Preparation actually helps
🧠 Psych - 191/200
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October is here already. How’s it going so far?
Today, let’s learn about this study which says that "People performed better on a task requiring working memory after receiving cognitive training & learning how it will benefit their performance.”
What is it?
This paper demonstrates that participant expectations can add to the benefits produced by standard cognitive training interventions.
The extent to which expectations add to training benefits, however, differs between outcome measures and can be moderated by certain personality and motivational traits, such as extraversion and mindset.
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What do I need to know?
These results highlight aspects of methodology that can inform future behavioral interventions and suggest that participant expectations could be capitalized on to maximize training outcomes.
Consistent with previous work, a main effect of the training condition was found, with individuals trained on the working memory task showing larger gains in cognitive function than those trained on the control task.
Interestingly, a main effect of expectation was also found, with individuals given positive expectations showing larger cognitive gains than those who were given negative expectations (regardless of training condition). No interaction effect between training and expectations was found.
Exploratory analyses suggest that certain individual characteristics (e.g., personality, motivation) moderate the size of the expectation effect. [1]
References & Studies: -
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2209308119
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