Training May Help Senior Thinking Skills

“Brain training” may help older adults think clearly, but may not help memory, a new study shows. The study included more than 2,800 people, average age 73. They were randomly divided into 4 groups. Three groups received brain training. The memory group learned strategies to remember words, lists and story details. The reasoning group learned how to solve problems that follow patterns. A third group used a computer program that trained them to find and process visual information quickly. The fourth got no training. People had improvements in these specific skills right after they were trained. Ten years later, researchers were able to track down about half of them and test them again. About 60% of the trained groups and 50% of the untrained group reported being at least as able to handle daily tasks as they were 10 years before.