scholarly journals The capacity and cognitive processing of vibrotactile working memory for frequency

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chundi Wang ◽  
Hu Deng ◽  
Yu Dong ◽  
Xuemin Zhang ◽  
Da-Hui Wang
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Sequence Length ◽  
Limited Capacity ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Cognitive Mechanism ◽  
Match To Sample ◽  
Dynamic Updating

AbstractA hallmark of working memory (WM) is its limited capacity. While visual and verbal domains of WM are able to store multiple items, the capacity of parametric vibrotactile WM (vtWM) has not yet been established for supra-threshold, one-dimensional sensory vibrotactile frequencies. The present study extends the standard delayed match-to-sample vibrotactile discrimination task to determine the capacity of the vtWM and its cognitive mechanism. Here, by presenting subjects with 2 to 6 vibratory frequencies sequentially in each trial, the present study demonstrates that it is possible to retain about only two vibrotactile frequencies information in vtWM. The results also showed that the capacity of vtWM does not depend on whether sequentially presented vibrotactile frequencies are delivered to the same or to different fingers. At the same time, the rate of correct report depends on sequence length and when in the sequence the stimuli are presented, suggesting the dynamic updating of vtWM similar to that of visual WM.

scholarly journals The Vibrotactile Working Memory for Frequency

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chundi Wang ◽  
Hu Deng ◽  
Yu Dong ◽  
Xuemin Zhang ◽  
Da-hui Wang
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Sequence Length ◽  
Limited Capacity ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Cognitive Mechanism ◽  
Match To Sample ◽  
Dynamic Updating

Abstract A hallmark of working memory (WM) is its limited capacity. While visual and verbal domains of WM are able to store multiple items, the capacity of parametric vibrotactile WM (vtWM) has not yet been established for supra-threshold, one-dimensional sensory vibrotactile frequencies. The present study extends the standard delayed match-to-sample vibrotactile discrimination task to determine the capacity of the vtWM and its cognitive mechanism. Here, by presenting subjects with 2 to 6 vibratory frequencies sequentially in each trial, the present study demonstrates that it is possible to retain about only two vibrotactile frequencies information in vtWM. The results also showed that the capacity of vtWM does not depend on whether sequentially presented vibrotactile frequencies are delivered to the same or to different fingers. At the same time, the rate of correct report depends on sequence length and when in the sequence the stimuli are presented, suggesting the dynamic updating of vtWM similar to that of visual WM.

Skipping Breakfast Affects the Early Steps of Cognitive Processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-118
Author(s):  
Andrés Antonio González-Garrido ◽  
Jacobo José Brofman-Epelbaum ◽  
Fabiola Reveca Gómez-Velázquez ◽  
Sebastián Agustín Balart-Sánchez ◽  
Julieta Ramos-Loyo
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Brain Functioning ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Electrical Brain Activity ◽  
Skipping Breakfast

Abstract. It has been generally accepted that skipping breakfast adversely affects cognition, mainly disturbing the attentional processes. However, the effects of short-term fasting upon brain functioning are still unclear. We aimed to evaluate the effect of skipping breakfast on cognitive processing by studying the electrical brain activity of young healthy individuals while performing several working memory tasks. Accordingly, the behavioral results and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) of 20 healthy university students (10 males) were obtained and compared through analysis of variances (ANOVAs), during the performance of three n-back working memory (WM) tasks in two morning sessions on both normal (after breakfast) and 12-hour fasting conditions. Significantly fewer correct responses were achieved during fasting, mainly affecting the higher WM load task. In addition, there were prolonged reaction times with increased task difficulty, regardless of breakfast intake. ERP showed a significant voltage decrement for N200 and P300 during fasting, while the amplitude of P200 notably increased. The results suggest skipping breakfast disturbs earlier cognitive processing steps, particularly attention allocation, early decoding in working memory, and stimulus evaluation, and this effect increases with task difficulty.

scholarly journals Freeze or forget? Virtual attack effects in an Emotional Sternberg Task

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 342-358
Author(s):  
Thomas Edward Gladwin ◽  
Matthijs Vink
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Interference Effects ◽  
Warning Signals ◽  
Emotional Interference ◽  
Neutral Face ◽  
Sternberg Task

Emotionally salient stimuli have the ability to disrupt cognitive processing. This kind of disruption involves effects on working memory and may be related to mental health problems. To explore the nature of such emotional interference on working memory, a Virtual Attack Emotional Sternberg Task (VAEST) was used. Neutral faces were presented as distractors and warning signals, which were sometimes followed by a virtual attack, created by having the neutral face turn angry while the image was enlarged. The attack was hypothesized to have one of two effects: to disrupt cognitive processing and thereby increase interference effects, or to terminate a state of freezing and thereby reduce interference effects. The task was successfully completed online by a sample of 59 students. Results clearly show that the virtual attack caused a reduction of interference relative to no-attack trials. The apparent cognitive disruption caused by emotional distractors may thus reflect freezing, which can be reversed by a freeze-terminating stimulus.

scholarly journals Conceptual distinctiveness does not improve visual working memory for objects but aids object-location binding

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri Markov ◽  
Igor Utochkin
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Competitive Interactions ◽  
Object Location ◽  
Location Information ◽  
Limited Capacity ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Categorical Information ◽  
Location Binding ◽  
Different Sources

Visual working memory (VWM) is prone to interference from stored items competing for its limited capacity. These competitive interactions can arise from different sources. For example, one such source is poor item distinctiveness causing a failure to discriminate between items sharing common features. Another source of interference is imperfect binding, a problem of determining which of the remembered features belonged to which object or which item was in which location. In two experiments, we studied how the conceptual distinctiveness of real-world objects (i.e., whether the objects belong to the same or different basic categories) affects VWM for objects and object-location binding. In Experiment 1, we found that distinctiveness did not affect memory for object identities or for locations, but low-distinctive objects were more frequently reported at “swapped” locations that originally went with different objects. In Experiment 2 we found evidence that the effect of distinctiveness on the object-location swaps was due to the use of categorical information for binding. In particular, we found that observers swapped the location of a tested object with another object from the same category more frequently than with any of the objects from another category. This suggests that observers can use some coarse category-location information when objects are conceptually distinct. Taken together, our findings suggest that object distinction and object-location binding act upon different components of VWM.

scholarly journals Using rat operant delayed match-to-sample task to identify neural substrates recruited with increased working memory load

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Gobin ◽  
Lizhen Wu ◽  
Marek Schwendt
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Mrna Expression ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
High Load ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Sprague Dawley ◽  
Match To Sample ◽  
Sprague Dawley Rats ◽  
Subcortical Regions

AbstractThe delayed match-to-sample task (DMS) is used to probe working memory (WM) across species. While the involvement of the PFC in this task has been established, limited information exists regarding the recruitment of broader circuitry, especially under the low- versus high-WM load. We sought to address this question by using a variable-delay operant DMS task. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained and tested to determine their baseline WM performance across all (0-24s) delays. Next, rats were tested in a single DMS test with either 0s or 24s fixed delay, to assess low-/high-load WM performance. c-Fos mRNA expression was quantified within cortical and subcortical regions and correlated with WM performance. High WM load upregulated overall c-Fos mRNA expression within the PrL, as well as within a subset of mGlu5+ cells, with load-dependent, local activation of protein kinase C as the proposed underlying molecular mechanism. The PrL activity negatively correlated with choice accuracy during high load WM performance. A broader circuitry, including several subcortical regions, was found to be activated under low and/or high load conditions. These findings highlight the role of mGlu5 and/or PKC dependent signaling within the PrL, and corresponding recruitment of subcortical regions during high-load WM performance.

scholarly journals The Verse-Line as a Whole Unit in Working Memory, Ease of Processing, and the Aesthetic Effects of Form

2014 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 29-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Fabb
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
Limited Capacity ◽  
Partial Explanation ◽  
Low Level ◽  
General Goal ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Psychological Processing

Verse is text which is divided into lines. In this paper I explore a psychological account of how verse is processed, and specifically the hypothesis that the text is processed line by line, such that each line is held as a whole sequence in the limited capacity of working memory. I will argue that because the line is processed in this way, certain low-level aesthetic effects are thereby produced, thus giving a partial explanation for why verse is often a highly valued type of verbal behaviour. The general goal is to address the question of what literary form is, from a psychological perspective, and how the textual presence and psychological processing of form can contribute to particular aspects of the aesthetic experience of verse.

scholarly journals Not All Distraction Is Bad: Working Memory Vulnerability to Implicit Socioemotional Distraction Correlates with Negative Symptoms and Functional Impairment in Psychosis

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Quintino R. Mano ◽  
Gregory G. Brown ◽  
Heline Mirzakhanian ◽  
Khalima Bolden ◽  
Kristen S. Cadenhead ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Functional Status ◽  
Functional Impairment ◽  
Global Assessment ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Role Functioning ◽  
Global Assessment Of Functioning ◽  
Match To Sample ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Load Size

This study investigated implicit socioemotional modulation of working memory (WM) in the context of symptom severity and functional status in individuals with psychosis (N=21). A delayed match-to-sample task was modified wherein task-irrelevant facial distracters were presented early and briefly during the rehearsal of pseudoword memoranda that varied incrementally in load size (1, 2, or 3 syllables). Facial distracters displayed happy, sad, or emotionally neutral expressions. Implicit socioemotional modulation of WM was indexed by subtracting task accuracy on nonfacial geometrical distraction trials from facial distraction trials. Results indicated that the amount of implicit socioemotional modulation ofhighWM load accuracy was significantly associated with negative symptoms (r=0.63,P<0.01), role functioning (r=−0.50,P<0.05), social functioning (r=−0.55,P<0.01), and global assessment of functioning (r=−0.53,P<0.05). Specifically,greaterattentional distraction ofhighWM load was associated withlesssevere symptoms and functional impairment. This study demonstrates the importance of the WM-socioemotional interface in influencing clinical and psychosocial functional status in psychosis.

scholarly journals Delayed match-to-sample in working memory: A BrainMap meta-analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 120 ◽  
pp. 10-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Daniel ◽  
Jeffrey S. Katz ◽  
Jennifer L. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Match To Sample
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