The study by Owen et al. investigates the efficacy of brain training programs in improving cognitive function in a large sample of healthy adults. The research involved 11,430 participants who were randomly assigned to one of three groups: two experimental groups that trained on specific cognitive tasks and a control group that answered general knowledge questions online. The training tasks were designed to improve reasoning, memory, planning, visuospatial skills, and attention. After six weeks, the participants completed a benchmarking assessment to measure changes in cognitive function. The results showed that both experimental groups improved significantly on the trained tasks, with effect sizes ranging from small to very small. However, there was no evidence of transfer effects to untrained tasks, even those closely related to the trained tasks. The control group also showed modest improvements on the benchmarking tests, but these were not statistically different from the experimental groups. The study concludes that while brain training can improve performance on specific tasks, it does not lead to generalized improvements in cognitive function beyond those tasks.The study by Owen et al. investigates the efficacy of brain training programs in improving cognitive function in a large sample of healthy adults. The research involved 11,430 participants who were randomly assigned to one of three groups: two experimental groups that trained on specific cognitive tasks and a control group that answered general knowledge questions online. The training tasks were designed to improve reasoning, memory, planning, visuospatial skills, and attention. After six weeks, the participants completed a benchmarking assessment to measure changes in cognitive function. The results showed that both experimental groups improved significantly on the trained tasks, with effect sizes ranging from small to very small. However, there was no evidence of transfer effects to untrained tasks, even those closely related to the trained tasks. The control group also showed modest improvements on the benchmarking tests, but these were not statistically different from the experimental groups. The study concludes that while brain training can improve performance on specific tasks, it does not lead to generalized improvements in cognitive function beyond those tasks.