In 2014, two groups of scientists published open letters on the efficacy of brain-training interventions, or "brain games," for improving cognition. The first letter, a consensus statement from an international group of more than 70 scientists, claimed that brain games do not provide a scientifically grounded way to improve cognitive functioning or to stave off cognitive decline. Several months later, an international group of 133 scientists and practitioners countered that the literature is replete with demonstrations of the benefits of brain training for a wide variety of cognitive and everyday activities. How could two teams of scientists examine the same literature and come to conflicting "consensus" views about the effectiveness of brain training?In part, the disagreement might result from different standards used when evaluating the evidence. To date, the field has lacked a comprehensive review of the brain-training literature, one that examines both the quantity and the quality of the evidence according to a well-defined set of best practices. This article provides such a review, focusing exclusively on the use of cognitive tasks or games as a means to enhance performance on other tasks. We specify and justify a set of best practices for such brain-training interventions and then use those standards to evaluate all of the published peer-reviewed intervention studies cited on the websites of leading brain-training companies listed on Cognitive Training Data (www.cognitivetrainingdata.org), the site hosting the open letter from brain-training proponents. These citations presumably represent the evidence that best supports the claims of effectiveness.Based on this examination, we find extensive evidence that brain-training interventions improve performance on the trained tasks, less evidence that such interventions improve performance on closely related tasks, and little evidence that training enhances performance on distantly related tasks or that training improves everyday cognitive performance. We also find that many of the published intervention studies had major shortcomings in design or analysis that preclude definitive conclusions about the efficacy of training, and that none of the cited studies conformed to all of the best practices we identify as essential to drawing clear conclusions about the benefits of brain training for everyday activities. We conclude with detailed recommendations for scientists, funding agencies, and policymakers that, if adopted, would lead to better evidence regarding the efficacy of brain-training interventions.

Do “Brain-Training” Programs Work?:

The authors conceptualize these memory systems from both behavioural and neurobiological perspectives, guided by three related principles: * First, that our understanding of a wide range of memory phenomena can be advanced by breaking down memory into multiple forms with different operating characteristics. * Second, that different forms of memory representation are supported by distinct brain pathways with circuitry and neural coding properties. * Third, that the contributions of different brain systems can be compared and contrasted by distinguishing between dedicated (or specific) and elaborate (or general) memory systems. A primary goal of this work is to relate the neurobiological properties of dedicated and elaborate systems to their neuropsychological counterparts, and in so doing, account for the phenomenology of memory, from conditioning to conscious recollection.

From Conditioning to Conscious Recollection Memory Systems of the Brain. Oxford Psychology Series, Volume 35.

Continuing interest in digital games indicated that it would be useful to update Connolly et al.'s (2012) systematic literature review of empirical evidence about the positive impacts and outcomes of games. Since a large number of papers was identified in the period from 2009 to 2014, the current review focused on 143 papers that provided higher quality evidence about the positive outcomes of games. Connolly et al.'s multidimensional analysis of games and their outcomes provided a useful framework for organising the varied research in this area. The most frequently occurring outcome reported for games for learning was knowledge acquisition, while entertainment games addressed a broader range of affective, behaviour change, perceptual and cognitive and physiological outcomes. Games for learning were found across varied topics with STEM subjects and health the most popular. Future research on digital games would benefit from a systematic programme of experimental work, examining in detail which game features are most effective in promoting engagement and supporting learning. The current systematic literature review updates Author (date).The review looks at impacts and outcomes of playing digital games from 2009 to 2014.Multi-component coding of papers, games and learning outcomes was used.Many papers were found with 143 papers providing high quality evidence.Games for entertainment and learning addressed different outcomes.

/pdf/an-update-to-the-systematic-literature-review-of-empirical-oy90nea5x6.pdf

An update to the systematic literature review of empirical evidence of the impacts and outcomes of computer games and serious games

Methods, apparatuses, computer program products, devices and systems are described that carry out detecting user data from an interaction between a user and at least one device-implemented application whose primary function is different from symptom detection; mapping the user data from the interaction between the user and the at least one device-implemented application whose primary function is different from symptom detection to at least one user-health test function set; and selecting at least one user-health test function in response to the at least one user-health test function set.

Computational user-health testing

Although sensitive detection of pathological cognitive aging requires accurate information about the trajectory of normal cognitive aging, prior research has revealed inconsistent patterns of age-cognition relations with cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons Age trends in four cognitive domains were compared in over 5,000 adults with cross-sectional data, and in almost 1,600 adults with three-occasion longitudinal data Quasi-longitudinal comparisons, which are similar to cross-sectional comparisons in that there is no prior test experience and are similar to longitudinal comparisons in that the participants are from the same birth cohorts, were also reported The age trends in quasi-longitudinal comparisons more closely resembled those in cross-sectional comparisons than those in longitudinal comparisons, which suggests that, at least up until about age 65, age-cognition relations in longitudinal comparisons are distorted by prior test experience Results from cross-sectional and quasi-longitudinal comparisons, which can be assumed to have minimal test experience effects, imply that normal cognitive aging is characterized by nearly linear declines from early adulthood in speed, and accelerating declines in memory and reasoning However, vocabulary knowledge increased until the decade of the 60's in all three types of comparisons (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

Trajectories of normal cognitive aging.

http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/postdocs/cosman/Baniqued_etal._2012_CasualGames.pdf

Selling points: What cognitive abilities are tapped by casual video games?

Brain training programs have proliferated in recent years, with claims that video games or computer-based tasks can broadly enhance cognitive function. However, benefits are commonly seen only in trained tasks. Assessing generalized improvement and practicality of laboratory exercises complicate interpretation and application of findings. In this study, we addressed these issues by using active control groups, training tasks that more closely resemble real-world demands and multiple tests to determine transfer of training. We examined whether casual video games can broadly improve cognition and selected training games from a study of the relationship between game performance and cognitive abilities. A total of 209 young adults were randomized into a working memory-reasoning group, an adaptive working memory-reasoning group, an active control game group, and a no-contact control group. Before and after 15 hours of training, participants completed tests of reasoning, working memory, attention, episodic memory, perceptual speed, and self-report measures of executive function, game experience, perceived improvement, knowledge of brain training research, and game play outside the laboratory. Participants improved on the training games, but transfer to untrained tasks was limited. No group showed gains in reasoning, working memory, episodic memory or perceptual speed, but the working memory-reasoning groups improved in divided attention, with better performance in an attention-demanding game, a decreased attentional blink and smaller trail-making costs. Perceived improvements did not differ across training groups and those with low reasoning ability at baseline showed larger gains. Although there are important caveats, our study sheds light on the mixed effects in the training and transfer literature and offers a novel and potentially practical training approach. Still, more research is needed to determine the real-world benefits of computer programs such as casual games.

/pdf/cognitive-training-with-casual-video-games-points-to-2t80qsl4dh.pdf

Cognitive training with casual video games: points to consider

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for assessing cognitive function. In an example embodiment, an assessment computer receives demographics data relating to an individual and provides a cognitive assessment test to a portable touchscreen personal computing device, for self administration of the test by the individual. The portable touchscreen personal computing device generates cognitive assessment stimuli, receives responses to the stimuli from the individual via touchscreen activations, measures reaction times of the responses, and transmits the responses and reaction times to the assessment computer for storage in a database. The assessment computer receives cognitive assessment performance data relating to the individual, including the received responses and measured reaction times, and generates performance metrics including at least a cognitive baseline for the individual based at least on the first cognitive assessment performance data.

Systems and methods to assess cognitive function

A system for human-digital media interaction tracking. One example system includes a database that stores information regarding a user's activity history for various different cognitive tasks, and a computing device that receives user behavior information indicating usage by a user of an interactive software program, the interactive software program associated with at least one of the cognitive tasks. The computing device, in response to the receipt of user behavior information indicating usage by the user of the interactive software program, updates the database information regarding the user's activity history for the at least one of the cognitive tasks.

Human-digital media interaction tracking

http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/postdocs/cosman/Lee_etal_CHB_MobileTest_2012.pdf

Joan Severson

Papers

Selling points: What cognitive abilities are tapped by casual video games?

Cognitive training with casual video games: points to consider

Systems and methods to assess cognitive function

Human-digital media interaction tracking

Examining cognitive function across the lifespan using a mobile application