Dual n-back on Lumosity

[Lumosity]

Hey Folks,

You might have seen the recent post from the University of Michigan
Jonides Lab about their ongoing dual n-back training study. We have
been working with the Lab to create an online platform for dual n-back
training that will be available to both study participants and users
on our site. You can access this training (which is currently
available for free on our site) from here:

http://www.lumosity.com/training_applications/dual-n-back

Those of you that have been training with Jaeggi mode in Brain
Workshop may find this of particular interest; the application
includes tracking and you can access it from any computer with Flash
and an internet connection. Also, since many of you have a great deal
of experience with dual n-back training, feel free to share your
experiences and knowledge with our users (we have over 1.5 million of
them, and I'm sure they could use your encouragement as they get
started with dual n-back) on our forum as well:

http://www.lumosity.com/blog/forum

Don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions about any of
this. You can reach me at b...@lumoslabs.com.

A personal note: I just completed my 20th session of dual n-back. It's
awesome to get to help out the Jonides Lab with their research, and I
really appreciate the guidance everyone here has provided as I've been
training!

[milestones]

I played this version today. My thoughts? I think this is definitely
the best installment I've played on for two reasons -- the spatial
dynamic has the feel of being boxless and open ended and the letters
have a somewhat accentuated tonality. The sense is that of an active
participant, a leaning forward sensation that the box versions have
not given me since I've become proficient with dual n back. Also (and
this is the best part), it was harder for me. I ramped up to 7 back,
stayed for a while and fell back to 5, ended at 6. Slight lowering of
performance may have to to do with playing a new version but I got the
sese that, having to create a frame in my mind, the same game had
become more challenging. On the video clip on you blog, I can see from
the those playing dual n back in the background that that version is
-- if not identical to the game played in the study -- extremely close
to being identical. This version has renewed my interest in dual n
back. My experience with other dual n back with all of the version
that are available online...cognitivefun, brain workship, mindsparke
pro. The only thing I would add is that for someone starting off, it
might be easier for anyone to play a box version first then move over
to this box free version (the real deal). And for anyone seasoned, I'd
say give the lumosity version a go. I was very impressed. All versions
have their plusses and minuses and this version has what I consider to
be the plusses from the other versions. Hopefully, lumosity will put
together triple and quad back versions in the not so distant future.

[childofbaud]

You can mimic the task environment of the original experiment in Brain
Workshop (black, full-screen background, no grid, very similar to what
is showcased in the videoclip, and Luminosity's version) by turning on
Jaeggi_Mode in the configuration file.

[milestones]

Thanks for letting me know about the Jaegggi option at brainworkshop.
I'm focusing so much on quad now -- I don't need to turn it to Jaeggi
version as I only play dual n back occassionally these days.

I think I was a bit over-zealous in my praise...the novelty of the
Jaeggi version had me piqued. But the training effect of all the
different online versions are probably very similar. If I had paid
money to Lumosity, most likely I would be feeling "buyers remorse"
right about now. Fortunately I set up a free 7 day trial.

[Reece]

I just became a Luminosity member a few minutes ago -- well worth the
price in my opinion (promo code QUIZ10 saves $10 if anyone else was
considering becoming a member). As far as I know, you don't need to be
a Luminosity member to play Luminosity's dual n-back even once your
free trial on Luminosity expires -- my trial expired earlier this week
and it let me try their version of dual n-back this morning just the
same. I've found Luminosity's Rotation Matrix game to be a nice
complement to dual n-back memory training.

[Ravi Sharma]

Hi Ben,

Why this game is removed from lumosity? this one was my favorite?

Regards,

Ravi