Release from proactive interference and its relation to executive functions: A developmental study on Turkish children
-
1
Cognitive Science Program, Graduate School of Informatics, Middle East Technical University, Türkiye
The working memory system increases remarkably during the childhood years (Gathercole, 1999). During childhood, the categorization ability of children also increases. We can observe both skills in the categorical free recall experiment. In this task, subjects listen to stimuli from different categories consecutively; unlike in normal free recall experiment. In free recall experiments “proactive interference” occurs, i.e., previously learned items proactively interfere with newly learned items. If, however, these stimuli are organized into different categories, release from proactive interference occurs between them, i.e., the items of the new category are remembered better again. There should be an interaction between release from proactive interference and the categorization skill because only if subjects do have categories can they show release from proactive interference. These memory phenomena are studied developmentally with Turkish school children (estimated sample size: 100; age range: 7-12 years) and young adults as a control group. Our hypothesis is that overall memory and categorization abilities increase with age. Furthermore, as a consequence of the increased categorization ability, there should be an increase in release from proactive interference. The characteristic qualitative pattern of build-up of proactive interference and subsequent release should be observed stronger in older children (as in adults) than in younger ones. In pilot studies with children we observed release from proactive interference. Apart from the main task, we devised a couple of additional measurements: a Word-Span test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and a Listening Span Test (for children) as well as a Reading Span Test (for adults). The Word-Span test measures the phonological memory span of the subjects. The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, the Listening Span Test, and the Reading Span Test are complex working memory tests which measure executive functions. All these tests are novel adaptations from existing tests for Turkish. These additional measures were added to investigate the relationship between the memory task and the phonological and executive functions of the working memory system.
References
1. Susan E. Gathercole (1999): Cognitive approaches to the development of short-term memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 410-419.
Conference:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Türkiye, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Memory & Learning
Citation:
Ünal
G and
Hohenberger
A
(2008). Release from proactive interference and its relation to executive functions: A developmental study on Turkish children.
Conference Abstract:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.325
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
15 Dec 2008;
Published Online:
15 Dec 2008.
*
Correspondence:
Gülten Ünal, Cognitive Science Program, Graduate School of Informatics, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Türkiye, gultenunal@gmail.com