ArticlePsychological research2020
The role of proactive interference in working memory training and transfer.
Article in Psychological research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The asymmetry of working memory training transfer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Pooled it
- Can we enhance working memory? Bias and effectiveness in cognitive training studies.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2024Pooled it
- Working Memory Training Does Not Improve Performance on Measures of Intelligence or Other Measures of "Far Transfer": Evidence From a Meta-Analytic Review.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2016Pooled it
- A comparison of single-domain and multidomain executive functions cognitive training for enhancing cognition and well-being in older adults.Psychological research · 2026Article
- A computational model of prefrontal and striatal interactions in perceptual category learning.Brain and cognition · 2023Article
- Age-related effects of repeated task switching in a novel voluntary gait adaptability task.Experimental brain research · 2023Article
- The Effects of Working Memory versus Adaptive Visual Search Control Training on Executive Cognitive Function.Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice · 2022Article
- The role of attention control in complex real-world tasks.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2022Review
- Multiple levels of mental attentional demand modulate peak saccade velocity and blink rate.Heliyon · 2022Article
- The Influence of Individual Differences in Cognitive Ability on Working Memory Training Gains.Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice · 2019Article
- Working Memory Is as Working Memory Does: A Pluralist Take on the Center of the Mind.Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive scienceReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Recent work on working memory training has produced conflicting results regarding the degree and generality of transfer to other cognitive processes. However, few studies have investigated possible mechanisms underlying transfer. The current study was designed to test the role of proactive interference in working memory training and transfer. Eighty-six young adults participated in a pretest-posttest design, with ten training sessions in between. In the two working memory training conditions, subjects performed an operation span task, with one condition requiring recall of letters on every trial (operation-letters), whereas the other condition alternated between letters, digits, and words as the to-be-remembered items across trials (operation-mix). These groups were compared to an active-control group (visual-search). Working memory, verbal fluency, and reading comprehension measures were administered in pretest and posttest sessions. All groups significantly increased their performance over the ten training sessions. There was evidence of strategy-specific benefits on transfer, such that transfer to working memory measures was higher for the operation-letters group on tasks specifically involving letters, and no differential transfer to working memory tests without letters, to verbal fluency, or to reading comprehension. The results indicate that proactive interference does not appear to play a causal role in determining transfer from working memory training, and instead a strategy account based on stimulus content provides a more parsimonious explanation for the pattern of training and transfer.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.