Affective valence of words impacts recall from auditory working memory

Abstract

There is limited evidence on the influence of affective stimuli on auditory working memory. The reported study investigated whether emotional auditory words interfere with ongoing auditory processing of words in auditory working memory. On each trial, words with negative, neutral, and positive affective valence were simultaneously presented on three different speakers. Participants recalled the word presented from the centre speaker first and then recalled the words presented from the side speakers. More negative and positive words compared to neutral words were recalled from the centre speaker. After recall of negative and positive words from the centre speaker, the subsequent first recall of words from the side speakers was reduced, regardless of anxiety level of the participant. The emotional interference effect suggests that emotional words interfere with ongoing central processing due to the attentional dwell on the information in auditory working memory.     

Age-related trends of stroop-like interference in animal size tests in 5- to 12-year-old children and young adults

Few studies have examined the development of Prepotent Response Inhibition (Nigg's interference control) from childhood to adulthood. This cross-sectional study examined differences in Prepotent Response Inhibition among children of 5 age groups: twenty 5- to 6-year-olds, twenty-one 7- to 8-year-olds, twenty-two 9- to 10-year-olds, eighteen 11- to 12-year-olds, and 24 young adults (18- to 24-year-olds). Participants were administered two Stroop-like tasks: the Real Animal Size Test described in 2009 by Catale and Meulemans, which requires that participants decide the real size of animals (big vs. small) displayed in a mismatching pictorial size; and the Pictorial Animal Size Test (an original test), which requires that participants report the pictorial size of the animals. Results showed clear differences between the tests. The Pictorial Animal Size Test elicited robust interference whereas the Real Animal Size Test elicited no interference. The Pictorial Animal Size Test also revealed the development of Prepotent Response Inhibition in children of 5–12 years and between children and young adults. These results were discussed with respect to differences in strengths of processing. The Pictorial Animal Size Test can be a useful tool for assessment of Prepotent Response Inhibition in children older than 5 years of age.     

Direct touches to clear barriers: Developmental sensitivity of a new measure of the production of ineffective responses in infancy

Current interpretation of the object retrieval task (Diamond, 1990 Diamond, A. 1990. The Development and the Neural Bases of Higher Cortical Functions, New York, NY: New York Academy of Sciences.  [Google Scholar]) as an infant assessment of response inhibition requires evidence that younger infants make more ineffective attempts to retrieve toys through clear barriers. On two 30-second trials, infants (9 or 11 months of age) saw an inaccessible toy in the front or back of a clear box. The location of the infants touches corresponded with the toy's location and, on the second trial, the younger infants touched the box more. In previous research nonhuman primates with orbital-frontal, but not dorsa-lateral, lesions also made ineffective barrier touches. The current developmental decreases in barrier touches may selectively tap developmental increases in inhibitory control supported by the developing orbital-frontal cortex.     

Detecting performance invalidity in children: Not quite as easy as A,B, C, 1, 2, 3 but automatized sequences appears promising

In adult populations, embedded performance validity indicators are well established, as they are time efficient, resistant to coaching, and allow for more continuous monitoring of effort than standalone measures. Although several recent studies have demonstrated the appropriateness of using standalone validity tests with school-age children, a paucity of pediatric work has examined embedded indicators. The present study investigated the value of a simple automatized sequences task to detect performance invalidity in 439 clinically referred patients with mild head injury aged 8 through 17 years. Sixteen percent of the participants failed the Medical Symptom Validity Test (MSVT). Thirteen percent failed the MSVT and also performed below established cutoffs on either the Test of Memory Malingering or Wechsler Digit Span subtest. The group classified as providing invalid data performed significantly worse than the group passing the MSVT across all sequencing conditions. Sensitivity and specificity for the total time on the sequencing task compared favorably to data produced for many respected adult-based embedded indicators (i.e., sensitivity around 50% when specificity ≥ 90%). Classification statistics for any embedded performance validity test can be expected to be worse in more severely affected populations; however, the current sequencing task appears to have value in detecting invalid performance in relatively high-functioning older children and adolescents. The fact that the task takes less than a couple of minutes to administer makes it especially appealing.     

Acceptance,well-being and goals in adolescents with chronic illness: a daily process analysis

Objective: The main aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between acceptance and well-being in adolescents with chronic illness from a daily process perspective. Furthermore, we explored the role of daily experienced interference and facilitation of life goals by treatment goals as mediating mechanisms.

Methods: Thirty-eight adolescents with cystic fibrosis (CF) or diabetes completed questionnaires assessing acceptance, negative life events and goal-related self-efficacy. Furthermore, an online diary assessing daily mood, daily experienced interference and facilitation of life goals by treatment goals was completed during three consecutive weeks.

Results: Acceptance of illness was positively related to daily well-being, but unrelated to daily goal interference and facilitation. Furthermore, daily goal interference and facilitation were unrelated to same-day and next-day well-being.

Conclusion: This study suggests that acceptance of illness plays an important role in the daily mood of adolescents with CF and diabetes. This relationship, however, was not mediated by daily experienced interference and facilitation of life goals by treatment goals. Further research is needed to determine whether interventions promoting acceptance are beneficial for adolescents with CF and diabetes.     

Children born with very low birth weight show difficulties with sustained attention but not response inhibition

Children born with very low birth weight perform poorly on executive function and attention measures. Any difficulties with sustained attention may underpin impairments in performance on tasks measuring higher order cognitive control. Previous sustained attention research in very low birth weight cohorts has used tasks that involve arousing stimuli, potentially spoiling the measure of sustained attention. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of very low birth weight and normal birth weight children on a well-controlled task of sustained attention. The Fixed and Random versions of the Sustained Attention to Response Task were given to 17 very low birth weight and 18 normal birth weight children. The very low birth weight group performed the Fixed and Random Sustained Attention to Response Tasks in a similar manner as the normal birth weight group on all measures except for the omission error and Slow Frequency Area under the Spectra variables on the Fixed Sustained Attention to Response Task. These measures index lapses in sustained attention that may be underpinned by declining arousal. The very low birth weight group showed no response inhibition deficits. Omission errors and slow-timescale response-time variability on predictable tasks may thus present sensitive indices of difficulties with sustained attention and arousal associated with premature birth and low birth weight.     

The role of response inhibition in temporal preparation: Evidence from a go/no-go task

During the foreperiod (FP) of a warned reaction task, participants engage in a process of temporal preparation to speed response to the impending target stimulus. Previous neurophysiological studies have shown that inhibition is applied during FP to prevent premature response. Previous behavioral studies have shown that the duration of FP on both the current and the preceding trial codetermine response time to the target. Integrating these findings, the present study tested the hypothesis that the behavioral effects find their origin in response inhibition on the preceding trial. In two experiments the variable-FP paradigm was combined with a go/no-go task, in which no-go stimuli required explicit response inhibition. The resulting data pattern revealed sequential effects of both FP (long or short) and response requirement (go or no-go), which could be jointly understood as expressions of response inhibition, consistent with the hypothesis.     

Challenge Point: A Framework for Conceptualizing the Effects of Various Practice Conditions in Motor Learning

The authors describe the effects of practice conditions in motor learning (e.g., contextual interference, knowledge of results) within the constraints of 2 experimental variables: skill level and task difficulty. They use a research framework to conceptualize the interaction of those variables on the basis of concepts from information theory and information processing. The fundamental idea is that motor tasks represent different challenges for performers of different abilities. The authors propose that learning is related to the information arising from performance, which should be optimized along functions relating the difficulty of the task to the skill level of the performer. Specific testable hypotheses arising from the framework are also described.     

More conservative go/no-go response criterion under high working memory load

Previous work has shown that the efficiency of selective attention depends on the availability of cognitive control functions, including working memory. Here we examined the role of working memory in another task involving executive control, namely, a go/no-go task. Participants performed the Sustained Attention to Response Task, which requires withholding a prepotent response to an infrequent target, when at the same time placing a low or high load on an unrelated working memory task. Working memory load had the effect of reducing accuracy on the go trials, when at the same time increasing accuracy on the no-go trials. We interpret these findings to suggest that high working memory load led to a shift to a more conservative response criterion.     

Spider stimuli improve response inhibition

Anxiety can have positive effects on some aspects of cognition and negative effects on others. The current study investigated whether task-relevant anxiety could improve people’s ability to withhold responses in a response inhibition task. Sixty-seven university students completed a modified and an unmodified version of the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART; Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997) and provided subjective measures of arousal and thoughts. Anxiety appeared to improve participants’ ability to withhold responses. Further, participants’ performance was consistent with a motor response inhibition perspective rather than a mind-wandering perspective of SART commission error performance. Errors of commission were associated with response times (speed-accuracy trade-off) as opposed to task-unrelated thoughts. Task-related thoughts were associated with the speed-accuracy trade-off. Conversely task-unrelated thoughts showed an association with errors of omission, suggesting this SART metric could be an indicator of sustained attention. Further investigation of the role of thoughts in the SART is warranted.