SynthesisNature human behaviour2022
Near transfer to an unrelated N-back task mediates the effect of N-back working memory training on matrix reasoning.
Synthesis in Nature human behaviour, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Can we enhance working memory? Bias and effectiveness in cognitive training studies.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2024Pooled it
- High-Frequency rTMS Broadly Ameliorates Working Memory and Cognitive Symptoms in Stroke Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Neurorehabilitation and neural repair · 2024Trial
- Cognitive control training with domain-general response inhibition does not change children's brains or behavior.Nature neuroscience · 2024Trial
- Change-detection training and its effects on visual processing skills.Scientific reports · 2022Trial
- Does working memory training in children need to be adaptive? A randomized controlled trial.Child developmentTrial
- Neuropsychological Assessment Using Portable Automated Rapid Testing in Cognitively Healthy Older Adults: Test-Retest Reliability Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Transfer Effects of Integrated Adaptive Working Memory Training in School-Age Children: Improvements in Inhibitory Control and Asymmetric Gains in Mathematical Abilities.Journal of Intelligence · 2026Article
- Orthogonal-Rotational Dynamics Supports Efficient Encoding and Updating for Streaming Information in Working Memory.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Efficacy and Compliance of a Working Memory Multitasking Task Mobile Intervention for Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Single-Arm, Pre-Post Pilot Study.JMIR human factors · 2025Article
- Exploring the n-back task: insights, applications, and future directions.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Review
- Working Memory Load-Dependent Cortical Mechanism of Distraction Analgesia in Healthy Individuals: An fNIRS Study.Journal of pain research · 2025Article
- A computational approach to the N-back task.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Human intelligence can safeguard against artificial intelligence: individual differences in the discernment of human from AI texts.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Prefrontal cortex oxygenation during a mentally fatiguing task in normoxia and hypoxia.Experimental brain research · 2024Article
- The Intelligence Structures of School-Age Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study in China.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2024Article
- Investigating the Role of Individual Differences in Adherence to Cognitive Training.Journal of cognition · 2023Article
- EngAge - A metacognitive intervention to supplement working memory training: A feasibility study in older adults.Aging brain · 2023Article
- Improving memory for unusual events with wakeful reactivation.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Unicorn, Hare, or Tortoise? Using Machine Learning to Predict Working Memory Training Performance.Journal of cognition · 2023Article
- Improving comparability across cognitive training trials for brain aging: A focus on interoperability.Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.)Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The extent to which working memory training improves performance on untrained tasks is highly controversial. Here we address this controversy by testing the hypothesis that far transfer may depend on near transfer using mediation models in three separate randomized controlled trials (RCTs). In all three RCTs, totalling 460 individuals, performance on untrained N-back tasks (near transfer) mediated transfer to Matrix Reasoning (representing far transfer) despite the lack of an intervention effect in RCTs 2 and 3. Untrained N-back performance also mediated transfer to a working memory composite, which showed a significant intervention effect (RCT 3). These findings support a model of N-back training in which transfer to untrained N-back tasks gates further transfer (at least in the case of working memory at the construct level) and Matrix Reasoning. This model can help adjudicate between the many studies and meta-analyses of working memory training that have provided mixed results but have not examined the relationship between near and far transfer on an individual-differences level.
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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.