Memory Abilities in Children with Williams Syndrome

Vicari, Stefano; Brizzolara, Daniela; Carlesimo, Giovanni Augusto; Pezzini, G.; Volterra, Virginia

doi:10.1016/s0010-9452(96)80007-4

Cited by 112 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…However, this pattern was not replicated in long-term memory, where verbal and spatial memory were both impaired. On the basis of these findings, Vicari et al (1996a) argue for a further dissociation in WS memory, between normally developing verbal short-term memory and deficient long-term memory.Other studies have considered possible patterns of strength and weakness in individuals with Williams syndrome within verbal short-term memory itself. Barisinikov et al (1996) reported the single case study of CS, a patient with WS.…”

mentioning

confidence: 87%

“…Jarrold et al (1999) extended these findings by demonstrating that this pattern holds even when differences in verbal and non-verbal skills are taken into account. Vicari et al (1996a) further examined the dissociation between verbal and visuo-spatial memory by considering both short-and long-term memory processing. As in previous studies, they found that when compared to typically developing controls, individuals with Williams syndrome had comparable verbal memory spans and significantly lower spatial memory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Love Is… AN ABSTRACT WORD: THE INFLUENCE OF LEXICAL SEMANTICS ON VERBAL SHORT-TERM MEMORY IN WILLIAMS SYNDROME

Laing

Grant²,

Thomas³

et al. 2005

Cortex

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Contact : lib-eprints@bbk.ac.uk Laing, E.; Grant, J.; Thomas, M.; Parmigiani, C.; Ewing, S.; KarmiloffSmith, A. (2005) Love is . . . an abstract word: the influence of phonological and semantic factors on verbal short-term memory in Williams syndrome -Cortex, 41(2), pp. 169-179 INTRODUCTIONWilliams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic disorder resulting from a micro deletion on one copy of chromosome 7q11.23 (Ewart et al., 1993;Frangiskakis et al., 1996;Tassabehji et al., 1996; for up-to-date review, see Donnai and KarmiloffSmith, 2002). It is characterised by specific physical anomalies including facial dysmorphology, and renal and cardiovascular anomalies. Abnormalities are also found in brain volume (Jernigan et al., 1993), brain structure (Galaburda et al., 1994) and brain biochemistry (Rae et al., 1998).Williams syndrome is typically characterised by an uneven cognitive profile: despite low IQs (predominantly in the 50-65 range), language and face-processing capacities have been shown to be relative strengths while more serious deficits are found in visuo-spatial cognition, number, problemsolving and planning (Arnold et al., 1985;Udwin and Dennis, 1995;Bellugi et al., 1990). The surprising linguistic fluency of individuals with WS led initially to claims that language in WS is 'selectively preserved' (Bellugi et al., 1988). However, more recent studies have suggested that the WS language system is not only delayed but follows an atypical developmental pathway that impacts on all facets of language Singer-Harris et al., 1997;Thomas and Karmiloff-Smith, 2003).The present paper focuses on one particular aspect of the WS cognitive profile, verbal shortterm memory. Verbal short-term memory has been considered a relative strength in WS and has been shown to be at the level of mental age (Udwin and Yule, 1990) or even higher than mental age (Mervis et al., 1999). In contrast, spatial short-term memory is severely impaired. Wang and Bellugi (1994) compared short-term memory in individuals with Williams syndrome and DS and found that while the WS group performed better than the DS group on a verbal short-term memory task, the Down syndrome group outperformed the WS group on a test of visual-spatial memory. Jarrold et al. (1999) extended these findings by demonstrating that this pattern holds even when differences in verbal and non-verbal skills are taken into account. Vicari et al. (1996a) further examined the dissociation between verbal and visuo-spatial memory by considering both short-and long-term memory processing. As in previous studies, they found that when compared to typically developing controls, individuals with Williams syndrome had comparable verbal memory spans and significantly lower spatial memory. However, this pattern was not replicated in long-term memory, where verbal and spatial memory were both impaired. On the basis of these findings, Vicari et al. (1996a) argue for a further dissociation in WS memory, between normally developing verbal short-term memory and deficient long-term memory.Other ...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

mentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Love Is… AN ABSTRACT WORD: THE INFLUENCE OF LEXICAL SEMANTICS ON VERBAL SHORT-TERM MEMORY IN WILLIAMS SYNDROME

Laing

Grant²,

Thomas³

et al. 2005

Cortex

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“…Furthermore, these tasks also require well developed abilities in phonological analysis, identification, segmentation and articulatory planning of the phonological information contained in the auditorily presented verbal information. Several studies have indeed shown a special proficiency in WS for STM tasks using verbal stimuli, which cannot be attributed to a more general preservation of STM processing as STM for visuo-spatial material is severely impaired (Wang and Bellugi, 1994;Barisnikov et al, 1996;Jarrold et al, 1999;Vicari et al, 1996a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Investigation of Verbal Short-term Memory and Phonological Processing in Four Children With Williams Syndrome

Majerus¹,

Barisnikov²,

Vuillemin³

et al. 2003

Neurocase

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Although phonological processing is generally considered to be a proficiency in Williams syndrome (WS), there are very few studies which have extensively explored phonological processing abilities in WS. In this study, we re-assessed phonological processing in WS by exploring verbal STM and phonological awareness abilities in 4 children with WS (CA: 10-12 years) and two control groups, one matched for chronological age (CA) and the other matched for verbal mental age (VA). Our results confirm and extend previous claims of preserved phonological STM in WS by showing specifically preserved STM performance for non-words, compared to both VA and CA control groups. However, we observed that this was the case only for non-words where support of phonological and lexico-semantic knowledge was minimized, with reduced phonological and lexico-semantic effects on STM performance. Furthermore, a more direct assessment of phonological processing abilities through phonological awareness tasks showed impaired performance for the 4 WS children. Our data confirm that STM for non-words represents a real strength in WS but they do not support previous assumptions of a more general preservation of phonological processing abilities in WS. Implications for impaired and preserved cognitive processes underlying verbal STM and phonological awareness abilities in WS are discussed.

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“…As individuals with WS have a poor level of visuo-spatial memory in WS (e.g., Jarrold, Baddeley & Hewes, 1998;Vicari, Belluci & Carlesimo, 2006;Vicari et al, 1996), a pilot study was carried out. This determined that participants should be asked to learn eight locations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies and biases in location memory in Williams syndrome

Farran

2008

Research in Developmental Disabilities

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Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) demonstrate impaired visuo-spatial abilities in comparison to their level of verbal ability. In particular, visuo-spatial construction is an area of relative weakness. It has been hypothesised that poor or atypical location coding abilities contribute strongly to the impaired abilities observed on construction and drawing tasks (Farran & Jarrold, 2005;Hoffman, Landau & Pagani, 2003). The current experiment investigated location memory in WS. Specifically, the precision of remembered locations was measured as well as the biases and strategies that were involved in remembering those locations. A developmental trajectory approach was employed; WS performance was assessed relative to the performance of typically developing (TD) children ranging from 4-to 8-years-old. Results showed differential strategy use in the WS and TD groups.WS performance was most similar to the level of a TD 4-year-old and was additionally impaired by the addition of physical category boundaries. Despite their low level of ability, the WS group produced a pattern of biases in performance which pointed towards evidence of a subdivision effect, as observed in TD older children and adults. In contrast, the TD children showed a different pattern of biases, which appears to be explained by a normalisation strategy. In summary, individuals with WS do not process locations in a typical manner. This may have a negative impact on their visuo-spatial construction and drawing abilities.

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Memory Abilities in Children with Williams Syndrome

Cited by 112 publications

References 22 publications

Love Is… AN ABSTRACT WORD: THE INFLUENCE OF LEXICAL SEMANTICS ON VERBAL SHORT-TERM MEMORY IN WILLIAMS SYNDROME

Love Is… AN ABSTRACT WORD: THE INFLUENCE OF LEXICAL SEMANTICS ON VERBAL SHORT-TERM MEMORY IN WILLIAMS SYNDROME

An Investigation of Verbal Short-term Memory and Phonological Processing in Four Children With Williams Syndrome

Strategies and biases in location memory in Williams syndrome

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