American Behavioral Scientist study suggests Twitter can foster sense of personal communities

This is a bit off-topic for my blogs, but I am a user of various social media, primarily for professional purposes. But, others use social media like Twitter to form personal social networks....and now, one study suggests it can help provide a form of sense of a personal community. Double click on images to enlarge







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Personal Recommended Reading: The Fifth Agreement - Toltec Wisdom

I read this simple book a while back and return to it frequently when I find the need for a little personal perspective on things. The five agreements make eminent sense for a more real and sane approach to living. Although not written from research in cognitive psychology, one can relate the five agreements to some solid research on cognitive thinking and cognitive restructuring of thoughts. I have now made a "five agreements" cheat sheet that is the wallpaper on my iPad screen---so I am reminded of the five concepts constantly. I am skimming the book again.



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Dissertation Dish: Can pitch or rhythm (Ga-auditory processing) training improve phonological awareness (Ga)

The effectiveness of Separate Pitch and Rhythm Training Interventions on the Phonological Awareness of Kindergarten Learners by Richards, Susannah Converse, Ed.D., Northcentral University, 2011 , 171 pages; AAT 3472255

Abstract

Although neuroscientists assert that music training impacts neural development, previous research has not teased apart which components of music possibly enhance language literacy in emergent readers. The purpose of this quantitative research study was to establish if immersion in pitch activities as compared with rhythm activities could cause the significant development of initial sound (IS) skills, letter sounds (LS) skills, and sound pattern skills in kindergarten readers. This study examined the effectiveness of supplemental music instruction on the phonological awareness skills of kindergarten learners ( N = 38) who originated from seven classrooms in one suburban elementary school. Leveled subjects randomly were assigned to an experimental pitch group ( n = 12), or an experimental rhythm group ( n = 11), or a control group ( n = 15). During sixteen 40-minute sessions that spanned eight weeks, pitch group subjects explored the highness and lowness of sound, while rhythm group subjects investigated the duration of sound. The control group engaged in 20-minute weekly read-aloud sessions. Pre- and post-test data collection consisted of the kindergarten version of the Test of Phonological Awareness - Second Edition: Plus , and the sound patterns music subtest of the Woodcock Johnson III . Data was converted to Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for analysis. Separate 3 x 3 factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed the levels differed on each of the IS variables (pitch [ F =7.74; df = 3], rhythm [ F = .07; df = 3], control [ F = .18; df = 2]); and the LS variables (low pitch [ F = 1.0; df = 3], low rhythm [ F = 6.62; df = 3], low control [ F = 4.0; df = 2]). Significance was observed with a matched-pairs t -test with the low pitch treatment group ( t [3] = 0.034, p < 0.04). Future research should recruit a larger sample and utilize a different music assessment. This study provides insight into a real-world application relative to specific components of music that potentially enhance the phonological awareness of the most challenged of kindergarten readers before remediation is necessary.



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Mad Box reaction time app: Possible brain fitness tool?

An interesting reaction time app for the iPhone/iPad. It has the appearance of a possible brain fitness tool......would be nice someone would do some research on this to see if it does improve any aspects of cognitive functioning

Double click on image to enlarge. Visit link about to visit developers website




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The IQ Brain Clock: More research linking mental timing and intelligence

The link between mental time-keeping and intelligence continues to emerge in research across a variety of disciplines. Here is another new study. This study is posted via the IQs Reading blog feature---see article for comments and links to additional research

Tic toc...........

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mental timing IQ Brain Clock brain clock temporal processing metronome mental time-keeping brain timing educational psychology school psychology special education educational neuroscience neuropsychology neuroscience neurology brain rhythm rhythm processing rhythm perception intelligence cognitive abilities working memory attention executive attention multi-sensory feedback rhythm production

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Human functioning covers at least 10 levels of " timing"--but the most critical is at the milli- and micro-second level

Human temporal processing covers approximately 10 levels of magnitude, but it is the finest levels of mental timing where "the action is" in terms of cognitive and motor learning and performance---the focus of this blog. I love this big picture figure.

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IM-HOME launched: Interactive Metronome-Home mental-timing based intervention

Today Interactive Metronome, a brain clock (mental time-keeping) based neurotech intervention, launched a new "home" product web page called IM-HOME. Click here to visit.

(Double click on image to enlarge)


As most readers of this blog know, IM is the reason I started the IQ Brain Clock blog. I have disclosed my conflict of interest (on the IM Scientific Advisory board) in most all of my prior IM-related posts.

I will add the IM-Home Blog feed to the "IQ Brain Clock & Rhythm "Times" e-paper once they get an RSS feed for the blog

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The four models of the IQ Brain Clock (mental time-keeping)

There are four four primary models advanced to explain mental time-keeping. I was reminded of this when I revisited a prior post that summarized an excellent article published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Click here to review this post.


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Brain rhythm efficacy research: Can we fine-tune our brain?

It was recently brought to my attention that the link to a previously posted report I produced with Amy Vega (from Interactive Metronome) was dead. Earthlink (my server host) had informed me I was over quota...so I started some mass file deletion. This report was a victim of the purge. As I skimmed the report I realized that it is still a nice synthesis of the efficacy of a general class of research on brain rhythm training interventions. Below was our general conclusion. I would recommend that people who have not read the report revisit that post (with the fixed link) to understand why I continue to be intrigued by brain timing research and the potential for brain timing based interventions.

General conclusion:

...given the converging research that points toward a possible neurologically-based domain-general internal mental-timing mechanism (i.e., a potentially modifiable internal brain clock), it is possible that the efficacy of all four classes of rhythm-based treatments are operating (in their own way) on “fine tuning the temporal resolution of the human brain clock.” Our temporal resolution fine-tuning hypothesis is consistent with the temporal resolution power (TRP) hypothesis (Rammsayer & Brandler, 2002, 2007) that indicates that oscillatory brain process are responsible for the efficiency and speed of neural-based information processing. We hypothesize, via the temporal resolution fine-tuning hypothesis, that the positive outcomes for rhythm perception and production based treatments may be due to these treatments increasing the efficiency and speed of information processing in brain-based neural networks responsible for the planning, execution and synchronization of complex human behaviors.

We urge both academic and applied researchers to embrace the temporal processing (mental timing) theory--diagnostic/classification--treatment literature reviewed in this report and increase efforts to understand the links between the three legs of the mental timing stool. The positive effects of current “brain rhythm” treatment programs for many types of disorders, across a variety of human performance domains, is encouraging, particularly when placed in the context of the emerging science and theory of the human brain clock.

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mental timing IQ Brain Clock brain clock temporal processing metronome mental time-keeping brain timing educational psychology school psychology special education educational neuroscience neuropsychology neuroscience neurology brain rhythm rhythm processing rhythm perception intelligence cognitive abilities working memory attention executive attention multi-sensory feedback rhythm production

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Test post--ignore

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