Improving Older Adults’ Working Memory: the Influence of Age and Crystallized Intelligence on Training Outcomes

Abstract

To counter age-related decline in cognitive abilities, interventions such as working memory trainings have shown some promising results in old age. Yet, findings are mixed and there is enormous interindividual variability in training and transfer effects. Thus, it is still an open question which person-specific factors may moderate training and transfer effects in working memory interventions in older adults. The present study investigated this issue in the context of an established verbal working memory training. Eighty-eight participants (age range 60-82 years) performed either four sessions of the Borella et al. (Psychology and Aging 25(4):767-778, 2010) working memory training or of a visual search training as active control condition or belonged to a passive control group. Before and after the training, participants performed a test battery to assess different cognitive abilities and everyday competence. Furthermore, we included questionnaires on personality factors and intrinsic motivation as possible covariates. The training group showed a substantial training gain in the working memory criterion task that was not found in the active control group. Furthermore, only participants of the working memory training showed also near transfer to another working memory task. No far transfer effects including everyday competence emerged. In terms of possible moderators, age and crystallized intelligence influenced the training and transfer gain in the training group. In conclusion, our results showed that working memory can be improved in older adults and improvements transfer to a nontrained working memory task. However, person-specific factors have to be considered to understand who benefits from the training and why.

Immediate and long-term efficacy of executive functions cognitive training in older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

“…It has also been suggested that implementing such interventions during the prodromal stage of MCI or dementia might prevent or delay the progress of pathological cognitive decline (Vermeij, Claassen, Dautzenberg, & Kessels, 2016). However, findings from other studies suggest that, although CCT improves performance on trained tasks, these gains do not generalize or 'transfer' to untrained tasks (e.g., Bellander et al, 2016;Hering, Meuleman, Bürki, Borella & Kliegel, 2017;Lange & Süß, 2015;Souders et al, 2017).…”

Editorial Special Topic: Enhancing Brain and Cognition Through Cognitive Training

“…However, in contrast to Hering et al (2017), they found very limited evidence for individual differences as predictors for training outcome, although they did find that cognitive performance at baseline was related to training improvement, specifically, those with higher abilities seemed to benefit more, indicating a magnification effect, which was especially apparent in their young adult population.…”

“…Hering, Meuleman, Bürki, Borella, and Kliegel (2017) investigated individual differences that might moderate training and transfer effects of a verbal working-memory intervention in older adults. Although the authors found no far transfer to ‘everyday behavior’, they observed near transfer effects to non-trained working-memory tasks that were moderated by age and crystallized intelligence, and thus, the authors argue that individual differences have to be considered to better understand who benefits from working-memory training.…”

“…Most of the studies referenced above were primarily interested in the investigation of underlying mechanisms and individual differences, and thus, it is maybe not surprising that very few of them included any outcome measures that might reflect real-world performance (but see Hering et al, 2017, Mohammed et al, 2017, and Ralph et al, 2017). Nonetheless, given the common assumption that cognitive training approaches are broadly beneficial, it would be valuable if researchers would routinely include measures that serve at least as proxies for everyday life.…”

Impact of strategy use during N-Back training in older adults

“…Several studies have investigated the impact of WM training in aging in terms of behavioural outcomes, some showing benefits after intervention and transfers to untrained WM tasks and fluid intelligence (Brehmer et al, 2012;Bürki et al, 2014;Heinzel et al, 2016;Li et al, 2008;Loosli et al, 2016;Richmond et al, 2011;Zinke et al, 2014), whereas others failed to report enhancements in the trained task and transfers (Guye & Von Bastian, 2017;Hering et al, 2017;Sala & Gobet, 2019;Teixeira-Santos et al, 2019). The review of Simons et al (2016) reports ample evidence of training enhancements for trained compared to "withintraining" tasks, when involving cognitive processes similar to the trained task, and far less evidence for "beyond-training" tasks, when calling upon different mental processes, and everyday cognitive performance, especially in older adults.…”