scholarly journals A-191 The Role of Memory in Mathematical Abilities

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 986-986
Author(s):  
Goulart W ◽  
Ailes E ◽  
Golden C ◽  
Lashley L
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Index Score ◽  
Auditory Memory ◽  
Academic Learning ◽  
Mathematical Abilities ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Verbal Problem ◽  
Total Test

Abstract Objective To determine the contribution of different types of memory (Visual Memory, Auditory Memory and Visual Working Memory) to mathematical abilities. Method The participants were drawn from a deidentified adult clinical database. A multiple regression tested (n = 91, Mage = 29.9, Medu = 13.3, 49% Caucasian, 57% Female) the ability of the Wechsler Memory Scale Fourth edition (WMS-IV) Auditory Memory Index Score, Visual Memory Index Score, and Visual Working Memory Index Score to predict the Key Math-3rd edition (KM3) Total Test Standard Score. Results In a standard regression, Visual Memory, Auditory Memory, and Visual Working Memory indexes significantly predicted KM3 Total Test Standard Scores. The regression was statistically significant, F(3,87) = 17.1, p = < .001, R2 = .370. In this model, WMS-IV Visual Working Memory (beta = .338, p = .004) and Auditory Memory (beta = .271, p = .007) added significantly to the prediction. Conclusion The results of this study suggest that memory is important in mathematical calculations and different types of memory make distinct contributions. Furthermore, the Visual Working Memory Index explained a greater percentage of variance than the Auditory Memory Index. This suggests that visual working memory skills play a greater role in mathematical abilities and highlights the importance of the ability to remember and manipulate figures in our minds when solving math problems. The significance of auditory memory to mathematics may be related to remembering how to solve problems, word problems, and verbal problem-solving strategies. The Visual Memory Index may not have contributed unique variance because this composite may overlap with the Visual Working Memory Index, and academic learning may be stored verbally.

scholarly journals Are visual working memory and episodic memory distinct processes? Insight from stroke patients by lesion-symptom mapping

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selma Lugtmeijer ◽  
◽  
Linda Geerligs ◽  
Frank Erik de Leeuw ◽  
Edward H. F. de Haan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Stroke Patients ◽  
Lesion Symptom Mapping ◽  
Criterion Setting ◽  
The Right

AbstractWorking memory and episodic memory are two different processes, although the nature of their interrelationship is debated. As these processes are predominantly studied in isolation, it is unclear whether they crucially rely on different neural substrates. To obtain more insight in this, 81 adults with sub-acute ischemic stroke and 29 elderly controls were assessed on a visual working memory task, followed by a surprise subsequent memory test for the same stimuli. Multivariate, atlas- and track-based lesion-symptom mapping (LSM) analyses were performed to identify anatomical correlates of visual memory. Behavioral results gave moderate evidence for independence between discriminability in working memory and subsequent memory, and strong evidence for a correlation in response bias on the two tasks in stroke patients. LSM analyses suggested there might be independent regions associated with working memory and episodic memory. Lesions in the right arcuate fasciculus were more strongly associated with discriminability in working memory than in subsequent memory, while lesions in the frontal operculum in the right hemisphere were more strongly associated with criterion setting in subsequent memory. These findings support the view that some processes involved in working memory and episodic memory rely on separate mechanisms, while acknowledging that there might also be shared processes.

scholarly journals Is working memory inherently more ‘precise’ than long-term memory? Extremely high fidelity visual long-term memories for frequently encountered objects

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annalise Miner ◽  
Mark Schurgin ◽  
Timothy F. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Continuous Measure ◽  
High Fidelity ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Naturalistic Setting

Long-term memory is often considered easily corruptible, imprecise and inaccurate, especially in comparison to working memory. However, most research used to support these findings relies on weak long-term memories: those where people have had only one brief exposure to an item. Here we investigated the fidelity of visual long-term memory in more naturalistic setting, with repeated exposures, and ask how it compares to visual working memory fidelity. Using psychophysical methods designed to precisely measure the fidelity of visual memory, we demonstrate that long-term memory for the color of frequently seen objects is as accurate as working memory for the color of a single item seen 1 second ago. In particular, we show that repetition greatly improves long-term memory, including the ability to discriminate an item from a very similar item ('fidelity'), in both a lab setting (Exps. 1-3) and a naturalistic setting (brand logos, Exp. 4). Overall our results demonstrate the impressive nature of visual long-term memory fidelity, which we find is even higher fidelity than previously indicated in situations involving repetitions. Furthermore, our results suggest that there is no distinction between the fidelity of visual working memory and visual long-term memory, but instead both memory systems are capable of storing similar incredibly high fidelity memories under the right circumstances. Our results also provide further evidence that there is no fundamental distinction between the ‘precision’ of memory and the ‘likelihood of retrieving a memory’, instead suggesting a single continuous measure of memory strength best accounts for working and long-term memory.

scholarly journals Brain Processing of Complex Geometric Forms in a Visual Memory Task Increases P2 Amplitude

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 114
Author(s):  
Héctor A. Cepeda-Freyre ◽  
Gregorio Garcia-Aguilar ◽  
Jose R. Eguibar ◽  
Carmen Cortes
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Test Phase ◽  
Related Potentials

We study the cognitive processing of visual working memory in three different conditions of memory load and configuration change. Altering this features has been shown to alter the brain’s processing in memory tasks. Most studies dealing with this issue have used the verbal-phonological modality. We use complex geometric polygons to assess visual working memory in a modified change detection task. Three different types of backgrounds were used to manipulate memory loading and 18 complex geometric polygons to manipulate stimuli configuration. The goal of our study was to test whether the memory load and configuration affect the correct-recall ratios. We expected that increasing visual items loading and changing configuration of items would induce differences in working memory performance. Brain activity related to the task was assessed through event-related potentials (ERP), during the test phase of each trial. Our results showed that visual items loading and changing of item configuration affect working memory on test phase on ERP component P2, but does not affect performance. However frontal related ERP component—P3—was minimally affected by visual memory loading or configuration changing, supporting that working memory is related to a filtering processing in posterior brain regions.

scholarly journals The nationality benefit: Long-term memory associations enhance visual working memory for color-shape conjunctions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Conci ◽  
Philipp Kreyenmeier ◽  
Lisa Kröll ◽  
Connor Spiech ◽  
Hermann J. Müller
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Stimulus Complexity ◽  
Object Knowledge ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Memory Associations

AbstractVisual working memory (VWM) is typically found to be severely limited in capacity, but this limitation may be ameliorated by providing familiar objects that are associated with knowledge stored in long-term memory. However, comparing meaningful and meaningless stimuli usually entails a confound, because different types of objects also tend to vary in terms of their inherent perceptual complexity. The current study therefore aimed to dissociate stimulus complexity from object meaning in VWM. To this end, identical stimuli – namely, simple color-shape conjunctions – were presented, which either resembled meaningful configurations (“real” European flags), or which were rearranged to form perceptually identical but meaningless (“fake”) flags. The results revealed complexity estimates for “real” and “fake” flags to be higher than for unicolor baseline stimuli. However, VWM capacity for real flags was comparable to the unicolor baseline stimuli (and substantially higher than for fake flags). This shows that relatively complex, yet meaningful “real” flags reveal a VWM capacity that is comparable to rather simple, unicolored memory items. Moreover, this “nationality” benefit was related to individual flag recognition performance, thus showing that VWM depends on object knowledge.

scholarly journals Contribution of right hemisphere to visual imagery: A visual working memory impairment?

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 902-911 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARINA GASPARINI ◽  
ANNE MARIE HUFTY ◽  
GIOVANNI MASCIARELLI ◽  
DONATELLA OTTAVIANI ◽  
UGO ANGELONI ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Anterior Choroidal ◽  
The Right ◽  
Mind's Eye ◽  
Choroidal Artery

Visual Imagery is the ability to generate mental images in the absence of perception, that is, “seeing with the mind's eye.” We describe a patient, IM, who suffered from an acute ischemic stroke in the right anterior choroidal artery who appeared to demonstrate relatively isolated impairment in visual imagery. Her cognitive function, including her performance on tests of semantic function, was at ceiling, apart from a deficit in visual memory. IM failed in tasks involving degraded stimuli, object decision involving reality judgments on normal animals, and drawings from memory. By contrast, she was able to match objects seen from an unfamiliar viewpoint and to perform tasks of semantic and visual association. We hypothesize that IM has a visual working memory deficit that impairs her ability to generate full visual representations of objects given their names, individual feature, or partial representations. The deficit appears to be the result of damage to connections between the right thalamus and the right temporal lobe. Our findings may help to clarify the role of the thalamus in the cortical selective engagement processes that underlie working memory. (JINS, 2008, 14, 902–911.)

scholarly journals Visual and verbal working memory loads interfere with scene viewing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Cronin ◽  
Candace Elise Peacock ◽  
John M. Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Verbal Memory ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Scene Viewing

Working memory is thought to be divided into distinct visual and verbal subsystems. Studies of visual working memory frequently use verbal working memory tasks as control conditions and/or use articulatory suppression to ensure visual load remains in visual memory. Using these verbal tasks relies on the assumption that the verbal working memory load will not interfere with the same processes as visual working memory. In the present study, participants maintained a visual or verbal working memory load while simultaneously viewing scenes. Because eye movements and visual working memory are closely linked, we anticipated the visual load would interfere with scene viewing (and vice versa), while the verbal load would not. Surprisingly, both visual and verbal memory loads interfered with scene viewing behavior, while scene viewing did not significantly interfere with performance on either memory task. These results suggest that a verbal working memory load can interfere with a visual task and contribute to the growing literature suggesting the visual and verbal subsystems of working memory are less distinct than previously thought. Our data also stands at odds with previous work suggesting that visual working memory is obligatorily recruited by saccadic eye movements.

scholarly journals Evidence for, and challenges to, sensory recruitment models of visual working memory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten C. S. Adam ◽  
Rosanne L. Rademaker ◽  
John Serences
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Memory Representation ◽  
Correct Color ◽  
Early Visual Cortex ◽  
Sensory Activity ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Sensory Recruitment

Visual working memory refers to the ability to temporarily hold information in mind in the service of behavior. Often, it is not sufficient to hold an abstract idea in mind to achieve our goals. Rather, we must maintain vivid sensory details. For example, when buying a spool of thread to repair a much-loved shirt, holding an abstract category in mind is not sufficient to buy the correct color (e.g. ‘blue’)—instead, you need a precise visual memory of the color (e.g., a particular gray-ish shade of blue). One proposal for how we maintain vivid, detailed information in mind is the sensory recruitment hypothesis. Sensory recruitment proposes that neural circuits already specialized for encoding sensory details during perception are likewise recruited to help maintain this information in working memory. In this review, we recount evidence that is consistent with a key role for early visual cortex in supporting visual working memory, we discuss key debates about the role of early sensory activity in supporting memory maintenance, and we outline a framework in which sensory codes are one part of a flexible, multi-level working memory representation.

scholarly journals Impulse responses reveal unimodal and bimodal access to visual and auditory working memory

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Wolff ◽  
G. Kandemir ◽  
M. G. Stokes ◽  
E. G. Akyürek
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Impulse Response ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
Auditory Memory ◽  
Adaptive Behaviour ◽  
Auditory Information

AbstractIt is unclear to what extent sensory processing areas are involved in the maintenance of sensory information in working memory (WM). Previous studies have thus far relied on finding neural activity in the corresponding sensory cortices, neglecting potential activity-silent mechanisms such as connectivity-dependent encoding. It has recently been found that visual stimulation during visual WM maintenance reveals WM-dependent changes through a bottom-up neural response. Here, we test whether this impulse response is uniquely visual and sensory-specific. Human participants (both sexes) completed visual and auditory WM tasks while electroencephalography was recorded. During the maintenance period, the WM network was perturbed serially with fixed and task-neutral auditory and visual stimuli. We show that a neutral auditory impulse-stimulus presented during the maintenance of a pure tone resulted in a WM-dependent neural response, providing evidence for the auditory counterpart to the visual WM findings reported previously. Interestingly, visual stimulation also resulted in an auditory WM-dependent impulse response, implicating the visual cortex in the maintenance of auditory information, either directly, or indirectly as a pathway to the neural auditory WM representations elsewhere. In contrast, during visual WM maintenance only the impulse response to visual stimulation was content-specific, suggesting that visual information is maintained in a sensory-specific neural network, separated from auditory processing areas.Significance StatementWorking memory is a crucial component of intelligent, adaptive behaviour. Our understanding of the neural mechanisms that support it has recently shifted: rather than being dependent on an unbroken chain of neural activity, working memory may rely on transient changes in neuronal connectivity, which can be maintained efficiently in activity-silent brain states. Previous work using a visual impulse stimulus to perturb the memory network has implicated such silent states in the retention of line orientations in visual working memory. Here, we show that auditory working memory similarly retains auditory information. We also observed a sensory-specific impulse response in visual working memory, while auditory memory responded bi-modally to both visual and auditory impulses, possibly reflecting visual dominance of working memory.

Multiple Levels of Stimulus Representation in Visual Working Memory

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 844-858 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eunsam Shin ◽  
Monica Fabiani ◽  
Gabriele Gratton
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Memory Search ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Set Size ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Letter Case

Object recognition presumably involves activation of multiple levels of representation. Here we use the encoding-related lateralization (ERL) method [Gratton, G. The contralateral organization of visual memory: A theoretical concept and a research tool. Psychophysiology, 35, 638–647, 1998] to describe the sequential activation of several of these levels. The ERL uses divided-field encoding to generate contralaterally biased representations in the brain. The presence and nature of these representations can be demonstrated by examining the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by centrally presented test probes for lateralized activity corresponding to the encoding side. We recorded ERPs during a memory-search task. Memory sets were composed of two or four uppercase letters displayed half to the left and half to the right of fixation. Probe stimuli were composed of one letter presented foveally in either upper- or lowercase. Letter case was manipulated to differentiate the time course of physical and symbolic levels of letter representation. Memory set size was manipulated to examine a relational level of letter representation. We found multiple ERLs in response to the probes: (1) An early (peak = 170 msec) case-dependent (but set size independent) ERL, most evident at P7/P8, indexing the availability of a physical level of letter representation; (2) a later (200–400 msec) more diffusedly distributed ERL, independent of both letter case and set size, indexing a symbolic level of letter representation; (3) a long-latency (400–600 msec) ERL occurring at posterior sites, larger for the case match, Set Size 2 condition, indexing competition for neural representation across multiple letters. By assuming that these ERL activities track the progression of letter representation over time, we propose a model of letter processing in the context of visual working memory.

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