Auditory Memory Test Research Articles

Educational Status and School-Related Abilities of Very Low Birth Weight Premature Children

Eighty-eight premature children with birth weights less than or equal to 1500 g were evaluated at ages between 7 and 8 years old to determine their academic status in comparison with those of a matched full-term group. Results showed that a much higher proportion of the premature children required special educational interventions (48%) than either the full-term children (15%) or the New York State public elementary school population (10%). More than half of the premature children who received educational intervention were neurologically impaired or had below normal intelligence. The entire group of premature children differed significantly from the matched full-term group on IQ score and on tests of verbal ability, school achievement, and auditory memory. Lower socioeconomic status children performed significantly less well on each type of these measures and on a measure of attention than children of the higher socioeconomic status group. There was an interaction of prematurity and social class on Full Scale IQ, verbal tests, academic achievement, and attention, with lower socioeconomic status premature children scoring lowest on these measures. The subset of premature children normal in both IQ and neurologic status did not differ significantly from a matched normal full-term group on any cognitive measures other than arithmetic ability, but they continued to have significantly lower academic achievement scores.

Neurobehavioural effects of industrial mixed solvent exposure in chinese printing and paint workers

Neurobehavioural symptoms and performance tests were evaluated in a group of 78 workers exposed to mixed organic solvents (printers, paint sprayers and paint production workers) and a referent group of 145 unexposed subjects (nonproduction factory workers and volunteer postal workers). Both groups were administered a structured symptoms questionnaire and eight neurobehavioural tests for psycho-motor function, visual and auditory memory. An excess of symptoms of fatigue, irritability, depression, poor memory, sleep disturbances and symptoms suggestive of autonomic dysfunction was found in the exposed group. Neurobehavioural test performance was generally worse, and performance on tests of psycho-motor function (choice reaction test and digit symbol) and auditory memory (digit span and associate learning) was significantly poorer in the exposed group. The findings support the view that apparently healthy and actively employed workers exposed to mixed solvents show neurobehavioural deficits.

Reduced performance in tests of memory and visual abstraction in seamen exposed to industrial solvents

Eighty-five seamen exposed to a variety of organic solvents and hydrocarbon compounds during their work on chemical tankers were compared with 59 unexposed seamen. Visual memory, auditory memory and visual abstraction were examined 14 days or more after the last solvent exposure. Multivariate analyses were performed to control the effects of confounding factors such as age, alcohol consumption, smoking, cerebral concussions and educational level. Significant correlations were found between increasing solvent exposure and poor results in tests of auditory memory and visual abstraction. These results indicate adverse psychological effects caused by chronic organic solvent exposure.

Primary versus secondary rehearsal in an imagined voice: Differential effects on recognition memory and perceptual identification

On each of a series of trials, subjects listened to four words presented by a female speaker and then imagined her rehearsing those words aloud for either 5 or 15 sec. Rehearsal was either primary (imagining the speaker repeat the words) or secondary (imagining the speaker associate the words). On a later test of auditory recognition memory, secondary-rehearsal items were recognized better than were primary-rehearsal items, and performance improved with rehearsal duration for both primary- and secondary-rehearsal items. By contrast, the positive effects of prior study for a later test of auditory perceptual identification did not depend on type or duration of rehearsal. These results are inconsistent with current two-process theories of recognition memory, but seem consistent with the distinction between data-driven and conceptually driven memory tests.

Short-term memory difficulties and Down's syndrome.

Nonretarded (NR) individuals typically show better short-term memory for brief sequences of auditory than visual information (the modality effect). The present study attempted to determine whether the failure of Down's syndrome (DS) individuals to show the modality effect is due to the verbal-expressive demands of oral responding in memory tasks. DS, NR and MR (non-DS mentally retarded) subjects listened to or looked at increasingly long sequences of digits and attempted to recall them either orally or manually (through placement of items). Analyses suggested the following: (1) manual responding failed to enhance auditory recall in either DS or any other subjects; and (2) difficulty in recalling auditory stimuli was greater for DS mentally retarded subjects. An additional assessment of DS, MR and NR subjects on a standardized auditory short-term memory test requiring a nonverbal pointing response replicated the above findings.

Monitoring the developmental examination schedule in an inner city health district.

Returns of scheduled school entry examinations, from 838 primary school children in West Lambeth Health Authority, were analysed to assess the possible association of a child's home language background, age, sex, behaviour, and examiner with the results of the developmental examination. To allow for variation in social characteristics between participating schools, a ward index of deprivation based on the 1981 census was assigned to all the children in the schools of each ward. Variables representing development were most consistently associated with the child's behaviour during the examination and with the examiner. A child's home language background was associated only with the auditory memory test. The child's ability to concentrate during the test situation was closely related to his performance. With respect to the examiners, it is suggested that community health services need to consider schemes of ongoing in-service training and careful calibration of the tests.

Test-Retest Reliability of Three G-F-W Subtests

The present study examined the test-retest reliability of three subtests of the Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock Auditory Skills Test Battery; namely, the Diagnostic Auditory Discrimination Test, the Auditory Selective Attention Test, and-the Auditory Memory Tests. Each of the selected subtests was administered to 20 children who were between 5 and 12 years of age. Test results revealed no significant differences between the first and second administrations of the Auditory Discrimination and Auditory Memory subtests. However, significant differences were noted on the Selective Attention subtest. Results are discussed in terms of their clinical implications.

Self-Report and Tests of Memory Aging

Memory complaints have not correlated well with tests of memory. However, given self-report questions, which tap processes of everyday remembering. sixty volunteers aged 21-84 years adequately rated their memory competence. Categorized into four memory processes, self-report and six tests of verbal, faces, story and nonverbal auditory, visual, and tactual memory ,were canonically correlated (r = 0.67) and both sets of measures declined with age in parallel. Thc old were more accurate than the young in their ratings but by no means on all tests and expectation to perform poorly seemed to have influenced some performances.

Comparison of performance of eight-year-old children on three auditory sequential memory tests.

20 normal children (Mage = 8.2 yr.) were administered three tests of auditory sequential memory. A Pearson product-moment correlation of .50 and coefficients of determination showed all but one relationship to be nonsignificant and predictability between pairs of scores to be poor.

Interictal memory and language impairment in temporal lobe epilepsy.

Memory and language were evaluated in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and generalized epilepsy. Subjects were matched for age, duration of illness, and seizure frequency, and grouped according to the electroencephalographic results and seizure type into right temporal, left temporal, and generalized. In formal tests of intelligence, auditory and visual memory, and language, a significant difference was noted only on a confrontation naming test. The mean score on this test was considerably lower in the left temporal group; right temporal and generalized groups scored in the normal range. This correlated with impairment on many verbal subtests of intelligence and memory. These results suggest that the interictal memory impairment of temporal lobe epilepsy may be an anomia and that the anomia may contribute to impairment of verbal learning and memory; both circumlocution and circumstantiality may compensate for anomia.

A family study of memory processes and their relations to cognitive test scores

Members of 118 families (456 individuals) who had been tested on several measures of cognitive ability were retested on the same battery in order to determine test-retest reliability. They then were administered the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and tests of visual memory, auditory memory, and figure memory, as well as other measures not discussed herein. Intercorrelations of memory tasks were low to moderate. Factor analysis resulted in a four factor solution. The different factors appeared to represent auditory sequential memory (Factor I); visual memory, as measured psychometrically (Factor II); visual memory, as measured experimentally (Factor III); and figure memory (Factor IV). A second order factor analysis yielded two factors, one consisting of basically psychometric measures of memory and the other of measures of memory obtained in the experimental psychological tradition. Memory measures generally showed low to moderate positive correlations with scores on the cognitive test battery. Significant spouse correlations were found for 3 of the 11 measures of memory. Significant midparent-midchild regressions were found for 9 of the 11 memory measures.

Electroencephalographic changes in the dominant hemisphere during memorizing and reasoning

The EEG was recorded with bipolar technique in ten normal subjects in the frontal, temporal and occipital regions of the dominant hemisphere in four situations: (1) during an auditory memory test, (2) during ‘auditory rest’ (listening to white noise), (3) during a visual reasoning test and (4) during ‘visual rest’ (watching a black dot on a white screen). Computer analysis of the EEG was made by (a) an on-line automatic EEG analyser yielding measures of mean power, mean frequency and frequency spread (complexity) and (b) an off-line period-amplitude (P-A) analysis, which gave per cent activity time and mean voltage in 21 frequency bands. As compared to auditory rest the auditory memory test gave an amplitude increase frontally in the alpha, theta, and delta bands. During the visual reasoning test there was in addition an amplitude increase in the alpha band in the temporal region. During the auditory test a tendency to a decrease of the alpha activity was seen in all three regions but this decrease occurred only occipitally during the visual test. The two types of mental activity thus induced two patterns of regional EEG changes. These showed principal similarities to regional cerebral blood flow patterns which have been recorded during visual and auditory tests of about the same types as those used in the present study.

Auditory-Visual Integration, Auditory Memory, and Reading in Retarded and Adequate Readers

This study investigated the nature of the inferior performance of retarded readers on auditory-visual integration tests. Because retarded readers have difficulty processing temporal stimuli, it was hypothesized that a memory deficit might be related to the auditory-visual integration inferiority. Thirty retarded readers were compared with 30 adequate readers on the visual, auditory, and memory skills underlying auditory-visual integration, and on tests of auditory-visual integration which made varying demands upon memory. The two groups differed significantly on auditory memory tests and on all auditory-visual integration tests. In contrast to the adequate readers, the performance of the retarded readers deteriorated sharply as memory demands increased. A short-term auditory sequential memory deficit appears to be a major factor in the inferior auditory-visual integration performance of retarded readers.

Effects of Input Organization on Auditory Short-Term Memory

Children with learning disabilities have more problems with memory tasks than do children who are making normal progress in school. It was hypothesized that this is because they do not make comparable use of the various ways of organizing memory. This study compared the performances of the two groups on auditory short-term memory tests under different conditions of input organization. The results showed that the learning disabled children used input organization in a pattern of performance similar to that of the normal children, but their memory spans were nonetheless significantly poorer on the experimental tests. Some aspects of linguistic organization are discussed, and these results are compared with other recent studies. Recommendations are made for remedial activities which use meaningful language.

Hemispheric asymmetry of auditory function in monkeys

On a test of recent auditory memory [J.H. Dewson and A. Burlingame, Science 187, 267–268 (1975)], some monkeys show a severe and enduring deficit following unilateral cortical ablation of the superior temporal gyrus (“auditory association cortex”). Six such operations have been performed, and the deficit exists in only those four instances in which the left cortical area has been removed. In two cases of unilateral ablation of the superior temporal gyrus of the right hemisphere, no performance decrements have been noted. Discrimination between very brief (2–3 msec) acoustic stimuli remains at normal (preoperative) levels for all animals regardless of the cerebral hemisphere damaged and, in general, at very short delays (less than 1 sec) on the auditory memory task, performance is maintained even by the deficient animals at their preoperative criterion levels. The deficit does not appear to depend upon the disruption specifically of either the crossed or the uncrossed ascending auditory pathway as determined by results obtained from unilaterally deafened monkeys. Preliminary investigations of the nature of the deficient recent auditory memory suggest that interference at the time of retrieval is a major element. [Work supported by NSF.]

Short Term Memory Disorders Following Temporal Lobe Removals in Humans

Patients with unilateral removals of the left or right temporal lobe were compared to normal controls on tests of short-term visual (geometric patterns, consonant trigrams) and auditory (consonant trigrams) memory. Both temporal lobe groups evidenced severe retention deficits on the auditory task, but normal performance on the patterned and verbal visual tests. These findings are discussed with respect to the issue of modality vs. material specific memory storage in humans.

Visual and auditory memory in spelling: an exploratory study.

Summary. Using visual and auditory memory sequencing tests with 140 children aged 8–10, this study aimed to investigate the commonly held assumption that visual and auditory memory are important component functions in children's spelling. From this sample three sub‐groups were derived. The first (18 children) consisted of those whose scores were higher on the visual memory than on the auditory memory test by 1 sd or more. The second (22) were those whose scores differed by 1 sd or more in the reverse direction, whilst the third group (21) had test scores which differed by less than ·16 sd. The three sub‐groups were then given the Schonell Spelling Test of Irregular Words IA and an English Picture Vocabulary Test. No significant differences were found in the groups’ mean spelling scores, but there were differences in the proportions of certain error types. The implications of these findings for the role of visual and auditory memory in spelling achievement are discussed.

A comparison of subcortical and cortical damage on short-term visual and auditory memory

Eleven Korsakoff patients (due to alcoholism) were compared to normal controls and patients with cortical damage on tests of short-term visual and auditory memory as well as a visual learning task. Like right hemisphere patients, Korsakoffs had severe memory deficits on all visual tasks, but unlike the right hemisphere groups they also evidenced memory deficits on the auditory tasks. Qualitative error analyses indicated that the Korsakoff patients made more perseverative errors than did the cortical groups with quantitatively similar memory deficits.

Short-Term Visual and Auditory Memory Disorders After Parietal and Frontal Lobe Damage

An attempt was made to assess the role of the parietal lobe in the mediation of short-term visual and auditory memory processes. Patients with parietal or anterior damage (left or right hemisphere) were compared on tests of short-term visual (geometric patterns, single consonants, consonant trigrams) and auditory (single consonants, consonant trigrams) memory as well as a visual learning task. To separate registration from memory deficits, the Peterson and Peterson technique was used to assess the memory decay function between zero and 18 sec. Both right hemisphere groups evidenced more severe memory deficits on the visual (verbal and patterned material) than on the auditory tasks. In contrast, the left parietal patients had memory deficits on both visual (verbal and patterned stimuli) and auditory tasks while the left frontal group revealed registration, but not memory, deficits for verbal material presented either visually or auditorily. These results are interpreted as supporting the notion that the right hemisphere, especially the parietal region, is involved in the processing of visual information, both verbal and patterned, while the left hemisphere is concerned with verbal material irrespective of sensory modality.