Taking working memory training from the laboratory into schools

Holmes, Joni; Gathercole, Susan E.

doi:10.1080/01443410.2013.797338

Cited by 176 publications

(182 citation statements)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

143

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Next, in the first of several explorations of far-transfer effects, we found that ACT resulted in significant improvements in verbal WM compared to the untrained group, with a more moderate effect size (d = .75), identical to the effect size reported by Holmes and her colleagues in their recent study with older children for transfer to verbal WM (Holmes & Gathercole, 2013). This finding adds to the literature that WM may involve some domain-general aspects, possibly involving controlled attention or executive attention mechanisms (Chein, Moore, & Conway, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

“…It is vital in studies of ACT that near-transfer be established before any possible far-transfer effects can be interpreted (Melby-Lerväg & Hulme, 2013). We found that ACT substantially improved visuospatial WM in untrained tasks and the effect size was very large (d = 1.44), comparable to the effect size for transfer to untrained visuospatial tasks in a prior study (effect size = .95) with older children (Holmes & Gathercole, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Adaptive Cognitive Training Enhances Executive Control and Visuospatial and Verbal Working Memory in Beginning Readers

Foy¹,

Mann²

2014

IER

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this study we examined whether children's working memory could be enhanced by adaptive cognitive training (ACT) and whether training outcomes would relate to behavioral self-regulation, a measure of executive control (EC) and certain pre-reading outcomes (phoneme awareness and letter knowledge). Children from economically disadvantaged communities were randomly assigned to an ACT (n = 23) or a wait-list control (n = 27) group. ACT consisted of an average of 20 minutes per day of adaptive visuospatial working memory training (Cogmed-JM) for up to 25 days at the beginning of the school year. ACT significantly improved performance in near-transfer (untrained visuospatial test) and far-transfer (tests of verbal working memory and behavioral selfregulation). However, ACT had no direct effects on either measure of pre-reading skill. Our findings suggest that ACT may indirectly help children at risk for later reading problems to benefit from instruction opportunities by developing self-regulation and memory skills.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Adaptive Cognitive Training Enhances Executive Control and Visuospatial and Verbal Working Memory in Beginning Readers

Foy¹,

Mann²

2014

IER

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several longitudinal studies have confirmed that working memory explains a significant part of the variance in mathematics (see Raghubar et al, 2010, for an overview). Even a causal role has been suggested by experimental studies in which children's working memory skills were manipulated (e.g., Bergman-Nutley & Klingberg, 2014;Holmes & Gathercole, 2014;Kroesbergen, Van 't Noordende, & Kolkman, 2014;Söderqvist & Bergman-Nutley, 2015), although the meta-analysis of Melby-Lervåg and Hulme (2013) shows that there is no clear evidence of generalization of working memory training to math skills. It should be noted that in the literature working memory sometimes refers to the entire processing and storage unit as described by Baddeley and Hitch (1974), while other use it to refer only to the central executive, or even more specifically to the executive function of updating (see also Friso-Van den Bos et al, 2013).…”

Section: Working Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Creativity as predictor of mathematical abilities in fourth graders in addition to number sense and working memory

Kroesbergen¹,

Schoevers²

2017

J. Numer. Cogn.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this study, it was investigated how domain-specific (number sense) and domain-general (working memory, creativity) factors explain the variance in mathematical abilities in primary school children. A total of 166 children aged 8 to 10 years old participated. Several tests to measure math ability, mathematical creativity, number sense, verbal and visual spatial working memory and creativity were administered. Data were analyzed with a series of correlation and regression analyses. Number sense, working memory and creativity were all found to be important predictors of academic and creative mathematical ability. Furthermore, groups with math learning disabilities (MLD) and mathematical giftedness (MG) were compared to a typically developing (TD) group. The results show that the MLD group scored lower on number line estimation and visual spatial working memory than the TD group, while the MG group differed from the TD group on visual spatial working memory and creativity. It is concluded that creativity plays a significant role in mathematics, above working memory and number sense. Research on individual differences in the development of mathematical cognition has pointed to two main underlying cognitive factors: number sense and working memory (e.g., Fuchs, Geary, Compton, Fuchs, Hamlett, & Bryant, 2010;Geary, 2010). Number sense (NS) could be seen as the domain-specific precursor of mathematics. Working memory is a domain-general predictor, not only in mathematical development but also in other academic areas. Although several other cognitive factors have been related to math, such as processing speed (e.g., Peterson et al., 2017;Willcutt et al., 2013), or phonological skills (e.g., Barnes et al., 2014;Slot, Van Viersen, De Bree, & Kroesbergen, 2016), working memory and number sense together explain a substantial part of the variance in mathematics (e.g., 48-50% in Kroesbergen & Van Dijk, 2015; 24-28% in Toll, Kroesbergen, & Van Luit, 2016). These two factors are not only related to mathematics in typically developing (TD) children, but they have also repeatedly been found to explain differences between children with mathematical learning disabilities (MLD) and TD children (e.g., Geary, Hoard, Byrd-Craven, Nugent, & Numtee, 2007;Mazzocco, Feigenson, & Halberda, 2011;Mussolin, Mejias, & Noël, 2010;Piazza et al., 2010; Raghubar, jnc.psychopen.eu | 2363-8761 Barnes, & Hecht, 2010Schuchardt, Maehler, & Hasselhorn, 2008). However, from another body of research, on mathematically gifted (MG) children, another domain-general factor appears that may influence mathematics as well: Creativity (e.g., Leikin, Koichu, & Berman, 2009;Mann, 2006;Sriraman, 2005). However, studies investigating the role of creativity in mathematics have taken neither working memory nor number sense into account. The goal of the current study is to compare the role of working memory and number sense with that of creativity in the mathematical abilities of both TD children as well as children with MLD and MG children in fourth grade....

show abstract

“…This means that educators have to start with identification of learners with poor WM, decide which components are problematic, and apply proper, individualized training. There is a large body of empirical evidence showing that deficits in both the phonological store and attentional system severely impair language learning (Gathercole, Lamont, & Alloway, 2006), and that these deficits can be leveled out to some extent thanks to adept pedagogic intervention (Gathercole 2014;Gathercole & Alloway, 2008;Holmes & Gathercole, 2014;Söderqvist & Nutley, 2015). Gathercole and colleagues have provided evidence that skillful training in the case of young children whose general academic performance is severely affected by poor WM produces considerable and sustained results.…”

Section: Working Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

The interface between research on individual difference variables and teaching practice: The case of cognitive factors and personality

Biedroń

Pawlak²

2016

SSLLT

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While a substantial body of empirical evidence has been accrued about the role of individual differences in second language acquisition, relatively little is still known about how factors of this kind can mediate the effects of instructional practices as well as how empirically-derived insights can inform foreign language pedagogy, both with respect to shaping certain variables and adjusting instruction to individual learner profiles. The present paper is an attempt to shed light on the interface between research on individual difference factors and teaching practice, focusing upon variables which do not easily lend themselves to external manipulation, namely intelligence, foreign language aptitude, working memory and personality, with the role of the last of these in language learning being admittedly the least obvious. In each case, the main research findings will briefly be outlined, their potential for informing instruction will be considered, and, in the final part, the caveats concerning practical applications of research on the variables in question will be spelled out.

show abstract

Taking working memory training from the laboratory into schools

Cited by 176 publications

References 35 publications

Adaptive Cognitive Training Enhances Executive Control and Visuospatial and Verbal Working Memory in Beginning Readers

Adaptive Cognitive Training Enhances Executive Control and Visuospatial and Verbal Working Memory in Beginning Readers

Creativity as predictor of mathematical abilities in fourth graders in addition to number sense and working memory

The interface between research on individual difference variables and teaching practice: The case of cognitive factors and personality

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About