scholarly journals Body image, visual working memory and visual mental imagery

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Darling ◽  
Clare Uytman ◽  
Richard J Allen ◽  
Jelena Havelka ◽  
David G Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Body Shape ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Global Precedence ◽  
Intrinsic Factors ◽  
Personal Ideal

Body dissatisfaction (BD) is a highly prevalent feature amongst females in society, with the majority of individuals regarding themselves to be overweight compared to their personal ideal, and very few self-describing as underweight. To date, explanations of this dramatic pattern have centred on extrinsic social and media factors, or intrinsic factors connected to individuals’ knowledge and belief structures regarding eating and body shape, with little research examining links between BD and basic cognitive mechanisms. This paper reports a correlational study in which visual and executive cognitive processes that could potentially impact on BD were assessed. Visual memory span and self-rated visual imagery were found to be predictive of BD, alongside a measure of inhibition derived from the Stroop task. In contrast, spatial memory and global precedence were not related to BD. Results are interpreted with reference to the influential multi-component model of working memory.

scholarly journals Body image, visual working memory and visual mental imagery

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Darling ◽  
Clare Uytman ◽  
Richard J Allen ◽  
Jelena Havelka ◽  
David G Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Body Shape ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Global Precedence ◽  
Intrinsic Factors ◽  
Personal Ideal

Body dissatisfaction (BD) is a highly prevalent feature amongst females in society, with the majority of individuals regarding themselves to be overweight compared to their personal ideal, and very few self-describing as underweight. To date, explanations of this dramatic pattern have centred on extrinsic social and media factors, or intrinsic factors connected to individuals’ knowledge and belief structures regarding eating and body shape, with little research examining links between BD and basic cognitive mechanisms. This paper reports a correlational study in which visual and executive cognitive processes that could potentially impact on BD were assessed. Visual memory span and self-rated visual imagery were found to be predictive of BD, alongside a measure of inhibition derived from the Stroop task. In contrast, spatial memory and global precedence were not related to BD. Results are interpreted with reference to the influential multi-component model of working memory.

scholarly journals The Effect of Working Memory Rehabilitation on Visual Memory and Memory Span

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mansour Mahmoudi Aghdam ◽  
Esmaeil Soleimani ◽  
Ali Issa Zadegan
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Elderly People ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Memory Rehabilitation ◽  
The Mean

Introduction: Age-related cognitive decline or cognitive aging is largely the result of structural and functional decline in specific areas of the brain, but lifestyle also contributes to this cognitive decline. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of working memory rehabilitation on visual memory and memory span in ageing. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest design and a control group. The study population included all elderly people who lived in Bukan Nursing Home from April to July 2019 (N = 120). Among these individuals, 30 elderly people were selected by convenience sampling method and then randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (two groups of 15 people). Kim Karad Visual Memory Test and Wechsler Memory Span Test were taken from the groups in pretest. The working memory rehabilitation was performed in 18 sessions (each sessions 60-minute) and after which the test was performed again. The data were analyzed by multivariate covariance test according to its assumptions. Results: The results showed that after the rehabilitation of working memory, in the experimental group, the mean of short, medium and long components of visual memory were 12.00, 10.8 and 12.33, respectively, and the direct and inverse of memory span were 11.66 and 9.66, respectively. In the control group, the average of short, medium and long components of visual memory is 7.00, 6.70 and 9.00, respectively, and direct and inverse of memory span is 8.33 and 6.46, respectively. The difference in the mean scores between the two groups in the components of visual memory and memory span after the intervention was significant (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The results showed that working memory rehabilitation can improve visual memory and memory span, and it is recommended that this rehabilitation method be used to improve the cognitive functions of the elderly.

Processing Speed and Working Memory Span: Their Differential Role in Superficial and Deep Memory Processes in Schizophrenia

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gildas Brébion ◽  
Rodrigo A. Bressan ◽  
Lyn S. Pilowsky ◽  
Anthony S. David
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Memory Impairment ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Memory Deficit ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Group Processing ◽  
Two Factors

Previous work has suggested that decrement in both processing speed and working memory span plays a role in the memory impairment observed in patients with schizophrenia. We undertook a study to examine simultaneously the effect of these two factors. A sample of 49 patients with schizophrenia and 43 healthy controls underwent a battery of verbal and visual memory tasks. Superficial and deep encoding memory measures were tallied. We conducted regression analyses on the various memory measures, using processing speed and working memory span as independent variables. In the patient group, processing speed was a significant predictor of superficial and deep memory measures in verbal and visual memory. Working memory span was an additional significant predictor of the deep memory measures only. Regression analyses involving all participants revealed that the effect of diagnosis on all the deep encoding memory measures was reduced to non-significance when processing speed was entered in the regression. Decreased processing speed is involved in verbal and visual memory deficit in patients, whether the task require superficial or deep encoding. Working memory is involved only insofar as the task requires a certain amount of effort. (JINS, 2011, 17, 485–493)

scholarly journals Working Memory and Lexical Ambiguity Resolution as Revealed by ERPs: A Difficult Case for Activation Theories

2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 643-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Gunter ◽  
Susanne Wagner ◽  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Difficult Case ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Subordinate Meaning ◽  
Efficient Processing ◽  
N400 Component

This series of three event-related potential experiments explored the issue of whether the underlying mechanism of working memory (WM) supporting language processing is inhibitory or activational in nature. These different cognitive mechanisms have been proposed to explain the more efficient processing of subjects with a high WM span compared to those with a low WM span. Participants with high and low WM span were presented with sentences containing a homonym followed three words later by a nominal disambiguation cue and a final disambiguation using a verb. At the position of the disambiguation cue, inhibitory or activational WM mechanisms predict contrasting results. When activation is the underlying mechanism for efficient processing, the prediction is that high memory span persons activate both meanings of the homonym equally in WM, whereas low memory span persons only have one meaning present. When inhibition is the underlying mechanism, the predictions are the reverse. The ERP data, in particular, the variations of the meaning related N400 component, showed clear evidence for inhibition as the underlying cognitive mechanism in high-span readers. For low-span participants the cueing towards the dominant or the subordinate meaning elicited an equivalently large N400 component suggesting that both meanings are active in WM. In highspan subjects, the dominant disambiguation cue elicited a smaller N400 than the subordinate one, indicating that for these subjects particularly the dominant meaning is active. The experiments showed that inhibitory processes are probably underlying WM used during language comprehension in high-span subjects. Moreover, they demonstrate that these subjects can use their inhibition in a more flexible manner than low-span subjects. The effects that these processing differences have on the efficiency of language parsing are discussed.

How Could Affect Stress, PEP and Sex in Working Memory?

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S98-S98
Author(s):  
C.-R. Maria Isabel ◽  
C.-R. Manuel ◽  
M. Andrea ◽  
R.-V. Miguel
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Social Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Motor Coordination ◽  
First Episode ◽  
Control Group ◽  
General Functioning ◽  
Competing Interest

BackgroundThe first episode of psychosis is a crucial period when early intervention can alter the trajectory of the young person's ongoing mental health and general functioning. Cognitive abilities are nuclear for the social recovery. Stress impairs higher cognitive processes, dependent on the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and that involve maintenance and integration of information over extended periods, including working memory and attention. Different mechanism are involved such as HPA-Axis hyperactivity, affecting PFC. Recently, investigations show the different evolution of cognitive abilities between different sex in WM.MethodsA sample of 41 FEPs and 39 healthy subjects were evaluated. The variables assessed were verbal and visual memory, attention, working memory, processing speed, mental flexibility, verbal fluency, motor coordination, planning ability and intelligence.ResultsWe found an interaction between age (< 16 years and > 16 years) and group (psychosis vs. controls) in working memory (P = 0.04). There were no difference in men < 16 years old control group and men with same age plus psychosis (5.87 ± 1.57 vs. 5.83 ± 1; P = 0.1) in WM. However, this work was found to be significantly different in the univariant analysis of working memory in the group < 16 years old women control (7.30 ± 1.56) and women psychosis group (5.61 ± 1.91).ConclusionSocial cognition and stress seem to be directly relation. Some studies show that stress enhance cognition performance in men while impairing it in women. Stress affect a variety of cognitive processes such attention and working memory. Deficit in social cognition are present in the prodromal phases of psychosis.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

scholarly journals Contribution of right hemisphere to visual imagery: A visual working memory impairment?

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 902-911 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARINA GASPARINI ◽  
ANNE MARIE HUFTY ◽  
GIOVANNI MASCIARELLI ◽  
DONATELLA OTTAVIANI ◽  
UGO ANGELONI ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Anterior Choroidal ◽  
The Right ◽  
Mind's Eye ◽  
Choroidal Artery

Visual Imagery is the ability to generate mental images in the absence of perception, that is, “seeing with the mind's eye.” We describe a patient, IM, who suffered from an acute ischemic stroke in the right anterior choroidal artery who appeared to demonstrate relatively isolated impairment in visual imagery. Her cognitive function, including her performance on tests of semantic function, was at ceiling, apart from a deficit in visual memory. IM failed in tasks involving degraded stimuli, object decision involving reality judgments on normal animals, and drawings from memory. By contrast, she was able to match objects seen from an unfamiliar viewpoint and to perform tasks of semantic and visual association. We hypothesize that IM has a visual working memory deficit that impairs her ability to generate full visual representations of objects given their names, individual feature, or partial representations. The deficit appears to be the result of damage to connections between the right thalamus and the right temporal lobe. Our findings may help to clarify the role of the thalamus in the cortical selective engagement processes that underlie working memory. (JINS, 2008, 14, 902–911.)

Construct Validity of the Stroop Color-Word Test: Influence of Speed of Visual Search, Verbal Fluency, Working Memory, Cognitive Flexibility, and Conflict Monitoring

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
José A Periáñez ◽  
Genny Lubrini ◽  
Ana García-Gutiérrez ◽  
Marcos Ríos-Lago
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Color Word ◽  
Color Naming ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms

Abstract Objective 85 years after the description of the Stroop interference effect, there is still a lack of consensus regarding the cognitive constructs underlying scores from standardized versions of the test. The present work aimed to clarify the cognitive mechanisms underlying direct (word-reading, color-naming, and color-word) and derived scores (interference, difference, ratio, and relative scores) from Golden’s standardized version of the test. Method After a comprehensive review of the literature, five cognitive processes were selected for analysis: speed of visual search, phonemic verbal fluency, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and conflict monitoring. These constructs were operationalized by scoring five cognitive tasks (WAIS-IV Digit Symbol, phonemic verbal fluency [letter A], WAIS-IV Digit Span, TMT B-A, and reaction times to the incongruent condition of a computerized Stroop task, respectively). About 83 healthy individuals (mean age = 25.2 years) participated in the study. Correlation and regression analyses were used to clarify the contribution of the five cognitive processes on the prediction of Stroop scores. Results Data analyses revealed that Stroop word-reading reflected speed of visual search. Stroop color-naming reflected working memory and speed of visual search. Stroop color-word reflected working memory, conflict monitoring, and speed of visual search. Whereas the interference score was predicted by both conflict monitoring and working memory, the ratio score (color-word divided by color-naming) was predicted by conflict monitoring alone. Conclusion The present results will help neuropsychologists to interpret altered patient scores in terms of a failure of the cognitive mechanisms detailed here, benefitting from the solid background of preceding experimental work.

The bottleneck may be the solution, not the problem

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnon Lotem ◽  
Oren Kolodny ◽  
Joseph Y. Halpern ◽  
Luca Onnis ◽  
Shimon Edelman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Selection Pressures ◽  
Biological Trait ◽  
Memory Bottleneck

AbstractAs a highly consequential biological trait, a memory “bottleneck” cannot escape selection pressures. It must therefore co-evolve with other cognitive mechanisms rather than act as an independent constraint. Recent theory and an implemented model of language acquisition suggest that a limit on working memory may evolve to help learning. Furthermore, it need not hamper the use of language for communication.

Differential Effects of Executive Processes on Working Memory

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 239-249
Author(s):  
Xuezhu Ren ◽  
Tengfei Wang ◽  
Karl Schweizer ◽  
Jing Guo
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Latent Variable ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Attention Control ◽  
Executive Processes ◽  
Differential Effects ◽  
Prepotent Response ◽  
Two Measures

Abstract. Although attention control accounts for a unique portion of the variance in working memory capacity (WMC), the way in which attention control contributes to WMC has not been thoroughly specified. The current work focused on fractionating attention control into distinctly different executive processes and examined to what extent key processes of attention control including updating, shifting, and prepotent response inhibition were related to WMC and whether these relations were different. A number of 216 university students completed experimental tasks of attention control and two measures of WMC. Latent variable analyses were employed for separating and modeling each process and their effects on WMC. The results showed that both the accuracy of updating and shifting were substantially related to WMC while the link from the accuracy of inhibition to WMC was insignificant; on the other hand, only the speed of shifting had a moderate effect on WMC while neither the speed of updating nor the speed of inhibition showed significant effect on WMC. The results suggest that these key processes of attention control exhibit differential effects on individual differences in WMC. The approach that combined experimental manipulations and statistical modeling constitutes a promising way of investigating cognitive processes.

Time-Based Measures of Monitoring in Association With Executive Functions in Kindergarten Children

2020 ◽  
Vol 228 (4) ◽  
pp. 244-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Kälin ◽  
Claudia M. Roebers
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Kindergarten Children ◽  
Metacognitive Monitoring

Abstract. Repeatedly, the notion has been put forward that metacognition (MC) and executive functions (EF) share common grounds, as both describe higher order cognitive processes and involve monitoring. However, only few studies addressed this issue empirically and so far their findings are rather inconsistent. Addressing the question whether measurement differences may in part be responsible for the mixed results, the current study included explicitly reported as well as time-based measures of metacognitive monitoring and related them to EF. A total of 202 children aged 4–6 years were assessed in terms of EF (inhibition, working memory, shifting) and monitoring. While there was no significant link between explicitly reported confidence and EF, latencies of monitoring judgments were significantly related to time- and accuracy-based measures of EF. Our findings support the association between EF and MC and the assumption that better inhibition abilities help children to engage in more thorough monitoring.

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