Looking Back

Reflection on Blogging

Coming into this semester, I had no prior experience in creating a blog, or maintaining a blog. I don't even use my social media accounts regularly, so maintaining this blog was very difficult. In fact, I did a poor job at it but, once I understood the assignment's requirements, I truly did enjoy creating a blog. My blog's purpose was to reach further than the requirements of class and actually provide some meaningful information if someone outside this class stumbled across this blog. Overall, I really regret not being able to do this on a weekly basis, like most of the class, but I still think that my blog is very well organized, and has been the target of a lot of focus and effort over the past week. My blog topics were selected so that I may increase my knowledge on those topics.

Lumosity IV - Does Lumosity actually work

Lumosity IV

Lumosity and Instructional Technology

Instructional gaming is a field that is very much open for exploration and Lumosity can contribute a great amount of information into this field based off of the way they have combined scientific research from neuroscience and psychology and integrated those experiments into games that are fun and easy-to-access, assuming the pricing isn't a factor. If instructors apply this same approach to developing educational games, that are easy-to-access, fun, and substantiated through educational and psychological research, then, in my opinion, educational gaming would inevitably produce results that effectively aide the transfer of pertinent knowledge, and provide a fun alternative learning experience to its users. I think educational gaming researchers should take a serious look at some of the thing Lumosity has done regarding their brain training program and even looking at some of the data they have compiled can provide insight into the future of educational gaming.


Now lets address the "elephant in the room..."

Does Lumosity actually work?

There are large pieces of information on the internet that would say yes, and there are equally large amounts of information on the internet that would say no. In my opinion, Lumosity was very impactful to my brain and information processing abilities.  According to an article, from MD Health, (and it seems they've done their homework on Lumosity's effectiveness), Lumosity is very effective. I've included a section from an article on their website, to see the full article, I will provide the link at the end of this post.
The experts have provided the following excerpt from an article on their website...

"There are several scientific studies that lead scientists to believe that the brain training activities at Lumosity do have an effect on the brain. A study at the University of Michigan found that adults that used brain training games for a regular amount of time saw an improvement in test scores for dual attention asks and memory games in multiple tests. A similar study at Brown University also saw adults exceeding expectations in brain performance after using brain training games to aid in their work. These programs were found to boost the working memory which helps users keep track of tasks they are currently performing.

The thing to remember when analyzing these results is that they came from laboratory conditions. These adults used Lumosity games for hours every day for several months. Users that do not work on a similar schedule will not see these types of results. There is a great deal of evidence that supports the idea that brain training games can help grow and develop the mind, but not necessarily any evidence that Lumosity and the brain training games available here are more effective than other training games that are on the market elsewhere. In general, keeping the mind active and challenging your mind to learn more advanced tasks and ways of thinking are healthy and can help you perform tasks more effectively, and if Lumosity helps you accomplish this, then it can be seen as a positive asset."

http://www.md-health.com/Does-Lumosity-Work.html

Lumosity III - The Neuroscience Behind the Games

Lumosity III

This post and the post following this one are, in my opinion, the reason why Lumosity offers a lot to the field of research and development and instructional technology. This post will show examples of how Lumosity integrates neurological research into fun games that train and measure our cognitive ability.
I should say that this post should be "taken with a grain of salt," because I am taking examples from Lumosity.com...
**This link provides some background to this saying for those who don't know(http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/take-with-a-grain-of-salt.html)**


For each of the three following examples I will provide a brief explanation of the scientific experiment Lumosity used to create the game.

Example 1 - The Flanker Task & the Lost in Migration Game

According to Cognitive Atlas, The Flanker Task is,
 "A task in which participants view stimuli (typically arrows) presented one at a time and to which they must make a simple lexical response. These stimuli are surrounded by either distracting or facilitating items. Distracting items are typically associated with an opposite response ("incongruent" = pointing in opposite direction to target stimulus), whereas facilitating items are typically associated with the same response as the target stimulus ("congruent" = pointing in the same direction as the target stimulus)." 

Example 2 - Thurnstone's Punched Hole Task & the Speed Check Game

I could not find a summary of Thurnstone's Punched Holes Task so, we'll have to trust Lumosity's research....

 Example 3 - The Go/No Go Task - the Robot Factory Game

According to Cognitive Atlas, The Go/ No Go Task is, "A task in which stimuli are presented in a continuous stream and participants perform a binary decision on each stimulus. One of the outcomes requires participants to make a motor response (go), whereas the other requires participants to withhold a response (no-go). Accuracy and reaction time are measured for each event. Go events typically occur with higher frequency than no-go events."   

Again, take it for what its worth but Lumosity seems to have created games that are foundationally (through neuroscience and psychological studies) designed to increase your brain's ability.


Sources
http://www.cognitiveatlas.org/term/Eriksen_flanker_task
www.lumosity.com
http://www.cognitiveatlas.org/task/go/no-go_task

Lumosity II - How it Works

Lumosity II

In this post, I will be discussing how Lumosity works. This includes subscribing to Lumosity (Pricing), a breakdown of the information processing Lumosity brain trainer improves, and a few other facts about how Lumosity operates.


The thing that deterred me from Lumosity, is when they began to charge for their product. It is a great program, but I'll let you be the judge if it is worth that pretty penny.

 

Lets assume you choose to subscribed to Lumosity for argument's sake.

You will then have to select your training program. To reiterate, Lumosity targets five of the brain's information processing abilities (Memory, Attention, Problem Solving, Speed, and Flexibility). Each of these categories are broken into four parts and prompts the user to select what they want to improve. See the memory example below (adopted from Business Insider, 2014).

After you personalize you training program to fit your needs. Lumosity will take you through three games to get a baseline and develop a Brain Performance Index (BPI). This BPI is a comprehensive measurement of how you perform on the games and is recorded to show improvement in different areas and it gives you the ability to compare your BPI to other Lumosity users.

This is a very general introduction into how Lumosity works but you can find more information view the complete Business Insider review of how Lumosity works. Follow this link:  http://www.businessinsider.com/lumosity-review-2014-2?op=1



Lumosity I - Introduction

Lumosity

Introduction

I would not be as much of a believer in the power of Lumosity if I was not a member that reaped the benefits of the Lumosity brain training games. For two years (2012 and 2013) I played Lumosity games on my iPhone between 10 and 15 minutes a day at least 4 days a week. Before I delve into this Lumosity phenomenon, watch this quick promotional video that really represents the vision of Lumosity...

 More about Lumosity

As you can see from the video above, Lumosity is a brain training software that uses scientific research to develop games that try to increase your mind's ability process, store, and organize information if you play them. According to Lumosity, they are a personal trainer for the brain and have created over 40 games (42 clinically tested games and 15 games in progress) that target important brain processes like attention, memory, problem solving, and more. We will be looking more in-depth at these brain training games in future posts, but, first, lets look at another facet of Lumosity.




Lumosity's Cognitive Training Research




Along with being the best brain training software available, Lumosity also is at the forefront of the neuroscience behind brain training. Currently, they have over 3 billion cognitive task completions recorded, partnerships with qualified researchers from 40 universities, ongoing research about cognitive processes regarding physical exercise, sleep and more, and they have a prestigious network of researchers through their Human Cognition Project. The image below that details Lumosity's Human Cognition Project is adopted from Lumosity.com, along with most of the information provided above.

Hold your horses before you subscribe to Lumosity. There are some things that you should consider before buying Lumosity, and I will discuss some of those things in future posts. As for now, most of the information above comes from Lumosity's website which can be found at www.lumosity.com

Why did I choose Anti-Plagiarism and what is the next topic of discussion?

Why did I choose Anti-Plagiarism?

For me choosing anti-plagiarism was a chance to provide some information about the seriousness of plagiarism and I also wanted to use it as an opportunity to provide some resources for students so that they don't experience plagiarism. As a learner, a researcher, and a future instructor, I think intellectual property is something that is extremely important, this being said, it is often stolen or used without permission from the original owner. This is an unfair fact of our changing society and people should make an effort to credit the proper owner of an idea if it is not them. Choosing anti-plagiarism was a way to understand the methods, advantages, and disadvantages of using anti-plagiarism software.

Where will this blog be headed with its future posts?

Being an avid video-gamer, coupled with my love for learning, and my ever-growing curiosity about the brain and all of its capabilities, the next posts will discuss a software that produces games that trains the brain's ability to process information. Lumosity was developed in 2007 and is based out of San Francisco, CA. Lumosity also does neuroscience research.

Preventing Plagiarism II - Reference and Citation Managers (Brief Overview)

Reference and Citation Managers

So, understanding plagiarism and how software like Turnitin can spot plagiarism, I think it is important to talk about references and citations to some extent so that you can give credit to the proper person when referencing his or her work. This post will discuss some different citation managers like RefWorks, EndNote, Zotero, and Mendeley. I will even provide a resource where, if you choose to manually manage your references, will help you make sure the reference is in the proper format.

What is a citation manager?

A citation manager is a software that helps you keep track of articles and books when you come across them during your research. It allows you to group them by paper, project, or year, and easily produces bibliographies in the proper formatting a paper may require. These services are not free but are often provided to students for free by most universities through their library subscriptions.

How do they work?

Using RefWorks as an example, I cannot imagine the other three major software being too different, I will try to show you how these citation managers work. Sometimes, if you've never used it, you will need to download a plug-in to make sure the citation will be able to export directly into your RefWorks account. Once this is done, you will login to your account and leave it in the background, while you peruse the internet for whatever you are researching. Most scholarly resources, that are found through journals or Google scholar, have the ability to export a citation to RefWorks as soon as you look at the source. In these cases, you will export the citation and the source will be uploaded directly to your RefWorks account. If this option isn't available, then you also have the ability to enter information from a given source into RefWorks and it even provides details on how to enter the information so the bibliography will be able to be formatted into the desired format. There are some free citation managers like EasyBib but you must be careful as those managers have been criticized for producing citations in the wrong format.


If you choose to manually enter citations, the following link will provide very in-depth details about how to cite, in text and bibliography style, in many different writing forms. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/


For a more thorough explanation of these citation managers and a breakdown of all the major citation managers please visit http://www.library.wisc.edu/services/citation-managers/comparison-chart/


I have used both of these methods and I'll say that once I used RefWorks to manage my citations, I have never used the manual form or any other form of citation management since.