Effects of game‐based and standard executive control training on cognitive and academic abilities in elementary school children

Abstract

Several studies indicate that executive functions (EF), such as working memory (WM), inhibition or flexibility can be improved by training and that these training‐related benefits in WM capacity generalize to reading and mathematical abilities. However, the results of these studies are inconsistent and most of them focused on WM training in children with learning difficulties. Evidence for typically developing children is rare and no study has investigated inhibition training or flexibility training. There is also a lack of studies taking motivational factors into account. Therefore, this study compared the effects of game‐based and standard training regimens targeting WM, inhibition, or flexibility in children. One hundred and fifty‐three typically developing elementary school students (mean age = 9.6 years, standard deviations = 0.8) were investigated in an intervention design with a pretest, 21 sessions of training, a posttest and a follow‐up after three months. They were randomized into one of six training groups or a control group. We found training gains in all training groups and higher self‐reported motivation in the game‐based as compared to the standard training groups. Furthermore, there was domain‐specific transfer to untrained EF tasks across all training groups. We found greater performance improvements in reading ability (but not mathematics) in the game‐based flexibility training group and the game‐based inhibition training group as compared to the control group. Transfer effects were still significant at follow‐up. In sum, our findings provide first evidence for a systematic comparison of training on different domains of EF and their differential effects on academic abilities.

Effects and Moderators of Computer-Based Training on Children's Executive Functions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Another disagreement addressed in computer-based training is whether training, including game elements, could enhance the training effects (Doerrenbaecher et al, 2014;Johann and Karbach, 2019). Traditional training refers to training programs using standard cognitive tasks (e.g., Corsi blocktapping task, N-back task) to enhance individuals' cognitive ability (e.g., Espinet et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2019).…”

Impact of an Individualized Cognitive Training Intervention in Preschoolers from Poor Homes

“…Baseline cognitive performance was the only factor that predicted cognitive training gains. Some studies with children in middle childhood showed the same association [41,[46][47][48]. In both cases, children with lower baseline cognitive performance were those who benefited the most from the interventions.…”

“…To our knowledge, no other previous study generated different performance profiles from a sample of children and implemented an adapted and adaptive cognitive training intervention for each group. Previous literature focused mostly on the association between individual differences in baseline cognitive measures and training impact, with some studies with children showing how baseline cognitive performance predicted training gains [32,41,46,47]. Nonetheless, in those studies, the same intervention was administered to children without taking these differences into account.…”

“…Few training studies considered the role of individual differences in baseline cognitive performance on the impact of training, with most of them carried out using adult populations [41][42][43][44]. A recent publication assessed an adult sample [45] and analyzed data from three studies to identify factors predicting cognitive training impact.…”

Rethinking executive function development

“…The accumulating literature suggests lab-based executive function training may not be effective, at least not at obtaining "far transfer" -improvement in related but different domains (Kassai, Futo, Demetrovics, & Takacs, 2019), which is the holy grail of cognitive training. Such training typically involves multiple sessions in which a child completes executive function tasks that ostensibly engage and exercise one or more executive function components (e.g, Johann & Karbach, 2019;Pozuelos, Combita, Abundis, Paz-Alonso, Conejero, et al, 2019). Well-powered training studies with adults often show no evidence of transfer and even sometimes show positive evidence of a lack of transfer (e.g., de Simoni & von Bastian, 2018).…”