Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Are Measures of Transfer Effects Missing the Target?

  • Opinion
  • Published:
Journal of Cognitive Enhancement Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Repeated and targeted training of working memory typically leads to improvements as observed using cognitive assessments of working memory and different methods of brain imaging. A more controversial topic is whether these improvements transfer to improvements in other cognitive functions and if behavior in everyday life is impacted. If such transfer is the overarching goal with cognitive training, then determining the relevant markers of this should be deemed essential. However, research publications within the cognitive training field seldom provide in-depth theoretical support of the outcomes and design choices selected, nor do they provide a discussion of the relevance of these on everyday life. In this opinion paper we discuss different approaches in assessing transfer effects, specifically on academic performance, and how these might explain discrepancies between different studies in their results and conclusions. We urge the research community to pursue using ecologically valid outcome measures that are suitable to capture training-related change in everyday life in order to advance our understanding of the promises and limitations of cognitive enhancement.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alloway, T. P., & Alloway, R. G. (2010). Investigating the predictive roles of working memory and IQ in academic attainment. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 106(1), 20–29.

  • Alloway, T. P., Gathercole, S. E., Adams, A.-M., Willis, C., Eaglen, R., & Lamont, E. (2005). Working memory and phonological awareness as predictors of progress towards early learning goals at school entry. The British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23(3), 417–426.

  • Astle, D. E., Barnes, J. J., Baker, K., Colclough, G. L., & Woolrich, M. W. (2015). Cognitive training enhances intrinsic brain connectivity in childhood. The Journal of Neuroscience: The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 35(16), 6277–6283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bäckman, L., Nyberg, L., Soveri, A., Johansson, J., Andersson, M., Dahlin, E., Neely, A. S., Virta, J., Laine, M., & Rinne, J. O. (2011). Effects of working-memory training on striatal dopamine release. Science, 333(6043), 718.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, J. J., Nobre, A. C., Woolrich, M. W., Baker, K., & Astle, D. E. (2016). Training working memory in childhood enhances coupling between frontoparietal control network and task-related regions. The Journal of Neuroscience: The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 36(34), 9001–9011.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bergman Nutley, S., & Söderqvist, S. (2017). How is working memory training likely to influence academic performance? Current evidence and methodological considerations. Frontiers in Psychology, 8(February), 69.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bigorra, A., Garolera, M., Guijarro, S., & Hervás, A. (2016). Long-term far-transfer effects of working memory training in children with ADHD: A randomized controlled trial. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 25(8), 853–867.

  • Brehmer, Y., Rieckmann, A., Bellander, M., Westerberg, H., Fischer, H., & Bäckman, L. (2011). Neural correlates of training-related working-memory gains in old age. NeuroImage, 58(4), 1110–1120.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bull, R., & Espy, K. A. (2006). Working Memory, Executive Functioning, and Children’s Mathematics. In Working Memory and Education (pp. 93–123).

  • Caeyenberghs, K., Metzler-Baddeley, C., Foley, S., & Jones, D. K. (2016). Dynamics of the human structural connectome underlying working memory training. The Journal of Neuroscience: The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 36(14), 4056–4066.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cantlon, J. F., & Li, R. (2013). Neural activity during natural viewing of Sesame Street statistically predicts test scores in early childhood. PLoS Biology, 11(1), e1001462.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Colom, R. (2004). Working memory is (almost) perfectly predicted by g. Intelligence, 32(3), 277–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Constantinidis, C., & Klingberg, T. (2016). The neuroscience of working memory capacity and training. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 17(7), 438–449.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Conway, A. R. A., Kane, M. J., & Engle, R. W. (2003). Working memory capacity and its relation to general intelligence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(12), 547–552.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cortese, S., Ferrin, M., Brandeis, D., Buitelaar, J., Daley, D., Dittmann, R. W., Holtmann, M., et al. (2015). Cognitive training for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: meta-analysis of clinical and neuropsychological outcomes from randomized controlled trials. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 54(3), 164–174.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • De Smedt, B., Janssen, R., Bouwens, K., Verschaffel, L., Boets, B., & Ghesquière, P. (2009). Working memory and individual differences in mathematics achievement: a longitudinal study from first grade to second grade. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 103(2), 186–201.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • DeStefano, D., & LeFevre, J.-a. (2004). The role of working memory in mental arithmetic. The European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 16(3), 353–386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunning, D. L., & Holmes, J. (2014). Does working memory training promote the use of strategies on untrained working memory tasks? Memory & Cognition, 42(6), 854–862.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunning, D. L., Holmes, J., & Gathercole, S. E. (2013). Does working memory training lead to generalized improvements in children with low working memory? A randomized controlled trial. Developmental Science, 16(6), 915–925.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fitzpatrick, C., Archambault, I., Janosz, M., & Pagani, L. S. (2015). Early childhood working memory forecasts high school dropout risk. Intelligence, 53, 160–165.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foy, J. G., & Mann, V. A. (2014). Adaptive cognitive training enhances executive control and visuospatial and verbal working memory in beginning readers. International Education Research, 2, 19–43.

  • Gathercole, S., & Alloway, T. P. (2008). Working memory and learning: a practical guide for teachers. SAGE.

  • Gathercole, S. E., Pickering, S. J., Camilla, K., & Zoe, S. (2003). Working memory skills and educational attainment: Evidence from national curriculum assessments at 7 and 14 years of age. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18, 1–16.

  • Geary, D. C., Hoard, M. K., Byrd-Craven, J., & Catherine DeSoto, M. (2004). Strategy choices in simple and complex addition: contributions of working memory and counting knowledge for children with mathematical disability. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 88(2), 121–151.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Green, C. T., Long, D. L., Green, D., Ana-Maria, I., Faye Dixon, J., Miller, M. R., Fassbender, C., & Schweitzer, J. B. (2012). Will working memory training generalize to improve off-task behavior in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder? Neurotherapeutics: The Journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics, 9(3), 639–648.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, J., & Gathercole, S. E. (2014). Taking working memory training from the laboratory into schools. Educational Psychologist, 34(4), 440–450.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kibby, M. Y., Lee, S. E., & Dyer, S. M. (2014). Reading performance is predicted by more than phonological processing. Frontiers in Psychology, 5(September), 960.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Klingberg, T., Fernell, E., Olesen, P. J., Johnson, M., Gustafsson, P., Dahlström, K., et al. (2005). Computerized training of working memory in children with ADHD-A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 44(2), 177–186.

  • McNab, F., Varrone, A., Farde, L., Jucaite, A., Bystritsky, P., Forssberg, H., & Klingberg, T. (2009). Changes in cortical dopamine D1 receptor binding associated with cognitive training. Science, 323(5915), 800–802.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Melby-Lervåg, M., Redick, T. S., & Hulme, C. (2016). Working memory training does not improve performance on measures of intelligence or other measures of ‘far transfer’: evidence from a meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science: A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 11(4), 512–534.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Metzler-Baddeley, Claudia, Sonya Foley, Silvia de Santis, Cyril Charron, Adam Hampshire, Karen Caeyenberghs, and Derek K. Jones. 2017. Dynamics of white matter plasticity underlying working memory training: multimodal evidence from diffusion MRI and T2 relaxometry. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 1–12.

  • Moreau, D., Kirk, I. J., & Waldie, K. E. (2016). Seven pervasive statistical flaws in cognitive training interventions. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10, 153.

  • Morrison, A. B., & Chein, J. M. (2010). Does working memory training work? The promise and challenges of enhancing cognition by training working memory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18(1), 46–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noack, H., Lövdén, M., & Schmiedek, F. (2014). On the validity and generality of transfer effects in cognitive training research. Psychological Research, 78(6), 773–789.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Olesen, P. J., Westerberg, H., & Klingberg, T. (2004). Increased prefrontal and parietal activity after training of working memory. Nature Neuroscience, 7(1), 75–79.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Redick, T. S., Shipstead, Z., Wiemers, E. A., Melby-Lervåg, M., & Hulme, C. (2015). What’s working in working memory training? An educational perspective. Educational Psychology Review, 27(4), 617–633.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, G., Quach, J., Spencer-Smith, M., Anderson, P. J., Gathercole, S., Gold, L., Sia, K.-L., et al. (2016). Academic outcomes 2 years after working memory training for children with low working memory: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Pediatrics, 170(5), e154568.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schubert, T., Strobach, T., & Karbach, J. (2014). New directions in cognitive training: on methods, transfer, and application. Psychological Research, 78(6), 749–755.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seigneuric, A., & Ehrlich, M.-F. (2005). Contribution of working memory capacity to children’s reading comprehension: a longitudinal investigation. Reading and Writing, 18(7–9), 617–656.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shipstead, Z., Redick, T. S., & Engle, R. W. (2010). Does working memory training generalize? Psychologica Belgica, 50(3–4), 245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Söderqvist, Stina, and Sissela Bergman Nutley. 2015. Working memory training is associated with long term attainments in math and reading. Frontiers in Psychology 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01711.

  • Sprenger, A. M., Atkins, S. M., Bolger, D. J., Isaiah Harbison, J., Novick, J. M., Chrabaszcz, J. S., Weems, S. A., et al. (2013). Training working memory: limits of transfer. Intelligence, 41(5), 638–663.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, M. C., Gaynor, A., Bessette, K. L., & Pearlson, G. D. (2016). A preliminary study of the effects of working memory training on brain function. Brain Imaging and Behavior, 10(2), 387–407.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Takeuchi, H., Sekiguchi, A., Taki, Y., Yokoyama, S., Yomogida, Y., Komuro, N., Yamanouchi, T., Suzuki, S., & Kawashima, R. (2010). Training of working memory impacts structural connectivity. The Journal of Neuroscience: The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 30(9), 3297–3303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Takeuchi, H., Taki, Y., Nouchi, R., Hashizume, H., Sekiguchi, A., Kotozaki, Y., Nakagawa, S., Miyauchi, C. M., Sassa, Y., & Kawashima, R. (2013). Effects of working memory training on functional connectivity and cerebral blood flow during rest. Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior, 49(8), 2106–2125.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Titz, C., & Karbach, J. (2014). Working memory and executive functions: effects of training on academic achievement. Psychological Research, 78(6), 852–868.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Valkanova, V., Rodriguez, R. E., & Ebmeier, K. P. (2014). Mind over matter--what do we know about neuroplasticity in adults? International Psychogeriatrics / IPA, 26(6), 891–909.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanderwal, T., Eilbott, J., Finn, E. S., Craddock, R. C., Turnbull, A., & Castellanos, F. X. (2017). Individual differences in functional connectivity during naturalistic viewing conditions. NeuroImage, 157, 521–530.

  • von Bastian, C. C., & Oberauer, K. (2014). Effects and mechanisms of working memory training: a review. Psychological Research, 78(6), 803–820.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weicker, J., Villringer, A., & Thöne-Otto, A. (2016). Can impaired working memory functioning be improved by training? A meta-analysis with a special focus on brain injured patients. Neuropsychology, 30(2), 190–212.

  • Westerberg, H., Jacobaeus, H., Hirvikoski, T., Clevberger, P., Östensson, M.-L., Bartfai, A., & Klingberg, T. (2007). Computerized working memory training after stroke–a pilot study. Brain Injury: [BI], 21(1), 21–29.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pearson Clinical Assessment, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Stina Söderqvist & Sissela Bergman Nutley

Authors
  1. Stina Söderqvist
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sissela Bergman Nutley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stina Söderqvist.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

Both authors are at the time of submission employed by Pearson that provides Cogmed Working Memory Training, a commercial cognitive training programme.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Söderqvist, S., Nutley, S.B. Are Measures of Transfer Effects Missing the Target?. J Cogn Enhanc 1, 508–512 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-017-0048-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-017-0048-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation