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Is the link from working memory to analogy causal? No analogy improvements following working memory training gains.

ABSTRACT: Analogical reasoning has been hypothesized to critically depend upon working memory through correlational data, but less work has tested this relationship through experimental manipulation. An opportunity for examining the connection between working memory and analogical reasoning has emerged from the growing, although somewhat controversial, body of literature suggests complex working memory training can sometimes lead to working memory improvements that transfer to novel working memory tasks. This study investigated whether working memory improvements, if replicated, would increase analogical reasoning ability. We assessed participants' performance on verbal and visual analogy tasks after a complex working memory training program incorporating verbal and spatial tasks. Participants' improvements on the working memory training tasks transferred to other short-term and working memory tasks, supporting the possibility of broad effects of working memory training. However, we found no effects on analogical reasoning. We propose several possible explanations for the lack of an impact of working memory improvements on analogical reasoning.

SUBMITTER: Richey JE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4154731 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Is the link from working memory to analogy causal? No analogy improvements following working memory training gains.

Richey J Elizabeth JE Phillips Jeffrey S JS Schunn Christian D CD Schneider Walter W

PloS one 20140904 9

Analogical reasoning has been hypothesized to critically depend upon working memory through correlational data, but less work has tested this relationship through experimental manipulation. An opportunity for examining the connection between working memory and analogical reasoning has emerged from the growing, although somewhat controversial, body of literature suggests complex working memory training can sometimes lead to working memory improvements that transfer to novel working memory tasks. ...[more]

PMID: 25188356

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Project description:Visual working memory capacity is estimated to be around 3-4 items, but on some trials participants fail to correctly report even a single item from the memory array. Such failures of working memory performance are surprisingly common, and participants have poor self-awareness of them. Previous work has shown that behavioral feedback can reduce the frequency of working memory failures, but the benefits of feedback disappeared immediately after it was taken away. Here, we tested whether extended practice with or without trial-by-trial feedback would lead to persistent improvements in working memory performance. Participants were assigned to one of four groups: (1) Working memory practice with feedback (2) Working memory practice without feedback (3) Crossword puzzle active control (4) No-contact control. Consistent with previous work, simple practice with a visual working memory task robustly improved working memory performance across practice sessions. However, we found only partial support for the efficacy of feedback in improving working memory performance. Practicing with feedback improved working memory performance relative to a no-feedback group for some practice sessions. However, the feedback benefits did not persist across all training sessions and did not transfer to a final test session without the feedback. Thus, the benefits of performance feedback did not persist over time. Further, we found only stimulus-specific transfer of visual working memory practice benefits. We also found that participants' metaknowledge improved with practice, but that receiving feedback about task accuracy actually slightly harmed the accuracy of concurrent metaknowledge ratings. Finally, we discuss important design considerations for future work in this area (e.g. power, expectations, and "spacing effects"). For example, we found that achieved statistical power to detect a between-groups effect declined with practice. This finding has potentially critical implications for any study using a 1-session study to calculate power for a planned multi-session study.

Dataset Information

Is the link from working memory to analogy causal? No analogy improvements following working memory training gains.

Publications

Is the link from working memory to analogy causal? No analogy improvements following working memory training gains.

Similar Datasets

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