Mediators of working memory and reading in a sample of children with reading difficulty: The roles of phonemic awareness and rapid automatized naming.

Working memory (WM) has been consistently linked to reading. However, the mechanism(s) linking WM to reading remain unclear. WM may indirectly exert an effect onto reading through mediators such as phonemic awareness (PA) and/or rapid automatized naming (RAN). In a sample of children with reading difficulty (n = 117), separate mediation analyses tested direct and indirect (through PA and RAN) effects of WM on untimed word decoding and recognition (i.e., basic reading skills) and timed word decoding and recognition (i.e., reading fluency). WM exerted a direct effect on basic reading skills and reading fluency. For basic reading skills, there was a significant indirect effect of WM on reading through the mediation of PA (but not through RAN). By contrast, for reading fluency, there was a significant indirect effect of WM on reading through the mediation of RAN (but not through PA). Findings reinforce the importance of WM, PA, and RAN for broad reading skills, while offering a mechanistic explanation for why poor PA and/or RAN may differentially lead to reading difficulty.

Systematic Review of Dispositional Mindfulness and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptomology: A Targeted Examination of Avoidance.

High rates of nonresponse to evidence-based treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have fueled the search for improved intervention. Evidence suggests that improvements in dispositional mindfulness (i.e., tendency to attend to the present with nonjudgment and nonreactivity) may help reduce PTSD symptoms. While some research suggests that transdiagnostic mindfulness-based interventions particularly target avoidance symptoms, the association between dispositional mindfulness and avoidance has yet to be systematically examined. To address this gap, we examined peer-reviewed studies that reported quantitative associations between avoidance and dispositional mindfulness among trauma-exposed adults, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2009 guidelines. Sixteen studies were identified for final review from PsycINFO and PubMed databases. Results suggest that mindfulness has a weak relationship with effortful avoidance. This weak relationship may be obscured in studies where effortful avoidance is measured among other symptoms (e.g., anhedonia). Mindfulness appeared to have stronger associations with symptoms of hyperarousal and negative alterations in cognition and mood. An important clinical implication is that high effortful avoidance may manifest among patients who report strong mindfulness skills. It may be helpful for clinicians to carefully assess how mindfulness is being used to cope.

Test anxiety and reading comprehension: the key role of fluid reasoning.

BACKGROUND: High test anxiety has been associated with poorer academic performance. Test anxiety may affect academic performance by disrupting cognitive processes required for complex academic tasks, such as reading comprehension. OBJECTIVES AND METHOD: The objective of this cross-sectional study was to clarify the cognitive pathways through which test anxiety may affect reading comprehension performance using archival clinical data of adults (n = 94; Mage = 23.35, SD = 4.32) referred for a comprehensive psychological assessment for academic difficulties. Serial multiple indirect effects analysis was used to assess for the direct and indirect effects of test anxiety on reading comprehension through cognitive processing speed, working memory, fluid reasoning, and crystallized knowledge. A second serial multiple indirect effects analysis was conducted with trait anxiety as the antecedent. RESULTS: Test anxiety had a significant indirect effect on reading comprehension through fluid reasoning (B = -.08, SE = .04; 95% CI [-.15 to -.01]), while trait anxiety exerted no significant effect. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that test anxiety and fluid reasoning play unique roles in disrupting academic functioning among individuals referred for academic difficulties. It may be that test anxious adults struggle to reason effectively in testing situations, leading to downstream difficulty comprehending text.

Does reasoning training improve fluid reasoning and academic achievement for children and adolescents? A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Studies of children and adolescents suggest that reasoning training may improve both reasoning and academic achievement, but evidence and systematic evaluation of this research is limited. Accordingly, this paper provides a systematic review of the literature on reasoning training in order to describe current methods and evaluate their efficacy. METHOD: A systematic search identified eleven articles-published between 1996 and 2016-that reported findings from thirteen separate studies of reasoning training effects on fluid reasoning (Gf) and academic achievement in children and adolescents. Specific Gf outcomes examined were analogical, deductive, inductive, nonverbal, and/or relational reasoning ability. Specific academic achievement outcomes examined were math and reading achievement. This paper reviewed studies utilizing both computerized and non-computerized methods of Gf training. FINDINGS: Findings from the review show that reasoning training improves Gf (near transfer effects). Although less conclusive, when considered on balance, evidence suggests that reasoning training also improves academic achievement (far transfer effects). CONCLUSIONS: Research is needed to parameterize the effects of Gf training on academic achievement, and in particular to identify moderators of training efficacy on academic outcomes. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Fluid reasoning and reading difficulties among children with ADHD.

Background: Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) commonly experience difficulties in reading and in fluid reasoning (Gf). According to Cattell's Investment Theory (1987), Gf is a causal factor in the development of crystallized knowledge (Gc) and academic skills; therefore, the co-occurrence of reading and Gf difficulties within ADHD may not be coincidental. Methods: In the present study with children with both ADHD and reading difficulties (n = 187; 61% male; Mage = 9.2), we utilized mediation analyses to test direct and indirect (through Gc, phonemic awareness, and rapid automatized naming [RAN]) effects of Gf on four basic reading skills: untimed word recognition, untimed phonemic decoding, word reading efficiency, and phonemic decoding efficiency. Results: The direct effect of Gf on all reading skills was nonsignificant; however, significant indirect effects were observed. Specifically, Gf exerted an effect indirectly onto all reading skills through a serial and joint mechanism comprised of Gc and phonemic awareness (i.e., Gf → Gc → phonemic awareness → reading achievement). Gf also exerted an effect indirectly onto untimed word recognition and phonemic decoding through phonemic awareness (i.e., Gf → phonemic awareness → untimed word recognition/untimed phonemic decoding). Conclusion: Results build upon Cattell's Investment Theory by linking Gf with reading difficulties among children with ADHD, suggesting that such difficulties may arise from weaknesses in Gf and insufficient investment of Gf into reading through Gc and phonemic awareness.

Gender Moderates Association Between Emotional-Behavioral Problems and Text Comprehension in Children with Both Reading Difficulties and Adhd.

Evidence suggests that higher order linguistic functioning such as text comprehension is particularly vulnerable to emotional modulation. Gender has been identified as an important moderating variable in emotional expression such that girls tend toward internalizing emotions (e.g., sadness, anxiety) whereas boys tend toward externalizing emotions (e.g., anger, combativeness), which may influence the relationship between emotion and text comprehension. The present study examined whether gender moderates the relationship between emotional-behavioral problems and text comprehension among children (n = 187; boys= 115, girls = 72) with both word reading difficulties (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a sample widely acknowledged to be at increased risk for developing emotional-behavioral problems such as anxiety, poor academic self-concept, and delinquency. A moderated regression analysis tested for the significance of two separate interaction terms (i.e., gender × externalizing problems, gender × internalizing problems) after controlling for gender, IQ, basic reading skills, cognitive-linguistic processes closely related to reading, attentional problems, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. Results indicated that gender significantly and uniquely moderates the relationship between emotional-behavioral problems and text comprehension. Specifically, text comprehension was relatively lower among girls with relatively higher externalizing problems, whereas no such association was observed among boys. These results contribute to our understanding of cognition-emotion interactions within reading development and raise important implications.

Stroop interference associated with efficient reading fluency and prelexical orthographic processing.

The Stroop Color-Word Test involves a dynamic interplay between reading and executive functioning that elicits intuitions of word reading automaticity. One such intuition is that strong reading skills (i.e., more automatized word reading) play a disruptive role within the test, contributing to Stroop interference. However, evidence has accumulated that challenges this intuition. The present study examined associations among Stroop interference, reading skills (i.e., isolated word identification, grapheme-to-phoneme mapping, phonemic awareness, reading fluency) measured on standardized tests, and orthographic skills measured on experimental computerized tasks. Among university students (N = 152), correlational analyses showed greater Stroop interference to be associated with (a) relatively low scores on all standardized reading tests, and (b) longer response latencies on orthographic tasks. Hierarchical regression demonstrated that reading fluency and prelexical orthographic processing predicted unique and significant variance in Stroop interference beyond baseline rapid naming. Results suggest that strong reading skills, including orthographic processing, play a supportive role in resolving Stroop interference.

Not all distraction is bad: working memory vulnerability to implicit socioemotional distraction correlates with negative symptoms and functional impairment in psychosis.

This study investigated implicit socioemotional modulation of working memory (WM) in the context of symptom severity and functional status in individuals with psychosis (N = 21). A delayed match-to-sample task was modified wherein task-irrelevant facial distracters were presented early and briefly during the rehearsal of pseudoword memoranda that varied incrementally in load size (1, 2, or 3 syllables). Facial distracters displayed happy, sad, or emotionally neutral expressions. Implicit socioemotional modulation of WM was indexed by subtracting task accuracy on nonfacial geometrical distraction trials from facial distraction trials. Results indicated that the amount of implicit socioemotional modulation of high WM load accuracy was significantly associated with negative symptoms (r = 0.63, P < 0.01), role functioning (r = -0.50, P < 0.05), social functioning (r = -0.55, P < 0.01), and global assessment of functioning (r = -0.53, P < 0.05). Specifically, greater attentional distraction of high WM load was associated with less severe symptoms and functional impairment. This study demonstrates the importance of the WM-socioemotional interface in influencing clinical and psychosocial functional status in psychosis.

Experimental manipulation of working memory model parameters: an exercise in construct validity.

As parametric cognitive models become more commonly used to measure individual differences, the construct validity of the interpretation of individual model parameters needs to be well established. The validity of the interpretation of 2 parameters of a formal model of the Continuous Recognition Memory Test (CRMT) was investigated in 2 experiments. The 1st study found that manipulating the percentage of trials on the CRMT for which degraded pseudowords were presented altered the model's stimulus encoding parameter but not the working memory displacement parameter. The 2nd experiment showed that manipulating the number of syllables forming a pseudoword altered the model's working memory displacement parameter for each syllable added to the pseudoword. Findings from both experiments supported the construct representation of the model parameters, supporting the construct validity of the model's use to interpret CRMT performance. Combining parametric models with the manipulation of factors that theory predicts are related to model parameters provides an approach to construct validation that bridges experimental and individual difference methods of studying human cognition.

Linking mathematical modeling with human neuroimaging to segregate verbal working memory maintenance processes from stimulus encoding.

OBJECTIVE: A fundamental dissociation for most working memory (WM) theories involves the separation of sensory-perceptual encoding of stimulus information from the maintenance of this information. The present paper reports tests of this separability hypothesis for visually presented pseudowords at both mathematical and neuroimaging levels of analysis. METHOD: Levels of analysis were linked by two experimental manipulations-visual degradation and pseudoword length variation-that coupled findings from a mathematical modeling study of WM performed in a separate sample to findings from an event-related functional MRI (fMRI) study reported in the present paper. Results from the mathematical modeling study generated parametric signatures of stimulus encoding and WM rehearsal and displacement. These signatures led to specific predictions about neurophysiological responses to study manipulations in a priori regions of interest (ROI). RESULTS: Results demonstrated predicted dissociations of activation signatures in several ROIs. Significant patterns of brain response mirroring the encode signature were observed only during the task encode interval and only in the visual cortex and posterior fusiform gyrus. In contrast, significant brain response mirroring the rehearsal/displacement signature was observed only in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, and supramarginal gyrus. CONCLUSIONS: Present findings support the separability hypothesis insofar as brain regions that underlie sensory-perceptual processes demonstrated encode signatures whereas brain regions that support WM maintenance demonstrated the rehearsal/displacement signature. These results also provide evidence for the utility of combining mathematical modeling with fMRI to integrate information across cognitive and neural levels of analysis.

Curvilinear relationship between phonological working memory load and social-emotional modulation.

Accumulating evidence suggests that working memory load is an important factor for the interplay between cognitive and facial-affective processing. However, it is unclear how distraction caused by perception of faces interacts with load-related performance. We developed a modified version of the delayed match-to-sample task wherein task-irrelevant facial distracters were presented early in the rehearsal of pseudoword memoranda that varied incrementally in load size (1-syllable, 2-syllables, or 3-syllables). Facial distracters displayed happy, sad, or neutral expressions in Experiment 1 (N=60) and happy, fearful, or neutral expressions in Experiment 2 (N=29). Facial distracters significantly disrupted task performance in the intermediate load condition (2-syllable) but not in the low or high load conditions (1- and 3-syllables, respectively), an interaction replicated and generalised in Experiment 2. All facial distracters disrupted working memory in the intermediate load condition irrespective of valence, suggesting a primary and general effect of distraction caused by faces. However, sad and fearful faces tended to be less disruptive than happy faces, suggesting a secondary and specific valence effect. Working memory appears to be most vulnerable to social-emotional information at intermediate loads. At low loads, spare capacity is capable of accommodating the combinatorial load (1-syllable plus facial distracter), whereas high loads maximised capacity and deprived facial stimuli from occupying working memory slots to cause disruption.

The role of left occipitotemporal cortex in reading: reconciling stimulus, task, and lexicality effects.

Although the left posterior occipitotemporal sulcus (pOTS) has been called a visual word form area, debate persists over the selectivity of this region for reading relative to general nonorthographic visual object processing. We used high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging to study left pOTS responses to combinatorial orthographic and object shape information. Participants performed naming and visual discrimination tasks designed to encourage or suppress phonological encoding. During the naming task, all participants showed subregions within left pOTS that were more sensitive to combinatorial orthographic information than to object information. This difference disappeared, however, when phonological processing demands were removed. Responses were stronger to pseudowords than to words, but this effect also disappeared when phonological processing demands were removed. Subregions within the left pOTS are preferentially activated when visual input must be mapped to a phonological representation (i.e., a name) and particularly when component parts of the visual input must be mapped to corresponding phonological elements (consonant or vowel phonemes). Results indicate a specialized role for subregions within the left pOTS in the isomorphic mapping of familiar combinatorial visual patterns to phonological forms. This process distinguishes reading from picture naming and accounts for a wide range of previously reported stimulus and task effects in left pOTS.

Cognition-emotion interactions in schizophrenia: emerging evidence on working memory load and implicit facial-affective processing.

Although much is known about working memory (WM) and emotion perception deficits in schizophrenia, little is known of how these deficits interact. We sought to address this gap by conducting a narrative review of relevant literatures and distilling core themes. First, people with schizophrenia have difficulty with high load and during initial phases of WM (e.g., encoding, early rehearsal), yet are able to activate WM-related prefrontal brain regions to the same maximal degree as comparison controls under certain circumstances. Second, people with schizophrenia have difficulty identifying and expressing facial emotions, yet demonstrate heightened automatic/implicit processing of facial emotions. Third, people with schizophrenia behaviourally demonstrate intact cognition-emotion interactions on laboratory tasks wherein emotional processing is automatic/implicit, yet demonstrate cognition-emotion disconnections in other levels of analysis. Insights are drawn from basic science showing interdependency between WM load and implicit emotion. Future research questions are raised regarding interactions between WM load and implicit facial-affective processing in schizophrenia.

The neural career of sensory-motor metaphors.

The role of sensory-motor systems in conceptual understanding has been controversial. It has been proposed that many abstract concepts are understood metaphorically through concrete sensory-motor domains such as actions. Using fMRI, we compared neural responses with literal action (Lit; The daughter grasped the flowers), metaphoric action (Met; The public grasped the idea), and abstract (Abs; The public understood the idea) sentences of varying familiarity. Both Lit and Met sentences activated the left anterior inferior parietal lobule, an area involved in action planning, with Met sentences also activating a homologous area in the right hemisphere, relative to Abs sentences. Both Met and Abs sentences activated the left superior temporal regions associated with abstract language. Importantly, activation in primary motor and biological motion perception regions was inversely correlated with Lit and Met familiarity. These results support the view that the understanding of metaphoric action retains a link to sensory-motor systems involved in action performance. However, the involvement of sensory-motor systems in metaphor understanding changes through a gradual abstraction process whereby relatively detailed simulations are used for understanding unfamiliar metaphors, and these simulations become less detailed and involve only secondary motor regions as familiarity increases. Consistent with these data, we propose that anterior inferior parietal lobule serves as an interface between sensory-motor and conceptual systems and plays an important role in both domains. The similarity of abstract and metaphoric sentences in the activation of left superior temporal regions suggests that action metaphor understanding is not completely based on sensory-motor simulations but relies also on abstract lexical-semantic codes.

Visuoperceptual-orthographic reading abilities: a confirmatory factor analysis study.

The current study examined the psychometric properties of a hypothetical visuoperceptual-orthographic (VPO) reading construct in a sample of nonimpaired college students (N = 152). Participants were administered a battery of standardized and experimental measures of VPO, including Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ-III) Letter-Word Identification (Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001), Visual-Naming Speed (word page of the Stroop), Letter-Identification Task, Same/Different Letter Decision Task, Word Matching Task, Homophone Decision Task, Pseudohomophone Decision Task, and Word Jumble Task. The LISREL 8.54 computer program (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 2003) was employed for confirmatory factor analysis to assess the tenability of a multifaceted, unitary VPO reading construct. Goodness-of-fit statistics indicated that VPO is a hierarchically organized construct with one 2nd-order factor (i.e., VPO) and three 1st-order factors (i.e., perceptual processing speed, prelexical accuracy, and lexicosemantic accuracy). Alternative models were tested but produced unsatisfactory goodness-of-fit statistics. Altogether these findings are in agreement with those of previous cognitive and neuroscientific studies and further support the notion that VPO should be viewed as a unique factor in the assessment, diagnosis, and remediation of developmental dyslexia.