The effect of visual working memory training could transfer across stimuli

Abstract

Background: Working memory, as a fundamental cognitive ability, has been shown to improve with learning. However, little is known about the learning effect of visual working memory training and its generalization to other stimuli and tasks. Methods: In the present study, we utilized a delayed match-to-sample task to measure the working memory of faces and houses. Subjects were trained ten days on this task and were tested on the same task and a memory span task before and after the training. Results: The results showed that training significantly increased the accuracy of visual working memory. More importantly, such a learning effect could partly transfer to a visual working memory task with different stimuli. However, the learning effect may not transfer to a memory span task. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that training might influence the common processing of different stimuli in a visual working memory task.