Efficacy of Working Memory Training in Middle-aged Adults

Objectives: Decline of working memory (WM) resources is an important concern for individuals right from middle age, as middle adulthood is comprised of cognitively demanding tasks which require higher cognitive performance. In view of the global efforts to promote greater cognitive reserves and the cognitive diversities observed among middle-aged adults, alongside a dearth of ethno-culturally relevant WM training programs for the Indian population, the present research aimed at examining the efficacy of a WM training for middle-aged adults. Methods: Sixty-two middle-aged adults between 40-65 years of age were divided into experimental and control groups, each group consisting of 31 participants. The experimental group underwent a 10-session WM training program comprising of 17 WM tasks, with each session lasting for 45 minutes to one hour, while no training was given to the matched control group. Results: The results showed significant improvement in posttraining performance (p<.05) on the trained tasks and near transfer tasks among the experimental group in comparison to the control group. Conclusion: The present research highlights the benefit of WM training in enhancing the cognitive-communicative abilities with the help of a structured training program among middle-aged adults. These results seem encouraging for the promotion of healthy cognitive well-being among aging adults.