I get requests to review products from time to time, and frankly I deny most of them. However, sometimes something catches my eye and I try it out. I jettison about half of those, and the remaining products/services are few. The problem is that many of them are not explicitly Chinese medicine related, so I’m a little bashful about putting them on Deepest Health.
I’ve had this one on my plate for a while, though, and given that the holiday season is upon us – perhaps it will be of greater use to my readers than usual. Looking for something for the person who has everything? :) I’ll keep the review brief and to the point – please check out the Lumosity website for more information and to make a purchase. If you do decide to try them out (they do have a free trial, by the way) do come back and leave a comment on this post – I’ll be interested to hear how it goes for you.
Lumosity
Lumosity is a web-based brain training program that has been around for a while. I played it more than a year ago, as a free trial, and was impressed but not ready to make use of it. When I was approached to review their service recently, I was glad to check it out. I was given free use of the site for a limited time for evaluation purposes. I think this service could be helpful for Chinese medicine students who are hoping to boost their mental faculties for the purposes of learning the huge amount of information we are asked to learn. But anyone who is interested in optimizing their mental function can benefit.
The Good
It works as advertised : This may seem a simplistic point, but important given this world of slapdash efforts. What they say the service does, it does, and it does it with elegance. I’m especially impressed with the new interface, which features streamlined graphics and much easier access to the important parts of the site. I do feel that use of the service has improved my overall mental quickness, basic working memory and my ability to work with several pieces of information at once. This, in itself, is worth the price of entry ($9.95/month or 79.97/year).
It leads you through your training step-by-step : There are quite a few “brain training” type pieces of software, offline and online. What sets Lumosity apart is the structured nature of the training program. You are led through several stages, beginning with a sort of preparatory phase and moving on to the improvement of specific areas of brain power (memory, processing, etc). You are always aware where you are in the process and how much longer you have to go. Your progress is monitored through each step and you are easily able to see where you are improving and by how much you are doing so. You can also easily find your “off-days” which has really helped me to be more aware of how various lifestyle choices (staying up very late, for example) impact my mental performance.
You can engage in a little friendly competition : If your friends are on Lumosity you can compare your performance to theirs – challenge them to be their best!
Some of the games are addictive – in a good way : I really enjoy the games at Lumosity. I’m rarely bored, always challenged and ready for the next phase of training. They have designed a good group of engaging activities that stand well above the rest of the pack.
The Not As Good
The actual training programs can get a little repetitive : While I do enjoy the games, I was sometimes hoping for more variation in the basic training program. There are other games available, but not as part of the training. The games do increase in difficulty, which helps keep things interesting, but I wish that each stage brought an entirely new set of games. Perhaps this is too much to ask from Lumosity’s programmers. :)
There’s not enough explanation : I would like to see more data, more articles from experts and generally more information to help me understand how this kind of web-based brain training should fit into my personal development regimen. While I can see how it has helped me, some folks might benefit from some bonafide proof on the front end.
The cost may be too high for some people : While the cost of the service isn’t exorbitant, it may be out of the price range of the people who could benefit most – college students and other in-progress learners. I would love to see some specials around the beginning of the school year to try to help students afford this valuable service.
In sum, I think Lumosity is more than worth the price and with additional development and targeted promotional pricing to help people get started, it will only get better.
Eric
Tags: websites, studying, students, internet, habits, scholar, Learning, product-review
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I am very interested in brain training excersises. I have even went as far as to purchase a Nintendo DS to try the various games they have for this type of stuff.
So far i’ve purchased a Sudoku game, and brain age 2. Your article has interested me in trying out Lumosity.
I am interested in trying it out as well. Thanks for the post, I had not heard of Lumosity before!
Very interesting, thanks for pointing out the Lumosity website. I’ll have to give it a try. Thanks for pointing out The Good and The Not AS Good points. I totally agree with your comment on affordability. I’d also like to point out that it would be a very beneficial for people in the Medicare age range. Plus, with fixed income at this age, discounts and specials would be a big help for them as well.
I found your article while looking for reviews of Lumosity (so far I’ve seen more good ones than bad or lukewarm!) – I’d like to see more clinical data and expert opinions on the web as well, but if you’re really interested in the neurological basis of these games, there’s a decent amount of literature already out there. For relatively light and less technical reading with plenty of clinical and research citations to dig into, I’d recommend “The Brain that Changes Itself”, by Norman Doidge, M.D.
I became interested in neuroscience and Lumosity after two nearly disastrous years in college, when I found out I have Attention Deficit Disorder. Studying engineering with ADD has been a daunting challenge, and having to take medication to get all my work done has indeed made life interesting. Lumosity seems to present another, if not an alternative, approach to improving my concentration, attention span, information processing, etc. I’ve only begun using Lumosity recently, so it may be too early to tell if it’ll produce the results I’m hoping for. But thus far I seem to be seeing improvements, and the reading I’ve done on neuroplasticity has set my hopes high! I’d personally recommend giving Lumosity a try to anyone in a situation similar to mine or even who just wants to sharpen their mind a bit.
Thanks for taking the time to review this, looks interesting.
I’m paranoid about getting alzheimer’s like so many of the females in my family so I’m always looking for ways to use my brain in the hopes that it will help me keep it in working condition :)
I’m finding Lumosity a lot of fun. However, being a skeptic, I would bet heavily that jogging regularly is better for your mental health than spending the same amount of time playing brain games.
Interestingly, I find that years of playing 1-minute chess and other speeds of chess did not “train” me to do well on Lumosity. In other words, the odds are that the skills you learn on Lumosity DO help you — to play the games on Lumosity. I doubt that they have much effect elsewhere.