Naslov
Performance on verbal fluency and mental rotation task in morning and evening types

Autori
Majić, Marija ; Šimić, Nataša ; Gregov, Ljiljana

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
Book of abstracts 4th Croatian Congress of Neuroscience / / - Zagreb : Hrvatsko društvo za neuroznanost ; Hrvatski institut za istraživanje mozga Medicinskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, 2013, 62-62

Skup
4th Croatian Congress of Neuroscience

Mjesto i datum
Zagreb, Hrvatska, 2013

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Poster

Vrsta recenzije
Domaća recenzija

Ključne riječi
verbal fluency; mental rotations; morningness-eveningness; circadian rhythm
(erbal fluency; mental rotations; morningness-eveningness; circadian rhythm)

Sažetak
Morningness-eveningness as an individual characteristic modulates daily efficiency, which is better when an activation level is higher. Morning-types typically perform cognitive tasks better in the morning than in the evening, whereas for evening-types it is the other way round. Corbera and Grau (1993) postulate a selective tendency of preferential hemispherical elaboration: left dominance for morning-type subjects and right dominance for evening-type subjects, while Folkard (1990) adduces that diurnal changes in performance may reflect a morning-evening decrease in the degree of left hemisfere dominance. According to these hypotheses, better efficiency in verbal tasks could be expected in morning-types than in evening-types, and the opposite for spatial tasks. Therefore, the aim of the study was to examine the daily variations in performance on verbal fluency and mental rotation task in morning and evening-types subjects. Sixty-four female right- handed subjects (32 morning-type and 32 evening- type), aged 18 to 27, were selected from a sample (N=267) of university students. Student Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire by Šverko et al. was applied for determining the subject's circadian typology. The Annet Hand Preferences Questionnaire, Thayer's Activation-Deactivation Adjective Check List, Surface Development Test and the lexical form of verbal fluency test were used. The subjects performed verbal and spatial task and their oral temperature and assessments of activation level were recorded at two separate times of day (09:00-10:00 a.m., 18:30-19:30 p.m.). As expected, the results showed that morning-types had higher body temperature and general activation level in the morning than in the evening, while evening-type subjects showed an opposite pattern. The results have also shown a better performance on the verbal fluency task in the evening than in the morning. Furthermore, it was found that evening-types performed better both tasks in the evening than in the morning. Concerning the correlations between indicators of activation and cognitive performance, significant correlation was obtained between the general activation level and performance on verbal fluency task in the evening only for the evening-type group. The results however did not confirm the starting hypotheses and future research with more time points in a day for testing performance on both simple and more complex tasks are needed.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Psihologija

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