Progressing rapidly but intuitively

[Fernando Avalos]

Hi everyone,

I recently started practicing Dual N-back 4 days ago. I reached N = 6 quite fast but by then I realized I wasn't making any conscious effort to keep the positions and sounds in my head. Instead, I relied on hunches and intuitions, as if were subconsciously aware of what I had already processed.

This seems to work by now, although I'm worried whether relying is sustainable as I progress. Moreover, I'm also concerned about hypothetical transfer effects since I'm not consciously stressing working memory.

I've seen mixed evidence about what the best strategy is. Some claim that relying in intuition is the whole point of training, whereas others ascertain that rehearsal is better. As a side note, the lack of consensus in this matter compromises the overall scientific validity of dual N-back training.

My questions are:

• In your experience, which strategy between intuition and rehearsal has proven to be the most effective?
• Is progressing to higher dual N-back levels a terminal or instrumental goal? Obviously, you could reach N = 10+ if you used chunking and such but I would make the rather bold contention that steadily grinding N = 5/6/7 while actively using your WM is more effective. Higher levels don't mean anything if you are "cheating"

Thanks in advance!

[ФІ-14 Богдан Мишинкин]

I think training in an unconscious way also improves conscious capability.

пн, 12 мая 2025 г., 00:44 Fernando Avalos <faval...@gmail.com>:

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[Gabriel Aquilano]

I agree with the previous message, I think it should improve WM regardless. If you are finding dual n back surprisingly easy , you could try Quad N Back, which incorporates Shapes and colors. It is challenging, but looks more than it is. position and sound become almost intuitive and the ones you commit the least errors with (usually) whilst shapes and colors really make the WM suffer a bit more :)

Gabe

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