cognitive processing

A number of studies have accounted the integral role of foreign/second language learning and learner strategy use. However, a few of these studies have considered the relationships between strategic competence and its use and foreign language performance (FLP). This study applied structural equation modeling to deeply investigate the relationships between test takers’ strategy use and their performance on foreign language tests. For this purpose, 147 EFL learners from three well-known branches of a private language institute in Tehran, Iran were chosen. These participants also responded to an 80-item Cognitive and Metacognitive strategy questionnaire and took an 81-item Key English Test (KET). Consequently the hypothesized model of strategic competence vis-à-vis FL test appeared with following findings. First, metacognitive processing (MP) had no direct effect on FLP but a significant, direct influence on cognitive processing (CP), which supports the interaction notion of Bachman and Palmer’s (1996) communicative competence . Second, due to the Iranian EFL context in which Iranian students and teachers show more tendencies toward memorizing vocabulary and analyzing grammar, practicing naturalistically was insignificant and deleted while the translating variable was added, which was highly significant. Third, CP had no significant effect on listening ability which shows that listening ability is much more dependent on contextual factors rather than background knowledge and strategic competence.

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to compare mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and grammatical mental imagery with cognitive processing on the emotional processing of mothers with children with autism spectrum disorder. Methodology: The research was applied in terms of purpose and in terms of cross-sectional data collection method and quasi-experimental research method was pre-test-post-test with a control group. The statistical population of the present study is all mothers with children with autism spectrum disorder in two schools under education in the city. Ahvaz had 105 students in 2019. A total of 45 mothers with children with autism spectrum disorder were randomly selected and 15 people in the group of cognitive therapy based on mindfulness, 15 people in the group of grammatical mental imagery with cognitive processing and Fifteen people were in the control group. Assessment tools included Baker et al. (2010), mindfulness-based cognitive therapy protocol and grammatically processed grammatical mental imagery protocol. Data analysis using analysis of covariance And was done by SPSS software version 24. Findings: Based on the research findings, the effect of statistical group type (control and experiments) on the recorded scores of emotion processing (p = 0.00, F = 157/407) and the separate effect of the test time variable (p = 0.00, F / 107/15 And the significance of the simultaneous effect of group type and test status (pre-test and post-test) on emotion processing scores (p = 0.00, F = 26.757). Comparing the two methods of cognitive therapy and imaging, a significant level equal to 0.00 and less than the error level of 0.05 has been obtained. Conclusion: Based on the research findings, cognitive therapy based on mindfulness and grammatical mental imagery with cognitive processing is effective on emotional processing of mothers with children with autism spectrum disorder. Also, between the effectiveness of cognitive therapy based on mindfulness and grammatical mental imagery. There is a significant difference with cognitive processing in emotional processing of mothers with children with autism spectrum disorder.

The current study presents an alternative approach toward semantic relatedness research in second/foreign language (L2) education as it looks at the issue from a cognitive perspective. The participants were 35 intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. A semantic priming experiment was used to examine the cognitive processing of semantically related and semantically unrelated words. Repeated Measure ANOVA was run on reaction time and error rate data to establish any potential interaction between the primes and targets with reference to their semantic relatedness. The results showed that semantic relatedness does exercise a noteworthy influence on the ease of cognitive processing of L2 words. This facilitative effect is reflected in faster responses and lower errors on the part of the EFL learners when they dealt with semantically related words in comparison to semantically unrelated words, and can be attributed to the core mechanism of activation of lexical items in the human mind.

Due to both experimental and theoretical controversies on semantic relatedness research in second/foreign language (L2) education, the present study provides an alternative approach by investigating English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners’ cognitive processing of semantically related and unrelated words. The participants were 38 Iranian EFL learners from upper intermediate classes at a private language teaching school. Employing a semantic priming experiment, the EFL learners saw a pair of words, and were asked to decide whether or not the target word (i.e. an adjective) was related in meaning to the preceding word (i.e. a noun). A two-way Repeated Measure ANOVA was run on reaction time (RT) and error rate (ER) data. Results of the study showed that semantically related words induced faster RTs than semantically unrelated ones, confirming the positive effect of the semantic relatedness in cognitive processing of L2 words. However, higher ERs in related conditions in comparison to unrelated conditions refer to a kind of confusion on the part of EFL learners.