It's an attractive idea: by playing online problem-solving, matching and other games for a few minutes a day, people can improve such mental abilities as reasoning, verbal skills and memory. But whether these games deliver on those promises is up for debate.
This year, in perhaps the biggest real-world test of these programs, neuroscientists (神经学家) at Canada's Western University gathered 8,563 volunteers globally through Cambridge Brain Sciences, a Toronto-based company that provides assessments to measure healthy brain function. Participants filled out an online question form about their training habits, opinions about training benefits and which, if any, program they used. Some 1,009 participants reported using brain training programs for about eight months, on average, though the length of time ranged from two weeks to more than five years.
Next, the volunteers completed 12 mental tests about memory, reasoning and verbal skills. When researchers looked at the results, they saw that brain trainees on average had no mental edge over the other group in memory, verbal skills and reasoning. Even among those who had used training programs for at least 18 months, brain training didn't improve thinking abilities above the level of people who didn't use the programs.
"No matter how we dealt with the data, we were unable to find any evidence that brain training was associated with mental abilities," says a researcher. That held true whether the team analyzed participants by age, program used, education or economic situation—all were similar to the group who didn't use the programs. However, brain training may be beneficial when it is connected with real problems in life, researchers say. The real world may be the best brain trainer. They suggest that we practice those skills in different real-life situations. "That's a much better use of one's time than sitting at a computer and doing little tasks."
