Unconscious memory bias in depression: perceptual and conceptual processes.

PubMed

Watkins, P C; Martin, C K; Stern, L D

2000-05-01

Mood-congruent memory (MCM) bias in depression was investigated using 4 different implicit memory tests. Two of the implicit tests were perceptually driven, and 2 were conceptually driven. Depressed participants and nondepressed controls were assigned to 1 of 4 implicit memory tests after studying positive and negative adjectives. Results showed no MCM bias in the perceptually driven tests. MCM was demonstrated in 1 of the conceptually driven tests, but only for adjectives that were conceptually encoded. Results support the theory that mood-congruent processes in depression are limited to conceptual processing. However, activation of conceptual processes may not be sufficient for demonstrating mood congruency.

Task-relevant perceptual features can define categories in visual memory too.

PubMed

Antonelli, Karla B; Williams, Carrick C

2017-11-01

Although Konkle, Brady, Alvarez, and Oliva (2010, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139(3), 558) claim that visual long-term memory (VLTM) is organized on underlying conceptual, not perceptual, information, visual memory results from visual search tasks are not well explained by this theory. We hypothesized that when viewing an object, any task-relevant visual information is critical to the organizational structure of VLTM. In two experiments, we examined the organization of VLTM by measuring the amount of retroactive interference created by objects possessing different combinations of task-relevant features. Based on task instructions, only the conceptual category was task relevant or both the conceptual category and a perceptual object feature were task relevant. Findings indicated that when made task relevant, perceptual object feature information, along with conceptual category information, could affect memory organization for objects in VLTM. However, when perceptual object feature information was task irrelevant, it did not contribute to memory organization; instead, memory defaulted to being organized around conceptual category information. These findings support the theory that a task-defined organizational structure is created in VLTM based on the relevance of particular object features and information.

The Effects of Goal Relevance and Perceptual Features on Emotional Items and Associative Memory.

PubMed

Mao, Wei B; An, Shu; Yang, Xiao F

2017-01-01

Showing an emotional item in a neutral background scene often leads to enhanced memory for the emotional item and impaired associative memory for background details. Meanwhile, both top-down goal relevance and bottom-up perceptual features played important roles in memory binding. We conducted two experiments and aimed to further examine the effects of goal relevance and perceptual features on emotional items and associative memory. By manipulating goal relevance (asking participants to categorize only each item image as living or non-living or to categorize each whole composite picture consisted of item image and background scene as natural scene or manufactured scene) and perceptual features (controlling visual contrast and visual familiarity) in two experiments, we found that both high goal relevance and salient perceptual features (high salience of items vs. high familiarity of items) could promote emotional item memory, but they had different effects on associative memory for emotional items and neutral backgrounds. Specifically, high goal relevance and high perceptual-salience of items could jointly impair the associative memory for emotional items and neutral backgrounds, while the effect of item familiarity on associative memory for emotional items would be modulated by goal relevance. High familiarity of items could increase associative memory for negative items and neutral backgrounds only in the low goal relevance condition. These findings suggest the effect of emotion on associative memory is not only related to attentional capture elicited by emotion, but also can be affected by goal relevance and perceptual features of stimulus.

Human visual perceptual organization beats thinking on speed.

PubMed

van der Helm, Peter A

2017-05-01

What is the degree to which knowledge influences visual perceptual processes? This question, which is central to the seeing-versus-thinking debate in cognitive science, is often discussed using examples claimed to be proof of one stance or another. It has, however, also been muddled by the usage of different and unclear definitions of perception. Here, for the well-defined process of perceptual organization, I argue that including speed (or efficiency) into the equation opens a new perspective on the limits of top-down influences of thinking on seeing. While the input of the perceptual organization process may be modifiable and its output enrichable, the process itself seems so fast (or efficient) that thinking hardly has time to intrude and is effective mostly after the fact.

The Effects of Goal Relevance and Perceptual Features on Emotional Items and Associative Memory

PubMed Central

Mao, Wei B.; An, Shu; Yang, Xiao F.

2017-01-01

Showing an emotional item in a neutral background scene often leads to enhanced memory for the emotional item and impaired associative memory for background details. Meanwhile, both top–down goal relevance and bottom–up perceptual features played important roles in memory binding. We conducted two experiments and aimed to further examine the effects of goal relevance and perceptual features on emotional items and associative memory. By manipulating goal relevance (asking participants to categorize only each item image as living or non-living or to categorize each whole composite picture consisted of item image and background scene as natural scene or manufactured scene) and perceptual features (controlling visual contrast and visual familiarity) in two experiments, we found that both high goal relevance and salient perceptual features (high salience of items vs. high familiarity of items) could promote emotional item memory, but they had different effects on associative memory for emotional items and neutral backgrounds. Specifically, high goal relevance and high perceptual-salience of items could jointly impair the associative memory for emotional items and neutral backgrounds, while the effect of item familiarity on associative memory for emotional items would be modulated by goal relevance. High familiarity of items could increase associative memory for negative items and neutral backgrounds only in the low goal relevance condition. These findings suggest the effect of emotion on associative memory is not only related to attentional capture elicited by emotion, but also can be affected by goal relevance and perceptual features of stimulus. PMID:28790943

Fluency Effects in Recognition Memory: Are Perceptual Fluency and Conceptual Fluency Interchangeable?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lanska, Meredith; Olds, Justin M.; Westerman, Deanne L.

2014-01-01

On a recognition memory test, both perceptual and conceptual fluency can engender a sense of familiarity and elicit recognition memory illusions. To date, perceptual and conceptual fluency have been studied separately but are they interchangeable in terms of their influence on recognition judgments? Five experiments compared the effect of…

Selective attention supports working memory maintenance by modulating perceptual processing of distractors.

PubMed

Sreenivasan, Kartik K; Jha, Amishi P

2007-01-01

Selective attention has been shown to bias sensory processing in favor of relevant stimuli and against irrelevant or distracting stimuli in perceptual tasks. Increasing evidence suggests that selective attention plays an important role during working memory maintenance, possibly by biasing sensory processing in favor of to-be-remembered items. In the current study, we investigated whether selective attention may also support working memory by biasing processing against irrelevant and potentially distracting information. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while subjects (n = 22) performed a delayed-recognition task for faces and shoes. The delay period was filled with face or shoe distractors. Behavioral performance was impaired when distractors were congruent with the working memory domain (e.g., face distractor during working memory for faces) relative to when distractors were incongruent with the working memory domain (e.g., face distractor during shoe working memory). If attentional biasing against distractor processing is indeed functionally relevant in supporting working memory maintenance, perceptual processing of distractors is predicted to be attenuated when distractors are more behaviorally intrusive relative to when they are nonintrusive. As such, we predicted that perceptual processing of distracting faces, as measured by the face-sensitive N170 ERP component, would be reduced in the context of congruent (face) working memory relative to incongruent (shoe) working memory. The N170 elicited by distracting faces demonstrated reduced amplitude during congruent versus incongruent working memory. These results suggest that perceptual processing of distracting faces may be attenuated due to attentional biasing against sensory processing of distractors that are most behaviorally intrusive during working memory maintenance.

Differential Effects of Intelligence, Perceptual Speed and Age on Growth in Attentional Speed and Accuracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldhammer, Frank; Rauch, Wolfgang A.; Schweizer, Karl; Moosbrugger, Helfried

2010-01-01

The study investigates the effects of intelligence, perceptual speed and age on intraindividual growth in attentional speed and attentional accuracy over the course of a 6-minute testing session. A sample of 193 subjects completed the Advanced Progressive Matrices and the Vienna Matrices Test representing intelligence, the tests Alertness and…

False Memories Lack Perceptual Detail: Evidence from Implicit Word-Stem Completion and Perceptual Identification Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hicks, J.L.; Starns, J.J.

2005-01-01

We used implicit measures of memory to ascertain whether false memories for critical nonpresented items in the DRM paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995) contain structural and perceptual detail. In Experiment 1, we manipulated presentation modality in a visual word-stem-completion task. Critical item priming was significant and…

The effects of attention on perceptual implicit memory.

PubMed

Rajaram, S; Srinivas, K; Travers, S

2001-10-01

Reports on the effects of dividing attention at study on subsequent perceptual priming suggest that perceptual priming is generally unaffected by attentional manipulations as long as word identity is processed. We tested this hypothesis in three experiments by using the implicit word fragment completion and word stem completion tasks. Division of attention was instantiated with the Stroop task in order to ensure the processing of word identity even when the participant's attention was directed to a stimulus attribute other than the word itself. Under these conditions, we found that even though perceptual priming was significant, it was significantly reduced in magnitude. A stem cued recall test in Experiment 2 confirmed a more deleterious effect of divided attention on explicit memory. Taken together, our findings delineate the relative contributions of perceptual analysis and attentional processes in mediating perceptual priming on two ubiquitously used tasks of word fragment completion and word stem completion.

Nicotine facilitates memory consolidation in perceptual learning.

PubMed

Beer, Anton L; Vartak, Devavrat; Greenlee, Mark W

2013-01-01

Perceptual learning is a special type of non-declarative learning that involves experience-dependent plasticity in sensory cortices. The cholinergic system is known to modulate declarative learning. In particular, reduced levels or efficacy of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine were found to facilitate declarative memory consolidation. However, little is known about the role of the cholinergic system in memory consolidation of non-declarative learning. Here we compared two groups of non-smoking men who learned a visual texture discrimination task (TDT). One group received chewing tobacco containing nicotine for 1 h directly following the TDT training. The other group received a similar tasting control substance without nicotine. Electroencephalographic recordings during substance consumption showed reduced alpha activity and P300 latencies in the nicotine group compared to the control group. When re-tested on the TDT the following day, both groups responded more accurately and more rapidly than during training. These improvements were specific to the retinal location and orientation of the texture elements of the TDT suggesting that learning involved early visual cortex. A group comparison showed that learning effects were more pronounced in the nicotine group than in the control group. These findings suggest that oral consumption of nicotine enhances the efficacy of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Our findings further suggest that enhanced efficacy of the cholinergic system facilitates memory consolidation in perceptual learning (and possibly other types of non-declarative learning). In that regard acetylcholine seems to affect consolidation processes in perceptual learning in a different manner than in declarative learning. Alternatively, our findings might reflect dose-dependent cholinergic modulation of memory consolidation. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled 'Cognitive Enhancers'. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Executive Functioning and Processing Speed in Age-Related Differences in Memory: Contribution of a Coding Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baudouin, Alexia; Clarys, David; Vanneste, Sandrine; Isingrini, Michel

2009-01-01

The aim of the present study was to examine executive dysfunctioning and decreased processing speed as potential mediators of age-related differences in episodic memory. We compared the performances of young and elderly adults in a free-recall task. Participants were also given tests to measure executive functions and perceptual processing speed…

The neural response in short-term visual recognition memory for perceptual conjunctions.

PubMed

Elliott, R; Dolan, R J

1998-01-01

Short-term visual memory has been widely studied in humans and animals using delayed matching paradigms. The present study used positron emission tomography (PET) to determine the neural substrates of delayed matching to sample for complex abstract patterns over a 5-s delay. More specifically, the study assessed any differential neural response associated with remembering individual perceptual properties (color only and shape only) compared to conjunction between these properties. Significant activations associated with short-term visual memory (all memory conditions compared to perceptuomotor control) were observed in extrastriate cortex, medial and lateral parietal cortex, anterior cingulate, inferior frontal gyrus, and the thalamus. Significant deactivations were observed throughout the temporal cortex. Although the requirement to remember color compared to shape was associated with subtly different patterns of blood flow, the requirement to remember perceptual conjunctions between these features was not associated with additional specific activations. These data suggest that visual memory over a delay of the order of 5 s is mainly dependent on posterior perceptual regions of the cortex, with the exact regions depending on the perceptual aspect of the stimuli to be remembered.

Prior perceptual processing enhances the effect of emotional arousal on the neural correlates of memory retrieval

PubMed Central

Dew, Ilana T. Z.; Ritchey, Maureen; LaBar, Kevin S.; Cabeza, Roberto

2014-01-01

A fundamental idea in memory research is that items are more likely to be remembered if encoded with a semantic, rather than perceptual, processing strategy. Interestingly, this effect has been shown to reverse for emotionally arousing materials, such that perceptual processing enhances memory for emotional information or events. The current fMRI study investigated the neural mechanisms of this effect by testing how neural activations during emotional memory retrieval are influenced by the prior encoding strategy. Participants incidentally encoded emotional and neutral pictures under instructions to attend to either semantic or perceptual properties of each picture. Recognition memory was tested two days later. fMRI analyses yielded three main findings. First, right amygdalar activity associated with emotional memory strength was enhanced by prior perceptual processing. Second, prior perceptual processing of emotional pictures produced a stronger effect on recollection- than familiarity-related activations in the right amygdala and left hippocampus. Finally, prior perceptual processing enhanced amygdalar connectivity with regions strongly associated with retrieval success, including hippocampal/parahippocampal regions, visual cortex, and ventral parietal cortex. Taken together, the results specify how encoding orientations yield alterations in brain systems that retrieve emotional memories. PMID:24380867

Basic perceptual changes that alter meaning and neural correlates of recognition memory

PubMed Central

Gao, Chuanji; Hermiller, Molly S.; Voss, Joel L.; Guo, Chunyan

2015-01-01

It is difficult to pinpoint the border between perceptual and conceptual processing, despite their treatment as distinct entities in many studies of recognition memory. For instance, alteration of simple perceptual characteristics of a stimulus can radically change meaning, such as the color of bread changing from white to green. We sought to better understand the role of perceptual and conceptual processing in memory by identifying the effects of changing a basic perceptual feature (color) on behavioral and neural correlates of memory in circumstances when this change would be expected to either change the meaning of a stimulus or to have no effect on meaning (i.e., to influence conceptual processing or not). Abstract visual shapes (“squiggles”) were colorized during study and presented during test in either the same color or a different color. Those squiggles that subjects found to resemble meaningful objects supported behavioral measures of conceptual priming, whereas meaningless squiggles did not. Further, changing color from study to test had a selective effect on behavioral correlates of priming for meaningful squiggles, indicating that color change altered conceptual processing. During a recognition memory test, color change altered event-related brain potential (ERP) correlates of memory for meaningful squiggles but not for meaningless squiggles. Specifically, color change reduced the amplitude of frontally distributed N400 potentials (FN400), implying that these potentials indicated conceptual processing during recognition memory that was sensitive to color change. In contrast, color change had no effect on FN400 correlates of recognition for meaningless squiggles, which were overall smaller in amplitude than for meaningful squiggles (further indicating that these potentials signal conceptual processing during recognition). Thus, merely changing the color of abstract visual shapes can alter their meaning, changing behavioral and neural correlates of

Imagery Rescripting: The Impact of Conceptual and Perceptual Changes on Aversive Autobiographical Memories

PubMed Central

Slofstra, Christien; Nauta, Maaike H.; Holmes, Emily A.; Bockting, Claudi L. H.

2016-01-01

Background Imagery rescripting (ImRs) is a process by which aversive autobiographical memories are rendered less unpleasant or emotional. ImRs is thought only to be effective if a change in the meaning-relevant (semantic) content of the mental image is produced, according to a cognitive hypothesis of ImRs. We propose an additional hypothesis: that ImRs can also be effective by the manipulation of perceptual features of the memory, without explicitly targeting meaning-relevant content. Methods In two experiments using a within-subjects design (both N = 48, community samples), both Conceptual-ImRs—focusing on changing meaning-relevant content—and Perceptual-ImRs—focusing on changing perceptual features—were compared to Recall-only of aversive autobiographical image-based memories. An active control condition, Recall + Attentional Breathing (Recall+AB) was added in the first experiment. In the second experiment, a Positive-ImRs condition was added—changing the aversive image into a positive image that was unrelated to the aversive autobiographical memory. Effects on the aversive memory’s unpleasantness, vividness and emotionality were investigated. Results In Experiment 1, compared to Recall-only, both Conceptual-ImRs and Perceptual-ImRs led to greater decreases in unpleasantness, and Perceptual-ImRs led to greater decreases in emotionality of memories. In Experiment 2, the effects on unpleasantness were not replicated, and both Conceptual-ImRs and Perceptual-ImRs led to greater decreases in emotionality, compared to Recall-only, as did Positive-ImRs. There were no effects on vividness, and the ImRs conditions did not differ significantly from Recall+AB. Conclusions Results suggest that, in addition to traditional forms of ImRs, targeting the meaning-relevant content of an image during ImRs, relatively simple techniques focusing on perceptual aspects or positive imagery might also yield benefits. Findings require replication and extension to clinical

Perceptual and Cognitive Factors Imposing “Speed Limits” on Reading Rate: A Study with the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation

PubMed Central

Spinelli, Donatella; Zoccolotti, Pierluigi; De Luca, Maria; Martelli, Marialuisa

2016-01-01

Adults read at high speed, but estimates of their reading rate vary greatly, i.e., from 100 to 1500 words per minute (wpm). This discrepancy is likely due to different recording methods and to the different perceptual and cognitive processes involved in specific test conditions. The present study investigated the origins of these notable differences in RSVP reading rate (RR). In six experiments we investigated the role of many different perceptual and cognitive variables. The presence of a mask caused a steep decline in reading rate, with an estimated masking cost of about 200 wpm. When the decoding process was isolated, RR approached values of 1200 wpm. When the number of stimuli exceeded the short-term memory span, RR decreased to 800 wpm. The semantic context contributed to reading speed only by a factor of 1.4. Finally, eye movements imposed an upper limit on RR (around 300 wpm). Overall, data indicate a speed limit of 300 wpm, which corresponds to the time needed for eye movement execution, i.e., the most time consuming mechanism. Results reconcile differences in reading rates reported by different laboratories and thus provide suggestions for targeting different components of reading rate. PMID:27088226

The Competitive Influences of Perceptual Load and Working Memory Guidance on Selective Attention.

PubMed

Tan, Jinfeng; Zhao, Yuanfang; Wang, Lijun; Tian, Xia; Cui, Yan; Yang, Qian; Pan, Weigang; Zhao, Xiaoyue; Chen, Antao

2015-01-01

The perceptual load theory in selective attention literature proposes that the interference from task-irrelevant distractor is eliminated when perceptual capacity is fully consumed by task-relevant information. However, the biased competition model suggests that the contents of working memory (WM) can guide attentional selection automatically, even when this guidance is detrimental to visual search. An intriguing but unsolved question is what will happen when selective attention is influenced by both perceptual load and WM guidance. To study this issue, behavioral performances and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded when participants were presented with a cue to either identify or hold in memory and had to perform a visual search task subsequently, under conditions of low or high perceptual load. Behavioural data showed that high perceptual load eliminated the attentional capture by WM. The ERP results revealed an obvious WM guidance effect in P1 component with invalid trials eliciting larger P1 than neutral trials, regardless of the level of perceptual load. The interaction between perceptual load and WM guidance was significant for the posterior N1 component. The memory guidance effect on N1 was eliminated by high perceptual load. Standardized Low Resolution Electrical Tomography Analysis (sLORETA) showed that the WM guidance effect and the perceptual load effect on attention can be localized into the occipital area and parietal lobe, respectively. Merely identifying the cue produced no effect on the P1 or N1 component. These results suggest that in selective attention, the information held in WM could capture attention at the early stage of visual processing in the occipital cortex. Interestingly, this initial capture of attention by WM could be modulated by the level of perceptual load and the parietal lobe mediates target selection at the discrimination stage.

The Competitive Influences of Perceptual Load and Working Memory Guidance on Selective Attention

PubMed Central

Tan, Jinfeng; Zhao, Yuanfang; Wang, Lijun; Tian, Xia; Cui, Yan; Yang, Qian; Pan, Weigang; Zhao, Xiaoyue; Chen, Antao

2015-01-01

The perceptual load theory in selective attention literature proposes that the interference from task-irrelevant distractor is eliminated when perceptual capacity is fully consumed by task-relevant information. However, the biased competition model suggests that the contents of working memory (WM) can guide attentional selection automatically, even when this guidance is detrimental to visual search. An intriguing but unsolved question is what will happen when selective attention is influenced by both perceptual load and WM guidance. To study this issue, behavioral performances and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded when participants were presented with a cue to either identify or hold in memory and had to perform a visual search task subsequently, under conditions of low or high perceptual load. Behavioural data showed that high perceptual load eliminated the attentional capture by WM. The ERP results revealed an obvious WM guidance effect in P1 component with invalid trials eliciting larger P1 than neutral trials, regardless of the level of perceptual load. The interaction between perceptual load and WM guidance was significant for the posterior N1 component. The memory guidance effect on N1 was eliminated by high perceptual load. Standardized Low Resolution Electrical Tomography Analysis (sLORETA) showed that the WM guidance effect and the perceptual load effect on attention can be localized into the occipital area and parietal lobe, respectively. Merely identifying the cue produced no effect on the P1 or N1 component. These results suggest that in selective attention, the information held in WM could capture attention at the early stage of visual processing in the occipital cortex. Interestingly, this initial capture of attention by WM could be modulated by the level of perceptual load and the parietal lobe mediates target selection at the discrimination stage. PMID:26098079

Psychomotor and Perceptual Speed Abilities and Skilled Performance.

DTIC Science & Technology

1999-02-01

of the perceptual speed and touch-panel psychomotor tests used in the current project were administered to School of Dentistry students. Although...progress). Touch-panel monitor based psychomotor tests for predicting skilled performance: An exploratory study with School of Dentistry students...Paper to be submitted for presentation at the 1999 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society annual meeting. Ackerman, P. L., & Kanfer, R. (1993

Perceptual chunking and its effect on memory in speech processing: ERP and behavioral evidence.

PubMed

Gilbert, Annie C; Boucher, Victor J; Jemel, Boutheina

2014-01-01

We examined how perceptual chunks of varying size in utterances can influence immediate memory of heard items (monosyllabic words). Using behavioral measures and event-related potentials (N400) we evaluated the quality of the memory trace for targets taken from perceived temporal groups (TGs) of three and four items. Variations in the amplitude of the N400 showed a better memory trace for items presented in TGs of three compared to those in groups of four. Analyses of behavioral responses along with P300 components also revealed effects of chunk position in the utterance. This is the first study to measure the online effects of perceptual chunks on the memory trace of spoken items. Taken together, the N400 and P300 responses demonstrate that the perceptual chunking of speech facilitates information buffering and a processing on a chunk-by-chunk basis.

Perceptual Organization and Operative Thought: A Study of Coherence in Memory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heindel, Patricia; Kose, Gary

Examined in three studies were the influence of perceptual organization on children's memory and the relationship between operational thought and memory performance. In the first study, 72 children at 5, 7, and 9 years of age were given a series of Piagetian tasks and a memory task. Subjects were presented with 10 color-shape pairs depicted in…

Effects of lorazepam on visual perceptual abilities.

PubMed

Pompéia, S; Pradella-Hallinan, M; Manzano, G M; Bueno, O F A

2008-04-01

To evaluate the effects of an acute dose of the benzodiazepine (BZ) lorazepam in young healthy volunteers on five distinguishable visual perception abilities determined by previous factor-analytic studies. This was a double-blind, cross-over design study of acute oral doses of lorazepam (2 mg) and placebo in young healthy volunteers. We focused on a set of paper-and-pencil tests of visual perceptual abilities that load on five correlated but distinguishable factors (Spatial Visualization, Spatial Relations, Perceptual Speed, Closure Speed, and Closure Flexibility). Some other tests (DSST, immediate and delayed recall of prose; measures of subjective mood alterations) were used to control for the classic BZ-induced effects. Lorazepam impaired performance in the DSST and delayed recall of prose, increased subjective sedation and impaired tasks of all abilities except Spatial Visualization and Closure Speed. Only impairment in Perceptual Speed (Identical Pictures task) and delayed recall of prose were not explained by sedation. Acute administration of lorazepam, in a dose that impaired episodic memory, selectively affected different visual perceptual abilities before and after controlling for sedation. Central executive demands and sedation did not account for results, so impairment in the Identical Pictures task may be attributed to lorazepam's visual processing alterations. 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Perceptual priming versus explicit memory: dissociable neural correlates at encoding.

PubMed

Schott, Björn; Richardson-Klavehn, Alan; Heinze, Hans-Jochen; Düzel, Emrah

2002-05-15

We addressed the hypothesis that perceptual priming and explicit memory have distinct neural correlates at encoding. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants studied visually presented words at deep versus shallow levels of processing (LOPs). The ERPs were sorted by whether or not participants later used studied words as completions to three-letter word stems in an intentional memory test, and by whether or not they indicated that these completions were remembered from the study list. Study trials from which words were later used and not remembered (primed trials) and study trials from which words were later used and remembered (remembered trials) were compared to study trials from which words were later not used (forgotten trials), in order to measure the ERP difference associated with later memory (DM effect). Primed trials involved an early (200-450 msec) centroparietal negative-going DM effect. Remembered trials involved a late (900-1200 msec) right frontal, positive-going DM effect regardless of LOP, as well as an earlier (600-800 msec) central, positive-going DM effect during shallow study processing only. All three DM effects differed topographically, and, in terms of their onset or duration, from the extended (600-1200 msec) fronto-central, positive-going shift for deep compared with shallow study processing. The results provide the first clear evidence that perceptual priming and explicit memory have distinct neural correlates at encoding, consistent with Tulving and Schacter's (1990) distinction between brain systems concerned with perceptual representation versus semantic and episodic memory. They also shed additional light on encoding processes associated with later explicit memory, by suggesting that brain processes influenced by LOP set the stage for other, at least partially separable, brain processes that are more directly related to encoding success.

Perceptual chunking and its effect on memory in speech processing: ERP and behavioral evidence

PubMed Central

Gilbert, Annie C.; Boucher, Victor J.; Jemel, Boutheina

2014-01-01

We examined how perceptual chunks of varying size in utterances can influence immediate memory of heard items (monosyllabic words). Using behavioral measures and event-related potentials (N400) we evaluated the quality of the memory trace for targets taken from perceived temporal groups (TGs) of three and four items. Variations in the amplitude of the N400 showed a better memory trace for items presented in TGs of three compared to those in groups of four. Analyses of behavioral responses along with P300 components also revealed effects of chunk position in the utterance. This is the first study to measure the online effects of perceptual chunks on the memory trace of spoken items. Taken together, the N400 and P300 responses demonstrate that the perceptual chunking of speech facilitates information buffering and a processing on a chunk-by-chunk basis. PMID:24678304

Time-resolved neuroimaging of visual short term memory consolidation by post-perceptual attention shifts.

PubMed

Hecht, Marcus; Thiemann, Ulf; Freitag, Christine M; Bender, Stephan

2016-01-15

Post-perceptual cues can enhance visual short term memory encoding even after the offset of the visual stimulus. However, both the mechanisms by which the sensory stimulus characteristics are buffered as well as the mechanisms by which post-perceptual selective attention enhances short term memory encoding remain unclear. We analyzed late post-perceptual event-related potentials (ERPs) in visual change detection tasks (100ms stimulus duration) by high-resolution ERP analysis to elucidate these mechanisms. The effects of early and late auditory post-cues (300ms or 850ms after visual stimulus onset) as well as the effects of a visual interference stimulus were examined in 27 healthy right-handed adults. Focusing attention with post-perceptual cues at both latencies significantly improved memory performance, i.e. sensory stimulus characteristics were available for up to 850ms after stimulus presentation. Passive watching of the visual stimuli without auditory cue presentation evoked a slow negative wave (N700) over occipito-temporal visual areas. N700 was strongly reduced by a visual interference stimulus which impeded memory maintenance. In contrast, contralateral delay activity (CDA) still developed in this condition after the application of auditory post-cues and was thereby dissociated from N700. CDA and N700 seem to represent two different processes involved in short term memory encoding. While N700 could reflect visual post processing by automatic attention attraction, CDA may reflect the top-down process of searching selectively for the required information through post-perceptual attention. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Beyond perceptual load and dilution: a review of the role of working memory in selective attention

PubMed Central

de Fockert, Jan W.

2013-01-01

The perceptual load and dilution models differ fundamentally in terms of the proposed mechanism underlying variation in distractibility during different perceptual conditions. However, both models predict that distracting information can be processed beyond perceptual processing under certain conditions, a prediction that is well-supported by the literature. Load theory proposes that in such cases, where perceptual task aspects do not allow for sufficient attentional selectivity, the maintenance of task-relevant processing depends on cognitive control mechanisms, including working memory. The key prediction is that working memory plays a role in keeping clear processing priorities in the face of potential distraction, and the evidence reviewed and evaluated in a meta-analysis here supports this claim, by showing that the processing of distracting information tends to be enhanced when load on a concurrent task of working memory is high. Low working memory capacity is similarly associated with greater distractor processing in selective attention, again suggesting that the unavailability of working memory during selective attention leads to an increase in distractibility. Together, these findings suggest that selective attention against distractors that are processed beyond perception depends on the availability of working memory. Possible mechanisms for the effects of working memory on selective attention are discussed. PMID:23734139

Beyond perceptual load and dilution: a review of the role of working memory in selective attention.

PubMed

de Fockert, Jan W

2013-01-01

The perceptual load and dilution models differ fundamentally in terms of the proposed mechanism underlying variation in distractibility during different perceptual conditions. However, both models predict that distracting information can be processed beyond perceptual processing under certain conditions, a prediction that is well-supported by the literature. Load theory proposes that in such cases, where perceptual task aspects do not allow for sufficient attentional selectivity, the maintenance of task-relevant processing depends on cognitive control mechanisms, including working memory. The key prediction is that working memory plays a role in keeping clear processing priorities in the face of potential distraction, and the evidence reviewed and evaluated in a meta-analysis here supports this claim, by showing that the processing of distracting information tends to be enhanced when load on a concurrent task of working memory is high. Low working memory capacity is similarly associated with greater distractor processing in selective attention, again suggesting that the unavailability of working memory during selective attention leads to an increase in distractibility. Together, these findings suggest that selective attention against distractors that are processed beyond perception depends on the availability of working memory. Possible mechanisms for the effects of working memory on selective attention are discussed.

Uncovering Camouflage: Amygdala Activation Predicts Long-Term Memory of Induced Perceptual Insight

PubMed Central

Ludmer, Rachel; Dudai, Yadin; Rubin, Nava

2012-01-01

What brain mechanisms underlie learning of new knowledge from single events? We studied encoding in long-term memory of a unique type of one-shot experience, induced perceptual insight. While undergoing an fMRI brain scan, participants viewed degraded images of real-world pictures where the underlying objects were hard to recognize (‘camouflage’), followed by brief exposures to the original images (‘solution’), which led to induced insight (“Aha!”). A week later, participants’ memory was tested; a solution image was classified as ‘remembered’ if detailed perceptual knowledge was elicited from the camouflage image alone. During encoding, subsequently remembered images enjoyed higher activity in mid-level visual cortex and medial frontal cortex, but most pronouncedly in the amygdala, whose activity could be used to predict which solutions will remain in long-term memory. Our findings extend the known roles of amygdala in memory to include promoting of long-term memory of the sudden reorganization of internal representations. PMID:21382558

Spatial But Not Oculomotor Information Biases Perceptual Memory: Evidence From Face Perception and Cognitive Modeling.

PubMed

Wantz, Andrea L; Lobmaier, Janek S; Mast, Fred W; Senn, Walter

2017-08-01

Recent research put forward the hypothesis that eye movements are integrated in memory representations and are reactivated when later recalled. However, "looking back to nothing" during recall might be a consequence of spatial memory retrieval. Here, we aimed at distinguishing between the effect of spatial and oculomotor information on perceptual memory. Participants' task was to judge whether a morph looked rather like the first or second previously presented face. Crucially, faces and morphs were presented in a way that the morph reactivated oculomotor and/or spatial information associated with one of the previously encoded faces. Perceptual face memory was largely influenced by these manipulations. We considered a simple computational model with an excellent match (4.3% error) that expresses these biases as a linear combination of recency, saccade, and location. Surprisingly, saccades did not play a role. The results suggest that spatial and temporal rather than oculomotor information biases perceptual face memory. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Independence of long-term contextual memory and short-term perceptual hypotheses: Evidence from contextual cueing of interrupted search.

PubMed

Schlagbauer, Bernhard; Mink, Maurice; Müller, Hermann J; Geyer, Thomas

2017-02-01

Observers are able to resume an interrupted search trial faster relative to responding to a new, unseen display. This finding of rapid resumption is attributed to short-term perceptual hypotheses generated on the current look and confirmed upon subsequent looks at the same display. It has been suggested that the contents of perceptual hypotheses are similar to those of other forms of memory acquired long-term through repeated exposure to the same search displays over the course of several trials, that is, the memory supporting "contextual cueing." In three experiments, we investigated the relationship between short-term perceptual hypotheses and long-term contextual memory. The results indicated that long-term, contextual memory of repeated displays neither affected the generation nor the confirmation of short-term perceptual hypotheses for these displays. Furthermore, the analysis of eye movements suggests that long-term memory provides an initial benefit in guiding attention to the target, whereas in subsequent looks guidance is entirely based on short-term perceptual hypotheses. Overall, the results reveal a picture of both long- and short-term memory contributing to reliable performance gains in interrupted search, while exerting their effects in an independent manner.

Age differences in implicit memory: conceptual, perceptual, or methodological?

PubMed

Mitchell, David B; Bruss, Peter J

2003-12-01

The authors examined age differences in conceptual and perceptual implicit memory via word-fragment completion, word-stem completion, category exemplar generation, picture-fragment identification, and picture naming. Young, middle-aged, and older participants (N = 60) named pictures and words at study. Limited test exposure minimized explicit memory contamination, yielding no reliable age differences and equivalent cross-format effects. In contrast, explicit memory and neuropsychological measures produced significant age differences. In a follow-up experiment, 24 young adults were informed a priori about implicit testing. Their priming was equivalent to the main experiment, showing that test trial time restrictions limit explicit memory strategies. The authors concluded that most implicit memory processes remain stable across adulthood and suggest that explicit contamination be rigorously monitored in aging studies.

Evidence for Working Memory Storage Operations in Perceptual Cortex

PubMed Central

Sreenivasan, Kartik K.; Gratton, Caterina; Vytlacil, Jason; D’Esposito, Mark

2014-01-01

Isolating the short-term storage component of working memory (WM) from the myriad of associated executive processes has been an enduring challenge. Recent efforts have identified patterns of activity in visual regions that contain information about items being held in WM. However, it remains unclear (i) whether these representations withstand intervening sensory input and (ii) how communication between multimodal association cortex and unimodal perceptual regions supporting WM representations is involved in WM storage. We present evidence that the features of a face held in WM are stored within face processing regions, that these representations persist across subsequent sensory input, and that information about the match between sensory input and memory representation is relayed forward from perceptual to prefrontal regions. Participants were presented with a series of probe faces and indicated whether each probe matched a Target face held in WM. We parametrically varied the feature similarity between probe and Target faces. Activity within face processing regions scaled linearly with the degree of feature similarity between the probe face and the features of the Target face, suggesting that the features of the Target face were stored in these regions. Furthermore, directed connectivity measures revealed that the direction of information flow that was optimal for performance was from sensory regions that stored the features of the Target face to dorsal prefrontal regions, supporting the notion that sensory input is compared to representations stored within perceptual regions and relayed forward. Together, these findings indicate that WM storage operations are carried out within perceptual cortex. PMID:24436009

Retrieval-Induced Forgetting in Perceptually Driven Memory Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bajo, M. Teresa; Gomez-Ariza, Carlos J.; Fernandez, Angel; Marful, Alejandra

2006-01-01

Recent data (T. J. Perfect, C. J. A. Moulin, M. A. Conway, & E. Perry, 2002) have suggested that retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) depends on conceptual memory because the effect is not found in perceptually driven tasks. In 3 experiments, the authors aimed to show that the presence of RIF depends on whether the procedure induces appropriate…

Differentiation of perceptual and semantic subsequent memory effects using an orthographic paradigm.

PubMed

Kuo, Michael C C; Liu, Karen P Y; Ting, Kin Hung; Chan, Chetwyn C H

2012-11-27

This study aimed to differentiate perceptual and semantic encoding processes using subsequent memory effects (SMEs) elicited by the recognition of orthographs of single Chinese characters. Participants studied a series of Chinese characters perceptually (by inspecting orthographic components) or semantically (by determining the object making sounds), and then made studied or unstudied judgments during the recognition phase. Recognition performance in terms of d-prime measure in the semantic condition was higher, though not significant, than that of the perceptual condition. The between perceptual-semantic condition differences in SMEs at P550 and late positive component latencies (700-1000ms) were not significant in the frontal area. An additional analysis identified larger SME in the semantic condition during 600-1000ms in the frontal pole regions. These results indicate that coordination and incorporation of orthographic information into mental representation is essential to both task conditions. The differentiation was also revealed in earlier SMEs (perceptual>semantic) at N3 (240-360ms) latency, which is a novel finding. The left-distributed N3 was interpreted as more efficient processing of meaning with semantically learned characters. Frontal pole SMEs indicated strategic processing by executive functions, which would further enhance memory. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The impact of memory load and perceptual cues on puzzle learning by 24-month olds.

PubMed

Barr, Rachel; Moser, Alecia; Rusnak, Sylvia; Zimmermann, Laura; Dickerson, Kelly; Lee, Herietta; Gerhardstein, Peter

2016-11-01

Early childhood is characterized by memory capacity limitations and rapid perceptual and motor development [Rovee-Collier (1996). Infant Behavior & Development, 19, 385-400]. The present study examined 2-year olds' reproduction of a sliding action to complete an abstract fish puzzle under different levels of memory load and perceptual feature support. Experimental groups were compared to baseline controls to assess spontaneous rates of production of the target actions; baseline production was low across all experiments. Memory load was manipulated in Exp. 1 by adding pieces to the puzzle, increasing sequence length from 2 to 3 items, and to 3 items plus a distractor. Although memory load did not influence how toddlers learned to manipulate the puzzle pieces, it did influence toddlers' achievement of the goal-constructing the fish. Overall, girls were better at constructing the puzzle than boys. In Exp. 2, the perceptual features of the puzzle were altered by changing shape boundaries to create a two-piece horizontally cut puzzle (displaying bilateral symmetry), and by adding a semantically supportive context to the vertically cut puzzle (iconic). Toddlers were able to achieve the goal of building the fish equally well across the 2-item puzzle types (bilateral symmetry, vertical, iconic), but how they learned to manipulate the puzzle pieces varied as a function of the perceptual features. Here, as in Exp. 1, girls showed a different pattern of performance from the boys. This study demonstrates that changes in memory capacity and perceptual processing influence both goal-directed imitation learning and motoric performance. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Perceptual memory drives learning of retinotopic biases for bistable stimuli.

PubMed

Murphy, Aidan P; Leopold, David A; Welchman, Andrew E

2014-01-01

The visual system exploits past experience at multiple timescales to resolve perceptual ambiguity in the retinal image. For example, perception of a bistable stimulus can be biased toward one interpretation over another when preceded by a brief presentation of a disambiguated version of the stimulus (positive priming) or through intermittent presentations of the ambiguous stimulus (stabilization). Similarly, prior presentations of unambiguous stimuli can be used to explicitly "train" a long-lasting association between a percept and a retinal location (perceptual association). These phenonema have typically been regarded as independent processes, with short-term biases attributed to perceptual memory and longer-term biases described as associative learning. Here we tested for interactions between these two forms of experience-dependent perceptual bias and demonstrate that short-term processes strongly influence long-term outcomes. We first demonstrate that the establishment of long-term perceptual contingencies does not require explicit training by unambiguous stimuli, but can arise spontaneously during the periodic presentation of brief, ambiguous stimuli. Using rotating Necker cube stimuli, we observed enduring, retinotopically specific perceptual biases that were expressed from the outset and remained stable for up to 40 min, consistent with the known phenomenon of perceptual stabilization. Further, bias was undiminished after a break period of 5 min, but was readily reset by interposed periods of continuous, as opposed to periodic, ambiguous presentation. Taken together, the results demonstrate that perceptual biases can arise naturally and may principally reflect the brain's tendency to favor recent perceptual interpretation at a given retinal location. Further, they suggest that an association between retinal location and perceptual state, rather than a physical stimulus, is sufficient to generate long-term biases in perceptual organization.

The time course of protecting a visual memory representation from perceptual interference

PubMed Central

van Moorselaar, Dirk; Gunseli, Eren; Theeuwes, Jan; N. L. Olivers, Christian

2015-01-01

Cueing a remembered item during the delay of a visual memory task leads to enhanced recall of the cued item compared to when an item is not cued. This cueing benefit has been proposed to reflect attention within visual memory being shifted from a distributed mode to a focused mode, thus protecting the cued item against perceptual interference. Here we investigated the dynamics of building up this mnemonic protection against visual interference by systematically varying the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between cue onset and a subsequent visual mask in an orientation memory task. Experiment 1 showed that a cue counteracted the deteriorating effect of pattern masks. Experiment 2 demonstrated that building up this protection is a continuous process that is completed in approximately half a second after cue onset. The similarities between shifting attention in perceptual and remembered space are discussed. PMID:25628555

Dissociation between Conceptual and Perceptual Implicit Memory: Evidence from Patients with Frontal and Occipital Lobe Lesions

PubMed Central

Gong, Liang; Wang, JiHua; Yang, XuDong; Feng, Lei; Li, Xiu; Gu, Cui; Wang, MeiHong; Hu, JiaYun; Cheng, Huaidong

2016-01-01

The latest neuroimaging studies about implicit memory (IM) have revealed that different IM types may be processed by different parts of the brain. However, studies have rarely examined what subtypes of IM processes are affected in patients with various brain injuries. Twenty patients with frontal lobe injury, 25 patients with occipital lobe injury, and 29 healthy controls (HC) were recruited for the study. Two subtypes of IM were investigated by using structurally parallel perceptual (picture identification task) and conceptual (category exemplar generation task) IM tests in the three groups, as well as explicit memory (EM) tests. The results indicated that the priming of conceptual IM and EM tasks in patients with frontal lobe injury was poorer than that observed in HC, while perceptual IM was identical between the two groups. By contrast, the priming of perceptual IM in patients with occipital lobe injury was poorer than that in HC, whereas the priming of conceptual IM and EM was similar to that in HC. This double dissociation between perceptual and conceptual IM across the brain areas implies that occipital lobes may participate in perceptual IM, while frontal lobes may be involved in processing conceptual memory. PMID:26793093

Verbal Processing Speed and Executive Functioning in Long-Term Cochlear Implant Users

PubMed Central

Pisoni, David B.; Kronenberger, William G.

2015-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this study was to report how verbal rehearsal speed (VRS), a form of covert speech used to maintain verbal information in working memory, and another verbal processing speed measure, perceptual encoding speed, are related to 3 domains of executive function (EF) at risk in cochlear implant (CI) users: verbal working memory, fluency-speed, and inhibition-concentration. Method EF, speech perception, and language outcome measures were obtained from 55 prelingually deaf, long-term CI users and matched controls with normal hearing (NH controls). Correlational analyses were used to assess relations between VRS (articulation rate), perceptual encoding speed (digit and color naming), and the outcomes in each sample. Results CI users displayed slower verbal processing speeds than NH controls. Verbal rehearsal speed was related to 2 EF domains in the NH sample but was unrelated to EF outcomes in CI users. Perceptual encoding speed was related to all EF domains in both groups. Conclusions Verbal rehearsal speed may be less influential for EF quality in CI users than for NH controls, whereas rapid automatized labeling skills and EF are closely related in both groups. CI users may develop processing strategies in EF tasks that differ from the covert speech strategies routinely employed by NH individuals. PMID:25320961

Which neuropsychological functions predict various processing speed components in children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder?

PubMed

Vadnais, Sarah A; Kibby, Michelle Y; Jagger-Rickels, Audreyana C

2018-01-01

We identified statistical predictors of four processing speed (PS) components in a sample of 151 children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Performance on perceptual speed was predicted by visual attention/short-term memory, whereas incidental learning/psychomotor speed was predicted by verbal working memory. Rapid naming was predictive of each PS component assessed, and inhibition predicted all but one task, suggesting a shared need to identify/retrieve stimuli rapidly and inhibit incorrect responding across PS components. Hence, we found both shared and unique predictors of perceptual, cognitive, and output speed, suggesting more specific terminology should be used in future research on PS in ADHD.

Memory for the perceptual and semantic attributes of information in pure amnesic and severe closed-head injured patients.

PubMed

Carlesimo, Giovanni A; Bonanni, Rita; Caltagirone, Carlo

2003-05-01

This study investigated the hypothesis that brain damaged patients with memory disorder are poorer at remembering the semantic than the perceptual attributes of information. Eight patients with memory impairment of different etiology and 24 patients with chronic consequences of severe closed-head injury were compared to similarly sized age- and literacy-matched normal control groups on recognition tests for the physical aspect and the semantic identity of words and pictures lists. In order to avoid interpretative problems deriving from different absolute levels of performance, study conditions were manipulated across subjects to obtain comparable accuracy on the perceptual recognition tests in the memory disordered and control groups. The results of the Picture Recognition test were consistent with the hypothesis. Indeed, having more time for the stimulus encoding, the two memory disordered groups performed at the same level as the normal subjects on the perceptual test but significantly lower on the semantic test. Instead, on the Word Recognition test, following study condition manipulation, patients and controls performed similarly on both the perceptual and the semantic tests. These data only partially support the hypothesis of the study; rather they suggest that in memory disordered patients there is a reduction of the advantage, exhibited by normal controls, of retrieving pictures over words (picture superiority effect).

Accounting for speed-accuracy tradeoff in perceptual learning

PubMed Central

Liu, Charles C.; Watanabe, Takeo

2011-01-01

In the perceptual learning (PL) literature, researchers typically focus on improvements in accuracy, such as d’. In contrast, researchers who investigate the practice of cognitive skills focus on improvements in response times (RT). Here, we argue for the importance of accounting for both accuracy and RT in PL experiments, due to the phenomenon of speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT): at a given level of discriminability, faster responses tend to produce more errors. A formal model of the decision process, such as the diffusion model, can explain the SAT. In this model, a parameter known as the drift rate represents the perceptual strength of the stimulus, where higher drift rates lead to more accurate and faster responses. We applied the diffusion model to analyze responses from a yes-no coherent motion detection task. The results indicate that observers do not use a fixed threshold for evidence accumulation, so changes in the observed accuracy may not provide the most appropriate estimate of learning. Instead, our results suggest that SAT can be accounted for by a modeling approach, and that drift rates offer a promising index of PL. PMID:21958757

Accounting for speed-accuracy tradeoff in perceptual learning.

PubMed

Liu, Charles C; Watanabe, Takeo

2012-05-15

In the perceptual learning (PL) literature, researchers typically focus on improvements in accuracy, such as d'. In contrast, researchers who investigate the practice of cognitive skills focus on improvements in response times (RT). Here, we argue for the importance of accounting for both accuracy and RT in PL experiments, due to the phenomenon of speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT): at a given level of discriminability, faster responses tend to produce more errors. A formal model of the decision process, such as the diffusion model, can explain the SAT. In this model, a parameter known as the drift rate represents the perceptual strength of the stimulus, where higher drift rates lead to more accurate and faster responses. We applied the diffusion model to analyze responses from a yes-no coherent motion detection task. The results indicate that observers do not use a fixed threshold for evidence accumulation, so changes in the observed accuracy may not provide the most appropriate estimate of learning. Instead, our results suggest that SAT can be accounted for by a modeling approach, and that drift rates offer a promising index of PL. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Similarity-based distortion of visual short-term memory is due to perceptual averaging.

PubMed

Dubé, Chad; Zhou, Feng; Kahana, Michael J; Sekuler, Robert

2014-03-01

A task-irrelevant stimulus can distort recall from visual short-term memory (VSTM). Specifically, reproduction of a task-relevant memory item is biased in the direction of the irrelevant memory item (Huang & Sekuler, 2010a). The present study addresses the hypothesis that such effects reflect the influence of neural averaging under conditions of uncertainty about the contents of VSTM (Alvarez, 2011; Ball & Sekuler, 1980). We manipulated subjects' attention to relevant and irrelevant study items whose similarity relationships were held constant, while varying how similar the study items were to a subsequent recognition probe. On each trial, subjects were shown one or two Gabor patches, followed by the probe; their task was to indicate whether the probe matched one of the study items. A brief cue told subjects which Gabor, first or second, would serve as that trial's target item. Critically, this cue appeared either before, between, or after the study items. A distributional analysis of the resulting mnemometric functions showed an inflation in probability density in the region spanning the spatial frequency of the average of the two memory items. This effect, due to an elevation in false alarms to probes matching the perceptual average, was diminished when cues were presented before both study items. These results suggest that (a) perceptual averages are computed obligatorily and (b) perceptual averages are relied upon to a greater extent when item representations are weakened. Implications of these results for theories of VSTM are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Top-down cortical input during NREM sleep consolidates perceptual memory.

PubMed

Miyamoto, D; Hirai, D; Fung, C C A; Inutsuka, A; Odagawa, M; Suzuki, T; Boehringer, R; Adaikkan, C; Matsubara, C; Matsuki, N; Fukai, T; McHugh, T J; Yamanaka, A; Murayama, M

2016-06-10

During tactile perception, long-range intracortical top-down axonal projections are essential for processing sensory information. Whether these projections regulate sleep-dependent long-term memory consolidation is unknown. We altered top-down inputs from higher-order cortex to sensory cortex during sleep and examined the consolidation of memories acquired earlier during awake texture perception. Mice learned novel textures and consolidated them during sleep. Within the first hour of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, optogenetic inhibition of top-down projecting axons from secondary motor cortex (M2) to primary somatosensory cortex (S1) impaired sleep-dependent reactivation of S1 neurons and memory consolidation. In NREM sleep and sleep-deprivation states, closed-loop asynchronous or synchronous M2-S1 coactivation, respectively, reduced or prolonged memory retention. Top-down cortical information flow in NREM sleep is thus required for perceptual memory consolidation. Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Terahertz electrical writing speed in an antiferromagnetic memory

PubMed Central

Kašpar, Zdeněk; Campion, Richard P.; Baumgartner, Manuel; Sinova, Jairo; Kužel, Petr; Müller, Melanie; Kampfrath, Tobias

2018-01-01

The speed of writing of state-of-the-art ferromagnetic memories is physically limited by an intrinsic gigahertz threshold. Recently, realization of memory devices based on antiferromagnets, in which spin directions periodically alternate from one atomic lattice site to the next has moved research in an alternative direction. We experimentally demonstrate at room temperature that the speed of reversible electrical writing in a memory device can be scaled up to terahertz using an antiferromagnet. A current-induced spin-torque mechanism is responsible for the switching in our memory devices throughout the 12-order-of-magnitude range of writing speeds from hertz to terahertz. Our work opens the path toward the development of memory-logic technology reaching the elusive terahertz band. PMID:29740601

Age-related effects on perceptual and semantic encoding in memory.

PubMed

Kuo, M C C; Liu, K P Y; Ting, K H; Chan, C C H

2014-03-07

This study examined the age-related subsequent memory effect (SME) in perceptual and semantic encoding using event-related potentials (ERPs). Seventeen younger adults and 17 older adults studied a series of Chinese characters either perceptually (by inspecting orthographic components) or semantically (by determining whether the depicted object makes sounds). The two tasks had similar levels of difficulty. The participants made studied or unstudied judgments during the recognition phase. Younger adults performed better in both conditions, with significant SMEs detected in the time windows of P2, N3, P550, and late positive component (LPC). In the older group, SMEs were observed in the P2 and N3 latencies in both conditions but were only detected in the P550 in the semantic condition. Between-group analyses showed larger frontal and central SMEs in the younger sample in the LPC latency regardless of encoding type. Aging effect appears to be stronger on influencing perceptual than semantic encoding processes. The effects seem to be associated with a decline in updating and maintaining representations during perceptual encoding. The age-related decline in the encoding function may be due in part to changes in frontal lobe function. Copyright © 2013 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perceptual effects on remembering: recollective processes in picture recognition memory.

PubMed

Rajaram, S

1996-03-01

In 3 experiments, the effects of perceptual manipulations on recollective experience were tested. In Experiment 1, a picture-superiority effect was obtained for overall recognition and Remember judgements in a picture recognition task. In Experiment 2, size changes of pictorial stimuli across study and test reduced recognition memory and Remember judgements. In Experiment 3, deleterious effects of changes in left-right orientation of pictorial stimuli across study and test were obtained for Remember judgements. An alternate framework that emphasizes a distinctiveness-fluency processing distinction is proposed to account for these findings because they cannot easily be accommodated within the existing account of differences in conceptual and perceptual processing for the 2 categories of recollective experience: Remembering and Knowing, respectively (J. M. Gardiner, 1988; S. Rajaram, 1993).

Adult age differences in perceptually based, but not conceptually based implicit tests of memory.

PubMed

Small, B J; Hultsch, D F; Masson, M E

1995-05-01

Implicit tests of memory assess the influence of recent experience without requiring awareness of remembering. Evidence concerning age differences on implicit tests of memory suggests small age differences in favor of younger adults. However, the majority of research examining this issue has relied upon perceptually based implicit tests. Recently, a second type of implicit test, one that relies upon conceptually based processes, has been identified. The pattern of age differences on this second type of implicit test is less clear. In the present study, we examined the pattern of age differences on one conceptually based (fact completion) and one perceptually based (stem completion) implicit test of memory, as well as two explicit tests of memory (fact and word recall). Tasks were administered to 403 adults from three age groups (19-34 years, 58-73 years, 74-89 years). Significant age differences in favor of the young were found on stem completion but not fact completion. Age differences were present for both word and fast recall. Correlational analyses examining the relationship of memory performance to other cognitive variables indicated that the implicit tests were supported by different components than the explicit tests, as well as being different from each other.

Recognition memory and awareness: occurrence of perceptual effects in remembering or in knowing depends on conscious resources at encoding, but not at retrieval.

PubMed

Gardiner, John M; Gregg, Vernon H; Karayianni, Irene

2006-03-01

We report four experiments in which a remember-know paradigm was combined with a response deadline procedure in order to assess memory awareness in fast, as compared with slow,recognition judgments. In the experiments, we also investigated the perceptual effects of study-test congruence, either for picture size or for speaker's voice, following either full or divided attention at study. These perceptual effects occurred in remembering with full attention and in knowing with divided attention, but they were uninfluenced by recognition speed, indicating that their occurrence in remembering or knowing depends more on conscious resources at encoding than on those at retrieval. The results have implications for theoretical accounts of remembering and knowing that assume that remembering is more consciously controlled and effortful, whereas knowing is more automatic and faster.

Verbal Processing Speed and Executive Functioning in Long-Term Cochlear Implant Users

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

AuBuchon, Angela M.; Pisoni, David B.; Kronenberger, William G.

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to report how "verbal rehearsal speed" (VRS), a form of covert speech used to maintain verbal information in working memory, and another verbal processing speed measure, perceptual encoding speed, are related to 3 domains of executive function (EF) at risk in cochlear implant (CI) users: verbal…

Generalization of perceptual and motor learning: a causal link with memory encoding and consolidation?

PubMed

Censor, N

2013-10-10

In both perceptual and motor learning, numerous studies have shown specificity of learning to the trained eye or hand and to the physical features of the task. However, generalization of learning is possible in both perceptual and motor domains. Here, I review evidence for perceptual and motor learning generalization, suggesting that generalization patterns are affected by the way in which the original memory is encoded and consolidated. Generalization may be facilitated during fast learning, with possible engagement of higher-order brain areas recurrently interacting with the primary visual or motor cortices encoding the stimuli or movements' memories. Such generalization may be supported by sleep, involving functional interactions between low and higher-order brain areas. Repeated exposure to the task may alter generalization patterns of learning and overall offline learning. Development of unifying frameworks across learning modalities and better understanding of the conditions under which learning can generalize may enable to gain insight regarding the neural mechanisms underlying procedural learning and have useful clinical implications. Copyright © 2013 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparing the benefits of caffeine, naps and placebo on verbal, motor and perceptual memory.

PubMed

Mednick, Sara C; Cai, Denise J; Kanady, Jennifer; Drummond, Sean P A

2008-11-03

Caffeine, the world's most common psychoactive substance, is used by approximately 90% of North Americans everyday. Little is known, however, about its benefits for memory. Napping has been shown to increase alertness and promote learning on some memory tasks. We directly compared caffeine (200mg) with napping (60-90min) and placebo on three distinct memory processes: declarative verbal memory, procedural motor skills, and perceptual learning. In the verbal task, recall and recognition for unassociated words were tested after a 7h retention period (with a between-session nap or drug intervention). A second, different, word list was administered post-intervention and memory was tested after a 20min retention period. The non-declarative tasks (finger tapping task (FTT) and texture discrimination task (TDT)) were trained before the intervention and then retested afterwards. Naps enhanced recall of words after a 7h and 20min retention interval relative to both caffeine and placebo. Caffeine significantly impaired motor learning compared to placebo and naps. Napping produced robust perceptual learning compared with placebo; however, naps and caffeine were not significantly different. These findings provide evidence of the limited benefits of caffeine for memory improvement compared with napping. We hypothesize that impairment from caffeine may be restricted to tasks that contain explicit information; whereas strictly implicit learning is less compromised.

Comparing the benefits of Caffeine, Naps and Placebo on Verbal, Motor and Perceptual Memory

PubMed Central

Mednick, Sara C.; Cai, Denise J.; Kanady, Jennifer; Drummond, Sean P.A.

2008-01-01

Caffeine, the world’s most common psychoactive substance, is used by approximately 90% of North Americans everyday. Little is known, however, about its benefits for memory. Napping has been shown to increase alertness and promote learning on some memory tasks. We directly compared caffeine (200mg) with napping (60–90 minutes) and placebo on three distinct memory processes: declarative verbal memory, procedural motor skills, and perceptual learning. In the verbal task, recall and recognition for unassociated words were tested after a 7hr retention period (with a between-session nap or drug intervention). A second, different, word list was administered post-intervention and memory was tested after a 20min retention period. The non-declarative tasks (finger tapping task and texture discrimination task) were trained before the intervention and then retested afterwards. Naps enhanced recall of words after a 7hr and 20min retention interval relative to both caffeine and placebo. Caffeine significantly impaired motor learning compared to placebo and naps. Napping produced robust perceptual learning compared with placebo; however, naps and caffeine were not significantly different. These findings provide evidence of the limited benefits of caffeine for memory improvement compared with napping. We hypothesize that impairment from caffeine may be restricted to tasks that contain explicit information; whereas strictly implicit learning is less compromised. PMID:18554731

Processing speed and working memory span: their differential role in superficial and deep memory processes in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Brébion, Gildas; Bressan, Rodrigo A; Pilowsky, Lyn S; David, Anthony S

2011-05-01

Previous work has suggested that decrement in both processing speed and working memory span plays a role in the memory impairment observed in patients with schizophrenia. We undertook a study to examine simultaneously the effect of these two factors. A sample of 49 patients with schizophrenia and 43 healthy controls underwent a battery of verbal and visual memory tasks. Superficial and deep encoding memory measures were tallied. We conducted regression analyses on the various memory measures, using processing speed and working memory span as independent variables. In the patient group, processing speed was a significant predictor of superficial and deep memory measures in verbal and visual memory. Working memory span was an additional significant predictor of the deep memory measures only. Regression analyses involving all participants revealed that the effect of diagnosis on all the deep encoding memory measures was reduced to non-significance when processing speed was entered in the regression. Decreased processing speed is involved in verbal and visual memory deficit in patients, whether the task require superficial or deep encoding. Working memory is involved only insofar as the task requires a certain amount of effort.

Reading speed in the peripheral visual field of older adults: Does it benefit from perceptual learning?

PubMed

Yu, Deyue; Cheung, Sing-Hang; Legge, Gordon E; Chung, Susana T L

2010-04-21

Enhancing reading ability in peripheral vision is important for the rehabilitation of people with central-visual-field loss from age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Previous research has shown that perceptual learning, based on a trigram letter-recognition task, improved peripheral reading speed among normally-sighted young adults (Chung, Legge, & Cheung, 2004). Here we ask whether the same happens in older adults in an age range more typical of the onset of AMD. Eighteen normally-sighted subjects, aged 55-76years, were randomly assigned to training or control groups. Visual-span profiles (plots of letter-recognition accuracy as a function of horizontal letter position) and RSVP reading speeds were measured at 10 degrees above and below fixation during pre- and post-tests for all subjects. Training consisted of repeated measurements of visual-span profiles at 10 degrees below fixation, in four daily sessions. The control subjects did not receive any training. Perceptual learning enlarged the visual spans in both trained (lower) and untrained (upper) visual fields. Reading speed improved in the trained field by 60% when the trained print size was used. The training benefits for these older subjects were weaker than the training benefits for young adults found by Chung et al. Despite the weaker training benefits, perceptual learning remains a potential option for low-vision reading rehabilitation among older adults. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Revisiting a Cognitive Framework for Test Design: Applications for a Computerized Perceptual Speed Test.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alderton, David L.

This paper highlights the need for a systematic, content aware, and theoretically-based approach to test design. The cognitive components approach is endorsed, and is applied to the development of a computerized perceptual speed test. Psychometric literature is reviewed and shows that: every major multi-factor theory includes a clerical/perceptual…

Investigating the mixture and subdivision of perceptual and conceptual processing in Japanese memory tests.

PubMed

Gabeza, R

1995-03-01

The dual nature of the Japanese writing system was used to investigate two assumptions of the processing view of memory transfer: (1) that both perceptual and conceptual processing can contribute to the same memory test (mixture assumption) and (2) that both can be broken into more specific processes (subdivision assumption). Supporting the mixture assumption, a word fragment completion test based on ideographic kanji characters (kanji fragment completion test) was affected by both perceptual (hiragana/kanji script shift) and conceptual (levels-of-processing) study manipulations kanji fragments, because it did not occur with the use of meaningless hiragana fragments. The mixture assumption is also supported by an effect of study script on an implicit conceptual test (sentence completion), and the subdivision assumption is supported by a crossover dissociation between hiragana and kanji fragment completion as a function of study script.

Role of serial order in the impact of talker variability on short-term memory: testing a perceptual organization-based account.

PubMed

Hughes, Robert W; Marsh, John E; Jones, Dylan M

2011-11-01

In two experiments, we examined the impact of the degree of match between sequential auditory perceptual organization processes and the demands of a short-term memory task (memory for order vs. item information). When a spoken sequence of digits was presented so as to promote its perceptual partitioning into two distinct streams by conveying it in alternating female (F) and male (M) voices (FMFMFMFM)--thereby disturbing the perception of true temporal order--recall of item order was greatly impaired (as compared to recall of item identity). Moreover, an order error type consistent with the formation of voice-based streams was committed more quickly in the alternating-voice condition (Exp. 1). In contrast, when the perceptual organization of the sequence mapped well onto an optimal two-group serial rehearsal strategy--by presenting the two voices in discrete clusters (FFFFMMMM)--order, but not item, recall was enhanced (Exp. 2). The results are consistent with the view that the degree of compatibility between perceptual and deliberate sequencing processes is a key determinant of serial short-term memory performance. Alternative accounts of talker variability effects in short-term memory, based on the concept of a dedicated phonological short-term store and a capacity-limited focus of attention, are also reviewed.

Opposing effects of perceptual versus working memory load on emotional distraction.

PubMed

Tavares, Tamara P; Logie, Kyle; Mitchell, Derek G V

2016-10-01

Throughout our day-to-day activities, we are subjected to numerous stimuli that compete for our attention; consequently, we must prioritize stimuli for further processing and influence over behaviour. Previous research has demonstrated that the extent to which task-irrelevant distractors are processed is mediated by the nature of the cognitive task, and the level of processing load. Importantly though, the interaction between cognitive task, processing load, and emotional distractor processing remains unclear. This is a particularly important question given the unique ways that emotion interacts with attention, and the fact that some other forms of processing load have been shown to reduce emotional distractor encoding. In the present study, participants were presented with emotional distractors during a perceptual and working memory task, under varying levels of load. In Experiment 1, we showed that the impact of emotional distractors on behaviour was reduced under conditions of high relative to low perceptual load. However, in sharp contrast, high working memory load was associated with increased emotional distraction. Importantly, these results were replicated in Experiment 2. Overall, the impact of processing load on emotional distraction varies according to the cognitive function being performed. These results raise the intriguing possibility that working memory operations deplete some of the cognitive resources needed to control the impact of emotion on behaviour. The findings, therefore, may have important implications for clinical populations featuring cognitive dysfunction and emotional dysregulation.

Working memory span and motor and cognitive speed in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Brébion, Gildas; David, Anthony S; Jones, Hugh M; Pilowsky, Lyn S

2009-06-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the verbal working memory deficit and decrease of motor and cognitive speed in patients with schizophrenia, and to clarify their associations with negative and depressive symptomatology. Forty patients with schizophrenia and 41 healthy control individuals were administered the backward digit span to assess the working memory capacity, along with 3 tests of processing speed. Patients demonstrated reduced backward digit span, as well as decreased motor and cognitive speed. Regression analyses indicated that the backward digit span was associated with cognitive speed. It was not associated with either negative or depressive symptoms. Decreased processing speed was unrelated to negative symptoms, but the depression score was significantly associated with the cognitive speed measure. Working memory and processing speed seem to share a cognitive component. Depression, but not negative symptoms, affects processing speed, especially by decreasing cognitive speed.

Perceptual Stability of the Lissajous Figure Is Modulated by the Speed of Illusory Rotation.

PubMed

Weilnhammer, Veith A; Sterzer, Philipp; Hesselmann, Guido

2016-01-01

Lissajous figures represent ambiguous structure-from-motion stimuli rotating in depth and have proven to be a versatile tool to explore the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying bistable perception. They are generated by the intersection of two sinusoids with perpendicular axes and increasing phase-shift whose frequency determines the speed of illusory 3D rotation. Recently, we found that Lissajous figures of higher shifting frequencies elicited longer perceptual phase durations and tentatively proposed a "representational momentum" account. In this study, our aim was twofold. First, we aimed to gather more behavioral evidence related to the perceptual dynamics of the Lissajous figure by simultaneously varying its shifting frequency and size. Using a conventional analysis, we investigated the effects of our experimental manipulations on transition probability (i.e., the probability that the current percept will change at the next critical stimulus configuration). Second, we sought to test the impact of our experimental factors on the occurrence of transitions in bistable perception by means of a Bayesian approach that can be used to directly quantify the impact of contextual cues on perceptual stability. We thereby estimated the implicit prediction of perceptual stability and how it is modulated by experimental manipulations.

Sparse distributed memory: understanding the speed and robustness of expert memory

PubMed Central

Brogliato, Marcelo S.; Chada, Daniel M.; Linhares, Alexandre

2014-01-01

How can experts, sometimes in exacting detail, almost immediately and very precisely recall memory items from a vast repertoire? The problem in which we will be interested concerns models of theoretical neuroscience that could explain the speed and robustness of an expert's recollection. The approach is based on Sparse Distributed Memory, which has been shown to be plausible, both in a neuroscientific and in a psychological manner, in a number of ways. A crucial characteristic concerns the limits of human recollection, the “tip-of-tongue” memory event—which is found at a non-linearity in the model. We expand the theoretical framework, deriving an optimization formula to solve this non-linearity. Numerical results demonstrate how the higher frequency of rehearsal, through work or study, immediately increases the robustness and speed associated with expert memory. PMID:24808842

Infant Visual Recognition Memory: Independent Contributions of Speed and Attention.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, Susan A.; Feldman, Judith F.; Jankowski, Jeffery J.

2003-01-01

Examined contributions of cognitive processing speed, short-term memory capacity, and attention to infant visual recognition memory. Found that infants who showed better attention and faster processing had better recognition memory. Contributions of attention and processing speed were independent of one another and similar at all ages studied--5,…

Your brain on speed: cognitive performance of a spatial working memory task is not affected by walking speed

PubMed Central

Kline, Julia E.; Poggensee, Katherine; Ferris, Daniel P.

2014-01-01

When humans walk in everyday life, they typically perform a range of cognitive tasks while they are on the move. Past studies examining performance changes in dual cognitive-motor tasks during walking have produced a variety of results. These discrepancies may be related to the type of cognitive task chosen, differences in the walking speeds studied, or lack of controlling for walking speed. The goal of this study was to determine how young, healthy subjects performed a spatial working memory task over a range of walking speeds. We used high-density electroencephalography to determine if electrocortical activity mirrored changes in cognitive performance across speeds. Subjects stood (0.0 m/s) and walked (0.4, 0.8, 1.2, and 1.6 m/s) with and without performing a Brooks spatial working memory task. We hypothesized that performance of the spatial working memory task and the associated electrocortical activity would decrease significantly with walking speed. Across speeds, the spatial working memory task caused subjects to step more widely compared with walking without the task. This is typically a sign that humans are adapting their gait dynamics to increase gait stability. Several cortical areas exhibited power fluctuations time-locked to memory encoding during the cognitive task. In the somatosensory association cortex, alpha power increased prior to stimulus presentation and decreased during memory encoding. There were small significant reductions in theta power in the right superior parietal lobule and the posterior cingulate cortex around memory encoding. However, the subjects did not show a significant change in cognitive task performance or electrocortical activity with walking speed. These findings indicate that in young, healthy subjects walking speed does not affect performance of a spatial working memory task. These subjects can devote adequate cortical resources to spatial cognition when needed, regardless of walking speed. PMID:24847239

Impact of Perceptual Speed Calming Curve Countermeasures on Drivers’ Anticipation and Mitigation Ability : A Driving Simulator Study

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2018-02-01

Horizontal curves are unavoidable in rural roads and are a serious crash risk to vehicle occupants. This study investigates the impact and effectiveness of three curve-based perceptual speed-calming countermeasures (advance curve warning signs, chevr...

Perceptual Stability of the Lissajous Figure Is Modulated by the Speed of Illusory Rotation

PubMed Central

Weilnhammer, Veith A.; Sterzer, Philipp; Hesselmann, Guido

2016-01-01

Lissajous figures represent ambiguous structure-from-motion stimuli rotating in depth and have proven to be a versatile tool to explore the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying bistable perception. They are generated by the intersection of two sinusoids with perpendicular axes and increasing phase-shift whose frequency determines the speed of illusory 3D rotation. Recently, we found that Lissajous figures of higher shifting frequencies elicited longer perceptual phase durations and tentatively proposed a “representational momentum” account. In this study, our aim was twofold. First, we aimed to gather more behavioral evidence related to the perceptual dynamics of the Lissajous figure by simultaneously varying its shifting frequency and size. Using a conventional analysis, we investigated the effects of our experimental manipulations on transition probability (i.e., the probability that the current percept will change at the next critical stimulus configuration). Second, we sought to test the impact of our experimental factors on the occurrence of transitions in bistable perception by means of a Bayesian approach that can be used to directly quantify the impact of contextual cues on perceptual stability. We thereby estimated the implicit prediction of perceptual stability and how it is modulated by experimental manipulations. PMID:27560958

Neurophysiological indices of perceptual object priming in the absence of explicit recognition memory.

PubMed

Harris, Jill D; Cutmore, Tim R H; O'Gorman, John; Finnigan, Simon; Shum, David

2009-02-01

The aim of this study was to identify ERP correlates of perceptual object priming that are insensitive to factors affecting explicit, episodic memory. EEG was recorded from 21 participants while they performed a visual object recognition test on a combination of unstudied items and old items that were previously encountered during either a 'deep' or 'shallow' levels-of-processing (LOP) study task. The results demonstrated a midline P150 old/new effect which was sensitive only to objects' old/new status and not to the accuracy of recognition responses to old items, or to the LOP manipulation. Similar outcomes were observed for the subsequent P200 and N400 effects, the former of which had a parietal scalp maximum and the latter, a broadly distributed topography. In addition an LPC old/new effect typical of those reported in past ERP recognition studies was observed. These outcomes support the proposal that the P150 effect is reflective of perceptual object priming and moreover, provide novel evidence that this and the P200 effect are independent of explicit recognition memory process(es).

Action video games do not improve the speed of information processing in simple perceptual tasks.

PubMed

van Ravenzwaaij, Don; Boekel, Wouter; Forstmann, Birte U; Ratcliff, Roger; Wagenmakers, Eric-Jan

2014-10-01

Previous research suggests that playing action video games improves performance on sensory, perceptual, and attentional tasks. For instance, Green, Pouget, and Bavelier (2010) used the diffusion model to decompose data from a motion detection task and estimate the contribution of several underlying psychological processes. Their analysis indicated that playing action video games leads to faster information processing, reduced response caution, and no difference in motor responding. Because perceptual learning is generally thought to be highly context-specific, this transfer from gaming is surprising and warrants corroborative evidence from a large-scale training study. We conducted 2 experiments in which participants practiced either an action video game or a cognitive game in 5 separate, supervised sessions. Prior to each session and following the last session, participants performed a perceptual discrimination task. In the second experiment, we included a third condition in which no video games were played at all. Behavioral data and diffusion model parameters showed similar practice effects for the action gamers, the cognitive gamers, and the nongamers and suggest that, in contrast to earlier reports, playing action video games does not improve the speed of information processing in simple perceptual tasks.

Action Video Games Do Not Improve the Speed of Information Processing in Simple Perceptual Tasks

PubMed Central

van Ravenzwaaij, Don; Boekel, Wouter; Forstmann, Birte U.; Ratcliff, Roger; Wagenmakers, Eric-Jan

2015-01-01

Previous research suggests that playing action video games improves performance on sensory, perceptual, and attentional tasks. For instance, Green, Pouget, and Bavelier (2010) used the diffusion model to decompose data from a motion detection task and estimate the contribution of several underlying psychological processes. Their analysis indicated that playing action video games leads to faster information processing, reduced response caution, and no difference in motor responding. Because perceptual learning is generally thought to be highly context-specific, this transfer from gaming is surprising and warrants corroborative evidence from a large-scale training study. We conducted 2 experiments in which participants practiced either an action video game or a cognitive game in 5 separate, supervised sessions. Prior to each session and following the last session, participants performed a perceptual discrimination task. In the second experiment, we included a third condition in which no video games were played at all. Behavioral data and diffusion model parameters showed similar practice effects for the action gamers, the cognitive gamers, and the nongamers and suggest that, in contrast to earlier reports, playing action video games does not improve the speed of information processing in simple perceptual tasks. PMID:24933517

Working memory influences processing speed and reading fluency in ADHD.

PubMed

Jacobson, Lisa A; Ryan, Matthew; Martin, Rebecca B; Ewen, Joshua; Mostofsky, Stewart H; Denckla, Martha B; Mahone, E Mark

2011-01-01

Processing-speed deficits affect reading efficiency, even among individuals who recognize and decode words accurately. Children with ADHD who decode words accurately can still have inefficient reading fluency, leading to a bottleneck in other cognitive processes. This "slowing" in ADHD is associated with deficits in fundamental components of executive function underlying processing speed, including response selection. The purpose of the present study was to deconstruct processing speed in order to determine which components of executive control best explain the "processing" speed deficits related to reading fluency in ADHD. Participants (41 ADHD, 21 controls), ages 9-14 years, screened for language disorders, word reading deficits, and psychiatric disorders, were administered measures of copying speed, processing speed, reading fluency, working memory, reaction time, inhibition, and auditory attention span. Compared to controls, children with ADHD showed reduced oral and silent reading fluency and reduced processing speed-driven primarily by deficits on WISC-IV Coding. In contrast, groups did not differ on copying speed. After controlling for copying speed, sex, severity of ADHD-related symptomatology, and GAI, slowed "processing" speed (i.e., Coding) was significantly associated with verbal span and measures of working memory but not with measures of response control/inhibition, lexical retrieval speed, reaction time, or intrasubject variability. Further, "processing" speed (i.e., Coding, residualized for copying speed) and working memory were significant predictors of oral reading fluency. Abnormalities in working memory and response selection (which are frontally mediated and enter into the output side of processing speed) may play an important role in deficits in reading fluency in ADHD, potentially more than posteriorally mediated problems with orienting of attention or perceiving the stimulus.

Perceptual Load Affects Eyewitness Accuracy and Susceptibility to Leading Questions.

PubMed

Murphy, Gillian; Greene, Ciara M

2016-01-01

Load Theory (Lavie, 1995, 2005) states that the level of perceptual load in a task (i.e., the amount of information involved in processing task-relevant stimuli) determines the efficiency of selective attention. There is evidence that perceptual load affects distractor processing, with increased inattentional blindness under high load. Given that high load can result in individuals failing to report seeing obvious objects, it is conceivable that load may also impair memory for the scene. The current study is the first to assess the effect of perceptual load on eyewitness memory. Across three experiments (two video-based and one in a driving simulator), the effect of perceptual load on eyewitness memory was assessed. The results showed that eyewitnesses were less accurate under high load, in particular for peripheral details. For example, memory for the central character in the video was not affected by load but memory for a witness who passed by the window at the edge of the scene was significantly worse under high load. High load memories were also more open to suggestion, showing increased susceptibility to leading questions. High visual perceptual load also affected recall for auditory information, illustrating a possible cross-modal perceptual load effect on memory accuracy. These results have implications for eyewitness memory researchers and forensic professionals.

Perceptual Load Affects Eyewitness Accuracy and Susceptibility to Leading Questions

PubMed Central

Murphy, Gillian; Greene, Ciara M.

2016-01-01

Load Theory (Lavie, 1995, 2005) states that the level of perceptual load in a task (i.e., the amount of information involved in processing task-relevant stimuli) determines the efficiency of selective attention. There is evidence that perceptual load affects distractor processing, with increased inattentional blindness under high load. Given that high load can result in individuals failing to report seeing obvious objects, it is conceivable that load may also impair memory for the scene. The current study is the first to assess the effect of perceptual load on eyewitness memory. Across three experiments (two video-based and one in a driving simulator), the effect of perceptual load on eyewitness memory was assessed. The results showed that eyewitnesses were less accurate under high load, in particular for peripheral details. For example, memory for the central character in the video was not affected by load but memory for a witness who passed by the window at the edge of the scene was significantly worse under high load. High load memories were also more open to suggestion, showing increased susceptibility to leading questions. High visual perceptual load also affected recall for auditory information, illustrating a possible cross-modal perceptual load effect on memory accuracy. These results have implications for eyewitness memory researchers and forensic professionals. PMID:27625628

Working Memory Influences Processing Speed and Reading Fluency in ADHD

PubMed Central

Jacobson, Lisa A.; Ryan, Matthew; Martin, Rebecca B.; Ewen, Joshua; Mostofsky, Stewart H.; Denckla, Martha B.; Mahone, E. Mark

2012-01-01

Processing speed deficits affect reading efficiency, even among individuals who recognize and decode words accurately. Children with ADHD who decode words accurately can still have inefficient reading fluency, leading to a bottleneck in other cognitive processes. This “slowing” in ADHD is associated with deficits in fundamental components of executive function underlying processing speed, including response selection. The purpose of the present study was to deconstruct processing speed in order to determine which components of executive control best explain the “processing” speed deficits related to reading fluency in ADHD. Participants (41 ADHD, 21 controls), ages 9-14, screened for language disorders, word reading deficits, and psychiatric disorders, were administered measures of copying speed, processing speed, reading fluency, working memory, reaction time, inhibition, and auditory attention span. Compared to controls, children with ADHD showed reduced oral and silent reading fluency, and reduced processing speed—driven primarily by deficits on WISC-IV Coding. In contrast, groups did not differ on copying speed. After controlling for copying speed, sex, severity of ADHD-related symptomatology, and GAI, slowed “processing” speed (i.e., Coding) was significantly associated with verbal span and measures of working memory, but not with measures of response control/inhibition, lexical retrieval speed, reaction time, or intra-subject variability. Further, “processing” speed (i.e., Coding, residualized for copying speed) and working memory were significant predictors of oral reading fluency. Abnormalities in working memory and response selection (which are frontally-mediated and enter into the output side of processing speed) may play an important role in deficits in reading fluency in ADHD, potentially more than posteriorally-mediated problems with orienting of attention or perceiving the stimulus. PMID:21287422

Selective Attention to Auditory Memory Neurally Enhances Perceptual Precision.

PubMed

Lim, Sung-Joo; Wöstmann, Malte; Obleser, Jonas

2015-12-09

Selective attention to a task-relevant stimulus facilitates encoding of that stimulus into a working memory representation. It is less clear whether selective attention also improves the precision of a stimulus already represented in memory. Here, we investigate the behavioral and neural dynamics of selective attention to representations in auditory working memory (i.e., auditory objects) using psychophysical modeling and model-based analysis of electroencephalographic signals. Human listeners performed a syllable pitch discrimination task where two syllables served as to-be-encoded auditory objects. Valid (vs neutral) retroactive cues were presented during retention to allow listeners to selectively attend to the to-be-probed auditory object in memory. Behaviorally, listeners represented auditory objects in memory more precisely (expressed by steeper slopes of a psychometric curve) and made faster perceptual decisions when valid compared to neutral retrocues were presented. Neurally, valid compared to neutral retrocues elicited a larger frontocentral sustained negativity in the evoked potential as well as enhanced parietal alpha/low-beta oscillatory power (9-18 Hz) during memory retention. Critically, individual magnitudes of alpha oscillatory power (7-11 Hz) modulation predicted the degree to which valid retrocues benefitted individuals' behavior. Our results indicate that selective attention to a specific object in auditory memory does benefit human performance not by simply reducing memory load, but by actively engaging complementary neural resources to sharpen the precision of the task-relevant object in memory. Can selective attention improve the representational precision with which objects are held in memory? And if so, what are the neural mechanisms that support such improvement? These issues have been rarely examined within the auditory modality, in which acoustic signals change and vanish on a milliseconds time scale. Introducing a new auditory memory

Effects of children's working memory capacity and processing speed on their sentence imitation performance.

PubMed

Poll, Gerard H; Miller, Carol A; Mainela-Arnold, Elina; Adams, Katharine Donnelly; Misra, Maya; Park, Ji Sook

2013-01-01

More limited working memory capacity and slower processing for language and cognitive tasks are characteristics of many children with language difficulties. Individual differences in processing speed have not consistently been found to predict language ability or severity of language impairment. There are conflicting views on whether working memory and processing speed are integrated or separable abilities. To evaluate four models for the relations of individual differences in children's processing speed and working memory capacity in sentence imitation. The models considered whether working memory and processing speed are integrated or separable, as well as the effect of the number of operations required per sentence. The role of working memory as a mediator of the effect of processing speed on sentence imitation was also evaluated. Forty-six children with varied language and reading abilities imitated sentences. Working memory was measured with the Competing Language Processing Task (CLPT), and processing speed was measured with a composite of truth-value judgment and rapid automatized naming tasks. Mixed-effects ordinal regression models evaluated the CLPT and processing speed as predictors of sentence imitation item scores. A single mediator model evaluated working memory as a mediator of the effect of processing speed on sentence imitation total scores. Working memory was a reliable predictor of sentence imitation accuracy, but processing speed predicted sentence imitation only as a component of a processing speed by number of operations interaction. Processing speed predicted working memory capacity, and there was evidence that working memory acted as a mediator of the effect of processing speed on sentence imitation accuracy. The findings support a refined view of working memory and processing speed as separable factors in children's sentence imitation performance. Processing speed does not independently explain sentence imitation accuracy for all sentence

Dissociation of rapid response learning and facilitation in perceptual and conceptual networks of person recognition.

PubMed

Valt, Christian; Klein, Christoph; Boehm, Stephan G

2015-08-01

Repetition priming is a prominent example of non-declarative memory, and it increases the accuracy and speed of responses to repeatedly processed stimuli. Major long-hold memory theories posit that repetition priming results from facilitation within perceptual and conceptual networks for stimulus recognition and categorization. Stimuli can also be bound to particular responses, and it has recently been suggested that this rapid response learning, not network facilitation, provides a sound theory of priming of object recognition. Here, we addressed the relevance of network facilitation and rapid response learning for priming of person recognition with a view to advance general theories of priming. In four experiments, participants performed conceptual decisions like occupation or nationality judgments for famous faces. The magnitude of rapid response learning varied across experiments, and rapid response learning co-occurred and interacted with facilitation in perceptual and conceptual networks. These findings indicate that rapid response learning and facilitation in perceptual and conceptual networks are complementary rather than competing theories of priming. Thus, future memory theories need to incorporate both rapid response learning and network facilitation as individual facets of priming. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

A Perceptual Repetition Blindness Effect

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hochhaus, Larry; Johnston, James C.; Null, Cynthia H. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

Before concluding Repetition Blindness is a perceptual phenomenon, alternative explanations based on memory retrieval problems and report bias must be rejected. Memory problems were minimized by requiring a judgment about only a single briefly displayed field. Bias and sensitivity effects were empirically measured with an ROC-curve analysis method based on confidence ratings. Results from five experiments support the hypothesis that Repetition Blindness can be a perceptual phenomenon.

Joint Attention Enhances Visual Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gregory, Samantha E. A.; Jackson, Margaret C.

2017-01-01

Joint attention--the mutual focus of 2 individuals on an item--speeds detection and discrimination of target information. However, what happens to that information beyond the initial perceptual episode? To fully comprehend and engage with our immediate environment also requires working memory (WM), which integrates information from second to…

Relationships among processing speed, working memory, and fluid intelligence in children.

PubMed

Fry, A F; Hale, S

2000-10-01

The present review focuses on three issues, (a) the time course of developmental increases in cognitive abilities; (b) the impact of age on individual differences in these abilities, and (c) the mechanisms by which developmental increases in different aspects of cognition affect each other. We conclude from our review of the literature that the development of processing speed, working memory, and fluid intelligence, all follow a similar time course, suggesting that all three abilities develop in concert. Furthermore, the strength of the correlation between speed and intelligence does not appear to change with age, and most of the effect of the age-related increase in speed on intelligence appears to be mediated through the effect of speed on working memory. Finally, most of the effect of the age-related improvement in working memory on intelligence is itself attributable to the effect of the increase in speed on working memory, providing evidence of a cognitive developmental cascade.

High speed magneto-resistive random access memory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wu, Jiin-Chuan (Inventor); Stadler, Henry L. (Inventor); Katti, Romney R. (Inventor)

1992-01-01

A high speed read MRAM memory element is configured from a sandwich of magnetizable, ferromagnetic film surrounding a magneto-resistive film which may be ferromagnetic or not. One outer ferromagnetic film has a higher coercive force than the other and therefore remains magnetized in one sense while the other may be switched in sense by a switching magnetic field. The magneto-resistive film is therefore sensitive to the amplitude of the resultant field between the outer ferromagnetic films and may be constructed of a high resistivity, high magneto-resistive material capable of higher sensing currents. This permits higher read voltages and therefore faster read operations. Alternate embodiments with perpendicular anisotropy, and in-plane anisotropy are shown, including an embodiment which uses high permeability guides to direct the closing flux path through the magneto-resistive material. High density, high speed, radiation hard, memory matrices may be constructed from these memory elements.

Working memory, perceptual priming, and the perception of hierarchical forms: opposite effects of priming and working memory without memory refreshing.

PubMed

Kim, Jeong-Im; Humphreys, Glyn W

2010-08-01

Previous research has shown that stimuli held in working memory (WM) can influence spatial attention. Using Navon stimuli, we explored whether and how items in WM affect the perception of visual targets at local and global levels in compound letters. Participants looked for a target letter presented at a local or global level while holding a regular block letter as a memory item. An effect of holding the target's identity in WM was found. When memory items and targets were the same, performance was better than in a neutral condition when the memory item did not appear in the hierarchical letter (a benefit from valid cuing). When the memory item matched the distractor in the hierarchical stimulus, performance was worse than in the neutral baseline (a cost on invalid trials). These effects were greatest when the WM cue matched the global level of the hierarchical stimulus, suggesting that WM biases attention to the global level of form. Interestingly, in a no-memory priming condition, target perception was faster in the invalid condition than in the neutral baseline, reversing the effect in the WM condition. A further control experiment ruled out the effects of WM being due to participants' refreshing their memory from the hierarchical stimulus display. The data show that information in WM biases the selection of hierarchical forms, whereas priming does not. Priming alters the perceptual processing of repeated stimuli without biasing attention.

Working memory and arithmetic calculation in children: the contributory roles of processing speed, short-term memory, and reading.

PubMed

Berg, Derek H

2008-04-01

The cognitive underpinnings of arithmetic calculation in children are noted to involve working memory; however, cognitive processes related to arithmetic calculation and working memory suggest that this relationship is more complex than stated previously. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relative contributions of processing speed, short-term memory, working memory, and reading to arithmetic calculation in children. Results suggested four important findings. First, processing speed emerged as a significant contributor of arithmetic calculation only in relation to age-related differences in the general sample. Second, processing speed and short-term memory did not eliminate the contribution of working memory to arithmetic calculation. Third, individual working memory components--verbal working memory and visual-spatial working memory--each contributed unique variance to arithmetic calculation in the presence of all other variables. Fourth, a full model indicated that chronological age remained a significant contributor to arithmetic calculation in the presence of significant contributions from all other variables. Results are discussed in terms of directions for future research on working memory in arithmetic calculation.

The Perceptual Root of Object-Based Storage: An Interactive Model of Perception and Visual Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gao, Tao; Gao, Zaifeng; Li, Jie; Sun, Zhongqiang; Shen, Mowei

2011-01-01

Mainstream theories of visual perception assume that visual working memory (VWM) is critical for integrating online perceptual information and constructing coherent visual experiences in changing environments. Given the dynamic interaction between online perception and VWM, we propose that how visual information is processed during visual…

The effect of stimulus strength on the speed and accuracy of a perceptual decision.

PubMed

Palmer, John; Huk, Alexander C; Shadlen, Michael N

2005-05-02

Both the speed and the accuracy of a perceptual judgment depend on the strength of the sensory stimulation. When stimulus strength is high, accuracy is high and response time is fast; when stimulus strength is low, accuracy is low and response time is slow. Although the psychometric function is well established as a tool for analyzing the relationship between accuracy and stimulus strength, the corresponding chronometric function for the relationship between response time and stimulus strength has not received as much consideration. In this article, we describe a theory of perceptual decision making based on a diffusion model. In it, a decision is based on the additive accumulation of sensory evidence over time to a bound. Combined with simple scaling assumptions, the proportional-rate and power-rate diffusion models predict simple analytic expressions for both the chronometric and psychometric functions. In a series of psychophysical experiments, we show that this theory accounts for response time and accuracy as a function of both stimulus strength and speed-accuracy instructions. In particular, the results demonstrate a close coupling between response time and accuracy. The theory is also shown to subsume the predictions of Piéron's Law, a power function dependence of response time on stimulus strength. The theory's analytic chronometric function allows one to extend theories of accuracy to response time.

Effects of perceptual and semantic cues on ERP modulations associated with prospective memory.

PubMed

Cousens, Ross; Cutmore, Timothy; Wang, Ya; Wilson, Jennifer; Chan, Raymond C K; Shum, David H K

2015-10-01

Prospective memory involves the formation and execution of intended actions and is essential for autonomous living. In this study (N=32), the effect of the nature of PM cues (semantic versus perceptual) on established event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited in PM tasks (N300 and prospective positivity) was investigated. PM cues defined by their perceptual features clearly elicited the N300 and prospective positivity whereas PM cues defined by semantic relatedness elicited prospective positivity. This calls into question the view that the N300 is a marker of general processes underlying detection of PM cues, but supports existing research showing that prospective positivity represents general post-retrieval processes that follow detection of PM cues. Continued refinement of ERP paradigms for understanding the neural correlates of PM is needed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Selection and Storage of Perceptual Groups Is Constrained by a Discrete Resource in Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, David E.; Vogel, Edward K.; Awh, Edward

2013-01-01

Perceptual grouping can lead observers to perceive a multielement scene as a smaller number of hierarchical units. Past work has shown that grouping enables more elements to be stored in visual working memory (WM). Although this may appear to contradict so-called discrete resource models that argue for fixed item limits in WM storage, it is also…

The relationship between visual working memory and attention: retention of precise colour information in the absence of effects on perceptual selection.

PubMed

Hollingworth, Andrew; Hwang, Seongmin

2013-10-19

We examined the conditions under which a feature value in visual working memory (VWM) recruits visual attention to matching stimuli. Previous work has suggested that VWM supports two qualitatively different states of representation: an active state that interacts with perceptual selection and a passive (or accessory) state that does not. An alternative hypothesis is that VWM supports a single form of representation, with the precision of feature memory controlling whether or not the representation interacts with perceptual selection. The results of three experiments supported the dual-state hypothesis. We established conditions under which participants retained a relatively precise representation of a parcticular colour. If the colour was immediately task relevant, it reliably recruited attention to matching stimuli. However, if the colour was not immediately task relevant, it failed to interact with perceptual selection. Feature maintenance in VWM is not necessarily equivalent with feature-based attentional selection.

The relationship between visual working memory and attention: retention of precise colour information in the absence of effects on perceptual selection

PubMed Central

Hollingworth, Andrew; Hwang, Seongmin

2013-01-01

We examined the conditions under which a feature value in visual working memory (VWM) recruits visual attention to matching stimuli. Previous work has suggested that VWM supports two qualitatively different states of representation: an active state that interacts with perceptual selection and a passive (or accessory) state that does not. An alternative hypothesis is that VWM supports a single form of representation, with the precision of feature memory controlling whether or not the representation interacts with perceptual selection. The results of three experiments supported the dual-state hypothesis. We established conditions under which participants retained a relatively precise representation of a parcticular colour. If the colour was immediately task relevant, it reliably recruited attention to matching stimuli. However, if the colour was not immediately task relevant, it failed to interact with perceptual selection. Feature maintenance in VWM is not necessarily equivalent with feature-based attentional selection. PMID:24018723

The role of speed versus working memory in predicting learning new information in multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

Chiaravalloti, Nancy D; Stojanovic-Radic, Jelena; DeLuca, John

2013-01-01

The most common cognitive impairments in multiple sclerosis (MS) have been documented in specific domains, including new learning and memory, working memory, and information processing speed. However, little attempt has been made to increase our understanding of their relationship to one another. While recent studies have shown that processing speed impacts new learning and memory abilities in MS, the role of working memory in this relationship has received less attention. The present study examines the relative contribution of impaired working memory versus processing speed in new learning and memory functions in MS. Participants consisted of 51 individuals with clinically definite MS. Participants completed two measures of processing speed, two measures of working memory, and two measures of episodic memory. Data were analyzed via correlational and multiple regression analysis. Results indicate that the variance in new learning abilities in this sample was primarily associated with processing speed, with working memory exerting much less of an influence. Results are discussed in terms of the role of cognitive rehabilitation of new learning and memory abilities in persons with MS.

The Functional Determinants of Short-Term Memory: Evidence from Perceptual-Motor Interference in Verbal Serial Recall

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Robert W.; Marsh, John E.

2017-01-01

A functional, perceptual-motor, account of serial short-term memory (STM) is examined by investigating the way in which an irrelevant spoken sequence interferes with verbal serial recall. Even with visual list-presentation, verbal serial recall is particularly susceptible to disruption by irrelevant spoken stimuli that have the same identity…

Long-lasting perceptual priming and semantic learning in amnesia: a case experiment.

PubMed

Tulving, E; Hayman, C A; Macdonald, C A

1991-07-01

An investigation of perceptual priming and semantic learning in the severely amnesic subject K.C. is reported. He was taught 64 three-word sentences and tested for his ability to produce the final word of each sentence. Despite a total lack of episodic memory, he exhibited (a) strong perceptual priming effects in word-fragment completion, which were retained essentially in full strength for 12 months, and (b) independent of perceptual priming, learning of new semantic facts, many of which were also retained for 12 months. K.C.'s semantic learning may be at least partly attributable to repeated study trials and minimal interference during learning. The findings suggest that perceptual priming and semantic learning are subserved by two memory systems different from episodic memory and that both systems (perceptual representation and semantic memory) are at least partially preserved in some amnesic subjects.

Dissociation between perceptual processing and priming in long-term lorazepam users.

PubMed

Giersch, Anne; Vidailhet, Pierre

2006-12-01

Acute effects of lorazepam on visual information processing, perceptual priming and explicit memory are well established. However, visual processing and perceptual priming have rarely been explored in long-term lorazepam users. By exploring these functions it was possible to test the hypothesis that difficulty in processing visual information may lead to deficiencies in perceptual priming. Using a simple blind procedure, we tested explicit memory, perceptual priming and visual perception in 15 long-term lorazepam users and 15 control subjects individually matched according to sex, age and education level. Explicit memory, perceptual priming, and the identification of fragmented pictures were found to be preserved in long-term lorazepam users, contrary to what is usually observed after an acute drug intake. The processing of visual contour, on the other hand, was still significantly impaired. These results suggest that the effects observed on low-level visual perception are independent of the acute deleterious effects of lorazepam on perceptual priming. A comparison of perceptual priming in subjects with low- vs. high-level identification of new fragmented pictures further suggests that the ability to identify fragmented pictures has no influence on priming. Despite the fact that they were treated with relatively low doses and far from peak plasma concentration, it is noteworthy that in long-term users memory was preserved.

Individual differences in memory span: the contribution of rehearsal, access to lexical memory, and output speed.

PubMed

Tehan, G; Lalor, D M

2000-11-01

Rehearsal speed has traditionally been seen to be the prime determinant of individual differences in memory span. Recent studies, in the main using young children as the subject population, have suggested other contributors to span performance, notably contributions from long-term memory and forgetting and retrieval processes occurring during recall. In the current research we explore individual differences in span with respect to measures of rehearsal, output time, and access to lexical memory. We replicate standard short-term phenomena; we show that the variables that influence children's span performance influence adult performance in the same way; and we show that lexical memory access appears to be a more potent source of individual differences in span than either rehearsal speed or output factors.

High-speed noise-free optical quantum memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaczmarek, K. T.; Ledingham, P. M.; Brecht, B.; Thomas, S. E.; Thekkadath, G. S.; Lazo-Arjona, O.; Munns, J. H. D.; Poem, E.; Feizpour, A.; Saunders, D. J.; Nunn, J.; Walmsley, I. A.

2018-04-01

Optical quantum memories are devices that store and recall quantum light and are vital to the realization of future photonic quantum networks. To date, much effort has been put into improving storage times and efficiencies of such devices to enable long-distance communications. However, less attention has been devoted to building quantum memories which add zero noise to the output. Even small additional noise can render the memory classical by destroying the fragile quantum signatures of the stored light. Therefore, noise performance is a critical parameter for all quantum memories. Here we introduce an intrinsically noise-free quantum memory protocol based on two-photon off-resonant cascaded absorption (ORCA). We demonstrate successful storage of GHz-bandwidth heralded single photons in a warm atomic vapor with no added noise, confirmed by the unaltered photon-number statistics upon recall. Our ORCA memory meets the stringent noise requirements for quantum memories while combining high-speed and room-temperature operation with technical simplicity, and therefore is immediately applicable to low-latency quantum networks.

Effects of Acute Cortisol Administration on Perceptual Priming of Trauma-Related Material

PubMed Central

Streb, Markus; Pfaltz, Monique; Michael, Tanja

2014-01-01

Intrusive memories are a hallmark symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They reflect excessive and uncontrolled retrieval of the traumatic memory. Acute elevations of cortisol are known to impair the retrieval of already stored memory information. Thus, continuous cortisol administration might help in reducing intrusive memories in PTSD. Strong perceptual priming for neutral stimuli associated with a “traumatic” context has been shown to be one important learning mechanism that leads to intrusive memories. However, the memory modulating effects of cortisol have only been shown for explicit declarative memory processes. Thus, in our double blind, placebo controlled study we aimed to investigate whether cortisol influences perceptual priming of neutral stimuli that appeared in a “traumatic” context. Two groups of healthy volunteers (N = 160) watched either neutral or “traumatic” picture stories on a computer screen. Neutral objects were presented in between the pictures. Memory for these neutral objects was tested after 24 hours with a perceptual priming task and an explicit memory task. Prior to memory testing half of the participants in each group received 25 mg of cortisol, the other half received placebo. In the placebo group participants in the “traumatic” stories condition showed more perceptual priming for the neutral objects than participants in the neutral stories condition, indicating a strong perceptual priming effect for neutral stimuli presented in a “traumatic” context. In the cortisol group this effect was not present: Participants in the neutral stories and participants in the “traumatic” stories condition in the cortisol group showed comparable priming effects for the neutral objects. Our findings show that cortisol inhibits perceptual priming for neutral stimuli that appeared in a “traumatic” context. These findings indicate that cortisol influences PTSD-relevant memory processes and thus further support

Attention and perceptual implicit memory: effects of selective versus divided attention and number of visual objects.

PubMed

Mulligan, Neil W

2002-08-01

Extant research presents conflicting results on whether manipulations of attention during encoding affect perceptual priming. Two suggested mediating factors are type of manipulation (selective vs divided) and whether attention is manipulated across multiple objects or within a single object. Words printed in different colors (Experiment 1) or flanked by colored blocks (Experiment 2) were presented at encoding. In the full-attention condition, participants always read the word, in the unattended condition they always identified the color, and in the divided-attention conditions, participants attended to both word identity and color. Perceptual priming was assessed with perceptual identification and explicit memory with recognition. Relative to the full-attention condition, attending to color always reduced priming. Dividing attention between word identity and color, however, only disrupted priming when these attributes were presented as multiple objects (Experiment 2) but not when they were dimensions of a common object (Experiment 1). On the explicit test, manipulations of attention always affected recognition accuracy.

Exploring "fringe" consciousness: the subjective experience of perceptual fluency and its objective bases.

PubMed

Reber, Rolf; Wurtz, Pascal; Zimmermann, Thomas D

2004-03-01

Perceptual fluency is the subjective experience of ease with which an incoming stimulus is processed. Although perceptual fluency is assessed by speed of processing, it remains unclear how objective speed is related to subjective experiences of fluency. We present evidence that speed at different stages of the perceptual process contributes to perceptual fluency. In an experiment, figure-ground contrast influenced detection of briefly presented words, but not their identification at longer exposure durations. Conversely, font in which the word was written influenced identification, but not detection. Both contrast and font influenced subjective fluency. These findings suggest that speed of processing at different stages condensed into a unified subjective experience of perceptual fluency.

Perceptual learning: top to bottom.

PubMed

Amitay, Sygal; Zhang, Yu-Xuan; Jones, Pete R; Moore, David R

2014-06-01

Perceptual learning has traditionally been portrayed as a bottom-up phenomenon that improves encoding or decoding of the trained stimulus. Cognitive skills such as attention and memory are thought to drive, guide and modulate learning but are, with notable exceptions, not generally considered to undergo changes themselves as a result of training with simple perceptual tasks. Moreover, shifts in threshold are interpreted as shifts in perceptual sensitivity, with no consideration for non-sensory factors (such as response bias) that may contribute to these changes. Accumulating evidence from our own research and others shows that perceptual learning is a conglomeration of effects, with training-induced changes ranging from the lowest (noise reduction in the phase locking of auditory signals) to the highest (working memory capacity) level of processing, and includes contributions from non-sensory factors that affect decision making even on a "simple" auditory task such as frequency discrimination. We discuss our emerging view of learning as a process that increases the signal-to-noise ratio associated with perceptual tasks by tackling noise sources and inefficiencies that cause performance bottlenecks, and present some implications for training populations other than young, smart, attentive and highly-motivated college students. Crown Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Benefit of Attention-to-Memory Depends on the Interplay of Memory Capacity and Memory Load

PubMed Central

Lim, Sung-Joo; Wöstmann, Malte; Geweke, Frederik; Obleser, Jonas

2018-01-01

Humans can be cued to attend to an item in memory, which facilitates and enhances the perceptual precision in recalling this item. Here, we demonstrate that this facilitating effect of attention-to-memory hinges on the overall degree of memory load. The benefit an individual draws from attention-to-memory depends on her overall working memory performance, measured as sensitivity (d′) in a retroactive cue (retro-cue) pitch discrimination task. While listeners maintained 2, 4, or 6 auditory syllables in memory, we provided valid or neutral retro-cues to direct listeners’ attention to one, to-be-probed syllable in memory. Participants’ overall memory performance (i.e., perceptual sensitivity d′) was relatively unaffected by the presence of valid retro-cues across memory loads. However, a more fine-grained analysis using psychophysical modeling shows that valid retro-cues elicited faster pitch-change judgments and improved perceptual precision. Importantly, as memory load increased, listeners’ overall working memory performance correlated with inter-individual differences in the degree to which precision improved (r = 0.39, p = 0.029). Under high load, individuals with low working memory profited least from attention-to-memory. Our results demonstrate that retrospective attention enhances perceptual precision of attended items in memory but listeners’ optimal use of informative cues depends on their overall memory abilities. PMID:29520246

Poor anchoring limits dyslexics' perceptual, memory, and reading skills.

PubMed

Oganian, Yulia; Ahissar, Merav

2012-07-01

The basic deficits underlying the severe and persistent reading difficulties in dyslexia are still highly debated. One of the major topics of debate is whether these deficits are language specific, or affect both verbal and non-verbal stimuli. Recently, Ahissar and colleagues proposed the "anchoring-deficit hypothesis" (Ahissar, Lubin, Putter-Katz, & Banai, 2006), which suggests that dyslexics have a general difficulty in automatic extraction of stimulus regularities from auditory inputs. This hypothesis explained a broad range of dyslexics' verbal and non-verbal difficulties. However, it was not directly tested in the context of reading and verbal memory, which poses the main stumbling blocks to dyslexics. Here we assessed the abilities of adult dyslexics to efficiently benefit from ("anchor to") regularities embedded in repeated tones, orally presented syllables, and written words. We also compared dyslexics' performance to that of individuals with attention disorder (ADHD), but no reading disability. We found an anchoring effect in all groups: all gained from stimulus repetition. However, in line with the anchoring-deficit hypothesis, controls and ADHD participants showed a significantly larger anchoring effect in all tasks. This study is the first that directly shows that the same domain-general deficit, poor anchoring, characterizes dyslexics' performance in perceptual, working memory and reading tasks. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Combining Gait Speed and Recall Memory to Predict Survival in Late Life: Population-Based Study

PubMed Central

Marengoni, Alessandra; Bandinelli, Stefania; Maietti, Elisa; Guralnik, Jack; Zuliani, Giovanni; Ferrucci, Luigi; Volpato, Stefano

2017-01-01

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the relationship between gait speed, recall memory, and mortality. DESIGN A cohort study (last follow-up December 2009). SETTING Tuscany, Italy. PARTICIPANTS Individual data from 1,014 community-dwelling older adults aged 60 years or older with baseline gait speed and recall memory measurements and follow-up for a median time of 9.10 (IQR 7.1;9.3) years. Participants were a mean (SD) age of 73.9 (7.3) years, and 55.8% women. Participants walking faster than 0.8 m/s were defined as fast walkers; good recall memory was defined as a score of 2 or 3 in the 3-word delayed recall section of the Mini-Mental State Examination. MEASUREMENTS All-cause mortality. RESULTS There were 302 deaths and the overall 100 person-year death rate was 3.77 (95% CI: 3.37–4.22). Both low gait speed and poor recall memory were associated with mortality when analysed separately (HR = 2.47; 95% CI: 1.87–3.27 and HR = 1.47; 95% CI: 1.16–1.87, respectively). When we grouped participants according to both recall and gait speed, death rates (100 person-years) progressively increased from those with both good gait speed and memory (2.0; 95% CI: 1.6–2.5), to those with fast walk but poor memory (3.4; 95% CI: 2.8–4.2), to those with slow walk and good memory (8.8; 95% CI: 6.4–12.1), to those with both slow walk and poor memory (13.0; 95% CI: 10.6–16.1). In multivariate analysis, poor memory significantly increases mortality risk among persons with fast gait speed (HR = 1.40; 95% CI: 1.04–1.89). CONCLUSION In older persons, gait speed and recall memory are independent predictors of expected survival. Information on memory function might better stratify mortality risk among persons with fast gait speed. PMID:28029688

Combining Gait Speed and Recall Memory to Predict Survival in Late Life: Population-Based Study.

PubMed

Marengoni, Alessandra; Bandinelli, Stefania; Maietti, Elisa; Guralnik, Jack; Zuliani, Giovanni; Ferrucci, Luigi; Volpato, Stefano

2017-03-01

To evaluate the relationship between gait speed, recall memory, and mortality. A cohort study (last follow-up December 2009). Tuscany, Italy. Individual data from 1,014 community-dwelling older adults aged 60 years or older with baseline gait speed and recall memory measurements and follow-up for a median time of 9.10 (IQR 7.1;9.3) years. Participants were a mean (SD) age of 73.9 (7.3) years, and 55.8% women. Participants walking faster than 0.8 m/s were defined as fast walkers; good recall memory was defined as a score of 2 or 3 in the 3-word delayed recall section of the Mini-Mental State Examination. All-cause mortality. There were 302 deaths and the overall 100 person-year death rate was 3.77 (95% CI: 3.37-4.22). Both low gait speed and poor recall memory were associated with mortality when analysed separately (HR = 2.47; 95% CI: 1.87-3.27 and HR = 1.47; 95% CI: 1.16-1.87, respectively). When we grouped participants according to both recall and gait speed, death rates (100 person-years) progressively increased from those with both good gait speed and memory (2.0; 95% CI: 1.6-2.5), to those with fast walk but poor memory (3.4; 95% CI: 2.8-4.2), to those with slow walk and good memory (8.8; 95% CI: 6.4-12.1), to those with both slow walk and poor memory (13.0; 95% CI: 10.6-16.1). In multivariate analysis, poor memory significantly increases mortality risk among persons with fast gait speed (HR = 1.40; 95% CI: 1.04-1.89). In older persons, gait speed and recall memory are independent predictors of expected survival. Information on memory function might better stratify mortality risk among persons with fast gait speed. © 2016, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2016, The American Geriatrics Society.

Three-year changes in leisure activities are associated with concurrent changes in white matter microstructure and perceptual speed in individuals aged 80 years and older.

PubMed

Köhncke, Ylva; Laukka, Erika J; Brehmer, Yvonne; Kalpouzos, Grégoria; Li, Tie-Qiang; Fratiglioni, Laura; Bäckman, Lars; Lövdén, Martin

2016-05-01

Accumulating evidence suggests that engagement in leisure activities is associated with favorable trajectories of cognitive aging, but little is known about brain changes related to both activities and cognition. White matter microstructure shows experience-dependent plasticity and declines in aging. Therefore, we investigated the role of change in white matter microstructure in the activities-cognition link. We used repeated assessments of engagement, perceptual speed, and white matter microstructure (probed with diffusion tensor imaging) in a population-based sample of individuals over 80 years without dementia (n = 442, Mage = 85.1; n = 70 for diffusion tensor imaging; 2 occasions 3 years apart). Using multivariate latent change modeling, we observed positive correlations among changes in predominantly social activities, white matter microstructure, and perceptual speed. Interindividual differences in change in white matter microstructure statistically accounted for the association between change in leisure activities and change in perceptual speed. However, as analyses are based on observational data from 2 measurement occasions, causality remains unclear. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Latent Variable Analysis of Working Memory Capacity, Short-Term Memory Capacity, Processing Speed, and General Fluid Intelligence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conway, Andrew R. A.; Cowan, Nelsin; Bunting, Michael F.; Therriault, David J.; Minkoff, Scott R. B.

2002-01-01

Studied the interrelationships among general fluid intelligence, short-term memory capacity, working memory capacity, and processing speed in 120 young adults and used structural equation modeling to determine the best predictor of general fluid intelligence. Results suggest that working memory capacity, but not short-term memory capacity or…

Perceptual inference.

PubMed

Aggelopoulos, Nikolaos C

2015-08-01

Perceptual inference refers to the ability to infer sensory stimuli from predictions that result from internal neural representations built through prior experience. Methods of Bayesian statistical inference and decision theory model cognition adequately by using error sensing either in guiding action or in "generative" models that predict the sensory information. In this framework, perception can be seen as a process qualitatively distinct from sensation, a process of information evaluation using previously acquired and stored representations (memories) that is guided by sensory feedback. The stored representations can be utilised as internal models of sensory stimuli enabling long term associations, for example in operant conditioning. Evidence for perceptual inference is contributed by such phenomena as the cortical co-localisation of object perception with object memory, the response invariance in the responses of some neurons to variations in the stimulus, as well as from situations in which perception can be dissociated from sensation. In the context of perceptual inference, sensory areas of the cerebral cortex that have been facilitated by a priming signal may be regarded as comparators in a closed feedback loop, similar to the better known motor reflexes in the sensorimotor system. The adult cerebral cortex can be regarded as similar to a servomechanism, in using sensory feedback to correct internal models, producing predictions of the outside world on the basis of past experience. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

I "hear" what you're "saying": Auditory perceptual simulation, reading speed, and reading comprehension.

PubMed

Zhou, Peiyun; Christianson, Kiel

2016-01-01

Auditory perceptual simulation (APS) during silent reading refers to situations in which the reader actively simulates the voice of a character or other person depicted in a text. In three eye-tracking experiments, APS effects were investigated as people read utterances attributed to a native English speaker, a non-native English speaker, or no speaker at all. APS effects were measured via online eye movements and offline comprehension probes. Results demonstrated that inducing APS during silent reading resulted in observable differences in reading speed when readers simulated the speech of faster compared to slower speakers and compared to silent reading without APS. Social attitude survey results indicated that readers' attitudes towards the native and non-native speech did not consistently influence APS-related effects. APS of both native speech and non-native speech increased reading speed, facilitated deeper, less good-enough sentence processing, and improved comprehension compared to normal silent reading.

Perceptual and response-dependent profiles of attention in children with ADHD.

PubMed

Caspersen, Ida Dyhr; Petersen, Anders; Vangkilde, Signe; Plessen, Kerstin Jessica; Habekost, Thomas

2017-05-01

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a complex developmental neuropsychiatric disorder, characterized by inattentiveness, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Recent literature suggests a potential core deficit underlying these behaviors may involve inefficient processing when contextual stimulation is low. In order to specify this inefficiency, the aim of the present study was to disentangle perceptual and response-based deficits of attention by supplementing classic reaction time (RT) measures with an accuracy-only test. Moreover, it was explored whether ADHD symptom severity was systematically related to perceptual and response-based processes. We applied an RT-independent paradigm (Bundesen, 1990) and a sustained attention task (Dockree et al., 2006) to test visual attention in 24 recently diagnosed, medication-naïve children with ADHD, 14 clinical controls with pervasive developmental disorder, and 57 healthy controls. Outcome measures included perceptual processing speed, capacity of visual short-term memory, and errors of commission and omission. Children with ADHD processed information abnormally slow (d = 0.92), and performed poorly on RT variability and response stability (d's ranging from 0.60 to 1.08). In the ADHD group only, slowed visual processing speed was significantly related to response lapses (omission errors). This correlation was not explained by behavioral ratings of ADHD severity. Based on combined assessment of perceptual and response-dependent variables of attention, the present study demonstrates a specific cognitive profile in children with ADHD. This profile distinguishes the disorder at a basic level of attentional functioning, and may define subgroups of children with ADHD in a way that is more sensitive than clinical rating scales. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Configural Representations in Spatial Working Memory: Modulation by Perceptual Segregation and Voluntary Attention

PubMed Central

Gmeindl, Leon; Nelson, James K.; Wiggin, Timothy; Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia A.

2011-01-01

In what form are multiple spatial locations represented in working memory? The current study revealed that people often maintain the configural properties (inter-item relationships) of visuospatial stimuli even when this information is explicitly task-irrelevant. However, results also indicate that the voluntary allocation of selective attention prior to stimulus presentation, as well as feature-based perceptual segregation of relevant from irrelevant stimuli, can eliminate the influences of stimulus configuration on location change detection performance. In contrast, voluntary attention cued to the relevant target location following presentation of the stimulus array failed to attenuate these influences. Thus, whereas voluntary selective attention can isolate or prevent the encoding of irrelevant stimulus locations and configural properties, people, perhaps due to limitations in attentional resources, reliably fail to isolate or suppress configural representations that have been encoded into working memory. PMID:21761373

Working memory is related to perceptual processing: a case from color perception.

PubMed

Allen, Elizabeth C; Beilock, Sian L; Shevell, Steven K

2011-07-01

We explored the relation between individual differences in working memory (WM) and color constancy, the phenomenon of color perception that allows us to perceive the color of an object as relatively stable under changes in illumination. Successive color constancy (measured by first viewing a colored surface under a particular illumination and later recalling it under a new illumination) was better for higher WM individuals than for lower WM individuals. Moreover, the magnitude of this WM difference depended on how much contextual information was available in the scene, which typically improves color constancy. By contrast, simple color memory, measured by viewing and recalling a colored surface under the same illumination, showed no significant relation to WM. This study reveals a relation between WM and a low-level perceptual process not previously thought to operate within the confines of attentional control, and it provides a first account of the individual differences in color constancy known about for decades.

Working memory is related to perceptual processing: A case from color perception

PubMed Central

Allen, Elizabeth C.; Beilock, Sian L.; Shevell, Steven K.

2011-01-01

We explored the relation between individual differences in working memory (WM) and color constancy, the phenomenon of color perception that allows us to perceive the color of an object as relatively stable under changes in illumination. Successive color constancy (measured by first viewing a colored surface under a particular illumination and later recalling it under a new illumination) was better for higher-WM individuals than for lower-WM individuals. Moreover, the magnitude of this WM difference depended on how much contextual information was available in the scene, which typically improves color constancy. By contrast, simple color memory, measured by viewing and recalling a colored surface under the same illumination, showed no significant relation to WM. This study reveals a relation between WM and a low-level perceptual process not previously thought to operate within the confines of attentional control, and provides a first account of the individual differences in color constancy known about for decades. PMID:21480748

Assessing the applied benefits of perceptual training: Lessons from studies of training working-memory.

PubMed

Jacoby, Nori; Ahissar, Merav

2015-01-01

In the 1980s to 1990s, studies of perceptual learning focused on the specificity of training to basic visual attributes such as retinal position and orientation. These studies were considered scientifically innovative since they suggested the existence of plasticity in the early stimulus-specific sensory cortex. Twenty years later, perceptual training has gradually shifted to potential applications, and research tends to be devoted to showing transfer. In this paper we analyze two key methodological issues related to the interpretation of transfer. The first has to do with the absence of a control group or the sole use of a test-retest group in traditional perceptual training studies. The second deals with claims of transfer based on the correlation between improvement on the trained and transfer tasks. We analyze examples from the general intelligence literature dealing with the impact on general intelligence of training on a working memory task. The re-analyses show that the reports of a significantly larger transfer of the trained group over the test-retest group fail to replicate when transfer is compared to an actively trained group. Furthermore, the correlations reported in this literature between gains on the trained and transfer tasks can be replicated even when no transfer is assumed.

Blurring emotional memories using eye movements: individual differences and speed of eye movements.

PubMed

van Schie, Kevin; van Veen, Suzanne C; Engelhard, Iris M; Klugkist, Irene; van den Hout, Marcel A

2016-01-01

In eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), patients make eye movements (EM) while recalling traumatic memories. Making EM taxes working memory (WM), which leaves less resources available for imagery of the memory. This reduces memory vividness and emotionality during future recalls. WM theory predicts that individuals with small working memory capacities (WMCs) benefit more from low levels of taxing (i.e., slow EM) whereas individuals with large WMC benefit more from high levels of taxing (i.e., fast EM). We experimentally examined and tested four prespecified hypotheses regarding the role of WMC and EM speed in reducing emotionality and vividness ratings: 1) EM-regardless of WMC and EM speed-are more effective compared to no dual task, 2) increasing EM speed only affects the decrease in memory ratings irrespective of WMC, 3) low-WMC individuals-compared to high-WMC individuals-benefit more from making either type of EM, 4) the EM intervention is most effective when-as predicted by WM theory-EM are adjusted to WMC. Undergraduates with low (n=31) or high (n=35) WMC recalled three emotional memories and rated vividness and emotionality before and after each condition (recall only, recall + slow EM, and recall + fast EM). Contrary to the theory, the data do not support the hypothesis that EM speed should be adjusted to WMC (hypothesis 4). However, the data show that a dual task in general is more effective in reducing memory ratings than no dual task (hypothesis 1), and that a more cognitively demanding dual task increases the intervention's effectiveness (hypothesis 2). Although adjusting EM speed to an individual's WMC seems a straightforward clinical implication, the data do not show any indication that such a titration is helpful.

A Latent Variables Examination of Processing Speed, Response Inhibition, and Working Memory during Typical Development

PubMed Central

McAuley, Tara; White, Desirée

2010-01-01

The present study addressed three related aims: (1) to replicate and extend previous work regarding the non-unitary nature of processing speed, response inhibition, and working memory during development, (2) to quantify the rate at which processing speed, response inhibition, and working memory develop and the extent to which the development of these latter abilities reflect general changes in processing speed, and (3) to evaluate whether commonly used tasks of processing speed, response inhibition, and working memory are valid and reliable when used with a developmentally diverse group. To address these aims, a latent variables approach was used to analyze data from 147 participants 6 to 24 years of age. Results showed that processing speed, response inhibition, and working memory were separable abilities and that the extent of this separability was stable cross the age range of participants. All three constructs improved as a function of age; however, only the effect of age on working memory remained significant after processing speed was controlled. The psychometric properties of tasks used to assess the constructs were age invariant, thus validating their use in studies of executive development. PMID:20888572

Applying the attractor field model to social cognition: Perceptual discrimination is facilitated, but memory is impaired for faces displaying evaluatively congruent expressions.

PubMed

Corneille, Olivier; Hugenberg, Kurt; Potter, Timothy

2007-09-01

A new model of mental representation is applied to social cognition: the attractor field model. Using the model, the authors predicted and found a perceptual advantage but a memory disadvantage for faces displaying evaluatively congruent expressions. In Experiment 1, participants completed a same/different perceptual discrimination task involving morphed pairs of angry-to-happy Black and White faces. Pairs of faces displaying evaluatively incongruent expressions (i.e., happy Black, angry White) were more likely to be labeled as similar and were less likely to be accurately discriminated from one another than faces displaying evaluatively congruent expressions (i.e., angry Black, happy White). Experiment 2 replicated this finding and showed that objective discriminability of stimuli moderated the impact of attractor field effects on perceptual discrimination accuracy. In Experiment 3, participants completed a recognition task for angry and happy Black and White faces. Consistent with the attractor field model, memory accuracy was better for faces displaying evaluatively incongruent expressions. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved

Latent change models of adult cognition: are changes in processing speed and working memory associated with changes in episodic memory?

PubMed

Hertzog, Christopher; Dixon, Roger A; Hultsch, David F; MacDonald, Stuart W S

2003-12-01

The authors used 6-year longitudinal data from the Victoria Longitudinal Study (VLS) to investigate individual differences in amount of episodic memory change. Latent change models revealed reliable individual differences in cognitive change. Changes in episodic memory were significantly correlated with changes in other cognitive variables, including speed and working memory. A structural equation model for the latent change scores showed that changes in speed and working memory predicted changes in episodic memory, as expected by processing resource theory. However, these effects were best modeled as being mediated by changes in induction and fact retrieval. Dissociations were detected between cross-sectional ability correlations and longitudinal changes. Shuffling the tasks used to define the Working Memory latent variable altered patterns of change correlations.

The functional determinants of short-term memory: Evidence from perceptual-motor interference in verbal serial recall.

PubMed

Hughes, Robert W; Marsh, John E

2017-04-01

A functional, perceptual-motor, account of serial short-term memory (STM) is examined by investigating the way in which an irrelevant spoken sequence interferes with verbal serial recall. Even with visual list-presentation, verbal serial recall is particularly susceptible to disruption by irrelevant spoken stimuli that have the same identity as-but that are order-incongruent with-the to-be-remembered items. We test the view that such interference is because of the obligatory perceptual organization of the spoken stimuli yielding a sequence that competes with a subvocal motor-plan assembled to support the reproduction of the to-be-remembered list. In support of this view, the interference can be eliminated without changing either the identities or objective serial order of the spoken stimuli but merely by promoting a subjective perceptual organization that strips them of their order-incongruent relation to the to-be-remembered list (Experiment 1). The interference is also eliminated if subvocal motor sequence-planning is impeded via articulatory suppression (Experiment 2). The results are in line with the view that performance-limits in verbal serial STM are because of having to exploit perceptual and motor processes for purposes for which they did not evolve, not the inherently limited capacity of structures or mechanisms dedicated to storage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Integrated approaches to perceptual learning.

PubMed

Jacobs, Robert A

2010-04-01

New technologies and new ways of thinking have recently led to rapid expansions in the study of perceptual learning. We describe three themes shared by many of the nine articles included in this topic on Integrated Approaches to Perceptual Learning. First, perceptual learning cannot be studied on its own because it is closely linked to other aspects of cognition, such as attention, working memory, decision making, and conceptual knowledge. Second, perceptual learning is sensitive to both the stimulus properties of the environment in which an observer exists and to the properties of the tasks that the observer needs to perform. Moreover, the environmental and task properties can be characterized through their statistical regularities. Finally, the study of perceptual learning has important implications for society, including implications for science education and medical rehabilitation. Contributed articles relevant to each theme are summarized. Copyright © 2010 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Can reading-specific training stimuli improve the effect of perceptual learning on peripheral reading speed?

PubMed

Bernard, Jean-Baptiste; Arunkumar, Amit; Chung, Susana T L

2012-08-01

In a previous study, Chung, Legge, and Cheung (2004) showed that training using repeated presentation of trigrams (sequences of three random letters) resulted in an increase in the size of the visual span (number of letters recognized in a glance) and reading speed in the normal periphery. In this study, we asked whether we could optimize the benefit of trigram training on reading speed by using trigrams more specific to the reading task (i.e., trigrams frequently used in the English language) and presenting them according to their frequencies of occurrence in normal English usage and observers' performance. Averaged across seven observers, our training paradigm (4 days of training) increased the size of the visual span by 6.44 bits, with an accompanied 63.6% increase in the maximum reading speed, compared with the values before training. However, these benefits were not statistically different from those of Chung, Legge, and Cheung (2004) using a random-trigram training paradigm. Our findings confirm the possibility of increasing the size of the visual span and reading speed in the normal periphery with perceptual learning, and suggest that the benefits of training on letter recognition and maximum reading speed may not be linked to the types of letter strings presented during training. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contextual consistency facilitates long-term memory of perceptual detail in barely seen images.

PubMed

Gronau, Nurit; Shachar, Meytal

2015-08-01

It is long known that contextual information affects memory for an object's identity (e.g., its basic level category), yet it is unclear whether schematic knowledge additionally enhances memory for the precise visual appearance of an item. Here we investigated memory for visual detail of merely glimpsed objects. Participants viewed pairs of contextually related and unrelated stimuli, presented for an extremely brief duration (24 ms, masked). They then performed a forced-choice memory-recognition test for the precise perceptual appearance of 1 of 2 objects within each pair (i.e., the "memory-target" item). In 3 experiments, we show that memory-target stimuli originally appearing within contextually related pairs are remembered better than targets appearing within unrelated pairs. These effects are obtained whether the target is presented at test with its counterpart pair object (i.e., when reiterating the original context at encoding) or whether the target is presented alone, implying that the contextual consistency effects are mediated predominantly by processes occurring during stimulus encoding, rather than during stimulus retrieval. Furthermore, visual detail encoding is improved whether object relations involve implied action or not, suggesting that, contrary to some prior suggestions, action is not a necessary component for object-to-object associative "grouping" processes. Our findings suggest that during a brief glimpse, but not under long viewing conditions, contextual associations may play a critical role in reducing stimulus competition for attention selection and in facilitating rapid encoding of sensory details. Theoretical implications with respect to classic frame theories are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Decreased processing speed might account for working memory span deficit in schizophrenia, and might mediate the associations between working memory span and clinical symptoms.

PubMed

Brébion, G; Stephan-Otto, C; Huerta-Ramos, E; Usall, J; Perez Del Olmo, M; Contel, M; Haro, J M; Ochoa, S

2014-10-01

Verbal working memory span is decreased in patients with schizophrenia, and this might contribute to impairment in higher cognitive functions as well as to the formation of certain clinical symptoms. Processing speed has been identified as a crucial factor in cognitive efficiency in this population. We tested the hypothesis that decreased processing speed underlies the verbal working memory deficit in patients and mediates the associations between working memory span and clinical symptoms. Forty-nine schizophrenia inpatients recruited from units for chronic and acute patients, and forty-five healthy participants, were involved in the study. Verbal working memory span was assessed by means of the letter-number span. The Digit Copy test was used to assess motor speed, and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test to assess cognitive speed. The working memory span was significantly impaired in patients (F(1,90)=4.6, P<0.05). However, the group difference was eliminated when either the motor or the cognitive speed measure was controlled (F(1,89)=0.03, P=0.86, and F(1,89)=0.03, P=0.88). In the patient group, working memory span was significantly correlated with negative symptoms (r=-0.52, P<0.0001) and thought disorganisation (r=-0.34, P<0.025) scores. Regression analyses showed that the association with negative symptoms was no longer significant when the motor speed measure was controlled (β=-0.12, P=0.20), while the association with thought disorganisation was no longer significant when the cognitive speed measure was controlled (β=-0.10, P=0.26). Decrement in motor and cognitive speed plays a significant role in both the verbal working memory impairment observed in patients and the associations between verbal working memory impairment and clinical symptoms. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Individual differences in executive processing predict susceptibility to interference in verbal working memory.

PubMed

Hedden, Trey; Yoon, Carolyn

2006-09-01

Recent theories have suggested that resistance to interference is a unifying principle of executive function and that individual differences in interference may be explained by executive function (M. J. Kane & R. W. Engle, 2002). Measures of executive function, memory, and perceptual speed were obtained from 121 older adults (ages 63-82). We used structural equation modeling to investigate the relationships of these constructs with interference in a working memory task. Executive function was best described as two related subcomponent processes: shifting and updating goal-relevant representations and inhibition of proactive interference. These subcomponents were distinct from verbal and visual memory and speed. Individual differences in interference susceptibility and recollection were best predicted by shifting and updating and by resistance to proactive interference, and variability in familiarity was predicted by resistance to proactive interference and speed. ((c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

The mere exposure effect is sensitive to color information: evidence for color effects in a perceptual implicit memory test.

PubMed

Hupbach, Almut; Melzer, André; Hardt, Oliver

2006-01-01

Priming effects in perceptual tests of implicit memory are assumed to be perceptually specific. Surprisingly, changing object colors from study to test did not diminish priming in most previous studies. However, these studies used implicit tests that are based on object identification, which mainly depends on the analysis of the object shape and therefore operates color-independently. The present study shows that color effects can be found in perceptual implicit tests when the test task requires the processing of color information. In Experiment 1, reliable color priming was found in a mere exposure design (preference test). In Experiment 2, the preference test was contrasted with a conceptually driven color-choice test. Altering the shape of object from study to test resulted in significant priming in the color-choice test but eliminated priming in the preference test. Preference judgments thus largely depend on perceptual processes. In Experiment 3, the preference and the color-choice test were studied under explicit test instructions. Differences in reaction times between the implicit and the explicit test suggest that the implicit test results were not an artifact of explicit retrieval attempts. In contrast with previous assumptions, it is therefore concluded that color is part of the representation that mediates perceptual priming.

Towards representation of a perceptual color manifold using associative memory for color constancy.

PubMed

Seow, Ming-Jung; Asari, Vijayan K

2009-01-01

In this paper, we propose the concept of a manifold of color perception through empirical observation that the center-surround properties of images in a perceptually similar environment define a manifold in the high dimensional space. Such a manifold representation can be learned using a novel recurrent neural network based learning algorithm. Unlike the conventional recurrent neural network model in which the memory is stored in an attractive fixed point at discrete locations in the state space, the dynamics of the proposed learning algorithm represent memory as a nonlinear line of attraction. The region of convergence around the nonlinear line is defined by the statistical characteristics of the training data. This learned manifold can then be used as a basis for color correction of the images having different color perception to the learned color perception. Experimental results show that the proposed recurrent neural network learning algorithm is capable of color balance the lighting variations in images captured in different environments successfully.

Verbal Working Memory in Older Adults: The Roles of Phonological Capacities and Processing Speed

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nittrouer, Susan; Lowenstein, Joanna H.; Wucinich, Taylor; Moberly, Aaron C.

2016-01-01

Purpose: This study examined the potential roles of phonological sensitivity and processing speed in age-related declines of verbal working memory. Method: Twenty younger and 25 older adults with age-normal hearing participated. Two measures of verbal working memory were collected: digit span and serial recall of words. Processing speed was…

Blurring emotional memories using eye movements: individual differences and speed of eye movements

PubMed Central

van Schie, Kevin; van Veen, Suzanne C.; Engelhard, Iris M.; Klugkist, Irene; van den Hout, Marcel A.

2016-01-01

Background In eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), patients make eye movements (EM) while recalling traumatic memories. Making EM taxes working memory (WM), which leaves less resources available for imagery of the memory. This reduces memory vividness and emotionality during future recalls. WM theory predicts that individuals with small working memory capacities (WMCs) benefit more from low levels of taxing (i.e., slow EM) whereas individuals with large WMC benefit more from high levels of taxing (i.e., fast EM). Objective We experimentally examined and tested four prespecified hypotheses regarding the role of WMC and EM speed in reducing emotionality and vividness ratings: 1) EM—regardless of WMC and EM speed—are more effective compared to no dual task, 2) increasing EM speed only affects the decrease in memory ratings irrespective of WMC, 3) low-WMC individuals—compared to high-WMC individuals—benefit more from making either type of EM, 4) the EM intervention is most effective when—as predicted by WM theory—EM are adjusted to WMC. Method Undergraduates with low (n=31) or high (n=35) WMC recalled three emotional memories and rated vividness and emotionality before and after each condition (recall only, recall + slow EM, and recall + fast EM). Results Contrary to the theory, the data do not support the hypothesis that EM speed should be adjusted to WMC (hypothesis 4). However, the data show that a dual task in general is more effective in reducing memory ratings than no dual task (hypothesis 1), and that a more cognitively demanding dual task increases the intervention's effectiveness (hypothesis 2). Conclusions Although adjusting EM speed to an individual's WMC seems a straightforward clinical implication, the data do not show any indication that such a titration is helpful. PMID:27387843

Different effects of dopaminergic medication on perceptual decision-making in Parkinson's disease as a function of task difficulty and speed-accuracy instructions.

PubMed

Huang, Yu-Ting; Georgiev, Dejan; Foltynie, Tom; Limousin, Patricia; Speekenbrink, Maarten; Jahanshahi, Marjan

2015-08-01

When choosing between two options, sufficient accumulation of information is required to favor one of the options over the other, before a decision is finally reached. To establish the effect of dopaminergic medication on the rate of accumulation of information, decision thresholds and speed-accuracy trade-offs, we tested 14 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) on and off dopaminergic medication and 14 age-matched healthy controls on two versions of the moving-dots task. One version manipulated the level of task difficulty and hence effort required for decision-making and the other the urgency, requiring decision-making under speed vs. accuracy instructions. The drift diffusion model was fitted to the behavioral data. As expected, the reaction time data revealed an effect of task difficulty, such that the easier the perceptual decision-making task was, the faster the participants responded. PD patients not only made significantly more errors compared to healthy controls, but interestingly they also made significantly more errors ON than OFF medication. The drift diffusion model indicated that PD patients had lower drift rates when tested ON compared to OFF medication, indicating that dopamine levels influenced the quality of information derived from sensory information. On the speed-accuracy task, dopaminergic medication did not directly influence reaction times or error rates. PD patients OFF medication had slower RTs and made more errors with speed than accuracy instructions compared to the controls, whereas such differences were not observed ON medication. PD patients had lower drift rates and higher response thresholds than the healthy controls both with speed and accuracy instructions and ON and OFF medication. For the patients, only non-decision time was higher OFF than ON medication and higher with accuracy than speed instructions. The present results demonstrate that when task difficulty is manipulated, dopaminergic medication impairs perceptual decision

Slow perceptual processing at the core of developmental dyslexia: a parameter-based assessment of visual attention.

PubMed

Stenneken, Prisca; Egetemeir, Johanna; Schulte-Körne, Gerd; Müller, Hermann J; Schneider, Werner X; Finke, Kathrin

2011-10-01

The cognitive causes as well as the neurological and genetic basis of developmental dyslexia, a complex disorder of written language acquisition, are intensely discussed with regard to multiple-deficit models. Accumulating evidence has revealed dyslexics' impairments in a variety of tasks requiring visual attention. The heterogeneity of these experimental results, however, points to the need for measures that are sufficiently sensitive to differentiate between impaired and preserved attentional components within a unified framework. This first parameter-based group study of attentional components in developmental dyslexia addresses potentially altered attentional components that have recently been associated with parietal dysfunctions in dyslexia. We aimed to isolate the general attentional resources that might underlie reduced span performance, i.e., either a deficient working memory storage capacity, or a slowing in visual perceptual processing speed, or both. Furthermore, by analysing attentional selectivity in dyslexia, we addressed a potential lateralized abnormality of visual attention, i.e., a previously suggested rightward spatial deviation compared to normal readers. We investigated a group of high-achieving young adults with persisting dyslexia and matched normal readers in an experimental whole report and a partial report of briefly presented letter arrays. Possible deviations in the parametric values of the dyslexic compared to the control group were taken as markers for the underlying deficit. The dyslexic group showed a striking reduction in perceptual processing speed (by 26% compared to controls) while their working memory storage capacity was in the normal range. In addition, a spatial deviation of attentional weighting compared to the control group was confirmed in dyslexic readers, which was larger in participants with a more severe dyslexic disorder. In general, the present study supports the relevance of perceptual processing speed in disorders

Perceptual dimensions differentiate emotions.

PubMed

Cavanaugh, Lisa A; MacInnis, Deborah J; Weiss, Allen M

2015-08-26

Individuals often describe objects in their world in terms of perceptual dimensions that span a variety of modalities; the visual (e.g., brightness: dark-bright), the auditory (e.g., loudness: quiet-loud), the gustatory (e.g., taste: sour-sweet), the tactile (e.g., hardness: soft vs. hard) and the kinaesthetic (e.g., speed: slow-fast). We ask whether individuals use perceptual dimensions to differentiate emotions from one another. Participants in two studies (one where respondents reported on abstract emotion concepts and a second where they reported on specific emotion episodes) rated the extent to which features anchoring 29 perceptual dimensions (e.g., temperature, texture and taste) are associated with 8 emotions (anger, fear, sadness, guilt, contentment, gratitude, pride and excitement). Results revealed that in both studies perceptual dimensions differentiate positive from negative emotions and high arousal from low arousal emotions. They also differentiate among emotions that are similar in arousal and valence (e.g., high arousal negative emotions such as anger and fear). Specific features that anchor particular perceptual dimensions (e.g., hot vs. cold) are also differentially associated with emotions.

Neural correlates of the difference between working memory speed and simple sensorimotor speed: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Takeuchi, Hikaru; Sugiura, Motoaki; Sassa, Yuko; Sekiguchi, Atsushi; Yomogida, Yukihito; Taki, Yasuyuki; Kawashima, Ryuta

2012-01-01

The difference between the speed of simple cognitive processes and the speed of complex cognitive processes has various psychological correlates. However, the neural correlates of this difference have not yet been investigated. In this study, we focused on working memory (WM) for typical complex cognitive processes. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired during the performance of an N-back task, which is a measure of WM for typical complex cognitive processes. In our N-back task, task speed and memory load were varied to identify the neural correlates responsible for the difference between the speed of simple cognitive processes (estimated from the 0-back task) and the speed of WM. Our findings showed that this difference was characterized by the increased activation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the increased functional interaction between the right DLPFC and right superior parietal lobe. Furthermore, the local gray matter volume of the right DLPFC was correlated with participants' accuracy during fast WM tasks, which in turn correlated with a psychometric measure of participants' intelligence. Our findings indicate that the right DLPFC and its related network are responsible for the execution of the fast cognitive processes involved in WM. Identified neural bases may underlie the psychometric differences between the speed with which subjects perform simple cognitive tasks and the speed with which subjects perform more complex cognitive tasks, and explain the previous traditional psychological findings.

Non-Attended Representations are Perceptual Rather than Unconscious in Nature

PubMed Central

Fahrenfort, Johannes J.; Ambroziak, Klaudia B.; Lamme, Victor A. F.

2012-01-01

Introspectively we experience a phenomenally rich world. In stark contrast, many studies show that we can only report on the few items that we happen to attend to. So what happens to the unattended objects? Are these consciously processed as our first person perspective would have us believe, or are they – in fact – entirely unconscious? Here, we attempt to resolve this question by investigating the perceptual characteristics of visual sensory memory. Sensory memory is a fleeting, high-capacity form of memory that precedes attentional selection and working memory. We found that memory capacity benefits from figural information induced by the Kanizsa illusion. Importantly, this benefit was larger for sensory memory than for working memory and depended critically on the illusion, not on the stimulus configuration. This shows that pre-attentive sensory memory contains representations that have a genuinely perceptual nature, suggesting that non-attended representations are phenomenally experienced rather than unconscious. PMID:23209639

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Does Not Influence the Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff in Perceptual Decision-making: Evidence from Three Independent Studies.

PubMed

de Hollander, Gilles; Labruna, Ludovica; Sellaro, Roberta; Trutti, Anne; Colzato, Lorenza S; Ratcliff, Roger; Ivry, Richard B; Forstmann, Birte U

2016-09-01

In perceptual decision-making tasks, people balance the speed and accuracy with which they make their decisions by modulating a response threshold. Neuroimaging studies suggest that this speed-accuracy tradeoff is implemented in a corticobasal ganglia network that includes an important contribution from the pre-SMA. To test this hypothesis, we used anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to modulate neural activity in pre-SMA while participants performed a simple perceptual decision-making task. Participants viewed a pattern of moving dots and judged the direction of the global motion. In separate trials, they were cued to either respond quickly or accurately. We used the diffusion decision model to estimate the response threshold parameter, comparing conditions in which participants received sham or anodal tDCS. In three independent experiments, we failed to observe an influence of tDCS on the response threshold. Additional, exploratory analyses showed no influence of tDCS on the duration of nondecision processes or on the efficiency of information processing. Taken together, these findings provide a cautionary note, either concerning the causal role of pre-SMA in decision-making or on the utility of tDCS for modifying response caution in decision-making tasks.

Enabling Universal Memory by Overcoming the Contradictory Speed and Stability Nature of Phase-Change Materials

PubMed Central

Wang, Weijie; Loke, Desmond; Shi, Luping; Zhao, Rong; Yang, Hongxin; Law, Leong-Tat; Ng, Lung-Tat; Lim, Kian-Guan; Yeo, Yee-Chia; Chong, Tow-Chong; Lacaita, Andrea L.

2012-01-01

The quest for universal memory is driving the rapid development of memories with superior all-round capabilities in non-volatility, high speed, high endurance and low power. Phase-change materials are highly promising in this respect. However, their contradictory speed and stability properties present a key challenge towards this ambition. We reveal that as the device size decreases, the phase-change mechanism changes from the material inherent crystallization mechanism (either nucleation- or growth-dominated), to the hetero-crystallization mechanism, which resulted in a significant increase in PCRAM speeds. Reducing the grain size can further increase the speed of phase-change. Such grain size effect on speed becomes increasingly significant at smaller device sizes. Together with the nano-thermal and electrical effects, fast phase-change, good stability and high endurance can be achieved. These findings lead to a feasible solution to achieve a universal memory. PMID:22496956

Enabling universal memory by overcoming the contradictory speed and stability nature of phase-change materials.

PubMed

Wang, Weijie; Loke, Desmond; Shi, Luping; Zhao, Rong; Yang, Hongxin; Law, Leong-Tat; Ng, Lung-Tat; Lim, Kian-Guan; Yeo, Yee-Chia; Chong, Tow-Chong; Lacaita, Andrea L

2012-01-01

The quest for universal memory is driving the rapid development of memories with superior all-round capabilities in non-volatility, high speed, high endurance and low power. Phase-change materials are highly promising in this respect. However, their contradictory speed and stability properties present a key challenge towards this ambition. We reveal that as the device size decreases, the phase-change mechanism changes from the material inherent crystallization mechanism (either nucleation- or growth-dominated), to the hetero-crystallization mechanism, which resulted in a significant increase in PCRAM speeds. Reducing the grain size can further increase the speed of phase-change. Such grain size effect on speed becomes increasingly significant at smaller device sizes. Together with the nano-thermal and electrical effects, fast phase-change, good stability and high endurance can be achieved. These findings lead to a feasible solution to achieve a universal memory.

Histamine H1 receptor antagonist cetirizine impairs working memory processing speed, but not episodic memory.

PubMed

van Ruitenbeek, P; Vermeeren, A; Riedel, W J

2010-09-01

The histaminergic neurotransmitter system is currently under investigation as a target for drug treatment of cognitive deficits in clinical disorders. The therapeutic potential of new drugs may initially be screened using a model of histaminergic dysfunction, for example, as associated with the use of centrally active antihistamines. Of the selective second generation antihistamines, cetirizine has been found to have central nervous system effects. The aim of the present study was to determine whether cetirizine can be used as a tool to model cognitive deficits associated with histaminergic hypofunction. The study was conducted according to a three-way, double-blind, cross-over design. Treatments were single oral doses of cetirizine 10 and 20 mg and placebo. Effects on cognition were assessed using tests of word learning, memory scanning, vigilance, divided attention, tracking and visual information processing speed. Cetirizine 10 mg impaired tracking performance and both doses impaired memory scanning speed. None of the other measures indicated impaired performance. Cetirizine affects information processing speed, but these effects were not sufficient to serve as a model for cognitive deficits in clinical disorders.

A two-factor theory for concussion assessment using ImPACT: memory and speed.

PubMed

Schatz, Philip; Maerlender, Arthur

2013-12-01

We present the initial validation of a two-factor structure of Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) using ImPACT composite scores and document the reliability and validity of this factor structure. Factor analyses were conducted for baseline (N = 21,537) and post-concussion (N = 560) data, yielding "Memory" (Verbal and Visual) and "Speed" (Visual Motor Speed and Reaction Time) Factors; inclusion of Total Symptom Scores resulted in a third discrete factor. Speed and Memory z-scores were calculated, and test-retest reliability (using intra-class correlation coefficients) at 1 month (0.88/0.81), 1 year (0.85/0.75), and 2 years (0.76/0.74) were higher than published data using Composite scores. Speed and Memory scores yielded 89% sensitivity and 70% specificity, which was higher than composites (80%/62%) and comparable with subscales (91%/69%). This emergent two-factor structure has improved test-retest reliability with no loss of sensitivity/specificity and may improve understanding and interpretability of ImPACT test results.

Perceptual Repetition Blindness Effects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hochhaus, Larry; Johnston, James C.; Null, Cynthia H. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

The phenomenon of repetition blindness (RB) may reveal a new limitation on human perceptual processing. Recently, however, researchers have attributed RB to post-perceptual processes such as memory retrieval and/or reporting biases. The standard rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm used in most RB studies is, indeed, open to such objections. Here we investigate RB using a "single-frame" paradigm introduced by Johnston and Hale (1984) in which memory demands are minimal. Subjects made only a single judgement about whether one masked target word was the same or different than a post-target probe. Confidence ratings permitted use of signal detection methods to assess sensitivity and bias effects. In the critical condition for RB a precue of the post-target word was provided prior to the target stimulus (identity precue), so that the required judgement amounted to whether the target did or did not repeat the precue word. In control treatments, the precue was either an unrelated word or a dummy.

Forgetting induced speeding: Can prospective memory failure account for drivers exceeding the speed limit?

PubMed

Bowden, Vanessa K; Visser, Troy A W; Loft, Shayne

2017-06-01

It is generally assumed that drivers speed intentionally because of factors such as frustration with the speed limit or general impatience. The current study examined whether speeding following an interruption could be better explained by unintentional prospective memory (PM) failure. In these situations, interrupting drivers may create a PM task, with speeding the result of drivers forgetting their newly encoded intention to travel at a lower speed after interruption. Across 3 simulated driving experiments, corrected or uncorrected speeding in recently reduced speed zones (from 70 km/h to 40 km/h) increased on average from 8% when uninterrupted to 33% when interrupted. Conversely, the probability that participants traveled under their new speed limit in recently increased speed zones (from 40 km/h to 70 km/h) increased from 1% when uninterrupted to 23% when interrupted. Consistent with a PM explanation, this indicates that interruptions lead to a general failure to follow changed speed limits, not just to increased speeding. Further testing a PM explanation, Experiments 2 and 3 manipulated variables expected to influence the probability of PM failures and subsequent speeding after interruptions. Experiment 2 showed that performing a cognitively demanding task during the interruption, when compared with unfilled interruptions, increased the probability of initially speeding from 1% to 11%, but that participants were able to correct (reduce) their speed. In Experiment 3, providing participants with 10s longer to encode the new speed limit before interruption decreased the probability of uncorrected speeding after an unfilled interruption from 30% to 20%. Theoretical implications and implications for road design interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Integrated, nonvolatile, high-speed analog random access memory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Katti, Romney R. (Inventor); Wu, Jiin-Chuan (Inventor); Stadler, Henry L. (Inventor)

1994-01-01

This invention provides an integrated, non-volatile, high-speed random access memory. A magnetically switchable ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic layer is sandwiched between an electrical conductor which provides the ability to magnetize the magnetically switchable layer and a magneto resistive or Hall effect material which allows sensing the magnetic field which emanates from the magnetization of the magnetically switchable layer. By using this integrated three-layer form, the writing process, which is controlled by the conductor, is separated from the storage medium in the magnetic layer and from the readback process which is controlled by the magnetoresistive layer. A circuit for implementing the memory in CMOS or the like is disclosed.

Granger causality analysis reveals distinct spatio-temporal connectivity patterns in motor and perceptual visuo-spatial working memory.

PubMed

Protopapa, Foteini; Siettos, Constantinos I; Evdokimidis, Ioannis; Smyrnis, Nikolaos

2014-01-01

We employed spectral Granger causality analysis on a full set of 56 electroencephalographic recordings acquired during the execution of either a 2D movement pointing or a perceptual (yes/no) change detection task with memory and non-memory conditions. On the basis of network characteristics across frequency bands, we provide evidence for the full dissociation of the corresponding cognitive processes. Movement-memory trial types exhibited higher degree nodes during the first 2 s of the delay period, mainly at central, left frontal and right-parietal areas. Change detection-memory trial types resulted in a three-peak temporal pattern of the total degree with higher degree nodes emerging mainly at central, right frontal, and occipital areas. Functional connectivity networks resulting from non-memory trial types were characterized by more sparse structures for both tasks. The movement-memory trial types encompassed an apparent coarse flow from frontal to parietal areas while the opposite flow from occipital, parietal to central and frontal areas was evident for the change detection-memory trial types. The differences among tasks and conditions were more profound in α (8-12 Hz) and β (12-30 Hz) and less in γ (30-45 Hz) band. Our results favor the hypothesis which considers spatial working memory as a by-product of specific mental processes that engages common brain areas under different network organizations.

Recovering and Preventing Loss of Detailed Memory: Differential Rates of Forgetting for Detail Types in Episodic Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sekeres, Melanie J.; Bonasia, Kyra; St-Laurent, Marie; Pishdadian, Sara; Winocur, Gordon; Grady, Cheryl; Moscovitch, Morris

2016-01-01

Episodic memories undergo qualitative changes with time, but little is known about how different aspects of memory are affected. Different types of information in a memory, such as perceptual detail, and central themes, may be lost at different rates. In patients with medial temporal lobe damage, memory for perceptual details is severely impaired,…

High-speed reference-beam-angle control technique for holographic memory drive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamada, Ken-ichiro; Ogata, Takeshi; Hosaka, Makoto; Fujita, Koji; Okuyama, Atsushi

2016-09-01

We developed a holographic memory drive for next-generation optical memory. In this study, we present the key technology for achieving a high-speed transfer rate for reproduction, that is, a high-speed control technique for the reference beam angle. In reproduction in a holographic memory drive, there is the issue that the optimum reference beam angle during reproduction varies owing to distortion of the medium. The distortion is caused by, for example, temperature variation, beam irradiation, and moisture absorption. Therefore, a reference-beam-angle control technique to position the reference beam at the optimum angle is crucial. We developed a new optical system that generates an angle-error-signal to detect the optimum reference beam angle. To achieve the high-speed control technique using the new optical system, we developed a new control technique called adaptive final-state control (AFSC) that adds a second control input to the first one derived from conventional final-state control (FSC) at the time of angle-error-signal detection. We established an actual experimental system employing AFSC to achieve moving control between each page (Page Seek) within 300 µs. In sequential multiple Page Seeks, we were able to realize positioning to the optimum angles of the reference beam that maximize the diffracted beam intensity. We expect that applying the new control technique to the holographic memory drive will enable a giga-bit/s-class transfer rate.

Working memory - not processing speed - mediates fluid intelligence deficits associated with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms.

PubMed

Brydges, Christopher R; Ozolnieks, Krista L; Roberts, Gareth

2017-09-01

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a psychological condition characterized by inattention and hyperactivity. Cognitive deficits are commonly observed in ADHD patients, including impaired working memory, processing speed, and fluid intelligence, the three of which are theorized to be closely associated with one another. In this study, we aimed to determine if decreased fluid intelligence was associated with ADHD, and was mediated by deficits in working memory and processing speed. This study tested 142 young adults from the general population on a range of working memory, processing speed, and fluid intelligence tasks, and an ADHD self-report symptoms questionnaire. Results showed that total and hyperactive ADHD symptoms correlated significantly and negatively with fluid intelligence, but this association was fully mediated by working memory. However, inattentive symptoms were not associated with fluid intelligence. Additionally, processing speed was not associated with ADHD symptoms at all, and was not uniquely predictive of fluid intelligence. The results provide implications for working memory training programs for ADHD patients, and highlight potential differences between the neuropsychological profiles of ADHD subtypes. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Common mechanisms of human perceptual and motor learning

PubMed Central

Censor, Nitzan; Sagi, Dov; Cohen, Leonardo G.

2016-01-01

The adult mammalian brain has a remarkable capacity to learn in both the perceptual and motor domains through the formation and consolidation of memories. Such practice-enabled procedural learning results in perceptual and motor skill improvements. Here, we examine evidence supporting the notion that perceptual and motor learning in humans exhibit analogous properties, including similarities in temporal dynamics and the interactions between primary cortical and higher-order brain areas. These similarities may point to the existence of a common general mechanism for learning in humans. PMID:22903222

Role of working memory and lexical knowledge in perceptual restoration of interrupted speech.

PubMed

Nagaraj, Naveen K; Magimairaj, Beula M

2017-12-01

The role of working memory (WM) capacity and lexical knowledge in perceptual restoration (PR) of missing speech was investigated using the interrupted speech perception paradigm. Speech identification ability, which indexed PR, was measured using low-context sentences periodically interrupted at 1.5 Hz. PR was measured for silent gated, low-frequency speech noise filled, and low-frequency fine-structure and envelope filled interrupted conditions. WM capacity was measured using verbal and visuospatial span tasks. Lexical knowledge was assessed using both receptive vocabulary and meaning from context tests. Results showed that PR was better for speech noise filled condition than other conditions tested. Both receptive vocabulary and verbal WM capacity explained unique variance in PR for the speech noise filled condition, but were unrelated to performance in the silent gated condition. It was only receptive vocabulary that uniquely predicted PR for fine-structure and envelope filled conditions. These findings suggest that the contribution of lexical knowledge and verbal WM during PR depends crucially on the information content that replaced the silent intervals. When perceptual continuity was partially restored by filler speech noise, both lexical knowledge and verbal WM capacity facilitated PR. Importantly, for fine-structure and envelope filled interrupted conditions, lexical knowledge was crucial for PR.

Animacy, perceptual load, and inattentional blindness.

PubMed

Calvillo, Dustin P; Jackson, Russell E

2014-06-01

Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice unexpected objects in a visual scene while engaging in an attention-demanding task. We examined the effects of animacy and perceptual load on inattentional blindness. Participants searched for a category exemplar under low or high perceptual load. On the last trial, the participants were exposed to an unexpected object that was either animate or inanimate. Unexpected objects were detected more frequently when they were animate rather than inanimate, and more frequently with low than with high perceptual loads. We also measured working memory capacity and found that it predicted the detection of unexpected objects, but only with high perceptual loads. The results are consistent with the animate-monitoring hypothesis, which suggests that animate objects capture attention because of the importance of the detection of animate objects in ancestral hunter-gatherer environments.

Infant Memory for Primitive Perceptual Features.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adler, Scott A.

Textons are elongated blobs of specific color, angular orientation, ends of lines, and crossings of line segments that are proposed to be the perceptual building blocks of the visual system. A study was conducted to explore the relative memorability of different types and arrangements of textons, exploring the time course for the discrimination…

Dual N-Back Working Memory Training in Healthy Adults: A Randomized Comparison to Processing Speed Training

PubMed Central

Lawlor-Savage, Linette; Goghari, Vina M.

2016-01-01

Enhancing cognitive ability is an attractive concept, particularly for middle-aged adults interested in maintaining cognitive functioning and preventing age-related declines. Computerized working memory training has been investigated as a safe method of cognitive enhancement in younger and older adults, although few studies have considered the potential impact of working memory training on middle-aged adults. This study investigated dual n-back working memory training in healthy adults aged 30–60. Fifty-seven adults completed measures of working memory, processing speed, and fluid intelligence before and after a 5-week web-based dual n-back or active control (processing speed) training program. Results: Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance failed to identify improvements across the three cognitive composites, working memory, processing speed, and fluid intelligence, after training. Follow-up Bayesian analyses supported null findings for training effects for each individual composite. Findings suggest that dual n-back working memory training may not benefit working memory or fluid intelligence in healthy adults. Further investigation is necessary to clarify if other forms of working memory training may be beneficial, and what factors impact training-related benefits, should they occur, in this population. PMID:27043141

Implicit recognition based on lateralized perceptual fluency.

PubMed

Vargas, Iliana M; Voss, Joel L; Paller, Ken A

2012-02-06

In some circumstances, accurate recognition of repeated images in an explicit memory test is driven by implicit memory. We propose that this "implicit recognition" results from perceptual fluency that influences responding without awareness of memory retrieval. Here we examined whether recognition would vary if images appeared in the same or different visual hemifield during learning and testing. Kaleidoscope images were briefly presented left or right of fixation during divided-attention encoding. Presentation in the same visual hemifield at test produced higher recognition accuracy than presentation in the opposite visual hemifield, but only for guess responses. These correct guesses likely reflect a contribution from implicit recognition, given that when the stimulated visual hemifield was the same at study and test, recognition accuracy was higher for guess responses than for responses with any level of confidence. The dramatic difference in guessing accuracy as a function of lateralized perceptual overlap between study and test suggests that implicit recognition arises from memory storage in visual cortical networks that mediate repetition-induced fluency increments.

Cognitive Risk Factors for Specific Learning Disorder: Processing Speed, Temporal Processing, and Working Memory.

PubMed

Moll, Kristina; Göbel, Silke M; Gooch, Debbie; Landerl, Karin; Snowling, Margaret J

2016-01-01

High comorbidity rates between reading disorder (RD) and mathematics disorder (MD) indicate that, although the cognitive core deficits underlying these disorders are distinct, additional domain-general risk factors might be shared between the disorders. Three domain-general cognitive abilities were investigated in children with RD and MD: processing speed, temporal processing, and working memory. Since attention problems frequently co-occur with learning disorders, the study examined whether these three factors, which are known to be associated with attention problems, account for the comorbidity between these disorders. The sample comprised 99 primary school children in four groups: children with RD, children with MD, children with both disorders (RD+MD), and typically developing children (TD controls). Measures of processing speed, temporal processing, and memory were analyzed in a series of ANCOVAs including attention ratings as covariate. All three risk factors were associated with poor attention. After controlling for attention, associations with RD and MD differed: Although deficits in verbal memory were associated with both RD and MD, reduced processing speed was related to RD, but not MD; and the association with RD was restricted to processing speed for familiar nameable symbols. In contrast, impairments in temporal processing and visuospatial memory were associated with MD, but not RD. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2014.

Associative fear learning and perceptual discrimination: a perceptual pathway in the development of chronic pain.

PubMed

Zaman, Jonas; Vlaeyen, Johan W S; Van Oudenhove, Lukas; Wiech, Katja; Van Diest, Ilse

2015-04-01

Recent neuropsychological theories emphasize the influence of maladaptive learning and memory processes on pain perception. However, the precise relationship between these processes as well as the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood; especially the role of perceptual discrimination and its modulation by associative fear learning has received little attention so far. Experimental work with exteroceptive stimuli consistently points to effects of fear learning on perceptual discrimination acuity. In addition, clinical observations have revealed that in individuals with chronic pain perceptual discrimination is impaired, and that tactile discrimination training reduces pain. Based on these findings, we present a theoretical model of which the central tenet is that associative fear learning contributes to the development of chronic pain through impaired interoceptive and proprioceptive discrimination acuity. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Auditory-Visual Speech Benefit on Working Memory in Older Adults with Hearing Impairment

PubMed Central

Frtusova, Jana B.; Phillips, Natalie A.

2016-01-01

This study examined the effect of auditory-visual (AV) speech stimuli on working memory in older adults with poorer-hearing (PH) in comparison to age- and education-matched older adults with better hearing (BH). Participants completed a working memory n-back task (0- to 2-back) in which sequences of digits were presented in visual-only (i.e., speech-reading), auditory-only (A-only), and AV conditions. Auditory event-related potentials (ERP) were collected to assess the relationship between perceptual and working memory processing. The behavioral results showed that both groups were faster in the AV condition in comparison to the unisensory conditions. The ERP data showed perceptual facilitation in the AV condition, in the form of reduced amplitudes and latencies of the auditory N1 and/or P1 components, in the PH group. Furthermore, a working memory ERP component, the P3, peaked earlier for both groups in the AV condition compared to the A-only condition. In general, the PH group showed a more robust AV benefit; however, the BH group showed a dose-response relationship between perceptual facilitation and working memory improvement, especially for facilitation of processing speed. Two measures, reaction time and P3 amplitude, suggested that the presence of visual speech cues may have helped the PH group to counteract the demanding auditory processing, to the level that no group differences were evident during the AV modality despite lower performance during the A-only condition. Overall, this study provides support for the theory of an integrated perceptual-cognitive system. The practical significance of these findings is also discussed. PMID:27148106

Visual prediction and perceptual expertise

PubMed Central

Cheung, Olivia S.; Bar, Moshe

2012-01-01

Making accurate predictions about what may happen in the environment requires analogies between perceptual input and associations in memory. These elements of predictions are based on cortical representations, but little is known about how these processes can be enhanced by experience and training. On the other hand, studies on perceptual expertise have revealed that the acquisition of expertise leads to strengthened associative processing among features or objects, suggesting that predictions and expertise may be tightly connected. Here we review the behavioral and neural findings regarding the mechanisms involving prediction and expert processing, and highlight important possible overlaps between them. Future investigation should examine the relations among perception, memory and prediction skills as a function of expertise. The knowledge gained by this line of research will have implications for visual cognition research, and will advance our understanding of how the human brain can improve its ability to predict by learning from experience. PMID:22123523

Can color changes alter the neural correlates of recognition memory? Manipulation of processing affects an electrophysiological indicator of conceptual implicit memory.

PubMed

Cui, Xiaoyu; Gao, Chuanji; Zhou, Jianshe; Guo, Chunyan

2016-09-28

It has been widely shown that recognition memory includes two distinct retrieval processes: familiarity and recollection. Many studies have shown that recognition memory can be facilitated when there is a perceptual match between the studied and the tested items. Most event-related potential studies have explored the perceptual match effect on familiarity on the basis of the hypothesis that the specific event-related potential component associated with familiarity is the FN400 (300-500 ms mid-frontal effect). However, it is currently unclear whether the FN400 indexes familiarity or conceptual implicit memory. In addition, on the basis of the findings of a previous study, the so-called perceptual manipulations in previous studies may also involve some conceptual alterations. Therefore, we sought to determine the influence of perceptual manipulation by color changes on recognition memory when the perceptual or the conceptual processes were emphasized. Specifically, different instructions (perceptually or conceptually oriented) were provided to the participants. The results showed that color changes may significantly affect overall recognition memory behaviorally and that congruent items were recognized with a higher accuracy rate than incongruent items in both tasks, but no corresponding neural changes were found. Despite the evident familiarity shown in the two tasks (the behavioral performance of recognition memory was much higher than at the chance level), the FN400 effect was found in conceptually oriented tasks, but not perceptually oriented tasks. It is thus highly interesting that the FN400 effect was not induced, although color manipulation of recognition memory was behaviorally shown, as seen in previous studies. Our findings of the FN400 effect for the conceptual but not perceptual condition support the explanation that the FN400 effect indexes conceptual implicit memory.

The role of perceptual load in object recognition.

PubMed

Lavie, Nilli; Lin, Zhicheng; Zokaei, Nahid; Thoma, Volker

2009-10-01

Predictions from perceptual load theory (Lavie, 1995, 2005) regarding object recognition across the same or different viewpoints were tested. Results showed that high perceptual load reduces distracter recognition levels despite always presenting distracter objects from the same view. They also showed that the levels of distracter recognition were unaffected by a change in the distracter object view under conditions of low perceptual load. These results were found both with repetition priming measures of distracter recognition and with performance on a surprise recognition memory test. The results support load theory proposals that distracter recognition critically depends on the level of perceptual load. The implications for the role of attention in object recognition theories are discussed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Effects of domain-specific exercise load on speed and accuracy of a domain-specific perceptual-cognitive task.

PubMed

Schapschröer, M; Baker, J; Schorer, J

2016-08-01

In the context of perceptual-cognitive expertise it is important to know whether physiological loads influence perceptual-cognitive performance. This study examined whether a handball specific physical exercise load influenced participants' speed and accuracy in a flicker task. At rest and during a specific interval exercise of 86.5-90% HRmax, 35 participants (experts: n=8, advanced: n=13, novices, n=14) performed a handball specific flicker task with two types of patterns (structured and unstructured). For reaction time, results revealed moderate effect sizes for group, with experts reacting faster than advanced and advanced reacting faster than novices, and for structure, with structured videos being performed faster than unstructured ones. A significant interaction for structure×group was also found, with experts and advanced players faster for structured videos, and novices faster for unstructured videos. For accuracy, significant main effects were found for structure with structured videos solved more accurately. A significant interaction for structure×group was revealed, with experts and advanced more accurate for structured scenes and novices more accurate for unstructured scenes. A significant interaction was also found for condition×structure; at rest, unstructured and structured scenes were performed with the same accuracy while under physical exercise, structured scenes were solved more accurately. No other interactions were found. These results were somewhat surprising given previous work in this area, although the impact of a specific physical exercise on a specific perceptual-cognitive task may be different from those tested generally. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Perceptual Fluency, Auditory Generation, and Metamemory: Analyzing the Perceptual Fluency Hypothesis in the Auditory Modality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Besken, Miri; Mulligan, Neil W.

2014-01-01

Judgments of learning (JOLs) are sometimes influenced by factors that do not impact actual memory performance. One recent proposal is that perceptual fluency during encoding affects metamemory and is a basis of metacognitive illusions. In the present experiments, participants identified aurally presented words that contained inter-spliced silences…

Specificity of perceptual processing in rereading spatially transformed materials.

PubMed

Horton, K D; McKenzie, B D

1995-05-01

While most studies using the task of reading spatially transformed text do not reveal evidence of specific perceptual transfer, a study by Masson (1986, Experiment 3) provides clear evidence of such effects. Several experiments were designed to identify the basis for this empirical discrepancy. The only substantive evidence of specific perceptual transfer occurred when the words were presented in an unfamiliar typography, although each study suggested a trend toward perceptual specificity effects. The results are discussed in terms of Graf and Ryan's (1990) ideas about the role of distinctive memory representations.

Between-person and within-person associations among processing speed, attention switching, and working memory in younger and older adults.

PubMed

Stawski, Robert S; Sliwinski, Martin J; Hofer, Scott M

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Theories of cognitive aging predict associations among processes that transpire within individuals, but are often tested by examining between-person relationships. The authors provide an empirical demonstration of how associations among measures of processing speed, attention switching, and working memory are different when considered between persons versus within persons over time. A sample of 108 older adults (M (age) = 80.8, range = 66-95) and 68 younger adults (M (age) = 20.2, range = 18-24) completed measures of processing speed, attention switching, and working memory on six occasions over a 14-day period. Multilevel modeling was used to examine processing speed and attention switching performance as predictors of working memory performance simultaneously across days (within-person) and across individuals (between-person). The findings indicates that simple comparison and response speed predicted working memory better than attention switching between persons, whereas attention switching predicted working memory better than simple comparison and response speed within persons over time. Furthermore, the authors did not observe strong evidence of age differences in these associations either within or between persons. The findings of the current study suggest that processing speed is important for understanding between-person and age-related differences in working memory, whereas attention switching is more important for understanding within-person variation in working memory. The authors conclude that theories of cognitive aging should be evaluated by analysis of within-person processes, not exclusively age-related individual differences.

Between-Person and Within-Person Associations among Processing Speed, Attention Switching and Working Memory in Younger and Older Adults

PubMed Central

Stawski, Robert S.; Sliwinski, Martin J.; Hofer, Scott M.

2013-01-01

Background/Study Context Theories of cognitive aging predict associations among processes that transpire within individuals, but are often tested by examining between-person relationships. The authors provide an empirical demonstration of how associations among measures of processing speed, attention switching, and working memory are different when considered between persons versus within persons over time. Methods A sample of 108 older adults (Mage: 80.8, range: 66–95) and 68 younger adults (Mage: 20.2, range:18–24) completed measures of processing speed, attention switching, and working memory on six occasions over a 14-day period. Multilevel modeling was used to examine processing speed and attention switching performance as predictors of working memory performance simultaneously across days (within-person) and across individuals (between-person). Results The findings indicates that simple comparison and response speed predicted working memory better than attention switching between persons, whereas attention switching predicted working memory better than simple comparison and response speed within persons over time. Furthermore, the authors did not observe strong evidence of age differences in these associations either within or between persons. Conclusion The findings of the current study suggest that processing speed is important for understanding between-person and age-related differences in working memory, whereas attention switching is more important for understanding within-person variation in working memory. The authors conclude that theories of cognitive aging should be evaluated by analysis of within-person processes, not exclusively age-related individual differences. PMID:23421639

Global versus Tract-Specific Components of Cerebral White Matter Integrity: Relation to Adult Age and Perceptual-Motor Speed

PubMed Central

Johnson, Micah A.; Diaz, Michele T.; Madden, David J.

2014-01-01

Although age-related differences in white matter have been well documented, the degree to which regional, tract-specific effects can be distinguished from global, brain-general effects is not yet clear. Similarly, the manner in which global and regional differences in white matter integrity contribute to age-related differences in cognition has not been well established. To address these issues, we analyzed diffusion tensor imaging measures from 52 younger adults (18–28) and 64 older adults (60–85). We conducted principal component analysis on each diffusion measure, using data from eight individual tracts. Two components were observed for fractional anisotropy: The first comprised high loadings from the superior longitudinal fasciculi and corticospinal tracts, and the second comprised high loadings from the optic radiations. In contrast, variation in axial, radial, and mean diffusivities yielded a single-component solution in each case, with high loadings from most or all tracts. For fractional anisotropy, the complementary results of multiple components and variability in component loadings across tracts suggest regional variation. However, for the diffusivity indices, the single component with high loadings from most or all of the tracts suggests primarily global, brain-general variation. Further analyses indicated that age was a significant mediator of the relation between each component and perceptual-motor speed. These data suggest that individual differences in white matter integrity, and their relation to age-related differences in perceptual-motor speed, represent influences that are beyond the level of individual tracts, but the extent to which regional or global effects predominate may differ between anisotropy and diffusivity measures. PMID:24972959

Language and Short-Term Memory: The Role of Perceptual-Motor Affordance

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

The advantage for real words over nonwords in serial recall—the lexicality effect—is typically attributed to support for item-level phonology, either via redintegration, whereby partially degraded short-term traces are “cleaned up” via support from long-term representations of the phonological material or via the more robust temporary activation of long-term lexical phonological knowledge that derives from its combination with established lexical and semantic levels of representation. The much smaller effect of lexicality in serial recognition, where the items are re-presented in the recognition cue, is attributed either to the minimal role for redintegration from long-term memory or to the minimal role for item memory itself in such retrieval conditions. We show that the reduced lexicality effect in serial recognition is not a function of the retrieval conditions, but rather because previous demonstrations have used auditory presentation, and we demonstrate a robust lexicality effect for visual serial recognition in a setting where auditory presentation produces no such effect. Furthermore, this effect is abolished under conditions of articulatory suppression. We argue that linguistic knowledge affects the readiness with which verbal material is segmentally recoded via speech motor processes that support rehearsal and therefore affects tasks that involve recoding. On the other hand, auditory perceptual organization affords sequence matching in the absence of such a requirement for segmental recoding and therefore does not show such effects of linguistic knowledge. PMID:24797440

Language and short-term memory: the role of perceptual-motor affordance.

PubMed

Macken, Bill; Taylor, John C; Jones, Dylan M

2014-09-01

The advantage for real words over nonwords in serial recall--the lexicality effect--is typically attributed to support for item-level phonology, either via redintegration, whereby partially degraded short-term traces are "cleaned up" via support from long-term representations of the phonological material or via the more robust temporary activation of long-term lexical phonological knowledge that derives from its combination with established lexical and semantic levels of representation. The much smaller effect of lexicality in serial recognition, where the items are re-presented in the recognition cue, is attributed either to the minimal role for redintegration from long-term memory or to the minimal role for item memory itself in such retrieval conditions. We show that the reduced lexicality effect in serial recognition is not a function of the retrieval conditions, but rather because previous demonstrations have used auditory presentation, and we demonstrate a robust lexicality effect for visual serial recognition in a setting where auditory presentation produces no such effect. Furthermore, this effect is abolished under conditions of articulatory suppression. We argue that linguistic knowledge affects the readiness with which verbal material is segmentally recoded via speech motor processes that support rehearsal and therefore affects tasks that involve recoding. On the other hand, auditory perceptual organization affords sequence matching in the absence of such a requirement for segmental recoding and therefore does not show such effects of linguistic knowledge.

Working Memory Capacity is Associated with Optimal Adaptation of Response Bias to Perceptual Sensitivity in Emotion Perception

PubMed Central

Lynn, Spencer K.; Ibagon, Camila; Bui, Eric; Palitz, Sophie A.; Simon, Naomi M.; Barrett, Lisa Feldman

2017-01-01

Emotion perception, inferring the emotional state of another person, is a frequent judgment made under perceptual uncertainty (e.g., a scowling facial expression can indicate anger or concentration) and behavioral risk (e.g., incorrect judgment can be costly to the perceiver). Working memory capacity (WMC), the ability to maintain controlled processing in the face of competing demands, is an important component of many decisions. We investigated the association of WMC and anger perception in a task in which “angry” and “not angry” categories comprised overlapping ranges of scowl intensity, and correct and incorrect responses earned and lost points, respectively. Participants attempted to earn as many points as they could; adopting an optimal response bias would maximize decision utility. Participants with higher WMC more optimally tuned their anger perception response bias to accommodate their perceptual sensitivity (their ability to discriminate the categories) than did participants with lower WMC. Other factors that influence response bias (i.e., the relative base rate of angry vs. not angry faces and the decision costs & benefits) were ruled out as contributors to the WMC-bias relationship. Our results suggest that WMC optimizes emotion perception by contributing to perceivers’ ability to adjust their response bias to account for their level of perceptual sensitivity, likely an important component of adapting emotion perception to dynamic social interactions and changing circumstances. PMID:26461251

"The Mask Who Wasn't There": Visual Masking Effect with the Perceptual Absence of the Mask

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rey, Amandine Eve; Riou, Benoit; Muller, Dominique; Dabic, Stéphanie; Versace, Rémy

2015-01-01

Does a visual mask need to be perceptually present to disrupt processing? In the present research, we proposed to explore the link between perceptual and memory mechanisms by demonstrating that a typical sensory phenomenon (visual masking) can be replicated at a memory level. Experiment 1 highlighted an interference effect of a visual mask on the…

The puzzle of processing speed, memory, and executive function impairments in schizophrenia: fitting the pieces together.

PubMed

Knowles, Emma E M; Weiser, Mark; David, Anthony S; Glahn, David C; Davidson, Michael; Reichenberg, Abraham

2015-12-01

Substantial impairment in performance on the digit-symbol substitution task in patients with schizophrenia is well established, which has been widely interpreted as denoting a specific impairment in processing speed. However, other higher order cognitive functions might be more critical to performance on this task. To date, this idea has not been rigorously investigated in patients with schizophrenia. Neuropsychological measures of processing speed, memory, and executive functioning were completed by 125 patients with schizophrenia and 272 control subjects. We implemented a series of confirmatory factor and structural regression modeling to build an integrated model of processing speed, memory, and executive function with which to deconstruct the digit-symbol substitution task and characterize discrepancies between patients with schizophrenia and control subjects. The overall structure of the processing speed, memory, and executive function model was the same across groups (χ(2) = 208.86, p > .05), but the contribution of the specific cognitive domains to coding task performance differed significantly. When completing the task, control subjects relied on executive function and, indirectly, on working memory ability, whereas patients with schizophrenia used an alternative set of cognitive operations whereby they relied on the same processes required to complete verbal fluency tasks. Successful coding task performance relies predominantly on executive function, rather than processing speed or memory. Patients with schizophrenia perform poorly on this task because of an apparent lack of appropriate executive function input; they rely instead on an alternative cognitive pathway. Copyright © 2015 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Selection in spatial working memory is independent of perceptual selective attention, but they interact in a shared spatial priority map.

PubMed

Hedge, Craig; Oberauer, Klaus; Leonards, Ute

2015-11-01

We examined the relationship between the attentional selection of perceptual information and of information in working memory (WM) through four experiments, using a spatial WM-updating task. Participants remembered the locations of two objects in a matrix and worked through a sequence of updating operations, each mentally shifting one dot to a new location according to an arrow cue. Repeatedly updating the same object in two successive steps is typically faster than switching to the other object; this object switch cost reflects the shifting of attention in WM. In Experiment 1, the arrows were presented in random peripheral locations, drawing perceptual attention away from the selected object in WM. This manipulation did not eliminate the object switch cost, indicating that the mechanisms of perceptual selection do not underlie selection in WM. Experiments 2a and 2b corroborated the independence of selection observed in Experiment 1, but showed a benefit to reaction times when the placement of the arrow cue was aligned with the locations of relevant objects in WM. Experiment 2c showed that the same benefit also occurs when participants are not able to mark an updating location through eye fixations. Together, these data can be accounted for by a framework in which perceptual selection and selection in WM are separate mechanisms that interact through a shared spatial priority map.

Effects of information processing speed on learning, memory, and executive functioning in people living with HIV/AIDS.

PubMed

Fellows, Robert P; Byrd, Desiree A; Morgello, Susan

2014-01-01

It is unclear whether or to what degree literacy, aging, and other neurologic abnormalities relate to cognitive deficits among people living with HIV/AIDS in the combined antiretroviral therapy (CART) era. The primary aim of this study was to simultaneously examine the association of age, HIV-associated motor abnormalities, major depressive disorder, and reading level with information processing speed, learning, memory, and executive functions, and to determine whether processing speed mediated any of the relationships between cognitive and noncognitive variables. Participants were 186 racially and ethnically diverse men and women living with HIV/AIDS who underwent comprehensive neurological, neuropsychological, and medical evaluations. Structural equation modeling was utilized to assess the extent to which information processing speed mediated the relationship between age, motor abnormalities, major depressive disorder, and reading level with other cognitive abilities. Age, motor dysfunction, reading level, and current major depressive disorder were all significantly associated with information processing speed. Information processing speed fully mediated the effects of age on learning, memory, and executive functioning and partially mediated the effect of major depressive disorder on learning and memory. The effect of motor dysfunction on learning and memory was fully mediated by processing speed. These findings provide support for information processing speed as a primary deficit, which may account, at least in part, for many of the other cognitive abnormalities recognized in complex HIV/AIDS populations. The association of age and information processing speed may account for HIV/aging synergies in the generation of CART-era cognitive abnormalities.

Individual differences and predictors of forgetting in old age: the role of processing speed and working memory.

PubMed

Zimprich, Daniel; Kurtz, Tanja

2013-01-01

The goal of the present study was to examine whether individual differences in basic cognitive abilities, processing speed, and working memory, are reliable predictors of individual differences in forgetting rates in old age. The sample for the present study comprised 364 participants aged between 65 and 80 years from the Zurich Longitudinal Study on Cognitive Aging. The impact of basic cognitive abilities on forgetting was analyzed by modeling working memory and processing speed as predictors of the amount of forgetting of 27 words, which had been learned across five trials. Forgetting was measured over a 30-minute interval by using parceling and a latent change model, in which the latent difference between recall performance after five learning trials and a delayed recall was modeled. Results implied reliable individual differences in forgetting. These individual differences in forgetting were strongly related to processing speed and working memory. Moreover, an age-related effect, which was significantly stronger for forgetting than for learning, emerged even after controlling effects of processing speed and working memory.

Modulation of cortical activity during comprehension of familiar and unfamiliar text topics in speed reading and speed listening

PubMed Central

Buchweitz, Augusto; Mason, Robert A.; Meschyan, Gayane; Keller, Timothy A.; Just, Marcel Adam

2014-01-01

Brain activation associated with normal and speeded comprehension of expository texts on familiar and unfamiliar topics was investigated in reading and listening. The goal was to determine how brain activation and the comprehension processes it reflects are modulated by comprehension speed and topic familiarity. Passages on more familiar topics differentially activated a set of areas in the anterior temporal lobe and medial frontal gyrus, areas often associated with text-level integration processes, which we interpret to reflect integration of previous knowledge with the passage content. Passages presented at the faster presentation resulted in more activation of a network of frontal areas associated with strategic and working-memory processes (as well as visual or auditory sensory-related regions), which we interpret to reflect maintenance of local coherence among briefly available passage segments. The implications of this research is to demonstrate how the brain system for text comprehension adapts to varying perceptual and knowledge conditions. PMID:25463816

Modulation of cortical activity during comprehension of familiar and unfamiliar text topics in speed reading and speed listening.

PubMed

Buchweitz, Augusto; Mason, Robert A; Meschyan, Gayane; Keller, Timothy A; Just, Marcel Adam

2014-12-01

Brain activation associated with normal and speeded comprehension of expository texts on familiar and unfamiliar topics was investigated in reading and listening. The goal was to determine how brain activation and the comprehension processes it reflects are modulated by comprehension speed and topic familiarity. Passages on more familiar topics differentially activated a set of areas in the anterior temporal lobe and medial frontal gyrus, areas often associated with text-level integration processes, which we interpret to reflect integration of previous knowledge with the passage content. Passages presented at the faster presentation resulted in more activation of a network of frontal areas associated with strategic and working-memory processes (as well as visual or auditory sensory-related regions), which we interpret to reflect maintenance of local coherence among briefly available passage segments. The implications of this research is that the brain system for text comprehension adapts to varying perceptual and knowledge conditions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Processing speed and working memory training in multiple sclerosis: a double-blind randomized controlled pilot study.

PubMed

Hancock, Laura M; Bruce, Jared M; Bruce, Amanda S; Lynch, Sharon G

2015-01-01

Between 40-65% of multiple sclerosis patients experience cognitive deficits, with processing speed and working memory most commonly affected. This pilot study investigated the effect of computerized cognitive training focused on improving processing speed and working memory. Participants were randomized into either an active or a sham training group and engaged in six weeks of training. The active training group improved on a measure of processing speed and attention following cognitive training, and data trended toward significance on measures of other domains. Results provide preliminary evidence that cognitive training with multiple sclerosis patients may produce moderate improvement in select areas of cognitive functioning.

Short-Term Memory Affects Color Perception in Context

PubMed Central

Olkkonen, Maria; Allred, Sarah R.

2014-01-01

Color-based object selection — for instance, looking for ripe tomatoes in the market — places demands on both perceptual and memory processes: it is necessary to form a stable perceptual estimate of surface color from a variable visual signal, as well as to retain multiple perceptual estimates in memory while comparing objects. Nevertheless, perceptual and memory processes in the color domain are generally studied in separate research programs with the assumption that they are independent. Here, we demonstrate a strong failure of independence between color perception and memory: the effect of context on color appearance is substantially weakened by a short retention interval between a reference and test stimulus. This somewhat counterintuitive result is consistent with Bayesian estimation: as the precision of the representation of the reference surface and its context decays in memory, prior information gains more weight, causing the retained percepts to be drawn toward prior information about surface and context color. This interaction implies that to fully understand information processing in real-world color tasks, perception and memory need to be considered jointly. PMID:24475131

Short-term memory affects color perception in context.

PubMed

Olkkonen, Maria; Allred, Sarah R

2014-01-01

Color-based object selection - for instance, looking for ripe tomatoes in the market - places demands on both perceptual and memory processes: it is necessary to form a stable perceptual estimate of surface color from a variable visual signal, as well as to retain multiple perceptual estimates in memory while comparing objects. Nevertheless, perceptual and memory processes in the color domain are generally studied in separate research programs with the assumption that they are independent. Here, we demonstrate a strong failure of independence between color perception and memory: the effect of context on color appearance is substantially weakened by a short retention interval between a reference and test stimulus. This somewhat counterintuitive result is consistent with Bayesian estimation: as the precision of the representation of the reference surface and its context decays in memory, prior information gains more weight, causing the retained percepts to be drawn toward prior information about surface and context color. This interaction implies that to fully understand information processing in real-world color tasks, perception and memory need to be considered jointly.

Recognition Memory for Realistic Synthetic Faces

PubMed Central

Yotsumoto, Yuko; Kahana, Michael J.; Wilson, Hugh R.; Sekuler, Robert

2006-01-01

A series of experiments examined short-term recognition memory for trios of briefly-presented, synthetic human faces derived from three real human faces. The stimuli were graded series of faces, which differed by varying known amounts from the face of the average female. Faces based on each of the three real faces were transformed so as to lie along orthogonal axes in a 3-D face space. Experiment 1 showed that the synthetic faces' perceptual similarity stucture strongly influenced recognition memory. Results were fit by NEMo, a noisy exemplar model of perceptual recognition memory. The fits revealed that recognition memory was influenced both by the similarity of the probe to series items, and by the similarities among the series items themselves. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) showed that faces' perceptual representations largely preserved the 3-D space in which the face stimuli were arrayed. NEMo gave a better account of the results when similarity was defined as perceptual, MDS similarity rather than physical proximity of one face to another. Experiment 2 confirmed the importance of within-list homogeneity directly, without mediation of a model. We discuss the affinities and differences between visual memory for synthetic faces and memory for simpler stimuli. PMID:17948069

Relationship between perceptual learning in speech and statistical learning in younger and older adults

PubMed Central

Neger, Thordis M.; Rietveld, Toni; Janse, Esther

2014-01-01

Within a few sentences, listeners learn to understand severely degraded speech such as noise-vocoded speech. However, individuals vary in the amount of such perceptual learning and it is unclear what underlies these differences. The present study investigates whether perceptual learning in speech relates to statistical learning, as sensitivity to probabilistic information may aid identification of relevant cues in novel speech input. If statistical learning and perceptual learning (partly) draw on the same general mechanisms, then statistical learning in a non-auditory modality using non-linguistic sequences should predict adaptation to degraded speech. In the present study, 73 older adults (aged over 60 years) and 60 younger adults (aged between 18 and 30 years) performed a visual artificial grammar learning task and were presented with 60 meaningful noise-vocoded sentences in an auditory recall task. Within age groups, sentence recognition performance over exposure was analyzed as a function of statistical learning performance, and other variables that may predict learning (i.e., hearing, vocabulary, attention switching control, working memory, and processing speed). Younger and older adults showed similar amounts of perceptual learning, but only younger adults showed significant statistical learning. In older adults, improvement in understanding noise-vocoded speech was constrained by age. In younger adults, amount of adaptation was associated with lexical knowledge and with statistical learning ability. Thus, individual differences in general cognitive abilities explain listeners' variability in adapting to noise-vocoded speech. Results suggest that perceptual and statistical learning share mechanisms of implicit regularity detection, but that the ability to detect statistical regularities is impaired in older adults if visual sequences are presented quickly. PMID:25225475

Relationship between perceptual learning in speech and statistical learning in younger and older adults.

PubMed

Neger, Thordis M; Rietveld, Toni; Janse, Esther

2014-01-01

Within a few sentences, listeners learn to understand severely degraded speech such as noise-vocoded speech. However, individuals vary in the amount of such perceptual learning and it is unclear what underlies these differences. The present study investigates whether perceptual learning in speech relates to statistical learning, as sensitivity to probabilistic information may aid identification of relevant cues in novel speech input. If statistical learning and perceptual learning (partly) draw on the same general mechanisms, then statistical learning in a non-auditory modality using non-linguistic sequences should predict adaptation to degraded speech. In the present study, 73 older adults (aged over 60 years) and 60 younger adults (aged between 18 and 30 years) performed a visual artificial grammar learning task and were presented with 60 meaningful noise-vocoded sentences in an auditory recall task. Within age groups, sentence recognition performance over exposure was analyzed as a function of statistical learning performance, and other variables that may predict learning (i.e., hearing, vocabulary, attention switching control, working memory, and processing speed). Younger and older adults showed similar amounts of perceptual learning, but only younger adults showed significant statistical learning. In older adults, improvement in understanding noise-vocoded speech was constrained by age. In younger adults, amount of adaptation was associated with lexical knowledge and with statistical learning ability. Thus, individual differences in general cognitive abilities explain listeners' variability in adapting to noise-vocoded speech. Results suggest that perceptual and statistical learning share mechanisms of implicit regularity detection, but that the ability to detect statistical regularities is impaired in older adults if visual sequences are presented quickly.

THE EFFECTS OF SYSTEMATIC VARIATION OF SPEED AND DIRECTION OF OBJECT FLIGHT AND OF SKILL AND AGE CLASSIFICATIONS UPON VISUO-PERCEPTUAL JUDGMENTS OF MOVING OBJECTS IN THREE-DIMENSIONAL SPACE. FINAL REPORT.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

WILLIAMS, HARRIET G.

THIS STUDY WAS CONDUCTED TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECTS OF VARIATIONS IN THE SPEED AND DIRECTION OF A FLYING OBJECT ON VISUO-PERCEPTUAL JUDGMENTS MADE, DIFFERENCES IN THE ABILITY OF SKILLED AND UNSKILLED SUBJECTS IN MAKING SUCH JUDGMENTS, AND THE EFFECTS OF AGE OR MATURITY LEVEL ON THE SPEED AND ACCURACY OF SUCH JUDGMENTS. THE SUBJECTS WERE 54 MALE…

Working Memory in Children With Neurocognitive Effects From Sickle Cell Disease: Contributions of the Central Executive and Processing Speed

PubMed Central

Smith, Kelsey E.; Schatz, Jeffrey

2017-01-01

Children with sickle cell disease (SCD) are at risk for working memory deficits due to multiple disease processes. We assessed working memory abilities and related functions in 32 school-age children with SCD and 85 matched comparison children using Baddeley’s working memory model as a framework. Children with SCD performed worse than controls for working memory, central executive function, and processing/rehearsal speed. Central executive function was found to mediate the relationship between SCD status and working memory, but processing speed did not. Cognitive remediation strategies that focus on central executive processes may be important for remediating working memory deficits in SCD. PMID:27759435

Gains following perceptual learning are closely linked to the initial visual acuity.

PubMed

Yehezkel, Oren; Sterkin, Anna; Lev, Maria; Levi, Dennis M; Polat, Uri

2016-04-28

The goal of the present study was to evaluate the dependence of perceptual learning gains on initial visual acuity (VA), in a large sample of subjects with a wide range of VAs. A large sample of normally sighted and presbyopic subjects (N = 119; aged 40 to 63) with a wide range of uncorrected near visual acuities (VA, -0.12 to 0.8 LogMAR), underwent perceptual learning. Training consisted of detecting briefly presented Gabor stimuli under spatial and temporal masking conditions. Consistent with previous findings, perceptual learning induced a significant improvement in near VA and reading speed under conditions of limited exposure duration. Our results show that the improvements in VA and reading speed observed following perceptual learning are closely linked to the initial VA, with only a minor fraction of the observed improvement that may be attributed to the additional sessions performed by those with the worse VA.

Subjective Confidence in Perceptual Judgments: A Test of the Self-Consistency Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koriat, Asher

2011-01-01

Two questions about subjective confidence in perceptual judgments are examined: the bases for these judgments and the reasons for their accuracy. Confidence in perceptual judgments has been claimed to rest on qualitatively different processes than confidence in memory tasks. However, predictions from a self-consistency model (SCM), which had been…

Do working memory-driven attention shifts speed up visual awareness?

PubMed

Pan, Yi; Cheng, Qiu-Ping

2011-11-01

Previous research has shown that content representations in working memory (WM) can bias attention in favor of matching stimuli in the scene. Using a visual prior-entry procedure, we here investigate whether such WM-driven attention shifts can speed up the conscious awareness of memory-matching relative to memory-mismatching stimuli. Participants were asked to hold a color cue in WM and to subsequently perform a temporal order judgment (TOJ) task by reporting either of two different-colored circles (presented to the left and right of fixation with a variable temporal interval) as having the first onset. One of the two TOJ circles could match the memory cue in color. We found that awareness of the temporal order of the circle onsets was not affected by the contents of WM, even when participants were explicitly informed that one of the TOJ circles would always match the WM contents. The null effect of WM on TOJs was not due to an inability of the memory-matching item to capture attention, since response times to the target in a follow-up experiment were improved when it appeared at the location of the memory-matching item. The present findings suggest that WM-driven attention shifts cannot accelerate phenomenal awareness of matching stimuli in the visual field.

Interrelationships between Working Memory, Processing Speed, and Language Development in the Age Range 2-4 Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newbury, Jayne; Klee, Thomas; Stokes, Stephanie F.; Moran, Catherine

2016-01-01

Purpose: This study explored associations between working memory and language in children aged 2-4 years. Method: Seventy-seven children aged 24-30 months were assessed on tests measuring language, visual cognition, verbal working memory (VWM), phonological short-term memory (PSTM), and processing speed. A standardized test of receptive and…

Effects of intelligibility on working memory demand for speech perception.

PubMed

Francis, Alexander L; Nusbaum, Howard C

2009-08-01

Understanding low-intelligibility speech is effortful. In three experiments, we examined the effects of intelligibility on working memory (WM) demands imposed by perception of synthetic speech. In all three experiments, a primary speeded word recognition task was paired with a secondary WM-load task designed to vary the availability of WM capacity during speech perception. Speech intelligibility was varied either by training listeners to use available acoustic cues in a more diagnostic manner (as in Experiment 1) or by providing listeners with more informative acoustic cues (i.e., better speech quality, as in Experiments 2 and 3). In the first experiment, training significantly improved intelligibility and recognition speed; increasing WM load significantly slowed recognition. A significant interaction between training and load indicated that the benefit of training on recognition speed was observed only under low memory load. In subsequent experiments, listeners received no training; intelligibility was manipulated by changing synthesizers. Improving intelligibility without training improved recognition accuracy, and increasing memory load still decreased it, but more intelligible speech did not produce more efficient use of available WM capacity. This suggests that perceptual learning modifies the way available capacity is used, perhaps by increasing the use of more phonetically informative features and/or by decreasing use of less informative ones.

Perceptual load interacts with stimulus processing across sensory modalities.

PubMed

Klemen, J; Büchel, C; Rose, M

2009-06-01

According to perceptual load theory, processing of task-irrelevant stimuli is limited by the perceptual load of a parallel attended task if both the task and the irrelevant stimuli are presented to the same sensory modality. However, it remains a matter of debate whether the same principles apply to cross-sensory perceptual load and, more generally, what form cross-sensory attentional modulation in early perceptual areas takes in humans. Here we addressed these questions using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants undertook an auditory one-back working memory task of low or high perceptual load, while concurrently viewing task-irrelevant images at one of three object visibility levels. The processing of the visual and auditory stimuli was measured in the lateral occipital cortex (LOC) and auditory cortex (AC), respectively. Cross-sensory interference with sensory processing was observed in both the LOC and AC, in accordance with previous results of unisensory perceptual load studies. The present neuroimaging results therefore warrant the extension of perceptual load theory from a unisensory to a cross-sensory context: a validation of this cross-sensory interference effect through behavioural measures would consolidate the findings.

Processing speed and visuospatial executive function predict visual working memory ability in older adults.

PubMed

Brown, Louise A; Brockmole, James R; Gow, Alan J; Deary, Ian J

2012-01-01

BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Visual working memory (VWM) has been shown to be particularly age sensitive. Determining which measures share variance with this cognitive ability in older adults may help to elucidate the key factors underlying the effects of aging. Predictors of VWM (measured by a modified Visual Patterns Test) were investigated in a subsample (N = 44, mean age = 73) of older adults from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936; Deary et al., 2007 , BMC Geriatrics, 7, 28). Childhood intelligence (Moray House Test) and contemporaneous measures of processing speed (four-choice reaction time), executive function (verbal fluency; block design), and spatial working memory (backward spatial span), were assessed as potential predictors. All contemporaneous measures except verbal fluency were significantly associated with VWM, and processing speed had the largest effect size (r = -.53, p < .001). In linear regression analysis, even after adjusting for childhood intelligence, processing speed and the executive measure associated with visuospatial organization accounted for 35% of the variance in VWM. Processing speed may affect VWM performance in older adults via speed of encoding and/or rate of rehearsal, while executive resources specifically associated with visuospatial material are also important.

Verbal predicates foster conscious recollection but not familiarity of a task-irrelevant perceptual feature--an ERP study.

PubMed

Ecker, Ullrich K H; Arend, Anna M; Bergström, Kirstin; Zimmer, Hubert D

2009-09-01

Research on the effects of perceptual manipulations on recognition memory has suggested that (a) recollection is selectively influenced by task-relevant information and (b) familiarity can be considered perceptually specific. The present experiment tested divergent assumptions that (a) perceptual features can influence conscious object recollection via verbal code despite being task-irrelevant and that (b) perceptual features do not influence object familiarity if study is verbal-conceptual. At study, subjects named objects and their presentation colour; this was followed by an old/new object recognition test. Event-related potentials (ERP) showed that a study-test manipulation of colour impacted selectively on the ERP effect associated with recollection, while a size manipulation showed no effect. It is concluded that (a) verbal predicates generated at study are potent episodic memory agents that modulate recollection even if the recovered feature information is task-irrelevant and (b) commonly found perceptual match effects on familiarity critically depend on perceptual processing at study.

Perceptually specific and perceptually non-specific influences on rereading benefits for spatially transformed text: evidence from eye movements.

PubMed

Sheridan, Heather; Reingold, Eyal M

2012-12-01

The present study used eye tracking methodology to examine rereading benefits for spatially transformed text. Eye movements were monitored while participants read the same target word twice, in two different low-constraint sentence frames. The congruency of perceptual processing was manipulated by either applying the same type of transformation to the word during the first and second presentations (i.e., the congruent condition), or employing two different types of transformations across the two presentations of the word (i.e., the incongruent condition). Perceptual specificity effects were demonstrated such that fixation times for the second presentation of the target word were shorter for the congruent condition compared to the incongruent condition. Moreover, we demonstrated an additional perceptually non-specific effect such that second reading fixation times were shorter for the incongruent condition relative to a baseline condition that employed a normal typography (i.e., non-transformed) during the first presentation and a transformation during the second presentation. Both of these effects (i.e., perceptually specific and perceptually non-specific) were similar in magnitude for high and low frequency words, and both effects persisted across a 1 week lag between the first and second readings. We discuss the present findings in the context of the distinction between conscious and unconscious memory, and the distinction between perceptually versus conceptually driven processing. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Where do we store the memory representations that guide attention?

PubMed Central

Woodman, Geoffrey F.; Carlisle, Nancy B.; Reinhart, Robert M. G.

2013-01-01

During the last decade one of the most contentious and heavily studied topics in the attention literature has been the role that working memory representations play in controlling perceptual selection. The hypothesis has been advanced that to have attention select a certain perceptual input from the environment, we only need to represent that item in working memory. Here we summarize the work indicating that the relationship between what representations are maintained in working memory and what perceptual inputs are selected is not so simple. First, it appears that attentional selection is also determined by high-level task goals that mediate the relationship between working memory storage and attentional selection. Second, much of the recent work from our laboratory has focused on the role of long-term memory in controlling attentional selection. We review recent evidence supporting the proposal that working memory representations are critical during the initial configuration of attentional control settings, but that after those settings are established long-term memory representations play an important role in controlling which perceptual inputs are selected by mechanisms of attention. PMID:23444390

Conceptual Distinctiveness Supports Detailed Visual Long-Term Memory for Real-World Objects

PubMed Central

Konkle, Talia; Brady, Timothy F.; Alvarez, George A.; Oliva, Aude

2012-01-01

Humans have a massive capacity to store detailed information in visual long-term memory. The present studies explored the fidelity of these visual long-term memory representations and examined how conceptual and perceptual features of object categories support this capacity. Observers viewed 2,800 object images with a different number of exemplars presented from each category. At test, observers indicated which of 2 exemplars they had previously studied. Memory performance was high and remained quite high (82% accuracy) with 16 exemplars from a category in memory, demonstrating a large memory capacity for object exemplars. However, memory performance decreased as more exemplars were held in memory, implying systematic categorical interference. Object categories with conceptually distinctive exemplars showed less interference in memory as the number of exemplars increased. Interference in memory was not predicted by the perceptual distinctiveness of exemplars from an object category, though these perceptual measures predicted visual search rates for an object target among exemplars. These data provide evidence that observers’ capacity to remember visual information in long-term memory depends more on conceptual structure than perceptual distinctiveness. PMID:20677899

Factors influencing individual variation in perceptual directional microphone benefit.

PubMed

Keidser, Gitte; Dillon, Harvey; Convery, Elizabeth; Mejia, Jorge

2013-01-01

Large variations in perceptual directional microphone benefit, which far exceed the variation expected from physical performance measures of directional microphones, have been reported in the literature. The cause for the individual variation has not been systematically investigated. To determine the factors that are responsible for the individual variation in reported perceptual directional benefit. A correlational study. Physical performance measures of the directional microphones obtained after they had been fitted to individuals, cognitive abilities of individuals, and measurement errors were related to perceptual directional benefit scores. Fifty-nine hearing-impaired adults with varied degrees of hearing loss participated in the study. All participants were bilaterally fitted with a Motion behind-the-ear device (500 M, 501 SX, or 501 P) from Siemens according to the National Acoustic Laboratories' non-linear prescription, version two (NAL-NL2). Using the Bamford-Kowal-Bench (BKB) sentences, the perceptual directional benefit was obtained as the difference in speech reception threshold measured in babble noise (SRTn) with the devices in directional (fixed hypercardioid) and in omnidirectional mode. The SRTn measurements were repeated three times with each microphone mode. Physical performance measures of the directional microphone included the angle of the microphone ports to loudspeaker axis, the frequency range dominated by amplified sound, the in situ signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and the in situ three-dimensional, articulation-index weighted directivity index (3D AI-DI). The cognitive tests included auditory selective attention, speed of processing, and working memory. Intraparticipant variation on the repeated SRTn's and the interparticipant variation on the average SRTn were used to determine the effect of measurement error. A multiple regression analysis was used to determine the effect of other factors. Measurement errors explained 52% of the variation

Sb7Te3/Ge multilayer films for low power and high speed phase-change memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Shiyu; Wu, Weihua; Zhai, Jiwei; Song, Sannian; Song, Zhitang

2017-06-01

Phase-change memory has attracted enormous attention for its excellent properties as compared to flash memories due to their high speed, high density, better date retention and low power consumption. Here we present Sb7Te3/Ge multilayer films by using a magnetron sputtering method. The 10 years’ data retention temperature is significantly increased compared with pure Sb7Te3. When the annealing temperature is above 250 °C, the Sb7Te3/Ge multilayer thin films have better interface properties, which renders faster crystallization speed and high thermal stability. The decrease in density of ST/Ge multilayer films is only around 5%, which is very suitable for phase change materials. Moreover, the low RESET power benefits from high resistivity and better thermal stability in the PCM cells. This work demonstrates that the multilayer configuration thin films with tailored properties are beneficial for improving the stability and speed in phase change memory applications.

Perceptual-motor skill learning in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. Evidence for multiple procedural learning and memory systems.

PubMed

Marsh, Rachel; Alexander, Gerianne M; Packard, Mark G; Zhu, Hongtu; Peterson, Bradley S

2005-01-01

Procedural learning and memory systems likely comprise several skills that are differentially affected by various illnesses of the central nervous system, suggesting their relative functional independence and reliance on differing neural circuits. Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) is a movement disorder that involves disturbances in the structure and function of the striatum and related circuitry. Recent studies suggest that patients with GTS are impaired in performance of a probabilistic classification task that putatively involves the acquisition of stimulus-response (S-R)-based habits. Assessing the learning of perceptual-motor skills and probabilistic classification in the same samples of GTS and healthy control subjects may help to determine whether these various forms of procedural (habit) learning rely on the same or differing neuroanatomical substrates and whether those substrates are differentially affected in persons with GTS. Therefore, we assessed perceptual-motor skill learning using the pursuit-rotor and mirror tracing tasks in 50 patients with GTS and 55 control subjects who had previously been compared at learning a task of probabilistic classifications. The GTS subjects did not differ from the control subjects in performance of either the pursuit rotor or mirror-tracing tasks, although they were significantly impaired in the acquisition of a probabilistic classification task. In addition, learning on the perceptual-motor tasks was not correlated with habit learning on the classification task in either the GTS or healthy control subjects. These findings suggest that the differing forms of procedural learning are dissociable both functionally and neuroanatomically. The specific deficits in the probabilistic classification form of habit learning in persons with GTS are likely to be a consequence of disturbances in specific corticostriatal circuits, but not the same circuits that subserve the perceptual-motor form of habit learning.

FPGA Flash Memory High Speed Data Acquisition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gonzalez, April

2013-01-01

The purpose of this research is to design and implement a VHDL ONFI Controller module for a Modular Instrumentation System. The goal of the Modular Instrumentation System will be to have a low power device that will store data and send the data at a low speed to a processor. The benefit of such a system will give an advantage over other purchased binary IP due to the capability of allowing NASA to re-use and modify the memory controller module. To accomplish the performance criteria of a low power system, an in house auxiliary board (Flash/ADC board), FPGA development kit, debug board, and modular instrumentation board will be jointly used for the data acquisition. The Flash/ADC board contains four, 1 MSPS, input channel signals and an Open NAND Flash memory module with an analog to digital converter. The ADC, data bits, and control line signals from the board are sent to an Microsemi/Actel FPGA development kit for VHDL programming of the flash memory WRITE, READ, READ STATUS, ERASE, and RESET operation waveforms using Libero software. The debug board will be used for verification of the analog input signal and be able to communicate via serial interface with the module instrumentation. The scope of the new controller module was to find and develop an ONFI controller with the debug board layout designed and completed for manufacture. Successful flash memory operation waveform test routines were completed, simulated, and tested to work on the FPGA board. Through connection of the Flash/ADC board with the FPGA, it was found that the device specifications were not being meet with Vdd reaching half of its voltage. Further testing showed that it was the manufactured Flash/ADC board that contained a misalignment with the ONFI memory module traces. The errors proved to be too great to fix in the time limit set for the project.

Harnessing the wandering mind: the role of perceptual load.

PubMed

Forster, Sophie; Lavie, Nilli

2009-06-01

Perceptual load is a key determinant of distraction by task-irrelevant stimuli (e.g., Lavie, N. (2005). Distracted and confused?: Selective attention under load. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 75-82). Here we establish the role of perceptual load in determining an internal form of distraction by task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs or "mind-wandering"). Four experiments demonstrated reduced frequency of TUTs with high compared to low perceptual load in a visual-search task. Alternative accounts in terms of increased demands on responses, verbal working memory or motivation were ruled out and clear effects of load were found for unintentional TUTs. Individual differences in load effects on internal (TUTs) and external (response-competition) distractors were correlated. These results suggest that exhausting attentional capacity in task-relevant processing under high perceptual load can reduce processing of task-irrelevant information from external and internal sources alike.

Improved segregation of simultaneous talkers differentially affects perceptual and cognitive capacity demands for recognizing speech in competing speech.

PubMed

Francis, Alexander L

2010-02-01

Perception of speech in competing speech is facilitated by spatial separation of the target and distracting speech, but this benefit may arise at either a perceptual or a cognitive level of processing. Load theory predicts different effects of perceptual and cognitive (working memory) load on selective attention in flanker task contexts, suggesting that this paradigm may be used to distinguish levels of interference. Two experiments examined interference from competing speech during a word recognition task under different perceptual and working memory loads in a dual-task paradigm. Listeners identified words produced by a talker of one gender while ignoring a talker of the other gender. Perceptual load was manipulated using a nonspeech response cue, with response conditional upon either one or two acoustic features (pitch and modulation). Memory load was manipulated with a secondary task consisting of one or six visually presented digits. In the first experiment, the target and distractor were presented at different virtual locations (0 degrees and 90 degrees , respectively), whereas in the second, all the stimuli were presented from the same apparent location. Results suggest that spatial cues improve resistance to distraction in part by reducing working memory demand.

Resistance to Interference of Olfactory Perceptual Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stevenson, Richard J.; Case, Trevor I.; Tomiczek, Caroline

2007-01-01

Olfactory memory is especially persistent. The current study explored whether this applies to a form of perceptual learning, in which experience of an odor mixture results in greater judged similarity between its elements. Experiment 1A contrasted 2 forms of interference procedure, "compound" (mixture AW, followed by presentation of new mixtures…

Perception and Reality of Cognitive Function: Information Processing Speed, Perceived Memory Function, and Perceived Task Difficulty in Older Adults.

PubMed

Torrens-Burton, Anna; Basoudan, Nasreen; Bayer, Antony J; Tales, Andrea

2017-01-01

This study examines the relationships between two measures of information processing speed associated with executive function (Trail Making Test and a computer-based visual search test), the perceived difficulty of the tasks, and perceived memory function (measured by the Memory Functioning Questionnaire) in older adults (aged 50+ y) with normal general health, cognition (Montreal Cognitive Assessment score of 26+), and mood. The participants were recruited from the community rather than through clinical services, and none had ever sought or received help from a health professional for a memory complaint or mental health problem. For both the trail making and the visual search tests, mean information processing speed was not correlated significantly with perceived memory function. Some individuals did, however, reveal substantially slower information processing speeds (outliers) that may have clinical significance and indicate those who may benefit most from further assessment and follow up. For the trail making, but not the visual search task, higher levels of subjective memory dysfunction were associated with a greater perception of task difficulty. The relationship between actual information processing speed and perceived task difficulty also varied with respect to the task used. These findings highlight the importance of taking into account the type of task and metacognition factors when examining the integrity of information processing speed in older adults, particularly as this measure is now specifically cited as a key cognitive subdomain within the diagnostic framework for neurocognitive disorders.

Perception and Reality of Cognitive Function: Information Processing Speed, Perceived Memory Function, and Perceived Task Difficulty in Older Adults

PubMed Central

Torrens-Burton, Anna; Basoudan, Nasreen; Bayer, Antony J.; Tales, Andrea

2017-01-01

This study examines the relationships between two measures of information processing speed associated with executive function (Trail Making Test and a computer-based visual search test), the perceived difficulty of the tasks, and perceived memory function (measured by the Memory Functioning Questionnaire) in older adults (aged 50+ y) with normal general health, cognition (Montreal Cognitive Assessment score of 26+), and mood. The participants were recruited from the community rather than through clinical services, and none had ever sought or received help from a health professional for a memory complaint or mental health problem. For both the trail making and the visual search tests, mean information processing speed was not correlated significantly with perceived memory function. Some individuals did, however, reveal substantially slower information processing speeds (outliers) that may have clinical significance and indicate those who may benefit most from further assessment and follow up. For the trail making, but not the visual search task, higher levels of subjective memory dysfunction were associated with a greater perception of task difficulty. The relationship between actual information processing speed and perceived task difficulty also varied with respect to the task used. These findings highlight the importance of taking into account the type of task and metacognition factors when examining the integrity of information processing speed in older adults, particularly as this measure is now specifically cited as a key cognitive subdomain within the diagnostic framework for neurocognitive disorders. PMID:28984584

FRAS1-related extracellular matrix 3 (FREM3) single-nucleotide polymorphism effects on gene expression, amygdala reactivity and perceptual processing speed: An accelerated aging pathway of depression risk

PubMed Central

Nikolova, Yuliya S.; Iruku, Swetha P.; Lin, Chien-Wei; Conley, Emily Drabant; Puralewski, Rachel; French, Beverly; Hariri, Ahmad R.; Sibille, Etienne

2015-01-01

The A allele of the FRAS1-related extracellular matrix protein 3 (FREM3) rs7676614 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) was linked to major depressive disorder (MDD) in an early genome-wide association study (GWAS), and to symptoms of psychomotor retardation in a follow-up investigation. In line with significant overlap between age- and depression-related molecular pathways, parallel work has shown that FREM3 expression in postmortem human brain decreases with age. Here, we probe the effect of rs7676614 on amygdala reactivity and perceptual processing speed, both of which are altered in depression and aging. Amygdala reactivity was assessed using a face-matching BOLD fMRI paradigm in 365 Caucasian participants in the Duke Neurogenetics Study (DNS) (192 women, mean age 19.7 ± 1.2). Perceptual processing speed was indexed by reaction times in the same task and the Trail Making Test (TMT). The effect of rs7676614 on FREM3 mRNA brain expression levels was probed in a postmortem cohort of 169 Caucasian individuals (44 women, mean age 50.8 ± 14.9). The A allele of rs7676614 was associated with blunted amygdala reactivity to faces, slower reaction times in the face-matching condition (p < 0.04), as well as marginally slower performance on TMT Part B (p = 0.056). In the postmortem cohort, the T allele of rs6537170 (proxy for the rs7676614 A allele), was associated with trend-level reductions in gene expression in Brodmann areas 11 and 47 (p = 0.066), reminiscent of patterns characteristic of older age. The low-expressing allele of another FREM3 SNP (rs1391187) was similarly associated with reduced amygdala reactivity and slower TMT Part B speed, in addition to reduced BA47 activity and extraversion (p < 0.05). Together, these results suggest common genetic variation associated with reduced FREM3 expression may confer risk for a subtype of depression characterized by reduced reactivity to environmental stimuli and slower perceptual processing speed, possibly suggestive of

Perceptual load influences selective attention across development.

PubMed

Couperus, Jane W

2011-09-01

Research suggests that visual selective attention develops across childhood. However, there is relatively little understanding of the neurological changes that accompany this development, particularly in the context of adult theories of selective attention, such as N. Lavie's (1995) perceptual load theory of attention. This study examined visual selective attention across development from 7 years of age to adulthood. Specifically, the author examined if changes in processing as a function of selective attention are similarly influenced by perceptual load across development. Participants were asked to complete a task at either low or high perceptual load while processing of an unattended probe stimulus was examined using event related potentials. Similar to adults, children and teens showed reduced processing of the unattended stimulus as perceptual load increased at the P1 visual component. However, although there were no qualitative differences in changes in processing, there were quantitative differences, with shorter P1 latencies in teens and adults compared with children, suggesting increases in the speed of processing across development. In addition, younger children did not need as high a perceptual load to achieve the same difference in performance between low and high perceptual load as adults. Thus, this study demonstrates that although there are developmental changes in visual selective attention, the mechanisms by which visual selective attention is achieved in children may share similarities with adults.

Visual encoding impairment in patients with schizophrenia: contribution of reduced working memory span, decreased processing speed, and affective symptoms.

PubMed

Brébion, Gildas; Stephan-Otto, Christian; Huerta-Ramos, Elena; Ochoa, Susana; Usall, Judith; Abellán-Vega, Helena; Roca, Mercedes; Haro, Josep Maria

2015-01-01

Previous research has revealed the contribution of decreased processing speed and reduced working memory span in verbal and visual memory impairment in patients with schizophrenia. The role of affective symptoms in verbal memory has also emerged in a few studies. The authors designed a picture recognition task to investigate the impact of these factors on visual encoding. Two types of pictures (black and white vs. colored) were presented under 2 different conditions of context encoding (either displayed at a specific location or in association with another visual stimulus). It was assumed that the process of encoding associated pictures was more effortful than that of encoding pictures that were presented alone. Working memory span and processing speed were assessed. In the patient group, working memory span was significantly associated with the recognition of the associated pictures but not significantly with that of the other pictures. Controlling for processing speed eliminated the patients' deficit in the recognition of the colored pictures and greatly reduced their deficit in the recognition of the black-and-white pictures. The recognition of the black-and-white pictures was inversely related to anxiety in men and to depression in women. Working memory span constrains the effortful visual encoding processes in patients, whereas processing speed decrement accounts for most of their visual encoding deficit. Affective symptoms also have an impact on visual encoding, albeit differently in men and women. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

The relative contributions of processing speed and cognitive load to working memory accuracy in multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

Leavitt, Victoria M; Lengenfelder, Jean; Moore, Nancy B; Chiaravalloti, Nancy D; DeLuca, John

2011-06-01

Cognitive symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS) include processing-speed deficits and working memory impairment. The precise manner in which these deficits interact in individuals with MS remains to be explicated. We hypothesized that providing more time on a complex working memory task would result in performance benefits for individuals with MS relative to healthy controls. Fifty-three individuals with clinically definite MS and 36 matched healthy controls performed a computerized task that systematically manipulated cognitive load. The interval between stimuli presentations was manipulated to provide increasing processing time. The results confirmed that individuals with MS who have processing-speed deficits significantly improve in performance accuracy when given additional time to process the information in working memory. Implications of these findings for developing appropriate cognitive rehabilitation interventions are discussed.

Visual function and cognitive speed of processing mediate age-related decline in memory span and fluid intelligence

PubMed Central

Clay, Olivio J.; Edwards, Jerri D.; Ross, Lesley A.; Okonkwo, Ozioma; Wadley, Virginia G.; Roth, David L.; Ball, Karlene K.

2010-01-01

Objectives: To evaluate the relationship between sensory and cognitive decline, particularly with respect to speed of processing, memory span, and fluid intelligence. Additionally, the common cause, sensory degradation and speed of processing hypotheses were compared. Methods: Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the complex relationships among age-related decrements in these areas. Results: Cross-sectional data analyses included 842 older adult participants (M = 73 years). After accounting for age-related declines in vision and processing speed, the direct associations between age and memory span and between age and fluid intelligence were nonsignificant. Older age was associated with visual decline, which was associated with slower speed of processing, which in turn was associated with greater cognitive deficits. Discussion: The findings support both the sensory degradation and speed of processing accounts of age-related cognitive decline. Further, the findings highlight positive aspects of normal cognitive aging in that older age may not be associated with a loss of fluid intelligence if visual sensory functioning and processing speed can be maintained. PMID:19436063

The Role of Visual Processing Speed in Reading Speed Development

PubMed Central

Lobier, Muriel; Dubois, Matthieu; Valdois, Sylviane

2013-01-01

A steady increase in reading speed is the hallmark of normal reading acquisition. However, little is known of the influence of visual attention capacity on children's reading speed. The number of distinct visual elements that can be simultaneously processed at a glance (dubbed the visual attention span), predicts single-word reading speed in both normal reading and dyslexic children. However, the exact processes that account for the relationship between the visual attention span and reading speed remain to be specified. We used the Theory of Visual Attention to estimate visual processing speed and visual short-term memory capacity from a multiple letter report task in eight and nine year old children. The visual attention span and text reading speed were also assessed. Results showed that visual processing speed and visual short term memory capacity predicted the visual attention span. Furthermore, visual processing speed predicted reading speed, but visual short term memory capacity did not. Finally, the visual attention span mediated the effect of visual processing speed on reading speed. These results suggest that visual attention capacity could constrain reading speed in elementary school children. PMID:23593117

The role of visual processing speed in reading speed development.

PubMed

Lobier, Muriel; Dubois, Matthieu; Valdois, Sylviane

2013-01-01

A steady increase in reading speed is the hallmark of normal reading acquisition. However, little is known of the influence of visual attention capacity on children's reading speed. The number of distinct visual elements that can be simultaneously processed at a glance (dubbed the visual attention span), predicts single-word reading speed in both normal reading and dyslexic children. However, the exact processes that account for the relationship between the visual attention span and reading speed remain to be specified. We used the Theory of Visual Attention to estimate visual processing speed and visual short-term memory capacity from a multiple letter report task in eight and nine year old children. The visual attention span and text reading speed were also assessed. Results showed that visual processing speed and visual short term memory capacity predicted the visual attention span. Furthermore, visual processing speed predicted reading speed, but visual short term memory capacity did not. Finally, the visual attention span mediated the effect of visual processing speed on reading speed. These results suggest that visual attention capacity could constrain reading speed in elementary school children.

Opposite Influence of Perceptual Memory on Initial and Prolonged Perception of Sensory Ambiguity

PubMed Central

de Jong, Maartje Cathelijne; Knapen, Tomas; van Ee, Raymond

2012-01-01

Observers continually make unconscious inferences about the state of the world based on ambiguous sensory information. This process of perceptual decision-making may be optimized by learning from experience. We investigated the influence of previous perceptual experience on the interpretation of ambiguous visual information. Observers were pre-exposed to a perceptually stabilized sequence of an ambiguous structure-from-motion stimulus by means of intermittent presentation. At the subsequent re-appearance of the same ambiguous stimulus perception was initially biased toward the previously stabilized perceptual interpretation. However, prolonged viewing revealed a bias toward the alternative perceptual interpretation. The prevalence of the alternative percept during ongoing viewing was largely due to increased durations of this percept, as there was no reliable decrease in the durations of the pre-exposed percept. Moreover, the duration of the alternative percept was modulated by the specific characteristics of the pre-exposure, whereas the durations of the pre-exposed percept were not. The increase in duration of the alternative percept was larger when the pre-exposure had lasted longer and was larger after ambiguous pre-exposure than after unambiguous pre-exposure. Using a binocular rivalry stimulus we found analogous perceptual biases, while pre-exposure did not affect eye-bias. We conclude that previously perceived interpretations dominate at the onset of ambiguous sensory information, whereas alternative interpretations dominate prolonged viewing. Thus, at first instance ambiguous information seems to be judged using familiar percepts, while re-evaluation later on allows for alternative interpretations. PMID:22295095

Cycles in Speed-Working Memory-G Relations: Towards a Developmental-Differential Theory of the Mind

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Demetriou, Andreas; Spanoudis, George; Shayer, Michael; Mouyi, Antigoni; Kazi, Smaragda; Platsidou, Maria

2013-01-01

This article presents three studies, two of them longitudinal, which investigated the relations between age, processing speed, working memory (WM), and fluid intelligence ("g[subscript f]") from 4 to 16 years of age. Structural equation modeling showed that speed was a powerful covariate of age ([approximately] - 0.6 to - 0.7) from 4 to 13 years,…

Working memory span in mild cognitive impairment. Influence of processing speed and cognitive reserve.

PubMed

Facal, David; Juncos-Rabadán, Onésimo; Pereiro, Arturo X; Lojo-Seoane, Cristina

2014-04-01

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) often includes episodic memory impairment, but can also involve other types of cognitive decline. Although previous studies have shown poorer performance of MCI patients in working memory (WM) span tasks, different MCI subgroups were not studied. In the present exploratory study, 145 participants underwent extensive cognitive evaluation, which included three different WM span tasks, and were classified into the following groups: multiple-domain amnestic MCI (mda-MCI), single-domain amnestic MCI (sda-MCI), and controls. General linear model was conducted by considering the WM span tasks as the within-subject factor; the group (mda-MCI, sda-MCI, and controls) as the inter-subject factor; and processing speed, vocabulary and age as covariates. Multiple linear regression models were also used to test the influence of processing speed, vocabulary, and other cognitive reserve (CR) proxies. Results indicate different levels of impairment of WM, with more severe impairment in mda-MCI patients. The differences were still present when processing resources and CR were controlled. Between-group differences can be understood as a manifestation of the greater severity and widespread memory impairment in mda-MCI patients and may contribute to a better understanding of continuum from normal controls to mda-MCI patients. Processing speed and CR have a limited influence on WM scores, reducing but not removing differences between groups.

Frequent video game players resist perceptual interference.

PubMed

Berard, Aaron V; Cain, Matthew S; Watanabe, Takeo; Sasaki, Yuka

2015-01-01

Playing certain types of video games for a long time can improve a wide range of mental processes, from visual acuity to cognitive control. Frequent gamers have also displayed generalized improvements in perceptual learning. In the Texture Discrimination Task (TDT), a widely used perceptual learning paradigm, participants report the orientation of a target embedded in a field of lines and demonstrate robust over-night improvement. However, changing the orientation of the background lines midway through TDT training interferes with overnight improvements in overall performance on TDT. Interestingly, prior research has suggested that this effect will not occur if a one-hour break is allowed in between the changes. These results have suggested that after training is over, it may take some time for learning to become stabilized and resilient against interference. Here, we tested whether frequent gamers have faster stabilization of perceptual learning compared to non-gamers and examined the effect of daily video game playing on interference of training of TDT with one background orientation on perceptual learning of TDT with a different background orientation. As a result, we found that non-gamers showed overnight performance improvement only on one background orientation, replicating previous results with the interference in TDT. In contrast, frequent gamers demonstrated overnight improvements in performance with both background orientations, suggesting that they are better able to overcome interference in perceptual learning. This resistance to interference suggests that video game playing not only enhances the amplitude and speed of perceptual learning but also leads to faster and/or more robust stabilization of perceptual learning.

Verbal fluency in male and female schizophrenia patients: Different patterns of association with processing speed, working memory span, and clinical symptoms.

PubMed

Brébion, Gildas; Stephan-Otto, Christian; Ochoa, Susana; Nieto, Lourdes; Contel, Montserrat; Usall, Judith

2018-01-01

Decreased processing speed in schizophrenia patients has been identified as a major impairment factor in various neuropsychological domains. Working memory span has been found to be involved in several deep or effortful cognitive processes. We investigated the impact that these 2 cognitive functions may have on phonological and semantic fluency in schizophrenia patients and healthy participants. Fifty-five patients with schizophrenia and 60 healthy participants were administered a neuropsychological battery including phonological and semantic fluency, working memory, and cognitive and motor speed. Regression analyses revealed that motor speed was related to phonological fluency in female patients, whereas cognitive speed was related to semantic fluency in male patients. In addition, working memory span was related to verbal fluency in women from both the patient and the healthy control groups. Decreased processing speed, but not decreased working memory span, accounted for the verbal fluency deficit in patients. Verbal fluency was inversely related to attention deficit in female patients and to negative symptoms in male patients. Decreased processing speed may be the main factor in verbal fluency impairment of patients. Further, the cognitive and clinical predictors of verbal fluency efficiency are different in men and women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Scandium doped Ge2Sb2Te5 for high-speed and low-power-consumption phase change memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yong; Zheng, Yonghui; Liu, Guangyu; Li, Tao; Guo, Tianqi; Cheng, Yan; Lv, Shilong; Song, Sannian; Ren, Kun; Song, Zhitang

2018-03-01

To bridge the gap of access time between memories and storage systems, the concept of storage class memory has been put forward based on emerging nonvolatile memory technologies. For all the nonvolatile memory candidates, the unpleasant tradeoff between operation speed and retention seems to be inevitable. To promote both the write speed and the retention of phase change memory (PCM), Sc doped Ge2Sb2Te5 (SGST) has been proposed as the storage medium. Octahedral Sc-Te motifs, acting as crystallization precursors to shorten the nucleation incubation period, are the possible reason for the high write speed of 6 ns in PCM cells, five-times faster than that of Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) cells. Meanwhile, an enhanced 10-year data retention of 119 °C has been achieved. Benefiting from both the increased crystalline resistance and the inhibited formation of the hexagonal phase, the SGST cell has a 77% reduction in power consumption compared to the GST cell. Adhesion of the SGST/SiO2 interface has been strengthened, attributed to the reduced stress by forming smaller grains during crystallization, guaranteeing the reliability of the device. These improvements have made the SGST material a promising candidate for PCM application.

The contribution to immediate serial recall of rehearsal, search speed, access to lexical memory, and phonological coding: an investigation at the construct level.

PubMed

Tehan, Gerald; Fogarty, Gerard; Ryan, Katherine

2004-07-01

Rehearsal speed has traditionally been seen to be the prime determinant of individual differences in memory span. Recent studies, in the main using young children as the participant population, have suggested other contributors to span performance. In the present research, we used structural equation modeling to explore, at the construct level, individual differences in immediate serial recall with respect to rehearsal, search, phonological coding, and speed of access to lexical memory. We replicated standard short-term phenomena; we showed that the variables that influence children's span performance influence adult performance in the same way; and we showed that speed of access to lexical memory and facility with phonological codes appear to be more potent sources of individual differences in immediate memory than is either rehearsal speed or search factors.

Generation and Context Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mulligan, Neil W.; Lozito, Jeffrey P.; Rosner, Zachary A.

2006-01-01

Generation enhances memory for occurrence but may not enhance other aspects of memory. The present study further delineates the negative generation effect in context memory reported in N. W. Mulligan (2004). First, the negative generation effect occurred for perceptual attributes of the target item (its color and font) but not for extratarget…

Holographic memory for high-density data storage and high-speed pattern recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gu, Claire

2002-09-01

As computers and the internet become faster and faster, more and more information is transmitted, received, and stored everyday. The demand for high density and fast access time data storage is pushing scientists and engineers to explore all possible approaches including magnetic, mechanical, optical, etc. Optical data storage has already demonstrated its potential in the competition against other storage technologies. CD and DVD are showing their advantages in the computer and entertainment market. What motivated the use of optical waves to store and access information is the same as the motivation for optical communication. Light or an optical wave has an enormous capacity (or bandwidth) to carry information because of its short wavelength and parallel nature. In optical storage, there are two types of mechanism, namely localized and holographic memories. What gives the holographic data storage an advantage over localized bit storage is the natural ability to read the stored information in parallel, therefore, meeting the demand for fast access. Another unique feature that makes the holographic data storage attractive is that it is capable of performing associative recall at an incomparable speed. Therefore, volume holographic memory is particularly suitable for high-density data storage and high-speed pattern recognition. In this paper, we review previous works on volume holographic memories and discuss the challenges for this technology to become a reality.

Improving Working Memory and Processing Speed of Students with Dyslexia in Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adubasim, Ijeoma

2018-01-01

This study investigated effective strategies for improving working memory and processing speed of students identified with dyslexia in Nigeria. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design with the population made up of twenty four thousand seven hundred and twenty seven (24,727) senior secondary school students (S.S.2) in all the public…

Relative association of processing speed, short-term memory and sustained attention with task on gait speed: a study of community-dwelling people 50 years and older.

PubMed

Killane, Isabelle; Donoghue, Orna A; Savva, George M; Cronin, Hilary; Kenny, Rose Anne; Reilly, Richard B

2014-11-01

For single gait tasks, associations have been reported between gait speed and cognitive domains. However, few studies have evaluated if this association is altered in dual gait tasks given gait speed changes with complexity and nature of task. We evaluated relative contributions of specific elements of cognitive function (including sustained attention and processing speed) to dual task gait speed in a nationally representative population of community-dwelling adults over 50 years. Gait speed was obtained using the GaitRite walkway during three gait tasks: single, cognitive (alternate letters), and motor (carrying a filled glass). Linear regression models, adjusted for covariates, were constructed to predict the relative contributions of seven neuropsychological tests to gait speed differences and to investigate gait task effects. The mean age and gait speed of the population (n = 4,431, 55% women) was 62.4 years (SD = 8.2) and 135.85 cm/s (SD = 20.20, single task), respectively. Poorer processing speed, short-term memory, and sustained attention were major cognitive contributors to slower gait speed for all gait tasks. Both dual gait tasks were robust to covariate adjustment and had a significant additional executive function element not found for the single gait task. For community-dwelling older adults processing speed, short-term memory and sustained attention were independently associated with gait speed for all gait tasks. Dual gait tasks were found to highlight specific executive function elements. This result forms a baseline value for dual task gait speed. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Using a multinomial tree model for detecting mixtures in perceptual detection

PubMed Central

Chechile, Richard A.

2014-01-01

In the area of memory research there have been two rival approaches for memory measurement—signal detection theory (SDT) and multinomial processing trees (MPT). Both approaches provide measures for the quality of the memory representation, and both approaches provide for corrections for response bias. In recent years there has been a strong case advanced for the MPT approach because of the finding of stochastic mixtures on both target-present and target-absent tests. In this paper a case is made that perceptual detection, like memory recognition, involves a mixture of processes that are readily represented as a MPT model. The Chechile (2004) 6P memory measurement model is modified in order to apply to the case of perceptual detection. This new MPT model is called the Perceptual Detection (PD) model. The properties of the PD model are developed, and the model is applied to some existing data of a radiologist examining CT scans. The PD model brings out novel features that were absent from a standard SDT analysis. Also the topic of optimal parameter estimation on an individual-observer basis is explored with Monte Carlo simulations. These simulations reveal that the mean of the Bayesian posterior distribution is a more accurate estimator than the corresponding maximum likelihood estimator (MLE). Monte Carlo simulations also indicate that model estimates based on only the data from an individual observer can be improved upon (in the sense of being more accurate) by an adjustment that takes into account the parameter estimate based on the data pooled across all the observers. The adjustment of the estimate for an individual is discussed as an analogous statistical effect to the improvement over the individual MLE demonstrated by the James–Stein shrinkage estimator in the case of the multiple-group normal model. PMID:25018741

Attentional Modulation of Perceptual Comparison for Feature Binding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuo, Bo-Cheng; Rotshtein, Pia; Yeh, Yei-Yu

2011-01-01

We investigated the neural correlates of attentional modulation in the perceptual comparison process for detecting feature-binding changes in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment. Participants performed a variant of a cued change detection task. They viewed a memory array, a spatial retro-cue, and later a probe…

The impact of dissociation on perceptual priming and intrusions after listening to auditory narratives.

PubMed

Dorahy, Martin J; Peck, Rowan K; Huntjens, Rafaele J C

2016-01-01

This study investigates the causal role of dissociation in intrusive memory development and possible underlying aberrant memory processes (e.g., increased perceptual priming). Using an audio-only adaption of the trauma film paradigm, we divided 60 participants into 3 conditions and presented them with different visual tasks-mirror staring, dot staring, or neutral images. The former 2 conditions were hypothesized to induce dissociation. Postaudio, a number of factors were assessed, including state dissociation, perceptual priming and conceptual priming, as well as intrusions over 3 days. Participants in the dissociation conditions displayed an increase in perceptual priming compared to those in the control condition and reported more distressing intrusions. No differences were found in conceptual priming and the overall number of intrusions between conditions. Findings contribute to the growing knowledge on the impact of dissociation and cognitive processing in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder intrusions.

Perceptual Learning of Acoustic Noise by Individuals with Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Agus, Trevor R.; Carrión-Castillo, Amaia; Pressnitzer, Daniel; Ramus, Franck

2014-01-01

Purpose: A phonological deficit is thought to affect most individuals with developmental dyslexia. The present study addresses whether the phonological deficit is caused by difficulties with perceptual learning of fine acoustic details. Method: A demanding test of nonverbal auditory memory, "noise learning," was administered to both…

Motor demands impact speed of information processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Kenworthy, Lauren; Yerys, Benjamin E.; Weinblatt, Rachel; Abrams, Danielle N.; Wallace, Gregory L.

2015-01-01

Objective The apparent contradiction between preserved or even enhanced perceptual processing speed on inspection time tasks in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and impaired performance on complex processing speed tasks that require motor output (e.g. Wechsler Processing Speed Index) has not yet been systematically investigated. This study investigates whether adding motor output demands to an inspection time task impairs ASD performance compared to that of typically developing control (TDC) children. Method The performance of children with ASD (n=28; mean FSIQ=115) and TDC (n=25; mean FSIQ=122) children was compared on processing speed tasks with increasing motor demand. Correlations were run between ASD task performance and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) Communication scores. Results Performance by the ASD and TDC groups on a simple perceptual processing speed task with minimal motor demand was equivalent, though it diverged (ASD worse than TDC) on two tasks with the same stimuli, but increased motor output demands. ASD performance on the moderate but not the high speeded motor output demand task was negatively correlated with ADOS communication symptoms. Conclusions These data address the apparent contradiction between preserved inspection time in the context of slowed “processing speed” in ASD. They show that processing speed is preserved when motor demands are minimized, but that increased motor output demands interfere with the ability to act on perceptual processing of simple stimuli. Reducing motor demands (e.g. through the use of computers) may increase the capacity of people with ASD to demonstrate good perceptual processing in a variety of educational, vocational and social settings. PMID:23937483

Enhancement of Speed Margins for 16× Digital Versatile Disc-Random Access Memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watanabe, Koichi; Minemura, Hiroyuki; Miyamoto, Makoto; Iimura, Makoto

2006-02-01

We have evaluated the speed margins of write/read 16× digital versatile disc-random access memory (DVD-RAM) test discs using write strategies for 6--16× constant angular velocity (CAV) control. Our approach is to determine the writing parameters for the middle zones by interpolating the zone numbers. Using this interpolation strategy, we successfully obtained overwrite jitter values of less than 8% and bit error rates of less than 10-5 in 6--16× DVD-RAM. Moreover, we confirmed that the speed margins were ± 20% for a 6--16× CAV.

Generation and context memory.

PubMed

Mulligan, Neil W; Lozito, Jeffrey P; Rosner, Zachary A

2006-07-01

Generation enhances memory for occurrence but may not enhance other aspects of memory. The present study further delineates the negative generation effect in context memory reported in N. W. Mulligan (2004). First, the negative generation effect occurred for perceptual attributes of the target item (its color and font) but not for extratarget aspects of context (location and background color). Second, nonvisual generation tasks with either semantic or nonsemantic generation rules (antonym and rhyme generation, respectively) produced the same pattern of results. In contrast, a visual (or data-driven) generation task (letter transposition) did not disrupt context memory for color. Third, generating nonwords produced no effect on item memory but persisted in producing a negative effect on context memory for target attributes, implying that (a) the negative generation effect in context memory is not mediated by semantic encoding, and (b) the negative effect on context memory can be dissociated from the positive effect on item memory. The results are interpreted in terms of the processing account of generation. The original, perceptual-conceptual version of this account is too narrow, but a modified processing account, based on a more generic visual versus nonvisual processing distinction, accommodates the results. Copyright 2006 APA, all rights reserved.

The role of source memory in older adults' recollective experience.

PubMed

Boywitt, C Dennis; Kuhlmann, Beatrice G; Meiser, Thorsten

2012-06-01

Younger adults' "remember" judgments are accompanied by better memory for the source of an item than "know" judgments. Furthermore, remember judgments are not merely associated with better memory for individual source features but also with bound memory for multiple source features. However, older adults, independent of their subjective memory experience, are generally less likely to "bind" source features to an item and to each other in memory (i.e., the associative deficit). In two experiments, we tested whether memory for perceptual source features, independently or bound, is also the basis for older adults' remember responses or if their associative deficit leads them to base their responses on other types of information. The results suggest that retrieval of perceptual source features, individually or bound, forms the basis for younger but not for older adults' remember judgments even when the overall level of memory for perceptual sources is closely equated (Experiment 1) and when attention is explicitly directed to the source information at encoding (Experiment 2). PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved

Seeing Colors: Cultural and Environmental Influences on Episodic Memory.

PubMed

Persaud, Kimele; Hemmer, Pernille; Kidd, Celeste; Piantadosi, Steven

2017-01-01

Expectations learned from our perceptual experiences, culture, and language can shape how we perceive, interact with, and remember features of the past. Here, we questioned whether environment also plays a role. We tested recognition memory for color in Bolivia's indigenous Tsimanè people, who experience a different color environment than standard U.S. We found that memory regressed differently between the groups, lending credence to the idea that environmental variations engender differences in expectations, and in turn perceptual memory for color.

Neural activity reveals perceptual grouping in working memory.

PubMed

Rabbitt, Laura R; Roberts, Daniel M; McDonald, Craig G; Peterson, Matthew S

2017-03-01

There is extensive evidence that the contralateral delay activity (CDA), a scalp recorded event-related brain potential, provides a reliable index of the number of objects held in visual working memory. Here we present evidence that the CDA not only indexes visual object working memory, but also the number of locations held in spatial working memory. In addition, we demonstrate that the CDA can be predictably modulated by the type of encoding strategy employed. When individual locations were held in working memory, the pattern of CDA modulation mimicked previous findings for visual object working memory. Specifically, CDA amplitude increased monotonically until working memory capacity was reached. However, when participants were instructed to group individual locations to form a constellation, the CDA was prolonged and reached an asymptote at two locations. This result provides neural evidence for the formation of a unitary representation of multiple spatial locations. Published by Elsevier B.V.

On the Perceptual Subprocess of Absolute Pitch.

PubMed

Kim, Seung-Goo; Knösche, Thomas R

2017-01-01

Absolute pitch (AP) is the rare ability of musicians to identify the pitch of tonal sound without external reference. While there have been behavioral and neuroimaging studies on the characteristics of AP, how the AP is implemented in human brains remains largely unknown. AP can be viewed as comprising of two subprocesses: perceptual (processing auditory input to extract a pitch chroma) and associative (linking an auditory representation of pitch chroma with a verbal/non-verbal label). In this review, we focus on the nature of the perceptual subprocess of AP. Two different models on how the perceptual subprocess works have been proposed: either via absolute pitch categorization (APC) or based on absolute pitch memory (APM). A major distinction between the two views is that whether the AP uses unique auditory processing (i.e., APC) that exists only in musicians with AP or it is rooted in a common phenomenon (i.e., APM), only with heightened efficiency. We review relevant behavioral and neuroimaging evidence that supports each notion. Lastly, we list open questions and potential ideas to address them.

On the Perceptual Subprocess of Absolute Pitch

PubMed Central

Kim, Seung-Goo; Knösche, Thomas R.

2017-01-01

Absolute pitch (AP) is the rare ability of musicians to identify the pitch of tonal sound without external reference. While there have been behavioral and neuroimaging studies on the characteristics of AP, how the AP is implemented in human brains remains largely unknown. AP can be viewed as comprising of two subprocesses: perceptual (processing auditory input to extract a pitch chroma) and associative (linking an auditory representation of pitch chroma with a verbal/non-verbal label). In this review, we focus on the nature of the perceptual subprocess of AP. Two different models on how the perceptual subprocess works have been proposed: either via absolute pitch categorization (APC) or based on absolute pitch memory (APM). A major distinction between the two views is that whether the AP uses unique auditory processing (i.e., APC) that exists only in musicians with AP or it is rooted in a common phenomenon (i.e., APM), only with heightened efficiency. We review relevant behavioral and neuroimaging evidence that supports each notion. Lastly, we list open questions and potential ideas to address them. PMID:29085275

Perception of Self-Motion and Regulation of Walking Speed in Young-Old Adults.

PubMed

Lalonde-Parsi, Marie-Jasmine; Lamontagne, Anouk

2015-07-01

Whether a reduced perception of self-motion contributes to poor walking speed adaptations in older adults is unknown. In this study, speed discrimination thresholds (perceptual task) and walking speed adaptations (walking task) were compared between young (19-27 years) and young-old individuals (63-74 years), and the relationship between the performance on the two tasks was examined. Participants were evaluated while viewing a virtual corridor in a helmet-mounted display. Speed discrimination thresholds were determined using a staircase procedure. Walking speed modulation was assessed on a self-paced treadmill while exposed to different self-motion speeds ranging from 0.25 to 2 times the participants' comfortable speed. For each speed, participants were instructed to match the self-motion speed described by the moving corridor. On the walking task, participants displayed smaller walking speed errors at comfortable walking speeds compared with slower of faster speeds. The young-old adults presented larger speed discrimination thresholds (perceptual experiment) and larger walking speed errors (walking experiment) compared with young adults. Larger walking speed errors were associated with higher discrimination thresholds. The enhanced performance on the walking task at comfortable speed suggests that intersensory calibration processes are influenced by experience, hence optimized for frequently encountered conditions. The altered performance of the young-old adults on the perceptual and walking tasks, as well as the relationship observed between the two tasks, suggest that a poor perception of visual motion information may contribute to the poor walking speed adaptations that arise with aging.

Event Boundaries in Perception Affect Memory Encoding and Updating

PubMed Central

Swallow, Khena M.; Zacks, Jeffrey M.; Abrams, Richard A.

2010-01-01

Memory for naturalistic events over short delays is important for visual scene processing, reading comprehension, and social interaction. The research presented here examined relations between how an ongoing activity is perceptually segmented into events and how those events are remembered a few seconds later. In several studies participants watched movie clips that presented objects in the context of goal-directed activities. Five seconds after an object was presented, the clip paused for a recognition test. Performance on the recognition test depended on the occurrence of perceptual event boundaries. Objects that were present when an event boundary occurred were better recognized than other objects, suggesting that event boundaries structure the contents of memory. This effect was strongest when an object’s type was tested, but was also observed for objects’ perceptual features. Memory also depended on whether an event boundary occurred between presentation and test; this variable produced complex interactive effects that suggested that the contents of memory are updated at event boundaries. These data indicate that perceptual event boundaries have immediate consequences for what, when, and how easily information can be remembered. PMID:19397382

The perceptual chunking of speech: a demonstration using ERPs.

PubMed

Gilbert, Annie C; Boucher, Victor J; Jemel, Boutheina

2015-04-07

In tasks involving the learning of verbal or non-verbal sequences, groupings are spontaneously produced. These groupings are generally marked by a lengthening of final elements and have been attributed to a domain-general perceptual chunking linked to working memory. Yet, no study has shown how this domain-general chunking applies to speech processing, partly because of the traditional view that chunking involves a conceptual recoding of meaningful verbal items like words (Miller, 1956). The present study provides a demonstration of the perceptual chunking of speech by way of two experiments using evoked Positive Shifts (PSs), which capture on-line neural responses to marks of various groups. We observed listeners׳ response to utterances (Experiment 1) and meaningless series of syllables (Experiment 2) containing changing intonation and temporal marks, while also examining how these marks affect the recognition of heard items. The results show that, across conditions - and irrespective of the presence of meaningful items - PSs are specifically evoked by groups marked by lengthening. Moreover, this on-line detection of marks corresponds to characteristic grouping effects on listeners' immediate recognition of heard items, which suggests chunking effects linked to working memory. These findings bear out a perceptual chunking of speech input in terms of groups marked by lengthening, which constitute the defining marks of a domain-general chunking. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Perceptual learning.

PubMed

Seitz, Aaron R

2017-07-10

Perceptual learning refers to how experience can change the way we perceive sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touch. Examples abound: music training improves our ability to discern tones; experience with food and wines can refine our pallet (and unfortunately more quickly empty our wallet), and with years of training radiologists learn to save lives by discerning subtle details of images that escape the notice of untrained viewers. We often take perceptual learning for granted, but it has a profound impact on how we perceive the world. In this Primer, I will explain how perceptual learning is transformative in guiding our perceptual processes, how research into perceptual learning provides insight into fundamental mechanisms of learning and brain processes, and how knowledge of perceptual learning can be used to develop more effective training approaches for those requiring expert perceptual skills or those in need of perceptual rehabilitation (such as individuals with poor vision). I will make a case that perceptual learning is ubiquitous, scientifically interesting, and has substantial practical utility to us all. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Synesthesia and Memory: Color Congruency, Von Restorff, and False Memory Effects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Radvansky, Gabriel A.; Gibson, Bradley S.; McNerney, M. Windy

2011-01-01

In the current study, we explored the influence of synesthesia on memory for word lists. We tested 10 grapheme-color synesthetes who reported an experience of color when reading letters or words. We replicated a previous finding that memory is compromised when synesthetic color is incongruent with perceptual color. Beyond this, we found that,…

A comparison of transfer-appropriate processing and multi-process frameworks for prospective memory performance.

PubMed

McBride, Dawn M; Abney, Drew H

2012-01-01

We examined multi-process (MP) and transfer-appropriate processing descriptions of prospective memory (PM). Three conditions were compared that varied the overlap in processing type (perceptual/conceptual) between the ongoing and PM tasks such that two conditions involved a match of perceptual processing and one condition involved a mismatch in processing (conceptual ongoing task/perceptual PM task). One of the matched processing conditions also created a focal PM task, whereas the other two conditions were considered non-focal (Einstein & McDaniel, 2005). PM task accuracy and ongoing task completion speed in baseline and PM task conditions were measured. Accuracy results indicated a higher PM task completion rate for the focal condition than the non-focal conditions, a finding that is consistent with predictions made by the MP view. However, reaction time (RT) analyses indicated that PM task cost did not differ across conditions when practice effects are considered. Thus, the PM accuracy results are consistent with a MP description of PM, but RT results did not support the MP view predictions regarding PM cost.

When cognition kicks in: working memory and speech understanding in noise.

PubMed

Rönnberg, Jerker; Rudner, Mary; Lunner, Thomas; Zekveld, Adriana A

2010-01-01

Perceptual load and cognitive load can be separately manipulated and dissociated in their effects on speech understanding in noise. The Ease of Language Understanding model assumes a theoretical position where perceptual task characteristics interact with the individual's implicit capacities to extract the phonological elements of speech. Phonological precision and speed of lexical access are important determinants for listening in adverse conditions. If there are mismatches between the phonological elements perceived and phonological representations in long-term memory, explicit working memory (WM)-related capacities will be continually invoked to reconstruct and infer the contents of the ongoing discourse. Whether this induces a high cognitive load or not will in turn depend on the individual's storage and processing capacities in WM. Data suggest that modulated noise maskers may serve as triggers for speech maskers and therefore induce a WM, explicit mode of processing. Individuals with high WM capacity benefit more than low WM-capacity individuals from fast amplitude compression at low or negative input speech-to-noise ratios. The general conclusion is that there is an overarching interaction between the focal purpose of processing in the primary listening task and the extent to which a secondary, distracting task taps into these processes.

Peripheral vision, perceptual asymmetries and visuospatial attention in young, young-old and oldest-old adults.

PubMed

Muiños, Mónica; Palmero, Francisco; Ballesteros, Soledad

2016-03-01

The present study investigated possible changes occurring in peripheral vision, perceptual asymmetries and visuospatial attention in oldest-old adults and compared their performance with that of young and young-old adults. We examined peripheral vision (PV) and perceptual asymmetries in the three age groups for stimuli varying in eccentricity (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, designed to investigate possible changes in spatial attention, the same participants performed an exogenous orienting attention task. Experiment 1 showed that the three age groups performed the task similarly but differed in processing speed. Importantly, the oldest-old group showed a different perceptual pattern than the other groups suggesting a lack of specificity in visual asymmetries. Experiment 2 indicated that the validity effects emerged later in the young-old and even later in the oldest-old participants, showing a delayed time course of inhibition of return (IOR). Orienting effects, however, were preserved with age. Taken together, these results indicate that the three age groups displayed similar perceptual and orienting attention patterns, but with differences in processing speed. Importantly, age (only in the oldest-old adults) altered perceptual visual asymmetries. These results suggest that some neural plasticity is still present even in oldest-old adults, but a lack of specificity occurs in advanced age. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Distortions in memory for visual displays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tversky, Barbara

1989-01-01

Systematic errors in perception and memory present a challenge to theories of perception and memory and to applied psychologists interested in overcoming them as well. A number of systematic errors in memory for maps and graphs are reviewed, and they are accounted for by an analysis of the perceptual processing presumed to occur in comprehension of maps and graphs. Visual stimuli, like verbal stimuli, are organized in comprehension and memory. For visual stimuli, the organization is a consequence of perceptual processing, which is bottom-up or data-driven in its earlier stages, but top-down and affected by conceptual knowledge later on. Segregation of figure from ground is an early process, and figure recognition later; for both, symmetry is a rapidly detected and ecologically valid cue. Once isolated, figures are organized relative to one another and relative to a frame of reference. Both perceptual (e.g., salience) and conceptual factors (e.g., significance) seem likely to affect selection of a reference frame. Consistent with the analysis, subjects perceived and remembered curves in graphs and rivers in maps as more symmetric than they actually were. Symmetry, useful for detecting and recognizing figures, distorts map and graph figures alike. Top-down processes also seem to operate in that calling attention to the symmetry vs. asymmetry of a slightly asymmetric curve yielded memory errors in the direction of the description. Conceptual frame of reference effects were demonstrated in memory for lines embedded in graphs. In earlier work, the orientation of map figures was distorted in memory toward horizontal or vertical. In recent work, graph lines, but not map lines, were remembered as closer to an imaginary 45 deg line than they had been. Reference frames are determined by both perceptual and conceptual factors, leading to selection of the canonical axes as a reference frame in maps, but selection of the imaginary 45 deg as a reference frame in graphs.

Exploring the use of memory colors for image enhancement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xue, Su; Tan, Minghui; McNamara, Ann; Dorsey, Julie; Rushmeier, Holly

2014-02-01

Memory colors refer to those colors recalled in association with familiar objects. While some previous work introduces this concept to assist digital image enhancement, their basis, i.e., on-screen memory colors, are not appropriately investigated. In addition, the resulting adjustment methods developed are not evaluated from a perceptual view of point. In this paper, we first perform a context-free perceptual experiment to establish the overall distributions of screen memory colors for three pervasive objects. Then, we use a context-based experiment to locate the most representative memory colors; at the same time, we investigate the interactions of memory colors between different objects. Finally, we show a simple yet effective application using representative memory colors to enhance digital images. A user study is performed to evaluate the performance of our technique.

Dynamic modulation of the perceptual load on microsaccades during a selective spatial attention task.

PubMed

Xue, Linyan; Huang, Dan; Wang, Tong; Hu, Qiyi; Chai, Xinyu; Li, Liming; Chen, Yao

2017-11-28

Selective spatial attention enhances task performance at restricted regions within the visual field. The magnitude of this effect depends on the level of attentional load, which determines the efficiency of distractor rejection. Mechanisms of attentional load include perceptual selection and/or cognitive control involving working memory. Recent studies have provided evidence that microsaccades are influenced by spatial attention. Therefore, microsaccade activities may be exploited to help understand the dynamic control of selective attention under different load levels. However, previous reports in humans on the effect of attentional load on microsaccades are inconsistent, and it is not clear to what extent these results and the dynamic changes of microsaccade activities are similar in monkeys. We trained monkeys to perform a color detection task in which the perceptual load was manipulated by task difficulty with limited involvement of working memory. Our results indicate that during the task with high perceptual load, the rate and amplitude of microsaccades immediately before the target color change were significantly suppressed. We also found that the occurrence of microsaccades before the monkeys' detection response deteriorated their performance, especially in the hard task. We propose that the activity of microsaccades might be an efficacious indicator of the perceptual load.

Drawing from Memory: Hand-Eye Coordination at Multiple Scales

PubMed Central

Spivey, Michael J.

2013-01-01

Eyes move to gather visual information for the purpose of guiding behavior. This guidance takes the form of perceptual-motor interactions on short timescales for behaviors like locomotion and hand-eye coordination. More complex behaviors require perceptual-motor interactions on longer timescales mediated by memory, such as navigation, or designing and building artifacts. In the present study, the task of sketching images of natural scenes from memory was used to examine and compare perceptual-motor interactions on shorter and longer timescales. Eye and pen trajectories were found to be coordinated in time on shorter timescales during drawing, and also on longer timescales spanning study and drawing periods. The latter type of coordination was found by developing a purely spatial analysis that yielded measures of similarity between images, eye trajectories, and pen trajectories. These results challenge the notion that coordination only unfolds on short timescales. Rather, the task of drawing from memory evokes perceptual-motor encodings of visual images that preserve coarse-grained spatial information over relatively long timescales as well. PMID:23554894

Mutual information, perceptual independence, and holistic face perception.

PubMed

Fitousi, Daniel

2013-07-01

The concept of perceptual independence is ubiquitous in psychology. It addresses the question of whether two (or more) dimensions are perceived independently. Several authors have proposed perceptual independence (or its lack thereof) as a viable measure of holistic face perception (Loftus, Oberg, & Dillon, Psychological Review 111:835-863, 2004; Wenger & Ingvalson, Learning, Memory, and Cognition 28:872-892, 2002). According to this notion, the processing of facial features occurs in an interactive manner. Here, I examine this idea from the perspective of two theories of perceptual independence: the multivariate uncertainty analysis (MUA; Garner & Morton, Definitions, models, and experimental paradigms. Psychological Bulletin 72:233-259, 1969), and the general recognition theory (GRT; Ashby & Townsend, Psychological Review 93:154-179, 1986). The goals of the study were to (1) introduce the MUA, (2) examine various possible relations between MUA and GRT using numerical simulations, and (3) apply the MUA to two consensual markers of holistic face perception(-)recognition of facial features (Farah, Wilson, Drain, & Tanaka, Psychological Review 105:482-498, 1998) and the composite face effect (Young, Hellawell, & Hay, Perception 16:747-759, 1987). The results suggest that facial holism is generated by violations of several types of perceptual independence. They highlight the important theoretical role played by converging operations in the study of holistic face perception.

Top-down (Prior Knowledge) and Bottom-up (Perceptual Modality) Influences on Spontaneous Interpersonal Synchronization.

PubMed

Gipson, Christina L; Gorman, Jamie C; Hessler, Eric E

2016-04-01

Coordination with others is such a fundamental part of human activity that it can happen unintentionally. This unintentional coordination can manifest as synchronization and is observed in physical and human systems alike. We investigated the role of top-down influences (prior knowledge of the perceptual modality their partner is using) and bottom-up factors (perceptual modality combination) on spontaneous interpersonal synchronization. We examine this phenomena with respect to two different theoretical perspectives that differently emphasize top-down and bottom-up factors in interpersonal synchronization: joint-action/shared cognition theories and ecological-interactive theories. In an empirical study twelve dyads performed a finger oscillation task while attending to each other's movements through either visual, auditory, or visual and auditory perceptual modalities. Half of the participants were given prior knowledge of their partner's perceptual capabilities for coordinating across these different perceptual modality combinations. We found that the effect of top-down influence depends on the perceptual modality combination between two individuals. When people used the same perceptual modalities, top-down influence resulted in less synchronization and when people used different perceptual modalities, top-down influence resulted in more synchronization. Furthermore, persistence in the change in behavior as a result of having perceptual information about each other ('social memory') was stronger when this top-down influence was present.

Perceptual Anomalies in Schizophrenia: Integrating Phenomenology and Cognitive Neuroscience

PubMed Central

Uhlhaas, Peter J.; Mishara, Aaron L.

2007-01-01

From phenomenological and experimental perspectives, research in schizophrenia has emphasized deficits in “higher” cognitive functions, including attention, executive function, as well as memory. In contrast, general consensus has viewed dysfunctions in basic perceptual processes to be relatively unimportant in the explanation of more complex aspects of the disorder, including changes in self-experience and the development of symptoms such as delusions. We present evidence from phenomenology and cognitive neuroscience that changes in the perceptual field in schizophrenia may represent a core impairment. After introducing the phenomenological approach to perception (Husserl, the Gestalt School), we discuss the views of Paul Matussek, Klaus Conrad, Ludwig Binswanger, and Wolfgang Blankenburg on perception in schizophrenia. These 4 psychiatrists describe changes in perception and automatic processes that are related to the altered experience of self. The altered self-experience, in turn, may be responsible for the emergence of delusions. The phenomenological data are compatible with current research that conceptualizes dysfunctions in perceptual processing as a deficit in the ability to combine stimulus elements into coherent object representations. Relationships of deficits in perceptual organization to cognitive and social dysfunction as well as the possible neurobiological mechanisms are discussed. PMID:17118973

The relationships between memory systems and sleep stages.

PubMed

Rauchs, Géraldine; Desgranges, Béatrice; Foret, Jean; Eustache, Francis

2005-06-01

Sleep function remains elusive despite our rapidly increasing comprehension of the processes generating and maintaining the different sleep stages. Several lines of evidence support the hypothesis that sleep is involved in the off-line reprocessing of recently-acquired memories. In this review, we summarize the main results obtained in the field of sleep and memory consolidation in both animals and humans, and try to connect sleep stages with the different memory systems. To this end, we have collated data obtained using several methodological approaches, including electrophysiological recordings of neuronal ensembles, post-training modifications of sleep architecture, sleep deprivation and functional neuroimaging studies. Broadly speaking, all the various studies emphasize the fact that the four long-term memory systems (procedural memory, perceptual representation system, semantic and episodic memory, according to Tulving's SPI model; Tulving, 1995) benefit either from non-rapid eye movement (NREM) (not just SWS) or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, or from both sleep stages. Tulving's classification of memory systems appears more pertinent than the declarative/non-declarative dichotomy when it comes to understanding the role of sleep in memory. Indeed, this model allows us to resolve several contradictions, notably the fact that episodic and semantic memory (the two memory systems encompassed in declarative memory) appear to rely on different sleep stages. Likewise, this model provides an explanation for why the acquisition of various types of skills (perceptual-motor, sensory-perceptual and cognitive skills) and priming effects, subserved by different brain structures but all designated by the generic term of implicit or non-declarative memory, may not benefit from the same sleep stages.

Cognitive Processes Supporting Episodic Memory Formation in Childhood: The Role of Source Memory, Binding, and Executive Functioning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raj, Vinaya; Bell, Martha Ann

2010-01-01

Episodic memories contain various forms of contextual detail (e.g., perceptual, emotional, cognitive details) that need to become integrated. Each of these contextual features can be used to attribute a memory episode to its source, or origin of information. Memory for source information is one critical component in the formation of episodic…

An ASIC memory buffer controller for a high speed disk system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hodson, Robert F.; Campbell, Steve

1993-01-01

The need for large capacity, high speed mass memory storage devices has become increasingly evident at NASA during the past decade. High performance mass storage systems are crucial to present and future NASA systems. Spaceborne data storage system requirements have grown in response to the increasing amounts of data generated and processed by orbiting scientific experiments. Predictions indicate increases in the volume of data by orders of magnitude during the next decade. Current predictions are for storage capacities on the order of terabits (Tb), with data rates exceeding one gigabit per second (Gbps). As part of the design effort for a state of the art mass storage system, NASA Langley has designed a 144 CMOS ASIC to support high speed data transfers. This paper discusses the system architecture, ASIC design and some of the lessons learned in the development process.

An ultrahigh-speed color video camera operating at 1,000,000 fps with 288 frame memories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kitamura, K.; Arai, T.; Yonai, J.; Hayashida, T.; Kurita, T.; Maruyama, H.; Namiki, J.; Yanagi, T.; Yoshida, T.; van Kuijk, H.; Bosiers, Jan T.; Saita, A.; Kanayama, S.; Hatade, K.; Kitagawa, S.; Etoh, T. Goji

2008-11-01

We developed an ultrahigh-speed color video camera that operates at 1,000,000 fps (frames per second) and had capacity to store 288 frame memories. In 2005, we developed an ultrahigh-speed, high-sensitivity portable color camera with a 300,000-pixel single CCD (ISIS-V4: In-situ Storage Image Sensor, Version 4). Its ultrahigh-speed shooting capability of 1,000,000 fps was made possible by directly connecting CCD storages, which record video images, to the photodiodes of individual pixels. The number of consecutive frames was 144. However, longer capture times were demanded when the camera was used during imaging experiments and for some television programs. To increase ultrahigh-speed capture times, we used a beam splitter and two ultrahigh-speed 300,000-pixel CCDs. The beam splitter was placed behind the pick up lens. One CCD was located at each of the two outputs of the beam splitter. The CCD driving unit was developed to separately drive two CCDs, and the recording period of the two CCDs was sequentially switched. This increased the recording capacity to 288 images, an increase of a factor of two over that of conventional ultrahigh-speed camera. A problem with the camera was that the incident light on each CCD was reduced by a factor of two by using the beam splitter. To improve the light sensitivity, we developed a microlens array for use with the ultrahigh-speed CCDs. We simulated the operation of the microlens array in order to optimize its shape and then fabricated it using stamping technology. Using this microlens increased the light sensitivity of the CCDs by an approximate factor of two. By using a beam splitter in conjunction with the microlens array, it was possible to make an ultrahigh-speed color video camera that has 288 frame memories but without decreasing the camera's light sensitivity.

Prediction Error Associated with the Perceptual Segmentation of Naturalistic Events

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zacks, Jeffrey M.; Kurby, Christopher A.; Eisenberg, Michelle L.; Haroutunian, Nayiri

2011-01-01

Predicting the near future is important for survival and plays a central role in theories of perception, language processing, and learning. Prediction failures may be particularly important for initiating the updating of perceptual and memory systems and, thus, for the subjective experience of events. Here, we asked observers to make predictions…

Effects of selective serotonin reuptake and dual serotonergic-noradrenergic reuptake treatments on memory and mental processing speed in patients with major depressive disorder.

PubMed

Herrera-Guzmán, Ixchel; Gudayol-Ferré, Esteve; Herrera-Guzmán, Daniel; Guàrdia-Olmos, Joan; Hinojosa-Calvo, Erika; Herrera-Abarca, Jorge E

2009-06-01

Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) usually suffer from altered cognitive functions of episodic memory, working memory, mental processing speed and motor response. Diverse studies suggest that different antidepressant agents may improve cognitive functions in patients with MDD. The aim of this work is to study the effects of serotonergic reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonergic-noradrenergic reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) treatments to improve the performance on memory tasks and mental processing speed in MDD. Seventy-three subjects meeting criteria for major depressive disorder were assessed with the Hamilton depression rating scale and a neuropsychological battery. The subjects were medicated with escitalopram (n=36) or duloxetine (n=37) for 24 weeks. At the end of the trial, the subjects were assessed again with the same neuropsychological battery used prior to the treatment. Both treatments improved importantly the episodic memory and to a lesser extent, working memory, mental processing speed and motor performance. Our results suggest that cognition is partially independent from improvement in clinical symptoms. Both groups achieved remission rates in the HAM-D-17 after 24 weeks of treatment, but SNRI was superior to SSRI at improving episodic and working memory. Our work indicates that the superiority of SNRI over the SSRI at episodic memory improvement is clinically relevant.

Working memory can enhance unconscious visual perception.

PubMed

Pan, Yi; Cheng, Qiu-Ping; Luo, Qian-Ying

2012-06-01

We demonstrate that unconscious processing of a stimulus property can be enhanced when there is a match between the contents of working memory and the stimulus presented in the visual field. Participants first held a cue (a colored circle) in working memory and then searched for a brief masked target shape presented simultaneously with a distractor shape. When participants reported having no awareness of the target shape at all, search performance was more accurate in the valid condition, where the target matched the cue in color, than in the neutral condition, where the target mismatched the cue. This effect cannot be attributed to bottom-up perceptual priming from the presentation of a memory cue, because unconscious perception was not enhanced when the cue was merely perceptually identified but not actively held in working memory. These findings suggest that reentrant feedback from the contents of working memory modulates unconscious visual perception.

Disfluent presentations lead to the creation of more false memories.

PubMed

Sanchez, Christopher A; Naylor, Jamie S

2018-01-01

The creation of false memories within the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm has been shown to be sensitive to many factors such as task instructions, participant mood, or even presentation modality. However, do other simple perceptual differences also impact performance on the DRM and the creation of false memories? This study explores the potential impact of changes in perceptual disfluency on DRM performance. To test for a potential influence of disfluency on false memory creation, participants viewed lists under either perceptually disfluent conditions or not. Results indicated that disfluency did significantly impact performance in the DRM paradigm; more disfluent presentations significantly increased the recall and recognition of unpresented information, although they did not impact recall or recognition of presented information. Thus, although disfluency did impact performance, disfluency did not produce a positive benefit related to overall task performance. This finding instead suggests that more disfluent presentations can increase the likelihood that false memories are created, and provide little positive performance benefit.

Disfluent presentations lead to the creation of more false memories

PubMed Central

Naylor, Jamie S.

2018-01-01

The creation of false memories within the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm has been shown to be sensitive to many factors such as task instructions, participant mood, or even presentation modality. However, do other simple perceptual differences also impact performance on the DRM and the creation of false memories? This study explores the potential impact of changes in perceptual disfluency on DRM performance. To test for a potential influence of disfluency on false memory creation, participants viewed lists under either perceptually disfluent conditions or not. Results indicated that disfluency did significantly impact performance in the DRM paradigm; more disfluent presentations significantly increased the recall and recognition of unpresented information, although they did not impact recall or recognition of presented information. Thus, although disfluency did impact performance, disfluency did not produce a positive benefit related to overall task performance. This finding instead suggests that more disfluent presentations can increase the likelihood that false memories are created, and provide little positive performance benefit. PMID:29370255

The contribution of the human posterior parietal cortex to episodic memory.

PubMed

Sestieri, Carlo; Shulman, Gordon L; Corbetta, Maurizio

2017-02-17

The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is traditionally associated with attention, perceptual decision making and sensorimotor transformations, but more recent human neuroimaging studies support an additional role in episodic memory retrieval. In this Opinion article, we present a functional-anatomical model of the involvement of the PPC in memory retrieval. Parietal regions involved in perceptual attention and episodic memory are largely segregated and often show a push-pull relationship, potentially mediated by prefrontal regions. Moreover, different PPC regions carry out specific functions during retrieval - for example, representing retrieved information, recoding this information based on task demands, or accumulating evidence for memory decisions.

The development of real-time stability supports visual working memory performance: Young children's feature binding can be improved through perceptual structure.

PubMed

Simmering, Vanessa R; Wood, Chelsey M

2017-08-01

Working memory is a basic cognitive process that predicts higher-level skills. A central question in theories of working memory development is the generality of the mechanisms proposed to explain improvements in performance. Prior theories have been closely tied to particular tasks and/or age groups, limiting their generalizability. The cognitive dynamics theory of visual working memory development has been proposed to overcome this limitation. From this perspective, developmental improvements arise through the coordination of cognitive processes to meet demands of different behavioral tasks. This notion is described as real-time stability, and can be probed through experiments that assess how changing task demands impact children's performance. The current studies test this account by probing visual working memory for colors and shapes in a change detection task that compares detection of changes to new features versus swaps in color-shape binding. In Experiment 1, 3- to 4-year-old children showed impairments specific to binding swaps, as predicted by decreased real-time stability early in development; 5- to 6-year-old children showed a slight advantage on binding swaps, but 7- to 8-year-old children and adults showed no difference across trial types. Experiment 2 tested the proposed explanation of young children's binding impairment through added perceptual structure, which supported the stability and precision of feature localization in memory-a process key to detecting binding swaps. This additional structure improved young children's binding swap detection, but not new-feature detection or adults' performance. These results provide further evidence for the cognitive dynamics and real-time stability explanation of visual working memory development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Using road markings as a continuous cue for speed choice.

PubMed

Charlton, Samuel G; Starkey, Nicola J; Malhotra, Neha

2018-08-01

The potential for using road markings to indicate speed limits was investigated in a driving simulator over the course of two sessions. Two types of experimental road markings, an "Attentional" set designed to provide visually distinct cues to indicate speed limits of 60, 80 and 100 km/h, and a "Perceptual" set designed to also affect drivers' perception of speed, were compared to a standard undifferentiated set of markings. Participants (n = 20 per group) were assigned to one of four experimental groups (Attentional-Explicit, Attentional-Implicit, Perceptual-Explicit, Perceptual-Implicit) or a Control group (n = 22; standard road markings). The Explicit groups were instructed about the meaning of the road markings while those in the Implicit and Control groups did not receive any explanation. Participants drove five 10 km simulated roads containing three speed zones (60, 80 and 100 km/h) during the first session. The participants returned to the laboratory approximately 3 days later to drive five more trials including roads they had not seen before, a trial that included a secondary task, and a trial where speed signs were removed and only markings were present. The findings indicated that both types of road markings improved drivers' compliance with speed limits compared to the control group, but that explicit instruction as to the meaning of the markings was needed to realise their full benefit. Although previous research has indicated the benefit of road markings used as warnings to indicate speed reductions in advance of horizontal or vertical curves, the findings of the present experiment also suggest that systematically associating road markings with specific speed limits may be a useful way to improve speed limit compliance and increase speed homogeneity. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Manipulating perceptual parameters in a continuous performance task.

PubMed

Shalev, Nir; Humphreys, Glyn; Demeyere, Nele

2018-02-01

Sustained attention (SA) is among the most studied faculties of human cognition, and thought to be crucial for many aspects of behavior. Measuring SA often relies on performance on a continuous, low-demanding task. Such continuous performance tasks (CPTs) have many variations, and sustained attention is typically estimated based on variability in reaction times. While relying on reaction times may be useful in some cases, it can pose a challenge when working with clinical populations. To increase interpersonal variability in task parameters that do not rely on speed, researchers have increased demands for memory and response inhibition. These approaches, however, may be confounded when used to assess populations that suffer from multiple cognitive deficits. In the current study, we propose a new approach for increasing task variability by increasing the attentional demands. In order to do so, we created a new variation of a CPT - a masked version, where inattention is more likely to cause misidentifying a target. After establishing that masking indeed decreases target detection, we further investigated which task parameter may influence response biases. To do so, we contrasted two versions of the CPT with different target/distractor ratio. We then established how perceptual parameters can be controlled independently in a CPT. Following the experimental manipulations, we tested the MCCPT with aging controls and chronic stroke patients to assure the task can be used with target populations. The results confirm the MCCPT as a task providing high sensitivity without relying on reaction speed, and feasible for patients.

The Sensory Nature of Episodic Memory: Sensory Priming Effects Due to Memory Trace Activation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brunel, Lionel; Labeye, Elodie; Lesourd, Mathieu; Versace, Remy

2009-01-01

The aim of this study was to provide evidence that memory and perceptual processing are underpinned by the same mechanisms. Specifically, the authors conducted 3 experiments that emphasized the sensory aspect of memory traces. They examined their predictions with a short-term priming paradigm based on 2 distinct phases: a learning phase consisting…

Memory systems, processes, and tasks: taxonomic clarification via factor analysis.

PubMed

Bruss, Peter J; Mitchell, David B

2009-01-01

The nature of various memory systems was examined using factor analysis. We reanalyzed data from 11 memory tasks previously reported in Mitchell and Bruss (2003). Four well-defined factors emerged, closely resembling episodic and semantic memory and conceptual and perceptual implicit memory, in line with both memory systems and transfer-appropriate processing accounts. To explore taxonomic issues, we ran separate analyses on the implicit tasks. Using a cross-format manipulation (pictures vs. words), we identified 3 prototypical tasks. Word fragment completion and picture fragment identification tasks were "factor pure," tapping perceptual processes uniquely. Category exemplar generation revealed its conceptual nature, yielding both cross-format priming and a picture superiority effect. In contrast, word stem completion and picture naming were more complex, revealing attributes of both processes.

Cognitive load effects on early visual perceptual processing.

PubMed

Liu, Ping; Forte, Jason; Sewell, David; Carter, Olivia

2018-05-01

Contrast-based early visual processing has largely been considered to involve autonomous processes that do not need the support of cognitive resources. However, as spatial attention is known to modulate early visual perceptual processing, we explored whether cognitive load could similarly impact contrast-based perception. We used a dual-task paradigm to assess the impact of a concurrent working memory task on the performance of three different early visual tasks. The results from Experiment 1 suggest that cognitive load can modulate early visual processing. No effects of cognitive load were seen in Experiments 2 or 3. Together, the findings provide evidence that under some circumstances cognitive load effects can penetrate the early stages of visual processing and that higher cognitive function and early perceptual processing may not be as independent as was once thought.

Perceptual experience and posttest improvements in perceptual accuracy and consistency.

PubMed

Wagman, Jeffrey B; McBride, Dawn M; Trefzger, Amanda J

2008-08-01

Two experiments investigated the relationship between perceptual experience (during practice) and posttest improvements in perceptual accuracy and consistency. Experiment 1 investigated the potential relationship between how often knowledge of results (KR) is provided during a practice session and posttest improvements in perceptual accuracy. Experiment 2 investigated the potential relationship between how often practice (PR) is provided during a practice session and posttest improvements in perceptual consistency. The results of both experiments are consistent with previous findings that perceptual accuracy improves only when practice includes KR and that perceptual consistency improves regardless of whether practice includes KR. In addition, the results showed that although there is a relationship between how often KR is provided during a practice session and posttest improvements in perceptual accuracy, there is no relationship between how often PR is provided during a practice session and posttest improvements in consistency.

Tactile Object Familiarity in the Blind Brain Reveals the Supramodal Perceptual-Mnemonic Nature of the Perirhinal Cortex

PubMed Central

Cacciamani, Laura; Likova, Lora T.

2016-01-01

This study is the first to investigate the neural underpinnings of tactile object familiarity in the blind during both perception and memory. In the sighted, the perirhinal cortex (PRC) has been implicated in the assessment of visual object familiarity—a crucial everyday task—as evidenced by reduced activation when an object becomes familiar. Here, to examine the PRC’s role in tactile object familiarity in the absence of vision, we trained blind participants on a unique memory-guided drawing technique and measured brain activity while they perceptually explored raised-line drawings, drew them from tactile memory, and scribbled (control). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and after a week of training revealed a significant decrease in PRC activation from pre- to post-training (i.e., from unfamiliar to familiar) during perceptual exploration as well as memory-guided drawing, but not scribbling. This familiarity-based reduction is the first evidence that the PRC represents tactile object familiarity in the blind. Furthermore, the finding of this effect during both tactile perception and tactile memory provides the critical link in establishing the PRC as a structure whose representations are supramodal for both perception and memory. PMID:27148002

Perceptual and Motor Performance of Combat-Sport Athletes Differs According to Specific Demands of the Discipline.

PubMed

Chen, Wei-Ying; Wu, Sheng K; Song, Tai-Fen; Chou, Kuei-Ming; Wang, Kuei-Yuan; Chang, Yao-Ching; Goodbourn, Patrick T

2016-12-07

The specific demands of a combat-sport discipline may be reflected in the perceptual-motor performance of its athletes. Taekwondo, which emphasizes kicking, might require faster perceptual processing to compensate for longer latencies to initiate lower-limb movements and to give rapid visual feedback for dynamic postural control, while Karate, which emphasizes both striking with the hands and kicking, might require exceptional eye-hand coordination and fast perceptual processing. In samples of 38 Taekwondo athletes (16 females, 22 males; mean age = 19.9 years, SD = 1.2), 24 Karate athletes (9 females, 15 males; mean age = 18.9 years, SD = 0.9), and 35 Nonathletes (20 females, 15 males; mean age = 20.6 years, SD = 1.5), we measured eye-hand coordination with the Finger-Nose-Finger task, and both perceptual-processing speed and attentional control with the Covert Orienting of Visual Attention (COVAT) task. Eye-hand coordination was significantly better for Karate athletes than for Taekwondo athletes and Nonathletes, but reaction times for the upper extremities in the COVAT task-indicative of perceptual-processing speed-were faster for Taekwondo athletes than for Karate athletes and Nonathletes. In addition, we found no significant difference among groups in attentional control, as indexed by the reaction-time cost of an invalid cue in the COVAT task. The results suggest that athletes in different combat sports exhibit distinct profiles of perceptual-motor performance. © The Author(s) 2016.

Efficacy of a perceptual and visual-motor skill intervention program for students with dyslexia.

PubMed

Fusco, Natália; Germano, Giseli Donadon; Capellini, Simone Aparecida

2015-01-01

To verify the efficacy of a perceptual and visual-motor skill intervention program for students with dyslexia. The participants were 20 students from third to fifth grade of a public elementary school in Marília, São Paulo, aged from 8 years to 11 years and 11 months, distributed into the following groups: Group I (GI; 10 students with developmental dyslexia) and Group II (GII; 10 students with good academic performance). A perceptual and visual-motor intervention program was applied, which comprised exercises for visual-motor coordination, visual discrimination, visual memory, visual-spatial relationship, shape constancy, sequential memory, visual figure-ground coordination, and visual closure. In pre- and post-testing situations, both groups were submitted to the Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills (TVPS-3), and the quality of handwriting was analyzed using the Dysgraphia Scale. The analyzed statistical results showed that both groups of students had dysgraphia in pretesting situation. In visual perceptual skills, GI presented a lower performance compared to GII, as well as in the quality of writing. After undergoing the intervention program, GI increased the average of correct answers in TVPS-3 and improved the quality of handwriting. The developed intervention program proved appropriate for being applied to students with dyslexia, and showed positive effects because it provided improved visual perception skills and quality of writing for students with developmental dyslexia.

The hippocampus and related neocortical structures in memory transformation.

PubMed

Sekeres, Melanie J; Winocur, Gordon; Moscovitch, Morris

2018-05-04

Episodic memories are multifaceted and malleable, capable of being transformed with time and experience at both the neural level and psychological level. At the neural level, episodic memories are transformed from being dependent on the hippocampus to becoming represented in neocortical structures, such as the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and back again, while at the psychological level, detailed, perceptually rich memories, are transformed to ones retaining only the gist of an experience or a schema related to it. Trace Transformation Theory (TTT) initially proposed that neural and psychological transformations are linked and proceed in tandem. Building on recent studies on the neurobiology of memory transformation in rodents and on the organization of the hippocampus and its functional cortical connectivity in humans, we present an updated version of TTT that is more precise and detailed with respect to the dynamic processes and structures implicated in memory transformation. At the heart of the updated TTT lies the long axis of the hippocampus whose functional differentiation and connectivity to neocortex make it a hub for memory formation and transformation. The posterior hippocampus, connected to perceptual and spatial representational systems in posterior neocortex, supports fine, perceptually rich, local details of memories; the anterior hippocampus, connected to conceptual systems in anterior neocortex, supports coarse, global representations that constitute the gist of a memory. Notable among the anterior structures is the medial prefrontal cortex which supports representation of schemas that code for common aspects of memories across different episodes. Linking the aHPC with mPFC is the entorhinal cortex (EC) which conveys information needed for the interaction/translation between gist and schemas. Thus, the long axis of the hippocampus, mPFC and EC provide the representational gradient, from fine to coarse and from perceptual to conceptual, that can

False Memories for Suggestions: The Impact of Conceptual Elaboration

PubMed Central

Zaragoza, Maria S.; Mitchell, Karen J.; Payment, Kristie; Drivdahl, Sarah

2010-01-01

Relatively little attention has been paid to the potential role that reflecting on the meaning and implications of suggested events (i.e., conceptual elaboration) might play in promoting the creation of false memories. Two experiments assessed whether encouraging repeated conceptual elaboration, would, like perceptual elaboration, increase false memory for suggested events. Results showed that conceptual elaboration of suggested events more often resulted in high confidence false memories (Experiment 1) and false memories that were accompanied by the phenomenal experience of remembering them (Experiment 2) than did surface-level processing. Moreover, conceptual elaboration consistently led to higher rates of false memory than did perceptual elaboration. The false memory effects that resulted from conceptual elaboration were highly dependent on the organization of the postevent interview questions, such that conceptual elaboration only increased false memory beyond surface level processing when participants evaluated both true and suggested information in relation to the same theme or dimension. PMID:21103451

Visual short-term memory load strengthens selective attention.

PubMed

Roper, Zachary J J; Vecera, Shaun P

2014-04-01

Perceptual load theory accounts for many attentional phenomena; however, its mechanism remains elusive because it invokes underspecified attentional resources. Recent dual-task evidence has revealed that a concurrent visual short-term memory (VSTM) load slows visual search and reduces contrast sensitivity, but it is unknown whether a VSTM load also constricts attention in a canonical perceptual load task. If attentional selection draws upon VSTM resources, then distraction effects-which measure attentional "spill-over"-will be reduced as competition for resources increases. Observers performed a low perceptual load flanker task during the delay period of a VSTM change detection task. We observed a reduction of the flanker effect in the perceptual load task as a function of increasing concurrent VSTM load. These findings were not due to perceptual-level interactions between the physical displays of the two tasks. Our findings suggest that perceptual representations of distractor stimuli compete with the maintenance of visual representations held in memory. We conclude that access to VSTM determines the degree of attentional selectivity; when VSTM is not completely taxed, it is more likely for task-irrelevant items to be consolidated and, consequently, affect responses. The "resources" hypothesized by load theory are at least partly mnemonic in nature, due to the strong correspondence they share with VSTM capacity.

Fractal fluctuations in gaze speed visual search.

PubMed

Stephen, Damian G; Anastas, Jason

2011-04-01

Visual search involves a subtle coordination of visual memory and lower-order perceptual mechanisms. Specifically, the fluctuations in gaze may provide support for visual search above and beyond what may be attributed to memory. Prior research indicates that gaze during search exhibits fractal fluctuations, which allow for a wide sampling of the field of view. Fractal fluctuations constitute a case of fast diffusion that may provide an advantage in exploration. We present reanalyses of eye-tracking data collected by Stephen and Mirman (Cognition, 115, 154-165, 2010) for single-feature and conjunction search tasks. Fluctuations in gaze during these search tasks were indeed fractal. Furthermore, the degree of fractality predicted decreases in reaction time on a trial-by-trial basis. We propose that fractality may play a key role in explaining the efficacy of perceptual exploration.

The contribution of the human posterior parietal cortex to episodic memory

PubMed Central

Sestieri, Carlo; Shulman, Gordon L.; Corbetta, Maurizio

2017-01-01

The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is traditionally associated with attention, perceptual decision making and sensorimotor transformations, but more recent human neuroimaging studies support an additional role in episodic memory retrieval. In this Opinion article, we present a functional–anatomical model of the involvement of the PPC in memory retrieval. Parietal regions involved in perceptual attention and episodic memory are largely segregated and often show a push–pull relationship, potentially mediated by prefrontal regions. Moreover, different PPC regions carry out specific functions during retrieval — for example, representing retrieved information, recoding this information based on task demands, or accumulating evidence for memory decisions. PMID:28209980

Fast learning of simple perceptual discriminations reduces brain activation in working memory and in high-level auditory regions.

PubMed

Daikhin, Luba; Ahissar, Merav

2015-07-01

Introducing simple stimulus regularities facilitates learning of both simple and complex tasks. This facilitation may reflect an implicit change in the strategies used to solve the task when successful predictions regarding incoming stimuli can be formed. We studied the modifications in brain activity associated with fast perceptual learning based on regularity detection. We administered a two-tone frequency discrimination task and measured brain activation (fMRI) under two conditions: with and without a repeated reference tone. Although participants could not explicitly tell the difference between these two conditions, the introduced regularity affected both performance and the pattern of brain activation. The "No-Reference" condition induced a larger activation in frontoparietal areas known to be part of the working memory network. However, only the condition with a reference showed fast learning, which was accompanied by a reduction of activity in two regions: the left intraparietal area, involved in stimulus retention, and the posterior superior-temporal area, involved in representing auditory regularities. We propose that this joint reduction reflects a reduction in the need for online storage of the compared tones. We further suggest that this change reflects an implicit strategic shift "backwards" from reliance mainly on working memory networks in the "No-Reference" condition to increased reliance on detected regularities stored in high-level auditory networks.

Perceptual Bias and Loudness Change: An Investigation of Memory, Masking, and Psychophysiology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olsen, Kirk N.

Loudness is a fundamental aspect of human auditory perception that is closely associated with a sound's physical acoustic intensity. The dynamic quality of intensity change is an inherent acoustic feature in real-world listening domains such as speech and music. However, perception of loudness change in response to continuous intensity increases (up-ramps) and decreases (down-ramps) has received relatively little empirical investigation. Overestimation of loudness change in response to up-ramps is said to be linked to an adaptive survival response associated with looming (or approaching) motion in the environment. The hypothesised 'perceptual bias' to looming auditory motion suggests why perceptual overestimation of up-ramps may occur; however it does not offer a causal explanation. It is concluded that post-stimulus judgements of perceived loudness change are significantly affected by a cognitive recency response bias that, until now, has been an artefact of experimental procedure. Perceptual end-level differences caused by duration specific sensory adaptation at peripheral and/or central stages of auditory processing may explain differences in post-stimulus judgements of loudness change. Experiments that investigate human responses to acoustic intensity dynamics, encompassing topics from basic auditory psychophysics (e.g., sensory adaptation) to cognitive-emotional appraisal of increasingly complex stimulus events such as music and auditory warnings, are proposed for future research.

A Developmental Examination of Basic Perceptual Processes in Reading. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lefton, Lester A.

This report summarizes four groups of experiments examining the nature of basic perceptual processes in reading. The first group examined the relationship of English orthography to reading, specifically the transfer of information from the icon to short-term memory. The second group of experiments examined the use of peripheral information…

Inattentive behaviour is associated with poor working memory and slow processing speed in very pre-term children in middle childhood.

PubMed

Mulder, Hanna; Pitchford, Nicola J; Marlow, Neil

2011-03-01

BACKGROUND. Problem behaviour is common following pre-term birth, but the underlying nature of these difficulties is not well known. AIMS. We sought to establish the mechanisms underpinning behavioural difficulties in very pre-term (VPT) children in middle childhood by comparing their performance to that of term born peers on tasks of working memory, inhibition, and processing speed, and relating these to parent and teacher assessments of their behaviour. Particular focus was given to inattention and overactive/impulsive behaviour, as these behaviours have been associated with different neuropsychological problems in term children. SAMPLES. A group of VPT children (gestational age < 31 weeks, N= 56) aged 9-10 years and term controls (N= 22) participated in the study. METHOD. Children were assessed with measures of working memory, inhibition, and processing speed. Parents and teachers reported behavioural problems using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and two additional scales measuring overactive/impulsive behaviour and inattention. RESULTS. Results revealed increased rates of problem behaviour in VPT compared to term children for parent-rated total difficulties, hyperactivity, emotional problems, peer problems, prosocial behaviour, overactive/impulsive behaviour, and parent- and teacher-rated inattention. Processing speed and working memory, but not inhibition, were significantly related to inattentive and overactive/impulsive behaviour. CONCLUSIONS. The increased rates of inattention and overactive/impulsive behaviour in VPT children may be explained by impairment in processing speed and working memory. Expected links between overactive/impulsive behaviour and inhibitory control were not identified, suggesting the nature of such difficulties may be different in VPT compared to term children. © 2010 The British Psychological Society.

Recovering and preventing loss of detailed memory: differential rates of forgetting for detail types in episodic memory

PubMed Central

Bonasia, Kyra; St-Laurent, Marie; Pishdadian, Sara; Winocur, Gordon; Grady, Cheryl; Moscovitch, Morris

2016-01-01

Episodic memories undergo qualitative changes with time, but little is known about how different aspects of memory are affected. Different types of information in a memory, such as perceptual detail, and central themes, may be lost at different rates. In patients with medial temporal lobe damage, memory for perceptual details is severely impaired, while memory for central details is relatively spared. Given the sensitivity of memory to loss of details, the present study sought to investigate factors that mediate the forgetting of different types of information from naturalistic episodic memories in young healthy adults. The study investigated (1) time-dependent loss of “central” and “peripheral” details from episodic memories, (2) the effectiveness of cuing with reminders to reinstate memory details, and (3) the role of retrieval in preventing forgetting. Over the course of 7 d, memory for naturalistic events (film clips) underwent a time-dependent loss of peripheral details, while memory for central details (the core or gist of events) showed significantly less loss. Giving brief reminders of the clips just before retrieval reinstated memory for peripheral details, suggesting that loss of details is not always permanent, and may reflect both a storage and retrieval deficit. Furthermore, retrieving a memory shortly after it was encoded prevented loss of both central and peripheral details, thereby promoting retention over time. We consider the implications of these results for behavioral and neurobiological models of retention and forgetting. PMID:26773100

Recovering and preventing loss of detailed memory: differential rates of forgetting for detail types in episodic memory.

PubMed

Sekeres, Melanie J; Bonasia, Kyra; St-Laurent, Marie; Pishdadian, Sara; Winocur, Gordon; Grady, Cheryl; Moscovitch, Morris

2016-02-01

Episodic memories undergo qualitative changes with time, but little is known about how different aspects of memory are affected. Different types of information in a memory, such as perceptual detail, and central themes, may be lost at different rates. In patients with medial temporal lobe damage, memory for perceptual details is severely impaired, while memory for central details is relatively spared. Given the sensitivity of memory to loss of details, the present study sought to investigate factors that mediate the forgetting of different types of information from naturalistic episodic memories in young healthy adults. The study investigated (1) time-dependent loss of "central" and "peripheral" details from episodic memories, (2) the effectiveness of cuing with reminders to reinstate memory details, and (3) the role of retrieval in preventing forgetting. Over the course of 7 d, memory for naturalistic events (film clips) underwent a time-dependent loss of peripheral details, while memory for central details (the core or gist of events) showed significantly less loss. Giving brief reminders of the clips just before retrieval reinstated memory for peripheral details, suggesting that loss of details is not always permanent, and may reflect both a storage and retrieval deficit. Furthermore, retrieving a memory shortly after it was encoded prevented loss of both central and peripheral details, thereby promoting retention over time. We consider the implications of these results for behavioral and neurobiological models of retention and forgetting. © 2016 Sekeres et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

The development of sentence interpretation: effects of perceptual, attentional and semantic interference.

PubMed

Leech, Robert; Aydelott, Jennifer; Symons, Germaine; Carnevale, Julia; Dick, Frederic

2007-11-01

How does the development and consolidation of perceptual, attentional, and higher cognitive abilities interact with language acquisition and processing? We explored children's (ages 5-17) and adults' (ages 18-51) comprehension of morphosyntactically varied sentences under several competing speech conditions that varied in the degree of attentional demands, auditory masking, and semantic interference. We also evaluated the relationship between subjects' syntactic comprehension and their word reading efficiency and general 'speed of processing'. We found that the interactions between perceptual and attentional processes and complex sentence interpretation changed considerably over the course of development. Perceptual masking of the speech signal had an early and lasting impact on comprehension, particularly for more complex sentence structures. In contrast, increased attentional demand in the absence of energetic auditory masking primarily affected younger children's comprehension of difficult sentence types. Finally, the predictability of syntactic comprehension abilities by external measures of development and expertise is contingent upon the perceptual, attentional, and semantic milieu in which language processing takes place.

Object perception is selectively slowed by a visually similar working memory load.

PubMed

Robinson, Alan; Manzi, Alberto; Triesch, Jochen

2008-12-22

The capacity of visual working memory has been extensively characterized, but little work has investigated how occupying visual memory influences other aspects of cognition and perception. Here we show a novel effect: maintaining an item in visual working memory slows processing of similar visual stimuli during the maintenance period. Subjects judged the gender of computer rendered faces or the naturalness of body postures while maintaining different visual memory loads. We found that when stimuli of the same class (faces or bodies) were maintained in memory, perceptual judgments were slowed. Interestingly, this is the opposite of what would be predicted from traditional priming. Our results suggest there is interference between visual working memory and perception, caused by visual similarity between new perceptual input and items already encoded in memory.

Eliminating Overerase Behavior by Designing Energy Band in High-Speed Charge-Trap Memory Based on WSe2.

PubMed

Liu, Chunsen; Yan, Xiao; Wang, Jianlu; Ding, Shijin; Zhou, Peng; Zhang, David Wei

2017-05-01

Atomic crystal charge trap memory, as a new concept of nonvolatile memory, possesses an atomic level flatness interface, which makes them promising candidates for replacing conventional FLASH memory in the future. Here, a 2D material WSe 2 and a 3D Al 2 O 3 /HfO 2 /Al 2 O 3 charge-trap stack are combined to form a charge-trap memory device with a separation of control gate and memory stack. In this device, the charges are erased/written by built-in electric field, which significantly enhances the write speed to 1 µs. More importantly, owing to the elaborate design of the energy band structure, the memory only captures electrons with a large electron memory window over 20 V and trap selectivity about 13, both of them are the state-of-the-art values ever reported in FLASH memory based on 2D materials. Therefore, it is demonstrated that high-performance charge trap memory based on WSe 2 without the fatal overerase issue in conventional FLASH memory can be realized to practical application. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Writing to dictation and handwriting performance among Chinese children with dyslexia: relationships with orthographic knowledge and perceptual-motor skills.

PubMed

Cheng-Lai, Alice; Li-Tsang, Cecilia W P; Chan, Alan H L; Lo, Amy G W

2013-10-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between writing to dictation, handwriting, orthographic, and perceptual-motor skills among Chinese children with dyslexia. A cross-sectional design was used. A total of 45 third graders with dyslexia were assessed. Results of stepwise multiple regression models showed that Chinese character naming was the only predictor associated with word dictation (β=.32); handwriting speed was related to deficits in rapid automatic naming (β=-.36) and saccadic efficiency (β=-.29), and visual-motor integration predicted both of the number of characters exceeded grid (β=-.41) and variability of character size (β=-.38). The findings provided support to a multi-stage working memory model of writing for explaining the possible underlying mechanism of writing to dictation and handwriting difficulties. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Speed behaviour in work zone crossovers. A driving simulator study.

PubMed

Domenichini, Lorenzo; La Torre, Francesca; Branzi, Valentina; Nocentini, Alessandro

2017-01-01

Reductions in speed and, more critically, in speed variability between vehicles are considered an important factor to reduce crash risk in work zones. This study was designed to evaluate in a virtual environment the drivers' behaviour in response to nine different configurations of a motorway crossover work zone. Specifically, the speed behaviour through a typical crossover layout, designed in accordance with the Italian Ministerial Decree 10 July 2002, was compared with that of eight alternative configurations which differ in some characteristics such as the sequence of speed limits, the median opening width and the lane width. The influence of variable message signs, of channelizing devices and of perceptual treatments based on Human Factor principles were also tested. Forty-two participants drove in driving simulator scenarios while data on their speeds and decelerations were collected. The results indicated that drivers' speeds are always higher than the temporary posted speed limits for all configurations and that speeds decreases significantly only within the by-passes. However the implementation of higher speed limits, together with a wider median opening and taller channelization devices led to a greater homogeneity of the speeds adopted by the drivers. The presence of perceptual measures generally induced both the greatest homogenization of speeds and the largest reductions in mean speed values. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Loss and persistence of implicit memory for sound: evidence from auditory stream segregation context effects.

PubMed

Snyder, Joel S; Weintraub, David M

2013-07-01

An important question is the extent to which declines in memory over time are due to passive loss or active interference from other stimuli. The purpose of the present study was to determine the extent to which implicit memory effects in the perceptual organization of sound sequences are subject to loss and interference. Toward this aim, we took advantage of two recently discovered context effects in the perceptual judgments of sound patterns, one that depends on stimulus features of previous sounds and one that depends on the previous perceptual organization of these sounds. The experiments measured how listeners' perceptual organization of a tone sequence (test) was influenced by the frequency separation, or the perceptual organization, of the two preceding sequences (context1 and context2). The results demonstrated clear evidence for loss of context effects over time but little evidence for interference. However, they also revealed that context effects can be surprisingly persistent. The robust effects of loss, followed by persistence, were similar for the two types of context effects. We discuss whether the same auditory memories might contain information about basic stimulus features of sounds (i.e., frequency separation), as well as the perceptual organization of these sounds.

The influence of perceptual load on age differences in selective attention.

PubMed

Maylor, E A; Lavie, N

1998-12-01

The effect of perceptual load on age differences in visual selective attention was examined in 2 studies. In Experiment 1, younger and older adults made speeded choice responses indicating which of 2 target letters was present in a relevant set of letters in the center of the display while they attempted to ignore an irrelevant distractor in the periphery. The perceptual load of relevant processing was manipulated by varying the central set size. When the relevant set size was small, the adverse effect of an incompatible distractor was much greater for the older participants than for the younger ones. However, with larger relevant set sizes, this was no longer the case, with the distractor effect decreasing for older participants at lower levels of perceptual load than for younger ones. In Experiment 2, older adults were tested with the empty locations in the central set either unmarked (as in Experiment 1) or marked by small circles to form a group of 6 items irrespective of set size; the 2 conditions did not differ markedly, ruling out an explanation based entirely on perceptual grouping.

Association between unsafe driving performance and cognitive-perceptual dysfunction in older drivers.

PubMed

Park, Si-Woon; Choi, Eun Seok; Lim, Mun Hee; Kim, Eun Joo; Hwang, Sung Il; Choi, Kyung-In; Yoo, Hyun-Chul; Lee, Kuem Ju; Jung, Hi-Eun

2011-03-01

To find an association between cognitive-perceptual problems of older drivers and unsafe driving performance during simulated automobile driving in a virtual environment. Cross-sectional study. A driver evaluation clinic in a rehabilitation hospital. Fifty-five drivers aged 65 years or older and 48 drivers in their late twenties to early forties. All participants underwent evaluation of cognitive-perceptual function and driving performance, and the results were compared between older and younger drivers. The association between cognitive-perceptual function and driving performance was analyzed. Cognitive-perceptual function was evaluated with the Cognitive Perceptual Assessment for Driving (CPAD), a computer-based assessment tool consisting of depth perception, sustained attention, divided attention, the Stroop test, the digit span test, field dependency, and trail-making test A and B. Driving performance was evaluated with use of a virtual reality-based driving simulator. During simulated driving, car crashes were recorded, and an occupational therapist observed unsafe performances in controlling speed, braking, steering, vehicle positioning, making lane changes, and making turns. Thirty-five older drivers did not pass the CPAD test, whereas all of the younger drivers passed the test. When using the driving simulator, a significantly greater number of older drivers experienced car crashes and demonstrated unsafe performance in controlling speed, steering, and making lane changes. CPAD results were associated with car crashes, steering, vehicle positioning, and making lane changes. Older drivers who did not pass the CPAD test are 4 times more likely to experience a car crash, 3.5 times more likely to make errors in steering, 2.8 times more likely to make errors in vehicle positioning, and 6.5 times more likely to make errors in lane changes than are drivers who passed the CPAD test. Unsafe driving performance and car crashes during simulated driving were more

Carotid β-stiffness index is associated with slower processing speed but not working memory or white matter integrity in healthy middle-aged/older adults.

PubMed

DuBose, Lyndsey E; Voss, Michelle W; Weng, Timothy B; Kent, James D; Dubishar, Kaitlyn M; Lane-Cordova, Abbi; Sigurdsson, Gardar; Schmid, Phillip; Barlow, Patrick B; Pierce, Gary L

2017-04-01

Aging is associated with increased carotid artery stiffness, a predictor of incident stroke, and reduced cognitive performance and brain white matter integrity (WMI) in humans. Therefore, we hypothesized that higher carotid stiffness/lower compliance would be independently associated with slower processing speed, higher working memory cost, and lower WMI in healthy middle-aged/older (MA/O) adults. Carotid β-stiffness ( P < 0.001) was greater and compliance ( P < 0.001) was lower in MA/O ( n = 32; 64.4 ± 4.3 yr) vs. young ( n = 19; 23.8 ± 2.9 yr) adults. MA/O adults demonstrated slower processing speed (27.4 ± 4.6 vs. 35.4 ± 5.0 U/60 s, P < 0.001) and higher working memory cost (-15.4 ± 0.14 vs. -2.2 ± 0.05%, P < 0.001) vs. young adults. Global WMI was lower in MA/O adults ( P < 0.001) and regionally in the frontal lobe ( P = 0.020) and genu ( P = 0.009). In the entire cohort, multiple regression analysis that included education, sex, and body mass index, carotid β-stiffness index (B = -0.53 ± 0.15 U, P = 0.001) and age group (B = -4.61 ± 1.7, P = 0.012, adjusted R 2 = 0.4) predicted processing speed but not working memory cost or WMI. Among MA/O adults, higher β-stiffness (B = -0.60 ± 0.18, P = 0.002) and lower compliance (B = 0.93 ± 0.26, P = 0.002) were associated with slower processing speed but not working memory cost or WMI. These data suggest that greater carotid artery stiffness is independently and selectively associated with slower processing speed but not working memory among MA/O adults. Carotid artery stiffening may modulate reductions in processing speed earlier than working memory with healthy aging in humans. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Previously, studies investigating the relation between large elastic artery stiffness, cognition, and brain structure have focused mainly on aortic stiffness in aged individuals with cardiovascular disease risk factors and other comorbidities. This study adds to the field by demonstrating that the age

Carotid β-stiffness index is associated with slower processing speed but not working memory or white matter integrity in healthy middle-aged/older adults

PubMed Central

DuBose, Lyndsey E.; Voss, Michelle W.; Weng, Timothy B.; Kent, James D.; Dubishar, Kaitlyn M.; Lane-Cordova, Abbi; Sigurdsson, Gardar; Schmid, Phillip; Barlow, Patrick B.

2017-01-01

Aging is associated with increased carotid artery stiffness, a predictor of incident stroke, and reduced cognitive performance and brain white matter integrity (WMI) in humans. Therefore, we hypothesized that higher carotid stiffness/lower compliance would be independently associated with slower processing speed, higher working memory cost, and lower WMI in healthy middle-aged/older (MA/O) adults. Carotid β-stiffness (P < 0.001) was greater and compliance (P < 0.001) was lower in MA/O (n = 32; 64.4 ± 4.3 yr) vs. young (n = 19; 23.8 ± 2.9 yr) adults. MA/O adults demonstrated slower processing speed (27.4 ± 4.6 vs. 35.4 ± 5.0 U/60 s, P < 0.001) and higher working memory cost (−15.4 ± 0.14 vs. −2.2 ± 0.05%, P < 0.001) vs. young adults. Global WMI was lower in MA/O adults (P < 0.001) and regionally in the frontal lobe (P = 0.020) and genu (P = 0.009). In the entire cohort, multiple regression analysis that included education, sex, and body mass index, carotid β-stiffness index (B = −0.53 ± 0.15 U, P = 0.001) and age group (B = −4.61 ± 1.7, P = 0.012, adjusted R2 = 0.4) predicted processing speed but not working memory cost or WMI. Among MA/O adults, higher β-stiffness (B = −0.60 ± 0.18, P = 0.002) and lower compliance (B = 0.93 ± 0.26, P = 0.002) were associated with slower processing speed but not working memory cost or WMI. These data suggest that greater carotid artery stiffness is independently and selectively associated with slower processing speed but not working memory among MA/O adults. Carotid artery stiffening may modulate reductions in processing speed earlier than working memory with healthy aging in humans. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Previously, studies investigating the relation between large elastic artery stiffness, cognition, and brain structure have focused mainly on aortic stiffness in aged individuals with cardiovascular disease risk factors and other comorbidities. This study adds to the field by demonstrating that the age

Executive and Perceptual Distraction in Visual Working Memory

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

The contents of visual working memory are likely to reflect the influence of both executive control resources and information present in the environment. We investigated whether executive attention is critical in the ability to exclude unwanted stimuli by introducing concurrent potentially distracting irrelevant items to a visual working memory paradigm, and manipulating executive load using simple or more demanding secondary verbal tasks. Across 7 experiments varying in presentation format, timing, stimulus set, and distractor number, we observed clear disruptive effects of executive load and visual distraction, but relatively minimal evidence supporting an interactive relationship between these factors. These findings are in line with recent evidence using delay-based interference, and suggest that different forms of attentional selection operate relatively independently in visual working memory. PMID:28414499

Controlled encoding strategies in memory tests in lithium patients.

PubMed

Opgenoorth, E; Karlick-Bolten, E

1986-03-01

The "levels of processing" theory (Craik and Lockhart) and "dual coding" theory (Paivio) provide new aspects for clinical memory research work. Therefore, an incidental learning paradigm on the basis of these two theoretical approaches was chosen to test aspects of memory performances with lithium therapy. Results of two experiments, with controlled non-semantic processing (rating experiment "comparison of size") and additive semantic processing (rating "living--non-living") indicate a slight reduction in recall (Fig. 1) and recognition performance (Fig. 2) in lithium patients. Effects on encoding strategies are of equal quality in patients and healthy subjects (Tab. 1, 2) but performance differs between both groups: poorer systematic benefit from within code repetitions ("word-word" items, "picture-picture" items) and dual coding (repeated variable item presentation "picture-word") is obtained. The less efficient encoding strategies in the speeded task are discussed with respect to cognitive rigidity and slowing of performance by emotional states. This investigation of so-called "memory deficits" with lithium is an attempt to explore impairments at an early stage of processing; the characterization of the perceptual cognitive analysis seems useful for further clinical research work on this topic.

Memory, not just perception, plays an important role in terrestrial mammalian migration

PubMed Central

Mueller, Thomas

2017-01-01

One of the key questions regarding the underlying mechanisms of mammalian land migrations is how animals select where to go. Most studies assume perception of resources as the navigational mechanism. The possible role of memory that would allow forecasting conditions at distant locations and times based on information about environmental conditions from previous years has been little studied. We study migrating zebra in Botswana using an individual-based simulation model, where perceptually guided individuals use currently sensed resources at different perceptual ranges, while memory-guided individuals use long-term averages of past resources to forecast future conditions. We compare simulated individuals guided by perception or memory on resource landscapes of remotely sensed vegetation data to trajectories of GPS-tagged zebras. Our results show that memory provides a clear signal that best directs migrants to their destination compared to perception at even the largest perceptual ranges. Zebras modelled with memory arrived two to four times, or up to 100 km, closer to the migration destination than those using perception. We suggest that memory in addition to perception is important for directing ungulate migration. Furthermore, our findings are important for the conservation of migratory mammals, as memory informing direction suggests migration routes could be relatively inflexible. PMID:28539516

Memory, not just perception, plays an important role in terrestrial mammalian migration.

PubMed

Bracis, Chloe; Mueller, Thomas

2017-05-31

One of the key questions regarding the underlying mechanisms of mammalian land migrations is how animals select where to go. Most studies assume perception of resources as the navigational mechanism. The possible role of memory that would allow forecasting conditions at distant locations and times based on information about environmental conditions from previous years has been little studied. We study migrating zebra in Botswana using an individual-based simulation model, where perceptually guided individuals use currently sensed resources at different perceptual ranges, while memory-guided individuals use long-term averages of past resources to forecast future conditions. We compare simulated individuals guided by perception or memory on resource landscapes of remotely sensed vegetation data to trajectories of GPS-tagged zebras. Our results show that memory provides a clear signal that best directs migrants to their destination compared to perception at even the largest perceptual ranges. Zebras modelled with memory arrived two to four times, or up to 100 km, closer to the migration destination than those using perception. We suggest that memory in addition to perception is important for directing ungulate migration. Furthermore, our findings are important for the conservation of migratory mammals, as memory informing direction suggests migration routes could be relatively inflexible. © 2017 The Author(s).

Measuring automatic retrieval: a comparison of implicit memory, process dissociation, and speeded response procedures.

PubMed

Horton, Keith D; Wilson, Daryl E; Vonk, Jennifer; Kirby, Sarah L; Nielsen, Tina

2005-07-01

Using the stem completion task, we compared estimates of automatic retrieval from an implicit memory task, the process dissociation procedure, and the speeded response procedure. Two standard manipulations were employed. In Experiment 1, a depth of processing effect was found on automatic retrieval using the speeded response procedure although this effect was substantially reduced in Experiment 2 when lexical processing was required of all words. In Experiment 3, the speeded response procedure showed an advantage of full versus divided attention at study on automatic retrieval. An implicit condition showed parallel effects in each study, suggesting that implicit stem completion may normally provide a good estimate of automatic retrieval. Also, we replicated earlier findings from the process dissociation procedure, but estimates of automatic retrieval from this procedure were consistently lower than those from the speeded response procedure, except when conscious retrieval was relatively low. We discuss several factors that may contribute to the conflicting outcomes, including the evidence for theoretical assumptions and criterial task differences between implicit and explicit tests.

Implied motion language can influence visual spatial memory.

PubMed

Vinson, David W; Engelen, Jan; Zwaan, Rolf A; Matlock, Teenie; Dale, Rick

2017-07-01

How do language and vision interact? Specifically, what impact can language have on visual processing, especially related to spatial memory? What are typically considered errors in visual processing, such as remembering the location of an object to be farther along its motion trajectory than it actually is, can be explained as perceptual achievements that are driven by our ability to anticipate future events. In two experiments, we tested whether the prior presentation of motion language influences visual spatial memory in ways that afford greater perceptual prediction. Experiment 1 showed that motion language influenced judgments for the spatial memory of an object beyond the known effects of implied motion present in the image itself. Experiment 2 replicated this finding. Our findings support a theory of perception as prediction.

Exploring the Relationship Between Working Memory, Compressor Speed, and Background Noise Characteristics.

PubMed

Ohlenforst, Barbara; Souza, Pamela E; MacDonald, Ewen N

2016-01-01

Previous work has shown that individuals with lower working memory demonstrate reduced intelligibility for speech processed with fast-acting compression amplification. This relationship has been noted in fluctuating noise, but the extent of noise modulation that must be present to elicit such an effect is unknown. This study expanded on previous study by exploring the effect of background noise modulations in relation to compression speed and working memory ability, using a range of signal to noise ratios. Twenty-six older participants between ages 61 and 90 years were grouped by high or low working memory according to their performance on a reading span test. Speech intelligibility was measured for low-context sentences presented in background noise, where the noise varied in the extent of amplitude modulation. Simulated fast- or slow-acting compression amplification combined with individual frequency-gain shaping was applied to compensate for the individual's hearing loss. Better speech intelligibility scores were observed for participants with high working memory when fast compression was applied than when slow compression was applied. The low working memory group behaved in the opposite way and performed better under slow compression compared with fast compression. There was also a significant effect of the extent of amplitude modulation in the background noise, such that the magnitude of the score difference (fast versus slow compression) depended on the number of talkers in the background noise. The presented signal to noise ratios were not a significant factor on the measured intelligibility performance. In agreement with earlier research, high working memory allowed better speech intelligibility when fast compression was applied in modulated background noise. In the present experiment, that effect was present regardless of the extent of background noise modulation.

Motor and Tactile-Perceptual Skill Differences between Individuals with High-Functioning Autism and Typically Developing Individuals Ages 5-21

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Dahab, Sana M. N.; Skidmore, Elizabeth R.; Holm, Margo B.; Rogers, Joan C.; Minshew, Nancy J.

2013-01-01

We examined motor and tactile-perceptual skills in individuals with high-functioning autism (IHFA) and matched typically developing individuals (TDI) ages 5-21 years. Grip strength, motor speed and coordination were impaired in IHFA compared to matched TDI, and the differences between groups varied with age. Although tactile-perceptual skills of…

Neurophysiological evidence for transfer appropriate processing of memory: processing versus feature similarity.

PubMed

Schendan, Haune E; Kutas, Malra

2007-08-01

Transfer appropriate processing (TAP) accounts propose that memory is a function of the degree to which the same neural processes transfer appropriately from the study experience to the memory test. However, in prior research, study and test stimuli were often similar physically. In two experiments, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded to fragmented objects during an indirect memory test to isolate transfer of a specific perceptual process from overlap of physical features between experiences. An occipitotemporoparietal P2(00) at 200 msec showed implicit memory effects only when similar perceptual grouping processes of good continuation were repeatedly engaged-despite physical feature differences--as TAP accounts hypothesize. This result provides direct neurophysiological evidence for the critical role of process transfer across experiences for memory.

Recall of false memories in individuals scoring high in schizotypy: memory distortions are scale specific.

PubMed

Saunders, Jo; Randell, Jordan; Reed, Phil

2012-06-01

Previous research has indicated abnormal semantic activation in individuals scoring higher in schizotypy. In the current experiment, semantic activation was examined by using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm of false memories. Participants were assessed for schizotypy using the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings (OLIFE). Participants studied lists of semantically related words in which a critical and highly associated word was absent. Participants then recalled the list. Participants high in Unusual Experiences and Cognitive Disorganization recalled more critical non-presented words, weakly related studied words, and fewer studied words than participants who scored low on these measures. Previous research using the cognitive-perceptual factor of the Schizotypy Personality Questionnaire found reduced false memories, while the Unusual Experiences subscale of the OLIFE was associated with more false memories. Both scales cover similar unusual perceptual experiences and it is unclear why they led to divergent results. The findings suggest that subtypes of schizotypy are associated with abnormal semantic activation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The role of attention during encoding in implicit and explicit memory.

PubMed

Mulligan, N W

1998-01-01

In 5 experiments, participants read study words under conditions of divided or full attention. Dividing attention reduced performance on the general knowledge test, a conceptual implicit test of memory. Likewise, dividing attention reduced conceptual priming on the word--association task, as well as on a matched explicit test, associate-cued recall. In contrast, even very strong division of attention did not reduce perceptual priming on word-fragment completion, although it did reduce recall on the matched explicit test of word-fragment-cued recall. Finally, dividing attention reduced recall on the perceptual explicit tests of graphemic-cued recall and graphemic recognition. The results indicate that perceptual implicit tests rely minimally on attention-demanding encoding processes relative to other types of memory tests. The obtained pattern of dissociations is not readily accommodated by the transfer-appropriate-processing (TAP) account of implicit and explicit memory. Potential extensions of the TAP view are discussed.

Acute, intermediate intensity exercise, and speed and accuracy in working memory tasks: a meta-analytical comparison of effects.

PubMed

McMorris, Terry; Sproule, John; Turner, Anthony; Hale, Beverley J

2011-03-01

The purpose of this study was to compare, using meta-analytic techniques, the effect of acute, intermediate intensity exercise on the speed and accuracy of performance of working memory tasks. It was hypothesized that acute, intermediate intensity exercise would have a significant beneficial effect on response time and that effect sizes for response time and accuracy data would differ significantly. Random-effects meta-analysis showed a significant, beneficial effect size for response time, g=-1.41 (p<0.001) but a significant detrimental effect size, g=0.40 (p<0.01), for accuracy. There was a significant difference between effect sizes (Z(diff)=3.85, p<0.001). It was concluded that acute, intermediate intensity exercise has a strong beneficial effect on speed of response in working memory tasks but a low to moderate, detrimental one on accuracy. There was no support for a speed-accuracy trade-off. It was argued that exercise-induced increases in brain concentrations of catecholamines result in faster processing but increases in neural noise may negatively affect accuracy. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Shared Neural Substrates of Emotionally Enhanced Perceptual and Mnemonic Vividness

PubMed Central

Todd, Rebecca M.; Schmitz, Taylor W.; Susskind, Josh; Anderson, Adam K.

2013-01-01

It is well-known that emotionally salient events are remembered more vividly than mundane ones. Our recent research has demonstrated that such memory vividness (Mviv) is due in part to the subjective experience of emotional events as more perceptually vivid, an effect we call emotionally enhanced vividness (EEV). The present study built on previously reported research in which fMRI data were collected while participants rated relative levels of visual noise overlaid on emotionally salient and neutral images. Ratings of greater EEV were associated with greater activation in the amygdala and visual cortex. In the present study, we measured BOLD activation that predicted recognition Mviv for these same images 1 week later. Results showed that, after controlling for differences between scenes in low-level objective features, hippocampus activation uniquely predicted subsequent Mviv. In contrast, amygdala and visual cortex regions that were sensitive to EEV were also modulated by subsequent ratings of Mviv. These findings suggest shared neural substrates for the influence of emotional salience on perceptual and mnemonic vividness, with amygdala and visual cortex activation at encoding contributing to the experience of both perception and subsequent memory. PMID:23653601

The Memory Jog Service

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dimakis, Nikolaos; Soldatos, John; Polymenakos, Lazaros; Sturm, Janienke; Neumann, Joachim; Casas, Josep R.

The CHIL Memory Jog service focuses on facilitating the collaboration of participants in meetings, lectures, presentations, and other human interactive events, occurring in indoor CHIL spaces. It exploits the whole set of the perceptual components that have been developed by the CHIL Consortium partners (e.g., person tracking, face identification, audio source localization, etc) along with a wide range of actuating devices such as projectors, displays, targeted audio devices, speakers, etc. The underlying set of perceptual components provides a constant flow of elementary contextual information, such as “person at location x0,y0”, “speech at location x0,y0”, information that alone is not of significant use. However, the CHIL Memory Jog service is accompanied by powerful situation identification techniques that fuse all the incoming information and creates complex states that drive the actuating logic.

Visual Working Memory Is Independent of the Cortical Spacing Between Memoranda.

PubMed

Harrison, William J; Bays, Paul M

2018-03-21

The sensory recruitment hypothesis states that visual short-term memory is maintained in the same visual cortical areas that initially encode a stimulus' features. Although it is well established that the distance between features in visual cortex determines their visibility, a limitation known as crowding, it is unknown whether short-term memory is similarly constrained by the cortical spacing of memory items. Here, we investigated whether the cortical spacing between sequentially presented memoranda affects the fidelity of memory in humans (of both sexes). In a first experiment, we varied cortical spacing by taking advantage of the log-scaling of visual cortex with eccentricity, presenting memoranda in peripheral vision sequentially along either the radial or tangential visual axis with respect to the fovea. In a second experiment, we presented memoranda sequentially either within or beyond the critical spacing of visual crowding, a distance within which visual features cannot be perceptually distinguished due to their nearby cortical representations. In both experiments and across multiple measures, we found strong evidence that the ability to maintain visual features in memory is unaffected by cortical spacing. These results indicate that the neural architecture underpinning working memory has properties inconsistent with the known behavior of sensory neurons in visual cortex. Instead, the dissociation between perceptual and memory representations supports a role of higher cortical areas such as posterior parietal or prefrontal regions or may involve an as yet unspecified mechanism in visual cortex in which stimulus features are bound to their temporal order. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Although much is known about the resolution with which we can remember visual objects, the cortical representation of items held in short-term memory remains contentious. A popular hypothesis suggests that memory of visual features is maintained via the recruitment of the same neural

Improved speed and data retention characteristics in flash memory using a stacked HfO2/Ta2O5 charge-trapping layer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Zhiwei; Huo, Zongliang; Zhang, Manhong; Zhu, Chenxin; Liu, Jing; Liu, Ming

2011-10-01

This paper reports the simultaneous improvements in erase speed and data retention characteristics in flash memory using a stacked HfO2/Ta2O5 charge-trapping layer. In comparison to a memory capacitor with a single HfO2 trapping layer, the erase speed of a memory capacitor with a stacked HfO2/Ta2O5 charge-trapping layer is 100 times faster and its memory window is enlarged from 2.7 to 4.8 V for the same ±16 V sweeping voltage range. With the same initial window of ΔVFB = 4 V, the device with a stacked HfO2/Ta2O5 charge-trapping layer has a 3.5 V extrapolated 10-year retention window, while the control device with a single HfO2 trapping layer has only 2.5 V for the extrapolated 10-year window. The present results demonstrate that the device with the stacked HfO2/Ta2O5 charge-trapping layer has a strong potential for future high-performance nonvolatile memory application.

Accurate forced-choice recognition without awareness of memory retrieval.

PubMed

Voss, Joel L; Baym, Carol L; Paller, Ken A

2008-06-01

Recognition confidence and the explicit awareness of memory retrieval commonly accompany accurate responding in recognition tests. Memory performance in recognition tests is widely assumed to measure explicit memory, but the generality of this assumption is questionable. Indeed, whether recognition in nonhumans is always supported by explicit memory is highly controversial. Here we identified circumstances wherein highly accurate recognition was unaccompanied by hallmark features of explicit memory. When memory for kaleidoscopes was tested using a two-alternative forced-choice recognition test with similar foils, recognition was enhanced by an attentional manipulation at encoding known to degrade explicit memory. Moreover, explicit recognition was most accurate when the awareness of retrieval was absent. These dissociations between accuracy and phenomenological features of explicit memory are consistent with the notion that correct responding resulted from experience-dependent enhancements of perceptual fluency with specific stimuli--the putative mechanism for perceptual priming effects in implicit memory tests. This mechanism may contribute to recognition performance in a variety of frequently-employed testing circumstances. Our results thus argue for a novel view of recognition, in that analyses of its neurocognitive foundations must take into account the potential for both (1) recognition mechanisms allied with implicit memory and (2) recognition mechanisms allied with explicit memory.

Perceptual load in sport and the heuristic value of the perceptual load paradigm in examining expertise-related perceptual-cognitive adaptations.

PubMed

Furley, Philip; Memmert, Daniel; Schmid, Simone

2013-03-01

In two experiments, we transferred perceptual load theory to the dynamic field of team sports and tested the predictions derived from the theory using a novel task and stimuli. We tested a group of college students (N = 33) and a group of expert team sport players (N = 32) on a general perceptual load task and a complex, soccer-specific perceptual load task in order to extend the understanding of the applicability of perceptual load theory and further investigate whether distractor interference may differ between the groups, as the sport-specific processing task may not exhaust the processing capacity of the expert participants. In both, the general and the specific task, the pattern of results supported perceptual load theory and demonstrates that the predictions of the theory also transfer to more complex, unstructured situations. Further, perceptual load was the only determinant of distractor processing, as we neither found expertise effects in the general perceptual load task nor the sport-specific task. We discuss the heuristic utility of using response-competition paradigms for studying both general and domain-specific perceptual-cognitive adaptations.

Forced to remember: when memory is biased by salient information.

PubMed

Santangelo, Valerio

2015-04-15

The last decades have seen a rapid growing in the attempt to understand the key factors involved in the internal memory representation of the external world. Visual salience have been found to provide a major contribution in predicting the probability for an item/object embedded in a complex setting (i.e., a natural scene) to be encoded and then remembered later on. Here I review the existing literature highlighting the impact of perceptual- (based on low-level sensory features) and semantics-related salience (based on high-level knowledge) on short-term memory representation, along with the neural mechanisms underpinning the interplay between these factors. The available evidence reveal that both perceptual- and semantics-related factors affect attention selection mechanisms during the encoding of natural scenes. Biasing internal memory representation, both perceptual and semantics factors increase the probability to remember high- to the detriment of low-saliency items. The available evidence also highlight an interplay between these factors, with a reduced impact of perceptual-related salience in biasing memory representation as a function of the increasing availability of semantics-related salient information. The neural mechanisms underpinning this interplay involve the activation of different portions of the frontoparietal attention control network. Ventral regions support the assignment of selection/encoding priorities based on high-level semantics, while the involvement of dorsal regions reflects priorities assignment based on low-level sensory features. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Perceptual-cognitive skills and performance in orienteering.

PubMed

Guzmán, José F; Pablos, Ana M; Pablos, Carlos

2008-08-01

The goal was analysis of the perceptual-cognitive skills associated with sport performance in orienteering in a sample of 22 elite and 17 nonelite runners. Variables considered were memory, basic orienteering techniques, map reading, symbol knowledge, map-terrain-map identification, and spatial organisation. A computerised questionnaire was developed to measure the variables. The reliability of the test (agreement between experts) was 90%. Findings suggested that competence in performing basic orienteering techniques efficiently was a key variable differentiating between the elite and the nonelite athletes. The results are discussed in comparison with previous studies.

Interfering with theories of sleep and memory: sleep, declarative memory, and associative interference.

PubMed

Ellenbogen, Jeffrey M; Hulbert, Justin C; Stickgold, Robert; Dinges, David F; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L

2006-07-11

Mounting behavioral evidence in humans supports the claim that sleep leads to improvements in recently acquired, nondeclarative memories. Examples include motor-sequence learning; visual-discrimination learning; and perceptual learning of a synthetic language. In contrast, there are limited human data supporting a benefit of sleep for declarative (hippocampus-mediated) memory in humans (for review, see). This is particularly surprising given that animal models (e.g.,) and neuroimaging studies (e.g.,) predict that sleep facilitates hippocampus-based memory consolidation. We hypothesized that we could unmask the benefits of sleep by challenging the declarative memory system with competing information (interference). This is the first study to demonstrate that sleep protects declarative memories from subsequent associative interference, and it has important implications for understanding the neurobiology of memory consolidation.

Practice makes it better: A psychophysical study of visual perceptual learning and its transfer effects on aging.

PubMed

Li, Xuan; Allen, Philip A; Lien, Mei-Ching; Yamamoto, Naohide

2017-02-01

Previous studies on perceptual learning, acquiring a new skill through practice, appear to stimulate brain plasticity and enhance performance (Fiorentini & Berardi, 1981). The present study aimed to determine (a) whether perceptual learning can be used to compensate for age-related declines in perceptual abilities, and (b) whether the effect of perceptual learning can be transferred to untrained stimuli and subsequently improve capacity of visual working memory (VWM). We tested both healthy younger and older adults in a 3-day training session using an orientation discrimination task. A matching-to-sample psychophysical method was used to measure improvements in orientation discrimination thresholds and reaction times (RTs). Results showed that both younger and older adults improved discrimination thresholds and RTs with similar learning rates and magnitudes. Furthermore, older adults exhibited a generalization of improvements to 3 untrained orientations that were close to the training orientation and benefited more compared with younger adults from the perceptual learning as they transferred learning effects to the VWM performance. We conclude that through perceptual learning, older adults can partially counteract age-related perceptual declines, generalize the learning effect to other stimulus conditions, and further overcome the limitation of using VWM capacity to perform a perceptual task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceptual approach for unsupervised digital color restoration of cinematographic archives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chambah, Majed; Rizzi, Alessandro; Gatta, Carlo; Besserer, Bernard; Marini, Daniele

2003-01-01

The cinematographic archives represent an important part of our collective memory. We present in this paper some advances in automating the color fading restoration process, especially with regard to the automatic color correction technique. The proposed color correction method is based on the ACE model, an unsupervised color equalization algorithm based on a perceptual approach and inspired by some adaptation mechanisms of the human visual system, in particular lightness constancy and color constancy. There are some advantages in a perceptual approach: mainly its robustness and its local filtering properties, that lead to more effective results. The resulting technique, is not just an application of ACE on movie images, but an enhancement of ACE principles to meet the requirements in the digital film restoration field. The presented preliminary results are satisfying and promising.

Perceptual Learning in Children With Infantile Nystagmus: Effects on Reading Performance.

PubMed

Huurneman, Bianca; Boonstra, F Nienke; Goossens, Jeroen

2016-08-01

Perceptual learning improves visual acuity and reduces crowding in children with infantile nystagmus (IN). Here, we compare reading performance of 6- to 11-year-old children with IN with normal controls, and evaluate whether perceptual learning improves their reading. Children with IN were divided in two training groups: a crowded training group (n = 18; albinism: n = 8; idiopathic IN: n = 10) and an uncrowded training group (n = 17; albinism: n = 9; idiopathic IN: n = 8). Also 11 children with normal vision participated. Outcome measures were: reading acuity (the smallest readable font size), maximum reading speed, critical print size (font size below which reading is suboptimal), and acuity reserve (difference between reading acuity and critical print size). We used multiple regression analyses to test if these reading parameters were related to the children's uncrowded distance acuity and/or crowding scores. Reading acuity and critical print size were 0.65 ± 0.04 and 0.69 ± 0.08 log units larger for children with IN than for children with normal vision. Maximum reading speed and acuity reserve did not differ between these groups. After training, reading acuity improved by 0.12 ± 0.02 logMAR and critical print size improved by 0.11 ± 0.04 logMAR in both IN training groups. The changes in reading acuity, critical print size, and acuity reserve of children with IN were tightly related to changes in their uncrowded distance acuity and the changes in magnitude and extent of crowding. Our findings are the first to show that visual acuity is not the only factor that restricts reading in children with IN, but that crowding also limits their reading performance. By targeting both of these spatial bottlenecks in children with IN, our perceptual learning paradigms significantly improved their reading acuity and critical print size. This shows that perceptual learning can effectively transfer to reading.

New Methodologies To Evaluate the Memory Strategies of Deaf Individuals.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Diane

Prior studies have often confounded linguistic and perceptual performance when evaluating deaf subjects' skills, a confusion that may be responsible for results indicating lesser recall ability among the deaf. In this series of studies this linguistic/perceptual confound was investigated in both the iconic and short term memory of deaf…

Attentive Tracking Disrupts Feature Binding in Visual Working Memory

PubMed Central

Fougnie, Daryl; Marois, René

2009-01-01

One of the most influential theories in visual cognition proposes that attention is necessary to bind different visual features into coherent object percepts (Treisman & Gelade, 1980). While considerable evidence supports a role for attention in perceptual feature binding, whether attention plays a similar function in visual working memory (VWM) remains controversial. To test the attentional requirements of VWM feature binding, here we gave participants an attention-demanding multiple object tracking task during the retention interval of a VWM task. Results show that the tracking task disrupted memory for color-shape conjunctions above and beyond any impairment to working memory for object features, and that this impairment was larger when the VWM stimuli were presented at different spatial locations. These results demonstrate that the role of visuospatial attention in feature binding is not unique to perception, but extends to the working memory of these perceptual representations as well. PMID:19609460

The stress hormone cortisol blocks perceptual learning in humans.

PubMed

Dinse, Hubert R; Kattenstroth, J C; Lenz, M; Tegenthoff, M; Wolf, O T

2017-03-01

Cortisol, the primary glucocorticoid (GC) in humans, influences neuronal excitability and plasticity by acting on mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptors. Cellular studies demonstrated that elevated GC levels affect neuronal plasticity, for example through a reduction of hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP). At the behavioural level, after treatment with GCs, numerous studies have reported impaired hippocampal function, such as impaired memory retrieval. In contrast, relatively little is known about the impact of GCs on cortical plasticity and perceptual learning in adult humans. Therefore, in this study, we explored the impact of elevated GC levels on human perceptual learning. To this aim, we used a training-independent learning approach, where lasting changes in human perception can be induced by applying passive repetitive sensory stimulation (rss), the timing of which was determined from cellular LTP studies. In our placebo-controlled double-blind study, we used tactile LTP-like stimulation to induce improvements in tactile acuity (spatial two-point discrimination). Our results show that a single administration of hydrocortisone (30mg) completely blocked rss-induced changes in two-point discrimination. In contrast, the placebo group showed the expected rss-induced increase in two-point discrimination of over 14%. Our data demonstrate that high GC levels inhibit rss-induced perceptual learning. We suggest that the suppression of LTP, as previously reported in cellular studies, may explain the perceptual learning impairments observed here. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

The attentional boost effect and context memory.

PubMed

Mulligan, Neil W; Smith, S Adam; Spataro, Pietro

2016-04-01

Stimuli co-occurring with targets in a detection task are better remembered than stimuli co-occurring with distractors-the attentional boost effect (ABE). The ABE is of interest because it is an exception to the usual finding that divided attention during encoding impairs memory. The effect has been demonstrated in tests of item memory but it is unclear if context memory is likewise affected. Some accounts suggest enhanced perceptual encoding or associative binding, predicting an ABE on context memory, whereas other evidence suggests a more abstract, amodal basis of the effect. In Experiment 1, context memory was assessed in terms of an intramodal perceptual detail, the font and color of the study word. Experiment 2 examined context memory cross-modally, assessing memory for the modality (visual or auditory) of the study word. Experiments 3 and 4 assessed context memory with list discrimination, in which 2 study lists are presented and participants must later remember which list (if either) a test word came from. In all experiments, item (recognition) memory was also assessed and consistently displayed a robust ABE. In contrast, the attentional-boost manipulation did not enhance context memory, whether defined in terms of visual details, study modality, or list membership. There was some evidence that the mode of responding on the detection task (motoric response as opposed to covert counting of targets) may impact context memory but there was no evidence of an effect of target detection, per se. In sum, the ABE did not occur in context memory with verbal materials. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

One process is not enough! A speed-accuracy tradeoff study of recognition memory.

PubMed

Boldini, Angela; Russo, Riccardo; Avons, S E

2004-04-01

Speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT) methods have been used to contrast single- and dual-process accounts of recognition memory. In these procedures, subjects are presented with individual test items and are required to make recognition decisions under various time constraints. In this experiment, we presented word lists under incidental learning conditions, varying the modality of presentation and level of processing. At test, we manipulated the interval between each visually presented test item and a response signal, thus controlling the amount of time available to retrieve target information. Study-test modality match had a beneficial effect on recognition accuracy at short response-signal delays (< or =300 msec). Conversely, recognition accuracy benefited more from deep than from shallow processing at study only at relatively long response-signal delays (> or =300 msec). The results are congruent with views suggesting that both fast familiarity and slower recollection processes contribute to recognition memory.

Repetition blindness has a perceptual locus: evidence from online processing of targets in RSVP streams

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnston, James C.; Hochhaus, Larry; Ruthruff, Eric

2002-01-01

Four experiments tested whether repetition blindness (RB; reduced accuracy reporting repetitions of briefly displayed items) is a perceptual or a memory-recall phenomenon. RB was measured in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) streams, with the task altered to reduce memory demands. In Experiment 1 only the number of targets (1 vs. 2) was reported, eliminating the need to remember target identities. Experiment 2 segregated repeated and nonrepeated targets into separate blocks to reduce bias against repeated targets. Experiments 3 and 4 required immediate "online" buttonpress responses to targets as they occurred. All 4 experiments showed very strong RB. Furthermore, the online response data showed clearly that the 2nd of the repeated targets is the one missed. The present results show that in the RSVP paradigm, RB occurs online during initial stimulus encoding and decision making. The authors argue that RB is indeed a perceptual phenomenon.

The Psychologist Said Quickly, “Dialogue Descriptions Modulate Reading Speed!”

PubMed Central

Stites, Mallory C.; Luke, Steven G.; Christianson, Kiel

2012-01-01

The current study investigates whether the semantic content of a dialogue description can affect reading times on an embedded quote to determine if the speed at which a character is described as saying a quote influences how quickly it is read. Yao and Scheepers (2011) previously found that readers were faster to read direct quotes when the preceding context implied that the talker generally spoke quickly, an effect attributed to perceptual simulation of talker speed. The current study manipulated the speed of a physical action performed by the speaker independently from character talking rate to determine if these sources have separable effects on perceptual simulation of a direct quote. Results showed that readers spent less time reading direct quotes described as being said quickly compared to slowly (e.g., John walked/bolted into the room and said energetically/nonchalantly, “I finally found my car keys”), an effect that was not present when a nearly identical phrase was presented as an indirect quote (e.g., John…said energetically that he finally found his car keys). The speed of the character’s movement did not affect direct quote reading times. Furthermore, fast adverbs were themselves read significantly faster than slow adverbs, an effect we attribute to implicit effects on the eye movement program stemming from automatically activated semantic features of the adverbs. Our findings add to the literature on perceptual simulation by showing that these effects can be instantiated with only a single adverb, and are strong enough to override effects of global sentence speed. PMID:22927027

Perceptual and academic patterns of learning-disabled/gifted students.

PubMed

Waldron, K A; Saphire, D G

1992-04-01

This research explored ways gifted children with learning disabilities perceive and recall auditory and visual input and apply this information to reading, mathematics, and spelling. 24 learning-disabled/gifted children and a matched control group of normally achieving gifted students were tested for oral reading, word recognition and analysis, listening comprehension, and spelling. In mathematics, they were tested for numeration, mental and written computation, word problems, and numerical reasoning. To explore perception and memory skills, students were administered formal tests of visual and auditory memory as well as auditory discrimination of sounds. Their responses to reading and to mathematical computations were further considered for evidence of problems in visual discrimination, visual sequencing, and visual spatial areas. Analyses indicated that these learning-disabled/gifted students were significantly weaker than controls in their decoding skills, in spelling, and in most areas of mathematics. They were also significantly weaker in auditory discrimination and memory, and in visual discrimination, sequencing, and spatial abilities. Conclusions are that these underlying perceptual and memory deficits may be related to students' academic problems.

Exploring the Perceptual Spaces of Faces, Cars and Birds in Children and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tanaka, James W.; Meixner, Tamara L.; Kantner, Justin

2011-01-01

While much developmental research has focused on the strategies that children employ to recognize faces, less is known about the principles governing the organization of face exemplars in perceptual memory. In this study, we tested a novel, child-friendly paradigm for investigating the organization of face, bird and car exemplars. Children ages…

Intrusive images and voluntary memory for affective pictures: contextualization and dual-task interference.

PubMed

Krans, Julie; Langner, Oliver; Reinecke, Andrea; Pearson, David G

2013-12-01

The present study addressed the role of context information and dual-task interference during the encoding of negative pictures on intrusion development and voluntary recall. Healthy participants were shown negative pictures with or without context information. Pictures were either viewed alone or concurrently with a visuospatial or verbal task. Participants reported their intrusive images of the pictures in a diary. At follow-up, perceptual and contextual memory was tested. Participants in the context group reported more intrusive images and perceptual voluntary memory than participants in the no context group. No effects of the concurrent tasks were found on intrusive image frequency, but perceptual and contextual memory was affected according to the cognitive load of the task. The analogue method cannot be generalized to real-life trauma and the secondary tasks may differ in cognitive load. The findings challenge a dual memory model of PTSD but support an account in which retrieval strategy, rather than encoding processes, accounts for the experience of involuntary versus voluntary recall. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of exercise intervention on the perceptual-motor skills in adolescents with autism.

PubMed

Rafie, Forouzan; Ghasemi, Abdollah; Zamani Jam, Azadeh; Jalali, Shahin

2017-01-01

Motor skill impairment has been reported in many studies of autistic adolescents. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of selected physical exercise on Perceptual-motor skills in adolescents with autism. Twenty adolescents with autism that were under special education in Tehran based on their Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) scores and level of abilities were selected. Measurement tool was Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP). Selected group motor program in this study includes motor activities, games and sports for adolescents that were performed for 10 weeks. Results showed that selected physical exercise training has significant effects on all of the variables (P<0.001) except the speed of running and agility (P=0.61), bilateral coordination (P=0.12) and response speed (P=0.42). It seems that miscellaneous physical exercise programs which include ball games, delightful play and targeted play can improve perceptual-motor skills in adolescents with autism.

Influence of early attentional modulation on working memory

PubMed Central

Gazzaley, Adam

2011-01-01

It is now established that attention influences working memory (WM) at multiple processing stages. This liaison between attention and WM poses several interesting empirical questions. Notably, does attention impact WM via its influences on early perceptual processing? If so, what are the critical factors at play in this attention-perception-WM interaction. I review recent data from our laboratory utilizing a variety of techniques (electroencephalography (EEG), functional MRI (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)), stimuli (features and complex objects), novel experimental paradigms, and research populations (younger and older adults), which converge to support the conclusion that top-down modulation of visual cortical activity at early perceptual processing stages (100–200 ms after stimulus onset) impacts subsequent WM performance. Factors that affect attentional control at this stage include cognitive load, task practice, perceptual training, and aging. These developments highlight the complex and dynamic relationships among perception, attention, and memory. PMID:21184764

Perceptual and Motor Inhibition in Adolescents/Young Adults with Childhood-Diagnosed ADHD

PubMed Central

Bedard, Anne-Claude V.; Trampush, Joey W.; Newcorn, Jeffrey H.; Halperin, Jeffrey M.

2010-01-01

Objective This study examined perceptual and motor inhibition in a longitudinal sample of adolescents/young adults who were diagnosed with ADHD in childhood, and as a function of the relative persistence of ADHD. Method Ninety-eight participants diagnosed with ADHD in childhood were re-evaluated approximately 10 years later. Eighty-five never-ADHD controls similar in age, IQ, sociodemographic background, and gender distribution served as a comparison group. Participants were administered a psychiatric interview and the Stimulus and Response Conflict Tasks (Nassauer & Halperin, 2003). Results Participants with childhood ADHD demonstrated slower and less accurate responses to both control and conflict conditions relative to the comparison group, as well as more variable responses in both conditions of the motor inhibition task; there was no specific effect of childhood ADHD on perceptual or motor inhibition. ADHD persisters and partial remitters did not differ in overall accuracy, speed or variability in responding, but relative to partial remitters, persisters demonstrated greater slowing in response to perceptual conflict. Conclusions These findings are consistent with theories positing state regulation, but not inhibitory control deficits in the etiology of ADHD, and suggest that improved perceptual inhibition may be associated with better outcome for ADHD. PMID:20604617

Processing Speed, Inhibitory Control, and Working Memory: Three Important Factors to Account for Age-Related Cognitive Decline

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pereiro Rozas, Arturo X.; Juncos-Rabadan, Onesimo; Gonzalez, Maria Soledad Rodriguez

2008-01-01

Processing speed, inhibitory control and working memory have been identified as the main possible culprits of age-related cognitive decline. This article describes a study of their interrelationships and dependence on age, including exploration of whether any of them mediates between age and the others. We carried out a LISREL analysis of the…

Examining procedural working memory processing in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

PubMed

Shahar, Nitzan; Teodorescu, Andrei R; Anholt, Gideon E; Karmon-Presser, Anat; Meiran, Nachshon

2017-07-01

Previous research has suggested that a deficit in working memory might underlie the difficulty of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients to control their thoughts and actions. However, a recent meta-analyses found only small effect sizes for working memory deficits in OCD. Recently, a distinction has been made between declarative and procedural working memory. Working memory in OCD was tested mostly using declarative measurements. However, OCD symptoms typically concerns actions, making procedural working-memory more relevant. Here, we tested the operation of procedural working memory in OCD. Participants with OCD and healthy controls performed a battery of choice reaction tasks under high and low procedural working memory demands. Reaction-times (RT) were estimated using ex-Gaussian distribution fitting, revealing no group differences in the size of the RT distribution tail (i.e., τ parameter), known to be sensitive to procedural working memory manipulations. Group differences, unrelated to working memory manipulations, were found in the leading-edge of the RT distribution and analyzed using a two-stage evidence accumulation model. Modeling results suggested that perceptual difficulties might underlie the current group differences. In conclusion, our results suggest that procedural working-memory processing is most likely intact in OCD, and raise a novel, yet untested assumption regarding perceptual deficits in OCD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Brain training game boosts executive functions, working memory and processing speed in the young adults: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Nouchi, Rui; Taki, Yasuyuki; Takeuchi, Hikaru; Hashizume, Hiroshi; Nozawa, Takayuki; Kambara, Toshimune; Sekiguchi, Atsushi; Miyauchi, Carlos Makoto; Kotozaki, Yuka; Nouchi, Haruka; Kawashima, Ryuta

2013-01-01

Do brain training games work? The beneficial effects of brain training games are expected to transfer to other cognitive functions. Yet in all honesty, beneficial transfer effects of the commercial brain training games in young adults have little scientific basis. Here we investigated the impact of the brain training game (Brain Age) on a wide range of cognitive functions in young adults. We conducted a double-blind (de facto masking) randomized controlled trial using a popular brain training game (Brain Age) and a popular puzzle game (Tetris). Thirty-two volunteers were recruited through an advertisement in the local newspaper and randomly assigned to either of two game groups (Brain Age, Tetris). Participants in both the Brain Age and the Tetris groups played their game for about 15 minutes per day, at least 5 days per week, for 4 weeks. Measures of the cognitive functions were conducted before and after training. Measures of the cognitive functions fell into eight categories (fluid intelligence, executive function, working memory, short-term memory, attention, processing speed, visual ability, and reading ability). Our results showed that commercial brain training game improves executive functions, working memory, and processing speed in young adults. Moreover, the popular puzzle game can engender improvement attention and visuo-spatial ability compared to playing the brain training game. The present study showed the scientific evidence which the brain training game had the beneficial effects on cognitive functions (executive functions, working memory and processing speed) in the healthy young adults. Our results do not indicate that everyone should play brain training games. However, the commercial brain training game might be a simple and convenient means to improve some cognitive functions. We believe that our findings are highly relevant to applications in educational and clinical fields. UMIN Clinical Trial Registry 000005618.

Brain Training Game Boosts Executive Functions, Working Memory and Processing Speed in the Young Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Nouchi, Rui; Taki, Yasuyuki; Takeuchi, Hikaru; Hashizume, Hiroshi; Nozawa, Takayuki; Kambara, Toshimune; Sekiguchi, Atsushi; Miyauchi, Carlos Makoto; Kotozaki, Yuka; Nouchi, Haruka; Kawashima, Ryuta

2013-01-01

Background Do brain training games work? The beneficial effects of brain training games are expected to transfer to other cognitive functions. Yet in all honesty, beneficial transfer effects of the commercial brain training games in young adults have little scientific basis. Here we investigated the impact of the brain training game (Brain Age) on a wide range of cognitive functions in young adults. Methods We conducted a double-blind (de facto masking) randomized controlled trial using a popular brain training game (Brain Age) and a popular puzzle game (Tetris). Thirty-two volunteers were recruited through an advertisement in the local newspaper and randomly assigned to either of two game groups (Brain Age, Tetris). Participants in both the Brain Age and the Tetris groups played their game for about 15 minutes per day, at least 5 days per week, for 4 weeks. Measures of the cognitive functions were conducted before and after training. Measures of the cognitive functions fell into eight categories (fluid intelligence, executive function, working memory, short-term memory, attention, processing speed, visual ability, and reading ability). Results and Discussion Our results showed that commercial brain training game improves executive functions, working memory, and processing speed in young adults. Moreover, the popular puzzle game can engender improvement attention and visuo-spatial ability compared to playing the brain training game. The present study showed the scientific evidence which the brain training game had the beneficial effects on cognitive functions (executive functions, working memory and processing speed) in the healthy young adults. Conclusions Our results do not indicate that everyone should play brain training games. However, the commercial brain training game might be a simple and convenient means to improve some cognitive functions. We believe that our findings are highly relevant to applications in educational and clinical fields. Trial

A model of memory impairment in schizophrenia: cognitive and clinical factors associated with memory efficiency and memory errors.

PubMed

Brébion, Gildas; Bressan, Rodrigo A; Ohlsen, Ruth I; David, Anthony S

2013-12-01

Memory impairments in patients with schizophrenia have been associated with various cognitive and clinical factors. Hallucinations have been more specifically associated with errors stemming from source monitoring failure. We conducted a broad investigation of verbal memory and visual memory as well as source memory functioning in a sample of patients with schizophrenia. Various memory measures were tallied, and we studied their associations with processing speed, working memory span, and positive, negative, and depressive symptoms. Superficial and deep memory processes were differentially associated with processing speed, working memory span, avolition, depression, and attention disorders. Auditory/verbal and visual hallucinations were differentially associated with specific types of source memory error. We integrated all the results into a revised version of a previously published model of memory functioning in schizophrenia. The model describes the factors that affect memory efficiency, as well as the cognitive underpinnings of hallucinations within the source monitoring framework. © 2013.

Recovery of high speed memory scanning after transient global amnesia: a case report.

PubMed

Okura, M; Tomotake, M; Mori, K; Ikuta, T

1996-12-01

We described the case of a 59 year old female with transient global amnesia (TGA) who had been examined neuropsychologically using Sternberg's paradigm and a random number generation (RNG) task on the following day, 1 week and 4 weeks after a TGA episode. The slope value of the linear function, a measure of cognitive memory scanning speed, decreased with time and showed a marked decrease 1 week after TGA, suggesting that the stage of serial and exhaustive scanning recovered within 1 week. The zero-intercept value, on the other hand, increased during 1 week but decreased 4 weeks later and was not related directly to recovery from TGA. The performance in RNG task improved 1 week later, but deteriorated 4 weeks after the episode. Such a change in RNG was in accordance with that of the zero-intercept value, predicting a relationship. It is concluded that the subclinical memory deficit, detected with these tasks, persisted longer than clinical recovery from TGA.

Perceptual salience does not influence emotional arousal's impairing effects on top-down attention.

PubMed

Sutherland, Matthew R; McQuiggan, Douglas A; Ryan, Jennifer D; Mather, Mara

2017-06-01

Emotional arousal impairs top-down attentional control while strengthening bottom-up attentional biases. In this study, we examined whether top-down impairments due to arousal can be modulated by increasing the perceptual salience of the target stimulus. To examine this question, we briefly displayed positive and negative arousing images prior to the encoding of 2 emotionally neutral items, 1 of which was to be remembered and 1 of which was perceptually salient (the to-be-remembered and the salient items were either the same item or different items). Eye tracking was used to measure attention biases during the encoding of the 2 competing neutral items, as well as to measure pupillary responses to the preceding modulator image. Viewing emotional images, regardless of valence, impaired top-down attention to animate stimulus targets (i.e., animals), regardless of perceptual salience. However, these effects on encoding had no influence on recognition memory. Taken together, these findings reveal that exposure to emotionally arousing images impairs top-down attention to animate stimuli, regardless of whether that stimulus is perceptually salient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Embodied Memory Judgments: A Case of Motor Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Shu-Ju; Gallo, David A.; Beilock, Sian L.

2009-01-01

It is well known that perceptual and conceptual fluency can influence episodic memory judgments. Here, the authors asked whether fluency arising from the motor system also impacts recognition memory. Past research has shown that the perception of letters automatically activates motor programs of typing actions in skilled typists. In this study,…

Identity Priming Consistently Affects Perceptual Fluency but Only Affects Metamemory When Primes Are Obvious

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Susser, Jonathan A.; Jin, Andy; Mulligan, Neil W.

2016-01-01

Perceptual fluency manipulations influence metamemory judgments, with more fluently perceived information judged as more memorable. However, it is not always clear whether this influence is driven by actual experienced processing fluency or by beliefs about memory. The current study used an identity-priming paradigm--in which words are preceded by…

Perceptual processing affects conceptual processing.

PubMed

Van Dantzig, Saskia; Pecher, Diane; Zeelenberg, René; Barsalou, Lawrence W

2008-04-05

According to the Perceptual Symbols Theory of cognition (Barsalou, 1999), modality-specific simulations underlie the representation of concepts. A strong prediction of this view is that perceptual processing affects conceptual processing. In this study, participants performed a perceptual detection task and a conceptual property-verification task in alternation. Responses on the property-verification task were slower for those trials that were preceded by a perceptual trial in a different modality than for those that were preceded by a perceptual trial in the same modality. This finding of a modality-switch effect across perceptual processing and conceptual processing supports the hypothesis that perceptual and conceptual representations are partially based on the same systems. 2008 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Cognitive Processing Speed, Working Memory, and the Intelligibility of Hearing Aid-Processed Speech in Persons with Hearing Impairment

PubMed Central

Yumba, Wycliffe Kabaywe

2017-01-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that successful listening with advanced signal processing in digital hearing aids is associated with individual cognitive capacity, particularly working memory capacity (WMC). This study aimed to examine the relationship between cognitive abilities (cognitive processing speed and WMC) and individual listeners’ responses to digital signal processing settings in adverse listening conditions. A total of 194 native Swedish speakers (83 women and 111 men), aged 33–80 years (mean = 60.75 years, SD = 8.89), with bilateral, symmetrical mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss who had completed a lexical decision speed test (measuring cognitive processing speed) and semantic word-pair span test (SWPST, capturing WMC) participated in this study. The Hagerman test (capturing speech recognition in noise) was conducted using an experimental hearing aid with three digital signal processing settings: (1) linear amplification without noise reduction (NoP), (2) linear amplification with noise reduction (NR), and (3) non-linear amplification without NR (“fast-acting compression”). The results showed that cognitive processing speed was a better predictor of speech intelligibility in noise, regardless of the types of signal processing algorithms used. That is, there was a stronger association between cognitive processing speed and NR outcomes and fast-acting compression outcomes (in steady state noise). We observed a weaker relationship between working memory and NR, but WMC did not relate to fast-acting compression. WMC was a relatively weaker predictor of speech intelligibility in noise. These findings might have been different if the participants had been provided with training and or allowed to acclimatize to binary masking noise reduction or fast-acting compression. PMID:28861009

Conceptual short term memory in perception and thought.

PubMed

Potter, Mary C

2012-01-01

Conceptual short term memory (CSTM) is a theoretical construct that provides one answer to the question of how perceptual and conceptual processes are related. CSTM is a mental buffer and processor in which current perceptual stimuli and their associated concepts from long term memory (LTM) are represented briefly, allowing meaningful patterns or structures to be identified (Potter, 1993, 1999, 2009). CSTM is different from and complementary to other proposed forms of working memory: it is engaged extremely rapidly, has a large but ill-defined capacity, is largely unconscious, and is the basis for the unreflective understanding that is characteristic of everyday experience. The key idea behind CSTM is that most cognitive processing occurs without review or rehearsal of material in standard working memory and with little or no conscious reasoning. When one perceives a meaningful stimulus such as a word, picture, or object, it is rapidly identified at a conceptual level and in turn activates associated information from LTM. New links among concurrently active concepts are formed in CSTM, shaped by parsing mechanisms of language or grouping principles in scene perception and by higher-level knowledge and current goals. The resulting structure represents the gist of a picture or the meaning of a sentence, and it is this structure that we are conscious of and that can be maintained in standard working memory and consolidated into LTM. Momentarily activated information that is not incorporated into such structures either never becomes conscious or is rapidly forgotten. This whole cycle - identification of perceptual stimuli, memory recruitment, structuring, consolidation in LTM, and forgetting of non-structured material - may occur in less than 1 s when viewing a pictured scene or reading a sentence. The evidence for such a process is reviewed and its implications for the relation of perception and cognition are discussed.

Working memory capacity and controlled serial memory search.

PubMed

Mızrak, Eda; Öztekin, Ilke

2016-08-01

The speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) procedure was used to investigate the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and the dynamics of temporal order memory retrieval. High- and low-span participants (HSs, LSs) studied sequentially presented five-item lists, followed by two probes from the study list. Participants indicated the more recent probe. Overall, accuracy was higher for HSs compared to LSs. Crucially, in contrast to previous investigations that observed no impact of WMC on speed of access to item information in memory (e.g., Öztekin & McElree, 2010), recovery of temporal order memory was slower for LSs. While accessing an item's representation in memory can be direct, recovery of relational information such as temporal order information requires a more controlled serial memory search. Collectively, these data indicate that WMC effects are particularly prominent during high demands of cognitive control, such as serial search operations necessary to access temporal order information from memory. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Learning to Control Collisions: The Role of Perceptual Attunement and Action Boundaries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fajen, Brett R.; Devaney, Michael C.

2006-01-01

The authors investigated the role of perceptual attunement in an emergency braking task in which participants waited until the last possible moment to slam on the brakes. Effects of the size of the approached object and initial speed on the initiation of braking were used to identify the optical variables on which participants relied at various…

Younger Adults Show Long-Term Effects of Cognitive Training on Broad Cognitive Abilities over 2 Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmiedek, Florian; Lövdén, Martin; Lindenberger, Ulman

2014-01-01

In the COGITO study (Schmiedek, Lövdén, & Lindenberger, 2010), 101 younger adults practiced 12 tests of perceptual speed, working memory, and episodic memory for over 100 daily 1-hr sessions. The intervention resulted in positive transfer to broad cognitive abilities, including reasoning and episodic memory. Here, we examine whether these…

Recommendations for Exploring the Disfluency Hypothesis for Establishing Whether Perceptually Degrading Materials Impacts Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunlosky, John; Mueller, Michael L.

2016-01-01

The target articles explore a common hypothesis pertaining to whether perceptually degrading materials will improve reasoning, memory, and metamemory. Outcomes are mixed, yet some evidence was garnered in support of a version of the disfluency hypothesis that includes moderators, and along with evidence from prior research, researchers will likely…

Visual Perceptual Learning and Models.

PubMed

Dosher, Barbara; Lu, Zhong-Lin

2017-09-15

Visual perceptual learning through practice or training can significantly improve performance on visual tasks. Originally seen as a manifestation of plasticity in the primary visual cortex, perceptual learning is more readily understood as improvements in the function of brain networks that integrate processes, including sensory representations, decision, attention, and reward, and balance plasticity with system stability. This review considers the primary phenomena of perceptual learning, theories of perceptual learning, and perceptual learning's effect on signal and noise in visual processing and decision. Models, especially computational models, play a key role in behavioral and physiological investigations of the mechanisms of perceptual learning and for understanding, predicting, and optimizing human perceptual processes, learning, and performance. Performance improvements resulting from reweighting or readout of sensory inputs to decision provide a strong theoretical framework for interpreting perceptual learning and transfer that may prove useful in optimizing learning in real-world applications.

Modeling Age-Related Differences in Immediate Memory Using SIMPLE

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Surprenant, Aimee M.; Neath, Ian; Brown, Gordon D. A.

2006-01-01

In the SIMPLE model (Scale Invariant Memory and Perceptual Learning), performance on memory tasks is determined by the locations of items in multidimensional space, and better performance is associated with having fewer close neighbors. Unlike most previous simulations with SIMPLE, the ones reported here used measured, rather than assumed,…

Reversing the picture superiority effect: a speed-accuracy trade-off study of recognition memory.

PubMed

Boldini, Angela; Russo, Riccardo; Punia, Sahiba; Avons, S E

2007-01-01

Speed-accuracy trade-off methods have been used to contrast single- and dual-process accounts of recognition memory. With these procedures, subjects are presented with individual test items and required to make recognition decisions under various time constraints. In three experiments, we presented words and pictures to be intentionally learned; test stimuli were always visually presented words. At test, we manipulated the interval between the presentation of each test stimulus and that of a response signal, thus controlling the amount of time available to retrieve target information. The standard picture superiority effect was significant in long response deadline conditions (i.e., > or = 2,000 msec). Conversely, a significant reverse picture superiority effect emerged at short response-signal deadlines (< 200 msec). The results are congruent with views suggesting that both fast familiarity and slower recollection processes contribute to recognition memory. Alternative accounts are also discussed.

Electrophysiological distinctions between recognition memory with and without awareness

PubMed Central

Ko, Philip C.; Duda, Bryant; Hussey, Erin P.; Ally, Brandon A.

2013-01-01

The influence of implicit memory representations on explicit recognition may help to explain cases of accurate recognition decisions made with high uncertainty. During a recognition task, implicit memory may enhance the fluency of a test item, biasing decision processes to endorse it as “old”. This model may help explain recognition-without-identification, a remarkable phenomenon in which participants make highly accurate recognition decisions despite the inability to identify the test item. The current study investigated whether recognition-without-identification for pictures elicits a similar pattern of neural activity as other types of accurate recognition decisions made with uncertainty. Further, this study also examined whether recognition-without-identification for pictures could be attained by the use of perceptual and conceptual information from memory. To accomplish this, participants studied pictures and then performed a recognition task under difficult viewing conditions while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Behavioral results showed that recognition was highly accurate even when test items could not be identified, demonstrating recognition-without identification. The behavioral performance also indicated that recognition-without-identification was mediated by both perceptual and conceptual information, independently of one another. The ERP results showed dramatically different memory related activity during the early 300 to 500 ms epoch for identified items that were studied compared to unidentified items that were studied. Similar to previous work highlighting accurate recognition without retrieval awareness, test items that were not identified, but correctly endorsed as “old,” elicited a negative posterior old/new effect (i.e., N300). In contrast, test items that were identified and correctly endorsed as “old,” elicited the classic positive frontal old/new effect (i.e., FN400). Importantly, both of these effects were

Adaptive and perceptual learning technologies in medical education and training.

PubMed

Kellman, Philip J

2013-10-01

Recent advances in the learning sciences offer remarkable potential to improve medical education and maximize the benefits of emerging medical technologies. This article describes 2 major innovation areas in the learning sciences that apply to simulation and other aspects of medical learning: Perceptual learning (PL) and adaptive learning technologies. PL technology offers, for the first time, systematic, computer-based methods for teaching pattern recognition, structural intuition, transfer, and fluency. Synergistic with PL are new adaptive learning technologies that optimize learning for each individual, embed objective assessment, and implement mastery criteria. The author describes the Adaptive Response-Time-based Sequencing (ARTS) system, which uses each learner's accuracy and speed in interactive learning to guide spacing, sequencing, and mastery. In recent efforts, these new technologies have been applied in medical learning contexts, including adaptive learning modules for initial medical diagnosis and perceptual/adaptive learning modules (PALMs) in dermatology, histology, and radiology. Results of all these efforts indicate the remarkable potential of perceptual and adaptive learning technologies, individually and in combination, to improve learning in a variety of medical domains. Reprint & Copyright © 2013 Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.

Perceptual learning and human expertise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kellman, Philip J.; Garrigan, Patrick

2009-06-01

We consider perceptual learning: experience-induced changes in the way perceivers extract information. Often neglected in scientific accounts of learning and in instruction, perceptual learning is a fundamental contributor to human expertise and is crucial in domains where humans show remarkable levels of attainment, such as language, chess, music, and mathematics. In Section 2, we give a brief history and discuss the relation of perceptual learning to other forms of learning. We consider in Section 3 several specific phenomena, illustrating the scope and characteristics of perceptual learning, including both discovery and fluency effects. We describe abstract perceptual learning, in which structural relationships are discovered and recognized in novel instances that do not share constituent elements or basic features. In Section 4, we consider primary concepts that have been used to explain and model perceptual learning, including receptive field change, selection, and relational recoding. In Section 5, we consider the scope of perceptual learning, contrasting recent research, focused on simple sensory discriminations, with earlier work that emphasized extraction of invariance from varied instances in more complex tasks. Contrary to some recent views, we argue that perceptual learning should not be confined to changes in early sensory analyzers. Phenomena at various levels, we suggest, can be unified by models that emphasize discovery and selection of relevant information. In a final section, we consider the potential role of perceptual learning in educational settings. Most instruction emphasizes facts and procedures that can be verbalized, whereas expertise depends heavily on implicit pattern recognition and selective extraction skills acquired through perceptual learning. We consider reasons why perceptual learning has not been systematically addressed in traditional instruction, and we describe recent successful efforts to create a technology of perceptual

Evidence accumulation in obsessive-compulsive disorder: the role of uncertainty and monetary reward on perceptual decision-making thresholds.

PubMed

Banca, Paula; Vestergaard, Martin D; Rankov, Vladan; Baek, Kwangyeol; Mitchell, Simon; Lapa, Tatyana; Castelo-Branco, Miguel; Voon, Valerie

2015-03-13

The compulsive behaviour underlying obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may be related to abnormalities in decision-making. The inability to commit to ultimate decisions, for example, patients unable to decide whether their hands are sufficiently clean, may reflect failures in accumulating sufficient evidence before a decision. Here we investigate the process of evidence accumulation in OCD in perceptual discrimination, hypothesizing enhanced evidence accumulation relative to healthy volunteers. Twenty-eight OCD patients and thirty-five controls were tested with a low-level visual perceptual task (random-dot-motion task, RDMT) and two response conflict control tasks. Regression analysis across different motion coherence levels and Hierarchical Drift Diffusion Modelling (HDDM) were used to characterize response strategies between groups in the RDMT. Patients required more evidence under high uncertainty perceptual contexts, as indexed by longer response time and higher decision boundaries. HDDM, which defines a decision when accumulated noisy evidence reaches a decision boundary, further showed slower drift rate towards the decision boundary reflecting poorer quality of evidence entering the decision process in patients under low uncertainty. With monetary incentives emphasizing speed and penalty for slower responses, patients decreased the decision thresholds relative to controls, accumulating less evidence in low uncertainty. These findings were unrelated to visual perceptual deficits and response conflict. This study provides evidence for impaired decision-formation processes in OCD, with a differential influence of high and low uncertainty contexts on evidence accumulation (decision threshold) and on the quality of evidence gathered (drift rates). It further emphasizes that OCD patients are sensitive to monetary incentives heightening speed in the speed-accuracy tradeoff, improving evidence accumulation.

Increasing Speed of Processing With Action Video Games

PubMed Central

Dye, Matthew W.G.; Green, C. Shawn; Bavelier, Daphne

2010-01-01

In many everyday situations, speed is of the essence. However, fast decisions typically mean more mistakes. To this day, it remains unknown whether reaction times can be reduced with appropriate training, within one individual, across a range of tasks, and without compromising accuracy. Here we review evidence that the very act of playing action video games significantly reduces reaction times without sacrificing accuracy. Critically, this increase in speed is observed across various tasks beyond game situations. Video gaming may therefore provide an efficient training regimen to induce a general speeding of perceptual reaction times without decreases in accuracy of performance. PMID:20485453

Usage of semantic representations in recognition memory.

PubMed

Nishiyama, Ryoji; Hirano, Tetsuji; Ukita, Jun

2017-11-01

Meanings of words facilitate false acceptance as well as correct rejection of lures in recognition memory tests, depending on the experimental context. This suggests that semantic representations are both directly and indirectly (i.e., mediated by perceptual representations) used in remembering. Studies using memory conjunction errors (MCEs) paradigms, in which the lures consist of component parts of studied words, have reported semantic facilitation of rejection of the lures. However, attending to components of the lures could potentially cause this. Therefore, we investigated whether semantic overlap of lures facilitates MCEs using Japanese Kanji words in which a whole-word image is more concerned in reading. Experiments demonstrated semantic facilitation of MCEs in a delayed recognition test (Experiment 1), and in immediate recognition tests in which participants were prevented from using phonological or orthographic representations (Experiment 2), and the salient effect on individuals with high semantic memory capacities (Experiment 3). Additionally, analysis of the receiver operating characteristic suggested that this effect is attributed to familiarity-based memory judgement and phantom recollection. These findings indicate that semantic representations can be directly used in remembering, even when perceptual representations of studied words are available.

Perceptual impairment in face identification with poor sleep

PubMed Central

Beattie, Louise; Walsh, Darragh; McLaren, Jessica; Biello, Stephany M.

2016-01-01

Previous studies have shown impaired memory for faces following restricted sleep. However, it is not known whether lack of sleep impairs performance on face identification tasks that do not rely on recognition memory, despite these tasks being more prevalent in security and forensic professions—for example, in photo-ID checks at national borders. Here we tested whether poor sleep affects accuracy on a standard test of face-matching ability that does not place demands on memory: the Glasgow Face-Matching Task (GFMT). In Experiment 1, participants who reported sleep disturbance consistent with insomnia disorder show impaired accuracy on the GFMT when compared with participants reporting normal sleep behaviour. In Experiment 2, we then used a sleep diary method to compare GFMT accuracy in a control group to participants reporting poor sleep on three consecutive nights—and again found lower accuracy scores in the short sleep group. In both experiments, reduced face-matching accuracy in those with poorer sleep was not associated with lower confidence in their decisions, carrying implications for occupational settings where identification errors made with high confidence can have serious outcomes. These results suggest that sleep-related impairments in face memory reflect difficulties in perceptual encoding of identity, and point towards metacognitive impairment in face matching following poor sleep. PMID:27853547

Relating color working memory and color perception.

PubMed

Allred, Sarah R; Flombaum, Jonathan I

2014-11-01

Color is the most frequently studied feature in visual working memory (VWM). Oddly, much of this work de-emphasizes perception, instead making simplifying assumptions about the inputs served to memory. We question these assumptions in light of perception research, and we identify important points of contact between perception and working memory in the case of color. Better characterization of its perceptual inputs will be crucial for elucidating the structure and function of VWM. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effect of perceptual grouping on haptic numerosity perception.

PubMed

Verlaers, K; Wagemans, J; Overvliet, K E

2015-01-01

We used a haptic enumeration task to investigate whether enumeration can be facilitated by perceptual grouping in the haptic modality. Eight participants were asked to count tangible dots as quickly and accurately as possible, while moving their finger pad over a tactile display. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the number and organization of the dots, while keeping the total exploration area constant. The dots were either evenly distributed on a horizontal line (baseline condition) or organized into groups based on either proximity (dots placed in closer proximity to each other) or configural cues (dots placed in a geometric configuration). In Experiment 2, we varied the distance between the subsets of dots. We hypothesized that when subsets of dots can be grouped together, the enumeration time will be shorter and accuracy will be higher than in the baseline condition. The results of both experiments showed faster enumeration for the configural condition than for the baseline condition, indicating that configural grouping also facilitates haptic enumeration. In Experiment 2, faster enumeration was also observed for the proximity condition than for the baseline condition. Thus, perceptual grouping speeds up haptic enumeration by both configural and proximity cues, suggesting that similar mechanisms underlie perceptual grouping in both visual and haptic enumeration.

Memory disorder related to coma duration after head injury.

PubMed Central

Vilkki, J; Poropudas, K; Servo, A

1988-01-01

The relationship of memory and intelligence test performances to coma duration was studied in 51 head injured patients who had not been operated on for intracranial haematoma. Memory defect was related to coma duration, and was not secondary to impaired perceptual or conceptual analysis of the material to be remembered. PMID:3236022

Pupil dilation reflects perceptual selection and predicts subsequent stability in perceptual rivalry

PubMed Central

Einhäuser, Wolfgang; Stout, James; Koch, Christof; Carter, Olivia

2008-01-01

During sustained viewing of an ambiguous stimulus, an individual's perceptual experience will generally switch between the different possible alternatives rather than stay fixed on one interpretation (perceptual rivalry). Here, we measured pupil diameter while subjects viewed different ambiguous visual and auditory stimuli. For all stimuli tested, pupil diameter increased just before the reported perceptual switch and the relative amount of dilation before this switch was a significant predictor of the subsequent duration of perceptual stability. These results could not be explained by blink or eye-movement effects, the motor response or stimulus driven changes in retinal input. Because pupil dilation reflects levels of norepinephrine (NE) released from the locus coeruleus (LC), we interpret these results as suggestive that the LC–NE complex may play the same role in perceptual selection as in behavioral decision making. PMID:18250340

Visual-perceptual-kinesthetic inputs on influencing writing performances in children with handwriting difficulties.

PubMed

Tse, Linda F L; Thanapalan, Kannan C; Chan, Chetwyn C H

2014-02-01

This study investigated the role of visual-perceptual input in writing Chinese characters among senior school-aged children who had handwriting difficulties (CHD). The participants were 27 CHD (9-11 years old) and 61 normally developed control. There were three writing conditions: copying, and dictations with or without visual feedback. The motor-free subtests of the Developmental Test of Visual Perception (DTVP-2) were conducted. The CHD group showed significantly slower mean speeds of character production and less legibility of produced characters than the control group in all writing conditions (ps<0.001). There were significant deteriorations in legibility from copying to dictation without visual feedback. Nevertheless, the Group by Condition interaction effect was not statistically significant. Only position in space of DTVP-2 was significantly correlated with the legibility among CHD (r=-0.62, p=0.001). Poor legibility seems to be related to the less-intact spatial representation of the characters in working memory, which can be rectified by viewing the characters during writing. Visual feedback regarding one's own actions in writing can also improve legibility of characters among these children. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of consensus training on the reliability of auditory perceptual ratings of voice quality.

PubMed

Iwarsson, Jenny; Reinholt Petersen, Niels

2012-05-01

This study investigates the effect of consensus training of listeners on intrarater and interrater reliability and agreement of perceptual voice analysis. The use of such training, including a reference voice sample, could be assumed to make the internal standards held in memory common and more robust, which is of great importance to reduce the variability of auditory perceptual ratings. A prospective design with testing before and after training. Thirteen students of audiologopedics served as listening subjects. The ratings were made using a multidimensional protocol with four-point equal-appearing interval scales. The stimuli consisted of text reading by authentic dysphonic patients. The consensus training for each perceptual voice parameter included (1) definition, (2) underlying physiology, (3) presentation of carefully selected sound examples representing the parameter in three different grades followed by group discussions of perceived characteristics, and (4) practical exercises including imitation to make use of the listeners' proprioception. Intrarater reliability and agreement showed a marked improvement for intermittent aphonia but not for vocal fry. Interrater reliability was high for most parameters before training with a slight increase after training. Interrater agreement showed marked increases for most voice quality parameters as a result of the training. The results support the recommendation of specific consensus training, including use of a reference voice sample material, to calibrate, equalize, and stabilize the internal standards held in memory by the listeners. Copyright © 2012 The Voice Foundation. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Association of white matter hyperintensities and gray matter volume with cognition in older individuals without cognitive impairment.

PubMed

Arvanitakis, Zoe; Fleischman, Debra A; Arfanakis, Konstantinos; Leurgans, Sue E; Barnes, Lisa L; Bennett, David A

2016-05-01

Both presence of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) and smaller total gray matter volume on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are common findings in old age, and contribute to impaired cognition. We tested whether total WMH volume and gray matter volume had independent associations with cognition in community-dwelling individuals without dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We used data from participants of the Rush Memory and Aging Project. Brain MRI was available in 209 subjects without dementia or MCI (mean age 80; education = 15 years; 74 % women). WMH and gray matter were automatically segmented, and the total WMH and gray matter volumes were measured. Both MRI-derived measures were normalized by the intracranial volume. Cognitive data included composite measures of five different cognitive domains, based on 19 individual tests. Linear regression analyses, adjusted for age, sex, and education, were used to examine the relationship of logarithmically-transformed total WMH volume and of total gray matter volume to cognition. Larger total WMH volumes were associated with lower levels of perceptual speed (p < 0.001), but not with episodic memory, semantic memory, working memory, or visuospatial abilities (all p > 0.10). Smaller total gray matter volumes were associated with lower levels of perceptual speed (p = 0.013) and episodic memory (p = 0.001), but not with the other three cognitive domains (all p > 0.14). Larger total WMH volume was correlated with smaller total gray matter volume (p < 0.001). In a model with both MRI-derived measures included, the relation of WMH to perceptual speed remained significant (p < 0.001), while gray matter volumes were no longer related (p = 0.14). This study of older community-dwelling individuals without overt cognitive impairment suggests that the association of larger total WMH volume with lower perceptual speed is independent of total gray matter volume. These results help elucidate the

Is random access memory random?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Denning, P. J.

1986-01-01

Most software is contructed on the assumption that the programs and data are stored in random access memory (RAM). Physical limitations on the relative speeds of processor and memory elements lead to a variety of memory organizations that match processor addressing rate with memory service rate. These include interleaved and cached memory. A very high fraction of a processor's address requests can be satified from the cache without reference to the main memory. The cache requests information from main memory in blocks that can be transferred at the full memory speed. Programmers who organize algorithms for locality can realize the highest performance from these computers.

Outlining face processing skills of portrait artists: Perceptual experience with faces predicts performance.

PubMed

Devue, Christel; Barsics, Catherine

2016-10-01

Most humans seem to demonstrate astonishingly high levels of skill in face processing if one considers the sophisticated level of fine-tuned discrimination that face recognition requires. However, numerous studies now indicate that the ability to process faces is not as fundamental as once thought and that performance can range from despairingly poor to extraordinarily high across people. Here we studied people who are super specialists of faces, namely portrait artists, to examine how their specific visual experience with faces relates to a range of face processing skills (perceptual discrimination, short- and longer term recognition). Artists show better perceptual discrimination and, to some extent, recognition of newly learned faces than controls. They are also more accurate on other perceptual tasks (i.e., involving non-face stimuli or mental rotation). By contrast, artists do not display an advantage compared to controls on longer term face recognition (i.e., famous faces) nor on person recognition from other sensorial modalities (i.e., voices). Finally, the face inversion effect exists in artists and controls and is not modulated by artistic practice. Advantages in face processing for artists thus seem to closely mirror perceptual and visual short term memory skills involved in portraiture. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Musically cued gait-training improves both perceptual and motor timing in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Benoit, Charles-Etienne; Dalla Bella, Simone; Farrugia, Nicolas; Obrig, Hellmuth; Mainka, Stefan; Kotz, Sonja A

2014-01-01

It is well established that auditory cueing improves gait in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD). Disease-related reductions in speed and step length can be improved by providing rhythmical auditory cues via a metronome or music. However, effects on cognitive aspects of motor control have yet to be thoroughly investigated. If synchronization of movement to an auditory cue relies on a supramodal timing system involved in perceptual, motor, and sensorimotor integration, auditory cueing can be expected to affect both motor and perceptual timing. Here, we tested this hypothesis by assessing perceptual and motor timing in 15 IPD patients before and after a 4-week music training program with rhythmic auditory cueing. Long-term effects were assessed 1 month after the end of the training. Perceptual and motor timing was evaluated with a battery for the assessment of auditory sensorimotor and timing abilities and compared to that of age-, gender-, and education-matched healthy controls. Prior to training, IPD patients exhibited impaired perceptual and motor timing. Training improved patients' performance in tasks requiring synchronization with isochronous sequences, and enhanced their ability to adapt to durational changes in a sequence in hand tapping tasks. Benefits of cueing extended to time perception (duration discrimination and detection of misaligned beats in musical excerpts). The current results demonstrate that auditory cueing leads to benefits beyond gait and support the idea that coupling gait to rhythmic auditory cues in IPD patients relies on a neuronal network engaged in both perceptual and motor timing.

Source misattributions and false recognition errors: examining the role of perceptual resemblance and imagery generation processes.

PubMed

Foley, Mary Ann; Bays, Rebecca Brooke; Foy, Jeffrey; Woodfield, Mila

2015-01-01

In three experiments, we examine the extent to which participants' memory errors are affected by the perceptual features of an encoding series and imagery generation processes. Perceptual features were examined by manipulating the features associated with individual items as well as the relationships among items. An encoding instruction manipulation was included to examine the effects of explicit requests to generate images. In all three experiments, participants falsely claimed to have seen pictures of items presented as words, committing picture misattribution errors. These misattribution errors were exaggerated when the perceptual resemblance between pictures and images was relatively high (Experiment 1) and when explicit requests to generate images were omitted from encoding instructions (Experiments 1 and 2). When perceptual cues made the thematic relationships among items salient, the level and pattern of misattribution errors were also affected (Experiments 2 and 3). Results address alternative views about the nature of internal representations resulting in misattribution errors and refute the idea that these errors reflect only participants' general impressions or beliefs about what was seen.

Perception and the strongest sensory memory trace of multi-stable displays both form shortly after the stimulus onset.

PubMed

Pastukhov, Alexander

2016-02-01

We investigated the relation between perception and sensory memory of multi-stable structure-from-motion displays. The latter is an implicit visual memory that reflects a recent history of perceptual dominance and influences only the initial perception of multi-stable displays. First, we established the earliest time point when the direction of an illusory rotation can be reversed after the display onset (29-114 ms). Because our display manipulation did not bias perception towards a specific direction of illusory rotation but only signaled the change in motion, this means that the perceptual dominance was established no later than 29-114 ms after the stimulus onset. Second, we used orientation-selectivity of sensory memory to establish which display orientation produced the strongest memory trace and when this orientation was presented during the preceding prime interval (80-140 ms). Surprisingly, both estimates point towards the time interval immediately after the display onset, indicating that both perception and sensory memory form at approximately the same time. This suggests a tighter integration between perception and sensory memory than previously thought, warrants a reconsideration of its role in visual perception, and indicates that sensory memory could be a unique behavioral correlate of the earlier perceptual inference that can be studied post hoc.

Action Control: Independent Effects of Memory and Monocular Viewing on Reaching Accuracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Westwood, D.A.; Robertson, C.; Heath, M.

2005-01-01

Evidence suggests that perceptual networks in the ventral visual pathway are necessary for action control when targets are viewed with only one eye, or when the target must be stored in memory. We tested whether memory-linked (i.e., open-loop versus memory-guided actions) and monocular-linked effects (i.e., binocular versus monocular actions) on…

The Comparison of Visual Working Memory Representations with Perceptual Inputs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hyun, Joo-seok; Woodman, Geoffrey F.; Vogel, Edward K.; Hollingworth, Andrew; Luck, Steven J.

2009-01-01

The human visual system can notice differences between memories of previous visual inputs and perceptions of new visual inputs, but the comparison process that detects these differences has not been well characterized. In this study, the authors tested the hypothesis that differences between the memory of a stimulus array and the perception of a…

Research on Optical Transmitter and Receiver Module Used for High-Speed Interconnection between CPU and Memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Huimin; Liu, Fengman; Li, Baoxia; Xue, Haiyun; Wang, Haidong; Qiu, Delong; Zhou, Yunyan; Cao, Liqiang

2016-11-01

With the development of the multicore processor, the bandwidth and capacity of the memory, rather than the memory area, are the key factors in server performance. At present, however, the new architectures, such as fully buffered DIMM (FBDIMM), hybrid memory cube (HMC), and high bandwidth memory (HBM), cannot be commercially applied in the server. Therefore, a new architecture for the server is proposed. CPU and memory are separated onto different boards, and optical interconnection is used for the communication between them. Each optical module corresponds to each dual inline memory module (DIMM) with 64 channels. Compared to the previous technology, not only can the architecture realize high-capacity and wide-bandwidth memory, it also can reduce power consumption and cost, and be compatible with the existing dynamic random access memory (DRAM). In this article, the proposed module with system-in-package (SiP) integration is demonstrated. In the optical module, the silicon photonic chip is included, which is a promising technology to be applied in the next-generation data exchanging centers. And due to the bandwidth-distance performance of the optical interconnection, SerDes chips are introduced to convert the 64-bit data at 800 Mbps from/to 4-channel data at 12.8 Gbps after/before they are transmitted though optical fiber. All the devices are packaged on cheap organic substrates. To ensure the performance of the whole system, several optimization efforts have been performed on the two modules. High-speed interconnection traces have been designed and simulated with electromagnetic simulation software. Steady-state thermal characteristics of the transceiver module have been evaluated by ANSYS APLD based on finite-element methodology (FEM). Heat sinks are placed at the hotspot area to ensure the reliability of all working chips. Finally, this transceiver system based on silicon photonics is measured, and the eye diagrams of data and clock signals are verified.

Do the contents of working memory capture attention? Yes, but cognitive control matters.

PubMed

Han, Suk Won; Kim, Min-Shik

2009-10-01

There has been a controversy on whether working memory can guide attentional selection. Some researchers have reported that the contents of working memory guide attention automatically in visual search (D. Soto, D. Heinke, G. W. Humphreys, & M. J. Blanco, 2005). On the other hand, G.F. Woodman and S. J. Luck (2007) reported that they could not find any evidence of attentional capture by working memory. In the present study, we tried to find an integrative explanation for the different sets of results. We report evidence for attentional capture by working memory, but this effect was eliminated when search was perceptually demanding or the onset of the search was delayed long enough for cognitive control of search to be implemented under particular conditions. We suggest that perceptual difficulty and the time course of cognitive control as important factors that determine when information in working memory influences attention. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

The working memory Ponzo illusion: Involuntary integration of visuospatial information stored in visual working memory.

PubMed

Shen, Mowei; Xu, Haokui; Zhang, Haihang; Shui, Rende; Zhang, Meng; Zhou, Jifan

2015-08-01

Visual working memory (VWM) has been traditionally viewed as a mental structure subsequent to visual perception that stores the final output of perceptual processing. However, VWM has recently been emphasized as a critical component of online perception, providing storage for the intermediate perceptual representations produced during visual processing. This interactive view holds the core assumption that VWM is not the terminus of perceptual processing; the stored visual information rather continues to undergo perceptual processing if necessary. The current study tests this assumption, demonstrating an example of involuntary integration of the VWM content, by creating the Ponzo illusion in VWM: when the Ponzo illusion figure was divided into its individual components and sequentially encoded into VWM, the temporally separated components were involuntarily integrated, leading to the distorted length perception of the two horizontal lines. This VWM Ponzo illusion was replicated when the figure components were presented in different combinations and presentation order. The magnitude of the illusion was significantly correlated between VWM and perceptual versions of the Ponzo illusion. These results suggest that the information integration underling the VWM Ponzo illusion is constrained by the laws of visual perception and similarly affected by the common individual factors that govern its perception. Thus, our findings provide compelling evidence that VWM functions as a buffer serving perceptual processes at early stages. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Perceptual Grouping Enhances Visual Plasticity

PubMed Central

Mastropasqua, Tommaso; Turatto, Massimo

2013-01-01

Visual perceptual learning, a manifestation of neural plasticity, refers to improvements in performance on a visual task achieved by training. Attention is known to play an important role in perceptual learning, given that the observer's discriminative ability improves only for those stimulus feature that are attended. However, the distribution of attention can be severely constrained by perceptual grouping, a process whereby the visual system organizes the initial retinal input into candidate objects. Taken together, these two pieces of evidence suggest the interesting possibility that perceptual grouping might also affect perceptual learning, either directly or via attentional mechanisms. To address this issue, we conducted two experiments. During the training phase, participants attended to the contrast of the task-relevant stimulus (oriented grating), while two similar task-irrelevant stimuli were presented in the adjacent positions. One of the two flanking stimuli was perceptually grouped with the attended stimulus as a consequence of its similar orientation (Experiment 1) or because it was part of the same perceptual object (Experiment 2). A test phase followed the training phase at each location. Compared to the task-irrelevant no-grouping stimulus, orientation discrimination improved at the attended location. Critically, a perceptual learning effect equivalent to the one observed for the attended location also emerged for the task-irrelevant grouping stimulus, indicating that perceptual grouping induced a transfer of learning to the stimulus (or feature) being perceptually grouped with the task-relevant one. Our findings indicate that no voluntary effort to direct attention to the grouping stimulus or feature is necessary to enhance visual plasticity. PMID:23301100

Perceptual grouping enhances visual plasticity.

PubMed

Mastropasqua, Tommaso; Turatto, Massimo

2013-01-01

Visual perceptual learning, a manifestation of neural plasticity, refers to improvements in performance on a visual task achieved by training. Attention is known to play an important role in perceptual learning, given that the observer's discriminative ability improves only for those stimulus feature that are attended. However, the distribution of attention can be severely constrained by perceptual grouping, a process whereby the visual system organizes the initial retinal input into candidate objects. Taken together, these two pieces of evidence suggest the interesting possibility that perceptual grouping might also affect perceptual learning, either directly or via attentional mechanisms. To address this issue, we conducted two experiments. During the training phase, participants attended to the contrast of the task-relevant stimulus (oriented grating), while two similar task-irrelevant stimuli were presented in the adjacent positions. One of the two flanking stimuli was perceptually grouped with the attended stimulus as a consequence of its similar orientation (Experiment 1) or because it was part of the same perceptual object (Experiment 2). A test phase followed the training phase at each location. Compared to the task-irrelevant no-grouping stimulus, orientation discrimination improved at the attended location. Critically, a perceptual learning effect equivalent to the one observed for the attended location also emerged for the task-irrelevant grouping stimulus, indicating that perceptual grouping induced a transfer of learning to the stimulus (or feature) being perceptually grouped with the task-relevant one. Our findings indicate that no voluntary effort to direct attention to the grouping stimulus or feature is necessary to enhance visual plasticity.

"Disorganized in time": impact of bottom-up and top-down negative emotion generation on memory formation among healthy and traumatized adolescents.

PubMed

Guillery-Girard, Bérengère; Clochon, Patrice; Giffard, Bénédicte; Viard, Armelle; Egler, Pierre-Jean; Baleyte, Jean-Marc; Eustache, Francis; Dayan, Jacques

2013-09-01

"Travelling in time," a central feature of episodic memory is severely affected among individuals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with two opposite effects: vivid traumatic memories are unorganized in temporality (bottom-up processes), non-traumatic personal memories tend to lack spatio-temporal details and false recognitions occur more frequently that in the general population (top-down processes). To test the effect of these two types of processes (i.e. bottom-up and top-down) on emotional memory, we conducted two studies in healthy and traumatized adolescents, a period of life in which vulnerability to emotion is particularly high. Using negative and neutral images selected from the international affective picture system (IAPS), stimuli were divided into perceptual images (emotion generated by perceptual details) and conceptual images (emotion generated by the general meaning of the material). Both categories of stimuli were then used, along with neutral pictures, in a memory task with two phases (encoding and recognition). In both populations, we reported a differential effect of the emotional material on encoding and recognition. Negative perceptual scenes induced an attentional capture effect during encoding and enhanced the recollective distinctiveness. Conversely, the encoding of conceptual scenes was similar to neutral ones, but the conceptual relatedness induced false memories at retrieval. However, among individuals with PTSD, two subgroups of patients were identified. The first subgroup processed the scenes faster than controls, except for the perceptual scenes, and obtained similar performances to controls in the recognition task. The second subgroup group desmonstrated an attentional deficit in the encoding task with no benefit from the distinctiveness associated with negative perceptual scenes on memory performances. These findings provide a new perspective on how negative emotional information may have opposite influences on memory in

Role of processing speed and depressed mood on encoding, storage, and retrieval memory functions in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Brébion, Gildas; David, Anthony S; Bressan, Rodrigo A; Pilowsky, Lyn S

2007-01-01

The role of various types of slowing of processing speed, as well as the role of depressed mood, on each stage of verbal memory functioning in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia was investigated. Mixed lists of high- and low-frequency words were presented, and immediate and delayed free recall and recognition were required. Two levels of encoding were studied by contrasting the relatively automatic encoding of the high-frequency words and the more effortful encoding of the low-frequency words. Storage was studied by contrasting immediate and delayed recall. Retrieval was studied by contrasting free recall and recognition. Three tests of motor and cognitive processing speed were administered as well. Regression analyses involving the three processing speed measures revealed that cognitive speed was the only predictor of the recall and recognition of the low-frequency words. Furthermore, slowing in cognitive speed accounted for the deficit in recall and recognition of the low-frequency words relative to a healthy control group. Depressed mood was significantly associated with recognition of the low-frequency words. Neither processing speed nor depressed mood was associated with storage efficiency. It is concluded that both cognitive speed slowing and depressed mood impact on effortful encoding processes.

Identity modulates short-term memory for facial emotion.

PubMed

Galster, Murray; Kahana, Michael J; Wilson, Hugh R; Sekuler, Robert

2009-12-01

For some time, the relationship between processing of facial expression and facial identity has been in dispute. Using realistic synthetic faces, we reexamined this relationship for both perception and short-term memory. In Experiment 1, subjects tried to identify whether the emotional expression on a probe stimulus face matched the emotional expression on either of two remembered faces that they had just seen. The results showed that identity strongly influenced recognition short-term memory for emotional expression. In Experiment 2, subjects' similarity/dissimilarity judgments were transformed by multidimensional scaling (MDS) into a 2-D description of the faces' perceptual representations. Distances among stimuli in the MDS representation, which showed a strong linkage of emotional expression and facial identity, were good predictors of correct and false recognitions obtained previously in Experiment 1. The convergence of the results from Experiments 1 and 2 suggests that the overall structure and configuration of faces' perceptual representations may parallel their representation in short-term memory and that facial identity modulates the representation of facial emotion, both in perception and in memory. The stimuli from this study may be downloaded from http://cabn.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.

Identity modulates short-term memory for facial emotion

PubMed Central

Galster, Murray; Kahana, Michael J.; Wilson, Hugh R.; Sekuler, Robert

2010-01-01

For some time, the relationship between processing of facial expression and facial identity has been in dispute. Using realistic synthetic faces, we reexamined this relationship for both perception and short-term memory. In Experiment 1, subjects tried to identify whether the emotional expression on a probe stimulus face matched the emotional expression on either of two remembered faces that they had just seen. The results showed that identity strongly influenced recognition short-term memory for emotional expression. In Experiment 2, subjects’ similarity/dissimilarity judgments were transformed by multidimensional scaling (MDS) into a 2-D description of the faces’ perceptual representations. Distances among stimuli in the MDS representation, which showed a strong linkage of emotional expression and facial identity, were good predictors of correct and false recognitions obtained previously in Experiment 1. The convergence of the results from Experiments 1 and 2 suggests that the overall structure and configuration of faces’ perceptual representations may parallel their representation in short-term memory and that facial identity modulates the representation of facial emotion, both in perception and in memory. The stimuli from this study may be downloaded from http://cabn.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental. PMID:19897794

Familiarity Speeds Up Visual Short-term Memory Consolidation: Electrophysiological Evidence from Contralateral Delay Activities.

PubMed

Xie, Weizhen; Zhang, Weiwei

2018-01-01

To test how preexisting long-term memory influences visual STM, this study takes advantage of individual differences in participants' prior familiarity with Pokémon characters and uses an ERP component, the contralateral delay activity (CDA), to assess whether observers' prior stimulus familiarity affects STM consolidation and storage capacity. In two change detection experiments, consolidation speed, as indexed by CDA fractional area latency and/or early-window (500-800 msec) amplitude, was significantly associated with individual differences in Pokémon familiarity. In contrast, the number of remembered Pokémon stimuli, as indexed by Cowan's K and late-window (1500-2000 msec) CDA amplitude, was significantly associated with individual differences in Pokémon familiarity when STM consolidation was incomplete because of a short presentation of Pokémon stimuli (500 msec, Experiment 2), but not when STM consolidation was allowed to complete given sufficient encoding time (1000 msec, Experiment 1). Similar findings were obtained in between-group analyses when participants were separated into high-familiarity and low-familiarity groups based on their Pokémon familiarity ratings. Together, these results suggest that stimulus familiarity, as a proxy for the strength of preexisting long-term memory, primarily speeds up STM consolidation, which may subsequently lead to an increase in the number of remembered stimuli if consolidation is incomplete. These findings thus highlight the importance of research assessing how effects on representations (e.g., STM capacity) are in general related to (or even caused by) effects on processes (e.g., STM consolidation) in cognition.

[Classification of memory systems: a revision].

PubMed

Agrest, M

2001-12-01

The present paper exposes the arguments against considering memory as a monolytic entity and how is it to be divided into several systems in order to understand its operation. Historically this division was acknowledge by different authors but in the last few decades it received the confirmation from the scientific research. The most accepted taxonomy establishes the existence of two major memory systems: declarative and non declarative memory. The article also presents the arguments for and against this kind of division, as well as an alternative classification in five major systems: procedural, perceptual representation, semantic, primary and episodic.

Mild cognitive impairment is associated with poorer decision-making in community-based older persons.

PubMed

Han, S Duke; Boyle, Patricia A; James, Bryan D; Yu, Lei; Bennett, David A

2015-04-01

To test the hypothesis that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is associated with poorer financial and healthcare decision-making. Community-based epidemiological cohort study. Communities throughout northeastern Illinois. Older persons without dementia from the Rush Memory and Aging Project (N = 730). All participants underwent a detailed clinical evaluation and decision-making assessment using a measure that closely approximates materials used in real-world financial and healthcare settings. This allowed for measurement of total decision-making and financial and healthcare decision-making. Regression models were used to examine whether MCI was associated with a lower level of decision-making. In subsequent analyses, the relationship between specific cognitive systems (episodic memory, semantic memory, working memory, perceptual speed, visuospatial ability) and decision-making was explored in participants with MCI. MCI was associated with lower total, financial, and healthcare decision-making scores after accounting for the effects of age, education, and sex. The effect of MCI on total decision-making was equivalent to the effect of more than 10 additional years of age. Additional models showed that, when considering multiple cognitive systems, perceptual speed accounted for the most variance in decision-making in participants with MCI. Persons with MCI may have poorer financial and healthcare decision-making in real-world situations, and perceptual speed may be an important contributor to poorer decision-making in persons with MCI. © 2015, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2015, The American Geriatrics Society.

Brief daily exposures to Asian females reverses perceptual narrowing for Asian faces in Caucasian infants

PubMed Central

Anzures, Gizelle; Wheeler, Andrea; Quinn, Paul C.; Pascalis, Olivier; Slater, Alan M.; Heron-Delaney, Michelle; Tanaka, James W.; Lee, Kang

2012-01-01

Perceptual narrowing in the visual, auditory, and multisensory domains has its developmental origins in infancy. The present study shows that experimentally induced experience can reverse the effects of perceptual narrowing on infants’ visual recognition memory of other-race faces. Caucasian 8- to 10-month-olds who could not discriminate between novel and familiarized Asian faces at the beginning of testing were given brief daily experience with Asian female faces in the experimental condition and Caucasian female faces in the control condition. At the end of three weeks, only infants who received daily experience with Asian females showed above-chance recognition of novel Asian female and male faces. Further, infants in the experimental condition showed greater efficiency in learning novel Asian females compared to infants in the control condition. Thus, visual experience with a novel stimulus category can reverse the effects of perceptual narrowing in infancy via improved stimulus recognition and encoding. PMID:22625845

Perceptual organization and visual attention.

PubMed

Kimchi, Ruth

2009-01-01

Perceptual organization--the processes structuring visual information into coherent units--and visual attention--the processes by which some visual information in a scene is selected--are crucial for the perception of our visual environment and to visuomotor behavior. Recent research points to important relations between attentional and organizational processes. Several studies demonstrated that perceptual organization constrains attentional selectivity, and other studies suggest that attention can also constrain perceptual organization. In this chapter I focus on two aspects of the relationship between perceptual organization and attention. The first addresses the question of whether or not perceptual organization can take place without attention. I present findings demonstrating that some forms of grouping and figure-ground segmentation can occur without attention, whereas others require controlled attentional processing, depending on the processes involved and the conditions prevailing for each process. These findings challenge the traditional view, which assumes that perceptual organization is a unitary entity that operates preattentively. The second issue addresses the question of whether perceptual organization can affect the automatic deployment of attention. I present findings showing that the mere organization of some elements in the visual field by Gestalt factors into a coherent perceptual unit (an "object"), with no abrupt onset or any other unique transient, can capture attention automatically in a stimulus-driven manner. Taken together, the findings discussed in this chapter demonstrate the multifaceted, interactive relations between perceptual organization and visual attention.

Speaker's voice as a memory cue.

PubMed

Campeanu, Sandra; Craik, Fergus I M; Alain, Claude

2015-02-01

Speaker's voice occupies a central role as the cornerstone of auditory social interaction. Here, we review the evidence suggesting that speaker's voice constitutes an integral context cue in auditory memory. Investigation into the nature of voice representation as a memory cue is essential to understanding auditory memory and the neural correlates which underlie it. Evidence from behavioral and electrophysiological studies suggest that while specific voice reinstatement (i.e., same speaker) often appears to facilitate word memory even without attention to voice at study, the presence of a partial benefit of similar voices between study and test is less clear. In terms of explicit memory experiments utilizing unfamiliar voices, encoding methods appear to play a pivotal role. Voice congruency effects have been found when voice is specifically attended at study (i.e., when relatively shallow, perceptual encoding takes place). These behavioral findings coincide with neural indices of memory performance such as the parietal old/new recollection effect and the late right frontal effect. The former distinguishes between correctly identified old words and correctly identified new words, and reflects voice congruency only when voice is attended at study. Characterization of the latter likely depends upon voice memory, rather than word memory. There is also evidence to suggest that voice effects can be found in implicit memory paradigms. However, the presence of voice effects appears to depend greatly on the task employed. Using a word identification task, perceptual similarity between study and test conditions is, like for explicit memory tests, crucial. In addition, the type of noise employed appears to have a differential effect. While voice effects have been observed when white noise is used at both study and test, using multi-talker babble does not confer the same results. In terms of neuroimaging research modulations, characterization of an implicit memory effect

Broad-based visual benefits from training with an integrated perceptual-learning video game.

PubMed

Deveau, Jenni; Lovcik, Gary; Seitz, Aaron R

2014-06-01

Perception is the window through which we understand all information about our environment, and therefore deficits in perception due to disease, injury, stroke or aging can have significant negative impacts on individuals' lives. Research in the field of perceptual learning has demonstrated that vision can be improved in both normally seeing and visually impaired individuals, however, a limitation of most perceptual learning approaches is their emphasis on isolating particular mechanisms. In the current study, we adopted an integrative approach where the goal is not to achieve highly specific learning but instead to achieve general improvements to vision. We combined multiple perceptual learning approaches that have individually contributed to increasing the speed, magnitude and generality of learning into a perceptual-learning based video-game. Our results demonstrate broad-based benefits of vision in a healthy adult population. Transfer from the game includes; improvements in acuity (measured with self-paced standard eye-charts), improvement along the full contrast sensitivity function, and improvements in peripheral acuity and contrast thresholds. The use of this type of this custom video game framework built up from psychophysical approaches takes advantage of the benefits found from video game training while maintaining a tight link to psychophysical designs that enable understanding of mechanisms of perceptual learning and has great potential both as a scientific tool and as therapy to help improve vision. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Modelling memory colour region for preference colour reproduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeng, Huanzhao; Luo, Ronnier

2010-01-01

Colour preference adjustment is an essential step for colour image enhancement and perceptual gamut mapping. In colour reproduction for pictorial images, properly shifting colours away from their colorimetric originals may produce more preferred colour reproduction result. Memory colours, as a portion of the colour regions for colour preference adjustment, are especially important for preference colour reproduction. Identifying memory colours or modelling the memory colour region is a basic step to study preferred memory colour enhancement. In this study, we first created gamut for each memory colour region represented as a convex hull, and then used the convex hull to guide mathematical modelling to formulate the colour region for colour enhancement.

The Nature of the Influence of Speed on Adult Age Differences in Cognition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salthouse, Timothy A.

1994-01-01

Two studies of adults between the ages of 18 and 87 were conducted to determine the relations among age, motor speed, perceptual speed and 3 measures of cognitive performance: study time, decision time, and decision accuracy. Results indicated that increased age was associated with lower accuracy as well as with longer study and decision time.…

Short-term plasticity as a neural mechanism supporting memory and attentional functions.

PubMed

Jääskeläinen, Iiro P; Ahveninen, Jyrki; Andermann, Mark L; Belliveau, John W; Raij, Tommi; Sams, Mikko

2011-11-08

Based on behavioral studies, several relatively distinct perceptual and cognitive functions have been defined in cognitive psychology such as sensory memory, short-term memory, and selective attention. Here, we review evidence suggesting that some of these functions may be supported by shared underlying neuronal mechanisms. Specifically, we present, based on an integrative review of the literature, a hypothetical model wherein short-term plasticity, in the form of transient center-excitatory and surround-inhibitory modulations, constitutes a generic processing principle that supports sensory memory, short-term memory, involuntary attention, selective attention, and perceptual learning. In our model, the size and complexity of receptive fields/level of abstraction of neural representations, as well as the length of temporal receptive windows, increases as one steps up the cortical hierarchy. Consequently, the type of input (bottom-up vs. top down) and the level of cortical hierarchy that the inputs target, determine whether short-term plasticity supports purely sensory vs. semantic short-term memory or attentional functions. Furthermore, we suggest that rather than discrete memory systems, there are continuums of memory representations from short-lived sensory ones to more abstract longer-duration representations, such as those tapped by behavioral studies of short-term memory. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Computer Use and Its Effect on the Memory Process in Young and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alliprandini, Paula Mariza Zedu; Straub, Sandra Luzia Wrobel; Brugnera, Elisangela; de Oliveira, Tânia Pitombo; Souza, Isabela Augusta Andrade

2013-01-01

This work investigates the effect of computer use in the memory process in young and adults under the Perceptual and Memory experimental conditions. The memory condition involved the phases acquisition of information and recovery, on time intervals (2 min, 24 hours and 1 week) on situations of pre and post-test (before and after the participants…

An Event Related Potentials Study of the Effects of Age, Load and Maintenance Duration on Working Memory Recognition.

PubMed

Pinal, Diego; Zurrón, Montserrat; Díaz, Fernando