THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE COGNITIVE TRAINING FOR CHILDREN FROM A DIFFERENTIAL PERSPECTIVE - A META-EVALUATION

The Cognitive Training for Children (CTC) was designed by Klauer to te ach children thinking strategies that would increase their inductive r easoning. This article reviews seventeen studies designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the CTC. In contrast to popular meta-analysis wit h its statistical techniques of averaging effect sizes, a qualitative meta-evaluation based on quantitative findings was undertaken from a d ifferential perspective. This approach reveals some interesting inform ation concerning the why and how of the CTC's overall effectiveness. P roblems concerning the appropriateness of the criterion Variables used as well as the control groups included in the various studies were co nsidered thoroughly. A discussion of the program author's claim of dom ain specificity of the effectiveness of the CTC and of the present aut hors' perception hypothesis are provided. Despite the unambiguous meri ts of the CTC, it is concluded that primarily changes in efficiency of visual perception are responsible for the effectiveness of the progra m among younger children, and that it is not worse, but also not super ior to available rival cognitive training programs. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.