Dylan Colbert, Bryan Roche & Sarah Cassidy Using SMART Training to enhance intellectual ability in 10-12 year old children Dylan Colbert, Bryan Roche & Sarah Cassidy Thanks

Study Aim To replicate and extend upon previous studies (Cassidy et al. 2011, 2016) which found that training relational skills leads to increases in Full scale IQ.

What is Intelligence? “The ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning and to overcome obstacles by taking thought.” American Psychological Association (Neisser et al. 1996) Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is the most empirically validated measurement of intelligence High IQ is associated with: Educational attainment (Deary et al., 2007; Jensen , 1998; Kaufman et al., 2012;Rinderman, 2007) Income (Irwing & Lynn, 2006; Jencks, 1970; Lynn & Vanhanen, 2002; 2006) Happiness (Ali et al. 2013; Kanazawa, 2014; Isaacowitz & Smith, 2003; Siedlecki et al., 2008) Health and Longevity (O’Toole & Stankov, 1992; Deary et al., 2004; Kanazawa, 2014) Lower levels of crime (Hischi & Hindeland, 1977; McGravey et al., 1981; Herrnstein & Murray, 1994)

What are Relational Skills? Relational Frame Theory (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes & Roche, 2001) attempts to explain a wide range of cognitive skills in terms of a small collection of underlying, teachable skills These skills are known as relational skills Same/Opposite Before/After More than /Less than Analogy Categorical Perspective-taking

Relational Frame Theory (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes & Roche, 2001) Derived Relational Responding (DRR): the ability to derive relations between stimuli without direct reinforcement and in accordance with a small family of “frames”, such as equivalence, more than/less than, and opposition. Relational skill correlates significantly with intellectual performance (Andrew & Halford, 1998; Cattel, 1971; Colbert, Dobutowitsch, Roche & Brophy, under submission; Gore et al. 2010; O’Hora et al. 2005, 2008; O’Toole & Barnes Holmes, 2009) Relational skill can be trained and improved (Barnes-Holmes et al., 2001; Berens & Hayes, 2007; Gomez et al., 2007; Luciano et al., 2007).

SMART Training Strengthening Mental Abilities with Relational Training Relational ability is fundamental to intelligence. Relational ability can be improved. Can intelligence be improved by training relational ability? So... SMART Training is an online training system that isolates and trains relational skills to a high degree of proficiency, in order to increase intellectual performance.

SMART Training

SMART Training System 55 levels of increasing complexity Levels 1 – 29: Same/Opposite Levels 30 – 55: More than/Less than Difficulty is increasing by controlling: Number of relational premises (1-4) Number of relations Directionality of relational question Order of relational premises In order to pass each level, 16 consecutive correct responses are required

The Current Study This study used a crossover design to assess the effect of a relational skills training intervention in increasing the intellectual performance of a group of primary school children, as measured by the WISC-IV.

Test Battery Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV, 4th edition). Full IQ & four subscales: Verbal Comprehension Perceptual Reasoning Working Memory Processing Speed) Relational Abilities Index (RAI) RAI Accuracy (RAIa) Total number of correct responses out of 55 RAI Fluency (RAIf) ______RAIa________ [(√time)÷ RAIa/55]

Study Schedule Primary school children attending 5th class (n = 28, mean age: 10.1 years). Mean IQ in the average range (M = 94.1, SD = 10.9, range = 71-114) Year Month Group 1 Group 2 2015 May Baseline IQ testing September   Training No intervention October November December Second IQ test 2016 January February No Intervention March April Final IQ testing

Results

RAI results Strong positive correlation between Baseline IQ and RAIa (r = .69, p < .001) and RAIf (r = .45, p < .05) Baseline IQ significantly predicted completion of all 55 training levels (r = .74, p < .001) Significant difference between RAIa scores at baseline (M = 32.9, SD = 6.1) and follow-up (M = 35.8 , SD = 9) Significant difference between RAIf scores at baseline (M = 6.4 , SD = 1.9) and follow up (M = 8.4, SD = 3.6)

Verbal Comprehension (verbal knowledge, verbal reasoning, vocabulary etc.) Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 Group 1 95.8 101.5 (+5.7)* 105.5 (+4) Group 2 92.9 91.9 (-1) 100.6 (+8.7)**

Perceptual Reasoning (non-verbal reasoning, general problem solving) Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 Group 1 93.7 101.6 (+7.9)** 102.9 (+1.3) Group 2 96.7 103.7 (+7)** 105.2 (+1.5)

Working Memory (memorise and manipulate info over a short period) Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 Group 1 98.4 100.8 (+2.4) 101 (+0.2) Group 2 99.3 99.8 (+0.5) 104.7 (+4.9)*

Processing Speed (visual discimmination, response speed, visuo-motor skill) Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 Group 1 93.9 93.9 (-) 99.9 (+6) Group 2 92.6 99.1 (+6.5)* 101.8 (+2.7)

Full IQ (overall intellectual performance) ** significant at p <.01 level * Significant at p < .05 level Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 Group 1 94.1 100.1 (+6)** 103.6 (+3.5)* Group 2 97.9 (+3.7)* 104.6 (+6.7)**

Training Levels Completed Amount of Training Training Levels Completed RAIa Score Change Full IQ Score Change Strong positive correlation between post-intervention IQ rise and levels of training completed (r = .62, p < .01). Participants who finished all 55 training levels displayed IQ rises (M = 13) that were 2.5 times larger than those who did not (M = 4.9)

Amount of Training

Finished Participants FIQ1 FIQ2 VC1 VC2 PR1 PR2 WM1 WM2 PS1 PS2 11 100 105 98 96 112 123 102 104 83 85 12 107 99 116 106 97 14 114 124 108 113 120 24 95 119 126 26 109 122 115 127 94

Discussion Full IQ rises were lower than those seen previously in in a similar age group (M = 23, Cassidy et al., 2016) As the number of training levels correlated significantly with IQ rises, it appears that completion of all 55 levels is critical to IQ increases In addition, high IQ participants were more likely to reach latter stages Training system may have proven very challenging for many of the current group Participants needed a longer training period

Conclusion Study failed to replicate the magnitude of rises found in Cassidy et al. (2016) However, this does not appear to be due to the inefficiency of relational training, but rather insufficient time allocated to its completion.

Dylan Colbert, Bryan Roche & Sarah Cassidy Using SMART Training to enhance intellectual ability in 10-12 year old children Dylan Colbert, Bryan Roche & Sarah Cassidy Thanks