Memory Training Builds Upon Strategy Use
MrPlow writes:
Submitted via IRC for soylent_red
Researchers from i...bo Akademi University, Finland, and Umei University, Sweden, have for the first time obtained clear evidence of the important role strategies have in memory training. Training makes participants adopt various strategies to manage the task, which then affects the outcome of the training.
Strategy acquisition can also explain why the effects of memory training are so limited. Typically, improvements are limited only to tasks that are very similar to the training task -- training has provided ways to handle a given type of task, but not much else.
A newly published study sheds light on the underlying mechanisms of working memory training that have remained unclear. It rejects the original idea that repetitive computerized training can increase working memory capacity. Working memory training should rather be seen as a form of skill learning in which the adoption of task-specific strategies plays an important role. Hundreds of commercial training programs that promise memory improvements are available for the public. However, the effects of the programs do not extend beyond tasks similar to the ones one has been trained on.
Source: https://www.abo.fi/en/news/memory-training-builds-upon-strategy-use/
Journal Reference: Daniel Fellman, Jussi Jylkki, Otto Waris, Anna Soveri, Liisa Ritakallio, Sarah Haga, Juha Salmi, Thomas J. Nyman, Matti Laine. The role of strategy use in working memory training outcomes. Journal of Memory and Language, 2020; 110: 104064 DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2019.104064
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