Can SMART Training Really Increase Intelligence? A Replication Study

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

“…The increase in NVIQ is considerably less than was reported in several other SMART studies. 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)).…”

“…"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).…”

“…Previous research has found that relational training significantly enhances the full-scale IQ of children as young as 10 or 11 years of age (Cassidy et al, 2011;Hayes & Stewart, 2016). It is not yet clear what are the earliest ages at which it might be deemed to be feasible or appropriate to engage in relational training (e.g., SMART program) in order to observe cognitive enhancements typically reported with older children and adolescents (e.g., Cassidy et al, 2016;Colbert et al, 2018). Derived relational responding (or AARR) has been reported in an infant as young as 27 months (Lipkens et al, 1993) and in preschool children (Smeets et al, 2001), so it is known that very young children can demonstrate stimulus equivalence or relations of sameness.…”

Analysis of apparent demonstrations of responding in accordance with relational frames of sameness and opposition by Alonso‐Alvarez and Perez‐Gonzalez (2018): A rejoinder

“…Cassidy, et al (2011) were the first to show that training multiple stimulus relations including same, opposite, more and less could significantly boost intellectual skills in children and substantially beyond the level facilitated by training equivalence relations alone. A more recent study (Colbert, Tyndall, Roche & Cassidy, ) has provided evidence of the efficacy of training same and opposite relations in particular by showing that completion of the same and opposite portion of the training protocol conferred almost as much intellectual benefit as completion of the protocol as a whole.…”

The evidence base for the opposition frame: A reply to Stewart, Dymond, & Roche (2019)

“…Relational frame theory (RFT) has generated bitter controversies (Burgos, 2003;Palmer, 2004;Tonneau, 2002). However, the abundant research conducted from this perspective has generated results of theoretical and applied importance (e.g., Colbert, Tyndall, Roche, & Cassidy, 2018). It may be time to conduct an unprejudiced analysis of the processes underlying RFT research outcomes.…”