The impact of the SMART program on cognitive and academic skills: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract

AbstractOnline interventions promoted to enhance cognitive ability hold great appeal for their potential positive impact in social, employment, and educational domains. Cognitive training programs have, thus far, not been shown to influence performance on tests of general cognitive aptitude. Strengthening Mental Abilities with Relational Training (SMART) is an online program that claims to raise intelligence quotient (IQ). This systematic review and meta‐analysis evaluates the effect of SMART on indices of cognitive aptitude and academic performance. The review protocol was registered at PROSPERO (CRD42019132404). A systematic literature search of bibliographic databases (ERIC, PsycINFO, PubMed, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, Scopus, Proquest Psychology) identified five studies (N = 195) that met the criterion for inclusion. The risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias ‘RoB 2’ tool. Overall, there was a moderate impact of SMART on measures of nonverbal IQ (g = 0.57, 95% CI [0.24, 0.89]). There was insufficient evidence to determine the impact of SMART on any other domain. All studies included in the review were judged to be at a high risk of bias for their primary outcome. Despite the methodological limitations of published studies to date, these initial findings suggest that a large‐scale study of SMART is warranted. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic SMART is a popular, commercially available online program that claims to improve cognitive skills in children. A number of controlled trials have investigated the efficacy of SMART and reported positive findings. There are no existing systematic reviews or meta‐analyses of the literature for this intervention. What this paper adds The present study represents the first systematic review and meta‐analysis of the effect of SMART on cognitive and educational outcomes. We identified five trials that met the criteria for inclusion in the review. All five studies were rated as having a high risk of bias using the Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias tool. We calculated a moderate overall impact of SMART on measures of nonverbal IQ. There was insufficient evidence to determine the impact of SMART in any other cognitive or educational domain. Implications for practice and/or policy Practitioners and/or teachers can use the review to inform their decisions about adopting SMART as an online educational tool. While the current findings are encouraging, the number of controlled trials conducted on SMART is small and the studies have a number of significant methodological limitations. We recommend that SMART be evaluated with larger and more robustly designed trials.