The independence of working memory capacity and audiovisual cues when listening in noise.

This study examined the effect of levels of working memory capacity, levels of background noise, and audiovisual cues on adults' ability to process speech when listening in noise. A mixed design was used to examine the effects of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR, 6 levels), audiovisual condition (audio vs. audiovisual), and working memory capacity on speech recognition. Ninety-six participants between the ages of 18 35 without a history of hearing loss or cognitive impairment were recruited for this research project. Working memory capacity mediated speech processing in noise during the auditory only listening condition. The reliance on working memory capacity increased as noise level increased. There was no interaction effect between working memory capacity and the audiovisual listening condition. People with a high working memory capacity have an advantage when listening to speech in noisy backgrounds. The level of the noise makes the biggest difference in a person's ability to recognize speech and performance can be improved with the inclusion of audiovisual cues. The effects of low signal-to-noise ratios can be mitigated with audiovisual cues independent of attentional control mechanisms.

An investigation of state population characteristics that moderate the relationship of state seat belt law and use in the United States.

OBJECTIVES: Primary enforcement laws have been shown to be effective methods for increasing seat belt use at the state level. METHOD: This study investigates state differences in the effectiveness of primary enforcement laws by assessing whether a state's academic achievement, health ranking, economic prosperity, violent crime rates, government effectiveness, gender distribution, or proportion of rural roads moderate the relationship between those laws and seat belt compliance rates. RESULTS: Aggregate state-level academic achievement, health ranking, government effectiveness, and proportion of rural roads uniquely moderated the seat belt use differences between primary and secondary enforcement states. CONCLUSIONS: This evidence suggests that cultural, social, and demographic differences among regions may be important factors in explaining state-level differences in the effectiveness of primary enforcement of seat belt laws.

Effects of noise and audiovisual cues on speech processing in adults with and without ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the interplay among internal (e.g. attention, working memory abilities) and external (e.g. background noise, visual information) factors in individuals with and without ADHD. DESIGN: A 2 × 2 × 6 mixed design with correlational analyses was used to compare participant results on a standardized listening in noise sentence repetition task (QuickSin; Killion et al, 2004 ), presented in an auditory and an audiovisual condition as signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) varied from 25-0 dB and to determine individual differences in working memory capacity and short-term recall. STUDY SAMPLE: Thirty-eight young adults without ADHD and twenty-five young adults with ADHD. RESULTS: Diagnosis, modality, and signal-to-noise ratio all affected the ability to process speech in noise. The interaction between the diagnosis of ADHD, the presence of visual cues, and the level of noise had an effect on a person's ability to process speech in noise. conclusion: Young adults with ADHD benefited less from visual information during noise than young adults without ADHD, an effect influenced by working memory abilities.

Impact of sensory acuity on auditory working memory span in young and older adults.

The impact of sensory acuity, processing speed, and working memory capacity on auditory working memory span (L-span) performance at 5 presentation levels was examined in 80 young adults (18-30 years of age) and 26 older adults (60-82 years of age). Lowering the presentation level of the L-span task had a greater detrimental effect on the older adults than on the younger ones. Furthermore, the relationship between sensory acuity and L-span performance varied as a function of age and presentation level. These results suggest that declining acuity plays an important explanatory role in age-related declines in cognitive abilities.

Investigating the role of instructional focus in incidental pattern learning.

The authors used a novel dual-component training procedure that combined a serial reaction time task and an artificial grammar learning task to investigate the role of instructional focus in incidental pattern learning. In Experiment 1, participants either memorized letter strings as a primary task and reacted to the stimuli locations as a secondary task or vice versa. In Experiment 2, participants were given the same dual-component stimuli but performed only one of the two training tasks. Instructional focus affected the amount of learning and the likelihood of acquiring explicit knowledge of the underlying pattern. However, the effect of instructional focus varied for the different types of stimuli. These results are discussed in terms of the role of focused attention in incidental learning.

Surprise, memory, and retrospective judgment making: testing cognitive reconstruction theories of the hindsight bias effect.

Hindsight bias has been shown to be a pervasive and potentially harmful decision-making bias. A review of 4 competing cognitive reconstruction theories of hindsight bias revealed conflicting predictions about the role and effect of expectation or surprise in retrospective judgment formation. Two experiments tested these predictions examining the effects of manipulating the information presented in a text-based scenario and its congruency with the given outcome on surprise, hindsight bias, and recall. The results of Experiment 1 revealed evidence of hindsight bias after exposure to incongruent and ambivalent outcomes but not after exposure to congruent outcomes. Experiment 2 replicated the hindsight bias results and found that the ratio of outcome consistent information recalled was higher than expected in the incongruent and ambivalent conditions but equaled the ratio presented to participants in the congruent condition. The results were interpreted as supporting the general predictions of sense-making models of the hindsight bias. A refined version of this model is discussed.

The nature of restructuring in insight: an individual-differences approach.

The insightful problem-solving process has been proposed to involve three main phases: an initial representation phase, in which the solver inappropriately represents the problem; an initial search through the faulty problem space that may lead to impasse; and a postimpasse restructuring phase. Some theories propose that the restructuring phase involves controlled search processes, whereas other theories propose that restructuring is achieved through the automatic redistribution of activation in long-term memory. In this study, we used correlations between working memory (WM) span measures and problem-solving success to test the predictions of these different theories. One group of participants received a set of insight problems that allowed for a large initial faulty search space, whereas another group received a matched set that constrained the initial faulty search space in order to isolate the restructuring phase of the insightful process. The results suggest that increased ability to control attention (as measured by WM span tasks) predicts an individual's ability to successfully solve problems that involve both the initial search phase and the restructuring phase. However, individual differences in ability to control attention do not predict success on problems that isolate the restructuring phase. These results are interpreted as supporting an automatic-redistribution-of-activation account of restructuring.