Tag Archives: Different Parts Of The Brain

Results Of Research For Improving Memory By Applying Mental Training Games

There is no denying that brain training computer games are terrific fun and if you play them frequently you may undoubtedly get better and better at playing them. You might believe that in playing them, you are taking steps for improving memory and for enhancing all your other mental abilities. It is reasonable to assume this, yet how do we know for sure that there has in fact been an improvement? Do we actually have scientific evidence of the effectiveness of these mental exercises?

You might be forgiven for thinking that all the brain training games have been designed taking the ever-increasing body of brain science into account. Indeed, a lot is already known about the neurological underpinnings of how memory is laid down in the first place, and then improved. Maybe they have been designed this way, but where is the evidence of how successful you can be using these exercises?

So BBC television in the UK decided to undertake a large-scale study. They teamed up with the Alzheimer’s Society and the British Medical Research Council, and together they came up with a scientific study of the effects of playing brain training games on people’s ability to remember things and other mental skills. The published results were quite surprising.

The researchers intended to find out whether playing a range of computer-based games, including memory exercises, over a six week time period, all created to exercise different parts of the brain, would lead to people in the study to be better equipped to make use of their mental abilities in other arenas not connected to playing brain training games. The trial included a good cross-section of 13000 of the adult British public.

In accordance with proper experimental design practice, there were two groups of participants in the experiment. Volunteers were randomly assigned either to the experimental or the control group.

The experimental group spent ten minutes a day for six weeks playing a set of brain training games designed to exercise a large spectrum of mental skills including memory. When retested at the end of the study, their ability to perform the brain games they had trained on had improved by a third, against their initial performance in them. The control group spent the same amount of time as the others surfing the internet.

This appears great; but were these enhanced mental abilities transferable from the mind exercises with which the group was already familiar, to basic primary intellectual skills, like problem-solving and remembering number sequences? Both groups of participants were examined on these abilities both before the study and as soon as it had ended. The average score for the two groups at the trial beginning was the same.

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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