Executive functions (EF) in children can be trained, but it remains unknown whether training-related benefits elicit far transfer to real-life situations. Here, we investigate whether a set of computerized games might yield near and far transfer on an experimental and an active control group of low-SES otherwise typically developing 6-y-olds in a 3-mo pretest-training-posttest design that was ecologically deployed (at school). The intervention elicits transfer to some (but not all) facets of executive function. These changes cascade to real-world measures of school performance. The intervention equalizes academic outcomes across children who regularly attend school and those who do not because of social and familiar circumstances.cognitive training intervention | school grades | Attention Network Test | school attendance | working memory T he efficacy of cognitive training is controversial and constitutes a current challenge for educational neuroscience research (1-4). Although it has been well documented that directed interventions in children can change specific cognitive functions (5-8), it is unknown whether those translate to broader contexts and real-world situations of educational pertinence. Cognitive training has largely focused on executive functions (EF) (6-8), a class of processes critical for purposeful, goal-directed behavior, including working memory (WM), planning, and cognitive control (6). Research has shown that EF capabilities can be improved with practice and gaming interventions (5-7, 9). These results are particularly promising because EF are critical for educational success (10-12) and for mental and physical health (5, 13); furthermore, early self-regulation is indicative of an individual's health and social behavior as an adult (14,15).Because the degree of self-regulation elicited by a child can predict real-life outcomes, it is presumed that an intervention that improves EF should affect a child educational success. However, this hypothesis has never been explicitly examined based on school grades as real-world measurements of educational achievement (16). Instead, current evidence (7, 9, 17, 18) derives from laboratory measures related to school performance (for instance, the time it takes for a child to read a word). Because school performance results from an intertwined process integrating EF with temperament, socioeconomic status (SES), and cognitive skills (19-22) among other environmental factors, examining the direct outcome of an intervention on school grades is necessary to assure its practical pertinence.Our main hypothesis is that a gaming intervention in schoolage children tuned to improve aspects of EF should transfer to real-world manifestations of school performance indexed by children's grades.In the educational system of the City of Buenos Aires, first graders devote an important amount of their school time to language and math. Grading for these subjects is largely based on objective tasks and they are examined extensively. Instead, other subjects (such as foreign la...

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