Written by Quynh Theresa Do and Edited by Catherine Zhang
Working memory, the ability to temporarily store information in the mind while working on other tasks, has been a field of great research in the past two decades. Working memory is critical to our daily lives because it helps us recall important information that we may need at a particular moment. Some examples include remembering phone numbers and keeping track of a sequence of instructions. Like a muscle, working memory can be trained through a series of activities, such as recalling the positions of objects. While working memory is important, some studies have found that working memory training does not improve the ability to use reason and solve problems without prior acquired knowledge of the problems, referred to as a person’s fluid intelligence [1]. On the other hand, numerous studies have found promising gains from working memory training in the areas of general cognitive abilities like learning and attention [2]. The question still stands: how exactly does working memory training affect cognition and fluid intelligence, if at all?
One such researcher of this complex training is Dr. Susanne Jaeggi, who tackles this question at the Working Memory and Plasticity Lab at the University of California, Irvine. Throughout her undergraduate years, graduate school, and her doctoral program, she has focused on the topic of working memory. In 2013, she came to the University of California, Irvine as an assistant professor and the principal investigator of her lab. She and her team are studying working memory training and its effects on different cognitive areas like attention, memory, reasoning, auditory processing, and visual processing.
An ongoing study at Jaeggi’s lab is the Working Memory Training in Older Adults study, which studies the effects of working memory training on older adults ages 65 through 85. Cognitive functioning declines as one grows older, but Jaeggi wanted to see if working memory interventions such as working memory training could intervene in the gradual decline [3]. The adults were divided into two groups in regards to training: those who underwent working memory training and those who underwent knowledge-based training. Working memory training may include tasks that require participants to remember a sequence of images. Then, they are asked to recall images that are either one image before, two images before, and so on of a given image in the sequence. On the other hand, knowledge-based training includes trivia questions about general subjects such as geography and history. The researchers also studied the effects of timing on the training; how would the groups react to spreading out the training across multiple days versus concentrating it on one day? Previous studies had established that spacing training sessions out were found to be more effective in improving performance [4]. The two training groups were each further split into three more groups: training once a day, training twice a day, or training every other day. The participants’ performances were measured through the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up sessions throughout the study.
Although the study is currently still in progress, Jaeggi’s previous works on older adults predict a slight improvement in fluid intelligence with working memory training. Those previous works found that older adults do not perform as well on tasks that demand working memory when compared to their younger adult cohorts. This was expected, since younger adults’ working memories tend to be better than older adults. However, older adults demonstrated improved abilities to learn through relating tasks with other experience and suppress impulsive thoughts and actions while training. Most importantly, these effects remained during follow up assessments. Jaeggi excitedly shared that both are important for age-related cognitive decline. This suggests that it is not impossible for people aged above 65 to prevent cognitive decline and maintain their working memory [5].
In fact, Jaeggi urges that it is never too late to start improving your working memory. As seen in her studies, working memory is not only crucial for daily life but also for healthy cognitive aging. As we age, we are prone to more cognitive decline not only through our biological changes but also psychological changes. “Compared to younger adults, who are constantly learning new things,” Jaeggi states. “Older adults may misperceive that they have learned enough, especially after college and after retirement.” This misconception may make people become less engaged, thus leading to a steeper decline in cognitive function. To prevent this, Jaeggi emphasizes the importance of being engaged, whether it be through working memory training games, learning a new language, finding new hobbies, or socializing with friends [6]. After all, the brain is the motherboard that helps us express ourselves and continuously grow as individuals. It is time we take care of it, too.
References:
- Thompson, T. W., Waskom, M. L., Keri-Lee, A.G., Garel, K.-L. A., Cardenas-Iniguez, C., Reynolds, G. O., Winter, R., Chang, P., Pollard, K., Lala, N., Alvarez, A.G., Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2013). Failure of Working Memory Training to Enhance Cognition or Intelligence. PLoS ONE, 8:5
- Morrison, A.B., Chein, J.M. (2011). Does working memory training work? The promise and challenges of enhancing cognition by training working memory. Psychon Bull Rev, 18:46-60
- Murman, D. L. (2015). The impact of age on cognition. Seminars in hearing. 36:3
- Cepeda, N. J., Coburn, N., Rohrer, D., Wixted, J. T., Mozer, M. C., Pashler, H. (2009). Optimizing distributed practice: Theoretical analysis and practical implications. Experimental Psychology, 56: 236-246
- Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., Parlett-Pelleriti, C. M., Moon, S. M., Evans, M., Kritzmacher, A., Reuter-Lorenz, A.P., Shah, P., Jonides, J. (2019). Investigating the Effects of Spacing on Working Memory Training Outcome: A Randomized, Controlled, Multisite Trial in Older Adults. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, gbz090.
- Jaeggi, Susanne M. Interview. Conducted by Quynh Theresa H. Do, 05 Mar 2020.