{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/demand-far-transfer-evidence-from-brain-training-claims",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1255",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Demand far-transfer evidence from brain-training claims",
  "summary": "Getting better at the drill is not the same as getting better at the job.",
  "kind": "checklist",
  "body": "Separate near transfer from far transfer. A large second-order meta-analysis found that cognitive training can improve similar tasks, while broad transfer to dissimilar outcomes was small or null and became null overall after controls for bias and placebo effects. Before investing time or money, ask whether the claimed benefit was measured on the real target skill and against an appropriate control.",
  "limits": [
    "The meta-analysis concerns cognitive-training programs and untrained outcomes. It does not mean targeted practice, rehabilitation or learning a real skill is useless; the transfer distance and population matter."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-cognitive-state-and-offloading"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-2B01EDA6A675FCAB"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "A 2019 second-order meta-analysis found that cognitive training often produced near transfer to similar tasks, while far-transfer effects were small or null and became null overall after controls for publication bias and placebo effects.",
      "source_id": "RS-2B01EDA6A675FCAB",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "The conclusion concerns transfer from cognitive-training programs to untrained outcomes; it does not argue against practicing the actual target task.",
      "locator": "Abstract and general discussion"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "A game, exercise or 'brain training' product claims that getting better at its tasks will broadly improve reasoning, attention, work performance or intelligence."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "The meta-analysis concerns cognitive-training programs and untrained outcomes. It does not mean targeted practice, rehabilitation or learning a real skill is useless; the transfer distance and population matter."
  ],
  "example": "A memory game may make you faster at its memory tasks. That is not evidence that it will make you better at debugging, strategic analysis or language negotiation.",
  "check": "You can name the target outcome and point to evidence that measures transfer to that outcome rather than performance on the training exercise itself.",
  "checklist": [
    "Was improvement measured only on the trained task or on a genuinely different target outcome?",
    "Did the study use an active comparison that controls for expectation and engagement?",
    "Is the claimed benefit durable enough for the use case?",
    "Would practicing the actual target skill provide a more direct path?"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-2B01EDA6A675FCAB",
      "title": "Near and Far Transfer in Cognitive Training: A Second-Order Meta-Analysis",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.203"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1255",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1254",
      "type": "compare_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/use-movement-as-a-state-shift-not-a-productivity-promise"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-EF3925703702450D",
      "title": "Design the task around cognitive limits instead of fighting them",
      "url": "/collections/design-the-task-around-cognitive-limits-instead-of-fighting-them"
    }
  ]
}