Assessing the Effects of a Relational Training Intervention on Fluid Intelligence Among a Sample of Socially Disadvantaged Children in Bangladesh

Abstract

A growing consensus is that performances on standardized intelligence tests can be positively influenced by interventions that focus on improving relational reasoning. One such intervention, known as SMART (Strengthening Mental Abilities with Relational Training), consists of presenting participants with increasingly complex exemplars of relational reasoning tasks involving premises associated along same-as, opposite-of, more-than, and less-than relations. Following multiple training and testing sessions involving these relations, increased fluency in SMART is related to enhanced performances on tests of intellectual ability (Cassidy et al., 2016). The current study expands upon previous investigations on SMART in two ways. First, we explored whether the amount of training undertaken can predict changes in intelligence test performances. Second, we assessed whether SMART training could be effective for a non-English speaking, socioeconomically disadvantaged cohort. Changes in intelligence were assessed via administrations of the standard Raven's Progressive Matrices before and after SMART training. Our results show that the stage of SMART training completed is positively related to changes in Ravens' performances and that such training can be effective for non-English cohorts.

Non-verbal IQ Gains from Relational Operant Training Explain Variance in Educational Attainment: An Active-Controlled Feasibility Study

“…However, participants in our study completed a mean of 27% of the training stages reported in other SMART studies (e.g., Cassidy et al, 2016Cassidy et al, , 2011Colbert et al, 2018;Hayes & Stewart, 2016). The degree to which our participants' NVIQ increased is roughly congruent with those studies, assuming that increases in intelligence due to relational training are linearly related to the amount of training completed (see also Amd and Roche (2018)).…”

“…Even allowing for the fact that participants could engage with the relational training program in their own time if they wished, the total number of hours of exposure to training is much less than in some studies. Amd and Roche (2018) also employed a similar measure of NVIQ (i.e., Matrices) and correspondingly noted a possible relationship between number of stages of training completed and NVIQ gain. Furthermore, targeting a sample with such a youthful age range (6-10 years) was ambitious for this kind of intensive cognitive training.…”

“…"Strengthening Mental Abilities with Relational Training" (SMART) is a commercial online program that trains relational framing operants (i.e., same/different and more/less relations) via multiple exemplar training in a gamified format. To date, several studies have suggested that training relational framing in this format leads to rises in IQ (Amd & Roche, 2018;Cassidy, Roche, Colbert, Stewart, & Grey, 2016;Cassidy, Roche, & Hayes, 2011;Colbert, Tyndall, Roche, & Cassidy, 2018;McLoughlin, Tyndall, & Pereira, 2018;Parra & Ruiz, 2016;Thirus, Starbrink, & Jansson, 2016;Vizcaíno-Torres et al, 2015) and there are putative indications of improvements in educational outcomes (Cassidy et al, 2016;J. Hayes & Stewart, 2016).…”

“…In typical SMART studies in which large rises in Fluid Intelligence are recorded, participants complete 55 relational training stages. In Amd and Roche (2018), training completion varied. Those who completed greater than 13 stages of relational training demonstrated significantly higher rises in Fluid Intelligence (+ 5 fluid IQ points) than those who completed 7 stages or less (+ 1 point).…”

Relational Operant Skills Training Increases Standardized Matrices Scores in Adolescents: A Stratified Active-Controlled Trial

“…The training effects of SMART also appear to manifest in non-Western samples. For example, Amd and Roche (2018) provided SMART training to a sample of 35 socially disadvantaged children in Bangladesh and observed rises in fluid intelligence (as measured using Raven's Matrices). Furthermore, those who completed more training stages showed the greatest improvements in fluid intelligence.…”