Testing the usability of a cognitive training software for measuring executive functions in unsupervised educational interventions

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

Congreso; XXXIII Reunión de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias (SAN); 2018

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

Mate Marote is an open source cognitive-training softwareaimed at children between 4 and 8 years old. It consists of aset of computerized games specifically tailored to train executive functions (EF): a class of processes critical for purposeful, goal-directed behavior, including working memory, planning, flexibility, and cognitive control. In previous studies, weshowed that (a) less than 7 hr of training elicited transfer tosome (but not all) facets of EF, (b) the academic performanceof children living at risk was boosted by the intervention,and (c) the quality of play and behavioral patterns during thetraining phase in unsupervised interventions are comparableto the data collected in one-to-one supervised designs. Inthe present study we assessed whether the software can beused for measuring EF in unsupervised interventions. Weshow that children performance in the EF tests obtained inunsupervised, but controlled, school environments withtheir own teacher are comparable to the data collected inthe testing phase of supervised designs, as expected. In thisunsupervised experiment, the gameflow, the instructions,and the feedback were entirely provided by the softwareand their own teachers only had to ensure the correctlogin of each children. Our study suggests that testing theresults of large scale educational interventions could besimple, under minimal, but appropriate, controlled conditions.