Are Brain Training Games Beneficial For Improving One’s Memory?

As we get older, we sometimes think that we would like to offer our possibly failing brain faculties a bit of a boost. One strategy of improving memory and other brain abilities seems to be brain training. This consists of a selection of computer games designed to assist you become better qualified at a variety of brain functions for example memory, problem-solving and basic math. Curiously though, we have a tendency to think that because we progress at playing the brain training games, that these competencies are instantly transferable and thus valuable in other brain functions that we need to execute.

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 your 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.

So BBC television in the UK decided to undertake a large-scale study. They teamed up with the Alzheimer’s Society and the British Medical Research Council, and together they came up with a scientific study of the effects of playing brain training games on people’s ability to remember things and other mental skills. The published results were quite surprising.

They wanted to discover whether playing a variety of computer-based games, including memory exercises, over a six week time period, all intended to exercise different parts of the brain, would cause individuals in the research to be better equipped to employ their mental abilities in other arenas not related to playing brain training games. The experiment involved a good cross-section of 13000 of the adult British public.

In accordance with proper experimental design practice, there were two groups of participants in the experiment. Volunteers were randomly assigned either to the experimental or the control group.

The experimental group spent ten minutes a day for six weeks playing a set of brain training games designed to exercise a large spectrum of mental skills including memory. When retested at the end of the study, their ability to perform the brain games they had trained on had improved by a third, against their initial performance in them. The control group spent the same amount of time as the others surfing the internet.

The intention of the research was to see whether getting skilled at brain training activities would result in improvement in the same abilities when employed in a different context. So both groups of subjects were tested prior to and following the study in their ability to perform activities such as problem-solving and recalling strings of numbers.

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.

However, people who enjoy brain exercises should not lose heart. Firstly, speaking from personal experience, if nothing else, they are a lot of fun! Beyond that, even though you should not expect them to help with improving memory, there are certainly a number of other strategies for improving your memory and other mental abilities, which have been scientifically-proven. These include diet, reading, taking physical exercise and listening to music.

Tagged as:  brain exercises · improving memory · memory · memory exercises · Self Help