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Mechanisms underlying training-induced cognitive change

Nature Reviews Psychology volume 1, pages 30–41 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

The prospect of enhancing cognition through behavioural training interventions, for example, the repetitive practice of cognitive tasks or metacognitive strategy instruction, has seen a surge in popularity over the past 20 years. Although overwhelming evidence demonstrates that such training interventions increase performance in the trained tasks, controversy remains over whether these benefits transfer to other tasks and abilities beyond the trained context. In this Review, we provide an overview of the effectiveness of cognitive training to induce transfer to untrained tasks, with a particular focus on the theoretical mechanisms that have been proposed to underlie training and transfer effects. We highlight that there is relatively little evidence that training enhances cognitive capacity, that is, the overall cognitive resources available to an individual. By contrast, substantial evidence supports training-induced improvements in cognitive efficiency, that is, optimized performance within existing cognitive capacity limits. We conclude that shifting research towards identifying the cognitive mechanisms underlying gains in cognitive efficiency offers a fruitful avenue for developing effective cognitive training interventions. However, to advance our understanding of human cognition and cognitive plasticity we must strive to develop and refine theories that generate testable hypotheses.

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Fig. 1: A typical cognitive training study design.
Fig. 2: The capacity-efficiency model of cognitive training and transfer.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support of the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) to C.C.v.B. (ES/V013610/1), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) to S.B. (2004-2020-0009) and the German Research Foundation to T.S. (STR 1223/10-1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Claudia C. von Bastian & Robert C. Udale

  2. Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Sylvie Belleville

  3. Department of Psychology, Medical School Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Alice Reinhartz & Tilo Strobach

  4. Research Center, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Sylvie Belleville & Mehdi Essounni

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Contributions

All authors researched data for the article. C.C.v.B., S.B. and T.S. contributed substantially to discussion of the content. All authors wrote the article. All authors reviewed and/or edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Claudia C. von Bastian.

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Glossary

Effectiveness

Positive training effects in ecologically valid, real-world settings with little experimental control and non-homogeneous samples.

Mechanisms

Theoretical constructs specifying the function and organization of one or more cognitive processes and their interplay with other processes and/or biological substrates.

Action video gaming

Playing video games with a fast-paced, complex and dynamic visual environment with a high degree of visual clutter and distraction, demanding focused and distributed attention.

Process-based training

Repetitive practice of tasks that are assumed to require basic cognitive processes.

Useful field of view test

Computer-based measure of the ability to discriminate stimuli presented in central vision with or without concurrent tasks and distractors in peripheral vision.

Probabilistic inference

Computing the probability of one or more random variables using a specific value or set of values.

Working memory capacity

Quantity of information that can be held accessible in working memory in the present moment.

Fluid intelligence

Ability to solve novel reasoning problems.

Strategy-based training

Instruction on mental processes or strategies that differ from those typically involved in the task.

Self-efficacy

One’s belief in their ability to manage and succeed in a particular situation.

Spaced learning

Repeated exposures to learning are spread out over time; for example, short practice sessions spread over multiple days.

Massed learning

Repeated exposures to learning are grouped together; for example, one long practice session on a single day.

Switch costs

Differences in performance between repetition trials, in which participants perform the same task as in the previous trial, and switch trials, in which participants perform a different task than in the previous trial.

Dual-task costs

Differences in performance between dual-task trials, in which participants perform two tasks simultaneously, and single-task trials, in which participants complete one of the two tasks.

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von Bastian, C.C., Belleville, S., Udale, R.C. et al. Mechanisms underlying training-induced cognitive change. Nat Rev Psychol 1, 30–41 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-021-00001-3

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