scholarly journals Working memory capacity and dual-task interference in picture naming

2013 ◽  
Vol 142 (3) ◽  
pp. 332-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vitória Piai ◽  
Ardi Roelofs
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Picture Naming ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Task Interference ◽  
Dual Task Interference

The Effects of Task Complexity and Practice on Dual-Task Interference in Visuospatial Working Memory

2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Murray ◽  
Ken McFarland ◽  
Gina Geffen
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Practice Effects ◽  
Task Interference ◽  
Recent Letter ◽  
Behavioural Performance ◽  
Linear Slope ◽  
Dual Task Interference ◽  
Back Task

AbstractAlthough the n-back task has been widely applied to neuroimagery investigations of working memory (WM), the role of practice effects on behavioural performance of this task has not yet been investigated. The current study aimed to investigate the effects of task complexity and familiarity on the n-back task. Seventy-seven participants (39 male, 38 female) completed a visuospatial n-back task four times, twice in two testing sessions separated by a week. Participants were required to remember either the first, second or third (n-back) most recent letter positions in a continuous sequence and to indicate whether the current item matched or did not match the remembered position. A control task, with no working memory requirements required participants to match to a predetermined stimulus position. In both testing sessions, reaction time (RT) and error rate increased with increasing WM load. An exponential slope for RTs in the first session indicated dual-task interference at the 3-back level. However, a linear slope in the second session indicated a reduction of dual-task interference. Attenuation of interference in the second session suggested a reduction in executive demands of the task with practice. This suggested that practice effects occur within the n-back task and need to be controlled for in future neuroimagery research using the task.

scholarly journals Listening Effort Measured in Adults with Normal Hearing and Cochlear Implants

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (08) ◽  
pp. 685-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann E. Perreau ◽  
Yu-Hsiang Wu ◽  
Bailey Tatge ◽  
Diana Irwin ◽  
Daniel Corts
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Primary Task ◽  
Listening Effort ◽  
Significant Difference

AbstractStudies have examined listening effort in individuals with hearing loss to determine the extent of the impairment. Regarding cochlear implants (CIs), results suggest that listening effort is improved using bilateral CIs compared to unilateral CIs. Few studies have investigated listening effort and outcomes related to the hybrid CI.Here, we compared listening effort across three CI groups, and to a normal-hearing control group. The impact of listener traits, that is, age, age at onset of hearing loss, duration of CI use, and working memory capacity, were examined relative to listening effort.The participants completed a dual-task paradigm with a primary task identifying sentences in noise and a secondary task measuring reaction time on a Stroop test. Performance was assessed for all participant groups at different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), ranging in 2-dB steps from 0 to +10 dB relative to an individual’s SNR-50, at which the speech recognition performance is 50% correct. Participants completed three questions on listening effort, the Spatial Hearing Questionnaire, and a reading span test.All 46 participants were adults. The four participant groups included (1) 12 individuals with normal hearing, (2) 10 with unilateral CIs, (3) 12 with bilateral CIs, and (4) 12 with a hybrid short-electrode CI and bilateral residual hearing.Results from the dual-task experiment were compared using a mixed 4 (hearing group) by 6 (SNR condition) analysis of variance (ANOVA). Questionnaire results were compared using one-way ANOVAs, and correlations between listener traits and the objective and subjective measures were compared using Pearson correlation coefficients.Significant differences were found in speech perception among the normal-hearing and the unilateral and the bilateral CI groups. There was no difference in primary task performance among the hybrid CI and the normal-hearing groups. Across the six SNR conditions, listening effort improved to a greater degree for the normal-hearing group compared to the CI groups. However, there was no significant difference in listening effort between the CI groups. The subjective measures revealed significant differences between the normal-hearing and CI groups, but no difference among the three CI groups. Across all groups, age was significantly correlated with listening effort. We found no relationship between listening effort and the age at the onset of hearing loss, age at implantation, the duration of CI use, and working memory capacity for these participants.Listening effort was reduced to a greater degree for the normal-hearing group compared to the CI users. There was no significant difference in listening effort among the CI groups. For the CI users in this study, age was a significant factor with regard to listening effort, whereas other variables such as the duration of CI use and the age at the onset of hearing loss were not significantly related to listening effort.

scholarly journals Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity and Visual Search in Reading

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph S. Redden ◽  
Kaylee Eady ◽  
Raymond M Klein ◽  
Jean Saint-Aubin
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Search Efficiency ◽  
Prose Passage ◽  
Wide Range

Individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) are related to variations in a wide range of cognitive tasks. Surprisingly, effects of individual differences in working memory capacity are somewhat limited in visual search tasks. Here we tested the hypothesis that such an effect would be robust when search was one component of a dual task. Participants were presented strings of letters using rapid serial visual presentation and were required to detect all instances of a particular target letter. In Experiment 1, participants performed the letter search task in three contexts, while: a) reading a prose passage, b) processing a stream of random words, or c) processing a random stream of non-words. In the absence of the dual task of reading prose, and in line with much of the literature on individual differences in WMC and visual search, search performance was unaffected by WMC. As hypothesized, however, higher working memory capacity participants detected more target letters than lower capacity participants in the “true” dual task (searching while reading prose). The hypothesized results from the prose passage were replicated in Experiment 2. These results show that visual search efficiency is dramatically affected by WMC when searching is combined with another cognitive task but not when it is performed in isolation. Our findings are consistent with recent suggestions that visual search efficiency will be affected by WMC so long as searching is embedded in a context that entails managing resource allocation between concurrent tasks.

The influence of personality and working memory capacity on implicit learning

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (12) ◽  
pp. 2603-2614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Javier Guzmán Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Implicit Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Personality Test ◽  
Serial Reaction ◽  
Task Conditions

The main objective of this study was to influence implicit learning through two different classical manipulations and to inspect whether working memory capacity (WMC) and personality were related to the different measures of learning. With that purpose, in Experiment 1 we asked 172 undergraduate students of psychology to perform a serial reaction time (SRT) task under single- or dual-task conditions and to complete a WMC task and a personality test. In Experiment 2, 164 students performed the SRT task under incidental or intentional conditions and also filled a WMC task and a personality test. In both experiments, WMC influenced learning, but this relation was found only when attention was not loaded (Experiment 1) or when intentional instructions were given (Experiment 2). The pattern of relations with personality, although more varied, also showed a commonality between both experiments: learning under the most implicit conditions correlated positively with extraversion.

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