Eye-movements reveal the serial position of the attended item in verbal working memory

AbstractSeveral fMRI studies have shown that the superior cerebellum exhibits load-dependent activations during encoding of letters in a Sternberg verbal working memory (VWM) task. It has been hypothesized that the cerebellum regulates the acquisition of sensory data across all modalities, and thus, that VWM load activations may reflect high- vs low-load differences in sensory acquisition demands. Therefore, increased difficulty in sensory data acquisition should elicit greater activation in the cerebellum. The present fMRI study manipulated sensory acquisition in VWM by presenting visually degraded and non-degraded stimuli with high and low memory loads, thereby identifying load-dependent regions of interest in the cerebellum, and then testing if these regions showed greater activation for degraded stimuli. Results yielded partial support for the sensory acquisition hypothesis in a load-dependent region of the vermis, which showed significantly greater activation for degraded relative to non-degraded stimuli. Because eye movements did not differ for these stimulus types, and degradation-related activations were present after co-varying eye movements, this activation appears to be related to perceptual rather than oculomotor demands. In contrast to the vermis, load-sensitive regions of the cerebellar hemispheres did not show increased activation for degraded stimuli. These findings point to an overall function of association-based prediction that may underlie general cerebellar function, with perceptual prediction of stimuli from partial representations occurring in the vermis, and articulatory prediction occurring in the hemispheres.

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Visual and verbal working memory loads interfere with scene viewing

10.31234/osf.io/wsyz4 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Deborah Cronin ◽

Candace Elise Peacock ◽

John M. Henderson

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Eye Movements ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Verbal Memory ◽

Visual Memory ◽

Memory Load ◽

Memory Task ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Working Memory Load ◽

Scene Viewing

Working memory is thought to be divided into distinct visual and verbal subsystems. Studies of visual working memory frequently use verbal working memory tasks as control conditions and/or use articulatory suppression to ensure visual load remains in visual memory. Using these verbal tasks relies on the assumption that the verbal working memory load will not interfere with the same processes as visual working memory. In the present study, participants maintained a visual or verbal working memory load while simultaneously viewing scenes. Because eye movements and visual working memory are closely linked, we anticipated the visual load would interfere with scene viewing (and vice versa), while the verbal load would not. Surprisingly, both visual and verbal memory loads interfered with scene viewing behavior, while scene viewing did not significantly interfere with performance on either memory task. These results suggest that a verbal working memory load can interfere with a visual task and contribute to the growing literature suggesting the visual and verbal subsystems of working memory are less distinct than previously thought. Our data also stands at odds with previous work suggesting that visual working memory is obligatorily recruited by saccadic eye movements.

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The Association Between Eye Movements and Cerebellar Activation in a Verbal Working Memory Task

Cerebral Cortex ◽

10.1093/cercor/bhv187 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 26 (9) ◽

pp. 3802-3813 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Jutta Peterburs ◽

Dominic T. Cheng ◽

John E. Desmond

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Eye Movements ◽

Memory Task ◽

Verbal Working Memory

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Speech production factors and verbal working memory in children and adults with developmental language disorder

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716421000011 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-30

Author(s):

Gerard H. Poll ◽

Carol A. Miller

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Serial Position ◽

Language Production ◽

Language Disorder ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Task Demands ◽

Developmental Language Disorder ◽

Multinomial Regression ◽

Dynamic Task ◽

Production Factors

Abstract Verbal working memory (VWM) deficits are common in individuals with developmental language disorder (DLD) but are not well understood. This study evaluated how both memory and language production factors influence VWM performance in children and adults with DLD, focusing on the influence of serial position, phonological activation (PA), and lexical frequency. Participants were 30 children with DLD and 26 with typical language, and 21 adults with DLD and 23 with typical language. The participants completed a listening span task in which they were asked to recall the final words of sentences in sets of increasing size. Responses (dependent variable) were coded as correct, incorrect, or no response. Final words were coded for frequency, serial position within the set, and PA (number of occurrences of the initial phoneme, vowel, and whole word in the task). These variables, along with age and language status, were entered as predictors in mixed-effects multinomial regression models. Extreme serial position, greater PA, and higher frequency reduced incorrect and no responses. These effects were attenuated for the DLD group, and the effect of greater PA varied with set size. The findings suggest that for individuals with DLD, VWM performance is affected by more limited effective language experience and by the dynamic task demands.

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Basic numerical processing, calculation, and working memory in children with dyscalculia and/or ADHD symptoms

Zeitschrift für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie ◽

10.1024/1422-4917/a000450 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 44 (5) ◽

pp. 365-375 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Jörg-Tobias Kuhn ◽

Elena Ise ◽

Julia Raddatz ◽

Christin Schwenk ◽

Christian Dobel

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Processing Speed ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Cognitive Profiles ◽

Adhd Symptoms ◽

Memory Processing ◽

Numerical Processing ◽

Hyperactivity Disorder ◽

Neurocognitive Measures

Abstract. Objective: Deficits in basic numerical skills, calculation, and working memory have been found in children with developmental dyscalculia (DD) as well as children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This paper investigates cognitive profiles of children with DD and/or ADHD symptoms (AS) in a double dissociation design to obtain a better understanding of the comorbidity of DD and ADHD. Method: Children with DD-only (N = 33), AS-only (N = 16), comorbid DD+AS (N = 20), and typically developing controls (TD, N = 40) were assessed on measures of basic numerical processing, calculation, working memory, processing speed, and neurocognitive measures of attention. Results: Children with DD (DD, DD+AS) showed deficits in all basic numerical skills, calculation, working memory, and sustained attention. Children with AS (AS, DD+AS) displayed more selective difficulties in dot enumeration, subtraction, verbal working memory, and processing speed. Also, they generally performed more poorly in neurocognitive measures of attention, especially alertness. Children with DD+AS mostly showed an additive combination of the deficits associated with DD-only and A_Sonly, except for subtraction tasks, in which they were less impaired than expected. Conclusions: DD and AS appear to be related to largely distinct patterns of cognitive deficits, which are present in combination in children with DD+AS. 

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