Adaptive Working Memory Training Research Articles

Does working memory training in children need to be adaptive? A randomized controlled trial.

Most cognitive training programs are adaptive, despite limited direct evidence that this maximizes children's outcomes. This randomized controlled trial evaluated working memory training with difficulty of activities presented using adaptive, self-select, or stepwise compared with an active control. At baseline, immediately, and 6-months post-intervention, 201 Australian primary school children (101 males, 7-11 years) completed working memory tests (near and intermediate transfer) and the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices, and caregivers completed the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-Rating Scale-5 (far transfer). The intervention comprised ten 20-min sessions delivered in class. For each training condition, compared with the active control, there was no evidence of transfer immediately or 6-months post-intervention (negligible to small effects). This trial provides no evidence that adaptive working memory training maximizes children's outcomes.

Mem-Box: VR sandbox for adaptive working memory evaluation and training using physiological signals

Mem-Box: VR sandbox for adaptive working memory evaluation and training using physiological signals

Working Memory Training Responsiveness in Parkinson's Disease Is Not Determined by Cortical Thickness or White Matter Lesions.

Patients with Parkinson's disease are highly vulnerable for cognitive decline. Thus, early intervention by means of working memory training (WMT) may be effective for the preservation of cognition. However, the influence of structural brain properties, i.e., cortical thickness and volume of white matter lesions on training responsiveness have not been studied. Here, behavioral and neuroimaging data of 46 patients with Parkinson's disease, 21 of whom engaged in home-based, computerized adaptive WMT, was analyzed. While cortical thickness and white matter lesions volume were associated with cognitive performance at baseline, these structural brain properties do not seem to determine WMT responsiveness.

4 Does Working Memory Training for Children Need to be Adaptive? A Randomised Controlled Trial

Objective:A common assumption to maximise cognitive training outcomes is that training tasks should be adaptive, with difficulty adjusted to the individual’s performance. This has only been tested once in adults (von Bastian & Eschen, 2016). We aimed to examine children’s outcomes of working memory training using adaptive, self-select and stepwise approaches to setting the difficulty of training tasks compared to an active control condition.Participants and Methods:In a randomised controlled trial (ACTRN 12621000990820), children in Grades 2-5 (7 to 11 years) were allocated to one of four conditions: adaptive working memory training, self-select working memory training, stepwise working memory training, or active control. An experimental intervention embedded in Minecraft was developed for teachers to deliver in the classroom over two weeks (10 x 20-minute sessions). The working memory training comprised two training tasks with processing demands similar to daily activities: backward span with digits and following instructions with objects. The control condition comprised creative building tasks. As part of a larger protocol, children completed at baseline and immediately post-intervention working memory measures similar to the training activities (primary outcome): backward span digits and letters versions, following instructions objects and letters versions. Primary analyses were intention-to-treat. Secondary analyses included only children who completed 10 sessions.Results:Of 204 children recruited into the study, 203 were randomised, with 95% retention at post-intervention. 76% of children completed all 10 training sessions. Comparisons between each working memory training condition and the active control on working memory measures were non-significant (f2 = 0.00), with one exception. Children in the self-select condition on average performed 1-point better than the controls on the following instructions objects measure (p = .02, f2 = 0.03). A pattern emerged that the self-select condition performed better on most measures.Conclusions:We found little evidence that an adaptive approach to setting the difficulty of training tasks maximises training outcomes for children. Findings suggest that working memory outcomes following training are limited and are not modulated by the approach to setting the difficulty of training tasks. This is consistent with findings from von Bastian & Eschen (2016), who also observed that the self-select condition (and not the adaptive condition) showed a slightly larger change in working memory performance following training than the control. It is helpful for clinicians to be aware that adaptive working memory training programs might not be superior in improving children’s working memory, and the benefits of programs are limited.

Working Memory Training for Children Using the Adaptive, Self-Select, and Stepwise Approaches to Setting the Difficulty Level of Training Activities: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

A common yet untested assumption of cognitive training in children is that activities should be adaptive, with difficulty adjusted to the individual's performance in order to maximize improvements on untrained tasks (known as transfer). Working memory training provides the ideal testbed to systematically examine this assumption as it is one of the most widely studied domains in the cognitive training literature, and is critical for children's learning, including following instructions and reasoning. This trial aimed to examine children's outcomes of working memory training using adaptive, self-select (child selects difficulty level), and stepwise (difficulty level increases incrementally) approaches to setting the difficulty of training activities compared to an active control condition immediately and 6-month postintervention. While the aim is exploratory, we hypothesized that children allocated to a working memory training condition would show greater improvements: (1) on near transfer measures compared to intermediate and far transfer measures and (2) immediately postintervention compared to 6-month postintervention. This double-blinded, active-controlled, parallel-group randomized trial aimed to recruit 128 children aged 7 to 11 years from 1 metropolitan primary school in Melbourne, Australia. Following baseline testing, children were randomized into 1 of 4 conditions: adaptive, self-select, or stepwise working memory training, or active control. An experimental intervention embedded in Minecraft was developed for teachers to deliver in class over 2 consecutive weeks (10 × 20-minute sessions). The working memory training comprised 2 training activities with processing demands similar to daily activities: backward span and following instructions. The control comprised creative activities. Pre- and postintervention, children completed a set of working memory tests (near and intermediate transfer) and the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (far transfer) to determine training outcomes, as well as motivation questionnaires to determine if motivations toward learning and the intervention were similar across conditions. Caregivers completed the ADHD-Rating Scale-5 to measure their child's attention (far transfer). Statistical analysis will include traditional null hypothesis significance testing and Bayesian methods to quantify evidence for both the null and alternative hypotheses. Data collection concluded in December 2022. Data are currently being processed and analyzed. This trial will determine whether the adaptive approach to setting the difficulty of training activities maximizes cognitive training outcomes for children. This trial has several strengths: it adopts best practices for cognitive training studies (design, methods, and analysis plan); uses a range of measures to detect discrete levels of transfer; has a 6-month postintervention assessment; is appropriately powered; and uses an experimental working memory training intervention based on our current understanding of the cognitive mechanisms of training. Findings will inform future research and design of cognitive training interventions and highlight the value of the evidence-based principles of cognitive training. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12621000990820; https://www.anzctr.org.au/ACTRN12621000990820.aspx. DERR1-10.2196/47496.

319. Behavioral and Neurophysiological Effects of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS) on an Adaptive Working Memory Training

319. Behavioral and Neurophysiological Effects of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS) on an Adaptive Working Memory Training

Cognitive skill learning in multiple sclerosis: A meaningful component of the neuropsychological profile

Cognitive skill learning (CSL) refers to the capacity to improve performance on specific cognitive operations through repeated practice. We hypothesized that high CSL aptitude may promote accumulation of cognitive reserve, and resiliency to cognitive decline, in people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Using an adaptive working memory training paradigm, we obtained CSL aptitude indices (amount of improvement on the training task over time) in MS patients for a single session of practice (25–30 min), and longer-term practice (twenty sessions). Neuropsychological performance was assessed with the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT), and the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM). CSL aptitude measures were positively correlated with neuropsychological performance, and had high diagnostic accuracy for classifying cognitive impairment in MS, defined as 1.5 SD below the demographics-corrected normative mean of the SDMT. Positive relationships between CSL aptitude measures and neuropsychological performance tended to be more pronounced for individuals with high estimated cognitive reserve, suggesting that high CSL aptitude is a a factor that promotes the protective effects of cognitive reserve. Furthermore, regression analyses indicated that CSL aptitude is separable from baseline cognitive capacity. The findings suggest that CSL aptitude impacts the neuropsychological profile in MS, and may be a factor underlying variance in cognitive resiliency.

Adaptive working memory training does not produce transfer effects in cognition and neuroimaging

Despite growing interest in cognitive interventions from academia and industry, it remains unclear if working memory (WM) training, one of the most popular cognitive interventions, produces transfer effects. Transfer effects are training-induced gains in performance in untrained cognitive tasks, while practice effects are improvements in trained task. The goal of this study was to evaluate potential transfer effects by comprehensive cognitive testing and neuroimaging. In this prospective, randomized-controlled, and single-blind study, we administered an 8-week n-back training to 55 healthy middle-aged (50–64 years) participants. State-of-the-art multimodal neuroimaging was used to examine potential anatomic and functional changes. Relative to control subjects, who performed non-adaptive WM training, no near or far transfer effects were detected in experimental subjects, who performed adaptive WM training. Equivalently, no training-related changes were observed in white matter integrity, amplitude of low frequency fluctuations, glucose metabolism, functional and metabolic connectivity. Exploratory within-group comparisons revealed some gains in transfer tasks, which, however, cannot be attributed to an increased WM capacity. In conclusion, WM training produces transfer effects neither at the cognitive level nor in terms of neural structure or function. These results speak against a common view that training-related gains reflect an increase in underlying WM capacity. Instead, the presently observed practice effects may be a result of optimized task processing strategies, which do not necessarily engage neural plasticity.

Independent Component and Graph Theory Analyses Reveal Normalized Brain Networks on Resting-State Functional MRI After Working Memory Training in People With HIV.

Cognitive training may partially reverse cognitive deficits in people with HIV (PWH). Previous functional MRI (fMRI) studies demonstrate that working memory training (WMT) alters brain activity during working memory tasks, but its effects on resting brain network organization remain unknown. To test whether WMT affects PWH brain functional connectivity in resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI). Prospective. A total of 53 PWH (ages 50.7 ± 1.5 years, two women) and 53 HIV-seronegative controls (SN, ages 49.5 ± 1.6 years, six women). Axial single-shot gradient-echo echo-planar imaging at 3.0 T was performed at baseline (TL1), at 1-month (TL2), and at 6-months (TL3), after WMT. All participants had rsfMRI and clinical assessments (including neuropsychological tests) at TL1 before randomization to Cogmed WMT (adaptive training, n=58: 28 PWH, 30 SN; nonadaptive training, n=48: 25 PWH, 23 SN), 25 sessions over 5-8 weeks. All assessments were repeated at TL2 and at TL3. The functional connectivity estimated by independent component analysis (ICA) or graph theory (GT) metrics (eigenvector centrality, etc.) for different link densities (LDs) were compared between PWH and SN groups at TL1 and TL2. Two-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) on GT metrics and two-sample t-tests on FC or GT metrics were performed. Cognitive (eg memory) measures were correlated with eigenvector centrality (eCent) using Pearson's correlations. The significance level was set at P < 0.05 after false discovery rate correction. The ventral default mode network (vDMN) eCent differed between PWH and SN groups at TL1 but not at TL2 (P=0.28). In PWH, vDMN eCent changes significantly correlated with changes in the memory ability in PWH (r=-0.62 at LD=50%) and vDMN eCent before training significantly correlated with memory performance changes (r=0.53 at LD=50%). ICA and GT analyses showed that adaptive WMT normalized graph properties of the vDMN in PWH. 1 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: 1.

Possible evidence of near transfer effects after adaptive working memory training in persons with multiple sclerosis

BackgroundCognitive deficits, especially in working memory (WM) and information processing (IP) efficiency, are common in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). Few studies have examined the efficacy of n-back training in improving these two cognitive functions in PwMS. In the present study, we examined the effects of an intensive n-back training program by measuring the gains on the trained task (2- and 3-back tasks), but we also studied possible near transfer effects to other tests that assess WM and IP, as well as far transfer effects or improvements in other cognitive functions. MethodsA sample consisting of 35 PwMS with different cognitive statuses. All the participants underwent an adaptive n-back training for 10 days (60 min/day), and they were neuropsychologically assessed at baseline (D1) and after training (D10). The effectiveness of the training was tested: (1) by using mean-based comparisons and Cohen's d values; (2) by estimating and comparing the quartile values of the D1 and D10 distributions. Two indexes of improvement in individual performance were calculated, the net score improvement index (NSI) and the percent of maximum possible individualized improvement (PMPI). ResultsRepeat practice improves 2- and 3-back performance, showing more correct responses (CR) and lower reaction times (RT) on D10 compared to D1. These results were corroborated by the NSI and PMPI scores, but the gains after training were more statistically significant for the 3-back (observing higher CR and lower RT after training) than for the 2-back (observing gains in CR, but not in RT). We also observed a possible transference of this improvement on the n-back task to other WM/IPS tests. Specifically, statistically significant pre-post training differences were found in the values in three quartiles of the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT; q25, p < 0.03; q50, p < 0.001; q75, p < 0.002) and of the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT; q25, p < 0.03; q50, p < 0.001; q75, p < 0.001) as well as in two quartiles of the Letter-Number Sequencing Task (LNST; q50, p < 0.004; q75 p < 0.001), and in one quartile of the Digit Backwards Span Test (DSBT; q75, p < 0.001). Reliable change analyses confirmed these performance improvements on the PASAT, SDMT, and LNST. ConclusionsThis study confirmed that the intensive and adaptive n-back training produced improvements in the trained task in PwMS with different cognitive statuses. Furthermore, these gains were not only observed on the trained task, but they seemed to be also transferred to other tests that measured WM and IP functions.

Cortical Thickness Changes After Computerized Working Memory Training in Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment.

BackgroundAdaptive computerized working memory (WM) training has shown favorable effects on cerebral cortical thickness as compared to non-adaptive training in healthy individuals. However, knowledge of WM training-related morphological changes in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is limited.ObjectiveThe primary objective of this double-blind randomized study was to investigate differences in longitudinal cortical thickness trajectories after adaptive and non-adaptive WM training in patients with MCI. We also investigated the genotype effects on cortical thickness trajectories after WM training combining these two training groups using longitudinal structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analysis in Freesurfer.MethodMagnetic resonance imaging acquisition at 1.5 T were performed at baseline, and after four- and 16-weeks post training. A total of 81 individuals with MCI accepted invitations to undergo 25 training sessions over 5 weeks. Longitudinal Linear Mixed effect models investigated the effect of adaptive vs. non-adaptive WM training. The LME model was fitted for each location (vertex). On all statistical analyzes, a threshold was applied to yield an expected false discovery rate (FDR) of 5%. A secondary LME model investigated the effects of LMX1A and APOE-ε4 on cortical thickness trajectories after WM training.ResultsA total of 62 participants/patients completed the 25 training sessions. Structural MRI showed no group difference between the two training regimes in our MCI patients, contrary to previous reports in cognitively healthy adults. No significant structural cortical changes were found after training, regardless of training type, across all participants. However, LMX1A-AA carriers displayed increased cortical thickness trajectories or lack of decrease in two regions post-training compared to those with LMX1A-GG/GA. No training or training type effects were found in relation to the APOE-ε4 gene variants.ConclusionThe MCI patients in our study, did not have improved cortical thickness after WM training with either adaptive or non-adaptive training. These results were derived from a heterogeneous population of MCI participants. The lack of changes in the cortical thickness trajectory after WM training may also suggest the lack of atrophy during this follow-up period. Our promising results of increased cortical thickness trajectory, suggesting greater neuroplasticity, in those with LMX1A-AA genotype need to be validated in future trials.

The effectiveness of adaptive working memory training on EEG and cognitive performance in Alzheimer disease

Due to the progressive aging of population, the prevalence of dementia and age-related cognitive impairment, and in particular Alzheimer’s disease, is highly increasing, and becoming one of the important problems bearing on the health system. Recently, the diagnostic tools and pharmacological treatments have shown a rising potential. Yet, non-pharmacological interventions have attracted significant interest. However, the effectiveness of such interventions has remained controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate whether working memory training changes the EEG and cognitive performance at resting state in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Twenty patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease were recruited and randomly divided into training and control groups. The training group received twenty-five sessions of adaptive n-back training. Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE), digit span, and EEG were assessed before and after the intervention period. Working memory training led to a significant increase in MMSE score and alpha power over the frontal and parietal- occipital regions. Nonsignificant increase of the log EEG power was shown for beta, theta, and delta concerning the entire regions. Adaptive n-back training is effective on quantitative EEG in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

Intra-individual variability in task performance after cognitive training is associated with long-term outcomes in children.

The potential benefits and mechanistic effects of working memory training (WMT) in children are the subject of much research and debate. We show that after five weeks of school-based, adaptive WMT 6-9 year-old primary school children had greater activity in prefrontal and striatal brain regions, higher task accuracy, and reduced intra-individual variability in response times compared to controls. Using a sequential sampling decision model, we demonstrate that this reduction in intra-individual variability can be explained by changes to the evidence accumulation rates and thresholds. Critically, intra-individual variability is useful in quantifying the immediate impact of cognitive training interventions, being a better predictor of academic skills and well-being 6-12 months after the end of training than task accuracy. Taken together, our results suggest that attention control is the initial mechanism that leads to the long-run benefits from adaptive WMT. Selective and sustained attention abilities may serve as a scaffold for subsequent changes in higher cognitive processes, academic skills, and general well-being. Furthermore, these results highlight that the selection of outcome measures and the timing of the assessments play a crucial role in detecting training efficacy. Thus, evaluating intra-individual variability, during or directly after training could allow for the early tailoring of training interventions in terms of duration or content to maximise their impact.

Working memory training in children with borderline intellectual functioning and neuropsychiatric disorders: a triple-blind randomised controlled trial.

BackgroundPoor working memory, lower IQ and maladaptive behaviour form a triple disability known to have negative effects on the academic and social development of children with borderline intellectual functioning (BIF; IQ: 70 < IQ < 85) and neuropsychiatric disorders [attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD)]. Treatment possibilities for these children are scarce and hardly evidence based. This study primarily investigated whether adaptive computerised working memory training (WMT) may lead to significantly more improvement on a non‐trained visuospatial WM task compared with a non‐adaptive control WMT (placebo) in children with BIF and neuropsychiatric disorders. As secondary outcome measures, we used the scores on several non‐trained neuropsychological near‐transfer and far‐transfer tasks as well as behavioural measures.MethodWe conducted a triple‐blind placebo‐controlled randomised clinical trial in 72 children (aged 10;0–13;11 years, 53 boys, 19 girls) with BIF and comorbid neuropsychiatric disorders (ADHD = 37, ASD = 21, both = 14) that were referred to child and adolescent psychiatry care, between May 2012 and March 2019. Children completed the Dutch version of Cogmed WMT, either the adaptive training version or the non‐adaptive placebo version, 25 sessions (30–45 min a day), for 5 weeks. The primary outcome measure was the score on a non‐trained visuospatial working memory task. The primary outcome was measured before and directly after 5 weeks of WMT and again 6 months after training.ResultsA total of 375 children were screened for eligibility and 72 were randomised. No significantly higher levels of improvement over time were found on our primary outcome measure in the experimental WMT group compared with the placebo control WMT, nor in the secondary (near‐transfer and far‐transfer tasks) or tertiary (behavioural measures) outcome measures. However, this study did show changes over time for these measurements for both the experimental and placebo conditions.ConclusionsThis study was unable to document superior training effects over time of an adaptive WMT in children with BIF and neuropsychiatric disorders, compared with a placebo (non‐adaptive) WMT. The objectively documented changes over time in the non‐adaptive WMT arm suggest that these children with persistent impairments in WM may benefit from a structured learning environment that is associated with improvement of neurocognitive functioning and coping strategies. Further research is needed to examine which elements of cognitive training may be useful for which specific patients and to study long‐term effects of training.

Reduced Anxiety Following Mindfulness and Adaptive Working Memory Training in Women with Breast Cancer

Reduced Anxiety Following Mindfulness and Adaptive Working Memory Training in Women with Breast Cancer

Working Memory Training Effects on White Matter Integrity in Young and Older Adults.

ObjectivesWorking memory is essential for daily life skills like reading comprehension, reasoning, and problem-solving. Healthy aging of the brain goes along with working memory decline that can affect older people’s independence in everyday life. Interventions in the form of cognitive training are a promising tool for delaying age-related working memory decline, yet the underlying structural plasticity of white matter is hardly studied.MethodsWe conducted a longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging study to investigate the effects of an intensive four-week adaptive working memory training on white matter integrity quantified by global and tract-wise mean diffusivity. We compared diffusivity measures of fiber tracts that are associated with working memory of 32 young and 20 older participants that were randomly assigned to a working memory training group or an active control group.ResultsThe behavioral analysis showed an increase in working memory performance after the four-week adaptive working memory training. The neuroanatomical analysis revealed a decrease in mean diffusivity in the working memory training group after the training intervention in the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus for the older adults. There was also a decrease in mean diffusivity in the working memory training group in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus for the older and young participants after the intervention.ConclusionThis study shows that older people can benefit from working memory training by improving their working memory performance that is also reflected in terms of improved white matter integrity in the superior longitudinal fasciculus and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, where the first is an essential component of the frontoparietal network known to be essential in working memory.

Cortical and subcortical responsiveness to intensive adaptive working memory training: An MRI surface-based analysis.

Working memory training (WMT) has been shown to have effects on cognitive performance, the precise effects and the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are, however, still a matter of debate. In particular, the impact of WMT on gray matter morphology is still rather unclear. In the present study, 59 healthy middle‐aged participants (age range 50–65 years) were pseudo‐randomly single‐blinded allocated to an 8‐week adaptive WMT or an 8‐week nonadaptive intervention. Before and after the intervention, high resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed and cognitive test performance was assessed in all participants. Vertex‐wise cortical volume, thickness, surface area, and cortical folding was calculated. Seven subcortical volumes of interest and global mean cortical thickness were also measured. Comparisons of symmetrized percent change (SPC) between groups were conducted to identify group by time interactions. Greater increases in cortical gyrification in bilateral parietal regions, including superior parietal cortex and inferior parietal lobule as well as precuneus, greater increases in cortical volume and thickness in bilateral primary motor cortex, and changes in surface area in bilateral occipital cortex (medial and lateral occipital cortex) were detected in WMT group after training compared to active controls. Structural training‐induced changes in WM‐related regions, especially parietal regions, might provide a better brain processing environment for higher WM load.

Adaptive Working Memory Training Can Improve Executive Functioning and Visuo-Spatial Skills in Children With Pre-term Spastic Diplegia.

Pre-term spastic diplegia (pSD) due to periventricular leukomalacia is a form of cerebral palsy in which weaknesses in executive functions are reported beyond the core visuo-spatial deficits. The study aimed at improving executive functioning and visuo-spatial skills with an evidence-based training focused on working memory in children with pSD. The intervention study followed a stepped wedge design. 19 children with pSD (11 female and 8 male; age range: 4;1–13;1 years), mild to moderate upper limb impairment and Verbal Intelligence Quotient (VIQ) >80 participated to the study. The children were trained with a home-based adaptive working memory training (CogMed®) over a 5-week period. The primary outcome measure was the CogMed Improvement index; pre- and post-test explorative neuropsychological assessment was conducted with a subset of tests from the NEPSY-II battery. Working memory training in children with pSD significantly improved trained working memory abilities (CogMed indices) as well as non-trained skills, such as visuo-spatial skills, inhibition of automatic responses and phonological processing. The results suggest that standard rehabilitation schedules for children with pSD should be integrated with trainings on executive functions.

Predicting Working Memory Training Responsiveness in Parkinson’s Disease: Both “System Hardware” and Room for Improvement Are Needed

Background. Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) are highly vulnerable to develop cognitive dysfunctions, and the mitigating potential of early cognitive training (CT) is increasingly recognized. Predictors of CT responsiveness, which could help to tailor interventions individually, have rarely been studied in PD. This study aimed to examine individual characteristics of patients with PD associated with responsiveness to targeted working memory training (WMT). Methods. Data of 75 patients with PD (age: 63.99 ± 9.74 years, 93% Hoehn & Yahr stage 2) without cognitive dysfunctions from a randomized controlled trial were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Latent change score models with and without covariates were estimated and compared between the WMT group (n = 37), who participated in a 5-week adaptive WMT, and a waiting list control group (n = 38). Results. Latent change score models yielded adequate model fit (χ2-test p > .05, SRMR ≤ .08, CFI ≥ .95). For the near-transfer working memory composite, lower baseline performance, younger age, higher education, and higher fluid intelligence were found to significantly predict higher latent change scores in the WMT group, but not in the control group. For the far-transfer executive function composite, higher self-efficacy expectancy tended to significantly predict larger latent change scores. Conclusions. The identified associations between individual characteristics and WMT responsiveness indicate that there has to be room for improvement (e.g., lower baseline performance) and also sufficient “hardware” (e.g., younger age, higher intelligence) to benefit in training-related cognitive plasticity. Our findings are discussed within the compensation versus magnification account. They need to be replicated by methodological high-quality research applying advanced statistical methods with larger samples.

The Effects of Stoic Training and Adaptive Working Memory Training on Emotional Vulnerability in High Worriers

Previous research has indicated a causal relationship between attentional control and anxiety with literature finding that attentional control training combined with mindfulness meditation may lead to cognitive improvements in high worriers. The current study investigates whether the practical application of Stoicism, a philosophy originating from the Hellenistic period, will provide similar self-report and cognitive improvement in a sample of high worriers. 45 high worriers were randomly allocated into one of three training groups: an active control 1-back, a combined adaptive dual n-back and Stoic training and a Stoic training only group. Participants were tested on anxiety and rumination as well as measures of attentional control and a nascent scale to measure Stoic ideation, pre- and post- an 8-session training period. Results found significant effects of Stoic training on rumination and self-efficacy. Text analyses of the Stoic training found reduced frequencies of anxious and negatively valenced words questions related to self-assessments and planning. The study provides a positive foundation for the further research and development of Stoic training. The wider implications of these results are discussed.