Brain Training: Is It All Snake Oil? Researchers (such as Chancellor and Chatterjee from the University of Pennsylvania) have argued that the increasingly cozy relationship between neuroscience research and the marketing of brain training products has become too close for comfort, raising ethical questions about how academic research is related to commercial gain. Probably in no other area of psychological research have we seen such a use and abuse of neuroscience terminology for marketing purposes. This is all notwithstanding promises that cannot be delivered upon and claims regarding neural processes that brain training tool developers cannot support, sometimes based on spurious theories and poor scientific reasoning. Here is an example of “neuro-logic” that is persuasive to the public but fairly poor as scientific reasoning goes. • Companies that offer brain training online often point to the healthy state of the evidence that brain stimulation has been shown to increase the growth of neural pathways between brain cells, or “neurogenesis”. This is true. • They also point to the fact that learning and memory improvements are associated with neurogenesis. This is also true. • They then go on to argue that therefore, brain training will improve learning and memory. This does not follow. . . . Don’t Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater We have all heard of the various reviews of brain training programs, that most often conclude that the effects are not worth getting too excited over. The main finding is that while brain training improves skills in the precise domain being targeted, the effects do not generalize to related skills or everyday life. In other words, brain training games simply make you better at brain training games. These reviews are welcome and an important part of the scientific process, and in many cases they are well conducted. However, there is an important point that can be easily missed when particular programs are assessed in large randomized controlled trials. That is, that the effectiveness or otherwise of a particular tool, does not inform us about the principles involved in brain training. The real question is; in principle, can forms of intellectual stimulation lead to generalized improvements in other related but dissimilar areas of intellectual functioning? One series of studies that answer a resounding YES to this question are those conducted by John Jonides and colleagues at the University of Michigan. Click the link for more. psychologytoday/blog/iq-boot-camp/201408/brain-training-is-it-all-snake-oil
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 10:13:04 +0000
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