Memory training worth it?

General Memory Chat
1

Are the memory training games worth doing, or can I just practice by memorising the things themselves I actually want to learn/remember?

2

From my experience: Yes, it’s definitely worth it.

You get faster and better at using memory techniques, which helps you when you need to memorize something for school/job/university. In addition to that, if you play on Memory League for example, the competition with other players makes it more interesting and helps you improve even more.

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3

Alright, thanks!

How much do you recommend I do each day?

4

When I started I did 15 minutes per day (with one day per week without any training). I think it depends a bit on how much you can fit in your daily schedule. It shouldn’t feel like a chore, memory training should be fun. I rarely ever did more than 30 minutes per day (except if I was playing with someone on memory league and we played a lot of games). Of course you can always do more training if you’re in the mood :slight_smile:

In general I’d say 15 minutes per day is better than 2 hours on one day of the week.

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5

Memory is a scam

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6

What are some of the best memory games?

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You can find some on these pages:

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The above link, dated 1 Aug 2018, contains two quotes:

  • …some studies have found that brain-training games improve the “executive functions, working memory, and processing speed” of young people…

  • [but] …we find those who say that no such benefits exist… brain-training games “do not boost cognition.”

The above link has several links. You should really have a quick glance at each link.

IMHO, the links which are favourable to brain-training games predate the Lumosity trial of January 5, 2016, when they agreed to a $50 million settlement (reduced to $2 million subject to financial verification)

On the other hand, links which claim that brain-training games provide no benefits tend to have more recent dates. For example, this link from Aug 2018:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30009838

Here are some quotes from this link:

  • …performance on the test tasks after training were nearly identical to a passive control group.

  • …Our study calls into question the benefit of cognitive training beyond practice effects [this is also known as “the Lumosity effect”, in which participants simply get smarter at playing a game]

So it seems to me that it’s not as simple as “you pays your money and you takes your choice”.

IMHO, it’s a much simpler choice: you believes old results or you believes recent results. In other words, in Google, you should restrict the date range to the last 2 years (the “Tools” setting).

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