When science does its thing and totally trumps marketing, the completely rubbish student activist in me smiles. Remember Dr Kawashima? Remember his polygon face? Remember those puzzles you had to solve in an attempt to not get Alzheimer’s at some point? Apparently they aren’t really effective. According to an Australian study, you should have been watching documentaries instead. Take that, you corporate somethings!
Alright, so the truth is a little more complicated than that. Catherine Borness ran a study looking at the effectiveness of certain brain games on the mental capabilities of people at the Australian Taxation Office (of all places). The study didn’t look at Brain Training, it used Happy Neuron, which is far more serious about selling its capabilities as a way to improve your ‘Brain Fitness’.
But the interesting point is this: in an attempt to create a control group Borness’ study had another group of people from the Australian Tax Office watch documentaries instead of playing Brain Games. This was simply supposed to be a way to put the findings from the Brain Game in context.
But it turned out that the folk who watched the documentaries saw a significant increase in their mental capabilities, whilst those playing the games showed none. Those that watched the documentaries noted that their quality of life increased and their language skills had improved. Those that played the games saw no statistically significant increase.
“The product may be questionable in its efficacy, [but] I think part of the problem is not doing enough of it to have an effect.” said Borness, “we haven’t figured out what is ‘enough.’”
Interestingly Borness is actually a fan of Brain Games, and continues to play them despite the results of her research
“I think they’re fun. I’m one of those people who can’t do nothing, so I get on my phone and play games.”
Brain Games Versus Nature Documentaries [National Geographic]
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