| 1. |
- Fellman, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
-
Beginning of the Pandemic : COVID-19-Elicited Anxiety as a Predictor of Working Memory Performance
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 1664-1078. ; 11
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Increasing evidence indicates that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is associated with adverse psychological effects, including heightened levels of anxiety. This study examined whether COVID-19-related anxiety levels during the early stage of the pandemic predicted demanding working memory (WM) updating performance. Altogether, 201 healthy adults (age range, 18-50) mostly from North America and the British Isles were recruited to this study via the crowdsourcing site . The results showed that higher levels of COVID-19-related anxiety during the first weeks of the pandemic outbreak were associated with poorer WM performance as measured by the n-back paradigm. Critically, the unique role of COVID-19-related anxiety on WM could not be explained by demographic factors, or other psychological factors such as state and trait anxiety or fluid intelligence. Moreover, across three assessment points spanning 5-6 weeks, COVID-19-related anxiety levels tended to decrease over time. This pattern of results may reflect an initial psychological "shock wave" of the pandemic, the cognitive effects of which may linger for some time, albeit the initial anxiety associated with the pandemic would change with habituation and increasing information. Our results contribute to the understanding of cognitive-affective reactions to a major disaster.
|
|
| 2. |
- Fellman, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
-
The role of strategy use in working memory training outcomes
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Journal of memory and language (Print). - : Elsevier. - 0749-596X .- 1096-0821. ; 110
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cognitive mechanisms underlying the limited transfer effects of working memory (WM) training remain poorly understood. We tested in detail the Strategy Mediation hypothesis, according to which WM training generates task-specific strategies that facilitate performance on the trained task and its untrained variants. This large-scale pre-registered randomized controlled trial (n = 258) used a 4-week adaptive WM training with a single digit n-back task. Strategy use was probed with open-ended strategy reports. We employed a Strategy training group (n = 73) receiving external strategy instruction, a Traditional training group (n = 118) practicing without strategy instruction, and Passive controls (n = 67). Both training groups showed emerging transfer to untrained n-back task variants already at intermediate test after 3 training sessions, extending to all untrained n-back task variants at posttest after 12 training sessions. The Strategy training group outperformed the Traditional training group only at the beginning of training, indicating short-lived strategy manipulation effects. Importantly, in the Traditional training group, strategy evolvement modulated the gains in the trained and untrained n -back tasks, supporting the Strategy Mediation hypothesis. Our results concur with the view of WM training as cognitive skill learning.
|
|
| 3. |
- Ritakallio, Liisa, et al.
(författare)
-
The Pursuit of Effective Working Memory Training : a Pre-registered Randomised Controlled Trial with a Novel Varied Training Protocol
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Journal of Cognitive Enhancement. - : Springer. - 2509-3290 .- 2509-3304. ; 6, s. 232-247
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Working memory (WM) training, typically entailing repetitive practice with one or two tasks, has mostly yielded only limited task-specific transfer effects. We developed and tested a new WM training approach where the task paradigm, stimulus type, and predictability of the stimulus sequence were constantly altered during the 4-week training period. We expected that this varied training protocol would generate more extensive transfer by facilitating the use of more general strategies that could be applied to a range of WM tasks. Pre-post transfer effects following varied training (VT group, n = 60) were compared against traditional training (TT group, training a single adaptive WM task, n = 63), and active controls (AC, n = 65). As expected, TT evidenced strong task-specific near transfer as compared to AC. In turn, VT exhibited task-specific near transfer only on one of the measures, and only as compared to the TT group. Critically, no evidence for task-general near transfer or far transfer effects was observed. In sum, the present form of VT failed to demonstrate broader transfer. Nevertheless, as VT has met with success in other cognitive domains, future studies should probe if and how it would be possible to design WM training protocols that promote structural learning where common features of specific tasks would be identified and utilised when selecting strategies for novel memory tasks.
|
|
| 4. |
- Salmi, Juha, et al.
(författare)
-
Disentangling the Role of Working Memory in Parkinson's Disease
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 1663-4365. ; 12
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Working memory (WM) represents a core cognitive function with a major striatal contribution, and thus WM deficits, commonly observed in Parkinson's disease (PD), could also relate to many other problems in PD patients. Our online study aimed to determine the subdomains of WM that are particularly affected in PD and to clarify the links between WM and everyday cognitive deficits, other executive functions, psychiatric and PD symptoms, as well as early cognitive impairment. Fifty-two mild-to-moderate PD patients and 54 healthy controls performed seven WM tasks tapping selective updating, continuous monitoring, or maintenance of currently active information. Self-ratings of everyday cognition, depression, and apathy symptoms, as well as screenings of global cognitive impairment, were also collected. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Of the three WM domains, only selective updating was directly predictive of PD group membership. More widespread WM deficits were observed only in relation to global cognitive impairment in PD patients. Self-rated everyday cognition or psychiatric symptoms were not linked to WM performance but correlated with each other. Our findings suggest that WM has a rather limited role in the clinical manifestation of PD. Nevertheless, due to its elementary link to striatal function, the updating component of WM could be a candidate for a cognitive marker of PD also in patients who are otherwise cognitively well-preserved.
|
|
