How does Mastermind help students build math fluency?

Mastermind Cognitive Training strengthens the working memory, processing speed, and attention that math fluency depends on: holding numbers in mind while working, recognizing facts and operations quickly, and staying focused across the steps of a problem. The baseline assessment shows where each of those skills stands today, adaptive game-based sessions build the ones that need work, and a later reassessment measures how far they have moved.

What did the research find about cognitive skills and math?

A registered, randomized controlled trial (ISRCTN75915439) 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. Working memory, processing speed, and attention are established predictors of math performance in the educational-psychology literature, which is why Mastermind trains them. See the trial's findings for the figures, the institutions, and the preprint.

Is Mastermind a math facts drill tool?

No. Mastermind does not teach math content or drill facts. It strengthens the underlying cognitive skills, working memory, processing speed, and attention, that make math instruction and fact practice more effective, and works alongside the fact-fluency tools a school already uses rather than replacing any part of them.

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 Math Fluency in Schools

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Mastermind Cognitive Training builds the working memory, processing speed, and attention that math fluency depends on. It assesses, builds, and measures how well a student holds numbers in mind, works through operations quickly, and stays focused across the steps of a problem. Those skills are among the strongest predictors of math performance.

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

4×

Growth in math fluency

Recalling number facts and working through operations more readily
3×

Growth in working memory

Holding and using information across a task, like multi-step directions

Across Mastermind studies

The skills math fluency depends on

Math fluency rests on a set of skills, not a single one: the numbers held in mind while you work, the speed to recognize a fact or an operation, the focus to carry a problem through every step, and the restraint to check an answer before committing to it. Each is a distinct skill, and each strengthens with use.

Holds the numbers in mind while working through a problem

The mind keeps hold of the numbers a problem is working with, a carried digit or a running total, so they are in place when the next step needs them rather than starting the count again.

Recognizes a fact or operation the moment it appears

A number fact or an operation is recognized the moment it appears and worked without pause, so the steps keep pace with the thinking instead of the thinking waiting on the arithmetic.

Stays with a multi-step problem from first step to last

The focus stays on the problem from the first step to the last, holding through the parts that take several moves, so a long problem is carried through to the end rather than dropped partway.

Checks an answer before committing to it

A beat comes before the answer, long enough to weigh it against the problem, so the fast and familiar move gives way to the one that actually fits rather than being written down on reflex.

How Mastermind assesses and builds the skills behind math fluency

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 math about 24% faster than their peers, without losing accuracy. That speed rests on the cognitive skills beneath it, led by the working memory and cognitive flexibility that grew most.

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

See the research

Mastermind students vs peers

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

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 attention and cognitive control that math performance depends on.

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

Review 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 math, it starts with working memory, how much a student can hold in mind while they work, so support lands on the skill under the math.

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.

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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 to target math support

Most math support works on the math itself and leaves the working memory, processing speed, and attention underneath it unmeasured. The Learning Readiness Profile reads those skills directly and names the one to build first, so support lands on the right skill, alongside the math instruction your team already provides.

Schedule a Demo

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 make a real jump in their math in a single term as we have with the Mastermind program.

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Where math fits

This page covers the working memory, processing speed, and attention that math fluency depends on. When the concern is wider, or sits with a different 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.