{"title":"The Effect of Mental Fatigue and Gender on Working Memory Performance during Repeated Practice by Young and Older Adults.","authors":"Valentina Pergher, Nele Vanbilsen, Marc Van Hulle","doi":"10.1155/2021/6612805","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Working memory (WM) is one of the most investigated cognitive functions albeit the extent to which individual characteristics impact on performance is still unclear, especially when older adults are involved. The present study considers repeated practice of a visual <i>N</i>-Back task with three difficulty levels (1-, 2-, and 3-Back) in healthy young and older individuals. Our results reveal that, for both age groups, the expected mental fatigue was countered by a learning effect, in terms of accuracies and reaction times, which turned out to benefit females more than males, for all three <i>N</i>-Back levels. We conclude that future WM studies, in particular when relying on repeated <i>N</i>-Back sessions, should account for learning effects in relation to mental fatigue and gender, in both young and older adults.</p>","PeriodicalId":51299,"journal":{"name":"Neural Plasticity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.0000,"publicationDate":"2021-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8505107/pdf/","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Neural Plasticity","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6612805","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2021/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"NEUROSCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
Working memory (WM) is one of the most investigated cognitive functions albeit the extent to which individual characteristics impact on performance is still unclear, especially when older adults are involved. The present study considers repeated practice of a visual N-Back task with three difficulty levels (1-, 2-, and 3-Back) in healthy young and older individuals. Our results reveal that, for both age groups, the expected mental fatigue was countered by a learning effect, in terms of accuracies and reaction times, which turned out to benefit females more than males, for all three N-Back levels. We conclude that future WM studies, in particular when relying on repeated N-Back sessions, should account for learning effects in relation to mental fatigue and gender, in both young and older adults.
期刊介绍：
Neural Plasticity is an international, interdisciplinary journal dedicated to the publication of articles related to all aspects of neural plasticity, with special emphasis on its functional significance as reflected in behavior and in psychopathology. Neural Plasticity publishes research and review articles from the entire range of relevant disciplines, including basic neuroscience, behavioral neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, biological psychology, and biological psychiatry.
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号
