Irene Injoque-Ricle

Expertise, Working Memory and Articulatory Suppression Effect: Their Relation with Simultaneous Interpreting Performance.

Simultaneous interpreting is a complex bilingual verbal activity that involves the auditory perception of an oral communication and the production of a coherent discourse. One of the cognitive functions underlying simultaneous interpreting is working memory. The aim of this work was to study the relationship between expertise, working memory capacity and articulatory suppression effect, and the ability to perform simultaneous interpreting. For this purpose, four working memory tasks and one simultaneous interpreting task were administered to thirty Spanish-speaking professional English interpreters. Results showed that simultaneous interpreting ability might be supported by the working memory´s capacity to store or process information, but also by the ability of the interpreter to cope with the articulatory suppression effect. We conclude that interpreters may have or develop resources to support the effect caused by articulatory suppression.

Working memory structure in children: comparing different models during childhood

Working Memory (WM) is an active memory system responsible for the temporary storage and concurrent processing of information. Different authors have considered WM as a complex but unitary system, whereas others have suggested that the system is multidimensional. In this line, the model developed by Baddeley and Hitch (1974) is one of the most well known; it proposes two modality-specific components the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad and a supervisory executive system the central executive. This paper contributes to the debate on WM structure by investigating three groups of children of different ages and assessing different models using confirmatory factor analysis. The Working Memory Assessment Battery Test (Alloway, 2007; Injoque-Ricle, Calero, Alloway & Burin, 2011) was administered to 180 monolingual Spanish-speaking children. The three age groups consisted of 6-, 8-, and 11-year-old children (n = 60 participants per group). The results suggest that the WM structure is not uniform across the different age groups tested, showing progressive differentiation and specialization during childhood. This structure would appear to form between the ages of 6 and 8 years and become more complex as adolescence is approached.

Memoria de Trabajo y vocabulario: Un modelo de interacción entre los componentes del modelo de Baddeley y el sistema de información verbal cristalizada

Esta investigación fue financiada por el Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET; Res. No 258/06 y Res. N° 3100/08) y Por la Secretaría de Ciencia y Técnica de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBACyT P016). La Batería Automatizada de Memoria de Trabajo (AWMA) fue traducida y adaptada bajo permiso. Copyright

Possible Associations between Subitizing, Estimation and Visuospatial Working Memory (VSWM) in Children

Researchers have focused on identifying the mechanisms involved in subitizing and its differences with estimation. Some suggest that subitizing relies on a visual indexing system in charge of the simultaneous individuation of objects that is also used by visuospatial working memory (VSWM). In adults, studies found associations between subitizing and VSWM, in the absence of correlation between VSWM and estimation. The present study analyzed the performance of 120 4 and 6-year-old children in three tasks: dot enumeration to measure subitizing capacity, quantity discrimination for estimation, and Corsi Block-tapping task for VSWM. In the enumeration task RTs (F(9, 1062)=720.59, MSE=734394, p<.001, η2=.86) and errors (F(9, 1062)=42.15, MSE=.194, p<.001, η2=.26.) increased with the array, but this growth was statistically significant only from 4 dots onward. Each subjects subitizing range was estimated by fitting RTs with a sigmoid function of number of dots and obtaining the bend point of the curve. Data fit (age 4: R 2 = .88; SD = .08; age 6: R 2 = .91, SD = .08) showed a mean subitizing range of 2.79 (SD = .66) for 4 year-olds and of 3.11 (SD = .64) for 6 year-olds. Subitizing ranges and average RTs showed low association with storage (r = .274; p < .05; r = -.398; p < .001) and average RTs with concurrent processing (r = -.412; p < .001) in VSWM. Subitizing range and speed showed no association with estimation speed and a poor association with accuracy (r = .234, p < .01; r = -.398, p < .001), which suggests independent systems for small and large quantities. Subitizing and estimation measures correlated with VSWM (p < .01), which suggests that both processes may require VSWM resources.

Emotional Intelligence and Self-Perception in Adolescents

Emotional intelligence includes self-perception regarding attention to feelings, clarity of feelings and mood repair. The aim of this work is to study the relationship between emotional intelligence, self-concept, and self-esteem. The sample included 137 adolescents from Buenos Aires City, that attended middle school, with a mean age of 13.12 years old (SD = 1.79). Correlation analysis and linear regression analysis were performed. Results showed significant positive correlations between self-esteem and clarity of feelings on the complete sample and the female subsample, and between mood repair and self-esteem on the male subsample. The linear regression analyses showed results on the same line. It´s concluded that positive self-evaluation regarding emotions, emotion comprehension and recovery can minimize the effect of negative experiences.

Is it a Small World After All? Investigating the Theoretical Structure of Working Memory Cross-Nationally

To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to test different theoretical models of working memory in childhood based on a computerized assessment. We tested this across several countries: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Italy, and UK . The present study addressed the wider macro-cultural context and how this impacts working memory. We used two economic indices ( GDP and PPP ) to characterize the participating countries and ranked the countries based on the Global Index of Cognitive Skills and Educational Attainment. Children between 5 and 10 years completed the same set of short-term and working memory tests. There were two main findings. First, there was a similar pattern in verbal working memory across countries, which suggests that this skill may be relatively consistent across different cultural groups. In contrast, the pattern for visuo-spatial working memory was different across countries, which may explained by cultural differences and educational rankings of the countries. The second main finding was that both a domain-general model (3-factor) and a domain-specific model (4-factor) provided a reasonably good fit with the data, there was the high relationship between the verbal and visuo-spatial working memory constructs across the countries in the latter model. Thus, it may be a more parsimonious choice to rely on a three-factor model. The data also suggest culture-similar patterns in a computerized assessment of working memory.

Tower of London: planning development in children from 6 to 13 years of age.

Executive Function is a multidimensional construct that includes a wide range of cognitive abilities that allow solving goal-directed behaviors efficiently. Its development begins in early childhood and continues through adolescence. A key aspect of Executive Function is planning, defined as the capacity to generate and organize the necessary step sequence to carry out a goal-directed behavior. The aim of this study was to assess the development of planning in children. The Tower of London task was used in 270 children aged 6, 8, 11, and 13 years. The results showed that the time required to generate and organize the plan to solve a goal-directed problem increases as the difficulty of the problem increases, and that older children need less time to solve problems with a certain level of difficulty than younger children F(15, 1330) = 8.787; MSE = 1.441; p < .01; η2 =.090. These results are in line with the findings that planning develops through childhood and even during the first years of adolescence.

Validez y confiabilidad de dos pruebas de capacidad de memoria de trabajo: Amplitud Aritmética y Amplitud de Conteo

La memoria de trabajo se refiere al conjunto de procesos implicados en almacenamiento temporal y procesamiento concurrente (Baddeley, 2000). Las pruebas Amplitud Aritmetica (Conway et al., 2005) y Amplitud de Conteo (Conway et al., 2005) son tareas que evaluan la capacidad verbal de la memoria de trabajo. El proposito de este articulo es presentar datos acerca de la confiabilidad y validez convergente de estas tareas. Las taras de amplitud aritmetica y amplitud de conteo se administraron, junto con la tarea Amplitud de Lectura, a 88 alumnos universitarios, con una edad promedio de 23.10 anos. El analisis de confiabilidad indico una muy buena consistencia interna de los items y el analisis factorial confirmatorio mostro un muy buen ajuste a un modelo de un factor en el que se agruparon todas las pruebas. Esto indica que ambas pruebas son validas y confiables para evaluar la capacidad verbal de la memoria de trabajo. Validy and Reliability of two Working Memory Tests: Aritmetic Amplitude and Counting: Working Memory is a memory system involved in the storage and concurrent processing of information (Baddeley, 2000). Arithmetic Span (Conway et al., 2005) and Counting Span (Conway, et al. 2005) are two traditional verbal working memory capacity tasks. The aim of this article is to present reliability and validity data of Arithmetic and Counting Span Tasks. They were administered, along with Reading Span task, to 88 university students with a mean age of 23.10 years. The reliability analysis showed an excellent internal consistency, and a one factor model with a very good fit to the data was observed using a confirmatory factor analysis. These results indicate that both tasks are reliable and valid measures to assess verbal working memory capacity.

Validez y Confiabilidad de Una Prueba de Memoria de Trabajo Para Niños: Serie de Dibujos

La Memoria de Trabajo es un sistema de memoria activo responsable del almacenamiento temporal y procesamiento simultaneo de informacion. El objetivo del trabajo es presentar datos de las propiedades psicometricas de un instrumento global de Memoria de Trabajo: Serie de Dibujos. Se les administro a 210 ninos de 6, 8 y 11 anos de la Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina, Serie de Dibujos, la Bateria Automatizada de Memoria de Trabajo y el subtest Cubos de la Escala de Inteligencia para ninos de Wechsler. Se estimo la consistencia interna del instrumento a traves del coeficiente Alpha de Cronbach y se evaluaron evidencias de validez convergente y discriminante a traves de un analisis de correlacion y de un analisis factorial exploratorio. Los resultados indicaron que Serie de Dibujos es un instrumento valido y confiable para medir de manera global la Memoria de Trabajo en ninos de nuestro medio. Validity and Reliability of a Working Memory Task for Children: Picture Span: Working Memory is an active memory system responsible of simultaneous storage and concurrent processing of information. The aim of this work is to present the psychometric properties of a global Working Memory task: Picture Span. Picture Span along with the Automated Working Memory Assessment battery Block Design subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children were administered to 210 children of 6-, 8- and 11-years old from Buenos Aires City, Argentina. Internal consistency using Cronbach’s Alpha was estimated and evidence in favor of convergent and discriminate validity was assessed through a correlation analysis and a posterior exploratory factor analysis. Results showed that Picture Span is a valid and reliable instrument to globally assess Working Memory in children within our context. Palabras claves: Memoria de Trabajo; Serie de Dibujos; Validacion; Ninos.

A memória de trabalho e vocabulário: Um modelo de interação entre os componentes do modelo de Baddeley e sistemas de informação verbal cristalizado

Esta investigación fue financiada por el Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET; Res. No 258/06 y Res. N° 3100/08) y Por la Secretaría de Ciencia y Técnica de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBACyT P016). La Batería Automatizada de Memoria de Trabajo (AWMA) fue traducida y adaptada bajo permiso. Copyright