Please head over to our Help Center for the most up to date information!

Frequently Asked Questions

Lumosity Program

Charts and Feedback

Games and Assessments

Subscription Management

Social Features

Technical Help

Distribution and Partnerships

Privacy

Lumosity Program

What are the benefits of brain training?

The ACTIVE study, funded by NIH, demonstrated that adults can improve cognitive abilities such as memory, processing speed, and reasoning with proper training. The brain is healthiest when it is active and regularly challenged. With frequent cognitive training, the brain performs optimally and maintains its abilities through the years.

In addition to improvements in working memory and attention, Lumosity users have also reported increased alertness and energy, improved ability to remember names and numbers, better concentration, and elevated mood.

What is the science behind the program?

The Lumosity brain training program was designed and developed on the basis of existing cognitive training research that emerges from the fields of cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Brain plasticity refers to the brain’s ability to physically reorganize itself in response to the demands placed upon it. The exercises in Lumosity are designed to stimulate the brain plasticity that leads to improved cognitive ability and a healthier brain.

Who made the program?

Lumos Labs designed and developed Lumosity in collaboration with leading scientists in neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and bioinformatics from Stanford, UCSF, and other leading research institutions.

What is the evidence that Lumosity works?

Lumosity was shown to significantly improve spatial working memory and visual attention in randomized, controlled trials. This research was presented at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in 2006 and at the Bay Area Neuroscience Gathering in 2007.

What does the program consist of?

Lumosity consists of a series of engaging online games and exercises. Each exercise is designed to improve a particular area of cognition. You can follow a guided 30 session complete brain fitness course, or you can take charge of your training and directly train the areas that need the most work. You’ll receive detailed information and feedback on your training and improvement.

Do I simply get better at the exercises or do my basic cognitive skills improve?

Our experimental design ensures that improvements we find are not simply the result of “teaching the test.” Research on the program begins and ends with a battery of neuropsychological tests that measure cognitive abilities. In between the tests, experimental subjects train on the Lumosity exercises, which are NOT the same as the tests.

Will you be introducing additional games and exercises?

We’re continuously adding to the program and have a number of games and exercises that are currently in development. We normally add at least two games or exercises a month.

How do I enroll in the other training sessions?

Use the button below the current Trainer’s games to quit your current training course before choosing a new one. All progress in the current training course will be lost when you quit it.

How much does it cost?

There are three levels of Lumosity access. Visitors and Members have free but limited access to games and content on Lumosity.com. Subscribers pay in increments of their choice (monthly or yearly) and have access to all games, training curricula, and progress tracking tools. Once an account has been established, you can find the cost for your country by logging in and going here.

How can I submit a suggestion?

Please send an email to feedback@lumosity.com to let us know how we can improve your experience using Lumosity.

What is the 100% Money-Back Performance Guarantee?

We guarantee that if you regularly train 3 times per week (for approximately 10 minutes per training session) and complete at least 1 training course over a 1-year period, you will improve your overall brain performance by more than 400 BPI points. If you do not improve your overall brain performance by more than 400 BPI points, then we’ll fully refund you for 100% of the cost of your membership.

Charts and Feedback

What is the Brain Performance Index (BPI)?

Brain Performance Index (BPI) is a measure of your performance in a given cognitive function and is an important aspect of the Lumosity program. Read more about BPI.

How should I read the percentile I am assigned?

The percentile shown represents the percentage of Lumosity users within your 5 year age bracket whom you are performing better than (keep in mind that this includes seasoned users, making up the majority). Thus, a percentile of 80 would indicate that you are performing better than 80% of users.

What are Lumosity Points?

Lumosity Points are awarded for completing games and courses. You can think of Lumosity Points as a measure of how much brain training you’ve done with Lumosity. For each game you play, you’ll earn one Lumosity Point. You can earn more Lumosity Points by getting higher scores.

Can I delete a score?

No, a particular game score cannot be removed.

Can you reset my account’s history so that I can start from scratch?

There are only a few games whose difficulty level will change dramatically as you progress through the program, most of which can be reset to easier levels, but we cannot reset an entire account history. You would need to sign up again with a different email address.

Games and Assessments

Birdwatching is easier on a smaller monitor. Does this affect my training?

No. The game has different difficulty levels to compensate for a variety of monitor sizes. You may find yourself playing at level 4 in a large monitor and level 6 in a smaller monitor. You are getting a full workout in either case.

A game has gotten too difficult for me. What do I do?

Most games with levels can be set to lower levels using the arrows or slider on the game’s start page. Games without levels will simply reward you for speed and accuracy and need not be adjusted.

Are there any helpful strategies that you recommend?

Please see our article on Memory Tips, which we hope will offer some solutions. User submitted tips for each game can also be found at the bottom right of each game’s start page.

In Memory Match, the shapes are disappearing and nothing shows up on the left box. What do I do?

The shapes are designed to disappear. The task is to remember the last two shapes that were shown and do the comparison from memory. If you get one wrong, they reappear to help you get back on track.

In By the Rules, what do “dashed”, “dotted”, and “wide” mean?

Dashed, dotted, and wide refer to the style of the card’s border, which appears in gray.

In Word Bubbles, why are some words not accepted?

Word Bubbles looks up words in a fairly large dictionary, so it should include common words, but may omit some technical terms. It will not accept any word that is capitalized, regardless of whether it’s a proper noun. In this game, you’re only allowed up to 3 words of a given length. For example, if you entered “bask” “bash” and “bass” you will not be allowed to enter “base.”

What do reaction time, hesitation time and inhibition error mean?

Reaction time: Average speed of response in milliseconds. Hesitation Time: How much longer it takes you to respond during incongruent trials (the difficult/tricky ones) versus the congruent trials. Inhibition Error: Your accuracy on congruent trials minus your accuracy on incongruent trials. This is a measure of how well you were able to overcome your initial impulse.

Subscription Management

How do I manage my subscription?

To cancel, update, or view your subscription, go to “Your Account” in the top right corner of the screen after logging in, then click “Manage Subscription.”

What is the cancellation/refund policy?

By subscribing to Lumosity, you are signing up for automatically recurring billing at an interval of your choice. You can cancel your subscription at any time free of charge. After canceling, your account will retain subscriber level access through the remainder of your billing cycle, then return to a limited membership.

We generally do not offer refunds; it is the subscriber’s responsibility to notify us within 30 days if there is a problem with their payment.

How do I cancel my free trial of subscriber level access?

If you signed up for a free membership without entering billing information, you do not need to cancel to avoid being charged. As a promotion, you were able to try subscriber level access for free for one week. At the end of the week, your account will return to an unsubscribed membership; no fees will be collected. Any billable account, including the 14 day credit card trial, can be canceled under Your Account once you’ve logged in.

Social Features

Will there be more social features in the future?

Yes! We are always looking for ways to make Lumosity more exciting and helpful for our users. The social aspect of our site is relatively new and will be seeing many changes and developments within the coming months.

How do I make my profile private?

After logging in, go to the “Your Profile” tab, then to the “User Profile” heading. Click “Edit your user profile”. Check the box marked “Make my profile private” and then update your user profile.

Technical Help

Do I need to download or install software?

No. You can log in and get started directly in your browser. You will need Adobe Flash player but over 98% of our visitors already have it (so you probably do, too). However, if your computer needs the Flash player, the site will automatically detect it and help you install it (it’s free).

Can I use Lumosity on more than one computer?

Yes. Since Lumosity is web-based, you can use it on any computer with internet access. Just navigate to lumosity.com and you should be able to play. If you play on a public computer, don’t forget to log out!

A game won’t load. What do I do?

If you are having trouble loading a specific game or all games, try clearing your browser’s temporary file cache and reloading the games. Find your operating system and browser below for detailed instructions:

If you are using Windows:

  • Firefox: Go to the Tools menu and choose the “Clear Private Data” option or press ctrl+shift+delete.
  • Internet Explorer: Open the Tools menu and choose “Internet Options”. Under the “General” tab you’ll see a section entitled “Browsing History”, click on the button labeled “Delete” to delete temporary internet files.
  • AOL Explorer: go to the “Security” menu at the top of the browser window. In that menu select the option labeled “Select Footprints to Clear”. This will open up a new window with a list of Items. Find “Browser Cache” in the list, and click on the button labeled “Clear” next to it.

If you are using a Mac:

  • Firefox: Go to the main Firefox menu and open the preferences. Click on the “Privacy” tab. Find the “Private Data” section and click on the button labeled “Clear Now”.
  • Safari: Go to the Safari menu and choose “Empty Cache”, or just press alt+apple+e.

Once you’ve cleared your browser’s file cache, try reloading the game.

If you can’t get any games to work, there may be a problem with your flash player installation. Follow the instructions for how to fix almost any flash issue found in Adobe’s Flash Player Support FAQ.

If you continue to have problems, let us know. Be sure to include the name of the operating system you are using, the name of the browser you are using, and a brief description of what you are seeing when trying to load a game.

I’m on a Mac and the keyboard isn’t working for the games.

There is an intermittent issue in the Safari browser where keyboard input is not recognized by the Flash Player. This often goes away if you restart Safari, or reload the game. While we investigate solutions to this problem, we are advising all Mac users to use Lumosity with an alternate browser, like Firefox.

Distribution and Partnerships

Can I have access to Lumosity for my company?

Yes. Lumosity at the workplace can be a great perk for the employees and result in a more engaged and effective workforce. We have special programs designed for corporate organizations. Please email us at bizdev@lumoslabs.com.

Do you have an affiliate program?

Yes. You can email us at affiliate@lumoslabs.com for more information on our affiliate program.

Can I offer Lumosity content on my website?

If you are interested in partnering with Lumos Labs, please send an email to bizdev@lumoslabs.com

My organization would like to provide subscriber level access for many of our clients. Do you have an option for us to purchase multiple accounts?

Yes. We offer bulk purchase discounts. You can purchase multiple accounts at one time, then distribute them at your own discretion.

We’re a not-for-profit. Is there a special program for working with organizations like ours?

Yes. We regularly offer our expertise and services at a discounted rate to not-for-profit organizations. Please email bizdev@lumoslabs.com for more information.

Privacy

Is my personal information safe?

Privacy is very important to us. All personal information is stored securely using the latest industry standard security measures.

Search Lumosity