Language and Executive Function in Preschoolers With Developmental Language Disorder: The Role of Self-Directed Speech

Purpose Our goal was to examine the relationship between language and executive function in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and/or developmental language disorder (DLD) with a specific focus on how language in the form of self-directed speech (SDS) affects executive functioning in this population. Method Participants included thirty-one 4- and 5-year-old children with DLD. Children completed a visual, computer-based continuous performance task (CPT) that tapped their sustained selective attention. SDS children produced during this task was coded off-line for intelligibility, task relevancy, and whether it was regulatory. Regression analyses were used to characterize the relationship between children's performance on the CPT and their SDS. Results The majority of SDS that children produced during the CPT was task relevant and regulatory, but there was individual variability in the total amount of SDS produced. Children's percentage of regulatory SDS was a significant predictor of their CPT performance. Conclusions Because SDS is positively associated with executive function performance but has delayed development among children with SLI and/or DLD, clinicians have an opportunity to support SDS development in children. We discuss specific approaches and clinical activities for supporting SDS development in early childhood.

Driver Visual Processing of Relevant and Irrelevant Information During Mind Wandering

Mind wandering is a common phenomenon in our daily lives, especially in routine tasks such as driving familiar routes. Some evidence suggests that there are detrimental effects of mind wandering on driving performance, but limited research has been conducted to examine the influence of mind wandering on a driver’s attentional processing of relevant or irrelevant information. More specifically, it is unclear as to whether the effects of mind wandering depend on the task relevancy of information presented in the visual field. The current study expands literature on mind wandering during driving using eye tracking to measure driver visual processing of relevant/irrelevant signage information in a simulated driving task while drivers reported their mental states. Preliminary results showed no significant differences in frequency and duration of glances to roadway information based on the mental state of the individual as well as the task relevancy of the information. Implications and future directions are discussed.

To look or not to look: Subliminal abrupt-onset cues influence constrained free-choice saccades

Subliminal cues have been shown to capture attention and modulate manual response behaviour but their impact on eye movement behaviour is not well-studied. In two experiments, we examined if subliminal cues influence constrained free-choice saccades and if this influence is under strategic control as a function of task-relevancy of the cues. On each trial, a display containing four filled circles at the centre of each quadrant was shown. A central coloured circle indicated the relevant visual field on each trial (Up or Down in Experiment 1; Left or Right in Experiment 2). Next, abrupt-onset cues were presented for 16 ms at one of the four locations. Participants were then asked to freely choose and make a saccade to one of the two target circles in the relevant visual field. The analysis of the frequency of saccades, saccade endpoint deviation and saccade latency revealed a significant influence of the relevant subliminal cues on saccadic decisions. Latency data showed reduced capture by spatially-irrelevant cues under some conditions. These results indicate that spatial attentional control settings as defined in our study could modulate the influence of subliminal abrupt-onset cues on eye movement behaviour. We situate the findings of this study in the attention-capture debate and discuss the implications for the subliminal cueing literature.

Effects of emotion and semantic relatedness on recognition memory: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence

Some aspects of our memory are enhanced by emotion, whereas other can be unaffected or even hinder. In particular, previous studies report impaired associative memory of emotional content, an effect termed associative “emotion interference”. The current study utilized EEG and an associative recognition paradigm to investigate the cognitive and neural mechanisms associated with this effect. In two experiments, participants studied negative and neutral stimulus-pairs that were either semantically related or unrelated. In Experiment 1 emotions were relevant to the encoding task (valance judgment) whereas in Experiment 2 emotions were irrelevant (familiarity judgment). In a subsequent associative recognition test, EEG was recorded while participants discriminated between intact, rearranged, and new pairs. An associative emotional interference effect was observed in both experiments, but was attenuated for semantically related pairs when emotions were relevant to the study task. Moreover, a modulation of an early associative memory ERP component depended on task relevancy of emotions, and occurred for negative pairs when emotions were relevant, but for semantically related pairs when emotions were irrelevant. A later ERP component depicted a more general pattern, and was observed in all experimental conditions. These results suggest that both emotions and semantic relations can act as organizing principles that promote associative binding. Their ability to contribute to successful retrieval depends on specific task demands.

Relative sensitivity of explicit re-aiming and implicit motor adaptation

It has become increasingly clear that learning in visuomotor rotation tasks, which induce an angular mismatch between movements of the hand and visual feedback, largely results from the combined effort of two distinct processes: implicit motor adaptation and explicit re-aiming. However, it remains unclear how these two processes work together to produce trial-by-trial learning. Previous work has found that implicit motor adaptation operates automatically, regardless of task relevancy, and saturates for large errors. In contrast, little is known about the automaticity of explicit re-aiming and its sensitivity to error magnitude. Here we sought to characterize the automaticity and sensitivity function of these two processes to determine how they work together to facilitate performance in a visuomotor rotation task. We found that implicit adaptation scales relative to the visual error, but only for small perturbations – replicating prior work. In contrast, explicit re-aiming scales linearly for all tested perturbation sizes. Furthermore, the consistency of the perturbation appears to diminish both implicit adaptation and explicit re-aiming, but to different degrees. Whereas implicit adaptation always displayed a response to the error, explicit re-aiming was only engaged when errors displayed a minimal degree of consistency. This comports with the idea that implicit adaptation is obligatory and less flexible, while explicit re-aiming is volitional and flexible.

Putting a Name to a Face: The Role of Name Labels in the Formation of Face Memories

Although previous research in ERPs has focused on the conditions under which faces are recognized, less research has focused on the process by which face representations are acquired and maintained. In Experiment 1, participants were required to monitor for a target “Joe” face that was shown among a series of nontarget “Other” faces. At the halfway point, participants were instructed to switch targets from the Joe face to a previous nontarget face that is now labeled “Bob.” The ERP analysis focused on the posterior N250 component known to index face familiarity and the P300 component associated with context updating and response decision. Results showed that, in the first half of the experiment, there was increase in N250 negativity to the target Joe face compared with the nontarget Bob and designated Other face. In the second half of the experiment, an enhanced N250 negativity was produced to the now-target Bob face compared with the Other face. Critically, the enhanced N250 negativity to the Joe face was maintained, although Joe was no longer the target. The P300 component followed a similar pattern of brain response, where the Joe face elicited a significantly larger P300 amplitude than the Other face and the Bob face. In the Bob half of the experiment, the Bob face elicited a reliably larger P300 than the Other faces, and the heightened P300 to the Joe face was sustained. In Experiment 2, we examined whether the increased N250 and P300 to Joe was because of simple naming effects. Participants were introduced to both Joe and Bob faces and names at the beginning of the experiment. In the first half of the experiment, participants monitored for the target Joe face and at the halfway point, they were instructed to switch targets to the Bob face. Findings show that N250 negativity significantly increased to the Joe face relative to the Bob and Other faces in the first half of the experiment and an enhanced N250 negativity was found for the target Bob face and the nontarget Joe face in the second half. An increased P300 amplitude was demonstrated to the target Joe and Bob faces in the first and second halves of the experiment, respectively. Importantly, the P300 amplitude elicited by the Joe face equaled the P300 amplitude to the Bob face, although it was no longer the target face. The findings from Experiments 1 and 2 suggest that the N250 component is not solely determined by name labeling, exposure, or task relevancy, but it is the combination of these factors that contribute to the acquisition of enduring face representations.