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Central Executive (central + executive)
Selected AbstractsWorking memory: Its role in dyslexia and other specific learning difficultiesDYSLEXIA, Issue 3 2004Sharman Jeffries Abstract This paper reports a study contrasting dyslexic children against a control group of children without special educational needs (SEN) and a group with varied SENs. Children's abilities were compared on tasks assessing phonological processing, visuo-spatial/motor coordination and executive/inhibitory functioning; being targeted for assessment based on theoretical proposals related to the working memory model. Primary and secondary school level children were tested: 21 assessed as dyslexic with no comorbid difficulties, 26 children assessed with difficulties including dyspraxia, emotional/behavioural problems and attention deficits, 40 children with no known education-related deficits were controls. Results indicated both SEN groups performed worse than controls on working memory phonological loop measures. However, SEN groups could only be differentiated on phonological awareness measures: the dyslexics showing lower scores. Dyslexics performed as well as controls on working memory visuo-spatial scratch pad measures and one of two additional visual,motor coordination tasks, whereas the performance of the other SEN children was lowest on the majority of these measures. Central executive and interference measures engendered mixed performances, both SEN groups showing evidence of deficits in one or more of these areas of functioning, although, of the two SEN groups, the dyslexics seem to have performed the worse when digit name processing was required. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Susceptibility of spatial and verbal working memory to demands of the central executive1JAPANESE PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2004HIROHITO KONDO Abstract:, We used a dual-task paradigm to examine the degree to which domain-specific spatial and verbal subsystems depend on the domain-general central executive. Forty participants were asked to retain spatial or verbal information while performing a concurrent secondary task related to simple arithmetic. The secondary tasks consisted of three cognitive processes: single-digit addition, a digit-carrying operation, and digit reading. The single-digit addition and carry operation include central executive functioning, while digit reading relies solely on the phonological loop. The single-digit addition caused a performance decrement on the spatial working memory task, while the digit reading impaired performance on the verbal working memory task. The carry operation interfered with recall accuracy on both working memory tasks. The spatial working memory task was significantly correlated with the verbal working memory task only when the secondary task was more demanding on the central executive. Our results suggest that spatial working memory rather than verbal working memory is susceptible to failure of central executive functioning and that the central executive plays an important role in regulating the cognitive demands of different domains. [source] Working memory and Down syndromeJOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH, Issue 12 2007A. Baddeley Abstract A brief account is given of the evolution of the concept of working memory from a unitary store into a multicomponent system. Four components are distinguished, the phonological loop which is responsible for maintaining speech-based information, the visuospatial sketchpad performing a similar function for visual information, the central executive which acts as an attentional control system, and finally a new component, the episodic buffer. The buffer comprises a temporary multidimensional store which is assumed to form an interface between the various subsystems of working memory, long-term memory, and perception. The operation of the model is then illustrated through an account of a research programme concerned with the analysis of working memory in Down syndrome. [source] Phonological recoding deficit in working memory of dyslexic teenagersJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 1 2000Sue Palmer The picture span performance of developmental dyslexic teenagers (mean age 14 years 1 month) was compared to the picture span performance of both RA (mean age 9 years 0 month) and chronological age match controls (mean age 14 years 1 month). Three stimulus lists were manipulated for visual and phonological similarity. Findings indicated that all three groups showed a significant phonological similarity effect but only the dyslexic group showed a significant visual similarity effect. The presence of dual visual-verbal coding is postulated to be responsible for the ,noisy' encoding which others (e.g. Johnston and Anderson, 1998; Swan and Goswami, 1997) have suggested is a root cause of dyslexia. The results are discussed in terms of developmental deficits in the central executive of the working memory system. [source] Working memory deficits can be overcome: Impacts of training and medication on working memory in children with ADHDAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2010Joni Holmes This study evaluated the impact of two interventions,a training program and stimulant medication,on working memory (WM) function in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Twenty-five children aged between 8 and 11 years participated in training that taxed WM skills to the limit for a minimum of 20 days, and completed other assessments of WM and IQ before and after training, and with and without prescribed drug treatment. While medication significantly improved visuo-spatial memory performance, training led to substantial gains in all components of WM across untrained tasks. Training gains associated with the central executive persisted over a 6-month period. IQ scores were unaffected by either intervention. These findings indicate that the WM impairments in children with ADHD can be differentially ameliorated by training and by stimulant medication. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||