Brain Fitness Australia

Well! I finished the BFP.
It took longer than I expected, largely due to external circumstances impinging on the time required for the program and partially due to needing a short break from its rather relentless repetition.
Sounds like procrastination to me when I write it. (I expect I could find an hour a day for something else that I love doing, provided it had variety!)

I knew there was some kind of final feedback after the 40th session but I had no idea what it would be or how the result would be calculated or data displayed. I was really excited to be finishing the program…..completing this task which I had read about in Norman Doidge’s book. I knew the broad research literature to an extent so I approached the BFP with some uncertainty but prepared to give it my best shot.

The Outcome (see below)

As you can see I made no progress at all in Auditory Speed of Processing (0%) between the first assessment and the final one (both 29ms). Forty weeks and no progress….very unexpected! However my performance varied from session to session, some better, some poor. As had I performed better on an earlier assessment [25 milliseconds which is a 14% significant improvement] the Progress Check-in Results selected the best score achieved to assess my final outcome.

My results

How can I interpret this result?

• Not enough practice? Perhaps I have not had enough practice to maintain an improved level or I just had a ‘bad day’ on the final assessment. Strangely I remember feeling good about my response to the sound sweeps! How deluded was I !!

• Motivation? I don’t feel there was any problem in general in this area. As I was blogging about the BFP experience I was highly motivated to keep to the task. Because of the repetition which I certainly found draining, I occasionally approached some exercises with reluctance….

• Age …? The results show that at my best I CAN improve my speed of auditory processing, in my case, therefore, age is not a barrier to change.

• Distraction? There is no doubt in my mind that keeping my attention on task was a problem: it is well known that the aging brain is less able to handle distraction. Also I was watching carefully what was going on inside my head…..thinking about my thought processes and actions, so that I could report them which could have been a considerable distraction in itself.

• OR, perhaps my auditory processing speed was so exceptional at the first assessment that there was little room for improvement??? The obverse of this is possible also….

Disappointed? Initially, yes. But now I have done it and know the rules of the game I shall do it again in a few months, I think. The reasons will be given in a later post. At least I know that the plasticity of my brain is a reality.

I will report the remainder of the results in my next post. In one exercise there is a 72% improvement. Astonishing!