Anik De Ribaupierre

Recognition in a visuospatial memory task: The effect of presentation

The influence of the mode of presentation (simultaneous vs. sequential) on accuracy and latency of visuospatial recognition was explored in three experiments. In Experiment 1, two groups were administered a visuospatial task in which a number of positions were shown either simultaneously or sequentially (in a random order); memory was tested using a recognition procedure of visuospatial patterns, either identical or different (a single cell displaced). The results showed that (1) performance was higher in the simultaneous than in the sequential presentation, and (2) decision time increased with complexity in the sequential presentation but not in the simultaneous presentation. In Experiment 2, the same task was used in three conditions of presentation, simultaneous, random sequential, and ordered sequential; at test, a single location, rather than a pattern, was presented for recognition. The results showed that (1) performance was higher in the simultaneous and in the ordered sequential presentations than in the random sequential one, and (2) decision time increased with complexity. In Experiment 3, the same task was used in the same three conditions of presentation, simultaneous, random sequential, and ordered sequential; at test either an identical or a “displaced” pattern was presented for recognition. The results showed that (1) performance was equivalent in the three types of presentation, and (2) decision time increased with complexity for “hit” items; different patterns of linear relations were observed for “correct rejections” items. The results are interpreted in terms of the organisation of visuospatial working memory, and three types of encoding—extrafigural spatial encoding, visual pattern encoding, and spatial path encoding—were proposed.

Age Differences in Text Processing: The Role of Working Memory, Inhibition, and Processing Speed

OBJECTIVES Age-related changes in the efficiency of various general cognitive mechanisms have been evoked to account for age-related differences between young and older adults in text comprehension performance. Using structural equation modeling, we investigate the relationship between age, working memory (WM), inhibition-related mechanisms, processing speed, and text comprehension, focusing on surface and text-based levels of processing. METHODS Eighty-nine younger (M = 23.11 years) and 102 older (M = 70.50 years) adults were presented text comprehension, WM, inhibition, and processing speed tasks. In the text comprehension task, the demand on the memory system was manipulated, by allowing (text present) or not (text absent) viewing the text during the answering phase. RESULTS As expected, age differences were larger when the text was absent. The best fitting model showed that WM mediated the influence of age on both text processing conditions, whereas age-related variance in WM was, in turn, accounted for by processing speed and inhibition. DISCUSSION These findings confirm the hypothesis that WM capacity explains age differences in text processing, while it is itself accounted for by the efficiency of inhibiting irrelevant information and by speed of processing.

Working Memory and Inhibitory Control across the Life Span: Intrusion Errors in the Reading Span Test

The aim of this study was to examine to what extent inhibitory control and working memory capacity are related across the life span. Intrusion errors committed by children and younger and older adults were investigated in two versions of the Reading Span Test. In Experiment 1, a mixed Reading Span Test with items of various list lengths was administered. Older adults and children recalled fewer correct words and produced more intrusions than did young adults. Also, age-related differences were found in the type of intrusions committed. In Experiment 2, an adaptive Reading Span Test was administered, in which the list length of items was adapted to each individual’s working memory capacity. Age groups differed neither on correct recall nor on the rate of intrusions, but they differed on the type of intrusions. Altogether, these findings indicate that the availability of attentional resources influences the efficiency of inhibition across the life span.

A dynamic investigation of cognitive dedifferentiation with control for retest: evidence from the Swiss Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study on the Oldest Old.

Empirical examinations of the hypothesis of dedifferentiation of cognitive abilities in old and very old age (a) do not account for possible retest effects, which consequently may yield biased estimates of age effects, and (b) focus on time-independent relations (e.g., number of latent constructs, correlations between latent or measured variables). The authors applied a structural equation model with statistical control for retest effects to investigate the dynamic relations between a marker of perceptual speed (cross out) and a marker of verbal fluency (category-fruits). Longitudinal data are from 5 waves of the Swiss Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study on the Oldest Old (N = 377, baseline age range = 79.5- 84.5 years). The authors found that, independently of retest effects, performance on the cross-out task affected changes in performance on the category task while the opposite did not hold true. This analytical technique could be applied to various markers of broad fluid-mechanic and broad crystallized-pragmatic components of cognition.

Relationships between working memory and intelligence from a developmental perspective: Convergent evidence from a neo-Piagetian and a psychometric approach

The objective of this paper, in line with the other papers of this special issue, is to show the potentialities of combining intelligence research and cognitive psychology. The development of intelligence is here addressed from two usually separate perspectives, a psychometric one, and a neo-Piagetian one. Two studies are presented. In Experiment 1, children aged 6, 7, 9, and 11 years (N = 100) were administered two working memory tasks and three Piagetian tasks. In Experiment 2, children aged 8–12 years (N = 207), young adults aged 20–35 (N = 160), and older adults aged 60–88 years (N = 135) were administered working memory and processing speed tasks, as well as the Raven Standard Matrices task. Regression and commonality analyses were run to analyse the age-related variance in the Piagetian tasks (Study 1), and in the Raven task (Study 2). In both experiments, working memory accounted for a large part of the age differences observed, but more so in Study 1 (Piagetian tasks) than in Study 2 (Raven task). It is concluded that working memory mediates the effect of age on fluid intelligence during childhood and during adulthood.

Developmental change in a spatial task of attentional capacity: An essay toward an integration of two working memory models

The objective of this paper is to illustrate the complementarity of two lines of studies on Working Memory, the neo-Piagetian models of Pascual-Leone and Case on the one hand, and Baddeleys model, on the other. After a brief summary of each model, their similarities and differences are reviewed. An empirical longitudinal study is then presented as an illustration. Four cohorts of children, aged 5, 6, 8, and 10 years on the first assessment, were examined once a year over five years, with a short-term memory task (Mr Peanut), asking for the recall of the location of coloured spots in a clown figure. Two versions were used: a unicoloured task (Peanut-P) and a multicoloured task (Peanut-C), in which subjects had to recall both positions and colours. Three aspects of the results are emphasised. First, it was found that performances in Peanut-C increased with item complexity up to a certain level, beyond which they tended to remain stable; this stability was interpreted as reflecting the limits in processing resources which are postulated by neo-Piagetian models. Secondly, a drastic diminution in the performances was observed on the fourth year, corresponding to a change in the way of responding: The task was computerised, and subjects had to answer, using a computer mouse. It is argued that the monitoring of the mouse disrupts performances because it draws on the same limited resources as the memory task. Finally, results showed that the monitoring of the mouse interferes more with the recall of positions than with the recall of colours, as could be expected if monitoring a computer mouse represents a spatial interference task. Methodological drawbacks of the studies are also discussed, and suggestions for further research indicated.

Do age differences between young and older adults in inhibitory tasks depend on the degree of activation of information

Three inhibition/interference tasks (Stroop colour, Negative priming embedded within the Stroop colour, and Hayling) were administered to young and older adults, with two main objectives, each of which embedded within a developmental perspective: First manipulate the level of activation of the irrelevant information, and second, assess the number of individuals presenting a reliable effect rather than analyse the results only at the group level. For each task, two versions were used, corresponding to two levels at which the irrelevant information was likely to be activated. Analyses were conducted on relative difference scores rather than on raw response times. Results indicated that age differences in the magnitude of an interference effect were small and even null in the Negative priming task, independently of the salience of the irrelevant information. A bootstrap procedure showed that whereas the majority of both young and older adults presented a reliable interference effect in the Stroop colour and in the Hayling tasks, it was not the case in the Negative priming task. Moreover, correlations between the indices of interference/inhibition were very weak questioning the dimensionality of inhibition. Altogether these findings suggest that highly activated versions of the inhibitory tasks used do not really influence age-related differences in inhibitory control. It is also recommended to use bootstrap procedures more frequently instead of restricting analyses at a group level.

Personality traits are associated with acute major depression across the age spectrum

Objectives: Psychological predictors, such as personality traits, have aroused growing interest as possible predictors of late-life depression outcome in old age. It remains, however, unclear whether the cross-sectional relationship between personality traits and depression occurrence reported in younger samples is also present in the elderly. Methods: Comparisons amongst 79 outpatients with DSM-IV major depression and 102 healthy controls included assessment of the five-factor model of personality (NEO PI-R), socio-demographic variables, physical health status, as well as depression features. Two sub-groups were considered, defined as young (25–50 years) and old (60–85 years) patients. Results: Depressed patients showed significantly higher levels of Neuroticism and lower levels of Extraversion, Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness compared to controls. Sequential logistic regression models confirmed that the combination of increased physical burden, levels of dependency, and increased Neuroticism strongly predicts the occurrence of acute depressive symptoms. In contrast, the levels of Neuroticism did not allow for differentiating late-life from young age depression. Increased physical burden and decreased depression severity were the main predictors for this distinction. Conclusion: Our data indicate that personality factors and depression are related, independently of patients’ age. Differences in this relationship are mainly due to the intensity of depressive symptoms rather than the patients’ life period. They also stress the need to consider physical health, level of dependency and severity of symptoms when studying the relationship between personality traits and mood disorders.

Age differences and divided attention: is there a general deficit?

It was the goal of this study to determine whether there were age differences specifically associated with the ability to simultaneously execute two tasks, and whether cognitive costs correlated across different situations. Eighty-one young and 86 older adults underwent nine tasks, administered both in single and in dual conditions. Results showed large age differences in raw performances in all conditions. However, a larger cognitive cost in the older adults sample, as assessed by an Age 2 Condition interaction, was observed only for four out of the nine tasks. Furthermore, age effects were greatly diminished once performance in the single tasks was controlled for. Correlations between the dual tasks, or between the cognitive cost scores, were very low once age was partialled out. Results do not support the notion of general coordination costs and speak against a generalized increase in divided attention costs with advancing age.

NEO‐PIAGETIAN THEORIES: CROSS‐CULTURAL AND DIFFERENTIAL PERSPECTIVES

Abstract The neo-Piagetian theories represented in this special issue are examined from the cross-cultural and differential perspectives. The goals, methods and achievements of these two approaches are briefly reviewed, and the similarities and differences between the two are pointed out. Six criteria are proposed that psychological theories should meet from the point of view of these perspectives. After a review of the few existing empirical cross-cultural and differential studies inspired by neo-Piagetian theories, the latter are matched to the six criteria, and the potential advantages of these new models over classical structuralist approaches are spelled out.