Comparison Of Transfer Effects Of Different Types Of Working Memory Training

Working memory plays an important role in individual’s higher cognitive function.However,at present,the near and far transfer effect of working memory training is controversial,and the effective mechanism of working memory training is still unclear.Studies have found that individuals use different strategies when completing verbal and visuospatial working memory tasks,which can lead to differences in the cognitive resources consumed when performing verbal and visuospatial working memory tasks.Therefore,this study intends to clarify the mechanism of the transfer effect of working memory training by comparing the effects of strategy use on the different transfer effects of verbal working memory training and visuospatial working memory training.In this study,the letter n-back training program and the visuospatial n-back training program were used.Because strategies develop gradually with age,children are in a critical period of strategy development,while adult strategy use tends to stabilize.In Experiment 1,45 children were randomly divided into two groups.One group of children received 15 days of letter n-back training,and the other group of children received 15 days of visuospatial n-back training.In Experiment 2,44 adults were randomly divided into two groups.One group of adults received 15-day letter n-back training,and the other group received 15-day visuospatial n-back training.After the training,a questionnaire was used to investigate the situation of each group of subjects using the strategy.To focus on the effects of strategies used in verbal and visuospatial working memory training on the transfer effects of working memory training in children and adults.Transfer tasks include: 2-back(with letters,numbers,spaces),running memory tasks(with numbers,spaces),complex span tasks(operation span,symmetry span)and Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices,in addition to adult subjects added 3-back task and the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices.The findings showed that working memory training in both children and adults produced near-transfer effect,but not far-transfer effect.In the children,although there were significant differences in the familiarity of strategies used between the two groups,strategies formed by different stimulus types had no effect on the transfer effect of working memory training.In the adult,there was no significant difference between the two groups in the familiarity of strategy use,nor was an effect found.To sum up,both Experiments 1 and 2 found that working memory training can produce near-transfer effect,but not far-transfer effect.Furthermore,letter n-back training and visuospatial n-back training did not produce different transfer effects in both children and adults.This suggests that working memory training with different stimulus types produced similar transfer effects,that is,strategies formed by specific stimuli may not affect the transfer effects of working memory training.