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Working Memory Training for Older Participants: A Control Group Training Regimen and Initial Intellectual Functioning Assessment
Published on: September 20, 2020
Online games training aging brains: limited transfer to cognitive control functions
Jesse van Muijden1, Guido P H Band, Bernhard Hommel
1Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University Institute of Psychology Leiden, Netherlands.
Online cognitive training games showed modest benefits for older adults, improving response inhibition and inductive reasoning. However, overall cognitive control improvements were limited, suggesting further research is needed.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Gerontology
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Global population aging is increasing the prevalence of age-related cognitive decline.
- Cognitive control (CC) is crucial for daily functioning in older adults.
- Effective interventions to maintain CC in aging populations are needed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if online cognitive training games can enhance cognitive control in healthy older adults.
- To compare the effects of cognitive training games versus an online documentary quiz on cognitive functions.
- To assess potential transfer effects of cognitive training on untrained cognitive abilities.
Main Methods:
- Fifty-four healthy older adults (60-77 years) engaged in online cognitive training games for 30 minutes daily over seven weeks.
- A control group of 20 older adults (61-73 years) completed online documentary quizzes.
- A comprehensive cognitive test battery assessed working memory, set shifting, response inhibition, attention, and inductive reasoning before and after the intervention.
Main Results:
- The game group demonstrated significantly greater improvements in response inhibition (Stop-Signal task) and inductive reasoning (Raven-SPM) compared to the documentary group.
- The documentary group showed more improvement in selective attention (UFoV-3).
- Seven other indicators of cognitive control did not show significant benefits from game training, with some showing potential baseline differences.
Conclusions:
- Online cognitive training games offer modest support for improving specific aspects of cognitive control, namely response inhibition and inductive reasoning, in healthy older adults.
- The observed effects suggest limited transferability of game-based training to broader cognitive control functions.
- Further research is warranted to optimize cognitive training strategies for enhancing cognitive control in aging populations.
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