Working memory plasticity in old age: Practice gain, transfer, and maintenance.

Abstract

Adult age differences in cognitive plasticity have been studied less often in working memory than in episodic memory. The authors investigated the effects of extensive working memory practice on performance improvement, transfer, and short-term maintenance of practice gains and transfer effects. Adults age 20 -30 years and 70 -80 years practiced a spatial working memory task with 2 levels of processing demands across 45 days for about 15 min per day. In both age groups and relative to age-matched, no-contact control groups, we found (a) substantial performance gains on the practiced task, (b) near transfer to a more demanding spatial n-back task and to numerical n-back tasks, and (c) 3-month maintenance of practice gains and near transfer effects, with decrements relative to postpractice performance among older but not younger adults. No evidence was found for far transfer to complex span tasks. The authors discuss neuronal mechanisms underlying adult age differences and similarities in patterns of plasticity and conclude that the potential of deliberate working memory practice as a tool for improving cognition in old age merits further exploration.

Normative shifts of cortical mechanisms of encoding contribute to adult age differences in visual–spatial working memory

“…In good agreement with previous studies on WM performance and aging (Babcock and Salthouse, 1990;Borella et al, 2008;Cowan et al, 2006;Li et al, 2008), older adults performed less well in the high-load memory condition (3 targets) than younger adults, indicating that older adults were-on average-more limited in their WM capacity than younger adults. The presence of irrelevant items, however, produced a similar interference effect in younger and older adults.…”

“…We manipulated memory load (1 target, 3 targets) and interference by irrelevant items (absent, present). Based on previous research (Babcock and Salthouse, 1990;Borella et al, 2008;Cowan et al, 2006;Li et al, 2008), we expected lower WM capacity in older relative to younger adults, particularly in the high-load condition (3 targets). Furthermore, we expected that the interference manipulation would affect performance negatively, particularly in the high-load condition.…”

Who Benefits the Most? Individual Differences in the Transfer of Executive Control Training Across the Lifespan

“…Importantly, these training-related benefits usually benefit performance on untrained similar tasks assessing the same ability as the training tasks (near transfer) and oftentimes also to performance on tasks measuring untrained related abilities (far transfer), even though these far transfer have not been reported consistently across the literature (for meta-analyses see Au et al 2015;Karbach and Verhaeghen 2014;Schwaighofer et al 2015). All in all, previous research shows that cognitive plasticity (i.e., the potential modifiability of a person's cognitive abilities) seems to be present across the lifespan, even up to very old age (Buschkuehl et al 2008;Karbach et al 2010;Li et al 2008;Schmiedek et al 2010;Zinke et al 2012). Still, even though many training regimes have yielded significant improvements at the group level, we also know that individual differences in the degree of improvement are often relatively large (Jaeggi et al 2014;Karbach et al 2015;Kliegel and Bürki 2012;Zinke et al 2014).…”

The Center of Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development: Conceptual Agenda and Illustration of Research Activities

“…Specifically, after 45-day of extensive practice with spatial working memory tasks, both younger and older adults showed substantive improvements on practiced tasks as well as transfer to non-trained tasks with similar processing demands but different content or higher difficulty (see Figure 6; Li, Schmiedek, Huxhold, Röcke, Smith, & Lindenberger, 2008). These effects were maintained for several months in younger but decreased in older adults, pointing to age-related decline in the ability to maintain skilled working memory performance.…”

“…Both younger and older adults improved considerably both on practiced tasks, and on transfer tasks. Adapted from Li, Schmiedek, Huxhold, Röcke, Smith, and Lindenberger (2008).…”