Tanja Könen

EEG alpha synchronization is related to top-down processing in convergent and divergent thinking

Highlights ► The functional meaning of EEG alpha synchronization was investigated. ► An experimental manipulation of internal processing demands was achieved. ► Frontal alpha synchronization is related to top-down processing. ► Alpha desynchronization is related to bottom-up processing. ► Alpha synchronization in creative thinking is attributed to top-down processing.

The benefits of looking at intraindividual dynamics in cognitive training data

Over the last decade, the prospect of improving or maintaining cognitive functioning has provoked a steadily increasing number of cognitive training studies. Central target populations are individuals at risk for a disadvantageous development, such as older adults exhibiting cognitive decline or children with learning impairments. They rely on cognitive resources to meet the challenges of an independent life in old age or requirements at school. To support daily cognitive functioning, training outcomes need to generalize to other cognitive abilities. Such transfer effects are, however, highly discussed. For example, recent meta-analyses on working memory training differed in the conclusion on the presence (Au et al., 2015; Karbach and Verhaeghen, 2014) or absence of transfer effects (Melby-Lervag and Hulme, 2013). Usually training-specific design factors such as type, intensity, duration, and feedback routines are discussed as reasons for such inconsistent findings. However, even individuals participating in exactly the same training regime highly differ in their training outcomes. We argue that it is time to study the individual development during trainings to understand these differential outcomes. It is time to have a closer look at the intraindividual training data.

How differentiated do children experience affect? An investigation of the within- and between-person structure of children's affect.

Research on the structure of childrens affect is limited. It is possible that childrens perception of their own affect might be less differentiated than that of adults. Support for the 2-factor model of positive and negative affect and the pleasure-arousal model suggests that children in middle childhood can distinguish positive and negative affect as well as valence and arousal. Whether children are able to differentiate further aspects of affect, as proposed by the 3-dimensional model of affect (good-bad mood, alertness-tiredness, calmness-tension), is an unresolved issue. The aim of our study was the comparison of these 3 affect models to establish how differentiated children experience their affect and which model best describes affect in children. We examined affect structures on the between- and within-person level, acknowledging that affect varies across time and that no valid interpretation of either level is feasible if both are confounded. For this purpose, 214 children (age 8-11 years) answered affect items once a day for 5 consecutive days on smartphones. We tested all affect models by means of 2-level confirmatory factor analysis. Although all affect models had an acceptable fit, the 3-dimensional model best described affect in children on both the within- and between-person level. Thus, children in middle childhood can already describe affect in a differentiated way. Also, affect structures were similar on the within- and between-person level. We conclude that in order to acquire a thorough picture of childrens affect, measures for children should include items of all 3 affect dimensions. (PsycINFO Database Record

The interplay between sleep behavior and affect in elementary school children’s daily life

Recent reviews raised the idea of a bidirectional relation between sleep behavior and affect in adults, but little is known about this interplay in general and especially regarding children. In this micro-longitudinal study, the interplay of sleep and affect was captured directly in childrens daily life context in and out of school through ambulatory assessment. For 31 consecutive days, 110 elementary school children (8-11 years old) provided information about their last nights sleep and reported their current affect at four daily occasions in school and at home on smartphones. A multilevel approach was used to analyze the relation between sleep and affect the next day (morning, noon, and afternoon) and the relation between evening affect and subsequent sleep. At the within-person level, sleep quality was related to all observed facets of affect the next day and the strongest effects were found in the morning. The effect of sleep quality on positive affect was particularly pronounced for children who on average went to bed early and slept long. There were, however, no direct within-person effects of sleep quantity on affect. Furthermore, evening affect was related to subsequent sleep. The findings support the idea of a bidirectional relation between affect and sleep in childrens daily life (including school). They suggest that good sleep provides a basis and resource for childrens affective well-being the next day and demonstrate the importance of analyzing within-person variations of childrens sleep. Micro-longitudinal findings can contribute to explain how macro-longitudinal relations between sleep and affect develop over time.

The effects of verbal and spatial memory load on children's processing speed

Examining the impact of maintenance on processing speed allows us to test whether storage and processing resources are shared. Comparing these relationships in children of different ages allows further insight into whether one or multiple resources for these operations must be assumed and whether remembering is proactive throughout childhood. We tested 185 4‐ to 6‐ and 8‐ to 10‐year‐old children using adaptive complex span tasks, in which simple judgments were interleaved between to‐be‐remembered items. The adaptiveness of our tasks ensured that all participants frequently correctly recalled the items. If storage and processing require a single resource, and if participants serially reactivate the memoranda between processing episodes, processing response times should increase with serial position of the processing judgment within lists. We observed different within‐list dynamics for each age group. Older childrens processing judgments slowed gradually when more than two memory items were maintained. By contrast, younger children showed no evidence of slower processing with increasing memory load. Our results support models of working memory that assume that some common resource is responsible for verbal and spatial storage and processing. They also support the notion that remembering becomes more proactive as children mature.

Self-Reported Cognitive Failures in Everyday Life: A Closer Look at Their Relation to Personality and Cognitive Performance

A recent review concluded that the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire is the most widely used instrument to assess cognitive failures. Our aims were to place cognitive failures self-reported with the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire into their nomological network by conceptually replicating known relations to the Big Five and by extending this knowledge through testing their relations with latent cognitive abilities (Study 1, N = 158, age 20-86 years) and theoretically relevant Big Five subfacets (Study 2, N = 176, age 19-39 years). Cognitive failures were unrelated to objective cognitive performance (processing speed, memory, and inhibition), but reliably related to the personality domains conscientiousness, neuroticism, and almost all their subfacets. Thus, self-reported cognitive failures do not qualify as a proxy for objective cognitive performance tasks. They are rather useful as illustration of behavioral manifestations related to personality domains.