Working Memory and Reading: A Life-span Perspective

1994 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda S. Siegel
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Rehearsal Strategies

The relationships among working memory, memory span, and reading skills were studied in 1266 individuals, aged 6-49. They were administered tests of word recognition, pseudoword decoding, reading comprehension, a working memory (listening span) task that required the simultaneous processing of syntax and the recall of linguistic information, and a short-term memory task that required the recall of rhyming or nonrhyming letters presented visually. The results indicated that there is a gradual growth in the development of working memory skills from ages 6 to 19 and a gradual decline after adolescence. The short-term memory task did not show a decline in performance among older individuals. On both of these memory tasks and at most of the age levels, individuals with a reading disability performed at significantly lower levels than individuals with normal reading skills. An important component of the development of reading skills appears to be memory for verbal information. Age-related declines in memory appear to be related to the processing demands of the task, which may affect the degree to which rehearsal strategies are possible within the task.

The Hard Fall Effect

2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noémylle Thomassin ◽  
Corentin Gonthier ◽  
Michel Guerraz ◽  
Jean-Luc Roulin
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Strategy Use ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Simple Task ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Task Conditions ◽  
Better Than

Participants with a high working memory span tend to perform better than low spans in a variety of tasks. However, their performance is paradoxically more impaired when they have to perform two tasks at once, a phenomenon that could be labeled the “hard fall effect.” The present study tested whether this effect exists in a short-term memory task, and investigated the proposal that the effect is due to high spans using efficient facilitative strategies under simple task conditions. Ninety-eight participants performed a spatial short-term memory task under simple and dual task conditions; stimuli presentation times either allowed for the use of complex facilitative strategies or not. High spans outperformed low spans only under simple task conditions when presentation times allowed for the use of facilitative strategies. These results indicate that the hard fall effect exists on a short-term memory task and may be caused by individual differences in strategy use.

scholarly journals Brain hemodynamic response in Examiner–Examinee dyads during spatial short-term memory task: an fNIRS study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Panico ◽  
Stefania De Marco ◽  
Laura Sagliano ◽  
Francesca D’Olimpio ◽  
Dario Grossi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
The Real

AbstractThe Corsi Block-Tapping test (CBT) is a measure of spatial working memory (WM) in clinical practice, requiring an examinee to reproduce sequences of cubes tapped by an examiner. CBT implies complementary behaviors in the examiners and the examinees, as they have to attend a precise turn taking. Previous studies demonstrated that the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) is activated during CBT, but scarce evidence is available on the neural correlates of CBT in the real setting. We assessed PFC activity in dyads of examiner–examinee participants while completing the real version of CBT, during conditions of increasing and exceeding workload. This procedure allowed to investigate whether brain activity in the dyads is coordinated. Results in the examinees showed that PFC activity was higher when the workload approached or reached participants’ spatial WM span, and lower during workload conditions that were largely below or above their span. Interestingly, findings in the examiners paralleled the ones in the examinees, as examiners’ brain activity increased and decreased in a similar way as the examinees’ one. In the examiners, higher left-hemisphere activity was observed suggesting the likely activation of non-spatial WM processes. Data support a bell-shaped relationship between cognitive load and brain activity, and provide original insights on the cognitive processes activated in the examiner during CBT.

Distinction between Visuo-Spatial Short-Term-Memory and Working Memory Span Tasks

2006 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thierry Lecerf ◽  
Jean-Luc Roulin
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Item Difficulty ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Spatial Span ◽  
Span Test ◽  
Span Tasks

Six experiments are presented that examined the constraints underlying performance in two visuo-spatial span tasks. In the Location Span Test (LST), participants have to memorize the cells of a 5×5 matrix containing arrows, while in the Direction Span Test (DST) they have to memorize the cells pointed at by arrows. The main objective was to assess whether both tasks were similarly influenced by experimental factors. Results showed that performance improved with longer encoding time (1-s. vs. 3-s) only for the DST. Maintenance interval (0-s vs. 5-s) and order of item difficulty (ascending vs. descending) have no effect either on the LST or on the DST. Another experiment indicated that the DST is a better predictor of fluid intelligence. These results seem to provide evidence that the LST and the DST relate to different constructs. Implications of these findings for the distinction between short-term and working memory span tasks are discussed.

Memory limits: “Give us an answer!”

2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-151
Author(s):  
John N. Towse
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory

Cowan has written a meticulous and thought-provoking review of the literature on short-term memory. However, reflections on one area of evidence, that of working memory span, shows the extent to which the research debate can be circumscribed by choice of experimental paradigms.

scholarly journals Contribution of underlying processes to improved visuospatial working memory associated with physical activity

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3430
Author(s):  
Qingchun Ji ◽  
Yingying Wang ◽  
Wei Guo ◽  
Chenglin Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Visuospatial Working Memory ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory

Background Working memory is critical for various cognitive processes and can be separated into two stages: short-term memory storage and manipulation processing. Although previous studies have demonstrated that increased physical activity (PA) improves working memory and that males outperform females on visuospatial working memory tasks, few studies have determined the contribution of the two underlying stages to the visuospatial working memory improvement associated with PA. Thus, the aims of the present study were to verify the relationship between physical activity and visuospatial working memory, determine whether one or both stages were affected by PA, and investigate any sex differences. Methods A total of 56 undergraduate students were recruited for this study. Their scores on the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) were used to separate them into either a lower PA (n = 26; IPAQ score ≤3,000 metabolic equivalent [MET]-min/week) or higher PA (n = 30; IPAQ score >3,000 MET-min/week) group. Participants were required to complete three tasks: a visuospatial working memory task, a task that examines the short-term memory storage stage, and a mental rotation task that examines the active manipulation stage. Results Participants in the higher PA group maintained similar accuracy but displayed significantly faster reaction times (RT) than those in the lower PA group on the visuospatial working memory and manipulation tasks. By contrast, no difference was observed between groups on the short-term memory storage task. In addition, no effects of sex were detected. Discussion Our results confirm that PA was positively to visuospatial working memory and that this positive relationship was associated with more rapid cognitive processing during the manipulation stage, with little or no relationship between PA and the memory storage stage of visuospatial working memory.

Changes of Pupil Size and Rehearsal Strategies in a Short-Term Memory Task

1971 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Kahneman ◽  
Patricia Wright
Keyword(s):  
Pupil Size ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Psychological Processes ◽  
Total Recall ◽  
Pupillary Diameter ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Rehearsal Strategies ◽  
Retention Intervals

Twelve subjects learned lists consisting of 3 groups of 4 items each drawn from vocabularies of digits, colour names or boys' names. There were two conditions of recall, total or partial, and two retention intervals, 3 and 7 sec. A view of the function of rehearsal suggests that rehearsal for total recall should be more intense than for partial recall, but only with a brief retention interval. Measurements of pupillary diameter confirm this prediction. Conditions under which pupillary measurements can serve to test theories of psychological processes are discussed.

The Relationship Between Acquisition Rate for Words and Working Memory, Short-Term Memory, and Reading Skills: Aptitude-by-Treatment or Skill-by-Treatment Interaction?

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 182-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew K. Burns ◽  
Katherine Davidson ◽  
Anne F. Zaslofsky ◽  
David C. Parker ◽  
Kathrin E. Maki
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Acquisition Rate ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Treatment Interaction ◽  
The Relationship

The amount of information that students successfully learn and later recall from each intervention session is limited and is called the acquisition rate (AR). Research has consistently supported the effects of modifying intervention set sizes with AR data, but research with AR is in its infancy. The current study compared the relationship between AR while learning words with working memory, short-term memory, and reading skills. Participants were 52 fourth- and fifth-grade students with and without learning disabilities (LDs). Working memory ( r = .34), short-term memory ( r = .41), and word reading skills ( r = .57) all moderately correlated with AR, but word reading skills accounted for 32% of the variance and the other two scores added little unique variance. The corrected correlation coefficients were higher for the word reading with AR than with any other variable and were essentially equal for both groups ( r = .73 for average readers and r = .75 for students with an LD in reading). Thus, the data not only support the validity of making decisions with AR data but also suggest that AR is more consistent with a skill-by-treatment interaction framework than an aptitude-by-treatment interaction approach. Potential applications, directions for future research, and limitations are discussed.

Activation of long-term memory by alpha oscillations in a working-memory task?

2003 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 743-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Klimesch ◽  
Bärbel Schack
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Memory Retention ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Alpha Oscillations ◽  
Basic Hypothesis

We focus on the functional specificity of theta and alpha oscillations and show that theta is related to working memory, whereas alpha is related to semantic long-term memory. Recent studies, however, indicate that alpha oscillations also play an important role during short-term memory retention and retrieval. This latter finding provides support for the basic hypothesis suggested by Ruchkin et al.

Conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) supports core claims of Christiansen and Chater

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary C. Potter
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Rapid Serial Visual Presentation ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Visual Presentation ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Use Of Knowledge

AbstractRapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of words or pictured scenes provides evidence for a large-capacity conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) that momentarily provides rich associated material from long-term memory, permitting rapid chunking (Potter 1993; 2009; 2012). In perception of scenes as well as language comprehension, we make use of knowledge that briefly exceeds the supposed limits of working memory.

Working, Declarative, and Procedural Memory in Children With Developmental Language Disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (12) ◽  
pp. 4162-4178
Author(s):  
Emily Jackson ◽  
Suze Leitão ◽  
Mary Claessen ◽  
Mark Boyes
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Declarative Memory ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Procedural Memory ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Visual Spatial

Purpose Previous research into the working, declarative, and procedural memory systems in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) has yielded inconsistent results. The purpose of this research was to profile these memory systems in children with DLD and their typically developing peers. Method One hundred four 5- to 8-year-old children participated in the study. Fifty had DLD, and 54 were typically developing. Aspects of the working memory system (verbal short-term memory, verbal working memory, and visual–spatial short-term memory) were assessed using a nonword repetition test and subtests from the Working Memory Test Battery for Children. Verbal and visual–spatial declarative memory were measured using the Children's Memory Scale, and an audiovisual serial reaction time task was used to evaluate procedural memory. Results The children with DLD demonstrated significant impairments in verbal short-term and working memory, visual–spatial short-term memory, verbal declarative memory, and procedural memory. However, verbal declarative memory and procedural memory were no longer impaired after controlling for working memory and nonverbal IQ. Declarative memory for visual–spatial information was unimpaired. Conclusions These findings indicate that children with DLD have deficits in the working memory system. While verbal declarative memory and procedural memory also appear to be impaired, these deficits could largely be accounted for by working memory skills. The results have implications for our understanding of the cognitive processes underlying language impairment in the DLD population; however, further investigation of the relationships between the memory systems is required using tasks that measure learning over long-term intervals. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13250180

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