• Anxiety and mood
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.32-37
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• 2022

Objective : Impaired working memory has been known to play an important role in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with growing evidence. Delayed matching-to-sample task (DMST) is a working memory task which have an advantage in analyzing several different working memory processes in one task. However, most of the studies have failed to reveal the working memory impairment with the DMST. The aim of this study was to identify whether working memory deficit in OCD can be evaluated with the DMST. Methods : The participants included 20 OCD patients and 20 healthy volunteers. Working memory was evaluated with the DMST with two different working memory loads. Accuracy of response and mean response time were measured. Results : OCD patients showed a significantly longer reaction time and lower accuracy in DMST compared to healthy controls in the task with high working memory loads. Moreover, the difference in accuracy showed interaction with the working memory load. Conclusion : The present results indicate that working memory deficit in patients with OCD can be evaluated with the DMST. The findings also suggest that previous negative behavioral results using the DMST were from low working memory load of the task.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.567-571
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• 2009

This study was conducted in order to investigate the role of working memory in word recognition. As a preliminary step in tackling this topic, word frequency and working memory load were manipulated in a naming task. The results showed that word frequency is significantly involved with the working memory load. The effects of working memory load were greater in low-frequency word processing than in high-frequency word processing. These results indicat that working memory is involved more in the processing of low-frequency words. The implications for the teaching of children at the early reading acquisition stage are discussed in this paper.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.11-15
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• 2010

Long-term working memory (LTWM) is a subdivision concept of working memory and indicates the enhancement of performance in a working memory task. LTWM has been shown in humans who have been engaged in a specific task requiring working memory over a long time. However, there is very little understanding of the exact mechanism of LTWM because of limitations of experimental methods in human studies. We have modified the standard T-maze task, which is used to test working memory in mice, to demonstrate LTWM in an animal model. We observed an enhancement of performance by repeated experience with the same working memory load in mice, which can be regarded as an LTWM. This effect seems to depend on the condition wherein a delay was given. This task may be a good experimental protocol to assess LTWM in animal studies.

• Korean Journal of Schizophrenia Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.66-72
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• 2012

Objectives : The aim of this study was to investigate whether verbal and spatial working memory functions were impaired not only in patients with schizophrenia but also in people at ultra-high risk for first-episode psychosis. Methods : Twenty-five patients (M 13, F 12) with schizophrenia (SPR), 21 people at ultra-high risk for psychosis (UHR)(M 10, F 11) and 19 normal controls (NC)(M 10, F 9) were recruited. The working memory was assessed by using the verbal and spatial n-back test. The working memory load increased incrementally from the 0-back to the 3-back condition. Results : SPR performed significantly lower than NC and UHR in terms of hit rates of verbal and spatial n-back test. UHR subjects conducted significantly lower than NC and higher in trend-level than SPR in terms of hit rates of verbal and spatial n-back test. These differences were derived from the high working memory load (2-back and 3-back), not from the low working memory load (0-back and 1-back). There was no significant difference between the verbal and spatial n-back test across the three groups. Conclusion : These findings suggest that verbal and spatial working memory dysfunction may be general rather than differential in terms of stimuli modality, and this working memory deficit may be an important trait factor in schizophrenia.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.359-386
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• 2010

In order to evaluate the domain-specific model and process-specific model of spatial and nonspatial working memory (WM), this study manipulated the memory load of the delayed response task and examined how the neural correlates of memory load effect was influenced by the stimulus domain (face and location) at the maintenance stage of WM using an event-related fMRI experiment. One or three face stimuli were presented as target stimuli and participants were asked to maintain the face itself (face WM) or the location of face stimuli (spatial WM). The results of recognition judgment accuracy showed no difference between face WM and spatial WM, and showed equivalent memory load effects of both WM. As a result of brian image analysis, memory load effect at maintenance stage showed that inferior, middle, and superior PFC were recruited by both face WM and spatial WM, and showed that VLPFC was the commonly activated area by both WM, supporting functional specialization of PFC by process components of WM. This study provides evidence for process-specific model in which maintenance of WM is associated with VLPFC.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.145-166
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate why advance organizers (AO) are effective in promoting comprehension and mental model formation in terms of cognitive load. Two experimental groups: a concept-map AO group and a key-word AO group and one control group were used. This study considered cognitive load in view of Baddeley's working memory model: central executive (CE), phonological loop (PL), and visuo-spatial sketch pad (VSSP). The present experiment directly examined cognitive load using dual task methodology. The results were as follows: central executive (CE) suppression task achievement for the concept map AO group was higher than the key word AO group and control group. Comprehension and mental model construction for the concept map AO group were higher than the other groups. These results indicated that the superiority of concept map AO owing to CE load decrement occurred with comprehension and mental model construction in learning. Thus, the available resources produced by CE load reduction may have been invested for comprehension and mental model construction of learning contents.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.11-22
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• 2022

As social beings, we need to understand others' actions as quickly and accurately as possible. Action understanding can occur at many levels. We sometimes grasp others' intentions unintentionally. Other times, however, we have to expend effort to draw inferences about their goals. In the context of joint action, the joint Simon effect demonstrates that actors are influenced by the unintended representation of a co-actor's actions. This effect has been described as quasi-automatic, but it is unclear if the effect is automatic enough to be immune to cognitive load. Thus, we asked participants to complete a joint Simon task with or without a concurrent working memory task. One group of participants maintained a single digit in their mind during working memory load blocks (low-load group), while the other group maintained five digits (high-load group). As a result, the low-load group showed a joint Simon effect both during no-load and low-load blocks. In contrast, the high-load group had no joint Simon effect during either no-load or high-load blocks. These results suggest that the joint Simon effect is not an automatic phenomenon given that it requires cognitive resources. Actors in a joint task may represent a co-actor's actions in their task set, but only when cognitive resources are available.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.369-396
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• 2008

The purpose of this article is to investigate the effect of visual working memory, the types and contents of graphic annotations on English learning. The participants of the experiments were 5th and 6th graders. The result showed that animation was effective only in the word test for children with large visual working memory, whereas text-only-annotation yielded better performance in the comprehension test in Experiment 1. The effect of relevance of animations was tested in Experiment 2. Context-relevant-animations yielded better comprehension than the animations denoting the typical meaning, whereas the opposite pattern was reported in the word test. The result of the two experiments was interpreted in terms of cognitive load theory and the generative theory of multimedia learning.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.39-59
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• 2018

To elucidate the effect of working memory (WM) load on negative facial emotion processing, we examined ERP components (P1 and N170) elicited by fearful and neutral expressions each of which was presented during 0-back (low-WM load) or 2-back (high-WM load) tasks. During N-back tasks, visual objects were presented one by one as targets and each of facial expressions was presented as a passively observed stimulus during intervals between targets. Behavioral results showed more accurate and fast responses at low-WM load condition compared to high-WM load condition. Analysis of mean amplitudes of P1 on the occipital region showed significant WM load effect (high-WM load > low-WM load) but showed nonsignificant facial emotion effect. Analysis of mean amplitudes of N170 on the posterior occipito-temporal region showed significant overall facial emotion effect (fearful > neutral), but, in detail, significant facial emotion effect was observed only at low-WM load condition on the left hemisphere, but was observed at high-WM load condition as well as low-WM load condition on the right hemisphere. To summarize, facial emotion effect observed by N170 amplitudes was modulated by WM load only on the left hemisphere. These results show that early emotional processing of negative facial expression could be eliminated or reduced by high load of WM on the left hemisphere, but could not be eliminated by high load on the right hemisphere, and suggest right hemispheric lateralization of negative facial emotion processing.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.27-33
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to review the definition of cognitive load (CL), the relationship between CL and instructional design, and to provide a viewpoint of CL in curriculum and instructional design in medical education. Cognitive load theory (CLT) makes use of three hypotheses about the structure of human memory: working memory (WM) is limited in terms of the amount of information it can hold, in contrast with WM, long term memory is assumed to have no limits and organizes information as schemata. CL indicates the mental load on the limitation of WM. CLT has been used to design instructional interventions that help to ease the learning process. Extraneous CL is related to irrelevant instructional interventions, while intrinsic CL is the complexity of the information itself. Germane CL is the cognitive process for acquiring schema formation. It is a necessary CL to achieve deeper comprehension and solve problems. The range of medical education includes complex, multifaceted and knowledge-rich domains with clinical skills and attitudes. Therefore, CLT may be used to guide instructional design in medical education in terms of decreasing extraneous CL, adjusting intrinsic CL and enhancing the germane CL.