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Commercial brain training programs show no evidence of improving general cognitive function. While specific trained skills improve, benefits do not transfer to untrained tasks in the broader population.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Human Computer Interaction

Background:

  • The brain training industry is a multi-million pound market.
  • Scientific evidence for the efficacy of computerized brain training is limited.
  • Existing studies show modest effects in specific populations (older adults, preschoolers) or related skills (visual attention in gamers).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether computerized brain training improves general cognitive function.
  • To determine if cognitive training benefits transfer to untrained tasks.
  • To assess the efficacy of widely available brain training programs.

Main Methods:

  • A six-week online study involving 11,430 participants.
  • Participants engaged in regular cognitive training sessions targeting reasoning, memory, planning, visuospatial skills, and attention.
  • Performance was assessed on trained and untrained cognitive tasks.

Main Results:

  • Participants showed improvements in all trained cognitive tasks.
  • No evidence of transfer effects to untrained tasks was found.
  • This lack of transfer persisted even for cognitively related untrained tasks.

Conclusions:

  • Computerized brain training improves performance only on the specific tasks trained.
  • There is a lack of empirical support for the claim that brain training enhances general cognitive abilities in the wider population.
  • The widely held belief in the broad efficacy of commercial brain training programs is not supported by this study's findings.