Differences In Short-term Memory Research Articles

Metabolic rate does not explain performance on a short-term memory task or personality traits in juvenile chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus).

Metabolic rate determines life processes and the physiological requirements of an individual, and has recently been implicated as a driver of inter-individual variation in behaviour, with positive correlations associated with boldness, exploration and aggressive behaviours being recorded. While the link between metabolism and personality has been explored, little is known about the influence of metabolism on cognitive abilities. Here we used juvenile female chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) to investigate the relationships between metabolic rate at rest, short-term memory, personality, and dominance. Resting metabolic rates of the chicks were measured over a three-week period, concurrently with measures of short-term memory using an analogue of the radial arm maze. We also measured latency to leave the shelter (boldness), neophobia (fear of novel objects) and dominance within a group, both before and after short-term memory trials. We found that metabolic rate did not explain inter-individual differences in short-term memory, personality traits or dominance, suggesting that energy allocated to these traits is independent of individual metabolic rate, and providing evidence for the independent energy-management hypothesis. Differences in short-term memory were also not explained by boldness or neophobia. Variation in behaviour in chicks, therefore, appears to be driven by separate, currently unknown variables.

Putting Complement Clauses into Context: Testing the Effects of Story Context, False-Belief Understanding, and Syntactic form on Children's and Adults' Comprehension and Production of Complement Clauses.

A key factor that affects whether and at what age children can demonstrate an understanding of false belief and complement-clause constructions is the type of task used (whether it is implicit/indirect or explicit/direct). In the current study, we investigate, in an implicit/indirect way, whether children understand that a story character's belief can be true or false, and whether this understanding affects children's choice of linguistic structure to describe the character's belief or to explain the character's belief-based action. We also measured children's understanding of false belief in explicit false-belief tasks. English- and German-speaking young 4- and 5-year-olds as well as English- and German-speaking adult controls heard complement-clause constructions in a story context where the belief mentioned in the complement clause (e.g., "He thinks that she's not feeling well") turned out to be false, true, or was left open. After hearing the test question ("Why does he not play with her?"), all age groups were most likely to repeat the whole complement-clause construction when the belief turned out to be false. That is, they tended to explicitly refer to the character's perspective and say "He thinks…" When the belief turned out to be true, participants often reverted to a simple clause ("She's not feeling well"). Furthermore, children with better short-term memory were more likely to repeat the whole complement-clause construction. However, children's performance in explicit false-belief tasks showed no relation to their performance in our novel, more implicit/indirect, task. Whether or not the complement clause was introduced by a that complementizer only had a small effect on the German adults' responses, where leaving out the complementizer also changes the word order of the complement clause. Overall, our results suggest that task characteristics and individual differences in short-term memory affect children's ability to demonstrate false-belief understanding and to express this understanding linguistically.

Dream recall frequency is associated with attention rather than with working memory abilities.

Several factors influencing dream recall frequency (DRF) have been identified, but some remain poorly understood. One way to study DRF is to compare cognitive processes in low and high dream recallers (LR and HR). According to the arousal-retrieval model, long-term memory encoding of a dream requires wakefulness while its multisensory short-term memory is still alive. Previous studies showed contradictory results concerning short-term memory differences between LR and HR. It has also been found that extreme DRFs are associated with different electrophysiological traits related to attentional processes. However, to date, there is no evidence for attentional differences between LR and HR at the behavioural level. To further investigate attention and working memory in HR and LR, we used a newly-developed challenging paradigm called "MEMAT" (for MEMory and ATtention), which allows the study of selective attention and working memory interaction during memory encoding of non-verbal auditory stimuli. We manipulated the difficulties of the distractor to ignore and of the memory task. The performance of the two groups were not differentially impacted by working memory load. However, HR were slower and less accurate in the presence of a hard rather than easy to-ignore distractor, while LR were much less impacted by the distractor difficulty. Therefore, we show behavioural evidence towards less resistance to hard-to-ignore distractors in HR. Using a challenging task, we show for the first time, attentional differences between HR and LR at the behavioural level. The impact of auditory attention and working memory on dream recall is discussed.

Which Tools in Multimedia Are Best for Learning Outcomes? A Study Grounded in Cognitive Load Structures.

The main objective of this study is to investigate the importance of three compositions in multimedia for learning outcomes (LOs) in relation to individual differences in short-term memory (STM) capacity. The study is based on a survey of 378 individuals at the bachelor level (military officers, teachers, and psychology students). The LOs of three different multimedia compositions (means) were tested. This applied to individuals with low, medium, and high STM capacity. The results show that the successive presentation (Type II) of learning materials through multiple representation forms/channels (speech, pictures, and screen text/labels) provides a better LO than just speech (Type I) and simultaneous presentation (Type III). Overall, visual and verbal channel capacities did not contribute to the LO in any of the three tools tested, but some specific STM capacity types or substructures (visual and verbal progressive capacities) and non-verbal (RAPM) types have significance, particularly in exploiting successive presentation (Type II) for learning. Although the tools used in the multimedia educational material had a low cognitive load, the individuals with low capacity learned relatively less than the individuals with higher capacity. A symbolic form of expression was introduced concerning the relationship between cognitive load structure (CLS) and LOs through various tools in multimedia as an aid in the theoretical and empirical analyses. This is referred to as the CLS-LO formula. The main assumption of this study, based on previous empirical and theoretical ones, is that the relationship between CLS and LO is expressed with the following CLS-LO formula: . Based on this study, the relationship became: . This basic research study is primarily a contribution to understanding underlying cognitive processes in STM and their importance for learning in multimodal forms compared with analogue text. The findings will also be relevant as a basis for performance analysis and decision-making under high information pressure, risk, and unpredictable conditions.

How Do Subway Signs Affect Pedestrians’ Wayfinding Behavior through Visual Short-Term Memory?

Recently, subways have become an important part of public transportation and have developed rapidly in China. In the subway station setting, pedestrians mainly rely on visual short-term memory to obtain information on how to travel. This research aimed to explore the short-term memory capacities and the difference in short-term memory for different information for Chinese passengers regarding subway signs. Previous research has shown that people’s general short-term memory capacity is approximately four objects and that, the more complex the information, the lower people’s memory capacity. However, research on the short-term memory characteristics of pedestrians for subway signs is scarce. Hence, based on the STM theory and using 32 subway signs as stimuli, we recruited 120 subjects to conduct a cognitive test. The results showed that passengers had a different memory accuracy for different types of information in the signs. They were more accurate regarding line number and arrow, followed by location/text information, logos, and orientation. Meanwhile, information type, quantity, and complexity had significant effects on pedestrians’ short-term memory capacity. Finally, according to our results that outline the characteristics of short-term memory for subway signs, we put forward some suggestions for subway signs. The findings will be effective in helping designers and managers improve the quality of subway station services as well as promoting the development of pedestrian traffic in such a setting.

Effects of acute stress on cognition in older versus younger adults.

Does acute stress differentially alter cognitive functioning in older versus younger adults? While older adults may be better at handling stress psychologically, their physiological systems are less elastic, potentially impairing the cognitive functioning of older adults after a stressor. We examined cognition following an acute stressor among older (n = 65; ages 60-79) and younger (n = 61; ages 25-40) adults. Participants were randomized to complete the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) in one of three conditions: (a) negative feedback, (b) positive feedback, or (c) no feedback. Participants reported mood states and appraisals of the speech task and we measured cortisol via saliva throughout the study. After the TSST, participants completed standard cognitive tasks to evaluate cognitive flexibility, problem solving, and short-term memory. Results showed that after the TSST, older adults took longer to solve problems compared with younger adults, though they were able to solve the same number of problems. Older adults showed less cognitive flexibility compared with younger adults in all conditions, a finding that was partially exaggerated in the positive feedback condition. There were no age-group differences in short-term memory; however, for older adults greater perceived resources and positive affect were associated with better memory performance. In sum, older and younger adults were both affected by acute stress, and older adults were not more (or less) vulnerable to the effects of stress on cognition, though they did show stronger associations between self-reported affective states and memory performance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Short-Term Memory Span and Cross-Modality Integration in Younger and Older Adults With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder.

This study tested whether adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show the same pattern of difficulties and absence of age-related differences in short-term memory (STM) as those that have been reported in episodic long-term memory (LTM). Fifty-three adults with ASD (age range: 25-65 years) were compared to 52 age-, biological sex-, and intelligence-matched typically developing (TD; age range: 21-67 years) adults on three STM span tasks, which tested STM performance for letters (Verbal), grid locations (Visuospatial), or letters in grid locations (Multimodal). A subsample of 34 TD and 33 ASD participants ranging in age from 25 to 64 years completed a fourth Multimodal Integration task. We also administered the Color Trails Test as a measure of executive function. ASD participants' accuracy was lower than that of the TD participants on the three span tasks (Cohen's d: 0.26-0.50). The Integration task difference was marginally significant (p = .07) but had a moderate effect size (Cohen's d = 0.50). Regression analyses confirmed reduced STM performance only for older TD participants. Analyses also indicated that executive processes played a greater role in the ASD group's performance. The demonstration of similar difficulties and age-related patterning of STM in ASD to those documented for LTM and the greater recruitment of executive processes by older ASD participants on the Integration task suggest a compensatory role of frontal processes both as a means of achieving undiminished task performance and as a possible protection against older age cognitive decline in ASD. Longitudinal research is needed to confirm this. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1970-1984. © 2020 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC. LAY SUMMARY: Little is known about short-term memory (STM) in younger and older adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study tested different kinds of STM and showed that ASD adults remembered shorter sequences of letters, crosses, or letters in grid cells less well than matched participants with typical development. However, older ASD individuals performed similarly to younger ASD individuals, nor showing the reduction in performance usually seen with older age. The data suggest that ASD individuals use different underlying mechanisms when performing the tasks and that this might help protect their memory as they grow older.

Gender Differences in Short-term Memory Related to Music Genres

The purpose of the present research was to examine whether different music settings could influence one’s cognitive function – particularly memory. The examined sample consisted of 168 college students with a male:female ratio of 1:2.2. The participants were asked to complete a short-term memory test regarding word recollection while exposed to auditory stimuli. They were divided into three groups, each experiencing very different auditory stimuli (classical music; heavy metal music; no music). The results indicated that gender (as a single parameter) played a significant role in the recall process, with female subjects achieving significantly higher scores than males (p-value = 0.006). Music as an external stimulus was also found to affect the recall process significantly (0.02 < p < 0.04). Gender did not present any statistically significant association with specific music genres although, based on the limitations of this study, findings are in need of further exploration. The results of the present study may direct forthcoming research to address this issue further by examining additional variables as well.

Comparison of short-term memory between stunting and non-stunting children in urban and rural elementary school students in Kupang 2019

Background: Inadequate chronic nutrition can cause disruption of bone growth and brain development. Impaired bone growth can cause stunting in children, and a disruption of brain development will affect cognitive function, one of them is short-term memory. This study aimed to compare the short-term memory between stunting and non stunting in urban and rural elementary school students in Kupang.Methods: This research used analytic observational method with cross sectional design conducted on urban and rural elementary school students in Kupang City. One hundred and sixty students who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected using consecutive sampling method. Characteristics data were collected by the interview, while the stunting data was known by measuring height and assessed by WHO anthroplus application, short-term memory data was obtained from digit span test. Stunting is a nominal data scale, while the short-term memory is an ordinal data scale. This study was analyzed bivariately using chi-square test with significant p value ≤ 0.05.Results: Chi-square test results of short-term memory between stunting and non stunting in urban and rural elementary school students obtained p = 0.144, which means there is no significant difference in short-term memory between stunting and non stunting in urban and rural elementary school children in Kupang.Conclusions: There is no significant difference in short-term memory between stunting and non stunting in elementary school children, both in urban and rural areas of Kupang.

Identifying the molecular systems that influence cognitive resilience to Alzheimer's disease in genetically diverse mice.

Individual differences in cognitive decline during normal aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are common, but the molecular mechanisms underlying these distinct outcomes are not fully understood. We utilized a combination of genetic, molecular, and behavioral data from a mouse population designed to model human variation in cognitive outcomes to search for the molecular mechanisms behind this population-wide variation. Specifically, we used a systems genetics approach to relate gene expression to cognitive outcomes during AD and normal aging. Statistical causal-inference Bayesian modeling was used to model systematic genetic perturbations matched with cognitive data that identified astrocyte and microglia molecular networks as drivers of cognitive resilience to AD. Using genetic mapping, we identified Fgf2 as a potential regulator of the astrocyte network associated with individual differences in short-term memory. We also identified several immune genes as regulators of a microglia network associated with individual differences in long-term memory, which was partly mediated by amyloid burden. Finally, significant overlap between mouse and two different human coexpression networks provided strong evidence of translational relevance for the genetically diverse AD-BXD panel as a model of late-onset AD. Together, this work identified two candidate molecular pathways enriched for microglia and astrocyte genes that serve as causal AD cognitive biomarkers, and provided a greater understanding of processes that modulate individual and population-wide differences in cognitive outcomes during AD.

The impact of a view from a window on thermal comfort, emotion, and cognitive performance

Visual connection to nature has been demonstrated to have a positive impact on attention restoration, stress reduction, and overall health and well-being. Inside buildings, windows are the primary means of providing a connection to the outdoors, and nature views even through a window may have similar effects on the occupants. Given that humans recognize environments through multi-sensory integration, a window view may also affect occupants’ thermal perception. We assessed the influence of having a window with a view on thermal and emotional responses as well as on cognitive performance. We conducted a randomized crossover laboratory experiment with 86 participants, in spaces with and without windows. The chamber kept the air and window surface temperature at 28 °C, a slightly warm condition. The outcome measures consisted of subjective evaluations (e.g., thermal perception, emotion), skin temperature measurements and cognitive performance tests. In the space with versus without windows, the thermal sensation was significantly cooler (0.3 thermal sensation vote; equivalent to 0.74 °C lower), and 12% more participants were thermally comfortable. Positive emotions (e.g., happy, satisfied) were higher and negative emotions (e.g., sad, drowsy) were lower for the participants in the window versus the windowless condition. Working memory and the ability to concentrate were higher for participants in the space with versus without windows, but there were no significant differences in short-term memory, planning, and creativity performance. Considering the multiple effects of window access, providing a window with a view in a workplace is important for the comfort, emotion, and working memory and concentration of occupants.

Short- Term Memory of Quran Hafizat and non- Hafizat; from female students of human colleges at King Saud University (a comparative study): الذاكرة قصيرة المدى لدى حافظات القرآن وغير الحافظات من طالبات الكليات الإنسانية بجامعة الملك سعود (دراسة مقارنة)

This study aimed to investigate the differences in Short- Term Memory (STM) between Quran Hafizat (Memorized the Holly Quran) and Non- Hafizat University female students. We hypothesized that Quran Hafizat will perform better on the STM tasks than Non- Hafizat We followed the comparative causal method in this research, 40 female students participated in this study, and were divided into two groups, 20 Quran Hafizat and 20 Non Hafizat, they ranged in age between 19- 24 years old. We used the STM auditory and visual Test (direct &amp; delayed), and it comprise of 11 subtests. In general, the results indicated no differences in STM between the two groups, except on one subtest. * The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University for funding this work through the Undergraduate Research Support Program.

Dopaminergic gene methylation is associated with cognitive performance in a childhood monozygotic twin study

ABSTRACTIndividual differences in cognitive function are due to a combination of heritable and non-heritable factors. A large body of evidence from clinical, cognitive, and pharmacological neuroscience implicates dopaminergic gene variants as modulators of cognitive functions. Neuroepigenetic studies demonstrate environmental factors also influence complex phenotypes by affecting gene expression regulation. To evaluate the mechanism of environmental influence on cognitive abilities, we examined if epigenetic regulation of dopaminergic genes plays a role in cognition. Using a DNA methylation profiling microarray, we used a monozygotic (MZ) twin difference design to evaluate if co-twin differences in methylation of CpG sites near six dopaminergic genes predicted differences in response inhibition and memory performance. Studying MZ twins allows us to assess if environmentally driven differences in methylation affect differences in phenotype while controlling for the influence of genotype and shared family environment. Response inhibition was assessed with the flanker task and short-term and working memory were assessed with digit span recall. We found MZ co-twin differences in DRD4 gene methylation predicted differences in short-term memory. MZ differences in COMT, DBH, DAT1, DRD1, and DRD2 gene methylation predicted differences in response inhibition. Taken together, findings suggest methylation status of dopaminergic genes may influence cognitive functions in a dissociable manner. Our results highlight the importance of the epigenome and environment, over and above the influence of genotype, in supporting complex cognitive functions.

Short-term Memory Comparison between Stunted and Non-Stunted Groups

Background : Long-term insufficient nutritional needs will directly impact on the development and maturation of brain function. Disruption of development and maturation process in the brain is associated with decreased cognitive abilities. Frequently, the effect of long-term nutritional insufficiency has also height deficits called stunting.This study aimed to compare the short-term memory between stunted and non-stunted groups. Methods : A comparative study was conducted on 30 children in a non stunted group and 30 children in a stunted group. Children in both groups were selected from one of the elementary schools in Jatinangor using the simple random sampling method toward 3–5 for grade and 8–10 for age groups. The measurement of memory aspects for short-term memory used the Digit Span Test (forward and backward) and Simbol Modality Test. Results : The collected data were in normal and not normal distribution because the statistical test used the independent-t test and Mann-Whitney. The mean memory score comparison between group 1 and group 2 on Digit Span Test Forward was 5.33:5.33 (p=0.994), Digit Span test Backward was 2.73:2.60 (p=0.440), and Symbol Modality Test was 20.90:19.60 (p=0.347). Conclusions : There is no significant difference in short-term memory between stunted and non–stunted groups, due to some confounding factors such as, environmental aspect, parent’s education level, socioeconomic, and genetic factors.

Attention allocation: Relationships to general working memory or specific language processing

Attention allocation, updating working memory, and language processing are interdependent cognitive tasks related to the focused direction of limited resources, refreshing and substituting information in the current focus of attention, and receiving/sending verbal communication, respectively. The current study systematically examined the relationship among executive attention, working memory executive skills, and language abilities while adjusting for individual differences in short-term memory. School-age children completed a selective attention task requiring them to recall whether a presented shape was in the same place as a previous target shape shown in an array imposing a low or high working memory load. Results revealed a selective attention cost when working above but not within memory span capacity. Measures of general working memory were positively related to overall task performance, whereas language abilities were related to response time. In particular, higher language skills were associated with faster responses under low load conditions. These findings suggest that attentional control and storage demands have an additive impact on working memory resources but provide only limited evidence for a domain-general mechanism in language learning.

Age differences in short-term memory binding are related to working memory performance across the lifespan.

Memory performance increases during childhood and adolescence, and decreases in old age. Among younger adults, better ability to bind items to the context in which they were experienced is associated with higher working memory performance (Oberauer, 2005). Here, we examined the extent to which age differences in binding contribute to life span age differences in short-term memory (STM). Younger children (N = 85; 10 to 12 years), teenagers (N = 41; 13 to 15 years), younger adults (N = 84; 20 to 25 years), and older adults (N = 86; 70 to 75 years) worked on global and local short-term recognition tasks that are assumed to measure item and item-context memory, respectively. Structural equation models showed that item-context bindings are functioning less well in children and older adults compared with younger adults and teenagers. This result suggests protracted development of the ability to form and recollect detailed short-term memories, and decline of this ability in aging. Across all age groups, better item-context binding was associated with higher working memory performance, indicating that developmental differences in binding mechanisms are closely related to working memory development in childhood and old age.

A Study on Difference in Short-Term Memory in Healthy Males and Females of Kerala

Journal of Nobel Medical College Vol. 2, No.2 Issue 4 May-October 2013 Page 57-61 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jonmc.v2i2.8807

Working Memory Capacity and Its Relation to Stroop Interference and Facilitation Effects in Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment

The purposes of the study were to investigate (a) the task-specific differences in short-term memory (STM) and working memory capacity (WMC) in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and normal elderly adults (NEAs), (b) the Stroop interference and facilitation effects, and (c) the relationship of STM and WMC to the Stroop effects. Thirty-two individuals participated in the study (n = 16 for each group). WMC demands were increased using a computerized Stroop-like token task to add more linguistic units. Six STM and WMC measures were administered overall. Digit-related tasks and an alphabet span task sensitively differentiated individuals with MCI from the NEA group. The group with MCI exhibited greater Stroop interference effects than the NEA group, but the 2 groups did not exhibit different Stroop facilitation effects. WMC significantly predicted performance on the response time analyses but not on the error rate analyses. Task-specific differences emerged in the group with MCI, and a reduced WMC accounts for the impaired inhibitory and goal maintenance processes. It is critical that WMC demands be systematically manipulated to tax individuals' WMC in a way that can clearly demonstrate their deficits, especially in individuals who are at risk for clinically demented states.

Input, Retention, and Output Factors Affecting Adult Age Differences in Visuospatial Short-Term Memory

The sources of age differences in short-term memory for spatial locations were explored in 2 experiments that examined factors related to input, to maintenance, and to output. In each experiment, 4 dots were presented briefly, followed after a retention interval by a probe dot, which was judged to either match or not match one of the 4 memory-set dots. Results showed that poorer performance by older adults could be attributed independently to reduced visual acuity, to less effective use of rehearsal strategies, and to differences in response biases.

Short-Term Memory in Signed Languages: Not Just a Disadvantage for Serial Recall

Short-Term Memory in Signed Languages: Not Just a Disadvantage for Serial Recall