Andy’s Quick Hits (242): When Cognitive Games Do Make You Smarter

Cognitive games, or “brain training”, have been around for many years now — the first wave of popularity came with Nintendo’s “brain jogging” almost two decades ago now.

These games have claimed that they improve brain function and indeed there has been some solid research to show this does happen. But when digging into the research an inconsistent picture emerges.

The sticking point is what we call near and far transfer. If you train anything you will get better at it — that is no surprise, but the question is how far can this transfer to real life? So, if you are playing any form of cognitive game such as a short-term memory game, the really important question is how much does this transfer to everyday life, i.e. will my memory be improved when meeting people or going shopping?

It is precisely this that has shown inconsistent results. And it is precisely this that a group of researchers at the University of California wanted to get a better grip on.

What did they find?

They conducted a series of experiments with 500 individuals and found consistent results. They found that the degree of near transfer predicated far transfer.