Lumosity training is not done for the training itself—it’s done for better memory, speed, and problem solving. It’s about the benefits. Those immediate benefits are, in turn, done to achieve larger goals: getting through medical school, being awarded a promotion at work, achieving a healthier lifestyle, and more.
At the core, Lumosity is about giving you the ability to be a better you. The key to completing large life goals is having the willpower and the skills to do so. Luckily, there is evidence to suggest that willpower may also be trainable.
We recently discussed a study from Psychological Science that demonstrated how daily brain training can help strengthen willpower and promote healthy lifestyle choices. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam studied a group of problem drinkers who had trouble controlling their automatic impulse to drink alcohol. Researchers hypothesized that boosting cognitive functions such as working memory, which is important for maintaining and manipulating information about future goals, could indirectly help alcoholics control their impulses and drink less.
To test this theory, researchers split participants into two groups. The training group completed 25 daily sessions of a challenging working memory training regimen that involved exercises similar to Lumosity games such as Memory Matrix and Monster Garden. Participants in the control group also completed daily working memory tasks, but they only played the easiest level of each task. The results showed that the training group improved their memory capacity and also drank less alcohol than those in the control group. Moreover, the improvements were enduring: one month later, training participants who had played challenging games still had lower drinking rates than the control group.
This study shows that challenging cognitive training can help people control their impulses and make healthier choices, which is certainly promising, though not conclusive. While it’s too early to make wide-reaching generalization, further research may determine whether similar cognitive training can lead to improvements in other domains of life that require willpower and self-control. New studies, for example, might investigate whether brain training can help people stick to their diets or save more money for retirement.
This exciting new evidence suggests that completing daily brain training exercises like those on Lumosity may contribute to other surprising lifestyle benefits—training may help you make overall smarter choices that keep the rest of your body healthy. Here are some suggestions for incorporating Lumosity training into your goals:
Make a regular schedule for training
Not only is regular training (once every 1-2 days) more effective according to our data, but a schedule will also help you get accustomed to sticking to larger goals and improving a little at a time.
Combine your goals
Do you want to lose weight? Consider physical health and mental health as part of the same regimen; many members report doing Lumosity before or after a gym workout, for example. Think of creative ways to combine your other goals.
Try taking charge of your future in 2012! Commit to Lumosity training or any other type of goal and you’ll be rewarded by long-term results.
About Pam Zhang
Recent Comments