A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
The early effects of external and internal strategies on working memory updating training
Authors: Matti Laine, Daniel Fellman, Otto Waris, Thomas J. Nyman
Publisher: NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
Publication year: 2018
Journal: Scientific Reports
Journal name in source: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Journal acronym: SCI REP-UK
Article number: ARTN 4045
Volume: 8
Number of pages: 12
ISSN: 2045-2322
eISSN: 2045-2322
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-22396-5
Web address : http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22396-5#auth-1
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/30708136
The mechanisms underlying working memory training remain unclear, but one possibility is that the typically limited transfer effects of this training reflect adoption of successful task-specific strategies. Our pre-registered randomized controlled trial (N = 116) studied the early effects of externally given vs. internally generated strategies in an updating task (n-back) over a 5-day period with a single 30-minute training session. Three groups were employed: n-back training with strategy instruction (n = 40), n-back training without strategy instruction (n = 37), and passive controls (n = 39). We found that both external and internal strategy use was associated with significantly higher posttest performance on the trained n-back task, and that training with n-back strategy instruction yielded positive transfer on untrained n-back tasks, resembling the transfer pattern typically seen after the ordinary uninstructed 4-6-week working memory training. In the uninstructed participants, the level of detail and type of internally generated n-back strategies at posttest was significantly related to their posttest n-back performance. Our results support the view that adoption of task-specific strategies plays an important role in working memory training outcomes, and that strategy-based effects are apparent right at the start of training.
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