Background: Working memory has been reported to be impaired in schizophrenia, but there are inconsistencies in the literature. Therefore, we undertook the current study with the objective of assessing both auditory and visuospatial working memory tasks in a sample of schizophrenia patients in comparison to normal controls, and its correlation with psychopathology. Method: The sample comprised o...

We evaluated the hypothesis that individual differences in working memory capacity are explained by variation in mental effort, persons with low capacity exerting less effort than persons with high capacity. Groups previously rated high and low in working memory capacity performed the reading span task under three levels of incentive. The effort hypothesis holds that low span subjects exert les...

In this study, we examined the interactions between the action plans that we hold in memory and the actions that we carry out, asking whether the interference due to shared features between action plans is due to selection demands imposed on working memory. Individuals with low and high working memory spans learned arbitrary motor actions in response to two different visual events (A and B), pr...

This paper reports memory span data from 45 monolingual, normal-hearing children ranging in age from 3;5 to 5;11 years. A newly implemented methodology (here termed the “memory span game”) required participants to reproduce sequences of lights, or sequences of lights accompanied by sounds, by pressing appropriately matched buttons on a response box. Auditory stimuli used in the light-plus-sound...

Memory span for a list of phonologically similar words is generally worse than memory span for a list of phonologically dissimilar words, a finding that is called the phonological similarity effect. This finding has often been cited as evidence for the use of phonological coding in short-term memory and working memory. However, some studies have demonstrated a reversal of the phonological simil...

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...

Objectives: Specificity impairment is a memory alteration that occurs in people with major depressive disorder (MDD). In this investigation, we intended to shine a light on obscure aspects of executive resource and capture and rumination frameworks to determine whether these theories are reliable in predicting underlying mechanisms for specificity impairment. Methods: In this correlational res...

Background: Methadone maintenance has received little scientific attention regarding neurocognitive effects. This study is aimed to assess the neuropsychological performance of methadone maintenance patients (MMP) compared to those healthy controls. Methods: Thirty-five MMP and 35 healthy controls, matched for age, gender, education and employment status, examined on a battery of tests aimed at...

The present study investigates how working memory and fluid intelligence are related in young children and how these links develop over time. The major aim is to determine which aspect of the working memory system – short-term storage or cognitive control drives the relationship with fluid intelligence. A sample of 119 children was followed from kindergarten to second grade and completed multip...

Although cognitive neuroscience has made remarkable progress in understanding the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in human memory, the necessity of the orbitofrontal cortex for key competencies of working memory remains largely unexplored. We therefore studied human brain lesion patients to determine whether the orbitofrontal cortex is necessary for working memory function, administering s...