A field study shows that just twelve hours of memory training for first graders increases the baccalaureate graduation rate by 15 percentage points. Behavioral economist Ernst Fehr explains whether curricula should be rewritten and what parents can do themselves.

This interview by Johannes Pennekamp was originally published in German in FAZ on 9.8.2025. Translated and edited for layout and context purposes by the UBS Center.

Professor Fehr, you are the most cited German-speaking economist and have published countless studies. Were you still surprised by the results of your latest education study?

Yes, indeed. My colleagues and I expected that children would benefit from working memory training. But the enormous extent of the effect really surprised us: three years after the study, a daily session for first graders over five weeks in which their working memory was trained resulted in 15 percentage points more of them choosing a school offering a baccalaureate (which would qualify for later university enrollment) in contrast to pupils in a comparison group.

That sounds incredible. Let's start at the beginning. How did you go about it?

We were able to recruit school classes in Mainz, Germany, with a total of 572 first graders for an experiment. One-half of the school classes, which were randomly assigned to the experimental group, completed a half hour working memory training session every school day in the morning for five weeks. The other half were assigned to the control group and had normal lessons 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 kind of short-term memory that you need to cope with very basic things: For example, while I'm speaking, I have to remember the beginning of the sentence in order to finish it in a meaningful way. External stimuli must also be suppressed for the working memory to function well, so you can't allow yourself to be distracted: While we're talking, I'm sitting on the terrace looking at people on the beach of a lake. But I have to be able to block that out so that I can concentrate on our conversation.

How was this working memory trained in the half-hour sessions?

The pupils underwent computer-based training in which their visual-spatial working memory was trained.

Can you give an example of an exercise?

On the screens, for example, three-dimensional, irregular objects moved and rotated in space. They then lit up in different colors and the child later had to remember what lit up and how.

Do we even need teachers for this?

Yes, but only up to the point where the children are motivated to sit at the computer and start the tasks. The tasks then adapt to the abilities of the individual children and become progressively more difficult.

What specific effects do these exercises have on children?

First, you can observe that their working memory improves. Later, they became better at solving geometric problems. This is obvious because of the visual-spatial components of geometric problems, but it creates a kind of chain reaction—new skills lead to further new skills. The advantages of the children in the test group increase over time and extend to other skills such as reading and what is known as fluid intelligence, which is needed for more abstract tasks.

It thus takes time for the positive effects to fully unfold?

Yes, after six weeks, for example, we don't see any positive effects 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 earlier experiments, which only measured the short-term effects of such training.

Does working memory training have any other benefits?

Yes, it improves impulse control. We believe this is important for understanding why the training has such a significant effect.

In what way?

When students have better impulse control, there are fewer distractions and less disruption in class. Our assumption is that this improves the quality of teaching, which in turn benefits everyone in the class. This group effect would also explain why the effect is greater when entire classes are trained rather than individual students who do not interact. As mentioned above, three years after the training, 15 percent more children from the test group were admitted to a baccalaureate level school.

Were you able to rule out other reasons for the differences, such as differences in teacher quality?

Yes, because entire school classes were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups together with their class teachers. It is therefore unlikely that the teachers in the experimental group were better.

If that's the case, shouldn't the training be introduced immediately in all elementary schools nationwide? Have you found a magic bullet?

I wouldn't go that far. But it's a very encouraging result. I would like to see other researchers try to replicate our results in other schools and countries. Our study provides important evidence that simple working memory training can lead to improvements relative to normal school instruction.

And if the result is confirmed?

Then education policymakers should consider incorporating the training into regular classroom instruction.

Do education policymakers contact you and your colleagues to ask about your studies?

Yes, fortunately that happens surprisingly often.

What does it mean for the economy if more children attend baccalaureate level schools?

If the results are confirmed, this training is worthwhile because the resources invested are much lower than the long-term returns. We know from research, for example, that children who have a baccalaureate earn significantly more in later life than children who do not. Overall, this therefore has a positive effect on the economy.

What can parents who read your findings but are waiting in vain for such a program to be introduced in schools do?

It is not known whether commercially available toys or programs for individual memory training have similar results to our study. Our study took place in a stable school class setting and used an adaptive program. These programs often have the disadvantage that, unlike our training, they do not adapt to the abilities of the individual children.

Can you just play the game “memory”?

Yes, memory is certainly a step in the right direction, but we don't know whether it actually has the positive effects shown in our study.