Role Of Visuospatial Working Memory Research Articles

The relationship between math anxiety and math performance: The moderating role of visuospatial working memory

According to the processing efficiency theory (PET), math anxiety would interfere with working memory resources, negatively affecting mathematical abilities. To date, few studies have explored how the interaction between math anxiety and working memory would affect different types of math tasks, especially in primary school children. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore whether the interplay between math anxiety and working memory would influence performance in numerical operations (i.e., math fluency task) and mathematical reasoning (i.e., math reasoning task) in a group of primary school children (N = 202). Results showed that visuospatial working memory appeared to moderate the relationship between math anxiety and math performance when the math fluency task was considered, indicating that participants with higher levels of working memory were more negatively affected by math anxiety. No interaction effect was found for the math reasoning task in which students’ scores were explained only by visuospatial working memory. The findings suggest that math anxiety and visuospatial working memory interact to influence performance in the math fluency task and that this effect may vary depending on the strategies used to complete the task. On the other hand, results on the math reasoning task showed that visuospatial working memory continues to have a positive effect on the math performance independently of math anxiety. The implications in the educational setting are discussed, pointing to the importance of monitoring and intervention studies on affective factors.

Exploring the relationships between visuospatial working memory, math, letter-sound knowledge, motor competence, and gender in first grade children: A correlational study.

Development of crucial skills accelerates at the start of formal schooling, although, more knowledge is needed about the relationships between such skills. The current study explored the relationships between visuospatial working memory, letter-sound knowledge, math competence and motor competence, as well as potential effects of gender. The sample consisted of 85 (42 girls) 6 to 7 years old first grade children, and was measured with a test battery consisting of tests designed for each skill domain. Results demonstrated weak to moderate statistically significant correlations between visuospatial working memory, letter-sound knowledge, math competence, with no statistically significant gender differences. Two motor tasks measuring manual dexterity, placing bricks and building bricks, showed a weak statistically significant correlation. We argue that the findings demonstrate the relationships between these skills are low to moderate in first grade. Furthermore, we argue that these skills ought to be trained deliberately. The potential role of visuospatial working memory in procurement of novel skills in early childhood ought to be explored further in future studies.

Early Subitizing Development: The Role of Visuospatial Working Memory

The present study explored enumeration processes, serial counting and subitizing, in early childhood. Subitizing is a fast and accurate assessment of small quantities. Early quantitative processing is built off of a “parallel individuation” system, a domain-general, visuospatial system that allows infants to track small sets of objects. This system creates a precise mental model of every object in a small set, similar to subitizing. Subitizing ability helps children to acquire mature symbolic representation of numeral, and deficits in enumeration processes is associate to math disabilities. However, the role of development in enumeration processes and the role of visuospatial working memory is enumeration processes is largely unknown. Hence, in the present study, we tested visuospatial working memory’s role in subitizing development in preschoolers. We tested 3 to 5-year-old’s performance in enumeration and visuospatial working memory tasks. Performance in the subitizing range (one to four items) related to individual differences in visuospatial working memory and age, while performance for greater numericities in the serial counting range did not. Interestingly, controlling for visuospatial working memory span reduced the developmental effect of subitizing, suggesting that both visuospatial working memory and age can affect individual differences in subitizing in young children, which has implications for early childhood education.
 

Spatial Working Memory Counts: Evidence for a Specific Association Between Visuo-spatial Working Memory and Arithmetic in Children

We examined the role of visuo-spatial working memory in different types of arithmetic ability in children. Previous research had suggested that arithmetic is not a single entity (Dowker, 2005, 2015), and also that visuo-spatial working memory is specifically involved in mathematical cognition (McKenzie et al., 2003) There has, however, been little research on the relationships between visuo-spatial working memory and different types of arithmetic. We tested 39 children in Year 2 (6 to 7 years) and Year 4 (8 to 9 years), taking measures of written arithmetic, mental oral arithmetic, and derived fact strategy use (the ability to derive unknown arithmetical facts from known facts, by using arithmetical principles). We also measured visuo-spatial working memory, verbal comprehension, and spelling ability. We investigated the relationships between visuo-spatial working memory and our three arithmetic measures, as well as spelling and verbal comprehension, to test whether these effects were specific to mathematical abilities. We found that visuo-spatial working memory was specifically associated with both verbal oral and mental written arithmetic, and but not with spelling or derived fact strategy use.

Visuospatial working memory and the construction of a spatial situation model in listening comprehension: An examination using a spatial tapping task

The present study investigated how visuospatial working memory (VSWM) is involved in the construction of a spatial situation model for spatial passages presented auditorily. A simple spatial tapping condition, a complex tapping condition as a target-tracking task, and a control condition, were used to analyze the role of VSWM. To understand how individuals who differ in verbal working memory (VWM) capacity (determined with a listening span test) process spatial text during dual-task performance, individual differences in VWM capacity were analyzed. In two experiments, the participants listened to a spatial text at the same time as performing a spatial concurrent task or no concurrent task. The results of the free recall test in Experiment 1 showed that there were no differences between the tapping conditions in the high VWM capacity group; the low VWM capacity group had a lower performance in both spatial tapping tasks compared to the control condition. The results of the map drawing test in Experiment 2 showed that complex spatial tapping impaired performance in comparison to simple spatial tapping and the control condition in the high VWM capacity group; in the low VWM capacity group, both spatial tapping tasks impaired recall performance. In addition, the participants with high VWM capacity demonstrated better performance. Overall, the results suggest that individuals with high VWM capacity have more resources to process verbal and spatial information than those with low VWM capacity, indicating that VWM capacity is related to the degree of the involvement of VSWM.

Event related spectral perturbations of gesture congruity: Visuospatial resources are recruited for multimodal discourse comprehension

Here we examine the role of visuospatial working memory (WM) during the comprehension of multimodal discourse with co-speech iconic gestures. EEG was recorded as healthy adults encoded either a sequence of one (low load) or four (high load) dot locations on a grid and rehearsed them until a free recall response was collected later in the trial. During the rehearsal period of the WM task, participants observed videos of a speaker describing objects in which half of the trials included semantically related co-speech gestures (congruent), and the other half included semantically unrelated gestures (incongruent). Discourse processing was indexed by oscillatory EEG activity in the alpha and beta bands during the videos. Across all participants, effects of speech and gesture incongruity were more evident in low load trials than in high load trials. Effects were also modulated by individual differences in visuospatial WM capacity. These data suggest visuospatial WM resources are recruited in the comprehension of multimodal discourse.

Effect of Visuo-Spatial Working Memory on Distance Estimation in Map Learning

AbstractThis paper investigated the role of visuo-spatial working memory in distance estimation during map learning. Participants were asked to learn a map and perform a distance estimation task on the basis of the memorized map. The capacities of visual (i.e. visual cache) and spatial (i.e. inner scribe) components of visuo-spatial working memory were assessed for each participant and distance estimate errors were compared across high and low visuo-spatial capacity participants. The visual component predicted performance accuracy. In addition, low visual capacity participants provided longer distance estimates between two locations as a function of the number of intervening points between them. Although spatial component capacity also predicted estimated distances, it did not affect performance accuracy or estimated distance bias as a function of intervening points. It appears that distance is estimated on the basis of visual component capacity, and that low visual capacity individuals try to draw upon non-spatial information to support a limited visual capacity.

Probing the nature of deficits in the 'Approximate Number System' in children with persistent Developmental Dyscalculia.

In the present study we examined whether children with Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) exhibit a deficit in the so-called 'Approximate Number System' (ANS). To do so, we examined a group of elementary school children who demonstrated persistent low math achievement over 4years and compared them to typically developing (TD), aged-matched controls. The integrity of the ANS was measured using the Panamath (www.panamath.org) non-symbolic numerical discrimination test. Children with DD demonstrated imprecise ANS acuity indexed by larger Weber fraction (w) compared to TD controls. Given recent findings showing that non-symbolic numerical discrimination is affected by visual parameters, we went further and investigated whether children performed differently on trials on which number of dots and their overall area were either congruent or incongruent with each other. This analysis revealed that differences in w were only found between DD and TD children on the incongruent trials. In addition, visuo-spatial working memory strongly predicts individual differences in ANS acuity (w) during the incongruent trials. Thus the purported ANS deficit in DD can be explained by a difficulty in extracting number from an array of dots when area is anti-correlated with number. These data highlight the role of visuo-spatial working memory during the extraction process, and demonstrate that close attention needs to be paid to perceptual processes invoked by tasks thought to represent measures of the ANS.

The Roles of the Central Executive and Visuospatial Storage in Mental Arithmetic: A Comparison across Strategies

Previous research has demonstrated that working memory plays an important role in arithmetic. Different arithmetical strategies rely on working memory to different extents—for example, verbal working memory has been found to be more important for procedural strategies, such as counting and decomposition, than for retrieval strategies. Surprisingly, given the close connection between spatial and mathematical skills, the role of visuospatial working memory has received less attention and is poorly understood. This study used a dual-task methodology to investigate the impact of a dynamic spatial n-back task (Experiment 1) and tasks loading the visuospatial sketchpad and central executive (Experiment 2) on adults’ use of counting, decomposition, and direct retrieval strategies for addition. While Experiment 1 suggested that visuospatial working memory plays an important role in arithmetic, especially when counting, the results of Experiment 2 suggested this was primarily due to the domain-general executive demands of the n-back task. Taken together, these results suggest that maintaining visuospatial information in mind is required when adults solve addition arithmetic problems by any strategy but the role of domain-general executive resources is much greater than that of the visuospatial sketchpad.

Differential role of visuospatial working memory in the propensity toward uncertainty in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder and in healthy subjects

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with visuospatial working memory deficits. Intolerance of uncertainty is thought to be a core component of OCD symptoms. Recent findings argue for a possible relationship between abilities in visuospatial memory and uncertainty. However, this relationship remains unclear in both OCD patients and healthy subjects. To address this issue, we measured performance in visuospatial working memory and the propensity to express uncertainty during decision making. We assessed their relationship and the temporal direction of this relationship in both OCD patients and healthy subjects. Baseline abilities in visuospatial working memory were measured with the Corsi block-tapping test. A delayed matching-to-sample task was used to identify explicit situations of certainty, uncertainty and ignorance and to assess continuous performance in visuospatial working memory. Behavioural variables were recorded over 360 consecutive trials in both groups. Baseline scores of visuospatial working memory did not predict the number of uncertain situations in OCD patients whereas they did in healthy subjects. Uncertain trials led to reduced abilities in visuospatial working memory to 65% of usual performance in OCD patients whereas they remained stable in healthy subjects. The present findings show an opposite temporal direction in the relationship between abilities in working memory and uncertainty in OCD patients and healthy subjects. Poor working memory performance contributes to the propensity to feel uncertainty in healthy subjects whereas uncertainty contributes to decreased continuous performance in working memory in OCD patients.

Individual differences in the development of early writing skills: testing the unique contribution of visuo-spatial working memory

Visually mediated processes including, exposure to print (e.g. reading) as well as orthographic transcription and coding skills, have been found to contribute to individual differences in literacy development. The current study examined the role of visuospatial working memory (WM) in underpinning this relationship and emergent writing. One hundred and forty-three children in their first year of the UK educational system participated. Hierarchical regressions revealed that visuo-spatial WM predicted a unique proportion of the variance in spelling and independent text writing ability after nonverbal cognitive ability, phonological WM, visual perceptual processing and orthographic transcription skills had been taken into account. Further, they also revealed for the spelling of individual words the unique contribution made by short-term memory retention of the orthographic structure of those words is particularly important. This contrasted with the unique contribution of short-term visuo-spatial coding of novel and unfamiliar visual stimuli for the development of independent writing skills.

Role of visuo-spatial working memory in path integration disorders in neglect

This paper investigates the relationship between memory deficits and navigational ability in neglect. In recent studies (Piccardi et al., 2008a, 2010; Bianchini et al., 2010), a dissociation was found in visuo-spatial memory for peripersonal/reaching space and visuo-spatial memory for navigational space, suggesting that the latter is processed by a specific system devoted to storing environmental information for navigational purposes (Piccardi et al., 2010). Specific deficits have also been described in neglect patients in navigational tasks requiring to memorize and retrieve a target location in a real environment. In order to analyze the relation between visuo-spatial memory for different type of space (reaching vs navigational) and its relation with navigational processes, in the present study, we compared the performance of right brain-damaged patients with and without neglect on visuo-spatial memory both in peripersonal/reaching (Corsi Block-Tapping test) and in navigational (Walking Corsi test Laser) space with performances on navigational tests (a human version of the Morris Water Maze). Results indicate that a specific deficit in navigational working memory affects navigational ability in neglect patients. Indeed, neglect patients' difficulty in using path integration to navigate in the environment is directly correlated with a deficit in visuo-spatial working memory. These results support the existence of a specific memory system devoted to representing environmental information for navigational purposes and separate from visuo-spatial memory systems, which stores information in peripersonal/reaching space.

Some factors underlying mathematical performance: The role of visuospatial working memory and non-verbal intelligence

Passive and active visuospatial working memory (VSWM) were investigated in relation to maths performance. The mental rotation task was employed as a measure of active VSWM whereas passive VSWM was investigated using a modified Corsi Blocks task and a matrix pattern task. The Raven Progressive Matrices Test measured fluid intelligence. A total of 128 students, aged 15–16, served as participants. Fluid intelligence and passive VSWM accounted for variance in overall maths performance. Active VSWM exhibited significant correlations with maths measures, but in a series of regression analyses most of its effect was observed to be mediated by fluid intelligence. Different subscores of mathematical skills (geometry, word problems, and mental arithmetic) were accounted for by fluid intelligence and different measures of VSWM. The educational implications of the results are discussed.

The role of visuo-spatial working memory in map learning: new findings from a map drawing paradigm

Recently, increasing attention has been devoted to the study of the role of visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) in environmental learning and spatial navigation. The present research was aimed at investigating the role of VSWM in map learning using a map drawing paradigm. In the first study, a dual task methodology was used. Results showed that map drawing was selectively impaired by a spatial tapping task that was executed during the map learning phase, hence supporting the hypothesis that VSWM plays an essential role in learning from maps. In the second study, using a correlational methodology, it was shown that performance in simultaneous VSWM tasks, but not in sequential VSWM tasks, predicted map drawing skills. These skills "in turn" correlated with map learning abilities. Finally, in the third study, we replicated the results of the second study, by using a different map. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to find evidence that the simultaneous aspects of VSWM play a fundamental role in learning from maps.