The near- and far-transfer effects of cognitive training on attentional networks in women and men

ABSTRACT

The study tested which attentional networks can be improved using cognitive training and whether this effect is mediated by gender differences. 181 young participants (50% woman) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: two experimental groups underwent 18 days of cognitive-training programmes relating to executive functions or temporary memory and one non-active control group. The Attention Network Test (ANT) was used twice to assess the participants’ performance before and after the training programmes. The results showed that performance in the ANT increased, but there was no improvement in the control group. Moreover, in the case of the executive functions training, there was a far transfer on some indicators of the alerting and orienting networks. Both training programmes were more effective for women than for men: in the women’s group, this difference applies to the response to each cue condition of the ANT and is much stronger than in men.

KEYWORDS:

• Executive functions training
• temporal memory training
• alerting
• orienting
• executive control system

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Michał Ziembowicz for statistical analyses and discussions on cognitive training data and special thanks to students for their help in conducting research: Rafał Szewczyk, Iwona Osik, Marta Szarecka, Adrian Bednarczyk, Katarzyna Wisiecka, Katarzyna Nowakowska, Marta Grochola, Dominika Jazurek, Małgorzata Van Ling, Piotr Sobecki. HB designed the study, prepared the materials, and wrote parts of the manuscript. JO designed the study, prepared the materials, and wrote parts of the manuscript. MP helped to prepare the materials and participated in the data gathering. JMO helped to prepare the final version of the manuscript. JN performed all major statistical analyses and wrote parts of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Mendeley Data at http://doi.org/10.17632/8bpws42j77.1.

Notes

1 Other significant effects were flanker x cue x gender F(6, 166) = 2.33; p = .035; ${\eta }_p^2$ = .08; flanker x cue F(6, 166) = 25.05; p < .001; ${\eta }_p^2$ = .48; cue x group F(6, 340) = 5.46; p < .001; ${\eta }_p^2$ = .18; cue F(3, 169) = 1290.65; p < .001; ${\eta }_p^2$ = .96; flanker F(2, 170) = 1641.81; p < .001; ${\eta }_p^2$ = .95; time x gender F(1, 171) = 15.87; p < .001; ${\eta }_p^2$ = .09; time F(1, 171) = 53.79; p < .001; ${\eta }_p^2$ = .24; group F(1, 171) = 8.15; p < .001; ${\eta }_p^2$ = .17.

Additional information

Funding

The present study was supported by the Polish National Science Center (Narodowe Centrum Nauki [grant number NCN OPUS 9 2015/17/B/HS6/04183]).