I see so many of them around today but I am always skeptical of the scientific validity of them. I’m happy to pay a reasonable amount and I greatly value privacy. Main thing for me would be trying to improve memory.
Any recommendations are appreciated! If I need to go out and buy a DS and a copy of Brain Age, so be it.
Based on Kvashchev’s experiment: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7709590/, high school students appear to have gained about 10 IQ points in 4 years by taking his creative problem solving course. If you’re using IQ as a measure (for fun? Not sure your goal here) you could read up on him first.
I’d suggest regularly taking the Mensa IQ test, I suspect over years your score will improve, slightly and with great effort.
I don’t believe this will have any effect on your life, however. You’d be much better off learning a skill. A language, instrument, or artistic endeavor will bring you orders of magnitude more satisfaction, happiness, and bragging rights. If you’re thinking about career success, just work or study more. If you’re treating creative problem solving as the hobby itself, that’s cool too.
For memory, look up pegging and other techniques. Begin by memorizing your credit card numbers, etc.
Learn a language! There’s been a lot of research in language learning being greatly beneficial for your brain. It’s also an incredibly useful skill to be able to communicate with more people
I second this. I hate the direction Duolingo is going in but it’s still useful to me. I took two years of Spanish in highschool. Then ~10 years later took up Duolingo and have been learning more. I don’t think it’s useful starting from scratch. Also I don’t think if you’re serious about learning a language that it is a replacement for real tutoring or real conversations, but it prevents you from getting stale.
Also learning an instrument!
Here’s what I do on my phone most of the time nowadays:
- Practice sudoku @ sudoku.coach
- Practice chess @ Lichess
- Practice Japanese @ renshuu.org
I almost got rid of all of my doomscrolling with actual brain activity. It feels great, and having different topics to choose from helps break the monotony.
Take this course. You can do it for free. At least that was the case a couple years ago. Free version does not provide certificate of completion.
Really worth the time and effort!
Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects
The only thing “brain training” games train, is your ability to play their game. There are no games that make you smarter or improve your memory in everyday life. And the ones that say they do are the ones you need to stay away from.
Yes. It’s called learning, and you can use just about any app to do it. Note taking apps, lecture/course apps, flash card apps, you name it.
But an app that arbitrarily claims to “improve your brain” with little addicting games? That’s the opposite thing. Good luck
But an app that arbitrarily claims to “improve your brain” with little addicting games? That’s the opposite thing.
I mean, quick-fire math problems and memory games and such don’t teach you anything, but they do help keep your brain “agile”. If you want to compare it to physical fitness, then learning is like weightlifting and brain games are like cardio.
[citation needed]
Anecdotal, though I’m sure you can find plenty of people to corroborate.
Anki is great for flashcards
I would say reading books. It’s a long form activity that is a strong counter to the brain rot of scrolling and being mindlessly entertained by 100 different things for 10 seconds each. I find that when I read I have more vivid dreams which I think is definitely a sign that my brain has been fired up.
All games can be brain training games, just depends on what you want to train.
going to become a genius by mastering atari’s ET
I would say:
- Reading books
- Playing chess
Both can be done on a phone I suppose.
Or just do them on a computer and stop being a peasant.
I have never been able to read a book on a computer. It just feels completely unnatural, even though I read a ton of articles, forum posts, manuals, etc. on my phone or computer. Not a peasant because they could historically usually not read let alone afford a book, but I do love actual physical books.
Same! I’ve read 1 (one) book in my life on a kindle and hated it. Physical books are just really cool, or maybe it’s just preference because that’s what I grew up with.
An actual e-ink Kindle or a tablet pretending to be a Kindle?
Nah it was a real e-ink kindle. It just wasn’t for me i guess.
asking this is like asking whether there is a single gym routine that works out all muscles of the body.
there isn’t. because what strains your pecs is different from what strains your glutes. that’s why we have different routines for different muscle groups.
the brain isn’t a just a simple little box. it has multiple functions which are triggered by vastly different stimuli. relying on “brain training” apps would be akin to only doing bicep curls every day–sure, your guns will be super but the rest of your body will still remain flabby and weak forever.
Your brain gets good at what it does. There’s a bit of skill transfer here and there but overall, training your brain on brain training games trains your brain to play brain training games. Practice what you want to get good at
Sudoku is one that’s been studied and shown, so far, to help with some cognitive issues.
In the same vein, I’ve been doing crosswords on my phone on the shitter instead of browsing. First few times felt like I was remembering words that I haven’t been using often, but after a while I stopped feeling like it was helping me with anything.
I’m going to tentatively say that racking your brain for specific words (or otherwise learning new ones) might be marginally better for you than the average pure time wasting game.
Almost all lack generalizability to everyday life with the skills they purport to target and improve. In other words, you may get better with your, say, reaction time in the actual “game” but that doesn’t mean you’ll experience a transfer effect in your reaction speed globally in day to day life.
Portal & Portal 2
And if you’re really feeling masochistic, Portal Reloaded
Portal rewired my brain for a fairly long time. I was really thinking in portals. No game has influenced my head like that. L4D didn’t have me seeing zombies everywhere.
I’m trying to 100% the achievements in Portal without guides, and I’m doing the challenges now but I have never felt so fucking stupid.
