP cascade in the brain acts as an antidepressant. The HIF signaling pathway is one of the pathways that were jointly identified through both KEGG and Panther databases in relation to the increase in gene expression in depressed women compared to healthy women in this study. In the future, this pathway can be studied with more confidence in depression in women for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Therefore, regarding the key genes obtained by microarray analysis and MDD DEGs and interpretation of their function, some genes showed significant differences in expression in people with depression compared to healthy individuals that their association with major depression has not been reported in previous studies. The results of this study showed that IGF1R and ATM genes with increased expression and GMPS genes with decreased expression for women with this disease could also be a good option for therapeutic purposes. These genes could be suitable and new candidates for future studies on major depression, as well as the optimization of treatment methods. The effective pathways identified in the present study were primarily involved in the brain pathways. In addition, dysfunction of one part of the brain causes depression. The key genes involved in this disease are influential in several diseases, which leads to people with this disease have an increased risk of developing other diseases. Bioinformatics examines the link between these genes, depression, and other diseases. Accordingly, these genes provide essential clues for revealing the molecular mechanism and could be suitable and new candidates for future studies on major depression, as well as the optimization of treatment methods.

In many cases, when making real-life decisions, the evidence does not come to the person on a continuous basis; instead, the individual receives separate pieces of evidence during a time period. While subjects are able to integrate information perfectly from separate pieces of evidence to improve their accuracy, the confidence formation is controversial.
 

To specify confidence formation, we tested 12 healthy adults using a Random Dot Motions (RDM) paradigm. Participants had to distinguish the predominant direction of motion of moving dots by saccadic eye movement after receiving one or two pieces of 120ms of information (cue). Both direction and strength of the motion changed trial by trial. However, the direction of both pieces in double-piece trials was the same and participants were aware of that. The interval of two pieces (up to 1 s) was selected randomly. Color-coded targets helped subjects, indicating confidence simultaneously. In addition to empirical analysis, we applied a set of computational models to discuss how accuracy and confidence have changed after receiving an extra short RDM stimulus. First, we fitted a standard signal detection model to participantschr choices and confidence to directly estimate each participantchr confidence criteria and metacognition sensitivity. Second, based on the taskchr  nature and considering the single-piece trialschrdata, a perfect accumulator model and an optimized model were fitted to participants’ choices and confidence. These models were used to predict the accuracy, confidence, and metacognition of double-piece trials. We evaluated the models both quantitatively —Maximum Likelihood Estimation— and qualitatively —parameter recovery exercises in which data were simulated from models’ parameters.
 

The results showed that participants integrate the decision evidence, invariant to gap interval to form their decision and confidence after receiving the second piece of information. Although previous studies showed a positive relation between accuracy and confidence, double-piece trialschr confidence did not improve along with improved accuracy in the current study. Instead, our data showed that receiving an extra short piece of information improves participantschr  confidence in correct choices but worsens participantschr confidence in incorrect decisions. Results from computational models showed, the perfect accumulator could not predict the confidence of double-piece trials. Moreover, by optimizing the perfect accumulator, the model could predict the confidence in double-piece trials well. The evaluation of the models both quantitatively and qualitatively confirmed the superiority of the latter model. Based on the reported data and computational modeling results, participants reallocate their confidence criteria slightly after receiving the second pulse to report their confidence more accurately.
 

The investigations indicated that although participants integrate the decision evidence perfectly and improve their accuracy and decision metacognition, their confidence did not improve significantly. In that way, providing brief pieces of information over time is more effective in persuading participants to make a more sustainable choice and prevent changes in decisions. These findings have implications for many areas such as marketing and behavioral economics; providing limited information over time helps people make more stable choices in purchasing goods or receiving services. Also, in situations such as elections, if the information presented in favor of a candidate offered over time and in several phases, it can have a greater impact and improve decision stability.

Emotions and feelings include a diversity of mental states with distinct qualitative features that are known as “qualia”. These qualitative features of mental states consist in how these mental states are perceived or how things appear to us. For this reason, these features are often called phenomenal aspects or phenomenal consciousness. This is how mental states appear to us. This subjective phenomenal feature is commonly defined as follows: there is a thing such that it is the specific quality of the existence of a particular mental state. Some philosophers have gone too far to deny the existence of qualia. George Rey is among these philosophers. He argues that it is possible to design a machine that possesses all mental processes and capacities. Even though that such machine has all mental capacities that human beings can have, Rey argues, it is dubious that it has qualia too. Now, if it is suspicious that this machine has qualia, then no mental capacities and processes are reasonable candidates for qualia. Rey concludes that it is equally reasonable to doubt if human beings possess qualia. In this paper, I shall first formulate Rey’s argument and then show that it is ineffective. I will explore the question if it is really possible to design a machine that, analogous to human beings, possesses mental capacities.  Following Dreyfus, I will argue for the impossibility of designing Rey’s machine. Deryfus believes that data are related to each other and to know how certain data are related to each other one needs to have knowledge about the interaction between culture and society, and the history of an individual. Intelligence, he thinks, is “situated” and cannot be made sense without taking the context of human beings’ life into consideration. This consists in the effect of the human body on her cognition and the influence of cultural and historical factors on her life.     Given that, the reason for impossibility of Rey’s machine is this: programming such a machine requires cultural and social interactions between the machine and some environment. This machine can have its own self-knowledge. The self obtains its significance in relation to others and the environment. Based on this, I will argue that if it is possible to design such a machine, Rey’s argument is ineffective, because he thinks that qualia and phenomenal consciousness are some kinds of mental processing. The problem of Rey’s argument lies in this false assumption. We need to distinguish two things: (1) a mental process x is qualia, and (2) a mental process x has a particular quality that is called “qualia”. Rey does not seem to have appreciated this distinction in his argument. His argument appears to be against (1) and has nothing to do with (2). If the argument is built on (2), then it looks effective but the problem is that it does not deny the existence of qualia! To challenge the possibility of qualia Rey needs to argue against the very concept of qualia that is accepted by pro-qualia philosophers. Rey’s argument is based on defining, and then criticizing, the concept of “qualia” in a way that diverges from the accepted definition of it among philosophers. This is hardly an argument against the existence of qualia.

Teacherschr conceptions are the most influential factor affecting classroom practice. At the same time teachers bring pre-conceptions about teaching and learning to the educational settings from their own experiences as students. These pre-conceptions work as a framework of understanding and interpreting new information and are resistant to change. At the same time the tremendous change from traditional approaches to constructivism and an increasing tendency to the neural underlings of education have encountered teachers with lots of new concepts to learn. Simultaneously studies in different countries have provided evidences that many misconceptions and neuromyths are held by teachers. All of this have made researches in the area of teacherschr conceptions worthful especially when it comes to subsequent interventions. There are also limited inquiries in teacherschr conceptions through deep interviews in Iran. Also previous studies in Iran approached teacherschr conceptions in  special subject areas like math or were interested in teacherschr epistemological beliefs and neuromyths. The aim of this study was to explore Iranian teacherschr conceptions of teaching and learning as an interrelated system and to see to what extent they are consistent to the scientific theories and understanding of learning. 
 

To do so phenomenological methodology was applied in which different ways of experiencing a phenomenon by a certain group of people at a collective level are examined. Deep semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 elementary school teachers. Written consent was obtained from all participants (mean age = 30 years; mean experience = 10 years). All interviews were conducted by one the researchers, lasted 40 minuets in average and after 6 months intra-rater reliability was calculated. The data were analyzed as a whole and descriptive categories were formed based on similarity between teacherschr  expressions. 

The results revealed that during educational reforms, Iranian teachers have become aware of the significance of providing students with activities and to give them more chances for having an active role whilst the distinction between student-centered and teacher-centered approaches was not well understood. They showed confusion between learning and teaching strategies. Teachers also neglected the role of social factors, were unable to see prior knowledge as a framework of understanding new information, placed the knowledge inside the mind and despite being aware of the importance of motivation they lacked in scientific theories about it.

Similar to the previous studies, teachers showed inconsistencies in their pedagogical belief system, with evidence of having traditional and modern conceptions of learning and teaching at the same time (e.g. student-centered and teacher-centered). The implications of these results lead us to address these inconsistencies and co-existences explicitly. Some previous researches suggested implementing conceptual change approach which has shown to be promising in confronting misconceptions. They implied that teachers need to be aware of their beliefs as a first step of change and then to get dissatisfied with them. It must be mentioned that our research was limited to young and middle-class teachers with having previous workshops in the newest approach in education. Future researches need to investigate teachers with different cultural and educational backgrounds.

Working with collage is one of kind of art style that deals with pasting and putting objects besides each other. It is not only a therapy and preventive method in appearing any disorder, but also it is a way of reinforcing mind’s abilities including cognitive -visual function. Therefore, the purpose of the research is investigating the effectiveness of working with collage on children’s cognitive-visual function and its scales such as visual perception, visual memory, and fundamental visual ability.

The research method was experimental, of the pretest/post-test along with control group and follow-up. The statistical population was all boys and girls children in preschool in the city of Kerman that among them 40 children were recruited using multi-cluster sampling method and using simple random method within each cluster and the last cluster. Only the experimental group were instructed for eight sessions of working with collage. Both groups completed Benton’s visual retention test. Data were analyzed using multiple Covariance (MANCOVA). 

Results show that the effect of collage instruction was significant on visual perception (p = .0001), visual memory (p = .0001), and fundamental visual ability (p = .0001).

Regard to the follow-up phase, it is concluded that working with collage is a suitable method in improving children’s cognitive neuropsychological functions and collage can be used as a way in enhancing cognitive-visual function.

A key finding in embodied construction grammar (ECG) is that brain areas related to action and language are interdependent. Specifically, with regard to this idea, several studies have shown that action execution and observation influence subsequent language processing, in that action verbs processing elicit activation of effector-specific regions in primary motor and premotor cortex. However, the relationship between motor skills impairment and action related language processing is still a controversial issue. In order to clarify this issue, we designed image-verb matching task (Bergen et al., 2003) to examine motor imagery ability of children with dyslexia during action verbs comprehension. We used Persian verbs expressing hand and foot actions that were either congruent or incongruent with the images that had been presented.

Thirty four children from grades 2 through 6 (aged between 8 to 13 years old) participated in this study. A group of 17 children with surface dyslexia with mild to moderate degrees of reading disorder (12 boys and 5 girls; mean age= 10.6, SD= 1.51) and a group of 17 typically control children (12 boys and 5 girls; mean age= 10.3, SD= 1.41) were selected. In both groups the children were matched pairwise on chronological age and gender. Children with DD were recruited for participation through rehabilitation centers and special centers for language and learning disabilities. The TD group consisted of a subset of children who were recruited from state primary schools in the city of Shiraz. The diagnoses for dyslexics were based on several sources of information as 1) assessment by psychiatric specialist or teacher report, 2) intelligence test: Persian version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV), subjects with IQ level below 80 were excluded, 3) Bender Visual Motor Gestalt test, and 4) informal interview with children and their parents. Potential subjects both in DD and control groups were screened to ensure they didnchr t have any history of neurological and psychiatric disorders that could contribute to motor impairment. In addition, subjects underwent reading examination to evaluate their reading skills and children who had severe reading disability were excluded. All participants were Persian-speaking monolinguals. Ethics approval was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee (IR.SUMS.REHAB.REC.1398.021) at SUMS. Before beginning the experiment, parents gave written consent for their children to participate in our study, which was approved by ethics committee at SUMS and they were all paid for participation.

The nonparametric Kruskal Wallis Test showed a significant effect of matching in image-verb verification task, and indicating a better performance of the control children over the dyslexic children; Matching verbs, (DD mean= 3.55, SD= 3.43; TD mean= 2.41, SD= 0.88, p<.001), same-effector mismatches (DD mean= 3.47, SD=1.98; TD mean= 3.32, SD=0.97, p<.001), and different-effector mismatches (DD mean= 4.03, SD=2.92; TD mean=2.43, SD=0.78, p<.001). The chi-Square test showed a better performance of the control children (DD mean=66%, TD mean=87.3%, p<.001) over the dyslexic children. In all verb types, dyslexics scored significantly less than typical children; Matching verbs, (DD mean= 71.8%; TD mean= 88.2%, p<.001), same-effector mismatches (DD mean= 59.7%; TD mean= 75.6%, p<.001), and different-effector mismatches (DD mean= 66.4%; TD mean= 97.9%, p<.001).

The findings reflect different nature of motor imagery used by TD and DD children and support the hypothesis that motor skill impairment affects motor imagery ability during action verbs processing. Furthermore, these findings indicate that action execution and action verbs processing share common representations and lend support to embodied cognition theory in that there is a significant connection between embodied experiences and language comprehension. Therefore, lower ability to simulate the motor representation of action verbs highlights the critical role of embodied experiences on language understanding.