Editorial: Improving Working Memory in Learning and Intellectual Disabilities.

Silvia Lanfranchi,Barbara Carretti

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00725

Abstract

Working memory (WM) has been defined as a system for temporarily retaining and manipulating information while performing a variety of cognitive tasks (Baddeley, 1986). To date, the crucial role of WM in activities of everyday life (including reading, writing, arithmetic, learning, language-processing, orientation, imagination) has been demonstrated in an impressive body of research. Several studies have shown an impairment in WM in individuals with learning disabilities (LD) or intellectual disabilities (ID, e.g., Lanfranchi et al., 2004; LD, Peng and Fuchs, 2016). Given its core role in cognition, the feasibility of training WM has emerged in the literature as a crucial issue, with efforts focusing on analyzing whether and how improving WM might affect cognitive processes associated with WM as well. The results have been contradictory so far, however, with some studies finding WM training effective in producing improvements in the trained task, but few reporting transfer effects to allied cognitive processes, and even fewer identifying any maintenance effects, when investigated (see Melby-Lervag and Hulme, 2013, for example). Starting from this literature, the aim of the research discussed here is to add new evidence on the direct and transfer effects of WM training in individuals with LD or ID. Several key points have emerged concerning WM training in these particular populations, as summarized in the following paragraphs.

Highlights

Working memory (WM) has been defined as a system for temporarily retaining and manipulating information while performing a variety of cognitive tasks (Baddeley, 1986)
There is a certain variability in the WM training procedures adopted to date: some studies have proposed activities focusing on a specific domain; others have taken a multi-domain approach (e.g., Holmes et al.); others again have suggested that the best solution is to combine the two, i.e., practice with verbal and visuospatial WM together with learning new strategies to use in WM tasks (Danielsson et al.)
The two apparently had different baseline WM levels, and the one with a worse WM at the start achieved greater improvements. These findings suggest that training activities could be effective in children with an initially worse performance, which is in line with a compensation effect

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Working memory (WM) has been defined as a system for temporarily retaining and manipulating information while performing a variety of cognitive tasks (Baddeley, 1986). The results have been contradictory so far, with some studies finding WM training effective in producing improvements in the trained task, but few reporting transfer effects to allied cognitive processes, and even fewer identifying any maintenance effects, when investigated (see Melby-Lervåg and Hulme, 2013, for example). Starting from this literature, the aim of the research discussed here is to add new evidence on the direct and transfer effects of WM training in individuals with LD or ID. Efficacy of a training program in which the material was adapted to the cognitive profile of individuals with Down syndrome

HOW ARE WM PROCESSES TRAINED?

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS