Traut Hilary J, Guild Ryan M, Munakata Yuko
Cognitive Development Center, Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States.
Cognition in Context Lab, Department of Psychology and Center for Mind & Brain, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2021 May 26;12:662139. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.662139. eCollection 2021.
Despite growing interest in improving cognitive abilities across the lifespan through training, the benefits of cognitive training are inconsistent. One powerful contributor may be that individuals arrive at interventions with different baseline levels of the cognitive skill being trained. Some evidence suggests poor performers benefit the most from cognitive training, showing compensation for their weak abilities, while other evidence suggests that high performers benefit most, experiencing a magnification of their abilities. Whether training leads to compensation or magnification effects may depend upon the specific cognitive domain being trained (such as executive function or episodic memory) and the training approach implemented (strategy or process). To clarify the association between individual differences in baseline cognitive ability and training gains as well as potential moderators, we conducted a systematic meta-analysis of the correlation between these two variables. We found evidence of a significant meta-correlation demonstrating a compensatory effect, a negative association between initial ability on a trained cognitive process and training gains. Too few papers met our search criteria across the levels of proposed moderators of cognitive domain and training approach to conduct a reliable investigation of their influence over the meta-analytic effect size. We discuss the implications of a compensatory meta-correlation, potential reasons for the paucity of qualifying papers, and important future directions for better understanding how cognitive trainings work and for whom.
尽管人们越来越有兴趣通过训练来提高整个生命周期的认知能力，但认知训练的益处并不一致。一个重要的因素可能是，个体在接受干预时，所训练的认知技能的基线水平不同。一些证据表明，表现较差者从认知训练中获益最大，表现为对其薄弱能力的补偿，而另一些证据则表明，表现优秀者获益最大，其能力得到放大。训练是导致补偿效应还是放大效应，可能取决于所训练的特定认知领域（如执行功能或情景记忆）以及所采用的训练方法（策略或过程）。为了阐明基线认知能力的个体差异与训练收益之间的关联以及潜在的调节因素，我们对这两个变量之间的相关性进行了系统的荟萃分析。我们发现了显著的元相关性证据，表明存在补偿效应，即在经过训练的认知过程中，初始能力与训练收益之间呈负相关。在所提出的认知领域和训练方法的调节因素水平上，符合我们搜索标准的论文太少，无法对它们对荟萃分析效应大小的影响进行可靠的研究。我们讨论了补偿性元相关性的影响、合格论文数量稀少的潜在原因，以及未来为更好地理解认知训练如何起作用以及对谁起作用的重要方向。
