Verbal Mediation Research Articles

Individual differences in the capacity limitations of visuospatial short-term memory: Research on sighted and totally congenitally blind people

The study of visuospatial imagery processes in totally congenitally blind people makes it possible to understand the specific contribution of visual experience for imagery processes. We argue that blind people may have visuospatial imagery processes, but they suffer from some capacity limitations. Similar, although smaller, limitations and individual differences may be found in sighted people. Visuospatial imagery capacity was explored by asking people to follow an imaginary pathway through either two- or three-dimensional matrices of different complexity. The blind appear to use specific visuospatial processes in this task (Experiments 2 and 3), but they have difficulty with three-dimensional matrices; sighted people have no such difficulty with three-dimensional matrices (Experiment 1). On the other hand, when a three-dimensional pattern exceeded sighted capacity, the blind and sighted showed similar patterns of errors. Subsequent analyses suggested that both visuospatial processes and verbal mediation were used.

Performance of long-stay schizophrenics on matched verbal and visuospatial recall tasks

A verbal and a visuospatial recall task were compared for discriminating power, using the matched-tasks methodology. These tasks were administered to long-hospitalized schizophrenics. No evidence of a differential deficit, that is, better recall of either the verbal or the visuospatial materials, emerged in the patients. The results replicate a former finding showing no difference between verbal and visuospatial recall in schizophrenics, using memory tasks which were less sensitive as left- and right-hemisphere measures and a non-verbal task less affected by verbal mediation. This replication questions the assumption that the hemispheric differences observed in schizophrenics affect such memory tasks.

The development of posttraumatic stress disorder following four different types of traumatization

The Children's Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Inventory (CPTSDI) was used to idenitify 230 childhood posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cases. Of these cases, 58 had been traumatized through direct experience, 128 through observation, 13 through verbal mediation, and 31 by combinations thereof. The 230 children and 35 controls completed the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS) and the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). In addition, their conduct was rated on the Connor's Teacher Rating Scale (CTRS) criteria. Each of the PTSD groups had significantly greater RCMAS, CDI, and CTRS scores than the non-clinical controls, but there were no differences between the four types of PTSD cases.

Wheelchair transfer training in a stroke patient with neglect: A single case study design

Two therapeutic strategies aimed at teaching a left hemiplegic patient with neglect to transfer from his wheelchair to his bed were compared. Therapist-directed instruction (verbal prompting) was compared with patient-directed instruction (verbal mediation). The patient's performance improved using both strategies. The improvement was greater using the verbal mediation strategy, which enabled the patient to transfer more independently. It is suggested that therapists should utilise the preserved language function in patients with visuo-spatial disabilities to teach them motor tasks.

Tweaking the lexicon: Organization of vowel sequences into words

The ability of listeners to distinguish between different arrangements of the same three vowels was investigated for repeating sequences having item durations ranging from 10 msec (single glottal pulses) up to several seconds/vowel. Discrimination was accomplished with ease by untrained subjects at all item durations. From 30 through 100 msec/vowel, an especially interesting phenomenon was encountered: The sequences of steady-state vowels were organized into words, with different words heard for the different arrangements of items. In a second experiment, repeating sequences of random arrangements of 10 40-msec vowels were employed. When sets of four such sequences were presented to listeners, distinctive words were heard, which permitted each arrangement to be discriminated from the others. In addition, minimal differences (reversing the order of a single contiguous pair of vowels) in the 10-item sequences could be detected via verbal mediation. Hypotheses are offered concerning mechanisms responsible for these results.

Language development in preschoolers with cleft

Sixty‐five children with cleft lip and/or palate, ages 4, 5, and 6, were examined on several measures of language and memory development. No consistent sex or cleft‐type differences were noted; thus the group was compared, as a whole, to normative standards. The cleft group showed average abilities on measures of vocabulary definition, verbal analogies, and auditory memory span. However, the group showed significant delays on picture categorization and visual and intersensory memory measures. These measures appear to require verbal mediation. Therefore, children with clefts appear to have a delay in a specific type of language development, rather than generalized language delays.

Verbalization of appropriate and inappropriate cues in discrimination reversal learning by moderately mentally retarded children.

Effects of verbalization on discrimination reversal learning for moderately mentally retarded children were examined under three training conditions. Predicted results indicated that verbalization of both appropriate and inappropriate cues within relevant dimension significantly facilitated reversal shift performance, as compared to verbalization of only appropriate cues or non-verbalization. Results were interpreted to be due to the fact that verbalization of both appropriate and inappropriate cues actually served to utilize attentional or verbal mediators in terms of combining appropriate with inappropriate cues within relevant stimulus dimension.

Cognitive mapping after unilateral temporal lobectomy

An investigation of the extension of O'Keefe and Nadel's [ The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1978] theory of hippocampal functioning is described in patients who have undergone unilateral temporal lobectomy for the relief of epilepsy. A new spatial task, incorporating a recall-for-designs test but based on studies of spatial memory and cognitive mapping in animals was devised. Results supported the prediction of temporal lobe structure involvement in the mediation of non-egocentric but not egocentric space, and of the role of right temporal lobe structures in conditions designed to encourage “place” but not “cue” learning strategies. The role of verbal mediation in task performance is also discussed.

Sex differences in the lateralization of spatial abilities: A spatial component analysis of extreme group scores

Sex differences in the cerebral lateralization of two discrete components of spatial processing were investigated in high and low ability males and females using the dual-task paradigm. In the first phase of the experiment, the results indicated a pattern of right hemispheric control for a spatial visualization component, regardless of sex and ability level. In the processing of the spatial orientation component of spatial ability, high ability males and females showed left hemispheric lateralization, whereas low ability males and females displayed right hemispheric control. In the second phase of this study, it was observed that high ability females and low ability males may use a verbal mediation strategy in processing spatial visualization tasks. No verbal mediation effects were found for the spatial orientation component.

Neuropsychological perspectives on delinquency

AbstractNeuropsychological studies of delinquents have revealed characteristic deficits in skills that require verbal mediation, conceptual integration, impulse control, anticipation of consequences of actions, and the utilization of feedback from behavior to modify maladaptive response patterns. Formulations of this impairment pattern in terms of frontal lobe and left hemisphere dysfunction are reviewed. The role of verbal mediation in the development of a stable personality and the capacity for self‐control is discussed. It is proposed that the neuropsychodynamic profile of the delinquent is dominated by an inability to form a self‐referential conceptual classification system and that this predisposes to behavioral disinhibition under conditions of stress or interpersonal conflict. The relationship between language development, moral cognition, and social behavior is examined and therapeutic and dispositional implications are discussed. Finally, the general role of neuropsychological models in personality and social theory is addressed.

Serial position memory of boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Ten male patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and 10 age-matched controls were tested with the WISC-R and a memory test requiring recall of the serial positions of drawings of easily named objects. After statistically controlling for differences in IQ, the two groups did not differ in their ability to recall the most recently presented items. However, the DMD patients were severely impaired in remembering items presented early in the list. The DMD patients also performed poorly on the WISC-R subtests Digit Span and Arithmetic. This pattern of impairment is discussed in terms of possible verbal mediation and attentional deficits.

Amnesic Patients Can Benefit from Instructions to Use Imagery: Evidence Against the Cognitive Mediation Hypothesis

Six bi-temporal amnesics and seven Korsakoff patients were compared on paired associate learning under four different conditions, rote learning, images provided, images self generated, verbal mediation. Both imagery manipulations produced better learning than either rote learning or verbal mediation but the latter two conditions did not differ. The data are interpreted as arguing against an interpretation of amnesia in terms of cognitive mediation. The two patient groups behaved similarly in the experiment, thus suggesting that immediate recall of paired-associates learning does not differentiate different forms of organic amnesia.

The Function of Verbal Mediation in Comprehending Works of Art: A Comparison of Three Cultures

The Function of Verbal Mediation in Comprehending Works of Art: A Comparison of Three Cultures

Sex differences in lateralization for spatial abilities

Sex differences in cerebral lateralization for spatial abilities were studied using a dual-task paradigm. In the first phase of this experiment, both males and females were found to display similar cerebral lateralization patterns for manipulospatial processing of block designs across two levels of difficulty. There was no evidence of laterality effects in right-hand or left-hand tapping, but analysis of trade-off effects revealed that both males and females took significantly longer to solve the block designs when simultaneously tapping with the right hand and manipulating the block designs with the left hand. No specific lateralization patterns were found either within or between sexes. In Phase 2 of this study, it was observed that females may use a verbal mediation strategy in manipulospatial processing insofar as interference effects were found during concurrent vocalization and manipulospatial processing in females.

Verbal mediation underlying inductive reasoning: Cognitive tempo differences

A verbal mediation strategy underlying successful inductive reasoning and its differential utilization by impulsive and reflective children was explored. Eighty children ( M age = 11.17) were identified as impulsive or reflective and subsequently administered an inductive reasoning task composed of figural matrices. The two cognitive tempo groups were equally distributed across four independent conditions intended to differentially encourage a verbal mediation strategy: standard administration or control (C), constrained nonverbal attention (A), experimenter-provided verbal cues (EL), and subject-elicited verbal cues (SL). These groups were given two task administrations: no verbal interference in Session 1 and verbal interference (i.e., concurrent word shadowing) in Session 2. The hypothesized verbal mediation strategy would be supported most clearly by a differential decrement in performance in the verbal conditions caused by the addition of verbal interference. Both impulsives and reflectives exhibited higher accuracy and lengthened response times in the EL and SL conditions without interference. However, only reflectives in the SL group demonstrated disrupted performance (decreased accuracy and shortened latency) with the verbal interference. It is proposed that reflectives may have incorporated the verbal labels into a covert verbal mediation strategy, whereas impulsives utilized the cues to construct a visual mental representation.

Effects of blurring and stimulus size on the lateralized processing of nonverbal stimuli

Right-handed subjects indicated whether two novel, nonlinguistic stimuli were physically identical or not. In Experiment 1 blurring these stimuli impaired performance when stimuli were projected to the right visual field but not when stimuli were projected to the left visual field. This lateralized effect of blurring is similar to earlier findings in letter-matching experiments and indicates that such effects do not depend on hemispheric differences in verbal mediation. Experiment 2 examined the lateralized effects of stimulus size using the same task as Experiment 1. The pattern of results from this experiment suggests that both visual spatial frequency and stimulus perceptibility contribute to interactions of stimulus clarity and visual field and that neither factor by itself may be the sole determinant of the lateralized effects of input variables.

Neuropsychology of the aggressive psychopath: An integrative review

Neuropsychological studies of aggressive psychopaths have revealed characteristic deficits in skills that require verbal mediation, conceptual integration, and the abilities to anticipate consequences of actions and to use feedback from behavior to modify maladaptive response patterns. Formulations of this impairment pattern in terms of frontal lobe and left hemisphere dysfunction are reviewed. It is proposed that the aggressive psychopath suffers from an inability to form a self-referential conceptual classification system for behavioral control and that this predisposes to behavioral disinhibition in situations of stress and interpersonal ambiguity. Finally, implications of neuropsychological studies of aggressive psychopathy for the study of personality and psychopathology are discussed. Language: en

An observation of age-related asymmetry in the complexity of verbal mediator components

College-age and elderly subjects were required to give verbal mediators for consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) pairs varying in associability level, where associability was defined as the scaled likelihood of a CVC pair’s yielding a verbal mediator. The complexity of each elaboration of each of the components of the pairs was then determined to investigate potential differences in mediator formation between the two groups of subjects. In agreement with previous findings, the younger subjects tended to elaborate the stimulus term more than the response term. However, the elderly subjects elaborated the response term significantly more, and there was a trend for this to occur more with low-associability pairs.

Further analysis of encoding in patients with Huntington's disease

Arguments favoring the view that derangement of normal encoding processes contributes to the memory defects of patients with Huntington's disease (HD) are supported by the finding that HD patients do not learn highly imageable words more rapidly than they learn words that are difficult to image. But other data indicating that HD patients can use verbal mediators as mnemonic aids for picture recognition question the existence of important and general encoding deficits in HD. In the first of two experiments the influence of imagery on the acquisition and recall of 14-word lists was studied using a free-recall paradigm. Both HD patients and controls learned highly imageable words more quickly and retained them better than low imagery words over a 30-min delay. The impact of imagery on learning was apparent by the first trial. In the second experiment, a modified Brown-Peterson distractor paradigm was used to assess release from proactive interference (PI). It was found that both HD patients and controls exhibited comparable release from PI following a shift in taxonomic categories. The results of both experiments question the importance of encoding deficits in the memorial dysfunctions associated with HD.

Factor structure of Benton's tests of visual retention, visual construction, and visual form discrimination

The standard drawing and multiple-choice versions of the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT), the Visual Form Discrimination Test (VFDT), the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised Digit Span subtest were administered to a mixed sample of 97 psychiatric, neurologic, and control subjects. Factor analysis of the Benton test battery measures alone showed that the standard and multiple-choice BVRT protocols performed very similarly. Scoring of the standard BVRT for errors and number of correct items was shown to be statistically redundant for this sample. Possible simplification of standard BVRT scoring was suggested. Copying and immediate visual-memory skills emerged as separable factors on the standard BVRT. When the AVLT and Digit Span measures were factor analyzed with the Benton lest battery measures, however, simple factorial structure emerged only for the AVLT measures (one factor) and the BVRT copying measures that were grouped with the VFDT. A verbal mediation component was thought to be associated with the multifactorial BVRT and multiple-choice BVRT results in this analysis.