I've been trying out a few of the much touted brain training games (Brain Age on the DS and Brain Challenge on Xbox 360) and according to the in game "progress" charts, my brain functions steadily improve each day. However, I remain doubtful of the actual claims these games carry and I think the majority of the "improvements" are really just related to the fact that you're memorizing and becoming more familiar with each game type/pattern/play system rather than actually improving brain function. Repetition really...the more you do something, the better you get at it. I mean, yes I do seem a tiny bit of improvement in my ability to perform calculations on the fly...but this is probably just due to my over reliance on calculators and Excel formulas over the years. But apart from that, I don't really see much in the way of REAL WORLD improvement yet. Those of you who've been playing these brain games for many months now, what are your REAL WORLD results like? Do you honestly see a difference? Or can you chalk up any improvements simply due to the fact that you're subjecting your brain to minigames involving rapid fire repetition and memorization?
Any benefit you get from them is probably the same as you'd get from doing crossword puzzles, soduku, or something like that. They make you "smarter" in the fact that you're excercizing your mental capacity. One could argue that all games do this, especially video games. You're identifying patterns, making associations, figuring out logic puzzles, testing reaction time, etc. btw, it's proven that playing video games helps increase your creativity So now I have to play a few hours a night, my career depends on it.
