Cognition counts: A working memory system for ease of language understanding (ELU)

Rönnberg, Jerker; Rudner, Mary; Foo, Catharina Karlsson; Lunner, Thomas

doi:10.1080/14992020802301167

Cited by 428 publications

(528 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…These findings support the notion of an episodic buffer in WM (Repovs & Baddeley, 2006) that, according to the WM model for ELU (Rönnberg et al, in press;Rönnberg et al, 2008) may function in a similar fashion irrespective of language modality.…”

Section: Temporal Organization In Wm 20supporting

confidence: 78%

Effects of Age on the Temporal Organization of Working Memory in Deaf Signers

Rudner

Davidsson

Rönnberg

2010

Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition

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Temporal organization in WM 2Deaf native signers have a general working memory (WM) capacity similar to that of hearing non-signers but are less sensitive to the temporal order of stored items on retrieval. General WM capacity declines with age, but little is known of how cognitive aging affects WM function in deaf signers. We investigated WM function in elderly deaf signers (EDS) and an age-matched comparison group of hearing non-signers (EHN) using a paradigm designed to highlight differences in temporal and spatial processing of item and order information. EDS performed worse than EHN on both item and order recognition using a temporal style of presentation. Reanalysis together with earlier data showed that with the temporal style of presentation, order recognition performance for EDS was also lower than for young adult deaf signers (YDS). Older participants responded more slowly than younger participants. These findings suggest that apart from age-related slowing irrespective of sensory and language status, there is an age-related difference specific to deaf signers in the ability to retain order information in WM when temporal processing demands are high. This may be due to neural reorganisation arising from sign language use. Concurrent spatial information with the Mixed style of presentation resulted in enhanced order processing for all groups, suggesting that concurrent temporal and spatial cues may enhance learning for both deaf and hearing groups.These findings support and extend the WM model for Ease of Language Understanding (ELU).Key words: working memory; sign language; deafness; temporal processing Temporal organization in WM 3 Working memory (WM) is the cognitive capacity available for on-line processing and short-term storage of information (Baddeley, 2000) and shows a distinctive developmental trajectory over the life-span with increase in capacity during childhood (Davidson, Amso, Anderson & Diamond, 2006) and decline in old age (Reuter-Lorenz & Cappell, 2008).Depletion of WM capacity with advancing age is accompanied by decline in other cognitive functions such as perceptual speed, episodic memory and word fluency (Lindenberger & Ghisletta, 2009). The causal mechanisms of changing WM capacity are yet to be established.Adequate working memory (WM) function is a prerequisite for language processing irrespective of language modality (Baddeley, 2003). However, the architecture of WM in both cognitive and neural terms may differ depending on the modality habitually used (see Rudner,Andin & Rönnberg, in press for a review). Previous work has shown that although there are striking similarities in the architecture of WM for sign-based languages and speech-based languages there are none the less intriguing differences which promise to teach us deeper truths about the nature of this fundamental cognitive function.Sign languages are natural languages that are the preferred medium of communication of people who are born deaf (Emmorey, 2002). Rudner and Rönnberg (2008a) reported a series of studies which ...

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Section: Temporal Organization In Wm 20supporting

confidence: 78%

Effects of Age on the Temporal Organization of Working Memory in Deaf Signers

Rudner

Davidsson

Rönnberg

2010

Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition

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“…Previous research (Rönnberg et al, 2008;Akeroyd, 2008;Arlinger, Lunner, Lyxell, & Pichora-Fuller, 2009;Rudner, Rönnberg, & Lunner, 2011, Engle, 2002 indicates that speech perception, especially in challenging listening conditions, is associated with working memory (WM) capacity as measured with the reading span test (RSpan, Daneman & Carpenter, 1980). It also relates to the ability to read partly masked everyday sentences as assessed by the text reception threshold test (TRT; Zekveld, George, Kramer, Goverts & Houtgast, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) framework (Rönnberg, 2003), such processes are increasingly recruited when stimuli are degraded such that the stimulus-driven linguistic input cannot be automatically and implicitly matched to stored phonological representations in long-term memory. Such failures to match, or 'mismatches' (see Rönnberg et al, 2008), require explicit, knowledge-driven processing in order to be resolved. In contrast, clearly audible stimulus-driven linguistic input may not involve WM as much, since it is more automatically and implicitly bound to stored representations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Audibility influences the relative importance of these processes (c.f., Plomp, 2002;Rönnberg, Rudner, Lunner, & Zekveld, 2010). When hearing is challenged by interfering noise and/or hearing impairment, contextual information, prior knowledge and experience play a greater role in driving perception (Rönnberg, 2003;Rönnberg, Rudner, Foo, & Lunner, 2008;Wingfield & Tun, 2007;Norris & McQueen, 2008;Miller, Heise, & Lichten, 1951;Miller & Isard, 1963, Tesink et al, 2009Nakano, Saron, & Swaab, 2010;Hagoort & van Berkum, 2007;Drager & Reichle, 2001). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Behavioral and fMRI evidence that cognitive ability modulates the effect of semantic context on speech intelligibility

Zekveld¹,

Rudner²,

Johnsrude³

et al. 2012

Brain and Language

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Text cues facilitate sentence perception when they are semantically related to the speech (Zekveld et al., 2011a). In this study, semantically related and unrelated cues preceding sentences evoked more activation in middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) than non-word cues, regardless of acoustic quality (speech in noise or speech in quiet).Larger verbal working memory (WM) capacity (reading span) was associated with greater intelligibility benefit obtained from related cues, with less speech-related activation in the left superior temporal gyrus and left anterior IFG, and with more activation in right medial frontal cortex for related versus unrelated cues. Better ability to comprehend masked text was associated with greater ability to disregard unrelated cues, and with more activation in left angular gyrus (AG). We conclude that individual differences in cognitive abilities are related to activation in a speech-sensitive network including left MTG, IFG and AG during cued speech perception.

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“…The Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model [12] is used to explain exactly how the working memory is involved in listening. The multimodal input you receive when listening contains a mix of auditory, tactile, and visual information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive hearing aids? Insights and possibilities

Petersen¹,

Lunner²

2015

AIP Conference Proceedings

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The working memory plays an important role in successfully overcoming adverse listening conditions andshould consequently be considered when designing and testing hearing aids. A number of studies have established therelationship between hearing in noise and working memory involvement, but with the Sentence-final Word Identificationand Recall (SWIRL) test, it is possible to show that working memory is also involved in listening under favorableconditions and that noise reduction has a positive influence in situation with very little noise. Although the capacity of theworking memory is a finite individual size, its involvement can differ with fatigue and other factors and individualizationof hearing aids should take this into account to obtain the best performance. A way of individually adapting hearing aidsis based on changes in the electrical activity of the brain (EEG). Here we present the possibilities that arise from usingEEG and show that ear-mounted electrodes is able to record useful EEG that can be explored for individualization ofhearing aids. Such an adaptation could be done based on changes in the electrical activity of the brain (EEG). Here wepresent the possibilities that arise from using EEG and show that ear-mounted electrodes is able to record useful EEG thatcan be explored for individualization of hearing aids

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Cognition counts: A working memory system for ease of language understanding (ELU)

Cited by 428 publications

References 68 publications

Effects of Age on the Temporal Organization of Working Memory in Deaf Signers

Effects of Age on the Temporal Organization of Working Memory in Deaf Signers

Behavioral and fMRI evidence that cognitive ability modulates the effect of semantic context on speech intelligibility

Cognitive hearing aids? Insights and possibilities

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