Brain Training Games

Brain training games has been called into question recently. Companies like Lumosity which offer online brain training claims playing their games boost brain power, slow brain aging or even Alzheimer progression.

But neuroscientists warns against such claims, there are no serious studies that support them for software-based games. Even worse, those companies present referenced scientific papers that many times are only related to the games they sell.

This might be bad news for the brain-training games industry. The consensus in psychology, after many trials and failure on different techniques, that brain intelligence cannot be improved in general, so Brain Training games are no exception... except when N-Back game arrived.

Basically the problem with brain training games is that you improve the specific abilities the game requires, but these improvements does not transfer to other areas of the brain and consequently does not improve the general brain performance.

Notwithstanding, other studies does suggest that a game in particular does improve fluid intelligence, that is, the ability to solve new problems and a good measure of general intelligence. This game is called N-Back and consist on recalling past elements of a changing sequence: if the current element matches a previous one, e.g. appeared 2 elements ago, the user must tap on it. Difficulty can be raised increasing the number of past elements, e.g. 3 elements ago, 4 elements ago, hence "N" the number of previous elements to take into account.

Research also found that the longer the training period the better.

I have placed an inline N-Back game, so you can play with it. There are many implementations of this game. So, if you don't like this one, look for another one more suitable for you. You can play it here: http://you-can-learn.blogspot.com.es/p/n-back.html

References

• Neuroscientists speak out against brain game hype [Science Magazine]
• Brain Training doesn't make you smarter [Scientific American]
• Does Brain Trainin Work? [The Scientist]

Image Copyright Creative Commons [Source]

Mnemonics: The PEG System

When we try to memorize something,  it consolidates better in the long term memory when the items to memorize have some meaning to us or are somewhat related with other items already known to us.

For example, try to remember this number sequence:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

You actually needn't: You've seen a relation between the items and they're ordered. For your memory it's just like one single item: All numbers from 1 to 8. This is related to how or brain processes our information and chain pieces of it to form larger ones. These information pieces are called chunks.

But what happens if you want to memorize this sequence?

5, 1, 3, 8, 8, 1, 7, 2

It's mostly likely you forgot this sequence very quickly while still remember the first one several days after reading this post. It's apparently meaningless and your brain does not consider it of interest.

A mnemonic system is a method to give a meaning to a meaningless item using some sort of cue. There are plenty of them, and you can even create your ones. They also have some relation to metaphors and analogies, that will be explainer in future posts. Here I will explain the Peg system.

The Peg system

The Peg system is a very well known mnemonic. Basically you first pre-memorize a serie of items related to numbers (in this case) which you can later combine to form the desired item to memorize (in this case, the above meaningless sequence).

A Peg system which uses words (sound) and rhymes could be:

• 1-gun Visualize the first item being fired from a gun
• 2-shoe Visualize an association between the second thing and a shoe
• 3-tree Visualize the third item growing from a tree
• 4-door Visualize the 4th item associated with a door
• 5-hive Visualize the fifth item associated with a hive or with bees
• 6-bricks Visualize the sixth item associated with bricks
• 7-heaven Visualize the seventh item associated with heaven
• 8-weight (or height) Visualize the 8th item on a weight (or height) as if you are heavy (or high)
• 9-wine Visualize a glass containing the 9th item
• 10-hen Visualize the 10th item associated with a chicken.

As you can see, each word rhymes with its related number, linking it in some way.

So to memorize the above sequence 5, 1, 3, 8, 8, 1, 7, 2 you can think of a hive (5) being shot with a gun (1), falling of a tree (3) were someone left two weights (8, 8) he was using to training. This mad person shot again (another 1). Some of the bees died and went to heaven (7), whilst others took revenge and pursued the shooter who lost one shoe (2) during the chase.

The more the bizarre the story, the more chances we can remember it! Our brain likes unexpected things.

This is another Peg system based on objects shapes (object shapes resembles the numbers digit symbol in some way):

• 1-candle, straw, pencil, streetlamp, stick, leg, lighthouse, finger
• 2-swan, duck, goose, flamingo
• 3-sideways handlebar mustache, camel's hump (on a top), worm, snake, ostrich, butterfly, double chin, lips, heart, handcuffs, two hooks
• 4-sail, flag, camel's legs,
• 5-meat hook, cymbal and drum, wheelchair, pulley, sea horse
• 6-cherry, snail house, elephant's trunk, pipe, ram's horn, giraffe's neck (lifted right), golf club, combination lock, whistling device, cannon
• 7-cliff, hammer, boomerang, axe, scythe, gun, giraffe
• 8-snowman, hourglass, spectacles, two plates, two donuts, two buns, wheels of skate, winding key, shapely woman, two balls
• 9-balloon, hunting horn, lollipop, tadpole, tennis racket, comma (filled-in)
• 10-road sign and ball, lamppost with light, stick and donut, bat and ball, knife and plate

¿Can you make a (bizarre!) story using those objects to remember the previous number sequence?

I have a very good auditive memory, so I'm more comfortable with the first peg system.

Tips

• Choose a peg system that's more suitable for me or I find more comfortable to work with.
• Create my on peg system! ... and see if it works.

Exercise

Do you remember the bizarre story about the bees? Can you (don't look above) recall the digit sequence now?

What about creating your own peg system?

References

• Mnemonic Peg System [Wikipedia]
• Mnemonic [Wikipedia] 

Image Copyright is Creative Commons [Source]

Kill Procrastination - Level 1

Yes, procrastination. You know it. There's something you want to do but, for some reason, you can't.

I remember having to do my final thesis in to get my MSc diploma in Computer Science it took me 3 month to code the algorithms needed to obtain the results, but then I got another *6 months* to start writing the thesis document.

Even worse, the longer I take to start writing, the less I could remember about the complex algorithms I developed. What was happening to me? I loved computer sciences, and that topic, but definitely found writing a long document a boring and tedious task.

I always found an excuse to delay what I was supposed to do. I didn't felt well. I had my work. I felt tired or had a party. It never minded because I could always "do it later"... until it did. The month before the deadline my supervisor was serious with me and telling me I would probably not make it and will fail my final thesis... That worked well, she help me and I finish my document in a rush, in just one month.

I eventually realized it was not that hard... but also not that easy.

Procrastination - What causes it?

There are many reasons to procrastinate, but for me, clearly, I was impatient for getting the final result, the product. I wanted it, and quickly. But writing a long technical document can be a very laborious task. It might even take months to review and correct it until the supervisor gives the OK. This caused me some anxiety, so I tried to distract browsing the Internet, watching a show episode or looking for any other excuse to avoid doing my work.

I now realized I should have concentrated not on the result, but on the process (writing the document). If only I had dedicated a single 25 to 45 minutes session every day, I would have broken that initial wall that impeded me to flow as I later did.

After finishing my work I realized I had overestimated the difficulty of the task (it was hard, but not that much). I should have tried a different approach: try to divide this daunting task in smaller pieces, and even try just to advanced a little a single piece during one session.

Also when sitting at my computer my twitter or Facebook beeped about news. This distracted me but also triggered my curiosity about what such news were. When I realized I was just wasting my time and went back to my work, several hours had passed. This caused more anxiety which eventually led me to more procrastination. It felt like trapped until my supervisor pushed me to do my work.

CRRB - The Procrastination Cycle

According to Barbara Oakley the procrastination habbit is a process that can be summarized as follows:

• Cue: This is the stimulus that triggers your procrastination habits. I was sitting in my desktop, not wanting to do my work, and suddenly tweeter beeps, or someone texted me a message. I then had an excuse to abandon what I was doing.
• Routine: Ok. This is what we want to change. Whenever a cue appears we enter in automatic mode. Sometimes we don't even realize we're procrastinating! I remember my self browsing the Internet just for a minute and got shocked to see an hour or more had passed when I went back to my work.
• Reward: Procrastination is based on short-term rewards. I looked for immediate reward and delayed my long-term one (my degree actually!).
• Belief: We must believe we can do it. Research studies suggest that our own belief about or willpower really affects it (see references below). So if you believe you can't do it chances are that you really can't... because you have told yourself not to do so.

Tips

So, for this Level 1 fight against procrastination, I've figured out this tips:

1. Think in the process of doing something, not in the final result (product). For example: I'm going to study for 25 minutes instead of I'm going to learn this in 25 minutes.
2. Don't try to do too much nor too little. Try just a single 25 minutes session (e.g. a pomodoro). I will talk about this in later posts.
3. Identify my cues (What cause me to distract from what I'm doing?) and write them down... maybe here, in this blog!
4. Change my routine: This is were my willpower comes into play. Only this is what I have to change. If my routine is done subconsciously without even realizing of me doing it, also write it down to see how can I tackle this problem better. Once I realize of my routine, go back to my work (Focus on what I'm doing).
5. Reward myself after the work done. Yes, watch that show episode, or eat that piece of chocolate... yum...
6. Believe that I can really achieve it! This will reinforce my willpower. 

Let's see if they work or not...

References

- 10 rules of Good Studying [In the loop]
- It matters whether you believe in Willpower [Psychology Today]

Image Copyright Creative Commons [Source]

SuperMemory - Level 1

The SuperMemory series of post are oriented toward improve the memorization techniques and the memory in general.

In this post I will tell you 5 simple tricks that can boost your memory performance!

I always wanted to be like those super-memory people appearing on TV shows, or like Rain Man, the famous autistic character played by Dustin Hoffman.
 

Sleep Well

This has been previously covered in a earlier post. Good sleep is crucial for a good memory, and research shows sleep has a great impact over memory and brain performance in general.

Coffee and Sugar... not so bad

Some research studies have shown that one cup of coffee with sugar enhances both memory and attention span (there is a correlation with memory and attention). The experiment was carried out at the University of Barcelona, Spain with 40 volunteers, and the results published in the journal of Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental.

People taking coffee with no sugar didn't performed as good as the sugar-coffee ones. So using sweeteners like saccharine might not be as beneficial for the memory.

In fact, nutrition is an important aspect of memory and learning in general. I will write some tips on food in the future, since it seems more important than people often believes.

Remember what you have just learned

Several studies have confirmed that trying to remember what you have just studied or memorized is much more effective than repetitions in a single session. A good way to retrieve what you have just study is to test yourself and see what you can remember.

Focus and Understand

Attention span has a big impact on the memorization process. And so is understanding, because it helps the brain to "chain" the new items to previous learning ones (more on this in future posts). In fact some studies shown that many "memory problems" are, in fact, focus problems. The brain simply can't remember what it has not been aware of.

Do some Exercise

Even a short and intense physical activity can improve your memory. But if you don't like intense exercises, just a walk can be better than nothing. A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine has shown that walking two hours a week (1 hour each session) improved the memory of many patients.

Tips

 

My takeaways for this first little research on memory is:

• Sleep well (read the Sleep Well post for more info)
• Wake up and have my daily coffee with sugar (Hmm)
• Try to focus and understand what I'm studying
• Do some exercise
• Try to recall what I've just studied
• Play N-Back to see if my working memory improve (read below!)

And now a challenge: can you remember (without looking above) what you have just read? Doing so will reinforce your memory about this article! ;-)

There are other funny ways to improve memory. One of them is playing memory games like N-Back. Not all games has been proved to be effective, though.

References

• Spoonful of Brain Power [Daily Mail]
• How to Improve Long Term Memory [The Guardian]
• Regular Exercise changes the Brain to improve Memory [Harvard Medical School]
• Memory Loss often a Focus Problem [abc News]

Image Copyright Creative Commons [Source]

Sleep Well - 6 Facts about sleeping

We often hear how sleep affects ourselves. When we lack sleep we usually tend to have a bad day. But is sleep so important? Does it really affects our learning? and if so, to what extend? What about a Spanish siesta in the afternoon?

Ok. Here you are 6 facts about sleep that might surprise you:

Did you know that...

1. taking a daily nap actually increases verbal and motor skills?
   Several studies have proven that subjects that take a 30-90 mins afternoon effectively improves their motor, verbal and visual skills. For motor skills the retention does not seem to last as much as visual ones, which greatly benefits of this practice.
2. research studies shows sleep actually increases Memory Retention?
   Both attention, focus and memory are affected by lack of sleep.
3. the brain get rid off toxins during sleep? (so sleep also plays a "cleaning" role)
   Yes. Brain cells temporarily shrink while you are sleeping, leaving more room for fluids to pass by which cleanse your brain removing the toxic wastes.
4. too much sleep can be also harmful?
   According to a study, sleeping too little is not good. The brain get rid of toxins during while sleeping, but too much sleep apparently is not so good for the heart and may increase the risk of coronary diseases, for example.
5. Night workers are more prone to accidents that daily ones?
   Apparently night workers are more prone to accidents due to sleep deprivation. This might be related not only attention decay, but also to poor performance skills due to poor memory consolidation and poor working memory.
6. Studies show a strong correlation between learning performance boost and sleep. This is specially true when a period of sleep followed the training or studying session.

Tips

Same tips to take most of your sleep for learning better:

• Take a siesta. An afternoon nap of about 30-60 minutes could be very beneficial for your memory. 
• Also, don't sleep too much, as it can be harmful. Aiming to 7 - 9 hours sleep everyday seems to be a good average. 
• Try to study or memorize before going to sleep. This might improve your memory retention. 
• Try to improve my sleep! 

References

• Sleep and Memory [Wikipedia]
• Brain may flush out toxins during sleep [NIH]
• Sleeping allows the brain to cleanse itself - but too much is harmful [Scientific American]
• The Role of Sleep in Learning, Memory and Health [Therapeutic Literacy] 
• How to Sleep Better [HELPGUIDE.org] 

Image Copyright Creative Commons [CC-BY-NC]  [Source] 

A Warming Welcome

Hello all!

My name is Jose Rodriguez, but since this is such a common name in Spanish y usually introduce myself as Boriel, a nickname taken from a Role Game character that surprisingly also exists in real life!

This is my personal project on Learning, started as a final grade assignment for the Coursera course on Learning How to Learn. I like to learn about many topics. I'm good at learning languages, but find myself procrastinating and struggling on other areas I'm passionate about, like Computer Sciences.

Over these last years, and more recently in the Cousera Learning to Learn course, I've learn new tips and tricks that not only are easy, but can dramatically speed up the learning process or subjects studying.

Not everything is studying or learning. Sometimes, playing games is also a funny way to improve one's learning skills and general brain health.

Hope not only to share this interesting tips with you, but also receive other ones from whomever read this. Please, feel free to contribute!