Extending the positive bias in Williams syndrome: The influence of biographical information on attention allocation

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-256
Author(s):  
Kelsie A. Boulton ◽  
Melanie A. Porter
Keyword(s):  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Attention Bias ◽  
Attention Allocation ◽  
Positive Bias ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Biographical Information ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Probe Task

AbstractThere is evidence that individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) show an attention bias toward positive social-perceptual (happy) faces. Research has not yet considered whether this attention bias extends beyond social-perceptual stimuli to perceptually neutral stimuli that are paired with positive (trustworthy) biographical information. Fourteen participants with WS (mean age = 21 years, 1 month) learned to associate perceptually neutral faces with trustworthy (positive), neutral, or untrustworthy (negative) biographical information, before completing a dot-probe task where the same biographical faces were presented. The performance of the WS group was compared to two typically developing control groups, individually matched to the WS individuals on chronological age and mental age, respectively. No between-group bias toward untrustworthy characters was observed. The WS group displayed a selective attention bias toward trustworthy characters compared to both control groups (who did not show such a bias). Results support previous findings that indicate WS individuals show a preference for positive social-perceptual stimuli (happy faces) at the neurological, physiological, and attentional levels. The current findings extend this work to include a “top-down” positive bias. The implications of a positive bias that extends beyond social-perceptual stimuli (or “bottom-up” processes) in this syndrome are discussed.

Attention allocation to facial expressions of emotion among persons with Williams and Down syndromes

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 1189-1197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen J. Goldman ◽  
Cory Shulman ◽  
Yair Bar-Haim ◽  
Rany Abend ◽  
Jacob A. Burack
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Attention Capture ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Social Approach ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Williams Syndrome Group ◽  
Facial Expressions Of Emotion

AbstractIndividuals with Williams syndrome and those with Down syndrome are both characterized by heightened social interest, although the manifestation is not always similar. Using a dot-probe task, we examined one possible source of difference: allocation of attention to facial expressions of emotion. Thirteen individuals with Williams syndrome (mean age = 19.2 years, range = 10–28.6), 20 with Down syndrome (mean age = 18.8 years, range = 12.1–26.3), and 19 typically developing children participated. The groups were matched for mental age (mean = 5.8 years). None of the groups displayed a bias to angry faces. The participants with Williams syndrome showed a selective bias toward happy faces, whereas the participants with Down syndrome behaved similarly to the typically developing participants with no such bias. Homogeneity in the direction of bias was markedly highest in the Williams syndrome group whose bias appeared to result from enhanced attention capture. They appeared to rapidly and selectively allocate attention toward positive facial expressions. The complexity of social approach behavior and the need to explore other aspects of cognition that may be implicated in this behavior in both syndromes is discussed.

scholarly journals Different Top-Down Goals Modulate Early Stage of Attention Bias: Irrelevant Task Suppresses the N170 of Automatic Attention Allocation to Threat Faces

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haoran Dou ◽  
Limei Liang ◽  
Jie Ma ◽  
Jiachen Lu ◽  
Wenhai Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Stage ◽  
Attention Bias ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Attention Allocation ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Neutral Face ◽  
Fearful Face ◽  
Relevant Task ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Automatic Attention

Abstract Recent research has evidenced that stimulus-driven attention bias for threat can be modulated by top-down goals. However, it remains unclear how different top-down goals affect the early stage of attention processing and its early neural mechanism. We collected electroencephalographic data from 28 healthy volunteers during four inconsistent levels in a modified spatial cueing task according to cue validity and task relevance. Our data revealed that reaction time(RT) to the target in the irrelevant task were much slower than that in the relevant task. In the irrelevant task, we did not find the difference between the RTs to the fearful and neutral face. In the relevant task, we found RTs of fearful face were faster than that of neutral face in valid cue condition(weak inconsistent level), whereas the RTs of fearful face were slower than that of neutral face in invalid cue condition(medium inconsistent level). The ERPs results showed that in relevant task(weak, medium inconsistent levels), fearful face in cue position of the target evoked larger N170 amplitudes than neutral face did, whereas this effect was suppressed in irrelevant task(strong, very strong inconsistent levels). Besides, fearful face in cue position of the target also evoked larger vertex positive potential (VPP) amplitudes than the neutral face did in valid cue condition( weak inconsistent level). These results suggest that irrelevant task may inhibit the early attention allocation to the fearful face. Furthermore, the top-down processing modulates the early attention bias for threatening faces.

Prosodic abilities in Spanish and English children with Williams syndrome: A cross-linguistic study

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
PASTORA MARTÍNEZ-CASTILLA ◽  
VESNA STOJANOVIK ◽  
JANE SETTER ◽  
MARÍA SOTILLO
Keyword(s):  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Spanish Version ◽  
Speech Communication ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Linguistic Study ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
The Cross

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to compare the prosodic profiles of English- and Spanish-speaking children with Williams syndrome (WS), examining cross-linguistic differences. Two groups of children with WS, English and Spanish, of similar chronological and nonverbal mental age, were compared on performance in expressive and receptive prosodic tasks from the Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech–Communication Battery in its English or Spanish version. Differences between the English and Spanish WS groups were found regarding the understanding of affect through prosodic means, using prosody to make words more prominent, and imitating different prosodic patterns. Such differences between the two WS groups on function prosody tasks mirrored the cross-linguistic differences already reported in typically developing children.

scholarly journals Do you have a question for me? How children with Williams syndrome respond to ambiguous referential communication during a joint activity

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 266-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIELA PLESA SKWERER ◽  
EMILY AMMERMAN ◽  
HELEN TAGER-FLUSBERG
Keyword(s):  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Object Locations ◽  
Comparison Groups ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Initial Focus

ABSTRACTResearch on language in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) has been fueled by persistent theoretical controversies for two decades. These shifted from initial focus on dissociations between language and cognition functions, to examining the paradox of socio-communicative impairments despite high sociability and relatively proficient expressive language. We investigated possible sources of communicative difficulties in WS in a collaborative referential communication game. Five- to thirteen-year-old children with WS were compared to verbal mental age- and to chronological age-matched typically developing children in their ability to consider different types of information to select a speaker's intended referent from an array of items. Significant group differences in attention deployment to object locations, and in the number and types of clarification requests, indicated the use of less efficient and less mature strategies for reference resolution in WS than expected based on mental age, despite learning effects similar to those of the comparison groups, shown as the game progressed.

Spatial-Sequential and Spatial-Simultaneous Working Memory in Individuals With Williams Syndrome

2015 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Lanfranchi ◽  
Letizia De Mori ◽  
Irene C Mammarella ◽  
Barbara Carretti ◽  
Renzo Vianello
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Information Storage ◽  
Presentation Format ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Visuospatial Working Memory ◽  
Concurrent Processing ◽  
Mental Age

Abstract The aim of the present study was to compare visuospatial working memory performance in 18 individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) and 18 typically developing (TD) children matched for nonverbal mental age. Two aspects were considered: task presentation format (i.e., spatial-sequential or spatial-simultaneous), and level of attentional control (i.e., passive or active tasks). Our results showed that individuals with WS performed less well than TD children in passive spatial-simultaneous tasks, but not in passive spatial-sequential tasks. The former's performance was also worse in both active tasks. These findings suggest an impairment in the spatial-simultaneous working memory of individuals with WS, together with a more generalized difficulty in tasks requiring information storage and concurrent processing, as seen in other etiologies of intellectual disability.

The effect of story presentation rates on story retelling by individuals with Down syndrome

2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 603-620 ◽  
Author(s):  
HYE-KYEUNG SEUNG ◽  
ROBIN S. CHAPMAN
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Recall Performance ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Story Recall ◽  
Story Retelling ◽  
Matched Group ◽  
Mental Age

The current study examined the effect of story presentation rates on story recall performance in 35 individuals with Down syndrome and 3 control groups (35 mental age matched, 35 syntax comprehension matched, and 35 syntax production matched children). Three short audiotaped stories were presented to each individual at three different rates (normal, storyteller [slow with expressive inflections], and slow rate). The effect of group but not rate was significant. Individuals with Down syndrome recalled more content words than the production-matched group and the production-matched group recalled fewer content words than the mental age matched and comprehension-matched groups. The results were interpreted in relation to working memory deficits in individuals with Down syndrome, developmental change in story recall of typically developing children, and the contribution of syntax comprehension to story recall.

scholarly journals Morphology in Spanish-speaking children with Williams syndrome

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 728-740 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTONIO BENÍTEZ-BURRACO ◽  
ELENA GARAYZÁBAL ◽  
FERNANDO CUETOS
Keyword(s):  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Irregular Verbs ◽  
And Gender

abstractAims. Morphological skills in Williams syndrome (WS) are a controversial issue, particularly cross-linguistically. Methods. We assessed pluralization patterns of nouns, inflection of verbs in the past, and gender assignment, inflection, and agreement within the noun phrase in a sample of Spanish-speaking children with WS compared to typically developing (TD) children matched on mental age (VA-TD) and on chronological age (CA-TD) age. Results. Children with WS attribute grammatical gender correctly in a production task, but they have problems with inferring the referent’s sex from the gender of the noun in a comprehension task. Additionally, they correctly pluralize nouns and properly inflect regular verbs, but they have problems with irregular verbs. Our findings suggest that they have mastered the productive rules, but they perform like younger children regarding irregular items.

Probed Serial Recall in Williams Syndrome

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 360-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Brock ◽  
Teresa McCormack ◽  
Jill Boucher
Keyword(s):  
Serial Recall ◽  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Genetic Disorder ◽  
Serial Order ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Lexical Knowledge

Williams syndrome is a genetic disorder that, it has been claimed, results in an unusual pattern of linguistic strengths and weaknesses. The current study investigated the hypothesis that there is a reduced influence of lexical knowledge on phonological short-term memory in Williams syndrome. Fourteen children with Williams syndrome and 2 vocabulary-matched control groups, 20 typically developing children and 13 children with learning difficulties, were tested on 2 probed serial-recall tasks. On the basis of previous findings, it was predicted that children with Williams syndrome would demonstrate (a) a reduced effect of lexicality on the recall of list items, (b) relatively poorer recall of list items compared with recall of serial order, and (c) a reduced tendency to produce lexicalization errors in the recall of nonwords. In fact, none of these predictions were supported. Alternative explanations for previous findings and implications for accounts of language development in Williams syndrome are discussed.

A longitudinal study of language development in two children with Williams syndrome

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
YONATA LEVY
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disorders ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Developmental Disorders ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Cognitive Theories

Williams syndrome (WS) is often cited as the prime example within developmental disorders of the dissociation of language from other cognitive skills, particularly from visuo-motor skills. This claim has been responsible for the challenges posed by this population to cognitive theories and to models of language acquisition. Two Hebrew-speaking children with WS were followed longitudinally for 18 months, from the first occurrences of two word combinations. Y was 3;9–5;3 and BT was 4;2–5;8 during data collection. Both children had an MLU of 1·8–2·8. The children's linguistic profiles were compared to the profiles of typically-developing (TD) children of similar MLU as well as to the profiles of 11 children with a variety of neurodevelopmental disorders (ND), matched on MLU. The profiles exhibited by the children with WS throughout the period of the study differed from the profiles seen in both control groups.

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