Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Corso Bettini 31, 38068, Rovereto (TN), Italy.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2022 Nov;84(8):2507-2518. doi: 10.3758/s13414-022-02580-6. Epub 2022 Oct 3.
Cognitive decrements are typical of physiological aging. Among these age-related cognitive changes, visuo-spatial working memory (vWM) decline has a prominent role due to its effects on other cognitive functions and daily routines. To reinforce vWM in the aging population, several cognitive training interventions have been developed in the past years. Given that vWM functioning depends (at least partially) on the efficiency of attention selection of the relevant objects, in the present study we implemented a short (five sessions), online intervention that primarily trained attentive individuation of target items and tested training effects on a vWM task. Attention training effects were compared with practice (i.e., a group that repeatedly performed the same vWM task) and test-retest effects (i.e., a passive group). After the training, the results showed attention training effects of the same magnitude as practice effects, confirming that the enhancement of attentive individuation has a positive cascade influence on maintaining items in vWM. Moreover, training and practice effects were only evident in low-performing older adults. Thus, interindividual differences at baseline crucially contribute to training outcomes and are a fundamental factor to be accounted for in the implementation of cognitive training protocols.
认知能力下降是生理衰老的典型特征。在这些与年龄相关的认知变化中，视空间工作记忆 (vWM) 的下降尤为突出，因为它会影响其他认知功能和日常生活。为了增强老年人的 vWM，过去几年已经开发了几种认知训练干预措施。鉴于 vWM 功能（至少部分）取决于对相关对象的注意力选择效率，在本研究中，我们实施了一个短期（五节课）的在线干预措施，主要训练目标项目的注意力个体差异，并在 vWM 任务上测试训练效果。注意力训练效果与练习（即重复执行相同 vWM 任务的组）和测试-再测试效果（即被动组）进行了比较。训练后，结果表明注意力训练效果与练习效果相同，证实了注意个体差异的增强对保持 vWM 中的项目具有积极的级联影响。此外，训练和练习效果仅在表现较差的老年组中明显。因此，基线时的个体间差异对训练结果至关重要，是实施认知训练方案时需要考虑的一个基本因素。
