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BACKGROUND: The study aimed to determine whether there was a difference or an association between auditory memory and visual memory in typically developing children. METHODS: Eighteen children, aged 8 to 12 years, with normal hearing and visual acuity, were evaluated using the Children's Memory Scale (CMS) to determine their auditory and visual memory performance. Using the core subtest battery of the CMS, auditory/verbal (immediate and delayed), visual/nonverbal (immediate and delayed), and general memory index scores were assessed. RESULTS: No significant difference was found between auditory/verbal memory and visual/nonverbal memory scores for both immediate and delayed recall. Likewise, no correlation between auditory/verbal memory and visual/nonverbal memory scores was found. However, there was a significant correlation between immediate and delayed recall scores within each modality. CONCLUSIONS: The non-significant difference between the two modalities for both immediate and delayed recall gives the impression that memory is modality independent. However, the lack of any correlation between the two suggests there was no association between them. The absence of a significant difference between modalities can be attributed to the auditory and visual test material used in CMS not being analogous. It can thus be inferred that the auditory and visual modalities are independent. While the visual material evaluates simultaneous/concurrent perception, the auditory material assesses sequential perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have examined the performance of recalling Arabic letters. Some studies suggest that the low recall performance of Arabic letters may be attributed to the inherent visual complexity of Arabic script, while others highlight poor visual attention abilities among Arabic readers.In this context, the presentstudy focuses on investigating immediate memory and the factors influencing its capacity among young Arabic readers. Immediate memory refers to the number of letters an observer can recall in a free recall task. Three experiments were conducted to examine the effects of exposure time (50, 100, and 200 ms), letter spacing (0.04°, 0.36°, and 1°), and stimulustype (acquired vs. non-acquired). Acquired stimuli consisted of Arabic and Latin letters, whereas non-acquired stimuli included Amazigh letters. It is noteworthy that our participants had no prior exposure to the Amazigh language. The results revealed significant effects of exposure time, letter spacing, and stimulus type on performance in the free recall task. In light of these findings, the study provides a discussion of factors that may account for the low recall performance observed in previous research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses two of the earliest works of Paul Fraisse, from 1937 and 1944, on the subject of ‘immediate memory’. Adults or children reproduced the number of sounds presented, with the number and the spacing between them varying. Performance deteriorated markedly in both types of participants as number and spacing increased, although children performed more poorly. Another experiment used temporal grouping and found that this increased the number of items reproduced correctly overall, although performance declined as the number and length of groups increased, for both children and adults. A persistent finding was that for most spacings between five and seven items could be correctly reproduced. This research informed Fraisse’s conception of the ‘psychological present’, which he regarded as a quantity which was flexible (within limits), depending on the material it contained and the way that this material was organised, rather than having fixed duration or content. The research also anticipated later ideas about the limits of information processing, as well as more recent work on the effect of temporal grouping on memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia patients with auditory hallucinations is more prominent compared to those without. Our study aimed to investigate the cognitive improvement effects of 10 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in schizophrenia with auditory hallucinations. Methods: A total of 60 schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations in this study were randomly assigned to sham or active group. Both groups received 10 Hz or sham rTMS targeted in left DLPFC for 20 sessions. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Auditory Hallucination Rating Scale (AHRS), the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), and the Udvalg for Kliniske Under-sogelser (UKU) side effect scale were used to measure psychiatric symptoms, auditory hallucinations, cognition, and side reaction, respectively. Results: Our results indicated that the active group experienced greater improvements in RBANS-total score (P = 0.043) and immediate memory subscale score (P = 0.001). Additionally, the PANSS-total score, negative and positive subscale score were obviously lower in the active group compared to the sham group (all P

Background: Prior research suggests a link between menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) use, memory function, and diabetes risk. The menopausal transition is a modifiable period to enhance long-term health and cognitive outcomes, although studies have been limited by short follow-up periods precluding a solid understanding of the lasting effects of MHT use on cognition. Objective: We examined the effects of midlife MHT use on subsequent diabetes incidence and late life memory performance in a large, same-aged, population-based cohort. We hypothesized that the beneficial effects of MHT use on late life cognition would be partially mediated by reduced diabetes risk. Methods: 1,792 women from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) were included in analysis. We employed hierarchical linear regression, Cox regression, and causal mediation models to test the associations between MHT history, diabetes incidence, and late life cognitive performance. Results: 1,088/1,792 women (60.7%) reported a history of midlife MHT use and 220/1,792 (12.3%) reported a history of diabetes. MHT use history was associated with better late life immediate recall (but not delayed recall), as well as a reduced risk of diabetes with protracted time to onset. Causal mediation models suggest that the beneficial effect of midlife MHT use on late life immediate recall were at least partially mediated by diabetes risk. Conclusion: Our data support a beneficial effect of MHT use on late life immediate recall (learning) that was partially mediated by protection against diabetes risk, supporting MHT use in midlife as protective against late life cognitive decline and adverse health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops the account of our experience and knowledge of time put forward by Russell in his Theory of Knowledge manuscript. While Russell ultimately abandons the project after it receives severe criticism from Wittgenstein (though several chapters derived from it appear as articles in The Monist), in producing this manuscript time, and particularly the notion of the present time, play a central role in Russell's account of experience. In the present discussion, I propose to focus largely on Russell's writing in 1912–3, comparing this with some of the remarks made about memory by Moore in 1910–11. My motivation is twofold. First as a matter of scholarship, to reveal an original interpretation of Russell's notion of immediate memory and of his view of our experience and knowledge of time over this period. Second as a matter of philosophical curiosity. There has been an increase in interest in temporal experience in contemporary discussions of the philosophy of mind, from memory and the imagination to the temporal aspects of perceptual experience. Russell's writing in 1912–3 provides us with a philosophically interesting account of temporal experience which has points of contact with contemporary debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When remembering over the short-term, long-term knowledge has a large effect on the number of correctly recalled items and little impact on memory for order. This is true, for example, when the effects of semantic category are examined. Contrary to what these findings suggest, Poirier et al. in 2015 proposed that memory for order relies on the level of activation within long-term networks. Importantly, although their view has been criticized, they showed that manipulating semantic associations led to item migrations that were atypical. In this article, we show that similar migrations can be obtained with another knowledge-based factor: orthographic neighborhood. In three experiments, we manipulated the orthographic neighborhood of to-berecalled items. The latter is a sublexical factor; as such, it is much less likely than semantic relatedness to involve demand characteristics or grouping strategies. The first experiment established that the neighborhood manipulation produced the pattern of item migrations previously observed with semantic relatedness, confirming that the migration effect can generalize to other variables. The last two experiments suggested that migrations were due to the features shared across list items rather than to item co-activation (as in Poirier et al.). The results were successfully modeled by calling upon the Revised Feature Model, where recall depends on selecting a retrieval candidate based on the features of the cueing information. Overall, our findings underline the usefulness of a model where retrieval is determined by relative distinctiveness and underline that multiple mechanisms can lead to order errors in recall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although commonly interpreted as a marker of episodic memory during neuropsychological exams, relatively little is known regarding the neurobehavior of "total learning" immediate recall scores. Medial temporal lobes are clearly associated with delayed recall performances, yet immediate recall may necessitate networks beyond traditional episodic memory. We aimed to operationalize cognitive and neuroanatomic correlates of total immediate recall in several aging syndromes. Demographically-matched neurologically normal adults (n=91), individuals with Alzheimer's disease (n=566), logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (PPA) (n=34), behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (n=97), semantic variant PPA (n=71), or nonfluent/agrammatic variant PPA (n=39) completed a neurocognitive battery, including the CVLT-Short Form trials 1-4 Total Immediate Recall; a majority subset also completed a brain MRI. Regressions covaried for age and sex, and MMSE in cognitive and total intracranial volume in neuroanatomic models. Neurologically normal adults demonstrated a heterogeneous pattern of cognitive associations with total immediate recall (executive, speed, delayed recall), such that no singular cognitive or neuroanatomic correlate uniquely predicted performance. Within the clinical cohorts, there were syndrome-specific cognitive and neural associations with total immediate recall; e.g., semantic processing was the strongest cognitive correlate in svPPA (partial r=0.41), while frontal volumes was the only meaningful neural correlate in bvFTD (partial r=0.20). Medial temporal lobes were not independently associated with total immediate recall in any group (ps>0.05). Multiple neurobehavioral systems are associated with "total learning" immediate recall scores that importantly differ across distinct clinical syndromes. Conventional memory networks may not be sufficient or even importantly contribute to total immediate recall in many syndromes. Interpreting learning scores as equivalent to episodic memory may be erroneous.

Background: This cross-sectional study aimed to identify and compare the contributions of physiological and cognitive performance to variations in gait characteristics in middle-aged (41-60 years), older-aged (61-70 years) and oldest-aged adults (>70 years). Methods: A total of 385 community-dwelling, well-functioning adults, aged 41-90 years, were randomly recruited into the study. The participants were divided into three age groups: middle-aged, older-aged and oldest-aged adults. Demographic data, height, weight, education level and information on comorbidities were recorded. Cognition was measured using the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status. Physiological performance included visual contrast sensitivity (VCS), postural sway, gait analysis, hand reaction time, handgrip strength (HGS) and knee extensor strength (KES). Multivariable regression tests were used to examine the association between physiological and cognitive performance with gait characteristics in age-stratified analyses. Results: HGS contributed significantly to gait variances in the middle-aged adults. KES and attention were the main determinants of gait speed and phase domain of gait for the older-aged adults. In the oldest-aged adults, HGS (ẞ=-0.32, p

Background: Studies indicate that physiological and cognitive aging are causally related and functionally interdependent. However, the relative contribution of physiological factors and cognition to dual-task costs (DTC) of gait parameters has not been well studied. In this cross-sectional study, we examined the trajectory of DTC of gait parameters across the adult age spectrum for both sexes and identified the contributions of physical and cognitive performance to DTC of gait. Methods: A total of 492 community-dwelling adults, aged 21–90 years, were randomly recruited into the study. Participants were divided into 7 age groups, with 10-year age range for each group. Demographic data, height, body mass, education level, and information on comorbidities were recorded. Cognition was measured using the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status. Physical performance included visual contrast sensitivity, postural sway, hand reaction time, handgrip strength, knee extensor strength, and single-task and dual-task gait assessments. Stepwise multivariable regression was used to examine the association between physical and cognitive performance with DTC of gait parameters. Results: Women were found to have significantly higher DTC of gait speed (p = 0.01), cadence (p < 0.01), and double support time (p < 0.01) than men. However, significant aging effect on DTC of gait speed (p = 0.01), step length (p = 0.01), and double support time (p = 0.01) was observed in men but not in women. Immediate memory was the primary determinant for the DTC of gait speed (β = −0.25, p < 0.01), step length (β = −0.22, p < 0.01), and cadence (β = −0.15, p = 0.03) in men. Besides immediate memory, postural sway (β = −0.13, p = 0.03) and hand reaction (β = 0.14, p = 0.02) were also significantly associated with DTC of step length and cadence, respectively, in women. Conclusion: There were sex differences in the amplitude and trajectories of DTC of gait parameters. The DTC increased with age in men but not in women. Immediate memory was the primary determinant of DTC of gait parameters in men while immediate memory, postural sway, and reaction time were associated with DTC of gait in women. Future studies should investigate the clinical implications of the sex differences in the DTC with fall risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The objective is to evaluate the pattern of cognitive deficits after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT); to ascertain the role of various psychosocial, illness and treatment-related parameters on cognitive functions after ECT; and to evaluate the effect of donepezil on various cognitive deficits. Materials and Methods: A triple-blind randomized controlled trial was undertaken. Ninety patients undergoing ECT were included into study after due consent and institutional ethical approval. They were randomized into two groups: one using donepezil with ECT and the other using placebo with ECT. Various cognitive parameters were studied before ECT, after a course of ECT and after 4 weeks of last ECT. Findings were assessed in the light of available socialdemographic and clinical parameters and existing literature. Results: ECT was found to be an effective therapeutic modality. Immediate memory worsened over the course of ECT till after 4 weeks of ECT. Augmentation of donepezil was found useful. It sped up the improvement of general memory and working memory during ECT. Conclusion: Donepezil has therapeutic and prophylactic benefit on cognition of patients undergoing ECT over the course of treatment till 4 weeks after the ECT.

Accumulating studies have shown that high-frequency (HF) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may improve cognitive dysfunction of the patients with schizophrenia (SCZ), but with inconsistent results. The present study aims to assess the efficacy of different frequencies of neuronavigated rTMS in ameliorating cognitive impairments and alleviating the psychotic symptoms. A total of 120 patients were randomly assigned to 3 groups: 20 Hz rTMS (n = 40), 10 Hz rTMS (n = 40), or sham stimulation (n = 40) for 8 weeks, and then followed up at week 32. The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) was performed to assess the cognitive functions of the patients at baseline, at the end of week 8, and week 32 follow-up. Psychotic symptoms were assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) at baseline and at the end of week 2, week 4, week 6, week 8, and week 32 follow-up. Our results demonstrated that 20 Hz rTMS treatment produced an effective therapeutic benefit on immediate memory of patients with chronic SCZ at week 8, but not in the 10 Hz group. Interestingly, both 10 Hz and 20 Hz rTMS treatments produced delayed effects on cognitive functions at the 6-month follow-up. Moreover, in both 10 Hz rTMS and 20 Hz rTMS, the improvements in RBANS total score were positively correlated with the reduction of PANSS positive subscore at the 6-month follow-up. Stepwise regression analysis identified that the visuospatial/constructional index, immediate memory index, and prolactin at baseline were predictors for the improvement of cognitive impairments in the patients. Our results suggest that add-on HF rTMS could be an effective treatment for cognitive impairments in patients with chronic SCZ, with a delayed effect. Trial registration: clinicaltrials.gov identifier—NCT03774927. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transient working memory requires attention and temporary storage of information, whereas executive function working memory requires additional mental manipulation of that information. Working memory impairment is common in schizophrenia patients, but only some studies have found differential impairment in executive function working memory compared to transient working memory. We measured both types of working memory using the Digit Span forward (DF) and backward (DB) tasks in a large sample of schizophrenia patients (n=267) and normal comparison subjects (n=82); in the patients, we also examined associations between performance on the Digit Span tasks and Letter-Number Sequencing (LNS), a putative executive function working memory test. Compared to healthy subjects, the schizophrenia patients showed impairment in the medium effect size range on both DF (d=-0.55) and 1313 (d=-0.68). 1313 scores predicted LNS performance, whereas DF scores did not. Worse negative symptoms were associated with worse performance on DF, DB and LNS. These results do not reflect differential executive function working memory dysfunction in schizophrenia, but appear to support transient and executive function working memory as separable constructs. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Objectives: The objective is to evaluate the pattern of cognitive deficits after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT); to ascertain the role of various psychosocial, illness and treatment-related parameters on cognitive functions after ECT; and to evaluate the effect of donepezil on various cognitive deficits. Materials and Methods: A triple-blind randomized controlled trial was undertaken. Ninety patients undergoing ECT were included into study after due consent and institutional ethical approval. They were randomized into two groups: one using donepezil with ECT and the other using placebo with ECT. Various cognitive parameters were studied before ECT, after a course of ECT and after 4 weeks of last ECT. Findings were assessed in the light of available socialdemographic and clinical parameters and existing literature. Results: ECT was found to be an effective therapeutic modality. Immediate memory worsened over the course of ECT till after 4 weeks of ECT. Augmentation of donepezil was found useful. It sped up the improvement of general memory and working memory during ECT. Conclusion: Donepezil has therapeutic and prophylactic benefit on cognition of patients undergoing ECT over the course of treatment till 4 weeks after the ECT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of bilingualism on verbal learning and memory was explored in different studies. Different researchers assume that the Arabic diglossia, represents a case of bilingualism in the lingual context. Hence, the current study aimed to investigate the impact of diglossia in Arabic on the phonological working memory among beginner readers. Forty-one Arabic first graders ( M  = 7.13, SD = .73) were administered three tasks of phonological working memory in two versions (i.e., spoken and standard language); Two tasks were designed to test verbal retrieval and one task was designed to test remembering of instructions. The participants showed significant diglossic differences between spoken and standard stimuli in verbal retrieval tasks while no such significant differences appeared in remembering of instructions' task, especially, when the processing demands increased. In addition, the findings may shed light on the importance of developing research tools and tasks with a higher level of sensitivity in order to examine the diglossic effect on memory functions in general and verbal working memory in particular. The results were discussed considering the impact of the Arabic diglossia on cognitive and memory processing skills.

Objectives: Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia patients with auditory hallucinations is more prominent compared to those without. Our study aimed to investigate the cognitive improvement effects of 10 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in schizophrenia with auditory hallucinations., Methods: A total of 60 schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations in this study were randomly assigned to sham or active group. Both groups received 10 Hz or sham rTMS targeted in left DLPFC for 20 sessions. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Auditory Hallucination Rating Scale (AHRS), the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), and the Udvalg for Kliniske Under-sogelser (UKU) side effect scale were used to measure psychiatric symptoms, auditory hallucinations, cognition, and side reaction, respectively., Results: Our results indicated that the active group experienced greater improvements in RBANS-total score ( P  = 0.043) and immediate memory subscale score ( P  = 0.001). Additionally, the PANSS-total score, negative and positive subscale score were obviously lower in the active group compared to the sham group (all P  < 0.050). Furthermore, our study found that the improvement of RBANS-total score was positively associated with the decline of positive factor score, and the improvement of language score in RBANS was positively associated with the reduction in PANSS-total scale, negative and positive subscale score in the real stimulation group (all P  < 0.050)., Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that a four-week intervention of 10 Hz rTMS over the left DLPFC can improve cognition (particularly immediate memory) among schizophrenia patients with auditory hallucinations. Future studies with larger sample size are needful to verify our preliminary findings., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

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In immediate serial recall, it is well established that performance is influenced by lexical factors such as imageability and word frequency. However, when participants are asked to recall the to-be-remembered items in their reverse order, known as backward recall, lexical factors produced contradictory findings. In 4 experiments, we tested the role of response modality in modulating the effects of imageability and word frequency in backward recall. The magnitude of the 2 tested lexical factors was only slightly reduced in backward compared with forward recall when participants responded manually. Critically, when participants recalled words orally, the magnitude of the lexical factors was severely reduced in backward recall. It is concluded that response modality has a strong influence on the memory processes involved in backward recall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Aim: To clarify whether carotid atherosclerosis and its risk factors are associated with cognitive decline. Methods: We evaluated 206 individuals who visited our center for health screening. We carried out physical examinations, blood tests, intima‐media thickness (IMT) measurement by carotid ultrasonography, brain magnetic resonance imaging scanning and cognitive function assessments. A total of 30 individuals, who had significant cerebrovascular lesions detected in magnetic resonance imaging scans, were excluded. To detect early cognitive decline, we defined “cognitive impairment (CI)” when a patient satisfied at least one of three criteria. These were Mini‐Mental State Examination score <24, clock‐drawing test score <4 coexisting with forgetfulness and Wechsler Memory Scale‐revised delayed recall score below the normal range for the duration of education (>16 years of education: ≥9, 10–15 years: ≥5, 0–9 years: ≥3). Results: Among 176 individuals, 27 were placed in the CI group. IMT was significantly higher in the CI group as compared with the non‐CI group (mean ± SD: 2.0 ± 1.0 vs 1.7 ± 0.7, P = 0018 by Student's t‐test). Other atherosclerotic risk factors, such as blood pressure, low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol, and hemoglobin A1c, were not significantly different between the two groups. In multivariate analysis, maximum IMT was associated with impaired immediate recall score on Wechsler Memory Scale‐revised, independent of the presence of deep white matter hyperintensities on the magnetic resonance imaging scan. Conclusions: Subclinical carotid atherosclerosis, defined as thickened IMT, could be a marker for early stages of CI, especially for immediate memory recall. The impairment is presumably caused by inducing cerebral microvascular dysfunction in the frontal lobe. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 65–71. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to present a behavioral theory of performance in the simple (classic) memory span experiment. This experiment has been used to investigate hypothetical mental and neurological processes and intelligent function, but behavioral span theory takes the standpoint of event-based constructs. Established empirical limits on memory span are described in terms of span ability , namely, the ability to function under span load . Span load is a count of the number of discriminative stimuli that function concurrently to occasion responding. Span ability is assessed via standard memory span procedures. The theory distinguishes response string from response chain on the basis of the locus of stimulus control; the response string is controlled by the multiple stimuli in a stimulus string or stimulus complex. Response chains are emitted intraverbals. There is no known limit to the length of a chain that can be attained through extensive experiential history, but the memory span experiment assesses the length of response strings that are severely limited at around 7 items (the span limit) and are quite resistant to change. Span limits increase during the developmental period and covary with intelligent function. The values of span ability and span load are potent tools for the prediction and control of developmental and individual differences in diverse experimental paradigms drawn from both behavior analytic and general experimental traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although commonly interpreted as a marker of episodic memory during neuropsychological exams, relatively little is known regarding the neurobehavior of “total learning” immediate recall scores. Medial temporal lobes are clearly associated with delayed recall performances, yet immediate recall may necessitate networks beyond traditional episodic memory. We aimed to operationalize cognitive and neuroanatomic correlates of total immediate recall in several aging syndromes. Demographically-matched neurologically normal adults (n=91), individuals with Alzheimer's disease (n=566), logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (PPA) (n=34), behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (n=97), semantic variant PPA (n=71), or nonfluent/agrammatic variant PPA (n=39) completed a neurocognitive battery, including the CVLT-Short Form trials 1–4 Total Immediate Recall; a majority subset also completed a brain MRI. Regressions covaried for age and sex, and MMSE in cognitive and total intracranial volume in neuroanatomic models. Neurologically normal adults demonstrated a heterogeneous pattern of cognitive associations with total immediate recall (executive, speed, delayed recall), such that no singular cognitive or neuroanatomic correlate uniquely predicted performance. Within the clinical cohorts, there were syndrome-specific cognitive and neural associations with total immediate recall; e.g., semantic processing was the strongest cognitive correlate in svPPA (partial r=0.41), while frontal volumes was the only meaningful neural correlate in bvFTD (partial r=0.20). Medial temporal lobes were not independently associated with total immediate recall in any group (ps>0.05). Multiple neurobehavioral systems are associated with “total learning” immediate recall scores that importantly differ across distinct clinical syndromes. Conventional memory networks may not be sufficient or even importantly contribute to total immediate recall in many syndromes. Interpreting learning scores as equivalent to episodic memory may be erroneous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to analyze a relationship between creativity and immediate-and-logical memory, and in turn these ones related to the academic achievement by adolescents in secondary school. The sample included fifty-one 4th-graders, 15-16 years old in a Murcia school. The instrument to evaluate the creativity was CREA test while the logic memory was evaluated using subtest 6, logical memorization, Luria-DNA; and the immediate memory was evaluated using subtest 5, immediate memory Luria-DNA. The academic performance was got through the marks of the different subjects. To know the relationship between the variables, the Pearson correlation was calculated and a descriptive analysis was made in order to establish the mean, the deviation, and the maximum and minimum of each variable. The results show there is only a significant correlation between immediate memory and academic performance, while the others show there is not a significant relation. Finally, the results are discussed and new research lines have been proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2011, van Dijck and Fias described a positional SNARC (Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes) effect: the SPoARC (Spatial-Positional Association of Response Codes). To-be-remembered items (e.g., numbers, words) presented centrally on a screen seemed to acquire a left-to-right spatial dimension. If confirmed, this spatialization could be crucial for immediate memory theories. However, given the intricate links between visual and spatial dimensions, this effect could be due to the visual presentation (on a computer screen), which could have probed the left-to-right direction of reading/writing. To allow a generalization of this effect, we adapted van Dijck and Fias's (2011) task using an auditory version of Sternberg's paradigm. Lists of five consonants were auditorily presented at a rate of 3 s/item. A SPoARC effect was observed. The consequences are discussed first from an immediate memory perspective, putting forward the view that order could be coded through spatialization, and then in terms of similarities between SPoARC and SNARC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to evaluate the capacity of immediate memory to cope with new situations in relation to the compressibility of information likely to allow the formation of chunks. We constructed a task in which untrained participants had to immediately recall sequences of stimuli with possible associations between them. Compressibility of information was used to measure the chunkability of each sequence on a single trial. Compressibility refers to the recoding of information in a more compact representation. Although compressibility has almost exclusively been used to study long-term memory, our theory suggests that a compression process relying on redundancies within the structure of the list materials can occur very rapidly in immediate memory. The results indicated a span of about three items when the list had no structure, but increased linearly as structure was added. The amount of information retained in immediate memory was maximal for the most compressible sequences, particularly when information was ordered in a way that facilitated the compression process. We discuss the role of immediate memory in the rapid formation of chunks made up of new associations that did not already exist in long-term memory, and we conclude that immediate memory is the starting place for the reorganization of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both adults and children -by the time they are 2-3 years old- have a general ability to recode information to increase memory efficiency. This paper aims to evaluate the ability of untrained children aged 6-10 years old to deploy such a recoding process in immediate memory. A large sample of 374 children were given a task of immediate serial report based on SIMONr, a classic memory game made of four colored buttons (red, green, yellow, blue) requiring players to reproduce a sequence of colors within which repetitions eventually occur. It was hypothesized that a primitive ability across all ages (since theoretically already available in toddlers) to detect redundancies allows the span to increase whenever information can be recoded on the fly. The chunkable condition prompted the formation of chunks based on the perceived structure of color repetition within to-be-recalled sequences of colors. Our result shows a similar linear improvement of memory span with age for both chunkable and non-chunkable conditions. The amount of information retained in immediate memory systematically increased for the groupable sequences across all age groups, independently of the average age-group span that was measured on sequences that contained fewer repetitions. This result shows that chunking gives young children an equal benefit as older children. We discuss the role of recoding in the expansion of capacity in immediate memory and the potential role of data compression in the formation of chunks in long-term memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In line with the embodied cognition perspective stating that cognitive processing results from the activation of the sensorimotor systems involved in perception and action (e.g., Glenberg, 1997), recent studies provided evidence that motor affordances played a role in serial memory for objects (e.g., see Downing-Doucet & Guérard, 2014). In the present study, we extended this line of research by investigating whether objects' motor affordances played a role in item memory, in immediate and long-term retention. Participants had to retain pairs of objects that were positioned in a way that was congruent for action or not. The results showed that motor suppression disrupted the retention of congruent pairs, but not that of incongruent pairs when short lists of six objects had to be retained over a short period of time (Experiment 1). However, when participants had to retain lists of 60 pairs, motor suppression had no effect on retention (Experiment 2). These results suggest that the motor system was recruited for the immediate retention of objects, but not for their long-term retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim Although a number of cognitive functions have been assessed in the ultra-high risk ( UHR) population, only one study has reported on figural fluency. Visual memory was measured by different tests providing inconsistent results. The aim of the present study was to compare figural fluency and visual immediate memory performance in UHR patients and normal subjects. Methods The UHR sample consisted of 55 help-seeking individuals meeting CAARMS criteria. The control group consisted of 65 subjects. They were matched as a group by age, gender and education level. Figural fluency ( RFFT) and immediate visual memory ( BVRT) were assessed within 2 weeks after inclusion in the study in the UHR patient group. Results Significant differences were obtained in RFFT and BVRT results. In BVRT, UHR patients scored lower in number of correct designs ( P < 0.001) and higher in number of errors ( P < 0.0001), especially omissions ( P < 0.001) and distortions ( P < 0.0001). UHR subjects accurately recalled fewer designs, omitted and distorted more test figures. In RFFT, they scored lower in production of novel designs ( P < 0.0001) and higher in the error ratio index ( P < 0.008). They produced fewer novel designs and made more preservative errors. Conclusions The current study concerns non-verbal cognitive functions in UHR samples. Our results suggest that figural fluency and visual immediate memory are impaired in help-seeking UHR individuals as compared with matched controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Miller's (1956) article about storage capacity limits, "The Magical Number Seven Plus or Minus Two...," is one of the best-known articles in psychology. Though influential in several ways, for about 40 years it was oddly followed by rather little research on the numerical limit of capacity in working memory, or on the relation between 3 potentially related phenomena that Miller described. Given that the article was written in a humorous tone and was framed around a tongue-in-cheek premise (persecution by an integer), I argue that it may have inadvertently stymied progress on these topics as researchers attempted to avoid ridicule. This commentary relates some correspondence with Miller on his article and concludes with a call to avoid self-censorship of our less conventional ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their recent article, Acheson, MacDonald, and Postle (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 37:44-59, ) made an important but controversial suggestion: They hypothesized that (a) semantic information has an effect on order information in short-term memory (STM) and (b) order recall in STM is based on the level of activation of items within the relevant lexico-semantic long-term memory (LTM) network. However, verbal STM research has typically led to the conclusion that factors such as semantic category have a large effect on the number of correctly recalled items, but little or no impact on order recall (Poirier & Saint-Aubin, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 48A:384-404, ; Saint-Aubin, Ouellette, & Poirier, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 12:171-177, ; Tse, Memory 17:874-891, ). Moreover, most formal models of short-term order memory currently suggest a separate mechanism for order coding-that is, one that is separate from item representation and not associated with LTM lexico-semantic networks. Both of the experiments reported here tested the predictions that we derived from Acheson et al. The findings show that, as predicted, manipulations aiming to affect the activation of item representations significantly impacted order memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short-term memory is a system that holds a small amount of information during seconds; it is subdivided into immediate memory, if the information is only stored temporarily and working memory, if the information is stored and manipulated simultaneously. "Corsi block task" is a test that has been widely used to assess visuospatial working memory; in this task the assessed subject must to remember increasing sequences of cubes touches. This article describes the operation and advantages of CubMemPc program, which is a computerized version of "Corsi block task" designed to assess visuospatial short-term memory (immediate and working memory). The program makes it possible the application of different sequences of "cube touches", the registration of both the subject's responses and execution time. Besides, it allows including visual stimuli as distracters, which permit to study the effects of emotion on short-term memory. Given its availability, flexibility and manageability CubMemPc can be used by researchers in the field of cognitive neuroscience and for psychology professionals in the assessment of visuospatial immediate memory and working memory with or without distracters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In line with theories of embodied cognition (e.g., Versace et al. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 21, 522-560, ), several studies have suggested that the motor system used to interact with objects in our environment is involved in object recognition (e.g., Helbig, Graf, & Kiefer Experimental Brain Research, 174, 221-228, ). However, the role of the motor system in immediate memory for objects is more controversial. The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of the motor system in object memory by manipulating the similarity between the actions associated to series of objects to be retained in memory. In Experiment 1, we showed that lists of objects associated to dissimilar actions were better recalled than lists associated to similar actions. We then showed that this effect was abolished when participants were required to perform a concurrent motor suppression task (Experiment 2) and when the objects to be memorized were unmanipulable (Experiment 3). The motor similarity effect provides evidence for the role of motor affordances in object memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors comment on the mechanisms for coding order in immediate memory and the mechanisms that exist in memory expertise. They discuss the separate coding and representation of information and order information, an alternative explanation of the Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes effect proposed in 2011, and the role of spatialization in memory expertise.

Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has emerged as a prevention method or minimizer of the normal cognitive deterioration that occurs during the aging process. tDCS can be used to enhance cognitive functions such as immediate memory, learning, or working memory in healthy subjects. The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of two 20-min sessions of anodal transcranial direct stimulation on immediate memory, learning potential, and working memory in healthy older adults., Methods: A randomized, single-blind, repeated-measures, sham-controlled design was used. The sample is made up of 31 healthy older adults, of whom 16 were in the stimulation group and 15 were in the sham group. The anode was placed on position F7, coinciding with the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex region, and the cathode was placed on Fp2, the right supraorbital area (rSO)., Results: When comparing the results of the treatment group and the sham group, differences were observed in working memory and learning potential; however, no differences in immediate memory were found., Conclusion: The results showed that tDCS is a non-invasive and safe tool to enhance cognitive processes in healthy older adults interested in maintaining some cognitive function.