The importance of the body-specificity in the evaluation of visuospatial working memory. Issue 4 (4th July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Turo, Sibylle; Collin, Frédéric; Brouillet, Denis
• Is Part Of: Aging, neuropsychology, and cognition. Volume 28:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 559
• Page End: 569
• Publication Date: 2021-07-04
• Subjects: Visuospatial working memory -- age differences -- embodiment -- Corsi block tapping task -- body specificity; Aging -- Periodicals; Cognition in old age -- Periodicals; Cognition disorders in old age -- Periodicals; Neuropsychology -- Periodicals; Aging -- periodicals; Neuropsychology -- periodicals; Cognition -- periodicals; Mental Disorders -- periodicals; Gerontology -- periodicals; Mental Health -- periodicals; 155.67
• DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2020.1799925
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1382-5585

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This work is rooted in the embodied cognition paradigm applied to the evaluation of visuospatial memory span. We aimed to test whether manuospatial incompatibility affects the evaluation of visuospatial working memory. Older and younger participants were tested under two different spatial field conditions, namely manuospatial incompatibility and manuospatial compatibility, using the standard Corsi Block Tapping Task. The results show that a manuospatial compatibility condition helped both younger and older participants to increase their visuospatial working memory span compared to the traditional manuospatial incompatibility condition. By analyzing the data, our results showed an increase of visuospatial memory span in manuospatial compatibility condition (i.e., the experimenter using his left hand and the participant his right hand) compared to manuospatial incompatibility condition for younger and older adults. We recommend that the interaction between body and cognition would be taken into account in clinical evaluation methods.