To be successful takes creativity, flexibility, self-control, and discipline. Central to all those are ‘executive functions,’ including mentally playing with ideas, giving a considered rather than an impulsive response, and staying focused. Diverse activities have been shown to improve children’s executive functions – computerized training, non-computerized games, aerobics, martial arts, yoga, mindfulness, and school curricula. Central to all these is repeated practice and constantly challenging executive functions. Children with worse executive functions initially, benefit most; thus early executive-function training may avert widening achievement gaps later. To improve executive functions, focusing narrowly on them may not be as effective as also addressing emotional and social development (as do curricula that improve executive functions) and physical development (shown by positive effects of aerobics, martial arts, and yoga).

https://www.doctorbrunner.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Science-2011-science_interventions_-shown_to_aid.pdf

Interventions Shown to Aid Executive Function Development in Children 4 to 12 Years Old

It has been suggested that working memory training programs are effective both as treatments for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other cognitive disorders in children and as a tool to improve cognitive ability and scholastic attainment in typically developing children and adults. However, effects across studies appear to be variable, and a systematic meta-analytic review was undertaken. To be included in the review, studies had to be randomized controlled trials or quasi-experiments without randomization, have a treatment, and have either a treated group or an untreated control group. Twenty-three studies with 30 group comparisons met the criteria for inclusion. The studies included involved clinical samples and samples of typically developing children and adults. Meta-analyses indicated that the programs produced reliable short-term improvements in working memory skills. For verbal working memory, these near-transfer effects were not sustained at follow-up, whereas for visuospatial working memory, limited evidence suggested that such effects might be maintained. More importantly, there was no convincing evidence of the generalization of working memory training to other skills (nonverbal and verbal ability, inhibitory processes in attention, word decoding, and arithmetic). The authors conclude that memory training programs appear to produce short-term, specific training effects that do not generalize. Possible limitations of the review (including age differences in the samples and the variety of different clinical conditions included) are noted. However, current findings cast doubt on both the clinical relevance of working memory training programs and their utility as methods of enhancing cognitive functioning in typically developing children and healthy adults.

/pdf/is-working-memory-training-effective-a-meta-analytic-review-1i5goeof1d.pdf

Is working memory training effective? A meta-analytic review

http://www.klingberglab.se/pub/Klingberg2010_TICS.pdf

Training and plasticity of working memory

Socioeconomic status (SES) influences brain development. Farah and colleagues discuss evidence that prenatal factors, parent–child interactions and cognitive stimulation mediate this effect, and consider implications for alleviating SES-related disparities in mental health and academic achievement. Human brain development occurs within a socioeconomic context and childhood socioeconomic status (SES) influences neural development — particularly of the systems that subserve language and executive function. Research in humans and in animal models has implicated prenatal factors, parent–child interactions and cognitive stimulation in the home environment in the effects of SES on neural development. These findings provide a unique opportunity for understanding how environmental factors can lead to individual differences in brain development, and for improving the programmes and policies that are designed to alleviate SES-related disparities in mental health and academic achievement.

/pdf/socioeconomic-status-and-the-brain-mechanistic-insights-from-2bocwkx5yq.pdf

Socioeconomic status and the brain: mechanistic insights from human and animal research

Working memory (WM) is a cognitive system that strongly relates to a person’s ability to reason with novel information and direct attention to goal-relevant information. Due to the central role that WM plays in general cognition, it has become the focus of a rapidly growing training literature that seeks to affect broad cognitive change through prolonged training on WM tasks. Recent work has suggested that the effects of WM training extend to general fluid intelligence, attentional control, and reductions in symptoms of ADHD. We present a theoretically motivated perspective of WM and subsequently review the WM training literature in light of several concerns. These include (a) the tendency for researchers to define change to abilities using single tasks, (b) inconsistent use of valid WM tasks, (c) no-contact control groups, and (d) subjective measurement of change. The literature review highlights several findings that warrant further research but ultimately concludes that there is a need to directly demonstrate that WM capacity increases in response to training. Specifically, we argue that transfer of training to WM must be demonstrated using a wider variety of tasks, thus eliminating the possibility that results can be explained by task specific learning. Additionally, we express concern that many of the most promising results (e.g., increased intelligence) cannot be readily attributed to changes in WM capacity. Thus, a critical goal for future research is to uncover the mechanisms that lead to transfer of training.

https://analyseeconomique.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/is-working-memory-training-effective.pdf

Is working memory training effective

Executive functions, including working memory and inhibition, are of central importance to much of human behavior. Interventions intended to improve executive functions might therefore serve an important purpose. Previous studies show that working memory can be improved by training, but it is unknown if this also holds for inhibition, and whether it is possible to train executive functions in preschoolers. In the present study, preschool children received computerized training of either visuo-spatial working memory or inhibition for 5 weeks. An active control group played commercially available computer games, and a passive control group took part in only pre- and posttesting. Children trained on working memory improved significantly on trained tasks; they showed training effects on non-trained tests of spatial and verbal working memory, as well as transfer effects to attention. Children trained on inhibition showed a significant improvement over time on two out of three trained task paradigms, but no significant improvements relative to the control groups on tasks measuring working memory or attention. In neither of the two interventions were there effects on non-trained inhibitory tasks. The results suggest that working memory training can have significant effects also among preschool children. The finding that inhibition could not be improved by either one of the two training programs might be due to the particular training program used in the present study or possibly indicate that executive functions differ in how easily they can be improved by training, which in turn might relate to differences in their underlying psychological and neural processes.

http://www.klingberglab.se/pub/Thorell2009.pdf

Training and transfer effects of executive functions in preschool children.

Background: The notion that ADHD constitutes a heterogeneous disorder is well accepted. However, this study contributes with new important knowledge by examining independent effects of a large rang ...

Multiple deficits in ADHD : executive dysfunction, delay aversion, reaction time variability, and emotional deficits

The present study investigated how task difficulty can be manipulated in inhibitory control tasks. Tasks from three widely used task paradigms — a Go/No-Go task, a Stop-Signal task, and a Flanker task — were manipulated on two parameters each (Go/No-Go task: interstimulus interval, prepotency. Stop-signal task: stop-signal-delay, prepotency. Flanker task: number of distractors, size of target stimulus). Participants were 86 children (age 4–6) from a population-based sample. The results showed no significant effects on the Go/No-Go task but both main and interaction effects on the Stop-Signal task and the Flanker task. Together, these findings indicate that task difficulty can be successfully manipulated in inhibitory control tasks. However, the interactive rather than additive effects on performance suggest that the level of one parameter only has the desired effect under certain conditions. This new information about how to manipulate task difficulty is important when adapting tasks for use with children...

Sofia Lindqvist

Papers

Training and transfer effects of executive functions in preschool children.

Multiple deficits in ADHD : executive dysfunction, delay aversion, reaction time variability, and emotional deficits

Brief report: manipulation of task difficulty in inhibitory control tasks.