Examining the Effectiveness of Cognitive Training
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT04344028. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
Examining the Potential for Placebo Effects in Cognitive Training
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
The present study addresses whether placebo effects can possibly account for previous findings in the field, as well as ascertains whether placebo-based mechanisms can be deliberately harnessed for impact. The design is a 2 (positive expectations/negative expectations) x 2 (true cognitive training intervention x control cognitive training intervention) Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT). Participants will be recruited from site-affiliated participant pools or email lists. Participants will first undergo a pre-test battery where various cognitive abilities are assessed via computerized programs. They will also fill out various surveys about personality traits/internal dispositions that may predict the extent to which they are susceptible to placebo effects. After pre-testing, participants will be randomized to an expectations group (positive/negative) and a training protocol (active/control). Participants are then given their group appropriate expectation script. In the positive expectations group, participants receive training described as having previous research supporting its use as a method to enhance cognitive abilities. In the negative expectations group, participants receive training described as having previous research suggesting that it is unlikely to change cognitive abilities or may even decrease cognitive abilities. The participants will then be given instructions regarding how to do their training task. Participants will be asked to complete 10 sessions of training within 15 days. The active training will be a standard working memory (N-back) training task. The control training will be a trivia/quiz training task. After they have completed 10 sessions, participants will complete a "mid-test" session to undergo a battery of perceptual/cognitive tasks. Participants will be told that the perceptual/cognitive tests are identical to those that they took at pre-test. However, in reality, for participants in the "positive expectations" groups, these will be altered to actually be easier than they were at pre-test. For participants in the "negative expectations" groups the tasks will be made more difficult. Participants will then be asked to complete another set of 10 training sessions on their devices within 15 days before completing the post-test. The post-test will be identical to the pre-test. All participants will then be extensively debriefed (e.g., all deceptions will be made clear). On a separate day, participants will then complete a second post-test that is identical to the pre-test and first-post test.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT04344028
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 287 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Interventions
- True Cognitive Training Program Behavioral
- Control Cognitive Training Program Behavioral
- Positive Expectation Induction Behavioral
- Negative Expectation Induction Behavioral
Behavioral
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepts healthy volunteers
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- May 10, 2020
- Primary completion
- Aug 8, 2022
- Completion
- Aug 8, 2022
- Last update posted
- May 5, 2025
2020 – 2022
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 3
- U.S. states
- 2
- U.S. cities
- 3
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of California, Irvine | Irvine | California | 92697 | — |
| University of California, Riverside | Riverside | California | 92521 | — |
| University of Wisconsin - Madison | Madison | Wisconsin | 53706 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT04344028, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted May 5, 2025 · Synced Sep 8, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT04344028 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.