Does Brain Training Really Work?

This article examines, from a common sense point ofyour skills in this area. With multiplication, this is
view, whether brain training can work, and if so, how.particularly important, which is why you learned your
It seems that half the people I talk to about braintimes tables in school.
training believe that it doesn’t work. My 
intuition is different, and although I haven’tYou can improve language skills by playing word
done a peer-reviewed study, there are good reasonsgames. When you come across a word you
for suspecting that it may have some positive effect.don’t know, you tend to look it up. But even
First though, I need to point out what I mean byif you don’t do this, there is a distinction
brain training working.between so-called active and passive vocabulary.
 Active vocabulary means the words you use every
If people are suddenly expecting to become moreday, and passive vocabulary means the words you
intelligent and creative and better at all mentalknow the meaning of, but don’t use. The
activities, just by playing a puzzle or game, thenmore you see and interact with a particular word, the
I’m sorry to disappoint you. This isn’tmore likely you are to use ourselves. So you would
going to happen (since we don’t have aexpect word games to improve your passive
scientifically accepted definition of intelligence, itvocabulary, if nothing else.
wouldn’t be measurable even if it did). I would, 
however, point out three areas in which you mightShort term memory skills are to a large extent
expect brain training to offer improvements:pre-determined by biology. Very few people, hearing
 a list of numbers recited quickly, will remember more
1)      General number skills — these arethan about 9 of them (the average is 7). This does
used from day to day for everything from workingnot mean that you cannot remember lists of more
out which shop gives you the best deal to havingthings that that. The way in which most people do
some intuition as to which cell phone deal is right forthis is to use “tricks”, where the items are
you, or how much tax you owe.associated with something else, or remembered as
2)      Word and language skills — thepart of a pattern. Obviously, most tricks which work
ability to recall words and to use them in a particularin a memory game can translate to you remembering
context, or even to understand and recognise aa shopping list. Playing a memory game therefore
particular word is vital for communication in the digitalencourages you to get used to methods for
era.remembering things.
3)      Short-term memory skills — such as 
remembering the items on a to-do list without writingYou often hear people saying things like “the brain
them down, or remembering what to buy withoutis a muscle”, and while I have no real time for
having a shopping list or personal organiser to tell you.that, it seems intuitively plausible to me that keeping
 your mind active expands or maintains your cognitive
Now with these modest but important goals in mind,abilities. So you would expect that sufficiently
here is my list of 5 reasons why brain training oughtchallenging games and puzzles would help to keep
to work:you sharp.
  
You can improve your number skills by doingLastly, and most importantly, it should come as no
arithmetic. A big part of working out sums in yoursurprise to anyone that the brain can be trained. Most
head is remembering them. So you don’t needpeople call this “learning”, and anyone who ever
to work out what 7+9 is, because you (hopefully)went to school or even learned how to talk or write
remember the answer. Clearly any puzzle or gamehas experience with this older, more prosaic form of
that offers simple number practice is likely to improvebrain training.