No evidence of intelligence improvement after working memory training: A randomized, placebo-controlled study.
Abstract
Numerous recent studies seem to provide evidence for the general intellectual benefits of working memory training. In reviews of the training literature, Shipstead, Redick, and Engle (2010, 2012) argued that the field should treat recent results with a critical eye. Many published working memory training studies suffer from design limitations (no-contact control groups, single measures of cognitive constructs), mixed results (transfer of training gains to some tasks but not others, inconsistent transfer to the same tasks across studies), and lack of theoretical grounding (identifying the mechanisms responsible for observed transfer). The current study compared young adults who received 20 sessions of practice on an adaptive dual n-back program (working memory training group) or an adaptive visual search program (active placebo-control group) with a no-contact control group that received no practice. In addition, all subjects completed pretest, midtest, and posttest sessions comprising multiple measures of fluid intelligence, multitasking, working memory capacity, crystallized intelligence, and perceptual speed. Despite improvements on both the dual n-back and visual search tasks with practice, and despite a high level of statistical power, there was no positive transfer to any of the cognitive ability tests. We discuss these results in the context of previous working memory training research and address issues for future working memory training studies.
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The literature on transfer from working memory training to fluid intelligence is mixed, with some promising studies and rigorous replications failing to find transfer.
“However, evidence on transfer of improved WM into more general cognitive domains such as fluid intelligence (Gf) has been more equivocal.”
From Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory: a meta-analysis (2015) · cites this paper as Redick et al., 2013
A dose-dependent relationship between amount of training and transfer has been described and replicated in some but not all studies.
“Furthermore, we have previously described a dose-dependent relationship between training and transfer, such that more training leads to more gain (Jaeggi et al., 2008).”
From Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory: a meta-analysis (2015) · cites this paper as Redick et al., 2013
Two prominent recent studies that used active control groups did not observe transfer to fluid intelligence.
“With this in mind, two recent, widely publicized training studies used active controls and failed to find transfer to measures of Gf (Harrison et al., 2013;Redick et al., 2013).”
From Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory: a meta-analysis (2015) · cites this paper as Redick et al., 2013
In those studies, active controls showed no gain from baseline and were not better than passive controls, which suggests the null transfer result did not depend on control type.
“It is important to note, however, that their active control groups did not improve over baseline, nor did they outperform their associated passive control groups, suggesting that the failure to find transfer was irrespective of control type.”
From Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory: a meta-analysis (2015) · cites this paper as Redick et al., 2013
Findings for transfer effects of cognitive training on untrained cognitive domains and daily functioning are less consistent.
“While a variety of cognitive training studies have identified post-intervention gains on trained tasks and on tasks within similar domains [13–15], findings for transfer effects on untrained cognitive domains and daily functioning are less consistent, presenting a need to improve the efficacy of cognitive training interventions in producing clinically meaningful outcomes [11, 15–18].”
From Primary outcome from the augmenting cognitive training in older adults study (ACT): A tDCS and cognitive training randomized clinical trial (2023) · cites this paper as [18]
Transfer effects were not consistent across studies.
“Despite these encouraging findings, the literature clearly shows that these transfer effects were not consistent across studies, a fact that has inspired intense recent debates regarding the transferability of training-induced performance gains (e.g., Shipstead et al., 2012; Melby-Lervåg and Hulme, 2013; Redick et al., 2013).”
From Executive control training from middle childhood to adolescence (2014) · cites this paper as Redick et al., 2013
Evidence for near and especially far transfer of working-memory training to untrained tasks and abilities has been reported less consistently and has been discussed controversially.
“Evidence for near and especially far transfer of working-memory training to untrained tasks and abilities has been reported less consistently and has been discussed very controversially (e.g., Shipstead et al., 2012; Redick et al., 2013).”
From Executive control training from middle childhood to adolescence (2014) · cites this paper as Redick et al., 2013
Our results using two updating paradigms are compatible with reports that performance improvements on one WM measure do not lead to gains on another type of WM task.
“Our results using two updating paradigms are therefore compatible with reports that performance improvements on one WM measure do not lead to gains on another type of WM task (e.g., [9, 11, 17]).”
From Nearest transfer effects of working memory training: A comparison of two programs focused on working memory updating (2019) · cites this paper as [17]
A lack of transfer effects from WMU training to fluid intelligence has been reported in a number of studies, and some meta-analyses have addressed this issue.
“A lack of transfer effects from WMU training to fluid intelligence has been reported in a number of studies too (e.g., [14–17, 27]), and some meta-analyses have addressed this issue.”
From Nearest transfer effects of working memory training: A comparison of two programs focused on working memory updating (2019) · cites this paper as [17]
Previous training studies have been criticized for the suitability of the control conditions, for not considering motivational factors, or for the use of single training tasks.
“Previous training studies have been criticized for the suitability of the control conditions, for not considering motivational factors, or for the use of single training tasks (Jaeggi et al., 2013; Redick et al., 2013; Melby-Lervåg et al., 2016).”
From Training on Working Memory and Inhibitory Control in Young Adults (2016) · cites this paper as Redick et al., 2013
In several studies comparing dual n-back training to active or no contact control groups, training related gains were not identified in any group relative to another for any outcome.
“in several studies comparing dual n-back working memory training to either active or no contact control groups, training related gains were not identified in any one group relative to another for any outcome [24–26].”
From Dual N-back working memory training in healthy adults: A randomized comparison to processing speed training. (2016) · cites this paper as [24]
Our findings support previous work which fails to replicate near and far transfer benefits of dual n-back working memory training when directly compared to an active control condition.
“Our findings support previous work which fails to replicate near and far transfer benefits of dual n-back working memory training when directly compared to an active control condition (see [24–26]).”
From Dual N-back working memory training in healthy adults: A randomized comparison to processing speed training. (2016) · cites this paper as [24]
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Katz, B., Jones, M. R., Shah, P., Buschkuehl, M., & Jaeggi, S. M. (2016) · Cognitive Training · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-42662-4_15 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
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Validation of a matrix reasoning task for mobile devices
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Pattern of Near Transfer Effects Following Working Memory Training With a Dual <i>N</i>-Back Task
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Fu, J., Zhou, Y., Yuan, M., & Cai, Y. (2026) · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review · doi:10.3758/s13423-026-02994-5
“…analyses stratifying tasks into: (a) dual n-back (requiring simultaneous monitoring of two sensory modalities) versus single n-back paradigms (Küper & Karbach, 2016), and (b) simple span versus complex span tasks (requiring completion of an interleaved nonmemory task) (Harrison et al., 2013).”
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Cao, D.-Y., Zhang, T.-N., Zhang, Y., Zhang, E., & Zhang, G.-L. (2026) · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review · doi:10.3758/s13423-025-02773-8
- Authors
- Redick, T. S., Shipstead, Z., Harrison, T. L., Hicks, K. L., Fried, D. E., Hambrick, D. Z., Kane, M. J., & Engle, R. W.
- Affiliations
- Georgia Institute of Technology (US)
- Michigan State University (US)
- University of North Carolina at Greensboro (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
- Published
- 2013-05
- Volume
- 142
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 359-379
- ISSN
- 0096-3445 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-2222
- OpenAlex
- W2137060718
- Cited by
- 617
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 54 · 2018: 66 · 2017: 59 · 2016: 66 · 2015: 79 · 2014: 77 · 2013: 42 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 89.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Psychology General (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Office of Naval Research (N000140910129)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills
- Keywords
- working memory training, fluid intelligence, transfer of training, visual search, multitasking, working memory capacity, crystallized intelligence, perceptual speed, cognitive training
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Attention, Female, Humans, Intelligence, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Neuropsychological Tests, Practice, Psychological, Transfer, Psychology
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