Download TEAM Cognitive Training - Gemstone Honors Program

TEAM Cognitive Training
Thesis Proposal
I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance
on this assignment/examination.
Timothy Briner
______________________
Jacob Buchanan
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Sydnee Chavis
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Sy-Yu Chen
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Gregory Iannuzzi
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Vadim Kashtelyan
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Mentor: Dr. Michael Dougherty
Librarian: Glenn Moreton
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Abstract
Cognitive ability determines how well people function successfully in everyday
activities. This is especially true in the area of education, where individual differences in
cognitive ability have been shown to predict performance in a number of core
competency areas, including reading comprehension (REF) and quantitative reasoning
(Ashcraft & Krause, 2007). While cognitive ability has long been believed to be a stable
individual difference variable – perhaps genetically determined (Friedman et al., 2006) –
recent work in cognitive neuroscience suggests that cognitive ability can be improved
through extensive training (Ball et al., 2002; Buschkuehl et al. (2008); Erickson et al.,
2007; Merzenich et al., 1996). We seek to train and improve peoples' working memory
capacity and thus also improve their overall cognitive ability. Based on prior studies, we
believe that visuo-spatial working memory training will lead to improvement in other
cognitive abilities.
Introduction
American students are chronically underperforming in mathematics in comparison
to other developed nations. For example, in the recent Trends in International
Mathematics and Science Study, America's fourth grade students scored lower in
mathematics than eight other countries, located in Asia or Europe, and eighth grade
students scored lower than five countries, all located in Asia (Mullis et al., 2008).
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report (2005),
American students lack a basic understanding of mathematics. This has been cited as
contributing to a growing achievement gap as the students progress through the education
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system (Mervis, 2007). In addition to international performance gaps, America faces its
own internal performance gaps between certain demographics. The 2005 NAEP study
demonstrated that 70% of African-American students and 60% of Hispanic students fell
below the standard of basic understanding of high school mathematics, compared to 30%
of whites and 27% of Asian-Americans who fell below this same standard.
While these achievement gaps are well established, much less progress has been
made in identifying their cause. One explanation for the achievement gaps is the presence
of cognitive deficits which ultimately determine quantitative reasoning ability. A deficit
in a mental construct vital to quantitative reasoning would be detrimental to math
performance. One construct which has been demonstrated to be correlated with
quantitative reasoning ability is working memory (Bull & Scerif, 2001). Working
memory is the ability to maintain and manipulate information when completing a task
(Colom, Rubio, Shih, & Santacreu, 2006; Engle, 2002; Unsworth & Engle, 2008).
One hypothesis for the underperformance in mathematics and deficits in
quantitative reasoning is a handicap on working memory. For example, math anxiety has
been shown to negatively affect quantitative reasoning ability by functioning as a second
task for working memory (Ashcraft & Krause, 2007). Math anxiety is a performancebased anxiety disorder, separate from general anxiety, seriously affecting at least 17% of
the American population. It frequently causes a pattern of math avoidance, leading those
affected to perform poorly on math assessments and avoid math-based classes and
careers. Although only 17% of the population is considered "highly math anxious", even
medium-math-anxious individuals show significant performance differences from low-
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math-anxious individuals. Thus, there is a necessary demand for research regarding the
improvement of math learning and performance (Ashcraft & Krause, 2007; Ashcraft et
al., 2007).
The impact of working memory drains, such as math anxiety, on quantitative
reasoning ability may be greatly reduced if the capacity of working memory as a whole is
increased. The purpose of our study is to show that because general cognitive ability and
visuo-spatial working memory are predictive of quantitative reasoning and general
cognitive ability and visuo-spatial working memory can be improved through extensive
cognitive training, training on a visuo-spatial working memory task will lead to
improvements in quantitative reasoning.
Literature Review
An individual draws upon their crystallized and general fluid intelligence when
engaged in cognitively demanding tasks such as reading comprehension questions and
math problems. These two components define a person's overall cognitive ability.
Crystallized intelligence, the summation of an individual’s knowledge and experience, is
applied to a problem via general fluid intelligence. General fluid intelligence is an
individual's ability to identify relationships and draw correlations, and is comprised of
short term memory and working memory (Engle, Laughlin, Tuholski, & Conway, 1999;
Kane & Engle, 2003). Working memory is the individual's ability to maintain and
manipulate information when completing a task. It is composed of a visuo-spatial
sketchpad, a phonological loop, and a central executive (Swanson, Jerman, & Zheng,
2008). The visuo-spatial sketchpad is responsible for mental visualization and further
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mental manipulation of images. Similarly, the phonological loop is responsible for mental
manipulation of sounds. The central executive oversees the manipulations in the visuospatial and phonological constructs, and directs attention towards solving a goal task
while ignoring competing tasks. The process of ignoring competing tasks is called
response inhibition (Unsworth, Schrock, & Engle, 2004). The speed at which the central
executive places information into working memory determines an individual's perceptual
speed. The maximum capacity and speed at which each construct functions places an
upper limit on the individual's ability to solve problems related to quantitative reasoning
ability at a given time.
Cognitive Ability is important for quantitative reasoning:
Ashcraft and Krause (2007) demonstrated the importance of working memory in
quantitative reasoning by studying working memory capacity and math performance in
high-math-anxious individuals as compared to low-math-anxious individuals. The
subjects were tested using two different verbal span assessments, and no significant
differences in working memory capacity were found. Both groups of subjects (high-mathanxious and low-math-anxious) were given a dual-task setting: they were prompted to
hold an escalating number of letters (2, 4, or 6) while performing subtraction problems,
and then asked to recall the letters in serial order. When given this computational task,
high-math-anxious individuals exhibited significantly lower working memory
performance. This is due to the effects of math anxiety on working memory: the anxiety
functions as an additional task for working memory which draws cognitive resources
from the goal task, inhibiting performance. Thus, high-math-anxious individuals were
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most severely affected by an increase in working memory load, demonstrating the critical
importance of working memory to math performance.
Working memory has also been shown to be strongly correlated with problem
solving abilities (Swanson et al., 2008). Swanson et al. performed a study on 353
children (167 male, 186 female) from grades 1, 2, and 3 from a Southern California
public and private school district. All children were tested for risk of serious math
problem solving difficulties (SMD) in the first year of the study (Wave 1). Children at
risk for SMD were defined as having a Raven Colored Progressive Matrices test score
greater than 85, but with a mean math performance below the 25th percentile in normreferenced measures such as solving orally presented word problems and performing
digit naming exercises. The Raven Colored Progressive Matrices task is a multiple choice
measure of fluid intelligence, requiring participants to identify a missing segment to
complete a sequence of colored matrices. The children were tested across three testing
waves in a three year span in order to measure working memory capacity, general fluid
intelligence, and risk for SMD. Children identified as at risk for SMD in Wave 1 showed
a lower growth rate in work and lower levels of performance in measures of cognitive
ability than those identified as not at risk. In addition, measures of fluid intelligence and
two components of working memory (central executive, visuo-spatial sketchpad) in
Wave 1 predicted Wave 3 problem solving accuracy. However, growth in problem
solving accuracy was strongly correlated with growth in the central executive and
phonological storage components of working memory. The strong correlation between
working memory capacity and problem solving ability implies a relationship between
working memory and quantitative reasoning.
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High school students with high math ability were shown to have superior spatial
abilities to average math students. In a study by O'Boyle et al. (2005), students who
scored in the 99th percentile and students who scored in the 50th percentile on the
Australian SAT were tested for spatial ability using a mental rotation task. Students in the
99th percentile scored significantly higher than students in the 50th percentile on this task.
fMRI was used to monitor brain activity during this task. Students in the 99th percentile
activated a unique brain network and showed activity in more regions of the brain when
compared to students in the 50th percentile during the task. The study demonstrates the
positive correlation between visuo-spatial working memory and quantitative reasoning.
Cognitive ability can be trained:
An individual’s capacity to form and develop new skills and habits is referred to
as plasticity. Neural plasticity is the brain’s physical modification of neural circuits due to
changes in neural activity. One significant form of changing neural activity is the
acquisition of cognitive skills, defined as “abilities that an organism can improve through
practice or observational learning and that involve judgments or processing… The
capacity to acquire cognitive skills can be described as cognitive plasticity” (Mercado,
2008). Thus, by challenging an individual’s cognitive abilities through demanding tasks,
the plastic nature of the brain allows an individual to improve cognitive abilities through
the creation of new neural pathways (Mercado, 2008; Rosenzweig & Bennetta, 1996).
Based on the plastic nature of the brain, stressors can be tailored to improve
particular cognitive domains in the form of training. Dr. Michael Merzenich showed that
training programs designed to restore children’s language learning impairments can
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improve both their comprehensive skills and auditory perception. In 1998, Merzenich et
al. demonstrated the ability to remedy the deficits inherent to language-learning impaired
(LLI) children who have major temporal processing and fast-speech-element recognition
deficits. LLI children trained 8-16 hours over a 20 day period with a computer program
designed to improve their ability to recognize stimuli similar to what one must recognize
in speech. After the training period, the LLI children demonstrated an increased ability to
recognize speech and nonspeech sequences, substantially remediating the deficits in
nearly all of the LLI children tested. This strongly indicates that training can overcome
temporal processing deficits (Merzenich et al., 1996).
Similarly, in elderly individuals experiencing cognitive decline, working memory
training has been shown to improve memory performance (Buschkuehl et al., 2008). In
this study, 80 year old adults received working memory training for three months. A
second group received physical training for an identical training duration. At the end of
the training, adults who completed the working memory training demonstrated increased
memory performance over the active group. Also, the experimental group improved in
tasks not directly trained, demonstrating transfer effects of working memory training.
Buschkuehl confirmed the notion that transfer will occur if the training task and the
transfer task utilize overlapping regions of the brain (Dahlin et al., 2008). The transfer
benefits were limited in scope and were not observed to extend to tasks beyond the
domain of the trained cognitive region, but the demonstrated improvements from were
still present three months after post testing (Li, 2008). Although there was a decline from
post-test to follow up scores, there was still substantial improvement in score and
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processing time. With the proper maintenance, the cognitive training gains can be
maintained and likely further improved upon following these studies.
Since the brain is neurally plastic as well as cognitively plastic, training programs
result in changes to the physical neural networks of the brain in addition to improving
performance on trained tasks (Erickson et al., 2007). Erickson et al. studied how brain
activity changes for people completing dual-switching tasks after training. They used a
combination of two tasks: color discrimination, located in the upper half of the screen,
and letter discrimination, located in the lower half of the screen. They kept the total
number of visual stimuli on the screen equal for all trials. The trials and training was split
into three different combinations of tasks. Single pure (SP) trials consisted of color
combination and letter discrimination tasks given in separate blocks of time. Single-task
single mixed (SM) trials consisted of a mix of color discrimination or letter
discrimination tasks in the same blocks of time. Dual-task dual-mixed (DM) trials
consisted of both color and letter discrimination tasks being given simultaneously. All of
the participants were given an initial fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) test
with SM and DM tasks, then the control group had a 2 or 3 week break before the final
fMRI testing, whereas the training group had five 1-hour training sessions during the 2 or
3 weeks before being given the final fMRI test. The training group was split into three
sections, each training either SP, SM, or DM tasks and all receiving continuous and
immediate feedback. After the training, there was a greater change in response times for
the training group than the control group. Performance accuracy reliably increased for the
SM and DM training conditions but not for the SP condition. There was a larger
reduction in brain activity in the focused regions for the training groups compared to the
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control group. This suggests that improvements due to training are related to reduced
activation in those brain regions. In addition, two areas of the brain did show increased
activity with training that correlated with better performance. The DM condition
improved the participants’ performance the most, supporting their hypothesis that
training for more demanding tasks will improve performance more. Thus, cognitive
training can improve the executive control process as well as the physical processes in the
brain.
Quantitative reasoning can be improved by cognitive training:
In a recent study by Jaeggi, Buschkuehl, Jonides, and Perrig (2008), fluid
intelligence was improved by training working memory. In the study, participants’ fluid
intelligence was evaluated using the Raven Progressive Matrices task before and after
training working memory. Working memory was trained with the n-back task. The nback test presents the participant with a visual cue and an audible letter. The participant is
then prompted with one of the previously viewed visual cues and is asked to input the
letter heard when that cue was seen. N is the numbered term in reverse sequence that the
participant is asked to recall. Training with this task demonstrated improvements in fluid
intelligence as measured by the Raven Progressive Matrices task (Jaeggi et al., 2008).
These results demonstrate the existence of transfer effects (e.g. improvement in fluid
intelligence) due to training on a working memory task.
Considering the existence of transfer effects from training with a working
memory task and the positive relationship between visuo-spatial working memory
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capacity and quantitative reasoning ability, we hypothesize that quantitative reasoning
can be improved through training using a visuo-spatial working memory task.
Methodology
In order to conduct our research, we plan to implement a quantitative
psychological study. We will recruit participants within the student population and
community at large in the College Park area. We will perform this study with as large and
diverse a participant pool as is feasible. We do not intend to select a target demographic
for two reasons. First, it is likely that most of the subjects will be college age and will
form a specific demographic themselves. Second, cognitive ability is crucial for people of
all ages; our data is more beneficial if they are widely applicable rather than applicable
only to a specific population. If there are particular participants whose demographic does
not match that of the group and their results skew the data, we will consider them as an
outlier and not include their data in our results.
Participants will be screened based on these criteria. Participants must be at least
eighteen years of age for legal purposes. Participants must have normal to corrected
vision in order to be able to efficiently complete the computer tasks. Participants must
have unimpaired use of their dominant hand and must be native English speakers.
Impaired use of the dominant hand or a lack of proficiency in English can lead to varying
response time. We will attempt to keep the subject pool equal by gender and recruit
from a mix of racial backgrounds. Participants can not currently be undergoing treatment
or have a history of neurological, neuropsychiatric, or psychiatric disorders. These
limitations are necessary in order to not compromise the validity and reliability of the
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results. People with mental disorders have different cognitive functions and need to be
excluded from the study in order to maintain control over the constructs dictating
performance on cognitive tasks.
Participants will be recruited with fliers placed throughout campus. The fliers will
contain the following information: contact information, compensation for participation
and a catch phrase describing the study. Participants will receive a base level of
compensation upon completion of the study. Additional prize money will also be
awarded to participants who show the greatest improvement in cognitive ability. See
Appendix for detailed information about compensation.
After the pre-test, participants will be randomly grouped into a control group and
a test group. It is necessary to have a control group because without a control we would
not be able to confirm that our training has any affect on cognitive abilities, and we do
not want to subject participants to training with no substantial proof that it is beneficial.
Having a control group in our experiment provides a gauge with which to measure our
training, which will allow us to experimentally show what effect training has on
participants. The experiment will be a single-blind study since participants will not know
the group in which they are placed. Each participant will be assigned a unique ID number
that will be used for that particular participant throughout the study. Each participant will
be kept anonymous. We will maintain a log indicating each participants name and ID
code. The master list of ID numbers will be stored in a locked room in the Decision,
Attention, and Memory Lab at the University of Maryland. This log will be stored
separately from the data, and will be destroyed at the conclusion of the study. Data will
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be archived in the PI’s (Dr. Michael Dougherty’s) laboratory for a minimum of 10 years
after publication, in accordance with the American Psychological Association, NSF
guidelines.
Before participants begin the study, participants will be told that they are
participating in an experiment studying visuo-spatial working memory. Participants will
be informed about the tasks they will complete and will be given a consent form to read
and sign. Members of our research team will be available to answer any questions
participants may have. Instructions for completing the tasks will be presented on the
computer for each respective task.
The study is composed of three essential stages: the pre-test, the training regimen,
and the post-test. Each participant will complete a uniform pre-test to gauge the
individual’s pre-training level of cognitive ability. The pre-test will measure the
participants’ visuo-spatial working memory, verbal working memory, perceptual speed,
response inhibition and general reading comprehension and math ability. After the
participants have completed the pre-test, both groups will be asked to return to the lab in
six weeks. The control group is currently not given anything, however they may be asked
to complete another task during the training period to rule out possible placebo effects.
The test group will be given a 2 GB flash drive containing the training regimen: the
Adaptive Block Span Task.
In the Adaptive Block Span Task (ABST), participants are required to remember
the order in which a sequence of black blocks appear in a 4 x 4 grid. Each block will
flash one at a time in one of the cells within the grid, and then the entire grid will flash
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for one second to indicate the end of one sequence and the beginning of a new sequence.
After one set of sequences, participants will be asked to recall the order of each sequence
electronically using a mouse. The ABST increases or decreases in difficulty according to
the participant’s performance. Participants are given a software copy of the ABST
program in order to allow them to train on their own time for at least ten minutes a day
for six weeks at home. The program itself will log the hours the participant ran the
program, completed the training, the participants’ responses, and the participants’
response times. Participants will see screen such as:
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Figure 1: Various screens observed by the participant when completing the ABST.
Participants in the test group will be given instructions for using the ABST. They
will need to connect the flash drive into their computer and access the program from a
file on the flash drive. Accuracy will be displayed for the participant to assess
performance and keep the participant motivated. These results will also be stored in a
hidden, password protected file on the flash drive. Upon completion of the training
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regimen, the participants will submit their flash drives to us so that we may compile all of
their results.
We are very confident the ABST will train visuo-spatial working memory and
lead to improvements in quantitative reasoning. Similar validated tasks have been used
extensively in other psychological studies. The Corsi Blocks Backward Task was used in
a study to test and compare the visuo-spatial working memory capacity of both young
and elderly adults (Kemps & Newson, 2006). The Corsi Blocks Backward Task is similar
to the Adaptive Block Span Task, yet consists of only nine squares and requires the
subject to recall the flashing blocks in reverse order. It also lacks any adaptive capability.
We will facilitate pilot testing prior to our primary research to ensure that the ABST does
in fact train visuo-spatial working memory.
Six weeks after the pre-test, both the control group and the test group will return
to the lab for the post-test. Each participant will perform the tasks by themselves on a
computer. The length of the testing session will be approximately seventy minutes. The
tasks chosen for pre and post-tests will be selected from the following:
Testing Response Inhibition:
Stroop: The names of colors will be flashed on a display in various colored text. The
color word and color font in which the word is written can be either congruent or
incongruent. The subject must input the color font by rapidly pressing the key
corresponding to the correct color font. The subject must inhibit the response to read the
word. Only primary colors will be used. Several keys will be labeled R, B, or Y (for red,
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blue and yellow, respectively) for use by the dominant hand. Baseline trials will be
conducted to determine the time it takes to identify the color. The baseline trials will
have a number of characters corresponding to the number of letters in the word. X will
be the only character used. For example, XXX is the baseline trial for red. The test will
consist of 75% congruence, 12.5% incongruence and 12.5% baseline trials. This test will
take approximately ten minutes. The screens the participants will see will look like the
following:
RED, the participant will need to press Y
GREEN, the participant will need to press R
RED, the participant will need to press R
YELLOW, the participant will need to press B
Anti-Saccade: The subject focuses on a cue in the center of the display. The subject must
read a character, which is flashed quickly on either the leftmost or rightmost side of the
display. This target cue is preceded by a distraction cue on the side of the display
opposite the target. The target cue is quickly masked by the rapid succession of
characters “H” and “8”. The subject must then identify the target cue by pressing the key
corresponding to the correct character flashed. After subject inputs the target cue, the
center cue is displayed to begin the next trial. Time between the center cue and
distracting cue is constant. The time between distracting cue, target cue, and successive
cues is constant. This test will take approximately ten minutes.
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Testing Working Memory:
Operation Span: The participant is presented with a mathematical equation. The
participant is then required to confirm the validity of the solution. The participant selects
“true” or “false” to confirm the equation. Immediately following their response, the
subject is shown a letter. After several equations, the subject is prompted with a screen
displaying “?” to input the sequence of letters that were displayed following each
equation. For example, screen one will prompt:
Is 4 x 3 / 2 – 5 = 1?
True/False
Participant will press T for true or F for false. The following screen will display
the letter “N”. The next screen will display another equation, followed by another letter.
After several equations and letters, a screen displaying "?" will appear, prompting
participants to recall the letters in the sequence they appeared. This test will take
approximately ten minutes.
Reading Span: The subject reads a sentence and evaluates whether or not the sentence is
grammatically correct. Subjects will identify the sentence as T for sentences that are
correct and F for sentences that are incorrect. After the subject inputs their response,
a word is displayed on the following screen. Several of these sequences are shown to the
subject before they are prompted to orally recall all the words in the order in which they
were displayed. The words are randomized nouns. This test will take approximately ten
minutes. Participants will see screens such as:
Evaluate the following sentence for grammatical correctness.
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The dog ran down the street and jumped the fence. Correct/Incorrect?
D
The cat walk into the house quietly. Correct/Incorrect?
K
Testing Perceptual Speed:
Canceling symbols: Subjects scan the page for a single target figure among other simple
target figures. For instance, subjects can be asked to identify specific letters within a text.
This test will take ninety seconds. For example, if participants were asked to locate the
letter “s” within the first sentence of this paragraph, the response would be similar to this:
Canceling symbols: Subjects scan the page for a single target figure among other simple
target figures
Summing to Ten: Participants are presented will a page filled with a sequence of digits
from π and are given five minutes to circle all adjacent pairs that sum to ten. The number
of correct pairs found is recorded and the average number of pairs found per minute is
calculated. Two different sheets will be made from different selections of π digits. 50%
of participants will use one sheet on the pre-test and 50% will use the other. On the posttest, participants will take the opposite sheet. This test will take approximately ninety
seconds. Participants will be given papers that look like the following:
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141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406
286208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359
408128481117
Subjects will circle adjacent pairs as follows:
141592653589793238(46)2(64)338327950(28)84(19)7169399(37)5105(82)09749445923
0781(64)06(28)62089986(28)034(82)53421170679(82)148086513(28)2306(64)709384(4
6)09(55)05(82)2317253594081(28)481117
Letter Comparison: Two equal length strings of consonant letters run side by side for
200 pairs. The strings are 3-7 letters in length and are either identical or vary by one
letter. The participant is asked to determine whether or not each string is identical for as
many strings as can be evaluated in 90 seconds. This test will take approximately ninety
seconds.
Evaluating General Fluid Intelligence and general abilities:
Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices is a measure of abstract reasoning ability
independent of language or schooling. Participants are presented with figures and asked
to identify the missing segment in order to complete a larger pattern. The missing piece is
identified by determining the common theme between the existing figures. Matrices
shown are frequently 2x2 or 3x3. This test will take fifteen minutes.
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Air Force Officer’s Qualifying Test (AFOQT): The AFOQT will measure reading
comprehension. Participants will read several passages and answer the corresponding
questions. This test will take twenty five minutes.
Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB): The ASVAB will be used as a
measure of math ability. The math questions will range from algebra to trigonometry
(similar to the SAT’s). This test will take twenty five minutes.
Math Assessment: We will develop an assessment of math ability for use in both the pre
and post-tests. The assessment will display several arithmetic computations which yield
a single digit answer, 0-9. The test will use the four basic operations: addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division. The participant will input their answer and will
immediately be taken to a screen displaying "Press any key when ready." Time and
accuracy will be used to evaluate the subject's performance. Results will be interpreted
with respect to difficulty, which will be tentatively determined by the number of
manipulations (total manipulations per problem is 3-7), the types of manipulations, and
the number of digits in each term. Guttmann scaling will be used to make final
adjustments to problem difficulty after the tests have been administered. This test will
take ten minutes.
The post-test will be superficially different from the pre-test, but will be similar
in both difficulty and in the constructs tested. For example, the post-test will have the
same Operation Span Task as the pre-test, but the math problems and letters the
participant works with will be different. Since the tasks are computer generated, it is
possible for us to maintain the same difficulty level and also create new problems.
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We will analyze pre and post-test data to determine the effects of training. Visuospatial working memory is a psychological construct measured by the ABST while the
other constructs are not targeted by the ABST. This difference will allow us to assess to
what extent the non-targeted constructs are affected by the visuo-spatial training
(Friedman & Miyake, 2004). The levels of cognitive ability that will be measured by the
pre and post-test scores are the dependent variables of our study.
Our collected data will consist of the results from the pre and post-tests (scores
and reaction times depending on the particular test) and scores and total time spent
training for the ABST. We will analyze subjects’ pre and post-tests scores in order to
determine the change in their cognitive ability. We hope to find that subjects who spent
the longest time training on the ABST will have the highest improvement on their ABST
scores and therefore will demonstrate an increase in cognitive ability on their post-test.
Specifically, our analysis will identify Pearson R correlations between training time and
changes in performance. By comparing these data and analyses, we can infer whether
training in a specific area of cognitive ability positively correlates with other non-targeted
cognitive abilities (Friedman & Miyake, 2004).
By conducting a psychological experiment, we can determine whether it is
possible to improve cognitive performance through training; the scores from pre-tests,
training, and post-tests will allow us to determine correlations between training of visuospatial working memory and cognitive ability. The nature of the experiment itself will
enable us to collect and evaluate data efficiently and comprehensively. The testing can be
easily supervised, monitored and uniformly administered to all participants, which will
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help to ensure that the tests and training are completed correctly. Since the ABST training
will be completed by the subjects on their own time, it is convenient for them and there is
no time demand on our research group. Also, existing pre and post-tests are published,
standardized, reliable, and valid, while still flexible enough to tailor for testing in specific
cognitive areas (Engle, Laughlin, Tuholski, & Conway, 1999). The tests that we will
utilize are valid according to previous studies and research completed in the area of
cognitive psychology; they are easy to obtain from psychological databases, as well as
easy to administer to participants (Friedman & Miyake, 2004). The tests are accessible to
us at no charge through the Decision, Attention, and Memory Lab at the University of
Maryland. All of the members of the group have completed ethics training required by
the National Institute of Health (NIH) in order to conduct research with human test
subjects. Other than attaining Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval to perform the
study, there are no other licenses or qualifications necessary.
While there are several benefits of our research design, there are also a few
drawbacks. Administering and proctoring the pre and post-test will be time consuming
for all team members. Training with the ABST also requires a significant time
commitment from participants, which may deter participants from completing the study.
However, as the participants are encouraged to utilize the training program at their own
discretion, this should not have a significant effect on our sample size. Participants must
have access to a computer in order to complete the training. Most of the disadvantages we
will face are inherent to the study of people and affect any psychological research
design. Participants will inevitably have different levels of education. Some people are
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simply better test takers than others. People learn in different ways, so not everyone will
respond to the training in the same way. Finally, it will be very difficult to account for
the confounding variables in the experiment, such as time of day of testing and training,
the participants' daily activities, noise levels in the testing and training environment, and
personal eating and sleeping habits (Royall et al., 2002).
One of the greatest limitations our team faces is the ability to differentiate training
gains from placebo effects. In order to limit placebo false gains on post-tests results, we
will either assign the control group a "training task" which does not have any foreseeable
benefits to cognitive ability or we will have a no-contact control and will not inform
either the control or experimental groups that the ABST is a training task. Withholding
that the ABST is a training task will confine placebo effects to participants who draw
their own conclusions about the purpose of our task. Assigning a task to the control group
will eliminate placebo effects but may have an unpredictable effect on our data. A
demanding control task will better control placebo effects but will be more likely to have
an unpredicted impact on the results.
Based on previous research and existing literature, we expect to find that training
one area of cognitive ability will improve performance in that specific area as well as
other domain-free abilities (Engel et al., 1999). Most importantly, we anticipate that the
training will improve subjects’ quantitative reasoning. This improvement will be
validated by post-test scores that, statistically, are significantly higher than pre-test scores
and by a steady increase in the subjects’ performance on the ABST. These results will be
meaningful if they provide evidence that people can increase their cognitive ability, and
24
thus improve their performance on complex mental processes. Overall, the results we
anticipate will provide insight regarding how to efficiently train the mind to significantly
improve cognitive ability.
Appendix
This semester we are determining the pre and post-test regimen with which the
subjects will be evaluated. As we establish our test regimen, we are compiling all of
the necessary information about the tasks in order to apply for Institutional Review Board
(IRB) approval. All but one of our tests has been developed and is readily accessible. We
are currently in the process of developing our Mathematics Assessment Test. The test
will be evaluated by our mentor and other professionals in the field. Our mentor has
included the funds necessary for our research as a subsection in a grant that he recently
applied for. We will also be applying for grants and are in the process of looking for the
most efficient way to acquire 2 GB flash drives. The grant will provide us with the
money necessary to compensate participants for their time.
Once we receive IRB approval, we will begin pilot testing using the ABST. This
pilot testing will allow us to evaluate how the ABST affects pilot participants’ visuospatial working memory and cognitive abilities. Evaluating the ABST with a pilot study
will enable us to make any adjustments to the task to ensure it provides the best and most
efficient visuo-spatial training to our participants.
During the fall of 2009, we will recruit our participants and begin data collection;
subjects will complete the training regimen in a six week period and we will use the pre
25
and post-tests to evaluate changes in the subjects' performance. In the spring of 2010, we
intend to complete our data collection and analysis after which we will begin writing our
thesis, continuing until fall of 2010. By the spring of 2011, we will edit our completed
thesis: upon completion of the editing, we will submit the thesis for publication in a
psychology journal. During this time, we will continue our literature review, expanding
our knowledge of current research in cognitive psychology.
Our expenses for the duration of our project will consist of funds necessary to
provide monetary compensation to our participants and the cost of the flash drives needed
to provide participants with the ABST. The cost of all of the tasks used in the pre and
post-tests are free and the ABST is also free. Our study will contain a minimum of 50
participants and maximum of 100. Each participant will receive $20 ($10 for the pre-test
and $10 for the post-test). The four subjects, both from the control group and from the
test group, that show the greatest improvement from the pre-test to the post-test will
receive rewards. The rewards shall be as follows: 1st place-$100, 2nd place $75, 3rd
place $50 and 4th place $25. We will use the reward as an incentive for the subjects to
complete the ABST for a longer period of time. Our total expenses will be $450 for the
improvement rewards, a minimum of $1000 and a maximum of $2000 for subject
compensation. We estimate that the flash drives will cost $500 and we are currently in the
process of looking for sponsorship.
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