In the field of cognitive training, there is still no consensus on its effectiveness. While some studies claim that cognitive training is an effective intervention for improving cognitive function, others conclude that these effects are negligible. One of the reasons for such diverse findings might lie in the individual characteristics of participants. The aim of this master's thesis was to investigate whether individual differences in personality and motivational factors can influence the effectiveness of cognitive control training. In this study, 43 individuals have completed a 10-session affective cognitive control training, while 28 individuals served as a passive control group. All participants have performed several cognitive tasks before and after the training, designed to measure inhibition (near transfer) and working memory capacity (far transfer). They have also filled in personality and implicit theories of intelligence measures and gave current and final assessments of their intrinsic motivation. Results showed that effects of training were very specific, as the training did not lead to an improvement in neither measure of near, nor far transfer. Although some personality and motivational factors were associated with the progress on some of the cognitive tasks, these effects were negligible. Personality and motivational factors failed to significantly explain the training progression and transfer. This study suggests that different findings about the effectiveness of cognitive training are most likely due to other factors that should be further investigated.
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