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Working memory training improves visual short-term memory capacity

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Abstract

Since antiquity, philosophers, theologians, and scientists have been interested in human memory. However, researchers today are still working to understand the capabilities, boundaries, and architecture. While the storage capabilities of long-term memory are seemingly unlimited (Bahrick, J Exp Psychol 113:1–2, 1984), working memory, or the ability to maintain and manipulate information held in memory, seems to have stringent capacity limits (e.g., Cowan, Behav Brain Sci 24:87–185, 2001). Individual differences, however, do exist and these differences can often predict performance on a wide variety of tasks (cf. Engle What is working-memory capacity? 297–314, 2001). Recently, researchers have promoted the enticing possibility that simple behavioral training can expand the limits of working memory which indeed may also lead to improvements on other cognitive processes as well (cf. Morrison and Chein, Psychol Bull Rev 18:46–60 2011). However, initial investigations across a wide variety of cognitive functions have produced mixed results regarding the transferability of training-related improvements. Across two experiments, the present research focuses on the benefit of working memory training on visual short-term memory capacity—a cognitive process that has received little attention in the training literature. Data reveal training-related improvement of global measures of visual short-term memory as well as of measures of the independent sub-processes that contribute to capacity (Awh et al., Psychol Sci 18(7):622–628, 2007). These results suggest that the ability to inhibit irrelevant information within and between trials is enhanced via n-back training allowing for selective improvement on untrained tasks. Additionally, we highlight a potential limitation of the standard adaptive training procedure and propose a modified design to ensure variability in the training environment.

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Notes

  1. Furthermore, to preview the results of Experiment 2, if our conclusions are correct and it is improved attentional control (and more specifically, improved inhibition) driving improvement in many of our transfer measures, then these tests are not independent and Bonferroni correction is not appropriate (McDonald, 2008).

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded in part by a grant to the author from the Air Force Offices of Scientific Research (Award No. FA9550-09-1-0162); in part by a grant from the American Psychological Association; and in part by a graduate research award from the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Psychology.

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  1. Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, 405 North Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Hillary Schwarb

  2. School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 654 Cherry Street, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Jayde Nail & Eric H. Schumacher

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Schwarb, H., Nail, J. & Schumacher, E.H. Working memory training improves visual short-term memory capacity. Psychological Research 80, 128–148 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-015-0648-y

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