Effects of task repetition but no transfer of inhibitory control training in healthy adults

Abstract

Executive functions (EFs) comprise the updating, shifting and inhibition dimensions. According to the Unity and Diversity Model, the inhibition dimension is fully accounted for by a general EFs factor. This suggests that training of inhibition should transfer, in part, to updating and shifting. Therefore, we tested the effectiveness of a three-week inhibition training (high-conflict Stroop task) and explored near transfer effects to an untrained inhibition task (antisaccade task) and far transfer effects to untrained tasks demanding task-set shifting (number-letter-task), working memory updating (n-back task) and planning abilities (Stockings of Cambridge task). We employed a randomized pretest/treatment/posttest study design in n = 102 healthy young adults, assigned to an intensive Stroop training (n = 38), an active control condition (n = 34) or no training intervention (n = 30). In the Stroop training group, Stroop performance improved with practice, while performance in the active control group remained unchanged. The Stroop training group showed improvements in overall Stroop task performance from pretest to posttest, but we observed neither near nor far transfer effects. Additionally, specifically stronger gains on incongruent Stroop trials compared to congruent trials were observed in the Stroop training group when color bar trials were excluded from the pretest-posttest-analysis. Generally, there were substantial improvements from pretest to posttest independent of training condition in all transfer tasks. In sum, our data do not support the existence of transfer effects from inhibition training in healthy young adults.