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Studies revealing transfer effects of working memory (WM) training on non-trained cognitive performance of children hold promising implications for scholastic learning. However, the results of existing training studies are not consistent and provoke debates about the potential and limitations of cognitive enhancement. To examine the influence of individual differences on training outcomes is a promising approach for finding causes for such inconsistencies. In this study, we implemented WM training in an elementary school setting. The aim was to investigate near and far transfer effects on cognitive abilities and academic achievement and to examine the moderating effects of a dispositional and a regulative temperament factor, neuroticism and effortful control. Ninety-nine second-graders were randomly assigned to 20 sessions of computer-based adaptive WM training, computer-based reading training, or a no-contact control group. For the WM training group, our analyses reveal near transfer on a visual WM task, far transfer on a vocabulary task as a proxy for crystallized intelligence, and increased academic achievement in reading and math by trend. Considering individual differences in temperament, we found that effortful control predicts larger training mean and gain scores and that there is a moderation effect of both temperament factors on post-training improvement: WM training condition predicted higher post-training gains compared to both control conditions only in children with high effortful control or low neuroticism. Our results suggest that a short but intensive WM training program can enhance cognitive abilities in children, but that sufficient self-regulative abilities and emotional stability are necessary for WM training to be effective.

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Exposure to extreme stress is known to have immediate as well as long‐term effects on sleep. There is some evidence that adverse childhood experiences as well can increase the vulnerability of sleep to stress in the long term. In order to validate these assumptions, 39 healthy female undergraduate students were exposed to a video stress induction procedure before bedtime. Self‐reports and actigraphic measures were collected through a period of three baseline nights and the test night. Participants' self‐reports of the subsequent night's sleep were significantly associated with the degree to which they reported that the stress inducing film had triggered own stressful memories of their past. This finding supports the assumption that early stress history can increase an individual's vulnerability of sleep to stress, in particularly when actual stressors lead to the reactivation of stressful memories. Yet, actigraphic measures did not corroborate this subjective impression of sleep impairment. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.