People will buy anything if they feel it can help them improve with minimal effort, it's simply part of human nature to want the most results from the least amount of work. Thus it is that Brain Training for the Nintendo DS is such a wildly popular product -- a simple set of game-like exercises that claim to make you smarter. Great, huh?
Not if you're Prof. Alain Lieury from the University of Rennes.
The cognitive psychology professor wishes to debunk the idea that brain training games can make you any more smarter than a piece of paper and a pencil, going so far as to call any claims of mental improvement "charlatanism" on the part of Nintendo.
"The Nintendo DS is a technological jewel. As a game it's fine," explains the professor. "But it is charlatanism to claim that it is a scientific test."
Lieury recently studied several groups of children to find out just how useful a DS was to one's brain. Some of the kids used Brain Training, some were given puzzles to do on paper, and some went to school as normal. According to the results, 19% of the DS group did show improvement in math skills (compared to 19% and 18% in the other two sets) but the memory tests showed a 17% decrease in the DS children, compared to a 10% gain in the puzzle set.
I look at Brain Training the same way I look at herbal medicine. There may be some benefits, there may not, but at least it's relatively harmless and certainly better than doing nothing at all. Either way, people will continue to buy it because it makes them feel like they're changing their lives for the better when they just bought something trendy. Like that diet that basically tells you eat fried sausages until you die of a heart attack.
Contest:
10:40 AM on 01.26.2009
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Is all I need to say (or in this case, agree with.)
I've only done a little bit of the first game. It didn't hold much sway over me. *shrug*
I'm calling bullshit on this, since the professor can't even get the name right of the thing she's trying to criticize.
I guess Brain Trainning has the same purpose, it just helps to react faster in ome situations.
And for that matter, why kids? Children learn at an accelerated rate for their age...the amount of 'knowledge' they have is miniscule, but their ability to process it is sure as shit better than the 60 year old guy who has bills, an upcoming retirement, the birth of his new grandchildren, etc. to keep track of. This game isn't even marketed to kids; it is mainly targeted to the people who are in mind-numbing/rotting work after their college years.
Something tells me there could have been a lot more done to 'debunk' this...although never once was I under the impression that Brain Age actually made you "smarter" or more knowledgeable than you were 10 minutes ago (nor do I see a claim anywhere on the box that says this), just a little quicker mentally. Maybe I need to read more into the actual study, but I'm on lunch and it is almost up.
Michael
www.fitbrains.com