Working-Memory Training Report – Martin – Session 56

Session number: 56

Average n-back: 6.5

Afternoon, swam this morning.

Quite tired today, but it didn’t seem to adversely affect my concentration.

Overall a satisfying session. I experienced a familiar slump around the middle of the session, but tried and was able to focus hard and rebound. Still enjoying the straight-through approach and the more frequent training sessions.

(Gap in session numbers here because I just realized I’d logged two sessions with the number 48.)

Starting on n=6. Two misses.
Up to n=7. Three misses.
Staying on n=7. Five misses.
Staying on n=7. Seven misses.
Down to n=6. Two misses.
Back up to n=7. Ten misses. (Completely lost focus.)
Down to n=6. Four misses.
Staying on n=6. One miss.
Up to n=7. Nine misses.
Down to n=6. Two misses.
Back up to n=7. Six misses. (Very surprising. Felt quite solid.)
Down to n=6. Six misses. (Losing focus.)
Down to n=5. One miss.
Back up to n=6. Two misses.
Up to n=7. Four misses.
Staying on n=7. Three misses.
Staying on n=7. Three misses.
Staying on n=7. Seven misses. (Surprising. Mostly auditory, incorrect guesses.)
Down to n=6. Two misses.
Back up to n=7. Four misses.

Finishing with a mean n of 6.5

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One Response to “Working-Memory Training Report – Martin – Session 56”

  1. Shaun Luttin says:

    Congratulations Martin on sticking with the “straight through” training method.

    Here is something that I have found. When I go “straight through” it does not give my mind and cognitive space to ruminate about how I am doing.

    This is consistent with Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. My little understanding of this theory is that when mood drops, rumination occurs. The intervention is to occupy the cognitive resources that are used in rumination. For instance, if our mood were to drop, and our mind were to begin the rumination cycle, then MBCT might recommend doing something to use up the cognitive resources that rumination requires. That is, MBCT might recommend going for a difficult downhill mountain bike ride. Since a downhill mountain bike ride requires massive concentration, the mind doesn’t have any left over resources to ruminate with.

    I find the same thing with the straight through training method. When I used to take breaks in the training, my mind would have the resources to ruminate during these breaks. Now, when I go right through, without breaks, the cognitive resources needed to ruminate are used up by the massive concentration needed to succeed at n-back training. As a result, I usually feel more satisfied after a straight through training session than I feel when I do a segmented training session. Taking breaks gives room for rumination.

    Warm regards,
    Shaun.

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