New Study: Brain Age Helps As Learning Aid
A small scale study of learning aids in three groups of grade school students in Scotland has revealed an increase in scores after playing Nintendo’s Brain Age for the DS. The study was conducted to monitor three groups of students; one would play 15 minutes of Brain Age, the second group used a method called Brain Gym where specific exercises would increase brain activity, and the third group was the control group where neither was used.
The study was conducted over a ten week period where the students in the three groups were given a math test to determine their improvement. All of the groups improved over time, but the biggest improvement was noticed in the group who was playing Brain Age whose score went up an average of 10 points. The DS group showed a marked improvement on the time it took to complete the test, effectively shaving off 4 minutes from the total time to complete.
Derek Robertson from Learning and Teaching Scotland conducted the admittedly small study which is ineffectual, but he hopes to continue researching and testing out means to improve students learning aids at a larger scale.
Brain Age has been marketed as a learning tool from the start. When I picked it up, I thought that it was just a clever way to disguise the game beneath the veneer of a learning tool. I was mistaken. This is work disguised as fun, the perfect learning aid. I’m considering dusting off the old copy again, and giving her a whirl. We should all give our noggins a little polish whenever possible.
Daily computer game boosts maths [BBC]
[via Game|Life]
Toots
Posted to Video Games on 30 October 2007
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