scholarly journals Cognitive processes contributing to visual working memory performance in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kimberly Bodner
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Real World ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Adolescents And Adults ◽  
Visual Filtering

Previous investigations of working memory performance in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have yielded mixed findings (e.g., Kenworthy, Yerys, Anthony, and Wallace, 2008; Geurts, de Vris, and van den Bergh, 2014). Research examining visual and spatial working memory abilities in older adolescents and adults with ASD specifically is limited. The current study assessed the contribution of working memory capacity, attention, and visual filtering abilities to visual working memory performance in adolescents and adults with and without ASD. Furthermore, the current study examined task performance related to real world report of working memory and attention abilities. Results revealed comparable estimates of visual working memory capacity overall between groups. However, visual working memory performance for individuals with ASD appeared to be more impacted by increases in attention and visual filtering demands. Individuals with ASD allocated their attention differently than non-ASD individuals, and spent less time looking at relevant information. The ASD group had more difficulty filtering distracting information in more challenging conditions. Difficulties on the task did not significantly relate to reported real world working memory or attention abilities. Findings suggest that visual working memory performance is similar between individuals with and without ASD when cognitive demands are low, but individuals with ASD are detrimentally effected when the cognitive load increases (increased attention and visual filtering demands), consistent with previous literature (Kenworthy et al., 2008). Given the complexity of our environments and need to filter visually distracting information, these findings may shed light on ASD-related difficulties in day-to-day functioning and provide a focus for intervention.

Greater Visual Working Memory Capacity for Visually Matched Stimuli When They Are Perceived as Meaningful

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 902-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel E. Asp ◽  
Viola S. Störmer ◽  
Timothy F. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Visual Complexity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Neural Delay ◽  
Meaningful Stimuli

Abstract Almost all models of visual working memory—the cognitive system that holds visual information in an active state—assume it has a fixed capacity: Some models propose a limit of three to four objects, where others propose there is a fixed pool of resources for each basic visual feature. Recent findings, however, suggest that memory performance is improved for real-world objects. What supports these increases in capacity? Here, we test whether the meaningfulness of a stimulus alone influences working memory capacity while controlling for visual complexity and directly assessing the active component of working memory using EEG. Participants remembered ambiguous stimuli that could either be perceived as a face or as meaningless shapes. Participants had higher performance and increased neural delay activity when the memory display consisted of more meaningful stimuli. Critically, by asking participants whether they perceived the stimuli as a face or not, we also show that these increases in visual working memory capacity and recruitment of additional neural resources are because of the subjective perception of the stimulus and thus cannot be driven by physical properties of the stimulus. Broadly, this suggests that the capacity for active storage in visual working memory is not fixed but that more meaningful stimuli recruit additional working memory resources, allowing them to be better remembered.

scholarly journals Atypical development of visual working memory performance in autism spectrum disorder

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Lynn ◽  
Beatriz Luna ◽  
Kirsten O'Hearn
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Visual Feature ◽  
Performance Differences ◽  
Atypical Development

Visual working memory (VWM) typically improves across childhood and adolescence. Yet, it remains unclear whether such improvement occurs in autism (ASD). We measured color, shape, and pattern VWM performance in children (N=49; Mage=11y; 41 males), adolescents (N=46; Mage=15y; 38 males), and adults (N=51; Mage=24y; 47 males) with and without ASD (91% White, 6% Black or multiracial). By adulthood, color VWM accuracy among 4 items was better in the TD group relative to ASD (p2=.039). In childhood, shape VWM RT among 8 items was faster in the TD group relative to ASD (p2=.063). While VWM capacity was intact in ASD, VWM performance differences between ASD and TD may depend on age and visual feature.

Induced Social Power Improves Visual Working Memory

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britt Hadar ◽  
Roy Luria ◽  
Nira Liberman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Low Power ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
High Power ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Filtering Efficiency ◽  
Sense Of Power

The possibility that social power improves working memory relative to conditions of powerlessness has been invoked to explain why manipulations of power improve performance in many cognitive tasks. Yet, whether power facilitates working memory performance has never been tested directly. In three studies, we induced high or low sense of power using the episodic recall task and tested participants’ visual working memory capacity. We found that working memory capacity estimates were higher in the high-power than in the low-power condition in the standard change-detection task (Study 1), in a variation of the task that introduced distractors alongside the targets (Study 2), and in a variation that used real-world objects (Study 3). Studies 2 and 3 also tested whether high power improved working memory relative to low power by enhancing filtering efficiency, but did not find support for this hypothesis. We discuss implications for theories of both power and working memory.

scholarly journals Greater visual working memory capacity for visually-matched stimuli when they are recognized as meaningful

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Asp ◽  
Viola S. Störmer ◽  
Timothy F. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Visual Complexity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Neural Delay ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Fixed Pool

Almost all models of visual working memory assume it has a fixed capacity: some models propose a limit of 3-4 objects, where others propose there is a fixed pool of resources for each basic visual feature. Recent findings, however, suggest that memory performance is improved for real-world objects. What supports these increases in capacity? Here, we test whether the meaningfulness of a stimulus alone influences working memory capacity while controlling for visual complexity and directly assessing the active component of working memory using EEG. Participants remembered ambiguous stimuli that could either be perceived as a face or as meaningless shapes. Participants had higher performance and increased neural delay activity when the memory display consisted of more meaningful stimuli and when they subjectively perceived the stimuli as meaningful. Thus, there are genuine increases in working memory capacity that arise from the subjective perception of the stimulus as meaningful.

scholarly journals Comparing memory capacity across stimuli requires maximally dissimilar foils: Using deep convolutional neural networks to understand visual working memory capacity for real-world objects

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy F. Brady ◽  
Viola S. Störmer
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Convolutional Neural Networks ◽  
Real World ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Cognitive Systems ◽  
Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

The capacity of visual working and visual long-term memory play a critical role in theories of cognitive architecture and the relationship between memory and other cognitive systems. Here, we argue that before asking the question of how capacity varies across different stimuli or what the upper bound of capacity is for a given memory system, it is necessary to establish a methodology that allows a fair comparison between distinct stimulus sets and conditions. One of the most important factors determining performance in a memory task is target/foil dissimilarity. We argue that only by maximizing the dissimilarity of the target and foil in each stimulus set can we provide a fair basis for memory comparisons between stimuli. In the current work we introduce a new way to pick such foils objectively for complex, meaningful real-world objects by using deep convolutional neural networks, and we validate this using both memory tests and similarity metrics. Using this method, we then provide evidence that there is a greater capacity for real-world objects relative to simple colors in visual working memory; critically, we also show that this difference can be reduced or eliminated when non-comparable foils are used, potentially explaining why previous work has not always found such a difference. Our study thus demonstrates that working memory capacity is not fixed capacity but depends critically on the type of information that is remembered, and offers a solution of how to compare memory performance and other cognitive systems across different stimulus sets on common ground.

scholarly journals Knowledge about real-world objects influences visual working memory capacity

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 821
Author(s):  
Ariel Starr ◽  
Mahesh Srinivasan ◽  
Silvia Bunge
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Real World ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity

scholarly journals Transdiagnostic comparison of visual working memory capacity in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine V. Barnes-Scheufler ◽  
Caroline Passow ◽  
Lara Rösler ◽  
Jutta S. Mayer ◽  
Viola Oertel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Effect Size ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Medium Effect ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Small Effect Size ◽  
The Difference

Abstract Background Impaired working memory is a core cognitive deficit in both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Its study might yield crucial insights into the underpinnings of both disorders on the cognitive and neurophysiological level. Visual working memory capacity is a particularly promising construct for such translational studies. However, it has not yet been investigated across the full spectrum of both disorders. The aim of our study was to compare the degree of reductions of visual working memory capacity in patients with bipolar disorder (PBD) and patients with schizophrenia (PSZ) using a paradigm well established in cognitive neuroscience. Methods 62 PBD, 64 PSZ, and 70 healthy controls (HC) completed a canonical visual change detection task. Participants had to encode the color of four circles and indicate after a short delay whether the color of one of the circles had changed or not. We estimated working memory capacity using Pashler’s K. Results Working memory capacity was significantly reduced in both PBD and PSZ compared to HC. We observed a small effect size (r = .202) for the difference between HC and PBD and a medium effect size (r = .370) for the difference between HC and PSZ. Working memory capacity in PSZ was also significantly reduced compared to PBD with a small effect size (r = .201). Thus, PBD showed an intermediate level of impairment. Conclusions These findings provide evidence for a gradient of reduced working memory capacity in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, with PSZ showing the strongest degree of impairment. This underscores the importance of disturbed information processing for both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Our results are compatible with the cognitive manifestation of a neurodevelopmental gradient affecting bipolar disorder to a lesser degree than schizophrenia. They also highlight the relevance of visual working memory capacity for the development of both behavior- and brain-based transdiagnostic biomarkers.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document