Strategic prioritisation enhances young and older adults’ visual feature binding in working memory

Allen, Richard J.; Atkinson, Amy L.; Nicholls, Louise A. Brown

doi:10.1177/1747021820960712

Cited by 22 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 89 publications

(229 reference statements)

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“…With the sequences containing three objects, it is notable that those presented at the middle position were relatively vulnerable in working memory. This pattern is consistent with earlier work using the same sequence length (Brown et al, 2017;Allen, Atkinson, & Nicholls, 2020). Generally, sequential presentation is challenging because it requires working memory resources, including internal/goal-directed attention, to be redistributed in order to encode newer stimuli (Gorgoraptis et al, 2011), while also retaining earlier items (Hitch, Allen, & Baddeley, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Impacts of trait anxiety on visual working memory, as a function of task demand and situational stress

Spalding

Obonsawin

Eynon

et al. 2020

Cognition and Emotion

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Higher trait anxiety can impair cognitive functioning via attention, but relatively little is known about the impacts on visual working memory. These were investigated using previously validated visual feature binding tasks. In Study 1, participants' memory for visual features (shapes) and feature bindings (coloured shapes) was assessed. Stimulus presentation was simultaneous or sequential, varying attentional demand, and participants were grouped according to trait cognitive anxiety (low, moderate, high). No reliable effect of trait anxiety, either cognitive or somatic, was found on memory accuracy, but moderate trait cognitive anxiety was associated with faster correct response times (i.e. increased efficiency) when stimuli were sequentially presented. In Study 2, the role of situational stress was explored during a simultaneously presented task. Higher trait cognitive and somatic anxiety were both associated with poorer efficiency during both shape and binding memory tasks. Trait somatic anxiety also predicted poorer binding effectiveness (i.e. accuracy), in those reporting higher state cognitive anxiety. Situational stress predicted binding effectiveness, but never interacted with trait anxiety, and was therefore not necessary to observe these trait anxiety-visual working memory relationships. Trait cognitive and somatic anxiety, and situational stress, therefore each influence visual working memory performance.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Impacts of trait anxiety on visual working memory, as a function of task demand and situational stress

Spalding

Obonsawin

Eynon

et al. 2020

Cognition and Emotion

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The observed decrease in VSWM efficiency in GrE1 compared to GrY1 is consistent with data from other studies of age-related differences in visual-spatial memory [4,[40][41][42][43].…”

Section: Age Differences In Visuospatial Short-term Memory and Time Dynamic During Trainingsupporting

confidence: 91%

Aging Associated Specificity in Training Visual Short-Term Memory

Om¹,

Kagan²

2022

Cerebrovascular Diseases - Elucidating Key Principles

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There are numerous data in existence, the computerized cognitive training programs (CCTP) maintain or improve the plasticity of the neural networks in the brain. It is known as well that CCTP reduces the probability of cognitive dysfunctions associated with aging. In the chapter, the age-associated specificity in the temporal dynamics of changes in the visuospatial short-term memory (VSWM, also called visuospatial working memory) is presented. VSWM has been analyzed as there are evidence for age-related decline in visuospatial memory associated with hippocampus atrophy in aging. Memory retrieval decline in older women in comparison with young women while computerized training at home is shown. The elderly achieving results which are comparable to the youngs are determined by significantly increased duration while performing the memory tasks. To reveal factors of the CCTP’s efficiency, age-related differences in the attention systems using the Attention Network Test were resolved. In the group of older women, VSWM efficiency is negatively related to the errors of incongruent information selection whereas in young women—to the reaction time while testing. Thus, the success of long-term systematic training of visuospatial memory in old age is strongly related to the high level of executive control.

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“…Forsberg, Johnson and Logie [ 61 ] proposed that difference in feature binding between young and older adults may be attributed to the use of different cognitive strategies, suggesting different neural backgrounds [ 62 ]. On the same page, Allen, Atkinson and Nicholls [ 63 ] supported that strategic prioritization plays an important role in feature binding, as even if older adults have worsened WM in general, they preserve the ability to strategically direct their attention to more important items in WM, stressing the significance of cognitive strategies in feature binding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Association between the Binding Processes of Working Memory and Vascular Risk Profile in Adults

et al. 2021

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Episodic buffer (EB), a key component of working memory, seems to have a rather complicated function as part of binding processes. Recent papers on the field claim that binding processes of working memory (WM) are assisted by attention and executive functions. On the same page, vascular pathology is gaining more ground as the main underlying cause for many brain pathologies. Hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, lack of exercise and smoking are the most common risk factors that people of all ages suffer from and constitute the main vascular risk factors responsible for a possible decline in executive functions and attention. Thus, this research is an attempt to examine the relation between the binding functions of WM and the existence of vascular risk factors via a computerized test focusing on feature binding. The study comprised adults (n = 229) with and without vascular risk factors. The main tools used were a biomarker questionnaire and a feature binding test (FBT). The results showed that participants who report suffering from one or more vascular risk factors had significantly lower performance on specific subtasks of the FBT in comparison to the participants who were healthy. This allows us to assume that there might be a positive association between feature binding and a vascular risk profile in adults, and such a test could be a useful diagnostic tool for early cognitive impairment due to incipient vascular pathology.

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Strategic prioritisation enhances young and older adults’ visual feature binding in working memory

Cited by 22 publications

References 89 publications

Impacts of trait anxiety on visual working memory, as a function of task demand and situational stress

Impacts of trait anxiety on visual working memory, as a function of task demand and situational stress

Aging Associated Specificity in Training Visual Short-Term Memory

The Association between the Binding Processes of Working Memory and Vascular Risk Profile in Adults

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