Mastermind Cognitive Training

Build Academic Readiness

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Mastermind Cognitive Training is an academic readiness program for schools. It assesses, builds, and measures the foundational cognitive skills that academic readiness depends on: attention, working memory, processing speed, and impulse control. These are the skills a lesson lands on, so what a teacher puts in front of a student has something to hold.

A registered clinical trial at the University of Bedfordshire found significant improvement in student attention and eye movement control: the steadiness that lets a student track along a line of text and find the next one.

ISRCTN75915439 · N=168 · See the trial's findings

  • 3×

    Growth in focus

    Staying with a lesson and holding off distraction

  • 3×

    Growth in processing speed

    Taking in and responding at the pace a lesson moves

Across Mastermind studies

The foundational skills Mastermind builds

Academic readiness is a set of foundational skills, not a single readiness score: the attention that holds, the memory that keeps a direction, the speed that meets the pace of a lesson, and the self-control to check a first answer. Each one strengthens with use, and a teacher sees it in the day’s work well ahead of any test.

Stays with a lesson from the first minute to the last

When a lesson opens, a student is already with it and stays there while it runs. The eyes settle where the teaching is and the mind holds the same spot, so instruction has somewhere to land from the first minute rather than after a slow start.

Carries a direction from the board to the desk

What the teacher just said is still there when the work begins. A student carries a direction from the board to the desk in one piece, so each part of a lesson has the last part to build on instead of starting over.

Meets the pace a lesson is taught at

The lesson moves and the student moves with it. What is explained is taken in as it is explained, so by the time the practice arrives a student is ready to do it rather than still working through the instruction.

Waits a beat, weighs it, then answers

A new task meets a considered first move rather than an automatic one. A student takes the beat to read the setup and pick a way in, so attention stays on understanding the lesson rather than on recovering from a rushed start.

How Mastermind assesses and builds the skills behind academic readiness

Assess

30 minutes

Standardized cognitive protocols and performance tasks produce a Mastermind Learning Readiness Profile.

Train

20-minute sessions

Training starts where each student is and adapts as they improve, so it fits every student.

Measure

Standardized and comparable

Growth shows up skill by skill, so each student's progress is easy to see.

Case study

Fusion Academy

With more than 80 campuses, Fusion Academy serves students with learning, social, or emotional differences. The school ran this study in partnership with Mastermind Cognitive Training.

Students using Mastermind processed information about 10% faster than their peers, the kind of speed that lets a student keep pace with a lesson as it unfolds. That growth sits on the cognitive foundations readiness depends on, with overall cognitive performance and working memory leading the way.

38 trained · 27 control10–18 weeks7 locations~60 minutes per week

See the research

Mastermind students vs peers

Overall Cognitive Performance
5.1×
Working Memory
6.9×
Cognitive Flexibility*
5.3×

Students not using Mastermind Students using Mastermind

*Cognitive flexibility is the ability to shift and adapt cognitive responses.

View all Fusion results

Mastermind students vs peers

Cognitive

  • 6.9× Working Memory
  • 5.3× Cognitive Flexibility
  • 5.1× Overall Cognitive Performance
  • 4.7× Visual Attention & Tracking

Reading

  • 3.1× Reading Comprehension

Speed and efficiency

Reading

  • 21% faster reading after training
  • 35% reduction in reading response-time variability

Math

  • 24% faster math processing, without losing accuracy
  • 13% faster mathematical decision-making, without losing accuracy

Processing

  • 10% faster processing and response speed vs peers (~18 ms)

Also observed

  • Improved performance on skills that support focus and attention
  • Improved oculomotor performance (saccades, pursuits, fixations)

Independently studied

Across 168 students in UK primary schools, Mastermind produced significant improvement in teacher-reported attention (p=.017) and in eye-tracking measures of visual control (p=.001), the foundation of fluent reading.

Led by Dr. Anastasia Giannakopoulou, lead researcher on the trial, with Dr. Joaquin Anguera, a UCSF cognitive neuroscientist and leading researcher in game-based cognitive training.

Read the Research
Preprint

Virtual Reality and Tablet Cognitive Training Improve Attention and Academic Skills Without Dose Effects

Giannakopoulou A, Gordon AM, Gallen CE, Seaman M, Fedele D, Anguera JA

doi: 10.1101/2025.09.16.676629 ISRCTN75915439 · N=168 · Ages 8–10 University of Bedfordshire · UCSF Neuroscape

Explore a Learning Readiness Profile

A Learning Readiness Profile does more than measure. For each student it shows which skills are strong, which to build first, what helps in class, and what progress looks like, so a classroom teacher has somewhere to start. For readiness, it puts a baseline under the foundational skills a lesson lands on, and marks which to strengthen before the lesson rather than after.

Mastermind Learning Readiness Profile

Learning is most accessible for this student when work has a clear first step and a quick reset when it feels hard, before frustration builds or attention drifts.

Maya R. · GR 4 · Baseline

Support first

Focus & AttentionStarts work and stays with it Emerging
PacingKeeps pace across multi-step work Developing
Response InhibitionPauses to check before answering Developing
Working MemoryHolds directions while working Developing

Build from

Processing SpeedTakes work in at a steady pace Age-typical
Object TrackingFollows information on the page Age-typical
Sample reportAn instructional tool, not a medical diagnosis.

School, district, or center.

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What it takes to run Mastermind in your school

A student works through a session on a tablet at a classroom desk while classmates work nearby.

Evidence your team can build from

Readiness tends to be inferred from how a student performs, not measured as the skills beneath the performing. The Learning Readiness Profile puts an objective baseline under attention, working memory, processing speed, and self-control, and marks which to strengthen first, so a team readies a student for a lesson rather than responding after it, alongside the instruction your team already provides.

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When it runs
Two twenty-minute sessions a week, built into an intervention block, rotation, or the start of a period. It fits into time your schedule already has.
How students begin
Sessions are self-guided, allowing students to start immediately without educator training or curriculum prep.
What it runs on
A tablet. Each session is individualized, so one device can serve multiple students across the week just as easily as an entire class.
How it is funded
Title IV-A (Student Support and Academic Enrichment) can support programs like this. Title I funds can also be used in schools that qualify.

We have never seen this many students improve a reading level or even a full grade level in one term as we have with the Mastermind program.

Ms. Dani Strickler Teacher · Icknield Lower School, Dunstable

Where academic readiness fits

This page covers the foundational skills every lesson depends on. When the concern is a named framework or a single skill, these pages go deeper:

Frequently asked questions

The questions institutional buyers ask first. For pricing and rollout specifics, a member of our team can walk you through it.

Schedule a Demo
  • What is academic readiness?

    Academic readiness is the set of foundational cognitive skills a student brings to learning: attention, working memory, processing speed, and impulse control. Together they decide how much of a lesson a student can take in and act on. Mastermind Cognitive Training assesses these skills, builds them through short game-based sessions, and tracks the change at reassessment.

  • How do you assess readiness to learn?

    A baseline assessment measures each student’s attention, working memory, processing speed, and impulse control, then produces a Mastermind Learning Readiness Profile: an objective read on the foundational skills behind how a student performs in class. It takes about 30 minutes and points your team to the skills to build first.

  • Why is school readiness important?

    Because a lesson can only build on the skills a student already has in place. When attention, working memory, and processing speed are steady, new material is taken in the first time and a student moves at the pace of the class. When those skills are still developing, the same material can arrive faster than it is absorbed, so effort that could go to learning goes to keeping pace instead. Strengthening the foundational skills directly gives every subject a firmer base to build on.

  • Is there research behind Mastermind’s approach to academic readiness?

    Yes. A registered, randomized controlled trial (ISRCTN75915439) of 168 students aged 8 to 10 found statistically significant improvement in teacher-reported attention (p=.017) and in eye-tracking measures of visual control (p=.001) for students who trained on Mastermind, compared with a control group. Attention and visual control are core to how ready a student is to take in a lesson. See the trial’s findings for the figures, the institutions, and the preprint.

  • How much staff time does implementation require?

    Minimal. The baseline assessment takes about 30 minutes. Training sessions are self-guided and auto-leveling, run 20 minutes three times a week, and need little to no ongoing staff facilitation. Mastermind is designed to extend staff capacity, not add to it.

Build Academic Readiness

See how Mastermind builds academic readiness in your school.

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