A very promising cognitive training study was presented last week by Helena Westerberg at the annual meeting of the CNS: Cognitive Neuroscience Society held in San Francisco, and Dr. David Rabiner brings us the highlights.

- Alvaro

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The study was conducted with a general adult population, rather than adults diagnosed with ADHD, as was the case in previous published working memory training studies,

The study was a randomized, controlled trial of working memory training conducted with 55 younger (20-30 years old) and 45 older (60-70 years old) adults. Participants were randomly assigned to receive 5 weeks of active Cogmed Working Memory Training or a placebo training intervention. In the active training group, the difficulty of the working memory training tasks continually adjusted to match the individual’s performance. As a result, individuals were consistently challenged to perform at their highest possible level. In the placebo training group, the difficulty level remained constant across the training period such that improvements in working memory were not expected to occur.

Results indicated that active training was associated with significant gains in non-trained working memory tasks; particularly noteworthy is that participants who received active training also reported improved attentional performance and cognitive functioning in their daily lives. This was true for both younger and older adults. For the most part, these gains were maintained 3 months after training ended.

The poster presented at the conference provides information on all measures used in the study as well as a graphical presentation of the results. You can view it at www.helpforadd.com/Westerberg.pdf

You will probably need to adjust the image size to properly view the poster.

 

 

— Dr. David Rabiner is a child clinical psychologist and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. His research focuses on various issues related to ADHD, the impact of attention problems on academic achievement, and attention training. He also publishes Attention Research Update, a complimentary online newsletter that helps parents, professionals, and educators keep up with the latest research on ADHD. Cogmed is a major sponsor of Attention Research Update.