Visuospatial Working Memory Span Research Articles

고령 운전자의 안전운전행동과 인지 능력 간의 상관 연구: 시공간적 작업기억 능력과 운동 제어 능력을 중심으로

Objective : This study aimed to investigate the correlation between subjective and objective evaluations of visuo-spatial working memory and motor control abilities for safe driving among elderly drivers.
 Methods : This study evaluated safe driving behavior among Korean elderly drivers aged 60 and above using the Korean safe driving behavior measure (K-SDBM), Spatial Span Test(SST), and Finger Tapping Test(FTT), and conducted a pearson correlation analysis. 
 Results : The results showed that visuo-spatial working memory span in spatial span test was negatively correlated with the score of the ‘driving situations that require concentration’ factor in the K-SDBM. In addition, the finger tapping test showed a positive correlation between the total number of right hand taps and the ‘general driving skills’ factor in the K-SDBM. This indicates a discrepancy between the subjective cognitive abilities perceived by elder drivers and their objective cognitive abilities.
 Conclusion : This study suggests that both subjective driving behavior measures and objective cognitive tests should be used together to assess the safety of elder drivers.

Impact of Suspected Preterm Labor during Pregnancy on Cardiometabolic Profile and Neurodevelopment during Childhood: A Prospective Cohort Study Protocol.

Suspected preterm labor (SPL), defined as the presence of regular and painful uterine contractions and cervical shortening, represents a prenatal insult with potential long-term consequences. However, despite recent evidence demonstrating suboptimal neurodevelopment at 2 years in this population, it remains underestimated as a significant risk factor for neurodevelopmental disorders or other chronic diseases. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of suspected preterm labor during pregnancy on cardiometabolic profile and neurodevelopment during childhood (6-8 years). Prospective cohort study including children whose mothers suffered suspected preterm labour during pregnancy and paired controls. Neurodevelopmental, cardiovascular, and metabolic assessments will be performed at 6-8 years of age. A trained psychologist will carry out the neurodevelopment assessment including intelligence, visual perception, and behavioral assessment. Body composition and physical fitness assessment will be performed by one trained pediatrician and nurse. Finally, cardiovascular evaluation, including echocardiography and blood pressure, will be performed by two pediatric cardiologists. Data regarding perinatal and postnatal characteristics, diet, lifestyle, and weekly screen time of the child will be obtained from medical history and direct interviews with families. Primary outcome measures will include body mass index and adiposity, percentage of fat mass and total and regional lean mass, bone mineral content and density, cardiorespiratory resistance, isometric muscle strength, dynamic lower body strength, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, left ventricle (LV) systolic and diastolic function, general intelligence index, visuospatial working memory span, oculomotor control test, index of emotional, and behavioral problems.

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.
 

Locomotion and Topographical Working Memory in Children With Myelomeningocele and Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita.

Background: In children with myelomeningocele (MMC) and arthrogryposis multiplex congenital (AMC), adequate rehabilitation measures are accessible with the goal of attaining the utmost motor development. However, there is a lack of knowledge as to how children develop navigation utilizing their locomotion abilities. The aim of the present study was to explore topographic working memory in children with MMC and AMC.Methods: For this purpose, we assessed 41 children with MMC and AMC, assigned an ambulation group, and 120 typical developing (TD) children, with mean ages of 11.9, 10.6, and 9.9 years, respectively. All groups performed a topographic working memory test while moving in a walking space and a visuospatial working memory test in a reaching space. Children with MMC and AMC also performed a test to measure their ability to reason on visuospatial material, Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices.Results: The topographic working memory span was shorter in the MMC group than in the TD group. In general, all ambulation groups had a shorter topographic working memory span than the TD group. The visuospatial working memory span was shorter in the non-ambulation group than in the TD group. Scores from the visuospatial reasoning test were lower in the non-ambulation group than in the community ambulation group.Conclusions: Even though a higher cognitive score was found in the community ambulation group than in the non-ambulation group, topographic working memory was affected similarly in both groups. Including children who develop community ambulation in therapy programs containing aspects of navigation may gain even children with low levels of MMC and AMC. These results evidenced the importance of motor development and navigational experience gained through direct exploration of the environment on topographic memory.

The importance of the body-specificity in the evaluation of visuospatial working memory

ABSTRACT This work is rooted in the embodied cognition paradigm applied to the evaluation of visuospatial memory span. We aimed to test whether manuospatial incompatibility affects the evaluation of visuospatial working memory. Older and younger participants were tested under two different spatial field conditions, namely manuospatial incompatibility and manuospatial compatibility, using the standard Corsi Block Tapping Task. The results show that a manuospatial compatibility condition helped both younger and older participants to increase their visuospatial working memory span compared to the traditional manuospatial incompatibility condition. By analyzing the data, our results showed an increase of visuospatial memory span in manuospatial compatibility condition (i.e., the experimenter using his left hand and the participant his right hand) compared to manuospatial incompatibility condition for younger and older adults. We recommend that the interaction between body and cognition would be taken into account in clinical evaluation methods.

Mathematics students demonstrate superior visuo-spatial working memory to humanities students under conditions of low central executive processing load

Previous research has demonstrated that working memory performance is linked to mathematics achievement. Most previous studies have involved children and arithmetic rather than more advanced forms of mathematics. This study compared the performance of groups of adult mathematics and humanities students. Experiment 1 employed verbal and visuo-spatial working memory span tasks using a novel face-matching processing element. Results showed that mathematics students had greater working memory capacity in the visuo-spatial domain only. Experiment 2 replicated this and demonstrated that neither visuo-spatial short-term memory nor endogenous spatial attention explained the visuo-spatial working memory differences. Experiment 3 used working memory span tasks with more traditional verbal or visuo-spatial processing elements to explore the effect of processing type. In this study mathematics students showed superior visuo-spatial working memory capacity only when the processing involved had a comparatively low level of central executive involvement. Both visuo-spatial working memory capacity and general visuo-spatial skills predicted mathematics achievement.

The role of working memory sub-components in food choice and dieting success

Evidence suggests a role for self-reported working memory (WM) in self-reported food intake, but it is not known which WM sub-components are involved. It is also important to consider how individual differences in dietary restraint and disinhibition influence WM and the impact of this on food choice. The current study assessed the relationship between WM sub-components and food choice, using computerised measures of WM sub-components and a direct assessment of food intake. The role of dieting success (measured by restraint and disinhibition) as a distal predictor of food choice that influences food choices via WM, and the role of WM more generally in dieting success were investigated. Female undergraduate students (N = 117, mean age: 18.9 years, mean BMI: 21.6 kg/m2) completed computer tasks assessing three components of WM (updating, phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad) and a snack food taste-test. Greater visuospatial WM span was associated with a higher (lower) percentage of food intake that was low (high) energy dense. It was also found that unsuccessful dieters (high restraint, high disinhibition) had poorer visuospatial WM span and consumed a lower (higher) percentage of low (high) energy dense food. Visuospatial WM span significantly mediated the relationship between dieting success and percentage of low energy dense food intake. Further, dietary restraint was associated with poorer updating ability, irrespective of disinhibition. These findings suggest that better visuospatial WM is associated with a greater (reduced) preference for low (high) energy dense foods, and that deficits in visuospatial WM may undermine dieting attempts. Future work should assess whether the ability to deal with food cravings mediates the relationship between visuospatial WM and dieting success and investigate how WM may influence the mechanisms underlying behavioural control.

The Facilitative Effect of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Visuospatial Working Memory in Patients with Diabetic Polyneuropathy: A Pre-post Sham-Controlled Study.

Diabetes mellitus can lead to diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN) and cognitive deficits that manifest as peripheral and central neuropathy, respectively. In this study we investigated the relationship between visuospatial working memory (VSWM) capacity and DPN severity, and attempted to improve VSWM in DPN patients via the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Sixteen DPN patients and 16 age- and education-matched healthy control subjects received Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA) for baseline cognitive assessment. A forward- and backward-recall computerized Corsi block tapping task (CBT), both with and without a concurrent motor interference task was used to measure VSWM capacity. Each DPN patient underwent a pre-treatment CBT, followed by tDCS or sham treatment, then a post-treatment CBT on two separate days. We found that although patients with severe DPN (Dyck’s grade 2a or 2b) showed comparable general intelligence scores on WAIS-IV as their age- and education-matched healthy counterparts, they nonetheless showed mild cognitive impairment (MCI) on MOCA and working memory deficit on digit-span test of WAIS-IV. Furthermore, patients’ peripheral nerve conduction velocity (NCV) was positively correlated with their VSWM span in the most difficult CBT condition that involved backward-recall with motor interference such that patients with worse NCV also had lower VSWM span. Most importantly, anodal tDCS over the right DLPFC was able to improve low-performing patients’ VSWM span to be on par with the high-performers, thereby eliminating the correlation between NCV and VSWM. In summary, these findings suggest that (1) MCI and severe peripheral neuropathy can coexist with unequal severity in diabetic patients, (2) the positive correlation of VSWM and NCV suggests a link between peripheral and central neuropathies, and (3) anodal tDCS over the right DLPFC can improve DPN patients’ VSWM, particularly for the low-performing patients.

Forgetting what you have checked: A link between working memory impairment and checking behaviors in obsessive-compulsive disorder

BackgroundCompulsive checking behaviors are common in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Several authors have suggested that these checking rituals could be related to memory deficits. Our aim was to test whether patients with OCD show working memory impairment in relation to their checking behavior. MethodsWe evaluated the verbal and visuospatial components of patients’ and controls’ working memory using the reading span and backward location span tests. Checking behaviors were measured by recording participants’ eye movements during an image comparison task using a non-invasive, infra-red TOBII 1750 eyetracker. Participants were seated, head-free, in a natural position in front of the eyetracker screen where the images were displayed. ResultsPatients with OCD made more gaze moves to compare images than controls. Both patients’ working memory spans were reduced, and the patients’ deficit in the comparison task was negatively related to their working memory spans. ConclusionsThis work demonstrates that checking behavior in OCD is linked to a general reduction of the patients’ verbal and visuospatial working memory span.

Proactive interference and practice effects in visuospatial working memory span task performance

In the current study the influence of proactive interference (PI) and practice on recall from a visuospatial working memory (WM) task was examined. Participants completed a visuospatial WM span task under either high-PI conditions (a traditional span task) or low-PI conditions (a span task with breaks between trials). Trials of each length (i.e., two to five to-be-remembered items) were equally distributed across three blocks in order to examine practice effects. Recall increased across blocks to a greater extent in the low-PI condition than in the high-PI condition, indicating that reducing PI increased recall from WM. Additionally, in the final block the correlation between fluid intelligence and WM recall was stronger for the high-PI condition than the low-PI condition, indicating that practice reduced the strength of the correlation between span task recall and fluid intelligence, but only in the low-PI condition. These results support current theories that propose that one source of variability in recall from WM span task is the build-up of PI, and that PI build-up is an important contributing factor to the relation between visuospatial WM span task recall and higher-level cognition.

The Role of Structure in Age-Related Increases in Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Span

Psychologica Belgica is the official journal of the Belgian Association for Psychological Sciences (BAPS). BAPS promotes the development of psychological sciences in Belgium, at both fundamental and applied research levels. The journal ensures rigorous peer-review to maintain research integrity.Psychological Belgica makes publications available online as soon as they are finalised. All publications are open access, making research available free of charge and without delay.The journal has a 2020 Impact Factor of 1.524 and a 5 year impact factor of 2.375.Subscribe to content alerts and other journal news here. You can also follow the journal on ResearchGate.

Interference, aging, and visuospatial working memory: The role of similarity.

Older adults' performance on working memory (WM) span tasks is known to be negatively affected by the buildup of proactive interference (PI) across trials. PI has been reduced in verbal tasks and performance increased by presenting distinctive items across trials. In addition, reversing the order of trial presentation (i.e., starting with the longest sets first) has been shown to reduce PI in both verbal and visuospatial WM span tasks. We considered whether making each trial visually distinct would improve older adults' visuospatial WM performance, and whether combining the 2 PI-reducing manipulations, distinct trials and reversed order of presentation, would prove additive, thus providing even greater benefit. Forty-eight healthy older adults (age range = 60-77 years) completed 1 of 3 versions of a computerized Corsi block test. For 2 versions of the task, trials were either all visually similar or all visually distinct, and were presented in the standard ascending format (shortest set size first). In the third version, visually distinct trials were presented in a reverse order of presentation (longest set size first). Span scores were reliably higher in the ascending version for visually distinct compared with visually similar trials, F(1, 30) = 4.96, p = .03, η² = .14. However, combining distinct trials and a descending format proved no more beneficial than administering the descending format alone. Our findings suggest that a more accurate measurement of the visuospatial WM span scores of older adults (and possibly neuropsychological patients) might be obtained by reducing within-test interference.

Short article: Age and synchrony effects in visuospatial working memory

Younger and older adults were administered a computerized version of the Corsi Block visuospatial working memory (VSWM) span task at either their peak or off-peak time of day and in either a high-interference (ascending order of administration, starting with short lists first) or low-interference (descending order, starting with longest lists first) format. Young adults' span scores were highest in the ascending format. By contrast, older adults performed better in the low-interference format, replicating findings with verbal memory span studies. Although both age groups benefited from being tested at their peak time, the advantage was far greater for older adults, but only in the low-interference format; their scores on the high-interference format were not helped by peak-time testing. These findings are consistent with the suggestion that young adults' performance on span tasks is influenced by practice and strategies, but the performance of older adults is heavily influenced by interference-which is best controlled at peak times of day. Our findings suggest that both time of testing and interference play critical roles in determining age differences in VSWM span, and both a reduction in interference and peak-time testing may be necessary to optimize older adults' performance and to maximize the reduction in age differences.

A cross-language study of verbal and visuospatial working memory span

This cross-language study of working memory compared 30 English speakers and 30 Mandarin Chinese speakers on backward and forward digit and spatial span. Mandarin speakers had greater spans on forward digit and spatial span than did English speakers. Effects were most significant for digit span where the mean score of the English speakers was equivalent to the lowest individual score from Mandarin speakers. Shorter articulation time for digits in spoken Mandarin may account for higher digit spans than those observed in English. The current study indicates that clinical applications of working memory tests should consider cross-language effects, particularly in the evaluation of verbal working memory deficits.

The effects of smoking and smoking abstinence on verbal and visuospatial working memory capacity.

Several studies have examined the effects of smoking and abstaining from smoking on working memory (WM) but have yielded inconclusive findings. Thus, the authors used a repeated measures design to assess the effects of smoking and abstaining from smoking on both visuospatial and verbal WM capacity (WMC) using highly reliable, well-validated, and theoretically driven WM span tasks. Verbal n-back was also administered to examine its relationship to these complex WM span tasks and to compare this study's results with previous findings. Smokers (n=23) and nonsmokers (n=21) participated in 2 sessions separated by 1 week. During 1 session, smokers completed the WM tasks after abstaining from smoking for at least 12 hr, whereas in the other session smokers did not abstain from smoking and were tested immediately after smoking (all WM tasks were completed 45 min or less since last cigarette). Results indicated that smokers' verbal WM span was lower than nonsmokers' and was lower during the nonabstinent session compared with the abstinent session. Smokers' verbal n-back performance was also lower than nonsmokers', although there was no difference in verbal n-back performance between the smoking sessions. In contrast, there was no difference in visuospatial WM span between the smoking sessions or between smokers and nonsmokers. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that (a) smokers' verbal WM is lower than nonsmokers, (b) smokers' verbal WMC is lower during nonabstinence compared with abstinence, and (c) smoking exhibits differential effects on the different WM domains.

Individual Differences in Visuospatial Working Memory Capacity and Distractor Inhibition

Studies examining individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) show differences between individuals with low-WMC and individuals with high-WMC. This extreme-group design was used to address relationships between individual differences in visuospatial WMC and distractor inhibition. We examined the patterns of errors made on two visuospatial working-memory span tasks (selective matrix task, visual matrix task). We recorded intrusion errors as indicators of inefficient inhibitory mechanisms, and spatial errors as indicators of degraded memory traces. Results indicate that on both tasks, low-span participants make more intrusion errors and spatial errors than high-span participants. Results are discussed in terms of the ability to inhibit distractors, to control the focus of attention, and to guide search from memory.

Gender differences in remembering and inferring spatial distances

The abilities of males and females to make spatial inferences were compared. Spatial inference is concerned with the ability to work out new spatial information from memory. In two experiments, participants had to study line drawings depicting shapes linked either by straight or meandering lines. Afterwards, they had to remember the straight-line distances or to infer the straight-line distances. Several spatial abilities were also assessed: perceptual discrimination, mental rotation, and visuo-spatial working memory span. The results showed that males outperformed females in spatial inference and mental rotation. Experiment 2 extended the study to old people. The results replicated and clarified those obtained in Experiment 1. Spatial inference and mental rotation showed age-related and gender-related differences; in addition, age reduced the visuo-spatial memory span. Overall, the findings suggest that gender differences favouring males are maximised with tasks requiring active processing and strategic control of metric information.

Age differences in visuospatial working memory.

In two visuospatial working memory (VSWM) span experiments, older and young participants were tested under conditions of either high or low interference, using two different displays: computerized versions of a 3 x 3 matrix or the standard (randomly arrayed) Corsi block task (P. M. Corsi, 1972). Older adults' VSWM estimates were increased in the low-interference, compared with the high-interference, condition, replicating findings with verbal memory span studies. Young adults showed the opposite pattern, and together the findings suggest that typical VSWM span tasks include opposing components (interference and practice) that differentially affect young and older adults.

The effects of concurrent cannabis use among ecstasy users: neuroprotective or neurotoxic?

The research evidence regarding the potential effects of ecstasy suggests that it may be neurotoxic and that its use is associated with cognitive impairment. In recent years evidence has emerged suggesting that cannabinoids, the active ingredients in cannabis, can be neuroprotective under certain conditions. Given that many ecstasy users also consume cannabis at the same time, the possibility emerges that these individuals might be less susceptible to ecstasy-related impairment. The present paper reanalyses the data from a number of previous studies, contrasting the performance of those individuals who generally consume cannabis and ecstasy at the same time with those who generally consume ecstasy on its own. The two ecstasy-using groups are compared with non-ecstasy users on a range of measures including processing speed, random letter generation, verbal and visuo-spatial working memory span, reasoning and associative learning. The two ecstasy user groups did not differ significantly from each other on any of the measures. Both user groups were significantly worse than non-ecstasy users on measures of associative learning, verbal and visuo-spatial working memory and reasoning. The results suggest that consuming cannabis at the same time as ecstasy does not reduce the likelihood of cognitive impairment.

Executive functions and achievements in school: Shifting, updating, inhibition, and working memory

Links have recently been established between measures of educational attainment and both verbal and visuo-spatial aspects of working memory. Relationships have also been identified between specific executive functions-shifting, updating, and inhibition-and scholastic achievement. In the present study, scholastic attainment, shifting, updating, inhibition, and verbal and visuo-spatial working memory were assessed in 11- and 12-year-old children. Exploratory factor analysis identified two executive factors: one associated with updating functions and one associated with inhibition. Updating abilities were closely linked with performance on both verbal and visuo-spatial working memory span tasks. Working memory was closely linked with attainment in English and mathematics, and inhibition was associated with achievement in English, mathematics, and science. Domain-specific associations existed between verbal working memory and attainment in English, and between visuo-spatial working memory and attainment in English, mathematics and science. Implications of the findings for the theoretical analysis of executive functioning, working memory and children's learning are discussed.