Looking at that third category… suddenly, dual N-back training doesn’t seem like such a good idea anymore.
We need to distinguish “working memory” from “active motor programs”. There is a difference.
Here’s an example: hold your hand out, pointing your index finger away from you. Now imagine that your finger is slowly bending back towards you. Don’t think about anything else, just see the finger bending. After a while, you may notice that your finger “wants” to bend to match your mental image… and that you are also exerting some effort to prevent it from doing so.
This is what I mean by “priming a motor program”, and as you can see, it’s very different from abstract ideation (e.g. “thinking about” bending your finger).
In fact, it’s a very good example of “near vs. far” thinking. “Far” thinking doesn’t do much to prime motor programs, by comparison.
Now, motor programs conflict when they both need to use the same resources. For example, if you want to both bend your finger and keep it straight, then that’s a conflicting pair of motor programs.
So, dual N-back isn’t going to make this worse, because it isn’t going to increase your probability of conflicting motor programs, unless you just couldn’t remember before all the things you wanted to do. ;-) And, to the extent that doing the training improves your skill at dropping distracting thoughts, it would be systemically beneficial in the same way that meditation generally is.
We need to distinguish “working memory” from “active motor programs”. There is a difference.
Here’s an example: hold your hand out, pointing your index finger away from you. Now imagine that your finger is slowly bending back towards you. Don’t think about anything else, just see the finger bending. After a while, you may notice that your finger “wants” to bend to match your mental image… and that you are also exerting some effort to prevent it from doing so.
This is what I mean by “priming a motor program”, and as you can see, it’s very different from abstract ideation (e.g. “thinking about” bending your finger).
In fact, it’s a very good example of “near vs. far” thinking. “Far” thinking doesn’t do much to prime motor programs, by comparison.
Now, motor programs conflict when they both need to use the same resources. For example, if you want to both bend your finger and keep it straight, then that’s a conflicting pair of motor programs.
So, dual N-back isn’t going to make this worse, because it isn’t going to increase your probability of conflicting motor programs, unless you just couldn’t remember before all the things you wanted to do. ;-) And, to the extent that doing the training improves your skill at dropping distracting thoughts, it would be systemically beneficial in the same way that meditation generally is.