Working memory

1. Working memory Derek J. Stiles, Ph.D. Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences Student and Faculty Development May, 2011

2. Working memory • History • Characteristics • WM & CDS • Identification & Treatment

3. Pre - 1950 Memory

4. 1959 Short-term memory Long-term memory

5. 1968 – Atkinson and Shiffrin Long-term memory

6. 1974 – Baddeley and Hitch Phonological loop Visuospatial sketchpad Central executive Long-term memory

7. 2003 - Baddeley Central executive Phonological Visuospatial loop sketchpad Episodic buffer Long term memory 7

8. Central executive Phonological Visuospatial Episodic buffer loop sketchpad Visuospatial Sketchpad • Divided system specialized for storing and processing visual inputs – Spatial location • Objects in a room – Color, size, shape, orientation

9. Central executive Phonological Visuospatial Episodic buffer loop sketchpad Phonological Loop • Divided system specialized for storing and processing verbal information – Phonological store • Word traces kept here • Rapid decay – Subvocal rehearsal mechanism • Refreshes items in the store

10. Central executive Phonological Visuospatial Episodic buffer loop sketchpad Interference in the PL • Interference – Prevents encoding/rehearsal • Articulatory suppression effect • Irrelevant speech effect • Word length effect – Disturbs rehearsal • Phonological similarity effect • Auditory advantage

11. Central executive Phonological Visuospatial Episodic buffer loop sketchpad Episodic Buffer • Recently added component – Helps describe relationship between short-term and long-term memory • Chunking across modalities – Visual plus phonological

12. Central executive Phonological Visuospatial Episodic buffer loop sketchpad Episodic Buffer • Defining its role – Chunking across modalities

15. Central executive Phonological Visuospatial Episodic buffer loop sketchpad Episodic Buffer • Defining its role – Chunking across modalities – Interacting with long-term memory – Interacting with semantic knowledge • “Episodic memory” – multiple modalities reflected

16. Central executive Phonological Visuospatial Episodic buffer loop sketchpad Central Executive • Flexible resource – Attention • Allocation • Updating • Division • Sustainment – Inhibition • Finite resource

17. Central executive Phonological Visuospatial Episodic buffer loop sketchpad Executive collective Working Attention Inhibition Shifting Memory

18. Central executive Phonological Visuospatial Episodic buffer loop sketchpad

19. Central executive Phonological Visuospatial Episodic buffer loop sketchpad Aging • Evidence of working memory at begins at age 3 years. • Working memory peaks after adolescence • In old age, memory maintenance and the ability to switch between • More neurons are activated tasks declines, but to complete executive tasks sustained attention does in older populations not decline. Verhaeghen & Cerella, 2002 Schneider-Garces et al, 2010

20. Central executive Phonological Visuospatial Episodic buffer loop sketchpad Summary: Baddeley’s model Central executive • Attention, inhibition, switching, resource allocation Episodic buffer • Synthesizes information across modalities Visuospatial sketchpad • Location, trajectory, visual features Phonological loop • Phonological storage and subvocal rehearsal mechanism

21. Central executive Phonological Visuospatial Episodic buffer loop sketchpad Summary: Finite resources Storage Processing

22. Working Memory and CDS • Language • Hearing

23. Working memory and vocabulary Novel speech material + Short term memory Stable, long-term phonological/lexical representation

24. Working memory and vocabulary • Vocabulary acquisition – Before kindergarten working memory supports word learning • Children with better WM learned novel labels for toys significantly faster than children with poorer WM – Beyond kindergarten, the relationship weakens • Other processes may support/inhibit word learning as children age (e.g., use of analogy, ability to comprehend abstract words) Gathercole & Baddeley (1993)

25. Working memory and language • Grammar acquisition – 3-year olds with higher phonological loop capacity produced longer, more syntactically-complex spontaneous utterances. – Better comprehension of complex sentences • “The hippo that the lion kissed on the nose was running into the jungle”

26. Working memory and literacy • Short-term memory correlated to letter knowledge – Letter-sound association for B and F easier than for G and H. ounding out words – Phonemic strings held in memory until final phoneme deciphered to form word – Stronger relationship with phonological store than speech rate

27. Working memory and literacy • Children with better working memory could “Last night Jill walked home identify references to through the woods. text, or anomalies in text, There was no moonlight so Jill from 6-7 sentences could hardly see her way. earlier. She had just been to the movie theater with her friends. She walked along the path. • The more intervening The moon was so bright that it information, the less lit the way. likely the earlier Jill lives at the other side of the information will remain woods.” activated for easy reference. (Oakhill, Hartt, Samols, 2005)

28. Working memory and SLI • Many (not all) children with SLI have concomitant WM problems INTACT DISRUPTED Visuospatial storage Verbal storage Attention allocation/switching Processing speed Inhibition Sustained attention

29. Working memory and brain damage • Vocabulary acquisition – EA: Woman with brain damage • Could not remember more than two words • Could not repeat verbatim phonological information – But did understand the semantics – PV: Woman who had a stroke • Could not repeat nonwords longer than 2-syllables • Could not learn unfamiliar real words – Orthographic or semantic cues helped Martin (1993)

30. Summary Vocabulary • Word learning and working memory most strongly associated before 1st grade. Grammar • Working memory implicated in comprehension and production of complex syntax Reading • Working memory supports sounding out of words • Working memory supports reading comprehension

31. Working memory and cochlear implants CI NH Slower verbal rehearsal speed Limited short-term memory capacity Poorer word repetition/ word recall Pisoni & Cleary (2003)

32. Working memory and amplification HA NH Slower verbal rehearsal speed Limited short-term memory capacity Poorer word repetition/ word recall Stiles, et al (in review)

33. Working memory and amplification • 23 adults – 32-87 years old – Mild to mod-severe SNHL • Sentence repetition across SNR in 4 conditions – Noise • 2-talker babble (modulated) • Speech-shaped (unmodulated) – Compression • Fast • Slow Lunner & Sundewall-Thoren (2007)

34. Working memory and amplification Slow Compression/ Unmodulated Noise Cognition Threshold Other unmodulated noise (static) 6% slow compression 32% 62% threshold > working memory Lunner & Sundewall-Thoren (2007)

35. Working memory and amplification Fast Compression/ Modulated Noise Cognition Threshold Other modulated noise (talking) fast compression 39% 58% working memory > threshold 3% Lunner & Sundewall-Thoren (2007)

36. Working memory and amplification Fast Compression/ Participants with low Modulated Noise working memory Cognition Threshold Other showed greater benefit from slow compression 39% Participants with high 58% working memory showed greater benefit 3% from fast compression Lunner & Sundewall-Thoren (2007)

37. Summary Children with cochlear implants • Children with CI more likely to have poorer working memory • May help to explain poorer word recognition (repetition) and academic weakness Adults with hearing aids • In speech babble, working memory is more important than threshold • Fast compression times make sentence understanding in background noise difficult for adults with poor working memory

38. Identifying working memory problems

39. Signs of working memory problems • Forgetting steps in a series of directions “Put away your math book and bring your worksheet up here, then take out your social studies book, and do the reading and problems for chapters four and five.” • Mistakes on sentences with complex grammar “To save the princess, the knight fought the dragon”

40. Signs of working memory problems • Mistakes recalling events in the right order • Omissions in writing sentences from memory • Mistakes following numerical patterns • Counting by 3s

41. Characteristics of children with working memory problems • Typically in the low ability groups in both literacy and numeracy • In groups, they are reserved and rarely volunteer information • They are aware that they struggle to remember information. Alloway, T.P. (2008)

42. Characteristics of children with working memory problems • Play well with others; can make friends • Teachers often interpret working memory deficits as an attention problem. • “He’s in a world of his own” • “She doesn’t listen” Alloway, T.P. (2008)

43. Diagnosing working memory problems • WISC Working memory index • Ages 6 – 16 years • Digit span, letter-number sequencing, arithmetic • Woodcock-Johnson Cognitive Ability Test • Numbers reversed, auditory working memory, memory for words

44. Diagnosing working memory problems • Working Memory Rating Scale • 20-item screener • Working Memory Test Batteries – WMTB-C – AWMA Batteries generally include: • Short-term memory tests • Verbal (e.g. digit span, nonword repetition) • Visuospatial (e.g. maze recall, serial location) • Working memory tests • Verbal • Visuospatial

45. How do we support a child with working memory problems?

46. Identifying challenges in the classroom “Photosynthesis is • Discourse practices the process by which – Classroom instruction plants, some – Writing to dictation bacteria, and some protistans use the energy from sunlight to produce sugar, • Instructional materials which cellular – Complex narratives respiration converts – Complicated syntax into ATP, the ‘fuel’ used by all living things.”

47. Identifying challenges in the classroom “Photosynthesis is… • Discourse practices . – Classroom instruction . – Writing to dictation . [stuff I can’t remember] . • Instructional materials . – Complex narratives . – Complicated syntax …the ‘fuel’ used by all living things.”

48. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Providing support in the classroom • Auditory support – Give one direction at a time – Make directions clear, short, specific – Repeat important parts of instructions • Visual support – Write instructions on chalkboard – Keep number lines available for math – Create checklists

49. Can working memory be improved?

50. • Drugs – Dopaminergic psychostimulants – Methylphenidate (Concerta, Ritalin) – Bromocriptine (Parlodel, Cycloset) – Adrenergic psychostimulants – Modafinil (Provigil, Alertec) Central executive Phonological Episodic Visuospatial loop buffer sketchpad

51. • Training – scilearn.com – cogmed.com – Automated Working Memory Assessment – soakyourhead.com » (n-back task – free, online)

52. • Phonological skill development – Practice rhyming – Practice sounding-out unfamiliar words • Automaticity – Counting practice: counting by fives, etc – Memorizing math tables – Templates of syntactic constructions • Temporal structures (if..then..; before, during, after) (Boudreau et al, 2011)

53. Outcomes with Cogmed • FMRI evidence of pre/post-training improvement – Increased activation in parietal lobes, prefrontal cortex • Children with cochlear implants – Immediate post-training and 1-month post-training • Improvements seen in forward and backward digit span, forward and backward spatial span, and sentence repetition – 6-months post-training • All but sentence repetition regressed to baseline (Kronenberger et al, 2010)

54. Food for thought • Be aware of disturbances in Thank you! working memory • Patients with stroke and brain injury • Children with reading problems • Children with cochlear implants • Hearing aid patients

55. References • Alloway, T.P. (2008). Working memory tests. Retrieved March 22, 2011. • Alloway, T.P. (2011). Improving working memory. London: Sage Publications. • Anderson, P. (2003). Assessment and development of executive function during childhood. Child Neuropsychology (8), 71-82. doi:10.1076/chin.8.2.71.8724. • Baddeley, A.D. (2007). Working memory, thought, and action. Oxford University Press. • Beer, J., Pisoni, D.B., Kronenberger, W.G., & Geers, A.E. (2010). Executive functions of adolescents who use cochlear implants. ASHA Leader, Dec. 21. • Blakemore, S.-J. & Choudhury, S. (2006). Development of the adolescent brain: implications for executive function and social cognition. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (47) 296-312. doi:10.1111/j.1469- 7610.2006.01611.x. • Boudreau, D. & Costanza-Smith, A. (2011). Assessment and treatment of working memory deficits in school-age children: The role of the speech-language pathologist. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools (42), 152-166. • Garon, N., Bryson, S.E., & Smith, I.M. (2008). Executive function in preschoolers: A review using an integrative framework. Psychological Bulletin (134), 31-60. • Gathercole, S.E. & Baddeley, A.D. (1993). Working memory and language. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. • Holmes, J., Dunning, D., & Gathercole, S. (2009). Adaptive training leads to sustained enhancement of poor working memory in children. Developmental Science, (12), F9-F15. • Klingberg, T. (2009). The overflowing brain. Oxford University Press. • Kronenberger, W.G., Pisoni, D.B., Henning, S.C., Colson, B.G., & Hazzard, L.M. (2010). Working memory training for children with cochlear implants: a pilot study. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2010/10-0119). • Luciana, M., Conklin, H.M., Hooper, C.J., & Yarger, R.S. (2005). The development of nonverbal working memory and executive control processes in adolescents. Child Development (76) 697-712. doi:10.1111/j.1467- 8624.2005.00872.x.

56. References • Lunner, T. & Sundewall-Thorén, E. (2007). Interactions between cognition, compression, and listening conditions: Effects on speech-in-noise performance in a two-channel hearing aid. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, (18), 604-617. doi:10.3766/jaaa.18.7.7. • Montgomery, J.W., Magimairaj, B.M., & Finney, M.C. (2010). Working memory and specific language impairment: An update on the relation and perspectives on assessment and treatment. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (19), 78-94. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2009/09-0028). • Oleson, P.J., Westerberg, H., & Klingberg, T. (2003). Increased prefrontal and parietal activity after training of working memory. Nature Neuroscience (7), 75-79. • Paul, P.V. & Whitelaw, G.M. (2011). Hearing and Deafness. Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. • Pickering, S.J. (Ed.). (2006). Working memory and education. Boston, MA: Academic Press. • Pisoni, D.B. & Cleary, M. (2003). • Rönnberg, J., Rudner, M., Foo, C., & Lunner, T. (2008). Cognition counts: A working memory system for ease of language understanding (ELU). International Journal of Audiology (47), S99-S105. • Rönnberg, J., Danielsson, H., Rudner, M., Arlinger, S., Sternang, O., Wahlin, Å., & Nilsson, L.-G. (2011). Hearing loss is negatively related to episodic and semantic long-term memory but not to short-term memory. Journal of Speech, Language, & Hearing Research (54), 705-726. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2010/09-0088). • Schneider-Garces, N.J., et al (2010). Span, CRUNCH, and beyond: working memory capacity and the aging brain. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (22), 655-669. doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21230. • Tun, P., McCoy, S., & Wingfield, A. (2009). Aging, hearing acuity, and the attentional costs of effortful listening. Psychology of Aging (24), 761-766. doi:10.1037/a0014802. • Verhaeghen, P. & Cerella, J. (2002). Aging, executive control, and attention: a review of meta-analyses. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (26), 849-857. doi:10.1016/S0149-7634(02)00071-4.

57. 2003 Central executive Phonological Episodic Visuospatial loop buffer sketchpad Episodic long Visual Language term memory semantics 57

58. 1998 Focus 58

59. Working memory and hearing loss • Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) Explicit Processing Speech- Sign- specific specific General Capacity Multimodal Language Input Understanding Output Mismatch Episodic Long-term Buffer Match Memory Implicit Processing Rönnberg, et al (2008, 2011)

60. 2008 Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) • Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) Explicit Processing Speech- Sign- specific specific General Capacity Multimodal Language Input Understanding Output Mismatch Episodic Long-term Buffer Match Memory Implicit Processing 60

61. Working memory and dyslexia • 10-year-olds with dyslexia had similar working memories to younger children matched on reading level than age-mates.

Working memory

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