Game-based training can boost executive function and math skills in children

An experimental study conducted in Brazil found that a game-based cognitive training program called Cucca Curiosa improved executive functioning and mathematics performance in children aged 7 to 10 years. The Cucca Curiosa training program lasted one week and consisted of five sessions, each lasting an average of 13 minutes. The paper was published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

Executive functions are a set of high-level cognitive processes that support goal-directed behavior, including planning, working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and self-monitoring. These processes help individuals manage their thoughts, emotions, and actions in order to achieve objectives effectively.

In daily life, executive functions are important for organizing tasks, solving problems, making decisions, and adapting to changing circumstances. Strong executive skills help people resist distractions, regulate impulses, and follow through on plans.

In children, these skills play a key role in academic learning, social development, and emotional regulation. Well-developed executive functions help children pay attention in class, remember instructions, and switch between tasks efficiently. Deficits in these abilities are linked to difficulties with behavior, school performance, and peer relationships. Executive functions develop gradually across childhood and adolescence and are shaped by both brain development and life experiences. Early interventions, such as games that engage memory and self-control, may strengthen these abilities.

Study author Alanny Nunes de Santana and her colleagues set out to investigate whether a game-based cognitive intervention could improve executive functioning and math skills in 7- to 10-year-old children.

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Cucca Curiosa is an electronic game developed in C# using Unity 2D. It consists of six different Portuguese-language activities designed to target executive functions. Each mini-game focuses on a specific skill and includes instructions on how the skill can be applied in everyday contexts.

The tasks increase in difficulty with repetition, and metacognitive strategies—techniques that encourage players to reflect on their thinking—are embedded throughout the game in the form of tips. These strategies guide players to ask questions, evaluate errors, and monitor their attention and performance.

The Cucca Curiosa intervention was delivered in five sessions, each lasting up to 26 minutes, with an average duration of 13 minutes per session. The full intervention was completed within one week.

The study included 112 children from public schools in northeastern Brazil. There were 28 children at each age (7 through 10), and half of the participants were boys. The children were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group. Those in the experimental group completed the Cucca Curiosa training, while those in the control group did not receive any intervention.

Before and after the intervention, all participants completed a battery of tests assessing executive functioning and mathematics performance. These included the NEUPSILIN-Inf neuropsychological battery and the mathematics-focused TEMA test.

The results suggest that the Cucca Curiosa intervention led to short-term improvements in both executive functioning and math performance. Statistical analysis indicated that the gains in executive functioning may have contributed to the observed improvements in math.

“The current study provides new evidence that training EFs [executive functions] through the Cucca Curiosa electronic game intervention improves the performance of children aged 7 to 10 years in EF measures, notably WM [working memory], IC [inhibitory control], and CF [cognitive flexibility], and in mathematical activities that include counting, patterns, sequences, composition and decomposition, the four basic arithmetic operations, rational numbers, comparisons of fractions, natural numbers, and percentages. The presented intervention therefore represents a valuable approach to training EFs in typical children, with proven short-term gains,” the study authors concluded.

The study sheds light on the effects of the Cucca Curiosa game on cognitive functioning of 7-10-year-olds. However, it should be noted that children in the experimental group were fully aware of the intervention they are going through and could easily guess what study authors expectations are, while the control group participants were not included in any activities. This leaves room for the results to be a consequence of or at least affected by the Hawthorne effect. The Hawthorne effect is the tendency for people to change their behavior simply because they know they are being observed (for example try harder on cognitive tests).

The paper, “Game-based cognitive training and its impact on executive functions and math performance: A randomized controlled trial,” was authored by Alanny Nunes de Santana, Antonio Roazzi, and Alena Pimentel Mello Cabral Nobre.