Improving children's working memory and classroom performance

Clair-Thompson, Helen St; Stevens, Ruth Felicia; Hunt, Alexandra; Bolder, Emma

doi:10.1080/01443410903509259

Cited by 153 publications

(121 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…One of the few demonstrations of transfer from strategy training showed that practice with elaborative encoding can yield gains on self-report measures of everyday memory (Cavallini et al, 2003). Another study of strategy training in school children gave participants practice on a variety of strategies (rehearsal, grouping, visual imagery, storytelling) and found improvements in WM as well as mental arithmetic and the ability to follow task instructions, but no improvements in standardized tasks of reading or mathematics (St Clair-Thompson et al, 2010). Although these instances of generalization are limited, strategy training may yield broader benefits than suggested by classical studies in which the benefits of practice were found to be restricted to a particular task and information type (Ericsson & Chase, 1982).…”

Section: Strategy Trainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Examples of strategy training that target elaborative encoding include practice with grouping items into chunks (St Clair-Thompson, Stevens, Hunt, & Bolder, 2010), devising a mental story with items (McNamara & Scott, 2001), and using imagery to make items more salient (Carretti et al, 2007). Training programs of this type stem in part from research on the mnemonic techniques thought to be used by skilled memorizers.…”

Section: Strategy Trainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Does working memory training work? The promise and challenges of enhancing cognition by training working memory

2010

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A growing body of literature shows that one's working memory (WM) capacity can be expanded through targeted training. Given the established relationship between WM and higher cognition, these successful training studies have led to speculation that WM training may yield broad cognitive benefits. This review considers the current state of the emerging WM training literature, and details both its successes and limitations. We identify two distinct approaches to WM training, strategy training and core training, and highlight both the theoretical and practical motivations that guide each approach. Training-related increases in WM capacity have been successfully demonstrated across a wide range of subject populations, but different training techniques seem to produce differential impacts upon the broader landscape of cognitive abilities. In particular, core WM training studies seem to produce more far-reaching transfer effects, likely because they target domain-general mechanisms of WM. The results of individual studies encourage optimism regarding the value of WM training as a tool for general cognitive enhancement. However, we discuss several limitations that should be addressed before the field endorses the value of this approach.

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Section: Strategy Trainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Strategy Trainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does working memory training work? The promise and challenges of enhancing cognition by training working memory

2010

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“…With children and adolescents, some studies showed a training-related effect on mathematics, measured by an academic test (Bergman-Nutley & Klingberg, 2014;Holmes & Gathercole, 2014) and on arithmetic (Witt, 2011). However, in other studies (Alloway et al, 2013;Dunning et al, 2013;Karbach et al, 2015;St Clair-Thompson, Stevens, Hunt, & Bolder, 2010), improvement in working memory did not transfer to mathematics.…”

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confidence: 99%

Impact of Working Memory Training Targeting the Central Executive on Kindergarteners’ Numerical Skills

Honoré

Noël²

2017

JETS

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Working memory capacities are associated with mathematical development. Many studies have tried to improve working memory abilities through training. Furthermore, the central executive has been shown to be the component of working memory, which is the most strongly related to numerical and arithmetical skills. Therefore, we developed a training program that specifically targeted the central executive to examine the possible impact on kindergarteners' working memory and numerical abilities. Thirty-four 5-6 year olds were randomly assigned to the experimental or the control conditions. Both groups received 16 30-minute sessions of their respective training program. The experimental group was trained with games tapping the central executive and the control group received a vocabulary-learning program. The results showed an immediate training effect on one central executive task and an effect of training appeared on another central executive task at follow-up, 6 months later. However, no impact was observed on numerical and arithmetical skills.

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“…The authors observed improvements on reasoning tasks in children that trained on reasoning skills, and they failed to find transfer effects from WM training to reasoning and fluid intelligence tasks. More examples of near transfer effect included a study by Mackey et al (2011), St. Clair-Thompson et al (2010 and Thorell et al (2009) that reported near transfer effects but neither far transfer effects nor improvements in IQ measures. Holmes et al (2010)reported that IQ scores were unaffected by WM training in children with ADHD, andHolmes, Gathercole, and Dunning (2009) reported no boost in IQ performance in children with low working memory capacity.…”

Section: Modifiability Of Wm And/or Gmentioning

confidence: 99%

Working Memory and Intelligence: A Brief Review

Chooi¹

2012

JEDP

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This article briefly reviews and organizes research findings from the past few decades that focused on working memory and intelligence. Working memory is a psychological construct that focuses attention, and it is commonly viewed as a temporary storage that holds and manipulates information. Intelligence is a general cognitive ability associated with efficient higher-order thinking such as reasoning and problem solving skills. Decades of research ranging from empirical to brain-behavior studies have shown a strong link between working memory and intelligence, and researchers have begun to manipulate this relationship to further study the complex psychological construct of intelligence. Although the current active research in cognitive training has created much possibility in modifying the two cognitive abilities, there is still a long way to go in achieving thorough understanding of two important constructs in human cognition.

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Improving children's working memory and classroom performance

Cited by 153 publications

References 66 publications

Does working memory training work? The promise and challenges of enhancing cognition by training working memory

Does working memory training work? The promise and challenges of enhancing cognition by training working memory

Impact of Working Memory Training Targeting the Central Executive on Kindergarteners’ Numerical Skills

Working Memory and Intelligence: A Brief Review

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