Training

Question 1

What is the brain training market estimated at?

Answer 1

Over 1 billion

Question 2

What are the industry’s claims built on?

Answer 2

The idea of generalisability

Question 3

What are the 3 effects of training?

Answer 3

1) Practice effects e.g. improved performance on trained task (not on actual memory, just the strategies used)
2) Near transfer e.g. improved performance on other tasks measuring the same ability like driving one car, can drive another
3) Far-transfer e.g. improved performance on other tasks measuring different abilites

Question 4

Outline Jaeggi et al Study on whether brain training generalises

Answer 4

Trained participants showed improved performance on fluid intelligence tasks, with more training = more improvement

Question 5

State 2 weaknesses of Jaeggi et al Study

Answer 5

1) Control group did no task at all

2) Drawing conclusions based on a single task ignores confounding variables

Question 6

Outline Owen et al Study on whether brain training generalises?

Answer 6

He found evidence for practice effects e.g. improvements on the trained tasks, but no evidence for transfer, even when transfer tasks were cognitively closely related

Question 7

Name 3 problems with the literature on brain training

Answer 7

1) Small sample sizes
2) Selective reporting of data
3) Failing to use appropriate control groups

Question 8

What evidence is there to suggest that expectations influence outcomes, involving recruitment posters?

Answer 8

Participants only showed improvement when they were told in the recruitment poster what was being tested, and they were led to believe that the task would improve their intelligence, which creates sampling bias and placebo effects

Question 9

Outline Shute et al’s findings on whether brain training generalises

Answer 9

Participants who played the video game for 8 weeks showed significant increase in spatial skill, but the participants who used a brain training programme for 8 weeks did not show increases on any measure

Question 10

Do benefits of brain training programmes transfer to real world tasks?

Answer 10

No

Question 11

Who do brain training programmes target, and why is this bad?

Answer 11

Parents with children who have ADHD, this is unethical and they are making promises they cant deliver

Question 12

If depleting resources by performing a task influences performance of any other self-control task, what does this mean?

Answer 12

That building resources by practicing tasks will work in the same way

Question 13

What did Denson et al find about a self-control training task and aggressive behaviour?

Answer 13

That participants who used their non-dominant hand between 8 and 6 every day for 2 weeks, had decreased aggressive behaviour but only for participants who were already high on aggression, and there was no significant difference or interaction effect

Question 14

How many different quantification strategies of Denson et als competitive reaction time task was used?

Answer 14

156 in 130 publications

Question 15

What was the Cohen’s d figure found by Hagger et al of how training reduced ego depletion, and what does this imply?

Answer 15

It was 1.07, and as .8 is large, this means that training does reduce ego depletion

Question 16

Despite this high Cohen’s d figure of training reducing ego depletion, what else was found from three more recent meta analyses?

Answer 16

Publication bias and questionable effects, found that practice was much less likely to improve self-control than first thought

Question 17

Many of the same problems in the brain training literature apply to this practicing self-control literature, list 3 of them

Answer 17

1) Lack of active control groups
2) No checks on adherence to training
3) Flexibility in analysis and reporting

Question 18

When a highly powered and well controlled design is used, was the effect of practicing self-control still reliable?

Answer 18

No, training did not improve performance after or during ego depletion, and there were no differences between the training and control conditions

Question 19

However, name 3 weaknesses of this key reading study?

Answer 19

1) Bias sample of university students, who probably already have strategies in place to assist self-control and are in the mindset anyway
2) Alternative reasons for the results e.g. fatigue, boredom
3) Habituation effects e.g. required less self-control over time

Question 20

What is a Bayesian Analysis?

Answer 20

Asks if the data is more likely if the experimental hypothesis was true, or if the null hypothesis was true

Question 21

What was the Bayes factor for the key reading, and what does this imply?

Answer 21

0.22, a factor below 0.3 indicates substantial evidence for the null hypothesis

Question 22

What 3 things should training focus on to be more effective, instead of inhibition?

Answer 22

1) Motivation
2) Self-efficacy
3) Beliefs

Question 23

What is mindfulness?

Answer 23

Attention to the present moment and having non-judgemental awareness

Question 24

Name 3 ways that mindfulness can be trained?

Answer 24

1) MBSR (mindfulness based stress reduction)
2) MBCT (mindfulness based cognitive therapy)
These both involve meditation, body-scanning and mindful movement exercises
3) Online interventions

Question 25

Name 3 benefits that mindfulness is associated with

Answer 25

1) Stress
2) Depression
3) Anxiety

Question 26

Name 3 ways that mindfulness can help people to self-regulate?

Answer 26

1) More aware of cues that signal need for self-control
2) De-automatizes our emotional and cognitive reactions
3) More aware and attentive so less acting on auto-pilot

Question 27

Outline the 3 different ways to test if Mindfulness helps people to self-regulate?

Answer 27

1) Correlations e.g. mediators show better performance on self-control lab tasks, but this isn’t causal
2) Short term effects e.g. participants who meditated before a second task in an ego depletion paradigm had a reduced effect of depletion
3) Long term effects e.g. 8-week MBCT intervention improved emotional eating and body image concern in people with eating disorders, but no effect of app-based mindfulness training on smoking abstinence at 6 months

Question 28

Where is there an increase in mindfulness, and why?

Answer 28

In cooperate settings, as framing wellbeing and mental health as an individual responsibility takes responsibility away from the employer

Question 29

What did Miles find about the effect of training

Answer 29

That there was no effect of training on any measure of self-control