Let’s go beyond “the effect of”reappraising the impact of ordinary activities on cognition

  1. Rafael Román Caballero 1
  2. Daniel Sanabria Lucena 1
  3. Luis Fernando Ciria Pérez 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Granada
    info

    Universidad de Granada

    Granada, España

    ROR https://ror.org/04njjy449

Revista:
Psicológica: Revista de metodología y psicología experimental

ISSN: 1576-8597

Any de publicació: 2023

Volum: 44

Número: 1

Tipus: Article

DOI: 10.20350/DIGITALCSIC/15144 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAccés obert editor

Altres publicacions en: Psicológica: Revista de metodología y psicología experimental

Resum

The demands of today’s society for interventions that optimize cognitive abilities and prevent their decline have motivated the translation of scientific findings into applied programs. Ordinary activities such as physical exercise, chess, meditation, playing video games or a musical instrument, as well as specific cognitive programs, have witnessed the growth of evidence emphasizing their cognitive benefits. Here, we outline several issues that need consideration before speculating on the implications of this literature: (a) the magnitude and costs of the effect, (b) the robustness of the effect, (c) testing causality, (d) the identification of moderator variables, and (e) the underlying mechanisms. We consider that this would contribute to a critical appraisal of the extant findings by the interested researchers, to reduced overstatements in the media reports about the applicability and public relevance of the effects reported in scientific articles, and to potentially help designing new interventions.

Referències bibliogràfiques

  • Bialystok, E., & DePape, A. M. (2009). Musical expertise, bilingualism, and executive functioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 35(2), 565–574. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012735
  • Boot, W. R., Simons, D. J., Stothart, C., & Stutts, C. (2013). The pervasive problem with placebos in psychology: Why active control groups are not sufficient to rule out placebo effects. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(4), 445–454. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613491271
  • Borenstein, M., Hedges, L. V., Higgins, J. P., & Rothstein, H. R. (2009). Introduction to meta-analysis. John Wiley & Sons.
  • Borsboom, D., van der Maas, H. L., Dalege, J., Kievit, R. A., & Haig, B. D. (2021). Theory construction methodology: A practical framework for building theories in psychology. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(4), 756–766. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620969647
  • Button, K. S., Ioannidis, J., Mokrysz, C., Nosek, B. A., Flint, J., Robinson, E. S., & Munafò, M. R. (2013). Power failure: why small sample size undermines the reliability of neuroscience. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14(5), 365–376. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3475
  • Cásedas, L., Pirruccio, V., Vadillo, M. A., & Lupiáñez, J. (2020). Does mindfulness meditation training enhance executive control? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in adults. Mindfulness, 11(2), 411–424. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01279-4
  • Cebolla, A., Demarzo, M., Martins, P., Soler, J., & Garcia-Campayo, J. (2017). Unwanted effects: Is there a negative side of meditation? A multicentre survey. PLOS One, 12(9), e0183137. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183137
  • Chen, F. T., Etnier, J. L., Chan, K. H., Chiu, P. K., Hung, T. M., & Chang, Y. K. (2020). Effects of exercise training interventions on executive function in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 50, 1451–1467. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-020-01292-x
  • Ciria, L. F., Román-Caballero, R., Vadillo, M. A., Holgado, D., Luque-Casado, A., Perakakis, P., & Sanabria, D. (2022). An umbrella review of randomized control trials on the effects of physical exercise on cognition. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.15.480508
  • Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillside, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Corrigall, K. A., Schellenberg, E. G., & Misura, N. M. (2013). Music training, cognition, and personality. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 222. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00222
  • Cotman, C. W., Berchtold, N. C., & Christie, L. A. (2007). Exercise builds brain health: key roles of growth factor cascades and inflammation. Trends in Neurosciences, 30(9), 464–472. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2007.06.011
  • Dauwan, M., Begemann, M. J., Slot, M. I., Lee, E. H., Scheltens, P., & Sommer, I. E. (2021). Physical exercise improves quality of life, depressive symptoms, and cognition across chronic brain disorders: a transdiagnostic systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of neurology, 268(4), 1222–1246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-019-09493-9
  • De Vries, Y. A., Roest, A. M., de Jonge, P., Cuijpers, P., Munafò, M. R., & Bastiaansen, J. A. (2018). The cumulative effect of reporting and citation biases on the apparent efficacy of treatments: the case of depression. Psychological Medicine, 48(15), 2453–2455. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291718001873
  • Diamond, A. (2013). Executive Functions. Annual review of psychology, 64, 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750
  • Dishman, R. K., Heath, G. W., Schmidt, M. D., & Lee, I. M. (2021). Physical activity epidemiology. Human Kinetics. Erickson, K. I., Voss, M. W., Prakash, R. S., Basak, C., Szabo, A., Chaddock, L., ... & Kramer, A. F. (2011). Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(7), 3017–3022. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1015950108
  • Etnier, J. (2008). Interrelationships of exercise, mediator variables, and cognition. In W.W. Spirduso, L.W. Poon, & W. Chodzko-Zajko (Eds.), Exercise and its mediating effects on cognition (pp. 13–30). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
  • Fan, J., McCandliss, B. D., Fossella, J., Flombaum, J. I., & Posner, M. I. (2005). The activation of attentional networks. Neuroimage, 26(2), 471–479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.02.004
  • Fan, J., McCandliss, B. D., Sommer, T., Raz, A., & Posner, M. I. (2002). Testing the efficiency and independence of attentional networks. Journal of Cognitive Ceuroscience, 14(3), 340–347.
  • Funder, D. C., & Ozer, D. J. (2019). Evaluating effect size in psychological research: Sense and nonsense. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 2(2), 156–168. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515245919847202
  • Gathercole, S. E., Dunning, D. L., Holmes, J., & Norris, D. (2019). Working memory training involves learning new skills. Journal of Memory and Language, 105, 19–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2018.10.003
  • Gavelin, H. M., Dong, C., Minkov, R., Bahar-Fuchs, A., Ellis, K. A., Lautenschlager, N. T., Mellow, M. L., Wade, A. T., Smith, A. E., Finke, C., Krohn, S., & Lampit, A. (2021). Combined physical and cognitive training for older adults with and without cognitive impairment: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Ageing Research Reviews, 66, 101232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2020.101232
  • Grice, J. W., & Barrett, P. T. (2014). A note on Cohen's overlapping proportions of normal distributions. Psychological Reports, 115(3), 741–747. https://doi.org/10.2466/03.PR0.115c29z4
  • Guhn, M., Emerson, S. D., & Gouzouasis, P. (2020). A population-level analysis of associations between school music participation and academic achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(2), 308–328. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000376
  • Gustavson, D. E., Friedman, N. P., Stallings, M. C., Reynolds, C. A., Coon, H., Corley, R. P., ... & Gordon, R. L. (2021). Musical instrument engagement in adolescence predicts verbal ability 4 years later: A twin and adoption study. Developmental Psychology, 57(11), 1943–1957. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001245
  • Habibi, A., Damasio, A., Ilari, B., Veiga, R., Joshi, A. A., Leahy, R. M., ... & Damasio, H. (2018). Childhood music training induces change in micro and macroscopic brain structure: results from a longitudinal study. Cerebral Cortex, 28(12), 4336–4347. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhx286
  • Hanel, P. H., & Mehler, D. M. (2019). Beyond reporting statistical significance: Identifying informative effect sizes to improve scientific communication. Public Understanding of Science, 28(4), 468–485. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662519834193
  • Hardwicke, T. E., Szűcs, D., Thibault, R. T., Crüwell, S., van den Akker, O. R., Nuijten, M. B., & Ioannidis, J. P. (2021). Citation patterns following a strongly contradictory replication result: Four case studies from psychology. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 4(3), Article 25152459211040837. https://doi.org/10.1177/25152459211040837
  • Higgins, J. P., Thompson, S. G., & Spiegelhalter, D. J. (2009). A re‐evaluation of random‐effects meta‐analysis. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society), 172(1), 137–159. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-985X.2008.00552.x
  • Holgado, D., Vadillo, M. A., & Sanabria, D. (2019a). The effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on objective and subjective indexes of exercise performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Brain Stimulation, 12(2), 242–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2018.12.002
  • Holgado, D., Zandonai, T., Ciria, L. F., Zabala, M., Hopker, J., & Sanabria, D. (2019b). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left prefrontal cortex does not affect time-trial self-paced cycling performance: Evidence from oscillatory brain activity and power output. PLOS One, 14(2), e0210873. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210873
  • Huang, Z., Zhang, J. X., Yang, Z., Dong, G., Wu, J., Chan, A. S., et al. (2010). Verbal memory retrieval engages visual cortex in musicians. Neuroscience, 168(1), 179–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2010.03.027
  • Jakobson, L. S., Lewycky, S. T., Kilgour, A. R., & Stoesz, B. M. (2008). Memory for verbal and visual material in highly trained musicians. Music Perception, 26(1), 41–55. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2008.26.1.41
  • Lakens, D. (2013). Calculating and reporting effect sizes to facilitate cumulative science: a practical primer for t-tests and ANOVAs. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 863. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00863
  • Lakens, D., & Evers, E. R. (2014). Sailing from the seas of chaos into the corridor of stability: Practical recommendations to increase the informational value of studies. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9(3), 278–292. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691614528520
  • Ludyga, S., Gerber, M., Pühse, U., Looser, V. N., & Kamijo, K. (2020). Systematic review and meta-analysis investigating moderators of long-term effects of exercise on cognition in healthy individuals. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(6), 603–612. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0851-8
  • Mehr, S. A. (2015). Miscommunication of science: Music cognition research in the popular press. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 988. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00988 Merton, R. K. (1942). Science and technology in a democratic order. Journal of Legal and Political Sociology, 1(1), 115–126.
  • Moran, D. S., McClung, J. P., Kohen, T., & Lieberman, H. R. (2013). Vitamin D and physical performance. Sports Medicine, 43(7), 601–611. https://doi.org/10.1007s40279-013-0036-y
  • Moreau, D. (2021). How Malleable Are Cognitive Abilities? A Critical Perspective on Popular Brief Interventions. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/sxwah
  • Moreau, D., Macnamara, B. N., & Hambrick, D. Z. (2019). Overstating the Role of Environmental Factors in Success: A Cautionary Note. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(1), 28–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418797300
  • Nantais, K. M., & Schellenberg, E. G. (1999). The Mozart effect: An artifact of preference. Psychological Science, 10(4), 370–373. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00170
  • Nichols, E. S., Frantz, A. M., Wild, C. J., & Owen, A. M. (2020). Musical experience predicts cognitive differences in a large, demographically matched sample. PsyArxiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xk8y9
  • Odendaal, A., Levänen, S., & Westerlund, H. (2019). Lost in translation? Neuroscientific research, advocacy, and the claimed transfer benefits of musical practice. Music Education Research, 21(1), 4–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2018.1484438
  • Pearl, J., & Robins, J. M. (1995, August). Probabilistic evaluation of sequential plans from causal models with hidden variables. In UAI (Vol. 95, pp. 444–453).
  • Pesce, C., Vazou, S., Benzing, V., Álvarez-Bueno, C., Anzeneder, S., Mavilidi, M. F., ... & Schmidt, M. (2021). Effects of chronic physical activity on cognition across the lifespan: a systematic meta-review of randomized controlled trials and realist synthesis of contextualized mechanisms. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2021.1929404
  • Pietschnig, J., Voracek, M., & Formann, A. K. (2010). Mozart effect–Shmozart effect: A meta-analysis. Intelligence, 38(3), 314–323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2010.03.001
  • Rauscher, F. H., Shaw, G. L., & Ky, K. N. (1993). Music and spatial task performance. Nature, 365(6447), 611–611. https://doi.org/10.1038/365611a0
  • Rauscher, F. H., Shaw, G. L., & Ky, K. N. (1995). Listening to Mozart enhances spatial-temporal reasoning: towards a neurophysiological basis. Neuroscience Letters, 185(1), 44–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3940(94)11221-4
  • Roediger III, H. L. (2013). Applying cognitive psychology to education: Translational educational science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612454415
  • Rohrer, J. M. (2018). Thinking clearly about correlations and causation: Graphical causal models for observational data. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 1(1), 27–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515245917745629
  • Román-Caballero, R., Arnedo, M., Triviño, M., & Lupiáñez, J. (2018). Musical practice as an enhancer of cognitive function in healthy aging-A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS One, 13(11), e0207957. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207957
  • Román-Caballero, R., Vadillo, M. A., Trainor, L. J., & Lupiáñez, J. (2022). Please don't stop the music: A meta-analysis of the cognitive and academic benefits of instrumental musical training in childhood and adolescence. Educational Research Review, 35, 100436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2022.100436
  • Román-Caballero, R., Martín-Arévalo, E., & Lupiáñez, J. (2021). Attentional networks functioning and vigilance in expert musicians and non-musicians. Psychological Research, 85(3), 1121–1135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-020-01323-2
  • Ruscio, J. (2008). A probability-based measure of effect size: robustness to base rates and other factors. Psychological Methods, 13(1), 19–30. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.13.1.19
  • Sala, G., & Gobet, F. (2016). Do the benefits of chess instruction transfer to academic and cognitive skills? A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 18, 46–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2016.02.002
  • Sala, G., & Gobet, F. (2017). When the music's over. Does music skill transfer to children's and young adolescents' cognitive and academic skills? A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 20, 55–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2016.11.005
  • Sala, G., & Gobet, F. (2020). Cognitive and academic benefits of music training with children: A multilevel meta-analysis. Memory & Cognition, 48(8), 1429–1441. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-020-01060-2
  • Sanabria, D., Luque-Casado, A., Perales, J. C., Ballester, R., Ciria, L. F., Huertas, F., & Perakakis, P. (2019). The relationship between vigilance capacity and physical exercise: a mixed-effects multistudy analysis. PeerJ, 7, e7118. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7118
  • Schönbrodt, F. D., & Perugini, M. (2013). At what sample size do correlations stabilize?. Journal of Research in Personality, 47(5), 609–612. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2013.05.009
  • Sharma, P., Mahapatra, A., & Gupta, R. (2019). Meditation-induced psychosis: a narrative review and individual patient data analysis. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1017/ipm.2019.47
  • Simons, D. J., Boot, W. R., Charness, N., Gathercole, S. E., Chabris, C. F., Hambrick, D. Z., & Stine-Morrow, E. A. (2016). Do “brain-training” programs work?. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17(3), 103–186. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100616661983
  • Slevc, L. R., Davey, N. S., Buschkuehl, M., & Jaeggi, S. M. (2016). Tuning the mind: Exploring the connections between musical ability and executive functions. Cognition, 152, 199–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2016.03.017
  • Sumner, P., Vivian-Griffiths, S., Boivin, J., Williams, A., Bott, L., Adams, R., ... & Chambers, C. D. (2016). Exaggerations and caveats in press releases and health-related science news. PLOS One, 11(12), e0168217. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168217
  • Thompson, W. F., Schellenberg, E. G., & Husain, G. (2001). Arousal, mood, and the Mozart effect. Psychological Science, 12(3), 248–251. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00345
  • Thornton, A., & Lee, P. (2000). Publication bias in meta-analysis: its causes and consequences. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 53(2), 207–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0895-4356(99)00161-4
  • Tomporowski, P. D., & Pesce, C. (2019). Exercise, sports, and performance arts benefit cognition via a common process. Psychological Bulletin, 145(9), 929–951. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000200
  • White-Schwoch, T., Carr, K. W., Anderson, S., Strait, D. L., & Kraus, N. (2013). Older adults benefit from music training early in life: biological evidence for long-term training-driven plasticity. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(45), 17667–17674. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2560-13.2013
  • Whitfield, T., Barnhofer, T., Acabchuk, R., Cohen, A., Lee, M., Schlosser, M., ... & Marchant, N. L. (2021). The effect of mindfulness-based programs on cognitive function in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neuropsychology Review, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-021-09519-y
  • Williams, P., & Lord, S. R. (1997). Effects of group exercise on cognitive functioning and mood in older women. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 21(1), 45–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-842X.1997.tb01653.x
  • World Health Organization. (2020). WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour: at a glance. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity
  • Xue, Y., Yang, Y., & Huang, T. (2019). Effects of chronic exercise interventions on executive function among children and adolescents: a systematic review with meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 53(22), 1397–1404. http://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2018-099825
  • Young, J., Angevaren, M., Rusted, J., & Tabet, N. (2015). Aerobic exercise to improve cognitive function in older people without known cognitive impairment. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (4). https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD005381.pub4
  • Zimmer, P., Javelle, F., & Lampit, A. (2021). Comment on: “Effects of Exercise Training Interventions on Executive Function in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta‐analysis”. Sports Medicine, 51, 593–595. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-020-01369-7