The Box Task: A tool to design experiments for assessing visuospatial working memory

Kessels, Roy P. C.; Postma, Albert

doi:10.3758/s13428-017-0966-7

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 36 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our findings resonate with a previous study which showed that AD patients are particularly impaired on the Box Task [9]. It is argued that the Box Task within-search error variable largely utilises visuospatial short-term store processes (i.e., visuospatial sketchpad [39]), whereas the between-search error variables measure additional memory loading processes, including binding/integrating objects and their location over trials (i.e., episodic buffer [39] and the active rehearsal of information over longer time periods (i.e., central executive [7,39]). The disproportionately high number of within-and between-search errors in the AD group is consistent with the commonly held view that multiple components of visuospatial working memory breakdown in typical AD, resulting in a particularly vulnerable visuospatial memory system [4,12,[40][41][42].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Box Task is a computerised visuospatial working memory task in which pictures of closed boxes are presented at various locations, with increasing set sizes (4, 6 and 8 boxes) (Figure 1; see Kessels and Postma [7] for information on set up and administration of this task). Briefly, participants were instructed to find a hidden target object by 'opening' the boxes on the screen one by one.…”

Section: The Box Taskmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, we assessed visuospatial working memory in the PPA subtypes and in typical Alzheimer’s disease (AD) using a novel computerised test—the Box Task [7]. The Box Task offers several advantages over conventional tests of working memory, including its standardised computerised procedure and ability to measure gradient levels of impairment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Box Task offers several advantages over conventional tests of working memory, including its standardised computerised procedure and ability to measure gradient levels of impairment. Further, this task involves integrating item and location information (i.e., binding)-a process which is particularly compromised in conditions with visuospatial working memory disturbance (e.g., early stage AD) [7][8][9][10]. Accordingly, the betweensearch component of this task has been proposed to be especially sensitive to detecting visuospatial working memory vulnerability [7,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further, this task involves integrating item and location information (i.e., binding)-a process which is particularly compromised in conditions with visuospatial working memory disturbance (e.g., early stage AD) [7][8][9][10]. Accordingly, the betweensearch component of this task has been proposed to be especially sensitive to detecting visuospatial working memory vulnerability [7,11]. Consistent with previous literature, we hypothesised lv-PPA patients would perform worse than the other PPA variants on the Box Task, and that AD patients would display the greatest impairments on this measure [4,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

The Box Task: A novel tool to differentiate the primary progressive aphasias

Foxe

Irish

D‘Mello

et al. 2021

Euro J of Neurology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: Differentiating the primary progressive aphasia (PPA) variants in clinical settings remains complex and challenging, especially for the logopenic (lv-PPA) and nonfluent variants (nfv-PPA). Recent studies suggest that visuospatial memory is more compromised in lv-PPA than in nfv-PPA and is relatively spared in the semantic variant (sv-PPA). Accordingly, assessment of visuospatial memory performance may assist in the differential diagnosis of PPA variants. Here, we investigated the utility of a novel computerised visuospatial working memory test-the Box Task-to differentiate the three PPA variants and typical Alzheimer's disease (AD).Methods: Eighteen lv-PPA, 14 nfv-PPA, 23 sv-PPA, 33 AD patients, and 32 healthy controls matched for age and education were recruited. All participants completed the computerised Box Task and WMS-III Spatial Span as measures of visuospatial working memory. Results:The lv-PPA group made significantly more Box Task between-search errors than nfv-PPA, sv-PPA and control groups. The AD group, however, displayed the greatest impairments on this measure relative to the PPA variants. Logistic regression analyses in lv-PPA and nfv-PPA demonstrated that the combination of Box Task between-search error variables (i.e., 4-and 6-box levels) could correctly classify 72% of lv-PPA patients and nearly 79% of nfv-PPA patients. Area under the receiver operator characteristics curve (AUC) analyses revealed the Box Task was more sensitive than Spatial Span at differentiating lv-PPA from nfv-PPA. Conclusions:Our findings suggest that a simple, computerised measure of visuospatial working memory-the Box Task-shows potential diagnostic utility in differentiating lv-PPA from the other PPA variants.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Box Taskmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The Box Task: A novel tool to differentiate the primary progressive aphasias

Foxe

Irish

D‘Mello

et al. 2021

Euro J of Neurology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Visuospatial working memory in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia: a comparative analysis with Alzheimer's disease using the box task

Foxe,

Irish,

Carrick

et al. 2024

J Neurol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective This study investigated the visuospatial working memory profiles of behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) using a novel computerised test of visuospatial working memory: the Box Task. Methods Twenty-eight bvFTD and 28 AD patients, as well as 32 age-matched control participants were recruited. All participants completed the Box Task and conventional neuropsychological tests of working memory, episodic memory, and visuospatial function. Results Both the bvFTD and AD groups exhibited significantly more Box Task between-search errors than the control group across all set sizes. Notably, the AD group demonstrated a significantly higher error rate compared to the bvFTD group. Regression analysis revealed that whilst episodic memory impairment significantly predicted Box Task error performance in AD, this was not the case for bvFTD. Additionally, a noticeable trend was observed for attention in predicting Box Task errors in both bvFTD and AD groups. The Box Task demonstrated high utility in differentiating between bvFTD and AD, with a decision tree correctly classifying 82.1% of bvFTD patients and 75% of AD patients. Conclusions Our findings reveal significant visuospatial working memory impairments in bvFTD, albeit of lesser severity compared to disease-matched AD patients. The Box Task, a novel measure of visuospatial working memory, proved effective in differentiating between bvFTD and AD, outperforming many traditional neuropsychological measures. Overall, our findings highlight the utility of assessing visuospatial memory when differentiating between bvFTD and AD in the clinical setting.

show abstract

The Audio-Corsi: an acoustic virtual reality-based technological solution for evaluating audio-spatial memory abilities

Setti

Engel

Cuturi

et al. 2021

J Multimodal User Interfaces

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Spatial memory is a cognitive skill that allows the recall of information 3 about the space, its layout, and items' locations. We present a novel application built 4 around 3D spatial audio technology to evaluate audio-spatial memory abilities. The 5 sound sources have been spatially distributed employing the 3D Tune-In Toolkit, a 6 virtual acoustic simulator. The participants are presented with sequences of sounds 7 of increasing length emitted from virtual auditory sources around their heads. To 8 identify stimuli positions and register the test responses, we designed a custom-made 9 interface with buttons arranged according to sound locations. We took inspiration 10 from the Corsi-Block test for the experimental procedure, a validated clinical ap-11 proach for assessing visuo-spatial memory abilities. In two different experimental 12 sessions, the participants were tested with the classical Corsi-Block and, blindfolded, 13 with the proposed task, named Audio-Corsi for brevity. Our results show compara-14 ble performance across the two tests in terms of the estimated memory parameter 15 precision. Furthermore, in the Audio-Corsi we observe a lower span compared to the 16 Corsi-Block test. We discuss these results in the context of the theoretical relationship 17 between the auditory and visual sensory modalities and potential applications of this 18 system in multiple scientific and clinical contexts. 19 Keywords Audio-spatial memory • 3D Audio technology • Cognitive assessment 20 24 systems capable of delivering auditory stimulation. Early visual deprivation might 25 delay the development of specific auditory spatial skills and negatively impact the 26 ability to engage in positive social interactions [65, 46, 61]. Thus, the development of 27 audio-technological tools is fundamental for the assessment of such cognitive skills, 28 such as working memory (WM) abilities. 29 Furthermore, clinical evaluation and intervention are especially crucial in the first 30 period of life to support the development of perceptual and cognitive skills and guar-31 antee improvements in independence and increment of opportunities. Here we present 32 a novel solution, based on auditory stimuli generated through a 3D audio simulation, 33to convey spatial information. In this study, we tested such a system with sighted 34 adults. 35WM is a limited-capacity store system for the online maintenance, update, and 36 manipulation of information for a short time [33, 7]. This component is actively in-37 volved during complex and demanding tasks [8, 70] such as memorization and pro-38 cessing of visuo-spatial material [38, 43]. Indeed, its functions include the storage 39 of visual inputs, spatial configurations, and visual images [59]. The first WM model 40 was proposed by Alan Baddeley [7]. According to the latter, WM consists of a central 41 executive component and two subsystems: the visuo-spatial sketchpad and the phono-42 logical loop for the maintenance and manipulation of visual and acoustic information, 43 respectively. Measuremen...

show abstract

The Box Task: A tool to design experiments for assessing visuospatial working memory

Cited by 8 publications

References 36 publications

The Box Task: A novel tool to differentiate the primary progressive aphasias

The Box Task: A novel tool to differentiate the primary progressive aphasias

Visuospatial working memory in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia: a comparative analysis with Alzheimer's disease using the box task

The Audio-Corsi: an acoustic virtual reality-based technological solution for evaluating audio-spatial memory abilities

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About