Can short-term memory be trained?

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Human Memory

Background:

• Working memory training often transfers to similar untrained tasks.
• Transfer to basic short-term memory, particularly verbal serial recall, remains less understood.
• Previous research has not extensively explored adaptive training for verbal serial recall.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if short-term memory capacity for verbal serial recall can be improved through practice.
• To determine if adaptive training algorithms enhance verbal serial recall performance.
• To examine transfer effects of short-term memory training on different memory systems.

Main Methods:

• Utilized adaptive training algorithms, commonly used in working memory training.
• Conducted 20 training sessions focused on serial recall of visually presented digits.
• Assessed transfer to untrained tasks including spoken digit recall, visual letter recall, and visual change detection tasks.

Main Results:

• Serial recall of visually presented digits improved significantly after 20 training sessions.
• No significant improvement was observed in recall of spoken digits or visually presented letters.
• Training on a visual short-term memory color change detection task successfully transferred to a line orientation change detection task.

Conclusions:

• Practice-based improvements in short-term memory are task-specific and depend on the development of novel cognitive routines.
• Verbal serial recall relies on established memory systems and does not benefit from training that requires new routine development.
• Transfer of training is more substantial when training demands necessitate the creation and application of new cognitive strategies.