Working memory training and interpreting interactions in intelligence interventions

Recently, there have been numerous attempts to improve higher-order cognition, and more specifically fluid intelligence, via repeated practice on cognitively demanding working memory tasks. While some reviews of the working memory training literature have provided limited evidence for such far transfer, the authors of several individual studies have concluded that the training improved cognitive ability outcomes in their particular experiments. Here I reinterpret the results of several example studies, focusing on the pattern of pre- to post-test change exhibited by the training and control groups. I argue that the studies highlighted here provide virtually no evidence for the efficacy of such training interventions to improve intelligence, contrary to claims made within the original articles.