Testing the Efficacy of Brain Training: a Comment on Owen, et al. (2010)
Oliver W. Hill1 and Zewelanji Serpell1
The recent study by Owen, et al. (2010) and the subsequent news article by Katsnelson (2010), both published in Nature, have caused a firestorm of attention in the popular media. Katsnelson’s provocative headline, “No gain from brain training,” has led to a number of hasty conclusions about the ineffectiveness of cognitive training that need to be addressed. We are members of a team of investigators on a three-year study funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to test the efficacy of cognitive training on the mathematics performance of inner-city students. While we are just beginning the second year of this study and only have preliminary data, these data coupled with several other (as yet) unpublished studies have produced effects that are robust enough to warrant mention, given the recent attention to this topic. Read the rest of this entry »
