The current culture is obsessed with youth, and many adults spend a lot of time and money while responding to gray hair and crow’s feet. Regardless, it would be an irrelevant venture if one “drives a shiny race car with a rusty engine” ( Weir, 2014 ). As a result, the issue of mental sharpness among the adult population has attracted as much attention as business opportunities over the past decade. “Brain health” corporations such as Posit Science and Lumosity have developed mobile and web brain games that promise to revitalize the user’s gray matter. These games are deemed to improve certain elements of cognition including processing speed, memory, problem-solving, mental flexibility, and attention. Psychologists have concluded that brain games bring benefits for problem-solving and memory, but further research is needed to establish the games that would keep the adult at a high level in most aspects cognition.
Slowing Down
While many adults do not experience dementia at any point of their lives, cognitive decline is unavoidable for all of them. This decrease is evident especially when one forgets some such things like a family member’s name, which may seem to be obvious. It also becomes difficult for the adult to multitask for extended periods. According to Weir (2014), memory loss is not the first cognitive skill to fail; rather, adults tend to experience a decline in their ability to swiftly and accurately react to simple stimuli such as solving crossword puzzles.
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Many brain games companies focus on perceptual speed with the expectation that the effect will spread to other cognitive aspects. Weir (2014) holds that it is possible to improve other cognitive skills by training only one. Zelinski et al. (2011) conducted a study on the effect of mind games among adults older than 65 years for 56 days. Half of the participants practiced computerized exercises which were structured to enhance speed and accuracy, while the other half watched educational videos. The first group demonstrated improvements in overall assessments of attention and memory, even though these skills were barely trained for in the computerized exercises. However, a follow-up after three months revealed that these improvements were not permanent. It is only the perceptual speed and reasoning benefits that persisted throughout that period. This study concluded that, for there to be long-term improvements in other aspects of cognition, there needs to be persistence with cognitive exercises.
Lasting Changes
Findings by Gallo et al. (2003 ) suggest that some types of cognitive training appear to last for years. Their study was different, in that, they tested only one of three cognitive skills for each participant. The training lasted for six weeks. Like the other study, training aimed at enhancing memory was found to be less effective than those based on other cognitive skills. They deduced that age-related memory loss might be partly unavoidable because of reduced plasticity of brain cells as an individual grows older.
It was also found that those participants who received training emphasizing processing speed and reasoning still displayed positive effects in those areas ten years later. Reasoning, for instance, persists for many years because training teaches the adult to use certain strategies for problem solving (Gallo et al., 2014). Since many problems are encountered on a regular basis, applying these strategies continuously helps to sharpen them.
It is hard to establish the extent to which interventions help adults in their daily routines because it is practically impossible to recreate real-world situations accurately in a laboratory. Regardless, there are other signs that cognitive training brings noticeable real-world improvements outside the lab environment. Gallo et al. (2003 ) collected participants’ traffic records from the five years after the training. These records, compared to those in the control group, revealed that the participants who received training focusing on either processing speed or reasoning had about 50% lower rates of at-fault collisions.
Efficient Brains
Although there are still some lingering questions, firms are developing more brain-training products. Some of these programs are actually based on scientific principles. For example, the processing speed training conducted by Gallo et al. (2003 ) now forms part of Posit Science’s package. However, many brain games in the industry have not yet been tested under controlled conditions. It is hard to establish their helpfulness to adults because there is no sufficient research to authenticate the claims.
One of the most important features of brain games is that they are adaptive. As a player gets better at the task, the game is modified to become more challenging. Also, there is a bold resemblance with physical exercise because some people are more willing to be persistent yet some need to be kept on task by someone else. Weir (2014) adds that brain games should inspire effort rather than emphasizing only on entertainment. In other words, games that are helpful are traditionally effortful.
Conclusions
As a person ages, the issue of cognitive decline becomes more apparent. Many adults tend to look for ways to mitigate this decline and its effects. On the short-term, only the processing speed and reasoning may be improved by participating in brain games. Memory requires a longer time for there to be any noticeable improvements. Adults who indulge in effective brain games are less likely to experience lapses in cognition as compared to those who avoid such exercises.
Brain games are effective in improving cognitive skill for adults because they are adaptive, that is, the game becomes more challenging as the player becomes better at it. In this case, the adult needs to place more effort on the game than the entertaining part of it.
References
Gallo, J. J., Rebok, G. W., Tennsted, S., Wadley, V. G., & Horgas, A. (2003). The advanced cognitive training for independent and vital elderly (active) study investigators. Linking depressive symptoms and functional disability in late life. Aging & Mental Health , 7 (6), 469-80.
Weir, K. (2014). Can brain games keep my mind young? Time , 185 (6-7), 87-87.
Zelinski, E. M., Spina, L. M., Yaffe, K., Ruff, R., Kennison, R. F., Mahncke, H. W., & Smith, G. E. (2011). Improvement in memory with plasticity ‐ based adaptive cognitive training: Results of the 3 ‐ month follow ‐ up. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society , 59 (2), 258-265.
