Brain training exercises

Due to my mentality or long-standing passion for speed reading, mnemonics, etc., I had an increased interest in games consisting of a set of exercises for brain training (BrainChallenge, Dr. Kawashima, etc.). Having beaten almost everything that was on the desktop and nds, there was a desire to use such games for everyday training, but for this they are not quite suitable (in the text I will explain why). Therefore, in my spare time I decided to write a small site with a set of such exercises.

Why do we need such training?

First, doing exercises can be just fun. Observe what the brain is capable of, at what speed and how complex a task it can solve. From a pragmatic point of view, things are a little more complicated. As far as I know, there are studies both talking about the benefits of such exercises for the development of cognitive abilities, and saying that there is nothing special from them. I am inclined to the fact that since the brain is part of the body, the rule must be fulfilled, that which is subjected to regular loads, must develop in order to cope with them. If I take my practice, I quit classes several times, but as a result I always returned, because I began to feel that something was missing. I think you can draw a complete analogy with training the body, like you can without it, then you feel more comfortable with it.

Two types of thinking

A bit much simplified speculation. I would divide thinking into two types - mechanical and creative. What is mechanical thinking is when we have a visible state graph and therefore the speed and ability to solve the problem depends only on how fast we can get around this graph. It helps us: how much we can concentrate on the task, the speed and amount of remembering intermediate results, the speed of remembering information from experience to drop part of the branches, the amount of attention, etc. As already mentioned above, I believe that all these processes are quite amenable to training, and as a result, these training sessions help to directly solve such problems. On the other hand, there is also a creative component, when the graph is so large that it is physically impossible to sort through all the options, and in fact it remains only to hope for insight. There are methods that partially allow us to solve the problem of creative thinking, for example, brainstorming, morphological analysis, TRIZ. But any systematic process of training this type of thinking makes me doubtful. From all this we can conclude that this kind of exercise will most likely allow you to become smart, but it is unlikely that they will make you Einstein.

A bit about mnemonics.

Of all the exercises, I would like to single out the memorization of the word list. Mnemonics for solving this problem has two main techniques, the reception of seats and the reception of the plot. First, you need to choose a well-known place, such as an apartment or the way to work. And in iconic places to place images of words. Accordingly, to recall the list, it will be enough to mentally walk around the apartment and see what you have there, a considerable emphasis is placed on visual memory. With the plot, everything is a little more interesting, you need to come up with a story consisting of words, and when you remember it, words will also be remembered, visual memory is also used here, but semantic memory also appears. So, memorizing a list of words with a plot, I think, in addition to the mechanical component of the brain’s work, it’s a little possible

What is wrong with games out of the box?

1) The main problem, such games have practically no difficulty settings, which over time leads to their uselessness. The obvious solution is that the exercises should be as customizable as possible, so that a person can choose the complexity for himself, and gradually increase it.
2) Games do not, in my opinion, have the most effective mode.
How is it implemented on the site. Each exercise has three difficulties.
Simple: mistakes are made.
Normal: in case of an error, the exercise starts again.
Difficult: Normal + for each answer there is a time limit.
This is the third option I consider the most effective. Since maximum concentration is reached on it and you begin to physically feel how the brain moves.

Total

ru.brainexer.com or www.brainexer.com
interested, I would suggest that before the working day to spend time on exercise and look at the result. Perhaps after another week you will notice a slight cognitive enlightenment.