Browsing by Author "Shah, Priti"
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- Differential effect of motivational features on training improvements in school-based cognitive trainingKatz, Benjamin; Jaeggi, Susanne M.; Buschkuehl, Martin; Stegman, Alyse; Shah, Priti (Frontiers, 2014-04-24)Cognitive training often utilizes game-like motivational features to keep participants engaged. It is unclear how these elements, such as feedback, reward, and theming impact player performance during training. Recent research suggests that motivation and engagement are closely related to improvements following cognitive training. We hypothesized that training paradigms featuring game-like motivational elements would be more effective than a version with no motivational elements. Five distinct motivational features were chosen for examination: a real-time scoring system, theme changes, prizes, end-of-session certificates, and scaffolding to explain the lives and leveling system included in the game. One version of the game was created with all these motivational elements included, and one was created with all of them removed. Other versions removed a single element at a time. Seven versions of a game-like n-back working memory task were then created and administered to 128 students in second through eight grade at school-based summer camps in southeastern Michigan. The inclusion of real-time scoring during play, a popular motivational component in both entertainment games and cognitive training, was found to negatively impact training improvements over the three day period. Surprisingly, scaffolding to explain lives and levels also negatively impacted training gains. The other game adjustments did not significantly impact training improvement compared to the original version of the game with all features included. These findings are preliminary and are limited by both the small sample size and the brevity of the intervention. Nonetheless, these findings suggest that certain motivational elements may distract from the core cognitive training task, reducing task improvement, especially at the initial stage of learning.
- Internet Addiction, Cognitive, and Dispositional Factors among US AdultsDevine, Diana; Ogletree, Aaron M.; Shah, Priti; Katz, Benjamin (Elsevier, 2022-05)While a growing body of literature has examined internet addiction in the context of psychological factors, most of this work has focused on younger populations outside of the United States. A sample of 898 US adults ranging from 18 to 76 years of age were recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform to complete the Internet Addiction Test and key measures of affect, disposition, and cognitive function. A series of multiple regressions were conducted to examine Internet Addiction level as a predictor of outcome variables. ANCOVAs with Fisher 's LSD post-hoc analyses were conducted using level of internet addiction as the grouping variable to examine differences between groups. Results found that Internet Addiction was a significant predictor of depression, impulsiveness, self-control, need for cognition, theories of cognitive abilities, creativity achievement, cognitive failures, smartphone use behaviors, mental rotation test, and cognitive reflection test. Further, even mild levels of internet addiction were associated with less optimal outcomes. Additionally, a significant relation between age and internet addiction also emerged such that older adults were less likely to have higher levels of internet addiction than younger adults. However, age did not appear to modulate the association between internet addiction status and key psychological variables. To further elucidate the mechanisms and impact of internet addiction throughout the life course, future studies should collect online and in-person data, from individuals across a variety of backgrounds, throughout the lifespan.