ABSTRACT

Prospective memory (PM) is vital for children to live independently. Theoretical and empirical evidence has shown that executive function (EF) plays an important role in children’s PM. However, there is no EF training for the PM of school-age children. Therefore, a 4-week EF training programme was conducted in this study to investigate the transfer effects of training on event-based PM in 8- to 12-year-old children. Children were randomly assigned to the EF training or control groups. The results revealed that EF training was more effective in enhancing children’s PM performance; in particular, there was a transfer effect of EF. Further findings suggested that this transfer effect was observed only in older children, which supported the magnification account that those with strong EF abilities profit most. Moreover, the benefits of training were predicted by inhibition and switching ability. Altogether, EF training has the potential to improve children’s PM, especially for children with better EF.

摘要

前瞻性记忆 (PM) 对于儿童独立生活至关重要。理论和实证证据表明，执行功能 (EF) 在儿童 PM 中起着重要作用。但是，没有针对学龄儿童 PM 的 EF 培训。因此，本研究开展了为期 4 周的 EF 培训计划，以调查培训对 8 至 12 岁儿童的基于事件的 PM 的转移影响。儿童被随机分配到 EF 训练组或对照组。结果显示，EF 训练更有效地提升儿童的 PM 表现；特别是，EF 具有转移效应。进一步的研究结果表明，这种转移效应仅在年龄较大的儿童中观察到，这支持了放大解释，即具有强大 EF 能力的儿童获益最多。而且，训练的好处是通过抑制和转换能力来预测的。总而言之，EF 训练有可能改善儿童的 PM，尤其是对于具有更好 EF 的儿童。