Commercial Brain Training: Efficacy, Transfer Effects, and the Influence of Personality Traits: A Study Conducted on Healthy Young Adults

In the present study, we investigated the effects of a four-week working memory (WM) and attention training program using commercial brain training (Synaptikon GmbH, Berlin). Sixty young healthy adults were assigned to the experimental and active control training programs. The training was conducted in a naturalistic home-based setting, while the pre- and post-examinations were conducted in a controlled laboratory setting. Transfer effects to an untrained WM task and to an untrained episodic memory task were examined. Furthermore, possible influences of personality, i.e., the five-factor model (FFM) traits and need for cognition (NFC), on training outcomes were examined. Additionally, the direct relationship between improvement in single trained tasks and improvement in the transfer tasks was investigated. Our results showed that both training groups significantly increased performance in the WM task, but only the WM training group increased their performance in the episodic memory transfer task. One of the training tasks, a visuospatial WM task, was particularly associated with improvement in the episodic memory task. Neuroticism and conscientiousness showed differential effects on the improvement in training and transfer tasks. It needs to be further examined whether these effects represent training effects or, for example, retest/practice or motivation effects.

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Episodic Memory Reliving and Personality

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001/a000353 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Liisi Ausmees ◽

Anu Realo ◽

Jüri Allik

Keyword(s):

Episodic Memory ◽

Personality Traits ◽

Factor Model ◽

Five Factor Model ◽

Activity Level ◽

Social Adaptation ◽

General Level ◽

Personality Item ◽

Personality Facets ◽

And Gender

Abstract. There are considerable individual differences in remembering past episodes. The current study aimed to examine the link between episodic memory reliving and the Five-Factor Model personality traits. Altogether 422 participants (67% women) described an autobiographical episode and rated the vividness and clarity of that recollection. Next, they assessed their general tendencies of autobiographical recollections, which resulted in two autobiographical episodic memory scores (AEMS) for each participant – episodic and general. Participants also filled in the Estonian version of the International Personality Item Pool NEO questionnaire. Findings from partial correlation analysis (controlling for age and gender) revealed distinguishable patterns of associations for the episodic and general-level reports of memory reliving: the episodic AEMS was positively associated with E4: Activity Level and E1: Friendliness, whereas the general AEMS was negatively correlated with N4: Self-Consciousness, and positively with E1: Friendliness, E6: Cheerfulness, O1: Imagination, O5: Intellect, C2: Orderliness, and C3: Dutifulness (all significant at p < .005). The associations between the general (but not the episodic) AEMS and personality facets were significantly correlated with the average social desirability ratings of the respective facets. We conclude that greater social adaptation together with the motivation of positive self-perception are plausible explanations of the links between personality traits and reporting the quality of reliving personal memories.

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Social Desirability in Personality Inventories

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001/a000138 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 35 (3) ◽

pp. 144-157 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Martin Bäckström ◽

Fredrik Björklund

Keyword(s):

Social Desirability ◽

Big Five ◽

Work Performance ◽

Factor Model ◽

Five Factor Model ◽

Peer Ratings ◽

Personality Inventories ◽

Model Study ◽

The Difference ◽

New Variables

The difference between evaluatively loaded and evaluatively neutralized five-factor inventory items was used to create new variables, one for each factor in the five-factor model. Study 1 showed that these variables can be represented in terms of a general evaluative factor which is related to social desirability measures and indicated that the factor may equally well be represented as separate from the Big Five as superordinate to them. Study 2 revealed an evaluative factor in self-ratings and peer ratings of the Big Five, but the evaluative factor in self-reports did not correlate with such a factor in ratings by peers. In Study 3 the evaluative factor contributed above the Big Five in predicting work performance, indicating a substance component. The results are discussed in relation to measurement issues and self-serving biases.

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Construction and Validation of a Short Adjectives Checklist to Measure Big Five (SACBIF)

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027/1015-5759.12.1.33 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 33-42 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Marco Perugini ◽

Luigi Leone

Keyword(s):

Construct Validity ◽

Psychometric Properties ◽

Big Five ◽

Factor Model ◽

Five Factor Model ◽

Selection Procedure ◽

Factorial Structure ◽

Personality Dimensions

The aim of this contribution is to present a new short adjective-based measure of the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality, the Short Adjectives Checklist of BIg Five (SACBIF). We present the various steps of the construction and the validation of this instrument. First, 50 adjectives were selected with a selection procedure, the “Lining Up Technique” (LUT), specifically used to identify the best factorial markers of the FFM. Then, the factorial structure and the psychometric properties of the SACBIF were investigated. Finally, the SACBIF factorial structure was correlated with some main measures of the FFM to establish its construct validity and with some other personality dimensions to investigate how well these dimensions could be represented in the SACBIF factorial space.

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Factorial Invariance of Child Self-Report Across English and Spanish Language Groups in a Hispanic Population Utilizing the PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027/1015-5759/a000026 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 194-202 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Daniel A. Newman ◽

Christine A. Limbers ◽

James W. Varni

Keyword(s):

Health Care Services ◽

Factor Model ◽

Five Factor Model ◽

Well Being ◽

Factorial Invariance ◽

Spanish Language ◽

Self Report ◽

Hispanic Population ◽

Language Groups ◽

Related Quality

The measurement of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in children has witnessed significant international growth over the past decade in an effort to improve pediatric health and well-being, and to determine the value of health-care services. In order to compare international HRQOL research findings across language groups, it is important to demonstrate factorial invariance, i.e., that the items have an equivalent meaning across the language groups studied. This study examined the factorial invariance of child self-reported HRQOL across English- and Spanish-language groups in a Hispanic population of 2,899 children ages 8–18 utilizing the 23-item PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed specifying a five-factor model across language groups. The findings support an equivalent 5-factor structure across English- and Spanish-language groups. Based on these data, it can be concluded that children across the two languages studied interpreted the instrument in a similar manner. The multigroup CFA statistical methods utilized in the present study have important implications for cross-cultural assessment research in children in which different language groups are compared.

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Pattern of Near Transfer Effects Following Working Memory Training With a Dual N-Back Task

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000370 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 64 (4) ◽

pp. 240-252 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Anna Soveri ◽

Eric P. A. Karlsson ◽

Otto Waris ◽

Petra Grönholm-Nyman ◽

Matti Laine

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Composite Score ◽

Memory Training ◽

Interference Control ◽

Transfer Effects ◽

Near Transfer ◽

Randomized Controlled ◽

Transfer Tasks ◽

Back Task

Abstract. In a randomized controlled trial, we investigated the pattern of near transfer effects of working memory (WM) training with an adaptive auditory-visuospatial dual n-back training task in healthy young adults. The results revealed significant task-specific transfer to an untrained single n-back task, and more general near transfer to a WM updating composite score plus a nearly significant effect on a composite score measuring interference control in WM. No transfer effects were seen on Active or Passive WM composites. The results are discussed in the light of cognitive versus strategy-related overlap between training and transfer tasks.

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