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Updated: Jun 13, 2025
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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
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Multisensory training based on an APP for enhanced verbal working memory in older adults
Rongjuan Zhu1, Xiaoliang Ma2, Ziyu Wang3
1College of Management, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an 710054, China.
Internet Interventions
|September 11, 2024
Summary
This study shows that visual, auditory, and combined visual-auditory training significantly improves verbal working memory in older adults. Multimodal training demonstrated the most robust and lasting cognitive benefits, suggesting tailored interventions enhance cognitive aging.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Aging Research
- Human Cognition
Background:
- Age-related decline in working memory capacity is a significant concern in cognitive aging research.
- Evidence for the effectiveness of verbal working memory training across different sensory modalities in older adults is limited.
- Developing efficient interventions to delay cognitive decline in aging populations is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the efficacy of visual, auditory, and visual-auditory verbal working memory training in older adults.
- To examine the transfer effects of different sensory-based training modalities on cognitive tasks.
- To determine if baseline working memory capacity and education level predict training outcomes.
Main Methods:
- 60 healthy older adults were randomly assigned to visual (V-VWM), auditory (A-VWM), visual-auditory (VA-VWM) training groups, or a control group.
- Training interventions were administered over 12 days.
- Performance on various working memory tasks, including near and far transfer tasks, was assessed before and after training.
Main Results:
- All training groups showed significant improvements in their respective trained verbal working memory tasks (Cohen's d = 1.765–2.319).
- Visual-auditory training yielded the most substantial improvements and broadest transfer effects, including to the verbal operation span task (29.7% increase).
- Training benefits, particularly from VA-VWM, were maintained for two weeks; baseline working memory influenced training and transfer effects, but education did not.
Conclusions:
- Sensory-specific verbal working memory training can effectively enhance cognitive function in older adults.
- Multimodal (visual-auditory) training appears most promising for broad and sustained cognitive benefits in aging.
- Tailored interventions, potentially delivered via mobile devices, hold potential for improving cognitive skills in the elderly.
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