Response inhibition is crucial for mental and physical health but studies assessing the trainability of this type of inhibition are rare. Thirty‐nine children aged 10‐12 years and 46 adults aged ...18‐24 years were assigned to an adaptive go/no‐go inhibition training condition or an active control condition. Transfer of training effects to performance on tasks assessing response inhibition, interference control, working memory updating, task‐switching, and non‐verbal fluid intelligence were assessed during 3‐ and 6‐month follow‐up sessions and/or an immediate post‐training session. Significant training improvements and positive transfer effects to a similar response inhibition task with other stimuli were observed for both children and adults. Reliable albeit short‐lived transfer effects were only found for the children, specifically to working memory updating and task switching. These results suggest some potential for response‐inhibition training programs to enhance aspects of cognitive functioning in children but not adults.
A group of young adults and 10−12‐year old children were either trained on an adaptive multiple‐session response inhibition task or performed a control activity. The trained participants from both age groups displayed significant improvements during training and positive transfer to a similar inhibition task. Reliable, albeit short‐lived, transfer effects were only found for the children, specifically to working memory updating and task‐switching tasks.
Objectives Many employees with burnout report cognitive difficulties. However, the relation between burnout and cognitive functioning has hardly been empirically validated. Moreover, it is unknown ...whether the putative cognitive deficits in burnout are temporary or permanent. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to answer two related questions: (i) Is burnout associated with self-reported cognitive difficulties and with deficits in a specific and well-defined set of executive functions? (ii) Do these putative self-reported cognitive difficulties and deficits in executive functioning in burnout diminish after a 10-week period with cognitive behavioral therapy? Methods Sixteen employees with burnout were compared with sixteen matched healthy employees on selfreported cognitive difficulties and tests measuring the basic executive functions, namely, updating, inhibition, and switching, on two test occasions. The interval between the test occasions was ten weeks, during which the burnout individuals received cognitive behavioral therapy. Results On the first test occasion, and relative to healthy individuals, individuals with burnout reported more cognitive difficulties and showed deficits in the "updating" function. No group differences were found regarding the "inhibition" and "switching" functions, although individuals with burnout generally responded slower than healthy individuals on the latter test. Even though after the ten-week treatment period individuals with burnout revealed positive changes regarding burnout symptoms, general health, and self-reported cognitive difficulties, no evidence was found for improved cognitive test performance. Conclusions These findings suggest that either (i) burnout leads to permanent cognitive deficits, (ii) subjective burnout complaints reduce faster than deficits in cognitive test performance, or (iii) cognitive deficits are a cause rather than a consequence of burnout.
Impaired response inhibition plays a major role in many addictive behaviors. However, in studies using go/no-go tasks, findings regarding the presence of response inhibition deficits in ...nicotine-dependent individuals are mixed. This might be due to differences between studies on a number of task parameters. Here we aimed to identify task conditions under which go/no-go task performance deficits can be observed in smokers and to characterize the nature of such deficits. Sixty-one male students (30 smokers, 31 non-smokers) performed a go/no-go task while independently manipulating three task parameters: (1) percentage no-go trials (50% or 25%), (2) stimulus presentation time (600 ms or 200 ms), and (3) nature of no-go stimuli (cigarette related or cigarette unrelated). Three measures, reaction time on go trials and percentage correct responses on go and no-go trials, served as performance indicators. Under 200-ms but not 600-ms stimulus presentation conditions, the smokers responded faster on go trials and made more errors on both go and no-go trials than the non-smokers did. These differences occurred irrespective of the percentage of no-go trials and nature of no-go stimuli. The accuracy differences disappeared after controlling for the response time differences, suggesting a strong speed-accuracy trade-off. This study contributes to unraveling the conditions under which smokers display impaired inhibition performance and helps to characterize the nature of this impairment. Under task conditions prompting fast responding, smokers are more prone to increase response speed and to make more errors than non-smokers.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
It is essential to develop effective interventions aimed at ameliorating age-related cognitive decline. Previous studies found that effortful encoding benefits episodic memory in older adults. ...However, to date it is unclear whether this benefit is different for individuals with strong versus weak executive functioning (EF). Fifty-one older adults were recruited and divided into low (N = 26) and high (N = 25) functioning groups, based on their EF capacity. All participants performed a semantic and a perceptual incidental encoding task. Each encoding task was performed under four difficulty levels to establish different effort levels. Encoding was followed by a recognition task. Results showed that the high EF group benefitted from increased effort in both tasks. However, the low EF group only showed a beneficial effect under low levels of effort. Results are consistent with the Compensation-Related Utilization of Neural Circuits Hypothesis (CRUNCH) and suggest that future research directed at developing efficient memory strategies to reduce negative cognitive aging effects should take individual cognitive differences among older adults into account, such as differences in EF.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Previous research revealed associations between an individual's occupation and cognitive abilities. However, the underlying causal relation is not always clear and only few studies focused on a ...critical component of executive functioning, namely working memory updating (WMU). Study 1 examined whether restaurant ticket collectors (N = 53) have a better WMU ability compared to a group of security guards (N = 49) that was matched on relevant variables. Study 2 examined transfer effects of a computerized working memory training program in students. The program simulated elements of a restaurant ticket collector's daily work requirements. In Study 1, the ticket collectors performed better than the guards on WMU tasks. In Study 2, using an active control group (N = 33) as comparison, the trained students (N = 33) displayed beneficial training effects on transfer WMU tasks but not on general intelligence tasks. The results support the general notion of repeated experience with occupation‐specific demands affecting specific objectively‐assessed cognitive abilities.
•Low family socioeconomic status (SES) is linked to strong delayed reward discounting (DRD).•Strong DRD is linked to adverse behavioral and mental health outcomes.•The relation between SES and DRD ...might be mediated by working memory (WM).•This mediation was confirmed for WM updating in adolescents in Study 1.•Study 2 showed that WM updating training in low-SES adolescents reduced DRD.
Individuals differ in their tendency to discount delayed rewards. Low socioeconomic status (SES) has been found to be associated with strong delayed reward discounting (DRD), which in turn contributes to risky decision making and adverse behaviors. However, research on possible cognitive mediators of the negative association between SES and DRD, and on effects of cognitive training in low-SES adolescents, is largely lacking. In examining Chinese adolescents (aged 11–15 years; N = 207), Study 1 assessed which aspect of working memory (WM)—simple maintenance, simple manipulation, or updating—serves as mediator, which proved to be WM updating. Based on this outcome, in Study 2 Chinese adolescents (aged 12–14 years; N = 73) with low family SES were assigned to a WM updating training condition or a control condition. All participants performed DRD and WM tasks before and after treatment. The trained adolescents showed positive training effects on DRD, and this effect was specifically correlated with beneficial training effects on performance on a WM updating transfer task. These results support the role of WM updating in DRD and might inform training programs to promote more favorable decision making in low-SES adolescents.
•Students with elevated social anxiety received working memory (WM) training or not.•Trained students showed decreased social anxiety relative to pre-training assessment.•Trained students also showed ...better WM performance in transfer task.•Trained students showed changes in event-related potentials (ERPs) to facial stimuli.•Changes in ERPs did not mediate effect of WM training on social anxiety symptoms.
Social anxiety (SA) is quite common and associated with multiple comorbidities. Here, we examined the effects of working memory (WM) training on various indices potentially related to SA. Pre-selected university students with elevated self-reported SA symptoms were assigned to a WM training (n = 21) or an active control treatment condition (n = 21). Pre- and post-treatment assessments were made using questionnaires related to (social) anxiety and depression, and tasks measuring WM, interference control, and attentional biases towards, and event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by, angry faces. The training enhanced WM transfer task performance, reduced SA symptoms, and changed the amplitude of the P1, N170, P2, and N2 ERP components. However, the latter changes did not mediate the effect of WM training on SA symptoms. These data provide preliminary evidence of the usefulness of WM trainings to reduce potential indices of SA, but further research is necessary to unravel the causal relation among these indices.
Previous research revealed that a low childhood socioeconomic status, including low parental education, correlates with impaired executive functioning. However, there is a lack of research on the ...association of working memory updating (WMU) ability, which is one of the major components of executive functioning, and of resilience with educational mobility. The purpose of the present two studies was to further examine these associations.
In Study 1, 180, 60-88-year old adults with different levels of educational mobility performed a WMU task. In Study 2, 130, 60-89-year old adults that had experienced different levels of upward educational mobility completed a WMU task and a resilience questionnaire.
Study 1 revealed that extent of educational mobility was significantly positively associated with WMU ability. Study 2 revealed significant positive associations among extent of educational mobility, resilience, and WMU task performance.
The results were discussed in terms of possible causal relations between the variables and implications for interventions that aim to enhance upward educational mobility and cognitive functioning in late adulthood.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VSZLJ
Family socioeconomic status (SES) is positively associated with executive functioning. This study tested whether parental educational involvement mediates this association. Two hundred and sixty, ...12‐15‐year‐old adolescents completed working memory updating (WMU) and general intelligence tasks, and questionnaires on SES and parental educational involvement. SES and WMU ability were positively associated; there was no difference between the fathers and mothers for three types of educational involvement. The mothers’ behavioural involvement positively mediated the SES‐WM updating association, whereas a negative mediation was observed for the mothers’ intellectual involvement. The fathers’ educational involvement did not play a significant mediating role. These results might inform interventions targeting educational involvement for enhancing the cognitive development of children from low SES families.
Previous research on the association between executive functions and creativity has revealed mixed results. Here, we examined which of three components of executive functioning, working memory (WM) ...updating, inhibition, and shifting ability, is most strongly associated with which aspect of creative thinking in a group of young adolescents. Moreover, we assessed the effects of specifically training that function on various measures of creative thinking. In Study 1, 73 13- to 15-year-old adolescents performed tasks measuring information processing speed, WM maintenance, WM updating, inhibition, shifting ability, and convergent and divergent creative thinking. In Study 2, 68 12- to 14-year-old adolescents were randomly assigned to an adaptive WM updating training or active control condition. Before and after training, all children were assessed using a WM updating transfer task and tests of convergent and divergent thinking. Study 1 identified WM updating as most reliable correlate of most of the creative thinking outcome measures. Study 2 revealed training-induced beneficial effects on the WM transfer task and on most of the creative outcome measures. These results, together with the outcome of previous studies, are promising in suggesting the potential of cognitive training programs that specifically target WM updating to enhance aspects of creative thinking.
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