James Smith-spark | London South Bank University (original) (raw)

Papers by James Smith-spark

Prospective memory is memory for delayed intentions. Difficulties with remembering to do somethin... more Prospective memory is memory for delayed intentions. Difficulties with remembering to do something at a later date can have serious consequences for employment, education, health, and social life. A research programme is described which compared the prospective memory of adults with dyslexia with that of age- and IQ-matched adults without dyslexia. The adults with dyslexia were found to have more frequent problems overall and in particular areas of prospective memory. Difficulties were found across laboratory and more naturalistic tasks and were also self-reported. These problems should be considered when providing support for adults with dyslexia in employment and educational settings.

The ability to encode and retain information for later retrieval and use is vital to our ability ... more The ability to encode and retain information for later retrieval and use is vital to our ability to function successfully in the world. This chapter considers the ways in which dyslexia can affect different memory systems in adulthood, addressing short-term and working memory, long-term memory (semantic, episodic and procedural) and prospective memory. Definitions of each memory system are provided, the performance of adults with dyslexia on laboratory studies and everyday measures is described and, where they exist, the means by which memory functioning can be improved are identified.

Brain Sciences, 2022

Cognitive difficulties are well documented in developmental dyslexia but they present a challenge... more Cognitive difficulties are well documented in developmental dyslexia but they present a challenge to dyslexia theory. In this paper, the Model of the Control of Action is proposed as a theoretical explanation of how and why deficits in both automaticity and executive abilities are apparent in the cognitive profiles of dyslexia and how these deficits might relate to literacy difficulties. This theoretical perspective is used to consider evidence from different cognitive domains. The neuroanatomical underpinnings of automaticity and executive abilities are then discussed in relation to the understanding of dyslexia. Links between reading, writing, and executive function are considered. The reviewed evidence suggests that dyslexia theory should consider an interaction between procedural learned behaviour (automaticity) and higher-order (executive) abilities. The capacity to handle environmental interference, develop and engage adaptive strategies accordingly, and plan actions all requi...

Developing a care plan for a patient requires an understanding of interactions and dependencies b... more Developing a care plan for a patient requires an understanding of interactions and dependencies between procedures, and of their possible outcomes for an individual patient, and it requires the planner to keep track of this information as the proposed plan evolves. This is difficult even for experienced clinicians, but increasingly patients are expected (and expect) to participate. We describe an argumentation-based planning support system designed to ameliorate the cognitive load imposed by the planning and communication elements of such tasks. An initial evaluation study in the field of genetic counseling produced promising results. The approach may provide a general aid for clinicians and patients in visualizing, customizing, evaluating and communicating about care plans. 1.

Substance Use & Misuse, 2021

Objectives: Alcohol use remains a public health concern with accumulating evidence pointing to al... more Objectives: Alcohol use remains a public health concern with accumulating evidence pointing to alcohol-associated prospective memory (PM) deficits. PM is the cognitive ability to remember to perform an intended action at some point in the future. Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched the evidence base to identify and explore the evidence of a relationship between alcohol use and PM. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature search in Medline, Embase, Pubmed, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Web of Science databases. Studies were included if they met the following criteria: English language publication, healthy adult participants (16 years and over), primary data on the effects of alcohol on PM. Results: Eight peer-reviewed studies were eligible for inclusion, of which five were randomized controlled trials examining the acute effects of a mild dose of alcohol and three were cross-sectional studies assessing the long-term effects of different drinking patterns on PM. Four main findings we...

The age of acquisition (AoA) effect, a processing advantage for items learnt earlier in life, aff... more The age of acquisition (AoA) effect, a processing advantage for items learnt earlier in life, affects naming and making familiarity decisions about famous people. However, its influence on semantic processing tasks involving celebrity stimuli is equivocal. In a category verification task designed to explore this issue further, mature adults were shown an area of fame, followed by a famous person’s name. They were asked to indicate whether the area of fame and the celebrity matched. Stimulus congruency and AoA were manipulated orthogonally, with familiarity and facial distinctiveness being controlled. Faster and more accurate responses were produced when the area of fame and the celebrity matched. Faster and more accurate responses were made to early-acquired celebrities but the interaction fell short of significance but is consistent with that reported for lexical processing. With adequate control of extraneous variables and an extended distance between stimulus groups, AoA would se...

Background: Prospective memory (PM; memory for delayed intentions) would seem to be impaired in d... more Background: Prospective memory (PM; memory for delayed intentions) would seem to be impaired in dyslexia but evidence is currently limited in scope. Aims: There is a need, therefore, firstly, to explore PM under controlled conditions using a broader range of PM tasks than used previously and, secondly, to determine whether objectively measured and self-reported PM problems can be found in the same individuals with dyslexia. Methods and Procedures: The responses of 30 adults with dyslexia were compared with those of 30 IQ-matched adults without dyslexia on a self-report and a clinical measure of PM. Outcomes and Results: Dyslexia-related deficits were shown on the clinical measure overall and, more particularly, when PM responses had to be made to cues based on time rather than environmental events. Adults with dyslexia were also more likely to forget to carry out an intention under naturalistic conditions 24 hours later. On the self-report questionnaire, the group with dyslexia reported significantly more frequent problems with PM overall, despite using more techniques to aid their memory. In particular, problems were identified with longer-term PM tasks and PM which had to be self-initiated. Conclusions and Implications: Dyslexia-related PM deficits were found under both laboratory and everyday conditions in the same participants; the first time that this has been demonstrated. These findings support previous experimental research which has highlighted dyslexia-related deficits in PM when the enacting of intentions is based on time cues and/or has to be self-initiated rather than being in prompted by environmental events.

Problems with working memory are well documented in dyslexia, but the impact of dyslexia on other... more Problems with working memory are well documented in dyslexia, but the impact of dyslexia on other memory systems has been investigated less extensively. Retrospective memory (RM) is memory for personally experienced past events. Prospective memory (PM) is memory for delayed intentions. There is limited evidence to suggest that both RM and PM are impaired in dyslexia and this is focused on children. To expand upon this research, two self-report studies were administered to adults with dyslexia and IQ-matched adults without dyslexia. In Study 1, a questionnaire tapping both RM and PM was completed by respondents and their close associates. More frequent problems with both types of memory were reported by the adults with dyslexia and supported by proxy-ratings. In Study 2, a different sample of participants recorded the errors that they made in their ongoing, naturalistic cognition over a two-week period. More frequent errors relating to both RM and PM were reported by the adults with ...

Labelling errors on fresh produce are estimated to cost the UK supermarket industry £50m per year... more Labelling errors on fresh produce are estimated to cost the UK supermarket industry £50m per year in product recalls and wastage. Such errors occur despite robust quality control procedures. Given the financial and environmental impact of these errors, it is important to understand whether label-checking performance can be predicted by individual differences in cognitive abilities. To this end, participants carried out a simulated label-checking task together with a number of measures of information processing speed, attention, short-term/working memory, and mind-wandering. Accuracy of label checking was found to be significantly predicted by three of the measures, with better short-term verbal memory being most strongly associated with performance. Cognitive tests such as these provide a means of identifying how well employees are likely to perform when undertaking such tasks and, if necessary, how they should be supported in that role, possibly forming a screening battery when rec...

Asia Pacific Journal of Developmental Differences

Prospective memory (PM) is memory for delayed intentions. Broadly speaking, PM tasks require resp... more Prospective memory (PM) is memory for delayed intentions. Broadly speaking, PM tasks require responses either to events in the environment (event-based PM; EBPM) or at a specific point in time (time-based PM; TBPM). Dyslexia-related deficits in TBPM have been reported under laboratory conditions but group differences in EBPM have yet to be found. However, self-reports suggest that people with dyslexia do experience day-today EBPM difficulties. To determine whether EBPM was affected by dyslexia when task demands were more closely related to the demands of everyday life, a task was presented to groups of adults with and without dyslexia, matched for age and shortform IQ. The participants were required to make a response outside the laboratory setting one week after the task had been set. The group with dyslexia were worse at remembering to perform the EBPM task one week later, despite reporting equivalent levels of motivation to perform it successfully. Fewer adults with dyslexia reported remembering the PM instruction at the time it was required. However, they did not differ from adults without dyslexia in the self-reported frequency with which they thought of the PM task over the intervening period. The results suggest that EBPM deficits can be found in dyslexia over longer delay intervals. Dyslexia-related problems with EBPM may relate to the reliable access to verbal information at the point at which it is required. These results are considered in the light of the current understanding of PM impairments in dyslexia.

Naming and perception tasks show robust effects of age of acquisition (AoA), with faster processi... more Naming and perception tasks show robust effects of age of acquisition (AoA), with faster processing of stimuli learnt earlier in life compared to stimuli acquired later. That AoA effects prove to be more elusive on semantic processing tasks is of importance in attempting to determine the mechanism and locus (or loci) of AoA effects. Three accounts of AoA effects were tested empirically using perceptual familiarity decision tasks to record response latency and accuracy to the faces and names of famous people, with the quantity of semantic knowledge being manipulated. The results do not support the semantic ‘hub’ network or arbitrary mapping explanations of AoA but are consistent with the Set-up of a Specialized Processing System hypothesis.

PLOS ONE

Cognitive enhancing drugs are claimed to improve cognitive functions such as learning and attenti... more Cognitive enhancing drugs are claimed to improve cognitive functions such as learning and attention. However, little is known presently about the characteristics of off-prescription cognitive enhancing drug users or their perceived everyday experience with these drugs. As modafinil is the most commonly used off-prescription cognitive enhancing drug, the current study aimed to provide a detailed profile of modafinil users and their experiences and perceptions of this drug. To this end, an online survey, targeting cognitive enhancing drug users and students, was advertised on forum sites. Information was obtained regarding demographic data, illicit drug use, psychiatric diagnosis and experience of modafinil. Of the 404 respondents, 219 reported taking modafinil. Of these the majority were male, American or British, university-educated and currently employed, with a mean age of 27. Overall, modafinil was perceived by users as being safe. Modafinil users reported higher levels of illicit drug use and psychiatric diagnosis than would be expected from population-based data. More frequent reported modafinil use was associated with higher numbers of perceived benefits whilst reported frequency of use was not associated with the number of perceived risks. There was also a tentative link between the reported use of modafinil and the reported presence of psychiatric disorders, largely depression and anxiety. Respondents who had reported a psychiatric diagnosis declared higher subjective benefits of modafinil. This may suggest further beneficial effects of modafinil or it may reflect insufficient medical treatment for psychiatric disorders in some people. Overall, the findings of the current study should be beneficial in informing clinicians and legislative bodies about the modafinil user profile and how modafinil is perceived.

Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling

Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries

International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics

Frontiers in psychology, 2018

Updating has been defined as the cognitive ability to store, monitor and modify information in an... more Updating has been defined as the cognitive ability to store, monitor and modify information in an accessible state (e.g., Miyake et al., 2000). St Clair-Thompson and Gathercole (2006) assessed children on four WM tasks and two updating measures. It was found that all the tasks loaded together on the same factor. They concluded that measures of WM and updating assess the same underlying construct. Updating in this article is thus considered synonymous with WM.