"Lost in Migration" is designed to increase your cognitive control and reaction time. You are shown the flight pattern of birds. The central bird's direction is the one you must identify. Therefore, if all of the other birds are facing one way, but the central bird is facing another, you are required to suppress your automatic response to all the other birds and just focus on the center one. This is my best game for some reason. I can hyper-focus on the central bird without any errors.
"Raindrops" is a game for processing speed and numerical reasoning. Watch out on this one! The mathematical problems drop down ever so gently in a cloud. You must solve the equation, type it in, and hit "enter" before the cloud hits the ground and becomes rainwater. The game lulls you into a false sense of security then starts dropping rainclouds left, right, and center. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division... I was glad the timer ran out before I had to start performing calculus! That was intense! Moreover, no matter how many times I have played this game, my mind freezes up when I get six clouds at once.
"Speed Match" increases your processing speed. You have to identify whether the item shown is the same as the previous item. Once I understood that the game does not end after the first match but is an ongoing matching game, I found this one to be easy.
"Spatial Speed Match" is the same as "Speed Match" but it focuses more on spatial relations — in other words, where the location of a dot is on a die. If it is in the same place as the one before, you hit the "yes" key and if not, the "no" key.
"Color Match" is a game of processing speed and mental flexibility. You have to read the name of a color and determine if the second word is written in the color of the first word. This becomes very challenging very quickly because you have to suppress your natural urge to say yes when the name of the color is the same as the first, even if it is written in a different color.
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?