ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2022
Expectation effects in working memory training.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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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.
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Who cites it
15 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
- Beyond expectations: nocebo suggestion affects cognitive performance in older adults.Psychological research · 2026Trial
- Stable cognitive performance while adapting to intermittent fasting: A randomised controlled trial.Journal of health psychology · 2026Trial
- Open-label placebo treatment does not enhance cognitive abilities in healthy volunteers.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Does working memory training in children need to be adaptive? A randomized controlled trial.Child developmentTrial
- Supporting Visual Working Memory in Healthy Aging: A Review of Current Interventions and Perspectives on Future Approaches.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Verbal Memory is Higher After Aerobic Exercise When Compared to Muscle Stretching.American journal of lifestyle medicine · 2025Article
- The association between test anxiety, learning strategies, and open-label placebo effects on academic test performance: a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Advances in assessment and cognitive neurorehabilitation of HIV-related neurocognitive impairment.Brain communications · 2025Review
- Article
- Magnesium-ibogaine therapy in veterans with traumatic brain injuries.Nature medicine · 2024Observational
- Working Memory Training for Children Using the Adaptive, Self-Select, and Stepwise Approaches to Setting the Difficulty Level of Training Activities: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2023Article
- Development of a Novel Method of Assessing Potential Loss of Control in Internet Gaming Disorder.Technology, mind, and behavior · 2023Article
- Unpacking placebo and working memory training effects on cognitive performance.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Expectation effects in working memory training.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
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4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
There is a growing body of research focused on developing and evaluating behavioral training paradigms meant to induce enhancements in cognitive function. It has recently been proposed that one mechanism through which such performance gains could be induced involves participants' expectations of improvement. However, no work to date has evaluated whether it is possible to cause changes in cognitive function in a long-term behavioral training study by manipulating expectations. In this study, positive or negative expectations about cognitive training were both explicitly and associatively induced before either a working memory training intervention or a control intervention. Consistent with previous work, a main effect of the training condition was found, with individuals trained on the working memory task showing larger gains in cognitive function than those trained on the control task. Interestingly, a main effect of expectation was also found, with individuals given positive expectations showing larger cognitive gains than those who were given negative expectations (regardless of training condition). No interaction effect between training and expectations was found. Exploratory analyses suggest that certain individual characteristics (e.g., personality, motivation) moderate the size of the expectation effect. These results highlight aspects of methodology that can inform future behavioral interventions and suggest that participant expectations could be capitalized on to maximize training outcomes.
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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.