The Visual Spatial Learning Test: Differential impairment during the premanifest and manifest stages of Huntington's disease

Visual spatial memory was assessed using the Visual Spatial Learning Test (VSLT) in individuals with mild to moderate Huntington's disease (HD), pre‐manifest gene carriers for HD, and demographically similar controls. The VSLT has been demonstrated to be a valid, normed measure of non‐verbal memory involving minimal motoric responses. The VSLT assesses immediate and delayed memory for designs, positions of the designs, and design/position associations. The HD group was significantly impaired (p < .05) relative to both the control and Pre‐HD groups on immediate and delayed memory for the designs, positions, and design/position associations. Although there were no differences between the Pre‐HD and control groups on immediate or delayed memory for designs or positions, the Pre‐HD group was significantly impaired (p < .05) relative to the control group on immediate and delayed memory for design/position associations. The results offer novel insight into a relatively unexamined memory deficit that may occur in gene carriers for HD prior to phenoconversion. The data indicate that the VSLT may be a useful measure of visuospatial memory during the premanifest and manifest stages of HD.     

Semantic classification of pictures and words

We provide new behavioural norms for semantic classification of pictures and words. The picture stimuli are 288 black and white line drawings from the International Picture Naming Project ([Székely, A., Jacobsen, T., D'Amico, S., Devescovi, A., Andonova, E., Herron, D., et al. (2004). A new on-line resource for psycholinguistic studies. Journal of Memory & Language, 51, 247–250]). We presented these pictures for classification in a living/nonliving decision, and in a separate version of the task presented the corresponding word labels for classification. We analyzed behavioural responses to a subset of the stimuli in order to explore questions about semantic processing. We found multiple semantic richness effects for both picture and word classification. Further, while lexical-level factors were related to semantic classification of words, they were not related to semantic classification of pictures. We argue that these results are consistent with privileged semantic access for pictures, and point to ways in which these data could be used to address other questions about picture processing and semantic memory.     

When family and research clash: The role of autobiographical emotion in the production of stories of the Italian civil war, 1943–1945

This paper engages the emotional side of Second World War storytelling practices and research. Specifically, it explores how a politics of trust and togetherness animates communities of remembrance concerning the anti-Fascist Resistance experience in northern Italy. I reflect on my encounter with memories of wartime violence through the lens of autobiographical emotion. In a region torn asunder by conflicting stories of loss and violence during the anti-Nazi resistance and civil war, I possess a dual identity of researcher and Partisan's grandchild. This carries a powerful emotional bond of ethical obligations that cannot be ignored in the research process. Drawing on affect theory, I contextualize my oral history fieldwork experience in relation to that emotional bond.     

Central load reduces peripheral processing: Evidence from incidental memory of background speech

Is there a trade‐off between central (working memory) load and peripheral (perceptual) processing? To address this question, participants were requested to undertake an n‐back task in one of two levels of central/cognitive load (i.e., 1‐back or 2‐back) in the presence of a to‐be‐ignored story presented via headphones. Participants were told to ignore the background story, but they were given a surprise memory test of what had been said in the background story, immediately after the n‐back task was completed. Memory was poorer in the high central load (2‐back) condition in comparison with the low central load (1‐back) condition. Hence, when people compensate for higher central load, by increasing attentional engagement, peripheral processing is constrained. Moreover, participants with high working memory capacity (WMC) – with a superior ability for attentional engagement – remembered less of the background story, but only in the low central load condition. Taken together, peripheral processing – as indexed by incidental memory of background speech – is constrained when task engagement is high.     

The Swedish Hayling task,and its relation to working memory,verbal ability,and speech‐recognition‐in‐noise

Cognitive functions and speech‐recognition‐in‐noise were evaluated with a cognitive test battery, assessing response inhibition using the Hayling task, working memory capacity (WMC) and verbal information processing, and an auditory test of speech recognition. The cognitive tests were performed in silence whereas the speech recognition task was presented in noise. Thirty young normally‐hearing individuals participated in the study. The aim of the study was to investigate one executive function, response inhibition, and whether it is related to individual working memory capacity (WMC), and how speech‐recognition‐in‐noise relates to WMC and inhibitory control. The results showed a significant difference between initiation and response inhibition, suggesting that the Hayling task taps cognitive activity responsible for executive control. Our findings also suggest that high verbal ability was associated with better performance in the Hayling task. We also present findings suggesting that individuals who perform well on tasks involving response inhibition, and WMC, also perform well on a speech‐in‐noise task. Our findings indicate that capacity to resist semantic interference can be used to predict performance on speech‐in‐noise tasks.     

Examining cognitive performance: Do perfectionism and rumination matter?

Research has looked to possible personality constructs that can affect cognitive performance. Studies have demonstrated that working memory and attentional effectiveness can be directly related to the cognitive resources upon which one is readily able to call. Whereas limited research has examined the role of perfectionism in relation to problem solving abilities, to date, no studies have specifically examined how it may affect working memory or attention. The study’s purpose was to assess the impact of task difficulty (high, medium, or low) and personality constructs on working memory and attention. Following completion of the personality measures, participants completed the d2 test of attention and an N-back task. Results indicated that perfectionism and rumination significantly affected accuracy but not reaction time on the N-back task and that rumination significantly affected the total number of items processed on the d2 test of attention. Given the lack of elevated scores on the personality indicators within this sample, future research might examine this process in those more strongly endorsing these traits, allowing us to better ascertain the degree to which cognitive deficits may be evident.     

Procedural learning and automatization process in children with developmental coordination disorder and/or developmental dyslexia

ObjectiveThere is increasing evidence to suggest that developmental dyslexia (DD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) actually form part of a broader disorder. Their frequent association could be justified by a deficit of the procedural memory system, that subtends many of the cognitive, motor and linguistic abilities that are impaired in both DD and DCD. However, studies of procedural learning in these two disorders have yielded divergent results, and in any case no studies have so far addressed the issue of automatization (dual-task paradigm).MethodsWe administered a finger tapping task to participants aged 8–12 years (19 DCD, 18 DD, and 22 with both DD and DCD) to explore procedural learning and automatic movements in these three groups of children, comparing motor performances at the prelearning stage, after 2 weeks of training, and in a post-training dual-task condition.ResultsFirst, results indicated that all the children were able to learn a sequence of movements and even automatize their movements. Second, they revealed between-groups differences in procedural/automatization learning abilities, setting the DCD group apart from the other two. Third, contrary to our expectations concerning comorbidity, they suggested that the DD + DCD association does not have an additional impact on behavioral performances.     

Not all semantics: Similarities and differences in reminiscing function and content between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians

This study explored why and how Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians remember the past. Indigenous Australians traditionally share a strong oral tradition in which customs, personal and cultural histories, and other narratives are passed across groups and between generations by word of mouth. Drawing on this tradition, in which inherent value is placed on sharing knowledge and maintaining connectedness with others, we hypothesised that Indigenous Australians would be more likely than non-Indigenous Australians to report reminiscing to fulfil social functions (but not self or directive functions). Furthermore, we hypothesised that Indigenous Australians would recall personal past experiences more elaborately than would non-Indigenous Australians. In Study 1, 33 Indigenous Australians and 76 non-Indigenous Australians completed Webster's Reminiscence Functions Scale. As predicted, Indigenous participants reported higher scores on subscales related to social functions than did non-Indigenous Australians: particularly “Teach/Inform” and “Intimacy Maintenance”. They also scored higher on the “Identity” subscale. In Study 2, 15 Indigenous and 14 non-Indigenous Australians shared three memories from the distant and recent past. While Indigenous and non-Indigenous narratives did not differ in either emotion or elaboration, Indigenous Australians provided more memory context and detail by including a greater proportion of semantic memory content. Taken together, these findings suggest differences in both why and how Australians remember.