Attitudes and habits regarding brain training applications and games among Japanese consumers: a cross-sectional study

Nigel Robb

doi:10.12688/f1000research.42125.2

Abstract

Background: While there is now a large amount of research investigating whether brain training applications and games are effective or not, there is less research on the expectations, attitudes, and habits of potential users of brain training programs. Previous research suggests that people generally have positive beliefs about the effectiveness of brain training which are not dependent on their level of experience of brain training. However, this research has primarily focused on western participants. Methods: In the present study, a questionnaire was used to investigate the attitudes and habits of Japanese consumers towards brain training. The final sample contained responses from 818 people. In addition to descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients were calculated to determine if there were relationships between variables relating to participants' beliefs about brain training and experience of using brain training. Results: Participants had positive beliefs about the effectiveness of brain training. However, these beliefs were negligibly or weakly correlated with their level of experience of using brain training, both in terms of the number programs used (Pearson's r = 0.163) and duration of use (Pearson's r = 0.237). The most widely used brain training program (used by 52.93% of participants) was made by Nintendo for the handheld Nintendo DS games console. Conclusions: The research presented here supports previous findings which suggest that people's beliefs about the effectiveness of brain training software are not strongly related to their experience of using such software.

Highlights

While there is a large amount of research investigating whether brain training applications and games are effective or not, there is less research on the expectations, attitudes, and habits of potential users of brain training programs
Research on the effectiveness of various types of cognitive training has found evidence that it can lead to improvements in tasks that bear some resemblance to the training (“near transfer”), but little or no evidence that these improvements transfer to distantly related tasks (“far transfer”) or to everyday life (Simons et al, 2016; Sala et al, 2019; Aksayli et al, 2019). These findings suggest that theories of transfer that emphasize the importance of overlap between the training and the target skills (e.g., Gobet, 2016; Taatgen, 2013; Oei and Patterson, 2014) may provide the best account of the mechanisms by which cognitive training is effective
The results of the present study suggest that a high rate of Japanese consumers may have positive perceptions of the potential benefits of brain training” (BT) apps and games, comparable to or higher than the rate in

Summary

Introduction

While there is a large amount of research investigating whether brain training applications and games are effective or not, there is less research on the expectations, attitudes, and habits of potential users of brain training programs. Previous research suggests that people generally have positive beliefs about the effectiveness of brain training which are not dependent on their level of experience of brain training. Results: Participants had positive beliefs about the effectiveness of brain training These beliefs were negligibly or weakly correlated with their level of experience of using brain training, both in terms of the number programs used (Pearson's r = 0.163) and duration of use (Pearson's r = 0.237). Conclusions: The research presented here supports previous findings which suggest that people's beliefs about the effectiveness of brain training software are not strongly related to their experience of using such software

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion