Brazilian version of the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ): cross-cultural adaptation and evidence of validity and reliability

Do Smartphone Addiction and Self-Regulation Failures Affect Students' Academic Life Satisfaction? The Role of Students' Mind Wandering and Cognitive Failures

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate how smartphone addiction and self-regulation failure influence students' academic life satisfaction considering the impacts of students' mind wandering and cognitive failures. It also sought to look at how students' minds wander, and cognitive failures are affected by smartphone addiction and self-regulation failure among university students.

Methods

The WarpPLS-SEM software was used to analyze the research data retrieved from a sample of 950 undergraduate students from universities in Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Results

In both countries, the findings revealed that students' smartphone addiction and self-regulation failures negatively affect students' academic life satisfaction and positively affect students' mind wandering and cognitive failures. Additionally, smartphone addiction is positively related to failures of students' self-regulation. Besides the negative influences of students' cognitive failures on their academic life satisfaction, cognitive failures mediated negatively the relationship between mind wandering and students' academic life satisfaction. Finally, students' mind wandering mediated the relationship between smartphone addiction, self-regulation failure, and academic life satisfaction.

Discussion

The study introduces fresh insights into the study variables that can be used to expand the literature on academic life satisfaction. The study provides theoretical and practical contributions to students, educators, and policymakers of education.

Objective and subjective neurocognitive functioning in functional motor symptoms and functional seizures: preliminary findings

INTRODUCTION

This study aimed to provide a preliminary assessment of objective and subjective neurocognitive functioning in individuals with functional motor symptoms (FMS) and/or functional seizures (FS). We tested the hypotheses that the FMS/FS group would display poorer objective attentional and executive functioning, altered social cognition, and reduced metacognitive accuracy.

METHOD

Individuals with FMS/FS (n = 16) and healthy controls (HCs, n = 17) completed an abbreviated CANTAB battery, and measures of intellectual functioning, subjective cognitive complaints, performance validity, and comorbid symptoms. Subjective performance ratings were obtained to assess local metacognitive accuracy.

RESULTS

The groups were comparable in age (p = 0.45), sex (p = 0.62), IQ (p = 0.57), and performance validity (p-values = 0.10-0.91). We observed no impairment on any CANTAB test in this FMS/FS sample compared to HCs, although the FMS/FS group displayed shorter reaction times on the Emotional Bias task (anger) (p = 0.01, np2 = 0.20). The groups did not differ in subjective performance ratings (p-values 0.15). Whilst CANTAB attentional set-shifting performance (total trials/errors) correlated with subjective performance ratings in HCs (p-values<0.005, rs = -0.85), these correlations were non-significant in the FMS/FS sample (p-values = 0.10-0.13, rs-values = -0.46-0.50). The FMS/FS group reported more daily cognitive complaints than HCs (p = 0.006, g = 0.92), which were associated with subjective performance ratings on CANTAB sustained attention (p = 0.001, rs = -0.74) and working memory tests (p < 0.001, rs = -0.75), and with depression (p = 0.003, rs = 0.70), and somatoform (p = 0.003, rs = 0.70) and psychological dissociation (p-values<0.005, rs-values = 0.67-0.85).

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest a discordance between objective and subjective neurocognitive functioning in this FMS/FS sample, reflecting intact test performance alongside poorer subjective cognitive functioning. Further investigation of neurocognitive functioning in FND subgroups is necessary.

Potential Biomarkers of Impulsivity in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Pilot Study

Very few studies have investigated cognition and impulsivity following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in the general population. Furthermore, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying post-TBI neurobehavioral syndromes are complex and remain to be fully clarified. Herein, we took advantage of machine learning based-modeling to investigate potential biomarkers of mTBI-associated impulsivity. Twenty-one mTBI patients were assessed within one-month post-TBI and their data were compared to 19 healthy controls on measures of impulsivity (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale - BIS), executive functioning, episodic memory, self-report cognitive failures and blood biomarkers of inflammation, vascular and neuronal damage. mTBI patients were significantly more impulsive than controls in BIS total and subscales. Serum levels of sCD40L, Cathepsin D, IL-4, Neuropilin-1, IFN-α2, and Copeptin were associated with impulsivity in mTBI patients. Besides showing that mTBI are associated with impulsivity in non-military people, we unveiled different pathophysiological pathways potentially implicated in mTBI-related impulsivity.

Effects of a Multi-Professional Intervention on Mental Health of Middle-Aged Overweight Survivors of COVID-19: A Clinical Trial

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of a multi-professional intervention model on the mental health of middle-aged, overweight survivors of COVID-19. A clinical trial study with parallel groups and repeated measures was conducted. For eight weeks, multi-professional interventions were conducted (psychoeducation, nutritional intervention, and physical exercises). One hundred and thirty-five overweight or obese patients aged 46.46 ± 12.77 years were distributed into four experimental groups: mild, moderate, severe COVID, and control group. The instruments were used: mental health continuum-MHC, revised impact scale-IES-r, generalized anxiety disorder-GAD-7, and Patient health questionnaire PHQ-9, before and after eight weeks. The main results indicated only a time effect, with a significant increase in global MHC scores, emotional well-being, social well-being, and psychological well-being, as well as detected a significant reduction in global IES-R scores, intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal, in addition to a reduction in GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores (p < 0.05). In conclusion, it was possible to identify those psychoeducational interventions that effectively reduced anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress symptoms in post-COVID-19 patients, regardless of symptomatology, in addition to the control group. However, moderate and severe post-COVID-19 patients need to be monitored continuously since the results of these groups did not follow the response pattern of the mild and control groups.

Validation of the Hungarian version of the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ)

Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) is a widely utilized tool to measure the frequency of everyday cognitive lapses. Here we present a validation study of the Hungarian translation of CFQ. A subsample (n = 157) filled out the questionnaire twice within a 7-21 days interval to determine test-retest reliability. Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) method was run on a larger sample (n = 382) for testing a different number of potential factors. Although the multiple-factor solutions showed good fit, the one-factor solution described the data more adequately. The composite reliability of the final model (CR = .822) as well as test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = .900) and the internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .920) of the CFQ were high. Higher CFQ scores (i.e., more cognitive slips) correlated positively with anxiety and depression while a negative relationship was present with well-being. Furthermore, women were characterized with higher CFQ scores compared to men. Our results are in line with previous studies, and the excellent psychometric properties make the Hungarian version of CFQ an appropriate measure of cognitive failures.

Intensive Care Unit Nurses in Iran: Occupational Cognitive Failures and Job Content

Background

Nurses in intensive care units (ICU) are under a lot of stress because of special conditions caused by the work environment and the high level of knowledge and skills required to work in these units, which can lead to cognitive failures. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between occupational cognitive failures (OCF) and job content (JC) in nurses in the ICU of Ardabil hospitals in 2020.

Methods

The present study was a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study that was conducted in 2020. The study population included nurses working in the ICU of hospitals in Ardabil, from which 267 people who were eligible to enter the study were selected. OCF and JC questionnaires were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using SPSS software 23.

Results

OCF with work records in the ICU, total work records, and work records in the COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 units are significantly associated. OCF was inversely related to the JC subscales of skill discretion and decision authority. And directly related to other subscales of JC.

Conclusions

Develop job ability, reduce repetitive tasks, create diversity in work, create opportunities for creativity, have the authority and freedom to make decisions, facilitate work with new technologies, have enough time to do work, have a friendly work environment with colleagues, support by the supervisor, improving posture, especially for the upper body, feeling job security can help to reduce the cognitive failure of nurses.

The magnitude and effect of work-life imbalance on cognition and affective range among the non-western population: A study from Muscat

The temporal relationship between work-life balance/imbalance, occupational burnout, and poor mental health outcomes have been widely explored. Little has been forthcoming on cognitive functioning among those with work-life imbalance. This study aimed to explore the rate of work-life imbalance and the variation in neuropsychological functioning. The relationship between affective ranges (anxiety and depressive symptoms) and work-life balance was also explored. The target population in this study are Omani nationals who were referred for psychometric evaluation. The study employs neuropsychology measures tapping into attention and concentration, learning and remembering, processing speed, and executive functioning. Subjective measures of cognitive decline and affective ranges were also explored. A total of 168 subjects (75.3% of the responders) were considered to be at a work-life imbalance. Multivariate analysis showed that demographic and neuropsychological variables were significant risk factors for work-life imbalance including age and the presence of anxiety disorder. Furthermore, participants indicating work-life imbalance were more likely to report cognitive decline on indices of attention, concentration, learning, and remembering. This study reveals that individuals with work-life imbalance might dent the integrity of cognition including attention and concentration, learning and remembering, executive functioning, and endorsed case-ness for anxiety.

The abbreviated version of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (ABIS): Psychometric analysis, reliable change indexes in clinical practice and normative data

Impulsivity is highly associated with psychopathology and dysfunctional behavior. An abbreviated Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (ABIS) was proposed as a validated, reliable and less time-consuming scale. We tested in a sample of adults, its psychometric properties and computed a reliable change index for clinical use. Internal consistency, test-retest stability suggested high reliability, while significant correlations with measures of psychiatric symptoms, and the original scale were evidence of validity. If a patient presents a change of 4 points between two applications of ABIS this indicates a reliable change, which can be used to evaluate the effect of patients' treatment or interventions.