Aging and posture in the memory of manipulable objects

Thirty healthy elderly participants (mean age = 77.3) learned the names of manipulable and nonmanipulable objects while adopting a control posture (hands in front of them) or an interfering posture (holding their hands behind their back). Results on a recall task showed a postural interference (PI) effect, with the interfering posture reducing the memory of manipulable objects, but not of nonmanipulable ones. The effect was similar to the Postural Interference effect previously observed in young adults, although with a lower performance. These results call into question the embodied theory hypothesis that the deterioration of memory in aging is related to the decline of the sensorimotor system

Route planning with transportation network maps: an eye-tracking study.

Planning routes using transportation network maps is a common task that has received little attention in the literature. Here, we present a novel eye-tracking paradigm to investigate psychological processes and mechanisms involved in such a route planning. In the experiment, participants were first presented with an origin and destination pair before we presented them with fictitious public transportation maps. Their task was to find the connecting route that required the minimum number of transfers. Based on participants' gaze behaviour, each trial was split into two phases: (1) the search for origin and destination phase, i.e., the initial phase of the trial until participants gazed at both origin and destination at least once and (2) the route planning and selection phase. Comparisons of other eye-tracking measures between these phases and the time to complete them, which depended on the complexity of the planning task, suggest that these two phases are indeed distinct and supported by different cognitive processes. For example, participants spent more time attending the centre of the map during the initial search phase, before directing their attention to connecting stations, where transitions between lines were possible. Our results provide novel insights into the psychological processes involved in route planning from maps. The findings are discussed in relation to the current theories of route planning

Illustrations et modèles mentaux dans la compréhension de textes

Summary: Illustrations and mental models in text comprehension. We know that graphics in texts can be effective for learning, but we do not have much knowledge about how text comprehension interacts with graphics comprehension. Experiments have extensively investigated the effectiveness of pictures in promoting memory for factual information in texts. Cognitive psychologists have attempted to characterize the mental representation constructed during text comprehension. It is now generally agreed that understanding a text requires the construction ofa referential representation of the meaning of the text : a situational model or a mental model. The purpose of this paper is to show that mental model theory can provide an account for the beneficiai effect of illustrations in text comprehension. We first present a short survey of the works focusing on the role illustrations have on text memory and on text comprehension, and the mental model theory of text comprehension is presented. A survey of a series of experiments which show that understanding a text describing spatial environments leads to the construction of a spatial mental model are then presented. Finally, we present some recent works that show that pictures facilitate the construction of a mental model, even in domains of discourse that are not exclusively spatial. Key words : text comprehension, illustrations, mental models.Résumé Le rôle bénéfique des illustrations dans la mémorisation et la compréhension de textes est généralement reconnu, mais il existe peu d'efforts de mise en relation du rôle bénéfique des illustrations avec les théories actuelles de la compréhension de textes. Un bilan des études classiques sur le rôle des illustrations dans le traitement de textes est présenté, puis les principales caractéristiques de la théorie des modèles mentaux de Johnson-Laird sont soulignées. Après avoir présenté des recherches qui montrent que la compréhension de textes décrivant des environnements spatiaux conduit à la construction d'un modèle mental spatial, nous présentons des travaux récents mettant en évidence l'effet bénéfique des illustrations dans la construction de modèles mentaux non spatiaux. Mots-clés : compréhension de textes, illustrations, modèles mentaux.Gyselinck V. Illustrations et modèles mentaux dans la compréhension de textes. In: L'année psychologique. 1996 vol. 96, n°3. pp. 495-516

The Integration of Realistic Episodic Memories Relies on Different Working Memory Processes: Evidence from Virtual Navigation

Memory is one of the most important cognitive functions in a person's life as it is essential for recalling personal memories and performing many everyday tasks. Although a huge number of studies have been conducted in the field, only a few of them investigated memory in realistic situations, due to methodological issues. The various tools that have been developed using virtual environments (VEs) have gained popularity in cognitive psychology and neuropsychology because they enable to create naturalistic and controlled situations, and are thus particularly adapted to the study of episodic memory (EM), for which an ecological evaluation is of prime importance. EM is the conscious recollection of personal events combined with their phenomenological and spatiotemporal encoding contexts. Using an original paradigm in a VE, the objective of the present study was to characterize the construction of episodic memories. While the concept of working memory has become central in the understanding of a wide range of cognitive functions, its role in the integration of episodic memories has seldom been assessed in an ecological context. This experiment aimed at filling this gap by studying how EM is affected by concurrent tasks requiring working memory resources in a realistic situation. Participants navigated in a virtual town and had to memorize as many elements in their spatiotemporal context as they could. During learning, participants had either to perform a concurrent task meant to prevent maintenance through the phonological loop, or a task aimed at preventing maintenance through the visuospatial sketchpad, or no concurrent task. EM was assessed in a recall test performed after learning through various scores measuring the what, where and when of the memories. Results showed that, compared to the control condition with no concurrent task, the prevention of maintenance through the phonological loop had a deleterious impact only on the encoding of central elements. By contrast, the prevention of visuo-spatial maintenance interfered both with the encoding of the temporal context and with the binding. These results suggest that the integration of realistic episodic memories relies on different working memory processes that depend on the nature of the traces

The development of children’s spatial representations: Evidence from map-drawing and visual recognition based on a virtual itinerary

International audienc

The role of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory in the encoding of virtual routes by children and adults

This study aims to understand the role of verbal and visual-spatial components of working memory in children's encoding of virtual routes. Children aged 8 and 10 years and adults memorised virtual routes in three conditions involving either a secondary task (visuo-spatial or verbal) or no such task (control). The learning phase was followed by four tasks evaluating their spatial representation: producing a description of the route, verbally and visually recognising landmarks, and choosing directions. Results first supported an increase with age in the quantity and quality of landmarks and directions mentioned and recognised in both verbal and visuo-spatial tasks. Second, both concurrent tasks were detrimental to spatial memory although this was more striking for the visuo-spatial task. Moreover, interference effects depended on age and on the format used for retrieval. Overall, our results provide a novel contribution to our understanding of the development of spatial models

Children’s spatial representations of virtual itineraries: Cognitive and linguistic dimensions

International audienc

Historic note on Henri Pieron's election at the college de France (1923)

The College de France was the first university-level institution to actually recognize psychology as an academic subject (Ribot in 1888 and Janet in 1902). We present here a historical note on the introduction of Henri Piéron at the Collège de France in 1923. The objective of this paper is to describe, on the basis of available historical documents, the events that led to the creation of the chair of 'Physiology of Sensation'. We underline the important roles played by Pierre Janet and Jean Nageotte in this creationand we describe the events that took place at the Collège de France.Le Collège de France fut la première institution de l'enseignement supérieur à reconnaître officiellement la psychologie (Ribot en 1888 et Janet en 1902). Nous présentons ici une note historique sur l'introduction en 1923 de Henri Piéron au Collège de France. L'objectif de cet article est de décrire, sur la base des documents historiques disponibles, les éÎnements qui ont conduit à la création de la chaire de « Physiologie des sensations ». Nous avons souligné le rôle important de Pierre Janet et Jean Nageotte dans cette création et nous avons présenté en résumé les éÎnements qui se sont déroulés au Collège de France

Compréhension d'informations multimodales : influence du mode de présentation et de la mémoire de travail

Multimedia learning requires learners to understand and to relate multimodal information. From a cognitive point of view, the integration of information relies on complex psychological processes which are influenced by the way information is presented as well as by learners’ cognitive capacities. Comprehension and memory theories as well as multimedia learning models serve as a framework to study the influence of multimedia presentation on the comprehension of multimodal information. The involvement of specific memories during this activity is also studied with a dual-task paradigm. An experiment shows that the mode of presentation of verbal information (visual vs auditory) does not affect the comprehension. However, it indicates that a combined presentation of auditory verbal and visual iconic information would facilitate the integration of multimodal information. Results failed to show that spatial memory is specifically involved, but suggest that the integration of multimedia information would involve the phonological memory. The issue of the involvement of some general memory capacities during information integration is raised.L'apprentissage multimédia nécessite que les apprenants comprennent et mettent en relation des informations multimodales. D'un point de vue cognitif, l'intégration de ces informations repose sur des processus psychologiques complexes qui sont influencés par la façon dont les informations sont présentées et par les capacités cognitives des apprenants. Nous adoptons les considérations théoriques de la compréhension, de la mémoire de travail et de l'apprentissage multimédia pour étudier l'influence du mode de présentation multimédia sur la compréhension des informations multimodales. Nous étudions également la mobilisation de mémoires spécifiques lors de cette activité. Bien que les résultats de l'expérience montrent que la manipulation du mode de présentation des informations verbales (visuel vs auditif) n'affecte globalement pas leur compréhension, ils indiquent toutefois que la combinaison d'informations verbales présentées auditivement et d'informations iconiques présentées visuellement facilite l'intégration d'informations multimodales. Les résultats obtenus en utilisant un paradigme de double-tâche échouent à montrer que cette activité mobilise spécifiquement la mémoire spatiale, mais montrent qu'elle mobilise un registre mnésique verbal. La question du recours à des capacités mnésiques générales au cours de l'intégration d'informations multimédia est soulevée

How to change your memory of an object with a posture and a verb

According to grounded cognition, the format of representation of knowledge is sensorimotor. This means that long-term memory shares processing resources with the sensorimotor system. The main objective of this work is to provide new evidence in favor of two claims from the embodied cognition framework: 1) memory is grounded on the sensory motor system, that is, memory shares processing resources with the sensorimotor system, and 2) memory serves at least in part to support action. For this purpose, the present experiment aimed to show that the action context modulates the motor simulation and, consequently, the memory of manipulable objects. Participants were presented with short phrases comprising the name of a manipulable object and an action verb ('To take a cup') or an attentional verb ('To see a cup'). During this phase, they had to put their hands in front of them in the control condition, whereas they had to keep them behind their back in the interfering condition. A cued recall test followed after a short distractive letter-matching task, with the verbs serving as cues. Results showed that memory of the words denoting manipulable objects was impaired by the interfering posture when associated with an action verb, but not when associated with an attentional verb. This suggests that a context which does not favor action interferes with motor simulation, and thus decreases the memory of manipulable objects. These results provide strong evidence for a grounded account of memory and language