Toward a consensus on Methods in Cognitive Training
Abstract
Over the past two decades the possibility that various cognitive skills and their related brain processes can be improved via dedicated behavioral training has caught the attention of the scientific community and society alike. Activities as varied as behavioral training, physical exercise, meditation, action video game play and playing a musical instrument have each produced enough data to spur a number of metaanalyses, with most analyses focusing on the following cognitive domains: working memory, perception and attention.A weakness of this large and growing body of empirical work, however, is that it has been conducted in the absence of a clear scientific consensus around the best methodological practices for demonstrating the efficacy of such behavioral interventions. The ~gold standard~ methodology of pharmacological studies - the randomized double-blind placebo controlled trial - is not available, as by definition, participants will be cognizant of the training tasks that they are asked to actively perform. In addition, there is no scientific consensus as to what should count as a control group or the characteristics such a group should embody. In all, it is increasingly clear that progress in the domain is being critically hampered by the absence of established standards in methodology.The goal of this effort is to assemble about 30 experts from the field of education, clinical intervention and well-being, to outline issues that need to be addressed, define those domains where rapid progress may be reachable and domains that will require more research, as well as setting a proposed agenda for such research. The aim is to turn around a situation where it has become nearly impossible to compare results across labs in a straight-forward way in order to identify potentially fruitful future directions. In addition, distinct and common methodological standards are urgently needed to guide the governmental agencies that are tasked with regulating efficacy claims for commercial products made based upon such studies.This post-ICPS workshop is part of a concerted effort to create a consensus statement, published as a white paper that will outline promising methodological standards for cognitive training experiments, as well as discuss already tried and failed efforts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 05, 2017
- Source ID
- N000141712360
Entities
People
- Daphne Bavelier
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Geneva