Can Reasoning Games Raise Children's IQ? The Berkeley Study
A research team at the University of California, Berkeley, tested whether eight weeks of commercial games could change how well children aged 7 to 9 reason. The reasoning group gained on a nonverbal intelligence test; the speed group did not.
Updated
How the study was set up
The Bunge Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, belongs to neuroscientist Silvia Bunge, who studies how children's thinking develops. In 2011 Mackey, Hill, Stone and Bunge published a paper in Developmental Science that asked a plain question: can intensive training improve cognitive skills in children from low socioeconomic backgrounds?
Children aged 7 to 9 joined one of two programs. Each ran for 60 minutes a day, two days a week, for eight weeks, which adds up to 16 hours of play. Both programs were built from commercially available games, some played on a computer and some on a table.
The two programs aimed at different skills. Reasoning training stressed planning and relational integration, the habit of holding several pieces of information together and working out how they connect. Speed training stressed rapid visual detection and rapid motor responses.
What the scores showed
Every child took two standard assessments before and after training: the Test of Non-Verbal Intelligence (TONI-3) for reasoning, and Coding B from the WISC IV for processing speed. Neither group met these tests during the training sessions.
The reasoning group improved substantially on the TONI, with an effect size (Cohen's d) of 1.51 and an average gain of 10 points in Performance IQ. It did not improve on Coding. The speed group showed the mirror image: a large gain on Coding (d = 1.15) and none on the TONI.
The authors read this as evidence that both fluid reasoning and processing speed can be changed by training, contrary to a widespread belief that they are fixed. Each gain stayed with the skill that was trained.
What is true today
The Bunge Lab's website is online, and its educators page lists the paper with its full citation (volume 14, issue 3, pages 582 to 590), a link to the PDF and a supplementary document headed Games used in after-school program. The study is a piece of research with no app, course or product attached, so there is nothing to download or buy.
If you want games designed for learning from the start, the games directory lists titles with a status check for each.
Questions about the study
Did the games raise IQ scores?
In this study the reasoning group gained an average of 10 points in Performance IQ on the TONI-3, with an effect size of 1.51. The speed group did not improve on that test.
Which games did the children play?
The paper describes commercially available computerized and non-computerized games. The Bunge Lab posts a supplementary document, Games used in after-school program, next to the paper.
Who ran the study?
Mackey, Hill, Stone and Bunge, working in the Bunge Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. The paper appeared in Developmental Science in 2011 under the DOI 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.01005.x.
How long did the training last?
Eight weeks, with 60 minutes a day on two days a week, which makes 16 hours in total.