As we age, several areas of our cognitive abilities begin to decline. Most people recognize that the older we become, reaction time, ability to multitask, ability to process new information, and attention/concentration begin to decrease in speed and accuracy. Lumosity is a fitness program for your brain!
Lumosity is an online program consisting of 30 training sessions. The first several sessions allow you to become familiar with the tasks or "games" while the computer is assessing your current abilities. After the assessment period, Lumosity adapts its program to a level of difficulty specifically for you. Over the course of the 30 sessions, it tracks your overall performance and gives you a written and graphic accounting of the progress you have made in increasing your cognitive abilities. These games consist of the following:
"Bird Watching" assesses and increases your visual attention. Simultaneously, a bird and a letter are briefly flashed on the screen. You must place your cursor over the exact location of the bird. If you miss the spot where the bird was located, you move on to the next frame. If you correctly locate the bird, you must then identify which letter was on the screen. This is so much harder than it sounds! If you correctly identify the letter, you are then given the opportunity to guess the species of bird using the letter shown. You receive extra points for guessing correctly before you have filled in all of the letters. However, if you guess incorrectly, you lose 10 points!
"Word Bubbles" is a game of verbal fluency designed to increase your creativity and mental flexibility. You are given three letters, such as "tro" and you have one minute to come up with as many words as you can that begin with those letters. This game makes me feel ignorant. I have played it several times and always become frozen and watch the timer count down because I run out of creativity and mental flexibility.
"Monster Garden" is a test of memory and attention. You are briefly shown where two monsters are hiding in a 4x4 maze, and then you have to find a path from the gardener to the flower without stepping on a monster. If you succeed, you are given bonus points for being able to identify where the monsters were hiding. You can also receive "health" points for making your path intersect with a vegetable. As you progress, the number of monsters increases and remembering where they are located is very, very hard.
Article comments
1 - Gene Venable
I would like to see a comparison between these sorts of activities and jogging. I have a feeling that jogging is better for long-term maintenance and improvement of brain functions. I am finding the Lumosity site fun, but I find many of the suppositions it encourages to be questionable. I would also like to see comparative benefits between Lumosity and learning a language,computer or foreign, take your pick! I suspect that any of the activities I listed are at least as good as Lumosity, and they are probably cheaper.
2 - aenflex
The 20 or so games are simple, once you have played them each a few times, they can become boring. You are always competing against your past scores, and measurements are made in a few different areas of brain function. However after playing the games for a few hours per month, I did notice my memory grabbing and holding things a bit longer, and I was making faster calcuations in my mind. It really works, and it works in such a way that is easy to notice so long as you are at least slightly self-aware. I was a memeber of Lumosity about 2 years ago, and paid around 7 dollars a month. I discontinued memebership after the card they charged each month was lost. I recently went to re-join after taking the trial membership and its 17 DOLLARS A MONTH! WTF? 8 DOLLARS A MONTH IF YOU WANT A YEAR SUBSCRIPTION BUT THEY COLLECT THE ENTIRE SUM UP FRONT! WHAT A BLESSED RIP OFF! OTHER SITES WHERE YOU CAN ACUTALLY WIN MONEY DON'T COST 17 DOLLARS A MONTH TO JUST BE A MEMBER. I AM ALL FOR TRAINING THE BRAIN, STAYING MENTALLY ALERT AND YOUTHFUL. BUT 17 BUCKS A MONTH IN THIS ECONOMY?
I refuse to join, though I can afford it, for pure prinicple. It's like a handful of guys running Lumosity.com (from Lumos labs), and thanks to them I can crunch these numbers:
LET'S SAY THEY HAVE 7 PPL ON THE THE lumosity .com PAYROLL. LETS SAY THEY HAVE 500K MEMBERS PAYING AN AVG OF 12 DOLLARS/MONTH. 500K TIMES 12 BUCKS IS SIX MILLION DOLLARS PER MONTH, DIVIDED BY THE 7 PPL THAT WORK THERE - EACH WOULD MAKE 857K PER MONTH. OF COURSE THESE NUMBERS DON'T REFLECT THE COST OF RUNNING SOME SERVERS AND RENTING SPACE BUT PEOPLE THIS IS 6 MIL A MONTH! OF COURSE I AM GUESSING AT THE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES, (BUT ITS CLOSE IF YOU CHECK THEIR SITE STAFF IS LISTED) AND I HAVE NO IDEA THE NUMBER OF MEMBERS. IT COULD BE ONLY 250K, AND DARN IT THAT WOULD MEAN THEY ARE ONLY RAKING IN 3 MIL A MONTH RATHER THAN 6...
I sure as heck am not going to pay anyone's fat-cat salary. The games are simple enough to create your own versions using flashcards and powerpoint :)
3 - Cindy
I joined Lumosity for a free trial. Kept getting billed for 5 months, even though I cancled my account, had Lumosity cancle my account and promise me a refund. Im STILL being billed. I would never give them my credit card again
4 - lisa
is there any payment for this ?
5 - Satish
While subscribing, what should i give as the expiration date. it always says invalid subscription data
6 - Boring games
I bought the one year subscription and it is really boring, the same games,over and over the only thing that changes is the lesson #, I contacted the customer service and I could not cancel my subscription.
7 - jackie
wow, thanks guys, you've saved me from wasting money with Lumosity. I totally agree with aenflex. Those profits are obscene.
8 - Eldar Noe
I actually joined under a special offer they were having for $59 for a whole year. I started training a month and a half ago, and I can already tell a difference. I am remembering things I could not remember before. I no longer need to look at addresses multiple times as I am driving to them, I remember names of people I just met (and I retain the names for later). I am also better at focusing at work now, and get jobs done through and through, and my math skills have taken off. Overall, I gotta say that so far it has been well worth the investment. My quality of life has improved. In my opinion, if someone comes up with a tool that helps me this much, I have no problem paying into their fat cat salary. They deserve every penny they get.
9 - MLMR
so my 13 year old son needs assistance with enhancing his cognitive skills...will this be boring for him?