Cognitive training effects across the adult lifespan: A diffusion modelling approach

我们在20多岁左右的智力表现达到顶峰后，都会经历记忆力和注意力的丧失。尽管这种发展是相当普遍且难以逆转的，但有一些方法可以减缓智力表现的损失，或至少弥补这些损失。虽然对抗这种发展的药物产品价格昂贵，并且可能伴有严重的副作用，但认知训练是一种负担得起且易于管理的保持精神健康的替代方法。认知训练是一种有规律的心理活动，旨在维持或提高一个人的心理能力。特别是，计算机化认知训练的引入扩大了这种培训项目的可能性、多样性和可获得性。认知训练背后的一般动机是假设人类的认知功能和大脑是可塑的。然而，批评者断言，科学支持训练相关的可塑性仅限于实践任务，而在训练环境和日常生活之外的任务中没有或只有很小的好处。一个例外似乎是专注于提高处理速度的培训项目。它们通常包括让受训者在不同的选择中快速做出决定的任务。本研究采用了一种新颖的研究设计，结合了一种创新的计算方法，系统地研究了处理速度训练在成年期的益处。除了为这种训练对认知功能的有希望的效果提供强有力的测试外，这项研究还将解决一个重要但迄今为止尚未解决的问题：处理速度训练是如何产生好处的？这项研究将对如何最大化认知训练的好处产生重要的见解。首先，对训练任务中表现的详细分析将揭示认知处理的哪些组成部分的变化对于在其他环境中产生益处是必不可少的。有了这些知识，未来的培训计划可以更直接、更有效地促进相关组成部分。其次，我们的研究将确定训练任务复杂度的最佳水平。例如，处理速度任务在单独执行时可能只需要很少的注意力，或者在多任务处理情况下可能需要我们全神贯注。由于这可能随着人们的年龄而变化，我们将研究从年轻到老年的成年人的影响。来自英国、德国和加拿大的研究人员从这个多地点倡议中获得的见解将允许开发最有效的训练计划，以提高注意力、推理和日常认知功能。通过这项计划，我们希望提高我们对人类认知系统及其可塑性的理解，以及如何利用这种可塑性来补偿与年龄相关的精神损失，使人们能够独立生活，更长久地保持认知健康。

We all experience losses in memory and attention after our mental performance peaked around our 20s. Although this development is quite universal and difficult to reverse, there are ways to slow down losses in mental performance or at least to compensate for these losses. While pharmaceutical products counteracting this development are costly and can be associated with severe side effects, cognitive training is an affordable and easy-to-administer alternative to stay mentally fit. Cognitive training is a program of regular mental activities purported to maintain or improve one's mental abilities. In particular, the introduction of computerised cognitive training has broadened the possibilities, the diversity, and the availability of such training programs to the general audience. The general motivation behind cognitive training is the assumption that human cognitive functioning and the brain are plastic. However, critics asserted that scientific support for training-related plasticity is limited to the practiced tasks while there is no or only minimal benefit for tasks beyond the training context and in everyday life. One exception appears to be training programs that focus on improving processing speed. They usually include tasks in which trainees quickly decide between different choices. The present initiative uses a novel study design combined with an innovative computational approach to systematically investigate the benefits of processing speed training across adulthood.Besides providing robust tests of the promising effects of this type of training on cognitive functioning, this research will tackle an important yet so far unanswered question: How does processing speed training produce benefits? This research will yield important insights into how to maximise the benefits of cognitive training. First, a detailed analysis of performance in the trained tasks will reveal which changes in components of cognitive processing are essential to produce benefits in other contexts. With this knowledge, future training programs can be tailored to boost the relevant components more directly and effectively. Second, our research will determine the optimal level of training task complexity. For instance, processing speed tasks can require only little attention when they are performed in isolation, or they can demand our full attention in multitasking situations. As this may vary with people's age, we will examine the effects in adults ranging from young to old adulthood.The insights from this multi-site initiative with researchers from the UK, Germany, and Canada will allow for developing maximally effective training programs for improving attention, reasoning, and everyday cognitive functioning. With this initiative, we hope to improve our understanding of the human cognitive system, its plasticity, and ways to use this plasticity to compensate for age-related mental losses and enable people to live independently and cognitively healthy for longer.