Structure Learning Training and Cognitive Flexibility
Condition: Healthy
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The overarching aim of the project is to assess whether structure learning is an effective
      tool to train and improve cognitive flexibility and whether this is transferable to learning
      and other cognitive skills. The investigators will employ a multi-modal approach that combine
      both cognitive-behavioural and neuroimaging measures to examine how functional brain
      activations and/or cognitive performances are affected when participants go through a
      structure learning training paradigm relative to a working memory training paradigm (active
      control) or a no-training paradigm (passive control).
    

Detailed description: 
      Cognitive flexibility is critical for humans to perform complex tasks and ensures that humans
      exhibit appropriate behaviour in response to changing environments. Successful implementation
      of cognitive flexibility involves several sub-domains within executive functions. Prior
      researches on cognitive flexibility has portrayed it as various aspects of human cognition
      ranging from a cognitive skill related to set-shifting, or a by-product of cognitive
      processes, to part of the cognitive system. The operationalization of cognitive flexibility
      has been particularly difficult due to its multi-faceted nature. Current flexibility
      interventions and neuroimaging studies examining cognitive flexibility commonly utilise tasks
      that taps on to executive functions such as task-set switching or the Dimensional Change Card
      Sort (DCCS) task. Although effective, one concern related to using these tasks is that it
      does not tap merely into cognitive flexibility but also activate other executive functions
      such as inhibition and working memory. Hence, this reduces the precision and specificity of
      these tasks as training tools. The present project proposed structure learning as a more
      fundamental and apt training approach. It involves seeking patterns in the stochastic
      presentations of stimuli, without the need for explicit feedback and is in itself a basic
      building block for cognitive flexibility.

      In the educational context, structure learning is analogous to patterning, a crucial
      cognitive ability that underpins mathematical and reading skills. Prior research has
      demonstrated a close relationship between pattern understanding and cognitive flexibility.
      Hence, structure learning training could potentially be beneficial in improving one's
      cognitive flexibility. Furthermore, emerging evidence has demonstrated that domain-general
      training of structure learning skills produced learning that transfer well beyond the
      learning task. However, there is a paucity in studies that examined whether structure
      learning training per se could produce generalisable improvements in cognitive flexibility.
      The present study aims to address this gap by examining if structure learning training,
      relative to working memory training and having no training, could produce changes in neural
      markers that relate to potential gains in cognitive flexibility.
    

Intervention name(s): Structure Learning Training
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Participants will undergo 12 sessions of structure learning training lasting about 1 hour each along with 2 testing sessions interspersed within the 12 training sessions. Each session will be conducted in a remote-guided manner with an approximate 1-day gap in between sessions. The entire training will last around two weeks
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: Participants are pseudo-randomly assigned (matched for age, sex, intelligence and flexibility) to one of the following intervention groups: (1) Structure Learning and (2) No training (Passive Control)
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Basic Science
Keywords: Structure Learning; Cognitive Flexibility; Neural Activation; Intervention; Predictive statistics