---
title: "Extending Brain-Training to the Affective Domain: Increasing Cognitive and Affective Executive Control through Emotional Working Memory Training - Limitless Mindset"
description: "AbstractSo-called 'brain-training' programs are a huge commercial success. However, empirical evidence regarding their effectiveness and generalizability remains equivocal. This study investigated whether brain-training (working memory training) improves cognitive functions beyond the training task (transfer effects), especially regarding the control of emotional material since it constitutes much of the information we process daily. Forty-five participants received WM training using either emotional ..."
author: Jonathan Roseland
url: https://www.limitlessmindset.com/scientific-studies/952-extending-brain-training-to-the-affective-domain
---

# Extending Brain-Training to the Affective Domain: Increasing Cognitive and Affective Executive Control through Emotional Working Memory Training

[![Extending Brain-Training to the Affective Domain: Increasing Cognitive and Affective Executive Control through Emotional Working Memory Training](https://www.limitlessmindset.com/data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==)](https://www.limitlessmindset.com/media/reviews/photos/original/8b/e1/d0/extending-brain-training-to-the-affective-domain-increasing-cognitive-and-affective-executive-control-through-emotional-working-memory-training-89-1406417639.webp "Extending Brain-Training to the Affective Domain: Increasing Cognitive and Affective Executive Control through Emotional Working Memory Training")

**Abstract**
So-called 'brain-training' programs are a huge commercial success. However, empirical evidence regarding their effectiveness and generalizability remains equivocal. This study investigated whether brain-training (working memory [WM] training) improves cognitive functions beyond the training task (transfer effects), especially regarding the control of emotional material since it constitutes much of the information we process daily. Forty-five participants received WM training using either emotional or neutral material, or an undemanding control task. WM training, regardless of training material, led to transfer gains on another WM task and in fluid intelligence. However, only brain-training with emotional material yielded transferable gains to improved control over affective information on an emotional Stroop task. The data support the reality of transferable benefits of demanding WM training and suggest that transferable gains across to affective contexts require training with material congruent to those contexts. These findings constitute preliminary evidence that intensive cognitively demanding brain-training can improve not only our abstract problem-solving capacity, but also ameliorate cognitive control processes (e.g. decision-making) in our daily emotive environments.

### Scientific Studies & Papers

Author of Study or Paper

Susanne Schweizer mail, Adam Hampshire, Tim Dalgleish

Source

Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Date Published

2011 in PloS one

Scientific Link

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0024372

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