The output of four (going on five) years of graduate school; reprints available upon request.
Published Work
1. Katz, B., Jones, M., & Shah, P., Buschkuehl, M., Jaeggi, S. M. (2016). Individual differences and motivational effects in cognitive training research. In Cognitive Training: An Overview of Features and Applications. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
Why do some people improve on untrained tasks following cognitive training while others do not? One possibility is that there are individual difference factors that play a key role in cognitive training outcomes. The present chapter examines a range of these factors, including baseline performance, age, personality, and motivation. Some of these factors, such as baseline performance and age, have long been examined in the context of cognitive training, and extant research provides evidence that they contribute to the outcome of both training-related improvements as well as transfer gains. Other factors, including personality and motivation, remain largely unexamined in the context of cognitive training, but preliminary research indicates that they may play a substantial role in the success of these interventions. We suggest that researchers ignore these factors at their peril, and that future cognitive training studies should incorporate measures of individual differences in studies well-powered enough to examine them. Furthermore, it is possible that for training interventions to be broadly successful for large populations, they must be personalized to take these factors into account.
Springer
2. Jantz, T., Katz, B., & Reuter-Lorenz, P. (2016). Uncertainty and promise: The effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on working memory. Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports, 3(2), 109-121
Working memory (WM) is an essential neuropsychological system that supports complex cognitive processes. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) uses electrical current to modulate brain activity and may serve as a tool for studying or even enhancing WM. Here, we review the recent research that has explored the effects of tDCS on WM in healthy young adults, older adults, and patient populations. We also discuss several recent meta-analyses that have examined the efficacy of tDCS as a WM intervention. While a majority of the papers reviewed suggest that tDCS can modulate WM, this effect is highly inconsistent. These seemingly conflicting results may be driven by differences in study design, tDCS protocol, or inter-individual differences. Future research should systematically vary stimulation parameters, combine tDCS with neuroimaging, and account for individual differences in order to accurately assess the value of tDCS as a way to study and enhance WM.
SpringerLink
3. Au, J.α, Katz, B.α, Buschkuehl, M., Kimberly, B., Senger, T., Zabel, C., Jaeggi, S. M., & Jonides, J. (2016). Enhancing working memory training with transcranial direct current stimulation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 28(9), 1419-1432.
Working memory (WM) is a fundamental cognitive ability that supports complex thought but is limited in capacity. Thus, WM training interventions have become very popular as a means of potentially improving WM-related skills. Another promising intervention that has gained increasing traction in recent years is transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a noninvasive form of brain stimulation that can modulate cortical excitability and temporarily increase brain plasticity. As such, it has the potential to boost learning and enhance performance on cognitive tasks. This study assessed the efficacy of tDCS to supplement WM training. Sixty-two participants were randomized to receive either right prefrontal, left prefrontal, or sham stimulation with concurrent visuospatial WM training over the course of seven training sessions. Results showed that tDCS enhanced training performance, which was strikingly preserved several months after training completion. Furthermore, we observed stronger effects when tDCS was spaced over a weekend break relative to consecutive daily training, and we also demonstrated selective transfer in the right prefrontal group to nontrained tasks of visual and spatial WM. These findings shed light on how tDCS may be leveraged as a tool to enhance performance on WM-intensive learning tasks.
MIT Press
4. Katz, B., & Shah, P. (2016). The jury is still out on working memory training. Journal of the American Medical Association: Pediatrics. Advance online publication.
JAMA Pediatrics
5. Katz, B., Buschkuehl, M., Jaeggi, S., & Shah, P. (2014). Differential effect of motivational features on training improvements in school-based cognitive training. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 10.
Cognitive training often utilizes game-like motivational features to keep participants engaged. It is unclear how these elements, such as feedback, reward, and theming impact player performance during training. Recent research suggests that motivation and engagement are closely related to improvements following cognitive training. We hypothesized that training paradigms featuring game-like motivational elements would be more effective than a version with no motivational elements. Five distinct motivational features were chosen for examination: a real-time scoring system, theme changes, prizes, end-of-session certificates, and scaffolding to explain the lives and leveling system included in the game. One version of the game was created with all these motivational elements included, and one was created with all of them removed. Other versions removed a single element at a time. Seven versions of a game-like n-back working memory task were then created and administered to 128 students in second through eight grade at school-based summer camps in southeastern Michigan. The inclusion of real-time scoring during play, a popular motivational component in both entertainment games and cognitive training, was found to negatively impact training improvements over the three day period. Surprisingly, scaffolding to explain lives and levels also negatively impacted training gains. The other game adjustments did not significantly impact training improvement compared to the original version of the game with all features included. These findings are preliminary and are limited by both the small sample size and the brevity of the intervention. Nonetheless, these findings suggest that certain motivational elements may distract from the core cognitive training task, reducing task improvement, especially at the initial stage of learning.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
6. Wang, Z.α, Katz, B.α, & Shah, P. (2014). New directions in intelligence research: Avoiding the mistakes of the past. Journal of Intelligence, 2(1), 16-20.
This brief commentary considers the potential for new directions in intelligence research, as well as possible pitfalls associated with these approaches. Specifically, this commentary focuses on the use of big data in intelligence research, the study of genes and gene-environment interactions, the interpretation of neuroscience evidence, and the effectiveness of intelligence interventions. The major pitfalls identified include methodological and data analytic limitations, as well as concerns regarding the communication of findings to other scientists and the lay public.
Journal of Intelligence
7. Sternberg, D. A., Ballard, K., Hardy, J. L., Katz, B., Doraiswamy, P. M., & Scanlon, M. (2013). The largest human cognitive performance dataset reveals insights into the effects of lifestyle factors and aging. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 7.
Making new breakthroughs in understanding the processes underlying human cognition may depend on the availability of very large datasets that have not historically existed in psychology and neuroscience. Lumosity is a web-based cognitive training platform that has grown to include over 600 million cognitive training task results from over 35 million individuals, comprising the largest existing dataset of human cognitive performance. As part of the Human Cognition Project, Lumosity's collaborative research program to understand the human mind, Lumos Labs researchers and external research collaborators have begun to explore this dataset in order uncover novel insights about the correlates of cognitive performance. This paper presents two preliminary demonstrations of some of the kinds of questions that can be examined with the dataset. The first example focuses on replicating known findings relating lifestyle factors to baseline cognitive performance in a demographically diverse, healthy population at a much larger scale than has previously been available. The second example examines a question that would likely be very difficult to study in laboratory-based and existing online experimental research approaches at a large scale: specifically, how learning ability for different types of cognitive tasks changes with age. We hope that these examples will provoke the imagination of researchers who are interested in collaborating to answer fundamental questions about human cognitive performance.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Why do some people improve on untrained tasks following cognitive training while others do not? One possibility is that there are individual difference factors that play a key role in cognitive training outcomes. The present chapter examines a range of these factors, including baseline performance, age, personality, and motivation. Some of these factors, such as baseline performance and age, have long been examined in the context of cognitive training, and extant research provides evidence that they contribute to the outcome of both training-related improvements as well as transfer gains. Other factors, including personality and motivation, remain largely unexamined in the context of cognitive training, but preliminary research indicates that they may play a substantial role in the success of these interventions. We suggest that researchers ignore these factors at their peril, and that future cognitive training studies should incorporate measures of individual differences in studies well-powered enough to examine them. Furthermore, it is possible that for training interventions to be broadly successful for large populations, they must be personalized to take these factors into account.
Springer
2. Jantz, T., Katz, B., & Reuter-Lorenz, P. (2016). Uncertainty and promise: The effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on working memory. Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports, 3(2), 109-121
Working memory (WM) is an essential neuropsychological system that supports complex cognitive processes. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) uses electrical current to modulate brain activity and may serve as a tool for studying or even enhancing WM. Here, we review the recent research that has explored the effects of tDCS on WM in healthy young adults, older adults, and patient populations. We also discuss several recent meta-analyses that have examined the efficacy of tDCS as a WM intervention. While a majority of the papers reviewed suggest that tDCS can modulate WM, this effect is highly inconsistent. These seemingly conflicting results may be driven by differences in study design, tDCS protocol, or inter-individual differences. Future research should systematically vary stimulation parameters, combine tDCS with neuroimaging, and account for individual differences in order to accurately assess the value of tDCS as a way to study and enhance WM.
SpringerLink
3. Au, J.α, Katz, B.α, Buschkuehl, M., Kimberly, B., Senger, T., Zabel, C., Jaeggi, S. M., & Jonides, J. (2016). Enhancing working memory training with transcranial direct current stimulation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 28(9), 1419-1432.
Working memory (WM) is a fundamental cognitive ability that supports complex thought but is limited in capacity. Thus, WM training interventions have become very popular as a means of potentially improving WM-related skills. Another promising intervention that has gained increasing traction in recent years is transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a noninvasive form of brain stimulation that can modulate cortical excitability and temporarily increase brain plasticity. As such, it has the potential to boost learning and enhance performance on cognitive tasks. This study assessed the efficacy of tDCS to supplement WM training. Sixty-two participants were randomized to receive either right prefrontal, left prefrontal, or sham stimulation with concurrent visuospatial WM training over the course of seven training sessions. Results showed that tDCS enhanced training performance, which was strikingly preserved several months after training completion. Furthermore, we observed stronger effects when tDCS was spaced over a weekend break relative to consecutive daily training, and we also demonstrated selective transfer in the right prefrontal group to nontrained tasks of visual and spatial WM. These findings shed light on how tDCS may be leveraged as a tool to enhance performance on WM-intensive learning tasks.
MIT Press
4. Katz, B., & Shah, P. (2016). The jury is still out on working memory training. Journal of the American Medical Association: Pediatrics. Advance online publication.
JAMA Pediatrics
5. Katz, B., Buschkuehl, M., Jaeggi, S., & Shah, P. (2014). Differential effect of motivational features on training improvements in school-based cognitive training. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 10.
Cognitive training often utilizes game-like motivational features to keep participants engaged. It is unclear how these elements, such as feedback, reward, and theming impact player performance during training. Recent research suggests that motivation and engagement are closely related to improvements following cognitive training. We hypothesized that training paradigms featuring game-like motivational elements would be more effective than a version with no motivational elements. Five distinct motivational features were chosen for examination: a real-time scoring system, theme changes, prizes, end-of-session certificates, and scaffolding to explain the lives and leveling system included in the game. One version of the game was created with all these motivational elements included, and one was created with all of them removed. Other versions removed a single element at a time. Seven versions of a game-like n-back working memory task were then created and administered to 128 students in second through eight grade at school-based summer camps in southeastern Michigan. The inclusion of real-time scoring during play, a popular motivational component in both entertainment games and cognitive training, was found to negatively impact training improvements over the three day period. Surprisingly, scaffolding to explain lives and levels also negatively impacted training gains. The other game adjustments did not significantly impact training improvement compared to the original version of the game with all features included. These findings are preliminary and are limited by both the small sample size and the brevity of the intervention. Nonetheless, these findings suggest that certain motivational elements may distract from the core cognitive training task, reducing task improvement, especially at the initial stage of learning.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
6. Wang, Z.α, Katz, B.α, & Shah, P. (2014). New directions in intelligence research: Avoiding the mistakes of the past. Journal of Intelligence, 2(1), 16-20.
This brief commentary considers the potential for new directions in intelligence research, as well as possible pitfalls associated with these approaches. Specifically, this commentary focuses on the use of big data in intelligence research, the study of genes and gene-environment interactions, the interpretation of neuroscience evidence, and the effectiveness of intelligence interventions. The major pitfalls identified include methodological and data analytic limitations, as well as concerns regarding the communication of findings to other scientists and the lay public.
Journal of Intelligence
7. Sternberg, D. A., Ballard, K., Hardy, J. L., Katz, B., Doraiswamy, P. M., & Scanlon, M. (2013). The largest human cognitive performance dataset reveals insights into the effects of lifestyle factors and aging. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 7.
Making new breakthroughs in understanding the processes underlying human cognition may depend on the availability of very large datasets that have not historically existed in psychology and neuroscience. Lumosity is a web-based cognitive training platform that has grown to include over 600 million cognitive training task results from over 35 million individuals, comprising the largest existing dataset of human cognitive performance. As part of the Human Cognition Project, Lumosity's collaborative research program to understand the human mind, Lumos Labs researchers and external research collaborators have begun to explore this dataset in order uncover novel insights about the correlates of cognitive performance. This paper presents two preliminary demonstrations of some of the kinds of questions that can be examined with the dataset. The first example focuses on replicating known findings relating lifestyle factors to baseline cognitive performance in a demographically diverse, healthy population at a much larger scale than has previously been available. The second example examines a question that would likely be very difficult to study in laboratory-based and existing online experimental research approaches at a large scale: specifically, how learning ability for different types of cognitive tasks changes with age. We hope that these examples will provoke the imagination of researchers who are interested in collaborating to answer fundamental questions about human cognitive performance.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
In Press
8. Katz, B.α, Au, J.α, Buschkuehl, M., Abagis, T., Zabel, C., Jaeggi, S. M., & Jonides, J. (in press). Individual differences and long-term consequences of tDCS-augmented cognitive training. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
A great deal of interest surrounds the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to augment cognitive training. However, effects are inconsistent across studies, and meta-analytic evidence is mixed, especially within healthy, young adults. One major source of this inconsistency is individual differences among the participants, but these differences are rarely examined in the context of combined training/stimulation studies. Also, it is unclear how long the effects of stimulation last, even in successful interventions. Some studies make use of follow-ups, but very few have measured performance more than a few months following an intervention. Here we utilized data from a previous study of tDCS and cognitive training (Au et al., 2016) in which participants trained on a working memory task over 7 days while receiving Active or Sham tDCS. A new, longer-term follow-up to assess later performance was conducted, and additional participants were added so that the Sham condition was better powered. We assessed baseline cognitive ability, gender, training site, and motivation level and found significant interactions between both baseline ability and motivation with condition (Active or Sham) in models predicting training gain. Also, the improvements in the Active condition versus Sham condition appear to be stable even as long as a year following the original intervention.
9. Katz, B. & Shah, P. (in press). Logical and methodological considerations in cognitive training research. In The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Training. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
The evidence that life experiences can impact prefrontal function is substantial and compelling (Diamond, this volume). In contrast, it is less clear whether or not existing computer-based cognitive training can improve prefrontal function in a manner relevant to real-life outcomes. We suggest that if the first claim is accepted as true, as is supported by many other chapters in this volume including the Diamond chapter to which we respond, then an important scientific goal for establishing the veracity of the second claim is to identify the necessary and sufficient experiences that could lead to the creation of efficient and effective cognitive interventions. Researchers who have developed computerized cognitive training interventions have attempted to do that—by identifying the core executive processes of the prefrontal cortex and targeting and taxing exactly those processes. However, at the time of writing there remains a vast space of possibilities (and potential barriers) between the development of targeted and successful cognitive interventions and the natural set of rich early life experiences that have been shown to be important in the development of prefrontal function. To construct efficient, effective training interventions that may generalize to real-life outcomes, it will be necessary to properly map out this space—and to do that, it is first necessary to consider several key factors.
A great deal of interest surrounds the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to augment cognitive training. However, effects are inconsistent across studies, and meta-analytic evidence is mixed, especially within healthy, young adults. One major source of this inconsistency is individual differences among the participants, but these differences are rarely examined in the context of combined training/stimulation studies. Also, it is unclear how long the effects of stimulation last, even in successful interventions. Some studies make use of follow-ups, but very few have measured performance more than a few months following an intervention. Here we utilized data from a previous study of tDCS and cognitive training (Au et al., 2016) in which participants trained on a working memory task over 7 days while receiving Active or Sham tDCS. A new, longer-term follow-up to assess later performance was conducted, and additional participants were added so that the Sham condition was better powered. We assessed baseline cognitive ability, gender, training site, and motivation level and found significant interactions between both baseline ability and motivation with condition (Active or Sham) in models predicting training gain. Also, the improvements in the Active condition versus Sham condition appear to be stable even as long as a year following the original intervention.
9. Katz, B. & Shah, P. (in press). Logical and methodological considerations in cognitive training research. In The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Training. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
The evidence that life experiences can impact prefrontal function is substantial and compelling (Diamond, this volume). In contrast, it is less clear whether or not existing computer-based cognitive training can improve prefrontal function in a manner relevant to real-life outcomes. We suggest that if the first claim is accepted as true, as is supported by many other chapters in this volume including the Diamond chapter to which we respond, then an important scientific goal for establishing the veracity of the second claim is to identify the necessary and sufficient experiences that could lead to the creation of efficient and effective cognitive interventions. Researchers who have developed computerized cognitive training interventions have attempted to do that—by identifying the core executive processes of the prefrontal cortex and targeting and taxing exactly those processes. However, at the time of writing there remains a vast space of possibilities (and potential barriers) between the development of targeted and successful cognitive interventions and the natural set of rich early life experiences that have been shown to be important in the development of prefrontal function. To construct efficient, effective training interventions that may generalize to real-life outcomes, it will be necessary to properly map out this space—and to do that, it is first necessary to consider several key factors.
In Submission & Revision
10. Katz, B., & Shah, P. The role of child socioeconomic status in cognitive training outcomes. In revision.
Socioeconomic status (SES) has been shown to have considerable influence on children’s executive function (EF), and may play a role in one’s ability to benefit from a cognitive or academic intervention. However, SES remains largely unstudied in the context of cognitive training research. Here we draw from two datasets of children completing online cognitive training to examine the impact of SES on executive function. The first study utilizes hierarchical linear modeling to examine the effects of school-level free/reduced-price lunch status on a composite EF score following cognitive training in a large sample of students across the United States. The second study focuses on a smaller sample of students in the Bay Area, California, and focuses on individual-level free/reduced-price lunch and adds an active control condition. Both studies find a significant impact of free/reduced-price lunch status on baseline EF performance as well as performance as an outcome of cognitive training.
11. Rhodes, R., & Katz, B. Working memory plasticity and aging. In revision.
The present research explores how the trajectory of learning on a working memory task changes throughout the lifespan, and whether gains in working memory performance are exclusively a question of initial working memory capacity or whether age exerts an independent effect. In a large, cross-sectional study of younger, middle-aged, and older adults, we examined learning on a widely used working memory task – the dual n-back task – over 20 sessions of practice. We found that, while all age groups improved on the task, older adults demonstrated less improvement on the task, and also reached a lower asymptotic maximum performance than younger adults. After controlling for initial working memory capacity, we found that age exerted independent effects on training gains and asymptotic performance; older adults tended to improve less and reached lower levels of performance than younger adults. The difference between younger and older adults’ rates of learning depended in part on initial working memory capacity. These results suggest that age-related effects on working memory include not only effects on capacity, but also plasticity and the ability to improve on a task.
12. Katz, B., Shah, P., & Meyer, D. How to play 20 questions with nature and lose: reflections on 100 years of brain training. In submission.
Despite dozens of empirical studies and a growing body of meta-analytic work, there is little consensus regarding the efficacy of cognitive training. In this review we examine why this substantial corpus has failed to answer the often-asked question, “does cognitive training work?” We first define cognitive training and discuss the general principles underlying training interventions. Next we review historical interventions and discuss how findings from this early work remain highly relevant for current cognitive training research. We highlight a variety of issues preventing real progress in understanding the underlying mechanisms of training, including the lack of a coherent theoretical framework to guide training research and methodological issues across studies and meta-analyses. Finally, suggestions for correcting these issues are offered in the hope that we might make greater progress in the next 100 years of cognitive training research.
13. Moser, J., Dougherty, A., Mattson, W., Katz, B., & Moran, T., Guevarra, D., Shablack, H., Ayduk, O., Jonides, J., Berman, M., Kross, E. Third-person self-talk facilitates emotional control without engaging cognitive control: Converging evidence from ERP and fMRI. In submission.
Does silently talking to yourself in the third-person constitute an effortless self-control mechanism? We hypothesized that it does under the premise that third-person self-talk leads people to think about the self similar to how they think about others, which provides them with the psychological distance to facilitate self-control. We tested this prediction by asking participants to reflect on feelings elicited by viewing aversive images (Study 1) and recalling negative autobiographical memories (Study 2) using either “I” or their name while measuring neural activity via ERPs (Study 1) and fMRI (Study 2). Study 1 demonstrated that third-person self-talk reduced an ERP marker of self-referential emotional reactivity (i.e., the late positive potential) within the first second of viewing aversive images without enhancing activations in an ERP marker of cognitive control (i.e., the stimulus proceeding negativity). Likewise, the fMRI results of Study 2 demonstrated that third-person self-talk reduced activations in the medial prefrontal cortex that supports self-referential processing when participants reflected on negative memories, without an accompanying increase in cognitive control circuitry activation. Together, these results demonstrate that third-person self-talk constitutes a relatively effortless form of self-control.
14. Katz, B., Jaeggi, S., Buschkuehl, M., Shah, P., & Jonides, J. The effect of monetary compensation on cognitive training. In submission.
The outcome of working memory training is a topic of intense debate. A salient question is what factors determine transfer gains to non-trained abilities following a working memory intervention. One possible determinant of training and transfer gain is the degree to which participants are intrinsically or extrinsically motivated to complete the training regimen. A review of working-memory training studies suggests that when participants are monetarily compensated, transfer effects are often smaller relative to studies when participants are not paid. We tested whether payment for participation (extrinsic reward) affects training and transfer. Unpaid participants reported a significantly higher number of cognitive failures at baseline compared to compensated participants, suggesting that motivational orientation (extrinsic versus intrinsic) may have been impacted by the mention of payment at recruitment. However, both paid and unpaid training groups improved on transfer measures compared to an active control group, and payment had no effect on transfer. An additional post-test survey within the compensated group revealed different motivational orientations that were associated with significant performance differences on the visuospatial reasoning factor at baseline. While these differences in motivation were not predictive of transfer or training gain, it is possible that other elements of the study, including researcher involvement and demographics, may also play a role in determining the extent to which participants demonstrate transfer on untrained tasks. We conclude that while payment may affect training and transfer performance, a variety of additional factors contribute to the outcome of any individual study.
Socioeconomic status (SES) has been shown to have considerable influence on children’s executive function (EF), and may play a role in one’s ability to benefit from a cognitive or academic intervention. However, SES remains largely unstudied in the context of cognitive training research. Here we draw from two datasets of children completing online cognitive training to examine the impact of SES on executive function. The first study utilizes hierarchical linear modeling to examine the effects of school-level free/reduced-price lunch status on a composite EF score following cognitive training in a large sample of students across the United States. The second study focuses on a smaller sample of students in the Bay Area, California, and focuses on individual-level free/reduced-price lunch and adds an active control condition. Both studies find a significant impact of free/reduced-price lunch status on baseline EF performance as well as performance as an outcome of cognitive training.
11. Rhodes, R., & Katz, B. Working memory plasticity and aging. In revision.
The present research explores how the trajectory of learning on a working memory task changes throughout the lifespan, and whether gains in working memory performance are exclusively a question of initial working memory capacity or whether age exerts an independent effect. In a large, cross-sectional study of younger, middle-aged, and older adults, we examined learning on a widely used working memory task – the dual n-back task – over 20 sessions of practice. We found that, while all age groups improved on the task, older adults demonstrated less improvement on the task, and also reached a lower asymptotic maximum performance than younger adults. After controlling for initial working memory capacity, we found that age exerted independent effects on training gains and asymptotic performance; older adults tended to improve less and reached lower levels of performance than younger adults. The difference between younger and older adults’ rates of learning depended in part on initial working memory capacity. These results suggest that age-related effects on working memory include not only effects on capacity, but also plasticity and the ability to improve on a task.
12. Katz, B., Shah, P., & Meyer, D. How to play 20 questions with nature and lose: reflections on 100 years of brain training. In submission.
Despite dozens of empirical studies and a growing body of meta-analytic work, there is little consensus regarding the efficacy of cognitive training. In this review we examine why this substantial corpus has failed to answer the often-asked question, “does cognitive training work?” We first define cognitive training and discuss the general principles underlying training interventions. Next we review historical interventions and discuss how findings from this early work remain highly relevant for current cognitive training research. We highlight a variety of issues preventing real progress in understanding the underlying mechanisms of training, including the lack of a coherent theoretical framework to guide training research and methodological issues across studies and meta-analyses. Finally, suggestions for correcting these issues are offered in the hope that we might make greater progress in the next 100 years of cognitive training research.
13. Moser, J., Dougherty, A., Mattson, W., Katz, B., & Moran, T., Guevarra, D., Shablack, H., Ayduk, O., Jonides, J., Berman, M., Kross, E. Third-person self-talk facilitates emotional control without engaging cognitive control: Converging evidence from ERP and fMRI. In submission.
Does silently talking to yourself in the third-person constitute an effortless self-control mechanism? We hypothesized that it does under the premise that third-person self-talk leads people to think about the self similar to how they think about others, which provides them with the psychological distance to facilitate self-control. We tested this prediction by asking participants to reflect on feelings elicited by viewing aversive images (Study 1) and recalling negative autobiographical memories (Study 2) using either “I” or their name while measuring neural activity via ERPs (Study 1) and fMRI (Study 2). Study 1 demonstrated that third-person self-talk reduced an ERP marker of self-referential emotional reactivity (i.e., the late positive potential) within the first second of viewing aversive images without enhancing activations in an ERP marker of cognitive control (i.e., the stimulus proceeding negativity). Likewise, the fMRI results of Study 2 demonstrated that third-person self-talk reduced activations in the medial prefrontal cortex that supports self-referential processing when participants reflected on negative memories, without an accompanying increase in cognitive control circuitry activation. Together, these results demonstrate that third-person self-talk constitutes a relatively effortless form of self-control.
14. Katz, B., Jaeggi, S., Buschkuehl, M., Shah, P., & Jonides, J. The effect of monetary compensation on cognitive training. In submission.
The outcome of working memory training is a topic of intense debate. A salient question is what factors determine transfer gains to non-trained abilities following a working memory intervention. One possible determinant of training and transfer gain is the degree to which participants are intrinsically or extrinsically motivated to complete the training regimen. A review of working-memory training studies suggests that when participants are monetarily compensated, transfer effects are often smaller relative to studies when participants are not paid. We tested whether payment for participation (extrinsic reward) affects training and transfer. Unpaid participants reported a significantly higher number of cognitive failures at baseline compared to compensated participants, suggesting that motivational orientation (extrinsic versus intrinsic) may have been impacted by the mention of payment at recruitment. However, both paid and unpaid training groups improved on transfer measures compared to an active control group, and payment had no effect on transfer. An additional post-test survey within the compensated group revealed different motivational orientations that were associated with significant performance differences on the visuospatial reasoning factor at baseline. While these differences in motivation were not predictive of transfer or training gain, it is possible that other elements of the study, including researcher involvement and demographics, may also play a role in determining the extent to which participants demonstrate transfer on untrained tasks. We conclude that while payment may affect training and transfer performance, a variety of additional factors contribute to the outcome of any individual study.