Sep 8, 2007
MindFit by CogniFit, and Baroness Susan Greenfield
By: Alvaro Fernandez
We are glad to see that MindFit is finally making it into the popular press, at least in the UK. The program is making big news in the UK (BBC, Times, Daily Telegragh, Guardian…) because Baroness Susan Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution and a well-respected neuroscientist, is endorsing it. We evaluated it last year and
liked what we saw, based on our 10-Question Checklist. Now, remember that no program is “best”, but that different programs can be more appropriate for specific people and specific goals, so read the checklist first and take a lot at other programs too if you are in the market for “brain training”.
MindFit is a software-based assessment and training program for 14 cognitive skills important for healthy aging. We typically recommend it for people over 50 (up to any age, you simply need to know how to use a computer and a mouse) who want a novel and varied mental workout.
The program has 21 exercises that train 14 cognitive skills. The program only works in Windows systems.
Below you have some demos, so you get a sense of the types of exercises we are talking about. Have fun!
The “Inside and Outside” task was designed to train your divided attention skills. Divided attention is the ability to pay attention to more than one thing at a time.
The “Two in One” task was designed to train your ability to perform two tasks simultaneously.
The “Picasso” task is an example of how the MindFit program trains your visual short-term memory, as well as your ability to rebuild a pattern from its parts.
Susan Greenfield is a director of MindWeavers, the distributor of MindFit in the United Kingdom. The program was developed in Israel by CogniFit.
Previous related posts:
MindFit and Posit Science in the Wall Street Journal’s “Putting Brain Exercises to the Test”
Awards and events this week: MindFit, Posit Science, Serious Games, Baby Boomers, Aging
[…] MindFit by CogniFit, and Baroness Susan Greenfield: a brain fitness program starting to get traction in Europe. […]
hard to do the fast mouse click tasks when you’re using a laptop with a finger pad, rather than a proper click mouse. Have the exercises been designed with this method of clicking in mind, or just the hand/mouse click action?
thks
Hello Linda,
1) the exercises were optimized for an external mouse
2) still, you can use them with a finger pad (as I do too when I fly). Yes, more difficult, but the point is that with practice you improve.