Average n-back: 7.20

Duration (min.): 30

1 6
2 6
3 6
4 7
5 8
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8 8
9 8
10 8
11 7
12 8
13 8
14 8
15 8
16 7
17 7
18 6
19 7
20 6

Today I tried the new version of BFPro for the first time.

This post was submitted by Shaun Luttin.

Average n-back: 4.40

Duration (min.): 60

I’m feeling a little bit deflated on day 19. After reaching 4.75 on day 17, and actually getting a couple of runs at n=6, day 18 was back down to 4.70. I figured that that was about right anyway, and was looking forward to making a leap at day 19, because I really could feel a difference in my thinking.

Now it’s day 19, and my brain feels pretty exhausted – not because of the training, but I think because of some other stress in my life, and the latest flaring up of IBS, leaving my stomach feeling slightly queasy, and definitely having difficulties concentrating,as well as a persistent thumping headache. I noticed that it wasn’t just apparent on my n-back exercises, but even on things as basic as recognition reaction time exercises at MyBrainTrainer – and that’s just pressing a key when a light flashes, for heaven’s sake. I don’t know whether maybe I should have let the training rest for a day as I was definitely not feeling up to it, but really wanted to do it daily, come rain or shine. The result was a sudden bounce back to a 4.40 average, 11 runs out of 20 at n=4, which I’m now normally doing in my sleep practically, but which today I couldn’t even concentrate on and had to restart so many times because my concentration was so lost.

I took a break and had a sleep halfway through. That left me feeling a little more refreshed and things started picking up, and I managed to get in 9 runs at n=5 (but not as good as previously). However, tiredness soon started to kick in again.

The thing is that my brain wants to do it, but at the moment my body just seems to be saying ‘no way today’. It’s frustrating, because the thing that I most want to do whilst typing this is to open up a new session and go hammer and tongs on it (I feel really eager), but I know that my brain is just not going to perform today.

There is no way that I’m going to give up on this. Getting to an n=5 average is my next immediate goal on the horizon and I want to work towards it. But I’m feeling like I’ve let myself down by pushing it today, that maybe if I’d held off until I was fresher I might just have hit that n=5 peak on day 19 that I was after.

I’ve got another round of IQ testing on Friday, so now I’m slightly panicked that I’m going to be doing it with my brain in this condition. I’ve been in such beautiful mental shape in the past week and ready for it, and I really don’t want to blow it.

This post was submitted by Michelle.

Average n-back: 2.67

I am having so much trouble on my 4th session with n=3 , I mean I can’t pass it because my brain always thinks n=2. It can be frustrating at times..

This post was submitted by Kane.

Average n-back: 7.00

Duration (min.): 30

That’s all (:

This post was submitted by Shaun Luttin.

Average n-back: 8.45

Duration (min.): 45

Afternoon. Yoga. Swam.

(No breaks, no meditation, no neuroprogramming)

Brain Fitness Pro working-memory training report.

This post was submitted by martin.

Average n-back: 7.30!

Duration (min.): 30

Reach n=9 once. Done!
Achieve a new personal best. Done!

—
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).

—

This post was submitted by Shaun Luttin.

Average n-back: 6.20

Duration (min.): 30

I reached as high as n=8 and as low as n=4 in this session!

Shaun

This post was submitted by Shaun Luttin.

Average n-back: 8.55

Duration (min.): 45

Afternoon. No exercise.

(no breaks, meditation nor neuroprogramming.)

This post was submitted by martin.

Average n-back: 6.15, 7.15!

Duration (min.): 30, 30

Last two sessions.

6.15
7.15!

7.15 is 0.05 below my previous personal best and is the my first time above 7.00 in over 20 sessions. I never have to do that again (but I certainly could).

Shaun

This post was submitted by Shaun Luttin.

Average n-back: 8.45

Duration (min.): 45

Afternoon. Ran. (No breaks, meditation, etc.)

This was my first session for over a week (I’m back in town for a few days). Also my first session with another new version of the program. This is a version we’ve customized exclusively for vibrantBrains, a brain gym out on the West coast. The US’s first brain gym, in fact.

The training screen has a pause button (which I didn’t use today) and a progress bar (which took a little getting used to).

Brain Fitness Pro working-memory training report.

This post was submitted by martin.