• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.106-114
• /
• 2017

Objectives: This study was to examine the effectiveness of computerized cognitive ability enhancement program (CCAEP) using Smarttoy. The CCAEP using Smart-toy which can interact with children via bluetooth is a kids-friendly and convenient method for improving children's cognitive abilities by increasing their motivation for performing the program. We developed the CCAEP which designed to train auditory-verbal memory, visual-spatial memory, auditory-verbal working memory, and visual-spatial working memory. Methods: Eighteen children aged 8 to 10 participated in CCAEP individual training composed of 8 sessions of 40 minutes each for 4 weeks. The effect of the training was measured with Smart Toyweb's cognitive assessment tasks (smart device based assessment) as well as traditional neuropsychological tests before and after the training. Results: Children showed significant improvement in auditory-verbal memory, visual-spatial memory, auditory-verbal working memory and visual-spatial working memory abilities after the training. Conclusion: This study demonstrated promising results suggesting the effectiveness of CCAEP using Smart-Toy in clinical settings as well as school and home situations. Further controlled study with larger sample size including various clinical groups is needed to confirm the present results.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2018

The vowel /o/ in Seoul Korean has been undergoing a sound change by altering the acoustic weighting of F2 and F1. Studies documented that this on-going change redefined the nature of a /o/-/u/ contrast as F2 differences rather than as F1 differences. The current study examined two cognitive factors namely executive function capacity (EF) and autistic traits, in terms of their roles in explaining who in speech community would adapt new acoustic forms of the target vowels, and who would retain the old forms. The participants, 55 college students speaking Seoul Korean, produced /o/ and /u/ vowels in isolated words; and completed three EF tasks (Digit N-Back, Stroop, and Trail-Making Task), and an Autism screening questionnaire. The relationships between speakers' cognitive task scores and their utilizations of F1 and F2 were analyzed using a series of correlation tests. Results yielded a meaningful relationship in participants' EF scores interacting with gender. Among the females, speakers with higher EF scores were better at retaining F1, which is a less informative cue for females since they utilized F2 more than they did F1 in realizing /o/ and /u/. In contrast, better EF control among male speakers was associated with more use of the new cue (F2) where males still utilized F1 as much as F2 in the production of /o/ and /u/ vowels. Taken together, individual differences in acoustic realization can be explained by individuals' cognitive abilities, and their progress in the sound change further predicts that cognitive ability influences the utilization of acoustic information which is non-primary to the speaker.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
• /
• v.9 no.5
• /
• pp.480-488
• /
• 2015

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by deficits in memory and cognitive functions. The accumulation of amyloid beta peptide ($A{\beta}$) and oxidative stress in the brain are the most common causes of AD. MATERIALS/METHODS: Caffeic acid (CA) is an active phenolic compound that has a variety of pharmacological actions. We studied the protective abilities of CA in an $A{\beta}_{25-35}$-injected AD mouse model. CA was administered at an oral dose of 10 or 50 mg/kg/day for 2 weeks. Behavioral tests including T-maze, object recognition, and Morris water maze were carried out to assess cognitive abilities. In addition, lipid peroxidation and nitric oxide (NO) production in the brain were measured to investigate the protective effect of CA in oxidative stress. RESULTS: In the T-maze and object recognition tests, novel route awareness and novel object recognition were improved by oral administration of CA compared with the $A{\beta}_{25-35}$-injected control group. These results indicate that administration of CA improved spatial cognitive and memory functions. The Morris water maze test showed that memory function was enhanced by administration of CA. In addition, CA inhibited lipid peroxidation and NO formation in the liver, kidney, and brain compared with the $A{\beta}_{25-35}$-injected control group. In particular, CA 50 mg/kg/day showed the stronger protective effect from cognitive impairment than CA 10 mg/kg/day. CONCLUSIONS: The present results suggest that CA improves $A{\beta}_{25-35}$-induced memory deficits and cognitive impairment through inhibition of lipid peroxidation and NO production.

• Knowledge Management Research
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.69-89
• /
• 2022

As we enter a super-aged society, senior citizens' health issues are affecting a variety of fields, including medicine, economics, society, and culture. In this study, we intend to draw implications from unstructured data analysis such as text mining and social network analysis in order to apply digital health care service design for improving the cognitive ability of senior citizens. The research procedure of this study improved the service design methodology into a process suited to the analysis of unstructured data, and six steps were applied. Related keywords that exist on social media, focusing on cognitive improvement and healthcare for senior citizens, were collected and analyzed, and based on these results, the direction of healthcare service design for improving on the cognitive abilities of senior citizens was derived. The results of this study are expected to have academic and practical implications for expanding the scope of the use of big data analysis methods and improving existing healthcare service development methodologies.

• Dementia and Neurocognitive Disorders
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.158-168
• /
• 2023

Background and Purpose: Facial emotion recognition deficits impact the daily life, particularly of Alzheimer's disease patients. We aimed to assess these deficits in the following three groups: subjective cognitive decline (SCD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and mild Alzheimer's dementia (AD). Additionally, we explored the associations between facial emotion recognition and cognitive performance. Methods: We used the Korean version of the Florida Facial Affect Battery (K-FAB) in 72 SCD, 76 MCI, and 76 mild AD subjects. The comparison was conducted using the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), with adjustments being made for age and sex. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was utilized to gauge the overall cognitive status, while the Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery (SNSB) was employed to evaluate the performance in the following five cognitive domains: attention, language, visuospatial abilities, memory, and frontal executive functions. Results: The ANCOVA results showed significant differences in K-FAB subtests 3, 4, and 5 (p=0.001, p=0.003, and p=0.004, respectively), especially for anger and fearful emotions. Recognition of 'anger' in the FAB subtest 5 declined from SCD to MCI to mild AD. Correlations were observed with age and education, and after controlling for these factors, MMSE and frontal executive function were associated with FAB tests, particularly in the FAB subtest 5 (r=0.507, p<0.001 and r=-0.288, p=0.026, respectively). Conclusions: Emotion recognition deficits worsened from SCD to MCI to mild AD, especially for negative emotions. Complex tasks, such as matching, selection, and naming, showed greater deficits, with a connection to cognitive impairment, especially frontal executive dysfunction.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Therapy
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.57-72
• /
• 2018

Objective : This study aims to identify the self-reported driving abilities of elderly drivers and their correlations to the demographic factors that influence them, and to verify the adequacy of the hypothetical model, constructed based on vision, auditory, cognition, motor, and psychological factors, in order to present a path model on the self-reported driving abilities of elderly drivers. Methods : The participants in this study were 122 elderly drivers aged 65 years or older residing in the community. This study evaluated the following factors of the participants: Vision and hearing, motor ability, cognitive ability, depression, self-reported driving abilities. Results : The results of this study are as follows. In the case of men, the self-reported driving ability score was higher than for women, and those driving 6-7 days per week had higher scores than those driving 3 days or less. The period of holding a driver's license and driving experience positively correlated with self-reported driving abilities. The final model of factors influencing the self-reported driving abilities of elderly drivers had a p value (.911) exceeding .05; TLI (1.202), NFI (.949), and CFI (1.000) of over .90; and RMSEA (.000) of lower than 0.1, indicating that the hypothesis model fit the data well. First, the directly influential factors on the self-reported driving abilities of elderly drivers were depression, decreased hearing, and grip strength. Second, age was found to have a direct influence on depression and grip strength; moreover, depression and grip strength as a mediator indirectly influenced their self-reported driving abilities. Third, depression was found to have a direct influence on their delayed cognitive processing and grip strength. Conclusion : The significance of this study is in the identification of direct and indirect factors influencing the self-reported driving abilities of elderly drivers in regional communities, and in the verification of multi-dimensional effects of diverse factors influencing such abilities.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
• /
• v.10 no.8
• /
• pp.203-212
• /
• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of cognitive rehabilitation programs using Virtual Reality(VR) content on the daily living abilities such as cognitive abilities, depression, and upper extremity functions of the elderly. The study group analyzed the effectiveness by separating the experimental group, which is the virtual reality cognitive rehabilitation application group, and the control group, the universal cognitive stimulation program application group. As a result of the study, the MMSE-K score improved by 13.0% in the experimental group and 2.3% in the control group. The improvement in each area of the experimental group was found to be 3.1% MBI, 7.1% MFT(Rt.), 3.5% MFT(Lt.), and 25.4% K-GDS. As a result of comparing the pre-post score change between each group, there was a significant difference between groups in daily living ability (p<.001) and MFT(Rt.)(p<.01). In addition, as a result of comparing the changes in absolute alpha waves to confirm the degree of depression through brain waves, there was no statistically significant difference. However, in the experimental group, it was confirmed that the average value increased to a positive value. This study is an experiment to verify the effectiveness of the cognitive rehabilitation program using virtual reality contents, and suggests a new intervention method to maintain and improve the daily life ability, cognitive function, depression and upper extremity function of the elderly.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.1-20
• /
• 2016

This study explored the cognitive characteristics and learning needs of economically disadvantaged gifted students. Gifted students(n=99), economically disadvantaged gifted students(n=43), and non-gifted students(n=50) participated in intelligence and creativity tests, and took self assessments of meta-cognition, epistemological beliefs, learning style preferences, and personal time usage. Superior abstract reasoning ability of economically disadvantaged gifted students was found because their scores on Raven's Test had risen rapidly compared to the other groups. Economically disadvantaged gifted students showed similar high scores as the gifted student on the Torrance Tests of Creativity Thinking-Figural, but not on Verbal. They were found to have a perception of the positive relationships among effort, learning abilities, and values of learning integrated knowledge with a general plan. However, they showed lower meta-cognitive control abilities than the gifted students in learning management and strategies, epistemological beliefs in value of rational operations, and time usage for learning. It is necessary to assign economically disadvantaged gifted students a task with various step by step methods of approach because these students prefer a new and creative task to difficult ones. Instruction plans such as developing language and meta-cognitive abilities and practical application of learning content was proposed.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
• /
• v.4 no.6
• /
• pp.37-47
• /
• 1998

In Korea, it is urgently required to develop the health care facilities and services for People with dementia. The progression of dementia is associated with a gradual decline in functional, cognitive, emotional, and social abilities. Therefore, architectural design for People elderly with dementia should be focused to maintain and preserve this abilities. This study aims to derive the design guidelines of the ward and patient roon unit planning to maintain this abilities in the health care facilities for People with dementia. For this, investigation and analysis through the case studies of domestic and foreign facilities and P.O.E of domestic facilities were performed.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.193-204
• /
• 1982

This study attempts to clarify the relationship between mother;s child-rearing practices and children's critical thinking abilities. More specifically this study wants to answer the questions: (a) Is there any relationship between mother's child-rearing practices and children's critical thinking abilities? (b) What dimensions of child-rearing practices are more important for children's critical thinking abilities? (c) Does the developmental process of children's critical thinking abilities show any difference according to the mother's child-rearing practices? This study is based on the conceptual model of child-rearing practices from the cognitive disciplinary viewpoint proposed by Lee et al.(1973). They polarized the child-rearing practices into the“mediated”types. These types were specified along seven dimensions of child-rearing. In general terms, the two types refer to the degree to which mother resorts to the description of concrete and immediate phenomena and immediate expression of momentary impulses, and positively reinforces such behaviors of her children. Two kinds of data were collected from 60 primary school boys and girls, and their mothers. A child-rearing practices questionnaire with 28 items was sent to the mothers. And the children were administered a critical thinking abilities test containing measures of 4 dimensions from the Ahn's Critical Thinking Measurement Technique. The major findings are those (a) the children of mothers who reported to have used more“mediated”types of child-rearing show relatively higher level of critical thinking abilities than their counterparts; (b) of the seven dimensions of child-rearing practices, the most significant are“mode of description”,“rationality-orientation”and“reward and punishment”; and (c) the“mediated”type of child-rearing practices tends to facilitate critical thinking abilities development. In conclusion, it is believed that a further refinement of this study will contribute to the development of child-rearing training program for mothers.