Still no evidence that exergames improve cognitive ability: A commentary on Stanmore et al. (2017)



Sala, Giovanni ORCID: 0000-0002-1589-3759, Tatlidil, K Semir and Gobet, Fernand ORCID: 0000-0002-9317-6886
(2021) Still no evidence that exergames improve cognitive ability: A commentary on Stanmore et al. (2017). NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS, 123. pp. 352-353.

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Abstract

A recent meta-analysis (Stanmore et al. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 78:34-43, 2017) claimed that exergames exert medium-size positive effects on people's overall cognitive function. The present article critically tests this claim. We argue that the meta-analysis reported inflated effect sizes mainly for three reasons: (a) some effect sizes were miscalculated; (b) there was an excessive amount of true heterogeneity; and (c) no publication-bias-corrected estimates were provided. We have thus recalculated the effect sizes and reanalyzed the data using a more robust approach and more sophisticated techniques. Compared to Stanmore's et al., our models show that: (a) the overall effect sizes are substantially smaller; (b) the amount of true heterogeneity, when any, is much lower; and (c) the publication-bias analyses suggest that the actual effect of exergames on overall cognitive function is slim to null. Therefore, the cognitive benefits of exergames are far from being established.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Aging, Cognitive training, Exergames, Meta-analysis
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 27 Nov 2019 13:56
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 00:18
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.11.015
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3063646