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  • Perspective
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Cognitive training for mental health problems

Nature Mental Health volume 2, pages 17–24 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

The persistent gap between need and access for evidence-based mental health care has spurred interest in the development of disseminable, efficacious and cost-effective approaches as stand-alone and adjunctive interventions. Computerized cognitive trainings, which originated primarily in the experimental psychopathology literature, have gained much attention as a possible approach to addressing this need–access gap. In this Perspective we describe the current state of the literature on computerized cognitive training interventions for psychopathology. Drawing on long-standing principles from learning theory and cognitive psychology, we discuss several reasons why many of these interventions (for example, cognitive bias modification) have not yet achieved their considerable potential as cost-effective, scalable and effective digital therapeutics. We also explore distinguishing features that may help to explain why some computerized cognitive training programs (for example, cognitive remediation) tend to show more robust effects than others. Finally, we leverage insights across basic and applied branches of psychology to offer concrete recommendations for building more robustly effective digital interventions moving forward.

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Fig. 1: Common trade-offs when developing treatments.

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Acknowledgements

L.S.H. was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (grant no. K01 MH 116328). We thank M. K. Caulfield for her assistance with preparing Fig. 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Lauren S. Hallion

  2. Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Kean J. Hsu

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA

    Kean J. Hsu

  4. Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    Jessica L. Schleider

  5. Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Jessica L. Schleider

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L.S.H. was responsible for conceptualization and preparing the original draft. K.J.H. contributed to conceptualization, writing and editing. J.L.S. contributed to conceptualization and editing.

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Correspondence to Lauren S. Hallion.

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Nature Mental Health thanks Simon E. Blackwell, Brooke C. Schneider and Susanne Schweizer for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Hallion, L.S., Hsu, K.J. & Schleider, J.L. Cognitive training for mental health problems. Nat. Mental Health 2, 17–24 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-023-00185-y

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