Cited by 68Cognitive Abilities and TestingCognitive Functions and MemoryCognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills

The role of strategy use in working memory training outcomes

Open access
Fellman, Daniel, Jylkkä, Jussi, Waris, Otto, Soveri, Anna, Ritakallio, Liisa, Haga, Sarah, Salmi, Juha, Nyman, Thomas J. +1 more·2020·Journal of Memory and Language

Abstract

Abstract Cognitive mechanisms underlying the limited transfer effects of working memory (WM) training remain poorly understood. We tested in detail the Strategy Mediation hypothesis, according to which WM training generates task-specific strategies that facilitate performance on the trained task and its untrained variants. This large-scale pre-registered randomized controlled trial (n = 258) used a 4-week adaptive WM training with a single digit n-back task. Strategy use was probed with open-ended strategy reports. We employed a Strategy training group (n = 73) receiving external strategy instruction, a Traditional training group (n = 118) practicing without strategy instruction, and Passive controls (n = 67). Both training groups showed emerging transfer to untrained n-back task variants already at intermediate test after 3 training sessions, extending to all untrained n-back task variants at posttest after 12 training sessions. The Strategy training group outperformed the Traditional training group only at the beginning of training, indicating short-lived strategy manipulation effects. Importantly, in the Traditional training group, strategy evolvement modulated the gains in the trained and untrained n-back tasks, supporting the Strategy Mediation hypothesis. Our results concur with the view of WM training as cognitive skill learning.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.jml.2019.104064

Cites

96 of 96 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

The text we found for this paper looks like another document, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The text we found for this paper looks like another document, so the self-check wasn’t run.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

6 of the 102 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Fellman, D., Jylkkä, J., Waris, O., Soveri, A., Ritakallio, L., Haga, S., Salmi, J., Nyman, T. J., & Laine, M.
Affiliations
  • Åbo Akademi University (FI)
  • University of Turku (FI)
Corresponding author
Fellman, Daniel
Venue
Journal of Memory and Language
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-02
Volume
110
Pages
104064
ISSN
0749-596X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2981224436
Cited by
64
References
102
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 8
FWCI
6.78
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Memory and Language (publishedVersion)
  • Åbo Akademi University Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Academy of Finland (260276, 323251)
  • Signe ja Ane Gyllenbergin Säätiö
  • Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademi
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, strategy use, transfer of training, n-back task, strategy instruction, cognitive skill learning, adaptive training

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Classified by jev-1.13-20260917 (gold-guideline-v0.2) on 2026-10-08.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review