"How Malleable Are Cognitive Abilities? A Critical Perspective on Popular Brief Interventions"

[Gwern Branwen]

"How Malleable Are Cognitive Abilities? A Critical Perspective on
Popular Brief Interventions", Moreau 2021: https://psyarxiv.com/sxwah/

> A number of popular research areas suggest that cognitive performance can be manipulated via relatively brief interventions. These findings have generated a lot of traction, given their inherent appeal to individuals and society. However, recent evidence indicates that cognitive abilities might not be as malleable as preliminary findings implied, and that other, more stable factors play an important role. Here, I provide a critical outlook on these trends of research, combining findings that have mainly remained segregated despite shared characteristics. Specifically, I suggest that the purported cognitive improvements elicited by many interventions are not reliable, and that their ecological validity remains limited. I conclude with a call for constructive skepticism when evaluating claims of generalized cognitive improvements following brief interventions.

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gwern
https://www.gwern.net

[robert chalean]

We never see studies about brain changes in loci method memory training

[Leonardo]

Don't call this a study. Is just a publication of the propaganda that Gwernsky loves to dissuade anyone from training. Conflicting strong evidence, which is very prolific, is never considered. 

[Leonardo]

Do you really think that, in case that he believed that training doesn't work, he would waste that much time killing this group, which he single handedly has already almost done. 

[Leonardo]

If you have a hard time believing that he is that twisted, remember one of his mottos:

"A leader is best when people barely know that he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worst when they despise him. Fail to honor people, They fail to honor you. But of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aims fulfilled, they will all say, ‘We did this ourselves.’16"

[Pontus Granström]

Do not stop brain training, use different modes and do some cardio! It's works very well.

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[WhiteNoise]

I really enjoyed reading this. I think a better title for this review paper would have been "do we really know anything about cognitive abilities improvements?"

Even though most people in this forum would like to believe that Brain Training works, I think we have to maintain a rational approach.

As a researcher myself (in a different field) I have seen plenty of research where there are major statistical fallacies or simply the sample size is too small.

This review from Moreau suggests that in most studies on short-term and targeted interventions (like n-back), there are only hints of results that either are not reproduced or are not investigated further.

There is even skepticism of non-targeted long-term activities like learning chess, or learning another language, or physical exercise but at least these activities have a useful primary objective (you learn a language, nobody pays you if can do dual 10 back).

I was particularly touched by mindset critique. The mindset argument is particularly pumped by Youtube gurus and I agree that it can lead to false hope and subsequent depression in people who believe it's their fault because they have bad "mindset".

While reviewing the references of this paper I saw this "Cognitive and Working Memory Training: Perspectives from Psychology, Neuroscience, and Human Development"

https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780199974467.001.0001/oso-9780199974467

It is a collective work on the state-of-the art on cognitive training and trasfer learning. It's a 500+ special issue with many papers that ends with an epilogue "Do Not Buy The Snake Oil".

@gwern: side note. Do you know if there is a systematic review of all the possible statistical fallacies? 

> We never see studies about brain changes in loci method memory training

@robert: do you mean if the systematic use of memory palace improves cognitive abilities? or are you referring to something more specific?

@Leonard: I don't see the points of these personal attacks. Let's discuss the content.

[Pontus Granström]

I do cognitive training because it "wakes up" my brain, it gets me more resilient, it reduces efforts during cognitive loads (working memory), speeds up my thinking and a lot of things. All of these factors contributes at least to me, to be better cognitive functioning. If is due to dealing with stressors better, more bloodflow (oxygen), increase motivation or what ever doesn't matter (i would say all three). I think we all have "hickups" where fail because we give up, it feels to "effortful" we forget to do one update more and we can't solve the problem. N-backs primes you to not do that, one more update, stay focus, block out negaivity that impairs your thinking etc. I still do n-backing almost every day, when done after a long run, the results are amazing, especially for mood. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/brain-training/bcbe6722-268f-4371-8ee9-f18e51e17744n%40googlegroups.com.

[fT3g0]

I always appreciate when you post about studies.

Having a little bit of skepticism is healthy, although some people here seem not to like it after putting in so much time into brain training.

[Wilma Skillma]

I can’t stand narcissistic people like Gwern whose whole ego had been build around their intelligence and now that prople have figured out their secret (IQ is mostly working memory and processing speed) they pannick. Spending so much time trying to dissuade people from training doesn’t make sense unless you want them to stay dumb.

Op woensdag 19 mei 2021 schreef Leonardo <pervertid...@gmail.com>:

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[Pontus Granström]

I agree, it has been worse! 

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