title: Training and transfer effects of response inhibition training in children and adults.
abstract: Response inhibition is crucial for mental and physical health but studies assessing the trainability of this type of inhibition are rare. Thirty-nine children aged 10-12 years and 46 adults aged 18-24 years were assigned to an adaptive go/no-go inhibition training condition or an active control condition. Transfer of training effects to performance on tasks assessing response inhibition, interference control, working memory updating, task-switching, and non-verbal fluid intelligence were assessed during 3- and 6-month follow-up sessions and/or an immediate post-training session. Significant training improvements and positive transfer effects to a similar response inhibition task with other stimuli were observed for both children and adults. Reliable albeit short-lived transfer effects were only found for the children, specifically to working memory updating and task switching. These results suggest some potential for response-inhibition training programs to enhance aspects of cognitive functioning in children but not adults.
authors.affiliation: Behavior Rehabilitation Training Research Institution, School of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Behavior Rehabilitation Training Research Institution, School of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Centre for Cognition, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Joseph H R
authors.initials: JHR
authors.lastname: Maes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004493:Education / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007360:Intelligence / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D014163:Transfer, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult