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Can 'Brain Games' Really Help You Improve the Way Your Brain Functions?

posted by Fnord666 on Thursday June 13 2019, @07:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the maybe-or-maybe-not dept.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Can 'brain games' really help you improve the way your brain functions?

You've probably seen ads for apps promising to make you smarter in just a few minutes a day. Hundreds of so-called "brain training" programs can be purchased for download. These simple games are designed to challenge mental abilities, with the ultimate goal of improving the performance of important everyday tasks.

But can just clicking away at animations of swimming fish or flashed streets signs on your phone really help you improve the way your brain functions?

Two large groups of scientists and mental health practitioners published consensus statements, months apart in 2014, on the effectiveness of these kinds of brain games. Both included people with years of research experience and expertise in cognition, learning, skill acquisition, neuroscience and dementia. Both groups carefully considered the same body of evidence available at the time.

Yet, they issued exactly opposite statements.

One concluded that "there is little evidence that playing brain games improves underlying broad cognitive abilities, or that it enables one to better navigate a complex realm of everyday life."

The other argued that "a substantial and growing body of evidence shows that certain cognitive training regimens can significantly improve cognitive function, including in ways that generalize to everyday life."

[...]The most important lesson from the literature on training is this: If you want to improve your performance on a task that's important to you, practice that task. Playing brain games may only make you better at playing brain games.

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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday June 13 2019, @11:05AM (3 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Thursday June 13 2019, @11:05AM (#855074) Homepage
    The astrophysicists I know, when they know they are in a scientific environment, often reword their statements in terms of being models, and accept that they are not just unproven, but even have a non-zero probability of being wrong. E.g. see what Sean Carroll says about inflationary theory - I think he's doing science, and communication about science, 100% right, and if it's good enough for Sean Carroll, I certainly don't need to change my approach on your instruction, I'll defer to him every time.
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday June 13 2019, @11:18AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 13 2019, @11:18AM (#855078) Journal

    when they know they are in a scientific environment,

    Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world that's fully a scientific environment?
    In such a world I wouldn't need to hear clueless journos explaining how science is a matter of opinion, as good as the rednecks'es ignorance.

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  • (Score: 1, Redundant) by DeathMonkey on Thursday June 13 2019, @06:43PM (1 child)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday June 13 2019, @06:43PM (#855245) Journal

    Nobody created their own sun, then threw a a planet at it, to see if it would orbit. Orbital mechanics are therefore not science!

    • (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Friday June 14 2019, @04:13AM

      by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Friday June 14 2019, @04:13AM (#855405)

      Never played Universe Sandbox eh? (:

      /s

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