How malleable are cognitive abilities? A critical perspective on popular brief interventions.

Abstract

A number of popular research areas suggest that cognitive performance can be manipulated via relatively brief interventions. These findings have generated a lot of traction, given their inherent appeal to individuals and society. However, recent evidence indicates that cognitive abilities might not be as malleable as preliminary findings implied and that other more stable factors play an important role. In this article, I provide a critical outlook on these trends of research, combining findings that have mainly remained segregated despite shared characteristics. Specifically, I suggest that the purported cognitive improvements elicited by many interventions are not reliable, and that their ecological validity remains limited. I conclude with a call for constructive skepticism when evaluating claims of generalized cognitive improvements following brief interventions.

Training working memory for two years—No evidence of transfer to intelligence.

“…If WM training in its current form delivers disappointing results, are there other interventions that do the trick of improving intellectual abilities? Basically, all other brief cognitive interventions have been criticized and called into question on similar grounds than WM training (see Moreau, 2021, for a discussion). Education, on the other hand, has been described as the “most consistent, robust, and durable method … for raising intelligence” (Ritchie & Tucker-Drob, 2018, p. 1358).…”

Genomics might not be the solution, but epistemic validity remains a challenge in the social sciences

“…The potential is wide-ranging and multifaceted, but one application that stands out is with respect to behavioral interventions designed to improve cognitive performance or abilities (Madole & Harden, 2022). Recent attempts to improve cognitive abilities have suffered from major setbacks, with strong initial claims failing to stand up to scrutiny (Moreau, 2022;Moreau, Macnamara, & Hambrick, 2019;Sala & Gobet, 2019). One of the main issues that has been identified is the lack of mechanistic understanding for the behavioral dynamics elicited by interventions, especially given the important heterogeneity in individual responses (Moreau, 2021).…”

“…One of the main issues that has been identified is the lack of mechanistic understanding for the behavioral dynamics elicited by interventions, especially given the important heterogeneity in individual responses (Moreau, 2021). Some individuals show promising improvements post-interventions, whereas others do not appear to benefit at all, and current models provide little insight into the determinants of individual differences (Moreau, 2022). Together with efforts to improve and refine measurement in the context of interventions (Moreau & Wiebels, 2021), the field of genomics has the potential to shed light on the complex interactions at play to determine-and eventually predict-individual responses in a personalized manner.…”

Lack of Conceptual Clarity Impedes Progress in Cognitive Intervention Research: Reply to Kira (2022)

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In a commentary on Moreau (2022), Kira (2022) emphasizes the importance of clarifying the conceptual basis of cognitive interventions, and discusses a number of adverse circumstances known to impair cognitive function. In this reply, I focus on three points of clarification.

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“…Kira (2022) further proposes that "changes in the pre-cognitive factors such as identity, motivation, and will to exist, live, survive, and fight may be another important strategy in optimizing executive functions". Here, a distinction is necessary between addressing impairment resulting from adverse circumstances or environments, which Kira (2022) concentrates on, and improvement above and beyond individual baseline in healthy individuals, which was the focus of Moreau (2022). This distinction is important because there is no reason to believe that the mechanisms underlying impairment in a clinical context are the same as those hypothesized to mediate improvements above baseline in more typical settings.…”