"Improves memory and concentration" is one of the most repeated phrases in this entire industry — and one of the least explained. Which memory? Concentration for how long, on what? Most parents never get a real answer, because most academies are quoting each other, not research. Here's the honest version.
First: two different things get lumped together as "memory"
Cognitive scientists don't treat "memory" as one single thing. Long-term memory (remembering your first day of school, or a poem learned last year) is a different system from working memory — the small mental workspace you use to hold a phone number in mind just long enough to dial it, or to hold two numbers in mind while adding them.
Abacus training, and specifically the mental-abacus (visualisation) stage, is a working-memory task. A child has to hold an imagined image of the bead columns in mind while updating it, step by step, as new numbers come in. That is precisely the kind of task researchers use to measure visuospatial working memory in the first place.
What the evidence actually supports: Gains in visuospatial working memory — holding and manipulating a mental image while calculating. Not a general upgrade to memory of all kinds, and not, on its own, a treatment for attention difficulties.
Why working memory matters more than it sounds
It would be easy to dismiss "working memory" as a narrow, technical skill. It isn't. A well-cited study by researchers Rebecca Bull and Gaia Scerif found that executive function measures — including working memory — were significant predictors of children's mathematics ability, alongside inhibition and task-switching skills. Working memory isn't a side benefit of arithmetic; in the research literature, it's one of the core cognitive resources arithmetic is built on.
This is also where the Barner et al. (2016) randomised controlled trial we've referenced elsewhere on this site becomes relevant again: children trained in mental abacus in Indian schools showed measurable arithmetic gains specifically linked to this visuospatial working-memory mechanism — not to a vague "brain boost."
What about concentration?
Concentration, or sustained attention, is related to working memory but isn't identical to it. To hold and update a mental image of an abacus for even 30–60 seconds without losing track, a child has to sustain focus on an internal representation while ignoring what's actually in front of them — a real, demanding form of attention control.
We're careful here about what we don't claim. There is no published clinical evidence that abacus training treats attention disorders, and we won't imply that it does. What is defensible is more modest and, we think, still genuinely valuable: repeated, structured visualisation practice builds sustained-attention habits in typically developing children — the same way any deliberately practiced skill builds the capacity to stick with it.
Where the evidence runs out: Two claims we deliberately don't make: that abacus training produces a general IQ increase, and that it produces faster results on unrelated skills like reading comprehension. This is the "near transfer vs. far transfer" problem — practice reliably improves the skill practiced and closely related skills (near transfer), but transfer to a distant, unrelated skill (far transfer) is much weaker across the literature.
How this connects to two of our methods
This is exactly why two of Udaan's five teaching methods are built specifically around this mechanism. Visual Abacus (eyes-closed visualisation) is the direct working-memory-and-attention builder described above. Screen Abacus — numbers flashing rapidly while a child calculates — adds a processing-speed dimension on top: recognising a number as a whole visual pattern rather than reading it digit by digit, a real and well-documented expertise effect.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does abacus training improve general memory?
Not in the sense of a general memory boost. The evidence supports gains specifically in visuospatial working memory — holding and manipulating a visual/numeric image in mind — not long-term or general memory.
Is working memory the same as concentration?
They're related but not identical. Working memory is the capacity to hold information in mind while using it. Concentration/sustained attention is the ability to stay engaged with a task over time. Mental abacus practice draws on both.
Can abacus training help a child with attention difficulties?
There is no published clinical evidence that abacus training treats attention disorders, and we do not claim it does. What's supported is that structured visualisation practice builds sustained-attention habits in typically developing children.
Why do some children get faster at abacus without their exam scores improving as much?
This is the near-transfer versus far-transfer problem: practice reliably improves the specific skill practiced and closely related skills, but transfer to a very different, unrelated task is typically weaker.
References • Peer-Reviewed
- Bull, R., & Scerif, G. (2001). Executive functioning as a predictor of children's mathematics ability. Developmental Neuropsychology, 19(3), 273–293.
- Barner, D., et al. (2016). Learning Mathematics in a Visuospatial Format: A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Mental Abacus Instruction. Child Development, 87(4), 1146–1158.
- Frank, M. C., & Barner, D. (2012). Representing exact number visually using mental abacus. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(1), 134–149.
- Gathercole, S. E., et al. (2004). The structure of working memory from 4 to 15 years of age. Developmental Psychology, 40(2), 177–190.