A smart phone app may help improve your concentration
| Jan 21, 2019, 18:08 IST
We have lost the number of times we really were neck deep into work, getting things done in a timely manner and suddenly lost track of what we were doing by something as trivial as a co-worker eating a cake! If only there was a way to make your concentration power stronger. Turns out there is!
With new technologies like e-mails, instant messages that require rapid responses, the young generation, including students are starting to have a shorter attention span.
A research team from the University of Cambridge have come up with a design that is essentially a ‘brain training’ game that aims at improving the user’s concentration.Coming from the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute from the University of Cambridge, the team has developed and tested 'Decoder', a new game that is aimed at helping users improve their attention and concentration. The game is based on the team's own research and has been evaluated scientifically.
For the purpose of the research, 75 healthy young adults were divided into 3 groups, one group received Decoder, one group played Bingo for the same amount of time and a second control group did not receive any game. The first two groups were then invited to attend eight one-hour sessions over the course of a month during which they played either Decoder or Bingo under supervision.
Results from the study showed a significant difference in attention as measured by the Rapid Visual Information Processing test (RVP). Those who played Decoder were better than those who played Bingo and those who played no game.
Speaking about the study, Professor Sahakian commented, "Many people tell me that they have trouble focusing their attention. Decoder should help them improve their ability to do this. In addition to healthy people, we hope that the game will be beneficial for patients who have impairments in attention, including those with ADHD or traumatic brain injury. We plan to start a study with traumatic brain injury patients this year."
The game has now been licensed through Cambridge Enterprise, the technology transfer arm of the University of Cambridge, to app developer Peak, who specialise in evidence-based 'brain training' apps. This will allow Decoder to become accessible to the public.
With new technologies like e-mails, instant messages that require rapid responses, the young generation, including students are starting to have a shorter attention span.
A research team from the University of Cambridge have come up with a design that is essentially a ‘brain training’ game that aims at improving the user’s concentration.Coming from the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute from the University of Cambridge, the team has developed and tested 'Decoder', a new game that is aimed at helping users improve their attention and concentration. The game is based on the team's own research and has been evaluated scientifically.
For the purpose of the research, 75 healthy young adults were divided into 3 groups, one group received Decoder, one group played Bingo for the same amount of time and a second control group did not receive any game. The first two groups were then invited to attend eight one-hour sessions over the course of a month during which they played either Decoder or Bingo under supervision.
Results from the study showed a significant difference in attention as measured by the Rapid Visual Information Processing test (RVP). Those who played Decoder were better than those who played Bingo and those who played no game.
Speaking about the study, Professor Sahakian commented, "Many people tell me that they have trouble focusing their attention. Decoder should help them improve their ability to do this. In addition to healthy people, we hope that the game will be beneficial for patients who have impairments in attention, including those with ADHD or traumatic brain injury. We plan to start a study with traumatic brain injury patients this year."
The game has now been licensed through Cambridge Enterprise, the technology transfer arm of the University of Cambridge, to app developer Peak, who specialise in evidence-based 'brain training' apps. This will allow Decoder to become accessible to the public.