Effortful Retrieval Practice Effects in Lexical Access: A Role for Semantic Competition.

Word retrieval difficulty (lexical access deficit) is prevalent in aphasia. Studies have shown that practice retrieving names from long-term memory (retrieval practice) improves future name retrieval for production in people with aphasia (PWA), particularly when retrieval is effortful. To explicate such effects, this study examined a potential role for semantic competition in the learning mechanism(s) underlying effortful retrieval practice effects in lexical access in 6 PWA. Items were trained in a blocked-cyclic naming task, in which repeating sets of pictures drawn from semantically-related versus unrelated categories underwent retrieval practice with feedback. Naming accuracy was lower for the related items at training, but next-day accuracy did not differ between the conditions. However, greater semantic-relatedness of an item to its set in the related condition was associated with lower accuracy at training but higher accuracy at test. Relevance to theories of lexical access and implications for naming treatment in aphasia are discussed.

Understanding and Supporting Inhibitory Control: Unique Contributions From Proactive Monitoring and Motoric Stopping to Children's Improvements With Practice.

Children struggle to stop inappropriate behaviors. What interventions improve inhibitory control, for whom, and why? Prior work suggested that practice proactively monitoring for relevant signals improved children's inhibitory control more than practice with motoric stopping. However, these processes were not clearly dissociated. This study tested 162 seven- to nine-year-old children (89 female, 72 male, 1 unreported; 82% White) on the stop-signal task, following monitoring or stopping-focused practice. Both methods improved inhibitory control, supported generalization, and interacted ( η p 2 = .20-.73). Practice approaches differentially impacted variability ( η p 2 = .01-.09). Only monitoring benefits showed signs of depending upon proactive control ( η p 2 = .02). These findings highlight unique contributions of attentional and stopping processes to inhibitory control, suggesting possibilities for tailored interventions.

Why Does Cognitive Training Yield Inconsistent Benefits? A Meta-Analysis of Individual Differences in Baseline Cognitive Abilities and Training Outcomes.

Despite growing interest in improving cognitive abilities across the lifespan through training, the benefits of cognitive training are inconsistent. One powerful contributor may be that individuals arrive at interventions with different baseline levels of the cognitive skill being trained. Some evidence suggests poor performers benefit the most from cognitive training, showing compensation for their weak abilities, while other evidence suggests that high performers benefit most, experiencing a magnification of their abilities. Whether training leads to compensation or magnification effects may depend upon the specific cognitive domain being trained (such as executive function or episodic memory) and the training approach implemented (strategy or process). To clarify the association between individual differences in baseline cognitive ability and training gains as well as potential moderators, we conducted a systematic meta-analysis of the correlation between these two variables. We found evidence of a significant meta-correlation demonstrating a compensatory effect, a negative association between initial ability on a trained cognitive process and training gains. Too few papers met our search criteria across the levels of proposed moderators of cognitive domain and training approach to conduct a reliable investigation of their influence over the meta-analytic effect size. We discuss the implications of a compensatory meta-correlation, potential reasons for the paucity of qualifying papers, and important future directions for better understanding how cognitive trainings work and for whom.

Semantic interference in speech error production in a randomized continuous naming task: Evidence from aphasia.

Naming pictures from the same semantic category hinders subsequent naming from that category (i.e., semantic interference), irrespective of the number of intervening different-category exemplars named. Persistent semantic interference has been well documented in chronometric studies, and has been attributed to experience-driven adjustments in the strength of connections between semantic and lexical representations. However, whether parallel effects exist in speech error data remains unclear. In the current study, people with aphasia, a speaker population prone to naming errors, provided naming responses to a large picture corpus presented in random order that comprised multiple exemplars drawn from several different categories. We found persistent semantic interference in the task in semantic error rates specifically, and that semantic similarity between consecutive related exemplars modulated the effect. The results provide further evidence for the presumed lexical-semantic locus and mechanism(s) underlying semantic interference.