Individual Differences in Visuo-Spatial Working Memory and Real-World Wayfinding

2009 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffaella Nori ◽  
Sonia Grandicelli ◽  
Fiorella Giusberti
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Mental Rotation ◽  
Real World ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Botanical Garden ◽  
Spatial Problem ◽  
Copying Task ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Corsi Block Task

The present research investigated the relationship between individual differences in visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) and wayfinding performance in adults. Forty participants completed a battery of tasks measuring VSWM (Mental Rotation Task, Corsi Block Task, Copying Task, and Spatial Problem Task) and covered an unfamiliar route in a botanical garden. Our findings showed that VSWM was involved in wayfinding performance: High-VSWM participants performed the wayfinding task with fewer errors and faster and paused less frequently along the route than did low-VSWM participants. Our results suggest that different aspects of working memory, that is, active/passive and visual/sequential/simultaneous subcomponents, are involved in remembering an unfamiliar real-world route.

scholarly journals Deciphering the format of representations in mental imagery and establishing the relationship between mental imagery and visual working memory in primary school children and adulthood

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn E Bates ◽  
Emily Farran
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Mental Rotation ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Mental Imagery ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Component Model ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Image Generation ◽  
The Relationship

We addressed three research gaps related to Mental imagery (MI) in children. First, MI relies on depictive representations of varied visual precision in adults, however evidence for individual differences in visual precision of MI in children is lacking. Second, researchers have employed a four sub-component model (Image Generation, Image Maintenance, Mental Rotation, Image Scanning) to investigate the development of MI, however findings are mixed. Finally, shared mechanisms between MI and Visual Working Memory (VWM) are suggested in adult literature, yet this relationship has not been tested directly in children. Using a novel battery of MI tasks, we found evidence for visual images of high precision from age 6 years (children aged 6-11 years [N=92], adults [N=58]). Moreover, we found that participants make similar errors when estimating varying distances in both visual perception and mental imagery: participants of all ages underestimated distance, and this increased with increasing distance. To address our second research question, we report evidence to support a separable-component model of MI in children, with some components (Image Generation and Image Maintenance, Image Maintenance and Mental Rotation) becoming more integrated in adulthood. With respect to our final research question, we found a dissociation between MI and VWM in both children and adults. Our findings extend current understanding of development of MI from childhood to adulthood and broadly suggest that while MI components are dissociated in childhood, they are integrated in adulthood. Moreover, the findings highlight the importance of considering individual differences in the format of representations and strategy use when deciphering the relationship between MI and VWM in both children and adults.

scholarly journals Individual differences in working memory capacity are unrelated to the magnitudes of retrocue benefits

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaoxiong Ye ◽  
Qianru Xu ◽  
Xinyang Liu ◽  
Piia Astikainen ◽  
Yongjie Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Significant Positive Correlation ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Capacity Measurement ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Feature Dimension ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Internal Attention

AbstractPrevious studies have associated visual working memory (VWM) capacity with the use of internal attention. Retrocues, which direct internal attention to a particular object or feature dimension, can improve VWM performance (i.e., retrocue benefit, RCB). However, so far, no study has investigated the relationship between VWM capacity and the magnitudes of RCBs obtained from object-based and dimension-based retrocues. The present study explored individual differences in the magnitudes of object- and dimension-based RCBs and their relationships with VWM capacity. Participants completed a VWM capacity measurement, an object-based cue task, and a dimension-based cue task. We confirmed that both object- and dimension-based retrocues could improve VWM performance. We also found a significant positive correlation between the magnitudes of object- and dimension-based RCB indexes, suggesting a partly overlapping mechanism between the use of object- and dimension-based retrocues. However, our results provided no evidence for a correlation between VWM capacity and the magnitudes of the object- or dimension-based RCBs. Although inadequate attention control is usually assumed to be associated with VWM capacity, the results suggest that the internal attention mechanism for using retrocues in VWM retention is independent of VWM capacity.

scholarly journals Intrinsic Brain Hub Connectivity Underlies Individual Differences in Spatial Working Memory

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Liu ◽  
Mingrui Xia ◽  
Zhengjia Dai ◽  
Xiaoying Wang ◽  
Xuhong Liao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Spatial Working Memory

Predicting Complex Spatial Working Memory Fatigue Vulnerability Based on Individual Differences in fMRI Images

2010 ◽  
Vol 54 (14) ◽  
pp. 1077-1081
Author(s):  
Laurie Larsen Quill ◽  
Kristie Nemeth ◽  
Lynn Caldwell ◽  
Regina Schmidt ◽  
Jason Parker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Spatial Working Memory

scholarly journals Sex differences in cortisol and memory following acute social stress in amnestic mild cognitive impairment

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly J. Murphy ◽  
Travis E. Hodges ◽  
Paul A.S. Sheppard ◽  
Angela K. Troyer ◽  
Elizabeth Hampson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Amci Group ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractObjectiveOlder adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) develop Alzheimer’s type dementia approximately ten times faster annually than the normal population. Adrenal hormones are associated with aging and cognition. We investigated the relationship between acute stress, cortisol, and memory function in aMCI with an exploratory analysis of sex.MethodSalivary cortisol was sampled diurnally and during two test sessions, one session with the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), to explore differences in the relationship between cortisol and memory function in age-normal cognition (NA) and aMCI. Participants with aMCI (n=6 women, 9 men; mean age=75) or similarly aged NA (n=9 women, 7 men, mean age=75) were given tests of episodic, associative, and spatial working memory with a psychosocial stressor (TSST) in the second session.ResultsThe aMCI group performed worse on the memory tests than NA as expected, and males with aMCI had elevated cortisol levels on test days. Immediate episodic memory was enhanced by social stress in NA but not in the aMCI group, indicating that stress-induced alterations in memory are different in individuals with aMCI. High cortisol was associated with impaired performance on episodic memory in aMCI males only. Cortisol in Session 1 moderated the relationship with spatial working memory, whereby higher cortisol was associated with worse performance in NA, but better spatial working memory in aMCI. In addition, effects of aMCI on perceived anxiety in response to stress exposure were moderated by stress-induced cortisol in a sex-specific manner.ConclusionsWe show effects of aMCI on Test Session cortisol levels and effects on perceived anxiety, and stress-induced impairments in memory in males with aMCI in our exploratory sample. Future studies should explore sex as a biological variable as our findings suggests that effects at the confluence of aMCI and stress can be obfuscated without sex as a consideration.

Individual Differences in Attention Control

2020 ◽  
pp. 175-211
Author(s):  
Cody A. Mashburn ◽  
Jason S. Tsukahara ◽  
Randall W. Engle
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Attention Control ◽  
Executive Attention ◽  
Attention Theory ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter outlines the executive attention theory of higher-order cognition, which argues that individual differences in the ability to maintain information in working memory and disengage from irrelevant information is inextricably linked to variation in the ability to deploy domain-free attentional resources in a goal-directed fashion. It also summarizes recent addendums to the theory, particularly regarding the relationship between attention control, working memory capacity, and fluid intelligence. Specifically, the chapter argues that working memory capacity and fluid intelligence measures require different allocations of the same attentional resources, a fact which accounts for their strong correlation. At various points, it addresses theoretical alternatives to the executive attention theory of working memory capacity and empirical complications of the study of attention control, including difficulties deriving coherent attention control latent factors.

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