Surely you have seen more than one ad where you are assured that thanks to these games you will become more intelligent, improve your cognitive abilities and you can strengthen your memory. But new research by researchers at Florida State University (FSU) has shattered the marketing that these tools use to attract you.
According to Neil Charness, a professor of psychology and an expert on aging and cognition, he joined an associate professor of psychology and graduate student Wally Boot in order to test the theory that brain games help preserve cognitive function . Boot says that, “our findings and previous studies confirm that there is hardly any evidence that this type of games can improve your life significantly.”
The popularity of these brain entertainment tools has turned the industry into developing billion-dollar businesses. However, its effectiveness is more than debatable and have already been fined on occasion for misleading advertising. According to Boot, “more and more companies are starting to get fined for these kinds of inflated claims and that’s a good thing.” These exaggerated claims are not consistent with the findings of our latest study. ”
The FSU team focused on whether brain games could increase the “working memory” (or working memory) we use when performing a multitude of tasks. In their study, they counted on a group of volunteers that played to this type of games that supposedly train the brain and others that were dedicated to do crosswords or mental puzzles of different type. The purpose of the researchers was to know if the games improved the working memory of the players and, consequently, other mental abilities, such as reasoning, memory or processing speed.
And the truth is that no. According to Charness, “it is possible to train people to be good at specific tasks of working memory, such as memorizing 70, 80 or 100 digits, but these skills tend to be very specific and not extrapolated to others. Same with older people doing crossword puzzles in order to improve their memory: they will not remember where they left their keys or other information to do more. ”
Charness recommends that instead of sitting in front of the PC or tablet and entertaining themselves with these games, people do aerobic exercise. It will be much more beneficial.
