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A sudden decline in violence across the United States since the early 1990s has led researchers from several fields to speculation over the cause. One of the more prominent explanations for this phenomenon n minvolves population-wide growth regarding aspects of IQ, specifically abstract reasoning. Based on this view one would hypothesize that individuals demonstrating a higher ability in abstract thinking would show a decreased propensity for aggression and related violence. This study provides a potential verification of this hypothesis. The sample consisted of community participants (n = 306) as well as participants with a history of violent (n = 70) and non-violent offending (n = 228). Using the Brief Aggression Questionnaire and Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices, an assessment of aggression and abstract reasoning, respectively, within this sample was conducted. A linear regression demonstrated a significant association between aggression and abstract reasoning, while controlling for covariates across the entire sample (N = 604). A multinomial regression comparing associations for abstract reasoning across the three groups showed no significant differences, indicating that abstract reasoning was not uniquely related to a history of violence. Thus, the current findings provide mixed support for a link between abstract thinking and aggression or violence.

Across three studies, this research elucidates when loss- versus gain-framed messages are most effective in influencing consumer recycling by examining the moderating role of whether a more concrete or abstract mind-set is activated. First, in a field study, the authors demonstrate that loss frames are more efficacious when paired with low-level, concrete mind-sets, whereas gain frames are more effective when paired with high-level, abstract mind-sets. This is an important, substantive finding that persisted over a significant time span. In addition, in two additional laboratory studies, they find further evidence for this matching hypothesis, in which a pairing of loss- (gain-) framed messages that activates more concrete (abstract) mind-sets leads to enhanced processing fluency, increased efficacy, and, as a result, more positive recycling intentions. The findings have implications for marketers, consumers, and society as a whole.

IntroductionAccording to a selective meta-analytical review, weakness of working memory is considered as one of the fundamental disorders in schizophrenia. Some researchers propose identifying this disorder as an endophenotypic marker of schizophrenia diathesis. Many researchers also emphasize violations of “abstract thinking”, that is, the ability of patients to operate with abstract concepts. Many scientists understand the violation of “abstract thinking” as the difficulty of patient in operating with the dominant signs of the concept. Based on these approaches, we assume a dark relationship between working memory and abstract thinking.ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between working memory and abstract thinking defect in patients with schizophrenic spectrum disorders.Methods16 patients with schizophrenic spectrum disorders were studied. To study abstract thinking, the following neuropsychological and psychometric techniques were used: exclusion of objects, D-KEFS understanding of proverbs (latent concepts were recorded). The following techniques were used to study working memory: n-back; Wechsler Test, subtest Digit Repetition.ResultsAs a result of preliminary research, the following data was obtained. We found significant differences between the number of irrelevant features (which corresponds to impaired abstract thinking) and the severity of impaired working memory (p = 0.035). The more the memory was impaired, the more the subjects demonstrated the impairment of abstract thinking.ConclusionsThus, our results justify our assumption. A relationship between working memory and abstract thinking is founded to be possible. Further studies of this issue requires a wider techniques battery as well as a larger sample.Conflict of interestThe reported study was funded by RFBR, project number 20-013-00772

IntroductionThe planning impairment is one of the basic aspect of cognitive dysfunction, but its mechanisms in schizophrenia remain unclear.ObjectivesTo assess the links between planning and cognitive functioning in schizophrenic patients and in norm.Methods50 patients with schizophrenia (age 34.92±8.54; illness duration 8.34±5.87) and 50 healthy volunteers (age 32.42±7.26) were examined. Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia, Benton’s test for short-term memory assessment; sub-test Similarity (from WAIS) to assess abstract thinking were used.ResultsPatients showed significantly worse results in all parameters (Tab.1). Table 1: Differences of planning between groups.SchizophreniaNormp-levelTOL-DX92,64±14,48102,52±11,970,00033Similarity16,92±3,9719,76±2,850,00009BVTR Score6,73±1,787,60±1,320,00709In healthy subjects, significant relationship was found between planning and abstract thinking, and there was no relationship between planning and short-term memory (Tab.2). Table 2: Correlations in the Norm groupSpearman Rp-levelTOL-DX & Similarity0,3925300,004809TOL-DX & BVTR0,1864940,194710In patients with schizophrenia, the opposite picture was observed (Tab.3). Table 3: Correlations in the Schizophrenia group.Spearman Rp-levelTOL-DX & Similarity0,2623890,071596TOL-DX & BVTR0,3445660,015331The effectiveness of planning in patients was significantly associated with short-term memory, but not with abstract thinking.ConclusionsStudy results indicate a possible role of basic aspects of mental activity such as short-term memory in planning impairment in patients with schizophrenia. Problem solving and reasoning disorders represent two relatively independent forms of thought disorders in schizophrenia.

Abstract Background and Hypothesis People with schizophrenia (SCZ) show characteristic impairments in semantic cognition, yet the cognitive mechanisms underlying these patterns remain unclear. Here, we propose a unified mechanistic account in which semantic retrieval is constrained by limitations in internal attention. Specifically, we approximate semantic space as a network of interconnected concepts and posit two attentional control parameters: representational precision (resolution; the ability to distinguish nearby concepts) and the size of the attended field (the subset of semantic space prioritized). We hypothesize that attentional constraints in SCZ reduce precision and/or narrow the attended field, yielding complementary, theoretically predicted patterns of semantic search. Study Design We first constructed a directed semantic graph using a large sample of individuals performing the animal Category Fluency Test (CFT). We then used this network as a normative reference to analyze fluency-derived paths from SCZ and control participants. Study Results Relative to controls, CFT paths in the SCZ group showed increased reliance on abstract, category-level structure, and reduced exploration radius. These patterns align with compensatory strategies predicted by the proposed mechanism: reliance on coarse-grained structure when resolution is limited, and restriction of traversal when the effective attended field is narrow. Conclusions The findings support an attention-constrained retrieval account rather than a stochastic retrieval deficit, indicating that group-level semantic retrieval differences in SCZ may arise from reduced representational resolution and/or a narrowed attended field. These results highlight the value of considering internal attention mechanisms when interpreting semantic impairments in SCZ, with potential connections to attentional phenotypes of ADHD/ADD.

The need to understand causality is a powerful motivator. As a result, causal uncertainty, or the sense of not knowing why something happened, can lead to negative psychological consequences and thus activate cognitive processes that can help reduce causal uncertainty. Here, we review the literature that focuses on the relationship between causal uncertainty and abstract thinking. Research shows that causal uncertainty spontaneously motivates people to think more abstractly. This cognitive process has important implications in other domains, such as communication and leadership. For example, when individuals tune in to others on social media during times of causal uncertainty, they prefer more abstract messages, especially when those messages come from socially prominent sources (e.g., leaders). Furthermore, research shows that abstract thinking reduces causal uncertainty by simplifying how causal relationships are cognitively represented. We discuss how these findings relate to previous research and propose directions for future research on the basis of remaining questions.

This paper is one of the outcomes of the PicsAR (Physics Augmented Reality) research project that is focusing on the evaluation of students’ abstract thinking skills while utilizing augmented reality (AR) in the atomic model. The sequence of the research has emerged into three steps: developing, validating, and the evaluation of the PicsAR. The research utilized an ADDIE model: “Analysis-Design-Development-Implementation-Evaluation”. In Spring semester 2019, the authors conducted these steps and resulted in a pocket of PicsAR booklet and AR application based on Android. Then, the trial of application was conducted to 33 students in private high school in Surabaya, Indonesia. Parameters of evaluation included the quality of PicsAR, impact on students abstract thinking skills, and the research outcomes. The results indicated (1) the process of developing AR in atomic model fulfil the criteria of product quality: validity, practicality, and effectiveness, (2) performing of students’ abstract thinking skills reached at least 66.67% in the combination of good and very good categories of all reasoning categories, (3) through PicsAR research project resulted in two prior publications and one property right. The atomic model is one of abstract physics concept representative in presenting the use of augmented reality in physics learning; therefore, the recommendation of this research is another abstract physics concepts should address the use of AR as a media for learning.

Recent research has shown that people's actions can influence how they think. A separate body of research has shown that the gestures people produce when they speak can also influence how they think. In this article, we bring these two literatures together to explore whether gesture has an effect on thinking by virtue of its ability to reflect real-world actions. We first argue that gestures contain detailed perceptual-motor information about the actions they represent, information often not found in the speech that accompanies the gestures. We then show that the action features in gesture do not just reflect the gesturer's thinking— they can feed back and alter that thinking. Gesture actively brings action into a speaker's mental representations, and those mental representations then affect behavior— at times more powerfully than do the actions on which the gestures are based. Gesture thus has the potential to serve as a unique bridge between action and abstract thought.

Right- and left-handers implicitly associate positive ideas like \"goodness\" and \"honesty\" more strongly with their dominant side of space, the side on which they can act more fluently, and negative ideas more strongly with their nondominant side. Here we show that right-handers' tendency to associate \"good\" with \"right\" and \"bad\" with \"left\" can be reversed as a result of both long- and short-term changes in motor fluency. Among patients who were right-handed prior to unilateral stroke, those with disabled left hands associated \"good\" with \"right,\" but those with disabled right hands associated \"good\" with \"left,\" as natural left-handers do. A similar pattern was found in healthy right-handers whose right or left hand was temporarily handicapped in the laboratory. Even a few minutes of acting more fluently with the left hand can change right-handers' implicit associations between space and emotional valence, causing a reversal of their usual judgments. Motor experience plays a causal role in shaping abstract thought.

Across three studies, we explored the link between an abstract mindset and subjective well-being (SWB) in participants with real and/or perceived financial scarcity. In Studies 1 and 2, samples presented real objective financial vulnerability: Adolescents from lower-middle income districts (Study 1; N = 256), and adults without higher education and with very low incomes (Study 2; N = 210). In Studies 1 and 2 participants completed a survey including measures of thinking style and SWB. In Studies 2 and 3 perception of financial difficulty and SWB were also measured. Study 3 (N = 161) used a sample of university students and employed an experimental design manipulating participants’ thinking style (i.e., concrete versus abstract mindset conditions); additionally, all participants were induced to perceive financial scarcity. Correlations revealed a significant and positive relationship between an abstract thinking style and SWB (Studies 1 and 2). Thus, these results showed that a relatively more abstract thinking style was associated with greater life satisfaction. In Studies 2 and 3 mediation analyses indicated that adults who presented a more abstract thinking style, perceived lower financial difficulties and then reported greater SWB. Overall, given that an abstract thinking style can be induced, these results offer a new intervention approach for improving the SWB of people living in situations of financial scarcity.