Failure of Working Memory Training to Enhance Cognition or Intelligence

被引:139
作者
Thompson, Todd W. [1 ]
Waskom, Michael L. [1 ,3 ,4 ]
Garel, Keri-Lee A. [1 ]
Cardenas-Iniguez, Carlos [1 ,5 ]
Reynolds, Gretchen O. [1 ,6 ]
Winter, Rebecca [1 ,7 ]
Chang, Patricia [1 ]
Pollard, Kiersten [1 ]
Lala, Nupur [1 ,8 ]
Alvarez, George A. [9 ]
Gabrieli, John D. E. [1 ,2 ]
机构
[1] MIT, Dept Brain & Cognit Sci, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
[2] MIT, McGovern Inst Brain Res, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
[3] Stanford Univ, Dept Psychol, Stanford, CA 94305 USA
[4] Stanford Univ, Ctr Mind Brain & Computat, Stanford, CA 94305 USA
[5] Univ Chicago, Dept Psychol, Chicago, IL 60637 USA
[6] Boston Univ, Dept Psychol, Boston, MA 02215 USA
[7] Mt Sinai Sch Med, Dept Psychiat, New York, NY USA
[8] Childrens Canc Hosp, MD Anderson Canc Ctr, Dept Pediat Res, Houston, TX USA
[9] Harvard Univ, Dept Psychol, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
来源
PLOS ONE | 2013年 / 8卷 / 05期
关键词
GENERAL FLUID INTELLIGENCE; SHORT-TERM-MEMORY; INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES; NEURAL MECHANISMS; PROCESSING SPEED; CAPACITY; CHILDREN; ABILITY; GRIT;
D O I
10.1371/journal.pone.0063614
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
Fluid intelligence is important for successful functioning in the modern world, but much evidence suggests that fluid intelligence is largely immutable after childhood. Recently, however, researchers have reported gains in fluid intelligence after multiple sessions of adaptive working memory training in adults. The current study attempted to replicate and expand those results by administering a broad assessment of cognitive abilities and personality traits to young adults who underwent 20 sessions of an adaptive dual n-back working memory training program and comparing their post-training performance on those tests to a matched set of young adults who underwent 20 sessions of an adaptive attentional tracking program. Pre- and post-training measurements of fluid intelligence, standardized intelligence tests, speed of processing, reading skills, and other tests of working memory were assessed. Both training groups exhibited substantial and specific improvements on the trained tasks that persisted for at least 6 months post-training, but no transfer of improvement was observed to any of the non-trained measurements when compared to a third untrained group serving as a passive control. These findings fail to support the idea that adaptive working memory training in healthy young adults enhances working memory capacity in non-trained tasks, fluid intelligence, or other measures of cognitive abilities.
引用
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页数:15
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