Working memory training transfer does not extend beyond select working memory tasks?(Dunning, Holmes, Gathercole 2013)

[XFMQ902SF]

Children with low working memory typically make poor educational progress, and it has been speculated that difficulties in meeting the heavy working memory demands of the classroom may be a contributory factor. Intensive working memory training has been shown to boost performance on untrained memory tasks in a variety of populations. This first randomized controlled trial with low working memory children investigated whether the benefits of training extend beyond standard working memory tasks to other more complex activities typical of the classroom in which working memory plays a role, as well as to other cognitive skills and developing academic abilities. Children aged 7–9 years received either adaptive working memory training, non-adaptive working memory training with low memory loads, or no training. Adaptive training was associated with selective improvements in multiple untrained tests of working memory, with no evidence of changes in classroom analogues of activities that tax working memory, or any other cognitive assessments. Gains in verbal working memory were sustained one year after training. Thus the benefits of working memory training delivered in this way may not extend beyond structured working memory tasks.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.12068/abstract

[Gwern Branwen]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/182368464/2013-dunning.pdf

> The greatest improvements in WM following training were observed in complex span measures strongly associated with children’s academic achievements in literacy and mathematics (Swanson & Siegel, 2001; Alloway, Gathercole, Willis & Adams, 2004). However, adaptive WM training did not significantly improve children’s performance on standardized reading and mathematics tests either immediately after training or one year later. Indeed, the only significant change in any group was an increase in basic reading scores for the no intervention group. These data stand in contrast with Holmes et al.’s (2009) findings that mathematical abilities were enhanced by adaptive training 6 months after training was completed. However, this earlier study lacked the comparison control condition at follow-up required to provide a stringent test of the specificity of training gains.

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gwern
http://www.gwern.net

[jttoto2]

Improvements in achievement but not standardized tests?  Sounds like people felt smarter and therefore studied more.