Brain training doesn't boost brain power, work suggests... - Bang Goes the Theory - BBC One

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bang

Brain training games do not improve overall brain power, a scientific study launched by the BBC suggests.

The largest ever investigation followed 11,430 people over six weeks to see what effect, if any, playing brain training computer games would have.

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[lunchboxxxxxxxxx]

This study simply wasn't conducted over a long enough period of time. If brain games improve your score by .3 every 6 weeks (will most likely be more of a plateau effect though), you would go from 4.6 to 7.2 in just one year, which is a 56% increase in brain power. I'd take that.

[CambridgeBrainSci]

In the paper we state that people were asked to log in for approximately 10 mins per day several times per week, but (importantly) the range (as stated in the paper) was 2-188 sessions over 6 weeks. People could train for as much or as little as they wanted. The 10 mins per day several times per week was simply the guide they were given. Some people trained hundreds and hundreds of time. Strangely enough, they didn't improve either.....

[IPukeOnNoobs]

@lunchbox You're wrong. I'm a statistics major at UPenn, and simply put, the results aren't significant enough to conclude any major difference, let alone implying that a full year would increase brain power. You should also take into account that "Brain Training" is merely a 'brain-ier' way of playing a game. In essence, over time you get better at playing the game. In other words, your brain power isn't increasing, your skill in that particular task is (in this case the game)

[legendarnyziomal]

LUMOSITY.COM claims that their games are improving mental abilities and they claim that it's scientifically proven. Let's challenge THEM !!!

[legendarnyziomal]

NICE BITCH!

[thunder72191]

@lunchboxxxxxxxxx ur plateua effect theory sounds more probable

[migu9999]

do you excersice 6 weeks or play an instrument just that time , of course you don´t get almost nothing, but 5,000 hours is the amount of time the beatles play their instruments, it is 5,000 hours michael felps train before he got golden medalls.

[DanAran162]

First of, the games they used looked mentally effortless and like something that would be used to teach a pre-schooler mathematics. They should have used something legitimately challenging, like dual-n-back.

Secondly, a few minutes of training a day for a period of 6 weeks isn't enough time for there to be any obvious effect. Just like many other forms of training, brain training takes a long time for one to achieve their desired outcome.

[setiawandenis]

idk, but i have my own theory:

organs need to be trained and maintained periodically or it will become dull. if a person can train and build up his/her muscles. why can't you train your brain (neuron, synapses, nerve, etc.)?

[Nargaste]

Perhaps indeed the study didn't last long enough, but that doesn't give any significance to the results of this experiment at all. At best you could say the results are inconclusive. But if anything it shows that any effect brain training might have had is so small that it doesn't even stand out from randomness and would most likely take a very long time to produce a noticable difference.

[Nargaste]

A small diff doesn't mean it will accumulate over time. It's not statisticly significant enough. The likelyhood that this small difference isn't just by chance is too low. If you have ever done any experiments in your school, you would know that even repeat readings can produce minor differences. The difference has to be large enough for it to mean anything. If their score decreased by 0.1, it wouldn't mean anything, you wouldn't claim that brain training decreases your bp by 19% per year..