Cognitive Offloading: Structuring the Environment to Improve Children's Working Memory Task Performance

Research has shown that adults can engage in cognitive offloading, whereby internal processes are offloaded onto the environment to help task performance. Here, we investigate an application of this approach with children, in particular children with poor working memory. Participants were required to remember and recall sequences of colors by placing colored blocks in the correct serial order. In one condition the blocks were arranged to facilitate cognitive offloading (i.e., grouped by color), whereas in the other condition they were arranged randomly. Across two experiments (total N = 166) the ordered condition improved task performance for children with low working memory ability. In addition, participants in Experiment 2 rated the difficulty of the two arrangements and performed a further condition in which they were given an opportunity to freely arrange the blocks before completing the task. Despite performing better in the ordered condition, children with low working memory ability did not rate the ordered arrangement as easier, nor did they choose an ordered arrangement when given the opportunity to do so. This research shows that cognitive offloading can also be a useful process in populations other than typical adults, and the implications of this work for supporting children with poor working memory are discussed.     

Imitation of body postures and hand movements in children with specific language impairment

Within the domain-general theory of language impairment, this study examined body posture and hand movement imitation in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and in their age-matched peers. Participants included 40 children with SLI (5 years 3 months to 6 years 10 months of age) and 40 children with typical language development (5 years 3 months to 6 years 7 months of age). Five tests were used to examine imitation and its underlying cognitive and motor skills such as kinesthesia, working memory, and gross motor coordination. It was hypothesized that children with SLI show a weakness in imitation of body postures and that this deficit is not equally influenced by the underlying cognitive and motor skills. There was a group effect in each cognitive and motor task, but only gross motor coordination proved to be a strong predictor of imitation in children with SLI. In contrast, hand movement imitation was strongly predicted by performance in the Kinesthesia task in typically developing children. Thus, the findings show not only that children with SLI performed more poorly on the imitation tasks than their typically developing peers but also that the groups’ performances showed qualitative differences. The results of the current study provide additional support to the view that the weaknesses in children with SLI are not limited to the verbal domain.     

Interactional aspects of cognitive organization

Further propositions are formulated towards a comprehensive structural developmental theory of cognitive change, begun in Langer (1969a, 1969b). Here, the analytic focus is upon: (a) The organization of the subject's assimilatory operations and accomodatory figurations; (b) the intrinsic coordinations between the theoretical and empirical cognitions constructed, respectively, by these two kinds of functional structures; and (c) the cognitive developmental changes produced by intrinsic coordinations. Derivative empirical hypotheses are considered in light of findings summarized here and elsewhere.     

Variation in working memory capacity and cognitive control: goal maintenance and microadjustments of control

Variation in working memory capacity (WMC) and cognitive control was examined in four experiments. In the experiments high- and low-WMC individuals performed a choice reaction time task (Experiment 1), a version of the antisaccade task (Experiment 2), a version of the Stroop task (Experiment 3), and an arrow version of the flanker task (Experiment 4). An examination of response time distributions suggested that high- and low-WMC individuals primarily differed in the slowest responses in each experiment, consistent with the notion that WMC is related to active maintenance abilities. Examination of two indicators of microadjustments of control (posterror slowing and conflict adaptation effects) suggested no differences between high- and low-WMC individuals. Collectively these results suggest that variation in WMC is related to some, but not all, cognitive control operations. The results are interpreted within the executive attention theory of WMC.     

The effects of cognitive demand upon relationships between working memory and cognitive skills

The present study explored the effects of cognitive demand upon relationships between working memory and cognitive skills. Both children and adults were tested on a measure of short-term memory and three measures of counting span, which varied in cognitive demand. When statistically controlling for short-term memory and the speed of counting operations, the more demanding the counting-span task, the closer its relationship with cognitive skills. The results are discussed in terms of practical and theoretical implications for working memory research.     

Field dependence-independence from a working memory perspective: a dual-task investigation of the Hidden Figures test

Field dependence-independence (FDI) is a construct intensively investigated within cognitive style research, but its cognitive underpinnings are not clearly specified. We propose that performance on FDI tasks primarily reflects the operations of the visuospatial and executive components of working memory. We tested this hypothesis in a dual-task experiment with a commonly used measure of FDI, the Hidden Figures Test. The results showed that performance on this test was impaired by concurrent performance of secondary tasks that primarily tap the visuospatial component (spatial tapping) and the executive component (2-back and random number generation), but was almost unaffected by other secondary tasks (simple tapping and articulatory suppression). Moreover, an analysis of secondary task performance ruled out the possibility of strategic trade-offs and revealed an intriguing dissociation for two different sets of "randomness" indices for the random number generation task. These results support the hypothesised mapping between FDI and working memory components and suggest that the dual-task paradigm can provide a useful way to bring underspecified constructs like FDI into closer alignment with theoretical ideas developed within cognitive psychology.     

The effects of cognitive demand upon relationships between working memory and cognitive skills

The present study explored the effects of cognitive demand upon relationships between working memory and cognitive skills. Both children and adults were tested on a measure of short-term memory and three measures of counting span, which varied in cognitive demand. When statistically controlling for short-term memory and the speed of counting operations, the more demanding the counting-span task, the closer its relationship with cognitive skills. The results are discussed in terms of practical and theoretical implications for working memory research.     

The structure ofAND coordinations in children's narratives

Narratives of 3 1/2-to 9 1/2-year-old children were searched for AND coordinations. Only half of the AND utterances of the youngest compared to four-fifths of those of the oldest children were fully formed, syntactically correct coordinations. The latter were classified as phrasal coordinations, redundant sententials (i.e., potential phrasals), or nonredundant sentential coordinations. Sentential coordinations predominated, especially among older children. Direction of redundancy (or potential redundancy) was important: forward forms predominated over backward forms. Differences in form of the children's coordinations often reflected differences in meaning; this was true for backward direction forms of phrasal versus sentential coordination, although not for most forward direction forms.The authors would like to thank Michael Bruce-Lockhart for the development and use of the NARRAN software package. For more information about NARRAN or its availability, write to the first author. This research was supported by National Science and Engineering Research Council grant A-0513 to the first author.     

Effects of classroom bilingualism on task‐shifting,verbal memory,and word learning in children

We examined the effects of classroom bilingual experience in children on an array of cognitive skills. Monolingual English‐speaking children were compared with children who spoke English as the native language and who had been exposed to Spanish in the context of dual‐immersion schooling for an average of 2 years. The groups were compared on a measure of non‐linguistic task‐shifting; measures of verbal short‐term and working memory; and measures of word learning. The two groups of children did not differ on measures of non‐linguistic task‐shifting and verbal short‐term memory. However, the classroom‐exposure bilingual group outperformed the monolingual group on the measure of verbal working memory and a measure of word learning. Together, these findings indicate that while exposure to a second language in a classroom setting may not be sufficient to engender changes in cognitive control, it can facilitate verbal memory and verbal learning.     

Differential constraints on the working memory and reading abilities of individuals with learning difficulties and typically developing children

This study examined the factors that constrain the working memory span performance and reading ability of individuals with generalized learning difficulties. In the study, 50 individuals with learning difficulties (LD) and 50 typically developing children (TD) matched for reading age completed two working memory span tasks. Participants also completed independent measures of the processing and storage operations involved in each working memory span task and Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices. The results showed that despite an equivalent level of working memory span, the relative importance of the constraints on working memory differed between the groups. In addition, working memory span was not closely related to word recognition or sentence comprehension performance in the LD group. These results suggest that the working memory span performance of LD and TD individuals may reflect different working memory limitations and that individuals with generalized learning difficulties may approach cognitive tasks in a qualitatively different way from that of typically developing individuals.     

工作记忆广度：资源限制、记忆消退还是转换机制？

为了检验工作记忆广度有限性的3种假说,即资源限制假说、记忆消退假说和转换机制假说,实验要求被试首先完成一项转换效率任务,然后完成工作记忆广度任务。结果发现,加工负荷对工作记忆广度具有重要影响,保持时间不影响工作记忆广度,转换效率与工作记忆广度也没有显著相关。实验结果支持工作记忆广度受认知资源限制的观点     

Speed of processing, anticipation, inhibition and working memory in bilinguals

Literature on the so-called bilingual advantage is directed towards the investigation of whether the mastering of two languages fosters cognitive skills in the non-verbal domain. The present study aimed to evaluate whether the bilingual advantage in non-verbal skills could be best defined as domain-general or domain-specific, and, in the latter case, at identifying the basic cognitive skills involved. Bilingual and monolingual participants were divided into two different age groups (children, youths) and were tested on a battery of elementary cognitive tasks which included a choice reaction time task, a go/no-go task, two working memory tasks (numbers and symbols) and an anticipation task. Bilingual and monolingual children did not differ from each other except for the anticipation task, where bilinguals were found to be faster and more accurate than monolinguals. These findings suggest that anticipation, which has received little attention to date, is an important cognitive domain which needs to be evaluated to a greater extent both in bilingual and monolingual participants.     

Executive functioning in preschool children: performance on A-not-B and other delayed response format tasks

The A-not-B (AB) task has been hypothesized to measure executive/frontal lobe function; however, the developmental and measurement characteristics of this task have not been investigated. Performances on AB and comparison tasks adapted from developmental and neuroscience literature was examined in 117 preschool children (ages 23-66 months). Age significantly predicted performance on AB, Delayed Alternation, Spatial Reversal, Color Reversal, and Self-Control tasks. A four-factor analytic model best fit task performance data. AB task indices loaded on two factors with measures from the Self-Control and Delayed Alternation tasks, respectively. AB indices did not load with those from the reversal tasks despite similarities in task administration and presumed cognitive demand (working memory). These results indicate that AB is sensitive to individual differences in age-related performance in preschool children and suggest that AB performance is related to both working memory and inhibition processes in this age range.     

Socio-cognitive conflict and peer interaction: Development of compensation

The purpose of this study was to examine under which social conditions cognitive development of children at the same cognitive development level will be stimulated. One hundred and two children (mean age 7.8 years), understanding conversation of area quantity, but not yet able to grasp the compensatory relationships between the dimensions of length and width of an area, participated in two experimental conditions in which the developmental processes of socio-cognitive conflict and coordination were evoked. The results indicate that the resolution of the socio-cognitive conflict and the occurence of coordination is higher in individual than in dyadic conditions, and higher in (inter-group) competitive and (adult) supervised conditions than in conditions were task execution was left to the spontaneous initiative of the children themselves. Cognitive developmental progress generalized from the area concept to liquid and mass concepts.     

“热”执行对注意缺陷多动障碍和阅读障碍儿童言语工作记忆的影响

ADHD儿童在与背外侧前额叶(DLPFC)相关的"冷"执行功能上的缺陷已大量证实,但在与眼眶和中前额叶皮层(OMPFC)相关的"热"执行功能上,ADHD儿童是否存在缺陷则未可知。与儿童赌博任务实验范式(该任务中"热"启动对"冷"执行起到抑制作用)不同,本研究考察趣味言语N-back任务是否对ADHD和阅读障碍儿童的成绩有促进作用。枯燥N-back任务考察的是言语工作记忆的纯认知特征,而趣味任务则卷入了"热"执行对"冷"执行的影响。结果表明,在枯燥任务上,ADHD和阅读障碍儿童的成绩均明显低于正常儿童,二者之间差异不显著,在趣味任务成绩上,ADHD儿童与正常儿童的成绩没有显著差异,而阅读障碍儿童成绩落后于正常控制组和ADHD组,在成绩变化的趋势上,ADHD儿童在趣味任务上成绩明显提高,而阅读障碍儿童则无明显改善。结果说明ADHD和阅读障碍儿童的言语工作记忆均存在明显的缺陷,但是机制不同,"热"执行对提高ADHD的言语工作记忆有明显的促进作用,ADHD的"冷"执行缺陷能够通过"热"执行的调节得到改善。     

Implicit learning: Robustness in the face of psychiatric disorders

The performance of a group of psychiatric inpatients on two different cognitive tasks was compared with that of a control group of college undergraduates. The task in the first experiment was implicit learning of a complex, synthetic grammar; the task in the second experiment was explicit learning of relatively simple letter-to-number matching rules. In the first experiment, differences between the normals and the psychiatrically impaired were found on the preliminary memorization task but not on the implicit grammar learning task; in the second experiment, differences were observed on all phases of the experiment, with the inpatients performing no better than chance. These findings provide support for the hypothesis that, under appropriate conditions, individuals suffering from serious disorders may show no deficits when working with complex and abstract stimulus domains while showing serious performance problems when working with relatively simple, concrete stimuli. The key factor is that the former were presented as tasks that tap nonreflective, implicit processes, whereas the latter were put forward as ones that recruit conscious, explicit processes.The experiments are based in part on studies reported in Abrams (1987). Preparation of this article was supported in part by a grant from the City University of New York PSC-CUNY Research Award Program, Brooklyn College of CUNY.     

高功能孤独症幼儿空间工作记忆的组块加工缺陷

孤独症谱系障碍者存在空间工作记忆加工缺陷,其具体受损环节尚不明确。组块是一种有效的策略性信息编码方式,是空间工作记忆的关键环节。高度结构化的刺激容易形成高水平组块,因此,刺激结构化程度对记忆效果的影响能够反映个体的组块加工能力。研究采用Sternberg空间工作记忆任务、Corsi空间广度任务,加入刺激结构化因素,考察高功能孤独症幼儿是否存在组块加工缺陷,并探讨组块加工是否直接影响到空间工作记忆容量。实验1采用Sternberg空间工作记忆任务,结果表明,ASD幼儿存在明显的组块加工缺陷。在易于组块的高结构化条件下,健康幼儿的记忆成绩明显较高,而ASD幼儿在高、低结构化条件下的记忆成绩并无显著差异。实验2采用Corsi空间广度任务,结果显示,不论高、低结构化条件,ASD幼儿的空间工作记忆容量均显著低于健康幼儿。但ASD幼儿由于存在组块加工缺陷,在高、低结构化条件下的记忆成绩差异较健康幼儿小。因此,ASD幼儿的组块能力一定程度上影响了空间工作记忆容量。此外,记忆存储器的异常可能也是ASD幼儿空间工作记忆容量不足的重要原因。研究表明,ASD幼儿的空间组块缺陷主要由于弱中央统合的认知风格,他们缺乏自上而下的组块加工动机,难以主动对刺激形成高水平组块编码,从而影响记忆效果。     

New Insights into the role of the phonological loop in task switching: evidence from three different age groups

ABSTRACT

The phonological loop plays an important role in task switching. Until now, however, it has been unclear whether it is the maintenance of the task sequence or the retrieval of the task goal that requires phonological processing. In the present study, 60 participants (20 children, 20 adolescents, 20 young adults) performed three phonological working-memory tests before they switched between two tasks in a cue-present condition (random task sequence) and in a cue-absent condition (predictable task sequence). Results revealed that better phonological and central-executive working-memory performance predicted lower switch costs. In line with age-differentiation of cognitive abilities switching was less coupled with working memory in adults compared to children and adolescents. Interestingly, however, relations were only demonstrated in the cue-present but not in the cue-absent condition, indicating that it is more the retrieval of the task goal than the maintenance of the task sequence that requires the involvement of phonological processing.     

Synergies between processing and memory in children’s reading span

Previous research has established the relevance of working memory for cognitive development. Yet the factors responsible for shaping performance in the complex span tasks used to assess working memory capacity are not fully understood. We report a study of reading span in 7‐ to 11‐year‐old children that addresses several contemporary theoretical issues. We demonstrate that both the timing and the accuracy of recall are affected by the presence or absence of a semantic connection between the processing requirement and the memoranda. Evidence that there can be synergies between processing and memory argues against the view that complex span simply measures the competition between these activities. We also demonstrate a consistent relationship between the rate of completing processing operations (sentence reading) and recall accuracy. At the same time, the shape and strength of this function varies with the task configuration. Taken together, these results demonstrate the potential for reconstructive influences to shape working memory performance among children.     

Representation of memory for order of mental operations in cognitive tasks

Recent research shows that people learning a cognitive task acquire a memory for the order of operations applied, independent of the data to which those operations were applied. We designed two experiments to show how this sequence memory is represented. Experiment 1 compared predictions based on 3 possible sequence representation methods: composition, dyad transition, and associative chain. Latency and error results from a simple sequential task supported the associative chain representation. The associative links between operations presumably enhance performance by priming subsequent operations but do not operate in an all-or-none fashion. Experiment 2 explored whether transfer items that matched the first 2 rules and first 3 elements of a training item could bias participants toward executing a composed production learned during training. Latency and undetected error results were consistent with an associative chain representation but not with additional predictions made by the composition representation. These two experiments support the representation of operation sequences in memory as an associative chain.