Joanna Nguyen*, Rachel Smith, Susanne Jaeggi, Ph.D.
University of California, Irvine
Cognitive training over the past years has increased in frequency and
variability to measure working memory and its capacity; however, training
in younger adults is to be investigated. Adapted from a study by Buschkuehl
and Jaeggi (2008) on older adults, this study examines the relationship
between cognitive training distribution and condition on working memory
performance of younger adults from spacing and transfer effects. 98 younger
adult participants completed 10 sessions training on either a working
memory or general knowledge task. We also varied training distribution
(i.e. whether participants trained every other day, every day, or twice a
day) and compared participants’ performance scores at the pre- and
post-test using non-trained working memory and long-term memory measures.
Preliminary results show that participants improved their performance in
all outcome measures, and in addition, the working memory training group
outperformed the control in one of the working memory measures. There was
no effect of spacing in any of the outcome measures, indicating that
training distribution has no impact on memory outcome, which is consistent
with earlier findings in older adults.