There is no denying that brain training computer games are good fun and when you participate in them often you may definitely improve considerably at playing them. You may believe that in playing them, you are doing youe best for improving memory and for enhancing all your other brain functions. It is justifiable to think this, yet how do we know for sure that there has in fact been any progress? Do we have scientifically-proven evidence of the success of these mental exercises?
The multi-million dollar brain training games industry would no doubt claim that its mental exercises are based on sound neurological theory and that therefore there is a reasonable possibility of improving your memory and other skills through using its mind exercise software. They have not however, at least to my knowledge, published the results of any studies that they have made into this area.
Well, recently the very revealing results of a large UK study into the effectiveness of brain exercises on improving memory etc. have been published, and they are probably not what you would have predicted. BBC television conducted this research in conjunction with the British Medical Research Council and the Alzheimer's Society.
The researchers recruited thirteen thousand adult volunteers to be involved in their rigorous experiment for about one and a half months. The plan was to check out whether exercising the brain on a variety of activities intended to employ different regions of the brain (such as the temporal lobes for memory and the parietal lobes for mathematics), would strengthen mental skills, such as memory and problem-solving skills.
The volunteers were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The first group did a broad range of brain exercises, including ones for improving memory , for ten minutes every other day for six weeks. Since the tasks were internet-based, the control group just used the internet for the same amount of time. At the end of the trial period, the brain training group was retested on the brain exercises and was found to be 33 per cent better at performing the brain games they had trained on.
The intention of the study was to see whether becoming competent at brain training activities would produce improvement in the same skills when utilized in a different framework. So both groups of test subjects were tested before and after the experiment in their ability to carry out activities such as problem-solving and reproducing strings of numbers.
Upon retesting at the end of the trial, the control group's score had improved by 4.35 per cent. Surprisingly however, the score for the experimental group was almost identical. It represented only a 6.52 per cent increase over its original score. So, statistically there was no difference between the two groups. Of course, what they could not conclude was whether the small improvement was just the effect of working online. Perhaps there could have been another group that did nothing online.
So if you have been playing these brain training games with the intention of improving your memory, is it time to give them up and put them out to pasture? Well, that is entirely up to you, but do bear in mind that studies, no matter what their size, can be flawed and that what does not work for some people could work for you. If you really care about improving memory , then there are many other memory strategies you can explore, such as playing sports, taking a look at improving your diet and even going to the odd concert.
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