Improving Fluid Intelligence with Training on Working Memory

Improving Fluid Intelligence with training on working memory

2008

Susanne M. Jaeggi, Martin Buschkuehl, John Jonides and Walter J. Perrig

Start!

5- Participants and Procedure

3- Link to Working Memory

2- Previous Research

4- Present Study

1- What is Fluid Intelligence?

index

7- Results

10- Thanks

6- Materials

9- My Thoughts

8- Discussion

Fluid intelligence refers to the ability to reason and to solve new problems independently of previously acquired knowledge

- Jaeggi et al. (2008)

+ Info

What is Fluid Intelligence?

• A complex human ability that allows us to adapt our thinking to a new cognitive problem or situation.
• Important for a wide variety of cognitive tasks and is considered one of the most important factors in learning.

• Closely related to professional and educational success.
• Robust against against influences of education and socialisation.
• Commonly seen as having a strong hereditary component.

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Previous Research

Interest in computer and video games possibly increasing IQ (Smith et al.; Haier et al.). - No empirical evidence found. - Nothing beyond task-specific performance and selective Visio-spatial attention.

2003

1997

Cognitive training in psychological and educational science (Healy et al.). - Performance on trained tasks can increase. - Transfer of learning to other tasks/domains remains rare.

Increasing performance in Gf tests by simply practicing the tests themselves (Bors & Vigneau). - Decreases novelty. - Decreases underlying Gf-processes.

Use of "smart drugs" to investigate any drug-related increase in Gf (Elliot et al.; Kimberg et al.) - No evidence of such increase has been found till date.

2006

1999

Back

Link to Working Memory

• Halford et al. proposed a framework for a transfer study in which Gf can be improved via a working memory task.
• Working memory and intelligence share a capacity constraint.
• Capacity constraint expressed by the number of items that can be held in working memory or the number of interrelationships among elements in a reasoning task.
• Gf and working memory are related through attentional control processes.
• Carpenter et al. proposed that the ability to derive abstract relations and to maintain a large set of possible goals in working memory accounts for individual differences in typical tasks that measure Gf.
• Both Gf and working memory rely on similar neural networks; lateral and parietal vortices.

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Present Study

Improving Fluid intelligence with training on working memory

By Susanne M. Jaeggi, Martin Buschkuehl, John Jonides and Walter J. Perrig

+ Info

Present Study

Aim: Investigate the effects of training on the working memory task and its impact on Gf. Four individual experiments using a newly developed training paradigm consisting of a demanding working memory task. Important difference among the four experiments was the number of training sessions between pre and post-tests, ranging from 8 to 19 sessions. Hypotheses: Any alteration of the processing system would take some time to be effective.

Methods

Participants and Procedure

• Sample: 70 young participants (36 female, 34 male) recruited from the University of Bern.
• 35 participants performed the working-memory task in four different settings- one participant failed to complete training sessions and was excluded (n = 34)
• Control for retest effects; performance of trained groups were matched with four control groups who did not recieve training (n = 35). Control groups recieved pre and post-testing at the same intervals as the trained groups.
• Training groups: 8 days, 12 days, 17 days and 19 days.

• Pre-tested participants on a measure of Gf and then post-tested them on another form of this measure.
• In each training setting, participants trained daily, except for the weekends.
• Post-test took place at least 1 day after the last trainng session.

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Materials

Dual n-back task: Squares at eight different locations are presented sequentially on a computer screen at a rate of 3 s. Simultaneously, one of eight consonants will be presented sequentially through headphones. A response is required when one of the presented stimuli matched the one presented n positions back in the sequence. - 6 auditory and 6 visual targets per block. Transfer Task: Standardised fluid intelligence tests consisting of visual analogy problems of increasing difficulty was presented. Each problem presented a matrix of patterns in which one pattern is missing and the task is to select the mission pattern among a set of given response alternatives. 8 day training group -> Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices test, set II (35) 12, 17 & 19 day training groups -> Bochumer Matrizen-test (36) Reading Span and Digit Span Tasks: To control for individual differences and gain in working memory capacity; conducted pre and post-test sessions.

Results

Results

• Analyses of the training functions revealed that all four training groups improved in their performance on the working memory task comparably.
• Dramatic improvement on the test of Gf in the trained groups.
• Analysis of the gain scores (post-test minus pre-test) as a function of training time showed that transfer to fluid intellgence varied as a function of training time.
• Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed a trend for group differences after 12 days, and statistically significant group differences after 17 and 19 training days.
• Post-hoc analysis revealed significant differences between:

8 vs. 17 days, 8 vs. 19 days and 12 vs. 19 days.

Discussion

Discussion

An impressive learning curve for the training task in all four experiments. Indicated participants were challenged to improve their performance even after a training time as long as 4 weeks. Training related gain in Gf- not been reported previously. The adaptive character of the training leads to continual engagement of executive processes while only minimally allowing the development of automatic processes and task-specific strategies- engages Gf related process. Transfer task shares important features with the training task- strong relationship between working memory and Gf due to involvement of attentional control. Training procedure may have have facilitated the ability to control attention.

My Thoughts

My Thoughts

Methods: - larger samples required - only adult participants- same for clinical sample?

Useful: - incorporated in schools - better future prospects

Novel Finding: - replicate findings- further research

Research: - can build on this hypothesis

Index

Thanks!