Rotem Leshem

• Ph.D.
• Senior Lecturer at Bar Ilan University

Objectives Mindfulness and impulsivity traits are considered to be important aspects of mental well-being and health. These traits are often seen as opposing concepts, yet the nature of the relationship between them is unclear, mainly because they are complex to define. The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between impulsivit...

Antisocial behaviour arises from a complex interplay of innate and environmental factors, with the brain’s adaptability to shifting environmental demands playing a pivotal role. An important but scantly studied environmental factor – micro-geographic hot spots of crime – covers a broad array of problems that produce frequent triggers for antisocial...

Figurative language is one of the most prevalent expressions of verbal creativity, and use of novel metaphors is the most significant source of verbal innovation. As environmental and personality trait factors can impact creativity, the current study aimed to examine whether exposure to an environment rich in visual stimuli (artwork) and verbal sti...

Figurative language is one of the most prevalent expressions of verbal creativity, and use of novel metaphors is the most significant source of verbal innovation. As environmental and personality trait factors can impact creativity, the current study aimed to examine whether exposure to an environment rich in visual stimuli (artwork) and verbal sti...

The following paper is the result of a collective reflection shared by resilience researchers across the globe (Fondazione Patrizio Paoletti, 2022), inquiring about how the pandemic can be considered a catalyst for change for building more resilient communities and social structures. As a contribution to facing the current emergency, resilience res...

In the current hypothesis paper, we propose a novel examination of consciousness and self-awareness through the neuro-phenomenological theoretical model known as the Sphere Model of Consciousness (SMC). Our aim is to create a practical instrument to address several methodological issues in consciousness research. We present a preliminary attempt to...

Patients with schizophrenia (PwS) typically demonstrate deficits in visual processing of emotions. Less is known about auditory processing of spoken-emotions, as conveyed by the prosodic (tone) and semantics (words) channels. In a previous study, forensic PwS (who committed violent offenses) identified spoken-emotions and integrated the emotional i...

Reading comprehension (RC) is a cognitive ability linked with higher-order cognitive functions referred to as executive functions (EFs) and is also associated with educational achievement. To date, there is little research exploring links between reading comprehension, EFs, and personality traits. This study attempts to fill this gap by elucidating...

Individuals with schizophrenia show deficits in recognition of emotions which may increase the risk of violence. This study explored how forensic patients with schizophrenia process spoken emotion by: (a) identifying emotions expressed in prosodic and semantic content separately, (b) selectively attending to one speech channel while ignoring the ot...

Human functions and traits are linked to cerebral networks serving different emotional and cognitive control systems, some of which rely on hemispheric specialization and integration to promote adaptive goal-directed behavior. Among the neural systems discussed in this context are those underlying pro-and antisocial behaviors. The diverse functions...

This study examined the relationship between trait anxiety and cognitive functioning, specifically response inhibition and conflict resolution, by comparing attention switching and sustained attention conditions in a dichotic-listening to words task. Results showed that high- as compared to low-anxiety participants had a lower hit rate in both atte...

Trait impulsivity and callous-unemotional traits are associated with behavioural problems among high-risk adolescents. While both are known to influence behaviour, the nature of their expression in high-risk behaviours, particularly those related to inhibitory control, is not well understood. In the current, preliminary study, we examined whether a...

Enabling the ceasing of ongoing or prepotent responses and the controlling of interference, motor inhibition facilitates the development of executive functions (EFs) such as thought before action, decision-making, self-regulation of affect, motivation, and arousal. In the current paper, a characterization is offered of the relationship between moto...

Metaphoric language is one of the most common expressions of creative cognition in everyday life. However, the cognitive mechanisms underlying metaphor generation remain largely unexplained. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between various cognitive functions and both novel and conventional metaphor generation. Ninety-five un...

The trait of extraversion is one of the longest-standing domains that captures the social dimension of personality and can potentially explain the covariation of a wide variety of behaviors. To date, there is a growing recognition that human behavior should be specified not only through the psychological mechanisms underlying each trait but also th...

In this overview, we discuss the internal and external environmental factors associated with cognitive and psycho-emotional well-being in the context of physical activity and Mindful Movement. Our key argument is that improved cognitive and emotional functions associated with mental well-being can be achieved by an external, Mindful Movement-based...

Background: Several variables have been evidenced for their association with violent reoffending. Resultant interventions have been suggested, yet the rate of recidivism remains high. Alexithymia, characterised by deficits in emotion processing and verbal expression, might interact with these other risk factors to affect outcomes. Aim: Our goal was...

Trait impulsivity incorporates deficits in cognitive processes that can be viewed as resulting from deficiencies in executive functions, particularly inhibitory control. To better understand the relationship between impulsivity and inhibitory control, it is useful to divide inhibitory control into cognitive (cold) and emotional (hot) variants, medi...

There is a growing recognition of the importance of micro-geographic areas in the generation of crime problems. While many studies show that crime is heavily concentrated at crime hot spots, scholars have only begun to examine how living in such places affects human development. We point to an unexplored component of the relationship between living...

Adolescence is a period that embodies great potential for growth and development in various aspects of life, and this is also a period of heightened vulnerability for risky behaviors. Normative increases in sensation seeking and risk-taking during adolescence, and peer influences on the expression of sensation seeking in risk-taking, will first be...

The multivariate construct of impulsivity is examined through neural systems and connections that comprise the executive functioning system. It is proposed that cognitive and behavioral components of impulsivity can be divided into two distinct groups, mediated by (1) the cognitive control system: deficits in top-down cognitive control processes re...

This study examined the relationship between trait impulsivity and cognitive control, as measured by the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) and a focused attention dichotic listening to words task, respectively. In the task, attention was manipulated in two attention conditions differing in their cognitive control demands: one in which attention was...

This study examined the effects of attention on ear advantages using dichotic listening to words and affects, a focused-attention paradigm. We compared the mixed condition, in which attention is switched between the ears in each trial, to the blocked condition, in which attention is directed to one ear for an entire block of trials. Results showed...

This study examined the relations between impulsivity and decision-making as assessed by the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). A total of 73 nonclinical adolescents were administered self-report measures for trait impulsivity and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) to assess cognitive impulsivity. We found significant correlations between trait impulsiv...

We take a close look at the task of prospective time reproduction, wherein an individual is aware of the fact that she will subsequently be asked to reproduce a demarked duration. Our participants were either explicitly instructed not to count, or were allowed to count. When participants are allowed to count, their reproductions (R) tend to be a li...

A decade ago, Bechara et al. [Bechara, A., Damasio, A. R., Damasio, H., & Anderson, S. W. (1994). Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex. Cognition, 50, 7-15] published a paper in Cognition, introducing a Gambling Task which was designed to mimic everyday decision-making. Since then, the task has been compu...

We examine the construct of impulsivity using an organismic-developmental approach. Trait impulsivity was assessed by means of both the Impulsiveness Questionnaire (I7 or I5) and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11 or BIS-11-A). Cognitive impulsivity was assessed by means of a computerized Matching Familiar Figures Test, the Porteus Maze Test,...

We employed a series of time-estimation tasks, chosen such that impulsivity could be revealed in deviant performance both within and between tasks. Trait impulsivity was assessed using a number of measures; cognitive impulsivity was measured using a number of neuropsychological tests (e.g., Trail Making, Circle Tracing). Time estimation was evaluat...