Practice makes perfect, but to what end? Computerised brain training has limited cognitive benefits in healthy ageing

Bibliographic Data

ID21533015
AuthorsEmma Sutton (0000-0003-4318-9555, University of Birmingham, corresponding author), Jonathan Catling (0000-0002-2468-385X, University College Birmingham), Jet Veldhuijzen Zanten (0000-0001-8422-9512, University of Birmingham), Jet J C S Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Katrien Segaert (0000-0002-3002-5837, Birmingham City University)
Year2025
Volume89
Issue2
Pages75-75
Publication date2025-04-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePsychological Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0340-0727 • E-ISSN: 1430-2772
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s00426-025-02110-7
PMID40126647
OpenAlexW4408846026
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited61

Whether brain training programmes are effective and have transferable benefits to wider cognitive abilities is controversial, especially in older adult populations. We assessed, in a randomised controlled intervention study, whether a commercially available brain training programme can induce cognitive improvements in a sample of healthy older adults ( N = 103). Participants completed a three-month intervention of either an adaptive computerised cognitive training programme (through a brain training app) or active control. Cognition was measured through a comprehensive battery of tasks pre- and post-intervention to assess working memory, processing speed, attention, and language functioning. Participants in the intervention group significantly improved on all tasks that were trained specifically within the brain training programme (i.e. practice effects). However, for the cognitive tasks assessed pre- and post-intervention there was no evidence of any of these practice effects transferring to improvements in cognitive outcome measures compared to the active control group (i.e. transfer effects). Our results indicate that the benefits of brain training programmes appear to be limited to practice effects of trained tasks, while no evidence is found for transfer effects to other, related or unrelated, untrained cognitive tasks

Acquired brain injury · Cognition · Cognitive Intervention · Cognitive skill · Cognitive Training · Developmental psychology · Effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance · Elementary cognitive task · Physical medicine and rehabilitation · Psychiatry · Working memory · Working memory training · Blood Pressure and Hypertension Studies · Cognitive Abilities and Testing · Cognitive Functions and Memory · Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · Rehabilitation

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