title: Working memory training in old age: an examination of transfer and maintenance effects.
abstract: The present study examined the efficacy of a verbal working memory (WM) training program in old-old individuals (over 75 years of age). Thirty-six adults aged 75-87 took part in the study: 18 were randomly assigned to receive training and the remainder served as active controls. Specific training gains in a verbal WM task (criterion task), and transfer effects on measures of visuospatial WM, short-term memory, inhibition, processing speed, and fluid intelligence were examined. The trained old-old adults performed better than the controls in the criterion task, and this benefit persisted after 8 months; they also showed an increase in the efficiency of inhibitory mechanisms at follow-up compared with pretest. The results of this study suggest that the present WM training program produces benefits maintained over time even in old-old adults. These findings confirm that there is still room for plasticity in the basic mechanisms of cognition in advance old age.
authors.affiliation: Departement of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy. erika.borella@unipd.it
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Borella
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Carretti
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zanoni
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zavagnin
authors.forename: Rossana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Beni
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D014163:Transfer, Psychology; D014706:Verbal Learning
keywords: cognitive flexibility; cognitive training; maintenance effects; old-old adults, aging; transfer effects; working memory