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

当我们的精神表现在20多岁左右达到顶峰时，我们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的，而且很难逆转，但有一些方法可以减缓精神表现的损失，或者至少弥补这些损失。虽然对抗这种发展的药物价格昂贵，而且可能会产生严重的副作用，但认知训练是一种负担得起、易于管理的保持精神健康的替代方案。认知训练是一种定期的心理活动，旨在保持或提高一个人的心理能力。特别是，计算机化认知培训的引入扩大了此类培训方案的可能性、多样性和可获得性，供一般受众使用。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性的。然而，批评者断言，对与训练相关的可塑性的科学支持仅限于练习的任务，而对于训练之外的任务和日常生活中的任务，没有或只有最小的好处。一个例外似乎是专注于提高处理速度的培训计划。它们通常包括让受训者在不同选择之间迅速做出决定的任务。这项研究采用了一种新颖的研究设计，结合创新的计算方法，系统地研究了成人加工速度训练的益处。除了对这类训练对认知功能有希望的效果进行强有力的测试外，这项研究还将解决一个重要的、迄今仍未回答的问题：加工速度训练如何产生益处？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，对训练任务中的表现进行详细分析，将揭示认知加工的哪些组成部分的变化对于在其他情况下产生益处是必不可少的。有了这些知识，未来的培训计划就可以量身定做，更直接、更有效地促进相关组件的发展。其次，我们的研究将确定训练任务复杂性的最佳水平。例如，处理速度快的任务在单独执行时可能只需要很少的关注，或者在多任务处理的情况下可能需要我们全神贯注。由于这可能会随着人们的年龄而变化，我们将检查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的这一多地点倡议的见解将允许开发最有效的培训计划，以提高注意力、推理和日常认知功能。通过这一倡议，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弥补与年龄相关的精神损失，使人们能够独立和认知健康地生活更长时间。

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.