Hacia un modelo de memoria y atención en interpretación simultánea

Con el presente artículo pretendemos sentar unas bases rigurosas para el diseño de un modelo cognitivo del proceso interpretativo, particularmente en el caso de la técnica de simultánea. Todo ello desde la perspectiva de la Psicología Cognitiva, concretamente en lo que se refiere a los procesos de memoria y atención. Se trata, pues, de un trabajo interdisciplinar aprovechando los resultados de los trabajos empíricos realizados a lo largo de los últimos años por psicólogos cognitivos. El potencial modelo debería ser doblemente aplicable. Por un lado al terreno de la formación de intérpretes con el fin de potenciar sus recursos de memoria y atención y de aprender a hacer un uso adecuado de ellos. Por otro también al trabajo de los profesionales de la interpretación, ya que les serviría para perfeccionar estrategias y habilidades que mejoren la calidad del producto en las múltiples variables comunicativas que condicionan la buena ejecución del mismo.This is attempt to set up solid basis for a future cognitive model of the interpreting process. In this case of the simultaneous technique. This work is accomplished under the perspective of the Cognitive Psychology, referring particularly to the processes of memory and attention. As an interdisciplinary task, results of empirical research carried out by cognitive psychologists during the last years are considered. This potential model should be doubly useful. On one hand to the training of future interpreters in order to, both, establish ways of improving their resources of memory and attention and learn how to use them more efficiently. On the other hand, to the practitioners work as they could brush up their skills and abilities to improve the quality of the product in the different communicative situations they have to deal with

Inhibitory effects of thought substitution in the think/no-think task: evidence from independent cues

When people try not to think about a certain item, they can accomplish this goal by using a thought substitution strategy and think about something else. Research conducted with the think/no-think (TNT) paradigm indicates that such strategy leads subsequently to forgetting the information participants tried not to think about. The present study pursued two goals. First, it investigated the mechanism of forgetting due to thought substitution, contrasting the hypothesis by which forgetting is due to blocking caused by substitutes with the hypothesis that forgetting is due to inhibition (using an independent cue methodology). Second, a boundary condition for forgetting due to thought substitution was examined by creating conditions under which the generation of appropriate substitutes would be impaired. In two experiments, participants completed a TNT task under thought substitution instructions in which either words or pseudo-words were used as original cues and memory was assessed with original and independent cues. The results revealed forgetting in both original and independent cue tests, supporting the inhibitory account of thought substitution, but only when cues were words, and not when they were non-words, pointing to the ineffectiveness of a thought substitution strategy when original cues lack semantic content

Grammatical Gender Inhibition in Bilinguals

Inhibitory control processes have been recently considered to be involved in interference resolution in bilinguals at the phonological level. In this study we explored if interference resolution is also carried out by this inhibitory mechanism at the grammatical level. Thirty-two bilinguals (Italian-L1 and Spanish-L2) participated. All of them completed two tasks. In the first one they had to name pictures in L2. We manipulated gender congruency between the two languages and the number of presentations of the pictures (1 and 5). Results showed a gender congruency effect with slower naming latencies in the incongruent condition. In the second task, participants were presented with the pictures practiced during the first naming task, but now they were asked to produce the L1 article. Results showed a grammatical gender congruency effect in L1 that increased for those words practiced five times in L2. Our conclusion is that an inhibitory mechanism was involved in the suppression of the native language during a picture naming task. Furthermore, this inhibitory process was also involved in suppressing grammatical gender when it was a source of competition between the languages

Selective voluntary forgetting in young and older adults

Aging is thought to involve a decline in executive-control capacities, although evidence regarding this claim is not always clear. Thus, although studies exist that suggest impoverished inhibitory memory control in older adults relative to younger adults, experiments with the list-method direct forgetting procedure have mostly failed to show adult-age differences in voluntary forgetting. In the present study we aimed to further study this issue by comparing young-old and young adults’ performance with the selective directed forgetting (SDF) procedure, which we assumed to involve higher demands of executive control than the standard nonselective procedure. Thus, on the basis of previous studies showing that a critical factor in finding adult-age differences in executive-control tasks is the overall challenge posed by the tasks, we predicted less SDF in older adults than in younger adults. Supporting our hypothesis, across three experiments we show evidence of older adults’ impoverished capacity to voluntarily forget episodic memories, although only when the task requires selective forgetting. Ours join other findings to suggest that sensitiveness to detect adult-age differences in cognitive control may strongly depend on the executive-control demands imposed by tasks

Genetic association study of dyslexia and ADHD candidate genes in a Spanish cohort: Implications of comorbid samples

Dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are two complex neuro-behaviorally disorders that co-occur more often than expected, so that reading disability has been linked to inattention symptoms. We examined 4 SNPs located on genes previously associated to dyslexia (KIAA0319, DCDC2, DYX1C1 and FOXP2) and 3 SNPs within genes related to ADHD (COMT, MAOA and DBH) in a cohort of Spanish children (N = 2078) that met the criteria of having one, both or none of these disorders (dyslexia and ADHD). We used a case-control approach comparing different groups of samples based on each individual diagnosis. In addition, we also performed a quantitative trait analysis with psychometric measures on the general population (N = 3357). The results indicated that the significance values for some markers change depending on the phenotypic groups compared and/or when considering pair-wise marker interactions. Furthermore, our quantitative trait study showed significant genetic associations with specific cognitive processes. These outcomes advocate the importance of establishing rigorous and homogeneous criteria for the diagnosis of cognitive disorders, as well as the relevance of considering cognitive endophenotypes.The work of MSM and MC was supported by CONSOLIDER-Ingenio- 2010_COEDUCA (CSD2008-00048). AMA, LB and AG-L’s work was supported by the Basque Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade (Etortek Program), Innovation Technology Department of Bizkaia and CIBERehd Network. MC was also supported by grants (PSI2015-67353-R), and Ayuda Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa SEV-2015-0490 from the MINECO, and by grant (ERC-2011-ADG-295362) from the European Research Council. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscrip

Inferential revision in narrative texts:an ERP study

We evaluated the process of inferential revision during text comprehension in adults. Participants with high or low working memory read short texts, in which the introduction supported two plausible concepts (e.g., ‘guitar/violin’), although one was more probable (‘guitar’). There were three possible continuations: a neutral sentence, which did not refer back to either concept; a no revise sentence, which referred to a general property consistent with either concept (e.g., ‘…beautiful curved body’); and a revise sentence, which referred to a property that was consistent with only the less likely concept (e.g., ‘…matching bow’). Readers took longer to read the sentence in the revise condition, indicating that they were able to evaluate their comprehension and detect a mismatch. In a final sentence, a target noun referred to the alternative concept supported in the revise condition (e.g., ‘violin’). ERPs indicated that both working memory groups were able to evaluate their comprehension of the text (P3a), but only high working memory readers were able to revise their initial incorrect interpretation (P3b) and integrate the new information (N400) when reading the revise sentence. Low working memory readers had difficulties inhibiting the no longer relevant interpretation and thus failed to revise their situation model, and they experienced problems integrating semantically related information into an accurate memory representation

The relative role of executive control and personality traits in grit

Although grit is predictive of wellbeing, educational achievement, and success in life, it has been conceptualized as largely distinct from cognitive ability. The present study investigated the link between grit and executive functions since regulation abilities might underlie the expression of grit. A hundred thirty-four people were administered personality questionnaires (grit, impulsiveness, and mindfulness) and four experimental tasks tapping into Miyake’s and Braver’s models of executive functioning (including measures of flexibility, inhibition, working memory, and control mode dimensions). Multivariate analyses showed that two composite scores (trait and executive functioning) were reliably predictive of grit, although it was the trait composite (characterized by low impulsivity and high mindfulness) that explained more variance. Importantly, gritty participants did not demonstrate enhanced executive functioning. Instead, they exhibited a different pattern of performance that might be reflecting a cautious profile of control, characterized by paying attention to all available information, less reliance on previous contextual cues but sensitive to conflicting information of the current context. These findings converge with Duckworth’s idea that high grit people do not necessarily have a greater cognitive capacity. Rather, they use it in a different way.Spanish GovernmentAndalusian Government (Fondos FEDER) ES-2016-078667 PSI2015-65502-C2-1-P A.CTS.111.UGR18 PGC2018-093786-B-I00 PSI201565502-C2-2-

Cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex cancels out the cost of selective retrieval on subsequent analogical reasoning

Analogical reasoning involves mapping the relation between two concepts within a specific field into a new domain to selectively retrieve a possible solution. Neuroimaging studies have shown that both selective retrieval and reasoning by analogy are related to activity in prefrontal regions such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). In the present study, we investigate the role of the right DLPFC in modulating memory accessibility and its impact on analogical reasoning by using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Participants performed a four-term reasoning task after performing repeated selective retrieval of previously presented items, some of which could be used as solutions in the analogical test. During selective retrieval, half of the participants received cathodal tDCS over the right DLPFC and the other half received sham stimulation. The results reveal that whereas the sham group showed the expected cost in performance that is associated with selective retrieval, the cathodal group did not exhibit such an impairment in reasoning. No general effects of tDCS on analogical performance were observed. Altogether, our results support the involvement of the right DLPFC as a core component of a control network that selectively contributes to the retrieval component of analogical reasoning, but with little role in mapping relations between different domains.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness grants FPU014/07066 to TMV, PSI2015-65502-C2-1-P and PGC2018-093786-B-I00 to TB, and PSI2015-65502-C2-2-P to CJGA