Brain Training Games Don't Work

[Andy Chalk]

Brain Training Games Don't Work

Bad news for all you people counting on "brain training" videogames to make you smarter: They won't.

I'll be the first to admit it: I'm not a very smart guy. Fortunately, I realized that I could finally put my love of videogames to good use and rectify that situation by spending time playing one of the many "brain training" games currently on the market. Ah, but I'll be the first to admit something else: I'm also kind of a lazy bugger, so I never bothered. Turns out that was the right move all along.

A study in the U.K. had more than 11,000 people play brain training games over a six week period and then compared them to a control group that spent the same amount of time just screwing around on the internet. The shocking result? On a "range of tests," those with trained brains performed no better than the internet goof-offs.

"The results are clear," said Dr Adrian Owen, assistant director of Medical Research Council's Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge [http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/]. "Statistically, there are no significant differences between the improvements seen in participants who played our brain training games, and those who just went on the internet for the same length of time."

Those who played the games did get better at them, but the improvement was strictly a matter of practice; spend six weeks playing Halo 3 [After all, spend six weeks playing Halo 3 and you'll get better at that, too, but it doesn't mean your IQ has suddenly jumped 20 points.] and you'll get better at that, too, but it doesn't mean your IQ has suddenly jumped 20 points. "The holy grail of brain training is that it has some genuine effect on mental ability or intelligence and what we showed was that was categorically not the case," Owen added.

There is still some potential benefit, however: While the study concluded that these games don't enhance brain power, the question of whether or not they can help slow the decline of mental skills commonly associated with aging remains unanswered. So keep at it, dad!

Source: The Telegraph [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7610884/Popular-brain-training-games-do-not-make-users-any-smarter.html]


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[twaddle]

that's severly depressing. i was going to buy sevreral after i started my job...

 

[Julianking93]

Hahah!! This is awesome.

Now I can rub this in the faces of those assholes who think they're so smart for playing Brain Age.

Take that grandma!

 

[veloper]

practising maths may not raise your IQ, but it will make you faster at doing maths, so not all is lost.

 

[Sassafrass]

Heh, good to know I'm not becoming dumber in comparison to those people that play them then.
But it doesn't surprise me to be honest.

Also, loving the doctor's last name. As it is also my last name.

 

[Asturiel]

Well...thanks for the heads up? I suppose.

 

[Terramax]

I was so happy when I saw this on the news the other night. The only time I've felt that way when there's been a 'games are bad for you' vibe on the TV.

 

[esperandote]

That's what i was going to say that they probably help slow down alz heimer and other syntoms of mental skills decline related to aging

 

[Tiamat666]

If that picture is any indication of the challenge these games pose, I am not surprised.

Also, I'm not sure six weeks is enough time to draw conclusions. If you compare it to body building, there is not much that can be achieved in six weeks time. And I'm gessing that advancement in cognitive abilities are more difficuilt to measure than muscle mass.

 

[UberNoodle]

Unfortunately the game wasn't designed to make anyone smarter. That may be what the Western advertising may have said but here in Japan, the main goal was to make poeple's minds more ACTIVE, which it doesn't take a genius to do.

The game was made in response to Japan's serious population ageing problem, and for all intents and purposes, it worked. I guess, though most developed nations have greying populations as well, they are nowhere near as obsessed or troubled about it as Japan, where the game sold like hotcakes but probably was as effective as doing crosswords and Sudoku everyday.

AND: Did any OFFICIAL source every directly say that Brainage would improve 'mental ability and intelligence' or is that just how the media interpreted the claim of increasing activity?

 

[Gaming King]

Unfortunately the game wasn't designed to make anyone smarter. That may be what the Western advertising may have said but here in Japan, the main goal was to make poeple's minds more ACTIVE, which it doesn't take a genius to do.

The game was made in response to Japan's serious population ageing problem, and for intents and purposes, it worked. I guess, though most developed nations have greying populations as well, they are nowhere near as obsessed or troubled about it as Japan, where the game sold like hotcakes but probably was as effective as doing crosswords and Sudoku everyday.

Aw, you said it way better than I did.

Hahah!! This is awesome.

Now I can rub this in the faces of those assholes who think they're so smart for playing Brain Age.

Take that grandma!

That's so mean. D: But your avatar is SO CUTE!! X_X

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

Daww man and here i thought those brain vidjamagames were making me a whole losta smarts.


Back on topic: The should also have done a study on the effects of playing games like Modern Warfare and Battlefield Bad Company turn you into an asshole douche

 

[Gaming King]

Probation? Really? Whatever the hell I said isn't half as bad as ANYTHING out of Yahtzee's mouth.

 

[SeanTheSheep]

I think the Beeb did a "Bang goes the theory" about this...
After looking through the source, it seems I was correct. I'm glad I read the source before I posted...

Anyway, I always had a sneaking suspicion that this was the case, or something similar.
I'll probably go and watch the show on iPlayer later if I can be bothered to press a few buttons and not do work for an hour.

 

[SeanTheSheep]

Probation? Really? Whatever the hell I said isn't half as bad as ANYTHING out of Yahtzee's mouth.

*Facepalm*
Yahtzee is payed for his wit, brutal honesty and crudeness.
You are not being payed for your realtively un-witty, and crude post, that is insulting to the people who carried out the test and found these results, and also shows that you think of homosexuality as a bad thing, and while you're entitled to your own opinion, being offensive like that is looked down on by mods[footnote]Big understatement.[/footnote] and the fact that these researchers are from the UK should have no bearing on the validity of the results.

If you want to see exactly where you ran afoul of the mods, I would suggest reading the forum guidelines.

 

[mitothy24]

I'm doing a PhD in Psychology and my response to this story was "well duh".

You'd struggle to find any Psychologist (not being paid by the companies that make these games) who ever actually thought that it had any effect on intelligence. They just make you better at playing the game.

 

[Gaming King]

Probation? Really? Whatever the hell I said isn't half as bad as ANYTHING out of Yahtzee's mouth.

*Facepalm*
Yahtzee is payed for his wit, brutal honesty and crudeness.
You are not being payed for your realtively un-witty, and crude post, that is insulting to the people who carried out the test and found these results, and also shows that you think of homosexuality as a bad thing, and while you're entitled to your own opinion, being offensive like that is looked down on by mods[footnote]Big understatement.[/footnote] and the fact that these researchers are from the UK should have no bearing on the validity of the results.

If you want to see exactly where you ran afoul of the mods, I would suggest reading the forum guidelines.

Nobody ever uses the word "fag" to refer to homosexuals anymore. And Yahtzee uses it all the time. It's on this damn website, and I think it's a pretty funny word. I'm not calling anyone on this board a fag, so who gives a shit?