Do you believe in brain training? A questionnaire about expectations of computerised cognitive training

Rabipour, Sheida; Davidson, Patrick S. R.

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2015.01.002

Cited by 63 publications

(54 citation statements)

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“…Crucially, studies of tDCS have rarely examined psychological factors such as expectations of outcomes, which may influence tDCS responsiveness through placebo or Hawthorne-like effects (McCambridge, Witton, & Elbourne, 2014;Shiozawa, Duailibi, da Silva, & Cordeiro, 2014). Evidence for the influence of expectations on cognitive interventions (Foroughi, Monfort, Paczynski, McKnight, & Greenwood, 2016;Rabipour, Andringa, Boot, & Davidson, 2017;Rabipour & Davidson, 2015) and performance (Schwarz, Pfister, & Buchel, 2016), coupled with the possible influence of factors such as emotional state (Sarkar, Dowker, & Cohen Kadosh, 2014) and motivation (Jones, Gozenman, & Berryhill, 2015) on responsiveness to tDCS, underline the importance of examining the potential influence of expectations on tDCS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the present study we assessed expectations of NIBS and examined the effects of expectation priming on cognitive performance following tDCS in healthy young adults (see also Rabipour et al, 2017;Rabipour & Davidson, 2015). Specifically, we asked: i) whether people tend to have neutral, optimistic, or pessimistic expectations of NIBS; ii) whether expectations of NIBS outcomes can be modified based on information indicating that the procedure either can or cannot enhance cognitive function; and iii) whether expectations of NIBS interact with the effects of anodal tDCS during performance of a cognitively challenging task.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expectations May Influence the Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

Rabipour

Davidson

et al. 2018

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Growing interest surrounds transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as a safe and inexpensive method for improving cognitive functions and mood. Nevertheless, tDCS studies rarely examine psychological factors such as expectations of outcomes, which may influence tDCS responsiveness through placebo-like effects. Here we sought to evaluate the potential influence of expectations on tDCS intervention outcomes. We assessed expectations of tDCS outcomes in 88 healthy young adults on three occasions: i) at baseline; ii) after reading information implying either high or low effectiveness of stimulation; and iii) after a singlesession of sham-controlled anodal tDCS applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, during working memory (WM) training. Participants were largely uncertain about the effectiveness of stimulation in improving cognitive function at baseline. High or low expectation priming using simple positive or cautionary messages significantly increased or decreased expectation ratings, respectively, but ratings significantly decreased following stimulation in all groups. We found greater improvement in participants who received high compared to low expectation priming.Participants who received active stimulation and low expectation priming exhibited the lowest performance, suggesting that expectation priming and stimulation may have interacted. We did not find a significant effect of baseline expectations, belief of group assignment, or individual characteristics on measures of WM and verbal fluency. People randomly assigned to receive high expectation priming reported having a more pleasant experience overall, including greater satisfaction. Our findings suggest that expectations of outcomes should be taken into account in tDCS-based experimental studies and clinical trials.peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/279554 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Mar. 10, 2018; RUNNING HEAD: Expectations and tDCS outcomes -Based on prior knowledge, healthy subjects are uncertain about NIBS effectiveness.-Expectations of NIBS can change after a single exposure to simple written messages.-Expectations of outcomes may influence cognitive performance.-High expectations may lead to a more positive experience and motivation to perform.-Low expectations may be counterproductive to NIBS.peer-reviewed)

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expectations May Influence the Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

Rabipour

Davidson

et al. 2018

Preprint

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“…A large industry has developed promoting brain training and, as a consequence, people tend to believe that it is effective (Rabipour & Davidson, 2015). The general idea behind brain training is that the benefits of engaging in tasks requiring problem solving, memorizing, and other cognitive activities should yield improvements in cognitive functioning that transfer to other tasks and slow age-related decline in these functions.…”

Section: Transfer Of Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Skill Acquisition and Training

Johnson¹,

Proctor²

2016

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Skill Acquisition and Training: Achieving Expertise in Simple and Complex Tasks describes the building blocks of cognitive, motor, and teamwork skills, and the factors to take into account in training them. The basic processes of perception, cognition, and action that provide the foundation for understanding skilled performance are discussed in the context of complex task requirements, individual differences, and extreme environmental demands. The role of attention in perceiving, selecting, and becoming aware of information, in learning new information, and in performance is described in the context of specific skills.A theme throughout this book is that much learning is implicit; the types of knowledge and relations that can profitably be learned implicitly and the conditions under which this learning benefits performance are discussed. The question of whether skill acquisition in cognitive domains shares underlying mechanisms with the acquisition of perceptual and motor skills is also addressed with a view to identifying commonalities that allow for widely applicable, general theories of skill acquisition. Because the complexity of real-world environments puts demands on the individual to adapt to new circumstances, the question of how skills research can be applied to organizational training contexts is an important one. To address this, this book dedicates much of its content to practical applications, covering such issues as how training needs can be captured with task and job analyses, and how to maximize training transfer by taking trainee self-efficacy and goal orientation into account.This comprehensive yet readable textbook is optimized for students of cognitive psychology looking to understand the intricacies of skill acquisition, while being accessible to a range of students and practitioners.

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“…A limited number of studies have focused on this question. A study examining adults' optimism about brain training found that 69% of individuals believed cognitive training would be "somewhat" to "completely" successful in improving general cognition, with older adults expressing relatively greater optimism (Rabipour and Davidson, 2015). A second study of more than 3,000 younger adults who owned smartphones demonstrated that 56% had used a braintraining application (app).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes and Beliefs Toward Computerized Cognitive Training in the General Population

et al. 2020

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Introduction: In recent years, computerized cognitive training (CCT) programs have been developed commercially for widespread public consumption. Despite early enthusiasm, whether these programs enhance cognitive abilities in healthy adults is a contentious area of investigation. Given the mixed findings in the literature, researchers are beginning to investigate how beliefs and attitudes toward CCT impact motivation, expectations, and gains after cognitive training. Method: We collected survey data from 497 North American participants from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). This survey asked novel questions regarding respondents' beliefs about the effectiveness of CCT for improving different domains of cognition, mood, and daily life; beliefs about whether CCT programs are supported by research; and whether impressions of CCT have improved or worsened over time. Exploratory analyses are reported descriptively, while parametric tests were used to analyze a priori hypotheses. Results: Almost half of the surveyed participants had used CCT, and respondents with a self-reported psychological or neurological disorder were more likely to have used CCT platforms than participants without such conditions. Motivations for using CCT included curiosity; to improve or maintain cognition; to prevent cognitive decline; and/or for enjoyment or fun. Participants believed that CCT is somewhat effective for improving mood and cognition across a variety of domains. Greater age and fewer years of education predicted perceived effectiveness of CCT. Finally, participants largely reported unchanged opinions of CCT platforms over time. Conclusion: Our study suggests the need for future research regarding the general population's beliefs and attitudes toward CCT, along with knowledge translation for relevant stakeholders.

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Do you believe in brain training? A questionnaire about expectations of computerised cognitive training

Cited by 63 publications

References 30 publications

Expectations May Influence the Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

Expectations May Influence the Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

Skill Acquisition and Training

Attitudes and Beliefs Toward Computerized Cognitive Training in the General Population

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