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

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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 performance-

based 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 visuo-

spatial 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-math-

anxious 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 norm-

referenced 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 n-

back 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 post-

test, 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:

14159265358979323

8(46)2(64)338327950(28)84(19)7169399(37)5105(82)097494459230781(64)06(28)6208

9986(28)034(82)53421170679(82)148086513(28)2306(64)709384(46)09(55)05(82)2317

253594081(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. Visuo-

spatial 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 visuo-

spatial 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

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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’ visuo-

spatial 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

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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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