Working Memory Training in Older Adults

Evidence of Transfer and Maintenance Effects

Borella, Erika
Carretti, Barbara
Riboldi, Francesco
De Beni, Rossana

¹Department of General Psychology, University of Padova

Erika Borella, Department of General Psychology, Via Venezia, 8, 35131 Padova, Italy [email protected]

Barbara Carretti, Department of General Psychology, Via Venezia, 8, 35131 Padova, Italy [email protected]

Submission March 24, 2010. Revision June 12, 2010. Accepted June 17, 2010.

Psychology & Aging 25(4):p 767-778, December 2010. | DOI: 10.1037/a0020683

Few studies have examined working memory (WM) training-related gains and their transfer and maintenance effects in older adults. This present research investigates the efficacy of a verbal WM training program in adults aged 65–75 years, considering specific training gains on a verbal WM (criterion) task as well as transfer effects on measures of visuospatial WM, short-term memory, inhibition, processing speed, and fluid intelligence. Maintenance of training benefits was evaluated at 8-month follow-up. Trained older adults showed higher performance than did controls on the criterion task and maintained this benefit after 8 months. Substantial general transfer effects were found for the trained group, but not for the control one. Transfer maintenance gains were found at follow-up, but only for fluid intelligence and processing speed tasks. The results are discussed in terms of cognitive plasticity in older adults.