In the present study, two different models of task complexity; namely, limited attentional capacity model and cognition hypothesis were examined. To this end, the manipulation of cognitive task complexity along +/- single task dimension on Iranian EFL learners’ production in terms of fluency was explored. Based on the results of the writing test of TOFEL (2004), 48 learners were selected as the...

Working memory is often defined in cognitive psychology as a system devoted to the simultaneous processing and maintenance of information. In line with the time-based resource-sharing model of working memory (TBRS; Barrouillet and Camos, 2015; Barrouillet et al., 2004), there is accumulating evidence that, when memory items have to be maintained while performing a concurrent activity, memory pe...

Recent advances in neuroimaging have permitted testing of hypotheses regarding the neural bases of individual differences, but this burgeoning literature has been characterized by inconsistent results. To test the hypothesis that differences in task demands could contribute to between-study variability in brain-behavior relationships, we had participants perform 2 tasks that varied in the exten...

Prospective memory (PM) deficits have recently been documented in individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). In this paper, we investigated whether these deficits are due to the failure of retrospective memory processes. We also examined the role played by attentional/executive processes in PM functioning. We enrolled 24 individuals with aMCI and 24 healthy controls (NCs). In t...

The regulatory pathways involved in the rapid response of the AP-1 transcription factor, c-fos, to mechanical load in human primary osteoblast-like (HOB) cells and the human MG-63 bone cell line were investigated using a four-point bending model. HOB and MG-63 cells showed upregulation of c-fos expression on fibronectin and collagen type I substrates; however, MG-63 cells did not respond on lam...

The role of perceptual load in selective attention to multidimensional objects was investigated by independently manipulating the load along the task-relevant and the task-irrelevant dimensions in the central search array, which was flanked by congruent, incongruent, or neutral peripheral distractors. The relative bottom-up perceptual saliency of these dimensions in capturing attention was mani...

By combining a perceptual discrimination task and a visuospatial working memory task, the present study examined the effects of visuospatial working memory load on the hierarchical processing of scene gist. In the perceptual discrimination task, two scene images from the same (manmade-manmade pairing or natural-natural pairing) or different superordinate level categories (manmade-natural pairin...

Neuroimaging data emphasize that older adults often show greater extent of brain activation than younger adults for similar objective levels of difficulty. A possible interpretation of this finding is that older adults need to recruit neuronal resources at lower loads than younger adults, leaving no resources for higher loads, and thus leading to performance decrements [Compensation-Related Uti...