Tom's Favorite Things : @ElevateLabs + @Lumosity + @peaklabs
Quick - where’s your cell phone? If you aren’t on it right now, chances are it’s within arm’s reach. We have become completely addicted to those little supercomputers.
According to the PEW Research Center, 67% of smartphone owners have admitted to checking their phone for calls or messages when their phone didn’t vibrate or ring.
The smartphone addiction continues to grow.
Aside from making us all nervous nellies and zombies looking at useless apps...
...is there anything that we can use the phones for that will make us smarter?
Brain training games seem to be everywhere, offering you the opportunity to boost your brain power by spending a bit of time playing every day.
Like going to the gym, brain training apps promise to boost mental muscle to improve memory, concentration and more. Sharpening your mental prowess has a lot of appeal, but can brain training live up to its lofty claims?
The answer seems to be ... maybe.
The truth of the matter falls somewhere in between studies touting brain training as a miracle cure and studies that say brain training does nothing. While you shouldn't expect your IQ to skyrocket, exercising your brain can be as important as exercising your body.
I’ve found 3 apps that are easy to use, quick (a few minutes, usually when I’m waiting for something) and engaging.
Among the apps here, Elevate takes the most practical approach. According to the founders, “we think of brain training as a way to improve concrete skills for everyday life. Our games are designed to target specific problems people have, like trouble calculating a tip or difficulty writing a clear email to a colleague. They work because they focus on a specific task and offer step-by-step instructions for improving your performance."
Backing up the app is a study that shows individuals using Elevate did 69% better on a performance test than non-users—and more training meant more improvement.
Most of Elevate's games relate to real world tasks, and considering the questions about whether getting better at brain training games means getting better at actual tasks, that's a good thing. The app's brightly colored games focus everyday mental hurdles like writing, listening, speaking, reading and math. Pick the skills you'd like to improve and the app will set up a personalized training program.
Price for full access: 1 month for $11.99, 1 year for $44.99, lifetime membership for $149.99
The oldest of these brain training apps, Lumosity has been around since 2007 and has 70 million users playing more than 50 different games. Don't think the app's age means it's out of date, though: Lumosity is continually improving based on the latest user feedback and science.
According to the founders, "our games and science teams apply new peer-reviewed research and game mechanics to our game development process," Lumosity has a lot of science behind it. Lumosity's Human Cognition Project works with scientists from over 40 universities and has more than 50 studies in progress to research the effects of brain training.
You'll start out in Lumosity by doing a brain fitness test, which lets you know how you compare to others in your age bracket. Then you'll be tasked with daily brain games focusing on core cognitive abilities. Compared to Elevate, Lumosity's games feel more conceptual—for example, a game that shows you a flock of birds with one pointing a different direction than the rest, challenging you to pick the odd one out quickly. With the most games of the programs on this list, Lumosity offers a lot of variety for your daily mental workout.
Price for full access: 1 month for $11.99, 1 year for $59.99
What's the difference between a game and a brain training game? The founders of Perk think that “by definition, all games should be fun. However, not all games have an evidence base.” Peak, which develops games with experts at major universities like Cambridge and Yale, fits that bill.
The program's 40 games feel a bit more like games than educational activities, which could make it the perfect training app for you. Games focus on training memory, attention, problem solving, mental agility, language, coordination, creativity and emotion control, with Advanced Training Programs that focus on training very specific skills.
Peak's stand-out feature is Coach, your virtual brain training coach, which evaluates how you're doing and offers tips on how to improve. You can choose to do quick games that are easy to fit in your schedule or go with Coach's recommendations to really work those mental muscles.
Price for full access: 1 month for $4.99, 1 year for $34.99
Whether you believe the hype or not, one thing is for sure. These apps won’t make you a Nobel laureate, but certainly won’t hurt. Isn’t that chance for some cognition growth a reason to at least give it a shot? I say yes!