Am I a Genius? (I Don't Know About That)
Anyone Played with Lumosity?
So being deep into middle age at this point I had been starting to feel as if my brain was getting a bit sluggish. By my own perception, I have really been feeling like my ability to remember things has significantly diminished. In fact, it actually would freak me out a bit how long it would take me to remember certain words or form a sentence in a coherent way when trying to get a point across to someone.
Being a hypochondriac I ended up all over the internet self diagnosing myself with early onset dementia and any number of crazy problems. It didn't matter how how many tests I would take and score well on or even doctors telling me that I am perfectly fine. I have a long history of taking any small issue and spinning it into a huge problem. A couple of years ago I was sure that I had some kind of tumor in my neck which turned out to just be muscle tension; but I digress.
At some point during this frenzy of fear I ended up downloading, installing and signing up for Lumosity, which is essentially an suite of games designed by scientists who study cognition. The system serves you a bunch of games each day that strain different cognitive functions of your brain and generate a score based on how you perform against all other players in their database - within your age group.
So the above chart shows where I currently stand vs everyone else around my age. If I am to believe this, I am in the top 99.1 percentile of people who use Lumosity. The LPI I believe is an average of all of your various cognitive areas. Of course, I could easily be wrong. Just look at my Math percentile. My instincts about my math skills are correct, I suck badly. The fact that I am in the 69.5th percentile in math just shows how horrible people are at math in general.
I'm a Bit Dubious
I really don't know what to think about this data. I have been playing for a couple of months now and have been slowly creeping up those last few percentile points reaching 99 and higher in some areas. I had reached 99th percentile in Flexibility at one point but have fallen back 0.4 over the course of a few weeks.
At this point, I do wonder if the data is somehow skewed to make people feel smarter than they are, thus potentially motivating them to continue paying the subscription. (Which I believe was only 30 something dollars a year, so no biggie.)
Another idea I had about what could be pushing me up the ranks is the fact that I really actually try my best. Imagine how many people play the games half heartedly, or just don't care. Or maybe they give up after playing for a few days. This would leave them with really poor scores. I don't know how this data is processed, but I could see how they could bring the average down quite significantly.
Me VS the Young'ins
One of the fun features that you can do on the website but apparently not inside of the mobile app is that you can compare yourself to all of the other age groups.
Here you can see my scores compared with people aged 20-24. I still score higher than 96.8 percent of this group, but you can see my memory score drops down from nearly 97th to 84th. That makes sense to me. As a young person in your early 20s - and are the type of person who buys a game to train your cognition - you are likely in college and are using those memory skills to the max.
That being said, I am quite happy with my results. I also really believe that I can get the memory up quite a lot with a bit of practice. It very much is the case that if you don't use it, you'll lose it.
The interesting thing to me is that my math percentile not much worse for my age group vs 20 year olds. That is very surprising to me. I would think younger kids would be way sharper with math skills! I guess times are really changing with computers these days doing everything for us.
Closing Thoughts
I read that Lumosity got sued a couple of years ago in a class action lawsuit for claiming that their program could stop age related mental decline. They lost, of course because they didn't have the science to back it up. I think they ended up having to refund a bunch of money.
Anecdotally, however, I can without a doubt say that I have personally noticed a difference in my ability to process things mentally after a couple of months playing these games. I am quicker and sharper. For instance, there are games that test your ability to perform certain tasks quickly and efficiently. I noticed that after playing some of these game for long periods of time and then (after some rest) perform some real world tasks I can do them much faster and effectively.
A good example would be cleaning the kitchen or even cooking. I often make a huge mess, or take way to long to clean things because I do stuff in a disorganized way. I noticed that after playing the games for a while, my brain began to automatically just think about these tasks more logically. For one, I stopped picking up objects and moving them around only to realize that I needed to do another task first, causing me to need to touch the same item several times. It is difficult to explain precisely how this is working. My ability to plan has just increased exponentially. I guess I just needed to work out that muscle!
There is something about gamification that makes brain building so much easier. Seeing a score gives you that dopamine bump. I don't know if I really believe that I am in the top 99% percentile but I can certainly say that Lumosity has given me a massive brain workout. Give it a try!
Update:
I've really pumped up my scores since posting this. All except for Math, of course. haha!
You've got it right. If a person plays in this kind of game, his mind is much sharper. I myself am very fond of watching and playing fighting games since my childhood and all I do is play the way you are telling about it. In the beginning, it is difficult once or twice, then when a person starts working daily, the same work seems easy to a person.
It is true. The more you do it, the better you get. It's amazing to watch yourself improve as well. It's pretty much the same as weightlifting. You can't really feel yourself getting 'smarter' as you are doing the activity, but when you rest and come back, you have jumped significantly in skill.
Yeah you are absolutely right.
Wow. A lot to grasp in. Hehe, now you make me greedy. I need to check out this game and hopefully, my maths score won't be terrifically horrible 🤣🤣.
I did find this fun though;
And many others. Seeing how the game has improved so much about you makes me want to be a player right away 😁😁.
Thanks, for sharing.
haha, yeah I am definitely not a math wiz. I will say that I am making an effort to change that. Even if just a little!
And that's great! I say continue edging toward it and I will too. That makes the two of us😁
This game however plays a significant role in a person's life that can generate different option to choose and that is to either quit and continue to try but if we really know we can makes good score then we can challenge oneself to win.
It's always good to challenge yourself, for sure. I don't think I've been doing enough of it in the past! Better late than never.
Haha yep, I've been there. Overworried about nothing, convinced I have cancer and my brain is dying when it's just a pimple and I'm a bit tired.
I've also tried Lumosity before. It's fun, but I think it and similar brain games don't really help keep us smart. I remember when Brain Age on the Nintendo DS was popular about a decade ago. I kept reading papers from university people who concluded the game didn't actually help keep our brain young (as it claimed) it just helped us get better at the kind of fast paced games it threw at us. Which makes sense.
That said, any kind of brain workout has to be better than none, so even if you really aren't better than 96.8% of people, it is still great practice to be doing these kind of games. And yeah, seeing that score, whether fake or real, is motivating, isn't it?
Yeah, I agree. The only thing I can add is that I have seen some improvements outside of the games with activities that are sort of similar, such as remembering strings of data and quickly sorting things. It's hard to pin down exactly, but I just feel like I process a bit faster! I suppose any mental activity will stimulate and improve the brain to a degree.
Numbers ..... I got bank cards with different access numbers. Should not be so hard to remember, 4 digits? I get them mixed up and abort at first fail because I am afraid the machine might swallow my card. So I got a 'cheat sheet' on my cellphone with fake phone numbers where the last 4 are the numbers for each of my bank cards, sorted by names that I do remember which bank they are supposed to be (like: A. Green, A. Gold, A. Blue).
I keep meaning to try to learn some memory tricks. I keep thinking I'd like to learn about memory palaces and such. I am always amazed by people who can remember extremely large amounts of information. So crazy!
I was always curious about those online IQ tests, but I figured they were all probably a bunch of crap. Especially since most of them put your score behind a paywall. Tell me you are a scam without telling me you are a scam.... I had a friend who is a psychologist and she gave me a professional test. I can't remember what my score was, but it wasn't horrible. I noticed more issues with my motor skills. Having ADHD my brain has always been a bit forgetful. Now I just have trouble hitting the right letters on my phone keyboard!
Haha, I know what you mean about all of the scams. I actually played lumosity on the free version for about 2 months before upgrading. The limitation is that you can only play 3 games that are randomly selected per day. But you can play those games as much as you want. The other limitation is that you can see your score, but not compare it to other players (which to me is the most valuable!)
I totally get the ADHD brain. I have been told that I have that for my entire adult life. Interestingly no one told me I had it in school. Maybe it wasn't as well known back then?
It wasn't back then. I never heard it until later in life either. My is a school social worker and she was looking at my old report cards when we first got married. Just based on the comments the teachers wrote on them she said I am definitely ADHD. But like you said, they didn't label it or diagnose it back then.
Yeah, they basically just treated us like 'problem children' and put us in in school suspension, in the corner or whatever punishment they felt appropriate. In hindsight, I can really imagine the frustration that I must have caused all of the teachers. I must have driven them crazy! I wish it had been dealt with early though. I would be much more organized and focused today.
No kidding, but look at how successful we are despite that. Do you really want to have been on meds? I feel like I would lose some of my personality. I spent so much time in the corner!
Yeah, I guess you are right. It has made us unique and interesting people. Things are exactly as they should be, I suppose!
That's the way I always think of it. I could be totally wrong. I always wanted to try it just to see, but I don't think I'd want a full prescription.
I'm really interested in this game, but as you said, there might be a little bit of manipulation. But I'm okay with that. If the data is even approximately right, it shows you're very smart, man. Congratulations!
I tried to download the game but I gave up when I saw there was no Turkish language support. I wish there was.
There are language games that you can play but they don't really contribute to your score. They are scored separately. You could probably do just fine with all of the games in English if you wanted to play. The only reading, really is in the tutorials. The games themselves are pretty easy to understand and don't have much text.
Then I'll check the game 😎
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I'm a little skeptical about the data that Lumosity provides. It's possible that the scores are skewed, as you mentioned. However, even if the scores aren't perfectly accurate, I think it's still worth using the app if you're looking for a way to challenge your brain.
I'm glad you mentioned the gamification aspect of Lumosity. I think it's really important to have some kind of reward system in place when you're trying to learn something new. The dopamine bump that you get from seeing a high score can be a great motivator.
Don't sweat it, Rick - we are both in the same boat, with the exception that you are the age of my oldest son. I am juggling two languages, German and English, both of which I am fluent in, with a working knowledge of Swedish, but there are times I cannot think of a word in either of the first two and Swedish pops into my head! How odd is that? I was once fluent in Swedish as well, but that was well over 50 years ago.So sometimes I need to resort to Google translate to give my memory a kick.
Names of people I've know for ages sometimes escape me, which is embarrassing in situations when meeting others and it would be up to me to introduce people to each other. Sometimes I think on such occasions people should wear name tags, lol.
As for math, that is generally a problem for most, particularly the young. If the register at MacDonald's fails, watch them struggle to add an order of even two items together.
For health problems - I hear you loud and clear! After coming back from my internist with test results (and the so called Physician Letter to give to my general practitioner) I spend the rest of the day, and even following days, searching all over the internet for references and fearing the worse case scenario.
This Lumosity sounds intriguing, but I shall restrain myself.
I have worked really hard to stop doing Internet searches for illnesses. It always leads me on a downward spiral, only to end up at the doctor who surprisingly is not concerned at all. But then the mind plays more tricks, telling you that the doc is lazy and doesn't care about you.
The truth is, we are all decaying at different rates and should just get on with life the best we can and enjoy it while still possible. Ironically, the worry causes more illness than anything else!
I really envy folks who can speak lots of languages. I taught myself Spanish back when I was quite young by moving to Mexico and living amongst folks with no English at all for quite some time. I was surprised how it seemed impossible but then just started coming to me naturally. I can even do several accents from around the country with always impresses the locals. But like you, I have forgotten a lot and often have to look things up. You really lose what you don't use consistently!
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Wow, been 6 years already. Hard to believe!
Happy Hive Birthday @nuthman
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Thanks buddy!
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Hi, I read your post about your experience with the IQ test and I found it very curious and interesting. I was surprised to learn that you have a very high IQ, and that you hadn't discovered it until recently. Thank you for sharing your story and your humor. Best regards.
Who knows if any of it means anything. I really never thought of myself as smart because it always seemed that others were doing better than me at school and other tasks. But then again, I always had quite a lot of trouble drifting off and not paying attention.
At 32 years of age I can say that I have noticed how from my memory to my way of carrying out certain activities has changed a lot, now I don't know if it is due to an excess of information that is arriving day by day and is filling my mind with new things, that everything I did or thought before remains in the past very quickly, sometimes I get scared, other times I am happy because it allows me to do and think about everything in a different way.
Thanks for sharing this information, it's super interesting.
I think that there are a lot of things that contribute to our thinking process changing over the years. Especially in today's day and age! There are so many things to destroy our attention and focus abilities. As for memory, I think it starts to slow down as we age in part due to the fact that when we are younger we have to go to school and perform a lot of tasks that involve memory. As we get older I think we get a bit lazier. I mean, if you don't have to memorize, then why would you! That being said it is up to us to keep the memory strong and fresh!
yes I fully agree, well in my lifestyle as a photographer every day I study and learn new things and I think that this has helped me improve my memory and my way of responding and solving problems in my work
Lumosity Seems interesting app, i havent heard about it before , i wanted to try this out but cant because of paid service.
You can do the free version for as long as you want. It lets you play 3 games per day as many times as you want!
This is what age does to people, as we grow older, we tend to forget some things, there's so much on our mind and sometimes the mind cannot even focus on one thing, it is just natural if you ask me.
How are you, my friend? And how is #littlericky?
It was surprising to me that with practice I have been able to significantly improve my memory. We will see if it continues!
Little Ricky is doing great. As wild and crazy as ever.
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