Verbal Working Memory Impairment in Schizophrenia Patients and Their First-Degree Relatives: Evidence From the Digit Span Task

AbstractObjective:Previous research in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) suggests that visual episodic memory impairment may emerge before analogous verbal episodic memory impairment. The current study examined working memory (WM) test performance in MCI to assess whether patients present with greater visual versus verbal WM impairment. WM performance was also assessed in relation to hippocampal occupancy (HO), a ratio of hippocampal volume to ventricular dilation adjusted for demographic variables and intracranial volume.Methods:Jak et al. (2009) (The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 17, 368–375) and Edmonds, Delano-Wood, Galasko, Salmon, & Bondi (2015) (Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 47(1), 231–242) criteria classify patients into four groups: little to no cognitive impairment (non-MCI); subtle cognitive impairment (SCI); amnestic MCI (aMCI); and a combined mixed/dysexecutive MCI (mixed/dys MCI). WM was assessed using co-normed Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV) Digit Span Backwards and Wechsler Memory Scale-IV (WMS-IV) Symbol Span Z-scores.Results:Between-group analyses found worse WMS-IV Symbol Span and WAIS-IV Digit Span Backwards performance for mixed/dys MCI compared to non-MCI patients. Within-group analyses found no differences for non-MCI patients; however, all other groups scored lower on WMS-IV Symbol Span than WAIS-IV Digit Span Backwards. Regression analysis with HO as the dependent variable was statistically significant for WMS-IV Symbol Span performance. WAIS-IV Digit Span Backwards performance failed to reach statistical significance.Conclusions:Worse WMS-IV Symbol Span performance was observed in patient groups with measurable neuropsychological impairment and better WMS-IV Symbol Span performance was associated with higher HO ratios. These results suggest that visual WM may be particularly sensitive to emergent illness compared to analogous verbal WM tests.

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Performance-Evaluation Threat Does Not Adversely Affect Verbal Working Memory in High Test-Anxious Persons

Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology ◽

10.1891/1945-8959.13.1.120 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 120-136 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

David W. Putwain ◽

Jawad Shah ◽

Rebecca Lewis

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Performance Evaluation ◽

Effortful Control ◽

Digit Span ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Span Task ◽

High Threat ◽

High Test

In two studies, we set out to examine whether the verbal working memory of high and low test-anxious students differed under performance-evaluative threat. In Study 1, 84 schoolchildren completed a backward digit span task under threat or no-threat conditions. In Study 2, 71 schoolchildren completed a backward digit span task in both threat and no-threat conditions. Results showed that the verbal working memory capacity of highly test-anxious students in Study 1 did not change under low or high threat conditions. In Study 2, the verbal working memory capacity of highly test-anxious students decreased under performance-evaluative threat when this condition was taken first but increased when this condition was taken second. To account for the effects of performance-evaluative threat, it is necessary to consider how increased effortful control may compensate for anxiety-induced reduced efficiency when tasks are not timed.

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The Measurement of Verbal Working Memory Capacity and Its Relation to Reading Comprehension

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A ◽

10.1080/713755607 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 49 (1) ◽

pp. 51-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 139

Author(s):

Gloria S. Waters ◽

David Caplan

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Reading Comprehension ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Digit Span ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Span Task ◽

Word Recall ◽

Reading Span ◽

Visual Spatial ◽

Span Tasks

Ninety-four subjects were tested on the Daneman and Carpenter (1980) reading span task, four versions of a related sentence span task in which reaction times and accuracy on sentence processing were measured along with sentence-final word recall, two number generation tasks designed to test working memory, digit span, and two shape-generation tasks designed to measure visual-spatial working memory. Forty-four subjects were retested on a subset of these measures at a 3-month interval. All subjects were tested on standard vocabulary and reading tests. Correlational analyses showed better internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the sentence span tasks than of the Daneman-Carpenter reading span task. Factor analysis showed no factor that could be related to a central verbal working memory; rotated factors suggested groupings of tests into factors that correspond to digit related tasks, spatial tasks, sentence processing in sentence span tasks, and recall in sentence span tasks. Correlational analyses and regression analyses showed that the sentence processing component of the sentence span tasks was the best predictor of performance on the reading test, with a small independent contribution of the recall component. The results suggest that sentence span tasks are unreliable unless measurements are made of both their sentence processing and recall components, and that the predictive value of these tasks for reading comprehension abilities lies in the overlap of operations rather than in limitations in verbal working memory that apply to both.

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Regular and Irregular Inflection in Different Groups of Bilingual Children and the Role of Verbal Short-Term and Verbal Working Memory

Languages ◽

10.3390/languages6010056 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 56

Author(s):

Elma Blom ◽

Evelyn Bosma ◽

Wilbert Heeringa

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Parental Education ◽

Digit Span ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Bilingual Children ◽

Inflectional Morphology ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Older Children ◽

Short Term ◽

Linguistic Distance

Bilingual children often experience difficulties with inflectional morphology. The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate how regularity of inflection in combination with verbal short-term and working memory (VSTM, VWM) influences bilingual children’s performance. Data from 231 typically developing five- to eight-year-old children were analyzed: Dutch monolingual children (N = 45), Frisian-Dutch bilingual children (N = 106), Turkish-Dutch bilingual children (N = 31), Tarifit-Dutch bilingual children (N = 38) and Arabic-Dutch bilingual children (N = 11). Inflection was measured with an expressive morphology task. VSTM and VWM were measured with a Forward and Backward Digit Span task, respectively. The results showed that, overall, children performed more accurately at regular than irregular forms, with the smallest gap between regulars and irregulars for monolinguals. Furthermore, this gap was smaller for older children and children who scored better on a non-verbal intelligence measure. In bilingual children, higher accuracy at using (irregular) inflection was predicted by a smaller cross-linguistic distance, a larger amount of Dutch at home, and a higher level of parental education. Finally, children with better VSTM, but not VWM, were more accurate at using regular and irregular inflection.

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Verbal Working Memory Impairment in Patients With Current Episode of Unipolar Major Depressive Disorder and in Remission

Clinical Neuropharmacology ◽

10.1097/wnf.0b013e3181b130a0 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 32 (6) ◽

pp. 346-347 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Yasuhiro Kaneda

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Major Depressive Disorder ◽

Depressive Disorder ◽

Memory Impairment ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Major Depressive

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Why expressive suppression does not pay? Cognitive costs of negative emotion suppression: The mediating role of subjective tense-arousal

Polish Psychological Bulletin ◽

10.1515/ppb-2015-0041 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 46 (3) ◽

pp. 336-349 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dorota Szczygieł ◽

Tomasz Maruszewski

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Problem Solving ◽

Negative Emotion ◽

Digit Span ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Span Task ◽

Expressive Suppression ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Negative Effect ◽

Problem Solving Task

Abstract The aim of this paper was to contribute to a broader understanding of the cognitive consequences of expressive suppression. Specifically, we examined whether the deteriorating effect of expressive suppression on cognitive functioning is caused by tense arousal enhanced by suppression. Two experiments were performed in order to test this prediction. In both studies we tested the effect of expressive suppression on working memory, as measured with a backwards digit-span task (Study 1, N = 43) and anagram problem-solving task (Study 2, N = 60). In addition, in Study 2 we tested whether expressive suppression degrades memory of the events that emerged during the period of expressive suppression. Both studies were conducted in a similar design: Participants watched a film clip which evoked negative emotions (i.e. disgust in Study 1 and a combination of sadness and anxiety in Study 2) under the instruction to suppress those negative emotions or (in the control condition) to simply watch the film. The results of these experiments lead to three conclusions. First, the results reveal that expressive suppression degrades memory of the events that emerged during the period of expressive suppression and leads to poorer performance on working memory tasks, as measured with a backwards digit-span task and anagram problem-solving task. Second, the results indicate that expressive suppression leads to a significant increase in subjective tense arousal. Third, the results support our prediction that expressive suppression decreases cognitive performance through its effects on subjective tense arousal. The results of the Study 1 show that tense arousal activated during expressive suppression of disgust fully mediates the negative effect of suppression on working memory as measured with a backwards digit-span task. The results of Study 2 reveal that subjective tense arousal elicited while suppressing sadness and anxiety mediates both the effect of suppression on working memory - as measured with the anagram task - and memory of the events that occurred during the period of suppression.

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Sex-Related Differences in White Matter Asymmetry and Its Implications for Verbal Working Memory in Psychosis High-Risk State

Frontiers in Psychiatry ◽

10.3389/fpsyt.2021.686967 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Saskia Steinmann ◽

Amanda E. Lyall ◽

Mina Langhein ◽

Felix L. Nägele ◽

Jonas Rauh ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Sexual Dimorphism ◽

White Matter ◽

High Risk ◽

Unscented Kalman Filter ◽

Digit Span ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Related Area ◽

Laterality Index ◽

The Brain

Objective: Sexual dimorphism has been investigated in schizophrenia, although sex-specific differences among individuals who are at clinical high-risk (CHR) for developing psychosis have been inconclusive. This study aims to characterize sexual dimorphism of language areas in the brain by investigating the asymmetry of four white matter tracts relevant to verbal working memory in CHR patients compared to healthy controls (HC). HC typically show a leftward asymmetry of these tracts. Moreover, structural abnormalities in asymmetry and verbal working memory dysfunctions have been associated with neurodevelopmental abnormalities and are considered core features of schizophrenia.Methods: Twenty-nine subjects with CHR (17 female/12 male) for developing psychosis and twenty-one HC (11 female/10 male) matched for age, sex, and education were included in the study. Two-tensor unscented Kalman filter tractography, followed by an automated, atlas-guided fiber clustering approach, were used to identify four fiber tracts related to verbal working memory: the superior longitudinal fasciculi (SLF) I, II and III, and the superior occipitofrontal fasciculus (SOFF). Using fractional anisotropy (FA) of tissue as the primary measure, we calculated the laterality index for each tract.Results: There was a significantly greater right>left asymmetry of the SLF-III in CHR females compared to HC females, but no hemispheric difference between CHR vs. HC males. Moreover, the laterality index of SLF-III for CHR females correlated negatively with Backward Digit Span performance, suggesting a greater rightward asymmetry was associated with poorer working memory functioning.Conclusion: This study suggests increased rightward asymmetry of the SLF-III in CHR females. This finding of sexual dimorphism in white matter asymmetry in a language-related area of the brain in CHR highlights the need for a deeper understanding of the role of sex in the high-risk state. Future work investigating early sex-specific pathophysiological mechanisms, may lead to the development of novel personalized treatment strategies aimed at preventing transition to a more chronic and difficult-to-treat disorder.

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Working Memory Impairment in Euthymic State of Bipolar Disorder

Journal of Psychiatrists Association of Nepal ◽

10.3126/jpan.v8i1.26337 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 50-54

Author(s):

A Jha ◽

D Joshi ◽

P Kattel ◽

P Koirala

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Working Memory ◽

Memory Impairment ◽

Digit Span ◽

Case Group ◽

Clinical Variables ◽

Digit Span Test ◽

Span Test ◽

The Mean ◽

Bipolar Patients

Introduction: Cognitive deficits in bipolar disorders persist after the subsidence of active symptoms. This study was carried out to assess the working memory of patients with bipolar disorder in euthymic state. Material And Method: Forty euthymic bipolar patients attending a tertiary care mental hospital with equal number of matched controls in terms of age, sex and education were included in the study. Working memory assessments was done using WAIS-III digit span subtest. Results: The mean of total digit span test for case group was 8.48±2.04 similarly it was 10.33±2.32 for the controls. The result showed that the mean digit span of cases and control groups are significantly different (p value of < 0.01). The Pearsons correlation between the clinical variables and working memory test in euthymic bipolar patients (case group) was found that the total score for digit span test was negatively correlated with all other clinical variables However, this correlation was found to be non-significant. Conclusion: The working memory impairment persists in remitted bipolar disorder patients and this may represent underlying trait abnormality not the state abnormality.

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Decreased processing speed might account for working memory span deficit in schizophrenia, and might mediate the associations between working memory span and clinical symptoms

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2014.02.009 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 29 (8) ◽

pp. 473-478 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

G. Brébion ◽

C. Stephan-Otto ◽

E. Huerta-Ramos ◽

J. Usall ◽

M. Perez del Olmo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Processing Speed ◽

Memory Impairment ◽

Negative Symptoms ◽

Memory Span ◽

Clinical Symptoms ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Motor Speed ◽

Speed Measure ◽

Cognitive Speed

AbstractObjectiveVerbal working memory span is decreased in patients with schizophrenia, and this might contribute to impairment in higher cognitive functions as well as to the formation of certain clinical symptoms. Processing speed has been identified as a crucial factor in cognitive efficiency in this population. We tested the hypothesis that decreased processing speed underlies the verbal working memory deficit in patients and mediates the associations between working memory span and clinical symptoms.MethodForty-nine schizophrenia inpatients recruited from units for chronic and acute patients, and forty-five healthy participants, were involved in the study. Verbal working memory span was assessed by means of the letter-number span. The Digit Copy test was used to assess motor speed, and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test to assess cognitive speed.ResultsThe working memory span was significantly impaired in patients (F(1,90) = 4.6, P < 0.05). However, the group difference was eliminated when either the motor or the cognitive speed measure was controlled (F(1,89) = 0.03, P = 0.86, and F(1,89) = 0.03, P = 0.88). In the patient group, working memory span was significantly correlated with negative symptoms (r = –0.52, P < 0.0001) and thought disorganisation (r = –0.34, P < 0.025) scores. Regression analyses showed that the association with negative symptoms was no longer significant when the motor speed measure was controlled (β = –0.12, P = 0.20), while the association with thought disorganisation was no longer significant when the cognitive speed measure was controlled (β = –0.10, P = 0.26).ConclusionsDecrement in motor and cognitive speed plays a significant role in both the verbal working memory impairment observed in patients and the associations between verbal working memory impairment and clinical symptoms.

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