Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Does Brain Training Work?


 
My first thought that, if it doesn’t, I’m sure wasting a lot of $ on Lumosity.

My second thought was “Ok, I guess I better read a bit more.”The article goes on to list five “conditions” for actually working. Those conditions are:
  1. It must engage and exercise a core brain-based capacity or neural circuit iden­ti­fied to be relevant to real-life out­comes (Yes, please be relevant to my life)
  2. It must target a performance bottleneck (Somehow everything above my neck seems to be a bottleneck)
  3. A minimum “dose” of 15 hours total per targeted brain function, performed over 8 weeks or less, is necessary for real improvement. (Ok, let me see that’s about two hours a week. If I divide 120 minutes by seven days a week … wait, who am I kidding!? I won’t do this every day. Ok, maybe five days a week, that makes it almost a half hour a day – almost doable.)
  4. Training must adapt to performance, require effortful attention, and increase in difficulty. (Ok, I buy that)
  5. Continued practice is required for continued benefits (Just like dieting)


Copyright: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/profile_fberti'>fberti / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

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