Improving Memory: Are Mental Training Computer Games A Good Solution?

Would you like to improve your memory? Taking part in brain training games is an incredibly common hobby these days. It’s not surprising as it can be quite habit forming and pleasurable. Furthermore you do often believe it can help you to improve your memory along with other mental abilities for example problem-solving. Definitely the more often you play the better you become. So is it equally correct that getting better at playing these games is additionally going to make you better at these mental abilities as used in everyday activity Does having the ability to commit to memory things in the short term through practicing the exact same exercises result in a noticable difference with recall in the long term as well or does this need a different skill-set

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 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.|You might be forgiven for thinking that all the brain training games have been designed taking into account the ever-increasing body of brain science. 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?

Therefore BBC television in the United Kingdom chose to perform a large-scale research study. They partnered with the Alzheimer’s Society and the British Medical Research Council, and together they created a study of the effects of taking part in brain training games on individuals’ power to recall things as well as other mental abilities. The published outcome was very unexpected. The team took on 13000 adult volunteers to get involved in their thorough experiment for about one and a half months. The purpose was to discover whether training the brain on several activities developed to utilize different regions of the brain (such as the temporal lobes for memory and the parietal lobes for math), would enhance mental abilities, like memory and problem-solving capabilities. The volunteers were split into an experimental group and a control group. The first group performed a diverse array of brain exercises, including exercises for improving memory, for 10 mins every second day for 6 weeks. As the tasks were undertaken on the internet, the control group just surfed the web for the same period of time. After the trial period, the brain training group was tested again on the brain exercises and was found to be thirty-three per cent better at carrying out the brain games that they had trained on.

This sounds great; but were these improved mental skills transferable from the mind exercises with which the group was already familiar, to general core cognitive abilities, like problem-solving and remembering sequences of numbers? Both groups of participants were tested on these skills both before the trial and afterwards. The average score for both groups beforehand was identical.

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.

Therefore have you been totally misusing your time taking part in brain training games? Actually, you are the only one who can truly be aware of whether or not they are of any help to you. It is perhaps best not to rely on them for improving memory, but to use additional approaches too, for instance taking part in sports activities and improving your diet.

Amelia Klein is a keen student of the human mind and is very interested invery interested in exploring its possibilities in terms of cognitive abilities and improving memory . Check out her great articles on her site and find out about memory vitamins .

categories: improving memory,improve your memory,brain training