ArticleCurrent directions in psychological science2017
Does Far Transfer Exist? Negative Evidence From Chess, Music, and Working Memory Training.
Article in Current directions in psychological science, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 83 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
83 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- How is musical expertise related to executive functions? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Pooled it
- Far Transfer Effects of Trainings on Executive Functions in Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Systematic Review and Metanalysis.Neuropsychology review · 2024Pooled it
- Lifting cognition: a meta-analysis of effects of resistance exercise on cognition.Psychological research · 2020Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Computerized Cognitive Training Programs (CCTP) with Game-like Features in Children with or without Neuropsychological Disorders: a Meta-Analytic Investigation.Neuropsychology review · 2020Pooled it
- Review of the Neural Processes of Working Memory Training: Controlling the Impulse to Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Randomized clinical trial on the effects of a computerized cognitive training for pediatric patients with acquired brain injury or congenital malformation.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Socio-affective and cognitive predictors of social adaptation in vulnerable contexts.PloS one · 2019Trial
- Executive functions as a transdiagnostic endophenotype in developmental psychopathology.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Supporting Visual Working Memory in Healthy Aging: A Review of Current Interventions and Perspectives on Future Approaches.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Baseline mathematical aptitude attenuates group differences in posterior P300 during arithmetic verification in high school athletes.Experimental brain research · 2026Article
- Adaptive habits: understanding executive function and its development.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2026Review
- Rhythmic skills mediate the link between music training and cognition via attention and phonological processing.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- The effectiveness of serious games for training of attention and executive functions: a systematic review.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2026Review
- Learning and Transfer of Graphomotor Skills in Three 7- to 10-Year-Old Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder: Case Reports.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Article
- Enhancing children's numeracy and executive functions via their explicit integration.NPJ science of learning · 2025Article
- Bi-temporal processing in music notation reading: a theory linking prediction, memory, and automaticity.Frontiers in cognition · 2025Article
- Editorial: The effects of music on cognition and action, volume II.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Investigating acoustic numerosity illusions in professional musicians.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2024Article
- Timescales of learning in prefrontal cortex.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2024Review
23 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Chess masters and expert musicians appear to be, on average, more intelligent than the general population. Some researchers have thus claimed that playing chess or learning music enhances children's cognitive abilities and academic attainment. We here present two meta-analyses assessing the effect of chess and music instruction on children's cognitive and academic skills. A third meta-analysis evaluated the effects of working memory training-a cognitive skill correlated with music and chess expertise-on the same variables. The results show small to moderate effects. However, the effect sizes are inversely related to the quality of the experimental design (e.g., presence of active control groups). This pattern of results casts serious doubts on the effectiveness of chess, music, and working memory training. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings; extend the debate to other types of training such as spatial training, brain training, and video games; and conclude that far transfer of learning rarely occurs.
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