engleski

Can emotions help enhance cognitive abilities? Working memory training with affective materials

Humans process emotionally colored information every day. Information on affective quality of stimuli are processed in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the key neural substrate of executive functioning. Surprisingly, affective material is rarely included in cognitive enhancement interventions. This study aimed to evaluate a training of two executive aspects of working memory with affective materials. Sixty healthy middle-aged adults (49-65 years old) were randomly assigned into three groups: updating (affective n-back training), inhibition (affective Stroop training), and active control group (communication skills training). A pretest- posttest design included twenty 20-minute sessions distributed over ten weeks. Both training groups showed highest gains in their respective criterion tasks. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed higher near- (complementary executive aspect of WM) and far-transfer (fluid reasoning) effects for both training groups, compared to the control group. No training gains were found in everyday cognitive competence and emotional regulation between the three groups.

cognitive training, working, memory, executive functions

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