scholarly journals Dissociable Roles for Working Memory in Sensorimotor Learning

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel D. McDougle ◽  
Jordan A. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Specific Model ◽  
Sensorimotor Learning ◽  
Preparation Time ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Discrete Response ◽  
Memory Representations

ABSTRACTThe computations underlying cognitive strategies in sensorimotor learning are poorly understood. Here we investigate such strategies in a sensorimotor transformation task. We show that strategies assume two forms, reflecting distinct working memory representations: discrete response caching of stimulus-response contingencies (e.g., look-up table; RC), and time-consuming parametric computations (e.g. mental rotation; MR). Subjects’ reaction times and errors suggest that both strategies are employed during learning, and trade off based on the progress of learning and the complexity of the task. Experiments using pressured preparation time support these working memory mechanisms: In discrete RC, time pressure elicits bimodal distributions of movements, in agreement with cached responses; in parametric MR, time pressure elicits a shifting distribution producing intermediate movements between visual targets and distal goals, consistent with analog re-computing of a movement plan. These results provide a specific model of working memory contributions to motor learning.

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.

The Nature of Task Set Representations in Working Memory

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 1950-1961 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsushi Kikumoto ◽  
Ulrich Mayr
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Set Size ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Task Sets ◽  
Limited Process

Selection and preparation of action plans (task sets) is often assumed to occur in working memory (WM). Yet, the absence of consistent evidence that WM capacity and task selection efficiency is correlated raises questions about the functional relationship between these two aspects of executive control. We used the EEG-derived contralateral delay activity (CDA) to index the WM load of task sets. In Experiment 1, we found a CDA set size effect (2 vs. 4 stimulus–response [S-R] rules) for high-WM, but not for low-WM, individuals when S-R sets were novel. In contrast, when only four task sets were presented throughout the experiment, we observed a sustained yet set size-independent use of WM for high-WM participants. Moreover, Experiment 2 showed an increase of the CDA in situations with task conflict, and this effect was larger the more that participants experienced RT conflict effects. Combined, these results indicate that even highly familiar S-R settings are maintained in WM, albeit in a compressed manner, presumably through cues to long-term memory representations. Finally, participants with low-WM capacity represented even familiar tasks in a load-dependent manner, suggesting that the establishment of effective retrieval structures itself is a capacity-limited process.

Preparation Time and Response Complexity Effects on Stutterers’ and Nonstutterers’ Acoustic LRT

1991 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Dembowski ◽  
Ben C. Watson
Keyword(s):  
Stimulus Condition ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Response Type ◽  
Response Preparation ◽  
Preparation Time ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Motor Initiation ◽  
Do So

Nonstutterers’, mild stutterers’, and severe stutterers’ acoustic laryngeal reaction times (LRTs) were recorded for isolated vowels and nonpropositional VCV responses in different stimulus conditions governing response preparation. In all stimulus-response conditions severe stutterers produced the longest LRTs, followed in turn by mild stutterers and nonstutterers. The three groups significantly differed from one another in most conditions, but the magnitude of difference between mild and severe stutterers was notably greater than the difference between mild stutterers and nonstutterers. LRT changes as a function of stimulus condition showed that, in general, nonstutterers were best able to use a preparation-facilitating stimulus condition to reduce LRT, and severe stutterers least able to do so. LRT changes as a function of response complexity showed that only nonstutterers produced statistically significant within-group differences. Patterns of LRT change as a combined function of group, stimulus condition, and response type suggest a complex relationship between stutterer severity, preparation time, and type of response complexity. Results illustrate aspects of Goldberg’s (1985) model of preparation processes, and support hypotheses that stutterer subgroups show differential preparation deficits along with high motor initiation variability.

Reaction Times to Consecutive Automation Failures

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (8) ◽  
pp. 1248-1261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meike Jipp
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Considerable Variability ◽  
Selection Strategies ◽  
And Training

Objective: This study explored whether working memory and sustained attention influence cognitive lock-up, which is a delay in the response to consecutive automation failures. Background: Previous research has demonstrated that the information that automation provides about failures and the time pressure that is associated with a task influence cognitive lock-up. Previous research has also demonstrated considerable variability in cognitive lock-up between participants. This is why individual differences might influence cognitive lock-up. The present study tested whether working memory—including flexibility in executive functioning—and sustained attention might be crucial in this regard. Method: Eighty-five participants were asked to monitor automated aircraft functions. The experimental manipulation consisted of whether or not an initial automation failure was followed by a consecutive failure. Reaction times to the failures were recorded. Participants’ working-memory and sustained-attention abilities were assessed with standardized tests. Results: As expected, participants’ reactions to consecutive failures were slower than their reactions to initial failures. In addition, working-memory and sustained-attention abilities enhanced the speed with which participants reacted to failures, more so with regard to consecutive than to initial failures. Conclusion: The findings highlight that operators with better working memory and sustained attention have small advantages when initial failures occur, but their advantages increase across consecutive failures. Application: The results stress the need to consider personnel selection strategies to mitigate cognitive lock-up in general and training procedures to enhance the performance of low ability operators.

Skipping Breakfast Affects the Early Steps of Cognitive Processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-118
Author(s):  
Andrés Antonio González-Garrido ◽  
Jacobo José Brofman-Epelbaum ◽  
Fabiola Reveca Gómez-Velázquez ◽  
Sebastián Agustín Balart-Sánchez ◽  
Julieta Ramos-Loyo
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Brain Functioning ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Electrical Brain Activity ◽  
Skipping Breakfast

Abstract. It has been generally accepted that skipping breakfast adversely affects cognition, mainly disturbing the attentional processes. However, the effects of short-term fasting upon brain functioning are still unclear. We aimed to evaluate the effect of skipping breakfast on cognitive processing by studying the electrical brain activity of young healthy individuals while performing several working memory tasks. Accordingly, the behavioral results and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) of 20 healthy university students (10 males) were obtained and compared through analysis of variances (ANOVAs), during the performance of three n-back working memory (WM) tasks in two morning sessions on both normal (after breakfast) and 12-hour fasting conditions. Significantly fewer correct responses were achieved during fasting, mainly affecting the higher WM load task. In addition, there were prolonged reaction times with increased task difficulty, regardless of breakfast intake. ERP showed a significant voltage decrement for N200 and P300 during fasting, while the amplitude of P200 notably increased. The results suggest skipping breakfast disturbs earlier cognitive processing steps, particularly attention allocation, early decoding in working memory, and stimulus evaluation, and this effect increases with task difficulty.

Transient Working Memory Representations That Govern Intentional S-R Translation

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nachshon Meiran ◽  
Yoav Kessler ◽  
Oshrit Cohen-Kdoshai ◽  
Ravid Elenbogen
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Representations

Sensory evidence integration and action initiation occur in parallel during perceptual decisions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lluís Hernández-Navarro ◽  
Ainhoa Hermoso-Mendizabal ◽  
Daniel Duque ◽  
Alexandre Hyafil ◽  
Jaime de la Rocha
Keyword(s):  
Time Pressure ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Evidence Accumulation ◽  
Action Preparation ◽  
Action Model ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Evidence Integration ◽  
Action Initiation

It is commonly assumed that, during perceptual decisions, the brain integrates stimulus evidence until reaching a decision, and then performs the response. There are conditions, however (e.g. time pressure), in which the initiation of the response must be prepared in anticipation of the stimulus presentation. It is therefore not clear when the timing and the choice of perceptual responses depend exclusively on evidence accumulation, or when preparatory motor signals may interfere with this process. Here, we find that, in a free reaction time auditory discrimination task in rats, the timing of fast responses does not depend on the stimulus, although the choices do, suggesting a decoupling of the mechanisms of action initiation and choice selection. This behavior is captured by a novel model, the Parallel Sensory Integration and Action Model (PSIAM), in which response execution is triggered whenever one of two processes, Action Initiation or Evidence Accumulation, reaches a bound, while choice category is always set by the latter. Based on this separation, the model accurately predicts the distribution of reaction times when the stimulus is omitted, advanced or delayed. Furthermore, we show that changes in Action Initiation mediates both post-error slowing and a gradual slowing of the responses within each session. Overall, these results extend the standard models of perceptual decision-making, and shed a new light on the interaction between action preparation and evidence accumulation.

Attentional Guidance from Activated and Inhibitory States of Working Memory Representations

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (9) ◽  
pp. 1089
Author(s):  
Bao ZHANG ◽  
Jiaying SHAO ◽  
Cenlou HU ◽  
Sai Huang
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Attentional Guidance ◽  
Memory Representations
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document