scholarly journals Cognitive Entities Underpinning Task Episodes

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ausaf A Farooqui ◽  
Tom Manly
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Switch Cost ◽  
Hierarchical Organization ◽  
Task Sequence ◽  
Sequence Representation ◽  
And Control ◽  
Extended Behavior ◽  
Sequence Execution

Cognitive Entities Underpinning Task EpisodesAccounts of hierarchical cognition suggest that extended task episodes as one task entity and not individually execute their component acts. Such hierarchical execution is frequently thought to occur by first instantiating a sequence representation in working memory that then controls the identity and sequence of component steps. In contrast, we evidence hierarchical execution of extended behavior in situations where the identity and sequence of component steps was unknown and not linked to any sequence representation. Participants executed unpredictable trials wherein, depending on the margin color, they could either choose the smaller value or the font of the two numbers. Crucially, they were biased into construing a recurring instance of three or five trials as one task episode. Behavioral signs of hierarchy, identical to those seen previously with memorized sequence execution, were seen - High trial 1 RT, higher trial 1 RT before longer task episodes, and absence of trial level switch cost specifically across episode boundaries. This showed that hierarchical task sequence representations are not a requisite for hierarchical organization of cognition. Merely construing behavior to be executed as a task episode is enough for the accompanying cognition to be hierarchically organized. Task episodes are executed through the intermediation of episode related programs that are assembled at the beginning and control and organize cognition across time.

scholarly journals Reading comprehension on the last grades of cicles I and II of elementary school

CoDAS ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 276-285
Author(s):  
Eliane Mi Chang ◽  
Clara Regina Brandão de Avila
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Elementary School ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Research Groups ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
Spearman Coefficient ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
And Control

PURPOSE: To characterize students' performance in Cycle I and II of the Elementary School (EF), in decoding, reading comprehension and underlying skills of reading, and investigate correlations between these variables, in the absence and presence of reading comprehension deficits, identified by their teachers.METHODS: 125 students from ES were grouped according to Cycle and presence or absence of reading comprehension impairments. Two Control (good readers from both Cycles) and two Research groups (poor readers from both Cycles) were established. Assessment involved: fluency and reading comprehension; oral comprehension; working and short-term phonological memory; grammar closure. It was compared (Mann-Whitney test): in intragroup study, both Control and Research groups; in intergroup study, Control and Research from different cycles, and Control I and Research II. Spearman coefficient investigated correlations.RESULTS: Analyzing reading comprehension, we observed better performance of Control Groups in all tasks in comparison to the respective Research Groups, and better performance of Control II in comparison to Control I. Research Groups had similar results in most tests. Positive correlations have been observed between most of the variables.CONCLUSION: Students without reading comprehension impairments showed better performance in reading in both Cycles. Working memory and oral comprehension did not differentiate students with and without complaints in Cycle I, differently from what was observed in Cycle II. Research II presented similar or better performance than Research I and similar or worse performance than Control I. Underlying skills showed different profiles of correlation with reading comprehension capacity, according to the group.

scholarly journals Scaling up visual attention and visual working memory to the real world

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy F. Brady ◽  
Viola S. Störmer ◽  
Anna Shafer-Skelton ◽  
Jamal Rodgers Williams ◽  
Angus F. Chapman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Real World ◽  
Scaling Up ◽  
The Real ◽  
Vision Science ◽  
Precise Understanding ◽  
Complex Settings ◽  
And Control

Both visual attention and visual working memory tend to be studied with very simple stimuli and low-level paradigms, designed to allow us to understand the representations and processes in detail, or with fully realistic stimuli that make such precise understanding difficult but are more representative of the real world. In this chapter we argue for an intermediate approach in which visual attention and visual working memory are studied by scaling up from the simplest settings to more complex settings that capture some aspects of the complexity of the real-world, while still remaining in the realm of well-controlled stimuli and well-understood tasks. We believe this approach, which we have been taking in our labs, will allow a more generalizable set of knowledge about visual attention and visual working memory while maintaining the rigor and control that is typical of vision science and psychophysics studies.

Time-dependent hierarchical organization of spatial working memory: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study

2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 1823-1827 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Nyffeler ◽  
Charles Pierrot-Deseilligny ◽  
Jaques Felblinger ◽  
Urs P. Mosimann ◽  
Christian W. Hess ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Hierarchical Organization ◽  
Time Dependent

scholarly journals Laminar recordings in frontal cortex suggest distinct layers for maintenance and control of working memory

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (5) ◽  
pp. 1117-1122 ◽  
Author(s):  
André M. Bastos ◽  
Roman Loonis ◽  
Simon Kornblith ◽  
Mikael Lundqvist ◽  
Earl K. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Superficial Layer ◽  
Field Potentials ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Connectivity Patterns ◽  
Deep Layers ◽  
Alpha Beta ◽  
And Control ◽  
Laminar Specificity

All of the cerebral cortex has some degree of laminar organization. These different layers are composed of neurons with distinct connectivity patterns, embryonic origins, and molecular profiles. There are little data on the laminar specificity of cognitive functions in the frontal cortex, however. We recorded neuronal spiking/local field potentials (LFPs) using laminar probes in the frontal cortex (PMd, 8A, 8B, SMA/ACC, DLPFC, and VLPFC) of monkeys performing working memory (WM) tasks. LFP power in the gamma band (50–250 Hz) was strongest in superficial layers, and LFP power in the alpha/beta band (4–22 Hz) was strongest in deep layers. Memory delay activity, including spiking and stimulus-specific gamma bursting, was predominately in superficial layers. LFPs from superficial and deep layers were synchronized in the alpha/beta bands. This was primarily unidirectional, with alpha/beta bands in deep layers driving superficial layer activity. The phase of deep layer alpha/beta modulated superficial gamma bursting associated with WM encoding. Thus, alpha/beta rhythms in deep layers may regulate the superficial layer gamma bands and hence maintenance of the contents of WM.

scholarly journals A neural model of sequential movement planning and control of eye movements: Item-Order-Rank working memory and saccade selection by the supplementary eye fields

2012 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 29-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Silver ◽  
Stephen Grossberg ◽  
Daniel Bullock ◽  
Mark H. Histed ◽  
Earl K. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Neural Model ◽  
Movement Planning ◽  
Planning And Control ◽  
Item Order ◽  
Sequential Movement ◽  
And Control ◽  
Supplementary Eye Fields

scholarly journals Explicit and implicit instruction of refusal strategies: Does working memory capacity play a role?

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-188
Author(s):  
Mohammad Javad Ahmadian
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Implicit Instruction ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
And Control ◽  
Refusal Strategies

This study investigated the differential effects of implicit and explicit instruction of refusal strategies in English and whether and how the impacts of instruction methods interact with learners’ working memory capacity (WMC). 78 learners of English were assigned to three groups (explicit, implicit, and control). Implicit instruction was operationalized through input enhancement and provision of recast. In the explicit instruction group, participants received description and exemplification of refusal strategies and were provided with explicit corrective feedback. Prior to the treatment, all participants took WMC test, Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and completed a pragmatics comprehension questionnaire (CQ). Results revealed that explicit instruction was more effective than implicit instruction for both production and comprehension of refusals and that both implicit and explicit groups maintained the improvement in the delayed post-test administered two months later. In addition, whilst WMC scores were positively and strongly correlated with gains in the immediate and delayed post-test for both DCT and CQ in the implicit group, no meaningful relationship was found for explicit and control groups. The unique feature of this research is demonstrating that explicit instruction of refusal strategies equalizes learning opportunities for all learners with differential levels of WMC.

scholarly journals Effects of Working Memory Demand on Neural Mechanisms of Motor Response Selection and Control

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 1235-1248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita D. Barber ◽  
Brian S. Caffo ◽  
James J. Pekar ◽  
Stewart H. Mostofsky
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Response Selection ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Control Functions ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
And Control ◽  
Inferior Frontal Junction

Inhibitory control commonly recruits a number of frontal regions: pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), frontal eye fields (FEFs), and right-lateralized posterior inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), dorsal anterior insula (DAI), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and inferior frontal junction (IFJ). These regions may directly implement inhibitory motor control or may be more generally involved in executive control functions. Two go/no-go tasks were used to distinguish regions specifically recruited for inhibition from those that additionally show increased activity with working memory demand. The pre-SMA and IFG were recruited for inhibition in both tasks and did not have greater activation for working memory demand on no-go trials, consistent with a role in inhibitory control. Activation in pre-SMA also responded to response selection demand and was increased with working memory on go trials specifically. The bilateral FEF and right DAI were commonly active for no-go trials. The FEF was also recruited to a greater degree with working memory demand on go trials and may bias top–down information when stimulus–response mappings change. The DAI, additionally responded to increased working memory demand on both go and no-go trials and may be involved in accessing sustained task information, alerting, or autonomic changes when cognitive demands increase. DLPFC activation was consistent with a role in working memory retrieval on both go and no-go trials. The inferior frontal junction, on the other hand, had greater activation with working memory specifically for no-go trials and may detect salient stimuli when the task requires frequent updating of working memory representations.

Storage and control of working memory in elementary school children

2011 ◽  
Vol 75 (0) ◽  
pp. 1AM062-1AM062
Author(s):  
Hiroyuki TSUBOMI ◽  
Katsumi WATANABE
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Elementary School ◽  
School Children ◽  
Elementary School Children ◽  
And Control

scholarly journals Intervention for executive functions in attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder

2015 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Menezes ◽  
Natália Martins Dias ◽  
Bruna Tonietti Trevisan ◽  
Luiz Renato R. Carreiro ◽  
Alessandra Gotuzo Seabra
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Attention Deficit ◽  
Intelligence Quotient ◽  
Block Design ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Inattention And Hyperactivity ◽  
And Control ◽  
Weekly Group

This study aimed to investigate if an executive functions (EF) intervention could promote these skills in individuals with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Eighteen children and adolescents, 7-13 years old, divided into experimental (EG, N = 8) and control (CG, N = 10) groups, were assessed in the Block Design and Vocabulary subtests of the WISC III and seven tests of EF. Parents answered two scales, measuring EF and inattention and hyperactivity signs. EG children participated in a program to promote EF in twice-weekly group sessions of one hour each. After 8 months of intervention, groups were assessed again. ANCOVA, controlling for age, intelligence quotient and pretest performance, revealed gains in attention/inhibition and auditory working memory measures for the EG. No effect was found for scales or measures of more complex EF. Results are not conclusive, but they illustrate some promising data about EF interventions in children and adolescents with ADHD.

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