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Gillam SL, Gillam RB, Magimairaj BM, Capin P, Israelsen-Augenstein M, Roberts G, Vaughn S. Contextualized, Multicomponent Language Instruction: From Theory to Randomized Controlled Trial. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch 2024; 55:661-682. [PMID: 38640078 DOI: 10.1044/2024_lshss-23-00171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/21/2024] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE Clinicians address a wide range of oral language skills when working with school-age students with language and literacy difficulties (LLDs). Therefore, there is a critical need for carefully designed, rigorously tested, multicomponent contextualized language interventions (CLIs) that have a high likelihood of successful implementation and measurable academic impacts. This clinical focus article summarizes the development and testing of a CLI entitled Supporting Knowledge in Language and Literacy (SKILL), which is a supplementary narrative intervention program for elementary school-age children. Our aims are to (a) to review the foundational theoretical models that are the foundation of SKILL; (b) describe the iterative process used to develop the phases, lessons, procedures, materials, and progress monitoring tool; (c) summarize recent findings of the randomized controlled trial that was conducted to test its efficacy; and (d) discuss factors that may contribute to successful implementation of multicomponent language interventions. METHOD A total of 357 students in Grades 1-4 with LLDs were randomized to a treatment group or to a business-as-usual control group. The treatment group received the SKILL curriculum in small groups during 30-min lessons by trained speech-language pathologists, teachers, and special educators. RESULTS Students who received SKILL significantly outperformed those who did not on oral and written measures of storytelling and comprehension immediately after treatment and after 5-months at follow-up. Gains were similar among students with different levels of language ability (at-risk, language impaired) and language status (monolingual, bilingual) at pretest. CONCLUSIONS There is growing support for the use of multicomponent CLIs to bring about educationally relevant outcomes for students with LLDs. The authors present this review of how SKILL was designed, manualized, and rigorously tested by a team of researchers and practitioners with the hope that this approach will serve as a springboard for the development of future multicomponent CLIs that may meaningfully improve communicative and educational outcomes for students with LLDs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra L Gillam
- Early Childhood Education and Research Center, Utah State University, Logan
| | - Ronald B Gillam
- Early Childhood Education and Research Center, Utah State University, Logan
| | - Beula M Magimairaj
- Early Childhood Education and Research Center, Utah State University, Logan
| | - Philip Capin
- The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, The University of Texas at Austin
| | | | - Greg Roberts
- The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, The University of Texas at Austin
| | - Sharon Vaughn
- The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, The University of Texas at Austin
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Greene NR, Guitard D, Forsberg A, Cowan N, Naveh-Benjamin M. Working memory limitations constrain visual episodic long-term memory at both specific and gist levels of representation. Mem Cognit 2024:10.3758/s13421-024-01593-w. [PMID: 38839653 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-024-01593-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/16/2024] [Indexed: 06/07/2024]
Abstract
Limitations in one's capacity to encode information in working memory (WM) constrain later access to that information in long-term memory (LTM). The present study examined whether these WM constraints on episodic LTM are limited to specific representations of past episodes or also extend to gist representations. Across three experiments, young adult participants (n = 40 per experiment) studied objects in set sizes of two or six items, either sequentially (Experiments 1a and 1b) or simultaneously (Experiment 2). They then completed old/new recognition tests immediately after each sequence (WM tests). After a long study phase, participants completed LTM conjoint recognition tests, featuring old but untested items from the WM phase, lures that were similar to studied items at gist but not specific levels of representation, and new items unrelated to studied items at both specific and gist levels of representation. Results showed that LTM estimates of specific and gist memory representations from a multinomial-processing-tree model were reduced for items encoded under supra-capacity set sizes (six items) relative to within-capacity set sizes (two items). These results suggest that WM encoding capacity limitations constrain episodic LTM at both specific and gist levels of representation, at least for visual objects. The ability to retrieve from LTM each type of representation for a visual item is contingent on the degree to which the item could be encoded in WM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathaniel R Greene
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 425 S. University Avenue, Levin Building Room 201, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
| | | | - Alicia Forsberg
- Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - Nelson Cowan
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
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Cowan N, Bao C, Bishop-Chrzanowski BM, Costa AN, Greene NR, Guitard D, Li C, Musich ML, Ünal ZE. The Relation Between Attention and Memory. Annu Rev Psychol 2024; 75:183-214. [PMID: 37713810 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-040723-012736] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/17/2023]
Abstract
The relation between attention and memory has long been deemed important for understanding cognition, and it was heavily researched even in the first experimental psychology laboratory by Wilhelm Wundt and his colleagues. Since then, the importance of the relation between attention and memory has been explored in myriad subdisciplines of psychology, and we incorporate a wide range of these diverse fields. Here, we examine some of the practical consequences of this relation and summarize work with various methodologies relating attention to memory in the fields of working memory, long-term memory, individual differences, life-span development, typical brain function, and neuropsychological conditions. We point out strengths and unanswered questions for our own embedded processes view of information processing, which is used to organize a large body of evidence. Last, we briefly consider the relation of the evidence to a range of other theoretical views before drawing conclusions about the state of the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nelson Cowan
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;
| | - Chenye Bao
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;
| | | | - Amy N Costa
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;
| | - Nathaniel R Greene
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;
| | - Dominic Guitard
- School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
| | - Chenyuan Li
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;
| | - Madison L Musich
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;
| | - Zehra E Ünal
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA;
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Gillies G, Park H, Woo J, Walther DB, Cant JS, Fukuda K. Tracing the emergence of the memorability benefit. Cognition 2023; 238:105489. [PMID: 37163952 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105489] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2022] [Revised: 04/10/2023] [Accepted: 05/03/2023] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Some visual stimuli are consistently better remembered than others across individuals, due to variations in memorability (the stimulus-intrinsic property that determines ease of encoding into visual long-term memory (VLTM)). However, it remains unclear what cognitive processes give rise to this mnemonic benefit. One possibility is that this benefit is imbued within the capacity-limited bottleneck of VLTM encoding, namely visual working memory (VWM). More precisely, memorable stimuli may be preferentially encoded into VLTM because fewer cognitive resources are required to store them in VWM (efficiency hypothesis). Alternatively, memorable stimuli may be more competitive in obtaining cognitive resources than forgettable stimuli, leading to more successful storage in VWM (competitiveness hypothesis). Additionally, the memorability benefit might emerge post-VWM, specifically, if memorable stimuli are less prone to be forgotten (i.e., are "stickier") than forgettable stimuli after they pass through the encoding bottleneck (stickiness hypothesis). To test this, we conducted two experiments to examine how memorability benefits emerge by manipulating the stimulus memorability, set size, and degree of competition among stimuli as participants encoded them in the context of a working memory task. Subsequently, their memory for the encoded stimuli was tested in a VLTM task. In the VWM task, performance was better for memorable stimuli compared to forgettable stimuli, supporting the efficiency hypothesis. In addition, we found that when in direct competition, memorable stimuli were also better at attracting limited VWM resources than forgettable stimuli, supporting the competitiveness hypothesis. However, only the efficiency advantage translated to a performance benefit in VLTM. Lastly, we found that memorable stimuli were less likely to be forgotten after they passed through the encoding bottleneck imposed by VWM, supporting the "stickiness" hypothesis. Thus, our results demonstrate that the memorability benefit develops across multiple cognitive processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Greer Gillies
- University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada; University of Toronto, Scarborough, Canada; University of Toronto, Canada
| | - Hyun Park
- University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada; University of Toronto, Canada
| | - Jason Woo
- University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada
| | | | - Jonathan S Cant
- University of Toronto, Scarborough, Canada; University of Toronto, Canada
| | - Keisuke Fukuda
- University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada; University of Toronto, Canada.
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Forsberg A, Guitard D, Adams EJ, Pattanakul D, Cowan N. Working Memory Constrains Long-Term Memory in Children and Adults: Memory of Objects and Bindings. J Intell 2023; 11:jintelligence11050094. [PMID: 37233343 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence11050094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2023] [Revised: 04/16/2023] [Accepted: 04/21/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023] Open
Abstract
We explored how individual and age-related differences in working memory (WM) capacity affected subsequent long-term memory (LTM) retrieval. Unlike past studies, we tested WM and LTM not only for items, but also for item-color bindings. Our sample included 82 elementary school children and 42 young adults. The participants performed a WM task with images of unique everyday items presented sequentially at varying set sizes in different colors. Later, we tested LTM for items and item-color bindings from the WM task. The WM load during encoding constrained LTM, and participants with a higher WM capacity retrieved more items in the LTM test. Even when accounting for young children's poor item memory by considering only the items that they did remember, they exhibited an exacerbated difficulty with remembering item-color bindings in WM. Their LTM binding performance, however, as a proportion of remembered objects, was comparable to that of older children and adults. The WM binding performance was better during sub-span encoding loads, but with no clear transfer of this benefit to LTM. Overall, LTM item memory performance was constrained by individual and age-related WM limitations, but with mixed consequences for binding. We discuss the theoretical, practical, and developmental implications of this WM-to-LTM bottleneck.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alicia Forsberg
- Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Vicar Ln, Sheffield S1 2LT, UK
| | - Dominic Guitard
- School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Tower Building, 70 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK
| | - Eryn J Adams
- Psychology Building, The University of New Orleans, 2000 Lakeshore Drive, New Orleans, LA 70148, USA
| | - Duangporn Pattanakul
- Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Austin Peay Hall, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
| | - Nelson Cowan
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, McAlester Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
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Generalization of Skill for a Working Memory Recognition Procedure in Children: The Benefit of Starting with Easy Materials. J Intell 2023; 11:jintelligence11030056. [PMID: 36976149 PMCID: PMC10057205 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence11030056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2023] [Revised: 03/09/2023] [Accepted: 03/15/2023] [Indexed: 03/19/2023] Open
Abstract
When children practice a new task, they need to learn both the task procedure and the materials tested. It is often unclear if improvements with practice reflect learning of the task procedure or familiarity with the materials. We sought to examine learning of the task procedure by switching from one set of materials to another in a working memory recognition task. We recruited 70 children (34 female, M = 11.27 years, SD = 0.62, ranging from 10.08 to 12.39) in the United States who were to remember sequences of orientations and of shapes for recognition immediately following the list. Half of the children began with orientation, an easier task, and the other half began with difficult-to-name shapes, a harder task. When children began with the easier task, the acquisition of the recognition task skill in the easy condition transferred to the more difficult task, optimizing the mean performance across tasks. Transfer was less potent when children began with the more difficult task. The results showed that sufficient practice is crucial to avoid poor initial performance, which might be important for the student’s rate of progress and task engagement.
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Draheim C, Pak R, Draheim AA, Engle RW. The role of attention control in complex real-world tasks. Psychon Bull Rev 2022; 29:1143-1197. [PMID: 35167106 PMCID: PMC8853083 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-021-02052-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Working memory capacity is an important psychological construct, and many real-world phenomena are strongly associated with individual differences in working memory functioning. Although working memory and attention are intertwined, several studies have recently shown that individual differences in the general ability to control attention is more strongly predictive of human behavior than working memory capacity. In this review, we argue that researchers would therefore generally be better suited to studying the role of attention control rather than memory-based abilities in explaining real-world behavior and performance in humans. The review begins with a discussion of relevant literature on the nature and measurement of both working memory capacity and attention control, including recent developments in the study of individual differences of attention control. We then selectively review existing literature on the role of both working memory and attention in various applied settings and explain, in each case, why a switch in emphasis to attention control is warranted. Topics covered include psychological testing, cognitive training, education, sports, police decision-making, human factors, and disorders within clinical psychology. The review concludes with general recommendations and best practices for researchers interested in conducting studies of individual differences in attention control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Draheim
- Department of Psychology, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, USA.
- School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
| | - Richard Pak
- Department of Psychology, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA
| | - Amanda A Draheim
- Department of Psychology, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, USA
| | - Randall W Engle
- School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
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