Working memory skills have been shown to be enhanced by adaptive training in several randomised controlled trials. Here, two field trials were conducted in which teachers administered working memory training to their own pupils in school. Twenty-two children aged 8-9 years participated in Trial 1. In Trial 2, 50 children aged 9-11 years with the lowest academic performance completed training. T...

BACKGROUND Excessive discounting of future rewards has been observed in a variety of disorders and has been linked both to valuation of the past and to memory of past events. METHODS To explore the functionality of discounting and memory, we examined whether training of working memory would result in less discounting of future rewards. In this study, 27 adults in treatment for stimulant use w...

Numerous recent studies seem to provide evidence for the general intellectual benefits of working memory training. In reviews of the training literature, Shipstead, Redick, and Engle (2010, 2012) argued that the field should treat recent results with a critical eye. Many published working memory training studies suffer from design limitations (no-contact control groups, single measures of cogni...

The question of whether working memory training leads to generalized improvements in untrained cognitive abilities is a longstanding and heatedly debated one. Previous research provides mostly ambiguous evidence regarding the presence or absence of transfer effects in older adults. Thus, to draw decisive conclusions regarding the effectiveness of working memory training interventions, methodolo...

Background Few studies of cognitive rehabilitation in multiple sclerosis (MS) have targeted working memory specifically. Objective We examined the effects of n-back working memory training on cognitive performance and brain function in patients with MS. Methods Patients with MS (n = 12) and healthy controls (HC; n = 12) underwent 20 sessions of n-back working memory training. Before and aft...

The dopaminergic system is known to be involved in working memory processed by several brain regions like prefrontal cortex (PFC), hippocampus, striatum. In an earlier study we could show that Levodopa but not Modafinil enhanced working memory in a T-maze only during the early phase of training (day 3), whereas the later phase remained unaffected. Rats treated with a higher dose performed bette...

Working memory is a complex cognitive system responsible for the concurrent storage and processing of information. Ggiven that a complex cognitive task like mental arithmetic clearly places demands on working memory (e.g., in remembering partial results, monitoring progress through a multi-step calculation), there is surprisingly little research exploring the possibility of increasing young chi...

The relationship between adult hippocampal neurogenesis and cognition appears more complex than suggested by early reports. We aimed to determine if the duration and task demands of spatial memory training differentially affect hippocampal neurogenesis. Adult male rats were trained in the Morris water maze in a reference memory task for 4 days, or alternatively working memory for either 4 or 14...

AIM Working memory deficits are frequently found in children born preterm and have been linked to learning disabilities, and cognitive and behavioural problems. Our aim was to evaluate if a computerized working memory training program has long-term positive effects on memory, learning, and behaviour in very-low-birthweight (VLBW) children at age 5 to 6 years. METHOD This prospective, interven...