HOW TO ENHANCE WORKING MEMORY BY COGNITIVE TRAINING

Computerised cognitive trainings have become a popular way to practise attention, memory and other cognitive processes. However, despite the growing popularity of these methods, is is still unclear if they are really effective. Especially working memory training has become a topic of intense controversy. Working memory (WM) is usually conceptualised as an ability to store and manipulate information for a short period of time. WM positively correlates with higher-order cognitive processes (e.g. reasoning) and is percieved as an important predictor of children’s scholastic achievements. However, overview of research on the effectiveness of WM training leads to the conclusion that whereas it is possible to improve WM, this improvement hardly ever influences other cogitive competences. This article discusses factors that could determine the range of effects observed after WM training. Both features of participants and characteristics of an intervention are taken into consideration.