![]() The backward DS task may be an effective screening measure for dementia signs in the elderly and may be used to identify patients requiring further assessments such as the RST to evaluate dementia severity based on WM performance.īackward digit span dementia forward digit span short-term memory working memory. Our findings indicate that the backward DS task may detect WM decline in dementia, but the RST is more suitable for assessing dementia severity. Both types of DS tasks correlated with RST, only the RST distinguished dementia severity based on CDR. DS task scores were significantly correlated with RST scores. Clinical Dementia Rating scale (CDR) was used to evaluate dementia severity. Twenty-six and 20 elderly individuals for the DS task and RST, respectively, were included as controls. The Memory for Digit Span assessment, a component of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Revised (WISC-R), is a measure of short-term memory for children aged seven and over (Wechsler 1974). Forward/backward DS tasks and RST were performed in 15 elderly Japanese individuals with dementia. DIGIT SPAN: DIGITS BACKWARD RAW SCORE DIGITZyyyy. We investigated the ability of forward/backward DS tasks to discriminate dementia severity. This study aimed to compare the performance of individuals with dementia in forward and backward DS tasks to that in RST. DS task and RST have not been directly compared in assessing dementia. The backward digit span (DS) task and reading span test (RST) are measures of WM. These were all in one package.Dementia is characterized by the deterioration of working memory (WM). Whether it is the inspiration or the attention that actually led to my satisfactory performance is not clear since my teachers also taught me how to add, subtract, multiply, divide, read and write. I had teachers who inspired me to work harder. Going back to my grade school years, I did have teachers who had always demanded my attention. Thus, what is measured in the above study may just be the outcomes from spending some useful time in schools and that is why there is a correlation. After all, schools are supposed to help a child grow and develop. Oftentimes, too much emphasis is placed on what a child has. It is possible that reading activities enhance a child's cognitive skills. It is possible that a child does improve his or her working memory by working on math activities inside school. Clearly, these skills may be caught or learned through the elementary years. Both attention and working memory grow with a child. If I would hazard a guess, the relationship between academic tasks and cognitive abilities might even be bidirectional. What is truly inside the relationship between working memory, attention, and academic achievement is still unknown. On the other hand, the backward digit span task (the activity described at the beginning of this post) correlates very well with performance in both reading and math. Being able to recall details of a story, on the other hand, does relate to better performance in reading comprehension, but does not correlate with growth in math competency. One example is the observation that a child's ability to retell a story predicts initial math performance but not reading comprehension. Furthermore, there are specific relationships found in the study that appear quite puzzling. One must keep in mind that the above study like most research in education is a mere observation of a correlation and not necessarily causation. What is noteworthy in the above study is that the relationship apparently fades in the later years. Our study indicates that phonological short-term. What is clear is that both working memory and attention strongly correlate with academic achievement in the early elementary years as illustrated by a recent study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology:Ībove copied from the Journal of Educational Psychology Fifty students were also tested with a backward digit span test, measuring their working memory capacity. Whether these interventions are effective or not still remains to be adequately answered by well-controlled or well-designed experimentation. An example is shown below from LearningRx: Seeing that both working memory and attention appear to be crucial in the early years, there are various interventions out there advertised to help children develop both working memory and attention. A lack of attention or inattention has been strongly associated with poor performance in both mathematics and reading comprehension. Another characteristic is the ability to focus or concentrate. Working memory is one characteristic that is found to correlate strongly with academic performance in the early years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |