Learning a map of environment: The role of visuo‐spatial abilities in young and older adults

The present study examines age‐related differences between young and older adults in spatial mental representation derived from learning a realistic city map. A sample of 30 young (20–30‐years) and 30 older (60–72 years) adults learned a simplified map of a city; afterwards participants performed map‐drawing and pointing‐aligned and counter‐aligned tasks. Tasks measuring visuo‐spatial abilities were also administered to explore their relationship with map learning. Results showed an age‐related impairment in older adults in both map tasks, as well as in visuo‐spatial ones. Furthermore, performance on counter‐aligned pointing was poorer than on aligned pointing in young and older adults, and its relationship with visuo‐spatial abilities changed as a function of age group: The performance of counter‐aligned pointing in older adults was related to all visuo‐spatial abilities, and in young adults with perspective‐taking measures only. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The development of creative cognition across adolescence: distinct trajectories for insight and divergent thinking

We examined developmental trajectories of creative cognition across adolescence. Participants (N = 98), divided into four age groups (12/13 yrs, 15/16 yrs, 18/19 yrs, and 25–30 yrs), were subjected to a battery of tasks gauging creative insight (visual; verbal) and divergent thinking (verbal; visuo‐spatial). The two older age groups outperformed the two younger age groups on insight tasks. The 25–30‐year‐olds outperformed the two youngest age groups on the originality measure of verbal divergent thinking. No age‐group differences were observed for verbal divergent thinking fluency and flexibility. On divergent thinking in the visuo‐spatial domain, however, only 15/16‐year‐olds outperformed 12/13‐year‐olds; a model with peak performance for 15/16‐years‐old showed the best fit. The results for the different creativity processes are discussed in relation to cognitive and related neurobiological models. We conclude that mid‐adolescence is a period of not only immaturities but also of creative potentials in the visuo‐spatial domain, possibly related to developing control functions and explorative behavior.     

Procedural Multimedia Presentations: The Effects of Working Memory and Task Complexity on Instruction Time and Assembly Accuracy

Procedural text conveys information of a series of steps to be performed. This study examined the role of verbal and visuo‐spatial WM in comprehension and execution of assembly instructions, as a function of format (text, images, multimedia) and task complexity (three or five steps). One hundred and eight participants read and executed 27 instructions to assemble a LEGO^TM object, in single and dual task conditions. Study times and errors during assembly were measured. Participants processed faster pictorial and multimedia instructions than text instructions, and made fewer errors in the execution of multimedia instructions. Dual task affected more text or picture‐only, than multimedia presentation. A verbal secondary task caused more errors in text or picture‐only presentations, and spatial secondary task also caused interference in text‐only instructions. Overall, these results support the multimedia advantage, and the role of both verbal and visuo‐spatial WM, when understanding instructions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Developmental changes in the engagement of episodic retrieval processes and their relationship with working memory during the period of middle childhood

We examined the development of children's engagement of the episodic retrieval processes of recollection and familiarity and their relationship with working memory (WM). Ninety‐six children (24 in four groups aged 8, 9, 10, and 11 years) and 24 adults performed an episodic memory (EM) task involving old/new, remember/know (R/K), and source memory judgements and numerous WM tasks that assessed verbal and spatial components of WM and delayed short‐term memory (STM). Developmental changes were observed in EM with younger children (8‐, 9‐, 10‐year‐olds) making fewer remember responses than 11‐year‐olds and adults while 11‐year‐olds did not differ from adults. Only children aged 10 years plus showed a relationship between EM and WM. EM was related to verbal executive WM in 10‐ and 11‐year‐old children suggesting that children at this stage use verbal strategies to aid EM. In contrast, EM was related to spatial executive WM in adults. The engagement of episodic retrieval processes appears to be selectively related to executive components of verbal and spatial WM, the pattern of which differs in children and adults.     

Age-specific differences of dual n-back training

Age-related decline in executive functions can be decisive in performing everyday tasks autonomously. Working memory (WM) is closely related to executive functions, and training of WM has yielded evidence toward cognitive plasticity in older adults. The training effects often transfer to untrained tasks and functions. These effects have mostly been shown in processes such as WM and attention, whereas studies investigating transfer to executive functions have been scarce. We trained older adults aged 57–73 years in a WM training task that was reported to be effective in producing transfer in young adults. The training intervention consisted of a dual n-back task including independently processed auditory and visual n-back tasks. We investigated transfer to tasks engaging executive functions, and compared the effects in older adults to those reported in young adults. We found that both training groups improved in the training task. Although the training effect in older adults was smaller than the training effect in young adults, the older adults still showed a notable improvement so that after training they performed on the same level as young adults without training. The older adults also showed transfer to an untrained WM updating task, a result that was in accordance with the findings in young adults; other transfer effects in older adults were lacking. We conclude that although transfer effects were scarce, the present study provides encouraging evidence toward the possibilities to compensate for age-related decline in executive functions by a WM training intervention.     

Visuo‐spatial play experience: forerunner of visuo‐spatial achievement in preadolescent and adolescent boys and girls?

This cross‐sectional study explored whether participation, from early childhood, in play involving different cognitive abilities predicts visuo‐spatial achievement at ages 9, 12, and 15. Based on parental assessment, prior and present practice of spatial manipulation play was found to be consistently more frequent in boys than in girls; the reverse held true for verbal expression play. Whereas boys did not significantly outperform girls in three visuo‐spatial tasks, girls were superior on a contrastive vocabulary task. In general, with IQ statistically controlled, regression analyses showed that estimated past and present spatial manipulation play predicted both genders' proficiency in the water‐level task and Embedded Figures Test, as did mothers' socioeconomic status for Block Design performance. Contrastingly, a negative relation was established between spatial manipulation play and vocabulary scores. Similar to the activity‐ability association often identified among adults, the relation established here between spatial play experience and visuo‐spatial ability was only modest. Further research should aim at more definitive conclusions through augmenting both diversity in the visuo‐spatial skills measured and sophistication in play behaviour appraisal. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Working memory training in older adults: evidence of transfer and maintenance effects

Few studies have examined working memory (WM) training-related gains and their transfer and maintenance effects in older adults. This present research investigates the efficacy of a verbal WM training program in adults aged 65-75 years, considering specific training gains on a verbal WM (criterion) task as well as transfer effects on measures of visuospatial WM, short-term memory, inhibition, processing speed, and fluid intelligence. Maintenance of training benefits was evaluated at 8-month follow-up. Trained older adults showed higher performance than did controls on the criterion task and maintained this benefit after 8 months. Substantial general transfer effects were found for the trained group, but not for the control one. Transfer maintenance gains were found at follow-up, but only for fluid intelligence and processing speed tasks. The results are discussed in terms of cognitive plasticity in older adults.     

Parental socioeconomic status and the neural basis of arithmetic: differential relations to verbal and visuo‐spatial representations

We examined the relation of parental socioeconomic status (SES) to the neural bases of subtraction in school‐age children (9‐ to 12‐year‐olds). We independently localized brain regions subserving verbal versus visuo‐spatial representations to determine whether the parental SES‐related differences in children's reliance on these neural representations vary as a function of math skill. At higher SES levels, higher skill was associated with greater recruitment of the left temporal cortex, identified by the verbal localizer. At lower SES levels, higher skill was associated with greater recruitment of right parietal cortex, identified by the visuo‐spatial localizer. This suggests that depending on parental SES, children engage different neural systems to solve subtraction problems. Furthermore, SES was related to the activation in the left temporal and frontal cortex during the independent verbal localizer task, but it was not related to activation during the independent visuo‐spatial localizer task. Differences in activation during the verbal localizer task in turn were related to differences in activation during the subtraction task in right parietal cortex. The relation was stronger at lower SES levels. This result suggests that SES‐related differences in the visuo‐spatial regions during subtraction might be based in SES‐related verbal differences.     

The effects of age and professional expertise on working memory performance

Differences in professional choice and experience may explain age differences in working memory performance of elderly people. The aim of this study was to examine whether expertise and prolonged practice in verbal and visuo‐spatial abilities reduce age differences in laboratory working memory tasks. The effects of age and expertise on working memory performance were examined in three age groups in two different experiments. Firstly, the role of visuo‐spatial expertise was analysed by examining age differences in architects. Secondly, people with extensive experience in verbal abilities (literary people) were tested in order to evaluate the effect of professional verbal experience. Architects and literary people outperformed a group of unselected age peers on tasks related to professional expertise only, but not on general working memory tests. There was no interaction between age and experience, suggesting that professional experience does not increase differences between experts and non experts and cannot modulate age‐related effects. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self-initiated spatial working memory in young and older adults

The age-related decline in working memory (WM) has been studied extensively. Yet, research has focused mainly on one aspect of memory, in which older adults memorised information provided to them, neglecting the frequent everyday behaviour in which memory is self-initiated (SI), meaning that individuals memorise information they selected themselves. The present study used a modified spatial span task in which young and older adults memorised spatial sequences they constructed themselves, or random sequences provided to them. The results revealed that young and older adults carefully planned and constructed structured spatial sequences, by minimising distances between successive locations, and by selecting sequences with fewer path crossings and with more linear shapes. Older adults constructed sequences that were even more structured in some aspects. Young and older adults benefited from self-initiation to the same extent, showing similar age-related declines in SI and provided spatial WM. Overall, the study shows that older adults have access to metacognitive knowledge on the structure of efficient WM representations that benefit accuracy, and shows that older adults can use strategic encoding processes efficiently when encoding is SI. More generally, SI WM explores an important aspect of behaviour, demonstrating how older adults shape their environment to facilitate cognitive functioning.     

Movement control in older adults: does old age mean middle of the road?

Old age is associated with poorer movement skill, as indexed by reduced speed and accuracy. Nevertheless, reductions in speed and accuracy can also reflect compensation as well as deficit. We used a manual tracing and a driving task to identify generalized spatial and temporal compensations and deficits associated with old age. In Experiment 1, participants used a hand-held stylus to trace a path. In Experiment 2, participants steered along paths in a virtual reality driving simulator. In both experiments, participants were required to stay within the boundaries while we manipulated task difficulty by changing path width or movement speed. The older group showed worse performance in the highly constrained conditions. Corner cutting effectively reduces the curvature of bends but yields a greater risk of error (i.e., clipping the path or road edge). Corner cutting is thus less risky on wider paths, and we found that corner cutting increased for both age groups in both tasks when paths were wider. Crucially, we observed a greater degree of corner cutting in the young group compared with the old, suggesting the old group compensated for decreased motor skill with "middle-of-the-road" behavior. Enforcing increased speed caused all participants to increase corner cutting. Thus, older participants showed spatial compensation for decreased skill by biasing their position toward the middle of the path in both a manual and steering task. External constraints (narrow paths and fast speeds) prevented this strategy and revealed age-related declines in skills central to manual control and driving.     

The role of working memory capacity and interference resolution mechanisms in task switching

Theories of task switching have emphasized a number of control mechanisms that may support the ability to flexibly switch between tasks. The present study examined the extent to which individual differences in working memory (WM) capacity and two measures of interference resolution, response–distractor inhibition and resistance to proactive interference (PI), account for variability in task switching, including global costs, local costs, and N-2 repetition costs. A total of 102 young and 60 older adults were tested on a battery of tasks. Composite scores were created for WM capacity, response–distractor inhibition, and resistance to PI; shifting was indexed by rate residual scores, which combine response time and accuracy and account for individual differences in processing speed. Composite scores served as predictors of task switching. WM was significantly related to global switch costs. While resistance to PI and WM explained some variance in local costs, these effects did not reach significance. In contrast, none of the control measures explained variance in N-2 repetition costs. Furthermore, age effects were only evident for N-2 repetition costs, with older adults demonstrating larger costs than young adults. Results are discussed within the context of theoretical models of task switching.     

Can emotional content reduce the age gap in visual working memory? Evidence from two tasks

Ageing is associated with declines in several cognitive abilities including working memory (WM). The goal of the present study was to assess whether emotional information could reduce the age gap in the quantity and quality (precision) of representations in visual WM. Young and older adults completed a serial image recognition (SIR) task and a colour-image binding (CIB) task. Results of the SIR task showed worse performance for negative than neutral and positive images within the older group, hence enlarging the age gap in WM. In the CIB task, recall precision was lower in the old than young adults, showing an ageing decline in the quality of WM representations. Positive images tended to improve precision, but this boost was similar for both age groups. In sum, emotional content did not reduce the age gap in visual WM.     

The influence of training task stimuli on transfer effects of working memory training in aging

IntroductionWorking memory (WM) training is known to produce benefits in older adults’ WM. Transfer effects to untrained abilities, however, remain controversial and several aspects are thought to influence the generalization of benefits, including the kind of stimuli used in the training tasks, an aspect rarely addressed in older adults.ObjectiveThe present study had two aims: (1) to test the efficacy of a visuospatial WM training procedure in older adults, in terms of specific and transfer effects; (2) to examine in two experiments whether the type of stimuli used in the training task influences the training's effectiveness. Experiment 1 adopted images with a neutral valence while experiment 2 used emotionally positive images based on evidence that older adults tend to remember positive stimuli better. In both experiments, specific training-related gains in a visuospatial WM task (the criterion task) and transfer effects on measures of verbal WM, visuospatial short-term memory, processing speed and reasoning were examined. Maintenance of training benefits was also assessed at an 8-month follow-up.MethodSeventy older adult (63–75 years old) volunteers (35 for experiment 1, and 35 for experiment 2) were randomly assigned to a training or active control group. The same visuospatial WM training procedure was used in both experiments, manipulating only the type of stimuli used (neutral in experiment 1 and emotionally positive in experiment 2).ResultsIn both experiments, only trained participants showed specific benefits in the WM criterion task. These gains were also maintained at the follow-up, but no transfer effects were identified.ConclusionOverall, our findings using the present visuospatial WM training paradigm suggest that it is less effective, in terms of transfer effects, than the same paradigm administered verbally in a previous study, regardless of the type of stimuli used in WM training tasks (neutral or emotionally positive stimuli).     

The extent of working memory deficits associated with Williams syndrome: exploration of verbal and spatial domains and executively controlled processes

The present study investigated verbal and spatial working memory (WM) functioning in individuals with the neuro-developmental disorder Williams syndrome (WS) using WM component tasks. While there is strong evidence of WM impairments in WS, previous research has focused on short-term memory and has neglected assessment of executive components of WM. There is a particular lack of consensus concerning the profile of verbal WM functioning in WS. Here, WS participants were compared to typically developing participants matched for (1) verbal ability and (2) spatial ability (N = 14 in each of the 3 groups). Individuals with WS were impaired on verbal WM tasks, both those involving short-term maintenance of information and executive manipulation, in comparison to verbal-matched controls. Surprisingly, individuals with WS were not impaired on a spatial task assessing short-term maintenance of information in memory (remembering spatial locations) compared to spatial-matched controls. They were, however, impaired on a spatial executive WM task requiring the manipulation of spatial information in memory. The present study suggests that individuals with WS show WM impairments that extend to both verbal and spatial domains, although spatial deficits are selective to executive aspects of WM function.     

Exploring the specificity of age-related differences in theory of mind tasks

Tasks assessing theory of mind (ToM) and non-mental state control tasks were administered to young and older adults to examine previous contradictory findings about age differences in mental state decoding. Age differences were found on a verbal ToM task after controlling for vocabulary levels. Older adults achieved significantly lower scores than did younger adults on static and dynamic visual ToM tasks, and a similar pattern was found on non-ToM control tasks. Rather than a specific ToM deficit, older adults exhibited a more general impairment in the ability to decode cues from verbal and visual information about people.