Logicamente: uma Plataforma Digital para Estimulação das Funções Executivas

Resumo As funções executivas têm um papel fundamental para o desempenho acadêmico, pois elas são responsáveis pelo controle, monitoramento e regulação das ações, pensamentos e emoções. Desta forma, o estímulo a essas funções pode trazer contribuições importantes para o processo de aprendizagem e uma das estratégias que vem sendo utilizada para essa estimulação é através do uso de variados jogos digitais. Portanto, este artigo tem por objetivo relatar os achados iniciais das interações de diversos usuários com o jogo Torre de Hanói, que compõe a plataforma de jogos intitulada LogicaMente. Para tanto, foram coletadas informações de 3.524 partidas realizadas por 1.324 jogadores de diferentes faixas etárias e de ambos os sexos e dentre os resultados, foi identificado que apenas 32,5% dos jogadores conseguiram finalizar o jogo Torre de Hanói com o número mínimo de movimentações no modo fácil (com 3 discos) e menos ainda, 12,2% no modo difícil (com 4 discos). Como conclusão, foi identificado que houve um predomínio do público adulto de gênero feminino, que os interatores demonstram ter uma dificuldade em concluir o jogo na menor quantidade de movimentos, mas observou-se que a persistência pode ter sido um dos motivadores para que os jogadores obtivessem êxito a partir das suas novas tentativas. Palavras-chave: Funções Executivas. Jogos Digitais. Torre de Hanói. Abstract The executive functions play a key role in academic performance, as they are responsible for controlling, monitoring, and regulating actions, thoughts, and emotions. In this way, stimulating these functions can bring contributions for the learning process and one of the approaches that have been used for this stimulation is through the use of various digital games. Therefore, this article aims at reporting initial findings of the interactions of several users with the game Tower of Hanoi, which is part of the game platform entitled LogicaMente. For this purpose, information were collected over 3,524 matches played by 1,324 players from different age groups and both genders and among the results, it was identified that only 32.5% of the players managed to finalize the Tower of Hanoi game with the minimum number of movements in easy mode (with 3 discs) and even less, 12.2% in difficult mode (with 4 discs). As a conclusion, it was noticed a predominance of adult female players, the interactors had difficulty in completing the game with the minimum amount of movements. However, it was observed that persistence may have been one of the motivators for the players to succeed from their new attempts. Keywords: Executive Functions. Digital games. Tower of Hanoi.

Acute Exercise and Cognitive Function in Alzheimer’s Disease

Background: Many studies have shown the impact of acute aerobic exercises (AAE) on cognition in healthy adults or at a pre-dementia stage. Few studies, however, have explored the positive effects of AAE in moderate Alzheimer’s disease (ADM) patients. Objective: Evaluating the effect of AAE on cognitive functions in ADM patients. Methods: Overall, 79 (age: 69.62±0.99) ADM patients were recruited. Participants were divided into three groups according to the task: aerobic exercises done alone or combined with cognitive games presented on a screen, and a control group who performed a reading task. The aerobic exercise protocol consisted of a 20-min cycling exercise of moderate intensity, corresponding to 60%of the individual target maximal heart rate recorded in a 6-minute walking test. The participants’ cognition was monitored before and after the intervention using the Tower of Hanoi, Digit Span, and Stroop tasks. Results: After the exercise, the participants’ attention in both the physical and combined groups improved for the Stroop, the forward and backward Digit Span tasks, as well as the time taken to solve the Tower of Hanoi, although no significant differences were found in the number of moves taken in the latter. By contrast, the control group did not show any significant improvement for most of the cognitive tasks after the reading session. Conclusion: Current evidence suggests that AAE may help to improve cognitive functions in ADM patients. This improvement is enhanced when the exercise is combined with cognitive games. Safe and progressive types of exercises should be promoted among ADM patients.

A Note on the Tower of Hanoi Problem with Evildoers

Recent literature considers the variant of the classical Tower of Hanoi problem with n (³ 1) discs, where r (1 £ r < n) discs are evildoers, each of which can be placed directly on top of a smaller disc any number of times. Letting E(n, r) be the minimum number of moves required to solve the new variant, an explicit form of E(n, r) is available which depends on a positive integer constant N. This study investigates the properties of N.

New variants of the bottleneck tower of Hanoi problems

This paper considers two variants of the bottleneck Tower of Hanoi problems with n (≥1) discs and the bottleneck size b (≥2), which allows violation of the “divine rule” (at most) once. Denoting by MB3(n, b) the minimum number of moves required to solve the new variant of the bottleneck Tower of Hanoi problem, an explicit form of MB3(n, b) is found. Also, MB4(n, b) denotes the minimum number of moves required to solve the new variant of the bottleneck Reve’s puzzle, a closed-form expression of MB4(n, b) is derived. Journal of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, Vol. 44, No. 2, 197-200, 2020

Cognitive performance in high school students after short treatment of zazen meditation technic

Zazen is one of several meditation technics that pretends to reach calmness, reducing interference, and controlling awareness practiced by many people in the world. Zazen practitioners claim that a natural sense of wellbeing, spontaneous joy and self-fulfilling is achieved with its practice. Neuroscientific evidence shows that important modifications in the neuronal electric activity with compromise of several brain structures has been observed, especially those that are involved in modulation of attention. Our laboratory was interested to study the possible behavioural effects of a short time zazen practice to a group of secondary students of public or private high schools, with no previous training in any meditation technics. Two groups, 15-17 years old coursing the 4th or 5th year of their secondary study, one receiving zazen training (n = 31), and the other one recreation activities (n = 45) were selected. All subjects were tested with the Tower of London, Tower of Hanoi, Wisconsin Card Sorting and Stroop test to evaluate the cognitive abilities, at the beginning of the experiment (t0) and at the end of the experiment (t1, about 3 months later). Results showed that in the Tower of London and Tower of Hanoi, zazen group displayed significant less movements to solve the task, compared to Control. No differences were found between both groups in solving the Wisconsin Card Sorting test, but in the Stroop test zazen group was superior to Control in making significant less mistakes during solving the task. Results are compatible with a positive effect of zazen training in behavioural abilities of attention and planning strategies in secondary students.

Empirical Research Design

The experiment consisted of three parts: the login-stage, the experiment and an after-survey. The experiment starts with 6 single-player Tower of Hanoi games to enable learning and to induce routine, referred to as “individual decision-making expertise in routine-strategy”. The single-player rounds are followed by 6 three-player Tower of Hanoi games, where the first three multiplayer-games can be solved perfectly by the agents when sticking to the single player strategy.