Effects of Working Memory Training on Anxiety Symptoms and Attention Control in Adolescents with High Levels of Trait Anxiety

Abstract Trait anxiety is a personality factor of vulnerability to anxiety and depressive disorders. Trait anxiety is associated with impairments in both attention control and processing efficiency. This study investigated the effectiveness of Working Memory Training [WMT] in improving attention control and anxiety syndrome in adolescents with high trait anxiety. The sample consisted of 52 adolescents with high trait anxiety in the age range of 15–17-year-old from Rafsanjan city, Kerman province in the south-east of Iran. Participants were assigned to one of the two groups of training with adaptive dual N-Back and a nonadaptive dual 1-Back active control group. The Age average for the WMT group was 15.83 (SD: 0.7) and 15.77 (SD: 0.75) for the control group. Body temperature was also measured as a physiological indicator of anxiety. They were requested to complete the task for 3-weeks. Findings showed that anxiety, attention control, processing efficiency of attention control, and verbal and spatial-visual Working Memory [WM] capacity were significantly improved in the training group compared to the control group. However, performance effectiveness and temperature were not significantly different between the training and control groups. In addition, in the training group, the temperature was significantly higher among the subgroups with more involvement with the training task than the group with less involvement. WMT can be used as an effective intervention for improving cognitive functions, such as attention control, and in reducing adolescents’ trait anxiety.