Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Serial Learning”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,081 records · Page 60Linked to original sources

Distinct areas in parietal cortex involved in long-term and short-term action planning: a PET investigation.

The sequential organization of events within a script, can be considered as a means to explore the cognitive mechanisms involved in action planning. Scripts are composed of goal-oriented sequences of events that typically occur in a specific and systematic order. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of temporal variation between script events (short-term versus long-term) on neural activity in normal volunteers. Subjects were required to judge whether the chronological order of three events was correct or not, while regional cerebral blood flow was measured using positron emission tomography. The modality of script presentation (graphic versus lexical) was manipulated. In the left hemisphere, the supramarginal gyrus, the middle frontal gyrus, the inferior temporal gyrus, and the middle occipital gyrus were more activated in the short-term script conditions, while the angular gyrus, the medial superior frontal gyrus, the precuneus bilaterally, the anterior cingulate gyrus and the inferior and middle temporal gyrus on the left were more involved during long-term scripts processing. The occipito-temporal junction (MT/V5) was significantly more activated in the graphic conditions as compared to the lexical ones, and in the short-term scripts conditions as compared to the long-term ones although all stimuli were static. Our results support the notion that two distinct frontal-parietal networks are engaged in short-term and long-term script processing. In addition, our study demonstrates two kinds of dissociations in the parietal lobe. A macro-dissociation between the anterior and the posterior portion of the inferior parietal lobe was found which accounts for processing short-term and long-term scripts respectively, as well as a micro-dissociation in each of these regions which is associated with distinct processing depending on the presentation modalities. These results may help to better understand apraxia at the neurophysiological level.

Adult↗

Korsakoff amnesics are poor at judging the sequence of two tones.

Alcoholic amnesics were given a test of temporal sequencing ability devised by Efron which has practically no memory component. These amnesics were very impaired on the task. However, the extent of this impairment did not relate to the magnitude of their "target memory" deficit nor did it relate to the ability to make temporal judgements from memory. Two other groups of amnesics (3 post-encephalitis and 4 with ruptured aneurysms of the anterior communicating artery) did not show impairments on the sequencing task. Data from the amnesic patient N.A. (who was unimpaired on the task), three other amnesics (who showed a tendency to be poor at the task) and two frontally damaged patients (one of whom performed especially badly on the sequencing task but had no obvious memory difficulties) were also presented. It is argued that deficits in temporal discrimination may not be found in all amnesics but, when they are observed, are an incidental feature related to additional (possibly cortical damage. Implications of the results for the view that amnesia results from a deficit in the use of contextual information (including temporal information) are considered.

Adult↗

Recency, primacy, and memory: reappraising and standardising the serial position curve.

In this paper we consider the serial position curve in immediate verbal free recall. A large literature has argued that two components of the serial position curve, recency and primacy, reflect the functioning respectively of short-term and of long-term memory. However, there are a number of difficulties in interpreting the recency effect as a phenomenon uniquely associated with short-term memory. Moreover, the serial position curve has been used widely for clinical investigations in patients with memory deficits. This is despite the lack of norms for the measures derived from the curve. We present a set of standardised norms based on 321 Italian normal subjects. These norms are shown to be applicable both to an English speaking population, and to three groups of brain damaged-patients, namely Alzheimer's, amnesics, and frontals. The standardised norms offer a clinical and experimental tool which, coupled with a multiple single case approach, allows us to show dissociations and double dissociations among the performance patterns obtained from all three pathological groups. The paper concludes with a discussion of a possible interpretation of the recency effect as a emergent property of all types of memory system, including verbal short-term memory. Taking into account previous literature as well as our own data, the recency effect in immediate verbal free recall is here interpreted in terms of a two-component view of verbal short-term memory.

Adult↗

Recall and recognition memory in Parkinson's disease.

This study is concerned with recall and recognition memory in patients with Parkinson's disease. The results show that the Parkinson group was significantly impaired on tests of free recall compared to a group of age matched controls. By contrast, when given tests of recognition memory for the same items their performance was practically identical. In recall, significant main effects are reported for serial position and list presentation but no qualitative differences were observed between the two groups on these measures, both of which showed a primacy and recency effect. However, the control subjects recalled significantly more words in their original order of presentation than the patient group, a difference which appears to have occurred at the level of input. It was concluded that although the patient group was able to adopt and use similar strategies to the control subjects, they were less efficient in using these, a difficulty which was attributed to limited capacity due to mental slowness.

Aged↗

Spontaneous recovery of impaired memory span: does comprehension recover?

We have previously described a patient, T.B., who had a memory span of two digits and a sentence span of three words. He showed no evidence of effects of either phonological similarity or word length on span and his deficit was interpreted as reflecting the impaired functioning of the phonological loop component of working memory. Analysis of his language comprehension indicated normal processing of short sentences, together with a marked deficit in understanding long sentences, whether these were presented visually or auditorily (Baddeley and Wilson, 1988). When re-tested after several years, T.B.'s memory span had increased to nine digits, and showed clear effects of phonological similarity and word length. His performance on a series of language comprehension tests indicated a complete recovery, although he continued to show impairment on two tests of phonological awareness. These results are consistent with the proposed link between phonological working memory and language comprehension. In addition, they indicate a dissociation between short-term phonological memory and phonological awareness.

Awareness↗

How convincing is the evidence for cognitive slowing in Parkinson's disease?

The issue of whether or not Parkinson's disease (PD) patients process information more slowly than normal is unresolved. Across a range of paradigms the evidence for slowing is scant, and many show no slowing. Even the results of a single experimental paradigm can be conflicting; some studies have obtained evidence for slowed memory scanning in subgroups of PD patients whereas others have not. The present study sought the cause of these discrepant results. Old-old (n = 11) and young-old (n = 7) PD subjects and controls (n = 16, n = 9) completed both fixed and varied set versions of the memory scanning task. No evidence for slowing in PD was found. These results indicated that PD did not interact with age or task version in its effects on information processing rates in the memory scanning task. It was concluded that PD patients do not have any cognitive slowing that is detectable with the memory scanning task.

Aged↗

Manual asymmetries of motor sequencing in boys with reading disability.

Boys with reading disability were asked to tap two mechanical keys in time to the beat of a metronome, with left and right hand alone, and with alternating hands. On the single hand trials these boys tapped as well as normal boys with both left and right hands, but when asked to alternate hands, their tapping stability, particularly of the left hand, deteriorated significantly and was worse than that of much younger normal boys. It is argued from evidence from patients with surgical commissurotomies that the motor deficiency in synchronizing left and right hands may be due to a disturbance in interhemishperic cooperation in the boys with reading disability, and it is suggested that the reading problems of these children may be the consequence of a developmental delay in interhemispheric cooperation.

Adolescent↗

The development of the right ear advantage in dichotic listening with focused attention.

The influence of selective attention on cerebral asymmetry in 6, 8 and 10 year old children was studied using pre-cued dichotic recall of 1 to 4 pairs of digits. A constant right ear advantage for correct recall from the attended ear and intrusions from the unattended ear was found in all three age groups. The ear difference increased with set size and across serial position with a set size of 4 digit pairs. Thus the number of items in acoustic memory determined the degree of lateral asymmetry. The ability to focus attention on the left ear improved between 6 and 8 years. It was concluded that control of directed attention, which improves with development, and left hemisphere specialization for speech processing, which remains constant, both determine performance in dichotic verbal listening.

Age Factors↗

Material specific serial memory deficit in adolescent dyslexics.

The present experiment was concerned with an assessment of possible serial, as opposed to general, memory deficit in dyslexia. Previous studies had consistently confounded general and serial memory assessments. Fifteen specifically dyslexic adolescents and 15 normal-reading controls were administered four separate memory tasks. In the general memory for verbal material task they were shown 20 words, each for three seconds, and were then given a deck of 40 word cards and required to pick out the 20 words just seen. In the serial memory version of the verbal task they were again shown 20 words and subsequently required to reproduce the order in which they had been shown. Two comparable (general and serial) procedures were also administered using faces as the to-be-remembered materials. Results showed comparable performances of the dyslexics and controls on both versions of the face memory task and on the general memory version of the words task. On the serial reproduction version of the verbal task, however, dyslexics were found to be significantly impaired relative to controls. Thus, adolescent dyslexics appear to have a memory impairment which is specific for both type of material (verbal) and type of memory (serial). The results are compatible with Orton's (1937) speculation regarding "sequecing" and "memory" in dyslexia and with the view that the defect resides within the neuropsychological processes of the language-dominant hemisphere.

Adolescent↗

Hemispheric efficiency in middle and later adulthood.

Right and left hemisphere efficiency, as measured by dichotic memory for numbers, was assessed in a sample of older adults in Experiment I. Right hemisphere efficiency dropped off sharply with age, while left hemisphere efficiency did not show a significant decline. A second group of subjects was tested on a musical note recognition task in Experiment II. Regression analyses revealed significant age decrements in performance, regardless of ear/hemisphere involved. The writers suggested that the reported decline with age in spatial ability may result from an age related decline in right hemispheric functioning, even on tasks that are right hemisphere dominant. The lack of decline reported for verbal ability may be a consequence of the lack of decline in left hemisphere efficiency with regard to left hemisphere dominant tasks.

Adult↗

Left hemisphere superiority for visual search.

A replication of Cohen (1973) was conducted in an attempt to substantiate the claim for serial processing in the left hemisphere and parallel processing in the right hemisphere for visual information. Subjects made same or different judgments to hemispherically projected visual arrays of two, three, or four letters and reaction times were measured. No support for a serial vs. parallel hemispheric processing distinction was obtained, but strong support for overall left hemisphere superiority for visual search was found with both the reaction time and error percentage data. The implications for an information processing strategy for this task as well as various methodological considerations are discussed.

Cerebral Cortex↗

Temporal sequencing of verbal and nonverbal materials: the effect of laterality of lesion.

The effect of laterality of cerebral lesion on sequencing ability, which is an ability to process two or more stimulus events with respect to the order in which they occur, was examined. Patients with either left or right hemisphere lesions performed on verbal and nonverbal sequencing tasks. Left hemisphere lesioned patients were inferior to the right hemisphere lesioned patients on verbal sequencing tasks, while the right hemisphere lesioned patients were inferior to the left hemisphere lesioned patients on nonverbal sequencing tasks. Impaired performance of the right hemisphere lesioned patients on sequencing tasks raises questions with respect to the notion that sequencing per se is processed in the left hemisphere. Our results demonstrate that sequencing ability, as many other abilities, follows the rule of material-specific laterality of hemispheric asymmetry: the left hemisphere associated with verbal sequencing ability and the right hemisphere associated with nonverbal sequencing ability.

Aphasia↗

Effects of evoked spike-wave discharges upon short term memory in patients with epilepsy.

Memory for digits was examined during EEG examination in five female children suffering from light sensitive epilepsy. Sequences of random digits equal to the patients' digit span, span-less-one and span-less-two were presented, followed by a 2 sec. interval, after which recall of the digits was required. The 2 sec. interval could be filled in any of four possible ways by: a burst of photic stimulation which evoked a paroxysm of generalised spike-wave in the EEG; a burst of slow (3 Hz) photic stimulation having no discernible effect upon the EEG; a burst of fast (30 Hz) stimulation, again having no observable effect; or a period of silence with no photic stimulation. It was found that recall of digits series of all three lengths was impaired if a paroxysm of spike-wave had been generated between the end of presentation and the beginning of recall. There were no significant differences in correctness of recall when the slow, fast and no-stimulation photic conditions were compared. It was found that the last two digits in the digit span were more vulnerable to recall failure than were the first two. On the basis of recent work in human experimental psychology, the initial and final digit pairs appear to be retrieved from functionally different storage systems. It is tentatively suggested therefore, that since different parts of the digit span are dislocated to different extents by spike-wave activity, they may depend upon different neural substrates.

Adolescent↗

Immediate free recall of unilateral spoken word lists.

Neither a group of pure right-handers nor a complementary group excluding pure right-handers showed much sign of a significant monaural REA for free recall performance, in contrast to the effect found by Turvey, Pisoni and Croog (1972) for probed recall performance by a group of unknown handedness. However other evidence was found of an influence of laterality in this relatively high-level task, deriving from the observation of a significant Ear x Speed x Serial Position interaction. In non-sinistrals application of dual-process memory theory to the results showed that the right ear retrieved a greater proportion of recall than did the left ear from the long-term store, while conversely and possibly as a compensation for this the left ear relied more heavily than the right ear did on the short-term store. This effect was replicated in the sinistral group, though in an attenuated form, as would be expected if it is a consequence of hemispheric asymmetry for language.

Dominance, Cerebral↗