Abstract
Working memory (WM) training is a prevalent intervention for multiple cognitive deficits, however, the transfer effects to other cognitive tasks from gains in WM induced by different training techniques still remains controversial. Therefore, the current study recruited three groups of young adults to investigate the memory training transference, with N-back group (NBG) (n = 50) training on dual n-back task, Memory Palace group (MPG) (n = 50) on method of loci, and a blank control group (BCG) (n = 48) receiving no training. Our results showed that both training groups separately improved WM capacity on respective trained task. For untrained tasks, both training groups enhanced performance on digit-span task, while on change detection task, significant improvement was only observed in NBG. In conclusion, while both techniques can be used as effective training methods to improve WM, the dual n-back task training method, perhaps has a more prominent transfer effect than that of method of loci.
Highlights
Working memory (WM) training is a prevalent intervention for multiple cognitive deficits, the transfer effects to other cognitive tasks from gains in WM induced by different training techniques still remains controversial
Both N-back group (NBG) and Memory Palace group (MPG) showed a linear improvement across memory training on their respective training task (Fig. 1)
Dual n-back task and words memory task, and other two non-trained tasks, digit-span task and change detection task, were measured at both pre-test and post-test. Both training groups resulted in greater training improvement, with NBG displaying significant performance improvement of n-back task, and MPG in words memory task
Summary
Working memory (WM) training is a prevalent intervention for multiple cognitive deficits, the transfer effects to other cognitive tasks from gains in WM induced by different training techniques still remains controversial. Our results showed that both training groups separately improved WM capacity on respective trained task For untrained tasks, both training groups enhanced performance on digit-span task, while on change detection task, significant improvement was only observed in NBG. Both training groups enhanced performance on digit-span task, while on change detection task, significant improvement was only observed in NBG While both techniques can be used as effective training methods to improve WM, the dual n-back task training method, perhaps has a more prominent transfer effect than that of method of loci. The words memory task is usually taken as an evaluation of mnemonic strategy t raining[25,52] These two tasks, are separately considered as a measure of task-specific (trained task) transfer according to the training groups in our study. We adopted these four cognitive tasks as measures of training outcomes
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