Declines in various cognitive abilities, particularly executive control functions, are observed in older adults. An important goal of cognitive training is to slow or reverse these age-related declines. However, opinion is divided in the literature regarding whether cognitive training can engender transfer to a variety of cognitive skills in older adults. In the current study, the authors trained older adults in a real-time strategy video game for 23.5 hr in an effort to improve their executive functions. A battery of cognitive tasks, including tasks of executive control and visuospatial skills, were assessed before, during, and after video-game training. The trainees improved significantly in the measures of game performance. They also improved significantly more than the control participants in executive control functions, such as task switching, working memory, visual short-term memory, and reasoning. Individual differences in changes in game performance were correlated with improvements in task switching. The study has implications for the enhancement of executive control processes of older adults.

This meta-analysis was designed to compare the effectiveness of 2 cognitive training modules, single-component training, which targets 1 specific cognitive ability, versus multicomponent training, which trains multiple cognitive abilities, on both trained abilities (near transfer) and untrained abilities (far transfer) in older adults. The meta-analysis also assessed whether individual differences in mental status interacted with the extent of transfer. Eligible randomized controlled trials (215 training studies) examined the immediate effects of cognitive training in either healthy aging (HA) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Results yielded an overall net-gain effect size (g) for the cognitive training of 0.28 (p < .001). These effects were similar across mental status and training modules, and were significant for both near (g = 0.37) and far (g = 0.22) transfer. Although all training modules yielded significant near transfer, only a few yielded significant far transfer. Single-component training of executive functions was most effective on near and far transfer, with processing speed training improving everyday functioning. All modules of multicomponent training (specific and nonspecific) yielded significant near and far transfer, including everyday functioning. Training effects on cognition were moderated by educational attainment and number of cognitive outcomes, but only in HA. These findings suggest that, in older adults, all modules of multicomponent training are more effective in engendering near and far transfer, including everyday functioning, when compared with single-component training modules. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

This current study is a meta-analysis conducted on 63 studies on video-game based cognitive interventions (118 investigations, N = 2,079), which demonstrated a moderate and significant training effect on overall gains in cognition, g = 0.25, p < .001. Significant evidence of transfer was found to overall cognition, as well as to attention/perception and higher-order cognition constructs. Examination of specific gameplay features however showed selective and differential transfer to these outcome measures, whereas the genre labels of “action”, “strategy”, “casual”, and “non-casual” were not similarly predictive of outcomes. We therefore recommend that future video-game interventions targeting cognitive enhancements should consider gameplay feature classification approach over existing genre classification, which may provide more fruitful training-related benefits to cognition.