Name: working memory training for older participants: a control group training regimen and initial intellectual functioning assessment
Uploaded: 2020-09-20T12:30:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Working Memory Training for Older Participants: A Control Group Training Regimen and Initial Intellectual Functioning Assessment at JoVE.com

Described results are obtained from the project supported by the National Science Centre in Poland under grant no. 2014/13/B/HS6/03155.

The SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities Ethics Committee assessed the protocol described here. A written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki was obtained from every participant.
1. Participants recruitment
<ol>
	<li>Recruit at least 36 volunteers for each training group. This number was evidenced to be enough to observe between-groups effects by authors&#39; previous research and also in the literature on the subject. Typical effect sizes in working ...

<ol>
	<li>Baddeley, A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Working+memory:+Looking+back+and+looking+forward.">Working memory: Looking back and looking forward.</a> Nature Reviews Neuroscience. , (2003).</li><li>Au, J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Improving+fluid+intelligence+with+training+on+working+memory:+a+meta-analysis.">Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory: a meta-analysis.</a> Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. 22, 366-377 (2015).</li><li>Karbach, J., Verhaeghen, P. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Making+working+memory+work:+A+meta-analysis+of+executive+control+and+working+memory+training+in+younger+and+older+adults.">Making working memory work: A meta-analysis of executive control and working memory training in younger and older adults.</a> Psychological Science. 25, 11-2027 (2014).</li><li>Melby-Lerv&#229;g, M., Hulme, C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Is+working+memory+training+effective?+A+meta-analytic+review.">Is working memory training effective? A meta-analytic review.</a> Developmental Psychology. , (2013).</li><li>Melby-Lerv&#229;g, M., Redick, T. S., Hulme, C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Working+Memory+Training+Does+Not+Improve+Performance+on+Measures+of+Intelligence+or+Other+Measures+of+&amp;#34;Far+Transfer&amp;#34;:+Evidence+From+a+Meta-Analytic+Review.">Working Memory Training Does Not Improve Performance on Measures of Intelligence or Other Measures of &amp;#34;Far Transfer&amp;#34;: Evidence From a Meta-Analytic Review.</a> Perspectives on Psychological Science. , (2016).</li><li>Schwaighofer, M., Fischer, F., B&#252;hner, M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Does+Working+Memory+Training+Transfer?+A+Meta-Analysis+Including+Training+Conditions+as+Moderators.">Does Working Memory Training Transfer? 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In the study presented here, we have investigated whether older adults could benefit from working memory training and if it is connected to the initial level of their basic cognition. We used an n-back task as an experimental intervention and working memory capacity (measured with the OSPAN task) was the method to probe participants&#39; initial level of intellectual functioning. We had two critical steps in the protocol. The first and most important was the assessment of the initial WM level. The second was the careful ...

In many cognitive trainings studies, the dual n-back task is used as a method of working memory (WM) training. WM is a common target of cognitive interventions because of its importance for other, higher level intellectual functions1. However, the effectiveness of such training and its potential for creating a more general improvement in cognition, has been highly debated (for meta-analysis, see2,3,4,5,6,7,14 and for reviews, see4,8,9,10,11,12,13). While some researchers claim that &#39;&#39;&#8230; there was no convincing evidence of the generalization of working memory training to other skills&#39;&#39;4, others present meta-analytical data, which show highly significant effects of WM training2,3,5,6,11. The separate problem is the effectiveness of WM in the elderly population. Several WM training studies reported greater benefits in younger adults compared to older adults15,16,17,18,19,20, whereas others show that similar effects can be observed in both age groups21,22,23,24,25.
Various elements are believed to forecast the benefits of memory training26. Some of those factors appears to be potential moderators of WM training effectiveness21. Mental capacity, being described as the baseline cognitive capacity or general cognitive resource, seems to be one of the strongest choices for this position. In order to assess the role of the initial intellectual level, we put a special emphasis (the method described here) on the measurement of the cognitive capacity before applying a training regimen. It was dictated by the data showing that participants, who are characterized by higher cognitive capacity at the beginning of the training, achieved substantially better training outcomes compared to those with lower levels of initial cognitive functionning27. A similar phenomenon is observed in educational research, where it is referred to as the Matthew effect28, an observation that people with initially better skill improve even more when compared to those with preliminary lower level of ability in question.
It is thought-provoking, though, that not so many reports have been published on this topic21,29. Moreover, even substantial individual differences, especially when it comes to the elderly population, are often left unattended during data analysis and interpretation30. In the present study, we examine the impact of the initial level of working memory capacity on WM training success in the group of healthy older adults. In order to maintain every element of the training regimens as similar as possible between experimental and control groups, we employed an active control group design. Therefore, the training content (WM versus semantic memory) remained the one crucial factor determining the expected difference in the training results. Both groups performed computerized, home-based trainings. Members of the experimental group were assigned to an adaptive dual n-back training program and an active control group trained with a task based on a semantic memory quiz. New in the approach here is the emphasis on the initial evaluation of the participants&#39; cognitive level by assessing their working memory capacity (WMC). Additionally, the method of assessing the initial WMC level we present in this article has proven to be an effective tool in distinguishing between people who will and will not be successful during subsequent working memory training. We have previously described and published results from this study44. Therefore, in this article we are focusing on a detailed description of the protocol we used.

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			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">GEx</td>
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			used for N-back training, Quiz</td>
			<td style="width:349px;"></td>
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			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0</td>
			<td style="width:121px;">IBM Corporation</td>
			<td style="width:289px;">SPSS software was used to compute statistical analysis.</td>
			<td style="width:349px;"></td>
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			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Inquisit version 4.0.8.0</td>
			<td style="width:121px;">Millisecond Software</td>
			<td style="width:289px;">software: tool for designing and administering experiments 
			used for: The Sternberg Task, The Linear Syllogism Task and presenting the instructions for baseline EEG recording</td>
			<td style="width:349px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">MATLAB R2018b</td>
			<td style="width:121px;">The MathWorks, Inc</td>
			<td style="width:289px;">MATLAB software was used to compute statistics and to export databases and&#160; visualisation of the results</td>
			<td style="width:349px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">PsychoPy version 2 v.1.83.04</td>
			<td style="width:121px;">Jonathan Peirce; supported by University of Nottingham</td>
			<td style="width:289px;">open-source software 
			used for: Go/no Go Task, The Switching Task, Running Memory Span Taskckage based on Python</td>
			<td style="width:349px;"></td>
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			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Sublime Text (version 2.0.2)</td>
			<td style="width:121px;">n/a</td>
			<td style="width:289px;">open-source software: HTML editor 
			used for: online OSPAN Task</td>
			<td style="width:349px;"></td>
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working memory training for older participants: a control group training regimen and initial intellectual functioning assessment

The efficacy of cognitive training interventions is recently highly debated. There is no consensus on what kind of training regimen is the most effective. Also, individual characteristics as predictors of training outcome are still being investigated. In this article, we show the attempt to address this issue by examining not only the impact of working memory (WM) training on cognitive effectiveness in older adults but also the influence of the initial WM capacity (WMC) on the training&#39;s outcome. We describe in detail how to perform 5 weeks of an adaptive dual n-back training with an active control group (memory quiz). We are focusing here on technical aspects of the training as well as on the initial assessment of participants&#39; WMC. The evaluation of pre and post training performance of other cognitive dimensions was based on the results of tests of memory updating, inhibition, attention shifting, short-term memory (STM) and reasoning. We have found that the initial level of WMC predicts the efficiency of the n-back training intervention. We have also noticed the post training improvement in almost all aspects of cognitive functioning we measured, but those effects were mostly intervention independent.

Training-related effects
85 subjects participated in the study (29 were male) and they were on average 66.7 years old. Due to technical problems, data from one participant in the n-back training group was not recorded. Finally, the data from 43 participants in n-back training group and 42 in Quiz training group were analyzed. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with repeated measures was used to analyze t...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Working Memory Training for Older Participants: A Control Group Training Regimen and Initial Intellectual Functioning Assessment at JoVE.com

Working Memory Training for Older Participants: A Control Group Training Regimen and Initial Intellectual Functioning Assessment

A cognitive training intervention in elderly population together with the assessment of the pre training cognitive abilities is presented. We show two versions of training - experimental and active control - and demonstrate their effects on the array of cognitive tests.

The efficacy of cognitive training interventions is recently highly debated. There is no consensus on what kind of training regimen is the most effective. ...

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