Interest in improving cognitive function, especially through the use of technology such as web-based training programs, has been on the rise. One of the most popular of these programs, Lumosity™, claims that training particular sets of cognitive skills can result in widespread improvements in cognition, but there is little scientific evidence to support this. We identified two of these skills, cognitive flexibility, and memory as being of particular interest in exploring the efficacy of Lumosity™, and the mechanisms behind its claimed effects. To accomplish this, we recruited undergraduate students to participate in Lumosity™’s program, focusing on flexibility or memory-specific training tasks, for 6 weeks. Pre- and post-test measures of flexibility, memory and fluid intelligence from these groups were compared with those from three control groups: no-contact, active control with Sudoku puzzles, and active control with a crystallized intelligence training task. The data was statistically analyzed to observe any training based skill transfer to memory, flexibility and fluid intelligence. Our data will show whether Lumosity ™ training shows skill transfer outside of its gaming platform. Additionally, our data will provide an opportunity to comment on the use of brain training games and similar programs in pedagogy at the college level.
