Browsing by Subject "Working memory capacity"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Assessment of Working Memory Capacity in Preschool Children Using the Missing Scan Task
    (Wiley, 2014) Roman, Adrienne S.; Pisoni, David B.; Kronenberger, William G.; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility and validity of a modified version of Buschke's missing scan methodology, the Missing Scan Task (MST), to assess working memory capacity (WMC) and cognitive control processes in preschool children 3-6 years in age. Forty typically developing monolingual English-speaking children between 36 and 84 months in age participated in the study. The children were tested on measures of WMC (MST), verbal and nonverbal memory (NEPSY Narrative Memory and Memory for Designs subtests), and language skills (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, fourth edition). Children showed increased working memory capacity scores with age, as measured by the MST, with significant differences between 3- and 5-year-olds and 3- and 6-year-olds. Significant correlations were also found between the MST and language and verbal and nonverbal memory scores. MSTscores still remained significantly correlated with the other measures of memory even after age and global language were accounted for in a regression analysis, demonstrating that the MST captures unique variance related specifically to WMC and cognitive control processes used to retrieve and scan information in short-term memory (STM). The results of this study demonstrate that the MST is a feasible and valid methodology for assessing WMC in preschool children as young 3 years of age.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Component Analysis of Simple Span vs. Complex Span Adaptive Working Memory Exercises: A Randomized, Controlled Trial
    (Elsevier, 2012) Gibson, Bradley S.; Kronenberger, William G.; Gondoli, Dawn M.; Johnson, Ann C.; Morrissey, Rebecca A.; Steeger, Christine M.; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    There has been growing interest in using adaptive training interventions such as Cogmed-RM to increase the capacity of working memory (WM), but this intervention may not be optimally designed. For instance, Cogmed-RM can target the primary memory (PM) component of WM capacity, but not the secondary memory (SM) component. The present study hypothesized that Cogmed-RM does not target SM capacity because the simple span exercises it uses may not cause a sufficient amount of information to be lost from PM during training. To investigate, we randomly assigned participants to either a standard (simple span; N = 31) or a modified (complex span; N = 30) training condition. The main findings showed that SM capacity did not improve, even in the modified training condition. Hence, the potency of span-based WM interventions cannot be increased simply by converting simple span exercises into complex span exercises.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Exploration of an Adaptive Training Regimen that can Target the Secondary Memory Component of Working Memory Capacity
    (Springer, 2013) Gibson, Bradley S.; Gondoli, Dawn M.; Kronenberger, William G.; Johnson, Ann C.; Steeger, Christine M.; Morrissey, Rebecca A.; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    The dual-component model contends that working memory (WM) capacity consists of two components. The first is a flexible attention component that involves the active maintenance of a limited amount of information in primary memory (PM), and the second is a controlled retrieval component that involves a cue-dependent search of secondary memory (SM) for information that has been lost from PM. Recent evidence has suggested that the adaptive WM training regimen known as "Cogmed-RM" is not optimally designed, because it only targets PM abilities, not SM abilities. The present study was conducted to investigate whether Cogmed-RM could be modified to target SM abilities by decreasing the recall accuracy threshold that defines individual ability during training. The main findings suggested that the SM component of WM capacity could be targeted by lowering the recall accuracy threshold. The present findings are important because they suggest that adaptive training regimens can be designed that selectively target specific components of WM capacity, and they raise the possibility that the potency of existing training regimens can be increased.