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Background: Pediatric ADHD is associated with impairments in working memory, but these deficits often go undetected when using clinic-based tests such as digit span backward.Aims: The current study pilot-tested minor administration/scoring modifications to improve digit span backward's construct and predictive validities in a well-characterized sample of children with ADHD.Methods and Procedures: WISC-IV digit span was modified to administer all trials (i.e., ignore discontinue rule) and count digits rather than trials correct. Traditional and modified scores were compared to a battery of criterion working memory (construct validity) and academic achievement tests (predictive validity) for 34 children with ADHD ages 8-13 (M=10.41; 11 girls).Outcomes and Results: Traditional digit span backward scores failed to predict working memory or KTEA-2 achievement (allns). Alternate administration/scoring of digit span backward significantly improved its associations with working memory reordering (r=.58), working memory dual-processing (r=.53), working memory updating (r=.28), and KTEA-2 achievement (r=.49).Conclusions and Implications: Consistent with prior work, these findings urge caution when interpreting digit span performance. Minor test modifications may address test validity concerns, and should be considered in future test revisions. Digit span backward becomes a valid measure of working memory at exactly the point that testing is traditionally discontinued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuroimaging studies of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-related memory impairments have consistently implicated abnormal activities in the frontal and parietal lobes. However, most studies have used block designs and could not dissociate the multiple phases of working memory. In this study, the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in working memory phases was assessed among veterans with PTSD and age-/gender-matched healthy controls. Multichannel functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was utilized to measure prefrontal cortex hemodynamic activations during memory of neutral (i.e., not trauma-related) forward and backward digit span tasks. An event-related experimental design was utilized to dissociate the different phases (i.e., encoding, maintenance and retrieval) of working memory. The healthy controls showed robust hemodynamic activations during the encoding and retrieval processes. In contrast, the veterans with PTSD were found to have activations during the encoding process, but followed by distinct deactivations during the retrieval process. The PTSD participants, but not the controls, appeared to suppress prefrontal activity during memory retrieval. This deactivation was more pronounced in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during the retrieval phase. These deactivations in PTSD patients might implicate an active inhibition of dorsolateral prefrontal neural activity during retrieval of working memory.

This study examined the concurrent and long-term relations between the amount of time children attending daycare spend outdoors and their cognitive and behavioral development during preschool and first grade. We applied a multi-informant design using cognitive testing and ratings from parents and teachers to follow 562 Norwegian preschoolers (298 girls; mean age at first assessment = 52.45 months, SD = 15.96) over a period of four years. Children's attention skills were tested with the digit span test while teachers rated their behavior. Growth curve analyses showed a positive relation between outdoor hours and children's digit span scores, and an inverse relation between outdoor hours and inattention-hyperactivity symptoms, controlling for a host of possible confounds. Results indicate that outdoor time in preschool may support children's development of attention skills and protect against inattention-hyperactivity symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The framework of plateaus, dips, and leaps shines light on periods when individuals may be inventing new methods of skilled performance. We begin with a review of the role performance plateaus have played in (a) experimental psychology, (b) human-computer interaction, and (c) cognitive science. We then reanalyze two classic studies of individual performance to show plateaus and dips which resulted in performance leaps. For a third study, we show how the statistical methods of Changepoint Analysis plus a few simple heuristics may direct our focus to periods of performance change for individuals. For the researcher, dips become the marker of exploration where performance suffers as new methods are invented and tested. Leaps mark the implementation of a successful new method and an incremental jump above the path plotted by smooth and steady log-log performance increments. The methods developed during these dips and leaps are the key to surpassing one's teachers and acquiring extreme expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this study to examine working memory in a sample of individuals diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Working memory was assessed using the Digit Span, Spatial Span. This aspect was examined in 15 MCI patients and 15 matched controls. It was hypothesized that MCI participants would be more impaired relative to the control group on these different measures. Findings showed that MCI participants performance was impaired in comparison to the control group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have found that congenitally blind individuals have better verbal memory than their normally sighted counterparts. However, it is not known whether this reflects superiority of verbal or memory abilities. In order to distinguish between these possibilities, we tested congenitally blind participants and normally sighted control participants, matched for age and education, on a range of verbal and spatial tasks. Congenitally blind participants were significantly better than sighted controls on all the verbal tasks but the groups did not differ significantly on the spatial tasks. Thus, the congenitally blind appear to have superior verbal, but not spatial, abilities. This may reflect greater reliance on verbal information and the involvement of visual cortex in language processing in the congenitally blind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Proper nutrition is critical for maximizing brain function and enhancing learning. There is accumulating evidence that early malnutrition, marked by stunting, is associated with long-term deficits in cognitive and academic performance, even when social and psychological differences are controlled. All over the world, children living without permanent parental care are at a heightened risk for under-nutrition, putting their health and development in great jeopardy. Aim: To assess the nutritional and cognitive status in institutionalized orphans which might help to formulate effective interventions for improving the nutritional status of vulnerable children in future. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional, case control study included 70 children (35 orphans and 35 non-orphans). Their anthropometric measurements (height, weight, and BMI) were measured and cognition was assessed using subsets of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R): Block design and Digit span. The data obtained was subjected to descriptive statistical analysis. Results: 18.57% (13) of children had stunting, 15.71% (11) had wasting, 22.86% (16) were underweight, and 17.14% (12) showed thinness. Mean±SD of Block design in non-orphans was significantly higher compared to orphans (p-value 0·05). Mean±SD of Digit span in non-orphans was significantly higher compared to orphans (p-value 0·000). For Block design, there was moderate positive correlation with nutritional status based on Z-scores (p-value <0·05). Digit span also showed moderate positive correlation (p-value <0·05). Conclusion: The results of our study indicate that children in orphanages have high rates of both malnutrition and cognitive delay compared to the non-orphans and there was a direct correlation between both the variables. If orphanages are here to stay as a last resort for children deprived of a family there is an urgent need to improve the institutional environment in order to foster the development of millions of children in orphanages around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Executive impairments are frequent and may concern a large spectrum of health conditions throughout life. Given the complexity of the executive functions, their assessment requires the administration of multiple tests. There is only one source of French-language normative data for seven traditional executive tests for adults under age 50. The aim of the present study was to establish demographically adjusted normative data of four executive tests commonly used during the neuropsychological assessment in France for adults aged 18-65., Method: The following tools were administered to 518 community adults aged from 18 to 65: Digit Span, Trail Making Test, Color Word Interference Test, and Verbal Fluency Test. An Overall Test Battery Mean was computed. Multiple regressions were computed for normally distributed scores and percentiles were established for non-normally distributed scores., Results: Multiple regression analyses indicated that younger age and higher education were both associated with better performance. Age did not predict the number of correct responses on the Verbal Fluency Test. Gender did not have any effect on executive performances. Regression equations to calculate Z-scores are presented. Percentiles are presented for the number of recorded errors on the Trail Making Test, Color Word Interference Test, and Verbal Fluency Test., Conclusions: We provide reliable and updated norms for four executive tests that are among the most used by clinical neuropsychologists in France. Our work represents a valuable addition to the limited norms currently available for the assessment of executive functions in French young and middle-aged adults., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permission@oup.com.)

Speech comprehension in adverse listening conditions can be effortful even when speech is fully intelligible. Acoustical distortions typically make speech comprehension more effortful, but effort also depends on linguistic aspects of the speech signal, such as its syntactic complexity. In the present study, pupil dilations and subjective effort ratings were recorded in 20 normal-hearing participants while performing a sentence comprehension task. The sentences were either syntactically simple (subject-first sentence structure) or complex (object-first sentence structure) and were presented in two levels of background noise both corresponding to high intelligibility. A digit span and a reading span test were used to assess individual differences in the participants' working memory capacity. The results showed that the subjectively rated effort was mostly affected by the noise level and less by syntactic complexity. Conversely, pupil dilations increased with syntactic complexity but only showed a small effect of the noise level. Participants with higher working memory capacity showed increased pupil responses in the higher-level noise condition but rated sentence comprehension as being less effortful compared to participants with lower working memory capacity. Overall, the results demonstrate that pupil dilations and subjectively rated effort represent different aspects of effort. Furthermore, the results indicate that effort can vary in situations with high speech intelligibility.

Spatial span tests such as the Corsi Block Test (CBT) and the spatial span test of the Wechsler Memory Scale are widely used to assess deficits in spatial working memory. We conducted three experiments to evaluate the test-retest reliability and clinical sensitivity of a new computerized spatial span test (C-SST) that incorporates psychophysical methods to improve the precision of spatial span measurement. In Experiment 1, we analyzed C-SST test-retest reliability in 49 participants who underwent three test sessions at weekly intervals. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were higher for a psychophysically derived mean span (MnS) metric (0.83) than for the maximal span and total correct metrics used in traditional spatial-span tests. Response times (ReTs) also showed high ICCs (0.93) that correlated negatively with MnS scores and correlated positively with response-time latencies from other tests of processing speed. Learning effects were insignificant. Experiment 2 examined the performance of Experiment 1 participants when instructed to feign symptoms of traumatic brain injury: 57% showed abnormal MnS z-scores. A MnS z-score cutoff of 3.0 correctly classified 36% of simulated malingerers and 91% of the subgroup of 11 control participants with abnormal spans. Malingerers also made more substitution errors than control participants with abnormal spans (sensitivity = 43%, specificity = 91%). In addition, malingerers showed no evidence of ReT slowing, in contrast to significant abnormalities seen on other malingered tests of processing speed. As a result, differences between ReT z-scores and z-scores on other processing speed tests showed very high sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing malingering and control participants with either normal or abnormal spans. Experiment 3 examined C-SST performance in a group of patients with predominantly mild traumatic brain injury (TBI): neither MnS nor ReT z-scores showed significant group-level abnormalities. The C-SST improves the reliability and sensitivity of spatial span testing, can accurately detect malingering, and shows that visuospatial working memory is largely preserved in patients with predominantly mild TBI.

Investigators at Departments of Child Neurology, Neuroscience, Biostatistics, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey studied the parameters for prediction of epileptiform abnormalities in the EEG of 148 children diagnosed with ADHD, according to DSM-IV criteria, aged between 6 and 13 years (mean 8.76 +/- 1.26; 25.7% female).

Self-report measures of cognitive problems may have value, but there are indications that scores on such measures are influenced by other factors such as personality. In an online correlational study, 523 non-clinical volunteers completed measures of personality, digit span, and the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire. Self-reported prospective and retrospective memory failures were associated positively with neuroticism and negatively with conscientiousness, but not with digit span performance. These findings are consistent with other indications that conscientiousness and neuroticism may underpin self-reports of cognitive problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Corsi Block-Tapping Task represents the gold standard of neuropsychological assessment of visuospatial short-term and working memory. Despite its frequent application in clinical practice, very little is known about the underlying cognitive processes involved. The present review describes the historical development of the task, its heterogeneity, and moderators that affect performance. We present existing research based on studies using interviews, eye-tracking, or dual-task paradigms and investigate what the Block-Tapping Task actually measures. The results support the assumption that not only visuo-spatial memory is being assessed, but also verbal and executive components, especially in light of higher demands. We discuss whether the spatial span can be regarded as analogous to the digit span and provide information on differential processes with respect to forward and backward performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been hypothesized that musical expertise is associated with enhanced auditory processing and cognitive abilities. Recent research has examined the relationship between musicians' advantage and implicit statistical learning skills. In the present study, we assessed a variety of auditory processing skills, cognitive processing skills, and statistical learning (auditory and visual forms) in age-matched musicians (N = 17) and non-musicians (N = 18). Musicians had significantly better performance than non-musicians on frequency discrimination, and backward digit span. A key finding was that musicians had better auditory, but not visual, statistical learning than non-musicians. Performance on the statistical learning tasks was not correlated with performance on auditory and cognitive measures. Musicians’ superior performance on auditory (but not visual) statistical learning suggests that musical expertise is associated with an enhanced ability to detect statistical regularities in auditory stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MUSICIANS HAVE SUPERIOR PERFORMANCES compared to nonmusicians in many auditory perception tasks. This superiority extends to memory tasks such as the digit span. Literature suggests that the musicians' advantage unfolds along two axes: sensory modality (musicians perform better when the task is auditory) and task complexity (musicians tend to perform better in the forward and not -- for example -- backward digit span). In addition, it is unclear whether there are specific music abilities linked with improved performance in the digit span. Here, musicians and nonmusicians performed a digit span task that was presented aurally, visually, or audiovisually. The task was performed with or without a concurrent task (i.e" articulatory suppression) in order to explore the role of rehearsal strategies and also manipulate task complexity. Finally, music abilities of all participants were assessed using the Profile of Music Perception Skills (PROMS) test. Musicians had larger spans than nonmusicians regardless of the sensory modality and the concurrent task. In addition, the auditory and audiovisual spans (but not visual) were correlated with one subscale of the PROMS test. Findings suggest a general advantage of musicians over nonmusicians in verbal working memory tasks, with a possible role of sensory modality and task complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of the study were to investigate healthy subjects' performance on a clinical test of high-level language (HLL) and how it is related to demographic characteristics and verbal working memory (VWM). One hundred healthy subjects (20–79 years old) were assessed with the Swedish BeSS test (Laakso, Brunnegård, Hartelius, & Ahlsén, 2000) and two digit span tasks. Relationships between the demographic variables, VWM and BeSS were investigated both with bivariate correlations and multiple regression analysis. The results present the norms for BeSS. The correlations and multiple regression analysis show that demographic variables had limited influence on test performance. Measures of VWM were moderately related to total BeSS score and weakly to moderately correlated with five of the seven subtests. To conclude, education has an influence on the test as a whole but measures of VWM stood out as the most robust predictor of HLL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A detrimental effect of commonly used anesthetics on the neurodevelopmental and behavioral parameters has long been shown in young animals subjected to early childhood anesthesia. Epidemiologic studies suggest the possibility of a modestly elevated risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in children exposed to anesthesia during early childhood. However, these results are still preliminary and inconclusive. Aim: To further elucidate the probability of occurrence of such adverse outcomes, we evaluated cognitive performance of children who underwent general anesthesia early in their childhood. Method: One hundred and fifteen children aged 5-16 years with established glaucoma were included in the study. Of these, 68 children had a history of at least one general anesthesia with sevoflurane before age 3. Phonemic and semantic verbal fluency, and forward and backward digit span tests were performed to evaluate cognitive function in the study subjects. Results: The two-way ANOVA revealed that all these variables showed significant changes in various age groups, but they were comparable among subjects with no, single, or multiple childhood anesthesia. Conclusion: It can be concluded that brief periods of anesthesia with single anesthetic sevoflurane may be safe for children under age 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored within-subjects differences in the performance of 40 bilingual participants on the English and Spanish versions of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) Digit Span task. To test the linguistic hypothesis that individuals would perform worse in Spanish because of its syllabic demand, we compared the number of syllables correctly recalled by each participant for every correct trial. Our analysis of the correct number of syllables remembered per trial showed that participants performed significantly better (i.e., recalling more syllables) in Spanish than in English on the total score. Findings suggest the Spanish version of the Digit Span (total score) was significantly more difficult than the English version utilizing traditional scoring methods. Moreover, the Forward Trial, rather than the Backward Trial, was more likely to show group differences between both language versions. Additionally, the Spanish trials of the Digit Span were correlated with language comprehension and verbal episodic memory measures, whereas the English trials of the Digit Span were correlated with confrontational naming and verbal fluency tasks. The results suggest that more research is necessary to further investigate other cognitive factors, rather than just syllabic demand, that might contribute to performance and outcome differences on the WAIS Digit Span in Spanish-English bilinguals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the widely used Corsi Block Test and Wechsler Spatial Span Tests, participants must reproduce sequences of blocks in the order touched by the examiner until two trials are missed at the same sequence length. The examiner records either the maximum number of blocks correctly reported or the total number of correct lists. Here, we describe a computerized spatial span test (C-SST) that uses psychophysical procedures to quantify visuospatial mean span (MnS) with sub-digit precision. Results from 187 participants ranging in age from 18 to 82 years showed that accuracy declined gradually with list length around the MnS (by ∼30% per item). Simulation studies revealed high variance and biases in CBT and Wechsler measures, and demonstrated that the C-SST provided the most accurate estimate of true span (i.e., the sequence length producing 50% correct). MnS declined more rapidly with age than mean digit span (MnDS) measured in the same participants. Response times correlated with both MnS and MnDS scores. Error analysis showed that omission and transposition errors predominated, with weaker primacy and recency effects in spatial span than digit span testing. The C-SST improves the precision of spatial span testing and reveals significant differences between visuospatial and verbal working memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digit span is one of the most widely used memory tests in clinical and experimental neuropsychology for reliably measuring short-term memory capacity. In the forward version, sequences of digits of increasing length have to be reproduced in the order in which they are presented, whereas in the backward version items must be reproduced in the reversed order. Here, we assessed whether transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) increases the memory span for digits of young and midlife adults. Imperceptibly weak electrical currents in the alpha (10 Hz), beta (20 Hz), theta (5 Hz), and gamma (40 Hz) range, as well as a sham stimulation, were delivered over the left posterior parietal cortex, a cortical region thought to sustain maintenance processes in short-term memory through oscillatory brain activity in the beta range. We showed a frequency-specific effect of beta-tACS that robustly increased the forward memory span of young, but not middle-aged, healthy individuals. The effect correlated with age: the younger the subjects, the greater the benefit arising from parietal beta stimulation. Our results provide evidence of a short-term memory capacity improvement in young adults by online frequency-specific tACS application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies were conducted to identify and cross-validate cutoff scores on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Fourth Edition Digit Span–based embedded performance validity (PV) measures for individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. In Study 1, normative scores were identified on Digit Span–embedded PV measures among a sample of patients (n = 84) with schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses who had no known incentive to perform poorly and who put forth valid effort on external PV tests. Previously identified cutoff scores resulted in unacceptable false positive rates and lower cutoff scores were adopted to maintain specificity levels ≥90%. In Study 2, the revised cutoff scores were cross-validated within a sample of schizophrenia spectrum patients (n = 96) committed as incompetent to stand trial. Performance on Digit Span PV measures was significantly related to Full Scale IQ in both studies, indicating the need to consider the intellectual functioning of examinees with psychotic spectrum disorders when interpreting scores on Digit Span PV measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined performance in the forward and backward digit span task of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fourth Edition (WISC–IV) in a large group of children with specific learning disorder (SLD) as compared with a group of typically developing children matched for age and sex. Our results further support the hypothesis that the intellectual difficulties of children with SLD involve working memory in the forward digit span task to a greater extent than in the backward digit span task. The correlation of the two spans with a General Ability Index (GAI) was similar in SLD, and smaller in magnitude than in typically developing children. Despite a GAI within normal range, children with SLD had difficulty with both digit span tasks, but more so for forward span. This pattern was similar for different SLD profiles with clinical diagnoses of dyslexia and mixed disorder, but the impairments were more severe in the latter. Age differences were also investigated, demonstrating larger span impairment in older children with SLD than in younger. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

OBJECTIVE: In this study, different kinds of memory were evaluated using Rey Auditory Verbal Learning (RAVLT) test and were compared between two groups of typical and gifted students using Digit Span test. Finally, we determined if working memory interfered with scores in different Rey stages or not. MATERIAL & METHODS: This study was conducted in Tehran City, Iran in 2013. Scores on RAVLT were compared with WISC- R digit span results in a sample of 148 male students aged 12-14 yr old divided into two groups including 75 students in typical school (IQ ranging between 90 and 110) and 73 gifted students (IQs ranging between 110 and 130). RESULTS: Gifted students obtained higher scores than typical students in both Forward Digit Span (FDS) and Backward Digit Span (BDS) and all 9 stages of RAVLT comparing with typical students (P 0.05). The 14 yr old students in both groups had the highest score. There was a high correlation between FDS and the first stage of RAVLT as well as high correlation between BDS and seventh stage of RAVLT. CONCLUSION: Intelligence has effect on better score of memory and gifted subjects had better scores in memory tests, although the intelligence effect in learning was quantitative rather than qualitative. RAVLT is a comprehensive test, which evaluates short-term memory, working memory and long-term memory and besides Digit span test provides precious information about memory and learning of subjects in order to program different student's educational schedules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speech comprehension in adverse listening conditions can be effortful even when speech is fully intelligible. Acoustical distortions typically make speech comprehension more effortful, but effort also depends on linguistic aspects of the speech signal, such as its syntactic complexity. In the present study, pupil dilations, and subjective effort ratings were recorded in 20 normal-hearing participants while performing a sentence comprehension task. The sentences were either syntactically simple (subjectfirst sentence structure) or complex (object-first sentence structure) and were presented in two levels of background noise both corresponding to high intelligibility. A digit span and a reading span test were used to assess individual differences in the participants' working memory capacity (WMC). The results showed that the subjectively rated effort was mostly affected by the noise level and less by syntactic complexity. Conversely, pupil dilations increased with syntactic complexity but only showed a small effect of the noise level. Participants with higher WMC showed increased pupil responses in the higher-level noise condition but rated sentence comprehension as being less effortful compared to participants with lower WMC. Overall, the results demonstrate that pupil dilations and subjectively rated effort represent different aspects of effort. Furthermore, the results indicate that effort can vary in situations with high speech intelligibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]