The Roles of Verbal Short-Term Memory and Working Memory in the Acquisition of Grammar by Children With Williams Syndrome

The roles of verbal short-term and working memory were examined in a sample of children with Williams syndrome (mean chronological age 10 years, 2 months) and a sample of grammar-matched children who are developing normally. Forward digit span, nonword repetition, and backward span were all found to be correlated with receptive grammatical ability in the sample of children with Williams syndrome, but not in the sample of children who are developing normally. The relation between working memory, as measured by backward digit span, and grammatical ability was found to be significantly stronger in children with Williams syndrome than in the control group. This finding highlights the possibility that children with Williams syndrome may rely on their working memory to a greater extent than children who are developing normally to learn grammar. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated receptive vocabulary may mediate the relations among forward digit span, backward digit span, and grammatical ability for the children with Williams syndrome. Phonological short-term memory, however, contributed independently to grammatical ability even after receptive vocabulary was taken into account.     

Age-Associated Memory Changes in Adults With Williams Syndrome

Age-associated changes on measures of episodic and working memory were examined in 15 adults with Williams Syndrome (WS; M age = 48.3 years, SD = 14.7; M IQ = 62.9, SD = 8.5) and their performance was compared to that of 33 adults with mental retardation (MR) with unspecified etiologies (M age = 54.2 years, SD = 8.9; M IQ = 61.7, SD = 6.5). Among the group with WS, older adults were significantly poorer than younger adults on the free recall task, a measure of episodic memory. Although this finding is consistent with normal aging, it occurred at a chronologically early age in adults with WS and was not found in their peers with unspecified MR. Although both groups showed small declines with age on a backward digit span task, a measure of working memory, for the group with WS the rate of decline on backward digit span was slower as compared to their performance on the free recall task. The findings from this study indicate a chronologically early and precipitous age-associated decrease in long-term, episodic memory in adults with WS.     

Implicit Learning in Children and Adults With Williams Syndrome

In comparison to explicit learning, implicit learning is hypothesized to be a phylogenetically older form of learning that is important in early developmental processes (e.g., natural language acquisition, socialization) and relatively impervious to individual differences in age and IQ. We examined implicit learning in a group of children and adults (9-49 years of age) with Williams syndrome (WS) and in a comparison group of typically developing individuals matched for chronological age. Participants were tested in an artificial-grammar learning paradigm and in a rotor-pursuit task. For both groups, implicit learning was largely independent of age. Both groups showed evidence of implicit learning but the comparison group outperformed the WS group on both tasks. Performance advantages for the comparison group were no longer significant when group differences in working memory or nonverbal intelligence were held constant.     

Implicit Learning in Children and Adults With Williams Syndrome

In comparison to explicit learning, implicit learning is hypothesized to be a phylogenetically older form of learning that is important in early developmental processes (e.g., natural language acquisition, socialization) and relatively impervious to individual differences in age and IQ. We examined implicit learning in a group of children and adults (9-49 years of age) with Williams syndrome (WS) and in a comparison group of typically developing individuals matched for chronological age. Participants were tested in an artificial-grammar learning paradigm and in a rotor-pursuit task. For both groups, implicit learning was largely independent of age. Both groups showed evidence of implicit learning but the comparison group outperformed the WS group on both tasks. Performance advantages for the comparison group were no longer significant when group differences in working memory or nonverbal intelligence were held constant.     

Early Linguistic Abilities of Italian Children With Williams Syndrome

Previous studies of linguistic and memory abilities in Italian-speaking children with Williams syndrome (WS) and Down syndrome (DS) are briefly reviewed. New data on linguistic performance of 6 Italian children with WS between 3 and 6 years of age are presented and compared with data on linguistic performance of 6 children with DS selected from a larger sample and matched for chronological age and vocabulary size and of 6 typically developing (TD) younger children matched for mental age and vocabulary size. The language measures also included a parent report of early phrase structure, a naming test, and a sentence repetition task. Analyses revealed that the 3 groups of children were at the same productive vocabulary level, but showed different patterns in sentence production and repetition. Children with WS produced more complete sentences, similar to TD children at the same vocabulary size, whereas children with DS produced more telegraphic and incomplete sentences. The difference between children with DS and those with WS was more marked on the repetition task, suggesting that phonological short-term memory may play a greater role when sentence production is measured through repetition. In addition, qualitative analysis of errors produced in the repetition test revealed interesting differences among the 3 groups. These results from younger children confirm and extend previous findings with older children and adolescents with WS. They further suggest that the apparently spared linguistic abilities of children with WS could emerge as an artifact of comparisons made to children with DS, whose sentence production competence is more compromised relative to other verbal and nonverbal abilities.     

Early Linguistic Abilities of Italian Children With Williams Syndrome

Previous studies of linguistic and memory abilities in Italian-speaking children with Williams syndrome (WS) and Down syndrome (DS) are briefly reviewed. New data on linguistic performance of 6 Italian children with WS between 3 and 6 years of age are presented and compared with data on linguistic performance of 6 children with DS selected from a larger sample and matched for chronological age and vocabulary size and of 6 typically developing (TD) younger children matched for mental age and vocabulary size. The language measures also included a parent report of early phrase structure, a naming test, and a sentence repetition task. Analyses revealed that the 3 groups of children were at the same productive vocabulary level, but showed different patterns in sentence production and repetition. Children with WS produced more complete sentences, similar to TD children at the same vocabulary size, whereas children with DS produced more telegraphic and incomplete sentences. The difference between children with DS and those with WS was more marked on the repetition task, suggesting that phonological short-term memory may play a greater role when sentence production is measured through repetition. In addition, qualitative analysis of errors produced in the repetition test revealed interesting differences among the 3 groups. These results from younger children confirm and extend previous findings with older children and adolescents with WS. They further suggest that the apparently spared linguistic abilities of children with WS could emerge as an artifact of comparisons made to children with DS, whose sentence production competence is more compromised relative to other verbal and nonverbal abilities.     

Number Magnitude Processing and Verbal Working Memory in Children with Mild Intellectual Disabilities

ABSTRACT

This study examined if children (M_age = 14.60) with Mild Intellectual Disabilities (MID) display weaknesses in number processing and verbal working memory. An age-matched and mental age-matched (MA, M_age = 6.17) design extended by a group of 9–10-year-olds, and a group of 11–12-year-olds were used. The MID children’s working memory was equal to the MA group but poorer than the other groups. On number tasks, the MID group was faster than the MA group but slower than the other groups. All groups obtained equal Weber fraction scores and distance effects on the number comparison tasks. The MID group performed subitizing and counting faster than the MA group, but slower than the 11–12-year-olds. The results demonstrate that number processing and working memory in children with MID is characterized by a developmental delay, not a deficit. Their main problem is to access the quantitative meaning of Arabic numerals. The development of different types of cognitive abilities is differently affected by educational experience and intellectual ability. The innate number system appears to be unaffected by intellectual capacity or educational experience, while the innate working memory ability is affected by intellectual capacity but not by educational experience. Culturally acquired symbolic number abilities are strongly affected by educational experience.     

Underpinnings of the Costs of Flexibility in Preschool Children: The Roles of Inhibition and Working Memory

This study addressed the respective contributions of inhibition and working memory to two underlying components of flexibility, goal representation (as assessed by mixing costs) and switch implementation (as assessed by local costs), across the preschool period. By later preschool age (4 years, 6 months and 5 years, 3 months), both inhibition and working-memory performance were associated with mixing costs, but not with local costs, whereas no relation was observed earlier (3 years, 9 months). The relations of inhibition and working memory to flexibility appear to emerge late in the preschool period and are mainly driven by goal representation.     

Examination of Verbal Memory and Recall Time in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

In this study 22 7- to 11-year-old children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 44 age-matched controls recruited from the same classrooms were given a 4-item delayed serial recall task using numbers or phrases. Although both groups showed similar recall accuracy rates, ADHD children required significantly longer times to retrieve and articulate their answers than children from the control group, regardless of age. The findings are discussed in relation to theories of executive function deficits in ADHD.     

Genetic Structure of Spatial and Verbal Working Memory

Working memory (WM) encompasses both short-term memory (storage) and executive functions that play an essential role in all forms of cognition. In this study, the genetic structure of storage and executive functions engaged in both a spatial and verbal WM span task is investigated using a twin sample. The sample consists of 143 monozygotic (MZ) and 93 dizygotic (DZ) Japanese twin pairs, ages 16 to 29 years. In 155 (87 MZ, 62 DZ) of these pairs, cognitive ability scores from the Kyodai Japanese IQ test are also obtained. The phenotypic relationship between WM and cognitive ability is confirmed (r = 0.26–0.44). Individual differences in WM storage and executive functions are found to be significantly influenced by genes, with heritability estimates all moderately high (43%–49%), and estimates for cognitive ability comparable to previous studies (65%). A large part of the genetic variance in storage and executive functions in both spatial and verbal modalities is due to a common genetic factor that accounts for 11% to 43% of the variance. In the reduced sample, this common genetic factor accounts for 64% and 26% of the variance in spatial and verbal cognitive ability, respectively. Additional genetic variance in WM (7%–30%) is due to modality specific factors (spatial and verbal) and a storage specific factor that may be particularly important for the verbal modality. None of the variance in cognitive ability is accounted for by the modality and storage genetic factors, suggesting these may be specific to WM.     

Verbal Learning and Memory in Children with Myelomeningocele

Examined verbal learning and memory in children with myelomeningoceleusing the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT). Participantsincluded 41 children with myelomeningocele, 8 to 15 years ofage, 33 of whom had a history of shunted hydrocephalus, and41 matched, unaffected controls. Children with myelomeningoceleand shunted hydrocephalus performed worse than controls on theCVLT. They recalled as many words as controls on the first learningtrial, but acquired words more slowly across trials, so thattheir overall recall was lower. Their learning was characterizedby a pronounced recency effect. Their delayed recall of theoriginal list was worse than controls, but not their recognition.Performance of children with myelomeningocele but without shuntswas generally not significantly different from that of the othertwo groups, although they did demonstrate better long-delayfree recall than children with shunts. Myelomeningocele is associatedwith significant retrieval problems when accompanied by shuntedhydrocephalus     

Patterns of Verbal Long-Term and Working Memory Performance Reveal Deficits in Strategic Processing in Children With Frontal Infarcts Related to Sickle Cell Disease

Frontal brain regions are thought to mediate strategic processes that facilitate memory. We hypothesized that children with frontal cerebral infarcts related to sickle cell disease (SCD) would exhibit impairments in long-term and working memory as a result of disruptions in strategic processing. Word-list learning and digit span tasks were used to assess verbal memory and strategic processing in 21 children with SCD without infarcts (controls) and in 10 children with SCD with frontal infarcts. On the word-list learning task, children with frontal infarcts performed more poorly in terms of learning and free recall, although recognition and cued recall were adequate; this pattern suggested intact encoding and storage with impaired retrieval. Children with frontal infarcts performed more poorly on backward digit span, although forward digit span was adequate; this pattern suggested intact maintenance with impaired manipulation of information in working memory. Overall, these findings support the notion that disruptions in strategic processing contribute to memory impairments in children with frontal infarcts.     

Neonatal Cerebral Abnormalities and Later Verbal and Visuospatial Working Memory Abilities of Children Born Very Preterm

As part of a prospective, longitudinal study, 103 very preterm children underwent structural magnetic resonance (MR) imaging at term equivalent age and an assessment of verbal (Digit Span) and visuospatial (Corsi Blocks) working memory at 6 years corrected age. Compared to children born full term (N = 108), very preterm children were characterized by poorer verbal and visuospatial working memory performance. Very preterm children without cerebral abnormalities performed similarly to full-term children. Verbal impairments were largely confined to children with earlier moderate-severe cerebral abnormalities, while children with mild and moderate-severe abnormalities showed greater difficulties in visuospatial working memory. Findings suggest that very preterm children may be particularly vulnerable to visuospatial impairment. They also highlight the role of early neurological disturbance in the evolution of these difficulties.     

Objects, Motions, and Paths: Spatial Language in Children With Williams Syndrome

The acquisition of spatial language is often assumed to be built upon an early-emerging system of nonlinguistic spatial knowledge. We tested this relationship by examining spatial language in children with Williams syndrome (WS), a rare genetic disorder that gives rise to severe nonlinguistic spatial deficits together with relatively spared language. Twelve children with WS, 12 normally developing mental-age matched children, and 12 normal adults described 80 videotaped motion events. Children with WS showed substantial control over key linguistic components of the motion event, including appropriate semantic and syntactic encoding of Figure and Ground objects, Manner of Motion, and Path. The expression of Path, although surprisingly spared, was more fragile among children with WS in contexts plausibly related to their nonlinguistic spatial deficit. The results show strong preservation of the formal aspects of spatial-linguistic knowledge and suggest that the nonlinguistic spatial deficits shown by children with WS have, at most, limited effects on their spatial language. These findings have implications for the relationship between spatial language and other aspects of spatial cognition.     

经颅磁刺激对字母工作记忆影响的研究

通过改变经颅磁刺激器的刺激时间点、刺激部位及刺激频率三项参数,探讨其对字母工作记忆的影响。使用心理学实验软件E-Prime设计字母工作记忆任务,采用TMS精确导航定位系统对刺激点精确定位,分别改变三项参数对受试者进行磁刺激,记录受试者接受字母工作记忆任务时的反应时间进行分析。影响受试者字母工作记忆的主要时间点在受试者休息的间歇6 s内,主要部位在受试者的左侧前额叶背外侧,高频磁刺激与无刺激相比反应时间明显缩短,但不具有显著性差异(P>0.05)。在休息间歇6 s,高频重复磁刺激刺激受试者左侧前额叶背外侧可以提高字母工作记忆。     

Objects,Motions, and Paths: Spatial Language in Children With Williams Syndrome

The acquisition of spatial language is often assumed to be built upon an early-emerging system of nonlinguistic spatial knowledge. We tested this relationship by examining spatial language in children with Williams syndrome (WS), a rare genetic disorder that gives rise to severe nonlinguistic spatial deficits together with relatively spared language. Twelve children with WS, 12 normally developing mental-age matched children, and 12 normal adults described 80 videotaped motion events. Children with WS showed substantial control over key linguistic components of the motion event, including appropriate semantic and syntactic encoding of Figure and Ground objects, Manner of Motion, and Path. The expression of Path, although surprisingly spared, was more fragile among children with WS in contexts plausibly related to their nonlinguistic spatial deficit. The results show strong preservation of the formal aspects of spatial-linguistic knowledge and suggest that the nonlinguistic spatial deficits shown by children with WS have, at most, limited effects on their spatial language. These findings have implications for the relationship between spatial language and other aspects of spatial cognition.     

成人数字、词语和视空间工作记忆广度的发展特征及影响因素

目的:考察成人(18~49岁)数字、词语和视空间工作记忆广度发展变化的趋势及其影响因素。方法:采用多维记忆评估量表中的3个工作记忆广度分测验对280名正常成人进行测查,并收集一般资料。结果:成人的数字、词语和视空间广度成绩随年龄的增长均呈下降趋势(F=2.96~6.87,P<0.01);出现随龄衰减现象的先后顺序依次为视空间广度、词语广度和数字广度;在记忆广度总成绩和大多数分测验成绩上男女无显著差异,仅在30-34岁年龄组,男性视空间广度位置的成绩好于女性(11.02±3.17/8.67±3.18,t=2.15,P<0.05)。逐步回归分析结果显示,教育是成人数字、词语和视空间广度的保护因素(Beta值=0.546,0.445,0.423;P<0.01)。结论:成人阶段数字、词语和视空间工作记忆广度的发展变化基本上趋于一致,并且受教育程度能对不同的工作记忆广度起促进作用。     

The Differential Role of Verbal and Spatial Working Memory in the Neural Basis of Arithmetic

We examine the relations of verbal and spatial working memory (WM) ability to the neural bases of arithmetic in school-age children. We independently localize brain regions subserving verbal versus spatial representations. For multiplication, higher verbal WM ability is associated with greater recruitment of the left temporal cortex, identified by the verbal localizer. For multiplication and subtraction, higher spatial WM ability is associated with greater recruitment of right parietal cortex, identified by the spatial localizer. Depending on their WM ability, children engage different neural systems that manipulate different representations to solve arithmetic problems.     

Visual and Verbal Short-Term Memory Deficits in Childhood Leukemia Survivors After Intrathecal Chemotheraphy

Assessed survivors of childhood lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)treated with intrathecal chemotherapy, using the Wide RangeAssessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML), compared to controlswithout cancer, matched as closely as possible-in age, SES,and gender. Mild, but consistent, deficits were found in bothvisual-spatial and verbal single-trial memory tasks. In multitriallearning, only visual-spatial tasks resulted in deficient scores,while verbal learning was within the normal range. IQ resultsindicated scores 10–20 points lower in the ALL group.Memory results are related to deficits in strategic planningand attentional distractiveness. The WRAML may be a useful clinicaltool to evaluate differential memory deficits in children withALL.