The Brain Trainers
Marcus Yam for The New York Times
In this exercise at LearningRx
in Upper Montclair, N.J., a trainee tosses a bean bag on the beat of a
metronome while doing addition or recalling a sentence, one letter at a
time.
By DAN HURLEY
Published: October 31, 2012 107 Comments
IN the back room of a suburban storefront previously occupied by a yoga
studio, Nick Vecchiarello, a 16-year-old from Glen Ridge, N.J., sits at a
desk across from Kathryn Duch, a recent college graduate who wears a
black shirt emblazoned with the words “Brain Trainer.” Spread out on the
desk are a dozen playing cards showing symbols of varying colors,
shapes and sizes. Nick stares down, searching for three cards whose
symbols match.
Sample Exercises
Peripheral Challenge
An interactive exercise from Posit Science, aimed at visual precision and expanding peripheral field.
Attention Teaser
An exercise performed at LearningRx centers, aimed at focus, working memory and visual manipulation skills.
Related
-
I.Q. Rising (November 4, 2012)
Juan Arredondo for The New York Times
Nick Vecchiarello, 16, of Glen Ridge, N.J., finds the patterns in a LearningRx exercise.
Readers’ Comments
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“Do you see it?” Ms. Duch asks encouragingly.
“Oh, man,” mutters Nick, his eyes shifting among the cards, looking for patterns.
Across the room, Nathan Veloric, 23, studies a list of numbers, looking
for any two in a row that add up to nine. With tight-lipped
determination, he scrawls a circle around one pair as his trainer holds a
stopwatch to time him. Halfway through the 50 seconds allotted to
complete the exercise, a ruckus comes from the center of the room.
“Nathan’s here!” shouts Vanessa Maia, another trainer. Approaching him
with a teasing grin, she claps her hands like an annoying little sister.
“Distraction!” she shouts. “Distraction!”
There is purpose behind the silliness. Ms. Maia is challenging the
trainees to stay focused on their tasks in the face of whatever
distractions may be out there, whether Twitter feeds, the latest Tumblr
posting or old-fashioned classroom commotion.
On this Wednesday evening at the Upper Montclair, N.J., outlet of LearningRx,
a chain of 83 “brain training” franchises across the United States, the
goal is to improve cognitive skills. LearningRx is one of a growing
number of such commercial services — some online, others offered by
psychologists. Unlike traditional tutoring services that seek to help
students master a subject, brain training purports to enhance
comprehension and the ability to analyze and mentally manipulate
concepts, images, sounds and instructions. In a word, it seeks to make
students smarter.
“We measure every student pre- and post-training with a version of the
Woodcock-Johnson general intelligence test,” said Ken Gibson, who began
franchising LearningRx centers in 2003, and has data on more than 30,000
of the nearly 50,000 students who have been trained. “The average gain
on I.Q. is 15 points after 24 weeks of training, and 20 points in less
than 32 weeks.”
The three other large cognitive training services — Lumosity, Cogmed and
Posit Science — dance around the question of whether they truly raise
I.Q. but do assert that they improve cognitive performance.
“Your brain, just brighter,” is the slogan of Lumosity,
an online company that now has some 25 million registered members.
According to its Web site, “Our users have reported profound benefits
that include: clearer and quicker thinking; faster problem-solving
skills; increased alertness and awareness; better concentration at work
or while driving; sharper memory for names, numbers and directions.”
Those results are achieved, the companies say, by repurposing cognitive
tasks initially developed by psychologists as tests of mental abilities.
With technical names like the antisaccade, the N-back and the complex
working memory span task, the exercises are dressed up as games that
become increasingly difficult as students gain mastery.
Conceived to appeal to adults, especially baby boomers looking to stanch
the effects of aging, Lumosity now draws one-quarter of its audience
from students between the ages of 11 and 21, according to Michael
Scanlon, the company’s scientific director. “I was taken aback that so
much of our user base is so young,” he said. “The particular audience I
had in mind at the earliest stages of the company was my mother.” In
response to requests from schoolteachers, the fee is now waived — $15 a
month — for students in their classrooms. More than 1,000 teachers and
10,000 students have enrolled this year, Mr. Scanlon said.
- Lola
- Here
We enrolled our son who had auditory processing issues and speech apraxia in Learning RX at age 4. We did all the things our parents had done- reading, singing, talking, playing, teaching, etc. but he needed more to get beyond his delays. Intensive speech and developmental therapy helped, but not enough. Barbara Arrowsmith Young and Harold Eaton's books showed how children with neurological differences like our son's could heal their brains through brain training (neuroplasticity). We don't live near an Arrowsmith school and decided on Learning RX. LRX helped break brain fog, built his attention span, tenacity for sticking to difficult tasks and confidence. This is only 1 component of building cognitive skills and hopefully isn't necessary for most, but is great for those who need it whether due to learning disabilities, neurological disorders, strokes, etc. Like personal training, it exposes weakness/builds strength. It can increase your brain's lifting capacity- but it takes more than drills to be a pro-athlete or genius. Many parents don’t have time/expertise to do what these programs do- it can be a strain on the parent-child relationship, especially when a child has a delay, to add this curriculum on top of reading/teaching time parents put in, and a drain on time for other care taking and other children. Now that we face entrance exams and the gifted and talented test for elementary school we’re incorporating Learning RX style cognitive exercises in prep.- MHD
- Tennessee
It seems to be that personal "brain training" versus online brain training is the difference between hiring a personal tennis coach to improve your game versus playing tennis on a Wii. This analogy can also be used when considering good old fashioned hard work and discipline when trying to lose weight by exercising versus hiring a personal trainer at a gym to assist you. Both will get you the results, but having a trainer will give you better, faster results.- Rowe Young
- Arizona
Dan Hurley You might want to read Psychology
2012. Vol.3, No.1, 36-44
Published Online January 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/psych) DOI:10.4236/psych.2012.31006
Physical and Behavioral Markers Help Identify Written Language Disability (WLD) Related to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)*
Rowe A. Young#, Benson E. Ginsburg, Dawn Bradway
Department of Psychology Program/Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Connecticut Storrs
We have found that the neurological process of rotation and how the mind directs and uses it , is a very important part of academic learning- Bert
- Colorado
I am very close to finishing a LearningRX (brain training) program in Colorado. As an adult, I entered the program after failing the bar exam 3 times due to not being able to get a passing score on the multiple choice part of the exam. I have noticed unbelievable changes in my ability to process information more quickly and finally can pick the correct answers in a multiple choice testing format. This program has changed my life. I highly recommend this program to adults and children.- Momof4
- Florida
I wanted to add to my previous post that I have seen a huge jump in my children's confidence levels, the ability to take on challenges, abilities in sports and helping around the house. I have also seen their willingness to tackle things by themselves. My oldest will not allow me to answer for him anymore, he prefers to talk for himself! That is a huge jump in his self confidence....and I accredit this mostly to the confidence he gained through the cognitive training with LearningRx. Besides being fun they are in essence exercising the brain so that it preforms better!- MomofFour
- Florida
We have experienced LearningRx first hand. We had tried about everything before finding LearningRx for our budding teen with ADHD. Counseling, Homeschooling, Psychiatrists, thousands of $$ on testing provided us nothing but a label and the recommendation to "stick him in school and let him work it out". This is not what we wanted for our child. We wanted him to succeed. I watched my child struggle at home and wondered how in the world he'd survive school. I imagined the humiliation, the ridicule, the teasing. We did not want this for our son.
A friend introduced us to LearningRx.
Our "before" results did not surprise me. Attention and Processing was low, as was logic and reasoning for my son.
Further driving our decision to investigate LearningRx was the fact that I was seeing some of the same behaviors in my youngest daughter that I had seen earlier in my son. She struggled reading and with phonetics. She seemed to tire easily when working on her school work. Her testing proved that she was low in processing speed and long-term memory.
LearningRx became part of our daily routine. In the beginning we were there four days a week. We finished with out oldest there 24 weeks, our youngest son who was already very smart there 12 weeks, and our daughter 36 weeks. Test results impressed and surprised us. Our oldest son was now at grade level, our daughter two years above, and our other son improved by more than four years or more in each cognitive skill. It works.- Simon Sez
- Maryland
Guys, I just discovered these really neat places, all free, where you can improve your mind in ways that beat anything else around.
Libraries.- Allise Bromfield
- New Jersey
Reading alone cannot improve cognitive abilities.
- john
- wisconsin
having great teachers and involved parents is the key. read to your children. make going to the library with them a regular part of your lives. take them to museums, concerts, plays. get them swimming lessons.. have dinner together at a table every night.. lead by example. all these things are free.- BalsonesFalk
- Austin, TX
Is there a web site or map locator to find out if there is a training center nearby?- blb
- mi
Ironically, if this program really worked, the practitioners would soon realize that they've been duped.- Stephen Kelleher
- Franklin Lakes, N.J..
First & foremost character and sound values must be the foundation for all learning. And this must be accompanied by helping children develop balanced personalities starting with how infants are nourished.
There can be no limit to the amount of love, affection and meeting of their needs and sparse indulgence to aid in their growing to maturity.
And the path to Carnegie Hall is practice.- Harold Kirkpatrick
- NY
Dogs are trained. People are educated.- Polly
- California
The tests sound like a scam. "Pre- and post-training" tests will improve on any test, with or without training. Unless they also cite the comparison numbers, for "IQ gains" without training, you can assume a lot of the gain is familiarity with the format or content of the tests.- Hope
- Cleveland
Best way to train your brain: read books; lots of them; all the time. It's free and nothing can beat it.- Ad
- Brooklyn
But have you seen many "books" published these days? I'm not saying you're wrong, but there is a lack of quality out there. Rather, it might be easy to fall into a rut of reading "summer books".- MHD
- Tennessee
What about the students who have trouble reading and avoid it at all costs? Around 40% of 4th graders currently read below grade level.
- Stephen Rinsler
- Arden, NC
The article focuses on the abstraction of "intelligence" , which is nowadays based on the score achieved on an IQ test.
I am less interested in "training" folks to do well on tests than in using education and training to foster and support a sense of empowerment and responsibility in the individual.
A self-empowered person who has incorporated the habits of critical thinking and reflection may not "manifest" a high "IQ" on tests, but IS better prepared to guide his or her life rationally and productively than one who is not.
For most of us, the attainment of such a mental state requires a soupçon of biology, a lot of good parenting and access to adequate schooling. For some, additional assistance may be clearly necessary and helpful.
It is tremendously difficult to measure the long term outcomes, but in my mind that is what counts.
I am unconvinced that short term changes in one or another aptitude, IQ or brain "function" test has much to do with long term outcomes.- DM
- Albany NY
This article is mainly a series of testimonials. “Scientific” learning as a business venture started with Fast Forword, a program that advertized the Scientific background of their computerized methods but failed to produce actual peer-reviewed results. This approach has spawned several more business ventures, including the ones listed in this article. However these programs are not based on science. They only claim to be. The interested consumer can do a search in publicly available data bases such as PubMed or Google Scholar and verify that this is so.- TK
- Stockholm
This is not generally true. There are more than 50 studies about working memory training in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Search PubMed for the works by Klingberg, Holmes, Schweitzer, Jaeggi, Benninger, Brehmer, Dahlin or Chein.
- Tina
- Seattle, WA
For children without any diagnosed learning issues, it seems that parents could save a whole lot of money by setting aside time to play strategy and logic games before bedtime every night. (And they don't all need to be as heady as chess.) As anyone who spent a childhood playing Clue knows, you get better by playing, especially by playing with older siblings or adults who already have an advantage over you. Sometimes the older competitors will give you hints on how to strategize when you're first learning (if they're nice), and some of the tricks you pick up simply by studying your adversaries and remembering past mistakes. I have a hard time believing that any of these brain training services can really yield more than a healthy dose of game playing each day.- Claus615
- Norwalk, CT
The Claus Academy, located in Norwalk, CT, has clients participate in brain based physical and mental activities. For example, clients needing reading help use the computer based program Fast ForWord, from Scientific Learning.
Check out our YouTube videos by searching The Claus Academy or Everyone Can Learn.- Dr. LZC
- Medford, Ma.
I hope that new technologies and research will lead to a better, more specific definitions of intelligence and/or brain health as well as better tests of intelligence and/or disability. I enjoyed playing the Luminosity games, but was not convinced by claims that playing these types of games improves intelligence. Although, I believe my hand-eye coordination would improve. Is this a form of intelligence? Perhaps areas of the brain can be strengthened like doing sit-ups to strengthen the core, but does this add up to improved cognition or intelligence, particularly when isolated to achieve test results? Focus and practice in any area usually does lead to improvement, but the model seems too mechanistic and impersonal to be an effective way to improve general intelligence. However, perhaps functions of the brain could be improved, such as hand-eye coordination after a stroke. This would amazingly useful, but why claim intelligence is being improved? Human beings usually play and manipulate outcomes, testing the boundaries of tests, wanting to take over or control outcomes/status associated with higher intelligence. In sum, I think research into human intelligence and its definition continues to be worthwhile, but vulnerable to hyperbole and salesmanship.- Mickey
- Salt Lake City
(1) If we're training them to block out interruptions, how do we expect children to distinguish between a silly distraction and a fire drill? Alert fatigue of a child and the socio-ec status of the home, impact sustained focus. Help them feel safe and nurtured at school, please. Train the parents to do the same at home.
(2) Agree with Chris C from Oregon. As soon as the developer called it a "version" of the WJ, I laughed (oh, was that a distraction, too?) No awareness shown on the issue of robustness of this "version." Fred Rogers, " Can you say covariance, boys and girls?"
(3)the developers may be in the very old game of obviating valid IQ measurement by trying to train directly on the skills used in the WJ ahead of time. Like the task of assembling pictures into a story sequence, or increasing vocabulary. But reverse correlations do not hold well. Take the example of the MMPI personality inventory. Research shows that folks who are mechanically inclined, [measured by subscribing to Popular Mechanics, etc.] manage their anger better. But the reverse is less true. anger management won't improve by ordering the magazine alone.- Shannon
- Jacksonville, Florida
"(2) Agree with Chris C from Oregon. As soon as the developer called it a "version" of the WJ, I laughed (oh, was that a distraction, too?) No awareness shown on the issue of robustness of this "version." Fred Rogers, " Can you say covariance, boys and girls?""
Dr. Ken Gibson stated that a "version" of the WJIII is used because it's not the complete battery of tests. LearningRx uses certain subtests of the WJIII to measure the specific skills that apply to their brain training program.
- Javier
- Washington DC
ONLINE BRAIN TRAINING VS. IN PERSON: Assuming you know someone that could benefit from improving how they learn (i.e. strengthening their cognitive skills) you must choose between online or in person. The question is can a monitor perceive, adapt and adjust to motivate and customize the approach? Probably not! Online brain training is less effective precisely because of that. It is why MIT offers their courses free online, while raising tuition every year for their students actually attending the university and they still get more applicants every year. Learning, like brain training, is experiential and customization works better, hence our focus on student to faculty ratios in universities, and people over monitors in brain training. This article fails to separate the two worlds of brain training, which are dramatically different in approach and results.- David
- NJ
"It is why MIT offers their courses free online, while raising tuition every year for their students actually attending the university and they still get more applicants every year."
That fact has absolutely nothing to do with in-person vs. online learning. The value of a degree is far more than the in-class instruction. This is especially true at a school like MIT (or any of the other HYPSMC schools) where a degree from the institution carries so much prestige that it is, in and of itself, a significant asset. Even beyond that prestige value, though, access to professors and the many other resources of a physical campus is a big deal too.
MIT could have its students attend lectures online, charge higher fees, and still have students lining up to attend.
- LDH
- Colorado Springs
I am part of the nonprofit effort which is becoming a movement to make schools aware of the cognitive skill profile of every child. How many of their students who enter school 1-3 years behind and never catch up are low in auditory processing or one or more of the other core skills? Today schools can easily screen their student body and know. How could they strengthen learning and processing with individualized attention and not change curriculum, intensely train teachers or need expansive extra resources? There are answers. It can be done. It has been done.
The argument over whether simple, sequential, intense individualized online exercises can improve IQ missess the point. Whether exercises build cognitive skills to some extent is not the question. The question is can they move a child's individual cognitive scores out of the bottom quadrant, above the mid-point, or above the 81% needed to avoid remediation in college. That is the big deal question for high-need and at-risk students.
Beyond that, the greater benefit of an effective cognitive training program may be that, properly implemented, the exercises positively impact character and non-cognitive qualities as well. Moving a student along on a continuum that starts with respect and reaches confidence has life-long value. Underlying the question of whether any clinical or in-school program will be effective is the question of whether there are students who can't do the work because of cognitive skill limitations.- dmutchler
- Upper Mississippi :)
Is this actually intended to make kids "smarter," or merely to enable them to come up from the level of idiocy that we apparently believe they exist? True, that idiocy may be due to an overload of technological devices theoretically intended to enrich lives (oops!), but inability to focus due to a plethora of distracting "toys" (or as may be more true, devices that groom a distracted nature, an inability to focus)) is to some (large) extent the fault of the parents.
Just say no. Make some rules. Be a parent. A cell/smart phone is not a right, not even for an adult.- DrBill
- Boston
Why not? One of the "core functions" necessary for success in our society is the ability to ace standardized tests! Absolutely every profession has similar barriers to membership - the law boards are based on rote word for word memory of massive amounts of material. So are the medical board exams, etc.,etc. All the student examples seem to have have approached brain skills learning pramatically - to max out their own potential. Rather than "poo poo" legitimate cognitive or learning skills coaching, we need to have a generation or two who can digest data and solve "typical" problems rapidly to compete with other cultures that are much more pragmatic in their approach to learning. People who gain "brain power" through these methods do so because they have "permitted" tutors and instructors to use stern, repetitive, purely goal-oriented teaching methods in the dominant language and without the culture of sensitivity bias that demands every child have a "good" grade. There is room for lots of different viewpoints, but this one will always produce people who are better equipped to make a living no matter what they eat, or what they call it. NOTE: the critics quoted in this article all have degrees that demanded exactly the kind of rigor on offer by Luminosity and by Kaplan.- KS
- Atlanta, GA
I am a professional computer programmer, and I have to deal with very complex problems throughout the day. This necessitates having a large short-term working memory and working on lot of binary and hexadecimal math. I have been aware since college of the effect on the brain and general ease of thinking and problem-solving, through constant mental stimulation through reading, doing puzzles, crosswords, etc. so I have to say I was not doing too badly when I joined the workforce.
I came across an ad for Lumosity by accident, while I was surfing through mentalfloss.com. I was a little intrigued by it, and played some free games. I did feel a little "wired" after the tests but I am a very doubting and cynical person, and wanted to do a little research before I thought of paying for full access.
I was not really swayed by the research since I felt that it was not very conclusive or controlled, but I decided to give it a try just based on how I felt mentally after playing the free games.
I took it continuously for a month, and tried to be aware of how I felt each day when working. I have to say that I DID feel sharper and more focused, and that problem solving and thinking came easier. I don't think I raised my IQ or anything, but I do feel like my cognitive skills improved.
These games DO tax your brain, and improve mental focus etc. but I don't know how long the effects persist.
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