Nelwan Michel, Kroesbergen Evelyn H
Lucertis Kinder- en Jeugdpsychiatrie Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Department of Special Education, Utrecht University Utrecht, Netherlands.
Front Psychol. 2016 Sep 21;7:1384. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01384. eCollection 2016.
The goal of this randomized controlled trial was to investigate whether Jungle Memory working memory training (JM) affects performance on working memory tasks, performance in mathematics and gains made on a mathematics training (MT) in school aged children between 9-12 years old ( = 64) with both difficulties in mathematics, as well as attention and working memory. Children were randomly assigned to three groups and were trained in two periods: (1) JM first, followed by MT, (2) MT first, followed by JM, and (3) a control group that received MT only. Bayesian analyses showed possible short term effects of JM on near transfer measures of verbal working memory, but none on visual working memory. Furthermore, support was found for the hypothesis that children that received JM first, performed better after MT than children who did not follow JM first or did not train with JM at all. However, these effects could be explained at least partly by frequency of training effects, possibly due to motivational issues, and training-specific factors. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether the effects found on improving mathematics were actually mediated by gains in working memory. It is argued that JM might not train the components of working memory involved in mathematics sufficiently. Another possible explanation can be found in the training's lack of adaptivity, therefore failing to provide the children with tailored instruction and feedback. Finally, it was hypothesized that, since effect sizes are generally small, training effects are bound to a critical period in development.
这项随机对照试验的目的是调查丛林记忆工作记忆训练（JM）是否会影响9至12岁学龄儿童（n = 64）在工作记忆任务上的表现、数学成绩以及在数学训练（MT）中的进步，这些儿童在数学、注意力和工作记忆方面均存在困难。儿童被随机分为三组，并在两个阶段接受训练：（1）先进行JM训练，然后是MT训练；（2）先进行MT训练，然后是JM训练；（3）仅接受MT训练的对照组。贝叶斯分析表明，JM对言语工作记忆的近迁移测量可能有短期影响，但对视觉工作记忆没有影响。此外，研究结果支持了以下假设：先接受JM训练的儿童在MT训练后的表现优于未先接受JM训练或根本未接受JM训练的儿童。然而，这些影响至少部分可以通过训练效果的频率来解释，这可能是由于动机问题和训练特定因素所致。此外，目前尚不清楚在提高数学成绩方面发现的效果是否实际上是由工作记忆的提升所介导的。有人认为，JM可能没有充分训练数学中涉及的工作记忆成分。另一个可能的解释是训练缺乏适应性，因此未能为儿童提供量身定制的指导和反馈。最后，有人假设，由于效应量通常较小，训练效果与发育中的关键时期有关。
