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Abrahamse E, van Dijck JP. Ranking-space: magnitude makes sense through spatially scaffolded ranking. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1224254. [PMID: 37484090 PMCID: PMC10358857 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1224254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 07/25/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Elger Abrahamse
- Department of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands
- Department of Educational Sciences, Atlántico Medio University, Las Palmas, Spain
| | - Jean-Philippe van Dijck
- Expertise Centre for Care and Welfare, Thomas More, Antwerp, Belgium
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
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van Dijck JP, Fias W, Cipora K. Spatialization in working memory and its relation to math anxiety. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2022; 1512:192-202. [PMID: 35274298 DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14765] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2021] [Accepted: 02/10/2022] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Working memory (WM) is one of the most important cognitive functions that may play a role in the relation between math anxiety (MA) and math performance. The processing efficiency theory proposes that rumination and worrisome thoughts (induced by MA) result in less available WM resources (which are needed to solve math problems). At the same time, high MA individuals have lower verbal and spatial WM capacity in general. Extending these findings, we found that MA is also linked to the spatial coding of serial order in verbal WM: subjects who organize sequences from left-to-right in verbal WM show lower levels of MA compared with those who do not spatialize. Furthermore, these spatial coders have higher verbal WM capacity, better numerical order judgment abilities, and higher math scores. These findings suggest that spatially structuring the verbal mind is a promising cognitive correlate of MA and opens new avenues for exploring causal links between elementary cognitive processes and MA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Philippe van Dijck
- Department of Applied Psychology, Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, Flanders, Belgium.,Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Wim Fias
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Krzysztof Cipora
- Centre for Mathematical Cognition, Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom
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3
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Guida A, Abrahamse E, Dijck J. About the interplay between internal and external spatial codes in the mind: implications for serial order. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2020; 1477:20-33. [DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14341] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2019] [Revised: 02/28/2020] [Accepted: 03/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Elger Abrahamse
- Communication and Cognition Tilburg University Tilburg the Netherlands
| | - Jean‐Philippe Dijck
- Department of Experimental Psychology Ghent University Ghent Belgium
- Deparment of Applied Psychology Thomas More Antwerp Belgium
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Guida A, Carnet S, Normandon M, Lavielle-Guida M. Can spatialisation be extended to episodic memory and open sets? Memory 2018; 26:922-935. [DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2018.1428350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Alessandro Guida
- Laboratoire de Psychologie, Comportement, Cognition et Communication, Université Rennes, Rennes Cedex, France
| | - Sophie Carnet
- Laboratoire de Psychologie, Comportement, Cognition et Communication, Université Rennes, Rennes Cedex, France
| | - Marlène Normandon
- Department of Life Sciences and the Environment, Université Rennes, Rennes Cedex, France
| | - Magali Lavielle-Guida
- Cabinet de Psychologie et d’Orthophonie, Saint Malo, France
- Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie (UPMC), Paris, France
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Antoine S, Ranzini M, van Dijck JP, Slama H, Bonato M, Tousch A, Dewulf M, Bier JC, Gevers W. Hemispatial neglect and serial order in verbal working memory. J Neuropsychol 2018; 13:272-288. [PMID: 29316244 DOI: 10.1111/jnp.12145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2017] [Revised: 10/30/2017] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Working memory refers to our ability to actively maintain and process a limited amount of information during a brief period of time. Often, not only the information itself but also its serial order is crucial for good task performance. It was recently proposed that serial order is grounded in spatial cognition. Here, we compared performance of a group of right hemisphere-damaged patients with hemispatial neglect to healthy controls in verbal working memory tasks. Participants memorized sequences of consonants at span level and had to judge whether a target consonant belonged to the memorized sequence (item task) or whether a pair of consonants were presented in the same order as in the memorized sequence (order task). In line with this idea that serial order is grounded in spatial cognition, we found that neglect patients made significantly more errors in the order task than in the item task compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, this deficit seemed functionally related to neglect severity and was more frequently observed following right posterior brain damage. Interestingly, this specific impairment for serial order in verbal working memory was not lateralized. We advance the hypotheses of a potential contribution to the deficit of serial order in neglect patients of either or both (1) reduced spatial working memory capacity that enables to keep track of the spatial codes that provide memorized items with a positional context, (2) a spatial compression of these codes in the intact representational space.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Antoine
- Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences, ULB Neuroscience Institute, Free University of Brussels, Belgium
| | - Mariagrazia Ranzini
- Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences, ULB Neuroscience Institute, Free University of Brussels, Belgium
| | | | - Hichem Slama
- Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences, ULB Neuroscience Institute, Free University of Brussels, Belgium.,Department of Clinical and Cognitive Neuropsychology, Erasme Hospital, Free University of Brussels, Belgium
| | - Mario Bonato
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Ghent, Belgium.,Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Italy
| | - Ann Tousch
- Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences, ULB Neuroscience Institute, Free University of Brussels, Belgium
| | - Myrtille Dewulf
- Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences, ULB Neuroscience Institute, Free University of Brussels, Belgium
| | | | - Wim Gevers
- Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences, ULB Neuroscience Institute, Free University of Brussels, Belgium
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Abrahamse EL, van Dijck JP, Fias W. Grounding Verbal Working Memory: The Case of Serial Order. CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2017. [DOI: 10.1177/0963721417704404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The maintenance of serial order in verbal working memory (WM) is a major unsolved puzzle in cognitive science. Here we review a series of studies showing that serial order in verbal WM closely interacts with spatial processing. Accordingly, we outline the “mental whiteboard hypothesis,” which postulates that serial order in verbal WM is grounded in the spatial attention system. Specifically, serial context in verbal WM is provided by binding the memoranda to coordinates within an internal, spatially defined system within which (internal) spatial attention is at play to the purpose of searching for and retrieving information. Challenges and opportunities to be considered in future studies are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jean-Philippe van Dijck
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University
- Department of Applied Psychology, University College Thomas More
| | - Wim Fias
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University
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Antoine S, Ranzini M, Gebuis T, van Dijck JP, Gevers W. Order Information in Verbal Working Memory Shifts the Subjective Midpoint in Both the Line Bisection and the Landmark Tasks. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2017; 70:1973-1983. [DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2016.1217246] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
A largely substantiated view in the domain of working memory is that the maintenance of serial order is achieved by generating associations of each item with an independent representation of its position, so-called position markers. Recent studies reported that the ordinal position of an item in verbal working memory interacts with spatial processing. This suggests that position markers might be spatial in nature. However, these interactions were so far observed in tasks implying a clear binary categorization of space (i.e., with left and right responses or targets). Such binary categorizations leave room for alternative interpretations, such as congruency between non-spatial categorical codes for ordinal position (e.g., begin and end) and spatial categorical codes for response (e.g., left and right). Here we discard this interpretation by providing evidence that this interaction can also be observed in a task that draws upon a continuous processing of space, the line bisection task. Specifically, bisections are modulated by ordinal position in verbal working memory, with lines bisected more towards the right after retrieving items from the end compared to the beginning of the memorized sequence. This supports the idea that position markers are intrinsically spatial in nature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Antoine
- Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences, ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Mariagrazia Ranzini
- Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences, ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Titia Gebuis
- Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | | | - Wim Gevers
- Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences, ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
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