Educational Application of Working-Memory Training
This chapter reviews research on the efficacy of training working memory (WM) in an educational context. We have characterized WM training programs into two categories: those that are narrow in scope and those that are broad in scope. Narrow-scope WM trai
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Introduction Working memory (WM) is critical for a variety of activities at school, from complex subjects such as reading comprehension, mental arithmetic, and word problems to simple tasks like copying from the board and navigating around school (see Alloway and Copello 2013, for a review). Working memory is also important from kindergarten (Alloway et al. 2005) to the tertiary level (Alloway and Gregory 2013) and is an excellent predictor of academic success, longitudinally (Alloway and Alloway 2010).
WM Training Programs Given the importance of working memory in learning, it is no wonder that there have been increased research efforts to understand the impact and efficacy of training this skill, particularly in an educational context.1 In this chapter, we have characterized WM training programs into two categories: those that are narrow in scope and those that are broad in scope. We define narrow-scope WM training programs as those that are very similar to a working memory test. For example, they require the student to remember numbers in backward order or the location of dots in backward order. In contrast, we define broad-scope WM training programs as those that train working memory in the context of broader abilities, such as executive function, attention, or learning skills. We can use an 1 There are other training programs that target related cognitive skills, such as attention or inhibition, but this chapter focuses exclusively on WM training programs.
T.P. Alloway (*) • T. Robinson • A.N. Frankenstein Department of Psychology, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 T. Strobach, J. Karbach (eds.), Cognitive Training, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42662-4_16
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example from physical activity to illustrate the difference between these narrow-scope and broad-scope WM training programs. A narrow-scope program typically targets one area—like doing bicep curls to improve the muscle tone in your arms. In contrast, a broad-scope program has a wider application—like running for your general cardiovascular health.
Transfer Effects When considering the efficacy of WM training, it is important to investigate the nature of transfer effects. This refers to whether a training program improves anything other than getting better at the game itself? Practicing a skill will naturally enhance it. This is known as a practice effect. But can the benefits of a WM training program transfer to real world activities; in other words, can you get better at something other than the training program? Transfer effects can be classified as near transfer or far transfer. Near transfer refers to improvements that are similar to the training program. In the context of WM training programs, a near transfer effect is improved performance on WM tests involving verbal and visuospatial stimuli. Some caution should be exercised when considering near transfer effects, as the measures used t
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