Training: Research reports

Memory training (general)

July 2008

Changes in gray matter induced by learning

Three months of training in three-ball cascade juggling was found to be associated with a transient and highly selective increase in gray matter in the occipito-temporal cortex. A follow-up study involving 20 adults confirmed this finding and found that the change in grey matter occurred after only 7 days of training. Neither performance nor exercise alone could explain these changes, and the increase receded when training stopped. The researchers suggest that learning a new task is more critical for the brain to change its structure than continued training of an already-learned task.
The report appeared July 23 in the open access journal PLoS One.  Full reference
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0002669

April 2008

Brain-training to improve working memory boosts fluid intelligence

General intelligence is often separated into "fluid" and "crystalline" components, of which fluid intelligence is considered more reflective of “pure” intelligence (for more on this, see my article at http://www.memory-key.com/NatureofMemory/wm_iq.htm ), and largely resistant to training and learning effects. However, in a new study in which participants were given a series of training exercises designed to improve their working memory, fluid intelligence was found to have significantly improved, with the amount of improvement increasing with time spent training. The small study contradicts decades of research showing that improving on one kind of cognitive task does not improve performance on other kinds, so has been regarded with some skepticism by other researchers. More research is definitely needed, but the memory task did differ from previous studies, engaging executive functions such as those that inhibit irrelevant items, monitor performance, manage two tasks simultaneously, and update memory.
The research was published online April 28 ahead of print in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).  Full reference
http://www.physorg.com/news128699895.html
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=study-shows-brain-power-can-be-bolstered

March 2008

Strong links between arts education and cognitive development

The Dana Consortium study, a 3 year study by cognitive neuroscientists from seven universities, has been investigating the effects of music, dance, and drama education on other types of learning. The researchers have identified eight key points:

• An interest in a performing art leads to a high state of motivation that produces the sustained attention necessary to improve performance and the training of attention that leads to improvement in other domains of cognition.
• Genetic studies have begun to yield candidate genes that may help explain individual differences in interest in the arts.
• Specific links exist between high levels of music training and the ability to manipulate information in both working and long-term memory; these links extend beyond the domain of music training.
• In children, there appear to be specific links between the practice of music and skills in geometrical representation, though not in other forms of numerical representation.
• Correlations exist between music training and both reading acquisition and sequence learning. One of the central predictors of early literacy, phonological awareness, is correlated with both music training and the development of a specific brain pathway.
• Training in acting appears to lead to memory improvement through the learning of general skills for manipulating semantic information.
• Adult self-reported interest in aesthetics is related to a temperamental factor of openness, which in turn is influenced by dopamine-related genes.
• Learning to dance by effective observation is closely related to learning by physical practice, both in the level of achievement and also the neural substrates that support the organization of complex actions. Effective observational learning may transfer to other cognitive skills.

You can download the complete report at http://www.dana.org/news/publications/publication.aspx?id=10760
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/df-dfr030408.php

August 2007

How to benefit from memory training

Brain and memory training programs are increasingly popular, but they don't work well for everyone. In particular, they tend to be much less effective for those who need them the most — those 80 and older, and those with lower initial ability. But a new study shows the problem is not intrinsic, but depends on the strategies people use.  The study found that people in their 60s and 70s used a strategy of spending most of their time on studying the materials and very little on the test, and showed large improvements over the testing sessions. By contrast, most people in their 80s and older spent very little time studying and instead spent most of their time on the test. These people did not do well and showed very little improvement even after two weeks of training.
The findings were published in the August issue of Psychological Science.   Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/uom-dpt082007.php

June 2007

Improved attention with mindfulness training

More evidence of the benefits of meditation for attention comes from a study looking at the performance of novices taking part in an eight-week course that included up to 30 minutes of daily meditation, and experienced meditators who attended an intensive full-time, one-month retreat. Initially, the experienced participants demonstrated better executive functioning skills, the cognitive ability to voluntarily focus, manage tasks and prioritize goals. After the eight-week training, the novices had improved their ability to quickly and accurately move and focus attention, while the experienced participants, after their one-month intensive retreat, also improved their ability to keep attention "at the ready."
The study was published in Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-06/uop-mtc062507.php

Brain scans show how meditation affects the brain

An imaging study comparing novice and experienced meditators found that experienced meditators showed greater activity in brain circuits involved in paying attention. But the most experienced meditators with at least 40,000 hours of experience showed a brief increase in activity as they started meditating, and then a drop to baseline, as if they were able to concentrate in an effortless way. Moreover, while the subjects meditated inside the MRI, the researchers periodically blasted them with disturbing noises. Among the experienced meditators, the noise had less effect on the brain areas involved in emotion and decision-making than among novice meditators. Among meditators with more than 40,000 hours of lifetime practice, these areas were hardly affected at all. The attention circuits affected by meditation are also involved in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The study was published online before print June 27 and in the July 3 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Full reference
Full text is available at http://tinyurl.com/3d6wx4
http://www.physorg.com/news102179695.html

Blind people are 'serial memory' whizzes

In a demonstration of the benefits of mental training, a study tested the memory of 19 congenitally blind individuals and individually matched sighted controls. Those who were blind recalled more words than the sighted, but their greatest superiority was the ability to remember longer word sequences according to their original order. This is probably a result of blind people’s everyday reliance on serial-memory strategies to identify otherwise indistinguishable objects. The finding that the blind showed a better memory for all of the words regardless of where they fell (rather than the first and last word advantage more typically found) suggests that the key to their success may lie in representing item lists as word chains, perhaps by generating associations between adjacent items.
The study was reported online ahead of print June 21, and later in the July 3 issue of Current Biology. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-06/cp-bpa061407.php

May 2007

Meditation may improve attentional control

Paying attention to one thing can keep you from noticing something else. When people are shown two visual signals half a second apart, they often miss the second one — this effect is called the attentional blink. In a study involving 40 participants being trained in Vipassana meditation (designed to reduce mental distraction and improve sensory awareness), one group of 17 attended a 3 month retreat during which they meditated for 10–12 hours a day (practitioner group), and 23 simply received a 1-hour meditation class and were asked to meditate for 20 minutes daily for 1 week prior to each testing session (control group). The three months of intense training resulted in a smaller attentional blink and reduced brain activity to the first target (which was still detected with the same level of accuracy. Individuals with the most reduction in activity generally showed the most reduction in attentional blink size. The study demonstrates that mental training can result in increased attentional control.
The study appeared online May 8 in PLoS Biology. Full reference
Full text available at http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0050138
http://www.physorg.com/news97825611.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/uow-mmf050407.php

September 2006

Evidence musical training affects brain development

A study that examined 12 young children (4—6 year olds) over the course of a year found measurable cognitive differences in those taking Suzuki music lessons compared to those having no musical training outside school. The Suzuki children not only showed greater improvement over the year in melody, harmony and rhythm processing but also in general memory skills such as literacy, verbal memory, visuospatial processing, mathematics and IQ, suggesting that musical training is having an effect on how the brain gets wired for general cognitive functioning related to memory and attention. Brain activity showed greater development consistent with establishing a neural network associated with sound categorization and/or involuntary attention.
The findings were published online ahead of print on 20 September in Brain. Full reference
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060920093024.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-09/oup-fet091906.php

January 2004

Training improves working memory capacity

Working memory capacity has traditionally been thought to be constant. Recent studies, however, suggest that working memory can be improved by training. In this recent imaging study, it was found that adults who practiced working memory tasks for 5 weeks showed increased brain activity in the middle frontal gyrus and superior and inferior parietal cortices. These changes could be evidence of training-induced plasticity in the neural systems that underlie working memory.
The study was reported online on 14 December 2003 in Nature Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/neuro/journal/v7/n1/abs/nn1165.html

January 2003

Biofeedback training for the brain

“Neurofeedback” is a biofeedback technique involving showing people their own brainwaves on a computer screen and training them in altering the brainwaves. It has reportedly had some success in treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, epilepsy and alcoholism. A new study has attempted to apply the technique to memory. Forty people were given a series of words which related to specific categories. They were then given the categories and asked to recall related words. Those who had experienced neurofeedback training recalled 81.6% of the words, compared to an earlier memory test in which they recalled 70.6%. Control subjects recalled 75.1% compared to their earlier score of 72.5%.
The study is published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology. Full reference http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-01/icos-rfl012203.php

Memory training for seniors

December 2006

Mental training helps maintain some seniors' cognitive skills

The Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) Study involved 2,832 adults aged 65 and older (average age 73.6 years). Participants were randomly assigned to four groups, three of which took part in training that targeted a specific cognitive ability (memory, reasoning or speed of processing). The fourth group was a control group and received no cognitive training. People in the three intervention groups attended up to 10 training sessions lasting 60 to 75 minutes each, over a five- to six-week time period. The memory group learned strategies for remembering word lists and sequences of items, text, and story ideas and details. The reasoning group learned strategies for finding the pattern in a letter or word series and identifying the next item in a series. The speed-of-processing group learned ways to identify an object on a computer screen at increasingly brief exposures, while quickly noting where another object was located on the screen. After the initial training, some also took part in 4 75-minute "booster" sessions at 11 and 35 months after training.

Immediately after the initial training, 87% of the speed-training group, 74% of the reasoning group and 26% of the memory group showed improvement in the skills taught. After five years, people in each group performed better on tests in their respective areas of training than did people in the control group. The reasoning-training and speed-training groups who received booster training had the greatest benefit. After five years, all three intervention groups still retained improvement in the cognitive abilities targeted by the intervention. They also reported less difficulty than the control group in tasks such as preparing meals, managing money and doing housework, but only the effect of reasoning training was statistically significant. Those who received speed-of-processing training and follow-up booster training scored better on how quickly and accurately they could find items on a pantry shelf, make change, read medicine dosing instructions, place telephone calls and react to road traffic signs, but booster training for the other two groups did not have a significant effect on this ability. Booster training did however produce additional improvement in reasoning for the reasoning group.
The research was published in the December 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-12/nioa-meh121806.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-12/jaaj-ctf121406.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-12/wfub-ntf121906.htm

October 2006

Teaching older brains to regain youthful skills

Researchers have succeeded in training seniors to multitask at the same level as younger adults. Over the course of two weeks, both younger and older subjects learned to identify a letter flashed quickly in the middle of a computer screen and simultaneously localize the position of a spot flashed quickly in the periphery as well as they could perform either task on its own. The older adults did take longer than the younger adults to reach the same level of performance, but they did reach it.
The study was published in the November issue of Vision Research. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/mu-yct100206.php

February 2005

The effects of training and age on the spatial-memory gender gap

A study of 90 adult rhesus monkeys found young-adult males had better spatial memory than females, but peaked early. By old age, male and female monkeys had about the same performance. This finding is consistent with reports suggesting that men show greater age-related cognitive decline relative to women. A second study of 22 rhesus monkeys showed that in young adulthood, simple spatial-memory training did not help males but dramatically helped females, raising their performance to the level of young-adult males and wiping out the gender gap.
The research appeared in the February issue of Behavioral Neuroscience. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/apa-ima022205.php
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/euhs-npm020905.php
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000560D5-7252-12B9-9A2C83414B7F0000&sc=I100322

Gruneberg, M.M. & Pascoe, K. 1996. The Effectiveness of the Keyword Method for Receptive and Productive Foreign Vocabulary Learning in the Elderly. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 21, 102-9.

The mnemonic technique known as the keyword method is of demonstrated effectiveness in learning facts such as foreign language words. However, there has been little research looking at its effectiveness for elderly people specifically. In the experiment reported here, a group of elderly women were required to learn 20 Spanish vocabulary items using the keyword method of foreign language learning. This involves using a mediator to link an English word to its Spanish target. It was found that the keyword method was an effective means of learning new words, compared to being provided with no instruction for learning.

Rebok, G.W., Rasmusson, D.X., & Brandt J. 1996. Prospects for Computerized Memory Training in Normal Elderly: Effects of Practice on Explicit and Implicit Memory Tasks. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 10, 211-223.

Twelve cognitively normal, elderly adults (mean age=76.33 years) were given training and practice on the Colorado Neuropsychology Tests, a computerized battery of explicit and implicit memory tasks. Half the participants practised on the explicit memory tasks for 1.5 hours a week for 9 weeks with the assistance of a psychologist, while the other half practised on the implicit tasks for the equivalent amount of time.

Both training conditions produced significant improvement in their performance on the tests, with those in the implicit memory condition showing the most overall improvement.

In general, the participants responded positively toward the computer technology and demonstrated their capability in learning to operate the computer software. The results support the use computerized memory training with normal elderly adults.

Cognitive training for specific clinical conditions

January 2006

Simulator training benefits stroke patients

A study involving 83 stroke patients found that a 5-week 15-hour training program improved driving ability. Those given experimental simulator-based training improved more than those given driving-related cognitive tasks. Those with more education and those with less disability benefited most. 73% of the simulator group were legally allowed to resume driving compared to 42% of the other group. However, there were a large number of dropouts.
The study appeared in the October issue of Neurology. Full reference
http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/65/6/843

July 2005

Brain function in schizophrenia can improve with cognitive training

Researchers have long recognized that schizophrenia is associated with a wide range of memory problems, but in view of the more serious problems associated with schizophrenia, these have, until now, tended to be ignored. A new study has demonstrated that people with schizophrenia can be helped to remember things just as well as healthy subjects as long as they are given proper cues and memory aids. Moreover, use of these beneficial strategies not only improves recall, but also seems to trigger a more normal pattern of memory-related brain activities.
The study was published in the July 1 issue of Biological Psychiatry. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/wuis-bfi070505.php

June 2005

Cognitive therapy for ADHD

A researcher that has previously demonstrated that working memory capacity can be increased through training, has now reported that the training software has produced significant improvement in children with ADHD — a disability that is associated with deficits in working memory. The study involved 53 children with ADHD, aged 7-12, who were not on medication for their disability. 44 of these met the criterion of more than 20 days of training. Half the participants were assigned to the working memory training program and the other half to a comparison program. 60% of those who underwent the wm training program no longer met the clinical criteria for ADHD after five weeks of training. The children were tested on visual-spatial memory, which has the strongest link to inattention and ADHD. Further research is needed to show that training improves ability on a wider range of tasks.
The study appeared in the February issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
Full reference
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000560D5-7252-12B9-9A2C83414B7F0000&sc=I100322

June 2004

Alzheimer's may leave some forms of memory intact

A new study has demonstrated that people with Alzheimer's disease retain the capability for a specific form of memory used for rote learning of skills, despite their other memory loss. The finding suggests new strategies to improve training and rehabilitative programs for Alzheimer's sufferers. It also confirms other studies suggesting that a number of brain systems are more intact in Alzheimer's than previously thought.
The report was published in the June 10 issue of Neuron. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-06/hhmi-als060404.php
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-06/cp-ssh060304.php

March 2004

"Brain exercises" improves substance-abuse treatment response

"Brain exercises" originally developed for the rehabilitation of head-injury patients have been found to improve the cognitive functioning of individuals in substance-abuse treatment and their commitment to the treatment program. Those who participated in the computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation exercises stayed in treatment significantly longer than others and twice as many of them "graduated" from treatment. The exercises are designed to improve cognitive functioning with tasks that focus on impaired skills (such as memory and attention) through repetition. Impaired memory and attention have been linked to poorer retention and results in treatment.
The research was reported in the Winter 2003 issue of The Journal of Cognitive Rehabilitation. Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/uab-ccr032504.php