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Cited by 83Cognitive Abilities and TestingCognitive Functions and MemoryCognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills

Does working memory training have to be adaptive?

Open access
von Bastian, Claudia C., Eschen, Anne·2016·Psychological Research
DOI 10.1007/s00426-015-0655-z
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Abstract

This study tested the common assumption that, to be most effective, working memory (WM) training should be adaptive (i.e., task difficulty is adjusted to individual performance). Indirect evidence for this assumption stems from studies comparing adaptive training to a condition in which tasks are practiced on the easiest level of difficulty only [cf. Klingberg (Trends Cogn Sci 14:317-324, 2010)], thereby, however, confounding adaptivity and exposure to varying task difficulty. For a more direct test of this hypothesis, we randomly assigned 130 young adults to one of the three WM training procedures (adaptive, randomized, or self-selected change in training task difficulty) or to an active control group. Despite large performance increases in the trained WM tasks, we observed neither transfer to untrained structurally dissimilar WM tasks nor far transfer to reasoning. Surprisingly, neither training nor transfer effects were modulated by training procedure, indicating that exposure to varying levels of task difficulty is sufficient for inducing training gains.

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  • Evidence on whether adaptivity improves working memory training gains is mixed: one study found greater gains for adaptive training, while others found no effect.

    “Moreover, Holmes et al. (2009) showed that WM training gains were significantly greater for an adaptive training group compared with a non-adaptive training group, although others have failed to observe any effects of adaptivity on learning outcome (von Bastian and Eschen 2016).”

    From Divergent Research Methods Limit Understanding of Working Memory Training (2020) · cites this paper as von Bastian and Eschen 2016

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  1. Licini, C. (2014). Verbesserung der Lernfähigkeit durch gezieltes Arbeitsgedächtnistraining [Improvement of the Ability Learn Through Working Memory Training]. (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

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Authors
von Bastian, C. C., & Eschen, A.
Affiliations
University of Zurich (CH)
Venue
Psychological Research
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2015-02-26
Volume
80
Issue
2
Pages
181-194
ISSN
  • 0033-3026 (ISSN-L)
  • 0340-0727
  • 1430-2772
DOI
10.1007/s00426-015-0655-z
OpenAlex
W1992924425
Cited by
83
References
74
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 5
FWCI
17.63
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
Locations
  • Psychological Research (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Bournemouth University Research Online (Bournemouth University) (submittedVersion)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
  • Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills
Keywords
working memory training, adaptive training, task difficulty, transfer of training, far transfer, reasoning
MeSH terms
Adult, Female, Humans, Learning, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Thinking, Transfer, Psychology, Young Adult

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