
 Nintendo brain-trainer 'no better than pencil and paper'  - nickb
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/article5587314.ece
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kaiser
forgets to focus on the addiction factor. Pen and paper works as well, if they
are used. If a child does maths with the DS and it is addictive, ... I know it
from my own experience. I play more often brain age on my DS than I sit down
and solve math equations :)

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mrtron
And it provides the content too. So are you more likely to print out math
questions and do them daily to stay sharp, or to play the game?

I always dislike the 'oh this isn't that great because I could do it myself'
argument. Brain age makes it easy and fun.

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jcl
While Brain Age's advertising contains a number of questionable correlations
(increased brain blood flow indicates beneficial mental exercise; improved
game scores indicate a delay of cognitive decline), I found it odd that a
researcher trying to disprove them would pile on a few more assumptions:

 _The study tested Nintendo's claims on 67 ten-year-olds. "That's the age
where you have the best chance of improvement," Professor Lieury said. "If it
doesn't work on children, it won't work on adults."_

I also found it dubious that the Nintendo and pencil-and-paper groups both
improved 10% in logic tests, while the control group improved 20%... So both
Nintendo and pencil-and-paper training effectively degrade your logic ability?
Or perhaps his 10-year-old subjects are improving in all areas so rapidly that
the extra hours spent doing the exercises are detracting from something more
important to development -- which might not be the case for adult subjects.

 _In Stimulate Your Neurones, a book due out this month, Professor Lieury
says: "There were few positive effects and they were weak. Dr Kawashima is one
of a long list of dream merchants."_

Ah, a book... It looks like someone wants to add his name to the list. :)

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kogus
No better... except that people actually use and enjoy it.

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siculars
the fact that the article fails to mention that people, children specifically,
enjoy the interactive nature of handheld devices and would thereby have a
positive effect on engagement undercuts the investigators argument to a
degree.

certainly nintendos numbers have a tad bit of pr thrown in for good measure
but surely there is some truth there. additionaly, at a fundamental level much
of what we do can be distilled to a paper and pencil implementation. we could
calculate trajectories and load bearings with a slide rule - but should we? i
find that these studies are a throwback to Luddite times. bottom line for me
is that the device itself is a major breakthrough and the opportunity it
provides to enhance content delivery to the end user outstrips its early
simplistic software applications at this time. no doubt, future iterations
will be much more compelling.

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almost
One to file under "no shit Sherlock" maybe? Doesn't really seem fair to
compare it against mentally challenging things though, probably more fair to
compare it against other video games or watching crap TV...

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LogicHoleFlaw
In all fairness most any video game requires more mental effort than TV due to
their interactive nature. These "brain training" games are pretty good for
what they do - filling the niche also occupied by scrambles, sudoku, and
crossword puzzles.

