Mate Marote: a cognitive training software designed for large scale educational interventions

MELINA VLADISAUSKAS; LAOUEN BELLOLI; MIGUEL A. MARTIN; DIEGO FERNANDEZ SLEZAK; MARIANO SIGMAN; ANDREA P. GOLDIN

Buenos Aires

Encuentro; 2nd Latin American Brain Mapping Network Meeting (LABMAN); 2017

Mate Marote is an open source cognitive-training software aimed atchildren between 4 and 8 years old. It consists of a set ofcomputerized games specifically tailored to train executive functions(EF): a class of processes critical for purposeful, goal-directedbehavior, including working memory, planning, flexibility, andcognitive control. In previous studies we showed that less than 7hours of training elicited transfer to some (but not all) facets of EF.Furthermore, the intervention boosted the academic performance ofchildren living at risk. In fact, our study was the first that usedschool?s conventional methods for testing EF training. Given thatcognitive training leads to improvements in EF, and this positivelyaffects children?s lives, many questions open. One of them relates tothe order in which EF are convenient to be trained. Is it better tostart training the most basic skills and continue with those thatrequire higher association? Or is it more advantageous to traincomplex skills first, and then move to the most basic ones? To assessthese questions, we work in controlled school environments,involving more than 200 children from different socioeconomicbackgrounds attending to several Argentinian Institutions