Overview

Some games oriented toward cognitive enhancement utilize the approach of practicing a single skill that will hopefully result in improvement in a broad range of skills. There appears to be some evidence that working memory training can have this effect--even improving performance on measures of general intelligence (at least measured narrowly). However, some have noted more research needs to be conducted to establish the scientific basis of this "transfer" effect. (1)

Mind Games was developed with the notion that practicing a broader range of skills seems more likely to result in cognitive gains than a focus on improving one ability with the hopes of it transferring to other abilities. We have worked hard to cover a broad spectrum of cognitive abilities in Mind Games. We do have to note that no scientific studies have yet been conducted with Mind Games to establish that they result in cognitive enhancement. With that in mind, we have utilized a number of principles from our understanding of cognitive tasks, different cognitive skills, psychological experiments, and standardized test scoring techniques, that we hope may be of benefit. At a minimum, you can have fun playing the games and watching your score improve over time!

We have attempted to minimize the effects of "rote learning," which is learning through repetition. The knowledge games do make use of rote learning out of necessity. You will likely find some initial benefit in your scores of figuring out how to place your fingers correctly, and memorizing the location of different answer buttons. After that, you will find that it takes a significant amount of time for your scores to improve. It will feel like you are not making much progress, but if you keep practicing your scores will likely improve over time. You will also notice that sometimes your scores will drop temporarily, and this may relate to a number of things (stress, nutrition, fatigue, effort level, or everyday variations). At times, this may alert you to the need for better self-care.

As with all things involving improvement in mental or physical functioning, time, effort, and repetition are required. As with doing a physical workout, you would not expect to find immediate benefits. It is the same with a mental workout. Time and continued effort are required to see benefit.

If you are a researcher and wish to study the potential benefits of this app for cognitive rehab or enhancement, please contact me at support@mindware.mobi.

Mindware Consulting, Inc.

Reference:

(1) Shipstead, Z., Redick, T. S., & Engle, R. W. (2012, March 12). Is Working Memory Training

Effective?. Psychological Bulletin. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0027473

(Available online)

Explanation of Scores

Raw score - This is the raw score that you obtained on the game. The raw score is shown only on the individual score boards within the games.

Standard Score - This is your score on a standardized scale compared with other players on their first 3 games. You can use this score to compare your performance on different games, because it is the same scale for the different games (see classification of scores below). This is the score that is shown within the main app. The standard score is used for determining your rating (see below).

Percentile - This is your percentile rank compared with other players your age. The data used to calculate this score is from the first game that all players have played. If you obtain a percentile score of 50, this means that 50 percent of people in your age range scored at or below the level that you scored. The percentile ranking of your best game is shown in the battery meter in the list of games. Fifty percent of people score between the 25th and 75th percentile on their first three games.

Rating - This is a description of your performance relative to other players on their first 3 times playing the game. Don't like your classification? Practice very often leads to improved scores.

Standard Score Ratings

140+ - Extremely Advanced

130-139 - Very Advanced

120-129 - Advanced

110-119 - High Average

90-109 - Average

80-89 - Low Average

Less than 80 - Needs Improvement