Facebook may give your brain a good workout
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Independent Minds
Working memory – the ability to recall things over a short period of time – could be the key to success, according to a scientist who believes that it may be possible to train the brain's working memory like an athlete trains muscles.
And Tracy Alloway, a psychologist at Stirling University, said some technological inventions, such as Facebook, may actually improve working memory because they require people to hold a lot of information in their heads. But others, such as spell-checks and Twitter, which requires only small bite-sized phrases, may work against improving working memory and could be contributing to some people's lack of success, she suggested.
Dr Alloway said that she had devised an on-line game that can improve working memory, which may help the young develop working memory skills as well helping to combat memory loss in the elderly.
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I’m the CEO of Posit Science (www.positscience.com) and we’ve partnered with researchers from institutions like the Mayo Clinic, University of Southern California, Johns Hopkins, and dozens of others to test the real-world impact from brain training with our software exercises. Over 30 studies have now been published in peer-reviewed journals showing Posit Science’s technology can have a range of benefits from improved memory to lowered health care costs in healthy aging adults.