Better Brain app for iPhone and iPad
Developer: Peter Schorn
First release : 27 Mar 2009
App size: 6.57 Mb
Improve your fluid intelligence with Better Brain.
Fluid intelligence is the ability to reason and solve new problems independently of previously acquired knowledge. With Better Brain you practice challenging memory tasks where you have to remember simultaneously audio and visual events. A scientific study has shown a positive effect of this training on the fluid intelligence of a test group.
The memory task you need to practice is the 2-back task where you must remember the letter you heard two steps back in the past and simultaneously the position of a square on a three by three grid.
BetterBrain features multiple user controlled settings such as two additional training tasks (audio position, color change, form) and adaptive difficulty control: Once you make sufficient progress, you may work on the more challenging 3-back task and if you make too many mistakes, the level will be reduced. Another advantage of Better Brain is the possibility to practice dual channel memory tasks which are either fully audio or fully visual.
You can also export via email or the Finder a complete log file of your training sessions for later analysis.
Latest reviews of Better Brain app for iPhone and iPad
So much potential however the game stops on all iPhone alerts and all points are lost. I can hardly finish a single game because i get a lot of alerts. Reporting is really bad also. IQ Training at least shows a graph. That would be the best N-Back game if they had better feedback and accumulated scores. Accumulating scores over time rewards the player for mor play time. That would be a great bonus.
Very configurable.
This app is exceptional for allowing dual training via audio, with one stimuli being the spoken name of a letter of the alphabet, and the other being its spatial location. Unfortunately, the center channel plays twice as loudly as the others, because the app generates it by playing the left and right channels together, without reducing each of their volumes in half. Beyond the discomfort, the inconsistency is a special clue that the center channel has played, distorting and reducing the trainings effectiveness. Its an easy fix. Hope for an update. The interface is serviceable but awkward, with too many buttons all in the wrong places. The four buttons Audio, Visual, Position, and Color need to be repositioned on a 2x2 grid like this: Position Color Audio Visual Then the ordinary controls of a Dual N-Back game would be on the bottom row, with the special controls Better Brain introduces in a new row each above their corollary. This logical placement would also allow larger buttons, altogether affording easy, intuitive operation. Feedback should also move to these buttons; they might pulse green for correct responses and red for errors. The buttons Start, Settings, and Export should be moved to a separate screen (with a small Done added to allow quitting during a game). Still, I really like Better Brain. Dual-channel audio only is just what I need. This is a five-star idea currently with a two-star interface, so it earns three stars for now. Good and worth getting, but begs improvement.
The controls are better on the Light version because you can press the audio and video buttons with your thumbs. With the pro version the vision button is indented from the right margin which makes it seem unbalanced and requires me to keep looking at the buttons rather than the screen. I dont like the x and check popping up on the screen in either version. I think their should be some kind of user control for those cues, like a menu that allows for making them bigger/smaller and lets you cut them off entirely. They are a visual distraction as they are, I lose my rhythm when I stop to think about them (particularly if they are xs :)) I do think this helps me think more clearly and concentrate on the task at hand. It is not possible for me to do when distracted though.
Might be good for your brain but its about as fun and exciting as watching paint dry. It is better than any of the other nback games Ive tried but thats not saying much.