In search of the strategies behind memory with Prof. Lucie Attout
This year, Lucie Attout joined the Faculté de Psychologie et Sciences de l’Education (FPSE) of the University of Geneva as an assistant professor in Psycholinguistics and Speech-Therapy, and at the same time the NCCR Evolving Language. “For a long time, I’ve been fascinated by the human capacity for learning,” she says. Her research focuses on the importance of short- and long-term memory processes in learning, and the underlying mechanisms.
Memory and strategies
Though long- and short-term memories are linked, the processes supporting them are not the same. Short-term memory has specific strategies that allow us to remember a series of things, for example. “On one hand, we have phonological and semantic representations – i.e language-related – that our brain already stores long-term, which help us make connections between those things, but on the other hand, maintaining the order of this list can also help us remember it better,” Lucie Attout explains. “This ability for serial order, seemingly independent from linguistic representations, also allows us to perform mathematical or reading tasks by temporarily maintaining the order of information (intermediate results or sequences of letters) is essential.” And in people presenting learning disorders, deficits in processing order are regularly observed.
But then, what are the mechanisms behind this? Currently, various models have been proposed, including temporal and visuospatial processing. “In my research, I am trying to compare these two theories in order to determine the origin of individual variations in memory abilities,” explains the researcher. “It could be possible that visuospatial processing is used more as a strategy, in a contextual way, while temporal processing is more automatic.”
Professor Lucie Attout.
By continuing her research in Switzerland, Lucie Attout will have access to a stimulating environment, both in terms of potential collaborations and the diverse cultural setting, characterized by participants representing a wide range of cultures and languages. “It is interesting to be able to study the memorization strategies of this population, which is characterized by linguistic and cultural differences,” she says.
Ontogeny of order processing
To study order processing, Lucie Attout combines behavioral and neuroimaging methods, using techniques such as MRI and eye tracking, in children and adults. She also conducts longitudinal studies. “We observe participants over time, because learning is not static; it is a process that is continuously evolving,” she explains.
And when exactly this process is built is something she approached somewhat by chance. As she was conducting a study on the brain’s processing of serial order using neuroimaging, she encountered a difficulty. “We had a hard time recruiting our target population, children aged 7 to 8, for the neuroimaging study focusing on another research question,” she recalls. “So, we decided to broaden our criteria to include children aged 7 to 12.” What she then saw was not expected: with advancing age, the processing of serial order changes. Although there is no obvious difference in behavior, MRI data show a clear difference. “Between the ages of 8 and 12, we see that the areas involved in this processing become more specialized, particularly in the parietal lobe of the brain,” explains the researcher. “Before this age, we observe more diffuse activation involving frontal regions, which are linked to control processes.” Yet, these processing mechanisms related to order play a crucial role in the very early development of language and mathematical learning abilities raising numerous questions regarding the ontogeny and evolution of this process.
Today, as part of the NCCR Evolving Language, Lucie Attout will explore the mechanisms behind the processing of written language and mathematics in early childhood. “Based on my findings, it seems that explicit serial order processing is not very specific before the age of 8, though it is a predictor of language learning in much younger children. So where does this ability come from?” wonders the researcher. Some of her leads are more implicit mechanisms, such as learning sequence regularity, or more explicit mechanisms, such as the use of a more general ordinal framework.
