Assignment task:
The current comprehensive meta-analysis shows that cognitive training, compared with the control group, is modestly effective in improving cognition not only in healthy older adults, but also in adults with MCI. Our results suggest that cognitive plasticity extends into late adulthood, even when our mental status is compromised by cognitive impairments. The effect size estimates from the current meta-analysis on the seven different cognitive outcomes were more robust for HA than for MCI. Such a difference in robustness suggests a need for more cognitive training studies on individuals with MCI. The current meta-analysis also examined the extent of transfer from single- and multicomponent training modules. We observed that all types of training modules were effective on near transfer, and that these effects were larger than those on far transfer. However, only a few modules of cognitive training induced significant far transfer. These effective training modules either specifically targeted only one cognitive ability, namely executive functions or episodic memory, or targeted multiple cognitive abilities during training. For single-component training, executive functions training was the most effective approach in engendering both near transfer to the trained cognitive abilities and far transfer to untrained cognitive abilities. It was the only single-component training module that had significantly larger effects than other training modules for both near transfer. Need Online Assistance?