Finn Peter R, Nemes Luca, Bailey Allen, Gunn Rachel L, Wiemers Elizabeth A, Redick Thomas S
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington.
Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University School of Public Health.
J Cogn Enhanc. 2022 Sep;6(3):327-339. doi: 10.1007/s41465-022-00241-y. Epub 2022 Mar 23.
There is considerable debate about whether Working Memory (WM) training specifically results in far-transfer improvements in executive cognitive function (ECF) rather than improvements on tasks similar to the training tasks. There has also been recent interest in whether WM training can improve ECF in clinical populations with clear deficits in ECFs. The current study examined the effects of WM training compared with non-WM adaptive Visual Search (VS) control training (15 sessions over 4 weeks) on various measures of ECF, including delay discounting (DD) rate, inhibition on flanker, color and spatial Stroop tasks, and drinking in a community-recruited sample with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD, 41 men, 41 women, mean age = 21.7 years), who were not in treatment or seeking treatment, and non-AUD healthy controls (37 men, 52 women, mean age = 22.3 years). Both WM and VS training were associated with improvements on all ECF measures at 4 weeks and 1-month follow-up. WM and VS training were associated with reductions in both DD rates and interference on Stroop and Flanker tasks in all participants, as well as reductions in drinking in AUD participants that remained apparent one month post training. The results suggest that nonspecific effects of demanding cognitive training, as opposed to specific WM training effects, could enhance ECF, and that such enhancements are retained at least one-month post-training.
关于工作记忆（WM）训练是否能特别带来执行认知功能（ECF）的远迁移改善，而非仅改善与训练任务相似的任务，存在相当大的争议。近期人们还关注WM训练能否改善ECF明显存在缺陷的临床人群的ECF。本研究比较了WM训练与非WM适应性视觉搜索（VS）对照训练（4周内进行15次训练）对ECF各项指标的影响，这些指标包括延迟折扣（DD）率、侧翼抑制、颜色和空间Stroop任务中的抑制，以及在一个社区招募的酒精使用障碍（AUD，41名男性，41名女性，平均年龄 = 21.7岁）样本中的饮酒情况，该样本未接受治疗或寻求治疗，同时还包括非AUD健康对照组（37名男性，52名女性，平均年龄 = 22.3岁）。在4周和1个月随访时，WM训练和VS训练均与所有ECF指标的改善相关。WM训练和VS训练与所有参与者的DD率降低以及Stroop和侧翼任务中的干扰减少相关，同时与AUD参与者的饮酒量减少相关，且这种减少在训练后1个月仍很明显。结果表明，与特定的WM训练效果相反，要求较高的认知训练的非特异性效果可能会增强ECF，并且这种增强在训练后至少1个月内持续存在。
