Examining the contributions of placebo effects in cognitive training

项目摘要/摘要 这个项目解决了关于认知训练的益处程度的根本争议。 可能至少部分反映了安慰剂效应。认知训练作为一种潜力日益被研究和应用 提高健康中青年成年人认知能力的方法以及改善和/或 预防与年龄相关的认知功能衰退，防止有患ADRD风险的个体。而现有数据 建议设计良好的认知训练范例可以在认知方面产生积极的现实变化 关于认知功能，一些研究人员提出，认知训练的积极作用实际上可能是， 反映出安慰剂的效果。这种批评源于这样一个事实，即使是在设计最好的认知训练研究中， 参与者不能真正对条件视而不见。虽然许多认知训练研究试图使人盲目 培训的意图或目的的参与者(例如，使用参与者可能 认为这是一种积极的干预)，因为这样的控制训练经历必然在关键方面有所不同 然而，从积极的培训经验来看，认知培训的参与者 研究能够直觉地判断他们的情况和相关的期望，然后显示出扎根的结果 纯粹是在这些期望中。尽管这一建议在过去几年的评论中频繁出现 多年来，很少有实证研究直接解决安慰剂效应是否在认知方面发挥作用的问题 培训以及这种影响是否可以解释以前在该领域取得的成果。在这里我们 建议通过一项大规模的研究研究来克服这一领域的根本差距，以明确 检查认知训练中的安慰剂效应。特别是，从拥有更多 严格检查了安慰剂效应的诱导，我们使用了两种“纯期望”方法(即口头的 告诉参与者，惰性训练方案将增强他们的认知功能)和 学习“方法(即，将训练与主观体验的改进的表现配对)，试图 有目的地发挥最大幅度的安慰剂效应。这不仅有助于解决近端的 关于安慰剂在该领域是否有效果的争议，但如果发现这种效果，它将作为一种 未来研究的基准(例如，潜在地利用这种影响)。我们将研究这样的规模如何 不同年龄组(年轻人和老年人)、不同认知域(例如，液态智力、 工作记忆、选择性注意)，以及跨测试环境(实验室内与远程)。最后，就像外面一样 领域已经表明，安慰剂反应的程度可能存在个体差异，我们将 也要检查一组个体差异变量(例如，个性)，作为这些变量的可能调节因素 不同之处。这项研究将提供一个独特的基础数据集，直接和严格地解决 认知训练效果可由安慰剂解释和/或增强的程度，以及 告知未来应对ADRD的干预措施。

Project Summary/Abstract This project addresses fundamental controversies regarding the extent to which benefits of cognitive training may reflect, at least in part, placebo effects. Cognitive training is increasingly studied and applied as a potential approach to enhance cognitive capabilities in healthy young-to-middle-age adults as well to ameliorate and/or prevent age-related cognitive decline in individuals that may be at risk for developing ADRD. While extant data suggest that well-designed cognitive training paradigms can produce positive real-world change in cognitive functions, some researchers have suggested that the positive effects attributed to cognitive training may, in fact, reflect placebo effects. This criticism stems from the fact that, in even the best designed cognitive training studies, participants cannot be truly blinded to condition. While many cognitive training studies attempt to blind participants to the intent or purpose of the training (e.g., using an inert control training that participants might find plausible as an active intervention), because such control training experiences necessarily differ in key ways from the active training experiences, it has nevertheless been suggested that participants in cognitive training studies are able to intuit their condition and associated expectations and then show outcomes that are rooted purely in these expectations. Despite this suggestion appearing frequently in commentaries over the past several years, there exists little empirical work that directly addresses whether placebo effects may be at play in cognitive training and whether such effects can be of a magnitude that explains previous results in the field. Here we propose to overcome this fundamental gap in the field with a large-scale research study designed to explicitly examine placebo effects in cognitive training. In particular, taking lessons from outside domains that have more rigorously examined the induction of placebo effects, we utilize both “pure expectation” methods (i.e., verbally telling participants that an inert training protocol will enhance their cognitive functions) and “associative learning” methods (i.e., pairing training with subjectively experienced improved performance) in the attempt to purposefully drive maximal amplitude placebo effects. This will not only serve to resolve the proximal controversy regarding whether placebo effects in the domain, but if such effects are found, it will serve as a benchmark for future research (e.g., to potentially harness such effects). We will examine how the size of such effects may differ across age groups (younger and older adults), across cognitive domains (e.g., fluid intelligence, working memory, selective attention), and across testing contexts (in-lab versus remote). Finally, as outside domains have shown that there can be individual differences in the extent of placebo-responsiveness, we will also examine a set of individual difference variables (e.g., personality) as possible moderators for these differences. This research will provide a unique and foundational dataset that addresses directly and in a rigorous manner the extent to which cognitive training effects can be explained by, and/or augmented by, placebos, and inform future interventions addressing ADRD.