Computer game boosts maths scores (BBC):

- “It also found improvements in pupils’ concentration and behaviour.”

- “The study involved more than 600 pupils in 32 schools across Scotland using the Brain Training from Dr Kawashima game on the Nintendo DS every day.”

- “Researchers found that while all groups had improved their scores, the group using the game had improved by a further 50%.”

- “Less able children were found to be more likely to improve than the highest attainers and almost all pupils had an increased perception of their own ability.”

Comment:  fascinating results supporting the potential role for “Serious Games” in education. Now, please take the results with a grain of salt, since the study doesn’t seem to have been published yet in any top-tier peer-reviewed journal.. The information publicly available seems to simply consist of a press release by Learning and Teaching Scotland. We hope to see an in-depth report to answer many open questions on the study. In any case, welcome news!

From a recent article:

Brain Training dominates ‘08 Euro sales (CVG Online)

- “Overall, four of the ten bestselling DS games in both countries during the first six months of 2008 were in the brain training genre.”

- “According to data released by sales monitor Media Control GfK International, the DS’s heavyweight status in the European console market is closely tied to the popularity of Nintendo’s Brain Training series and other brain training titles.”

- “The biggest demand for brain games is in Germany and Holland”, the company said. More Brain Training was the bestselling title in Germany during the first six months of the year, while Brain Training topped the Dutch chart during the same period.

Fascinating. Will brain-training-induced employee-productivity-increase help turn around the looming recession? we’ll track closely the performance of German and Dutch economies!