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Stage: 3
Session number: 22
Average n-back: 4
My bpi seems to still be dropping even though I am doing better than I have before. I was at 365 on a lower level and now that I am doing level 4 consistently with breaks into N=5 I am sitting at 345…wondering if it has still been fixed.
MindSparke Brain Fitness Software
This post was submitted by Michael.
Stage: 3
Session number: 30
Average n-back: 3.5
I had a pretty good training session this time around. Managed to reach n=5 once, which is a milestone for me. You can tell that what you’ve learned sticks in your head even after a long break from training.
MindSparke Brain Training Software
This post was submitted by Russell Len.
While brain fatigue isn’t all in the mind, so to speak, some of it might be. Scientists at the University of Florida, Warrington College of Business Administration, designed a novel experiment to see whether people’s perception of their level of mental burnout would affect their performance on a working memory test. The answer: Yes.
Lead by Joshua Clarkson the University of Florida team asked participants to undergo one of two mental tasks. For some the task assigned was truly arduous, designed to tax his or her mental resources, whereas for others the task assigned was not strenuous enough to induce mental fatigue. The team provided the participants with false feedback about how much the task had depleted their mental resources. All participants then completed a working memory test. Those participants who’d been told that they were not mentally fatigued scored relatively higher on the test of working memory capacity. The performance benefit was independent of the individuals’ actual state of depletion.
(Now if they could only bottle it.)
Stage: 3
Session number: 29
Average n-back: 3
I felt a bit rusty on this round having taken about 2 weeks off for the holidays. Have to get back into it, now.
MindSparke Brain Training Software
This post was submitted by Russell Len.
Stage: 3
Session number: 8
Average n-back: 3
My BPI plummeted, but I finally had some successful N-3s. Why is this – it is disheartening for one who likes to keep score!
MindSparke Brain Training Software
This post was submitted by Chris.
Stage: 3
Session number: 13
Average n-back: 2.7
I’ve started to feel comfortable with n3, and only a little step until I feel the same with n4. This slack of improvement is because, I have taken breaks, that have made it from being better to better, to stop the improvement at the beginning point, in the session, that could have been my new approach to the next manage. In my training I have to be clear with my training times, that I also do for every day. I have seen it makes it whole better if doing that, for the improvements in this and for my well being in my life out of this. When I now only get better, have I noticed that my piano playing, my learning in school, when I play tennis, my life have in all directions become more of what I want – it have become better.
MindSparke Brain Fitness Software
This post was submitted by Arvid Andersson.
Study Noise / Noisy Study
Yesterday I posted about Sverker Sikstrom and his new ideas on working memory storage. Professor Sikstrom also studies the effects of noise on concentration and learning. Interestingly, he has found that for some people a moderate amount of white noise can help them focus.
And this is not just an abstract point of interest. Professor Sikström and his colleague Göran Söderlund have set about developing software that can determine whether someone will find background noise helpful when concentrating, then delivers the necessary amount and type of noise to help them study.
How does the brain store working memory data?
Sverker Sikstrom
The prevailing theory holds that to represent a piece of working memory data, a word or a digit, for example, the brain establishes a pattern of active brain cells. More data, more active patterns. Up to a typical maximum of about seven or eight concurrent items of working memory.
Cognitive scientist Sverker Sikstrom thinks this model is too simplistic:
“The argument against this is that it would be uneconomical for the brain, because it takes a lot of energy to produce a memory,” Sikström says. “Moreover, there would be a major risk that we would mix things up if we were keeping several memories going at the same time.”
Sikstrom and his colleagues have been constructing an alternate theory of working memory storage and testing it with computer simulations. Sikstrom thinks that rather than storing conscious information as concurrent active patterns in working memory, the brain retrieves them to the forefront as needed. They ‘oscillate’ back and forth from active to passive, as Sverker Sikström puts it.
Professor Sikstrom isn’t just interested in theories. Having applied his its model to how people learn lists of words, Sikström and his team sheds light on why we remember the words that come earlier in the list better than those towards the end.
“How people store information is a very fundamental and important issue,” says Sverker Sikström. “By understanding how we remember things, we can better form strategies to improve our memory.”
Stage: 3
Session number: 29
Average n-back: 3.8
I had a breakthrough today for mastering n=4..It suddenly seemed straightforward..so I hope this continues and my brain has acquired a new algorithm and approach for the more complicated strings of information 
perhaps a nap afterwards will help I believe this process of improvement is not a linear one
MindSparke Brain Fitness Software
This post was submitted by nale.
Stage: 3
Session number: 30
Average n-back: 4.2
movin on up, n=5 is certainly a challenge at this point glad to be past the n=4 barrier!! keep plugging away your brain will figure a way!
MindSparke Brain Training Software
This post was submitted by Christopher DIstel.
