The cognitive and academic benefits of Cogmed: A meta-analysis
Aksayli ND, Sala G, Gobet F · 2019
grade Bmeta-analysisindependentreplicated
Sample
50 studies, 637 effect sizes
Population
Children and adults trained on Cogmed Working Memory Training, the leading commercial school product
Design
Targets the specific commercial programme most often sold into schools, so it is the closest thing to a direct test of the purchase decision a school actually faces.
Key findings
Highly consistent NEAR-ZERO effects on far-transfer measures of cognitive ability (attention, intelligence) and of academic achievement (language, mathematics). Slightly heterogeneous small-to-medium effects on memory tasks, weaker for near-transfer measures less directly related to the trained tasks. Transfer is a function of overlap between trained and outcome tasks; far transfer is rare or nonexistent.
Genetic confound
Low. Randomised and controlled training contrasts.
Effects
| Outcome | Metric | Value | Measure | Timing | Vs | Horizon | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cognitive ability and academic achievement (far transfer) | pooled effect | highly consistent near-zero | standardized | post-training | unclear | end-of-treatment | far-transfer |
| Memory tasks (near transfer) | pooled effect | small to medium, decaying with distance from the trained task | standardized | post-training | unclear | end-of-treatment | near-transfer |
Cited by
- Does working-memory or brain training transfer to intelligence and achievement?no effectconf: highgc: low