Working memory
Does Working Memory Training Promote New Memory Strategies?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Practicing challenging computerized memory tasks improves working memory because it prompts people to spontaneously adopt better strategies like grouping information.
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Discoveries this paper informs or conflicts with
- Working-memory training gains look like better strategies, not a bigger memory store
This paper informs this development.
Study at a glance
- Design
- RCT — Random assignment to adaptive computerized WM training, nonadaptive training, or no training; strategy reports at pre/post
- N
- N=45 · 15 undergraduates per arm, ages 18–21
- Population
- English-fluent undergraduate students
- Outcome
- Visuospatial STM and verbal/visuospatial WM gain after adaptive training, coincident with more spontaneous grouping strategies
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Does Working Memory Training Promote New Memory Strategies?
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10 sessions of cognitive tasks
Those in the adaptive and nonadaptive groups then trained for 10 sessions before completing a set of posttraining assessments (T2).
4 subtests
Participants completed four subtests of the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA; Alloway, ) at T1.
Key findings
The adaptive training group showed significantly greater improvements in visuospatial short-term memory (effect size 1.47) and both verbal (0.87) and visuospatial (0.73) working memory compared to the control groups. These performance increases were closely tied to strategy shifts, with at least 50% more participants in the adaptive group spontaneously developing and reporting a grouping strategy after training.
Methodology
The researchers recruited a group of English-fluent college students and assigned them to 3 conditions: adaptive training, non-adaptive placebo training, or a no-training control. Those in the training groups completed 10 sessions of cognitive tasks over a span of a few weeks. The researchers administered 4 subtests of a standardized working memory assessment before and after training, and interviewed participants immediately after each test to catalog their exact mental strategies.
Limitations
Because the study relied on retrospective interviews, it does not rule out that participants misremembered their strategy use or fell victim to demand characteristics. Additionally, the small sample size of only 14 participants in the final analysis of the adaptive group limits the statistical power needed to definitively prove strategy use caused the memory gains. Finally, it does not demonstrate if these task-specific strategic improvements translate to broader, real-world academic or everyday cognitive tasks.
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