All You Can ET

New York University

About this game

All You Can ET is a game designed to train cognitive flexibility, a subskill of executive functions. Cognitive flexibility involves inhibiting a prior perspective and considering a new perspective (Diamond, 2013).

Players need to apply frequently changing rules to give differently colored aliens the right food or drink they need to survive.

How does this support learning?
Executive functions refer to a set of top-down, goal-oriented cognitive processes that enable people to control, monitor and plan behaviors and emotions. Miyake and Friedman’s model supports a unity-and-diversity view of EF in that it incorporates the three distinct but related components of EF: inhibitory control, task-switching and updating (Miyake et al., 2000).

What is the research evidence?
Our research suggests that All you Can ET is an effective way to train Cognitive flexibility. Homer, B.D., Plass, J.L., Rose, M.C., MacNamara, A.*, Pawar, S.*, & Ober, T.M. (2019). Activating Adolescents’ “Hot” Executive Functions in a Digital Game to Train Cognitive Skills: The Effects of Age and Prior Abilities. Cognitive Development, 49, 20-32.


Research has found that EF is related to performance in literacy and math along with long-term gains in school performance and academic readiness (Blair & Razza, 2007; Brock, Rimm-Kaufman, Nathanson, & Grimm, 2009; St Clair-Thompson & Gathercole, 2006; Welsh, Nix, Blair, Bierman, & Nelson, 2010) and that disparities in EF among preschool children from low-income versus high-income homes may contribute to the achievement gap (Blair & Razza, 2007; Noble, McCandliss, & Farah, 2007).

This game is part of the Smart Suite, created by New York University’s CREATE lab in collaboration with the University of California, Santa Barbara, and The Graduate Center, CUNY.

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A150417 to the University of California, Santa Barbara. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

Ratings and reviews

Play to this game a lot of time. And found terrible thing from level 40 and so on when appears "reverse hole". When I tap to button for launch rocket it flies around 0.25-0.5sec. If during this time "reverse hole" appears/disappears result of rocket touch will be wrong. Please improve your game and register not rocket touch, but finger tap instead.

I'm 51 and I use all 3 of your games to help keep my brain sharp and better my executive function skills. They are definitely challenging and can benefit even adults for sure! Thank you!

Really good memory and quick switch game.

What's new

Fixed issues with game play collection; resolved minor bugs at the pause menu and when saving the level progress for the first time.