Borella Erika, Carretti Barbara, Sciore Roberta, Capotosto Emanuela, Taconnat Laurence, Cornoldi Cesare, De Beni Rossana
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova.
Department of Psychology, University of Tours.
Psychol Aging. 2017 Mar;32(2):178-191. doi: 10.1037/pag0000155.
The purpose of the present study was to test the efficacy of a working memory (WM) training in elderly people, and to compare the effects of a WM training based on an adaptive procedure with one combining the same procedure with the use of a strategy, based on the construction of visual mental images. Eighteen older adults received training with a WM task (the WM group), another 18 received the same WM training and were also taught to use a visual imagery strategy (the WM + Strategy group), and another 18 served as active controls. Training-related gains in the WM (criterion) task and transfer effects on measures of verbal and visuospatial WM, short-term memory (STM), processing speed, and reasoning were considered. Training gains and transfer effects were also assessed after 6 months. After the training, both the trained groups performed better than the control group in the WM criterion task, and maintained these gains 6 months later; they also showed immediate transfer effects on processing speed. The two trained groups also outperformed the control group in the long term in the WM tasks, in one of the STM tasks (backward span task), and in the processing speed measure. Long-term large effect sizes were found for all the tasks involving memory processes in the WM + Strategy group, but only for the processing speed task in the WM group. Findings are discussed in terms of the benefits and limits of teaching older people a strategy in combination with an adaptive WM training. (PsycINFO Database Record
本研究的目的是测试工作记忆（WM）训练对老年人的疗效，并比较基于自适应程序的WM训练与将相同程序与基于视觉心理图像构建的策略相结合的训练效果。18名老年人接受了WM任务训练（WM组），另外18名接受了相同的WM训练，并被教导使用视觉表象策略（WM+策略组），另有18名作为积极对照组。研究考虑了WM（标准）任务中与训练相关的进步以及对言语和视觉空间WM、短期记忆（STM）、处理速度和推理测量的迁移效应。6个月后也评估了训练进步和迁移效应。训练后，两个训练组在WM标准任务中的表现均优于对照组，并在6个月后保持了这些进步；他们还在处理速度上表现出即时迁移效应。从长期来看，两个训练组在WM任务、其中一项STM任务（倒序跨度任务）和处理速度测量方面也优于对照组。在WM+策略组中，所有涉及记忆过程的任务都发现了长期的大效应量，但在WM组中仅在处理速度任务中发现了大效应量。研究结果从教导老年人将策略与自适应WM训练相结合的益处和局限性方面进行了讨论。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
