Working memory training is intended to improve a person's working memory. Working memory is a central intellectual faculty, linked to IQ, ageing, and mental health. It has been claimed that working memory training programs are effective means, both for treating specific medical conditions associated with working memory deficit, and for general increase in cognitive capacity among healthy adults. Individual studies of the topic show different, and sometime contradictory, results, and as one meta-study states, asking the question "Does cognitive training improve intelligence?" is as inappropriate as asking "Does medicine cure disease?", since none of them specify which particular intervention (which medicine or working memory training program) is being evaluated, for alleviating which condition is it applied (ADHD, stroke, general cognitive improvement etc.), and under what circumstances is it administered (selection criteria, adherence rate, outcome variables etc.). In an influential metastudy from 2012, highly critical to cognitive training, analysed 23 studies with 30 group comparisons, and concluded that clinical memory training programs produce reliable short-term improvements in working memory skills in children and adults with ADHD, but also that there is no evidence that such effects can be maintained long-term without additional follow-up training. Three years later, another metastudy reached the opposite conclusion, that working memory training does have consistent and useful effects, not just on the type of working memory tests that are practiced, but also at other non-trained tasks and everyday life. Since then, a range of additional clinical experiments have been completed, with larger sample sizes, clearly defined control groups, and more uniform treatment of outcome variables. While the evidence is still far from unanimous, there are several experimental studies of working memory training that have shown beneficial effects for people with ADHD, those who have suffered stroke or traumatic brain injury, children who have undergone cancer treatment, as well as for normally developing children.
Working memory
Working memory (WM) is the system which holds multiple pieces of transitory information in the mind – information that is needed for different tasks right now. Working memory differs from short-term memory in that it is the storage and manipulation of information, while short-term is solely the storage of information in a readily available state. Therefore, short-term memory is a component of working memory. Working memory capacity is usually assessed by determining the number of pieces of information that a person can hold in their mind at once. For example, a person might be asked to listen to a series of digits and letters, sort them into order in mind, and then recall the sorted list aloud. The longest set of characters or other items that can reliably be recalled is the working memory capacity. The capacity of working memory differs between people: a person able to recall eight instructions has a greater working memory capacity than someone who can only recall a series of five. Numerous scientific studies have linked working memory capacity with strength in other fundamental cognitive abilities, including attention and intelligence. Conversely, poor working memory is assumed to be one of the core deficits in ADHD as well as a number of learning disabilities.
Tasks Working memory training tasks are conducted on computers and are often paired with positive reinforcement, feedback of the individual's performance, and other motivational features such as displaying the individual's current score beside their personal best score. Practicing these tasks demands numerous processes such as encoding, inhibition, maintenance, manipulation, shifting and controlling attention, and the ability to manage two tasks simultaneously or dividing attention. Possible forms of the tasks include recalling a series of locations of items on the screen, recalling digits or letters in either the order presented or reverse order, or recalling specifically where a particular number or digit was in a sequence. Computers are additionally programmed to adjust the difficulty of the task to the individual's performance with each trial in order to maximize learning and overall improvement. If the individual does poorer on one trial, the difficulty will decrease. Similarly, if the individual excels on the next few trials, the difficulty will increase. Two ways of altering the difficulty are adjusting the number of stimuli to be remembered and adding visual distractions.
Strategies Common strategies used in working memory training include repetition of the tasks, giving feedback such as tips to improve one's performance to both the parents and the individual, positive reinforcement from those conducting the study as well as parents through praise and rewarding, and the gradual adjustment of the task difficulty from trial to trial. More explicitly used strategies by the individual include rehearsal of material, chunking, pairing mental images with the material, mnemonics, and other meta-cognitive strategies. The latter strategies have been learned and there is a conscious awareness of their use. Exercise is also an important strategy in improving working memory. When complex motor learning is paired with specific working memory demands, engaging in long-term coordinative exercise may enhance the brain's ability to share neural resources when managing similar working memory tasks. Additionally, different exercise strategies were found to be beneficial for adults compared to adolescents.
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