Papers by Laura Visu-Petra
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2014
Journal of Individual Differences, 2012
International Journal of Psychology, 2012
The relationship between individual differences in anxiety and executive functioning was investig... more The relationship between individual differences in anxiety and executive functioning was investigated in a sample of young adults. Verbal and spatial working memory, resistance to interference, negative priming, and task-switching measures were used to assess three executive functioning dimensions: updating, inhibition, and shifting. An additional index of basic psychomotor speed was added to this cognitive battery. According to the multidimensional interaction model of anxiety proposed by Endler (1997), state (cognitive–worry and autonomic–emotional) and trait (related to social evaluation, physical danger, ambiguous situations, and daily routines) anxiety were assessed in this evaluation context. Results indicated that shifting and inhibition (negative priming) efficiency were negatively related to state (cognitive–worry) and trait (related to social evaluation) anxiety. However, there was a relative advantage of subjects higher in social evaluation apprehensions in their memory updating performance. The results are consistent with several predictions of the attentional control theory (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007), and are relevant for research regarding the interaction of situational, personality, and cognitive functioning dimensions.La relation entre les différences individuelles dans l’anxiété et le fonctionnement exécutif est examinée auprès d’un échantillon de jeunes adultes. La mémoire de travail verbale et spatiale, la résistance à l’interférence, l’amorçage négatif et des mesures de commutation de tâches sont utilisés pour évaluer trois dimensions du fonctionnement exécutif : la mise à jour, l’inhibition et la flexibilité mentale. Un indice supplémentaire de la vitesse psychomotrice de base est ajouté à cette batterie de tests cognitifs. L’anxiété est évaluée selon le Modèle d’Interaction Multidimensionnel de l’anxiété proposé par Endler (1997). Ce modèle comprend l’état d’anxiété (l’inquiétude cognitive et les éléments automatico-émotifs) et le trait d’anxiété (l’évaluation sociale, le danger physique, les routines ambiguës et quotidiennes). Les résultats indiquent que l’efficacité de la flexibilité mentale et de l’inhibition (l’amorçage négatif) est reliée négativement à l’état d’anxiété (l’inquiétude cognitive) et au trait d’anxiété (l’évaluation sociale). Cependant, les sujets ayant une plus forte crainte de l’évaluation sociale possèdent un avantage relatif dans la tâche de mise à jour de leur mémoire. Les résultats correspondent à plusieurs prédictions de la Théorie du Contrôle de l’Attention (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007). Ils sont aussi pertinents pour la recherche portant sur l’interaction entre les facteurs situationnels, de personnalité et les dimensions du fonctionnement cognitif.La relación entre las diferencias individuales en la ansiedad y las funciones ejecutivas se investigó en una muestra de jóvenes adultos. Se utilizaron medidas de memoria de trabajo verbal y espacial, de resistencia a la interferencia, de priming negativo y de cambio de una tarea a otra para evaluar las tres dimensiones del funcionamiento ejecutivo: actualización, inhibición y cambio. Se añadió un índice adicional de velocidad psicomotriz básica a esta batería cognitiva. De acuerdo al Modelo de Interacción Multidimensional de la ansiedad propuesto por Endler (1997), se examinó la ansiedad-estado (preocupación cognitiva y emocional-autonómica) y ansiedad-rasgo (relacionada con la evaluación social, el peligro físico, las rutinas diarias y la ambigüedad) en este contexto de evaluación. Los resultados indicaron que la eficiencia del cambio y la inhibición (priming negativo) se relaciona negativamente con la ansiedad-estado (preocupación cognitiva) y la ansiedad-rasgo (relacionada con la evaluación social). Sin embargo, hubo una ventaja relativa en el desempeño de la memoria de actualización para los participantes que tenían una mayor aprehensión en relación a la evaluación social. Los resultados son consistentes con varias de las predicciones de la Teoría del Control Atencional (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos y Calvo, 2007) y son relevantes para la investigación de la interacción entre las dimensiones de funcionamiento situacional, cognitivo y de personalidad.
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 2007
Several links between aspects of executive functioning and the development of social competence h... more Several links between aspects of executive functioning and the development of social competence have been established. The present study investigates the relation between executive inhibitory control and cooperative/non-cooperative behavior, in an ecological setting, and from a longitudinal perspective. Elementary school children (n=195) of three age groups (7, 9, 11 years, initially) were measured at two consecutive time points, at a one-year interval, with tasks tapping executive inhibitory control (the Stroop test), and social competence (a collaborative puzzle solving task). Executive inhibition was identified as the most influential stable predictor only in the case of non-cooperative behavior and presented strong concurrent relations with both cooperative and non-cooperative behavior at follow-up, even when controlling for previous level of the same behavior. The findings imply the need to consider the important role of executive inhibitory processes in multifactorial models of social competence development and in the refinement of present interventions.
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 2007
Background Several studies have identified better visual-spatial than verbal memory skills in ch... more Background Several studies have identified better visual-spatial than verbal memory skills in children with Down's syndrome (DS); however, research in both typical development and DS points to a relative dissociation between visual and spatial memory processing, questioning the notion of a unitary visual-spatial memory construct. The insufficient and often contradictory results regarding the visual-spatial memory domain probably reflect the heterogeneity of memory tests employed by these studies and the different memory systems that they evaluate.Method We administered five visual-spatial memory tasks from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) to 25 children with DS and to 25 controls matched for mental age (MA) and basic psychomotor speed and accuracy. The memory tasks measure spatial span, visual and spatial recognition, paired associates learning and self-ordered search abilities.Results The results confirm the relative sparing of the spatial short-term memory (STM) capacity in children with DS; however, as memory load increases, in recognition tasks, or when visual and spatial demands are combined, their performance is impaired compared with MA controls. The same impairment is generated by additional executive demands in the self-ordered search task, although search strategy is similar to the one presented by MA controls.Conclusions We did not find support for a visual vs. spatial dissociation in recognition memory. Performance impairment in the visual-spatial domain parallels the increase in working memory (WM) load or in the executive demands of the task. Possible neurobiological implications of the observed performance on the CANTAB tasks are also considered.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2009
In self-paced auditory memory span tasks, the microanalysis of response timing measures represent... more In self-paced auditory memory span tasks, the microanalysis of response timing measures represents a developmentally sensitive measure, providing insights into the development of distinct processing rates during recall performance. The current study first examined the effects of age and trait anxiety on span accuracy (effectiveness) and response timing (efficiency) measures from word and digit span performance in a preschool sample (N = 76, mean age = 57 months, SD = 11). Children were reassessed 8 months later using the same two tasks plus a test of nonword memory span and a measure of articulation rate. The results at the second time point (T2) confirmed the effects of age on both processing effectiveness and efficiency. Trait anxiety was an additional negative predictor of span effectiveness (especially for digit span) and efficiency (in the case of word and nonword span). The findings are discussed in the context of factors contributing to early short-term memory development and attentional control theory.
ABSTRACT The developmental progression in short-term memory (STM) is well-documented throughout c... more ABSTRACT The developmental progression in short-term memory (STM) is well-documented throughout childhood. Most research has emphasized the verbal memory domain, and less is known about the visual-spatial systematic improvement. We conducted a cross-sectional study assessing 4 age groups of preschool and school-aged children (N= 223): Age Group 1 (mean age= 50 months), Age Group 2 (mean age= 71 months), Age Group 3 (mean age= 87 months) and Age Group 4 (mean age= 96 months).
ABSTRACT EF represents an umbrella-type concept for the complex set of cognitive processes that u... more ABSTRACT EF represents an umbrella-type concept for the complex set of cognitive processes that underlies the coordination of goal-directed responses to novel or complex situations. Developmental studies using standard neuropsychological tasks have shown that EF has a protracted developmental course, beginning in early childhood and continuing into adolescence.
Abstract The relationship between childhood anxiety and neurocognitive functioning in literature ... more Abstract The relationship between childhood anxiety and neurocognitive functioning in literature is mainly known at an associative level: a high level of anxiety during childhood is related to poor academic achievements. Therefore, at the moment, we have insufficient data about the mechanisms underlying this relationship.
The relationship between trait anxiety and memory functioning in young children was investigated.... more The relationship between trait anxiety and memory functioning in young children was investigated. Two studies were conducted, using tasks tapping verbal and visual-spatial short-term memory (Study 1) and working memory (Study 2) in preschoolers. On the verbal storage tasks, there was a detrimental effect of anxiety on processing efficiency (duration of preparatory intervals) on Word Span. Performance effectiveness (memory span) did not differ between high-anxious and low-anxious children. In the second study, evaluating memory updating in a dual-task context, high-anxious children performed worse than low-anxious children on two verbal working memory tasks. Therefore, when simple verbal storage is required, high-anxious children show only efficiency deficits; when executive demands are higher (i.e., verbal updating) both accuracy and efficiency are impaired. However, on the visual-spatial storage and updating measures, performance did not differ between the two anxiety groups. The results are discussed in the context of the attentional control theory (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007).
In self-paced auditory memory span tasks, the microanalysis of response timing measures represent... more In self-paced auditory memory span tasks, the microanalysis of response timing measures represents a developmentally sensitive measure, providing insights into the development of distinct processing rates during recall performance. The current study first examined the effects of age and trait anxiety on span accuracy (effectiveness) and response timing (efficiency) measures from word and digit span performance in a preschool sample (N = 76, mean age = 57 months, SD = 11). Children were reassessed 8 months later using the same two tasks plus a test of nonword memory span and a measure of articulation rate. The results at the second time point (T2) confirmed the effects of age on both processing effectiveness and efficiency. Trait anxiety was an additional negative predictor of span effectiveness (especially for digit span) and efficiency (in the case of word and nonword span). The findings are discussed in the context of factors contributing to early short-term memory development and attentional control theory.
Keywords: Short-term memory span; Preschoolers; Response timing; Trait anxiety; Attentional control theory
The present study investigated the relationship between anxiety and memory updating in a sample o... more The present study investigated the relationship between anxiety and memory updating in a sample of high- and low-trait-anxious preschoolers (HA and LA, respectively). Updating of spatial locations was assessed with the original (non-emotional) Odd-One-Out task (Alloway, 2007), and with a new emotional version. Simple detection and memory updating of visual information was tested using a modified version of an adult affective memory task (Perlstein, Elbert, & Stenger, 2002). The emotional stimuli in both tasks consisted of angry, happy and neutral facial expressions. Results indicated that in the spatial task, accuracy was related to children's age and IQ, but no anxiety-related differences were found. In the visual-search task, all children were faster in the detecting versus updating condition, and slower in detecting neutral, compared to emotional faces. The two anxiety groups had similar levels of accuracy, but HA children had overall slower reaction times. Compared to LA children, HA children were slower and less accurate in detecting and updating happy faces, but more accurate in responses to angry faces. Looking at within-group differences according to stimulus valence, LA children were less accurate in response to angry (relative to happy and neutral) faces, while HA children were less accurate in response to happy (relative to neutral) facial expressions. The results are placed in a developmental context and discussed within the framework of attentional control theory (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007).
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Papers by Laura Visu-Petra
Keywords: Short-term memory span; Preschoolers; Response timing; Trait anxiety; Attentional control theory
Keywords: Short-term memory span; Preschoolers; Response timing; Trait anxiety; Attentional control theory