Session number: 3-2,3,4
Average n-back: 4.6,4.8,5.2
Slowly improving…I just got a new high…it would have been higher – had a great string of 6…but then fell to 4. Soon I know I will be at 7.
I like martin’s new reporting of the session…how do you do that?
Be well
nanz
This post was submitted by nanz.
Tags: Brain Exercises, brain-fitness, brain-fitness-pro, buschkuehl, increase intelligence, increase IQ, intelligence-training, IQ-training, jaeggi, martin-buschkuehl, mind-sparke, susanne-jaeggi, Training Working-Memory, working-memory
Hi Nanz.
Well done! A new high is always a good feeling.
I’m using a prototype of the next version of the program. This allows me to copy my scores from a progress chart on the summary screen. It’s a bit of a hack at the moment, but as we refine the new version I’m considering the idea of building in a blog post mechanism to make the blogging part of the process a little easier.
Martin
Hello:
I am interested in sharing info and experiences with anyone who is engaged with brain training and knows about clinical deficits in working memory and what can help.
I had a positive experience with CogMed last year, and passed my first professional exam after years of beating my head against a wall, but didn’t pass the 2nd exam. I am currently in the middle of the classic brain fitness program by PositScience. I just read about Brain Fitness Pro and I am very interested.
Hi Phebe.
I think that training with Brain Fitness Pro may well help take you to the next level with your professional exams. By testing and strengthening both aural and visual working memory at the same time in a way that requires constantly processing and updating the items being remembered Brain Fitness Pro provides a demanding and effective working memory training that cannot at the moment be bettered.
Your experience with CogMed and Posit Science will put you in a good place to take advantage of Brain Fitness Pro. Those who’ve used the Posit Science Classic program find that Brain Fitness Pro complements and improves upon its benefits (for a fraction of the cost!!)
Please feel free to contact me directly – martin@mindevolvesoftware.com
Martin
I would agree with Martin about getting taken to the next level. My opinion is that Brain Fitness Pro is ideal for people who have overcome their basic working memory deficits elsewhere, or already are arriving at a fairly high level of working memory before working with Brain Fitness Pro. I say this because starting out can be frustrating and someone with working memory issues may not have the patience or persistence to be stuck at 2 back for weeks on end. As for myself I started out at other lighter weight “brain gyms” and I think this was helpful for my training here. I agree with Martin you’re in a good place to start this training but would urge that, if you do try brain fitness pro, you work past the early stages, which, like physical exercise, is often the most painful/frustrating.
The analogy holds that if you’ve done some light exercise before going in for rigor you’ll experience less pain than if you’ve been a couch potato.
Thanks for the feedback. Now I know to finish the training I’m in rather than switch over: very helpful.
I’m wondering about creativity and working memory. Is there some trade off between the two in someways, both requiring a lot of energy? I can see that productivity is helped with more working memory, but people often talk about getting still, sleeping on it, etc. for their creative process. Just curious if anyone has anything to comment.
Hi Phebe.
I’ve thought a good deal about this since I started training with Brain Fitness Pro.
I was surprised at first that the training had any effect on creativity and things artistic. I was focused on the outcome for problem-solving ability. But when I sat down to play the piano a few weeks in I was immediately aware of how much more fluidly and confidently I was playing. Strengthening working memory seemed to have given me more mental resources to draw on while I played.
(Other musicians have noted similar benefits.)
The other marked impact I’ve noticed has been in listening to music. I am hearing old songs with a heightened awareness of their components. I can hear the lines of individual instruments more clearly, and I can better appreciate the composition and interplay of the lines.
All of this makes sense: Improved working memory and focus lets us hold and make sense of more of the music as it flows by.
When creating and composing, these improvements give me a greater ability to find and develop the lines and structures in my own music.
I haven’t done any creative writing in the past few months, but I imagine I will experience similar benefits then, too.
Martin