The notion of skills transfer in brain training has been an issue of debate (cite). The large database of scores collected with Mind Games provides an opportunity to examine the possibility of skills transfer from trained tasks to untrained tasks. Games have been added to the app over time providing the opportunity to examine the relationship between prior training and scores on newly added games.
Method:
For this study, we examined the relationship between prior training on existing working memory tasks with the performance on a new working memory task. Specifically, the new game, Path Memory, was selected as the new task, and Memory Span and Spatial Memory as the prior training tasks.
Because participant characteristics may determine which type of players tend to practice more, predictions were made based on expected relative correlations between the score of initial training on the prior tasks, last training session before the new game, and first score on the new game.
Hypotheses:
It is expected that the correlation coefficient between the initial Path Memory score and last scores on Spatial Memory and Memory Span will be more highly correlated than the initial Path Memory score and initial scores on Spatial Memory and Memory Span.
Spatial Memory and Path Memory Correlation Results