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In the field of numerical cognition, researchers conventionally assess nonsymbolic numerical abilities with the help of number comparison tasks, in which participants need to compare two arrays. Many studies emphasized that visual (non-numerical) dimensions can serve as strategic cues and influence the decision on numerosity in these tasks. In this study, we suggest the use of a novel paradigm based on the change detection paradigm. Here, participants had to simultaneously pay attention to numerical changes and visual changes on a target non-numerical dimension (individual area, total area, field area, or density). Participants had to detect changes relative to the two dimensions and press response keys indicating either number change or visual change or press both keys. In such a double change detection paradigm, and unlike number comparison tasks, target and covarying dimensions cannot serve as cues to influence the numerical decision. We found that numerical change detection was excellent and stable across the conditions. Further, participants were more likely to falsely consider visual changes as numerical changes than the other way around. Lastly, when both dimensions varied, participants more frequently missed visual changes than numerical changes. Overall, our findings show that numerosity was the most salient visual dimension. From a methodological perspective, such a double change detection paradigm could be of critical interest to assess numerical abilities for future studies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Humans possess a numerical intuition that allows them to manipulate large non-symbolic quantities. This ability has been broadly assessed with the help of number comparison tasks involving simultaneously displayed arrays. Many authors pointed out that the manipulation (or the lack thereof) of non-numerical features deeply impacts performance in these tasks, but the specific nature of this influence is not clear. The current study investigates the interaction between numerical and non-numerical quantity judgment tasks. Adult participants performed five distinct comparison tasks, each based on a target dimension: numerosity, total area, dot size, convex hull, and mean occupancy. We manipulated the relation between the target and the other dimensions to measure their respective influence on task performance. Results showed that total area and convex hull substantially affected numerosity comparisons. The number of dots conversely acted as an informative dimension when participants had to make a decision based on the total area or the convex hull. Our results illustrate that adults flexibly use non-target dimensions as visual cues to perform comparison judgments. Overall, this suggests that the influence found in numerical comparison tasks is explicit and deliberate rather than due to implicit visual integration processes., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of implementing an assistive technology for meal preparation called COOK within a supported community residence for a person with an acquired brain injury.Using a mixed-methods approach, a multiple baseline single-case experimental design and a descriptive qualitative study were conducted. The participant was a 47-year-old woman with cognitive impairments following a severe stroke. She received 21 sessions of training on using COOK within a shared kitchen space. During meal preparation, independence and safety were evaluated using three target behaviours: required assistance, task performance errors, and appropriate responses to safety issues, which were compared with an untrained control task, making a budget. Benefits, barriers, and facilitators were assessedBoth quantitative and qualitative analyses showed that COOK significantly increased independence and safety during meal preparation but not in the control task. Stakeholders suggested that the availability of a training toolkit to a greater number of therapists at the residence and installation of COOK within the client's apartment would help with successful adoption of this technology.COOK is a promising assistive technology for individuals with cognitive deficits who live in supported community residences.Implication For RehabilitationCOOK is a promising assistive technology for cognition to increase independence and safety in meal preparation for clients with ABI within their supported living contexts.Receiving training from an expert and the availability of technical support are imperative to the successful adoption of COOK.

Study Objectives Sleep–wake complaints and difficulties in making new learning are among the most persistent and challenging long-term sequelea following moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Yet, it is unclear whether, and to what extent, sleep characteristics during the chronic stage of TBI contribute to sleep–wake and cognitive complaints. We aimed to characterize sleep architecture in chronic moderate to severe TBI adults and assess whether non-rapid eye movement slow wave activity (SWA) is associated to next day performance in episodic memory tasks according to TBI severity. Methods Forty-two moderate to severe TBI participants, 12–47 months post-injury, and 38 healthy controls were tested with one night of in-laboratory polysomnography, followed the next morning by questionnaires (sleep quality, fatigue, and sleepiness) and neuropsychological assessment. We used multiple regression analyses to assess the moderator effect of SWA power on TBI severity and next-day memory performance. Results We found that TBI participants reported worse sleep quality and fatigue, and had worse cognitive performance than controls. No between group differences were found on macro- and micro-architecture of sleep. However, SWA significantly interacted with TBI severity to explain next-day memory performance: higher SWA was more strongly associated to better memory performance in more severe TBI compared to milder TBI. Conclusions This study provides evidence that the injured brain is able to produce macro- and micro-architecture of sleep comparable to what is seen in healthy controls. However, with increasing TBI severity, lower non-rapid eye movement SWA power is associated with reduced ability to learn and memorise new information the following day.