DOI•
Working memory training
22 Jul 2015-
TL;DR: The concept of training working memory to increase focus and cognitive reasoning is being heralded as a major development in neuroscience.
Abstract: orking memory — a critical brain function — has gained broad acceptance as a primary indicator of academic, professional and personal performance. And after nearly a decade of research evidence and clinical success, the concept of training working memory to increase focus and cognitive reasoning is being heralded as a major development in neuroscience. How a scientific discovery is changing the way we understand and overcome the limits of the brain
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TL;DR: It is concluded that the available evidence does not provide systematic support for the widely held notion that bilingualism is associated with benefits in cognitive control functions in adults.
Abstract: Because of enduring experience of managing two languages, bilinguals have been argued to develop superior executive functioning compared with monolinguals. Despite extensive investigation, there is, however, no consensus regarding the existence of such a bilingual advantage. Here we synthesized comparisons of bilinguals' and monolinguals' performance in six executive domains using 891 effect sizes from 152 studies on adults. We also included unpublished data, and considered the potential influence of a number of study-, task-, and participant-related variables. Before correcting estimates for observed publication bias, our analyses revealed a very small bilingual advantage for inhibition, shifting, and working memory, but not for monitoring or attention. No evidence for a bilingual advantage remained after correcting for bias. For verbal fluency, our analyses indicated a small bilingual disadvantage, possibly reflecting less exposure for each individual language when using two languages in a balanced manner. Moreover, moderator analyses did not support theoretical presuppositions concerning the bilingual advantage. We conclude that the available evidence does not provide systematic support for the widely held notion that bilingualism is associated with benefits in cognitive control functions in adults. (PsycINFO Database Record
386 citations
TL;DR: This paper investigated the effects of an intervention designed to improve at-risk 4th graders' understanding of fractions and examined the processes by which effects occurred, and found that improvement in the accuracy of children's measurement interpretation of fractions mediated intervention effects.
Abstract: The purposes of this study were to investigate the effects of an intervention designed to improve at-risk 4th graders’ understanding of fractions and to examine the processes by which effects occurred. The intervention focused more on the measurement interpretation of fractions; the control condition focused more on the part-whole interpretation of fractions and on procedures. Intervention was also designed to compensate for at-risk students’ limitations in the domain-general abilities associated with fraction learning. At-risk students (n = 259) were randomly assigned to intervention and control. Whole-number calculation skill, domain-general abilities (working memory, attentive behavior, processing speed, listening comprehension), and fraction proficiency were pretested. Intervention occurred for 12 weeks, 3 times per week, 30 min per session, and then fraction performance was reassessed. On each conceptual and procedural fraction outcome, effects favored intervention over control (effect sizes = 0.29 to 2.50), and the gap between at-risk and low-risk students narrowed for the intervention group but not the control group. Improvement in the accuracy of children’s measurement interpretation of fractions mediated intervention effects. Also, intervention effects were moderated by domain-general abilities, but not whole-number calculation skill.
227 citations
Cites background from "Working memory training"
...In addition to compensatory strategies, instructional procedures may be required to build working memory capacity or attentive behavior—although such efforts have to date failed to transfer to mathematics outcomes, at least for AR learners (Melby-Lervag & Hulme, 2012)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe neuroergonomic studies that illustrate the use of functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in the examination of training-related brain dynamics and human performance assessment.
Abstract: Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive, safe, and portable optical neuroimaging method that can be used to assess brain dynamics during skill acquisition and performance of complex work and everyday tasks. In this paper we describe neuroergonomic studies that illustrate the use of fNIRS in the examination of training-related brain dynamics and human performance assessment. We describe results of studies investigating cognitive workload in air traffic controllers, acquisition of dual verbal-spatial working memory skill, and development of expertise in piloting unmanned vehicles. These studies used conventional fNIRS devices in which the participants were tethered to the device while seated at a workstation. Consistent with the aims of mobile brain imaging (MoBI), we also describe a compact and battery-operated wireless fNIRS system that performs with similar accuracy as other established fNIRS devices. Our results indicate that both wired and wireless fNIRS systems allow for the examination of brain function in naturalistic settings, and thus are suitable for reliable human performance monitoring and training assessment.
215 citations
TL;DR: How transfer of process-based executive control trainings may be supported and how interventions may be tailored to the needs of specific age groups or populations are considered.
Abstract: Executive functions include a number of higher-level cognitive control abilities, such as cognitive flexibility, inhibition, and working memory serving action control and the flexible adaptation to changes in the environment. These control functions are supported by the prefrontal cortex and therefore develop rapidly across childhood and mature well into late adolescence. Given that executive control is a strong predictor for various life outcomes, such as academic attainment, socioeconomic status, and physical health, numerous training interventions have been designed to improve executive functioning across the lifespan, many of them targeting children and adolescents. Despite the increasing popularity of these trainings, their results are neither robust nor consistent, and the transferability of training-induced performance improvements to untrained tasks seems to be limited. In this review, we provide a selective overview of the developmental literature on process-based cognitive interventions by discussing (1) the concept and the development of executive functions and their neural underpinnings, (2) the effects of different types of executive control training in normally developing children and adolescents, (3) individual differences in training-related performance gains as well as (4) the potential of cognitive training interventions for the application in clinical and educational contexts. Based on recent findings, we consider how transfer of process-based executive control trainings may be supported and how interventions may be tailored to the needs of specific age groups or populations.
210 citations
Cites background or result from "Working memory training"
...One interesting finding was the broad scope of transfer, especially considering that transfer in many other training studies was more limited (see Shipstead et al., 2012; Melby-Lervåg and Hulme, 2013; Redick et al., 2013)....
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...…| Developmental Psychology May 2014 | Volume 5 | Article 390 | 6 near and especially far transfer of working-memory training to untrained tasks and abilities has been reported less consistently and has been discussed very controversially (e.g., Shipstead et al., 2012; Redick et al., 2013)....
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...…the literature clearly shows that these transfer effects were not consistent across studies, a fact that has inspired intense recent debates regarding the transferability of training-induced performance gains (e.g., Shipstead et al., 2012; Melby-Lervåg and Hulme, 2013; Redick et al., 2013)....
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...…a few methodological flaws were criticized, such as the use of non-adaptive or no-contact control groups, the use of individual tasks instead of batteries in order to measure constructs, or the analysis of reports from parents that were not blind to training conditions (Shipstead et al., 2012)....
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...Moreover, a few methodological flaws were criticized, such as the use of non-adaptive or no-contact control groups, the use of individual tasks instead of batteries in order to measure constructs, or the analysis of reports from parents that were not blind to training conditions (Shipstead et al., 2012)....
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TL;DR: It is suggested that each network is associated with specific clinical symptoms observed in PTSD, including cognitive dysfunction (central executive network), increased and decreased arousal/interoception (salience network), and an altered sense of self (default mode network).
Abstract: Background : Three intrinsic connectivity networks in the brain, namely the central executive, salience, and default mode networks, have been identified as crucial to the understanding of higher cognitive functioning, and the functioning of these networks has been suggested to be impaired in psychopathology, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Objective : 1) To describe three main large-scale networks of the human brain; 2) to discuss the functioning of these neural networks in PTSD and related symptoms; and 3) to offer hypotheses for neuroscientifically-informed interventions based on treating the abnormalities observed in these neural networks in PTSD and related disorders. Methods : Literature relevant to this commentary was reviewed. Results : Increasing evidence for altered functioning of the central executive, salience, and default mode networks in PTSD has been demonstrated. We suggest that each network is associated with specific clinical symptoms observed in PTSD, including cognitive dysfunction (central executive network), increased and decreased arousal/interoception (salience network), and an altered sense of self (default mode network). Specific testable neuroscientifically-informed treatments aimed to restore each of these neural networks and related clinical dysfunction are proposed. Conclusions : Neuroscientifically-informed treatment interventions will be essential to future research agendas aimed at targeting specific PTSD and related symptoms. Keywords: Intrinsic networks; default mode network; salience network; central executive network; insula; PTSD; interoception; neurofeedback; mindfulness; dissociation (Published: 31 March 2015) Citation: European Journal of Psychotraumatology 2015, 6 : 27313 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v6.27313
176 citations
References
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Journal Article•
TL;DR: The theory of information as discussed by the authors provides a yardstick for calibrating our stimulus materials and for measuring the performance of our subjects and provides a quantitative way of getting at some of these questions.
Abstract: First, the span of absolute judgment and the span of immediate memory impose severe limitations on the amount of information that we are able to receive, process, and remember. By organizing the stimulus input simultaneously into several dimensions and successively into a sequence or chunks, we manage to break (or at least stretch) this informational bottleneck. Second, the process of recoding is a very important one in human psychology and deserves much more explicit attention than it has received. In particular, the kind of linguistic recoding that people do seems to me to be the very lifeblood of the thought processes. Recoding procedures are a constant concern to clinicians, social psychologists, linguists, and anthropologists and yet, probably because recoding is less accessible to experimental manipulation than nonsense syllables or T mazes, the traditional experimental psychologist has contributed little or nothing to their analysis. Nevertheless, experimental techniques can be used, methods of recoding can be specified, behavioral indicants can be found. And I anticipate that we will find a very orderly set of relations describing what now seems an uncharted wilderness of individual differences. Third, the concepts and measures provided by the theory of information provide a quantitative way of getting at some of these questions. The theory provides us with a yardstick for calibrating our stimulus materials and for measuring the performance of our subjects. In the interests of communication I have suppressed the technical details of information measurement and have tried to express the ideas in more familiar terms; I hope this paraphrase will not lead you to think they are not useful in research. Informational concepts have already proved valuable in the study of discrimination and of language; they promise a great deal in the study of learning and memory; and it has even been proposed that they can be useful in the study of concept formation. A lot of questions that seemed fruitless twenty or thirty years ago may now be worth another look. In fact, I feel that my story here must stop just as it begins to get really interesting. And finally, what about the magical number seven? What about the seven wonders of the world, the seven seas, the seven deadly sins, the seven daughters of Atlas in the Pleiades, the seven ages of man, the seven levels of hell, the seven primary colors, the seven notes of the musical scale, and the seven days of the week? What about the seven-point rating scale, the seven categories for absolute judgment, the seven objects in the span of attention, and the seven digits in the span of immediate memory? For the present I propose to withhold judgment. Perhaps there is something deep and profound behind all these sevens, something just calling out for us to discover it. But I suspect that it is only a pernicious, Pythagorean coincidence.
19,835 citations
TL;DR: A theoretical model that links inhibition to 4 executive neuropsychological functions that appear to depend on it for their effective execution is constructed and finds it to be strongest for deficits in behavioral inhibition, working memory, regulation of motivation, and motor control in those with ADHD.
Abstract: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) comprises a deficit in behavioral inhibition. A theoretical model is constructed that links inhibition to 4 executive neuropsychological functions that appear to depend on it for their effective execution: (a) working memory, (b) self-regulation of affect-motivation-arousal, (c) internalization of speech, and (d) reconstitution (behavioral analysis and synthesis). Extended to ADHD, the model predicts that ADHD should be associated with secondary impairments in these 4 executive abilities and the motor control they afford. The author reviews evidence for each of these domains of functioning and finds it to be strongest for deficits in behavioral inhibition, working memory, regulation of motivation, and motor control in those with ADHD. Although the model is promising as a potential theory of self-control and ADHD, far more research is required to evaluate its merits and the many predictions it makes about ADHD.
6,958 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the effect of computerized, systematic practice of working memory tasks on children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has been investigated using a randomized, controlled, double-blind trial.
Abstract: Objective Deficits in executive functioning, including working memory (WM) deficits, have been suggested to be important in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). During 2002 to 2003, the authors conducted a multicenter, randomized, controlled, double-blind trial to investigate the effect of improving WM by computerized, systematic practice of WM tasks. Method Included in the trial were 53 children with ADHD (9 girls; 15 of 53 inattentive subtype), aged 7 to 12 years, without stimulant medication. The compliance criterion (>20 days of training) was met by 44 subjects, 42 of whom were also evaluated at follow-up 3 months later. Participants were randomly assigned to use either the treatment computer program for training WM or a comparison program. The main outcome measure was the span-board task, a visuospatial WM task that was not part of the training program. Results For the span-board task, there was a significant treatment effect both post-intervention and at follow-up. In addition, there were significant effects for secondary outcome tasks measuring verbal WM, response inhibition, and complex reasoning. Parent ratings showed significant reduction in symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, both post-intervention and at follow-up. Conclusions This study shows that WM can be improved by training in children with ADHD. This training also improved response inhibition and reasoning and resulted in a reduction of the parent-rated inattentive symptoms of ADHD.
1,724 citations
TL;DR: It is proposed that three such endophenotypes — a specific abnormality in reward-related circuitry that leads to shortened delay gradients, deficits in temporal processing that result in high intrasubject intertrial variability, and deficits in working memory — are most amenable to integrative collaborative approaches that aim to uncover the causes of ADHD.
Abstract: Research on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a highly prevalent and controversial condition, has, for the most part, been descriptive and atheoretical. The imperative to discover the genetic and environmental risk factors for ADHD is motivating the search for quantifiable intermediate constructs, termed endophenotypes. In this selective review, we conclude that such endophenotypes should be solidly grounded in the neurosciences. We propose that three such endophenotypes — a specific abnormality in reward-related circuitry that leads to shortened delay gradients, deficits in temporal processing that result in high intrasubject intertrial variability, and deficits in working memory — are most amenable to integrative collaborative approaches that aim to uncover the causes of ADHD.
1,723 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: This study shows that WM can be improved by training in children with ADHD, and this training also improved response inhibition and reasoning and resulted in a reduction of the parent-rated inattentive symptoms of ADHD.
Abstract: Computerized Training of Working Memory in Children With ADHD - A Randomized, Controlled Trial
1,718 citations