UC study finds near-transfer of cognitive training to be necessary (yet not sufficient) for far-transfer, broader benefits

Who ben­e­fits from brain train­ing, and why? (UCI release): If you are skilled at play­ing puz­zles on your smart­phone or tablet, what does it say about how fast you learn new puz­zles, or more broad­ly, how well can you focus in school or at work? In the lan­guage of psy­chol­o­gists, does “near trans­fer” pre­dict “far…

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Study: For better memory and thinking skills at age 70 (and beyond), play cards and board games from age 11

___ Cards, board games could ward off cog­ni­tive decline (UPI): “Play­ing cards and board games like chess, bin­go and Scrab­ble might be the men­tal work­out you need to keep your wits as you age, Scot­tish researchers sug­gest. Peo­ple in their 70s who reg­u­lar­ly play board games score high­er on tests of mem­o­ry and think­ing skills…

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The ultimate in transfer from brain training to real-world outcomes: Reducing the risk of at-fault accidents by almost 50%

___ Can you train your brain to dri­ve longer into your gold­en years? (CTV News): “For the elder­ly, the loss of a driver’s licence could mean the end of inde­pen­dence and the begin­ning of a decline in health, with far-reach­ing con­se­quences in their dai­ly lives…New assis­tive dri­ving tech­nolo­gies seem like an obvi­ous solu­tion in the years…

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To stimulate your brain, find new ways to challenge yourself every day

—– For Effec­tive Brain Fit­ness, Do More Than Play Sim­ple Games (The New York Times): “…Legions of baby boomers already use com­put­ers or apps to stim­u­late the brain, but they should be thought of as part of a larg­er engage­ment with the world…Finding new ways to chal­lenge your­self every day, Mr. Rebok said, is a good…

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