scholarly journals Mechanisms Underlying Age- and Performance-related Differences in Working Memory

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 1298-1314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirk R. Daffner ◽  
Hyemi Chong ◽  
Xue Sun ◽  
Elise C. Tarbi ◽  
Jenna L. Riis ◽  
...  

This study took advantage of the subsecond temporal resolution of ERPs to investigate mechanisms underlying age- and performance-related differences in working memory. Young and old subjects participated in a verbal n-back task with three levels of difficulty. Each group was divided into high and low performers based on accuracy under the 2-back condition. Both old subjects and low-performing young subjects exhibited impairments in preliminary mismatch/match detection operations (indexed by the anterior N2 component). This may have undermined the quality of information available for the subsequent decision-making process (indexed by the P3 component), necessitating the appropriation of more resources. Additional anterior and right hemisphere activity was recruited by old subjects. Neural efficiency and the capacity to allocate more resources to decision-making differed between high and low performers in both age groups. Under low demand conditions, high performers executed the task utilizing fewer resources than low performers (indexed by the P3 amplitude). As task requirements increased, high-performing young and old subjects were able to appropriate additional resources to decision-making, whereas their low-performing counterparts allocated fewer resources. Higher task demands increased utilization of processing capacity for operations other than decision-making (e.g., sustained attention) that depend upon a shared pool of limited resources. As demands increased, all groups allocated additional resources to the process of sustaining attention (indexed by the posterior slow wave). Demands appeared to have exceeded capacity in low performers, leading to a reduction of resources available to the decision-making process, which likely contributed to a decline in performance.

Author(s):  
Dimitrios A. Tsamboulas ◽  
Seraphim Kapros

A methodological framework with models is provided, which correlates behavioral and perceptual issues related to the use of intermodal transportation with the commonly used physical and economic criteria in modal choice approaches. With factor analysis, key variables and common decision patterns related to the choice of intermodal transportation are identified. Factor analysis is applied to capture the actors’ perception of the importance of variables affecting the decision-making process. With multiple regression analysis, models simulating the decision-making process are developed for actor groups, utilizing actual quantitative data of cost and performance of intermodal transportation services. Three decision patterns and the respective actor groups’ profiles are identified. The first group consists of actors who decide almost exclusively according to the cost criterion; these actors are intensive users of intermodal transportation. The second group has actors who decide according to both quality and cost criteria; using intermodal transportation by this actor group constitutes a minor portion of its total transport volumes. The third group consists of actors who are influenced in their decisions by specific logistics needs, beyond the physical transportation activity itself. The offer of third-party end-haul operations or refrigerated storage areas is an example of such services, necessitating specific logistic support. For each actor group a model is developed, which associates values of the quantitative variables affecting the decision-making process with the share of intermodal transportation in the total volume of transport handled by the group. The application of the model defines the extent to which changes in the values of relevant variables may shift a decision toward the use of intermodal transportation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 198
Author(s):  
Mimi Lord

University endowments with broad portfolio diversification have been correlated with performance, but committees’ decision-making process has received relatively little attention. This study is unique in postulating that the committee’s learning commitment and open-mindedness are significant contributors to a decision process that is based on the principles of Modern Portfolio Theory (or, simply, Portfolio Theory). The use of Portfolio Theory as a decision-making framework leads to greater portfolio diversification, which, in turn, leads to higher risk-adjusted returns. This study also demonstrates that greater committee expertise across multiple asset classes contributes to more diversified portfolios.


2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (5) ◽  
pp. 1045-1056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tad T Brunyé ◽  
Shaina B Martis ◽  
Holly A Taylor

Planning routes from maps involves perceiving the symbolic environment, identifying alternate routes and applying explicit strategies and implicit heuristics to select an option. Two implicit heuristics have received considerable attention, the southern route preference and initial segment strategy. This study tested a prediction from decision-making theory that increasing cognitive load during route planning will increase reliance on these heuristics. In two experiments, participants planned routes while under conditions of minimal (0-back) or high (2-back) working memory load. In Experiment 1, we examined how memory load impacts the southern route heuristic. In Experiment 2, we examined how memory load impacts the initial segment heuristic. Results replicated earlier results demonstrating a southern route preference (Experiment 1) and initial segment strategy (Experiment 2) and further demonstrated that evidence for heuristic reliance is more likely under conditions of concurrent working memory load. Furthermore, the extent to which participants maintained efficient route selection latencies in the 2-back condition predicted the magnitude of this effect. Together, results demonstrate that working memory load increases the application of heuristics during spatial decision making, particularly when participants attempt to maintain quick decisions while managing concurrent task demands.


Author(s):  
Lacy S. Brown ◽  
Karen K. Dixon ◽  
H. Gene Hawkins

Research suggests that successfully implemented access management programs can reduce delay, increase capacity, and improve safety performance on single roadway segments and across larger roadway networks. However, quantifying how access management, as a single entity, might affect a transportation system is difficult because countless combinations of strategies can be implemented. Consequently, large-scale access management decisions are often based on subjective assessments and the engineering judgment of practitioners and decision makers. There is a need for a standard, objective, and quantifiable approach to evaluating the impacts and performance of large-scale access management applications. This paper presents a quantitative method for evaluating an access management project on factors including operations; safety; impacts to adjacent land uses; and bicycle, pedestrian, and transit facilities. The result is an access management rating (AMR), a numerical value that allows for straightforward comparisons between corridors or between design alternatives on the same corridor. The proposed methodology eliminates the subjective component of the decision-making process while maintaining enough flexibility to be tailored to a specific agency’s needs and priorities. By improving the consistency of access management evaluations, the decision-making process will be streamlined, funding will be allocated to projects with the greatest needs and opportunities for improvement, and the entire transportation industry will benefit from improved safety, operations, and land use development.


1987 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Wisdom ◽  
Dennis Patzig

The success of merit systems is closely linked to the establishment of key expectations in the minds of employees concerning the relationship between pay and performance. Results of a national survey suggest that different expectations are being formed in the public versus the private sectors. The role organizational climate plays in this finding and in the individual employee's decision making process regarding effort expended at work is modeled and discussed. Suggestions for fostering merit success are also addressed.


2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-173
Author(s):  
Eun Jae Ho

"Even the best governance and public administration systems can fail because of lack of accountability. This paper reviews the factors likely to affect the accountability of the collaborative governance system and suggests concrete measures to ensure accountability. As an empirical case of collaborative governance, 300 Korean community centers were sampled by region and by size. Exploratory Factor Analysis was conducted to identify the determinant factors for the accountability of collaborative governance. This analysis found the following factors to be the most important in ensuring accountability in a collaborative governance system: clarity of laws and regulations, representativeness of participants, transparency and democracy in the decision-making process, and performance management and incentive systems. The analysis also found that it is necessary to conceive different performance management and incentive systems for public and civil groups."


Author(s):  
Wiboon Kittilaksanawong

Managers in organizations are typically faced with changing and ambiguous signals in their operating environment. Based on interpretation of these signals, managers react with appropriate strategies. This chapter presents critical organizational issues in decision making process and its outcomes, including the manager's selective attention, interpretation, and reasoning of uncertain operating environment. In particular, the chapter first discusses why individual managers in the same organization who are faced with same environmental changes may differently interpret threat and opportunity aspects of these changes. Second, the chapter links outcomes of such interpretation to investigate different types of organizational actions. Third, the chapter drives into a greater depth to explore how the manager's experience and characteristics of the environment affect forms of reasoning in interpretation process and performance of subsequent organizational actions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 103 (9) ◽  
pp. 853-858 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deirdre M Twomey ◽  
Conal Wrigley ◽  
Caroline Ahearne ◽  
Raegan Murphy ◽  
Michelle De Haan ◽  
...  

ObjectiveTo explore the feasibility of using a touch screen assessment tool to measure cognitive capacity in toddlers.Design112 typically developing children with a median age of 31 months (IQR: 26–34) interacted with a touch screen cognitive assessment tool. We examined the sensitivity of the tool to age-related changes in cognition by comparing the number of items completed, speed of task completion and accuracy in two age groups; 24–29 months versus 30–36 months.ResultsChildren aged 30–36 months completed more tasks (median: 18, IQR: 18–18) than those aged 24–29 months (median: 17, IQR: 15–18). Older children also completed two of the three working memory tasks and an object permanence task faster than their younger peers. Children became faster at completing the working memory items with each exposure and registered similar completion times on the hidden object retrieval items, despite task demands being twofold on the second exposure. A novel item required children to integrate what they had learnt on preceding items. The older group was more likely to complete this item and to do so faster than the younger group.ConclusionsChildren as young as 24 months can complete items requiring cognitive engagement on a touch screen device, with no verbal instruction and minimal child–administrator interaction. This paves the way for using touch screen technology for language and administrator independent developmental assessment in toddlers.


2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 1625-1638 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.-F. Chen ◽  
Y.-L. Chien ◽  
C.-T. Wu ◽  
C.-Y. Shang ◽  
Y.-Y. Wu ◽  
...  

BackgroundImpaired executive function (EF) is suggested to be one of the core features in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD); however, little is known about whether the extent of worse EF in ASD than typically developing (TD) controls is age-dependent. We used age-stratified analysis to reveal this issue.MethodWe assessed 111 youths with ASD (aged 12.5 ± 2.8 years, male 94.6%) and 114 age-, and sex-matched TD controls with Digit Span and four EF tasks of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB): Spatial Span (SSP), Spatial Working Memory (SWM), Stockings of Cambridge (SOC), and Intradimensional/Extradimensional Shift Test (I/ED).ResultsCompared to TD controls, youths with ASD performed poorer on the Digit Span, SWM, SOC, and I/ED tasks. The performance of all the tasks improved with age for both groups. Age-stratified analyses were conducted due to significant age × group interactions in visuospatial planning (SOC) and set-shifting (I/ED) and showed that poorer performance on these two tasks in ASD than TD controls was found only in the child (aged 8–12 years) rather than the adolescent (aged 13–18 years) group. By contrast, youths with ASD had impaired working memory, regardless of age. The increased magnitude of group difference in visuospatial planning (SOC) with increased task demands differed between the two age groups but no age moderating effect on spatial working memory.ConclusionsOur findings support deficits in visuospatial working memory and planning in youths with ASD; however, worse performance in set-shifting may only be demonstrated in children with ASD.


2018 ◽  
pp. 156-180
Author(s):  
Abdul Rauf ◽  
Muhammad Kashif Khurshid ◽  
Muhammad Afzal

This study investigates the behavioral factors that impact on equity investors’ investment decision making process together with investment performance at Pakistan’s Stock Markets. As in Pakistan, limited work is done in behavioral finance. This study is considered to add significantly to the advancement of this field in Pakistan. The study starts with the previous theories in behavioral finance. So, based on those theories, researchers develop hypotheses. After that, these hypotheses are tested through the questionnaires which are distributed to individual equity investors at Pakistan’s Stock Exchanges. Then the collected data are analyzed by using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Cronbach’s Alpha, Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) tests. The results show that there are two mainly behavioral factors: Heuristic Theory (Overconfidence Bias) and Prospect Theory (Loss Aversion Bias), affecting the investment decisions making process and performance of individual equity investors. Most of the sub-variables of both behavioral biases directly contain positive impact. But, when the mediating variable: decision making process was used; these biases contain high positive impact on the performance of equity investors which concludes the better decision-making ability of investors help them to improve their performance.


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