“Near and Far Transfer in Cognitive Training: A Second-Order Meta-Analysis”, 2019-04-26 (; backlinks):
Theory building in science requires replication and integration of findings regarding a particular research question. Second-order meta-analysis (ie. a meta-analysis of meta-analyses) offers a powerful tool for achieving this aim, and we use this technique to illuminate the controversial field of cognitive training. Recent replication attempts and large meta-analytic investigations have shown that the benefits of cognitive-training programs hardly go beyond the trained task and similar tasks. However, it is yet to be established whether the effects differ across cognitive-training programs and populations (children, adults, and older adults).
We addressed this issue by using second-order meta-analysis. In Models 1 (k = 99) and 2 (k = 119), we investigated the impact of working-memory training on near-transfer (ie. memory) and far-transfer (eg. reasoning, speed, and language) measures, respectively, and whether it is mediated by the type of population. Model 3 (k = 233) extended Model 2 by adding 6 meta-analyses assessing the far-transfer effects of other cognitive-training programs (video-games, music, chess, and exergames).
Model 1 showed that working-memory training does induce near transfer, and that the size of this effect is moderated by the type of population. By contrast, Models 2 and 3 highlighted that far-transfer effects are small or null. Crucially, when placebo effects and publication bias were controlled for, the overall effect-size and true variance equaled zero. That is, no impact on far-transfer measures was observed regardless of the type of population and cognitive-training program.
The lack of generalization of skills acquired by training is thus an invariant of human cognition.
[Keywords: cognitive intervention, cognitive training, meta-analysis, second-order meta-analysis, transfer]