Humans and other animals are able to perceive and represent a number of objects present in a scene, a core cognitive ability thought to underlie the development of mathematics. However, the ...perceptual mechanisms that underpin this capacity remain poorly understood. Here, we show that our visual sense of number derives from a visual system designed to efficiently encode the location of objects in scenes. Using a mathematical model, we demonstrate that an efficient but information-limited encoding of objects' locations can explain many key aspects of number psychophysics, including subitizing, Weber's law, underestimation, and effects of exposure time. In two experiments (
= 100 each), we find that this model of visual encoding captures human performance in both a change-localization task and a number estimation task. In a third experiment (
= 100), we find that individual differences in change-localization performance are highly predictive of differences in number estimation, both in terms of overall performance and inferred model parameters, with participants having numerically indistinguishable inferred information capacities across tasks. Our results therefore indicate that key psychophysical features of numerical cognition do not arise from separate modules or capacities specific to number, but rather as by-products of lower level constraints on perception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine the relation between mathematics and working memory (WM) and to identify possible moderators of this relation including domains of WM, types of ...mathematics skills, and sample type. A meta-analysis of 110 studies with 829 effect sizes found a significant medium correlation of mathematics and WM, r = .35, 95% confidence interval .32, .37. Moderation analyses indicated that mathematics showed comparable association with verbal WM, numerical WM, and visuospatial WM. Word-problem solving and whole-number calculations showed the strongest relation with WM whereas geometry showed the weakest relation with WM. The relation between WM and mathematics was stronger among individuals with mathematics difficulties that are associated with other disorders or cognitive deficits compared with that among typically developing individuals and individuals with only mathematics difficulties. The implications of these findings with respect to mathematics instruction and WM training are discussed.
Neuropsychological evidence suggests that visuospatial memory is subserved by two separable processing systems, with dorsal underpinnings for global form and ventral underpinnings for the integration ...of part elements. Previous drawing studies have explored the effects of Gestalt organisation upon memory for hierarchical stimuli, and we here present an exploratory study of an apraxic dorsal stream patient's (MH) performance. We presented MH with a stimulus set (previously reported by Riddoch et al., Cognitive Neuropsychology, 20(7), 641-671, 2003) and devised a novel quantitative scoring system to obtain a finer grain of insight into performance. Stimuli possessed either good or poor Gestalt qualities and were reproduced in a copy condition and two visual memory conditions (with unlimited viewing before the model was removed, or with 3 s viewing). MH's copying performance was impaired in comparison to younger adult and age-matched older adult controls, with a variety of errors at the local level but relatively few at the global level. However, his performance in the visual memory conditions revealed impairments at the global level. For all participants, drawing errors were modulated by the Gestalt qualities of the stimuli, with accuracy at the global and local levels being lesser for poor global stimuli in all conditions. These data extend previous observations of this patient, and support theories that posit interaction between dorsal and ventral streams in the representation of hierarchical stimuli. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of visuospatial memory in neurological patients, and also evaluate the application of quantitative metrics to the interpretation of drawings.
To remember what one did yesterday is an example of an everyday episodic memory task, in which a female advantage has sometimes been reported. Here, we quantify the impact of sex on episodic memory ...performance and investigate whether the magnitude of the sex difference is modified by study-, task-, and sample-specific moderators. Analyses were based on 617 studies conducted between 1973 and 2013 with 1,233,921 participants. A 5-level random-effects meta-analysis showed an overall female advantage in episodic memory (g = 0.19, 95% CI 0.17, 0.21). The material to be remembered affected the magnitude of this advantage, with a female advantage for more verbal tasks, such as words, sentences, and prose (g = 0.28, 95% CI 0.25, 0.30), nameable images (g = 0.16, 95% CI 0.11, 0.22), and locations (g = 0.16, 95% CI 0.11, 0.21), and a male advantage in more spatial tasks, such as abstract images (g = −0.20, 95% CI −0.35, -0.05) and routes (g = −0.24, 95% CI −0.35, -0.12). Furthermore, there was a female advantage for materials that cannot easily be placed along the verbal-spatial continuum, such as faces (g = 0.26, 95% CI 0.20, 0.33), and odor, taste, and color (g = 0.37, 95% CI 0.18, 0.55). These differences have remained stable since 1973. For verbal episodic memory tasks, differences were larger in Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America than in Asia, and smaller in childhood and old age than for other ages. Taken together, results suggest that men may use their spatial advantage in spatially demanding episodic memory tasks, whereas women do well in episodic memory tasks that are verbalizable and tasks that are neither verbal nor spatial, such as remembering faces and odors/tastes/colors.
Public Significance Statement
When we attempt to remember what we did yesterday, we are using episodic memory. Here, we investigate sex differences in episodic memory and find a general female advantage in tasks that are predominantly verbal, which is lesser in those that also require some spatial processing, and a male advantage in tasks that require a large degree of spatial processing. These sex differences have remained stable since 1973, although they vary in magnitude across geographical region and, for verbal episodic memory, are smaller in childhood and old age than at other ages.
Rodent studies demonstrate that supplementing the maternal diet with choline during pregnancy produces life‐long cognitive benefits for the offspring. In contrast, the two experimental studies ...examining cognitive effects of maternal choline supplementation in humans produced inconsistent results, perhaps because of poor participant adherence and/or uncontrolled variation in intake of choline or other nutrients. We examined the effects of maternal choline supplementation during pregnancy on infant cognition, with intake of choline and other nutrients tightly controlled. Women entering their third trimester were randomized to consume, until delivery, either 480 mg choline/d (n = 13) or 930 mg choline/d (n = 13). Infant information processing speed and visuospatial memory were tested at 4, 7, 10, and 13 mo of age (n = 24). Mean reaction time averaged across the four ages was significantly faster for infants born to mothers in the 930 (vs. 480) mg choline/d group. This result indicates that maternal consumption of approximately twice the recommended amount of choline during the last trimester improves infant information processing speed. Furthermore, for the 480‐mg choline/d group, there was a significant linear effect of exposure duration (infants exposed longer showed faster reaction times), suggesting that even modest increases in maternal choline intake during pregnancy may produce cognitive benefits for offspring.— Caudill, M. A., Strupp, B. J., Muscalu, L., Nevins, J. E. H., Canfield, R. L. Maternal choline supplementation during the third trimester of pregnancy improves infant information processing speed: a randomized, double‐blind, controlled feeding study. FASEB J. 32, 2172–2180 (2018). www.fasebj.org
Construction play is thought to develop logico-mathematical skills, however the underlying mechanisms have not been defined. In order to fill this gap, this study looks at the relationship between ...Lego construction ability, cognitive abilities and mathematical performance in 7-year-old, Year 2 primary school children (N = 66). While studies have focused on the relationship between mathematics performance and verbal memory, there are limited studies focussing on visuospatial memory. We tested both visuospatial and verbal working memory and short term memory, as well as non-verbal intelligence. Mathematical performance was measured through the WIAT-II numerical operations, and the word reading subtest was used as a control variable. We used a Lego construction task paradigm based on four task variables found to systematically increase construction task difficulty. The results suggest that Lego construction ability is positively related to mathematics performance, and visuospatial memory fully mediates this relationship. Future work of an intervention study using Lego construction training to develop visuospatial memory, which in turn may improve mathematics performance, is suggested.
•Analysed relationship of Lego construction, working memory and mathematics.•Lego construction ability is positively related to mathematics performance.•Lego construction ability is correlated to visuospatial memory, not verbal memory.•Visuospatial memory fully mediates relationship between Lego construction and mathematics.•Lego construction play may serve as an educational mathematics intervention tool.
Objective: This study investigated whether indices within the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test - Revised (BVMT-R) could function as embedded performance validity measures in an outpatient clinical ...sample.
Method: A sample of 138 neuropsychological outpatients was utilized; approximately 45% had a known or suspected external incentive. Patients were determined to be valid performers if they passed all criterion performance validity tests (PVTs) and determined to be invalid performers if they failed two or more PVTs. BVMT-R indices met criteria for optimal embedded PVTs if they were not significantly correlated with genuine cognitive dysfunction and if they adequately differentiated the validly from invalidly performing patient groups. Classification accuracy statistics for the indices were then calculated. Supplementary analyses were also calculated for a separate dementia sample.
Results: Recognition Hits and Recognition Discrimination were identified as two optimal embedded PVTs for patients without dementia. Recognition Hits showed a sensitivity rate of 41% and a specificity rate of 95%. Recognition Discrimination showed a sensitivity rate of 54% and a specificity rate of 93%.
Conclusion: Embedded BVMT-R PVTs are discussed in relation to previous research findings, which were obtained from veteran samples. Recognition Hits and Recognition Discrimination are now validated in a non-veteran clinical sample.
Visuospatial working memory (VSWM) helps track the identity and location of people during social interactions. Previous work showed better VSWM when all faces at encoding displayed a happy compared ...to an angry expression, reflecting a prosocial preference for monitoring who was where. However, social environments are not typically uniform, and certain expressions may more strongly compete for and bias face monitoring according to valence and/or arousal properties. Here, we used heterogeneous encoding displays in which two faces shared one emotion and two shared another, and asked participants to relocate a central neutral probe face after a blank delay. When considering the emotion of the probed face independently of the co-occurring emotion at encoding, an overall happy benefit was replicated. However, accuracy was modulated by the nonprobed emotion, with a relocation benefit for angry over sad, happy over fearful, and sad over happy faces. These effects did not depend on encoding fixation time, stimulus arousal, perceptual similarity, or response bias. Thus, emotional competition for faces in VSWM is complex and appears to rely on more than simple arousal- or valence-biased mechanisms. We propose a "social value (SV)" account to better explain when and why certain emotions may be prioritized in VSWM. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
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