Title
Do programs designed to train working memory, other executive functions, and attention benefit children with ADHD? A meta-analytic review of cognitive, academic, and behavioral outcomes
Abbreviated Journal Title
Clin. Psychol. Rev.
Keywords
ADHD; Facilitative intervention training (FIT); Cognitive training; Executive function; Working memory; Meta-analysis; DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER ADHD; DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER; CONTINUOUS PERFORMANCE TESTS; RESPONSE-INHIBITION DEFICIT; LATENT; VARIABLE ANALYSIS; SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN; SHORT-TERM-MEMORY; CONTROLLED-TRIAL; PSYCHOSOCIAL TREATMENTS; INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES; Psychology, Clinical
Abstract
Children with ADHD are characterized frequently as possessing underdeveloped executive functions and sustained attentional abilities, and recent commercial claims suggest that computer-based cognitive training can remediate these impairments and provide significant and lasting improvement in their attention, impulse control, social functioning, academic performance, and complex reasoning skills. The present review critically evaluates these claims through meta-analysis of 25 studies of facilitative intervention training (i.e., cognitive training) for children with ADHD. Random effects models corrected for publication bias and sampling error revealed that studies training short-term memory alone resulted in moderate magnitude improvements in short-term memory (d = 0.63), whereas training attention did not significantly improve attention and training mixed executive functions did not significantly improve the targeted executive functions (both nonsignificant: 95% confidence intervals include 0.0). Far transfer effects of cognitive training on academic functioning, blinded ratings of behavior (both nonsignificant), and cognitive tests (d = 0.14) were nonsignificant or negligible. Unblinded raters (d = 0.48) reported significantly larger benefits relative to blinded raters and objective tests (both p<.05), indicating the likelihood of Hawthorne effects. Critical examination of training targets revealed incongruence with empirical evidence regarding the specific executive functions that are (a) most impaired in ADHD, and (b) functionally related to the behavioral and academic outcomes these training programs are intended to ameliorate. Collectively, meta-analytic results indicate that claims regarding the academic, behavioral, and cognitive benefits associated with extant cognitive training programs are unsupported in ADHD. The methodological limitations of the current evidence base, however, leave open the possibility that cognitive training techniques designed to improve empirically documented executive function deficits may benefit children with ADHD. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Journal Title
Clinical Psychology Review
Volume
33
Issue/Number
8
Publication Date
1-1-2013
Document Type
Review
Language
English
First Page
1237
Last Page
1252
WOS Identifier
ISSN
0272-7358
Recommended Citation
"Do programs designed to train working memory, other executive functions, and attention benefit children with ADHD? A meta-analytic review of cognitive, academic, and behavioral outcomes" (2013). Faculty Bibliography 2010s. 4575.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/facultybib2010/4575
Comments
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