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Working-memory games can make people much better at the task they practice, but meta-analyses and a two-year study find little evidence that those gains transfer to general intelligence
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ScienceBlog.com
After years of studies and competing meta-analyses, the most defensible answer is that working-memory training produces real learning, but the learning is usually narrow.
They separated near transfer, meaning improvement on tasks similar to the training, from far transfer to abilities such as nonverbal reasoning, reading and arithmetic.
It found a medium transfer effect to untrained versions of n-back, but only very small effects on other working-memory tasks, cognitive control and fluid-intelligence measures.
A narrow training result does not mean intelligence is fixedThe weak evidence for far transfer from working-memory games is sometimes interpreted too broadly.
What the evidence does not justify is treating a higher game level as proof of a general upgrade in reasoning.