scholarly journals Examining the Relative Contribution of Memory Updating, Attention Focus Switching, and Sustained Attention to Children’s Verbal Working Memory Span

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beula M. Magimairaj ◽  
James W. Montgomery
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Processing Efficiency ◽  
Switching Speed ◽  
Memory Updating ◽  
Attention Focus

Whereas considerable developmental memory research has examined the contributions of short-term memory, processing efficiency, retention duration, and scope of attention to complex memory span, little is known about the influence of controlled attention. The present study investigated the relative influence of three understudied attention mechanisms on the verbal working memory span of school-age children: memory updating; attention focus switching; and sustained attention. Results of general linear modeling revealed that, after controlling for age, only updating accuracy emerged as a significant predictor of verbal working memory span. Memory updating speed (that subsumed attention focus switching speed) also contributed but was mediated by age. The results extend the developmental memory literature by implicating the mechanism of memory updating and developmental improvement in speed of attention focus switching and updating as critical contributors to children’s verbal working memory. Theoretically, the results provide substantively new information about the role of domain-general executive attention in children’s verbal working memory.

Effects of anxiety on memory storage and updating in young children

2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Visu-Petra ◽  
Lavinia Cheie ◽  
Oana Benga ◽  
Tracy Packiam Alloway
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Processing Efficiency ◽  
Memory Functioning ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
High Anxious

The relationship between trait anxiety and memory functioning in young children was investigated. Two studies were conducted, using tasks tapping verbal and visual-spatial short-term memory (Study 1) and working memory (Study 2) in preschoolers. On the verbal storage tasks, there was a detrimental effect of anxiety on processing efficiency (duration of preparatory intervals) on Word Span. Performance effectiveness (memory span) did not differ between high-anxious and low-anxious children. In the second study, evaluating memory updating in a dual-task context, high-anxious children performed worse than low-anxious children on two verbal working memory tasks. Therefore, when simple verbal storage is required, high-anxious children show only efficiency deficits; when executive demands are higher (i.e., verbal updating) both accuracy and efficiency are impaired. However, on the visual-spatial storage and updating measures, performance did not differ between the two anxiety groups. The results are discussed in the context of the attentional control theory (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007).

Internalising symptoms and verbal working memory in school‐age children: A processing efficiency analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 828-838 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra M. Opris ◽  
Lavinia Cheie ◽  
Cristina M. Trifan ◽  
Laura Visu‐Petra
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Efficiency Analysis ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
School Age ◽  
Processing Efficiency

Children's Speech Perception in Noise: Evidence for Dissociation From Language and Working Memory

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 1294-1305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beula M. Magimairaj ◽  
Naveen K. Nagaraj ◽  
Natalie J. Benafield
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Speech Perception ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
School Age ◽  
Normal Range ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Speech Perception In Noise ◽  
Attention Memory

Purpose We examined the association between speech perception in noise (SPIN), language abilities, and working memory (WM) capacity in school-age children. Existing studies supporting the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model suggest that WM capacity plays a significant role in adverse listening situations. Method Eighty-three children between the ages of 7 to 11 years participated. The sample represented a continuum of individual differences in attention, memory, and language abilities. All children had normal-range hearing and normal-range nonverbal IQ. Children completed the Bamford–Kowal–Bench Speech-in-Noise Test (BKB-SIN; Etymotic Research, 2005), a selective auditory attention task, and multiple measures of language and WM. Results Partial correlations (controlling for age) showed significant positive associations among attention, memory, and language measures. However, BKB-SIN did not correlate significantly with any of the other measures. Principal component analysis revealed a distinct WM factor and a distinct language factor. BKB-SIN loaded robustly as a distinct 3rd factor with minimal secondary loading from sentence recall and short-term memory. Nonverbal IQ loaded as a 4th factor. Conclusions Results did not support an association between SPIN and WM capacity in children. However, in this study, a single SPIN measure was used. Future studies using multiple SPIN measures are warranted. Evidence from the current study supports the use of BKB-SIN as clinical measure of speech perception ability because it was not influenced by variation in children's language and memory abilities. More large-scale studies in school-age children are needed to replicate the proposed role played by WM in adverse listening situations.

Decreased processing speed might account for working memory span deficit in schizophrenia, and might mediate the associations between working memory span and clinical symptoms

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 473-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Brébion ◽  
C. Stephan-Otto ◽  
E. Huerta-Ramos ◽  
J. Usall ◽  
M. Perez del Olmo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Memory Impairment ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Motor Speed ◽  
Speed Measure ◽  
Cognitive Speed

AbstractObjectiveVerbal working memory span is decreased in patients with schizophrenia, and this might contribute to impairment in higher cognitive functions as well as to the formation of certain clinical symptoms. Processing speed has been identified as a crucial factor in cognitive efficiency in this population. We tested the hypothesis that decreased processing speed underlies the verbal working memory deficit in patients and mediates the associations between working memory span and clinical symptoms.MethodForty-nine schizophrenia inpatients recruited from units for chronic and acute patients, and forty-five healthy participants, were involved in the study. Verbal working memory span was assessed by means of the letter-number span. The Digit Copy test was used to assess motor speed, and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test to assess cognitive speed.ResultsThe working memory span was significantly impaired in patients (F(1,90) = 4.6, P < 0.05). However, the group difference was eliminated when either the motor or the cognitive speed measure was controlled (F(1,89) = 0.03, P = 0.86, and F(1,89) = 0.03, P = 0.88). In the patient group, working memory span was significantly correlated with negative symptoms (r = –0.52, P < 0.0001) and thought disorganisation (r = –0.34, P < 0.025) scores. Regression analyses showed that the association with negative symptoms was no longer significant when the motor speed measure was controlled (β = –0.12, P = 0.20), while the association with thought disorganisation was no longer significant when the cognitive speed measure was controlled (β = –0.10, P = 0.26).ConclusionsDecrement in motor and cognitive speed plays a significant role in both the verbal working memory impairment observed in patients and the associations between verbal working memory impairment and clinical symptoms.

The relation between the working memory skills of sign language interpreters and the quality of their interpretations

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 340-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICK VAN DIJK ◽  
INGRID CHRISTOFFELS ◽  
ALBERT POSTMA ◽  
DAAN HERMANS
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Articulatory Suppression ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Sign Language Interpreters ◽  
Span Tasks

In two experiments we investigated the relationship between the working memory skills of sign language interpreters and the quality of their interpretations. In Experiment 1, we found that scores on 3-back tasks with signs and words were not related to the quality of interpreted narratives. In Experiment 2, we found that memory span scores for words and signs under oral articulatory suppression were related to the quality of interpreted narratives. We argue that the insensitivity to articulatory suppression in memory span tasks reflects the interpreters' ability to bind information from multiple sources in episodic memory. This enhanced ability leads to less reliance on the retention of information from the source language in memory during interpreting, and will positively affect the quality of interpretations (Padilla, Bajo & Macizo, 2005). Finally, in contrast to previous studies on the memory spans for signs and words (Hall & Bavelier, 2010), we found that the memory spans scores for spoken words and signs were equally large. We argue that the use of a large set of phonologically complex stimuli in the present study may have stimulated participants to use a speech-based code to store and retain the signs in short-term memory.

An Examination of Verbal Working Memory Capacity in Children With Specific Language Impairment

1999 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 1249-1260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Ellis Weismer ◽  
Julia Evans ◽  
Linda J. Hesketh
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Word Recall ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Specific Language

This study investigated verbal working memory capacity in children with specific language impairment (SLI). The task employed in this study was the Competing Language Processing Task (CLPT) developed by Gaulin and Campbell (1994). A total of 40 school-age children participated in this investigation, including 20 with SLI and 20 normal language (NL) age-matched controls. Results indicated that the SLI and NL groups performed similarly in terms of true/false comprehension items, but that the children with SLI evidenced significantly poorer word recall than the NL controls, even when differences in nonverbal cognitive scores were statistically controlled. Distinct patterns of word-recall errors were observed for the SLI and NL groups, as well as different patterns of associations between CLPT word recall and performance on nonverbal cognitive and language measures. The findings are interpreted within the framework of a limited-capacity model of language processing.

Processing efficiency of a verbal working memory system is modulated by amphetamine: an fMRI investigation

2005 ◽  
Vol 180 (4) ◽  
pp. 634-643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine M. Tipper ◽  
Tara A. Cairo ◽  
Todd S. Woodward ◽  
Anthony G. Phillips ◽  
Peter F. Liddle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Memory System ◽  
Processing Efficiency

Working memory in children

1983 ◽  
Vol 302 (1110) ◽  
pp. 325-340 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Central Processor ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Developmental Growth ◽  
Children's Memory ◽  
Subvocal Rehearsal

It is frequently assumed that the development of children’s abilities in short-term memory reflects changes in a unitary short-term store. This approach makes only poor contact with recent research on adults, which suggests the idea of a more complex ‘ working memory ’ system consisting of a limited-capacity central processor controlling a number of special-purpose stores. Two such stores are (i) the articulatory loop, a subsystem involved in subvocal rehearsal and associated with memory span, and (ii) the visuo-spatial scratch-pad, involved in imagery. This paper considers the applicability of the working memory framework to the study of children’s memory. In adults, memory span for words is affected by their length, varying linearly with the rate at which they can be articulated, and thus presumably rehearsed. Studies of the developmental growth of memory span in children show that the same linear relation describes performance, with older children’s better memory associated with faster rates of articulation. It appears from this that developmental change corresponds to an increase in the efficiency of subvocal rehearsal, with the decay characteristic of the articulatory loop remaining constant. However, although this simple developmental pattern is observed in memory for sequences of spoken words it is not present when the items are nameable pictures. Further investigation shows that older children use the articulatory loop to remember picture names: their performance is sensitive to phonemic similarity of the names and articulatory interference. However, younger children’s performance is not affected by either of these factors but is sensitive to visual similarity. It is suggested that such children may be storing material in the visuo-spatial scratch-pad. An additional aspect of working memory is that separate mechanisms are thought to be involved in memory span and the ‘recency effect’, the tendency for recent items in a list to be remembered well in unordered recall. A review of evidence obtained with children suggests that age differences in these two phenomena are independent. In general, therefore, it seems difficult to interpret the developmental changes reported here in terms of a unitary short-term store, and it is concluded that working memory provides a more promising approach.

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