Salminen Tiina, Strobach Tilo, Schubert Torsten
Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2012 Jun 6;6:166. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00166. eCollection 2012.
Recent studies have reported improvements in a variety of cognitive functions following sole working memory (WM) training. In spite of the emergence of several successful training paradigms, the scope of transfer effects has remained mixed. This is most likely due to the heterogeneity of cognitive functions that have been measured and tasks that have been applied. In the present study, we approached this issue systematically by investigating transfer effects from WM training to different aspects of executive functioning. Our training task was a demanding WM task that requires simultaneous performance of a visual and an auditory n-back task, while the transfer tasks tapped WM updating, coordination of the performance of multiple simultaneous tasks (i.e., dual-tasks) and sequential tasks (i.e., task switching), and the temporal distribution of attentional processing. Additionally, we examined whether WM training improves reasoning abilities; a hypothesis that has so far gained mixed support. Following training, participants showed improvements in the trained task as well as in the transfer WM updating task. As for the other executive functions, trained participants improved in a task switching situation and in attentional processing. There was no transfer to the dual-task situation or to reasoning skills. These results, therefore, confirm previous findings that WM can be trained, and additionally, they show that the training effects can generalize to various other tasks tapping on executive functions.
最近的研究报告称，仅进行工作记忆（WM）训练后，多种认知功能都有所改善。尽管出现了几种成功的训练范式，但迁移效应的范围仍然参差不齐。这很可能是由于所测量的认知功能和所应用任务的异质性所致。在本研究中，我们通过调查从WM训练到执行功能不同方面的迁移效应，系统地探讨了这个问题。我们的训练任务是一项要求很高的WM任务，需要同时执行视觉和听觉n-back任务，而迁移任务则涉及WM更新、多个同时进行的任务（即双重任务）和顺序任务（即任务切换）的执行协调，以及注意力处理的时间分布。此外，我们还研究了WM训练是否能提高推理能力；这一假设迄今为止得到的支持不一。训练后，参与者在训练任务以及迁移WM更新任务中都有进步。至于其他执行功能，接受训练的参与者在任务切换情境和注意力处理方面有所改善。但没有迁移到双重任务情境或推理技能方面。因此，这些结果证实了之前的研究发现，即WM是可以训练的，此外，它们还表明训练效果可以推广到其他各种涉及执行功能的任务中。
