Working Memory, Attention, and Intelligence Flashcards
features of cognitive tests
- Standardised to allow comparisons
- Reliable
- Valid
case of Kim Peek
- IQ of 87
- Mentally handicapped
- Recommended for lobotomy
- Incredible semantic memory
- No agreement about how or why his extraordinary memory arose
- Savant
- Not autistic
savant syndrome
- Very rare (1 in 1 million, more likely in men, more common in autism)
- Very common in autism but both can exist separately
- Very poorly understood
- Can be acquired through brain injury (very rare) (Left anterior temporal lobe - Possibly releases right hemisphere? (many have astonishing creativity and artistic ability))
Spearman’s G model of IQ
- Performance on different cognitive tasks is correlated (Verbal, spatial, numerical, (reasoning): combinations of these)
- Not complete correlation
- Suggests underlying general (g) factor (Can be split into fluid (unlearned) and crystal (learned))
- Plus task-specific (s) factor
IQ and brain size - sex differences
Modest relationship
Sex differences?
1. No overall difference in mean scores
2. May be differences on aspects of the test
Women better at verbal
Men better at spatial
May be reflected in correlations with size of different brain regions
WM and the DLPFC
- Brodmann areas 9 and 46
- Monitoring and manipulation of WM content
- Susceptible to traumatic brain injury (TBI)
role of DLPFC
- Abstract reasoning
- Top-down regulation of attention
- Projects to hippocampus (Encoding LTM, Recalling memory to replay)
- Many other regions involved in WM
what part of WM does the DIGIT SPAN FORWARD TASK measure
maintenance
DIGIT SPAN FORWARD TASK
- Verbal/Auditory maintenance
- Administrator recites a series of numbers (1 per second, monotone delivery)
- Subject asked to repeat those numbers
- The length of series increased with each trial
- Task ends when participant fails twice at a specific length
- (length = score)
what does the N-BACK TASK measure
monitoring
N-BACK TASK
- Remembering backwards
- A series of digits are presented, one at a time (~15-50 in total)
- Answer ‘yes’ if a digit appeared ‘n’ back
- ‘n’ is the number of digits back you have to remember
- Where n = zero, is a pure monitoring task
- Where N>1, is a monitoring and updating task
- The higher the ‘n’ the harder the task
Stimuli can be varied to test different sub-types of working memory
1. letters/words (verbal + auditory)
2. Sound (auditory)
3. Shapes (spatial)
4. Smells (olfactory)
what does the LETTER-NUMBER SEQUENCING TASK measure
manipulation
LETTER-NUMBER SEQUENCING TASK
- Administrator reads out a string of words and letters
- Participant must first say the numbers in ascending order and then the letters in alphabetical order.
- Cut-off when cannot reproduce a certain string length 3 times
Manipulation of verbal working memory
WMM
BADDELEY AND HITCH WM MODEL
- Doesn’t full mature until early adulthood
- Declines with age
- Affected by internal and external factors
- Measured experimentally in a number of ways: Tasks use different outcomes
Verbal, visual, spatial
- Sub-systems with different functions
- Can be split into sights and sounds
sound processing in WM
SOUNDS PROCESSED IN PHONOLOGICAL LOOP: (One component of WM)
Simple example 1 – attempt to recall a string of letters by repeating over and over
1. Being required to articulate an irrelevant word destroys
performance
2. Similar sounding letters are harder to remember
Simple example 2 - earworm
PL – 2 PARTS:
- Phonological store: Holds auditory material (e.g. Spoken words), Keeps things in order, Rapid decay
- Articulatory loop: ‘inner voice’, ‘rehearses’ audio material, Translates written to ‘spoken’ (articulated).
