Many of us get excited when we see an ad about improving our cognitive capabilities especially our logical thinking or problem solving skills. For a fact, we get interested immediately as we’re seeing an opportunity to be better.
However, and sorry to be the dream-crusher here, a report from NPR.com says a recent scientific evaluation has come to the conclusion that brain training games and programs do not have enough evidence to prove that these can change your cognitive abilities. It was released in the journal, Psychological Science in the Public Interest.
Daniel Simons, an author of the article and a psychology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says: “It’s disappointing that the evidence isn’t stronger.”
He continued, “It would be really nice if you could play some games and have it radically change your cognitive abilities. But the studies don’t show that on objectively measured real-world outcomes.”
The scientific evaluation was conducted by seven scientists. This was done in response to a public disagreement concerning two opposite opinions about brain games.
Two years ago, in October 2014, an open letter was published by 70 scientists saying that they do not agree with the marketing claims made by brain training companies. Then, another group of scientists opposed this move saying there is a scientific basis to the brain training claims.
Simons and six other scientists looked into 130 brain games studies as well as other cognitive-related materials in an attempt to clear things up.
Simons states, “We went through each paper and tried to look at the kind of evidence it provided.” This meant they analyzed the population of the study, the control group, and the results.
In the end, they discovered that most of the studies did not follow the regulations or adhere to the best practices in conducting research. There were some discrepancies in the data – there were only a few participants, lacked appropriate control groups or did not consider the placebo effect (people tend to do better on tests because they have motivation or they are more confident).
Though this is the case for most, Simons found that there were some notable studies and they depicted results that people really improve in doing certain tasks with the help of these games. He says, “You can practice, for example, scanning baggage at an airport and looking for a knife, and you get really, really good at spotting that knife.”
In this case though, there was not enough evidence to support that people improve at related tasks like noticing other suspicious items. Strong evidence is needed to prove that mastering this kind of skill can lead to a progressive result in cognitive abilities.
The results of the evaluation got a good reaction from the scientists who defended the science behind brain training. George Rebok said, “The evaluation was very even-handed and raised many excellent points.” He has been doing brain training research for the past 20 years and is currently a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University. “It really helped raise the bar in terms of the level of science that we must aspire to.”
Rebok is still positive that the correct program of brain activities can cause a significant improvement in mental capacities and delay aging effects. He says that one of the reasons why brain games haven’t exhibited clear results is that these do not maximize the full capacity of the brain or they don’t have a long-lasting effect on the brain. He says, “It takes mental effort and practice to be able to see results. If we can implement that long range, I think that there will be a big dividend eventually.”
Meanwhile, it appears that the brain training companies are facing heat from the Federal Trade Commission. Lumosity settled FTC charges and agreed to pay $2 million concerning the claims about the brain training program.
The post Games To Make You Smarter: Brain Games May Not Be As Effective appeared first on NUTRITION CLUB CANADA.
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