Session number: 157
Average n-back: 7.30!
Duration (min.): 30
Reach n=9 once. Done!
Achieve a new personal best. Done!
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I quoted the following from Jaeggi (2005, pp. 24-25). I changed the syntax and words slightly to clarify that dual n-back training invokes the following cognitive functions.
+Encoding (interpretation of each stimulus).
+Storage (to retain any stimulus relevant to a future decision).
+Rehearsal (to keep the contents of the storage active).
+Matching (to compare every stimulus against the appropriate previous one, i.e., the one n back in the sequence).
+Temporal ordering (to keep the ordinal position of each stimulus tagged, that the present one can be matched).
+Inhibition (to dampen the trace of the oldest stimulus, replacing it with the newest).
+Response selection (the actual execution of the response.
In short, dual n-back training involves static storage processes and dynamic executive manipulation/updating processes. Every load level requires executive processing, since the allocation of attentional resources to independent stimuli is commonly referred to as core property of the Central Executive System (e.g. Baddeley, 1996).
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This post was submitted by Shaun Luttin.
Tags: Brain Exercises, brain-fitness, brain-fitness-pro, buschkuehl, increase intelligence, increase IQ, intelligence-training, IQ-training, jaeggi, martin-buschkuehl, mind-sparke, susanne-jaeggi, Training Working-Memory, working-memory
Hello Shaun.
Excellent! Well done! A new high n-level and a new high mean n.
You’ve quoted one of the sections that particularly stood out for me. This description spells out quite clearly just why the dual n-back task represents a superior brain training exercise.
Thanks, as always, for posting,
Martin
Thanks Martin.
Well done on level 9 and the PB of 7.3, Shaun.
Thanks for the information on the dual n back processes.
Several months back I read through one of Alan Baddeley’s book from the early 70’s and on the chapter dealing with aging he describes his model of the processes of working memory in terms of more or less inevitable decline. I imagine that back then it must have been frustrating for someone to read and know there was nothing much they could do to ward off a process that seemed to be fairly well understood in theory. (Not every one has bought into the central executive model, but it’s still the leading working memory model).
I imagine that a forward thinking person back then would have thought there “must be some sort of exercise to ward off working memory attenuation” but personal computers were in their womb/infancy then so one can see how the gap between the model of WM, and the individual use of that WM model to maintain and increase function, existed for such a long time (30+ years).
The best part of n=9 is that I only had 6 misses. That’s just one miss of staying at n=9!
I feel glad that you read my posts. Also, similarly to you, I feel a sense of gratitude when I have access to tools such as Brain Fitness Pro, and to beliefs such as brain plasticity. I feel empowered by my living in an era with the technology to train brain processes.