scholarly journals Effects of valent image-based secondary tasks on verbal working memory

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. 1440-1456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip L Morgan ◽  
Craig Williams ◽  
Fay M Ings ◽  
Nia C Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Free Recall ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
International Affective Picture System ◽  
Secondary Tasks ◽  
Negative Images ◽  
Task Interruption ◽  
Lower Valence

Two experiments examined if exposure to emotionally valent image-based secondary tasks introduced at different points of a free recall working memory (WM) task impair memory performance. Images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) varied in the degree of negative or positive valance (mild, moderate, strong) and were positioned at low, moderate and high WM load points with participants rating them based upon perceived valence. As predicted, and based on previous research and theory, the higher the degree of negative (Experiment 1) and positive (Experiment 2) valence and the higher the WM load when a secondary task was introduced, the greater the impairment to recall. Secondary task images with strong negative valance were more disruptive than negative images with lower valence at moderate and high WM load task points involving encoding and/or rehearsal of primary task words (Experiment 1). This was not the case for secondary tasks involving positive images (Experiment 2), although participant valence ratings for positive IAPS images classified as moderate and strong were in fact very similar. Implications are discussed in relation to research and theory on task interruption and attentional narrowing and literature concerning the effects of emotive stimuli on cognition.

scholarly journals The role of reduced working memory resources in the associative deficit of older adults

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Yoko Hara
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Secondary Tasks ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Associative Deficit ◽  
Processing Resources

Previous research indicates that older adults show problems with remembering associations compared to young adults, yet they remember single pieces of information about as well as young adults do (see Naveh-Benjamin, 2000). The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether reduced working memory (WM) resources affect associative memory and whether such a reduction can account for older adults’ associative deficit. Three experiments investigated whether we can simulate an associative deficit in young adults by using secondary tasks that increase their WM loads (either via increasing storage or processing demands of the secondary task) during a primary task in which they were required to learn name-face pairs and then remember the names, the faces, and the name-face associations. Results show that reducing both the storage and the processing resources of WM each produced an associative deficit in young adults. However, further increasing the demands of the secondary task for WM processing resources gradually increased the size of the associative deficit, whereas increasing the demands of the secondary task for WM storage resources did not differentially affect associative memory performance. Furthermore, younger adults with low-WM span or low-online processing showed an associative deficit under full attention conditions compared to young adults with high-WM span or high-online processing. High-WM span/processing individuals also showed an associative deficit when the processing or storage demands on WM increased. In summary, the present studies showed that one possible reason older adults have an associative deficit is a reduction in their WM resources, especially those related to WM processing.

Brain correlates of action word memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zubaida Shebani ◽  
Francesca Carota ◽  
Olaf Hauk ◽  
James B. Rowe ◽  
Lawrence W. Barsalou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Verbal Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Action Perception ◽  
Brain Correlates ◽  
Posterior Parietal

AbstractWhen understanding language semantically related to actions, the motor cortex is active and may be sensitive to semantic information, for example about the body-part-relationship of displayed action-related words. Conversely, movements of the hands or feet can impair memory performance for arm- and leg-related action words respectively, suggesting that the role of motor systems extends to verbal working memory. Here, we studied brain correlates of verbal memory load for action-related words using event-related fMRI during the encoding and memory maintenance of word lists. Seventeen participants saw either four identical or four different words from the same category, semantically related to actions typically performed either with the arms or with the legs. After a variable delay of 4-14 seconds, they performed a nonmatching-to-sample task. Hemodynamic activity related to the information load of words at presentation was most prominent in left temporo-occipital and bilateral posterior-parietal areas. In contrast, larger demand on verbal memory maintenance produced greater activation in left premotor and supplementary motor cortex, along with posterior-parietal areas, indicating that verbal memory circuits for action-related words include the cortical action system. Somatotopic memory load effects of arm- and leg-related words were not present at the typical precentral loci where earlier studies had found such word-category differences in reading tasks, although traces of somatotopic semantic mappings were observed at more anterior cortical regions. These results support a neurocomputational model of distributed action-perception circuits (APCs), according to which language understanding is manifest as full ignition of APCs, whereas working memory is realized as reverberant activity gradually receding to multimodal prefrontal and lateral temporal areas.

Working Memory Constraints on Linear Reasoning with Spatial and Temporal Contents

1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 803-820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre Vandierendonck ◽  
Gino De Vooght
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Spatial Relations ◽  
Central Executive ◽  
Secondary Tasks ◽  
Task Effects ◽  
Content Domain ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
Spatial Resources ◽  
Memory Constraints

The present article reports two experiments testing the use of working memory components during reasoning with temporal and spatial relations in four-term series problems. In the first experiment four groups of subjects performed reasoning tasks with temporal and with spatial contents either without (control) or with a secondary task (articulatory suppression, visuospatial suppression or central executive suppression). The second experiment tested the secondary task effects in a within-subjects design either on problems with a spatial content or on problems with a temporal content, and within each content domain either under conditions of self-paced or of fixed presentation of the premises. Both experiments found effects of all three secondary tasks on reasoning accuracy. This supports the hypothesis that the subjects construct spatial representations of the premise information with the support of visuo-spatial resources of working memory. The second experiment also showed that during premise intake, only visuo-spatial and central executive secondary tasks had an effect. The implications of the data for the working memory requirements of reasoning and for theories of linear reasoning are discussed.

scholarly journals Mental Rotational Ability Is Correlated with Spatial but Not Verbal Working Memory Performance and P300 Amplitude in Males

PLoS ONE ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. e57390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory J. Christie ◽  
Charles M. Cook ◽  
Brian J. Ward ◽  
Matthew S. Tata ◽  
Janice Sutherland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
P300 Amplitude

Fractionation of Verbal Memory Impairment in Schizophrenia and Schizophreniform Psychosis

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (9) ◽  
pp. 732-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Wood ◽  
Aleks U. Tarnawski ◽  
Tina M. Proffitt ◽  
Warrick J. Brewer ◽  
Greg R. Savage ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Associative Learning ◽  
Verbal Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
First Episode ◽  
Story Recall ◽  
Associate Learning ◽  
The Impact

Objectives: The characterization, aetiology, and course of verbal memory deficits in schizophrenia remain ill defined. The impact of antipsychotic medications is also unclear. The purpose of the present paper was to investigate verbal memory performance in established schizophrenia (SZ) and first-episode schizophreniform psychosis (FE). Method: Performances of 32 SZ and 33 FE patients were compared to those of 47 healthy volunteers on measures of verbal working memory, verbal associative learning and story recall. Results: Story recall deficits, but not deficits in working memory or paired associate learning, were demonstrated by both patient groups. Patients treated with typical neuroleptics had more impairment in associative learning with arbitrary word pairings than those treated with atypicals, regardless of patient group. Conclusions: The results are consistent with the notion that some neuropsychological impairment is present at the time of psychosis onset and that this impairment is non-progressive. However, deficits may be specific to subclasses of memory function.

Verbal working memory in HIV-seropositive drug users

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 548-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROXANNA FARINPOUR ◽  
EILEEN M. MARTIN ◽  
MICHAEL SEIDENBERG ◽  
DAVID L. PITRAK ◽  
KENNETH J. PURSELL ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Drug Users ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Memory Deficits ◽  
Visuospatial Working Memory ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Pointing Task ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Hiv Seropositive

Recent evidence suggests that HIV-seropositive drug users are impaired on tasks of visuospatial working memory compared with drug users seronegative for HIV. In the current study we evaluated the performance of 30 HIV-seropositive male drug users and 30 risk-matched seronegative controls on two measures of verbal working memory, the Listening Span and the verbal Self Ordered Pointing Task. Impaired working memory performance was significantly more common among HIV-seropositive persons compared to controls, with the highest incidence of deficit among symptomatic participants. These findings indicate that working memory deficits in persons with HIV are not domain-specific and can be demonstrated reliably in drug users. (JINS, 2000, 6, 548–555.)

Computerized Measures of Verbal Working Memory Performance in Healthy Elderly Participants

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (Fall) ◽  
pp. 73-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrienne B. Hancock ◽  
Leonard L. LaPointe ◽  
Julie A. G. Stierwalt ◽  
Michelle S. Bourgeois ◽  
Rolf A. Zwaan
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Healthy Elderly ◽  
Computerized Measures

scholarly journals Verbal working memory performance in older Schizophrenia patients

1998 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-53
Author(s):  
D. Byrd ◽  
J. Paulsen ◽  
S. Squibb ◽  
R. Heaton ◽  
D. Jeste
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Verbal Working Memory
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