Does working memory training have to be adaptive?

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Human Performance

Background:

• Adaptive training, where task difficulty adjusts to performance, is commonly assumed optimal for working memory (WM) enhancement.
• Previous studies confounding adaptivity with varied difficulty exposure limit direct tests of this assumption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To directly investigate whether adaptive working memory training is superior to other training paradigms.
• To determine if varying task difficulty exposure is the key factor in training-induced gains.

Main Methods:

• 130 young adults were randomly assigned to adaptive WM training, randomized difficulty training, self-selected difficulty training, or an active control group.
• Performance was assessed on trained WM tasks and untrained, structurally dissimilar WM tasks, as well as reasoning tasks.

Main Results:

• Significant performance improvements were observed in trained working memory tasks across all training groups.
• No evidence of transfer effects to untrained WM tasks or far transfer to reasoning was found.
• Training procedure (adaptive, randomized, or self-selected) did not significantly modulate training or transfer effects.

Conclusions:

• Exposure to varying levels of task difficulty, not necessarily adaptive adjustments, appears sufficient for inducing working memory training gains.
• The common assumption that adaptive working memory training is essential for effectiveness may be inaccurate.
• Future research should focus on the mechanisms underlying training gains from varied difficulty exposure.