Loving the dark
roasted bean ...
roasted bean ...
the teaching ...
and the learning ...
and, one day, the earning ...
and the learning ...
and, one day, the earning ...
Welcome to the last in my Fun Friday series: Enhancing Your Brain After 50. In this series, I've looked at a couple of ways to improve your memory, boost your brain capacity and exercise your brain so that it will remain sharp. And, as a gamer, I always look for so-called brain games to challenge myself. But do they work to improve your brain capacity? Do they help build fluid intelligence? Can they really help you increase your IQ? Well, some say that this one might just be the one that can do all that: Dual n-Back training. This method of training was used in a study by Susanne M. Jaeggi, Martin Buschkuehl, John Jonides and Walter J. Perrig. According to their paper, the ‘‘dual n-back’’ task, "engages multiple executive processes, including ones required to inhibit irrelevant items, ones required to monitor ongoing performance, ones required to manage two tasks simultaneously, and ones required to update representations in memory." Ok, I was up for a challenge so I scoured the internet for an online version (free, of course). I found a demo of the game on soakyourhead.com. You can try it here. It requires that you have Microsoft Silverlight installed and so far it hasn't alerted my antivirus or malware software so I'm assuming it's safe. (Disclaimer: I don't do anything online without having my firewall and live-time antivirus and/or anti-malware software installed, up-to-date and running!! Even then, use your best judgement and if it feels like an iffy site to you, don't use it!) There's also a paid version offered by IQ Mindware. I haven't tried this one so I can't comment on its game play. However, it looks intriguing. It is certainly visually pleasing and offers a running analysis of your progress. Many have asserted that dual n-back training has noticeably improved their focus, memory and perceptual ability. I haven't played it enough to see a difference yet. Be forewarned, this game can be painfully difficult. I suggest you read the how-to information first and then give it a try. I tried it several times and it left my brain tired. But, as with any new task aimed at enhancing your brain, that's a good thing. The game displays both a visual and an auditory cue (a square in a grid and a letter) and you have to remember whether the next cue is the same as the one two steps back, pressing A for the visual cue and L for the letter cue. When I first played, I did really well. But as I tried to improve my score I seemed to do poorly in subsequent runs. I am NOT deterred, though. And, I'm sure I'll keep at it. There are other brain games out there some of which include BrainAge (Nintendo), Lumosity (various platforms), BrainHQ and many, many others. I've played them and they're fun. But do they improve fluid intelligence? The truth is that this is still a controversial topic. For every researcher who claims that brain games do provide a lasting improvement there are many others who refute those claims. My current working assumption is that anything you do that is new and difficult will provide some benefit. The key, I believe, is that once you master something it's time to move on to something more difficult and more challenging. The idea is to give your brain more problems to solve in different areas each day. Included in that is to be active in the real world by walking, running, cycling or any type of physical exercise, which will increase oxygen to the body and improve blood flow to the brain. By keeping your brain working on difficult tasks, both the video game variety and the real-life variety, you can enhance its capacity and/or your fluid intelligence. Are there any brain games or activities that you find helpful? Please let us know in the comment section. I hope this mini-series got you thinking (pun intended) about ways to keep your brain active and sharp no matter what your age. I hope you like it. Thanks for reading! Sources: The article by Susanne M. Jaeggi, Martin Buschkuehl, John Jonides and Walter J. Perrig
Wiki article about n-back Brain Workshop - a Dual n-Back Game Dual n-Back Pro - A paid version of the Jaeggi dual n-back by IQ Mindware BrainHQ Lumosity BrainAge Note: The link to BrainAge, by Nintendo, is an eBay affiliate link.
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