train my brain at lumosity.com

So far, I have completed the following aspects of the Lumosity Core Curriculum:

Basic Training
Speed Boost
Memory Boost
Attention Boost
Flexibility Boost

I am now working on my nemesis: Math and Problem Solving Boost

This is total fun. Everything is in the form of games, so it does not really feel like work.

(consisting of about five games) per day. The games are assigned by the site and are chosen to fit into whatever skill set you are working on.

The problem? There are some games that I save till last and then don’t do because I don’t like them and I am not good at them. For instance, what sadist thought up “Penguin Pursit,” in which your penguin races another penguin to a fish on an ice floe that keeps rotating, so that your left arrow key, for instance, may become the right, or up, or down key depending on the degree of rotation.

These games that I hate, are, of course, the very ones I need to be working on. Why is it that challenging material that we are good at is fun, while challenging material we are not good at is torture?

It takes just ten minutes or so, and it’s fun. I train in areas like working memory, attention, flexibility, problem solving, and speed. I get a percentile score that compares me to other people who train on the site whose ages are within five years of mine either way.

The only problem is that I am used to being in the 90+ percentile on any brain test, but sadly, there is one area in which I am only in the 60-something percentile: problem solving. In lumosity.com parlance, problem solving is math—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, all at a high rate of speed. Somehow, I missed out on memorizing my times and division tables in elementary school. I think I figured that was why God gave me fingers and toes . . . so I would not need to memorize. I may just have to break down and memorize them, about fifty years too late!

I have a few more sessions of “Basic Training” left, and I am really enjoying it.

Is my brain any better? Well, just maybe. A little early to tell, but last week I was on task and getting things done a bit more than usual.

for two weeks or a month, I forget (see why I need brain training?), and I am going to use it to evaluate the site and see if I want to continue. I am in “basic training” right now, training memory, processing speed, attention, and . . . something that deals with control of how you take in information, I forget exactly what they call it.

It’s fun so far, not intimidating at all, because you start on an easy level and the difficulty increases as you get better at the task.