"Just twelve hours of memory training for first-graders increases the proportion of high school students attending secondary school by 15 percentage points, a field study shows. Behavioral economist Ernst Fehr explains whether curricula should be rewritten and what parents can do themselves.
Professor Fehr, you are the most cited German-speaking economist and have published countless studies. Were you nevertheless surprised by the results of your most recent education study?
Yes, indeed. My colleagues and I expected that children would benefit from working memory training. But the enormous magnitude of the effect truly surprised us: Over five weeks, a daily unit for first-graders in which working memory was trained resulted in 15 percentage points more of them choosing a high school (Gymnasium) three years later than students in a comparison group.
That sounds incredible. Let's start at the beginning. How did you proceed?
In Mainz, we were able to recruit school classes with a total of 572 first-graders for an experiment. Half of the school classes, were randomly assigned to the experimental group, completed approximately half an hour of working memory training every school morning for five weeks. The other half was assigned to the control group and had normal classes during this time. This allowed us to measure whether the training had a positive effect compared to normal school lessons.
What exactly is the working memory that was trained in the six- and seven-year-olds?
Working memory is a type of short-term memory that is needed to manage very basic things: For example, while I am speaking, I have to keep the beginning of the sentence in mind in order to finish it meaningfully. For working memory to function well, external stimuli must also be suppressed; one cannot allow oneself to be distracted: While we are talking, I am sitting on the terrace and looking at the people on the beach by a lake. But I have to be able to block that out in order to concentrate on our conversation.
How was this working memory trained in the half-hour sessions?
The students computer-based training sessions in which their visuospatial working memory was trained.
Can you give an example of an exercise?
For example, three-dimensional, irregular objects moved and rotated in space on the screens. They then lit up in different colors, and the child later had to remember what lit up and how.
Does a teacher even need this?
Yes, but only up to the point where the children are motivated to sit in front of the computer and begin the tasks. The tasks then adapt to the individual children's abilities and become progressively more difficult.
What specific effect do these exercises have on the children?
First, you can observe that their working memory improves. Later, they became better at solving geometric problems. This is obvious given the visuospatial components of geometric problems, but it creates a kind of chain reaction – the new skills give rise to further new skills: The advantages of the children in the experimental group increase over time and extend to other skills such as reading and so-called fluid intelligence, which is needed for more abstract tasks.
So it takes time for the positive effects to fully develop?
Yes, after six weeks, for example, we still don't find a positive effect on geometry. This effect only becomes visible after six months and is still present after a year. This could explain why the effects were much smaller in previous experiments that only measured short-term effects of such training.
Does working memory training promote other effects?
Yes, the ability to control impulses increases. We believe this is important for understanding why the effect of the training is relatively large.
To what extent?
If students' impulse control functions better, there are fewer distractions and fewer disruptions in the classroom. Our assumption is that this makes the lessons work better, and everyone in the class benefits. This group effect would also explain why the effect is greater when training entire classes rather than just individuals who have nothing to do with each other. Three years after the training, as mentioned, 15 percentage points more children in the experimental group make it to high school.
Could you rule out any possible reasons for the differences – for example, a difference in the quality of the teachers?
Yes, because entire school classes, along with their teachers, were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. It is therefore unlikely that the teachers in the experimental group were better.
If all of this is true, shouldn't the training be introduced immediately in all elementary schools nationwide? Have you found a silver bullet?
I wouldn't go that far. But it's a very encouraging result. I would hope that other researchers try to replicate it in other schools and countries. Our study provides important evidence that simple working memory training can produce improvements relative to regular school instruction.
And if the result is confirmed?
Then education policymakers should consider incorporating the training into regular classes.
Do education policymakers contact you and your colleagues and ask about your studies?
Yes, fortunately, that happens surprisingly often.
What does it mean economically if more children make it to secondary school?
If the results are confirmed, such training is worthwhile because the resources invested are much lower than the long-term returns. We know from research, for example, that children who complete high school earn significantly more later in life than children who don't. Overall, this creates a positive effect on the economy.
What can parents do who are now reading about your results but are waiting in vain for such programs to be created in schools?
It is unknown whether commercially available toys or programs for individual memory training have similar results to our study. Our study was conducted in a stable school class and with an adaptive program. These toys often have the disadvantage that, unlike our training, they don't adapt to the abilities of individual children.
Can you just play memory games?
Yes, memory games are certainly a step in the right direction, but we don't know whether they actually produce positive effects like those in our study.
The interview was conducted by Johannes Pennekamp.
Economists and Learning Apps
Ernst Fehr is a professor of economics at the University of Zurich and director of the UBS Center for Economics in Society. The behavioral economist regularly ranks among the top in rankings of research performance and public influence among German-speaking economists. The study, which demonstrated the astonishing effects of memory training, is titled "The Impact of Working-Memory Training on Children's Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills" and was published in the "Journal of Political Economy." In addition to Fehr, the German researchers Eva Berger, Henning Hermes, Daniel Schunk, and Kirsten Winkel were also involved in the study.
Commercial apps such as Nuroe offer memory exercises similar to those used in classrooms. [1]
1. Haben Sie eine Wunderwaffe für Schulerfolg gefunden, Herr Fehr? Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Frankfurt. 09 Aug 2025: 18.
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