Be a participant in the biggest brain training experiment ever

Are you interested in trying out this brain training stuff? If so, there is a really cool new training program by the BBC. It's super easy and completely free, just sign up and start. You take a few quick benchmarking tests to start and then you can begin training. They ask that you train three times a week for six months if you want your data to be included in the analysis. It may seem like a long time but the games are pretty entertaining and it really isn't too much of a time drain at around 10 minutes a clip.

The website claims that it's going for the biggest trial ever completed, so the results should be super interesting. If you sign up now your data probably won't be included in the six month analysis that will be broadcast sometime this spring (hopefully soon). However, they are going to do another analysis that will be in published papers later in 2011.

The goal of the experiment is to see if brain training really works. There is a lot of controversy in the literature at the moment and hopefully this experiment can help clean some of it up. This is the basic idea behind it. First, you complete a series of tasks to get a measure of different mental attributes. After that you will train on a variety of different tasks that you will (hopefully) improve at as you practice. Finally, after six months you will complete a new set of tasks. This new set of tasks will be measuring the same mental attributes as the first benchmark tested but in a different way. This is to ensure you just didn't get better at playing any specific game. With all this data they will run some fancy statistics on it and see if the training tasks significantly improved a significant amount of people's benchmark score.

The statistics will be interesting to see because of the internet based platform the experiment is run off. Running the experiment through a website allows lots of people to participate, but it also allows lots of other variables to factor in. At what time and place was the training completed, after a hard day at work or sitting on the beach? Was the same person taking the test and training? Was the person cheating at the test or benchmarking tasks?

At any rate I highly recommend everybody sign up and give it a try. Unless you are already in a study of some sort then please don't, as you will be getting different kinds and amounts of training than you should be. The video below is an excerpt from the show that is working with scientists to make this thing happen.

Virtual Reality Brain Training for Athletes

One of the obvious benefits brain training programs may have is in an increase in the ability to solve problems in school and in daily life. However, some people are exploring new fields in which to utilize brain training technology. People like Jocelyn Faubert of the University of Montreal are exploring brain training software and the benefits it may have on athletes.

Faubert uses Wayne Gretzky to emphasize that it takes a lot more than exceptional athletic ability in order to be a super star in any sport. He declares that the super star's amazing career in hockey was not due to a superior athletic ability, but rather his amazing ability to perceive, predict, and react to all kinds of circumstances on the ice. This mental agility that Gretzky held is what Faubert is attempting to pass on to athletes around the world.

He has developed a set of software that provides training programs designed to increase athlete's ability to perceive and react on the field. The coolest part about this software is that it's designed to work in an immersive 3D environment. EON Reality produces a 3 sided room like structure designed to give its user the visual appearance of being in another space (It looks pretty awesome from the demo on the webpage). Add on a motion tracking device and some fairly sophisticated simulations can be achieved.

The software is a compilation of simulation movements and training games. Some of the activities seem to be similar in concept to the sports games on the Wii console. The other types of games are more interesting. They focus on increasing concentration, perception, information management, and decision making. They appear to be pretty similar to the kind of games produced by a lot of other brain training companies, just with a virtual reality twist.

The setup looks like a lot of fun, a sort of Wii on steroids, but I wonder if it's really necessary. If the same sort of brain training games can be replicated on the computer what is the advantage of the 3D setup, besides being more fun and engaging? This question really boils down to a core problem in the area of brain training. Do the increases you see under the brain training program transfer over into different contexts of life? Does increasing your score at some brain training game by 300% make you score 300% higher on your next exam? The problem of transferring the success seen in the brain training games to other real life situations is an important one.

So, let's go back to the original question of why not just play the games while sitting down on the computer. The problem may be that increases seen on games while at the computer are not transferred over into athletic activities. Research done by Thorndike and Woodworth (1901) show that the more similar the learning event and new event are the more transfer will occur (the theories on transfer of learning are incredibly controversial). If this is true then it makes sense that realistic physical movement of virtual reality should result in more transfer of improvements to athletes. Faubert just might be on to something.

In any case athletes are trying. The richest sports club in the world is willing to give it a try.

Socially Driven Competition in Brain Training Software

 

Social networks are a great way to get lots of people interested in games of all sorts. Facebook has shown just how popular some games can be when you add the element of friendly competition. For instance, the game of Tetris, everybody has probably played or seen Tetris. The game of Tetris by itself is entertaining. However, you haven't really played Tetris until you are in a heated battle with some of your closest friends for the highest score. The added element of competition between others can make the simplest games into exciting battles.

Video game makers have figured out and capitalized on how much more exciting a game can be when played with others. One would be hard pressed to find a big new title game coming out of the industry that doesn't offer some sort of multiplayer dimension. Just look at the popularity of World of Warcraft, with around eleven million people playing every month. The environment, the story, and the action are all important parts of what makes WoW so addicting. Although, I'll argue that what really set WoW apart in terms of popularity was that it gave the opportunity for people to compete in an endless struggle for better and stronger characters. Players in WoW are constantly bettering themselves with higher levels and better gear (armor, weapons, etc…). The attractiveness of the game arises in that everybody is working hard to make themselves better than the next player.

A whole paper could probably be written about WoW and its own social dynamic but I'll try and get back on track. The point is that games are more fun when you can play to make yourself better and then compete to compare yourself versus others. When Tetris Friends was launched on Facebook literally millions of people jumped on board and started competing with each other. And it's not alone there are hundreds of different games on Facebook.

It turns out that Facebook is great platform for socially interactive based games. For instance the Facebook based game FarmVille has over 80 million users every month. That's eight times the amount of users that WoW has. Another game called Mafia Wars has 24 million users. With a bit of research it turns out that Facebook has eight different games with more monthly users than WoW.

So in conclusion socially based games are popular and Facebook provides an amazingly effective platform to manifest these games to people. What does this have to do with Brain Training software? Well most brain training software consists of a collection of games. The point of these games is for people to get better at them. The idea is that the better users are at the game the smarter they will become. Facebook and social networks in general, seem like a great platform to create this drive to be better and better at the games Brain Training software provides.

Just as there are the stand-alone games, like WoW, and the Facebook based games in the video game industry the divide remains in the Brain Training software industry. Companies like Luminosity offer their own attempt at social communities to try and drive social competition in their games. Luminosity offers features such as communicating with people that play the same games and the ability to make friends in the community, just as WoW offers its own similar social features.

An example of Brain Training on Facebook is an application called Who has the biggest brain. The company that makes it, Playfish, does not have the same scientific experience and makes none of the impressive claims that many of the big Brain Training companies do. But the socially based brain training concept is something that should be paid attention to. The application allows you to play four different games with each one supposedly measuring some dimension of intelligence. Once the assessment is complete it takes the results of each game and gives you a reading on the size of your brain. Your brain size can be seen by friends who joined the application. The idea is that you can keep playing and get better at all of the games which would increase your "brain size" allowing you to win prizes for having the biggest brain among your friends. This is a pretty cool concept. It certainly creates competition and a desire to get better at the games in order to overcome your friends.

The real downside to the application is that it's not really made with any scientifically based research. If you could take all the science from Luminosity and combine it with the intense competition provided by Playfish then a pretty sweet brain training application could be made.

I believe that there is a strong future for socially based brain training games. It is only a matter of time before programs like these pop up all over the place. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't constrained to the Facebook platform either. Brain Training games like these may see their way into classrooms where students in school will compete to achieve high scores in games that will increase their intelligence. Just as grades are proudly flaunted in today's schools brain training games high scores may be the true measure of success in the schools of the future. I believe that brain training games will make a huge impact in our society very soon.

New Scientist’s Top 10 List for Brain Boosting

I found this fun and informative article on brain care and couldn't help but to blog on it. It's a little bit of a sidetrack from the focus of brain training software but it's a pretty good read. I'll summarize some of the more interesting points from the article.

Smart Drugs

There is nothing too surprising here for most college students. "Smart Drugs" have been around for a while now and drugs like Ritalin and Vivance are no strangers to campuses nationwide. The varieties of drugs provide a remarkable increase in cognitive abilities. The article focuses on a drug called Modafinil which can keep people awake and on top of their game for 90 hours!! That's a lot of studying.

Food For Thought

This section provides a bunch of studies showing that what you eat can have a dramatic effect on how well you think. The idea behind this is that the brain needs certain nutrients to keep it running effectively, just like any muscle. The article recommends eating a good healthy breakfast, toast and beans. For lunch an omellete, salad, and yogurt are a good choice for deep thinking bloggers. The article also describes a cool little study where rats that were fed a "junk food" diet showed much lower performances in maze tests.

The Mozart Effect

Multiple studies have shown that classical music can improve people's spatial and mathematical reasoning. Even rats have shown to do better when given classical music instead of white noise before running a maze. The article brings up a good point that this increase may be just because people are relaxed after music. The article also mentions that of course a good way to gain an edge is to take some music lessons. Apparently Six-year old children who took music instead of other classes show an increase in IQ.

Gainful Employment

Probably this blogs most relevant section the article shares a few studies that show training a certain type of mental activity can increase your general intelligence. The article focuses on the idea of working memory and gives a few studies that show it how it can be improved. I'll blog about this in greater detail later, as it deserves much more attention.

Memory Marvels

Have you ever heard of the World Memory Championship? Neither did I. There are some cool strategies out there that allow people to memorize an incredible amount of information. One trick I've learned from a psychology class is to remember a grocery list mentally take a walk through a well known path while imagining each item located along the way. Try it, it works.

Sleep On It

We all know how poorly our brains seem to work on too little sleep. Interestingly enough very little is known about what happens in the brain during sleep or why animals even need to sleep. The article mentions that sleep may be a time for memory consolidation but little evidence is given.

Body and Mind

It turns out that physical exercise can increase the growth of new brain cells. In a study by Fred Gage he showed that one of the best ways for adults to gain brain cells is to do physical exercise. The article provides evidence of walking and yoga being good for you brain. It even mentions a study that shows mental how mental exercise can increase physical strength. The study showed that 15 minutes of thinking about being stronger increased strength by 13%. I'd like to see a little more information before I'm convinced of that.

Nuns On A Run

A covenant in Minnesota is a haven for good brain health. 678 sisters were entered in an Alzheimer's study which revealed an amazing group of individuals with great brain health. The reasons given in the article are the right amount of vitamin folate, mental activities (crossword puzzles), exercising, and a calm positive lifestyle.

Attention Seeking

It can be tough to sit down and focus on one thing in the high tech cell phone buzzing world we live in. One recommendation that was made was amphetamines and caffeine. Another recommendation for concentrating was music and even learning to recognize when you are getting off track.

Positive Feedback

I think that this was the coolest section of the article. The idea behind this technology is that the brain produces certain electromagnetic waves for different states of consciousness. Lots of different programs are being developed that show a person what kind of state of mind they are in. Training with this feedback eventually gives people the ability to stay in certain states for longer periods of time. Theoretically, this allows people to learn to concentrate harder and for longer periods of times. More scientific evidence is needed before this industry really explodes. For now though you can manage some really cool tricks.

Social Consequences of mobile phone technologies

The article puts terms to a lot of behaviors that I have observed myself first hand. I am definitely familiar with the situation in which a "with" group is transformed into a cell phone conversation and a "single". The article makes an interesting point by explaining the behavior of the "single" as a defense-mechanism to the vulnerabilities of being alone in a public location. From my own personal experience I would agree whole heartedly with this theory. I have experienced the situation where a companion has left to take a call and a sense of anxiety arises in me. My own personal defense-mechanism I use, and for many others from what I've seen, is to begin to interact with my own phone. Usually this interaction may be to write an unnecessary text messages, read over previous conversations, or play a game. The interaction with my cell phone reduces my sense of anxiety even though it provides no real purpose. One reason for this as explained in the article is that the activity relieves the feeling of being the odd-man out.

Another scenario described in the article that I could relate to is the idea labeled "Listening in". The article presents an interview where the subject explains how she may listen in on a conversation but pretends to not be listening. I wouldn't say that I to partake in this behavior but it's a nice intro into one of the articles focal points, "Somewhere we are taught that we are not supposed to listen to conversations in which we are not participating." This social rule seems to remain the norm even today as cell phones are becoming more and more popular. Unless the person on the phone is one of my very close friends then I feel like it's not my place to listen. The article shows how people will try and create space for others in order to avoid eavesdropping, such as walking behind or ahead of someone on a cell phone. I see and experience this type of behavior all the time on campus.

One social norm that the article didn't mention is the expectation of access to information. What I mean by this is that people who own internet ready phones are expected to produce answers to questions they normally wouldn't know. I know in my group of friends when I have a trivia like question, for example what was the score of this and this game, I'll direct it to a person with a smart phone. I don't expect that they themselves know the answer, but I know they can easily get access to it through their phone. Also, the response from the person with the phone isn't, why would I know that, it's to immediately whip out their phone and find the answer. I think that more powerful cell phones like the iphone and blackberry have changed the expectations for people's knowledge base.

Another societal change these smart phones have caused is the disregard for plans. This change is again related to people's expectation of access to information. Instead of planning what event to check out that night or what the best route to get there is, groups assume that this information will be available to them on the way there. When an idea for a trip is made little time is taken to look up routes or other events nearby. Groups just rush off with the expectation that if something goes wrong they will have their phones by their side to solve their problems. These changes were probably not mentioned in the article because access to the mobile internet was not nearly as easy and powerful as it is five years later.