Investigating the effectiveness of cognitive training: Transfer, and maintenance

Working memory training studies have demonstrated transfer to many higher-order cognitive abilities, that in turn affects daily life functioning. While transfer effects have been widely researched on, only a small proportion of these studies examined whether these effects can be maintained over a long period of time. The present study aims to investigate the effects of working memory training on transfer to other cognitive abilities, and examine whether these effects can be maintained after the intervention has ended. A group of healthy young adults were trained on a dual n-back task for 20 sessions. A cognitive test battery measuring for transfer effects were administered before and after training, and two weeks after training has ended. Compared to the control group, the training group showed improvements on the trained task, and far transfer effects to processing speed and recognition memory, while no near transfer effects was found. However, far transfer effects were maintained during the follow-up session. These findings suggest the need to examine the maintenance of transfer effects due to its practical importance. Future studies should identify the factors that could result in maintenance of these effects.Bachelor of Art