All of erm's Comments + Replies

The things that I enjoy in a game are repetition, speed and simple strategy. I guess that dnb has the first two. When I started playing it I think I found it 'intriguing,' as it felt so odd to play. What I enjoy about it now is the way in which it highlights my distracting thoughts and pushes me to disregard them - this can be relaxing after a tough day at work.

2[anonymous]
It sounds like the games you like are precisely the games I don't like.

Yeah, sure - I couldn't remember what I may have said earlier.

I have been using the cognitivefun site and, more recently http://www.brainboffin.com/, which permits me to do more than 9-back. There is a multimodal version at http://cognitivefun.net/test/24 that I also occasionally use.

I would use the downloadable Brain Workshop but am running an inflexible OS on decrepit hardware and do not have the wit to get it to work.

0wedrifid
You are able to do more than 9-back? I just have to say: Wow! I'm downloading Brain Workshop as I speak. I'll have a play and see how it compares to the Luminosity games I've tinkered with.

You may do, but you might end up including me twice, as I have posted similar thoughts elsewhere, under a different name (cev).

0gwern
Oh; I do have you already then, under But no reason I couldn't quote you twice as the quotes differ?

Hi, well this is just from personal experience so ymmv, but I've been playing the game off and on for the past two years and am convinced of positive effects.

I do know that, beforehand, I had never been able to study for protracted periods of time and enjoy the experience - for me, studying had always been a fight against intellectual and physical restlessness (=restless legs, itching, shifting about on my seat). DnB seems not only to permit me to sit down and focus for long periods, it actually makes me want to study - I feel compelled to learn and get a... (read more)

7[anonymous]
I guess another question I'd like to ask is whether you enjoy dual-n-back. I've tried it a couple of times and consistently disliked it precisely as I would dislike a cold shower. Now that I think of it, there are many mental activities that I dislike precisely that way. (Or, at least, there used to be many; now there are fewer.) One of them is the Gunnery puzzle in Puzzle Pirates. To try to extract a general trend here, I tend to dislike things that require me to react quickly. I used to loathe such things, along with a host of other things: asymmetry, discontinuity, permanence. If I had been omnipotent when I was a kid, perhaps I would have replaced the world with a sphere. Gosh, I was a really messed-up kid back then.
2wedrifid
What do you use to do your dual-n-back training?

Yeah, that looks fine.

After having suffered procrastination and possible ADD symptoms for a long while (I left revising for my Finals exams to the evening before each paper, two months after most others), I have recently begun to find some strategies that work for me. In fact, they work so well that I decided to quit my job for a year to capitalise on my new-found capacity for hard study and upgrade myself.

  • Think it, do it: as soon as I become aware of something that needs to be done and can be done (without major disruption), then I do it right away. This frees up working mem

... (read more)
5Kevin
In case anyone wants to give dual-n-back a try: http://cognitivefun.net/test/5 I would try and play until you can at least do the 2-back. You can feel your mind and memory working in a different way that it usually does. Are there any other cognitive games with positive evidence in their favor? http://www.pnas.org/content/105/19/6829.full
2[anonymous]
I'm skeptical. How do you know it improves anxiety, flightiness, and concentration?
1gwern
Can I use this for my/the DNB FAQ?
2orthonormal
Thanks! Lots of intriguing techniques here. I hope you don't mind if, in order not to have too long a list in the post, I try to consolidate and cluster your ideas. Would the following be a fair condensation of your top tactics: * Think it, Do it * Monoidealism * Third Person Techniques (imagine being observed, self-experimentation) * Preserve the Mental State