基于即时反馈的反应抑制训练对青少年和成人执行功能的训练效应和迁移效应

本研究以基于即时反馈的Stop Signal范式为训练任务, 考察3周训练是否对青少年和成人的执行功能产生训练效应和迁移效应。发现青少年、成人实验组和积极控制组都出现了训练效应。两个实验组均产生了对反应抑制Go/No-go任务的迁移效应; 但只有青少年实验组出现了对干扰抑制Stroop任务的迁移效应。成人实验组和积极控制组都出现了对2-back任务的迁移效应; 但只有青少年实验组出现了在2-和3-back任务上的迁移效应。所有组别都未能出现对推理能力的迁移。研究证明从青春期到成年期, 基于即时反馈的反应抑制训练能够对执行功能产生训练和迁移效应, 但迁移仅限于抑制和工作记忆等基础成分, 无法改善推理能力。     

Attentional WM is not necessarily specifically related with fluid intelligence: the case of smart children with ADHD symptoms

Executive functions and, in particular, Attentional (active) Working Memory (WM) have been associated with fluid intelligence. The association contrasts with the hypothesis that children with ADHD exhibit problems with WM tasks requiring controlled attention and may have a good fluid intelligence. This paper examines whether children who are intelligent but present ADHD symptoms fail in attentional WM tasks. The latter result would be problematic for theories assuming the generality of a strict relationship between intelligence and WM. To study these issues, a battery of tests was administered to a group of 58 children who all displayed symptoms of ADHD. All children were between the age of 8 and 11 years, and were described by their teachers as smart. Children were compared to a control group matched for age, schooling, and gender. The battery included a test of fluid intelligence (Raven’s Coloured Matrices), and a series of visuospatial WM tasks. Results showed that children with ADHD were high in intelligence but significantly lower than the controls in WM tasks requiring high attentional control, whereas there was no difference in WM tasks requiring low attentional control. Furthermore, only high attentional control WM tasks were significantly related to Raven’s performance in the control group, whereas all WM tasks were similarly related in the ADHD group. It is concluded that performance in high attentional control WM tasks may be related to fluid intelligence, but also to a specific control component that is independent of intelligence and is poor in children with ADHD.     

The effects of dynamic assessment procedures on Raven Matrices performance,visual search behavior,test anxiety and test orientation

The effects of dynamic testing procedures on Raven Coloured Matrices performance, visual scanning procedures, test anxiety, and orientation to the test situation were assessed. The subjects were 72 third-grade children. The results supported the hypotheses of the study showing that (1) dynamic assessment procedures involving either verbalization or elaborated feedback lead to higher levels of Raven Matrices performance; that (2) dynamic assessment modifies visual search behaviors; and that (3) dynamic assessment reduces test anxiety and negative orientation to the testing situation. The results are interpreted as offering construct validation to the assessment approaches used.     

Teaching awareness of strategic behavior in combination with strategy training: Effects on children's memory performance

The present study examined the effectiveness of two components (rehearsal training and strategy awareness) of an instructional package designed to train the developmentally young in the use of mature information processing techniques. Two groups of children of equivalent developmental age (MA = 8), one mildly retarded and the other of average intelligence, participated. Rehearsal training was effective in improving recall scores on the training task; however, neither rehearsal training, memory awareness, nor their combination significantly altered memory performance on the generalization tasks. There was evidence, however, that the combination of rehearsal training and strategy awareness did increase the likelihood of strategy transfer on the generalization task (recognition) which most closely resembled the training task. Post-task questioning revealed that instructions concerning memory awareness did improve subjects ability to verbalize appropriate strategic behavior; however, these improvements were not consistently translated into either actual use of a rehearsal strategy or improved performance. Discussion centered on the implications of these results and on the need for increased research on the metamnemonic skills involved in strategy generalization.     

Working Memory Training Improves Dual-Task Performance on Motor Tasks

The authors investigated whether working memory training improves motor-motor dual-task performance consisted of upper and lower limb tasks. The upper limb task was a simple reaction task and the lower limb task was an isometric knee extension task. 45 participants (age = 21.8 ± 1.6 years) were classified into a working memory training group (WM-TRG), dual-task training group, or control group. The training duration was 2 weeks (15 min, 4 times/week). Our results indicated that working memory capacity increased significantly only in the WM-TRG. Dual-task performance improved in the WM-TRG and dual-task training group. Our study provides the novel insight that working memory training improves dual-task performance without specific training on the target motor task.     

3-D localization of virtual sound sources: Effects of visual environment, pointing method, and training

The ability to localize sound sources in three-dimensional space was tested in humans. In Experiment 1, naive subjects listened to noises filtered with subject-specific head-related transfer functions. The tested conditions included the pointing method (head or manual pointing) and the visual environment (VE; darkness or virtual VE). The localization performance was not significantly different between the pointing methods. The virtual VE significantly improved the horizontal precision and reduced the number of front-back confusions. These results show the benefit of using a virtual VE in sound localization tasks. In Experiment 2, subjects were provided with sound localization training. Over the course of training, the performance improved for all subjects, with the largest improvements occurring during the first 400 trials. The improvements beyond the first 400 trials were smaller. After the training, there was still no significant effect of pointing method, showing that the choice of either head- or manual-pointing method plays a minor role in sound localization performance. The results of Experiment 2 reinforce the importance of perceptual training for at least 400 trials in sound localization studies.     

Toward a differential testing approach: Testing-the-limits employing the Raven matrices

Various testing-the-limits procedures were employed in administering the Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices Test to 203 second grade and 230 fourth grade children. Tests of impulsivity, neuroticism, extroversion, intelligence and school achievement were also given. The main results showed that testing-the-limits procedures which involved verbalization and feedback were efficacious in maximizing performance on the Raven. The puzzle form of the test generally led to higher scores than the picture version for the second but not fourth graders. Differential analyses were carried out to establish how construct, concurrent and predictive validity of the Raven were affected by the salient testing-the-limits procedures involved. Analysis was also done with the personality variables and revealed how their effect interacted with various test administration procedures. The results were discussed in theoretical and practical terms.     

工作记忆训练提升幼儿流体智力表现

目前已有许多研究证据表明, 工作记忆训练能提高成人、儿童的流体智力成绩, 然而这种训练是否能够提高幼儿的流体智力表现, 更为重要的是, 如果训练确有成效, 那么这种训练效果能否长期保持？为此, 本研究选择了幼儿园4~5岁幼儿进行工作记忆训练任务, 考察工作记忆训练对流体智力的提升及保持效应。实验中设立3个组：实验组、控制1组和控制2组。实验组采用单个空间n-back的工作记忆游戏程序进行训练, 控制1组采用“水果忍者”的游戏程序进行训练, 两组进行游戏训练的时间均为14天, 每天15 min; 控制2组不进行任何训练。结果发现, 训练后实验组幼儿被试的流体智力成绩明显优于两个控制组, 在6个月后再进行测试, 这种优势仍然保持。本研究结果表明, n-back工作记忆训练可以提高幼儿的流体智力成绩, 并且这种训练效果具有持续的稳定性。     

Item-Position Effect in Raven’s Matrices: A Developmental Perspective

ABSTRACT

This study examined whether there is a developmental difference in the emergence of an item-position effect in intelligence testing. The item-position effect describes the dependency of the item’s characteristics on the positions of the items and is explained by learning. Data on fluid intelligence measured by Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) and data on working memory tasks were collected from both primary school age children (7–8 years old) and secondary school age adolescents (12–13 years old). The item-position effect of SPM was represented and separated from the ability component by the fixed-links model. The results indicated a clear age difference: whereas the item-position effect was observed in the adolescents, it was not found in the primary school children. In addition, separating the item-position effect detected in the adolescents from the ability component led to a larger correlation with working memory than otherwise. These results suggest that age differences in intelligence test performance may not only reflect differences in the general ability but also in the sources of the item-position effect.     

Recognition memory in hearing-impaired children: A levels-of-processing approach

Eighty-nine hearing-impaired children ranging in age from 6 years to 12 years, 11 months were given a recognition task comprised of items from the Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices and the Raven Learning Potential Test following administration of the Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices. The study was designed to determine whether recognition memory varied as a function of item type. The analysis indicated that performance on items involving analogous reasoning exceeded recognition for items requiring pattern completion through closure, which, in turn, exceeded performance for items involving simple pattern completion. Results are discussed in light of levels-of-processing.     

A dissociation between the sense of familiarity and access to semantic information concerning familiar people

In the current study we examined the relationship between working memory capacity, inhibition/susceptibility to interference and fluid intelligence, measured by the Raven's Progressive Matrices (PM38), comparing groups of young (aged 18–35), young-old (aged 65–74), and old-old (aged 75–86) participants. Groups were administered two working memory tasks tapping into different mechanisms involved in working memory. The ability to control for irrelevant information was measured both considering memory errors (intrusion errors) in a working memory task and an index of susceptibility to interference obtained with a variant of the Brown-Peterson task. Regression analyses showed that the classical working memory measure was the most potent predictors of the Raven's score. Susceptibility to interference and intrusions errors contributed, but to a lower extent, to the Raven explained variance. These results confirm that working memory shares cognitive aspects with the fluid intelligence measure considered, whereas the role of inhibition to Raven scores is still in need of better evidence.     

Relationships between working memory and intelligence from a developmental perspective: Convergent evidence from a neo-Piagetian and a psychometric approach

The objective of this paper, in line with the other papers of this special issue, is to show the potentialities of combining intelligence research and cognitive psychology. The development of intelligence is here addressed from two usually separate perspectives, a psychometric one, and a neo-Piagetian one. Two studies are presented. In Experiment 1, children aged 6, 7, 9, and 11 years (N = 100) were administered two working memory tasks and three Piagetian tasks. In Experiment 2, children aged 8–12 years (N = 207), young adults aged 20–35 (N = 160), and older adults aged 60–88 years (N = 135) were administered working memory and processing speed tasks, as well as the Raven Standard Matrices task. Regression and commonality analyses were run to analyse the age-related variance in the Piagetian tasks (Study 1), and in the Raven task (Study 2). In both experiments, working memory accounted for a large part of the age differences observed, but more so in Study 1 (Piagetian tasks) than in Study 2 (Raven task). It is concluded that working memory mediates the effect of age on fluid intelligence during childhood and during adulthood.     

Effects of aerobic exercise training, age, and physical fitness on memory-search performance

We investigated the effects of exercise training on memory performance. One group of 13 men (M = 42.92 years of age) participated in supervised aerobic exercise (jogging) three times a week for 12 weeks. A second group of 15 men (M = 43.67 years of age) performed anaerobic exercise (strength training) for the same period of time. Subjects' reaction time (RT) performance in a memory-search task was assessed both before (Time 1) and after (Time 2) the 12 weeks of exercise training. Results indicated that there was no significant change in memory-search performance over time as a function of exercise training. Analyses of the Time 2 RTs demonstrated that aspects of memory-search performance were related significantly both to subjects' initial (Time 1) level of fitness and to age, but not to the amount of change in fitness associated with aerobic exercise training over this 12-week duration in this age group.     

个体差异对工作记忆训练迁移效果的调节

本研究考察了流体智力基线水平对工作记忆训练迁移效果的影响。采用前后测设计,以视觉和听觉双任务n-back作为工作记忆训练任务,对训练组进行为期一个月的训练;积极对照组采用阅读任务进行训练。结果发现积极控制组的流体智力水平在基线与后测之间无显著变化;而训练组流体智力水平在后测时与基线相比有显著提高,且工作记忆训练提升量越大的个体其流体智力改善越大。说明认知训练有效迁移到了流体智力水平的改善上。我们还发现流体智力基线水平调节了工作记忆训练对流体智力水平的迁移,即工作记忆训练提升量越大,流体智力改善值越大,对于那些流体智力基线水平较高的人来说,工作记忆训练对流体智力改善的效果更大。流体智力基线水平、工作记忆训练提升量及两者的乘积共同影响了流体智力改善值。这一结果表明个体差异如流体智力基线水平可以调节工作记忆训练对流体智力水平的迁移。     

Reaction time,movement time,and intelligence: A replication and extension

The purpose of the investigation was to replicate and extend a study by Jensen and Munro which found reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT) parameters to correlate negatively and moderately with Raven matrices performance. A sample of 20 ninth-grade girls was used. Relationships between RT and MT and Raven scores were found to be negative and moderate to high, thus replicating the Jensen and Munro study. In addition, moderate to strong negative correlations were found between RT and MT parameters and reading comprehension and performance on the California Test of Basic Skills. Weaker relationships were found for mathematics and English grades although the direction was consistently negative.     

Normative data for the Boston Naming Test in native Dutch-speaking Belgian children and the relation with intelligence

This paper reports the results of a normative study of the 60-item version of the Boston Naming Test (BNT) in a group of 371 native Dutch-speaking Flemish children between the ages of 6 and 12 years. Analysis of test results revealed that BNT performance was significantly affected by age and gender. The gathered norms were shown to be significantly lower than published norms for comparable North-American children. Error analysis disclosed remarkable similarities with data from elderly subjects, with verbal semantic paraphasias and 'don't know' responses occurring most frequently. Finally, BNT scores were shown to correlate strongly with general intelligence as measured with the Raven Progressive Matrices. The relation between both measures can be of help in the diagnosis of identification naming deficits and impaired word-retrieval capacities.     

The relationship between fluid intelligence and sustained inattentional blindness in 7-to-14-year-old children

Previous researches have shown that people with higher fluid intelligence are more likely to detect the unexpected stimuli. The current study systematically explored the relationship between fluid intelligence and sustained inattentional blindness in children. In Experiment 1, we measured one hundred and seventy-nine 7-to-14-year-old children’s fluid intelligence and sustained inattentional blindness. The results showed that fluid intelligence was negatively related to sustained inattentional blindness only in 7-to-8-year-old children. In Experiment 2, we explored sustained inattentional blindness in sixty children with high Raven’s scores. We found that compared with children who have average Raven’s scores aged 11-to-12 years old, children with high Raven’s scores were unable to better avoid sustained inattentional blindness. In general, this research implies that the relation between fluid intelligence and sustained inattentional blindness is weak. Fluid intelligence could predict sustained inattentional blindness only when children do not have enough perceptual capacities to complete the primary task.     

Gains in fluid intelligence after training non-verbal reasoning in 4-year-old children: a controlled, randomized study

Fluid intelligence (Gf) predicts performance on a wide range of cognitive activities, and children with impaired Gf often experience academic difficulties. Previous attempts to improve Gf have been hampered by poor control conditions and single outcome measures. It is thus still an open question whether Gf can be improved by training. This study included 4-year-old children (N = 101) who performed computerized training (15 min/day for 25 days) of either non-verbal reasoning, working memory, a combination of both, or a placebo version of the combined training. Compared to the placebo group, the non-verbal reasoning training group improved significantly on Gf when analysed as a latent variable of several reasoning tasks. Smaller gains on problem solving tests were seen in the combination training group. The group training working memory improved on measures of working memory, but not on problem solving tests. This study shows that it is possible to improve Gf with training, which could have implications for early interventions in children.     

Effect of working memory training on working memory,arithmetic and following instructions

Mathematical ability is dependent on specific mathematical training but also associated with a range of cognitive factors, including working memory (WM) capacity. Previous studies have shown that WM training leads to improvement in non-trained WM tasks, but the results regarding transfer to mathematics are inconclusive. In the present study, 176 children with WM deficits, aged 7–15 years performed 5 weeks of WM training. During the training period, they were assessed five times with a test of complex WM (the Odd One Out), a test of remembering and following instructions and a test of arithmetic. The improvements were compared to the performance of a control group of 304 typically developing children aged 7–15 years who performed the same transfer tasks at the same time intervals, but without training. The training group improved significantly more than the control group on all three transfer tests (all p < 0.0001), after correction for baseline performance, age and sex. The effect size for mathematics was small and the effect sizes for the WM tasks were moderate to large. The transfer increased linearly with the amount of training time and correlated with the amount of improvement on the trained tasks. These results confirm previous findings of training-induced improvements in non-trained WM tasks including the ability to follow instructions, but extend previous findings by showing improvements also for arithmetic. This is encouraging regarding the potential role of cognitive training for education, but it is desirable to find paradigms that would enhance the effect of the training on mathematics. One of the future challenges for studying training effects is combining large sample sizes with high quality and compliance, to detect relevant but smaller effects of cognitive training.     

What cognitive abilities are involved in trail-making performance?

The cognitive abilities involved in the Connections (Salthouse, et al., 2000) version of the trail making test were investigated by administering the test, along with a battery of cognitive tests and tests of complex span and updating conceptualizations of working memory, to a sample of over 3600 adults. The results indicate that this variant of the trail making test largely reflects individual differences in speed and fluid cognitive abilities, with the relative contributions of the two abilities varying according to particular measure of performance considered (e.g., difference, ratio, or residual). Relations of age on trail making performance were also examined. Although strong age differences were evident in the Connections and working memory measures, with both sets of variables there was nearly complete overlap of the age differences with individual differences in speed and fluid cognitive abilities.