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Shipstead, Hicks, and Engle (2012) have done a valuable service in reviewing evidence for the effectiveness of the CogMed working memory training programme. Here, we consider their arguments and relate them to our own views of work in this area (Melby-Lervåg & Hulme, 2012).

It is useful to begin by stating what working memory training is and why it might be so important. Although no definition of Working Memory (WM) would be universally accepted, a widely quoted definition is “a brain system that provides temporary storage and manipulation of the information necessary for… complex cognitive tasks”(Baddeley, 1992, p. 556). This definition makes clear why attempts to train working memory capacity have such appeal. If working memory is a limited capacity “mental work space” then increasing its capacity should have wide-ranging benefits–making people better able to perform complex cognitive tasks, to …