Date

2018

Author

Öztürk, Asiye

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Working memory training is seen as an effective tool for enhancing performance during a variety of high level cognitive tasks for different groups such as children, older people, and individuals with cognitive problems as well as practitioners of highly cognitive demanding professions. Even though there has been some controversy regarding the efficiency of working memory training interventions, it has been shown that n-back working memory training results in improvements in working memory capacity as well as in reasoning skills which points out that it yields both near and far transfer effects. Considering the crucial role of working memory in interpreting profession, this thesis targeted interpreting students in order to investigate transfer and maintenance effects of n-back working memory training through a comprehensive analysis of near, moderate, far transfer effects and possible transfer to consecutive interpreting. Combining behavioural data collection methods and fNIRS (functional near-infrared spectroscopy) as an optical brain imaging technique, the thesis was designed as a longitudinal study in which participants completed a series of tests (n-back and dual n-back tasks, letter and digit span tasks, reading span task, Bochum Matrices Test (BOMAT), short consecutive interpreting) before and after the training as well as three months after the completion of the training sessions. The findings revealed that compared to an active control group, n-back group had larger performance gains in near and far transfer tasks, and more importantly in consecutive interpreting scores as a result of enhanced working memory capacity, suggesting that common working memory processes such as maintenance and updating of information and attention are employed in the tasks. Significant neural activity patterns observed in prefrontal cortex especially in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex reflect the shared cognitive processes of n-back training and consecutive interpreting, which is supported by performance improvements in consecutive interpreting and increased neural efficiency. In this regard, it is believed that findings of this thesis will have valuable and original contributions to the field.

Subject Keywords

Neurosciences., Brain, Short-term memory., Consecutive interpreting., Near infrared spectroscopy.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12622618/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/27757

Collections

Graduate School of Informatics, Thesis