3 Unexpected Things I’ve Learned Playing Lumosity

As regular readers know, lately I’ve embarked on a personal “fix my mind” regime. I’m only a few weeks into it, and there’s a definite perceived improvement in my alertness, focus, and concentration. The brain-fitness program Lumosity is most likely the major contributor.

But outside of the expected improvements in cognitive function, I’ve learned a few interesting tidbits from the experience.

1. I seriously over estimate the importance of my mistakes.
   
   Lumosity’s training sessions are scored on a combination of factors, including speed, hesitation, and error recovery, rather than accuracy alone. But when assessing myself, I seem to consider accuracy the *only* important factor.

   If I make a few mistakes, I think I’m doing very poorly. If I move slowly, but accurately, I think I must have a record score. I’m usually wrong, on both counts, and my scores constantly surprise me.

   Thinking back, this is a life-long habit, focusing on the mistakes, rather than all of the factors of success. Interestingly, these training sessions may be correcting that thought pattern. Unexpected benefits rock!

2. My basic math skills are very rusty.Two of the games involve simple math. I used to be rather good at math, and I took my skills in it for granted, even though I haven’t practiced much at all. Not in.. like.. let’s just say “a long time”

   Now it seems I’ve forgotten my multiplication tables. Eeep!
   
   Maybe the Lumosity folks could offer a mini refresher on this stuff, something that doesn’t make me feel like I flunked out on that “smarter than a 5th grader show? <grin>

   Ok, ok, I’ll dig out the multiplication tables. If it’s not too late to memorize the US Constitution, it’s not too late to remember multiplication tables.
   

3. A morning training session jump starts my brain.It wasn’t my plan to do the sessions in the morning, but it’s become a part of my routine, for one really good reason:

   A Lumosity session wakes me up better than coffee. In about 15 minutes, I’m alert, focused, and clear.

   Not being a neuroscientist type, I can’t tell you why… I just know it’s worked out that way. Maybe it has to do with increasing blood flow to the different regions of the brain, or maybe it’s “warming up” the neuro circuitry….

   I’m hoping one of you brilliant neuro-science types can shed some light on this aspect : )

Overall… I’m surprised at just how effective this program is, at how much of a difference it seems to be making in overall mental function.

I expect that I’ll be writing alot more on Lumosity in the future, as well as exploring related programs like MindFit and the auditory- brain fitness program from Posit Science. (Hi Alvaro and Michael!) Meanwhile, I’m off to flank some more flocks, or something!

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MindTWEAK: A focused brain is a happy brain!

Or.. um…something like that. Ok, I admit it. I couldn’t come up with a really good quote today. Cut me some slack. I’m busy training neurons! _____________________________________________