Videogames and Youtube are bad for you brain

[Help Doge Fix His Broken Toe]

For anyone who is serious about dual n-back I've just discovered that dual n-back works best when you stop playing videogames and youtube. The metrics I've been using to measure my success are my ability to read, plan ahead, and my speech all of which have increased drastically from playing dual n-back. Around 3 hours of playing dual n-back (consecutively or spread out over the course of 3 days) I've started to notice these benefits. But I've also noticed that when I play videogames or watch youtube videos the effects slowly reverse and I have to play around 20 to 30 minutes of dual n-back get all of the effects back. I've also discovered that dual n-back level 1 is the best form of dual n-back to play, when you go up in levels I've noticed that the 3 metrics I've been using to measure my success only get worse. Your levels of neuroplasticity are highest between the ages of 12 and 25, and I'm 15 years old so the training work quickly for me, this is why you should probably trust my advice if you're serious about brain training and dual n-back. I only have anecdotal evidence so I guess that makes my advice less credible but I have nothing to gain for giving you bad advice so take that as you will. 

[Help Doge Fix His Broken Toe]

I had thought the same thing that if you stay on level 1 eventually your brain will just adapt and it won't work anymore. But so far I've continued to get benefits even though it's not much as a challenge. My advice would be to focus on putting in as much time as you can into the training, maybe around 1 hour a day split into 20 minute intervals, so 20 minute dual n-back sessions 3 times a day.

On Tuesday, December 6, 2022 at 5:35:56 PM UTC-5 Alessandro wrote:

For me, when I level up and stay stable on it for a while, the previous one gets a lot easier. At least it does in the program, I haven't tested it out of the Dual N-Back. Staying only at level 1 would reach a point where your brain would not put more effort into it, or at least put little effort, or am I wrong? But I only have ~8 days of N-Back, so I can't say much about it.  (Sorry if there are any typos, or if I got something wrong).

[Help Doge Fix His Broken Toe]

To clarify you don't have to go as extreme as not playing any videogames or watching youtube videos to get benefits.

[Leonardo]

Being Indian is bad for making reasonable threads and comments, apparently. 

[Bo T]

Action video games probably have better transfer to general cognition than dual n back. 

[Leonardo]

Exactly. 

[Help Doge Fix His Broken Toe]

In terms of action video games I've experimented with battlefield 5 and Call of Duty Cold War. In my experience Battlefield 5 being a pretty slow game, didn't really seem to have much effect on me at all, but cold war being a fast-paced game made me a lot more reactive and actually worsened my working memory, which might've came from the fact that you're essentially training your brain to react quicker and think less.

[Pete Levy [PL]]

What you should pay attention to is the monotony of the game. When you get to an advanced level in any game, stop playing it. Change the game, and preferably the type, from FPS to RTS, from RTS to RPG, from RPG to adventure games. Move from adventure games to JRPGs, and then you have simulators, economic games, tower defense and PC board games, etc. They all improve the brain in some way.

If the games have single and multiplayer mode - beat the campaign on the hardest difficulty first. When you do that, start playing multiplayer - try to defeat better and better opponents, not using ready-made tactics created by game masters. Challenge yourself.

[Anomaly]

What does being Indian got to do with it? Would you have said the same if OP was from a different country?

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Dual N-Back, Brain Training & Intelligence" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to brain-trainin...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/brain-training/75b1aacc-9270-4e5c-9f50-64ab91e623den%40googlegroups.com.

[Leonardo]

Nope, it is just as much of an absurd and unproven conclusion as the one the OP wrote. 

[Alex C.]

From personal experience I can say there might be some truth to what OP is saying.

Prolonged periods of playing video games I did notice some changes (not in a good way) in my cognitive abilities. It felt like it nullified all my DnB training.

[Claudiu Ciprian]

you should not only focus on the game, but also read and memorize text. use dual nback as a warm up game. stop playing stupid kids games. to much video gaming hurts the brain in the long run, by shrinking it

[Programmer]

Cannot believe people still think n-back works.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/brain-training/7d95fef4-68fb-4052-869f-f2d3cd93ef94n%40googlegroups.com.